The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 188

ERNST I., Duke of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg; served in the Thirty Years' War under Gustavus Adolphus, and shared in the victory of Lutzen; was an able and wise ruler, and gained for himself the surname of "the Pious" (1601-1675).

EROS (in Latin, Cupido), the Greek G.o.d of love, the son of Aphrodite, and the youngest of the G.o.ds, though he figures in the cosmogony as one of the oldest of the G.o.ds, and as the uniting power in the life of the G.o.ds and the life of the universe, was represented at last as a wanton boy from whose wiles neither G.o.ds nor men were safe.

EROSTRATUS, an obscure Ephesian, who, to immortalise his name, set fire to the temple of Ephesus on the night, as it happened, when Alexander the Great was born; the Ephesians thought to defeat his purpose by making it death to any one who named his name, but in vain, the decree itself giving wider and wider publicity to the act.

ERPENIUS (Thomas van Erpen), Arabic scholar, born at Gork.u.m, in Holland; after completing his studies at Leyden and Paris, became professor of Oriental Languages there; famed for his Arabic grammar and rudiments, which served as text-books for upwards of 200 years (1585-1624).

ERSCH, JOHANN SAMUEL, a bibliographer, born at Grossglogau; after a college career at Halle devoted himself to journalism, and in 1800 became librarian of the University of Jena; subsequently filled the chair of Geography and Statistics at Halle; his "Handbook of German Literature"

marks the beginning of German bibliography; began in 1818, along with Gruber, the publication of an encyclopaedia which is still unfinished (1766-1828).

ERSKINE, EBENEZER, founder of the Secession Church of Scotland, born at Chirnside, Berwicks.h.i.+re; minister at Portmoak for 28 years; took part in the patronage dispute, and was deposed (1733), when he formed a church at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, the nucleus of the Secession Church (1703-1754).

ERSKINE, HENRY, a famous Scotch lawyer, second son of the Earl of Buchan, born at Edinburgh; called to the bar and became Lord Advocate; a Whig in politics; brought about useful legal reforms; noted as a brilliant wit and orator (1746-1817).

ERSKINE, JOHN, a Scottish jurist; called to the bar in 1719; became professor of Scots Law in Edinburgh University in 1837, resigned 1763; author of two important works on Scots Law, "The Inst.i.tutes" and "Principles" (1695-1768).

ERSKINE, JOHN, D.D., son of the preceding; a celebrated Scotch preacher and author of various essays and pamphlets; a prominent leader on the Evangelical side in the General a.s.semblies; was minister of the Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh, and the colleague of Princ.i.p.al Robertson; is remembered for a retort in the pulpit and for another in the General a.s.sembly; the former was to a remark of his colleague, Princ.i.p.al Robertson, "If perfect virtue were to appear on earth we would adore it." ... "Perfect virtue did appear on earth and we crucified it"; and that other in the General a.s.sembly was "Rax (reach) me that Bible," as certain Moderates in the court began derisively to scoff at the proposal to send missions to the heathen (1721-1803).

ERSKINE, JOHN, OF DUN, a Scotch Reformer, supported Knox and Wishart; was several times Moderator of the General a.s.sembly, and a.s.sisted in the formation of "The Second Book of Discipline" (1509-1591).

ERSKINE, RALPH, a Scotch divine, brother of EBENEZER (q. v.), with whom he co-operated in founding the Secession Church; his sermons and religious poems, called "Gospel Sonnets," were widely read; one of the first of the Scotch seceders, strange to contemplate, "a long, soft, poke-shaped face, with busy anxious black eyes, looking as if he could not help it; and then such a character and form of human existence, conscience living to the finger ends of him, in a strange, venerable, though highly questionable manner ... his formulas casing him all round like the sh.e.l.l of a beetle"; his fame rests chiefly on his "Gospel Sonnets," much appreciated at one time (1685-1752).

ERSKINE, THOMAS, LORD, a famous lawyer, youngest son of the Earl of Buchan, born in Edinburgh; spent his early years in the navy, and afterwards joined the army; resigned in 1775 to enter upon the study of law; called to the bar in 1778; a king's counsel in 1783; created a baron and Lord Chancellor in 1806; was engaged in all the famous trials of his time; an unrivalled orator in the law courts; his speeches rank as masterpieces of forensic eloquence (1750-1823).

ERSKINE, THOMAS, OF LINLATHEN, member of the Scottish bar, but devoted in an intensely human spirit to theological interests, "one of the gentlest, kindliest, best bred of men," says Carlyle, who was greatly attached to him; "I like him," he says, "as one would do a draught of sweet rustic mead served in cut gla.s.ses and a silver tray ... talks greatly of symbols, seems not disinclined to let the Christian religion pa.s.s for a kind of mythus, provided one can retain the spirit of it"; he wrote a book, much prized at one time, on the "Internal Evidences of Revealed Religion," also on Faith; besides being the constant friend of Carlyle, he corresponded on intimate terms with such men as Maurice and Dean Stanley (1788-1870).

ERWIN, a German architect, born at Steinbach, Baden; the builder of the western facade of the cathedral of Strasburg (1240-1318).

