situated on a small peninsula stretching into the Bay of Erythrae, at an
equal distance from the mountains Mimas and Corycus, and directly
opposite the island of Chios. In the peninsula excellent wine was
produced. The town was said to have been founded by Ionians under
Knopos, son of Codrus. Never a large city, it sent only eight ships to
the battle of Lade. The Erythraeans owned for a considerable time the
supremacy of Athens, but towards the close of the Peloponnesian war they
threw off their allegiance to that city. After the battle of Cnidus,
however, they received Conon, and paid him honours in an inscription,
still extant. Erythrae was the birthplace of two prophetesses--one of
whom, Sibylla, is mentioned by Strabo as living in the early period of
the city; the other, Athenais, lived in the time of Alexander the Great.
The ruins include well-preserved Hellenistic walls with towers, of which
five are still visible. The acropolis (280 ft.) has the theatre on its
N. slope, and eastwards lie many remains of Byzantine buildings. Modern
Litri is a considerable place and port, extending from the ancient
harbour to the acropolis. The smaller coasting steamers call, and there
is an active trade with Chios and Smyrna.
ERYTHRITE, the name given to (1) a mineral composed of a hydrated cobalt
arsenate, and (2) in chemistry, a tetrahydric alcohol. (1) The mineral
erythrite has the formula Co3(AsO4)2.8H2O, and crystallizes in the
monoclinic system and is isomorphous with vivianite. It sometimes occurs
as beautiful radially-arranged groups of blade-shaped crystals with a
bright crimson colour and brilliant lustre. On exposure to light the
colour and lustre deteriorate. There is a perfect cleavage parallel to
the plane of symmetry, on which the lustre is pearly. Cleavage flakes
are soft (H = 2), sectile and flexible; specific gravity 2.95. The
mineral is, however, more often found as an earthy encrustation with a
peach-blossom colour, and in this form was early (1727) known as
cobalt-bloom (Ger. _Kobaltbluthe_). The name erythrite, from [Greek:
erythros], "red," was given by F.S. Beudant in 1382. Erythrite occurs as
a product of alteration of smaltite (CoAs2) and other cobaltiferous
arsenides. The finest crystallized specimens are from Schneeberg in
Saxony. The earthy variety has been found in Thuringia and Cornwall and
some other places. (2) The alcohol erythrite has the constitutional
formula HO.H2C.CH(OH).CH(OH).CH2OH; it is also known as erythrol,
erythroglucin and phycite. It corresponds to tartaric acid, and, like
this substance, it occurs in four stereo-isomeric forms. The internally
compensated modification, _i_-erythrite, corresponding to mesotartaric
acid, occurs free in the algae _Protococcus vulgaris_, and as the
orsellinate, erythrin, C4H6(OH)2(O.C8H7O3)2, in many lichens and algae,
especially _Roccella montagnei_. It has a sweet taste, melts at 126
deg., and boils at 330 deg. Careful oxidation with dilute nitric acid
gives erythrose or tetrose, which is probably a mixture of a
trioxyaldehyde and trioxyketone. Energetic oxidation gives erythritic
acid and mesotartaric acid. _i_-Erythrite and the racemic mixture of the
dextro and laevo varieties were synthesized by Griner in 1893 from
divinyl.
ERZERUM, or ARZRUM (Arm. _Garin_), the chief town of an important
vilayet of the same name in Asiatic Turkey. It is a military station and
a fortress of considerable strategical value, closing the roads from
Kars, Olti and other parts of the frontier. Several important routes
from Trebizond and various parts of Anatolia converge towards it from
the west. It is situated at the eastern end of an open bare plain, 30 m.
long and about 12 wide, bordered by steep, rounded mountains and
traversed by the Kara Su, or western Euphrates, which has its source in
the Dumlu Dagh a few miles north of that town, which lies at an
elevation of 6250 ft. above sea-level, while the near hills rise to
10,000 ft. The scenery in the neighbourhood is striking, lofty bare
mountains being varied by open plains and long valleys dotted with
villages. Just east of the town is the broad ridge of the Deveboyun
("Camel's Neck"), across which the road passes to Kars. To the south is
the Palanduken range, from which emerge numerous streams, supplying the
town with excellent water. In the plain to the north the Kara Su
traverses extensive marshes which afford good wildfowl-shooting in the
spring.
The town is surrounded by an earthen enceinte or rampart with some forts
on the hills just above it, and others on the Deveboyun ridge facing
east, the whole forming a position of considerable strength. The old
walls and the citadel have disappeared. Inside the ramparts the town
lies rather cramped, with narrow, crooked streets, badly drained and
dirty; the houses are generally built of dark grey volcanic stone with
flat roofs, the general aspect, owing to the absence of trees, being
somewhat gloomy. The water-supply from Palanduken is distributed by
wooden pipes to numerous public fountains. The town has a population of
about 43,000, including about 10,000 Armenians, 2000 Persians and a few
Jews. It has a garrison in peace of about 5000 men. It is the seat of
the British consulate for Kurdistan, and there are other European
consulates besides an American mission with schools. The great altitude
accounts for very severe winter cold, occasionally 10 deg. to 25 deg.
below zero F., accompanied by blizzards (_tipi_) sometimes fatal to
travellers overtaken by them. The summer heat is moderate (59 deg. to 77
deg.).
There are several well-built mosques (none older than the 16th century),
public baths, and several good khans. There are Armenian and Catholic
churches, but the most beautiful building is a _medresse_ erected in the
12th century by the Seljuks, with ornamental doorway and two graceful
minarets known as the _Chifte Minare_.
Situated on the main road from Trebizond into north-west Persia, the
town has always a large caravan traffic, principally of camels, but
since the improvement of communications in Russia this has declined. A
good carriage-road leads to the coast at Trebizond, the journey being
made in five or six days. There are also roads to Kars, Bayazid,
Erzingan and Kharput. Blacksmiths' and coppersmiths' work is better here
than in most Turkish towns; horse-shoes and brasswork are also famous.
There are several tanneries, and Turkish boots and saddles are largely
made. Jerked beef (_pasdirma_) is also prepared in large quantities for
winter use. The plain produces wheat, barley, millet and vegetables.
Wood fuel is scarce, the present supply being from the Tortum district,
whence surface coal and lignite are also brought; but the usual fuel is
_tezek_ or dried cow-dung. The bazaars are of no great interest. Good
Persian carpets and similar goods can be obtained.
Erzerum is a town of great antiquity, and has been identified with the
Armenian Garin Kalakh, the Arabic Kalikale, and the Byzantine
Theodosiopolis of the 5th century, when it was a frontier fortress of
the empire--hence its name _Erzen-er-Rum_. It was captured by the
Seljuks in 1201, when it was an important city, and it fell into Turkish
possession in 1517. In July 1829 it was captured by the Russian general
Paskevich, and the occupation continued until the peace of Adrianople
(September 1829). The town was unsuccessfully attacked by the Russians
on the 9th of November 1877 after a victory gained by them a short time
previously on the Deveboyun heights; it was occupied by them during the
armistice (7th of February 1878) and restored to Turkey after the treaty
of Berlin. In 1859 a severe earthquake destroyed much of the town, and
another in November 1901 caused much damage.
The Erzerum vilayet extends from the Persian frontier at Bayazid, all
along the Russian frontier and westward into Anatolia at Baiburt and
Erzingan. It is divided into the three sanjaks of Bayazid, Erzerum, and
Erzingan. It includes the highest portion of the Armenian plateau, and
consists of bare undulating uplands varied by lofty ranges. The deep
gorges of the Chorokh and Tortum streams north of the town alone have a
different appearance, being well wooded in places. Both arms of the
Euphrates have their rise in this country as well as the Aras (Araxes)
and the Chorokh (Acampsis). It is an agricultural country with few
industries. Besides forests, iron, salt, sulphur and other mineral
springs are found. Some of the coal and lignite mines in Tortum have
been recently worked to supply fuel for Erzerum. The population is
largely Armenian and Kurd with some Turks (Moslems 500,000, Christians
140,000). (C. W. W.; F. R. M.)
