網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

566

CHEMICAL EQUIVALENTS-ERCILLA Y ZUNIGA.

tive of its principle and uses, in the Phil. Trans. for 1814; but the accurate and ready solution of so many important practical problems as have been noticed above are sufficient to show its importance to the chemist. Doctor Ure remarks of it, that it is "an instrument which has contributed more to facilitate the general study and practice of chemistry than any other invention of man."

ERA. (See Epoch, and Æra.) ERASMUS, Desiderius, born at Rotterdam, 1467, was the illegitimate son of a Dutchman of Gouda, by name Gerard, and the daughter of a physician. He was a singing-boy in the cathedral of Utrecht till his ninth year, then entered the school at Deventer, where he displayed such brilliant powers, that it was predicted that he would be the most learned man of his time. After the death of his parents, whom he lost in his fourteenth year, his guardians compelled him to enter a monastery; and, at the age of seventeen, he assumed the monastic habit. The bishop of Cambray delivered him from this constraint. In 1492, he travelled to Paris, to perfect himself in theology and polite literature. He there became the instructer of several rich Englishmen, from one of whom he received a pension for life. He accompanied them to England in 1497, where he was graciously received by the king. He returned soon after to Paris, and then travelled into Italy to increase his stock of knowledge. In Bologna, where he received the degree of doctor of theology, he was one day mistaken, on account of his white scapulary, for one of the physicians who attended those sick of the plague; and, not keeping out of the way of the people, as such persons were required to do, he was stoned, and narrowly escaped with his life. This accident was the occasion of his asking a dispensation from the vows of his order, which the pope granted him. He visited Venice, Padua and Rome; but, brilliant as were the offers here made him, he preferred the invitation of his friends in England, where the favor in which he stood with Henry VIII promised him still greater advantages.

When he visited the lord chancellor sir Thomas More without making himself known to him, the chancellor was so delighted with his conversation, that he exclaimed "You are either Erasmus or the devil." He was offered a benefice, but was unwilling to fetter himself by an office of this kind. He was for a short time professor of Greek at Oxford. He afterwards travelled through Germany and the

Netherlands, and went to Bâle, where he had his works printed by Froben. He died in 1536. His tomb may be seen at Bâle, in the Calvinistic cathedral.-To profound and extensive learning Erasmus joined a refined taste and a delicate wit. Naturally fond of tranquillity and independence, he preferred the pleasures of literary ease and retirement to the pomp of high life. His caution and worldly prudence offended many of the best men of his times. He did great and lasting scrvice to the cause of reviving learning. Although he took no direct part in the reformation, and was reproached by Luther for lukewarmness, he attacked the disorders of monkery and superstition, and every where promoted the cause of truth. He wished for a general ecclesiastical council, to be composed of the most learned and enlightened men, but did not live to see his wish accomplished. He therefore confined his efforts to serve the world by his writings, which will always be prized for their interesting matter and graceful style. The best edition is by Le Clerc, Leyden, 1703, 10 vols. fol. His life has been written by Burigny. Jortin's life of Erasmus is a valuable work. Besides his editions of various classics, and his other philological and theological writings, we will only mention his well known book in praise of folly (Encomium Moria), and his colloquies. His letters are very valuable in reference to the history of that period.

ERATO (from ¿púw, I love); one of the muses, whose name signifies loving, or lovely. She has much in common with Terpsichore-the same attributes, the same dress, and frequently a lyre and plectrum. She presides over the songs of lovers, and touches, as Ovid, in his Art of Love, informs us, the hearts of the coldest maidens by her tender lays. (See Muses.)

ERATOSTHENES, a learned man in the times of the Ptolemies, born at Cyrene, in Africa, B. C. 275, librarian at Alexandria, improved the science of mathematical geography, which he corrected, enlarged, and reduced to system. He gained his greatest renown by his investigations of the size of the earth. He rendered much service to the science of astronomy, and first observed the obliquity of the ecliptics. (See Ecliptic.) Of his writings, one only remains complete,-Catasterismi,—which treats of the constellations (Schaubach, with a commentary, 1795). Of his geographical works, which were long in high repute, the scattered remains were collected and published by Seidel, 1798.

ERCILLA Y ZUÑIGA, don Alonzo de;

ERCILLA Y ZUNIGA-ERFURT.

