A still greater degree of thinness may be obtained, but not profitably. After the last beating, the leaves are taken up with wood pincers, placed on a cushion, blown out flat, and their ragged edges cut away, by which they are reduced to squares of 3 inches: 25 of these are placed between the leaves of a paper-book, previously rubbed with red chalk, to prevent adhesion of the gold, and are sold in this form. Attempts have been made to apply machinery to gold-beating, but though very ingenious, their application is very limited; most of the gold-leaf is still beaten by hand.

GOLDBERG, gōlt'běrch: manufacturing town, of great antiquity, in Prussia, province of Silesia, on an eminence on the banks of the Katzbach, 10 m. s.w. of Leignitz. It owes its origin and name to the gold-mines, which were worked here from the earliest times. At the commencement of the 12th c., they are said to have yielded 150 lbs. of pure gold weekly. After the great victory won by the Mongol hordes near Liegnitz 1241, in which 600 of the miners of G. perished, the town was taken by the conquerors. It also suffered greatly during the thirty years' war, and in 1813 was the scene of two engagements, the first between the French and Russians, and the second between the French and Prussians. 1863-74 G. suffered repeatedly from destructive fires. The town is celebrated for manufactures of broadcloth, hosiery, and gloves, and for its fruit. Pop. (1880) 6,460.

GOLD'EN AGE: fabled age of primitive simplicity and happiness. In the mythologies of most peoples and religions, there exists a tradition of a better time, when the earth was the common property of man, and produced spontaneously all things necessary for an enjoyable existence. The land flowed with milk and honey, beasts of prey lived peaceably with other animals, and man had not yet by selfishness, pride, and other vices and passions, fallen from a state of innocence. At the foundation of this legend lies the deep-rooted opinion, that the world has degenerated with the progress of civilization, and that mankind, while leading a simple, patriarchal life, were happier than at present. The Greeks and Romans placed this golden age under the rule of Saturn; and many of their poets—e.g., Hesiod, in his Works and Days, Aratus, Ovid, and, above all, Virgil, in the first books of the Georgicshave turned this poetic matériel to admirable account, and defined the gradual decadence of the world, as the silver, the brass, and the iron ages, holding out at the same time the consolatory hope that the pristine age of gold will one day return.

GOLD'EN BEETLE: popular name for many of a genus of coleopterous insects, Chrysomela, and of a tribe or family, Chrysomelina or Chrysomelida, belonging to the tetramerous section of the order. The body is generally short and convex, the antennæ are simple and wide apart at the base; some of the species are destitute of wings. Many are distinguished by great splendor of color. None

are large. The finest species are tropical, but some are found in temperate regions. Some of them, in the larva state, commit ravages in the field and garden.

GOLD'EN BULL [Lat. Bulla Aurea, Ger. Goldene Bulle; named from the gold case in which the seal attached to it was inclosed]: imperial edict in German history issued by Emperor Charles IV., mainly for the purpose of settling the law of imperial elections. Till that time much uncertainty had prevailed as to the rights of the electoral body, claims having frequently been made by several members of the lay electoral families, and divisions having repeatedly arisen from this uncertainty; the effect of such divisions being to throw the decision for the most part into the hands of the pope. To obviate these inconveniences, the G. B. defines that one member only of each electoral house shall have a vote-viz., the representative of that house in right of primogeniture, and in case of his being a minor, the eldest of his uncles paternal. On the great question as to the dependence of the imperial office on the pope, and as to the right of the pope to examine and approve the imperial election, the G. B. is silent, though it declares the emperor competent to exercise jurisdiction in Germany from the moment of election. It invests the vicariate together with the government of the empire during the interregnum, in the Elector Palatine, and the Elector of Saxony; but it is remarkable that this applies to Germany only. On the vicariate of Italy, which was claimed by the popes, nothing is said. The G. B. contains also some provisions restraining the so-called Faustrecht (literally, 'fist-law'), or right of private redress. It was solemnly enacted in two successive diets at Nürnberg and Metz, 1356, and original copies were furnished to each of the electors, and to the city of Frankfurt. The electoral constitution, as settled by this bull, was maintained almost unaltered till the extinction of the empire.

In Hungarian history, the G. B. is a constitutional edict, issued by Andrew II. in the early part of the 13th c. It changed the government of Hungary from an absolutism to an aristocratic monarchy, and it contained till recent times the charter of the liberties of Hungary, or perhaps of the noble class. See Schmidt's Geschichte der Deutschen, III. 638.

GOLD'EN-CRESTED WREN (Regulus aurocapillus): very beautiful bird of the family Sylviada, smallest of British birds: some species are found in N. America and Asia. Its entire length is scarcely three inches and a half. Notwithstanding its name, it is not really a wren, but this name continues in popular use rather than Regulus and Kinglet, which have been proposed instead. The goldencrested wren is greenish-yellow on the upper parts, cheeks and throat grayish-white; crown feathers elongated, and forming a bright yellow crest. In its habits, it is intermediate between the warblers and the tits. It particularly affects fir-woods. In 1822, Oct., thousands were driven on the British coast of Northumberland and Durham by a

severe n.e. gale. The nest of this bird is suspended from the outermost twigs of a branch of fir, some of them being interwoven with it.

GOLD'EN-EYE: species of Duck: see GARROT.

GOLD'EN-EYE FLY (Hemerobius perla, or Chrysopa perla): neuropterous insect; pale green, with long threadlike antennæ, long gauze-like wings, and brilliant golden eyes. Its flight is feeble. The length, from the tip of the antennæ to the tip of the wings, is almost an inch and a half, but the insect without wings and antennæ is not above one-third of this length. The female attaches her eggs, in groups of 12 or 16, by long hair-like stalks, to

(Copied from Morton's Encyclopædia of Agriculture): a, cocoon; b, the same magnified; c, larvæ; d, the same magnified, and freed from adhering substances; e, perfect insect, on a branch to which its eggs are attached.

leaves or twigs: the eggs have been mistaken for fungi. The larvæ are ferocious-looking little creatures, rough with long hairs, to which particles of lichen or bark become attached; they are called aphis-lions, and are very useful by the destruction of aphides, on which they feed. The pupa is inclosed in a white silken cocoon, from which the fly is liberated by a lid.

GOLD'EN FLEECE: in Greek tradition, fleece of the ram Chrysomallus, the recovery of which was the object of the Argonautic expedition: see ARGONAUTS. The G. F. has given its name to a celebrated order of knighthood in Austria and Spain, founded by Philip III.. Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands, at Bruges, 1429, Jan. 10, on the occasion of his marriage with Isabella, daughter of King John I of Portugal. This order was instituted for the protection of the church, and the fleece was probably assumed for its emblem, as much from being the material of the staple manufacture of the Low Countries, as from its connection with heroic times. The founder made himself grand-master of the order, a dignity appointed to descend to his successors; and the number of knights, as first limited to 24, was subsequently increased. After the death of Charles V., the Burgundo-Spanish line of the