ERZGEBIRGE, a mountain chain of Germany, extending in a W.S.W. direction
from the Elbe to the Elstergebirge along the frontier between Saxony and
Bohemia. Its length from E.N.E. to W.S.W. is about 80 m., and its
average breadth about 25 m. The southern declivity is generally steep
and rugged, forming in some places an almost perpendicular wall of the
height of from 2000 to 2500 ft.; while the northern, divided at
intervals into valleys, sometimes of great fertility and sometimes
wildly romantic, slopes gradually towards the great plain of northern
Germany. The central part of the chain forms a plateau of an average
height of more than 3000 ft. At the extremities of this plateau are
situated the highest summits of the range:--in the south-east the
Keilberg (4080 ft.); in the north-east the Fichtelberg (3980 ft.); and
in the south-west the Spitzberg (3650 ft.). Between the Keilberg and the
Fichtelberg, at the height of about 3300 ft., is situated Gottesgab, the
highest town in Bohemia. Geologically, the Erzgebirge range consists
mainly of gneiss, mica and phyllite. As its name (Ore Mountains)
indicates, it is famous for its mineral ores. These are chiefly silver
and lead, the layers of both of which are very extensive, tin, nickel,
copper and iron. Gold is found in several places, and some arsenic,
antimony, bismuth, manganese, mercury and sulphur. The Erzgebirge is
celebrated for its lace manufactures, introduced by Barbara Uttmann in
1541, embroideries, silk-weaving and toys. The climate is in winter
inclement in the higher elevations, and, as the snow lies deep until the
spring, the range is largely frequented by devotees of winter sport,
ski, toboganning, &c. In summer the air is bracing, and many climatic
health resorts have sprung into existence, among which may be mentioned
Kipsdorf, Barenfels and Oberwiesenthal. Communication with the
Erzgebirge is provided by numerous lines of railway, some, such as that
from Freiberg to Brux, that from Chemnitz to Komotau, and that from
Zwickau to Carlsbad, crossing the range, while various local lines serve
the higher valleys.
The Elstergebirge, a range some 16 m. in length, in which the Weisse
Elster has its source, runs S.W. from the Erzgebirge to the
Fichtelgebirge and attains a height of 2630 ft.
See Grohmann, _Das Obererzgebirge und seine Stadte_ (1903), and
Schurtz, _Die Passe des Erzgebirges_ (1891); also Daniel,
_Deutschland_, vol. ii., and Gebauer, _Lander und Volkerkunde_, vol.
i.
ERZINGAN, or ERZINJAN (_Arsinga_ of the middle ages), the chief town of
a sanjak in the Erzerum vilayet of Asiatic Turkey. It is the
headquarters of the IV. army corps, being a place of some military
importance, with large barracks and military factories. It is situated
at an altitude of 3900 ft., near the western end of a rich well-watered
plain through which runs the Kara Su or western Euphrates. It is
surrounded by orchards and gardens, and is about a mile from the right
bank of the river, which here runs in two wide channels crossed by
bridges. One wide street traverses the town from east to west, but the
others are narrow, unpaved and dirty, except near the new government
buildings and the large modern mosque of Hajji Izzet Pasha to the north,
which are the only buildings of note. The principal barracks, military
hospital and clothing factory are at Karateluk on the plain and along
the foot-hills to the north 3 m. off, one recent addition to the
business buildings having electric power and modern British machinery;
some older barracks and a military tannery and boot factory being in the
town. The population numbers about 15,000, of whom about half are
Armenians living in a separate quarter. The principal industries are the
manufacture of silk and cotton and of copper dishes and utensils. The
climate is hot in summer but moderate in winter. A carriage-road leads
to Trebizond, and other roads to Sivas, Karahissar, Erzerum and Kharput.
The plain, almost surrounded by lofty mountains, is highly productive
with many villages on it and the border hills. Wheat, fruit, vines and
cotton are largely grown, and cattle and sheep are bred. Water is
everywhere abundant, and there are iron and hot sulphur springs. The
battle in which the sultan of Rum (1243) was defeated by the Mongols
took place on the plain, and the celebrated Armenian monastery of St
Gregory, "the Illuminator," lies on the hills 11 m. S.W. of the town.
Erzingan occupies the site of an early town in which was a temple of
Anaitis. It was an important place in the 4th century when St Gregory
lived in it. The district passed from the Byzantines to the Seljuks
after the defeat of Romanus, 1071, and from the latter to the Mongols in
1243. After having been held by Mongols, Tatars and Turkomans, it was
added to the Osmanli empire by Mahommed II. in 1473. In 1784 the town
was almost destroyed by an earthquake. (C. W. W.; F. R. M.)
ESAR-HADDON [Assur-akhi-iddina, "Assur has given a brother"], Assyrian
king, son of Sennacherib; before his accession to the throne he had also
borne another name, Assur-etil-ilani-yukin-abla. At the time of his
father's murder (the 20th of Tebet, 681 B.C.) he was commanding the
Assyrian army in a war against Ararat. The conspirators, after holding
Nineveh for 42 days, had been compelled to fly northward and invoke the
aid of the king of Ararat. On the 12th of Iyyar (680 B.C.) a decisive
battle was fought near Malatia, in which the veterans of Assyria won the
day, and at the close of it saluted Esar-haddon as king. He returned to
Nineveh, and on the 8th of Sivan was crowned king. A good general,
Esar-haddon was also an able and conciliatory administrator. His first
act was to crush a rebellion among the Chaldaeans in the south of
Babylonia and then to restore Babylon, the sacred city of the West,
which had been destroyed by his father. The walls and temple of Bel were
rebuilt, its gods brought back, and after his right to rule had been
solemnly acknowledged by the Babylonian priesthood Esar-haddon made
Babylon his second capital. A year or two later Media was invaded and
Median chiefs came to Nineveh to offer homage to their conqueror. He now
turned to Palestine, where the rebellion of Abdi-milkutti of Zidon was
suppressed, its leader beheaded, and a new Zidon built out of the ruins
of the older city (676-675 B.C.). All Palestine now submitted to
Assyria, and 12 Syrian and 10 Cyprian princes (including Manasseh of
Judah) came to pay him homage and supply him with materials for his
palace at Nineveh. But a more formidable enemy had appeared on the
Assyrian frontier (676 B.C.). The Cimmerii (see SCYTHIA) under Teuspa
poured into Asia Minor; they were, however, overthrown in Cilicia, and
the Cilician mountaineers who had joined them were severely punished. It
was next necessary to secure the southern frontier of the empire.
Esar-haddon accordingly marched into the heart of Arabia, to a distance
of about 900 m., across a burning and waterless desert, and struck
terror into the Arabian tribes. At last he was free to complete the
policy of his predecessors by conquering Egypt, which alone remained to
threaten Assyrian dominion in the West. Baal of Tyre had transferred his
allegiance from Esar-haddon to the Egyptian king Tirhaka and opened to
the latter the coast road of Palestine; leaving a force, therefore, to
invest Tyre, Esar-haddon led the main body of the Assyrian troops into
Egypt on the 5th of Adar, 673 B.C. The desert was crossed with the help
of the Arabian sheikh. Egypt seems to have submitted to the invader and
was divided into twenty satrapies. Another campaign, however, was needed
before it could be finally subdued. In 670 B.C. Esar-haddon drove the
Egyptian forces before him in 15 days (from the 3rd to the 18th of
Tammuz) all the way from the frontier to Memphis, thrice defeating them
with heavy loss and wounding Tirhaka himself. Three days after Memphis
fell, and this was soon afterwards followed by the surrender of Tyre and
its king. In 668 B.C. Egypt again revolted, and while on the march to
reduce it Esar-haddon fell ill and died on the 10th of Marchesvan. His
empire was divided between his two sons Assur-bani-pal and
Samas-sum-yukin, Assur-bani-pal receiving Assyria and his brother
Babylonia, an arrangement, however, which did not prove to be a success.
Esar-haddon was the builder of a palace at Nineveh as well as of one
which he erected at Calah for Assur-bani-pal.
AUTHORITIES.--E.A.W. Budge, _History of Esarhaddon_ (1880); E.
Schrader, _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, ii. (1889) (Abel and
Winckler in ii. pp. 120-153); G. Maspero, _Passing of the Empires_,
pp. 345 sqq.; F. von Luschan, "Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli," i.
(_Mitteilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlungen_, 1893).
(A. H. S.)
ESAU, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, in the Bible, and the elder twin
brother of Jacob. He was so called because he was red (_admoni_) and
hairy when he was born, and the name Edom (red) was given to him when he
sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of _red_ lentil pottage (Gen.
xxv. 21-34). Another story of the manner in which Jacob obtained the
superiority is related in Gen. xxvii. Here the younger brother
impersonated the elder, and succeeded in deceiving his blind father by
imitating the hairiness of his brother. He thus gained the blessing
intended for the first-born, and Esau, on hearing how he had been
forestalled, vowed to kill him. Jacob accordingly fled to his mother's
relatives, and on his return, many years later, peace was restored
between them (xxxii. sq.). These primitive stories of the relations
between the eponymous heads of the Edomites and Israelites are due to
the older (Judaean) sources; the late notices of the Priestly school
(see GENESIS) preserve a different account of the parting of the two
(Gen. xxxvi. 6-8), and lay great stress upon Esau's marriages with the
Canaanites of the land, unions which were viewed (from the writer's
standpoint) with great aversion (Gen. xxvi. 34 sq., xxvii. 46). For
"Esau" as a designation of the Edomites, cf. Jer. xlix. 8, Obad. _vv._
6, 8, and on their history, see EDOM.
