The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 178

ECKERMANN, JOHANN PETER, a German writer, born at Winsen, in Hanover; friend of Goethe, and editor of his works; the author of "Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of his Life, 1823-32," a record of wise reflections and of Goethe's opinions on all subjects, of the utmost interest to all students of the German sage (1792-1854).

ECKHART, MEISTER, a German philosopher and divine, profoundly speculative and mystical; entered the Dominican Order, and rapidly attained to a high position in the Church; arraigned for heresy in 1325, and was acquitted, but two years after his death his writings were condemned as heretical by a papal bull; died in 1327.

ECKMuHL, a village in Bavaria where Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1809, and which gave the t.i.tle of Duke to DAVOUT (q. v.), one of Napoleon's generals.

ECLECTICS, so-called philosophers who attach themselves to no system, but select what, in their judgment, is true out of others. In antiquity the Eclectic philosophy is that which sought to unite into a coherent whole the doctrines of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, such as that of Plotinus and Proclus was. There is an eclecticism in art as well as philosophy, and the term is applied to an Italian school which aimed at uniting the excellencies of individual great masters.

ECLIPTIC, the name given to the circular path in the heavens round which the sun appears to move in the course of the year, an illusion caused by the earth's annual circuit round the sun, with its axis inclined at an angle to the equator of 23 degrees; is the central line of the ZODIAC (q. v.), so called because it was observed that eclipses occurred only when the earth was on or close upon this path.

ECONOMY, "the right arrangement of things," and distinct from Frugality, which is "the careful and fitting use of things."

ECORCHEURS (lit. flayers properly of dead bodies), armed bands who desolated France in the reign of Charles VII., stripping their victims of everything, often to their very clothes.

ECSTATIC DOCTOR, Jean Ruysbroek, a schoolman given to mysticism (1294-1381).

ECUADOR (1,271), a republic of S. America, of Spanish origin, created in 1822; derives its name from its position on the equator; lies between Columbia and Peru; is traversed by the Andes, several of the peaks of which are actively volcanic; the population consists of Peruvian Indians, negroes, Spanish Creoles; exports cocoa, coffee, hides, and medicinal plants; the administration is vested in a president, a vice-president, two ministers, a senate of 18, and a house of deputies of 30, elected by universal suffrage.

Ec.u.mENICAL COUNCIL, an ecclesiastical council representative, or accepted as representative, of the Church universal or Catholic. See COUNCILS.

ECZEMA, a common skin disease, which may be either chronic or acute; develops in a red rash of tiny vesicles, which usually burst and produce a characteristic scab; is not contagious, and leaves no scar.

EDDA (lit. grandmother), the name given to two collections of legends ill.u.s.trative of the Scandinavian mythology: the Elder, or Poetic, Edda, collected in the 11th century by Saemund Sigfusson, an early Christian priest, "with perhaps a lingering fondness for paganism," and the Younger, or Prose, Edda, collected in the next century by Snorri Sturleson, an Icelandic gentleman (1178-1241), "educated by Saemund's grandson, the latter a work constructed with great ingenuity and native talent, what one might call unconscious art, altogether a perspicuous, clear work, pleasant reading still."

EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE, situated on a low reef of rocks submerged at high tide, 14 m. SW. of Plymouth; first built of wood by Winstanley, 1696; destroyed by a storm in 1703; rebuilt of wood on a stone base by Rudyard; burnt in 1755, and reconstructed by Smeaton of solid stone; the present edifice, on a different site, was completed by Sir James Douglas in 1882, is 133 ft. in height, and has a light visible 17 m. off.

EDELINCK, GERARD, a Flemish copper-plate engraver, born at Antwerp; invited to France by Colbert, and patronised by Louis XIV.; executed in a masterly manner many works from historical subjects (1640-1707).

EDEN (i. e. place of delight), Paradise, the original spot referred to by tradition wholly uncertain, though believed to have been in the Far East, identified in Moslem tradition with the moon.

EDESSA (40), an ancient city in Mesopotamia; figures in early Church history, and is reputed to have contained at one time 300 monasteries; it fell into the hands of the Turks in 1515; is regarded as the sacred city of Abraham by Orientals.

EDFU, a town in Upper Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile; has unique ruins of two temples, the larger founded by Ptolemy IV. Philopater before 200 B.C.

EDGAR, a king of Saxon England from 959 to 975, surnamed the Peaceful; promoted the union and consolidation of the Danish and Saxon elements within his realm; cleared Wales of wolves by exacting of its inhabitants a levy of 300 wolves' heads yearly; eight kings are said to have done him homage by rowing him on the Dee; St. Dunstan, the archbishop of Canterbury, was the most prominent figure of the reign.

EDGAR THE ATHELING, a Saxon prince, the grandson of Edmund Ironside; was hurriedly proclaimed king of England after the death of Harold in the battle of Hastings, but was amongst the first to offer submission on the approach of the Conqueror; spent his life in a series of feeble attempts at rebellion, and lived into the reign of Henry I.

EDGEHILL, in the S. of Warwicks.h.i.+re, the scene of the first battle in the Civil War, in 1642, between the royal forces under Charles I. and the Parliamentary under Ess.e.x; though the Royalists had the worst of it, no real advantage was gained by either side.

EDGEWORTH, HENRY ESs.e.x, known as the "Abbe" Edgeworth, born in Ireland, son of a Protestant clergyman; educated at the Sorbonne, in Paris; entered the priesthood, and became the confessor of Louis XVI., whom he attended on the scaffold; exclaimed as the guillotine came down, "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!" left France soon after; was subsequently chaplain to Louis XVIII. (1745-1807).

EDGEWORTH, MARIA, novelist, born at Blackbourton, Berks; from her fifteenth year her home was in Ireland; she declined the suit of a Swedish count, and remained till the close of her life unmarried; amongst the best known of her works are "Moral Tales," "Tales from Fas.h.i.+onable Life," "Castle Rackrent," "The Absentee," and "Ormond"; her novels are noted for their animated pictures of Irish life, and were acknowledged by Scott to have given him the first suggestion of the Waverley series; the Russian novelist, Turgenief, acknowledges a similar indebtedness; "in her Irish stories she gave," says Stopford Brooke, "the first impulse to the novel of national character, and in her other tales to the novel with a moral purpose" (1766-1849).

EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL, an Irish landlord, father of Maria Edgeworth, with a genius for mechanics, in which he displayed a remarkable talent for invention; was member of the last Irish Parliament; educated his son in accordance with the notions of Rousseau; wrote some works on mechanical subjects in collaboration with his daughter (1744-1817).

EDICT OF NANTES, an edict issued in 1598 by Henry IV. of France, granting toleration to the Protestants; revoked by Louis XIV. in 1685.

EDIE OCHILTREE, a character in Scott's "Antiquary."

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 munic.i.p.alities; 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 cla.s.ses 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 a.s.sumed the editors.h.i.+p 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.