Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/170

158 the ministers of Edin., and was a member of the Westminster Assembly, in which he took a prominent part. A man of notable intellectual power, he exercised an influence remarkable in view of the fact that he d. in his 36th year. He was one of the most formidable controversialists of a highly controversial age. His best known work is Aaron's Rod Blossoming, a defence of the ecclesiastical claims of the high Presbyterian party.

 Author:John Gillies (1747-1836) (1747-1836). Historian, b. at Brechin and ed. there and at Glasgow, wrote a History of Greece (1786) from a strongly anti-democratic standpoint, a History of the World from Alexander to Augustus (1807), and a View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia. He also made various translations from the Greek. He succeeded Principal Robertson as Historiographer Royal for Scotland.

 Author:Gerald of Wales (literary name of ) (1146?-1220?).—Geographer and historian, was b. of a Norman family settled in Wales, which intermarried with the Royal family of that country. He was an eminent scholar and Churchman, whose object of ambition was the Bishopric of St. David's, to which he was twice elected by the chapter, but from which he was kept out by the opposition of the King. When travelling in Ireland with Prince John (1185) he wrote Topographia Hibernica, a valuable descriptive account of the country, and in 1188 he wrote Itinerarium Cambria, a similar work on Wales. He left several other works, including an autobiography, De Rebus a se Gestis (concerning his own doings).

 Author:George Robert Gissing (1857-1903).—Novelist, b. at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, although his last work, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, seemed to usher in the dawn of a somewhat brighter outlook. His other novels include Demos (1886), Thyrza (1887), The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), Born in Exile (1892), In the Year of Jubilee (1894), and The Town Traveller (1898). He d. at St. Jean de Luz in the Pyrenees.

 Author:William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898).—Statesman, scholar, and man of letters, fourth s. of Sir John G., a merchant in Liverpool, was of Scottish ancestry. He was ed. at Eton and Christ Church, Oxf. From his youth he was deeply interested in religious and ecclesiastical questions, and at one time thought of entering the Church. In 1832 he entered Parliament as a Tory, and from the first gave evidence of the splendid talents for debate and statesmanship, especially in the department of finance, which raised him to the position of power and influence which he afterwards attained. After holding the offices of Pres. of the Board of Trade, Colonial Sec., and Chancellor of the Exchequer, he attained the position of Prime Minister, which he held four times 1868-74, 1880-85, 1885-86, and 1892-93. His political career was one of intense energy and activity in every department of government, especially after he became Prime Minister, and while it gained him the enthusiastic