James Wood

“ Encyclopédie, a French encyclopædia consisting of 28 vols., to which a supplement of 5 vols. was added; edited by D'Alembert and Diderot; contributed to by a number of the eminent savants of France, and issued in 1751-1777, and which contributed to feed, but did nothing to allay, or even moderate, the fire of the Revolution.
Encyclopedist, generally a man of encyclopedic knowledge, or who conducts or contributes to an encyclopædia; specially one who has, as the French encyclopedists, an overweening, false, and illusory estimate of the moral worth and civilising power of such knowledge. ”

“ Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, born at Samos, of Athenian origin; settled at Athens in his thirty-sixth year, and founded a philosophical school there, where he taught a philosophy in opposition to that of the Stoics; philosophy he defined as “an activity which realises a happy life through ideas and arguments,” summing itself up “in ethics, which are to teach us how to attain a life of felicity” ”

“ Epictetus, a celebrated Stoic philosopher of the 1st century, originally a slave; lived and taught at Rome, but after the expulsion of the philosophers retired to Nicopolis, in Epirus; was lame, and lived in poverty; his conversations were collected by Arrian, and his philosophy in a short manual under the Greek name of “Enchiridion of Epictetus,” written, as is alleged, in utter obliviousness of the fact that “the end of man is an action, not a thought.”
Epicureans, a sect of philosophers who derived their name from Epicurus, and who divided the empire of philosophy with the Stoics (q. v.) ”

“ Election, The Doctrine of, the doctrine that the salvation of a man depends on the election of God for that end, of which there are two chief phases—the one is election to be Christ's, or unconditional election, and the other that it is election in Christ, or conditional election. ”

“ Egmont, Mount, the loftiest peak in the North Island, New Zealand, is 8270 ft. in height, and of volcanic origin.
Ego and Non-Ego (i. e. I and Not-I, or Self and Not-Self) , are terms used in philosophy to denote respectively the subjective and the objective in cognition, what is from self and what is from the external to self, what is merely individual and what is universal.
Egoism, the philosophy of those who, uncertain of everything but the existence of the Ego or I, resolve all existence as known into forms or modifications of its self-consciousness. ”

“ Under a limited monarchy and a widely embracing franchise, the people of England enjoy an unrivalled political freedom. Since Henry VIII.'s time, the national religion has been an established Protestantism, but all forms are tolerated. In 1896 education was made free. The name England is derived from Engle-land, or land of the Angles, a Teutonic people who, with kindred Saxons and Jutes, came over from the mainland in the 5th century, and took possession of the island, driving Britons and Celts before them. ”

“ Many of the Etruscan cities contain interesting remains of their early civilised state; but their entire literature, supposed to have been extensive, has perished, and their language is only known through monumental inscriptions. Their religion was polytheistic, but embraced a belief in a future life. There is abundant evidence that they had attained to a high degree of civilisation; the status of women was high, the wife ranking with the husband; their buildings still extant attest their skill as engineers and builders ”

“ Ennius, an early Roman poet, the father of Roman epic poetry, born in Rudiæ, Calabria; promoted the study of Greek literature in Rome; of his poems, dramatic and epic, only a few fragments are extant (239-169 B.C.) .
Enoch, a godly man, who lived in antediluvian times among a race gone godless, and whom the Lord in judgment removed from the earth to return Himself by-and-by with a flood in order to clear the world of the ungodly. ”

“ Nothing, perhaps, has excited more wonder in connection with Egypt than the advanced state of her civilisation when she first comes to play a part in the history of the world. There is evidence that 4000 years before the Christian era the arts of building, pottery, sculpture, literature, even music and painting, were highly developed, her social institutions well organised, and that considerable advance had been made in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, and anatomy. ”

“ Egeria, a nymph who inhabited a grotto in a grove in Latium, dedicated to the Camenæ, some 16 m. from Rome, and whom, according to tradition, Numa was in the habit of consulting when engaged in framing forms of religious worship for the Roman community; she figures as his spiritual adviser, and has become the symbol of one of her sex, conceived of as discharging the same function in other the like cases. ”

