Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/886

 GEN

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GEN

or Appointments of all the Soldiers on the Frontiers of the Provinces, became infenfibly accuftomed to apply the fame Names Gentilhommes, and Ecuyers, to fuch as they found their Kings gave the beft Provifions or Appointments to. Pafq.Rech. L.II.C. 15.

In our Statutes, Gentilis homo was adjudg'd a good Ad- dition for a Gentleman. 11 Ed-w. 5. The Addition of Knights is very antient, but that of Efquire or Gentleman, rare, be- fore 1 Hen. 5. See Addition-

Gentlemen of the Chapel, are Officers, whofe Duty and Attendance is in the Royal Chapel ; being in Number 92 : Twelve whereof are Priefts, and the other twenty called Clerks of the Chapel, who affift in the Performance of Di- vine Service. See Chapel.

One of the firft twelve is chofen for Confeflbr of the Houf- hold, whofe Office it is to read Prayers every Morning to the Houfhold Servants ; to vilit the Sick ; examine, and prepare Communicants, and adminifter the Sacraments.

Another, well verfed in Mufick, is chofen firft: Organift ; who is Mailer of the Children to inftruct them in Mufick, and what is neceflary for the Service of the Chapel : A fe- cond is likewife an Organift: A third a Lutanift 5 and a fourth a Violift.

There are likewife three Vergers, fo called from the Silver Rods they ufually carry in their Hands, being a Serjeant, yeoman, and Groom of the Veftry : The firft attends the Dean, and Sub-Dean, finds Surplices, and other Neceffaries for the Chapel: The fecond has the whole Care of the Cha- pel, keeps the Pews, and feats the Nobility and Gentry : The Groom has his Attendance within the Chapel Door, and looks after it.

GENUFLEXION, the Aft of bowing, or bending the Knee5 or rather, of kneeling down. SeeKNEELiNG.

The Jefuit Rojhveyd, in his Onomaftkon, fhews that Ge- nuflexion, or Kneeling, was a very antient Cuttom in the Church ; and even under the Old Teftament Difpenfation : And that this Practice was obferv'd throughout all the Year, excepting on Sundays, and during the time from Eafter to Whitfuntide, when kneeling was forbid by the Council of Nice.

Others have ftiewn, that the Cuftom of not kneeling on Sundays had obtain'd from the Time of the Apoftlcs; as appears from St. Iremeus and Terttillian : And the JEthio- fic Church, fcrupuloufly attach 'd to the antient Ceremonies, ftill retains that of not kneeling at Divine Service. The Ruffians efteem it an indecent Pofture, to worfhip God on the Knees. Add, that the Jews ufually pray'd {landing.

Rofweyd gives the Reafons of the Prohibition of Genu- flexion on Sundays, ££c. from St. Bafil, Anafiafius, St. Ju- jlin, &c.

Baronius is of opinion that Genuflexion was not eftablifh'd before the Year of Chrift 58, from that Paffage in A£ls y chap. xx. 3 6. where St. Taut is exprefly mention'd to kneel down at Prayer 5 but Saurin fhews that nothing can be thence concluded.

The fame Father remarks, that the primitive Chriftians carried the Practice of 'Genuflexion fo far, that fome of them had wore Cavities in the Floor where they pray'd : And St. Jerom relates of St. James, that he had contracted a Hard- nefsofhis Knees, equal to that of Camels.

GENUS, Kind, in Logicks, and Metaphyficks, is that which has Species under it : Or, it is the Origin, and Radix of divers Species, join'd together by fome Affinity or com- mon Relation betwen them. See Species.

Or, Genus is a Nature, or Idea, fo common and uni_ verfal, that it extends to other general Ideas, and includes them under it. Sec General.

Thus, Animal is faid to be a Genus, in refpect of Man, and Srute ; in regard Man and Brute agree in the common Nature and Character of Animal : So, a right lined Figure of four Sides, is a Genus, in refpect of a 'Parallelogram, and a ^trapezium; and fo likewiie is Subfiance, in refpect of Subfiance extended, which is a Body ; and thinking Sub- fiance, which is Mind. See Species.

In the general, Genus may be faid to be a Clafs of a greater Extent than Species ; and which is not convertible therewith. For though we may lay, that all Body is Sub- fiance ; yet it cannot be faid all Subfiance is Body.

Add, that whatever may be faid of the Genus, may like- wife be faid of the Species under it ; e. gr. whatever is laid of Ens, Being, will equally hold of Body.

The Schoolmen define the Genus Logicum to be an Uni- verfal which is predicable of feveral Things of different Species ; and divide it into two kinds : The one, fummum, which is the highellor moft general ; and has nothing above it to refpect as a Genus : The other fubaltern, which they likewife call Medium.

