Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/207

Rh basis the Elzevir edition, from which ha departed only when valid reasons seemed to require it. In all such cases he placed the Elzevir reading on the inner margin along with such other readings as he thought worthy of special consideration (these last, however, being printed in smaller type). To all the readings on this margin Jie attached special marks indicating the precise degree of probability in his opinion attaching to each. In weighing these probabilities he proceeded upon a particular theory which in its leading features he had derived from Bengel and Semler, dividing all the MSS. into three, great families or recensions the Alexandrian, the Western, and the Byzantine. The Alexandrian recension had (as the name implied) originated in Alexandria, and thence had spread over Egypt and the East; it is characterized by a general tendency to tone down all Hebraisms, inelegancies, and inaccuracies. The Western on the other hand had retained the Hebraisms unimpaired, but had incorporated many glosses, as well as interpolations from parallel passages, with the purpose of making the text more intelligible (Grammaticum egit Alexandrinus censor, interpretem occidentalis). The Byzantine he regarded as much later, and as combining and ex aggerating the peculiarities of both the others. A reading that was supported by only one recension he considered as having only one witness in its favour; those readings on the other hand which were supported by all the three recensions, or even by two of them, especially if these two were the Alexandrian and the Western, he unhesitatingly accepts as genuine. Only when each of the three re censions gives a different reading does he proceed to discuss the question on other grounds. See his Synibolcc critwce ad suppleii/las et corrigendas variarum Novi Tcstamcnti lectionum collectioncs: accedit multorum N. T. codicum Grcecorum descriptio et examtn, 2 vols. (Halle, 1785, 1793), and his Commentarius criticus in textum OrcecumN. T., which extends to the end of Mark, and discusses the more important various readings with great care and thoroughness (Jena, 1798-1811). Among the other works of Griesbach (which are comparatively unimportant, however) maybe mentioned his uni versity thesis Da codicibus quatuor cvangelistarum Origenianis (Halle, 1771) and a work upon systematic theology (Anleitung zur Kenntniss der popularen Doymatik, Jena, 1779). His Opuscula, con sisting chiefly of university " programs " and addresses, were edited by Gabler, in 2 vols. (Jena, 1824).

 GRIFFIN, or  (gryphus, [ Greek ]), in the natural history of the ancients, the name of an imaginary rapacious creature of the eagle species, represented with four legs, wings, and a beak, the fore part resembling an eagle, and the hinder a lion. In addition, some writers describe the tail as a serpent. This animal, which was supposed to watch over gold mines and hidden treasures, and to be the enemy of the horse, was consecrated to the Sun; and the ancient painters represented the chariot of the Sun as drawn by griffins. According to Spanheim, those of Jupiter and Nemesis were similarly provided. The griffin of Scripture is probably that species of the eagle called in Latin Ossifraya, or osprey. The griffin is related to inhabit Asiatic Scythia, where the lands abound in gold and precious stones; and when strangers approach to gather these the creatures leap upon them and tear them in pieces, thus showing their use in chastising human avarice and greed. The one-eyed Arimaspi wage constant war with them, according to Herodotus (iii. 16). The celebrated Sir John de Mandeville, in his Travels, described a griffin as eight times larger than a lion. The griffin is frequently seen on early seals and medals, and is still borne as a favourite device on seals and as a charge in heraldry. Papworth, in his laborious Ordinary of British Armorials, ascribes this creature to several hundred family coats, as a single charge, and in connexion with other heraldic devices the griffin was constantly borne in English and especially in Welsh armoury. Berry in his Encyclopaedia Heraldica declares that the combination of the eagle and lion signified strength and swiftness conjoined; if this be so, the reason of its almost universal adoption as an emblem by a military and chivalric people is not far to seek. The seals of Baldwin de Redvers, second earl of Devon (1137-1155), and his son William de Vernun, sixth earl, exhibit two most curious examples of the griffin, and being anterior to the consolidation of heraldic rules and a succession of heraldic devices from father to son, are yet proofs that particular devices or emblems were in. use with powerful lords of the 12th and 13th centuries, and retained by the members of the family as carefully and as conventionally as the true heraldic bearings of the following century were. Guillim blazons this monster as rampant, alleging that any very fierce animal may be so blazoned as well as the lion; but Sylvester, Morgan, Burke, Berry, and other writers upon heraldic subjects, use the term segreant, i.e., segreant, pluming or arranging himself by lifting himself up and flapping his wings, as all birds do occasionally, instead of rampant. Palliot, one of the most interesting of all writers on arms, in his Vraye et Parfaite Science des Armoires, describes this creature as generally rampant, and points out its connexion with the Minotaur, Centaurs, and Chimsera, "fronte Leo, postremo Draco, medioque Chimsera." The same writer, in reference to the possibility of such productions of nature, describes a curious monster of similar character, called a hippocervus, presented in 1534 by Frederick, duke of Mantua, to Francis the Great, the fore part being that of a horse, the hind part that of a stag, which could be saddled and bridled, but always threw his rider and trampled on him. Much might be written on the subject of hybrids and fabulous monsters such as these, but the various aspects of natural history and archaeology which they illustrate have never been yet worked out. The griffin was also an architectural ornament among the Greeks, and was copied from them, with other architectural embellishments, by the Romans, A fine example of the Assyrian griffin occurs on the sculptured slabs from Kouyunjik, now in the British Museum. The Dictionary of Early Drawings and Illuminations, by W. de Gray Birch and H. Jenner, gives a collection of references to the finest examples of these creatures among the manuscripts from the Saxon age to the close of the 15th century.

 GRIFFIN,  (1803-1840), an Irish novelist and dramatic writer, was descended from a family of good position, and was born at Limerick 12th December 1803. He was the youngest of nine sons. After attending for some time the school of an eccentric preceptor in Limerick, he, on the removal of the family in 1810 to Fairy Lawn, a country place on the banks of the Shannon, was placed under the instruction of a private tutor, but in 1814 he returned to Limerick to attend a classical school. In his youth his devotion seems to have been pretty equally divided between books and out-door recreations with the rod and gun. His parents and a portion of the family emigrated in 1820 to America, but he and some others were left with an elder brother who was settled as a medical practitioner at Adari near Limerick, and under his direction Gerald made some progress in medical studies with the view of adopting that profession. It would appear, however, that very soon his intentions underwent a change, for, besides devoting a large part of his time to literary composition, he as early as his eighteenth year undertook for a short time the editorship of a newspaper in Limerick. Having completed a tragedy, Aguire, which was highly lauded by his friends, he finally in 1823 set out for London with the purpose of "revolutionizing the dramatic taste of the time by writing for the stage." Notwithstanding, however, the efforts and recommendations of the novelist Banim, who showed him great kindness, he found no manager willing to accept any of his plays; and for a considerable period he had such a hard and wearisome struggle with poverty and disappointment as permanently to injure his health. For some time he barely supported himself by reporting trials for the newspapers and by various kinds of hack work; but his prospects began to brighten a little when he obtained occupation as a parliamentary reporter, and gradually the Literary Gazette, the News of Literature, and other periodicals of standing began to look upon his contributions with favour. Some of his dramatic pieces were accepted also by one of the theatres; and the publication in 1827 of a series of