EDINA, poetic name for Edinburgh.
EDINBURGH (263), the capital of Scotland, on the Firth of Forth,
picturesquely situated amid surrounding hills; derives its name from
Edwin, king of Northumbria in the 7th century; was created a burgh in
1329 by Robert the Bruce, and recognised as the capital in the 15th
century, under the Stuarts; it has absorbed in its growth adjoining
municipalities; is noted as an educational centre; is the seat of the
Supreme Courts; has a university, castle, and royal palace, and the old
Scotch Parliament House, now utilised by the Law Courts; brewing and
printing are the chief industries, but the upper classes of the citizens
are for the most part either professional people or living in retirement.
EDINBURGH REVIEW, a celebrated quarterly review started in October
1802 in Edinburgh to further the Whig interest; amongst its founders and
contributors were Horner, Brougham, Jeffrey, and Sidney Smith, the latter
being editor of the first three numbers; Jeffrey assumed the editorship
in 1803, and in his hands it became famous for its incisive literary
critiques, Carlyle and Macaulay contributing some of their finest essays
to it.
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, founded in 1583; was the last of the Scotch
Universities to receive its charter; was raised to an equal status with
the others in 1621; its site was the famous Kirk o'Field, the scene of
the Darnley tragedy; now consists of two separate buildings, one entirely
devoted to medicine, and the other to arts and training in other
departments; has an average matriculation roll of about 3000.
EDISON, THOMAS ALVA, a celebrated American inventor, born at Milan,
Ohio; started life as a newsboy; early displayed his genius and
enterprise by producing the first newspaper printed in a railway train;
turning his attention to telegraphy, he revolutionised the whole system
by a series of inventions, to which he has since added others, to the
number of 500, the most notable being the megaphone, phonograph,
kinetoscope, a carbon telegraph transmitter, and improvements in electric
lighting; _b_. 1847.
EDITH, the alleged name of Lot's wife.
EDITHE, ST., an English princess, the natural daughter of Edgar,
king of England (961-984). Festival, Sept. 16.
EDMUND, ST., king or "landlord" of East Anglia from 855 to 870;
refused to renounce Christianity and accept heathenism at the hands of a
set of "mere physical force" invading Danes, and suffered martyrdom
rather; was made a saint of and had a monastery called "Bury St.
Edmunds," in Norfolk, raised to his memory over his grave.
EDMUND, ST., Edmund Rich, archbishop of Canterbury, born at
Abingdon; while still at school made a vow of celibacy and wedded the
Virgin Mary; sided as archbishop with the popular party against the
tyranny of both Pope and king; coming into disfavour with the papal court
retired to France, where, on his arrival, the mother of St. Louis with
her sons met him to receive his blessing, and where he spent his last
days in a monastery; died in 1240, and was canonised six years after by
Innocent IV., somewhat reluctantly it is said.
EDMUND IRONSIDE, succeeded to the throne of England on the death of
his father Ethelred the Unready in 1016, but reigned only seven months;
he struggled bravely, and at first successfully, against Canute the Dane,
but being defeated, the kingdom ultimately was divided between them
(981-1016).
EDOM, or IDUMÆA, a mountainous but not unfertile country,
comprising the S. of Judæa and part of the N. of Arabia Petræa, 100 m.
long by 20 m. broad, peopled originally by the descendants of Esau, who
were ruled by "dukes," and were bitterly hostile to the Jews.
EDRED, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Edward the Elder; subdued
Northumbria; had in the end of his reign St. Dunstan for chief adviser;
_d_. 955.
EDRISI, an Arabian geographer, born at Ceuta, in Spain; by request
of Roger II. of Sicily wrote an elaborate description of the earth, which
held a foremost place amongst mediæval geographers (1099-1180).
EDUCATION, as conceived of by Ruskin, and alone worthy of the name,
"the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of
them"; and attained, "not by telling a man what he knew not, but by
making him what he was not."
EDUI, an ancient Gallic tribe, whose capital was Bibracte (Autun).
EDWARD, THOMAS, naturalist, born at Gosport; bred a shoemaker;
settled in Banff, where he devoted his leisure to the study of animal
nature, and collected numerous specimens of animals, which he stuffed and
exhibited, but with pecuniary loss; the Queen's attention being called to
his case, settled on him an annual pension of £50, while the citizens of
Aberdeen presented him in March 1877 with a gift of 130 sovereigns, on
which occasion he made a characteristic speech (1814-1886).
EDWARD I., surnamed Longshanks, king of England, born at
Westminster, son of Henry III., married ELEANOR (q. v.) of
Castile; came first into prominence in the Barons' War; defeated the
nobles at Evesham, and liberated his father; joined the last Crusade in
1270, and distinguished himself at Acre; returned to England in 1274 to
assume the crown, having been two years previously proclaimed king;
during his reign the ascendency of the Church and the nobles received a
check, the growing aspiration of the people for a larger share in the
affairs of the nation was met by an extended franchise, while the right
of Parliament to regulate taxation was recognised; under his reign Wales
was finally subdued and annexed to England, and a temporary conquest of
Scotland was achieved (1239-1307).
EDWARD II., king of England (1307-1327), son of the preceding; was
first Prince of Wales, being born at Carnarvon; being a weakling was
governed by favourites, Gaveston and the Spencers, whose influence, as
foreigners and unpatriotic, offended the barons, who rose against him; in
1314 Scotland rose in arms under Bruce, and an ill-fated expedition under
him ended in the crushing defeat at Bannockburn; in 1327 he was deposed,
and was brutally murdered in Berkeley Castle (1284-1327).
EDWARD III., king of England (1327-1377), son of the preceding,
married Philippa of Hainault; during his boyhood the government was
carried on by a council of regency; in 1328 the independence of Scotland
was recognised, and nine years later began the Hundred Years' War with
France, memorable in this reign for the heroic achievements of EDWARD
THE BLACK PRINCE (q. v.), the king's eldest son; associated with
this reign are the glorious victories of Crécy and Poitiers, and the
great naval battle at Sluys, one of the earliest victories of English
arms at sea; these successes were not maintained in the later stages of
the war, and the treaty of Bretigny involved the withdrawal of Edward's
claim to the French crown; in 1376 the Black Prince died.
EDWARD IV., king of England (1461-1483), son of Richard, Duke of
York, and successor to the Lancastrian Henry VI., whom he defeated at
Towton; throughout his reign the country was torn by the Wars of the
Roses, in which victory rested with the Yorkists at Hedgeley Moor,
Hexham, Barnet, and Tewkesbury; in this reign little social progress was
made, but a great step towards it was made by the introduction of
printing by Caxton (1442-1483)
EDWARD V., king of England for three months in 1483, son of the
preceding; deposed by his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester; was
ultimately murdered in the Tower, along with his young brother
(1470-1483).
EDWARD VI., king of England (1547-1553), son of Henry VIII. and Jane
Seymour; his reign, which was a brief one, was marked by a victory over
the Scots at Pinkie (1547), Catholic and agrarian risings, and certain
ecclesiastical reforms (1537-1553).
EDWARD VII., king of Great Britain and Ireland and "all the British
Dominions beyond the Seas," born 9th November 1841, succeeded his mother,
Queen Victoria, 22nd Jan. 1901. On 10th March 1863 he married Princess
Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX. of Denmark, and has four
surviving children: George, Prince of Wales, _b_. 1865; Louise, Duchess
of Fife, _b_. 1867; Victoria, _b_. 1868; and Maud, _b_. 1869, who married
Prince Charles of Denmark. The king's eldest son, Albert Victor, _b_.
1864, died January 14, 1892.
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, king of England, married Edith, daughter of
the great EARL GODWIN (q. v.); was a feeble monarch of ascetic
proclivities; his appeal to the Duke of Normandy precipitated the Norman
invasion, and in him perished the royal Saxon line; was canonised for his
piety (1004-1066).
EDWARD THE ELDER, king of the Anglo-Saxons from 901 to 925; was the
son and successor of Alfred the Great; extended the Anglo-Saxon
dominions.
EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN, soldier and administrator in India,
born at Frodesley, Shropshire; was actively engaged in the first Sikh War
and in the Mutiny; served under Sir Henry Lawrence, whose Life he partly
wrote (1819-1868).
EDWARDS, BRYAN, historian, born at Westbury; traded in Jamaica;
wrote a "History of British Colonies in the West Indies" (1743-1800).
EDWARDS, JONATHAN, a celebrated divine, born at E. Windsor,
Connecticut; graduated at Yale; minister at Northampton, Mass.;
missionary to Housatonnuck Indians; was elected to the Presidency of
Princeton College; wrote an acute and original work, "The Freedom of the
Will," a masterpiece of cogent reasoning; has been called the "Spinoza of
Calvinism" (1703-1758).
EDWIN, king of Northumbria in the 6th century; through the influence
of his wife Ethelburga Christianity was introduced into England by St.
Augustine; founded Edinburgh; was defeated and slain by the Mercian King
Penda in 634.