ERYMANTHUS, a mountain in Arcadia that was the haunt of the boar killed by Hercules.

ERYSIPELAS, known popularly as St. Anthony's Fire and Rose, a febrile disease, manifesting itself in acute inflammation of the skin, which becomes vividly scarlet and ultimately peels; confined chiefly to the head; is contagious, and recurrent.

ERYTHEMA, a medical term used loosely to designate a diseased condition of the skin; characterised by a scarlet or dark-red rash or eruption, distinct from erysipelas.

ERYTHREA (220), a colony belonging to Italy, extending from Cape Kasar 670 m. along the western sh.o.r.e of the Red Sea to a point in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb; Ma.s.sowah the capital.

ERYTHREAN SEA, a name of the Red Sea.

ERZERUM (60), a city in Turkish Armenia, capital of the province of the same name, 125 m. SE. of Trebizond; situated on a fertile plain 6300 ft. above sea-level; is an important entrepot for commerce between Europe and Asia; is irregularly built, but contains imposing ruins; has a fortress, and in the suburbs a number of mosques and bazaars; is famed for its iron and copper ware; fell into the hands of the Turks in 1517; figured as a military centre in many Turkish wars; was reduced by the Russians in 1878; was a scene of Armenian ma.s.sacres by the Turks in 1895.

ERZGEBIRGE, a range of mountains lying between Saxony and Bohemia; the highest peak is the Keilberg, 4052 ft.; is rich in various metallic ores, especially silver and lead.

ERYX, an ancient town in the NW. of Sicily, at the foot of a mountain of the same name, with a temple to Venus, who was hence called Erycina.

ESAU, the eldest son of Isaac, who sold his birthright to Jacob for a mess of lentils; led a predatory life, and was the forefather of the Edomites.

ESCHATOLOGY, the department of theology which treats of the so-called last things, such as death, the intermediate state, the millennium, the return of Christ, the resurrection, the judgment, and the end of the world.

ESCHENBACH, WOLFRAM VON, a famous minnesinger, born at Eschenbach, in Bavaria, at about the close of the 12th century; was of good birth, and lived some time at the Thuringian Court; enjoyed a wide reputation in his time as a poet; of his poems the epic "Parzival" is the most celebrated, and records the history of the "Grail."

ESCHER, JOHANN HEINRICH ALFRED. Swiss statesman, born at Zurich; bred for the law, and lectured for a while in his native town; became President of the Council of Zurich; co-operated with Farrer in expelling the Jesuits; became member of the Diet; supported Federal union, and did much to promote and establish State education in Switzerland; _b_. 1819.

ESCHINES. See aeSCHINES; as also ESCULAPIUS, ESCHYLUS, ESOP, &c., under ae.

ESCOBAR, MENDOZA ANTONIO, a Spanish Jesuit and casuist, born at Valladolid, a preacher and voluminous writer (1589-1669).

ESCURIAL, a huge granite pile, built in the form of a gridiron, 30 m. NW. from Madrid, and deemed at one time the eighth wonder of the world; was built in 1563-1584; was originally dedicated as a monastery to St. Lorenzo in recognition of the services which the Saint had rendered to Philip II. at the battle of St. Quentin, and used at length as a palace and burial-place of kings. It is a mere shadow of what it was, and is preserved from ruin by occasional grants of money to keep it in repair.

ESDRAeLON, a flat and fertile valley in Galilee, called also the valley of Jezreel, which, with a maximum breadth of 9 m., extends in a NW. direction from the Jordan at Bathshean to the Bay of Acre.

ESDRAS, the name of two books of the Apocrypha, the first, written 2nd century B.C., containing the history of the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of its cultus, with a discussion on the strangest of all things, ending in a.s.signing the palm to truth; and the second, written between 97 and 81 B.C., a forecast of the deliverance of the Jews from oppression and the establishment of the Messianic kingdom.

ESK, the name of several Scottish streams: (1) in Dumfriess.h.i.+re, the Esk of young Lochinvar, has a course of 31 m. after its formation by the junction of the North and South Esks, and flows into the Solway; (2) in Edinburgh, formed by the junction of the North and South Esks, joins the Firth of Forth at Musselburgh; (3) in Forfars.h.i.+re, the South Esk discharges into the North Sea at Montrose, and the North Esk also flows into the North Sea 4 m. N. of Montrose.

ESKIMO or ESQUIMAUX, an aboriginal people of the Mongolian or American Indian stock, in all not amounting to 40,000, thinly scattered along the northern seaboard of America and Asia and in many of the Arctic islands; their physique, mode of living, religion, and language are of peculiar ethnological interest; they are divided into tribes, each having its own territory, and these tribes in turn are subdivided into small communities, over each of which a chief presides; the social organisation is a simple tribal communism; Christianity has been introduced amongst the Eskimo of South Alaska and in the greater part of Labrador; in other parts the old religion still obtains, called Shamanism, a kind of fetish wors.h.i.+p; much of their folk-lore has been gathered and printed; fis.h.i.+ng and seal-hunting are their chief employments; they are of good physique, but deplorably unclean in their habits; their name is supposed to be an Indian derivative signifying "eaters of raw meat."