GAUSS, CHARLES FREDERICK, born at Brunswick, April 30, 1777. His father, being a bricklayer, had intended that he should follow the same occupation. So, in 1784, Charles was sent to the Bütner Public School in Brunswick, in order that he might be taught the ordinary elements of education. But during his attendance at this school, his unusual intelligence and aptitude attracted the attention and friendship of Professor BARTELS who later became the Professor of Mathematics at Dorpat. In 1792, through the kindly representations of Professor BARTELS to the Duke of Brunswick, young Gauss was sent to the Collegium Carolinum. This greatly displeased his father as he saw in this move the frustration of his plans for Charles. In 1794, however, GAUSS entered the University of Göttingen still undecided whether he should make mathematics or philology his life work. While residing at Göttingen, he made his celebrated discoveries in analysis and these turned his attention definitely to the field of mathematics. He completed his studies at Göttingen and returned to Brunswick in 1798, residing at Helmstadt where he had access to the Library in the preparation of his _Disquisitiones Arithmeticae_ which was published in 1801. He received his doctorate degree (Ph.D.) on July 16, 1799. His next notable work was the invention of a method by which he calculated the elements of the orbit of the planet _Ceres_ which had been discovered by PIAZZI, January 1, 1800, and who had left no record of his calculations by which other astronomers could locate the planet. GAUSS also calculated an ephemeris of _Ceres'_ motion by means of which DE ZACH rediscovered the planet December 31, 1800. His _Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium in Conicis Sectionibus Solem Ambientium_, in which the author gives a "complete system of formulæ and processes for computing the movements of a heavenly body revolving in a conic section" is an outgrowth of his early researches and brought him lasting fame. Through the influence of his friend OLBERS, he was appointed, July 9, 1807, first director of the new Göttingen Observatory, and Professor of Astronomy in the University, a position which he held until the end of his life. He died February 23, 1855. (Vide _Astronomical Society Notices_, Vol. 16, p. 80, 1856; also _Nature_, Vol. XV, pp. 533-537, 1877.) GEOMETRISM--Of geometrical quality; a notion derived from PLATO'S declaration: "God geometrizes." It was his belief that the creative acts of the deity are executed in accordance with geometric design and laws; that in the totality of such acts there necessarily inheres a latent geometric quality. KANT closely adhered to this notion in his discussions of space as an aspect of divine intelligence. He believed that the intellect merely rediscovers this latent geometrism when it turns to the study of materiality, and this belief is shared by BERGSON, the foremost metaphysician of the present time.