EDWY, king of the Anglo-Saxons from 955 to 957; offended the
clerical party headed by Dunstan and Odo, who put his wife Elgiva to
death, after which he soon died himself at the early age of 19.
EECKHOUT, a Dutch portrait and historical painter, born at Antwerp;
the most eminent disciple of Rembrandt, whose style he successfully
imitated (1621-1674).
EFFEN, VAN, a Dutch author, who wrote chiefly in French; imitated
the _Spectator_ of Addison, and translated into French Swift's "Tale of a
Tub" and Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1684-1735).
EFFENDI, a title of honour among the Turks, applied to State and
civil officials, frequently associated with the name of the office, as
well as to men of learning or high position.
EGALITÉ, PHILIPPE, Duke of Orleans, born April 13th, 1787, father of
Louis Philippe; so called because he sided with the Republican party in
the French Revolution, and whose motto was "Liberté, Fraternité, et
Egalité." See ORLEANS, DUKE OF.
EGATES, three islands on the W. coast of Sicily.
EGBERT, king of Wessex, a descendant of Cedric the founder; after an
exile of 13 years at the court of Charlemagne ascended the throne in 800;
reigned till 809, governing his people in tranquillity, when, by
successful wars with the other Saxon tribes, he in two years became
virtual king of all England, and received the revived title of Bretwalda;
_d_. 837.
EGEDE, HANS, a Norwegian priest, founder of the Danish mission in
Greenland, whither he embarked with his family and a small colony of
traders in 1721; leaving his son to carry on the mission, and returning
to Denmark, he became head of a training school for young missionaries to
Greenland (1686-1758).
EGEDE, PAUL, son of Hans; assisted his father in the Greenland
mission, and published a history of the mission; translated part of the
Bible into the language of the country, and composed a grammar and a
dictionary of it; _d_. 1789.
EGER (17), a town in Bohemia, on the river Eger, 91 m. W. of Prague,
a centre of railway traffic; Wallenstein was murdered here in 1634; the
river flows into the Elbe after a NE. course of 190 m.
EGERIA, a nymph who inhabited a grotto in a grove in Latium,
dedicated to the Camenæ, some 16 m. from Rome, and whom, according to
tradition, Numa was in the habit of consulting when engaged in framing
forms of religious worship for the Roman community; she figures as his
spiritual adviser, and has become the symbol of one of her sex, conceived
of as discharging the same function in other the like cases.
EGERTON, FRANCIS. See BRIDGEWATER, EARL OF.
EGGER, ÉMILE, a French Hellenist and philologist (1813-1885).
EGHAM (10), a small town in Surrey, on the Thames, 20 m. W. of
London; has in its vicinity Runnymede, where King John signed _Magna
Charta_ in 1215.
EGINHARD, or EINHARD, a Frankish historian, born in Mainyan, in
East Franconia; a collection of his letters and his Annals of the Franks,
as well as his famous "Life of Charlemagne," are extant; was a favourite
of the latter, who appointed him superintendent of public buildings, and
took him with him on all his expeditions; after the death of Charlemagne
he continued at the Court as tutor to the Emperor Louis's son; died in
retirement (770-840).
EGLANTINE, MADAME, the prioress in the "Canterbury Tales" of
Chaucer.
EGLINTON AND WINTON, EARL OF, Archibald William Montgomerie, born at
Palermo; became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Rector of Glasgow University;
was a noted sportsman and patron of the turf; is chiefly remembered in
connection with a brilliant tournament given by him at Eglinton Castle in
1839, in which all the splendour and detail of a mediæval tourney were
spectacularly reproduced (1812-1861).
EGMONT, LAMORAL, COUNT OF, born in Hainault; became attached to the
Court of Charles V., by whom, for distinguished military and diplomatic
services, he was appointed governor of Flanders; fell into disfavour for
espousing the cause of the Protestants of the Netherlands, and was
beheaded in Brussels by the Duke of Alva; his career and fate form the
theme of Goethe's tragedy "Egmont," a play nothing as a drama, but
charming as a picture of the two chief characters in the piece, Egmont
and Clärchen.
EGMONT, MOUNT, the loftiest peak in the North Island, New Zealand,
is 8270 ft. in height, and of volcanic origin.
EGO and NON-EGO (i. e. I and Not-I, or Self and Not-Self),
are terms used in philosophy to denote respectively the subjective and
the objective in cognition, what is from self and what is from the
external to self, what is merely individual and what is universal.
EGOISM, the philosophy of those who, uncertain of everything but the
existence of the Ego or I, resolve all existence as known into forms or
modifications of its self-consciousness.
EGOIST, a novel by George Meredith, much admired by R. L. Stevenson,
who read and re-read it at least five times over.
EGYPT (8,000), a country occupying the NE. corner of Africa, lies
along the W. shore of the Red Sea, has a northern coast-line on the
Mediterranean, and stretches S. as far as Wady Halfa; the area is nearly
400,000 sq. m.; its chief natural features are uninhabitable desert on
the E. and W., and the populous and fertile valley of the Nile. Cereals,
sugar, cotton, and tobacco are important products. Mohammedan Arabs
constitute the bulk of the people, but there is also a remnant of the
ancient Coptic race. The country is nominally a dependency of Turkey
under a native government, but is in reality controlled by the British,
who exercise a veto on its financial policy, and who, since 1882, have
occupied the country with soldiers. The noble monuments and relics of her
ancient civilisation, chief amongst which are the Pyramids, as well as
the philosophies and religions she inherited, together with the arts she
practised, and her close connection with Jewish history, give her a
peculiar claim on the interested regard of mankind. Nothing, perhaps, has
excited more wonder in connection with Egypt than the advanced state of
her civilisation when she first comes to play a part in the history of
the world. There is evidence that 4000 years before the Christian era the
arts of building, pottery, sculpture, literature, even music and
painting, were highly developed, her social institutions well organised,
and that considerable advance had been made in astronomy, chemistry,
medicine, and anatomy. Already the Egyptians had divided the year into
365 days and 12 months, and had invented an elaborate system of weights
and measures, based on the decimal notation.
EGYPTIAN NIGHT, such as in Egypt when, by judgment of God, a thick
darkness of three days settled down on the land. See Exodus x. 22.
EGYPTIANS, THE, of antiquity were partly of Asiatic and partly of
African origin, with a probable infusion of Semitic blood, and formed
both positively and negatively a no inconsiderable link in the chain of
world-history, positively by their sense of the divinity of nature-life
as seen in their nature-worship, and negatively by the absence of all
sense of the divinity of a higher life as it has come to light in the
self-consciousness or moral sense and destiny of man.
EGYPTOLOGY, the science, in the interest of ancient history, of
Egyptian antiquities, such as the monuments and their inscriptions, and
one in which of late years great interest has been taken, and much
progress made.
EGYPTUS, the brother of Danaüs, whose 50 sons, all but one, were
murdered by the daughters of the latter. See DANAÜS.
EHKILI, a dialect of S. Arabia, interesting to philologists as one
of the oldest of Semitic tongues.
EHRENBERG, a German naturalist, born in Delitsch; intended for the
Church; devoted himself to medical studies, and graduated in medicine in
1818; acquired great skill in the use of the microscope, and by means of
it made important discoveries, particularly in the department of infusory
animals; contributed largely to the literature of science (1795-1878).
EHRENBREITSTEIN (5) (i. e. broad stone of honour), a strongly
fortified town in Prussia, on the Rhine, opposite Coblentz, with which it
has communication by a bridge of boats and a railway viaduct; the
fortress occupies the summit of the rock, which is precipitous; is about
500 ft. high, and has large garrison accommodation.
EICHHORN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, a German theologian and Orientalist,
born at Dorrenzimmern, Franconia; a man of extensive scholarship; held
the chair of Oriental languages in Jena, and afterwards at Göttingen; was
the first to apply a bold rationalism to the critical treatment of the
Scriptures; he was of the old school of rationalists, now superseded by
the historico-critical; his chief works are a Universal Library of
Biblical Literature, in 10 vols., Introductions to the Old and to the New
Testament, each in 5 vols., and an Introduction to the Apocrypha
(1752-1827).
EICHTHAL, GUSTAVE D', a French publicist, born at Nancy; an adherent
of St. Simonianism; wrote "Les Evangiles"; Mrs. Carlyle describes him as
"a gentle soul, trustful, and earnest-looking, ready to do and suffer all
for his faith" (1804-1886).
EICHWALD, CHARLES EDWARD, an eminent Russian naturalist, born in
Mitau, Russia; studied science at Berlin and Vienna; held the chairs of
Zoology and Midwifery at Kasan and Wilna, and of Palæontology at St.
Petersburg; his explorations, which led him through most of Europe,
Persia, and Algeria, and included a survey of the Baltic shores, as well
as expeditions into the Caucasus, are described in his various works, and
their valuable results noted (1795-1876).
