Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/303

* SMITH. 257 SMITH. graver by trade. Becoming interested in Assyri- ologj', he gave niucli of his leisure time and spare money to the study, and attracted the favorable notice of Rawlinson. In 1800 he discovered a text relating to the tribute paid by Jehu to Shalnianeser II. The remarkable aptitude which he showed for arranging and classify-' ing Assyrian documents led to his being associated with Rawlinson in the prepara- tion of the third and fourth volumes of the Ciinciforiii Iiiscriplions of Western Asia (pub- lished 1870, 1875). In 18(J7 Smith became of- ficially connected with the Uritish Jluseum. In 1871 he published the Auiials of Assur-baiii-pal, and prepared valuable papers on the Eurhj His- tory of Bahyloiiia and The Heading of the Cypri- ote Inscriptiuiis. In 1872 he made his most fa- mous discovery — the Babylonian account of the deluge, which had been found at Nineveh and brought to England by Layard. As a result he was sent to Nineveh the following year at the expenseof the Daily Telegraph to search for more fragments of the account, and returned in a short time, hav- ing succeeded in his mission. He again conducted excavations at Nineveh for the British Museum in 1874. In October, 1875, he started a tliird time for the East; after many difficulties he reached Nineveh, only to find that it was im- possible to excavate, owing to the disturbed state of the country. His health broke down from care and worry, and he died at Aleppo. August 19, 1876. Besides the works already mentioned, he published: Assyrian Diseoreries (1875), the account of. his explorations; The Assyrian Eponym Canon (1875); Ancient History from the Monuments: Assyria (1875) ; The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876; edited by Sayce, 1880) ; and papers in the Transactions of dif- ferent societies. Ancient History from the Monto- ments: Babylonia (1877) and The History of Sennacherib (1878) appeared posthumously. SMITH, George Adam (1856—). A Scotch theologian and Hebraist, born in Calcutta, India. He was educated in Edinburgh at the university and at New College. In 1880 he be- came assistant at Brechin. From 1880 to 1882 he was instructor in Hebrew at the Free Church College in Aberdeen; then, until 1892, was pastor of the New Church, Queen's Cross. Edinl)urgh; and in that year was named professor of Hebrew and of Old Testament exegesis in the Free Church College of Glasgow. Professor Smith traveled in Palestine in 1891 and 1901. and published the valuable Historical Geogrujihi/ of the Hoh/ Land (1894; 7th ed. 1901). He frequently visited the United States, and in 1890 he was Percy Turn- bull lecturer on Hebrew poetry at .Tcihns Hop- kins University, and in 1899 gave the Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale on Modern Criticism and Preaching of the Old Testament (published 1901). Professor Smith was Jowett Lecturer in London in 1900, and in the spring of 1903 again visited America, and lectured at Union Theological Seminary and elsewhere. In the Expositor's Bil)tc he published a "Commentary on Isaiah" (1888-90) and "The Twelve Prophets" (1896-97). His other writings are The Preaching of the Old Testament to the Aqe (189.3), HistnA- cal Atlas of the Hoh/ Land (1895), and The Life of Henry Drnmmond (1898; 6th ed. 1902). SMITH, George VVii,LiAM,soN (1836—). An American clergvman and educator, born at Cats- kill, N. Y. He graduated at Hobart College in 1857. After being ordained priest in the Prot- estant Episcopal Church in 1864 he was an as- sistant in various churches in Washington. In 1865-68 he was chaplain of the United States Naval Academy, and from 1868 to 1871 was chaplain on the United States Steamship Frank- lin. From 1872 to 1883 he was rector of churches in Jamaica and in Brooklyn, L. 1., and in the latter year he was elected president of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., an office which he re- signed in 1903, SMITH, Gerard Fowke, See Fowke, Gerard., SMITH, Gerrit (1797-1874). An American philanthropist, son of Peter Smith, of Utica, N, Y.. who, associated in the fur trade witti John .Jacob Astor, accumulated a great fortune which the son greatly increased. Gerrit graduated from Hamilton College in 1818. and. without regularly studying law. lie entered upon that pro- fession and practiced with distinction in both the State and Federal courts. He made his home in Peterboro, Jladison County. N. Y. Entering Con- gress in 185.3, he found public life distasteful, and abandoned it after the long session of 1854. At this time, one of the largest landowners in the L'nited States, Smith developed radical views in opposition to private land monopoly. Putting theory into ])ractice, he began and during many years continued to distribute hold- ings to poor families — in his later years showing a preference for negroes — in |)arcels of fifty acres each. In religious matters also he was a radical, and attempted to Ijuild up an independent church both by money gifts and his own preaching. Plunging at length into the anti-slavery move- ment, he became by his generosity and earnest- ness one of its most eflfective agitators. A stanch and lifelong friend of .John Brown, he loyally supported him in his Kansas raids and through his subsequent tribulations. The signing of .leiTerson Davis's bail bond when the Civil War was over, by Gerrit Smith and Horace CJreeley, was one of the most characteristic acts of each of those unusual men. Besides numerous speeches and pamphlets, chiefly on the slavery issue. Smith wrote Tlie Religion of Reason (18641, and Xatnre the Base of a Free Theology (1867), There is a biography by Frothinghara (New York. 1878) which the family attempted to suppress. SMITH, GoLinviN (1823-). An Anglo- American ])ublicist. born at Reading, in Berk- shire, England. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. Elected fellow of University College in 1847. he devoted some time to tutoring, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1850. He neer practiced law, however, but gave his first public efforts to university reform, serving as assistant secretary to the first and secretary to the second Oxford commission, through whose efforts important changes were made in the uni- versity system. From 1858 to 1866 he was regius professor of modern history at Oxford. During the following two years he lectured on questions of political reform. During the Civil War Smith was one of the stanchest friends of the North, combating in the Daily en-s the pro-Southern views of the Times, in an effective manner. In 1868 he came to the newly founded Cornell Uni- versity at Ithaca, N. Y., as professor of English