Part 2 (1/2)
ETRePILLY, (1) a small town of France, department of Aisne, is situated near Chateau-Thierry. Millstones are obtained from quarries in the neighbourhood. (2) A small town of France, department of Seine-et-Marne, stands on the left bank of an affluent of the Marne. Agricultural implements are manufactured.
ETRU'RIA (Gr. _Tyrrhenia_), the name anciently given to that part of Italy which corresponded partly with the modern Tuscany, and was bounded by the Mediterranean, the Apennines, the River Magra, and the Tiber. The name of Tusci or Etrusci was used by the Romans to designate the race of people anciently inhabiting this country, but the name by which they called themselves was Rasena (or perhaps more correctly Ta-rasena). These Rasena entered Italy at a very early period from the north, and, besides occupying Etruria proper, extended their influence to Campania, Elba, and Corsica.
Etruria proper was in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition before the foundation of Rome, 753 B.C. It was known very early as a confederation of twelve great cities, each of which formed a republic by itself. Amongst the chief were Veii, Clusium, Volsinii, Arretium, Cortona, Falerii, and Faesulae; but the list may have varied at different epochs. The chiefs of these republics were styled _luc.u.m[=o]nes_, and united the office of priest and general.
They were elected for life. After a long struggle with Rome, the Etruscan power was completely broken by the Romans in a series of victories, from the fall of Veii in 396 B.C. to the battle at the Vadimonian Lake (283 B.C.). The Etruscans had attained a high state of civilization. They carried on a flouris.h.i.+ng commerce, and at one time were powerful at sea.
They were less warlike than most of the nations around them, and had the custom of hiring mercenaries for their armies. Of the Etruscan language little is known, although about 6000 inscriptions have been preserved. It was written in characters essentially the same as the ancient Greek. The Etruscans were specially distinguished by their religious inst.i.tutions and ceremonies, which reveal tendencies gloomy and mystical. Their G.o.ds were of two orders, the first nameless, mysterious deities, exercising a controlling influence in the background on the lower order of G.o.ds, who manage the affairs of the world. At the head of these is a deity resembling the Roman Jupiter (in Etruscan _Tinia_). But it is characteristic of the Etruscan religion that there is also a Vejovis or evil Jupiter. The Etruscan name of Venus was _Turan_, of Vulcan _Sethlans_, of Bacchus _Phuphluns_, of Mercury _Turms_. Etruscan art was in the main borrowed from Greece. For articles in terra-cotta, a material which they used mainly for ornamental tiles, sarcophagi, and statues, Etruscans were especially celebrated. In the manufacture of pottery they had made great advances; but most of the painted vases popularly known as Etruscan are undoubtedly productions of Greek workmen. The skill of the Etruscans in works of metal is attested by ancient writers, and also by numerous extant specimens, such as necklaces, ear-rings, and bracelets. The bronze candelabra, of which many examples have been preserved, were eagerly sought after both in Greece and Rome. A peculiar manufacture was that of engraved bronze mirrors. These were polished on one side, and have on the other an engraved design, taken in most cases from Greek legend or mythology. The Etruscans showed great constructive and engineering skill. They were acquainted with the principle of the arch, and the ma.s.sive ruins of the walls of their ancient cities still testify to the solidity of their constructions. Various arts and inventions were derived by the Romans from the Etruscans.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: G.
Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries in Etruria_; Seymour, _Up Hill and Down Dale in Ancient Etruria_.
ETRURIA, a village of England, in Staffords.h.i.+re, between Hanley and Burslem, famous as the place where Josiah Wedgwood established his pottery works in 1769. Pop. 8056.
ETRURIA, KINGDOM OF, in Italy, founded by Napoleon I in 1801. Its capital was Florence. In 1807 Napoleon incorporated it with the French Empire.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Etruscan Pottery (from Veii)]
ETRUSCAN VASES, a cla.s.s of beautiful ancient painted vases made in Etruria, but not strictly speaking a product of Etruscan art, since they were really the productions of a ripe age of Greek art, the workmans.h.i.+p, subjects, style, and inscriptions being all Greek. They are elegant in form and enriched with bands of beautiful foliage and other ornaments, figures and similar subjects of a highly artistic character. One cla.s.s has black figures and ornaments on a red ground--the natural colour of the clay; another has the figures left of the natural colour and the ground painted black. The former cla.s.s belong to a date about 600 B.C., the latter date about a century later, and extend over a period of about 300 or 350 years, when the manufacture seems to have ceased. During this period there was much variety in the form and ornamentation, gold and other colours besides the primitive ones of black and red being frequently made use of. The subjects represented upon these vases frequently relate to heroic personages of the Greek mythology, but many scenes of an ordinary and even of a domestic character are depicted. The figures are usually in profile: temples are occasionally introduced; and many curious particulars may be learned from these vase pictures regarding the h.e.l.lenic ritual, games, festivities, and domestic life.