“ Evolution, the theory that the several species of plants and animals on the globe were not created in their present form, but have all been evolved by modifications of structure from cruder forms under or coincident with change of environment, an idea which is being applied to everything organic in the spiritual as well as the natural world. ”

“ The country is nominally a dependency of Turkey under a native government, but is in reality controlled by the British, who exercise a veto on its financial policy, and who, since 1882, have occupied the country with soldiers. The noble monuments and relics of her ancient civilisation, chief amongst which are the Pyramids, as well as the philosophies and religions she inherited, together with the arts she practised, and her close connection with Jewish history, give her a peculiar claim on the interested regard of mankind. ”

“ Ethnology, a science which treats of the human race as grouped in tribes or nations, but limits itself to tracing the origin and distribution of races, and investigating the physical and mental peculiarities and differences exhibited by men over all parts of the globe; the chief problem of the science is to decide between the monogenous and polygenous theories of the origin of the race, and investigation inclines to favour the former view. ”

“ Eagre, a name given in England to a tidal wave rushing up a river or estuary on the top of another, called also a Bore (q. v.) .
Earl, a title of nobility, ranking third in the British peerage; originally election to the dignity of earl carried with it a grant of land held in feudal tenure, the discharge of judicial and administrative duties connected therewith, and was the occasion of a solemn service of investiture. ”

“ Erdgeist, the Spirit of the Earth, represented in Goethe's “Faust” as assiduously weaving, at the Time-Loom, night and day, in death as well as life, the earthly vesture of the Eternal, and thereby revealing the Invisible to mortal eyes.
Erdmann, a German philosopher, born at Wolmar, professor at Halle; was of the school of Hegel, an authority on the history of philosophy (1805-1892) . ”

“ Essenes, a religious communistic fraternity, never very numerous, that grew up on the soil of Judea about the time of the Maccabees, and had establishments in Judea when Christ was on earth, as well as afterwards in the time of Josephus; they led an ascetic life, practised the utmost ceremonial cleanness, were rigorous in their observance of the Jewish law, and differed from the Pharisees in that they gave to the Pharisaic spirit a monastic expression; they represented Judaism in its purest essence, and in the spirit of their teaching came nearer Christianity than any other sect of the time ”

“ Environment, a term of extensive use in biological science, especially employed to denote the external conditions which go to determine modifications in the development of organic life to the extent often of producing new species. ”

“ Elephant, a genus of mammals, of which there are two species, the Indian and the African; the latter attains a greater size, and is hunted for the sake of its tusks, which may weigh as much as 70 lbs.; the former is more intelligent, and easily capable of being domesticated; the white elephant is a variety of this species.
Elephant, Order of the White, a Danish order of knighthood, restricted to 30 knights, the decoration of which is an elephant supporting a tower; it was instituted by Canute IV., king of Denmark, at the end of the 12th century. ”

“ Elysium the abode of the shades of the virtuous dead in the nether world as conceived of by the poets of Greece and Rome, where the inhabitants live a life of passive blessedness, which, however, is to such a man as Achilles a place of woe rather and unrest, where he would fain exchange places with the meanest hind that breathes in the upper world.
Elze, Frederick Carl, a German Shakespearian scholar, born at Dessau; early devoted himself to the study of English literature; lived some time in England and Scotland; in 1875 became professor of English Literature at Halle ”

“ Euclid of Megara, a Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates, was influenced by the Eleatics (q. v.) ; founded the Megaric school of Philosophy, whose chief tenet is that the “good,” or that which is one with itself, alone is the only real existence. ”

“ Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum (i. e. letters of obscure men) , a celebrated collection of Latin letters which appeared in the 16th century in Germany, attacking with merciless severity the doctrines and modes of living of the scholastics and monks, credited with hastening the Reformation.
Epitaph, an inscription placed on a tombstone in commemoration of the dead interred below. The natural feeling which prompts such inscriptions has manifested itself among all civilised peoples, and not a little of a nation's character may be read in them. ”

“ 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 God, a doctrine which is the very ground-principle of the Jewish faith ”

