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GRE

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GEE

or, according to the fable, the son of Jupiter: the other from Hei-len, above-mentioned, the son of Deucalion, and father of Dorus,from whom came the Dores, afterwards a famous nation amongthe Greeks. Another name by which the Greeks were known insome parts of the country, was that of Pelasgi, which the Arca-dians, the most ancient people in Greece , deduced from their pre-tended founder Pelasgus; who is said to have got such footing inPeloponnesus , that the whole peninsula from him was called f’e-lasgia. But the most ancient name of all is universally allowed tohave been that of Iones, which the Greeks themselves derivedfrom Ion the son of Xuthus; or, as the fable hath it, of Apollo,by Creusa the daughter of Erechthcus the grandson of Deucalion.Josephus , however, affirms, that their original is of much olderdate; and that Javan, the son of Japhet, and grandson of Noah,was the first who peopled these countries; which Bochart has alsorendered very probable. It is true, indeed, that among the Greeksthemselves, only the Athenians , and such colonies as sprung fromthem, were called lones; but it is also plain, beyond exception,that other nations gave this name to all the inhabitants of Greece .

Gkeece, Modern, now called European Turkey , and bythe Turks Rumelia, comprehends Macedonia; Albania , nowcalled Arnaut; Epirus , Thessaly, now Jana; Achaia, now Liva-dia; the Peloponnesus, now Morea ; together with the islands onits coasts, and in the Archipelago . The air is extremely temperateand healthy : and the soil fruitful, though badly cultivated; yield-ing corn, wine, delicious fruits, and abounding with cattle, fowls,and venison.

GREEK. CHURCH, is that part of the Christian church whichis established in Greece ; extending likewise to some other partsof Turkey. It is so called, in contradistinction from the Latin orRomish church ; also the Eastern Church , in distinction from theWestern. The Romanists call the Greek church the GreekSchism; because the Greeks do not allow the authority of thepope, but depend wholly, as to matters of religion, on their ownpatriarchs. They have treated them as schismatics ever since therevolt, as they call it, of the patriarch Photius .

Greek Language, as preserved in the writings of the cele-brated authors of antiquity, Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Aris-totle, Plato , Xenophoi* &e. has a great variety of terms and ex-pressions, suitable to the genius and occasions of a polite and learn-ed people, w ho had a taste for arts and sciences. In it, propernames are significative; which is the reason that the modern lan-guages borrow so many terms from it. When any new invention,instrument, machine, or the like, is discovered, recourse is gene-rally had to the Greek for a name to it; the facility wherewithwords are there compounded, affording such as will be expressiveof its use; such are, barometer, hygrometer, microscope, tele-scope, &c. But of all sciences, medicine most abounds with suchterms; as diaphoretic, diagnosis, diarrhoea, haemorrhage, hydro-phobia, phthisis, atrophy, &c. .

Greek Orders, in architecture, are the Done, Ionic, and Co-rinthian ; in contradistinction to the two Latin orders, the 1 uscan

tnd Composite. See Architecture.

GREEN , is one of the original prismatic colours, exhibited byhe refraction of the rays of light. See Colour , and Optics.I'lie green colour of plants has been shewn, by the French che-niats, to depend upon the ah lorption of carbonic acid, and it isopposed that the leaves of plants have the power of decomposinghe carbonic acid and water also; the oxygen they emit, while thetarbon and hydrogen enter into the composition of the mnamina-de parts of the plant. .

Green , among painters qnd dyers. See Colour-making andDying. . .

Green Briar, a fertile and extensive county ot V irgmia,sur-ounded by those of Bath, Randolph., Harrison, Kanhaway, Bote-ourt, and Montgomery. ...

GREENCASTLE, a flourishing town of Pennsylvania , in

Iranklin county. . , .. .

GREEN-CLOTH, aboard or court of justice, held in the:ompting-hoiise of the king’s household, composed ok the toiteward, and officers under him, who sit daily.. > °. th,s . .«

committed the charge and oversight of the king s wuse km inatters of justice and government, with a power to < °r “. ,

enders, and to maintain the peace of the verge, or junsdi .on ofho court royal; w hich is every way about two hundred yards

from the last gate of the palace where his majesty resides. It takesits name, board of green cloth, from a green cloth spread over thaboard where they sit. Without a warrant first obtained fromthis court, none of the king’s servants can be arrested for debt,j Green-Pinch, in ornithology. See Fringilla.

