The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 177

EARTH HOUSES, known also as Yird Houses, Weems and Picts' Houses, underground dwellings in use in Scotland, extant even after the Roman evacuation of Britain. Entrance was effected by a pa.s.sage not much wider than a fox burrow, which sloped downwards 10 or 12 ft. to the floor of the house; the inside was oval in shape, and was walled with overlapping rough stone slabs; the roof frequently reached to within a foot of the earth's surface; they probably served as store-houses, winter-quarters, and as places of refuge in times of war. Similar dwellings are found in Ireland.

EARTHLY PARADISE, poem by William Morris, his greatest effort, considered his masterpiece; consists of 24 tales by 24 travellers in quest of an earthly paradise.

EAST INDIA COMPANY, founded in 1600; erected its first factories on the mainland in 1612 at Surat, but its most profitable trade in these early years was with the Spice Islands, Java, Sumatra, &c.; driven from these islands by the Dutch in 1622, the Company established itself altogether on the mainland; although originally created under royal charter for purely commercial purposes, it in 1689 entered upon a career of territorial acquisition, which culminated in the establishment of British power in India; gradually, as from time to time fresh renewals of its charter were granted, it was stripped of its privileges and monopolies, till in 1858, after the Mutiny, all its powers were vested in the British Crown.

EAST RIVER, the strait which separates Brooklyn and New York cities, lying between Long Island Sound and New York Bay, about 10 m. long; is spanned by a bridge.

EASTBOURNE (35), a fashionable watering-place and health resort on the Suss.e.x coast, between Brighton and Hastings, and 66 m. S. of London; has Roman remains, and is described in "Domesday Book."

EASTER, an important festival of the Church commemorating the resurrection of Christ; held on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the calendar which happens on or next after 21st of March, and const.i.tuting the beginning of the ecclesiastical year; the date of it determines the dates of other movable festivals; derives its name from Eastre, a Saxon G.o.ddess, whose festival was celebrated about the same time, and to which many of the Easter customs owe their origin.

EASTERN STATES, the six New England States in N. America--Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

EASTLAKE, SIR CHARLES LOCK, artist and author, born at Plymouth; studied painting in London and in Paris; produced the last portrait of Napoleon, which he executed from a series of sketches of the emperor on board the _Bellerophon_ in Plymouth harbour; he travelled in Greece, and from 1816 to 1830 made his home at Rome; "Christ Weeping over Jerusalem,"

his greatest work, appeared in 1841; was President of the Royal Academy; wrote several works on subjects relating to his art, and translated Goethe's "Farbenlehre" (1793-1865).

EASTWICK, EDWARD BACKHOUSE, Orientalist and diplomatist, born at Warfield, in Berkshire; went to India as a cadet, acquired an extensive knowledge of Indian dialects and Eastern languages, and pa.s.sed an interpretership examination, gaining the high proficiency reward of 1000 rupees; carried through peace negotiations with China in 1842; invalided home, he became professor of Hindustani at Haileybury College; afterwards studied law and was called to the bar; entered Parliament, and held various political appointments, including a three years' emba.s.sy in Persia; was a fellow of many antiquarian and philological societies; amongst his numerous philological productions and translations his "Gulistan" and "Life of Zoroaster" from the Persian are noted (1814-1883).

EAU CREOLE, a liqueur from the distillation of the flowers of the mammee apple with spirits of wine.

EAU-DE-COLOGNE, a perfume originally manufactured at Cologne by distillation from certain essential oils with rectified spirit.

EBAL, MOUNT, a mountain with a level summit, which rises to the height of 3077 ft. on the N. side of the narrow Vale of Shechem, in Palestine, and from the slopes of which the people of Israel responded to the curses which were p.r.o.nounced by the Levites in the valley.

EBERHARD, JOHANN AUGUST, German philosophical writer, born at Halberstadt; professor at Halle; rationalistic in his theology, and opposed to the Kantian metaphysics; was a disciple of Leibnitz; wrote a "New Apology of Socrates," in defence of rationalism in theology, as well as a "Universal History of Philosophy," and a work on German synonyms (1739-1809).

EBERS, GEORGE MORITZ, German Egyptologist, born at Berlin; discovered an important papyrus; was professor successively at Jena and Leipzig; laid aside by ill-health, betook himself to novel-writing as a pastime; was the author of "Aarda, a Romance of Ancient Egypt,"

translated by Clara Bell (1837-1898).