567

in the sixth book of Don Quixote, ranks it by the side of the best Italian epics; but probably few persons, uninfluenced by patriotic pride, will agree with him. It has been continued by a certain don Diego de Santisteban Osorio. Lope de Vega has taken from the epic of Ercilla the materials for his piece Arauca Conquered.— The first part of the Araucana, as already stated, appeared in 1577, in 15 cantos; the second part in 1578: the whole, in three parts, 1590, contains 37 cantos; new ed. Madrid, 1776. It has been translated into Italian, and twice into French (but abridged), Paris, 1824. (See Araucanians.)

ERECTHEUS. (See Ericthonius.) EREMITE (from the Greek conμos, a desert); one who secludes himself from society. (See Anachorite.)

knight of St. James, and chamberlain to the emperor Rodolph, the third son of a Spanish jurist, who was also a knight of the above order. When he was born is uncertain, but it was before 1540. His mother, from whom he inherited the name of Zuñiga, carried him, after the early death of his father, to the court of the empress Isabella, consort of Charles V. The young Alonzo was page to the Infant don Philip, and accompanied him on his travels through the Netherlands and a part of Germany, and through Italy, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary, and, in 1554, went with him to England, on the occasion of his marriage with queen Mary. Soon after this, an insurrec- EREBUS; son of Chaos and Darkness. tion breaking out among the Araucanians, He married his sister, Night, and was the a tribe of Indians on the coast of Chile, father of the Light and Day. The Parcæ, Ercilla joined an expedition sent against or Fates (q. v.), by some, are called his them. The difficulties which the Span- daughters. He was transformed into a iards had to encounter, the heroic resist- river, and plunged into Tartarus, because ance of the natives, and the multitude of he aided the Titans. From him, the name gallant deeds by which the war was sig- Erebus was given to the infernal regions, nalized, inspired the young and brave particularly that part of it which is desigErcilla with the idea of making it the sub-nated as the abode of virtuous shades, and ject of an epic poem, to which he gave the from which they pass over immediately to name of La Araucana. He began the the Elysian fields. work on the spot, writing often during the night what had been achieved in the day (Tomando ora la espada, ora la pluma), and was obliged sometimes, for want of paper, to use pieces of leather. Ercilla is said afterwards to have come near losing his life by reason of a groundless charge of mutiny, and to have been actually on the scaffold before his innocence was made known. He returned to Spain, very much out of health, and after having finished the first part of his epic. All this he performed before completing his 29th year. In 1570, he married Maria Bazan, at Madrid, whose charms and virtues are celebrated by him in various passages of his poem. In 1577, the first part of his poem, in 1590, the whole, was published. His merits were not rewarded; for he died at Madrid in great poverty and obscurity. The time and circumstances of his death are uncertain; he must have been alive, however, in 1596, as Mosquera, in his book on military discipline, speaks of him as his contemporary. He left no legitimate children, but two natural sons and a daughter. The Araucana is a historical epic in the octave measure, in which the author confines himself, with the exception of some episodes and a few fictions, to the exact historical course of events. Hence the poem often assumes almost the character of a chronicle. Voltaire's judgment on this poem (in his Essai sur la Poésie épique) shows that he had not read it. Cervantes,

ERESICTHON. (See Erisicthon.)

ERFURT; an important Prussian fortress in Thuringia. It was ceded to Prussia at the peace of Paris, since which time its fortifications have been much strengthened. It is situated on the great road which leads from Frankfort on the Maine to the north of Germany, passing, in part of its course, along the mountains called the Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald). In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Erfurt was a flourishing commercial place, and contained not less than 60,000 inhabitants: at present, there are not more than 21,330, in 2781 houses. The university, established in 1378, was suppressed by the Prussian government in 1816, for the purpose of merging it in one of those great establishments for education, of which Prussia has so many. The inhabitants are mostly Lutherans. There are two forts, called Petersberg and Cyriaksberg. Erfurt is the capital of a government, and the seat of several courts, and contains a royal academy of practical science, two gymnasia (royal schools), an institution for the deaf and dumb, a musical society, and several other institutions. The large bell called Susanna, made of the finest bell-metal, and weighing 275 cwt., and the cell in which Luther lived, while an Augustine monk,

