four, he published his first lexicon, "Hebräisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch des Alten Testament." This work, combining such sobriety and research, and such a mass of materials so well worked up and applied, gained for its author immediate and extensive popularity. But Gesenius was alive all the while to the rapid progress of philological study around him, and he readily and thankfully profited by the labours of others. In 1815 appeared another Hebrew lexicon, "Neues Hebräisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch," Leipsic, 1 vol. 8vo. This form of his lexicon was highly appreciated, and was often reprinted, each succeeding edition being greatly improved, as in 1823 and 1828; and again, in a Latin form, as a "Lexicon Manuale," in 1833, and the same in German, 1834. The first two lexicons were translated into English—one by Leo, and the other by Gibbs in America; and there are also two English translations of his last manual—one by Tregelles in Britain, and another by Robinson of America. The idea of a Thesaurus of the Hebrew language had early occupied the thoughts of Gesenius, and he spent many years in preparing materials for it. The first fasciculus appeared in 1827, and the work left unfinished at his death, was completed by Professor Rödiger in two thick quarto volumes. Besides the ordinary philological instruments in the preparation of this great work, Gesenius had the assistance of three Oxford MSS.—Abulwalid's Book of Roots, Tanchum's Commentary on the former Prophets, and Bar-Bahlul's Syro-Arabic Lexicon. His first Hebrew grammar, "Hebräisch Grammatik," was published in 1813, and was in its thirteenth edition at the time of the author's death; and it has also been done into English by Professor Conant of America. His fuller and more systematic grammar, "Lehrgebaüde der Hebräischen Sprache," was published in 1837. Two years before he had written his history of the Hebrew language and writing, "Geschichte der Hebräischen Sprache und Schrift." His grammars, however, are not equal in point of merit to his lexicons; they take notice of the facts, but do not develope the laws or principles which guide the forms and structure of the language. Occasionally a canon in the grammars seems to be created on purpose, and as if by collusion, to sustain a statement hazarded in the lexicon. In 1820-21 appeared his commentary on Isaiah, "Der Prophet Iesaia übersetzt und mit einem Commentar begleitet." The commentary is marked by the author's learning, industry, and skill, but, unhappily, tinged with rationalistic views as to the authorship of the latter portion of the book, and as to the nature of prophecy generally and Messianic prophecy in particular. His "Scripturæ Linguæque Phœniciæ Monumenta" appeared in 1837, and in this quarto his genius evoked the Phenician tongue from the obscurity of ages. Indeed his earliest publication, in 1810, was of a somewhat similar kind—a treatise on some Maltese inscriptions. Gesenius also contributed several biblical articles to Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie. At various periods in his life he turned his attention to Samaritan literature, as in 1815, in a disquisition on the Samaritan Pentateuch, when he obtained his doctorate; in his treatise upon the theology of the Samaritans, from unprinted sources, in 1812; and in his "Carmina Samaritana," in 1824. Hebrew philology is indebted more to Gesenius than to any other person since the days of the Buxtorfs. Whatever he wrote was clear, manly, and decided, honestly based, too, on whatever investigation he had been able to make or whatever evidence he could adduce. He was still open to light, and not opinionative, as if elated by his position and success. The last parts of his Thesaurus are a decided improvement on the early ones; and there now needs some scholar to do for this storehouse what Rost and Palm have done for the Greek lexicon of Passow. As Gesenius was unlike so many of his scholarly countrymen in his broad and vigorous thinking and style, so he was unlike them in his dress and appearance, and would have been taken by a stranger "rather for a gentleman and man of the world," than for the first Hebraist of his age.—J. E.