EIFFEL, GUSTAVE, an eminent French engineer, born at Dijon; early
obtained a reputation for bridge construction; designed the great Garabit
Viaduct, and also the enormous locks for the Panama Canal; his most noted
work is the gigantic iron tower which bears his name; in 1893 became
involved in the Panama scandals, and was fined, and sentenced to two
years' imprisonment; _b_. 1832.
EIFFEL TOWER, a structure erected on the banks of the Seine in
Paris, the loftiest in the world, being 985 ft. in height, and visible
from all parts of the city; it consists of three platforms, of which the
first is as high as the towers of Notre Dame; the second as high as
Strasburg Cathedral spire, and the third 863 ft; it was designed by
Gustave Eiffel, and erected in 1887-1889; there are cafés and restaurants
on the first landing, and the ascent is by powerful lifts.
EIGG or EGG, a rocky islet among the Hebrides, 5 m. SW. of
Skye; St. Donnan and 50 monks from Iona were massacred here in 617 by the
queen, notwithstanding a remonstrance on the part of the islanders that
it would be an irreligious act; here also the Macleods of the 10th
century suffocated in a cave 200 of the Macdonalds, including women and
children.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, "a sceptical century and a godless," according
to Carlyle's deliberate estimate, "opulent in accumulated falsities, as
never century before was; which had no longer the consciousness of being
false, so false has it grown; so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with
it to the very bone, that, in fact, the measure of the thing was full,
and a French Revolution had to end it"; which it did only symbolically,
however, as he afterwards admitted, and but admonitorily of a doomsday
still to come. See "FREDERICK THE GREAT," BK. I. CHAP, II., and
"HEROES."
EIKON BASILIKË (i. e. the Royal Likeness), a book containing an
account of Charles I. during his imprisonment, and ascribed to him as
author, but really written by Bishop Gauden, though the MS. may have been
perused and corrected by the king; it gives a true picture of his
character and possible state of mind.
EILDONS, THE, a "triple-crested eminence" near Melrose, 1385 ft.,
and overlooking Teviotdale to the S., associated with Sir Walter Scott
and Thomas the Rhymer; they are of volcanic origin, and are said to have
been cleft in three by the wizard Michael Scott, when he was out of
employment.
EIMEO, one of the French Society Islands; is hilly and woody, but
well cultivated in the valleys; missionary enterprise in Polynesia first
found a footing here.
EINSIEDELN (8), a town in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland; has a
Benedictine abbey, containing a famous black image of the Virgin,
credited with miraculous powers, which attracts, it is said, 200,000
pilgrims annually.
EISENACH (21), a flourishing manufacturing town in Saxe-Weimar,
close to the Thuringian Forest and 48 m. W. of Weimar; is the birthplace
of Sebastian Bach; in the vicinity stands the castle of Wartburg, the
hiding-place for 10 months of Luther after the Diet of Worms.
EISLEBEN (23), a mining town in Prussian Saxony, 24 m. NW. of Halle;
the birthplace and burial-place of Luther.
EISTEDDFOD, a gathering of Welsh bards and others, now annual, at
which, out of a patriotic motive, prizes are awarded for the
encouragement of Welsh literature and music and the preservation of the
Welsh language and ancient national customs.
EKATERINBURG (37), a Russian town on the Isset, on the E. side of
the Ural Mountains, of the mining industry in which it is the chief
centre; has various manufactures, and a trade in the cutting and sorting
of precious stones.
EKRON, a town in N. Palestine, 30 m. N. from Gaza and 9 m. from the
sea.
ELAINE, a lady of the court of King Arthur in love with Lancelot,
and whose story is related by Malory in his "History" and by Tennyson in
his "Idylls of the King."
ELATERIUM, a drug obtained from the mucus of the fruit of the
squirting cucumber; is a most powerful purgative, and was known to the
ancients.
ELBA, a small and rocky island in the Mediterranean between Corsica
and Tuscany, with a bold precipitous coast; belongs to Italy; has trade
in fish, fruits, and iron ore; famous as Napoleon's place of exile from
May 1814 to February 1815.
ELBE, the most important river in N. Germany; rises in the
Riesengebirge, in Austria, flows NW. through Germany, and enters the
North Sea at Cuxhaven, 725 m. long, navigable 520 m.; abounds in fish.
ELBERFELD (126), an important manufacturing commercial centre, 16 m.
NE. of Düsseldorf; noted for its textiles and dye-works.
ELBOEUF (21), a town on the Seine, 75 m. NW. of Paris; has
flourishing manufactures in cloths, woollens, &c.
ELBURZ, a lofty mountain range in N. Persia, S. of the Caspian; also
the name of the highest peak in the Caucasus (18,571 ft.).
ELDER, a name given to certain office-bearers in the Presbyterian
Church, associated with the minister in certain spiritual functions short
of teaching and administering sacraments; their duties embrace the
general oversight of the congregation, and are of a wider nature than
those of the deacons, whose functions are confined strictly to the
secular interests of the church; they are generally elected by the church
members, and ordained in the presence of the congregation; their term of
office is in some cases for a stated number of years, but more generally
for life.
ELDON, JOHN SCOTT, LORD, a celebrated English lawyer, born at
Newcastle, of humble parentage; educated at Oxford for the Church, but
got into difficulties through a runaway marriage; he betook himself to
law, rose rapidly in his profession, and, entering Parliament, held
important legal offices under Pitt; was made a Baron and Lord Chancellor,
1801, an office which he held for 26 years; retired from public life in
1835, and left a large fortune at his death; was noted for the shrewd
equity of his judgments and his delay in delivering them (1751-1838).
EL DORADO (lit. the Land of Gold), a country which Orellana, the
lieutenant of Pizzaro, pretended to have discovered in S. America,
between the Amazon and Orinoco, and which he represented as abounding in
gold and precious gems; now a region of purely imaginary wealth.
ELEANOR, queen of Edward I. of England and sister of ALFONSO
X. (q. v.) of Castile, surnamed the Wise, accompanied her husband
to the Crusade in 1269, and is said to have saved him by sucking the
poison from a wound inflicted by a poisoned arrow; was buried at
Westminster (1244-1290).
ELEATICS, a school of philosophy in Greece, founded by Xenophanes of
Elia, and of which Parmenides and Zeno, both of Elia, were the leading
adherents and advocates, the former developing the system and the latter
completing it, the ground-principle of which was twofold--the affirmation
of the unity, and the negative of the diversity, of being--in other
words, the affirmation of pure being as alone real, to the exclusion of
everything finite and merely phenomenal. See "SARTOR," BK. I. CHAP.
8.
ELECTION, THE DOCTRINE OF, the doctrine that the salvation of a man
depends on the election of God for that end, of which there are two chief
phases--the one is election _to be_ Christ's, or unconditional election,
and the other that it is election _in_ Christ, or conditional election.
ELECTORS, THE, or KURFÜRSTS, OF GERMANY, German princes who
enjoyed the privilege of disposing of the imperial crown, ranked next the
emperor, and were originally six in number, but grew to eight and finally
nine; three were ecclesiastical--the Archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and
Trèves, and three secular--the Electors of Saxony, the Palatinate, and
Bohemia, to which were added at successive periods the Electors of
Brandenburg, of Bavaria, and Hanover. "There never was a tenth; and the
Holy Roman Empire, as it was called, which was a grand object once, but
had gone about in a superannuated and plainly crazy state some centuries,
was at last put out of pain by Napoleon, August 6, 1806, and allowed to
cease from the world."
ELECTRA (i. e. the Bright One), an ocean nymph, the mother of
ISIS (q. v.).
ELECTRA, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who, with her
brother Orestes, avenged the death of her father on his murderers.
ELECTRIC LIGHT, a brilliant white light due to positive and negative
currents rushing together between two points of carbon or (the
"incandescent" light) to the intense heat in a solid body, caused by an
electric current passing through it.
ELECTRICITY, the name given to a subtle agent called the electric
fluid, latent in all bodies, and first evolved by friction, and which may
manifest itself, under certain conditions, in brilliant flashes of light,
or, when in contact with animals, in nervous shocks more or less violent.
It is of two kinds, negative and positive, and as such exhibits itself in
the polarity of the magnet, when it is called MAGNETIC (q. v.),
and is excited by chemical action, when it is called VOLTAIC (q. v.).
ELEGY, a song expressive of sustained earnest yearning, or mild
sorrow after loss.
ELEMENTAL SPIRITS, a general name given in the Middle Ages to
salamanders, undines, sylphs, and gnomes, spirits superstitiously
believed to have dominion respectively over, as well as to have had their
dwelling in, the four elements--fire, water, air, and earth.
ELEMENTS, originally the four forms of matter so deemed--fire, air,
earth, and water, and afterwards the name for those substances that
cannot be resolved by chemical analysis, and which are now found to
amount to sixty-seven.