[blocks in formation]

from 1505 till 1512, are shown as curiosities. According to tradition, Erfurt was founded as early as the fifth century, by a certain Erpes. It was not a free imperial city, but always maintained a sort of independence, notwithstanding the claims of the elector of Mentz. In 1483, it concluded a treaty with Saxony, by which it agreed to pay an annual sum for protection. In the seventeenth century, the elector of Mentz finally obtained possession of it. In 1814, it was granted to Prussia, by the congress of Vienna. The government, of which it is the capital, contains 1404 square miles, with 257,500 inhabitants, in 22 large towns, 12 small towns, and 401 villages. Erfurt is celebrated for the interview between Napoleon, and Alexander (emperor of Russia), several kings, and many princes, in September, 1808, when the French emperor's power was at its acme. The chief object of Napoleon was the entire pacification of Europe, as he believed he had finally succeeded in effecting that of the continent. (See the article Congress, vol. iii. p. 431.) He and Alexander jointly invited the king of England to accede to the peace; but their pressing letter was answered only by the minister, who, as Napoleon expressed himself, attempted to renew the questions which had been decided at Jena and Friedland. "He wished me," says he, "to confess that I had been guilty of violence at Bayonne, by acknowledging the cortes of Spain and the regency of Portugal." We add here, that remarkable document, the letter of Napoleon and Alexander to the king of England, which is only a repetition of the sentiments expressed by Napoleon, in his letter to George III, after his adoption of the title of emperor :-"Sire, the present situation of Europe has brought us together at Erfurt. Our first wish is to fulfil the desire of all nations, and, by a speedy pacification with your majesty, to take the most effectual means for relieving the sufferings of Europe. The long and bloody war, which has convulsed the continent, is at an end, and cannot be renewed. Many changes have taken place in Europe; many governments have been destroyed. The cause is to be found in the uneasiness and the sufferings occasioned by the stagnation of maritime commerce. Greater changes still may take place, and all will be unfavorable to the politics of England. Peace, therefore, is, at the same time, the common cause of the nations of the continent and of Great Britain. We unite in requesting your majesty to lend an ear to the voice of humanity, to sup

press that of the passions, to reconcile contending interests, and secure the welfare of Europe, and of the generation over which Providence has placed us." This letter was answered by Canning, with an open note to Napoleon's minister of foreign affairs. In the answer which Napoleon sent to the letter of the emperor Francis of Austria, which contained the liveliest assurances of his good disposition, the French emperor entreats him, in the most decisive language, to adopt a frank, open and sincere policy.

ERGOT is an elongated, cylindrical excrescence, a little curved, and somewhat resembling a horn, which sometimes takes the place of the grain in several cultivated grasses, particularly in rye, which, when in this state, is commonly called spurred rye. It has been considered by some authors as a disease, by others as a fungus, and has been referred by the latter to the genus sclerotium. A grain, when attacked, becomes at first soft and pulpy, afterwards hardens, and elongates gradually; when young, it is red or violaceous, afterwards lead colored, and finally black, with a white interior: generally two or three grains in a spike only are affected: wet weather is favorable to its developement. When bread containing this substance has been eaten, it has produced very formidable consequences-sometimes gangrene of the extremities and death. Ergot is an important article in materia medica; has been found capable of exerting a very powerful and specific action upon the uterus, and is administered in small doses in certain extreme cases. This remedy has been principally used in the U. States. Of late, it has been successfully employed in France.

ERHARD, Christian Daniel, professor of criminal law at Leipsic, was born 1759, at Dresden, and studied law from 1778 to 1781, at Leipsic, where he devoted himself to history, philosophy and the arts. In 1801, the emperor Alexander I appointed him correspondent of the legislative commission at Petersburg, with a pension: many academies, likewise, appointed him an honorary member. He obtained important places as an instructer in his science, and also as a practical jurist. His writings are on the important subjects of philosophical and positive law, and contain many original views. His fame was widely extended by his work on the legislation of Leopold II in Tuscany. In his remarks on the works of Algernon Sidney, on forms of government, in several treatises published by him in his Amalthea,—

ERHARD-ERICTHONIUS.

a periodical of 1788 and 1789,-in the preface to his translation of the commercial code, and the civil code of France, and in his essays De Arbitrio Judicis, and De Notione Furti, he has discussed some of the most important subjects of legislation. His translation of the Code Napoléon (2d edition 1811), is universally acknowledged to be the best. His last, and, perhaps, his greatest labor, was the sketch of a criminal code for Saxony. As far as it was finished, it has been published by one of his scholars-doctor Friderici. He died in 1813. He united variety of learning, acuteness, wit, and agreeable manners, to the most excellent feelings.