Esau's characteristic hairiness (Gen. xxv. 25, xxvii. 11) has given
rise to the suggestion that his name is properly _'eshav_, from a root
corresponding to the Arab. _'athiya_, to have thick or matted hair. Mt
Seir, too, where he resided, etymologically suggests a "shaggy"
mountain-land. According to Hommel (_Sud-arab. Chrestom._ p. 39 sq.)
the name Esau has S. Arabian analogies. On the possible identity of
the name with Usoos, the Phoenician demi-god (Philo of Byblus, ap.
Eusebius, _Praep. Evang._ i. 10), see Cheyne, _Encyc. Bib._ col. 1333;
Lagrange, _Etudes sur les religions semitiques_, p. 416 (Paris, 1905);
Ed. Meyer, _Israeliten_, 278 sq. (and, on general questions, _ib._ 128
sq., 329 sqq.). (S. A. C.)
ESBJERG, a seaport of Denmark in the _amt_ (county) of Ribe, 18 m. from
the German frontier on the west coast of Jutland. It has railway
communication with the east and north of Jutland, and with Germany. It
was granted municipal rights in 1900, having grown with astonishing
rapidity from 13 inhabitants in 1868 to 13,355 in 1901. This growth it
owes to the construction of a large harbour in 1868-1888. It is the
principal outlet westward for S. Jutland; exports pork and meat, butter,
eggs, fish, cattle and sheep, skins, lard and agricultural seeds, and
has regular communication with Harwich and Grimsby in England. Three
miles S.E. is Nordby on the island of Fano, the northernmost of the
North Frisian chain. It is an arid bank of heathland and dunes, but both
Nordby and Sonderho in the south are frequented as seaside resorts. The
former has a school of navigation. The fisheries are valuable.
ESCANABA, a city and the county-seat of Delta county, Michigan, U.S.A.,
on Little Bay de Noquette, an inlet of Green Bay, about 60 m. S. of
Marquette. Pop. (1890) 6808; (1900) 9549, of whom 3214 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,194. It is served by the Chicago &
North-Western and the Escanaba & Lake Superior railways. It is built on
a picturesque promontory which separates the waters of Green Bay from
Little Bay de Noquette, and its delightful summer climate, wild
landscape scenery and facilities for boating and trout fishing make it a
popular summer resort. Escanaba has a water front of 8 m., and is an
important centre for the shipment of iron-ore, for which eight large and
well-equipped docks are provided--there is an ore-crushing plant here;
considerable quantities of lumber and fish are also shipped, and
furniture, flooring (especially of maple) and wooden ware (butter-dishes
and clothes-pins) are manufactured. There is a large tie-preserving
plant here. Good water power is supplied by the Escanaba river. Escanaba
was settled in 1863, was incorporated as a village in 1883, and was
first chartered as a city in the same year.
ESCAPE (in mid. Eng. _eschape_ or _escape_, from the O. Fr. _eschapper_,
modern _echapper_, and _escaper_, low Lat. _escapium_, from _ex_, out
of, and _cappa_, cape, cloak; cf. for the sense development the Gr.
[Greek: ekduesthai], literally to put off one's clothes, hence to slip
out of, get away), a verb meaning to get away from, especially from
impending danger or harm, to avoid capture, to regain one's liberty
after capture. As a substantive, "escape," in law, is the regaining of
liberty by one in custody contrary to due process of law. Such escape
may be by force, if out of prison it is generally known as
"prison-breach" or "prison-breaking," or by the voluntary or negligent
act of the custodian. Where the escape is caused by the force or fraud
of others it is termed "rescue" (q.v.). "Escape" is used in botany of a
cultivated plant found growing wild. The word is also used of a means of
escape, e.g. "fire-escape," and of a loss or leakage of gas, current of
electricity or water.
ESCHATOLOGY (Gr. [Greek: eschatos], last, and [Greek: logos], science;
the "doctrine of last things"), a theological term derived from the New
Testament phrases "the last day" ([Greek: en te eschate hemera], John
vi. 39), "the last times" ([Greek: ep eschaton ton chronon], 1 Peter i.
20), "the last-state" ([Greek: ta eschata], Matt. xii. 45), a conception
taken over from ancient prophecy (Is. ii. 2; Mal. iv. 1). It was the
common belief in the apostolic age that the second advent of Christ was
near, and would give the divine completion to the world's history. The
use of the term, however, has been extended so as to include all that is
taught in the Scriptures about the future life of the individual as well
as the final destiny of the world. The reasons for the belief in a life
after death are discussed in the article IMMORTALITY. The present
article, after a brief glance at the conceptions of the future of the
individual or the world found in other religions, will deal with the
teaching of the Old and New Testaments, the Jewish and the Christian
Church regarding the hereafter.
There is a bewildering variety in the views of the future life and world
held by different peoples. The future life may be conceived as simply a
continuation of the present life in its essential features, although
under conditions more or less favourable. It may also be thought of as
retributive, as a reversal of present conditions so that the miserable
are comforted, and the prosperous laid low, or as a reward or punishment
for good or evil desert here. Personal identity may be absorbed, as in
the transmigration of souls, or it may even be denied, while the good or
bad result of one life is held to determine the weal or woe of another.
The scene of the future life may be thought of on earth, in some distant
part of it, or above the earth, in the sky, sun, moon or stars, or
beneath the earth. The abodes of bliss and the places of torment may be
distinguished, or one last dwelling-place may be affirmed for all the
dead. Sometimes the good find their abiding home with the gods;
sometimes a number of heavens of varying degrees of blessedness is
recognized (see F.B. Jevons, _An Introduction to the History of
Religion_, chs. xxi. and xxii., 1902; and J.A. MacCulloch's _Comparative
Theology_, xiv., 1902).
Eastern Religions.
(1) Confucius, though unwilling to discuss any questions concerning the
dead, by approving ancestor-worship recognized a future life. (2) Taoism
promises immortality as the reward of merit. (3) _The Book of the
Dead_--a guide-book for the departed on his long journey in the unseen
world to the abode of the blessed--shows the attention the Egyptian
religion gave to the state of the dead. (4) Although the Babylonian
religion presents a very gloomy view of the world of the dead, it is not
without a few faint glimpses of a hope that a few mortals at least may
gain deliverance from the dread doom. (5) A characteristic feature of
Indian thought is the transmigration of the soul from one mode of life
to another, the physical condition of each being determined by the moral
and religious character of the preceding. But deliverance from this
cycle of existences, which is conceived as misery, is promised by means
of speculation and asceticism. Denying the continuance of the soul,
Buddhism affirmed a continuity of moral consequences (_Karma_), each
successive life being determined by the total moral result of the
preceding life. Its doctrine of salvation was a guide to, if not
absolute non-existence, yet cessation of all consciousness of existence
(_Nirvana_). Later Buddhism has, however, a doctrine of many heavens and
hells. (6) In Zoroastrianism not only was continuance of life
recognized, but a strict retribution was taught. Heaven and hell were
very clearly distinguished, and each soul according to its works passed
to the one or to the other. But this faith did not concern itself only
with the future lot of the individual soul. It was also interested in
the close of the world's history, and taught a decisive, final victory
of Ormuzd over Ahriman, of the forces of good over the forces of evil.
It is not at all improbable that Jewish eschatology in its later
developments was powerfully influenced by the Persian faith. (7)
Mahommedanism reproduces and exaggerates the lower features of popular
Jewish and Christian eschatology (see the separate articles on these
religions).
Old Testament.
In the Old Testament we can trace the gradual development of an ever
more definite doctrine of "the final condition of man and the world."
This is regarded as the last stage in a moral process, a redemptive
purpose of God. The eschatology of the Old Testament is thus closely
connected with, but not limited by, Messianic hope, as there are
eschatological teachings that are not Messianic. As the Old Testament
revelation is concerned primarily with the elect nation, and only
secondarily (in the later writings) with the individual persons
composing it, we follow the order of importance as well as of time in
dealing first with the people. The universalism which marks the promise
to the seed of the woman (Gen. iii. 15) appears also in the blessing of
Noah (ix. 25). In the promise to Abraham (xii. 3) this universal good is
directly related to God's particular purpose for His chosen people; so
also in the blessing of Jacob (xlix.) and of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.).