ETT'RICK, a pastoral district of Scotland, in Selkirks.h.i.+re, watered by the Ettrick, and anciently part of Ettrick Forest, which included Selkirk with parts of Peebles and Edinburgh. The Ettrick receives the Yarrow 2 miles above Selkirk, and enters the Tweed 3 miles below. The _Ettrick Shepherd_, the Scottish poet James Hogg, was a native of this district.
ETTY, William, an English painter, born in 1787, died in 1849. He studied at the Royal Academy, worked long without much recognition, but at length in 1820 he won public notice by his _Coral Finders_. In 1828 he was elected an academician. Among his works, which were greatly admired, are a series of three pictures (1827-31) ill.u.s.trating the _Deliverance of Bethulia by Judith_, _Benaiah_ (one of David's mighty men), and _Women Interceding for the Vanquished_. All these are very large pictures, and are now in the National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh). Others of note are: _The Judgment of Paris_; _The_ _Rape of Proserpine_; and _Youth at the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm_. Etty especially excelled at painting undraped figures.
ETYMOL'OGY (Gr. _etymos_, true, and _logos_, account), a term applied (1) to that part of grammar which treats of the various inflections and modifications of words and shows how they are formed from simple roots; (2) to that branch of philology which traces the history of words from their origin to their latest form and meaning. Etymology in this latter sense, or the investigation of the origin and growth of words, is amongst the oldest of studies. Plato and other Greek philosophers, the Alexandrian grammarians, the scholiasts, the Roman Varro, and others wrote much on this subject. Their work, however, is made up of conjectures at best ingenious rather than sound, and very often wild and fantastic. It was not till recent times, and particularly since the study of Sanskrit, that etymology has been scientifically studied. Languages then began to be properly cla.s.sed in groups and families, and words were studied by a comparison of their growth and relations.h.i.+p in different languages. It was recognized that the development of language is not an arbitrary or accidental matter, but proceeds according to general laws. The result was a great advance in etymological knowledge and the formation of a new science of _philology_.--Cf. W. W. Skeat, _The Science of Etymology_.
EU (_eu_), a town in Northern France, department of Seine-Inferieure, about 17 miles north-east of Dieppe. It is notable for its old twelfth-century church and the celebrated Chateau d'Eu, part of which was destroyed in 1902. Pop. 4900.
EUBOE'A, formerly called Negropont, a Greek island, the second largest island of the aegean Sea. It is 90 miles in length; 30 in greatest breadth, reduced at one point to 4 miles. It is separated from the mainland of Greece by the narrow channels of Egripo and Talanta. It is connected with the Boeotian sh.o.r.e by a bridge. There are several mountain peaks over 2000 feet in height, and one over 7000 feet. The island is well-wooded and remarkably fertile. Wine is a staple product, and cotton, wool, pitch, and turpentine are exported. The chief towns are Chalcis and Karysto. The island was anciently divided among seven independent cities, the most important of which were Chalcis and Eretria, and its history is for the most part identical with that of those two cities. With some small islands it forms a modern nomarchy, with a pop. of 116,900.
EUBU'LUS, a Greek comic poet, who flourished at Athens about 375 B.C. His subjects were chiefly mythological, and he delighted in ridiculing the tragic poets, especially Euripides.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Eucalyptus globulus
1, Section of unopened flower. 2, Anthers. 3, Section of fruit.]
EUCALYP'TUS, a genus of trees, nat. ord. Myrtaceae, mostly natives of Australia, and remarkable for their gigantic size, some of them attaining the height of 480 or 500 feet. In the Australian colonies they are known by the name of gum trees, from the gum which exudes from their trunks; individual species are known as 'stringy bark', 'iron bark', _karri_, or _jarrah_. The wood of some is excellent for building and many purposes. The _E. glob[)u]lus_, or blue gum, yields an essential oil which is valuable as a febrifuge, antasthmatic, and antispasmodic. The medicinal properties of this tree also make it useful as a disinfectant, and as an astringent in affections of the respiratory pa.s.sages, being employed in the form of an infusion, a decoction, or an extract, and cigarettes made of the leaves being also smoked. The E. glob[)u]lus and the E. amygdalina are found to have an excellent sanitary effect when planted in malarious districts such as the Roman Campagna, parts of which have already been reclaimed by their use. This result is partly brought about by the drainage of the soil (the trees absorbing great quant.i.ties of moisture), partly perhaps by the balsamic odour given out. E. mannif[)e]ra and others yield a sweet secretion resembling manna. Some, especially E. rostrata, yield a kind of gum kino. The Eucalyptus has been introduced with success into India, Palestine, Algiers, and Southern France.
EUCHARIST ([=u]'ka-rist; Gr. _eucharistia_, from _eu_, well, and _charis_, grace), a name for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in reference to the blessing and thanksgiving which accompany it.
