Country in the Light of Histwy, delivered before the alumni of Pennsylvania College, 18G1 ; and The Sud- den Death of Henry J. McMillan, pronounced in the Lu- theran Church, Greensburg, 18G4. (M. L. S.)
Gary, George, a Methodist Episcopal minister and missionary' to Oregon, was born at Middlefield, Otsego Co., N. Y., Dec. 8, 1793 ; entered the New England Conference in 18U9 ; in 1813 was transferred to Gen- esee Conference ; in 1818 was made presiding elder ; in 1825 was Conference missionary ; in 1834, mission- ary to the Oneida Indians ; in 1836 was transferred to Black River Conference ; and in 1844 was appointed missionary superintendent of Oregon, where he re- mained four years. After his return he labored on until 1854, when his health entirely failed. He died March 25, 1855. Mr. Gar}' was an eminently holy and useful minister. He was six times delegate to the General Conference, and was deeply engaged in all the ecclesiastical, religious, and educational interests of the Church. He was a wise and safe counsellor, and his influence in his Conference was very great. As a preacher he was widely known for "true, per- suasive, and sanctified eloquence," which "mightily moved his bearers." — Minutes of Conferences, v, 5G0 ; Peck, Early Methodism (N.Y'ork, 1860, 12mo), p. 480; Sprague, Annals, vii, 478. (G. L. T.)
Gash'nm (Hebrew Gashnu', M'C'Jy ; Sept. omits, Vulg. Gosseni), prob. a prolonged form (Nch. vi, 6) of the name Geshem (q. v.).
Gassendi or Gassend, Pierre, an eminent French philosopher and scholar, was born of humble parentage Dec. 24, 1595, at Champtercier, a village near Digne, in Provence. He died at Paris Oct. 24, 1655. From his earliest years he was noted for sweetness of disposition, quickness of apprehension, keenness of ob- servation, and precocit}' of genius. As a child he would wander in the fields on clear nights to admire the beauty, variety, and order of the starrj' hosts, and would thus excite the anxieties of his family, till his habits and occupations became familiar to them. At four years of age he made sermons for the entertain- ment of his childish companions, at ten he delivered a Latin address to the bishop of his diocese, and at sixteen he had alreadj' adopted the motto of his life — sapere atide — dare to be wise. He was earlj' sent to school, and, fortunatel}', fell at Digne into the hands of a teacher able to appreciate and develop his won- derful powers. His father was with difficulty induced to permit his attendance at the University of Aix, along with the sons of a relative, and at that rela- tive's expense. He was required to return after a two-years' course. At Aix he was under the care of Fesaye, a learned Minorite, who introduced him into the thorny labyrinths of philosophy. At the expira- tion of the appointed time Gassendi returned to the plough, but left it to teach rhetoric at the age of six- teen in the academy of Digne. At nineteen he was appointed, on the death of Fesaj-e, to give instructions in philosophy at the l^niversity of Aix ; but he devoted himself chief!}' to the stud}' of theology, as he had se- lected the Church for his career. In 1616, however, he Mas simultaneously elected to the chairs of theology and philosophy, and he accepted the latter. The au- thority of Aristotle had been long declining among the learned, and, in common with many of his precur- sors and contemporaries, Gassendi employed himself in the confutation of the peripatetic dogmas. The controversial views thus promulgated were systema- tized in his Exercitaticmim Parado.ricarum adversus Aristoteleos libri septem. Before publishing the work he submitted it to the judgment of Nicholas Peiresc and the prior of Valetta. By them he was persuaded to complete his design of entering the Church ; and, after receiving his doctorate of divinitv, was through their influence presented to a canonr}' at Digne. A portion of the Paradoxes was published in 1G24, liut the
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last five books were withheld by the advice of his friends, and liis labors in this direction were arrested by the discoverj'^ that the subject had been sufficiently discussed b}^ Francisco Patrizzi.
These writings, petulant in character, and full of youthful cavils and superiicial objections, provoked opposition, which was not niitiy;ated by Gassendi's manifest predilection for the opinions of Epicurus. Tiie youn^ philosopher had been born at the close of the religious wars of France, and had entered upon life amid the turmoil and strife of the regency of Anne of Austria, during a period when many speculative minds sought relief from controversy, and from the agitation of religious and political dissensions, in the careless scepticism and easy morality which had been rendered attractive by ^Montaigne. Ecclesiastical du- ties having summoned liim to Paris, he [)ro(ited by the occasion to augment his multifarious learning, and to form the acquaintance of the learned in the caiiital. It was probalil}' at this time that he was brought into intimacy with Des Cartes, an intimacy which was in- terrupted and shaken by his Observations on the Phil- osophicaJ Meditations, and by the disingeniu)us conduct of Des Cartes in regard to them. Gassendi was in- duced to accept in 1645 the professorship of mathemat- ics in the Royal College of France ; but the exertion of lecturing, in conjunction with his other studious avocations, undermined his health, and compelled him to seek its restoration by a return to his native air. During this period he gave to the world the treatise De Vita ct Moribus Epicuri (Lugduni, 1647), and his edi- tion of the Tenth Book of Diogenes Laertiiis (1649), with copious annotations, in which he collected and ar- ranged the abundant literar}' materials which he had gathered for the illustration of tlie philosophj^ and the philosopher of the Garden. In 1653 Gassendi return- ed to Paris, and, after publisliing the lives of Tjcho Brahe, Copernicus, Purbach, Kegiomontanus, and Pei- resc, devoted himself assiduously to the completion and perfection of his scheme of speculation, though these last results of his labors did not appear till after his death in the Syntarjma P kilos- )2')hi(B Epicurem. His health finally gave waj^ in 1654, and, after much suf- fering from pulmonary disease, he died, having sur- vived his illustrious rival Des Cartes five j'ears.