David's last words (2 Sam. xxiii.) blend together his desire that his
family should retain the kingship, and his aspiration for a kingdom of
righteousness on earth. The conception of the "Day of the Lord" is
frequent and prominent in the prophets, and the sense given to the
phrase by the people and by the prophets throws into bold relief the
contrast between popular beliefs and the prophetic faith. The people
simply expected deliverance from their miseries and burdens by the
intervention of Yahweh, because He had chosen Israel for His people. The
prophets had an ethical conception of Yahweh; the sin of His own people
and of other nations called for His intervention in judgment as the
moral ruler of the world. But judgment they conceived as preparing for
redemption. The day of the Lord is always an eschatological conception,
as the term is applied to the final and universal judgment, and not to
any less decisive intervention of God in the course of human history. In
the pre-exilic prophets the judgment of God is "primarily on Israel,
although it also embraces the nations"; during the Exile and at the
Restoration the judgment is represented as falling on the nations while
redemption is being wrought for God's people; after the Restoration the
people of God is again threatened, but still the warning of judgment is
mainly directed towards the nations and deliverance is promised to
Israel. As the manifestation of God in grace as well as judgment, the
day of the Lord will bring joy to Israel and even to the world. As a
day of judgment it is accompanied by terrible convulsions of nature (not
to be taken figuratively, but probably intended literally by the
prophets in accordance with their view of the absolute subordination of
nature to the divine purpose for man). It ushers in the Messianic age.
While the moral issues are finally determined by this day, yet the world
of the Messianic age is painted with the colours of the prophet's own
surroundings. Israel is restored to its own land, and to it the other
nations are brought into subjugation, by force or persuasion. The
contributions of the Old Testament to Christian eschatology embrace
these features: "(1) The manifestation or advent of God; (2) the
universal judgment; (3) behind the judgment the coming of the perfect
kingdom of the Lord, when all Israel shall be saved and when the nations
shall be partakers of their salvation; and (4) the finality and eternity
of this condition, that which constitutes the blessedness of the saved
people being the Presence of God in the midst of them--this last point
corresponding to the Christian idea of heaven" (A.B. Davidson, in
Hastings's _Bible Dictionary_, i. p. 738). This hope is for the people
on this earth though transfigured.
To the individual it would seem at first only old age is promised (Is.
lxv. 20; Zech. viii. 4), but the abolition of death itself is also
declared (Is. xxv. 8). The resurrection, which appears at first as a
revival of the dead nation (Hos. vi. 2; Ez. xxxvii. 12-14), is
afterwards promised for the pious individuals (Is. xxvi. 19), so that
they too may share in the national restoration. Only in Daniel xii. 2 is
taught a resurrection of the wicked "to shame and everlasting contempt"
as well as of the righteous to "everlasting life." It was only at the
Exile, when the nation ceased to be, that the worth of the individual
came to be recognized, and the hopes given to the nation were claimed
for the individual. In dealing with the individual eschatology we must
carefully distinguish the popular ideas regarding death and the
hereafter which Israel shared with the other Semitic peoples, from the
intuitions, inferences, aspirations evoked in the pious by the divine
revelation itself. The former have not the moral significance or the
religious value of the latter. The starting-point of the development was
the common belief that the dead continued to exist in an unsubstantial
mode of life, but cut off from fellowship with God and man; but faith
left this far behind. Sheol is the common abode of the righteous and the
ungodly: life there is shadowy and feeble, but seems to continue in a
wavering and dim reflection features of this life. As the present life
is, however, determined by moral issues, and as death does not change
man's relation to God, moral considerations could not be absolutely
excluded from the future life. A forward step had to be taken. Pious
men, in fellowship with God, when they faced the fact of death, were led
either to challenge its right, or to give a new meaning to it. Either
there was a protest against death itself, and a demand for immortality
(Ps. xvi. 9-11), or death was conceived as something different for the
saint and for the sinner; fellowship with God would not and could not be
interrupted (Ps. xlix. 14, 15, lxxiii. 17-28). The vision of God is
anticipated after death's sleep (Ps. xvii. 15; Job xix. 25-27). This
belief in individual immortality is expressed poetically and obscurely:
it is later than the eschatology of the people. It assumes the moral
distinction of the righteous and the ungodly, and seeks a solution for
the problem of the lack of harmony of present character and condition.
Its deepest motive, however, is religious. The soul once in fellowship
with God cannot even by death be separated from God. The individual
hoped that he would live to share the nation's good, and thus the two
streams of Old Testament eschatology at last flow together.
Apocryphal and Apocalyptic books.
It is in the apocryphal and apocalyptic literature of Judaism that the
fullest development of eschatology can be traced. Four words may serve
to express the difference of the doctrine of these writings and the
teaching of the Old Testament. Eschatology was _universalized_ (God was
recognized as the creator and moral governor of all the world),
_individualized_ (God's judgment was directed, not to nations in a
future age, but to individuals in a future life), _transcendentalized_
(the future age was more and more contrasted with the present, and the
transition from the one to the other was not expected as the result of
historical movements, but of miraculous divine acts), and _dogmatized_
(the attempt was made to systematize in some measure the vague and
varied prophetic anticipations). Only a very brief summary of the
conceptions current in these writings can be given. The coming of the
Messiah will be preceded by the Last Woes. The Messiah is very variously
conceived: (1) "a passive, though supreme member of the Messianic
Kingdom"; (2) "an active warrior who slays his enemies with his own
hand"; (3) "one who slays his enemies by the word of his mouth, and
rules by virtue of his justice, faith and holiness"; (4) a supernatural
person, "eternal Ruler and Judge of Mankind" (R.H. Charles in Hastings's
_Bible Dictionary_, i. p. 748). In some of the writings no Messianic
kingdom is looked for; in others only a temporal duration on earth is
assigned to it; in others still it abides for ever either on earth as it
is, or on earth transformed. The dispersion among the nations is to
return home. Sometimes the Resurrection is narrowed down to the
resurrection of the righteous, at others widened out to the resurrection
of all mankind for the last judgment. A blessed immortality after
judgment, or even after death itself, is sometimes taught without
reference to any resurrection. Retribution in human history is
recognized, but attention is specially concentrated on the final
judgment, which is usually conceived as taking place in two stages. (1)
The Messianic is executed by the Messiah or the saints by victory in
war, or by judicial sentence. (2) The final remains in God's hands; but
in one writing (the _Ethiopic Enoch_) is represented as Messiah's
function. This judgment either closes the Messianic age, if thought of
as temporal, or ushers it in, if conceived as eternal, or closes the
world's history, if no Messianic age is expected. The place of torment
for the wicked was called Gehenna (the valley of Hinnom or the Sons of
Hinnom, where the bodies of criminals were cast out, is described in Is.
lxvi. 24). Here corporal as well as spiritual punishment was endured; it
was inflicted on apostate Jews or the wicked generally; the righteous
witnessed its initial stages but not its final form. In later Judaism it
was the purgatory of faithless Jews, who at last reached Paradise, but
it remained the place of eternal torment for the Gentiles. Paradise was
sometimes regarded as the division of Sheol to which the righteous
passed after death, but at others it was conceived as the heavenly abode
of Moses, Enoch and Elijah, to which other saints would pass after the
last judgment.
New Testament.
Pharisees and Sadducees.
The eschatology of the New Testament attaches itself not only to that of
the Old Testament but also to that of contemporary Judaism, but it
avoids the extravagances of the latter. Not at all systematic, it is
occasional, practical, poetical and dominantly evangelical, laying
stress on the hope of the righteous rather than the doom of the wicked.
The teaching of Jesus centres, according to the Synoptists, in the great
idea of the "Kingdom of God," which is already present in the teacher
Himself, but also future as regards its completion. In some parables a
gradual realization of the kingdom is indicated (Matt. xiii.); in other
utterances its consummation is connected with Christ's own return, His
Parousia (Matt. xxiv. 3, 37, 39), the time of which, however, is unknown
even to Himself (Mark xiii. 32). In this eschatological discourse (Matt.
xxiv., xxv.) He speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of
the world as near, and seemingly as one. This is in accordance with the
characteristic of prophecy, which sees in "timeless sequence" events
which are historically separated from one another. While the Return is
represented in the Synoptists as an external event, it is conceived in
the fourth gospel as an internal experience in the operation of the
Spirit on the believer (John xiv. 16-21); nevertheless here also the
Parousia in the synoptic sense is looked for (John xxi. 22; cf. 1 John
ii. 28). The object of the Second Coming is the execution of judgment by
Christ (Matt. xxv. 31), both individual (xxii. 1-14) and universal
(xiii. 36-42). The present subjective judgment, in which men determine
their destiny by their attitude to Christ, on which the fourth gospel
lays stress (John iii. 17-21, ix. 39), is not inconsistent with the
anticipation of a final judgment (John xii. 48, v. 27). This judgment
presupposes the resurrection, belief in which was rejected by the
Sadducees, but accepted by the Pharisees and the majority of the Jewish
people, and confirmed by Christ, not only as an individual spiritual
renovation (John v. 25, 26), but as a universal physical resuscitation
(28 and 29; Matt. xxii. 30). This resurrection is of the unjust as well
as the just (Matt. v. 29, 30, x. 28; Luke xiv. 14). On the _Intermediate
State_ Jesus does not speak clearly. He uses the term Hades twice
metaphorically (Matt. xi. 23, xvi. 18), and once in a parable, the "Rich
Man and Lazarus" (Luke xvi. 23), in which he employs the current phrases
such as "Abraham's bosom" (verse 22), without any definite doctrinal
intention, to unveil the secrets of the hereafter by confirming with His
authority the common beliefs of His time. The term Paradise (Luke xxiii.