ELEPHANT, a genus of mammals, of which there are two species, the
Indian and the African; the latter attains a greater size, and is hunted
for the sake of its tusks, which may weigh as much as 70 lbs.; the former
is more intelligent, and easily capable of being domesticated; the white
elephant is a variety of this species.
ELEPHANT, ORDER OF THE WHITE, a Danish order of knighthood,
restricted to 30 knights, the decoration of which is an elephant
supporting a tower; it was instituted by Canute IV., king of Denmark, at
the end of the 12th century.
ELEPHANTA, an island 6 m. in circuit in Bombay harbour, so called
from its colossal figure of an elephant which stood near the
landing-place; it contains three temples cut out of solid rock, and
covered with sculptures, which, along with the figure at the landing, are
rapidly decaying.
ELEPHANTIASIS, a peculiar skin disease, accompanied with abnormal
swelling; so called because the skin becomes hard and stiff like an
elephant's hide; attacks the lower limbs and scrotum; is chiefly confined
to India and other tropical countries.
ELEPHANTINE, a small island below the first cataract of the Nile;
contains interesting monuments and ruins of the ancient Roman and
Egyptian civilisations.
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, rites, initiation into which, as religiously
conducive to the making of good men and good citizens, was compulsory on
every free-born Athenian, celebrated annually at Eleusis in honour of
Demeter and Persephone, and which lasted nine days.
ELEUSIS, a town in ancient Attica, NW. of Athens, with a temple for
the worship of Demeter, the largest in Greece; designed by the architect
of the PARTHENON (q. v.).
ELEUTHERIA, the goddess of liberty, as worshipped in ancient Greece.
ELF-ARROWS, arrow-heads of flint used in hunting and war by the
aborigines of the British Isles and of Europe generally, as they still
are among savages elsewhere; derived their name from the superstitious
belief that they were used by the fairies to kill cattle and sometimes
human beings in their mischief-joy; they were sometimes worn as
talismans, occasionally set in silver, as a charm against witchcraft.
ELGIN or MORAY (43), a northern Scottish county, fronting the
Moray Firth and lying between Banff and Nairn, mountainous in the S. but
flat to the N., watered by the Spey, Lossie, and Findhorn; agriculture,
stone-quarrying, distilling, and fishing are the staple industries; has
some imposing ruins and interesting antiquities.
ELGIN (8), the county town of above, on the Lossie; created a royal
burgh by David I.; has ruins of a fine Gothic cathedral and royal castle.
ELGIN (17), a city in Illinois, on the Fox, 35 m. NW. of Chicago;
watchmaking the chief industry.
ELGIN, JAMES BRUCE, 8TH EARL OF, statesman and diplomatist, born in
London; governor of Jamaica and Canada; negotiated important treaties
with China and Japan; rendered opportune assistance at the Indian Mutiny
by diverting to the succour of Lord Canning an expedition that was
proceeding to China under his command; after holding office as
Postmaster-General he became Viceroy of India (1861), where he died; his
Journal and Letters are published (1811-1863).
ELGIN MARBLES, a collection of ancient sculptured marbles brought
from Athens by the Earl of Elgin in 1812, and now deposited in the
British Museum, after purchase of them by the Government for £35,000;
these sculptures adorned certain public buildings in the Acropolis, and
consist of portions of statues, of which that of Theseus is the chief, of
alto-reliefs representing the struggle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, and
of a large section of a frieze.
ELIA, the _nom de plume_ adopted by Charles Lamb in connection with
his Essays.
ELIAS, MOUNT, a mountain in NW. coast of N. America; conspicuous far
off at sea, being about 18,000 ft. or 3½ m. above it.
ELIJAH, a Jewish prophet, born at Tishbe, in Gilead, near the
desert; prophesied in the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, in the 10th
century B.C.; revealed himself as the deadly enemy of the worship of
Baal, 400 of whose priests he is said to have slain with his own hand;
his zeal provoked persecution at the hands of the king and his consort
Jezebel, but the Lord protected him, and he was translated from the earth
in a chariot of fire, "went up by a whirlwind into heaven." See
PROPHETS, THE.
ELIOT, GEORGE, the _nom de plume_ of Mary Ann Evans, distinguished
English novelist, born at Arbury, in Warwickshire; was bred on
evangelical lines, but by-and-by lost faith in supernatural Christianity;
began her literary career by a translation of Strauss's "Life of Jesus";
became in 1851 a contributor to the _Westminster Review_, and formed
acquaintance with George Henry Lewes, whom she ere long lived with as his
wife, though unmarried, and who it would seem discovered to her her
latent faculty for fictional work; her first work in that line was
"Scenes from Clerical Life," contributed to _Blackwood_ in 1856; the
stories proved a signal success, and they were followed by a series of
seven novels, beginning in 1858 with "Adam Bede," "the finest thing since
Shakespeare," Charles Reade in his enthusiasm said, the whole winding up
with the "Impressions of Theophrastus Such" in 1879; these, with two
volumes of poems, make up her works; Lewes died in 1878, and two years
after she formally married an old friend, Mr. John Cross, and after a few
months of wedded life died of inflammation of the heart; "she paints,"
says Edmond Scherer, "only ordinary life, but under these externals she
makes us assist at the eternal tragedy of the human heart... with so much
sympathy," he adds, "the smile on her face so near tears, that we cannot
read her pages without feeling ourselves won to that lofty toleration of
hers" (1819-1880).
ELIOT, JOHN, the apostle of the Indians, born in Hertfordshire;
entered the Church of England, but seceded and emigrated to New England;
became celebrated for his successful evangelistic expeditions amongst the
Indians during his lifelong occupancy of the pastorate at Roxbury
(1604-1690).
ELIS, a district of Greece, on the W. coast of the Peloponnesus,
sacred to all Hellas as the seat of the greatest of the Greek festivals
in connection with the Olympian Games, a circumstance which imparted a
prestige to the inhabitants.
ELISA or ELISSA, Dido, queen of Carthage, in love with Æneas.
ELISHA, a Jewish prophet, the successor of Elijah, who found him at
the plough, and consecrated him to his office by throwing his mantle over
him, and which he again let fall on him as he ascended to heaven. He
exercised his office for 55 years, but showed none of the zeal of his
predecessor against the worship of Baal; was, however, accredited as a
prophet of the Lord by the miracles he wrought in the Lord's name.
ELIZABETH, sister of Louis XVI.; was guillotined (1764-1794).
ELIZABETH FARNESE, queen of Spain, a daughter of Odoardo II. of
Parma; in 1714 she married Philip V. of Spain, when her bold and
energetic nature soon made itself felt in the councils of Europe, where
she carried on schemes for territorial and political aggrandisement; was
an accomplished linguist; is called by Carlyle "the Termagant of Spain";
her Memoirs are published in four volumes (1692-1766).
ELIZABETH, EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, daughter of Peter the Great and
Catharine I.; assisted Maria Theresa in the war of the Austrian
Succession; opposed Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War; indolent
and licentious, she left the affairs of the State mainly in the hands of
favourites (1709-1762).
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA, daughter of James VI. of Scotland and
I. of England; married Frederick V., Elector Palatine, who for a brief
time held the throne of Bohemia; her daughter Sophia, by marrying the
Elector of Hanover, formed a tie which ultimately brought the crown of
England to the House of Brunswick (1596-1662).
ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND (1658-1603), daughter of Henry VIII. and
Anne Boleyn, born in Greenwich Palace; was an indefatigable student in
her youth; acquired Greek and Latin, and a conversational knowledge of
German and French; the Pope's opposition to her succession on the ground
of being judged illegitimate by the Church strengthened her attachment to
the Protestant faith, which was her mother's, and contributed to its firm
establishment during the reign; during it the power of Spain was crushed
by the defeat of the Armada; maritime enterprise flourished under Drake,
Raleigh, and Frobisher; commerce was extended, and literature carried to
a pitch of perfection never before or since reached; masterful and
adroit, Elizabeth yet displayed the weakness of vanity and
vindictiveness; the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, is a blot upon her
fame, and her intrigues with Seymour, Leicester, and Essex detract from
her dignity; her wisdom was manifested in her wise choice of counsellors
and leaders, and her patriotism won her a secure place in the hearts of
her people (1533-1608).
ELIZABETH, ST., "a very pious, but also a very fanciful young woman;
her husband, a Thuringian landgraf, going to the Crusade, where he died
straightway," Carlyle guesses, "partly the fruit of the life she led him;
lodging beggars, sometimes in her very bed; continually breaking his
night's rest for prayer and devotional exercises of undue length,
'weeping one moment, then smiling in joy the next'; meandering about,
capricious, melodious, weak, at the will of devout whim mainly; went to
live at Marburg after her husband's death, and soon died there in a most
melodiously pious sort" in 1231, aged 24.
ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE, a term applied to the style of
architecture which flourished in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.,
and which was characterised by a revival of classic designs wrought into
the decadent Gothic style. Lord Salisbury's house at Hatfield is a good
specimen of this mixed style.
