Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/444

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GEO—GEO
George of Pisidia the ξαήμερον ἤτοι Κοσμουργία, a poem upon the creation of the world, containing in its present form 1910 trimeter iambic verses; a treatise on the vanity of life, ις τὸν μάταιον βίον, in 262 verses; a controversial composition against Severus of Antioch, Κατά Σευήρου, in 731 verses; two short poems upon the resurrection of Christ and upon the temple of the Virgin at Blachernæ respectively, and a prose encomium upon Anastasius the martyr, (γκώμιον εἰς τὸνἅγιον Αναστάσιον μάρτυρα). George of Pisidia is known to have written several other works, which, however, are no longer extant; and there is no sufficient reason for assigning to him the compilation of the Chronicon Paschale, or the astronomical poem entitled Empedoclis Sphæra. The Hexaemeron and De Vanitate Vitæ were first printed along with a Latin version at Paris in 1584 or 1585 by Federicus Morellus. They are also to be found in the Max. Bibliotheca Vett. Patrum, xii. p. 322 (1677); and in the 46th vol. of Migne’s Patrologia Græca. The only complete edition of all the extant works is that of Quercus in Foggini’s Corp. Hist. Byzant. Nova Appendix (Rome, 1777). As a versifier George is correct and even elegant; as a chronicler of contemporary events he is exceedingly useful; but the modern verdict on his merits as a poet has not confirmed that of those later Byzantine writers whose enthusiastic admiration led them to compare him with and even prefer him to Euripides. Recent criticism is unanimous in characterizing his composition as artificial and almost uniformly dull.

GEORGE of Trebizond (13961486), one of the distinguished writers in the great controversy between Aristotelianism and Platonism in the 15th century, was born at Chandace in the island of Crete. He received his cognomen apparently from the fact that his ancestors had come from Trebizond. At what period he came to Italy is not absolutely certain; according to some accounts he arrived as early as 1430, and settled as teacher of philosophy and rhetoric at Venice; according to others he did not come over to Italy till the period of the council of Florence (14389). His reputation as a teacher and as translator of Aristotle was very great, and he was selected as secretary by Pope Nicolas V., an ardent Aristotelian. The needless bitterness of his attacks upon Plato (in the Comparatio Aristotelis et Platonis), which drew forth a powerful response from Bessarion (q.v.), and the manifestly hurried and inaccurate character of his translations both of Plato and of Aristotle, combined to ruin his fame as a scholar, and to endanger his position as a teacher of philosophy. The indignation against him on account of his first-named work was so great that he would probably have been compelled to leave Italy, had not Alphonso V. given him protection at the court of Naples. He died at Rome in 1486. Many of his translations of Aristotelian treatises are to be found in the older editions of Aristotle. A notice of his other writings is given in Fabricius, Biblioth. Græca.

GEORGETOWN, the port of entry for the District of Columbia in the United States of North America, is situated on the left bank of the Potomac at the head of navigation, about 2 miles W.N.W. of the capitol of Washington City, with which it communicates by four iron bridges thrown across Rock Creek. Founded by the colonial Government of Maryland in 1751, Georgetown was a city with a distinct administration from 1789 to 1871; but in the latter year it was merged in the District of Columbia, and in 1878 it was incorporated with the city of Washington, so that now it has properly no distinct existence. It is beautifully situated along a range of hills, whose loftier eminences, locally called the Heights, afford delightful positions for villas and country seats, with extensive prospects over the river and Washington. The most noteworthy institution is Georgetown College, the oldest Roman Catholic college in the United States, which occupies two handsome brick buildings in the midst of extensive grounds at the west end. It was founded as an academy in 1789, was chartered as a college in 1799, and in 1815 received the right of conferring degrees. Its medical department, originated in 1851, and the legal department, dating from 1870, are both in Washington. The university has a library of upwards of 30,000 volumes, an extensive apparatus for physical science, and a museum of natural history. In 1873 the teaching staff numbered 35. Among the other institutions in the town may be mentioned the Convent of the Visitation, with a female academy attached; the Peabody library; the Linthicum institute (founded in 1872 by a retired merchant, who left $50,000 for the education of poor white boys) ; the aged women’s house, maintained by voluntary subscription; and the industrial home for juvenile vagrants. The aqueduct which conveys a branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal over the Potomac is 1446 feet long, and its granite piers, nine in number, rise 36 feet above the ordinary surface of the water, and rest on the solid rock 17 feet below the bottom of the river. A great decline has taken place in the commercial activity of Georgetown. Its foreign trade is very slight, being represented in the year ending June 30, 1878, by no more than 6113 dollars of imports and 10,056 dollars of exports; but its share in the coasting trade is still considerable, 187 steamers and 45 sailing vessels, affording a total tonnage of 96,339 tons, having entered in the year already mentioned; its position at the terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal secures for it a fair share in the shipping of the coal from the Alleghany fields; and its fisheries render it a great market for shad and herrings. Among the industrial establishments the first place is held by the flour-mills, six in number; but there are also corn-mills, timberyards, tanneries, foundries, breweries, a paper-mill, and a vinegar factory. The principal cemetery for Washington occupies a beautiful situation on Georgetown Heights. In 1830 the population of Georgetown was 8441; in 1840 it was only 7312; by 1860 it had reached 8733; and in 1870 it was 11,384.

GEORGETOWN, known as Stabroek during the Dutch

period, now the capital of British Guiana, is situated in the county of Demerara on the east bank of the Demerara river, about a mile from its mouth, in 6° 49' 30” N. lat. and 58° 11’ 30" W. long. It is one of the prettiest towns of that part of the world, and presents an unusually attractive appear- ance to the approaching voyager. The streets are wide and straight, intersecting each other at right angles, and recall- ing, by the canals that run along the centre, the memory of the Dutch; and the houses are so richly embosonied by cabbage-palms, cocoa-nut trees, and other trees and shrubs, that they look rather like a collection of villas than a town. The street along the river side, where the shops and stores are mainly situated, forms, however, an exception ; there everything is plain, bare, and business-like. Private dwelling-houses are usually built of wood and raised 3 or 4 feet above the soil on wooden piles or brick pillars ,- they are painted in various simple colours, for the most part in white; in front they have open verandahs. Among the public edifices the first place is due to a building in the centre of the town which was erected between 1829 and 1834'at a cost of £60,000, to accommodate the legislative council, the courts of justice, the custom house, the treasury, and other administrative offices ; it is of considerable extent and architectural beauty, with shady porticoes and marble- paved galleries supported on cast-iron columns. Besides a cathedral, which cost £15,000, there are churches belonging to the Wesleyans, the Baptists, the London Missionary Society,- and other ecclesiastical organizations, several

liberally maintained hospitals, an icehouse, and two market