43) seems to be used "in a large and general sense as a word of hope and
comfort," and we need not attach to it any of the more definite
associations which it had in Jewish eschatology. When he speaks of death
as "sleep" (Luke viii. 52; John xi. 11) it is to give men gentler and
sweeter thoughts of it, not to inculcate the doctrine of an intermediate
state as an unconscious condition. There are words which suggest rather
the hope of an immediate entrance of the just into the Father's house
and glory (John xiv. 2, 3, xvii. 24). He spoke frequently and distinctly
both of final reward for the righteous and final penalty for the wicked.
"The recompense of the righteous is described as an inheritance,
entrance into the kingdom, treasure in heaven, an existence like the
angelic, a place prepared, the Father's house, the joy of the Lord,
life, eternal life and the like; and there is no intimation that the
reward is capable of change, that the condition is a terminable one. The
retribution of the wicked is described as death, outer darkness, weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth, the undying worm, the quenchless
fire, exclusion from the kingdom, eternal punishment and the like"
(S.D.J. Salmond in Hastings's _Bible Dictionary_, p. 752). Degrees of
award are recognized (Luke xii. 47, 48). Gehenna is applied to the
condition of the lost (Matt. xviii. 9). Two sayings are held to point to
a terminable penalty (Matt. v. 25, 26, xii. 31, 32), but the one is so
figurative and the other so obscure, that we are not warranted in
drawing any such definite conclusion from either of them. The finality
of destiny seems to be unmistakably expressed (Matt. vii. 23, x. 33,
xiii. 30, xxv. 46, xxvi. 24; Mark ix. 43-48, viii. 36; Luke ix. 26; John
iii. 16, viii. 21, 24). No second opportunity for deciding the issue of
life or death is recognized by Jesus.
The apostolic eschatology presents resemblance amid difference. Jude (v.
6), as well as 2 Peter (ii. 4), refers to the judgment of the fallen
angels. 2 Peter describes the place of their detention as Tartarus, and
teaches that Christ's _Parousia_ is to bring the whole present system of
things to its conclusion, and the world itself to an end (iii. 10, 13).
After the destruction of the existing order by fire, "a new heaven and a
new earth" will appear as the abode of righteousness. The question of
greatest interest in 1 Peter is the relation of two passages in it, the
preaching to the spirits in prison (iii. 18-22) and the preaching of the
Gospel to the dead (iv. 6) to the "larger hope." Peter's discourse also
contains a phrase which suggests the belief of a descent of Christ into
Hades in the interval between His death and His resurrection (Acts ii.
31). No certainty has been reached in the interpretation of these
passages, but they may suggest to the Christian mind the expectation
that the final destiny of no soul can be fixed until in some way or
other, in this life or the next, the opportunity of decision for or
against Christ has been given. The phrase "the times of restoration of
all things" (iii. 21) is too vague in itself, and is too isolated in its
context to warrant the dogmatic teaching of universalism, although there
are other passages which seem to point towards the same goal. While
John's Apocalypse is distinctly eschatological, the Epistles and the
Gospels often give these conceptions an ethical and spiritual import,
without, however, excluding the eschatological. Life is present while
eternal (1 John v. 12, 13), but it is also future (ii. 25). There is
expected a future manifestation of Christ as He is, and what the
believer himself will be does not yet appear (iii. 2). The writer speaks
of the last hour (ii. 18), the Antichrist that cometh (ii. 22, iv. 3),
and the Christian's full reward (2 John v. 8) as well as the Parousia (1
John ii. 28). The Apocalypse reproduces much of the current Jewish
eschatology. A millennial reign of Christ on earth is interposed between
the first resurrection, confined to the saints and especially the
martyrs, and the second resurrection for the rest of the dead. A final
outburst of Satan's power is followed by his overthrow and the Last
Judgment.
Although Paul sometimes describes the Kingdom of God as present (Rom.
xiv. 17; 1 Cor. iv. 20; Col. i. 13), it is usually represented as
future. The Parousia fills a large place in his thought, and, if more
prominent in his earlier writings, is not altogether absent from his
later, although the expectation of personal survival does seem to grow
less confident (cf. 1 Cor. xv. 51 and Phil. i. 20-24). The doctrines of
the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, the Reward of the Righteous and the
Punishment of the Wicked are not less distinctly expressed than in the
other apostolic writings. Peculiar elements in Paul's eschatology are
the doctrines of the Rapture of the Saints (1 Thess. iv. 17) and the Man
of Sin (2 Thess. ii. 3-6), but these have affinities elsewhere. A
reference to the millennial reign of Christ in the period between the
two resurrections is sometimes sought in 1 Cor. xv. 22-24; but it is not
a chronology of the last things Paul is here giving. So also a
justification for the doctrine of purgatory is sought in iii. 12-15; but
the day and the fire are of the last judgment. A descent of Christ into
Hades, implying an extension of the opportunity of grace such as is
supposed to be taught in 1 Peter, is also discovered in the obscure
statements in Rom. x. 7 (where Paul is freely quoting Deut. xxx. 11-14),
and Eph. iv. 10 (where he is commenting on Ps. lxviii. 18). Universal
restoration is inferred from 1 Cor. xv. 24-28, "God all in all," Phil.
ii. 10-11, every knee bowing to, and every tongue confessing Jesus
Christ, Eph. i. 9, 10, the summing up of all things in Christ, Col. i.
20, God reconciling all things unto Himself in Christ. These passages
inspire a hope, but do not sustain a certainty. Paul's shrinking from
the disembodied state and longing to be clothed upon at death in 2 Cor.
v. 1-8, cannot be regarded as a proof of an _interim_ body prior to and
preparatory for the resurrection body. Paul links the human resurrection
with a universal renovation (Rom. viii. 19-23). Paul's eschatology is
not free of obscurities and ambiguities; and in the New Testament
eschatology generally we are forced to recognize a mixture of inherited
Jewish and original Christian elements (see ANTICHRIST).
During the first century of the existence of the Gentile Christian
Church, "the hope of the approaching end of the world and the glorious
kingdom of Christ" was dominant, although warnings had to be given
against doubt and indifference. Redemption was thought of as still
future, as the power of the devil had not been broken but rather
increased by the First Advent, and the Second Advent was necessary to
his complete overthrow. The expectations were often grossly
materialistic, as is evidenced by Papias's quotation as the words of the
Lord of a group of sayings from the Apocalypse of Baruch, setting forth
the amazing fruitfulness of the earth in the Messianic time.
Gnostics.
Montanism.
The Gnostics rejected this eschatology as in their view the enlightened
spirit already possessed immortality. Marcion expected that the Church
would be assailed by Antichrist; a visible return of Christ he did not
teach, but he recognized that human history would issue in a separation
of the good from the bad. Montanism sought to form a new Christian
commonwealth which, separated from the world, should prepare itself for
the descent of the Jerusalem from above, and its establishment in the
spot which by the direction of the Spirit had been chosen in Phrygia.
While Irenaeus held fast the traditional eschatological beliefs, yet his
conception of the Christian salvation as a deification of man tended to
weaken their hold on Christian thought. The Alogi in the 2nd century
rejected the Apocalypse on account of its chiliasm, its teaching of a
visible reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years. Montanism also
brought these apocalyptic expectations into discredit in orthodox
ecclesiastical circles. The Alexandrian theology strengthened this
movement against chiliasm. Clement of Alexandria taught that justice is
not merely retributive, that punishment is remedial, that probation
continues after death till the final judgment, that Christ and the
apostles preached the Gospel in Hades to those who lacked knowledge, but
whose heart was right, that a spiritual body will be raised. Origen
taught that a germ of the spiritual body is in the present body, and its
development depends on the character, that perfect bliss is reached only
by stages, that the evil are purified by pain, conscience being
symbolized by fire, and that all, even the devil himself, will at last
be saved. Both regarded chiliasm with aversion. But in the 5th century
there were rejected as heretical (1) "the doctrine of universalism, and
the possibility of the redemption of the devil; (2) the doctrine of the
complete annihilation of evil; (3) the conception of the penalties of
hell as tortures of conscience; (4) the spiritualizing version of the
resurrection of the body; (5) the idea of the continued creation of new
worlds" (A. Harnack, _History of Dogma_, iii. p. 186).