ELIZABETHAN ERA, according to Carlyle, "the outcome and flowerage of
all which had preceded it... in that old age lies the _only_ true
_poetical_ literature of England. The poets of the last ago took to
pedagogy (Pope and his school), and shrewd men they were; those of the
present age to ground-and-lofty tumbling; and it will do your heart
good," he adds, "to see how they vault."
ELKARGEH (4), a town in the great oasis in the Libyan Desert; has
ancient remains, and is an important resting stage in crossing the
desert.
ELLENBOROUGH, EDWARD LAW, EARL OF, an English Conservative
statesman, son of Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief-Justice of England;
entered Parliament in 1813; held office under the Duke of Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel; appointed Governor-General of India (1841); recalled in
1844; subsequently First Lord of the Admiralty and Indian Minister under
Lord Derby (1790-1871).
ELLENRIEDER, MARIE, a painter of great excellence, born at
Constance; studied in Rome; devoted herself to religious subjects, such
as "Christ Blessing Little Children," "Mary and the Infant Jesus," &c.
(1771-1863).
ELLESMERE, FRANCIS EGERTON, EARL OF, statesman and author, born in
London, second son of the Duke of Sutherland; was Secretary for Ireland
and War Secretary; author of some books of travel, and a translation of
"Faust" (1800-1857).
ELLIOT, GEORGE AUGUSTUS. See HEATHFIELD.
ELLIOTSON, JOHN, an English physician, born in London; lost his
professorship in London University on account of employing mesmerism for
medical purposes; promoted clinical instruction and the use of the
stethoscope; founded the Phrenological Society (1791-1868).
ELLIOTT, EBENEZER, poet, known popularly as the "Corn-Law Rhymer,"
born in Rotherham parish, Yorkshire; an active worker in iron; devoted
his leisure to poetic composition; proved a man that could handle both
pen and hammer like a man; wrote the "Corn-Law Rhymes" and other pieces;
his works have been "likened to some little fraction of a rainbow, hues
of joy and harmony, painted out of troublous tears; no full round bow
shone on by the full sun, and yet, in very truth, a little prismatic
blush, glowing genuine among the wet clouds, ... proceeds from a sun
cloud-hidden, yet indicates that a sun does shine...; a voice from the
deep Cyclopean forges where Labour, in real soot and sweat, beats with
his thousand hammers, doing personal battle with Necessity and her brute
dark powers to make _them_ reasonable and serviceable" (1781-1849).
ELLIS, ALEXANDER J., an eminent English philologist, born at
Horeton; published many papers on phonetics and early English
pronunciation; was President of the Philological Society; his name,
originally Sharpe, changed by royal license (1814-1890).
ELLIS, GEORGE, literary critic, born in London; did much to promote
the study of early English literature; contributed to the _Anti-Jacobin_,
and was joint-author of the "Rolliad," a satire on Pitt, and of
"Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances"; Scott declared him to be
the best conversationalist he had ever met (1753-1815).
ELLIS, SIR HENRY, chief librarian of the British Museum from 1827 to
1856, born in London; edited various works on antiques; wrote an
"Introduction to Domesday Book"; knighted in 1833 (1777-1869).
ELLIS, WILLIAM, a missionary and author, born in London; laboured in
the South Sea Islands, and afterwards in Madagascar; wrote various works
descriptive of these islands; he married Sarah Stickney, who is the
authoress of a number of popular works, including "The Women of England,"
"The Daughters of England," &c. (1794-1872).
ELLISTON, ROBERT WILLIAM, a celebrated actor, born in London; ran
away from home and joined the stage, rose to the front rank both as
comedian and tragedian (1774-1831).
ELLORA, an Indian village in Hyderabad, 12 m. NW. of Aurungabad,
famed for its Buddhist and Hindu cave and monolithic temples, the most
magnificent of which is hewn out of a solid hill of red stone, the most
beautiful being the Hindu temple of Kailás.
ELLWOOD, THOMAS, a celebrated Quaker, born at Crowell, Oxfordshire;
the intimate friend of Milton, to whom he suggested the idea of "Paradise
Regained" by remarking to him, "Thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, but
what hast thou to say of Paradise Found?" his Autobiography is still read
(1639-1713).
ELMO'S FIRE, ST., a popular name for the display of electric fire
which sometimes plays about the masts of ships, steeples, &c.,
accompanied at times with a hissing noise; commoner in southern climates,
known by other names, e. g. Fire of St. Clara, of St. Elias.
ELOGE, a discourse in panegyric of some illustrious person deceased,
in which composition Fontenelle took the lead, and in which he was
followed by D'Alembert, Condorcet, Flourens, and others.
ELOHIM, a Hebrew word in the plural number, signifying God or one as
God, but with a verb in the singular, signifying generally the one true
God; according to the Talmud it denotes God as just in judgment to all in
contradistinction to Jehovah, which denotes God as merciful to His
people.
ELOHIST, a name given by the critics to the presumed author of the
earlier part of the Pentateuch, whose work in it they allege is
distinguished by the use of the word Elohim for God; he is to be
distinguished from the Jehovist, the presumed author of the later
portions, from his use, on the other hand, of the word Jehovah for God.
ELPHINSTONE, GEORGE KEITH, ADMIRAL. See KEITH.
ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART, a noted Indian civil servant and
historian; co-operated with Wellesley in firmly establishing British rule
in India; was governor of Bombay, where he accomplished many useful
reforms, and issued the Elphinstone Code of Laws; wrote a "History of
India," which earned for him the title of the "Tacitus of India"
(1779-1859).
ELPHINSTONE, WILLIAM, an erudite and patriotic Scottish ecclesiastic
and statesman, born in Glasgow; took holy orders; went to Paris to study
law, and became a professor in Law there, and afterwards at Orleans;
returned to Scotland; held several high State appointments under James
III. and James IV.; continued a zealous servant of the Church, holding
the bishoprics of Ross and of Aberdeen, where he founded the university
(1431-1514).
ELSASS (French ALSACE), a German territory on the left bank of
the Rhine, traversed by the Vosges Mountains; taken from the French in
1870-71.
ELSINORE, a seaport on the island of Zeeland, in Denmark, 20 m. N.
of Copenhagen; has a good harbour; the scene of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
ELSWICK (53), a town in the vicinity of Newcastle, noted for the
great engineering and ordnance works of Sir W. G. (now Lord) Armstrong.
ELTON, a salt lake of SE. Russia, in the government of Astrakhan;
has an area of about 65 sq. m., but is very shallow; yields annually some
90,000 or 95,000 tons of salt, which is shipped off _viâ_ the Volga.
ELTON, CHARLES ISAAC, jurist and ethnologist, born in Somerset; held
a Fellowship in Queen's College, Oxford; called to the bar in 1865, and
in 1884 was returned to Parliament as a Conservative; his first works
were juridical treatises on the tenure of land, but in 1882 he produced a
learned book on the origins of English history; _b_. 1839.
ELVAS, a strongly fortified town in Portugal, in the province of
Alemtejo, 12 m. W. of Badajoz; is a bishop's see; has a Moorish aqueduct
3½ m. long and 250 ft. high.
ELY (8), a celebrated cathedral city, in the fen-land of
Cambridgeshire, on the Ouse, 30 m. SE. of Peterborough; noted as the
scene of Hereward's heroic stand against William the Conqueror in 1071;
the cathedral, founded in 1083, is unique as containing specimens of the
various Gothic styles incorporated during the course of 400 years.
ELY, ISLE OF, a name given to the N. portion of Cambridgeshire on
account of its having been at one time insulated by marshes; being
included in the region of the Fens, has been drained, and is now fertile
land.
ELYOT, SIR THOMAS, author and ambassador, born in Wiltshire;
ambassador to the court of Charles V.; celebrated as the author of "The
Governour," the first English work on moral philosophy, and also of the
first Latin-English dictionary (1490-1546).
ELYSIUM the abode of the shades of the virtuous dead in the nether
world as conceived of by the poets of Greece and Rome, where the
inhabitants live a life of passive blessedness, which, however, is to
such a man as Achilles a place of woe rather and unrest, where he would
fain exchange places with the meanest hind that breathes in the upper
world.
ELZE, FREDERICK CARL, a German Shakespearian scholar, born at
Dessau; early devoted himself to the study of English literature; lived
some time in England and Scotland; in 1875 became professor of English
Literature at Halle; his various publications on Shakespeare and the
Elizabethan dramatists are full of excellent criticisms; also wrote Lives
of Scott and Byron (1821-1889).
ELZEVIR, the name of an eminent family of printers residing in
Amsterdam and Leyden, Louis the first of them, who started in Leyden;
their publications date from 1594 to 1680.
ELZEVIR EDITIONS, editions of the classics printed at Amsterdam and
Leyden during the 16th and 17th centuries by a family of the Elzevirs,
and considered to be immaculate.
