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Girard Encyclopedia Britannica

GIRARD, Philippe Henri de (1775-1845), a celebrated French mechanician, was born at Lourmarin, in the department of Vaucluse, 1st February 1775. In his early life he manifested a strong aptitude for mechanical invention, and he also at that time devoted his attention to botany, painting, and literature. When at the Revolution his family took refuge in Italy he supported himself there for some time by painting, but afterwards, at the age of eighteen, he established a soap manufactory at Leghorn. Returning to France after the fall of Robespierre, he began to conduct a. chemical work at Marseilles, but soon afterwards judged it prudent to go to Nice, where he obtained the professorship of chemistry and of natural history. Returning to Marseilles about 1800, he afterwards went to Paris, where, in company with his brother Frederick, he established a soap manufactory. In 1804 he and his brother took out a patent for what is known as the fountain lamp; and at the “Exposition” of 1806 he was awarded a gold medal for his one-cylindered direct acting steam engine. Napoleon having in 1810 decreed a reward of one million francs to whoever should invent a machine for the spinning of flax equally successful with those in use for the spinning of hemp, Girard, after a course of experiments, invented and patented a flax-spinning machine. Γn 1813 he established a flax mill at Paris and another at Charonne, in both of which he made use of his machine; but although he was. declared to have earned the reward offered for the invention the fall of Napoleon in 1815 left the decree unfulfilled. Girard, who expected that the expenses connected with his experiments would be met by the promised premium, now got into serious money difficulties, and had to leave France for Austria, where, ...

GIRARD, Stephen (1750-1831), American philanthropist, was born at Bordeaux on 21st May 1750. At the age of thirteen he commenced life as a sailor, and followed his avocation with such assiduity that he was enabled, before the French requisitions of age and service allowed, to become master and captain, in October 1773. His first mercantile venture was to St Domingo in February 1774, whence he proceeded in July to the then colony of New York. After trading for three years between New York, New Orleans, and Port au Prince, he went to Philadelphia in May 1777, and gave up the sea for a mercantile career. While he was engaged most successfully in the prosecution of an. extensive trade, the yellow fever in its most malignant type broke out in Philadelphia, sweeping away one-sixth of its population. When, during its height, a hospital was established, for which it seemed almost impossible to secure competent management, Girard devoted himself personally, fearless of all risks, to the care of the sick and the burial of the dead, not only in the hospital, of which he became manager, but throughout the city, supplying the poorer sufferers with money and provisions. Two hundred children, made orphans by the ravages of the fever, were in a great measure thrown upon his care. From this period his success commercially and financially was unexampled. He gave a portion of his time to the management of municipal affairs for several years, and rendered efficient service as warden of the port and as director of many public institutions. On the dissolution of the Bank of the United States, he instituted what is known now as the Girard Bank. During the war of 1812 “he rendered valuable services to the Government by placing at its disposal the resources of his bank at a time of difficulty and embarrassment, subscribing to a large loan which the Government had vainly sought to obtain.” Girard added to his other avocations that of a practical agriculturist. He died December 26, 1831.

Girard College was founded by him for the education and support of the poor white orphans of his adopted city. His fortune amounted to about seven and a half millions of dollars. After specific legacies of two millions for the erection and endowment of the college, $140,000 to his relatives, $300,000 to the State for internal improvements, $500,000 to the city of Philadelphia to improve its eastern front, $116,000 to public charities, and various annuities and legacies, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to the city of Philadelphia, mainly for the improvement and maintenance of the college. The most minute directions were given by Girard in regard to the buildings to be erected, and the admission and management of the inmates. He specifically requires that the orphans be instructed in the purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance into active life they may evince benevolence towards their fellow creatures, and a love for truth, sobriety, and industry. As for religious belief they are left to adopt such tenets as their matured reason may lead them to prefer; and to secure this he interdicts the employment, and even the admission into the grounds, of any ecclesiastic whatever.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 620
[508 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Girardin Encyclopedia Britannica

GIRARDIN, MadameÉmile de, a French authoress, was born at Aix-la-Chapelle, January 26, 1804, and died at Paris June 29, 1855. Her maiden name was Delphine Gay, and her mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up in the midst of that brilliant literary society of which she was afterwards a conspicuous ornament. In 1822 she obtained peculiarly honourable mention from the Academy for a poem on the Devotion of the Sisters of Sainte Camille at the Siege of Barcelona ; and not long after she published two volumes of miscellaneous pieces, Essais jyoetiques (1824) and Nouveaux essais poétiques (1825). A visit to Italy in 1827, during which she was enthusiastically welcomed by the literati of Rome and even crowned in the capitol, was productive of various poems, of which the most ambitious was Napoline (1833). Her marriage in 1831 to M. Émile Girardin opened up a new literary career. The contemporary sketches which she contributed from 1836 to 1839 to the feuilleton of La Presse, under the nom de plume of Charles Delaunay, were collected under the title of Lettres Parisiennes (1843), and obtained a success which has proved as permanent as it was brilliant. But it was to more elaborate efforts that the authoress would have preferred to entrust her reputation, and she indeed confesses, in a half serious half mocking mood, that it was almost a disappointment to find herself famous for so slight a thing. To the close of her life she continued to appear both as a novelist and as a writer for the stage, and in both departments she reaped a wide popularity through the wit and emotional force of her productions. Contes Tune vieille fille a ses neveux (1832), La canne de Monsieur de Balzac (1836), and II ne faut pas jouer avec la douleur (1853) are among the best known of ...