Epiphanius, following Methodius, insisted on the most perfect identity
between the resurrection body and the material body; and this belief,
enforced in the West by Jerome, soon established itself as alone
orthodox. Augustine made experiments on the flesh of a peacock in order
to find physical evidence for the doctrine. He held fast to eternal
punishment, but allowed the possibility of mitigations. Some believers,
he taught, may pass through purgatorial fires; and this middle class may
be helped by the sacraments and the alms of the living. "There are many
souls not good enough to dispense with this provision, and not bad
enough to be benefited by it" (op. cit. v. 233). This doctrine was
sanctioned and developed by Gregory the Great. "After God has changed
eternal punishments into temporary, the justified must expiate these
temporary penalties for sin in purgatory" (p. 268). This view was
inferred indirectly from Matt. xii. 31, and directly from 1 Cor. iii.
12-15. Afterwards purgatory took more and more the place of hell, and
was subject to the control of the church. As regards the saints,
different degrees of blessedness were recognized; they were supposed to
wait in Hades for the return of Christ, but gradually the belief gained
ground, especially in regard to the martyrs, that their souls at once
entered Paradise. The primitive Christian eschatology was preserved in
the West as it was not in the East, and in times of exceptional distress
the expectation of Antichrist emerged again and again. In the middle
ages there was an extravagance of speculation on this subject, which may
be seen in the last division of Aquinas' _Summa Theologiae_. He proposes
thirty questions on these matters, among which are the following:
"whether souls are conducted to heaven or hell immediately after death";
"whether the limbus of hell is the same as Abraham's bosom"; "whether
the sun and moon will be really obscured at the day of judgment";
"whether all the members of the human body will rise with it"; "whether
the hair and nails will reappear"; could thought become "more lawless
and uncertain"?
In Protestant Theology.
While rejecting purgatory, Protestantism took over this eschatology.
Souls passed at once to heaven or to hell; a doctrine even less adequate
to the complex quality of human life. Luther himself looked for the
passing away of the present evil world. Socinianism taught a new
spiritual body, an intermediate state in which the soul is near
non-existence, an annihilation of the wicked, as immortality is the gift
of God. Swedenborg discards a physical resurrection, as at death the
eyes of men are opened to the spiritual world in which we exist now, and
they continue to live essentially as they lived here, until by their
affinities they are drawn to heaven or hell. The doctrine of _eternal
punishment_ has been opposed on many grounds, such as the disproportion
between the offence and the penalty, the moral and religious immaturity
of the majority of men at death, the diminution of the happiness of
heaven involved in the knowledge of the endless suffering of others
(Schleiermacher), the defeat of the divine purpose of righteousness and
grace that the continued antagonism of any of God's creatures would
imply, the dissatisfaction God as Father must feel until His whole
family is restored. It has been argued that the term "eternal" has
reference not to duration of time but quality of being (Maurice); but it
does seem certain that the writers in the Holy Scriptures who used it
did not foresee an end either to the life or to the death to which they
applied the term. The contention should not be based on the meaning of a
single word, but on such broader considerations as have been indicated
above. The doctrine of _conditional_ immortality taught by Socinianism
was accepted by Archbishop Whately, and has been most persistently
advocated by Edward White, who "maintains that immortality is a truth,
not of reason, but of revelation, a gift of God" bestowed only on
believers in Christ; but he admits a continued probation after death for
such as have not hardened their hearts by a rejection of Christ.
According to Albrecht Ritschl "the _wrath_ of God means the resolve of
God to annihilate those men who finally oppose themselves to redemption,
and the final purpose of the kingdom of God." He thus makes immortality
conditional on inclusion in the kingdom of God. The doctrine of
_universal restoration_ was maintained by Thomas Erskine of Linlathen on
the ground of the Fatherhood of God, and Archdeacon Wilson anticipates
such discipline after death as will restore all souls to God. C.I.
Nitzsch argues against the doctrine of the annihilation of the wicked,
regards the teaching of Scripture about eternal damnation as
hypothetical, and thinks it possible that Paul reached the hope of
universal restoration. I.A. Dorner maintains that hopeless perdition can
be the penalty only of the deliberate rejection of the Gospel, that
those who have not had the opportunity of choice fairly and fully in
this life will get it hereafter, but that the right choice will in all
cases be made we cannot be confident. The attitude of theologians
generally regarding individual destiny is well expressed by Dr James
Orr, "The conclusion I arrive at is that we have not the elements of a
complete solution, and we ought not to attempt it. What visions beyond
there may be, what larger hopes, what ultimate harmonies, if such there
are in store, will come in God's good time; it is not for us to
anticipate them, or lift the veil where God has left it down" (_The
Christian View of God and the World_, 1893, p. 397).
Although in recent theological thought attention has been mainly
directed to individual destiny, yet the other elements of Christian
eschatology must not be altogether passed over. History has offered the
authoritative commentary on the prophecy of the Parousia of Christ. The
presence and power of His Spirit, the spread of His Gospel, the progress
of His kingdom have been as much a fulfilment of the eschatological
teaching of the New Testament as His life and work on earth were a
fulfilment of Messianic prophecy, for fulfilment always transcends
prophecy. Even if the common beliefs of the apostolic age have not
modified the evangelist's reports of Jesus' teaching, it must be
remembered that He used the common prophetic phraseology, the literal
fulfilment of which is not to be looked for. Some parables (the leaven,
the mustard seed) suggest a gradual progressive realization of His
kingdom. The Fourth Gospel interprets both judgment and resurrection
spiritually. Accordingly the general resurrection and the last judgment
may be regarded as the temporal and local forms of thought to express
the universal permanent truths that life survives death in the
completeness of its necessary organs and essential functions, and that
the character of that continued life is determined by personal choice of
submission or antagonism to God's purpose of grace in Christ, the
perfect realization of which is the Christian's hope for himself,
mankind and the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--In addition to the works referred to above the
following will be found useful: S.D.F. Salmond, _The Christian
Doctrine of Immortality_ (4th ed., 1901); R.H. Charles, _A Critical
History of the Doctrine of a Future Life in Israel, in Judaism, and in
Christianity_ (1899); L.N. Dahle, _Life after Death and the Future of
the Kingdom of God_ (Eng. tr. by J. Beveridge, 1895); J.A. Beet, _The
Last Things_ (new ed., 1905); W.G.T. Shedd, _Doctrine of Endless
Punishment_ (New York, 1886); F.W. Farrar, _The Eternal Hope_ (1892);
E. Petavel, _The Problem of Immortality_ (Eng. tr. by F.A. Freer,
1892); E. White, _Life in Christ_ (3rd ed., 1878); also the relevant
sections in books on biblical and systematic theology. (A. E. G.*)
ESCHEAT (O. Fr. _eschete_, from _escheoir_, to fall to one's share; Lat.
_excidere_, to fall out), in English law, the reversion of lands to the
next lord on the failure of heirs of the tenant. "When the tenant of an
estate in fee simple dies without having alienated his estate in his
lifetime or by his will, and without leaving any heirs either lineal or
collateral, the lands in which he held his estate escheat, as it is
called, to the lord of whom he held them" (Williams on the _Law of Real
Property_). This rule is explained by the conception of a freehold
estate as an interest in lands held by the freeholder from some lord,
the king being lord paramount. (See ESTATE.) The granter retains an
interest in the land similar to that of the donor of an estate for life,
to whom the land reverts after the life estate is ended. As there are
now few freehold estates traceable to any mesne or intermediate lord,
escheats, when they do occur, fall to the king as lord paramount.
Besides escheat for defect of heirs, there was formerly also escheat
_propter delictum tenentis_, or by the corruption of the blood of the
tenant through attainder consequent on conviction and sentence for
treason or felony. The blood of the tenant becoming corrupt by attainder
was decreed no longer inheritable, and the effect was the same as if the
tenant had died without heirs. The land, therefore, escheated to the
next heir, subject to the superior right of the crown to the forfeiture
of the lands,--in the case of treason for ever, in the case of felony
for a year and a day. All this was abolished by the Felony Act 1870,
which provided for the appointment of an administrator to the property
of the convict. Escheat is also an incident of copyhold tenure. Trust
estates were not subject to escheat until the Intestates' Estates Act
1884, but now by that act the law of escheat applies in the same manner
as if the estate or interest were a legal estate in corporeal
hereditaments.
