The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 180

EGERTON, FRANCIS. See BRIDGEWATER, EARL OF.

EGGER, eMILE, a French h.e.l.lenist and philologist (1813-1885).

EGHAM (10), a small town in Surrey, on the Thames, 20 m. W. of London; has in its vicinity Runnymede, where King John signed _Magna Charta_ in 1215.

EGINHARD, or EINHARD, a Frankish historian, born in Mainyan, in East Franconia; a collection of his letters and his Annals of the Franks, as well as his famous "Life of Charlemagne," are extant; was a favourite of the latter, who appointed him superintendent of public buildings, and took him with him on all his expeditions; after the death of Charlemagne he continued at the Court as tutor to the Emperor Louis's son; died in retirement (770-840).

EGLANTINE, MADAME, the prioress in the "Canterbury Tales" of Chaucer.

EGLINTON AND WINTON, EARL OF, Archibald William Montgomerie, born at Palermo; became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Rector of Glasgow University; was a noted sportsman and patron of the turf; is chiefly remembered in connection with a brilliant tournament given by him at Eglinton Castle in 1839, in which all the splendour and detail of a mediaeval tourney were spectacularly reproduced (1812-1861).

EGMONT, LAMORAL, COUNT OF, born in Hainault; became attached to the Court of Charles V., by whom, for distinguished military and diplomatic services, he was appointed governor of Flanders; fell into disfavour for espousing the cause of the Protestants of the Netherlands, and was beheaded in Brussels by the Duke of Alva; his career and fate form the theme of Goethe's tragedy "Egmont," a play nothing as a drama, but charming as a picture of the two chief characters in the piece, Egmont and Clarchen.

EGMONT, MOUNT, the loftiest peak in the North Island, New Zealand, is 8270 ft. in height, and of volcanic origin.

EGO and NON-EGO (i. e. I and Not-I, or Self and Not-Self), are terms used in philosophy to denote respectively the subjective and the objective in cognition, what is from self and what is from the external to self, what is merely individual and what is universal.

EGOISM, the philosophy of those who, uncertain of everything but the existence of the Ego or I, resolve all existence as known into forms or modifications of its self-consciousness.

EGOIST, a novel by George Meredith, much admired by R. L. Stevenson, who read and re-read it at least five times over.

EGYPT (8,000), a country occupying the NE. corner of Africa, lies along the W. sh.o.r.e of the Red Sea, has a northern coast-line on the Mediterranean, and stretches S. as far as Wady Halfa; the area is nearly 400,000 sq. m.; its chief natural features are uninhabitable desert on the E. and W., and the populous and fertile valley of the Nile. Cereals, sugar, cotton, and tobacco are important products. Mohammedan Arabs const.i.tute the bulk of the people, but there is also a remnant of the ancient Coptic race. The country is nominally a dependency of Turkey under a native government, but is in reality controlled by the British, who exercise a veto on its financial policy, and who, since 1882, have occupied the country with soldiers. The n.o.ble monuments and relics of her ancient civilisation, chief amongst which are the Pyramids, as well as the philosophies and religions she inherited, together with the arts she practised, and her close connection with Jewish history, give her a peculiar claim on the interested regard of mankind. Nothing, perhaps, has excited more wonder in connection with Egypt than the advanced state of her civilisation when she first comes to play a part in the history of the world. There is evidence that 4000 years before the Christian era the arts of building, pottery, sculpture, literature, even music and painting, were highly developed, her social inst.i.tutions well organised, and that considerable advance had been made in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, and anatomy. Already the Egyptians had divided the year into 365 days and 12 months, and had invented an elaborate system of weights and measures, based on the decimal notation.

EGYPTIAN NIGHT, such as in Egypt when, by judgment of G.o.d, a thick darkness of three days settled down on the land. See Exodus x. 22.

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

EGYPTOLOGY, the science, in the interest of ancient history, of Egyptian antiquities, such as the monuments and their inscriptions, and one in which of late years great interest has been taken, and much progress made.

EGYPTUS, the brother of Danaus, whose 50 sons, all but one, were murdered by the daughters of the latter. See DANAuS.

EHKILI, a dialect of S. Arabia, interesting to philologists as one of the oldest of Semitic tongues.

EHRENBERG, a German naturalist, born in Delitsch; intended for the Church; devoted himself to medical studies, and graduated in medicine in 1818; acquired great skill in the use of the microscope, and by means of it made important discoveries, particularly in the department of infusory animals; contributed largely to the literature of science (1795-1878).