The Genus fummuin is that which holds the uppermoft Place in its Clafs, or Predicament; or it is that which may be divided into feveral Species, each whereof is a Genus in refpect of other Species plac'd below it. See Predica- ment.

Thus in the Predicament of things fubfifting of them- felves, Subfiance has the Place and Effect of Genus funU mum, and is predicated of all the Things contain'd in thaS Clafs ; for both 'Plato, and Man, and Animal, and even Spirit, are properly call'd Subftance.

Accordingly there are fo many jumma genera, as there are Gaffes of Predicaments or Categories. See Cate- gory. . ,

A Subaltern Genus is that which being a Medium be- tween the higheft Genus, and the lowell Species ; is fome- times confider'd as a Genus, and fometimes as a Species.

Thus Bird, when compar'd with Animal, is a Species 3 when to a Crow, an Eagle, or the like, a Genus.

Genus, again, is divided into Remotum, remote, where a between it and its Species, there is another Genus ; and Proximum, or next, where the Species is immediately un- der it 3 as Man, under Animal.

A good Definition, fay the Schoolmen, confifts of Genusl and Difference. See Definition, and Difference. ,

Genus is alfo us'd for a Character or Manner, applicable to every thing of a certain Nature : In which Senle it ferves to make capital Divifions in divers Sciences 5 as Mufick,' Rhetorick, Botany, Anatomy, Ofc. See Art, and Sci- ence.

Genus, Gender, in Botany, a Syftem, or AfTemblage of feveral Plants, agreeing in fome one common Character, in refpeel of the Structure of certain Parts ; whereby they are diilinguilh'd from all other Plants. See Plant. ^

The Dillribution of Plants into Genera, and Species, is abfolutely neceffary to eafe the Memory, and prevent its be- ing opprefs'd, and overburthen'd with an Infinity of different Names.

The Knowledge of a Genus, comprehends, in a kind of Miniature, that of all the Plants belonging thereto 5 each be- ing denominated from lome Circumllance, common to the whole Kind, to fave the Embarrafs of fo many particular Names. ;

Something like this, even the common People do, efpe-% cially in the inftance of Ranunculas ; but in moft otheff. Plants the Difficulty is infinitely greater, as 'tis hard fo find any thing in common among them, whereon to found their Genus.

Hence Botanifts differ as to the Manner cf regulating' thefe Genera, and the Characters whereon they are tobc. ettabli/h'd : Mr. Ray's Distribution, fee under the Article Plant.

One of the lateft, and beft Writers, Monf. c toumefort i af- ter a long and accurate Difcuffion, has chofe in Imitation of Gefner, and Columna, to regulate them by the Flowers, and Fruit confider'd together; fo that all Plants, which bear a Refemblance in thofe two relpecls, are of the lame Ge- nus ; After which the refpective Differences as to Root Stem, or Leaves, make the different Species, or Sub-divi- fions. See Species.

Mr. Ray made fome Objections to this Dillribution 5 which grew into a confiderable Controverfy between the: two Authors. The Queftion was, Whether the Flowers and Fruits were fufficient to eftablifh Genera, and to determine whether a Plant was of this Genus, or that?

The fame M. Toumefort introduces another higher kind of Genus, or Clafs, which is only regulated by the Flowers; He obferves, that he has never hitherto met with above fourteen different Figures of Flowers; which, therefore, are all that are to be retain'd in the Memory ; fo that a Perfon who has a Plant in Flower, whofe Name he does not know, will immediately fee what Clafs it belongs to in the Elements of Botafiy : The Fruit appearing fome Days af- terwards, determines its Genus, in the fame Book; and the other Parts give its Species.

It is a wonderful Eafe to the Memory, to have only four- teen Figures of Flowers to retain, and by means hereof to be inabled to delcend to 673 Genera, which comprehend. 884.6 Species of Plants; which is the Nuniber of thofe yet known by Land and Sea.

Genus, in Mufick, by the Antienrs called Genus Melo- dic, is a certain manner of fubdividing the Principles of Melody, /. e. the confonant Intervals, into their concinnouS Parts. See Interval, Concord, and Concinnous.

The Moderns, confidering the Oflave, as the moft per- fect Interval, and that whereon all the other Concords de- pend in the prefent Theory of Mufick ; theDivifionof that Interval is confider'd as containing the true Divifion of the whole Scale. See Octave, and Scale.

But the Antients went to work fomewhat differently : The Diatefl"aron,or Fourth, was theleaft Interval which they ad- mitted as Concord; and therefore they fought firft how that might be moll concinnoufly divided ; from which they con- ftituted the Diapente, or Fifth ; and Diapafon, or Octave.

The Diateffaron being thus, as it were, the Root or Foun- dation of the Scale ; what they call thoGenera, Kind.*, aftsfe' from its various Divifions; and hence they defined the Ge- nus modulandi, the manner of dividing the Tetrachord, and

difpofing