ESCHENBURG, JOHANN JOACHIM (1743-1820), German critic and literary
historian, was born at Hamburg on the 7th of December 1743. After
receiving his early education in his native town, he studied at Leipzig
and Gottingen. In 1767 he was appointed tutor, and subsequently
professor, at the Collegium Carolinum in Brunswick. The title of
"Hofrat" was conferred on him in 1786, and in 1814 he was made one of
the directors of the Carolinum. He is best known by his efforts to
familiarize his countrymen with English literature. He published a
series of German translations of the principal English writers on
aesthetics, such as J. Brown, D. Webb, Charles Burney, Joseph Priestley
and R. Hurd; and Germany owes also to him the first complete translation
(in prose) of Shakespeare's plays (_William Shakespear's Schauspiele_,
13 vols., Zurich, 1775-1782). This is virtually a revised edition of the
incomplete translation published by Wieland between 1762 and 1766.
Eschenburg died at Brunswick on the 29th of February 1820.
Besides editing, with memoirs, the works of Hagedorn, Zacharia and other
German poets, he was the author of a _Handbuch der klassischen
Literatur_ (1783); _Entwurf einer Theorie und Literatur der schonen
Wissenschaften_ (1783); _Beispielsammlung zur Theorie und Literatur der
schonen Wissenschaften_ (8 vols., 1788-1795); _Lehrbuch der
Wissenschaftskunde_ (1792); and _Denkmaler altdeutscher Dichtkunst_
(1799). Most of these works have passed through several editions.
Eschenburg was also a poet of some pretensions, and some of his
religious hymns, e.g. _Ich will dich noch im Tod erheben_ and _Dir trau'
ich, Gott, und wanke nicht_, are contained in many hymnals to this day.
ESCHENMAYER, ADAM KARL AUGUST VON (1768-1852), German philosopher and
physicist, was born at Neuenburg in Wurttemberg in July 1768. After
receiving his early education at the Caroline academy of Stuttgart, he
entered the university of Tubingen, where he received the degree of
doctor of medicine. He practised for some time as a physician at Sulz,
and then at Kirchheim, and in 1811 he was chosen extraordinary professor
of philosophy and medicine at Tubingen. In 1818 he became ordinary
professor of practical philosophy, but in 1836 he resigned and took up
his residence at Kirchheim, where he devoted his whole attention to
philosophical studies. Eschenmayer's views are largely identical with
those of Schelling, but he differed from him in regard to the knowledge
of the absolute. He believed that in order to complete the arc of truth
philosophy must be supplemented by what he called "non-philosophy," a
kind of mystical illumination by which was obtained a belief in God that
could not be reached by mere intellectual effort (see Hoffding, _Hist.
of Mod. Phil._, Eng. trans. vol. 2, p. 170). He carried this tendency to
mysticism into his physical researches, and was led by it to take a deep
interest in the phenomena of animal magnetism. He ultimately became a
devout believer in demoniacal and spiritual possession; and his later
writings are all strongly impregnated with the lower supernaturalism.
His principal works are--_Die Philosophie in ihrem Ubergange zur
Nichtphilosophie_ (1803); _Versuch die scheinbare Magie des
thierischen Magnetismus aus physiol. und psychischen Gesetzen zu
erklaren_ (1816); _System der Moralphilosophie_ (1818); _Psychologie
in drei Theilen, als empirische, reine, angewandte_ (1817, 2nd ed.
1822); _Religionsphilosophie_ (3 vols., 1818-1824); _Die Hegel'sche
Religionsphilosophie verglichen mit dem christl. Princip_ (1834); _Der
Ischariotismus unserer Tage_ (1835) (directed against Strauss's _Life
of Jesus_); _Konflikt zwischen Himmel und Holle, an dem Damon eines
besessenen Madchens beobachtet_ (1837); _Grundriss der
Naturphilosophie_ (1832); _Grundzuge der christl. Philosophie_ (1840);
and _Betrachtungen uber den physischen Weltbau_ (1852).
ESCHER VON DER LINTH, ARNOLD (1807-1872), Swiss geologist, the son of
Hans Conrad Escher (1767-1823), was born at Zurich on the 8th of June
1807. In 1856 he became professor of geology at the Ecole Polytechnique
at Zurich. His researches led him to be regarded as one of the founders
of Swiss geology. With B. Studer he produced (1852-1853) the first
elaborate geological map of Switzerland. He was the author also of
_Geologische Bemerkungen uber das nordliche Vorarlberg und einige
angrenzenden Gegenden_, published at Zurich in 1853. He died on the 12th
of July 1872.
ESCHSCHOLTZ, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1793-1831), Russian traveller and
naturalist, was born in November 1793, at Dorpat, where he died in May
1831. He was naturalist and physician to Otto von Kotzebue's exploring
expedition during 1815-1818. On his return he was appointed
extraordinary professor of anatomy (1819) and director of the zoological
museum of the university at Dorpat (1822), and in 1823-1826 he
accompanied Kotzebue on his second voyage of discovery. He became
ordinary professor of anatomy at Dorpat in 1828. Among his publications
were the _System der Akalephen_ (1829), and the _Zoologischer Atlas_
(1829-1833). The botanical genus _Eschscholtzia_ was named by Adelbert
von Chamisso in his honour.
ESCHWEGE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau,
on the Werra, and the railway Treysa-Leinefelde, 28 m. S.E. of Cassel.
Pop. (1905) 11,113. It consists of the old town on the left, the new
town on the right, bank of the Werra, and Bruckenhausen on a small
island connected with the old and new town by bridges. It is a thriving
manufacturing town, its chief industries being leather-making,
yarn-spinning, cotton- and linen-weaving, the manufactures of cigars,
brushes, liquors and oil, and glue- and soap-boiling. It has two ancient
buildings, the Nikolai-turm, built in 1455, and the old castle. After
being part of Thuringia, Eschwege passed to Hesse in 1263. It was
recovered by the landgrave of Thuringia in 1388, but soon reverted to
Hesse, and it became the residence of one of the branches of the Hessian
royal house, a branch which died out in 1655.
ESCHWEILER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the
Inde, and the railways Cologne-Herbesthal and Munich-Gladbach-Stolberg,
about 8 m. E.N.E. from Aix-la-Chapelle. Pop. (1905) 20,643. The town has
an Evangelical and four Roman Catholic churches, a gymnasium and an
orphanage. The manufacture of iron and steel goods is carried on; other
industries include the manufacture of zinc wares, tanning, distilling
and brewing. In the neighbourhood there are valuable coal mines.
See Koch, _Geschichte der Stadt Eschweiler_ (Frankfort, 1890).
ESCOBAR Y MENDOZA, ANTONIO (1589-1669), Spanish churchman of illustrious
descent, was born at Valladolid in 1589. He was educated by the Jesuits,
and at the age of fifteen took the habit of that order. He soon became a
famous preacher, and his facility was so great that for fifty years he
preached daily, and sometimes twice a day. In addition he was a
voluminous writer, and his works fill eighty-three volumes. His first
literary efforts were Latin verses in praise of Ignatius Loyola (1613)
and the Virgin Mary (1618); but he is best known as a writer on
casuistry. His principal works belong to the fields of exegesis and
moral theology. Of the latter the best known are _Summula casuum
conscientiae_ (1627); _Liber theologiae moralis_ (1644), and _Universae
theologiae moralis problemata_ (1652-1666). The first mentioned of these
was severely criticised by Pascal in the fifth and sixth of his
_Provincial Letters_, as tending to inculcate a loose system of
morality. It contains the famous maxim that purity of intention may be a
justification of actions which are contrary to the moral code and to
human laws; and its general tendency is to find excuses for the majority
of human frailties. His doctrines were disapproved of by many Catholics,
and were mildly condemned by Rome. They were also ridiculed in witty
verses by Moliere, Boileau and La Fontaine, and gradually the name
Escobar came to be used in France as a synonym for a person who is
adroit in making the rules of morality harmonize with his own interests.
Escobar himself is said to have been simple in his habits, a strict
observer of the rules of his order, and unweariedly zealous in his
efforts to reform the lives of those with whom he had to deal. It has
been said of him that "he purchased heaven dearly for himself, but gave
it away cheap to others." He died on the 4th of July 1669.
ESCOIQUIZ, JUAN (1762-1820), Spanish ecclesiastic, politician and
writer, was born in Navarre in 1762. His father was a general officer
and he began life as a page in the court of King Charles III. He entered
the church and was provided for by a prebend at Saragossa. Godoy in his
memoirs asserts that Escoiquiz sought to gain his favour by flattery.