EMANATION, THE DOCTRINE OF, a doctrine of Eastern origin, which
derives everything that exists from the divine nature by necessary
process of emanation, as light from the sun, and ascribes all evil and
the degrees of it to a greater and greater distance from the pure ether
of this parent source, or to the extent in consequence to which the being
gets immersed in and clogged with matter.
EMANCIPATION, originally a term in Roman law and name given to the
process of the manumission of a son by his father; the son was sold to a
third party and after the sale became _sui juris_; it is now applied to
the remission of old laws in the interest of freedom, which Carlyle
regards in his "Shooting Niagara," as the sum of nearly all modern recent
attempts at Reform.
EMANUEL I., king of Portugal from 1495 to 1521; his reign
inaugurated the golden period of Portuguese history, during which
Portugal became the first maritime and commercial power in Europe; was
the patron of Vasco da Gama and Albuquerque; issued an edict for the
expulsion of the Jews from his kingdom, and wrote to the Elector of
Saxony begging him to get rid of Luther (1469-1521).
EMBALMING, the art of preserving dead bodies from decay by means of
antiseptic agents applied both externally and internally; although known
to other people, e. g. the Peruvians, the art was chiefly practised
among the Egyptians, and the practice of it dates back to 4000 B.C.; the
thoroughness of the process depended on the money expended, but it
usually involved the removal of the viscera, save the heart and kidneys,
the extraction of the brain, the introduction of drugs to the cavities,
and the pickling of the body in native carbonate of soda, and the
wrapping of it in linen; experiments in embalming, more or less
successful, have been made in recent times, and even still are.
EMBER DAYS, four annually recurring periods of three days each,
appointed by the Romish and English Churches to be devoted to fasting and
praying; they are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first
Sunday in Lent, after Pentecost, after the 14th September, and after the
13th December.
EMBRYO, the scientific term for the young of an animal while yet in
the initial stage of development in the womb; also applied to the plant
in its rudimentary stage within the seed.
EMBRYOLOGY, the section of biology which treats of the development
of the embryo.
EMDEN (14), the chief part of the province of Hanover, in Prussia,
situated at the outlet of the river Ems; is intersected by canals;
shipbuilding and brewing are the chief industries.
EMERALD, a precious stone of great value, allied in composition to
the beryl; is of a beautiful transparent green colour; the finest
specimens are found in Colombia and Venezuela.
EMERALD ISLE, Ireland, from the fresh verdure of its herbage.
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, an American philosophic thinker and poet, of
English Puritan descent, born at Boston, where he started in life as a
Unitarian preacher and pastor, an office he resigned in 1832 for
literature, in which he found he would have freer and fuller scope to
carry out his purpose as a spiritual teacher; in 1833 he paid a visit to
England, and in particular a notable one to CRAIGENPUTTOCK (q. v.),
with the inmates of which he formed a lifelong friendship; on his
return the year after, he married, a second time as it happened, and,
settling down in Concord, began his career as a lecturer and man of
letters; by his "Essays," of which he published two series, one in 1841
and a second in 1844, he commended himself to the regard of all thinking
men in both hemispheres, and began to exercise an influence for good on
all the ingenuous youth of the generation; they were recognised by
Carlyle, and commended as "the voice of a man"; these embraced subjects
one and all of spiritual interest, and revealed transcendent intellectual
power; they were followed by "Representative Men," lectures delivered in
Manchester on a second visit to England in 1847, and thereafter, at
successive periods, by "Society and Solitude," "English Traits," "The
Conduct of Life," "Letters and Social Aims," besides a long array of
poems, as well as sundry remarkable Addresses and Lectures, which he
published; he was a man of exceptional endowment and great speculative
power, and is to this day the acknowledged head of the literary men of
America; speculatively, Carlyle and he were of the same school, but while
Carlyle had "descended" from the first "into the angry, noisy Forum with
an argument that could not but exasperate and divide," he continued
pretty much all his days engaged in little more than in a quiet survey
and criticism of the strife; Carlyle tried hard to persuade him to
"descend," but it would appear Emerson never to his dying day understood
what Carlyle meant by the appeal, an appeal to take the devil by the
throat and cease to merely speculate and dream (1803-1882).
EMERSON TENNENT, SIR JAMES, bred for the bar; was from 1845 to 1852
colonial secretary and lieutenant-governor of Ceylon, and became on his
return joint-secretary to the Board of Trade; wrote "Christianity in
Ceylon" and "Ceylon: an Account of the Island" (1804-1869).
EMERY, a dull, blue-black mineral, allied in composition to the
sapphire, but containing a varying quantity of iron oxide; is found in
large masses; is exceedingly hard, and largely used in polishing metals,
plate-glass, and precious stones.
EMIGRANTS, THE (_Les Emigrés_), the members of the French
aristocracy and of the partisans of the ancient régime who at the time of
the Revolution, after the fall of the Bastille, fled for safety to
foreign lands, congregating particularly in Coblenz, where they plotted
for its overthrow, to the extent of leaguing with the foreigner against
their country, with the issue of confiscation of their lands and
properties by the republic that was set up.
ÉMILE, the hero of a philosophic romance by Rousseau of the same
name, in which the author expounds his views on education, and presents
his reasons, with his ideal of what, according to him, a good education
is, a theory practically adopted by many would-be educationists with
indifferent fruit.
EMIR, a title bestowed on the descendants of Mahomet's daughter
Fatima, the word denoting a "prince" or "ruler"; has lost this its
primary meaning; the emirs, of whom there are large numbers in Turkey,
enjoying no privileges save the sole right to wear a green turban, the
supposed favourite colour of Mahomet, though they hold a high social
position; the title is also given to chieftains of N. Africa.
EMMET, ROBERT, a patriotic Irishman, born in Dublin; bred for the
bar; took part in the Irish rebellion; was hanged for his share in
attempting to seize Dublin Castle (1778-1803).
EMPE`DOCLES, a philosopher of Agrigentum, in Sicily; "extolled in
antiquity as a statesman and orator, as physicist, physician, and poet,
and even as prophet and worker of miracles," who flourished about the
year 440 B.C.; he conceived the universe as made up of "four eternal,
self-subsistent, mutually underivative, but divisible, primal material
bodies, mingled and moulded by two moving forces, the uniting one of
friendship and the disuniting one of strife"; of him it is fabled that,
to persuade his fellow-citizens, with whom he had been in high favour as
their deliverer from the tyranny of the aristocracy, of his bodily
translation from earth to heaven, he threw himself unseen into the crater
of Etna, but that at the next eruption of the mountain his slipper was
cast up and revealed the fraud.
EMPIRES: the ROMAN, capital Rome, dates from the reign of
Augustus, 25 B.C., to that of Theodosius, A.D. 395; OF THE EAST,
or Low Empire, capital Constantinople, being part of the Roman empire,
dates from 295 to 1453; OF THE WEST, capital Rome, dates from 295 to
476; the HOLY, or Second Empire of the West, founded by Charlemagne,
dates from 800 to 911; the LATIN, capital Constantinople, founded by
the Crusaders, dates from 1204 to 1261; the GERMAN, founded by Otho
the Great in 962, ended by abdication of Francis II. of Austria in 1806,
and restored under William I. in 1870; the FRENCH, founded by
Napoleon I., dates from 1804 to 1815, and as established by Napoleon III.
dates from 1852 to 1870; OF THE INDIES, founded in 1876 under the
crown of England.
EMPIRIC, the name given to any who practises an art from the mere
experience of results, apart from all reference to or knowledge of the
scientific explanation.
EMPIRICISM, a philosophical term applied to the theory that all
knowledge is derived from the senses and experience alone, to the
rejection of the theory of innate ideas; Locke, in modern times, is the
great representative of the school that advocates this doctrine supported
by Aristotle.
EMPSON, SIR RICHARD, a lawyer in the reign of Henry VII.; was
Speaker of the House of Commons; incurred the hatred of the populace by
acting as the king's agent in forcing payment of taxes and penalties; was
convicted of tyranny and treason, and beheaded in 1510.
EMPYEMA, a medical term signifying a diseased condition of the
chest, in which pus accumulates in the pleura, cures of which are
sometimes effected by drawing off the pus by means of tubes.
EMPYREAN, the highest heaven, or region of pure elemental fire,
whence everything of the nature of fire has been conceived to emanate,
whether in the phenomena of nature or the life of man.
EMS, 1, a river of NW. Germany, rises in Westphalia, and after a
course of 205 m. discharges into Dollart Bay, an inlet of the North Sea;
is navigable, and is joined to the Lippe by means of a canal, and also
similarly to Dortmund. 2, A celebrated German watering-place, on the
Lahn, near Coblenz; its mineral springs, known to the Romans, vary in
warmth from 80° to 135° F.
ENAMEL, a vitreous compound, easily fusible, and coloured in various
tints by the admixture of different metallic oxides; is fused to the
surface of metals for utility and ornament; was known to the European and
Asiatic ancients, and has maintained its popularity to the present day.
