GEIKIE, JAMES, geologist, brother of the preceding, born at Edinburgh; in 1882, after serving 21 years in the Geological Survey of Scotland, he succeeded his brother in the chair of Geology at Edinburgh; his principal work as a scientist is “The Great Ice Age”; his literary sympathies appear in his admirable volume of translations of, “Songs and Lyrics of Heine”; b. 1839.

GEILER VON KAISERBERG, JOHANN, a famous German pulpit orator, born at Schaffhausen; Strasburg was the principal scene of his labours; his writings, though numerous, are rare, among them the “Narrenschiff, or Ship of Fools” (1453-1510).

GELASIUS I., ST., Pope from 492 to 496; a vigorous man and strong assertor of the supremacy of the chair of St. Peter; G. II., also Pope from 1118 to 1119.

GELL, SIR WILLIAM, archaeologist, born at Hopton, Derbyshire; after graduating at Cambridge was elected to a Fellowship at Emmanuel College; his passion for classical antiquities led him latterly to settle in Italy, which bore fruit in various valuable works on the topography and antiquities of Troy, Pompeii, Rome, Attica, &c.; he had for some time previously been chamberlain to Queen Caroline, and appeared as a witness at her trial (1777-1836).

GELLERT or KILLHART, a famous dog which figures in Welsh tradition of the 13th century, and whose devotion and sad death are celebrated in a fine ballad written by the Hon. William Robert Spencer (1796-1834).  The story is as follows:  Prince Llewellyn on returning one day from the chase discovered the cradle of his child overturned and blood-stains on the floor.  Immediately concluding that Gellert, whom he had left in charge of the child, had been the culprit, he plunged his sword into the breast of the dog and laid it dead.  Too late he found his child safe hidden in the blankets, and by its side the dead body of an enormous wolf.  Gellert’s tomb is still pointed out in the village of Beddgelert on the S. of Snowdon.  A story similar even to details is current in the traditionary lore of many other lands.

GELLERT, CHRISTIAN, a German poet, fabulist, and moralist, born in Saxony; professor of Philosophy at Leipzig; distinguished for the influence of his character and writings on the literature of the period in Germany, in the effect of it culminating in the literature of Schiller and Goethe; Frederick the Great, who had an interview with him, pronounced him the most rational of German professors (1715-1769).

GELLUS, AULUS, a Latin grammarian, born at Rome; author of “Noctes Atticae,” a miscellany professing to have been composed in a country house near Athens during winter nights, and ranging confusedly over topics of all kinds, interesting as abounding in extracts from ancient writings no longer extant.

GELON, tyrant of Syracuse from 484 to 478 B.C.; rose from the ranks, gained a victory in 480 B.C. on the day of the battle of Salamis over a large host of Carthaginians who had invaded Sicily; d. 478 B.C., leaving behind him an honoured memory.