The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 192

EVANDER, an Arcadian, who is said to have come from Greece with a colony to Latium and settled in it 60 years before the Trojan war, and with whom aeneas formed an alliance when he landed in Italy; he is credited with having introduced the civilising arts of Greece.

EVANGELICAL, a term applied to all those forms of Christianity which regard the atonement of Christ, or His sacrifice on the Cross for sin, as the ground and central principle of the Christian faith.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, an alliance of Christians of all countries and denominations holding what are called evangelical principles, and founded in 1845.

EVANGELICAL UNION, a religious body in Scotland which originated in 1843 under the leaders.h.i.+p of James Morison of Kilmarnock, and professed a creed which allowed them greater freedom as preachers of the gospel of Christ. See MORISONIANISM.

EVANGELINE, the heroine of a poem by Longfellow of the same name, founded on an incident connected with the expulsion of the natives of Acadia from their homes by order of George II.

EVANGELIST, a name given in the early Church to one whose office it was to persuade the ignorant and unbelieving into the fold of the Church.

EVANS, SIR DE LACY, an English general, born at Moeg, Ireland; served in the Peninsular war; was present at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo; commanded the British Legion sent to a.s.sist Queen Isabella in Spain, and the second division of the army in the Crimea and the East; was for many years a member of Parliament (1787-1870).

EVANS, MARY ANN, the real name of GEORGE ELIOT (q. v.).

EVELYN, JOHN, an English writer, born at Wotton, Surrey; travelled in France and Italy during the Civil War, where he devoted much time to gardening and the study of trees; was author of a celebrated work, ent.i.tled "Sylva; or, A Discourse of Forest Trees," &c.; did much to improve horticulture and introduce exotics into this country; his "Memoirs," written as a diary, are full of interest, "is justly famous for the fulness, variety, and fidelity of its records" (1620-1706).

EVEREST, MOUNT, the highest mountain in the world; is one of the Himalayan peaks in Nepal, India; is 29,002 ft. above sea-level.

EVERETT, ALEXANDER HILL, an American diplomatist and author, born at Boston; was U.S. amba.s.sador at The Hague and Madrid, and commissioner to China; wrote on a variety of subjects, including both politics and belles-lettres, and a collection of critical and miscellaneous essays (1792-1847).

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).

EVERLASTING NO, THE, Carlyle's name for the spirit of unbelief in G.o.d, especially as it manifested itself in his own, or rather Teufelsdrockh's, warfare against it; the spirit, which, as embodied in the MEPHISTOPHELES (q. v.) of Goethe, is for ever denying,--_der stets verneint_--the reality of the divine in the thoughts, the character, and the life of humanity, and has a malicious pleasure in scoffing at everything high and n.o.ble as hollow and void. See SARTOR RESARTUS.

EVERLASTING YEA, THE, Carlyle's name for the spirit of faith in G.o.d in an express att.i.tude of clear, resolute, steady, and uncompromising antagonism to the Everlasting No, an the principle that there is no such thing as faith in G.o.d except in such antagonism, no faith except in such antagonism against the spirit opposed to G.o.d.

EVERSLEY, a village in Hamps.h.i.+re, 13 m. NE. of Basingstoke; the burial-place of Charles Kingsley, who for 35 years was rector of the parish.

EVERSLEY, CHARLES SHAW LEFEVRE, VISCOUNT, politician; graduated at Cambridge; called to the bar; entered Parliament, and in 1839 became Speaker of the House of Commons, a post he held with great acceptance for 18 years; retired, and was created a peer (1794-1888).

EVIL EYE, a superst.i.tious belief that certain people have the power of exercising a baneful influence on others, and even animals, by the glance of the eyes. The superst.i.tion is of ancient date, and is met with among almost all races, as it is among illiterate people and savages still. It was customary to wear amulets toward the evil off.

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. See DARWINIAN THEORY.

EV'ORA, a city of Portugal, beautifully situated in a fertile plain 80 m. E. of Lisbon, once a strong place, and the seat of an archbishop; it abounds in Roman antiquities.