Various schools have been formed, of which the Byzantine, Rhenish, and
Limoges are the most noted.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING, an ancient style of decorative art somewhat
similar to enamelling, which consisted in overlaying the surface (e. g.
of walls) with wax, then inlaying a coloured design, the whole being
subsequently polished.
ENCELADUS, one of the chief giants that revolted against Zeus, and
who, as he fled and took refuge in Sicily, was transfixed by a
thunderbolt, and buried under Etna. The fiery eruptions of the mountain
are his breath, and the shaking of it ascribed to his shifting from one
side to another. In the latter regard he serves in literature as the
symbol of a blind, often impotent, struggle to throw off some oppressive
incubus.
ENCELADUS, MANUEL BLANCO, a distinguished Chilian statesman and
soldier, born in Buenos Ayres; trained for the navy in Spain, but joined
the Chilian revolutionaries; served with distinction under Lord Cochrane,
and rose to high rank both in the army and navy; was commander of the
Chilian forces in 1825, and for two months in the following year
President of the Republic; was subsequently Governor of Valparaiso, and
minister to France (1790-1876).
ENCHIRIDION OF EPICTETUS. See EPICTETUS.
ENCINA or ENZINA, JUAN DE LA, a Spanish dramatist, whose works
mark the rise of the Spanish drama, born at Salamanca; was at one time
secretary to the Duke of Alva, and afterwards conductor of music in the
chapel of Leo X. at Rome (1469-1534).
ENCKE, JOHANN FRANZ, a celebrated German astronomer, born at
Hamburg; determined the sun's distance, and the orbit of the comet of
1680; calculated the time of the revolution of the comet which now bears
his name, and which appeared in 1818; determined also the distance of the
sun by the two transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 (1791-1865).
ENCYCLICAL LETTER, a letter addressed by the Pope to the bishops of
the Church, condemnatory of prevailing errors or counselling them how to
act in connection with public questions of the day.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA, a name of Greek derivation, given to works which
embrace within their pages a more or less complete account, in
alphabetical order, of the whole round of human knowledge, or of some
particular section of it. Attempts in this direction were made as far
back as Aristotle's day, and various others have since been made from
time to time, according as the circle of knowledge widened. Amongst
famous encyclopædias which have appeared, mention may be made of the
French "ENCYCLOPÉDIE" (q. v.); the "Encyclopædia Britannica,"
Edinburgh (1708-1771), now in its ninth edition (1889); the German
"Encyclopedie," begun in 1818 by Ersch and Gruber, and not yet completed,
although 170 volumes have appeared; while the largest of all is the
Chinese encyclopædia, in 5020 vols., printed in Pekin in 1726.
ENCYCLOPÉDIE, a French encyclopædia consisting of 28 vols., to which
a supplement of 5 vols. was added; edited by D'Alembert and Diderot;
contributed to by a number of the eminent savants of France, and issued
in 1751-1777, and which contributed to feed, but did nothing to allay, or
even moderate, the fire of the Revolution.
ENCYCLOPEDIST, generally a man of encyclopedic knowledge, or who
conducts or contributes to an encyclopædia; specially one who has, as the
French encyclopedists, an overweening, false, and illusory estimate of
the moral worth and civilising power of such knowledge. See CARLYLE'S
"SARTOR," BK. I. CHAP. 10, ON THE "ENCYCLOPEDIC HEAD."
ENDEMIC, a term applied to diseases which affect the inhabitants of
certain countries and localities, and which arise from strictly local
causes, _e. g_. neighbouring swamps, bad sanitation, impure water,
climate, &c.
ENDOGENS, those plants in which the new fibrous matter is developed
in the centre of the stem, and which is pushed outward by the formation
of new tissue within, thus developing the stem outwards from the inside.
See EXOGENS.
ENDOR, a place on the S. of Mount Tabor, in Palestine, where the
sorceress lived who was consulted by Saul before the battle of Gilboa,
and who professed communication with the ghost of Samuel (1 Sam, xxviii.
7).
ENDOSMOSE, a word used in physics to describe the intermingling of
two liquids of different densities, in close juxtaposition, but separated
by a thin membranous tissue. The liquid of lesser density passes more
rapidly through the dividing tissue, and raises the level of the liquid
in the other vessel, this action is named endosmose; while the flowing of
the liquid of greater density into the vessel whose level is falling, is
called exosmose.
ENDYMION, a beautiful shepherd, son of Zeus, whom SELENE (q. v.)
carried off to Mount Lemnos, in Caria, where, as she kissed him, he
sank into eternal sleep. This is one version of the story.
ENEID, an epic poem of Virgil, the hero of which is Æneas of Troy.
ENERGY, CONSERVATION OF, the doctrine that, however it may change in
form and character, or be dissipated, no smallest quantity of force in
the universe is ever lost.
ENFANTIN, BARTHÉLEMY PROSPER, a Socialist and journalist, born in
Paris, adopted the views of SAINT-SIMON (q. v.); held subversive
views on the marriage laws, which involved him in some trouble; wrote a
useful and sensible book on Algerian colonisation, and several works,
mainly interpretative of the theories of Saint-Simon (1796-1864).
ENFIELD (32), a town in Middlesex, 10 m. NE. of London, has a
celebrated Government rifle factory; was for six years the dwelling-place
of Charles Lamb.
ENGADINE, a noted Swiss valley in the canton of the Grisons,
stretches about 65 m. between the Lepontine or Rhætian Alps; is divided
into the Lower Engadine, wild and desolate, and the Upper Engadine,
fertile and populous, and a favourite health resort; the river Inn flows
through it, its waters collected here and there into lakes.
ENGEDI, an oasis, a spot of rare beauty, once a place of palm-trees,
23 m. W. of the N. end of the Dead Sea.
ENGHIEN, LOUIS DE BOURBON, DUC D', an ill-fated French Royalist,
born at Chantilly; joined the Royalists under his grandfather, Prince of
Condé, and took part in the Rhine campaign against the Republicans; was
suspected of being concerned in a Bourbon plot to assassinate the Emperor
Napoleon; was seized in the neutral territory of Baden, brought to
Vincennes, and, after an inconclusive and illegal trial, shot by
Napoleon's orders, a proceeding which gave rise to Fouché's remark, "It
is worse than a crime--it is a blunder" (1772-1804).
ENGINEERS, ROYAL NAVAL, since 1848 have ranked as commissioned
officers; salaries vary from £110 to £639 a year; admission is by
examination; duties include the entire oversight and management of the
ship-machinery; there are three ranks--inspectors of machinery, chief
engineers, and assistants, the latter being of three grades; in 1888
engineer studentships were created.
ENGINEERS, THE CORPS OF ROYAL, in the British army, instituted in
1763, consists of about 900 officers and 5000 non-commissioned officers
and men, usually recruited from skilled artisans; their duties comprise
the undertaking of all engineering operations necessary in the conduct of
war, e. g. bridging and mining, road and railway and telegraph
construction, building of fortifications, &c.; their term of service is 7
years in the active army and 5 in the reserve, or maybe 3 in the former
and 9 in the latter.
ENGLAND (27,000), the "predominant partner" of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, comprises along with Wales the southern, and
by far the greater, portion of Great Britain, the largest of the European
islands; it is separated from the Continent on the E. and S. by the North
Sea and English Channel, and from Ireland on the W. by St. George's
Channel, while Scotland forms its N. boundary; its greatest length N. and
S. is 430 m., and greatest breadth (including Wales) 370. It is of an
irregular triangular shape; has a long and highly-developed coast-line
(1800 m.); is divided into 40 counties (with Wales 52); has numerous
rivers with navigable estuaries, while transit is facilitated by a
network of railways and canals; save the highlands in the N., and the
Pennine Range running into Derby, England is composed (if we except the
mountainland of Wales) of undulating plains, 80 per cent, of which is
arable; while coal and iron are found in abundance, and copper, lead,
zinc, and tin in lesser quantities; in the extent and variety of its
textile factories, and in the production of machinery and other hardware
goods, England is without an equal; the climate is mild and moist, and
affected by draughts; but for the Gulf Stream, whose waters wash its
western shores, it would probably resemble that of Labrador. Under a
limited monarchy and a widely embracing franchise, the people of England
enjoy an unrivalled political freedom. Since Henry VIII.'s time, the
national religion has been an established Protestantism, but all forms
are tolerated. In 1896 education was made free. The name England is
derived from Engle-land, or land of the Angles, a Teutonic people who,
with kindred Saxons and Jutes, came over from the mainland in the 5th
century, and took possession of the island, driving Britons and Celts
before them. Admixtures to the stock took place during the 11th century
through the Danish and Norman conquests. E. annexed Wales in 1284, and
was united with Scotland under one crown in 1603, and under one
Parliament in 1707.
ENGLAND, THE WANT OF, "England needs," says Ruskin, "examples of
people who, leaving Heaven to decide whether they are to rise in the
world, decide for themselves that they will be happy in it, and have
resolved to seek, not greater wealth, but simpler pleasures; not higher
fortune, but deeper felicity; making the first of possessions
self-possession, and honouring themselves in the harmless pride and calm
pursuits of peace."