* GESNER, Abraham, M.D., a Nova Scotian geologist and chemist. His father. Colonel Gesner, was an adherent of the British government in the struggle between the American colonies and the mother country, and he settled in Nova Scotia after the memorable 4th July, 1776. Dr. Gesner's early life was marked by an ardent attachment to natural science, and the extensive knowledge which he acquired in mineralogy and geology procured for him some time ago a commission from the local governments of Lower Canada to report on the minerals of that province. His work "On the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia," has earned the praise of Sir Charles Lyell, and has in some degree directed the attention of colonists and of the imperial government to the workings in coal, iron, copper, clay-slate, and other minerals still awaiting development in our North American possessions. Another of his works treats specially of the industrial resources of Nova Scotia. Dr. Gesner has distinguished himself as a chemist by the discovery and manufacture of the keroseal gas.—R. V. C.
GESNER, Conrad, surnamed the Pliny of Germany, a prodigy of general erudition, as Hallam has justly styled him, was born at Zurich, March 26, 1516. Being the child of poor parents, he would have been left without a competent education, but for a maternal uncle, a clergyman, who took charge of the promising boy. Death, however, deprived him of this protection, and as his father was slain in the battle of Zug, 1531—the same in which Zwingle lost his life—he was in early youth obliged to provide for himself. He betook himself to Strasburg, and thence to Bourges and Paris, where the assistance of kind patrons enabled him to continue his studies. In 1536 he was appointed to a mastership in the Zurich grammar-school, which, however, he resigned in the following year, in order to study medicine at Basle, in which undertaking he was assisted by the magistrates of his native town. In 1538 he obtained the chair of Greek literature in the newly-founded academy of Lausanne, which he occupied for three years. Urged by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he then proceeded to the celebrated university of Montpellier, and after a short residence there, he settled as a physician at Basle, whence he was called back to Zurich as professor of natural philosophy. Here he died of the plague, 13th December, 1565. "Endowed," as Hallam says, "with unwearied diligence, and with a mind capable of omnifarious erudition, Gesner was probably the most comprehensive scholar of his age." He combined a profound knowledge of ancient and modern languages and literatures, with an equally profound knowledge of the various branches of natural history, and was no less distinguished by minute researches and investigations, than by original views and discoveries. He had already written several minor works, when, in 1545, he published his renowned "Bibliotheca Universalis"—"the earliest general catalogue of books with an estimate of their merits"—which was many times reprinted, abridged, and augmented. He himself gave a continuation in his "Pandectæ Universales," 1548. In his "Mithridates, sive de Differentiis linguarum," he even tried to classify the languages; according to Hallam this is the earliest effort on a great scale to arrange the various languages of mankind according to their origin and analogies. But however great Gesner's merits were in the field of literary history, yet his fame chiefly rests on his works on natural history. His "History of Animals," 5 vols. with woodcuts, "may be considered," says Cuvier, "as the basis of all modern zoology. Copied almost literally by Aldrovandus, abridged by Johnston, it has become the foundation of much more recent works, and more than one famous author has borrowed from it silently most of his learning; for those passages of the ancients, which have escaped Gesner, have scarce ever been observed by the moderns. He deserved their confidence by his accuracy, his perspicuity, his good faith, and sometimes by the sagacity of his views. Though he has not laid down any natural classification by genera, he often points out very well the true relations of beings." Gesner's favourite study, perhaps, was that of botany. From his very childhood, he gathered and painted plants, and as early as 1542, he published a "Catalogue of Plants" in four languages, Latin, Greek, German, and French. By numerous journeys, he continually enriched his botanical knowledge, and by his own scanty means founded a botanical garden at Zurich. He classified plants according to the organs of fructification. A genus Gesnera is named after him. The commonly cultivated tulip is called Tulip Gesneriana. His "Opera Botanica" existed only in manuscript till the middle of the last century, when they were published by C. C. Schmiedel, Nuremberg, 1753-59, 2 vols. He published also a general history of plants and numerous botanical treatises. In private life, Gesner excelled by that amiable and modest behaviour, which accompanies true greatness, by the simplicity and purity of his character, and above all by his almost incredible energy and assiduity in the service of science. Besides the immortal works mentioned above, he has written a great number of no less important treatises