EVREMOND, SAINT, a lively and witty Frenchman; got into trouble in France from the unbridled indulgence of his wit, and fled to England, where he became a great favourite at the court of Charles II., and enjoyed himself to the top of his bent; his letters are written in a most graceful style (1613-1703).

EVREUX (14), capital of the dep. of Eure, on the Iton, 67 m. NW. of Paris; is an elegant town; has a fine 11th-century cathedral, an episcopal palace with an old clock tower; interesting ruins have been excavated in the old town; is the seat of a bishop; paper, cotton, and linen are manufactured, and a trade is carried on in cereals, timber, and liqueurs.

EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON, a distinguished Orientalist and biblical scholar, born at Gottingen, and professor both there and at Tubingen; his works were numerous, and the princ.i.p.al were "The Poetic Books of the Old Testament," "The Prophets," and "The History of the People of Israel"; he was a student and interpreter of the concrete, and belonged to no party (1803-1875).

EWALD, JOHANNES, a Danish dramatist and lyrist, born at Copenhagen; served as a soldier in the German and Austrian armies; studied theology at Copenhagen; disappointed in love, he devoted himself to poetical composition; ranks as the founder of Danish tragedy, and is the author of some of the finest lyrics in the language (1743-1781).

EWIGE JUDE, the Everlasting Jew, the German name for the Wandering Jew.

EXCALIBUR, the magic sword of King Arthur, which only he could unsheathe and wield. When he was about to die he requested a knight to throw it into a lake close by, who with some reluctance threw it, when a hand reached out to seize it, flourished it round three times, and then drew it under the water for good.

EXCOMMUNICATION, an ecclesiastical punishment inflicted upon heretics and offenders against the Church laws and violators of the moral code; was formulated in the Christian Church in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It varied in severity according to the degree of transgression, but in its severest application involved exclusion from the Eucharist, Christian burial, and the rights and privileges of the Church; formerly it had the support of the civil authority, but is now a purely spiritual penalty.

EXELMANS, REMY JOSEPH ISODORE, COMTE, a distinguished French marshal, born at Bar-le-Duc; entered the army at 16; won distinction in the Naples campaign, and for his services at Eylau in 1807 was made a Brigadier-General; was taken prisoner in Spain while serving under Murat, and sent to England, where he was kept prisoner three years; liberated, took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign, for his conduct in which he was appointed a General of Division; after Napoleon's fall lived in exile till 1830; received honours from Louis Philippe, and was created a Marshal of France by Louis Napoleon in 1851 (1775-1852).

EXETER (50), the capital of Devons.h.i.+re, on the Exe, 75 m. SW. of Bristol, a quaint old town; contains a celebrated cathedral founded in 1112.

EXETER HALL, a hall in the Strand, London; head-quarters of the Y.M.C.A.; erected in 1831 for holding religious and philanthropic meetings.

EXMOOR, an elevated stretch of vale and moorland in the SW. of Somerset, NE. of Devons.h.i.+re; has an area of over 100 sq. m., 25 of which are covered with forest.

EXMOUTH (8), a noted seaside resort on the Devons.h.i.+re coast, at the mouth of the Exe, 11 m. SE. of Exeter; has a fine beach and promenade.

EXODUS (i. e. the Going out), the book of the Old Testament which records the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and the inst.i.tution of the moral and ceremonial laws for the nation; consists partly of history and partly of legislation.

"EXODUS FROM HOUNDSDITCH," the contemplated t.i.tle of a work which Carlyle would fain have written, but found it impossible in his time.

"Out of Houndsditch indeed!" he exclaims. "Ah, were we but out, and had our own along with us" (our inheritance from the past, he means). "But they that have come hitherto have come in a state of brutal nakedness, scandalous mutilation" (having cast their inheritance from the past away), "and impartial bystanders say sorrowfully, 'Return rather; it is better even to return!'" Houndsditch was a Jew's quarter, and old clothesmarket in London, and was to Carlyle the symbol of the alarming traffic at the time in spiritualities fallen extinct. Had he given a list of these, as he has already in part done, without labelling them so, he would only, he believed, have given offence both to the old-rag wors.h.i.+ppers and those that had cast the rags off, and were all, unwittingly to themselves, going about naked; considerate he in this of preserving what of worth was in the past.