EHRENBREITSTEIN (5) (i. e. broad stone of honour), a strongly fortified town in Prussia, on the Rhine, opposite Coblentz, with which it has communication by a bridge of boats and a railway viaduct; the fortress occupies the summit of the rock, which is precipitous; is about 500 ft. high, and has large garrison accommodation.

EICHHORN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, a German theologian and Orientalist, born at Dorrenzimmern, Franconia; a man of extensive scholars.h.i.+p; held the chair of Oriental languages in Jena, and afterwards at Gottingen; was the first to apply a bold rationalism to the critical treatment of the Scriptures; he was of the old school of rationalists, now superseded by the historico-critical; his chief works are a Universal Library of Biblical Literature, in 10 vols., Introductions to the Old and to the New Testament, each in 5 vols., and an Introduction to the Apocrypha (1752-1827).

EICHTHAL, GUSTAVE D', a French publicist, born at Nancy; an adherent of St. Simonianism; wrote "Les Evangiles"; Mrs. Carlyle describes him as "a gentle soul, trustful, and earnest-looking, ready to do and suffer all for his faith" (1804-1886).

EICHWALD, CHARLES EDWARD, an eminent Russian naturalist, born in Mitau, Russia; studied science at Berlin and Vienna; held the chairs of Zoology and Midwifery at Kasan and Wilna, and of Palaeontology at St.

Petersburg; his explorations, which led him through most of Europe, Persia, and Algeria, and included a survey of the Baltic sh.o.r.es, as well as expeditions into the Caucasus, are described in his various works, and their valuable results noted (1795-1876).

EIFFEL, GUSTAVE, an eminent French engineer, born at Dijon; early obtained a reputation for bridge construction; designed the great Garabit Viaduct, and also the enormous locks for the Panama Ca.n.a.l; his most noted work is the gigantic iron tower which bears his name; in 1893 became involved in the Panama scandals, and was fined, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment; _b_. 1832.

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

EIGG or EGG, a rocky islet among the Hebrides, 5 m. SW. of Skye; St. Donnan and 50 monks from Iona were ma.s.sacred here in 617 by the queen, notwithstanding a remonstrance on the part of the islanders that it would be an irreligious act; here also the Macleods of the 10th century suffocated in a cave 200 of the Macdonalds, including women and children.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, "a sceptical century and a G.o.dless," according to Carlyle's deliberate estimate, "opulent in acc.u.mulated falsities, as never century before was; which had no longer the consciousness of being false, so false has it grown; so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone, that, in fact, the measure of the thing was full, and a French Revolution had to end it"; which it did only symbolically, however, as he afterwards admitted, and but admonitorily of a doomsday still to come. See "FREDERICK THE GREAT," BK. I. CHAP, II., and "HEROES."

EIKON BASILIKe (i. e. the Royal Likeness), a book containing an account of Charles I. during his imprisonment, and ascribed to him as author, but really written by Bishop Gauden, though the MS. may have been perused and corrected by the king; it gives a true picture of his character and possible state of mind.

EILDONS, THE, a "triple-crested eminence" near Melrose, 1385 ft., and overlooking Teviotdale to the S., a.s.sociated with Sir Walter Scott and Thomas the Rhymer; they are of volcanic origin, and are said to have been cleft in three by the wizard Michael Scott, when he was out of employment.

EIMEO, one of the French Society Islands; is hilly and woody, but well cultivated in the valleys; missionary enterprise in Polynesia first found a footing here.

EINSIEDELN (8), a town in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland; has a Benedictine abbey, containing a famous black image of the Virgin, credited with miraculous powers, which attracts, it is said, 200,000 pilgrims annually.

EISENACH (21), a flouris.h.i.+ng manufacturing town in Saxe-Weimar, close to the Thuringian Forest and 48 m. W. of Weimar; is the birthplace of Sebastian Bach; in the vicinity stands the castle of Wartburg, the hiding-place for 10 months of Luther after the Diet of Worms.

EISLEBEN (23), a mining town in Prussian Saxony, 24 m. NW. of Halle; the birthplace and burial-place of Luther.

EISTEDDFOD, a gathering of Welsh bards and others, now annual, at which, out of a patriotic motive, prizes are awarded for the encouragement of Welsh literature and music and the preservation of the Welsh language and ancient national customs.