EBERT, KARL EGON, a Bohemian poet, born at Prague; his poems, dramatic and lyric, are collected in 7 vols., and enjoy a wide popularity in his country (1801-1882).

EBIONITES, a sect that in the 2nd century sought to combine Judaism and the hopes of Judaism with Christianity, and rejected the authority of St. Paul and of the Pauline writings; they denied the divinity of Christ, and maintained that only the poor as such were the objects of salvation.

EBLIS, in Mohammedan tradition the chief of the fallen angels, consigned to perdition for refusing to worship Adam at the command of his Creator, and who gratified his revenge by seducing Adam and Eve from innocency.

EBONY, a name given to Blackwood by James Hogg, and eventually applied to his magazine.

EBRO, a river of Spain, rises in the Cantabrian Mountains, flows SE.

into the Mediterranean 80 m. SW. of Barcelona, after a course of 422 m.

ECBATANA, the ancient capital of Media, situated near Mount Orontes (now Elvend); was surrounded by seven walls of different colours that increased in elevation towards the central citadel; was a summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The modern town of Hamadan now occupies the site of it.

ECCE h.o.m.o (i. e. Behold the Man), a representation of Christ as He appeared before Pilate crowned with thorns and bound with ropes, as in the painting of Correggio, a subject which has been treated by many of the other masters, such as t.i.tian and Vandyck.

ECCHYMOSIS, a discolouration of the skin produced by extravasated blood under or in the texture of the skin, the result of a blow or of disease.

ECCLEFECHAN, a market-town of Dumfriesshire, consisting for the most part of the High Street, 5 m. S. of Lockerbie, on the main road to Carlisle, 16 m. to the S.; noted as the birth and burial place of Thomas Carlyle.

ECCLESIASTES (i. e. the Preacher), a book of the Old Testament, questionably ascribed to Solomon, and now deemed of more recent date as belonging to a period when the reflective spirit prevailed; and it is written apparently in depreciation of mere reflection as a stepping-stone to wisdom. The standpoint of the author is a religious one; the data on which he rests is given in experience, and his object is to expose the vanity of every source of satisfaction which is not founded on the fear, and has not supreme regard for the commandments, of G.o.d, a doctrine which is the very ground-principle of the Jewish faith; but if vanity is written over the whole field of human experience, he argues, this is not the fault of the system of things, but due, according to the author, to the folly of man (chap. vii. 29).

ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, THE LAW OF, a vindication of the Anglican Church against the Puritans, written by Richard Hooker; the most splendid and stately piece of literary prose that exists in the language.

ECCLESIASTICAL STATES, territories in Italy once subject to the Pope as a temporal prince as well as ecclesiastically.

ECCLESIASTICUS, one of the books of the Apocrypha, ascribed to Jesus, the son of Sirach, admitted to the sacred canon by the Council of Trent, though excluded by the Jews. It contains a body of wise maxims, in imitation, as regards matter as well as form, of the Proverbs of Solomon, and an appendix on the men who were the disciples of wisdom. Its general aim, as has been said, is "to represent wisdom as the source of all virtue and blessedness, and by warnings, admonitions, and promises to encourage in the pursuit of it." It was originally written in Hebrew, but is now extant only in a Greek translation executed in Egypt, professedly by the author's grandson.

ECCLESIOLOGY, the name given in England to the study of church architecture and all that concerns the ground-plan and the internal arrangements of the parts of the edifice.

ECGBERHT, archbishop of York; was a pupil of Bede, and the heir to his learning; founded a far-famed school at York, which developed into a university; flourished in 766.

ECHIDNA, a fabulous monster that figures in the Greek mythology, half-woman, half-serpent, the mother of Cerberus, the Lernean Hydra, the Chimaera, the Sphinx, the Gorgons, the Nemean Lion, the vulture that gnawed the liver of Prometheus, &c.

ECHO, a wood-nymph in love with Narcissus, who did not return her love, in consequence of which she pined away till all that remained of her was only her voice.

ECK, JOHN, properly MAiER, a German theologian, of Swabian birth, professor at Ingolstadt; a violent, bl.u.s.tering antagonist of Luther and Luther's doctrines; in his zeal went to Rome, and procured a papal bull against both; undertook at the Augsburg Diet to controvert Luther's doctrine from the Fathers, but not from the Scriptures; was present at the conferences of Worms and Regensburg (1486-1543).