Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America." He died at Ipswich in 1807.—J. T.
GORE, Mrs. Catherine Frances, one of the liveliest and most productive of contributors to her own department of fiction, the "fashionable novel," was born in London in 1799. She made her dêbut, after her marriage to the Honourable Charles Arthur Gore of the first life guards, by the publication in 1823 of a novel, "Theresa Marchmont," which was followed at intervals by other fictions of a more imaginative cast than those for which she afterwards became chiefly distinguished. It was about the era of the reform bill, when the influence of Sir Walter Scott in fiction had waned, and the novel of contemporary life and manners was beginning to be in the ascendant, that Mrs. Gore first became notable with the appearance of her "Women as they are, or manners of the day," a title which indicates the scope and tendency of the work. This was the first of a long series of fashionable novels, amounting in all to nearly seventy complete works, or two hundred volumes, which followed in marvellously rapid succession from her pen, and the success of which placed her at the head of her own peculiar school. Among them may be singled out her very clever "Cecil, or the adventures of a coxcomb," published in 1841 anonymously, and in the satire of which lurked a power and earnestness giving assurance of her possession of higher gifts than those which contribute to the popularity of the ordinary fashionable novelist. Mrs. Gore for many years resided chiefly on the continent. She became a widow in 1846, and died at Linwood, Lyndhurst, 29th January, 1861. Mrs. Gore, it need hardly be said, occupied a distinguished position in the fashionable world of which she was so faithful and skilful a delineator; but while she owed this position originally to her reputation as a novelist, she would certainly have achieved it without the aid of literary renown; for, in reference to her conversation alone, it has been said that she was the wittiest Englishwoman of her age. With respect to her works, one of her biographers has well observed, that "some future Macaulay will turn to her pages for a perfect picture of life as we find it in the upper crust of society."—F. E.
GORE, Thomas, was born in 1631 at Alderton, Wiltshire, and was educated at Magdalen college, Oxford. He is known chiefly as the writer of some works on heraldry, the principal of which is an arranged and classified catalogue of heraldic authorities. He died in 1684.—J. B. J.
GORGIAS of Leontini, in Sicily, philosopher, orator, and rhetorician, flourished about the year 450 b.c. The first thing we know about him is, that in 427 b.c. he formed part of an embassy to Athens to procure assistance for his native town against Syracuse. He returned to Sicily, but soon came back to Greece and introduced a rhetoric hitherto almost unknown there. He appears to have travelled about a good deal, chiefly in Thessaly, and to have made large sums of money by teaching his art. Before his time the Athenian eloquence had been of that simple kind which studied no elaboration, and trusted to the power which original thinking and a belief in the truth always gives. Gorgias taught a totally different style. He was avowedly the professor of an elocution that had no relationship whatever with reality. He studied to make his disciples masters of a science which should enable them to discourse indifferently on this or that side just as it pleased them, and he openly boasted that he could make the good appear bad, or the bad good, as it suited his purpose. It is difficult to believe that Gorgias doubted the existence of such a thing as truth. He probably separated his profession from his private life; and most likely looked upon himself simply as a man paid to give lessons in speechmaking, who, in order to exhibit his skill and gain a livelihood, was willing to show how the grossest contradictions, skilfully handled, could be made to disappear by the all-pervading power of words. Much of the disgust we should naturally feel towards him disappears if this supposition be correct. On the other hand, we must recollect that this is not all that ought to be said about him. The habit of arguing without any decided leaning to the cause we defend, must at last beget an inability privately to know the right from the wrong. This accounts for the difficulty we have in criticising Gorgias, and in dividing what belongs to the rhetorician from what belongs to the living human being. He composed a philosophical treatise, part of which has come down to us, "On Nature, or that which is not," in which he attempts to prove, first, that nothing exists; secondly, that if anything exists it cannot be known; and thirdly, that if anything exists and can be known, the knowledge cannot be imparted. We must bear in mind that the word nothing is used in a sense the opposite of that in which the Eleatic philosophers used the word something, and that it means no ultra-phenomenal existence, nothing underlying the objective world. We can hardly be certain, whether we are to regard this doctrine of Gorgias as a serious exposition of his philosophical creed or as a rhetorical exercise, but at least it is relieved from its prima facie absurdity, if we recollect that the words nothing and something do not possess their common signification, but are part of the terminology of a school.—W. H. W.
GORHAM, George Cornelius, a clergyman of the Church of England, who engaged in a controversy with the bishop of Exeter about 1848, regarding the efficacy of infant baptism. He was educated at Queen's college, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1812. He graduated in divinity in 1821, and succeeded in obtaining a tutorship and fellowship in his college. In 1825 he published "A Statement, submitted to the members of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on the impropriety of circulating the apocryphal books indiscriminately, intermingled with the inspired writings," which elicited a reply from Dr. Ess, and attracted considerable notice. His controversy with the bishop of Exeter, however, is that by which he is best known. In the Edinburgh Review, No. 92, there will be found an elaborate investigation into this controversy. Mr. Gorham obtained the vicarage of Brampford-Speke, Devon, in 1850, and there he remained till his death in June, 1857. Mr. Gorham was author of "Public Worship," 1809; and "History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St. Neot's," 1820.—R. V. C.
GORI, Antonio, born at Florence, 9th December, 1691; died there 21st January, 1757. He was destined for the church, and in 1717 was ordained priest, but he combined largely with theology the study of the fine arts, applying himself with decided success to drawing and painting. Archæology, however, became his predominant taste; and aided by Fontanini and Maffei, he collected and interpreted all the Roman inscriptions to be found in the vicinity of Florence. For the purpose of diffusing a taste for classic learning, Gori founded the academy Columbaria, and in 1746 he was appointed to the chair of history in the university of Florence. He left a great number of works, and is considered the reviver of archæological studies in Italy.—A. C. M.
GORING, Sir George, of Hurstpierpoint, county Sussex, was bred at court under the care of his father, one of Elizabeth's gentlemen pensioners. In the reign of James I. he gained the favour of the king by his sagacity and jocularity of humour, and was placed in the household of Henry, prince of Wales. Sir Antony Weldon calls him the king's master fool; but if we may judge of a man by the quality of his friends, Goring's intimacy with the great earl of Cork and with the earl of Carlisle must speak in his favour. The former gave his daughter Lettice in marriage to his friend's son, the notorious Colonel Goring. Sir George held several appointments at the court of Charles I., and assiduously cultivated the favour of Henrietta Maria and of Buckingham. He had been knighted in 1608, and in 1629 became Baron Goring. In 1645 he was raised to the dignity of Earl of Norwich. Fuller says he was instrumental in advancing the peace betwixt Spain and Holland. At the Restoration he was sworn of the privy council, and made captain of the guard. He died in 1662.—R. H.
GORING, George, son of the preceding, with whom he has often been confounded, was commonly known as Colonel Goring, sometimes as Lord George Goring. His wilful impetuous spirit broke through all restraints. He was still very young when he married the earl of Cork's daughter; but, having dissipated a considerable fortune, he left her within a year, and went into the Low Countries, where he began his military career by purchasing, with the aid of his father and father-in-law, Lord De Vere's regiment. At the siege of Breda in 1637 he was wounded, after which we read nothing of him until the spring of 1641, when he is found in England holding the office of governor of Portsmouth. In the secret negotiations with the army, promoted by the queen. Goring is charged with behaving most treacherously. After having attended the meeting of the officers, where it was proposed to side with the king and coerce the parliament, Goring revealed the whole scheme to the parliamentarian leaders. His power of dissimulating his intentions and of cajoling other people, seems to have been extraordinary. While apparently on the popular side, he was