There is every reason to believe that this is an accurate statement of
the case. The mere fact that he was selected to be the tutor of the
heir-apparent, Ferdinand, afterwards King Ferdinand VII., is of itself a
proof that he exerted himself to gain the goodwill of the reigning
favourite. In 1797 he published a translation of Young's _Night
Thoughts_, which does not of itself show that he was well acquainted
with English, for the version may have been made with the help of the
French. In 1798 he published a long and worthless so-called epic on the
conquest of Mexico. Escoiquiz was in fact a busy and pushing member of
the literary clique which looked up to Godoy as its patron. But his
position as tutor to the heir to the throne excited his ambition. He
began to hope that he might play the part of those court ecclesiastics
who had often had an active share in the government of Spain. As
Ferdinand grew up, and after his marriage with a Neapolitan princess, he
became the centre of a court opposition to Godoy and to his policy of
alliance with France. Escoiquiz was the brains, as far as there were any
brains, of the intrigue. His activity was so notorious that he was
exiled from court, but was consoled by a canonry at Toledo. This half
measure was as ineffective as was to have been expected. Escoiquiz
continued to be in constant communication with the prince. Toledo is
close to Madrid, and the correspondence was easily maintained. He had a
large share in the conspiracy of the Escorial which was detected on the
28th of October 1807. He was imprisoned and sent for trial with other
conspirators. But as they had appealed to Napoleon, who would not suffer
his name to be mentioned, the government had to allow the matter to be
hushed up, and the prisoners were acquitted. After the outbreak at
Aranjuez on the 17th of March 1808, in which he had a share, he became
one of the most trusted advisers of Ferdinand. The new king's decision
to go to meet Napoleon at Bayonne was largely inspired by him. In 1814
Escoiquiz published at Madrid his _Idea Sencilla de las razones que
motivaron el viage del Rey Fernando VII. a Bayona_ (Honest
representation of the causes which inspired the journey of King
Ferdinand VII. to Bayonne). It is a valuable historical document, and
contains a singularly vivid account of an interview with Napoleon.
Escoiquiz was far too firmly convinced of his ingenuity and merits to
conceal the delusions and follies of himself and his associates. He
displays his own vanity, frivolity and futile cleverness with much
unconscious humour, but, it is only fair to allow, with some literary
dexterity. When the Spanish royal family was imprisoned by Napoleon,
Escoiquiz remained with Ferdinand at Valencay. In 1813 he published at
Bourges a translation of Milton's _Paradise Lost_. When Ferdinand was
released in 1814 he came back to Madrid in the hope that his ambition
would now be satisfied, but the king was tired of him, and was moreover
resolved never to be subjected by any favourite. After a very brief
period of office in 1815 he was sent as a prisoner to Murcia. Though he
was afterwards recalled, he was again exiled to Ronda, where he died on
the 27th of November 1820.
ESCOMBE, HARRY (1838-1899), South African statesman, a member of a
Somersetshire family, was born at Notting Hill, London, on the 25th of
July 1838, and was educated at St Paul's school. After four years in a
stockbroker's office, he emigrated, in 1859, to the Cape. The following
year he moved to Natal, and, after trying other occupations, qualified
as an attorney. He became recognized as the ablest pleader in the
colony, and, in 1872, was elected for Durban as a member of the
legislative council, and subsequently was also placed on the executive
council. In 1880 he secured the appointment of a harbour board for
Natal, and was himself made chairman. The transformation of the port of
Durban into a harbour available for ocean liners was due entirely to his
energy. In 1888-1889 he defended Dinizulu and other Zulu chiefs against
a charge of high treason. For several years he opposed the grant of
responsible government to Natal, but by 1890 had become convinced of its
desirability, and on its conferment in 1893 he joined the first ministry
formed, serving under Sir John Robinson as attorney-general. In February
1897, on Sir John's retirement, Escombe became premier, remaining
attorney-general and also holding the office of minister of education
and minister of defence. In the summer of that year he was in London
with the other colonial premiers at the celebration of the Diamond
Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and was made a member of the privy council.
Cambridge University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. The
election that followed his return to Natal proved unfavourable to his
policy, and he resigned office (October 1897). Throughout his life he
took an active interest in national defence. He had served in the Zulu
War of 1879, was commander of the Natal Naval Volunteers and received
the volunteer long service decoration. In October 1899 he went to the
northern confines of the colony to take part in preparing measures of
defence against the invasion by the Boers. He died on the 27th of
December 1899.
The _Speeches of the late Right Hon. Harry Escombe_ (Maritzburg,
1903), edited by J.T. Henderson, contains brief biographical notes by
Sir John Robinson and the editor.
ESCORIAL, or ESCURIAL, in Spain, one of the most remarkable buildings in
Europe, comprising at once a convent, a church, a palace and a
mausoleum. The Escorial is situated 3432 ft. above the sea, on the
south-western slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and thus within the
borders of the province of Madrid and the kingdom of New Castile. By the
Madrid-Avila railway it is 31 m. N.W. of Madrid. The surrounding country
is a sterile and gloomy wilderness exposed to the cold and blighting
blasts of the Sierra.
According to the usual tradition, which there seems no sufficient reason
to reject, the Escorial owes its existence to a vow made by Philip II.
of Spain (1556-1598), shortly after the battle of St Quentin, in which
his forces succeeded in routing the army of France. The day of the
victory, the 10th of August 1557, was sacred to St Laurence; and
accordingly the building was dedicated to that saint, and received the
title of _El real monasterio de San Lorenzo del Escorial_. The last
distinctive epithet was derived from the little hamlet in the vicinity
which furnished shelter, not only to the workmen, but to the monks of St
Jerome who were afterwards to be in possession of the monastery; and
the hamlet itself is generally but perhaps erroneously supposed to be
indebted for its name to the _scoriae_ or dross of certain old iron
mines. The preparation of the plans and the superintendence of the work
were entrusted by the king to Juan Bautista de Toledo, a Spanish
architect who had received most of his professional education in Italy.
The first stone was laid in April 1563; and under the king's personal
inspection the work rapidly advanced. Abundant supplies of _berroquena_,
a granite-like stone, were obtained in the neighbourhood, and for rarer
materials the resources of both the Old and the New World were put under
contribution. The death of Toledo in 1567 threatened a fatal blow at the
satisfactory completion of the enterprise, but a worthy successor was
found in Juan Herrera, Toledo's favourite pupil, who adhered in the main
to his master's designs. On the 13th of September 1584 the last stone of
the masonry was laid, and the works were brought to a termination in
1593. Each successive occupant of the Spanish throne has done something,
however slight, to the restoration or adornment of Philip's
convent-palace, and Ferdinand VII. (1808-1833) did so much in this way
that he has been called a second founder. In all its principal features,
however, the Escorial remains what it was made by the genius of Toledo
and Herrera working out the grand, if abnormal, desires of their master.
The ground plan of the building is estimated to occupy an area of
396,782 sq. ft., and the total area of all the storeys would form a
causeway 1 metre in breadth and 95 m. in length. There are seven towers,
fifteen gateways and, according to Los Santos, no fewer than 12,000
windows and doors. The general arrangement is shown by the accompanying
plan. Entering by the main entrance the visitor finds himself in an
atrium, called the Court of the Kings (_Patio de los reyes_), from the
16th-century statues of the kings of Judah, by Juan Bautista Monegro,
which adorn the facade of the church. The sides of the atrium are
unfortunately occupied by plain ungainly buildings five storeys in
height, awkwardly accommodating themselves to the upward slope of the
ground. Of the grandeur of the church itself, however, there can be no
question: it is the finest portion of the whole Escorial, and, according
to Fergusson, deserves to rank as one of the great Renaissance churches
of Europe. It is about 340 ft. from east to west by 200 from north to
south, and thus occupies an area of about 70,000 sq. ft. The dome is 60
ft. in diameter, and its height at the centre is about 320 ft. In
glaring contrast to the bold and simple forms of the architecture, which
belongs to the Doric style, were the bronze and marbles and pictures of
the high altar, the masterpiece of the Milanese Giacomo Trezzo, almost
ruined by the French in 1808. Directly under the altar is situated the
pantheon or royal mausoleum, a richly decorated octagonal chamber with
upwards of twenty niches, occupied by black marble _urnas_ or
sarcophagi, kept sacred for the dust of kings or mothers of kings. There
are the remains of Charles V. (1516-1556), of Philip II., and of all
their successors on the Spanish throne down to Ferdinand VII., with the
exception of Philip V. (1700-1746) and Ferdinand VI. (1746-1759).
Several of the sarcophagi are still empty. For the other members of the
royal family there is a separate vault, known as the _Panteon de los
Infantes_, or more familiarly by the dreadfully suggestive name of _El
Pudridero_. The most interesting room in the palace is Philip II.'s
cell, from which through an opening in the wall he could see the
celebration of mass while too ill to leave his bed.
[Illustration: Views and Plan of the Escorial.[1]