The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 183

ELLORA, an Indian village in Hyderabad, 12 m. NW. of Aurungabad, famed for its Buddhist and Hindu cave and monolithic temples, the most magnificent of which is hewn out of a solid hill of red stone, the most beautiful being the Hindu temple of Kailas.

ELLWOOD, THOMAS, a celebrated Quaker, born at Crowell, Oxfords.h.i.+re; the intimate friend of Milton, to whom he suggested the idea of "Paradise Regained" by remarking to him, "Thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise Found?" his Autobiography is still read (1639-1713).

ELMO'S FIRE, ST., a popular name for the display of electric fire which sometimes plays about the masts of s.h.i.+ps, steeples, &c., accompanied at times with a hissing noise; commoner in southern climates, known by other names, e. g. Fire of St. Clara, of St. Elias.

ELOGE, a discourse in panegyric of some ill.u.s.trious person deceased, in which composition Fontenelle took the lead, and in which he was followed by D'Alembert, Condorcet, Flourens, and others.

ELOHIM, a Hebrew word in the plural number, signifying G.o.d or one as G.o.d, but with a verb in the singular, signifying generally the one true G.o.d; according to the Talmud it denotes G.o.d as just in judgment to all in contradistinction to Jehovah, which denotes G.o.d as merciful to His people.

ELOHIST, a name given by the critics to the presumed author of the earlier part of the Pentateuch, whose work in it they allege is distinguished by the use of the word Elohim for G.o.d; he is to be distinguished from the Jehovist, the presumed author of the later portions, from his use, on the other hand, of the word Jehovah for G.o.d.

ELPHINSTONE, GEORGE KEITH, ADMIRAL. See KEITH.

ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART, a noted Indian civil servant and historian; co-operated with Wellesley in firmly establis.h.i.+ng British rule in India; was governor of Bombay, where he accomplished many useful reforms, and issued the Elphinstone Code of Laws; wrote a "History of India," which earned for him the t.i.tle of the "Tacitus of India"

(1779-1859).

ELPHINSTONE, WILLIAM, an erudite and patriotic Scottish ecclesiastic and statesman, born in Glasgow; took holy orders; went to Paris to study law, and became a professor in Law there, and afterwards at Orleans; returned to Scotland; held several high State appointments under James III. and James IV.; continued a zealous servant of the Church, holding the bishoprics of Ross and of Aberdeen, where he founded the university (1431-1514).

ELSa.s.s (French ALSACE), a German territory on the left bank of the Rhine, traversed by the Vosges Mountains; taken from the French in 1870-71.

ELSINORE, a seaport on the island of Zeeland, in Denmark, 20 m. N.

of Copenhagen; has a good harbour; the scene of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

ELSWICK (53), a town in the vicinity of Newcastle, noted for the great engineering and ordnance works of Sir W. G. (now Lord) Armstrong.

ELTON, a salt lake of SE. Russia, in the government of Astrakhan; has an area of about 65 sq. m., but is very shallow; yields annually some 90,000 or 95,000 tons of salt, which is s.h.i.+pped off _via_ the Volga.

ELTON, CHARLES ISAAC, jurist and ethnologist, born in Somerset; held a Fellows.h.i.+p in Queen's College, Oxford; called to the bar in 1865, and in 1884 was returned to Parliament as a Conservative; his first works were juridical treatises on the tenure of land, but in 1882 he produced a learned book on the origins of English history; _b_. 1839.

ELVAS, a strongly fortified town in Portugal, in the province of Alemtejo, 12 m. W. of Badajoz; is a bishop's see; has a Moorish aqueduct 3 m. long and 250 ft. high.

ELY (8), a celebrated cathedral city, in the fen-land of Cambridges.h.i.+re, on the Ouse, 30 m. SE. of Peterborough; noted as the scene of Hereward's heroic stand against William the Conqueror in 1071; the cathedral, founded in 1083, is unique as containing specimens of the various Gothic styles incorporated during the course of 400 years.

ELY, ISLE OF, a name given to the N. portion of Cambridges.h.i.+re on account of its having been at one time insulated by marshes; being included in the region of the Fens, has been drained, and is now fertile land.

ELYOT, SIR THOMAS, author and amba.s.sador, born in Wilts.h.i.+re; amba.s.sador to the court of Charles V.; celebrated as the author of "The Governour," the first English work on moral philosophy, and also of the first Latin-English dictionary (1490-1546).

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 pa.s.sive 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; his various publications on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists are full of excellent criticisms; also wrote Lives of Scott and Byron (1821-1889).

ELZEVIR, the name of an eminent family of printers residing in Amsterdam and Leyden, Louis the first of them, who started in Leyden; their publications date from 1594 to 1680.

ELZEVIR EDITIONS, editions of the cla.s.sics printed at Amsterdam and Leyden during the 16th and 17th centuries by a family of the Elzevirs, and considered to be immaculate.

EMANATION, THE DOCTRINE OF, a doctrine of Eastern origin, which derives everything that exists from the divine nature by necessary process of emanation, as light from the sun, and ascribes all evil and the degrees of it to a greater and greater distance from the pure ether of this parent source, or to the extent in consequence to which the being gets immersed in and clogged with matter.

EMANc.i.p.aTION, originally a term in Roman law and name given to the process of the manumission of a son by his father; the son was sold to a third party and after the sale became _sui juris_; it is now applied to the remission of old laws in the interest of freedom, which Carlyle regards in his "Shooting Niagara," as the sum of nearly all modern recent attempts at Reform.

EMANUEL I., king of Portugal from 1495 to 1521; his reign inaugurated the golden period of Portuguese history, during which Portugal became the first maritime and commercial power in Europe; was the patron of Vasco da Gama and Albuquerque; issued an edict for the expulsion of the Jews from his kingdom, and wrote to the Elector of Saxony begging him to get rid of Luther (1469-1521).

EMBALMING, the art of preserving dead bodies from decay by means of antiseptic agents applied both externally and internally; although known to other people, e. g. the Peruvians, the art was chiefly practised among the Egyptians, and the practice of it dates back to 4000 B.C.; the thoroughness of the process depended on the money expended, but it usually involved the removal of the viscera, save the heart and kidneys, the extraction of the brain, the introduction of drugs to the cavities, and the pickling of the body in native carbonate of soda, and the wrapping of it in linen; experiments in embalming, more or less successful, have been made in recent times, and even still are.

EMBER DAYS, four annually recurring periods of three days each, appointed by the Romish and English Churches to be devoted to fasting and praying; they are the Wednesday, Friday, and Sat.u.r.day after the first Sunday in Lent, after Pentecost, after the 14th September, and after the 13th December.

EMBRYO, the scientific term for the young of an animal while yet in the initial stage of development in the womb; also applied to the plant in its rudimentary stage within the seed.

EMBRYOLOGY, the section of biology which treats of the development of the embryo.

EMDEN (14), the chief part of the province of Hanover, in Prussia, situated at the outlet of the river Ems; is intersected by ca.n.a.ls; s.h.i.+pbuilding and brewing are the chief industries.

EMERALD, a precious stone of great value, allied in composition to the beryl; is of a beautiful transparent green colour; the finest specimens are found in Colombia and Venezuela.

EMERALD ISLE, Ireland, from the fresh verdure of its herbage.