Greenhouse, or Conservatory, a house in a garden, con»trived for sheltering and preserving the most curious and tenderexotic plants, which in our climate will not bear to be exposed tothe open air, especially during the winter-season. These are ge-nerally large and beautiful structures, equally ornamental and use-ful. Then- length must be proportioned to the number of plantsintended to be preserved in them, and cannot therefore be re-duced to rule: but their depth should never be greater than theirheighth in the clear; which, in small or middling houses, may besixteen or eighteen feet, but in large ones from twenty to twenty-four feet; and the length of the windows should reach from aboutone foot and a half above the pavement, and within the same dis-tance of the ceiling, which will admit of a corniche round thebuilding over the heads of the windows.

GREENLAND , a general name given to the most easterlyparts of America , stretching towards the north pole, and compre-hending some islands to the north of Europe , lying in veryhigh latitudes. This country is divided into West and East Green-land .

i. Greenland, East , was long considered as a part of the con-tinent of West Greenland, but is now discovered to be an assem-blage of islands lying between 76° 40' and 80° 30' lat. N. and be-tween 9° and 2(f Ion. E. It was discovered by sir Hugh Wil-loughby in 1A53, who called it Greenland ; supposing it to be apart of the western continent. In 1395, it was again visited byWilliam Barentz and John Cornelius, two Dutchmen, who pre-tended to be the original discoverers, and called the countrySpitzbergen , or Sharp Mountains, from the many sharp-pointedand rocky mountains with which it abounds. They alleged thatthe coast discovered by sir Hugh Willoughby was some othercountry ; which according to the Hollanders was delineated ontheir maps and charts by the name of Willoughby land ; whereas,in fact, no such land ever existed ; and long before the voyage ofthese Dutchmen, Stephen Barrows, an English shipmaster, hadcoasted along a desolate country from lat. 78®to 80° 11' N. whichwas undoubtedly Spitzbergen . The sea in the neighbourhood ofthe islands of Spitzbergen abounds very much with whales. It isthe common resort of the whale-fishing ships from different coun-tries, and the country itself is frequently visited by these ships;but till the lafe voyage of captain Phipps, by order of his Ma-jesty, the situation of it was erroneously laid down. It was ima-gined that the land stretched to the northward as far as 82° N. lat.but captain Phipps found the most northerly point of land, calledSeven Islands, not to exceed 81° 30'. Towards the east he sawother lands at a distance, so that Spitzbergen plainly appeared tobe surrounded by water on that side, and not joined to the conti-nent of Asia , as former navigators had supposed. He also ex-plored the north and west coasts, blit was prevented by the icefrom sailing so far north as he wished. The coast appeared nei-ther habitable nor accessible. It is formed of high, barren, blackrocks, without the least marks of vegetation; in many places bareand pointed ; in others covered with snow appearing even abovethe clouds. The valleys between the high cliffs were filled withsnow and ice. “ This prospect,” says captain Phipps, “ wouldhave suggested the idea of perpetual winter, haci not the mildnessof the weather, the smooth water, bl ight sun-shine, and constantday-light, given a cheerfulness and novelty to the whole ot this ro-mantic scene.” The current ran along this coast half a knot anhour north. The height of one mountain seen here was found bygeometrical mensuration to the 15034, or 1503-&J feet. By a ba-rometer constructed after De Luc’s method, the height was foundto be 15884 fret- On this occasion captain Phipps remarks, «« Jcannot account for the great difference between the geometricalmeasure and the barometr.cal according to M. de Luc’s calcula-tion, which amounts to 84-7 feet. I have no reason to doubt theaccuracy of Dr. Irving’s observations, which were made with greatcare. As to the geometrical measure, the agreement of so inanvtriangles, each of which must have discovered even the smalle-terror, is the most satisfactory proof of its correctness. Since myreturn I have tried both the theodolite and barometer, to discover

whether