Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/610

592 and as he did not disdain to prostitute his muse to the celebration of the heroic and royal virtues of the despicable Louis XV, he was rewarded with pensions to a considerable amount. He died in October 1780 from the results of a fall from his horse. The satiric force of one or two of his pieces, as .llon apoloyz'e (1778), and Le dir-lmiliéme siéclc (1775), would alone be sutlicient to preserve his reputation, and it has been further increased by the eulogies of those modern writers who, like Alfred de Vign y, consider him a victim to the spite of his philosophic opponents.

1em  GILBERT, or, (c.–), was the most distinguished man of science in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was born at Colchester. where his father was recorder, but was a descendant of an ancient Suffolk family, long resident at Clare. Of his early years no account is left. He entered St John’s College, Cambridge, in, when eighteen years of age, and in due course took the degrees of B.A., 31.11., and M.D.; he also became Symson fellow, and in was elected a senior fellow of his college. After leaving the university he went to the Continent, and, on his return in, settled in London, where for thirty ,—that is, till his death, —he practised as a physician with “great success and applause.” He was admitted to the College of Physicians, and ﬁlled various ofﬁces in it. He began in as censor, which duty he discharged for several years; then he became treasurer, consiliarius elect, and, at last, president in. His professional skill and general ability drew the attention of Queen Elizabeth. to him, and she appointed him royal physician. She also settled a pension on him to enable him to prosecute the scientiﬁc inquiries to which he was devoted. After this Gilbert seems to have removed to the court, and to have vacated his house, which was “on St Peter’s Hill, between Upper Thames Street and Little Knight- Itider Street.” At this house he seems to have had a society or college, which was broken up and the members dispersed by his promotion. In  he published his work on the magnet. In the queen died, but Gilbert was reappointed by her successor. He did not long enjoy the honour, however, for he died November 30,, some say at Colchester, others at London. He was buried at Colchester, in the chancel of the church of the Holy Trinity, where a monument was erected to him. To the College of Physicians he bequeathed his books, instruments, and minerals, but he gave his portrait to the School Gallery at Oxford. In it he is represented as tall of stature and of cheerful countenance, “ holding in his hand a globe inscribed ‘Terella’; over his head is the inscription ‘, aetatis 48 ;’ and a little below his left shoulder, ‘Magneticarum virtutum primus indagator Gilbertus.’ ” The date thus given does not tally with the conclusion of the inscription on his tombstone: “ Obiit anno Redemptionis Humanm , Novembris ultimo, aetatis sum 63.” If the latter be correct, he was born in ; if the former, in.

1em  GILBERT DE LA PORRÉE (Gilbertus Porrelanus or Pictaviensis), an eminent scholastic logician and theologian of the, was born at Poitiers. He was educated under Bernard de Chartres and Anselm of Laon, and after completing his studies remained attached as teacher to the church at Chartres. In he is recorded as discharging these functions, but he seems soon after to have repaired to Paris and opened public courses on dialectics and theology. His fame caused him to be called to his native town, where in he was elected bishop. The heterodox opinions he was led to express regarding the doctrine of the Trinity drew upon his works the condemnation of the clmrch. The synod of Rheinis in procured papal sanction for four propositions opposed to certain tenets of Gilbert’s, and the works of the latter were condemned until they should be corrected in accordance with the principles of the church. Gilbert seems to have submitted quietly to this judgment; he yielded assent to the four propositions, and remained on friendly terms with his antagonists till his death in. Gilbert is almost the solitary logician of the who is quoted by the greater scholastics of the succeeding age. His chief logical work, the treatise Dc o'er I’n'ncz'pu's. was regarded with a reverence almost equal to that given to Aristotle, and furnished matter for numerous connncn- taries. Albertus Magnus did not disdain to coninnnt upon this work of an earlier logician. The treatise itself is an elaborate discussion of the Aristotelian categories, specially of the six subordinate modes. Gilbert distinguishes in the ten categories two classes, one essential, the other derivative. Essential or inhering (fin-ma ill/ta’l’ﬂtlc’s) in the objects themselves are only substance, quantity, quality, and relation in the stricter sense of that term. The remaining six, 'Il'ltHI, where, action, passion, position, and habit, are relative and subordinate (formce assislenies). This suggestion has some interest, but it cannot be said to have great value, either in logic or in the theory of knowledge. More important in the history of scholasticism are the theological consequences to which Gilbert’s realism led him. In the commentary on the treatise De Trinitale, erroneously supposed to be by Boetius, he proceeds from the metaphysical notion that pure or abstract being is prior in nature to that which is. This pure being is God, and must be distinguished from the triune God as known to us. God is incomprehensible, and the categories cannot be applied to determine his existence. In God there is no distinction or difference, whereas in all substances or things there is duality, arising from the element of matter. Between pure being and substances stand the ideas or forms, which subsist though they are not