See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du hindi, t. iii.; G. de Molènes, “Les femmes poètes,” in Revue des Deux Mondes, July 1842; Taxile Delord, Les Matinées littéraires, 1860; L'esprit de Madame Girardin, avec une préface par Μ. Lamartine, 1862; G. d’Heilly, Madame de Girardin, sa vie et scs oeuvres, 1868.

GIRARDIN, Saint-Marc (1801-1873), a politician and man of letters whose real name was Marc Girardin simply, was born at Paris in 1801, and died at Morsang-sur-Seine on the 11th of April 1873. His school career at the Lycée Henri IV. was a distinguished one, and he afterwards took university honours both in literature and law, but he never practised at the bar. During the reign of Charles X. he obtained several Academy prizes, and a mastership at the Lycée Louis le Grand, though his liberal principles stood a little in his way. In 1828 he began to contribute to the Journal des Débats, on the staff of which he remained for nearly half a century. At the accession of Louis Philippe he was appointed professor of history at the Sorbonne and master of requests. Soon afterwards he exchanged his chair of history for one of literature, continuing to contribute political articles to the Débats, and sitting as deputy in the chamber from 1835 to 1848. As a professor he directed his efforts chiefly against the clerical reaction. In 1844 he was elected a member of the Academy. During the revolution of February 1848 Girardin was for a moment a minister, but after the establishment of the republic he was not re-elected deputy, nor did he take any prominent part in politics during the second empire save with his pen. In the capacity of journalist he continued to be active, and interested himself not merely in moderate opposition to the Government at home but also in foreign politics, especially in the affairs of Syria, Greece, and Turkey. After the war of 1870 he was returned to the Bordeaux assembly by his old department—the Haute Vienne. His Orleanist tendencies and his objections to the republic were strong, and though he at first supported Thiers, he afterwards became a leader öf the opposition to the president He died, however, before Thiers wa's actually driven from power. Saint-Marc Girardin was one of the most distinguished of the many writers whose political and literary activities combined have raised them to distinction in France during this century, but to whom there cannot be assigned the highest rank either as politicians or as littérateurs. His political claims were not above those of a vigorous and intelligent journalist. His professorial lectures were popular and well attended; his literary knowledge was wide, and included German and Italian; his criticisms, on which his claims as a man of letters rest, were acute and well expressed, but not remarkable for great subtlety or novelty of thought or style.

His chief work is his Cours de littérature dramatique (1843- 1863), a series of lectures the delivery and publication of which lasted for over twenty years. This λvork has for second title De Γ Usage des Passions dans le Drame, which describes it more accurately. The author goes through the list of the various passions, and. of the chief situations which call them out, discussing at the same time the mode in which they are treated in the most celebrated dι - amas of ancient and modern times. The source of these illustrations is not indeed limited to drama, and the lecturer takes a wide range over the fields of poetry and romance. The result was doubtless as a course of lectures interesting and stimulating; as a book it is somewhat desultory. Among his other works may be noticed Essais de Littérature (1844, 2 vols.), made up chiefly of contributions to the Débats, his Notices sur T Allemagne (1834), and many volumes of collected Soxιυenirs, Reflexions, &c., on foreign countries and passing events. His latest works of literary importance were La Fontaine et les Fabulistes (1867) and an Étude sur J. J. Rousseaι<, (1870) which had appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 621
[495 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Girardon Encyclopedia Britannica

GIRARDON, François (1628-1715), a sculptor whose works are typically characteristic of the epoch of Louis XIV., was born at Troyes in 1628, and died in the Louvre in 1715. As a boy he had for master a joiner and wood-carver of his native town, Baudesson by name (Arch. de l ’ Art Français, V. 4), under whom he is said to have worked at the château of Liébault, where he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier. By the cliancellor’s influence Girardon wa3 first removed to Paris and placed in the studio of François Anguier, and afterwards sent to Rome. In 1650 he returned to France, and seems at once to have addressed himself with something like ignoble subserviency to the task of conciliating Le Brun, who owed his start in life to the same patron. Girardon is reported to have declared himself incapable of composing a group, whether with truth or from motives of policy it is impossible to say. This much is certain, that a very large proportion of his work was carried out from designs by Le Brun, and shows the merits and defects of Le Brun’s manner—a great command of ceremonial pomp in presenting his subject, coupled with a large treatment of forms which if it were more expressive might be imposing. The court which Girardon paid to the “premier peintre du roi” was rewarded. An immense quantity of work at Versailles was entrusted to him, and in recognition of the successful execution of four figures for the Bains d’Apollon, Le Brun induced the king to present his*protegé personally with a purse of 300 louis, as a distinguishing mark of royal favour. In 1650 Girardon was made member of the Academy, in 1659 professor, in 1674 “adjoint au recteur,” and finally in 1695 chancellor. Five years before (1690), on the death of Le Brun, he had also been ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 622
[538 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]