Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/729

Rh any previous preparation, in order that he may draw to himself all kindred spiritual natures held in bondage by the power of this lower world. If any point of connexion is admitted in this latter case betwixt Christianity and the lower world, it is certainly not found in Judaism or any historical religion, but in the theosophic schools, where an esoteric knowledge of the Supreme was cultivated.

IV. Vague, confused, and irrational as Gnosticism in most of its systems is, its influence upon the development of Christian thought was by no means detrimental. It com- pelled Christian teachers to face the great problems of which it attempted the solution in so many fantastic forms. It expanded the horizon of controversy within as without the church, and made men like Irenaeus, and Clement, and Origen, and even Tertullian, feel that it was by the weapons of reason and not of authority that they must win the triumph of Catholic Christianity. Gnosticism, therefore, may be said to have laid the foundation of Christian science, and it is certainly interesting and deserving of notice that it is in the two great cities of Antioch and Alexandria, —;where Gnosticism had chiefly planted itself,—that we see the rise of the ﬁrst two schools of Christian thought. These centres of half-Pagan and half-Christian speculation became the ﬁrst centres of rational Christian theology. The several schools of Gnosticism seem to have gradually lost importance after the, although some of them continued to linger till the. Manichzeism was little else than a revival of it in the Syrian form, and this system in the and became so powerful as almost to be a rival to Christianity. The great Christian father St Augustine, as is well known, was long fascinated by its inﬂuence. Again, strangely, in the the same spirit burst forth afresh, and in special connexion with the name of the great apostle of the lentiles. The sect of Paulicians, originating in the old Syrian haunt of heresy, Samosata, spread through Asia Minor, and then through Bulgaria and the borders of the Greek empire into Italy, Germany, and France. Gibbon, in the 54th chapter of his famous Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has given a vivid and powerful description of the fortunes and persecutions of the sect, and the readiness with which its doctrines seized upon whole populations. In southern France especially it spread like wildﬁre, and for a time almost entirely displaced Catholic Christianity. This Western development of the old Oriental dualism was characterized by many of the features of the earlier Gnosticism, such as the doctrine of the radical evil of matter, aversion to the Old Testament as the work of an evil Demiurge, and a docetic Christology. Extinguished in the horrors of the Albigensian war, it can hardly be said to have reappeared in the history of Christendom.

1em  

GNU (C'atoblepas), a genus of ruminant mammals con- stituting the equine group of the antelope family, and con- taining two species—the gnu or kokoon (Catoblepas gnu) and the brindled gnu (C'atoblepas gorgon). Owing to their singular appearance, which has been aptly compared to that of a creature compounded of a bison’s head, a horse’s body, and an antelope’s legs. their proper zoological position has been a matter of dispute—some placing them among the oxen, while others regard them as a connecting link between bovine animals and the true antelopes. The gnu measures about 4% feet in height at the shoulders, and 9 feet in ex- treme length. Its nose is broad and ﬂattened, and bears on its upper surface a crest of reversed hair, while there is an abundant growth of bushy black hair beneath the chin and between the forelegs. The horns, which are present in both sexes, are very broad at their base, forming a solid helmet on the forehead, from which they bend downwards and out— wards, thereafter curving rapidly upwards to the tip. A mane of light-coloured hair, tipped with brown, and present- ing a neatly clipped appearance, extends along the neck, while the horse-like tail, which is more or less of a creamy colour, reaches to the ground. The nostrils are large, and are furnished with a muscular valve by which they can be closed. The gnu is a native of the arid plains of South Africa, where it congregates in considerable herds, its rest- lessness of disposition leading it to migrate frequently from place to place. The fantastic appearance of these creatures is fully equalled by the grotesqueness of their actions. Ad— vancing, as they generally do, in single ﬁle, they may be seen wheeling and prancing in all directions, tossing their heads, switehing their long tails, and then starting off, especially if alarmed by the appearance of a lion, at tremen- dous speed, raising columns of dust along their track, and leaving their pursuerslhopelessly in the rear. Should they be surprised in their gambols by the sight of a caravan. their exceeding inquisitiveness impels them to approach the intruding object, which they do in a compact square, looking all the while the very picture of deﬁance. “ During bright moonlight,” says Captain Harris, “curiosity often prompted a clump of gnus to approach Within a few yards of our bivouac, where they would stand for hours in the same position, staring wildly, lashing their dark ﬂanks, and utter: