Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/273

Rh Fourmont, whom in 1745 he succeeded at the Royal Library as secretary interpreter of the Eastern languages. A Mémoire Historique sur UOrigine des Huns et des Turcs, published by De Guignes in 1748, having brought Lis name with some prominence before the learned world, he was admitted a member of the Royal Society of London in 1752 and an associate of the French Academy of Inscriptions in 1754. Two years later he gave to the world the first two volumes of his learned and laborious J/istoire Générale des Inns, des Mongoles, des Tures, et des autres Tartares occidentuur ; and in 1757 he was appointed to succeed Jault in the chair of Syriac at the Collége Royal. The completion of the ZJistoire by the publication of the three remaining volumes in 1758 was followed in 1759 by the publication of a Mémoire in which he propounded and endeavoured to- prove the untenable and absurd theory that the Chinese nation had originated in Egyptian colonization, an opinion to which, in spite of every argument, he to the last obstinately clung. To its support, as also to the further elucidation of the chronology and arrangement of his Histoire, which had been, not without some justice, un- favourably criticized, he devoted several learned papers which are to be found in the A/émoires of the Academy of Inscriptions; and among his other literary labours, an improved edition of an old translation of the Shoo-king is worthy of special mention. The Revolution, while permitting De Guignes to retain some insignificant pensions which had been conferred upon him, deprived him of various posts, such as those of keeper of the antiquities in the Louvre and editor of the Journals des Savans, on which he was chiefly dependent for his income ; and his later years are said to have brought to him considerable personal hardship, from which his sole refuge was in redoubled.application to study. He died at Paris, March 19,1800. The //éstotire hal been translatel into German by Déhnert (1768-71). De Cuignes left a son, Christian Louis Joseph (1759-1845), who, after learning Chinese from his father, went as consul to Canton, where he spent seventeen years. On his return to France le was charged by the Government with the work of preparing a Chinese-French-Latin dictionary. Though bearing his name alone on the title-page (1513), it was in reality only a new edition of the work of Glemuona. He was also the author of a large work of travels (Voyages a Lékin, Manille, et (Lle de France, 1808).  GUILD. The spirit of association has in all ages induced men to join together for the pleasures of mutual enjoyment or for the attainment of some common purpose for which the support of numbers was necessary. The idea has taken shape in various ways, influenced by the tem- perament of race, the policy of Governments, the social condition of classes, or the need for a special object. In- dependeutly of the organization of peoples, of their constitution into towns, provinces, and states as units in a system, whether of self-government or of tmposed government,— independently too of those great associations or brotherhoods, the church, the orders of knighthood, the greater and lesser monastic orders, and secret societies,—there is a third kind of association upon a basis distinct from these. The public welfare of a community within certain territorial limits is the great object of Governments, local or imperial ; the pur- suit of some great moral, religious, or equitable thought, touching the hearts of men in general without regard to nation, was the animating principle of the chivalric and re- ligious orders ; but when men began to form themselves into guilds, the benefit of each one in his individual and social capacity was concerned, naturally confined within the bounds of neighbourhood. A guild was a voluntary associ- ation of those living near together who joined for a com mon purpose, paying contributions, worshipping together, feasting together periodically, helping one another in sickness and poverty, and frequently united for the pursuit of a special object. The true history of these institutions has been till recently unnoticed; their value and importance, especially in connexion with the life of towns and villages, liaving Leen but imperfectly investigated or understood. Guilds have, however, been numerous, and their influence most ini- portant, in Europe from an early period; they attained their highest prosperity and development in the Teutonic countries, and especially in England during the Middle Ages, and they have been widely spread among tlic Romance nations. The meaning of the word guild or gild is closely con- nected with the origin of the institution. Gud or geld was Old English for a set payment or contribution, from zeldan or zyldun, to pay (whence also the present yield); the primary meaning was payment, and the company of those who paid became known by this chief title to mem- bership. There are also gilde, Danish and Low German, in the sense of a contributory company of this kind; gjalda and gildi, Icelandic, a payment, and gild?, also a banquet. The word therefore, thus derived, is better spelt (as most old authorities have it) without the «; a colour ts, liow- ever, given for the ordinary moderu form gudld, by deriving it (as Wedgwood, English Etymology) from the Welsh or Breton gouil, a feast or holiday, geylad, keeping a festival. The essential principle of the guild is the banding together for mutual help, mutual enjoyment, and mutual encouragement in good endeavour. The spirit which di- rected itself to the inner business and life of each society and its members is the true mark, in some degree, of all bodies, ancient or modern, that can claim the character of guilds. The peace-guild of the North in the had this character in common with the great trading guild of the and, or the little social or religious guild of an English country village of. Some German scholars find the origin of the first guilds in the banquets and sacrificial assemblies of the heathen German tribes. Wilda, Dr L. Brentano, and others, connect- ing these with what is kuown of the importance of family relations among the Teutonic nations, find in the faniily union the germ from which the guild was developed, and show that when Christianity was brouglit from the south of Europe “the spirit of association received a mighty impulse, and the gilds spread themselves rapidly under the influence of Christian doctrine” (Brentano). It is maintained by others that the guilds have sprung from the collegia, in those countries where the Romans bore sway. The Romans exercised the right of association from early times; it is attributed to Numa that he encouraged the for- mation of craft guilds, of which Plutarch cnumerates nine; there also existed early religious societies among them. Exercised voluntarily under the reyfublic, this right became crippled under the empire, and tlie collegia were obliged to seek authorization from the state for the narrower objects to which the imperial decrees attempted to limit them. These societies were numerous, not only at Rome, but throughout the empire, especially in the East, in Italy, and in Gaul; a large number were trade corporations, devoted to the interest of their crafts ; others were united for good- fellowship, religion, and many especiclly to provide for burial. In the provinces, besides merchants and others, the highest persons were glad at times to belong to them ; those in Rome under the empire appear to have consisted principally of workmen, freedmen, slaves, and persons of the humbler classes, All appear to have had the same general features ; they chose their own masters and cfficers, made rules for self-government, paid contributions to a common fund, met and feasted together at stated periods, —the freedom of social intercourse being particularly ap-