ENGLES, FRIEDRICH, a Socialist, the friend of Karl Marx; an active
propagandist of socialistic theories; author of several works on
Socialism (1820-1895).
ENID, the daughter of Yniol and the wife of Geraint; one of the
ladies of the court of King Arthur; celebrated for her steadfast conjugal
affection, the story regarding whom is given in Tennyson's "Idylls of the
King."
ENNISKILLEN (5), the county town of Fermanagh, Ireland, on an isle
in the river which joins Lower and Upper Loughs Erne; the scene of the
defeat of James II.'s troops by those of William of Orange; gives its
name to a well-known dragoon regiment.
ENNIUS, an early Roman poet, the father of Roman epic poetry, born
in Rudiæ, Calabria; promoted the study of Greek literature in Rome; of
his poems, dramatic and epic, only a few fragments are extant
(239-169 B.C.).
ENOCH, a godly man, who lived in antediluvian times among a race
gone godless, and whom the Lord in judgment removed from the earth to
return Himself by-and-by with a flood in order to clear the world of the
ungodly.
ENOCH, THE BOOK OF, an apocryphal book, quoted from by Jude,
discovered over a century ago, composed presumably about the 2nd century,
though subsequently enlarged and ascribed to Enoch; it professes to be a
series of revelations made to the patriarch bearing upon the secrets of
the material and spiritual universe and the course of Providence, and
written down by him for the benefit of posterity.
ENOCH ARDEN, a poem of Tennyson, and one of his happiest efforts to
translate an incident of common life into the domain of poetry; the story
is: A sailor, presumed to be lost, and whose wife marries another,
returns, finds her happily wedded, and bears the sorrow rather than
disturb her felicity by revealing himself.
ENTABLATURE, a term in classic architecture applied to the
ornamented portion of a building which rests in horizontal position upon
supporting columns; is subdivided into three parts, the lower portion
being called the _architrave_, the middle portion the _frieze_, and the
uppermost the _cornice_; the depth assigned to these parts varies in the
different schools, but the whole entablature generally measures twice the
diameter of the column.
ENTAIL, a term in law which came to be used in connection with the
practice of limiting the inheritance of estates to a certain restricted
line of heirs. Attempts of the kind, which arise naturally out of the
deeply-seated desire which men have to preserve property--especially
landed estates--in their own families, are of ancient date; but the
system as understood now, involving the principle of primogeniture, owes
its origin to the feudal system. Sometimes the succession was limited to
the male issue, but this was by no means an invariable practice; in
modern times the system has been, by a succession of Acts of Parliaments
(notably the Cairns Act of 1882), greatly modified, and greater powers
given to the actual owner of alienating the estates to which he has
succeeded, a process which is called "breaking the entail."
ENTSAGEN, the renunciation with which, according to Goethe, life,
strictly speaking, begins, briefly explained by Froude as "a resolution,
fixedly and clearly made, to do without pleasant things--wealth,
promotion, fame, honour, and the other rewards with which the world
recompenses the services it appreciates," or, still more briefly, the
renunciation of the flesh symbolised in the Christian baptism by water.
ENVIRONMENT, a term of extensive use in biological science,
especially employed to denote the external conditions which go to
determine modifications in the development of organic life to the extent
often of producing new species.
EOLUS. See ÆOLUS.
EON. See ÆON.
EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES D', the "Chevalier d'Eon," a noted French
diplomatist, born at Tonnerre, Burgundy; notorious as having, while on
secret missions, adopted a woman's dress for purposes of disguise; was
ambassador at the English Court, but degraded and recalled by Louis XVI.,
and condemned to wear feminine garb till the close of his life; died in
destitution, when the popular doubt as to his real sex was set at rest
(1728-1810).
EOS, the goddess of the dawn, the daughter of Hyperion, and the
sister of Helios and Selene. See AURORA.
EÖTVÖS, JOZSEF, Hungarian statesman and author, born at Buda;
adopted law as a profession, but devoted himself to literature, and
eventually politics; Minister of Public Instruction, and then of Worship
and Education; published some powerful dramas and novels, notably "The
Village Notary," a work pronounced equal in many respects to the best of
Scott's novels; also vigorous political essays (1813-1871).
EPACT, a name given to the excess of the solar month over the lunar,
amounting to 1 day 11 hours 11 minutes and 57 seconds, and of the solar
year over the lunar amounting to 11 days.
EPAMINONDAS, a famous Theban statesman and soldier, defeated Sparta
in the great victory of Leuctra, and during his lifetime raised Thebes to
a position of dominant power; was slain in the battle of Mantinea when
again successfully engaging the Spartans; blameless in his private life
as he was heroic in the field, he figures as the great hero of Theban
history; born about the close of the 5th century B.C.
EPÉE, CHARLES MICHEL, ABBÉ DE L', a noted philanthropist, born at
Versailles; took holy orders, but was divested of them on account of
Jansenist views; devoted his life to the instruction of deaf-mutes, for
whom he founded an institute, and invented a language of signs
(1712-1789).
EPEIUS, the contriver of the wooden horse, by means of which the
Greeks entered and took possession of Troy, and who was assisted by
Athena in the building of it.
ÉPERNAY (18), a French town on the Marne, 20 m. NW. of Châlons; the
chief emporium of the champagne district.
EPHESIANS, THE EPISTLE TO, a presumably circular letter of St. Paul
to the Church at Ephesus, among other Churches in the East, written to
show that the Gentile had a standing in Christ as well as the Jew, and
that it was agreeable to the eternal purpose of God that the two should
form one body in Him; it contains Paul's doctrine of the Church, and
appears to have been written during his first imprisonment in Rome
(61-63); it appears from the spirit that breathes in it and the similar
thoughts and exhortations, contained to have been written at the same
time as the Epistle to the Colossians.
EPHIALTES, one of the giants who revolted against Zeus and
threatened to storm heaven; he appears to have been maimed by Apollo and
Hercules.
EPHIALTES, a Malian Greek who led the Persians across a pass in the
mountains, whereby they were able to surround and overcome Leonidas and
his Spartans at Thermopylæ.
EPHOD, a richly and emblematically embroidered vestment worn by the
high-priest of the Jews, and consisting of two parts, one covering the
breast and supporting the breastplate, and the other covering the back,
these being clasped to the shoulders by two onyx stones, with names
inscribed on them, six on each, of the 12 tribes, and the whole bound
round the waist with a girdle of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and
fine-twined linen.
EPH`ORI (i. e. overseers), the name of five magistrates annually
elected in ancient Sparta from among the people as a countercheck to the
authority of the kings and the senate; had originally to see to the
execution of justice and the education of youth; their authority, which
resembled that of the tribunes in Rome, was at last destroyed in 225 B.C.
EPHRAEM SYRUS, the most famous of the Church Fathers in Syria, and
called "prophet of the Syrians," also "Pillar of the Church" and "Help of
the Holy Ghost," born at Nisibis, Mesopotamia; lived a hermit's life in a
cave near Edessa; left exegetical writings, homilies, and poems, and so
great was his piety and self-denial, that he was looked upon as a saint,
and is still so reverenced in several Churches (320-370).
EPHRAIM, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, the one to which Joshua
belonged, located in the centre of the land; powerful in the days of the
Judges, the chief of the 10 tribes that revolted under Jeroboam after the
death of Solomon, and is found often to give name to the whole body of
them.
EPIC, a poem that treats of the events in the life of a nation or a
race or the founder of one, agreeably to the passion inspiring it and in
such form as to kindle and keep alive the heroism thereof in the
generations thereafter; or a poem in celebration of the thoughts,
feelings, and feats of a whole nation or race; its proper function is to
_disimprison_ the soul of the related facts and give a noble rendering of
them; of compositions of this kind the "Iliad" of Homer, the "Æneid" of
Virgil, and the "Divine Comedy" of Dante take the lead.
EPIC MELODY, melody in accord with the feeling of the whole race or
the subject as a whole.
EPICHARIS, a Roman lady who conspired against Nero and strangled
herself rather than reveal her accomplices after undergoing the cruellest
tortures.
EPICHARMUS, a Greek philosopher and poet in the island of Cos;
studied philosophy under Pythagoras; conceived a taste for comedy; gave
himself up to that branch of the drama, and received the name of the
"Father of Comedy"; lived eventually at the court of Hiero of Syracuse
(540-430 B.C.).
EPICTETUS, a celebrated Stoic philosopher of the 1st century,
originally a slave; lived and taught at Rome, but after the expulsion of
the philosophers retired to Nicopolis, in Epirus; was lame, and lived in
poverty; his conversations were collected by Arrian, and his philosophy
in a short manual under the Greek name of "Enchiridion of Epictetus,"
written, as is alleged, in utter obliviousness of the fact that "the end
of man is an action, not a thought."