EUCHARISTIC CONGRESSES, gatherings of the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, held with the object of glorifying the Sacrament of the Eucharist, were inaugurated by Bishop de Segur, of Lille. The first congress, held in that city (1881) excited little but local interest; but the movement rapidly developed, succeeding congresses being held at Avignon (1882), Liege (1883), Paris (1888), Jerusalem (1893), Lourdes (1899), Rome (1905), and elsewhere. In 1908 the congress held in London was attended by Cardinal Vannutelli, the first Papal legate to visit England for three centuries, by six other cardinals, fourteen archbishops, and seventy bishops. A proposal to carry the Sacrament through London in procession aroused much opposition, and the project was abandoned on the personal intervention of Mr. Asquith, then Premier.
EUCHRE ([=u]'k[.e]r), a card-game very popular in America, is usually played by two or four persons. After the cut for deal five cards are dealt (either by twos and threes or by threes and twos) to each player, and the uppermost card of those undealt is turned up for trump. The first player has the option either to 'order up' (namely to make this card trump) or to pa.s.s. In the latter case it is left to the next player to decide if he will play first or pa.s.s, and so on till the turn of the dealer comes. He must either play on this trump or turn it down, when all the players have again in turn their choice of making a new trump or pa.s.sing. If a trump is 'ordered up' or taken in the first round, the dealer may take it into his cards, discarding in its place his poorest card. If the player who elects to play wins five tricks, he counts two; if he wins three tricks, he counts one; if he wins fewer than three tricks, he is _euchred_, and each independent opponent counts two. The cards rank as at whist, except that the knave of the trump suit, called the _right bower_ (from the Ger.
_bauer_, a peasant), is the highest card, the knave of the other suit of the same colour being the second highest.
EUCKEN, Rudolf Christoph, German philosopher and theologian, born in East Friesland in 1846. Educated at the Universities of Gottingen and Berlin, he was professor of philosophy at Basel from 1871 to 1874, when he obtained a similar appointment at Jena. Opposed both to utilitarianism and positivism.
Eucken is one of the leaders of those German philosophers who maintain that the spiritual interests of man should be taken into consideration, and oppose the philosophic systems which treat life only from the physical and biological points of view. His spiritualistic philosophy has found many adherents, and his works are very popular. In 1908 he won the n.o.bel prize for literature, and in 1910 he was made a D.D. of the University of Glasgow. His works include: _The Life of the Spirit_ (1909), _The Problem of Human Life as viewed by the Great Thinkers_ (1909), The Meaning and Value of Life (1909), _Main Currents of Modern Thought_ (1911), _Life's Basis and Life's Ideal_ (1911), _Can we still be Christians?_ (1913).
EUCLID (_Eucleid[=e]s_), of Alexandria, a distinguished Greek mathematician, who flourished about 300 B.C. His _Stoicheia_ (Elements of Geometry), in thirteen books, are still extant, and form the most usual introduction to the study of geometry. The work was known to the Arabs, translations of it having appeared in the time of Harun-al-Ras.h.i.+d and of Al-Mamun. It was translated from the Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath, and an English translation from the Latin appeared in 1570. The severity and accuracy of Euclid's methods of demonstration have as a whole never been surpa.s.sed. Besides the _Elements_, some other works are attributed to Euclid.--Cf. R. S. Heath, _The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements_.
EUCLID (_Eucleid[=e]s_), of Megara, an ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of the Megaric school of philosophy, and a pupil of Socrates.
EUDIOM'ETER (Gr. _eudios_, serene), an instrument originally designed for ascertaining the purity of the air or the quant.i.ty of oxygen it contains, but now employed generally in the a.n.a.lysis of gaseous mixtures. It consists of a graduated gla.s.s tube, either straight or bent in the shape of the letter [1], hermetically sealed at one end and open at the other. Two platinum wires, intended for the conveyance of electric sparks through any mixture of gases, are inserted through the gla.s.s near the closed end of the tube, and approach but do not touch each other. To determine the proportion of oxygen in a given specimen of air, hydrogen is introduced into the tube with a measured volume of the air, and the mixture is fired by an electric spark. Water is formed, and the quant.i.ty of oxygen can be estimated from the diminution of volume. In a mixture of gases, chemical absorbents may be used to remove the gases one by one, the amounts present being determined by the successive changes of volume.
EUGENE ([=u]-j[=e]n'), or Francois Eugene, Prince of Savoy, fifth son of Eugene Maurice, Duke of Savoy-Carignan, and Olympia Mancini, a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. He was born at Paris 18th Oct., 1663, and died in Vienna 21st April, 1736. Offended with Louis XIV, he entered the Austrian service in 1683, serving his first campaign as a volunteer against the Turks. Here he distinguished himself so much that he received a regiment of dragoons.