Gibbon (Edward), probably the greatest of historians, b. Putney, 27 April 1737. At Oxford be became a Romanist, but being sent to a Calvinist at Lausanne, was brought back to Protestantism. When visiting the ruins of the Capitol at Rome, he conceived the idea of writing the Decline and Fall of that empire. For twenty-two years before the appearance of his first volume he was a prodigy of arduous application, his investigations extending over the whole range of intellectual and political activity for nearly fifteen hundred years. His monumental work, bridging the old world and the new, is an historic exposure of the crimes and futility of Christianity. Gibbon was elected to Parliament in '74, but did not distinguish himself. He died of dropsy, in London, 16 Jan. 1794. Gibson (Ellen Elvira), American lecturess, b. Winchenden, Mass. 8 May, 1821, and became a public school teacher. Study of the Bible brought her to the Freethought platform. At the outbreak of the American Civil War she organised Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Societies, and was elected chaplain to the 1st Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery. President Lincoln endorsed the appointment, which was questioned. She has written anonymously Godly Women of the Bible, and has contributed to the Truthseeker, Boston Investigator, and Ironclad Age, under her own signature and that of "Lilian." Giessenburg (Rudolf Charles d'Ablaing van), one of the most notable of Dutch Freethinkers, b. of noble family, 26 April, 1826. An unbeliever in youth, in '47 he went to Batavia, and upon his return set up as a bookseller under the name of R. C. Meijer. With Junghuhn and Günst, he started de Dageraad, and from '56-68 was one of the contributors, usually under his name "Rudolf Charles." He is a man of great erudition, has written Het verbond der vrije gedachte (The Alliance of Freethought); de Tydgenoot op het gebied der Rede (The Contemporary in the Field of Reason); De Regtbank des Onderzoeks (The Tribunal of Inquiry); Zedekunde en Christendom (Ethics and Christianity); Curiositeiten van allerlei aard (Curiosities of Various Kinds). He has also published the Religion and Philosophy of the Bible by W. J. Birch and Brooksbank's work on Revelation. He was the first who published a complete edition of the famous Testament du Curé Jean Meslier in three parts ('64), has published the works of Douwes Dekker and other writers, and also Curieuse Gebruiken. Gilbert (Claude), French advocate, b. Dijon, 7 June, 1652. He had printed at Dijon, in 1700, Histoire de Calejava, ou de l'isle des hommes raisonables, avec le paralelle de leur Morale et du Christianisme. The book has neither the name of author or printer. It was suppressed, and only one copy escaped destruction, which was bought in 1784 by the Duc de La Vallière for 120 livres. It was in form of a dialogue (329 pp.), and attacked both Judaism and Christianity. Gilbert married in 1700, and died at Dijon 18 Feb. 1720.