“ Everett, Edward, American scholar, statesman, and orator, brother of the preceding; was a Unitarian preacher of great eloquence; distinguished as a Greek scholar and professor; for a time editor of the North American Review; was a member of Congress, and unsuccessful candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Republic; his reputation rests on his “orations,” which are on all subjects, and show great vigour and versatility of genius (1794-1865) . ”

“ Eternal City, ancient Rome in the esteem of its inhabitants, in accordance with the promise, as Virgil feigns, of Jupiter to Venus, the goddess-mother of the race.
Eternities, The Conflux of, Carlyle's expressive phrase for Time, as in every moment of it a centre in which all the forces to and from Eternity meet and unite, so that by no past and no future can we be brought nearer to Eternity than where we at any moment of Time are ”

“ Eudæmonism, the doctrine that the production of happiness is the aim and measure of virtue.
Eudocia, the ill-fated daughter of an Athenian Sophist, wife of Theodosius II., embraced Christianity, her name Athenais previously; was banished by her husband on an ill-founded charge of infidelity, and spent the closing years of her life in Jerusalem, where she became a convert to the views of Eutyches (q. v.) (394-400) .
Eudoxus of Cnidus, a Grecian astronomer, was a pupil of Plato, and afterwards studied in Egypt; said to have introduced a 3651⁄2 day year into Greece ”

“ Early English, a term in architecture used to designate that particular form of Gothic architecture in vogue in England in the 13th century, whose chief characteristic was the pointed arch.
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 passage not much wider than a fox burrow, which sloped downwards 10 or 12 ft. to the floor of the house ”

“ Egyptians, The, of antiquity were partly of Asiatic and partly of African origin, with a probable infusion of Semitic blood, and formed both positively and negatively a no inconsiderable link in the chain of world-history, positively by their sense of the divinity of nature-life as seen in their nature-worship, and negatively by the absence of all sense of the divinity of a higher life as it has come to light in the self-consciousness or moral sense and destiny of man. ”

“ Elizabeth, Queen of England (1658-1603) , daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, born in Greenwich Palace; was an indefatigable student in her youth; acquired Greek and Latin, and a conversational knowledge of German and French; the Pope's opposition to her succession on the ground of being judged illegitimate by the Church strengthened her attachment to the Protestant faith, which was her mother's, and contributed to its firm establishment during the reign; during it the power of Spain was crushed by the defeat of the Armada ”

“ Epidaurus, a town of ancient Greece, in Argolis, on the eastern shore of the Peloponnesus; was at one time an independent State and an active centre of trade, but was chiefly noted for its famous temple of Æsculapius, to which people flocked to be cured of their diseases, and which bore the inscription “Open only to pure souls”; ruins of a magnificent theatre are still extant here.
Epidemic, a name given to contagious diseases which, arising suddenly in a community, rapidly spread through its members, often travelling from district to district, until often a whole country is affected ”

“ Elephantiasis, a peculiar skin disease, accompanied with abnormal swelling; so called because the skin becomes hard and stiff like an elephant's hide; attacks the lower limbs and scrotum; is chiefly confined to India and other tropical countries.
Elephantine, a small island below the first cataract of the Nile; contains interesting monuments and ruins of the ancient Roman and Egyptian civilisations. ”

“ Eiffel Tower, a structure erected on the banks of the Seine in Paris, the loftiest in the world, being 985 ft. in height, and visible from all parts of the city; it consists of three platforms, of which the first is as high as the towers of Notre Dame; the second as high as Strasburg Cathedral spire, and the third 863 ft; it was designed by Gustave Eiffel, and erected in 1887-1889; there are cafés and restaurants on the first landing, and the ascent is by powerful lifts. ”

“ Ephraim, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, the one to which Joshua belonged, located in the centre of the land; powerful in the days of the Judges, the chief of the 10 tribes that revolted under Jeroboam after the death of Solomon, and is found often to give name to the whole body of them.
Epic, a poem that treats of the events in the life of a nation or a race or the founder of one, agreeably to the passion inspiring it and in such form as to kindle and keep alive the heroism thereof in the generations thereafter ”