ERHARD, John Benjamin, doctor of medicine at Berlin, was born 1766, at Nuremburg. His father, a poor wire-drawer, who had a good deal of musical and literary taste, endeavored to cultivate the same tastes in his only child. The boy left school at the age of 11 years, and was desirous of learning his father's trade, and becoming acquainted with engraving. He received instruction in drawing, and afterwards in engraving, in French and Italian, and also took lessons on the harpsichord. Being destitute of books, he endeavored to procure philosophical works from the dealers in old books; but he could obtain nothing but a few Latin manuals of the school of Wolf. A love for Latin and Greek was awakened in him; philosophy led him to mathematics; and here, too, the writings of Wolf were his guides. Thus Erhard was engaged till his 13th year, when an epileptic attack obliged him to renounce, for a time, all mental exertion. After his recovery, he resumed his studies in philosophy and the mathematics in his 16th year. At 20, he formed an acquaintance with a celebrated surgeon, Siebold, who was astonished at such proficiency in a young mechanic, and endeavored to engage him in the study of medicine at Wurzburg. Erhard, however, in consequence of his republican principles, continued still to live as a mechanic. He had chosen his guides in morals when a boy of 14, and, in the main, was always faithful to them. He says in a manuscript essay, "One of these guides was a slave and the other an emperor,-Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, and by their advice, I determined to desire nothing but what fate forced upon me; while they both taught me to seek for happiness not in external circumstances, but in my own heart." After the death of his mother, in 1787, Erhard resolved to go to Wurzburg to study medicine.

569

He remained there two years, and, in 1792, obtained a doctor's degree at Altorf. He had no inclination to the practice of physic, on account of the situation of affairs at that time. The French revolution filled him with fears for the fate of Germany. He was in doubt what part to act, hating the aristocratic party for what they intended to do, and the democratic party for what they had actually done; he determined, therefore, to visit North America. But, having lost all his property in 1793, by the treachery of an agent, he became much embarrassed, and, in 1797, accepted a place in Anspach under the minister Von Hardenberg. Two years after, he went to Berlin, where he received permission to practise physic, to which he afterwards entirely devoted himself. He died in 1827. Among his works, are his treatise on the medical science, and his Theory of Laws, which relate to the health of citizens, and the use of medical science in legislation, which was published at Tübingen, in 1800. His treatise On the Right of the People to a Revolution (Jena, 1795) expresses the views to which he was led by reflection on the great events of that period.

ERIC. Fourteen kings of this name have reigned in Sweden, the last of whom ascended the throne in 1560. He exhibited much energy of character, but drove his brothers to rebellion by his violence and severity. His tyranny, and a disgraceful marriage, alienated the minds of his subjects; and his brothers, John and Charles, formed a party against him, which deprived him of the crown, in 1568, with the consent of the states. He died (1577) in prison by poison. He was active and industrious. A patron of the arts, he esteemed and patronised artists and mechanics, received the Huguenots with open arms, abolished many superstitious usages in religion, and rendered commerce and navigation flourishing. His judicial institutions, too, are particularly worthy of praise. He created a high nobility in Sweden, by conferring the dignity of count and baron. (See Celsius's History of Eric XIV, in Swedish, Greifswalde, 1776.)

ERICTHONIUS, or ERECTHEUS, son of Dardanus and Batea, and grandson of Jupiter, was king of Troas. He was the richest man in his kingdom, having in his meadows 3000 mares with foals. Boreas fell in love with one of these mares, and transformed himself into a horse. The product of this union was 12 colts, which

570

ERICTHONIUS-ERIGENA.

bounded over the plains without injuring a spire of grass, and skimmed the waves of the sea. Ericthonius obtained the kingdom of Troy by the death of his brother Ilus without children. He married Astyoche, the daughter of Simos, by whom (or, according to some by Callirrhoë, the daughter of Scamander) he became the father of Tros.-Another Ericthonius, king of Athens, was, as fable relates, the son of Vulcan and Atthis, daughter of Cranaus. Ericthonius was educated in the temple of Minerva, by the goddess herself. When he grew up, he drove Amphitryon from his throne, and reigned in his stead. He erected a statue to Minerva; or, according to some a temple in the citadel, and instituted, in her honor, the festival called Panathenæon. The fabulous history of this Ericthonius is differently related. He is said to have had dragon's feet; and, on account of his inability to walk, to have invented a fourwheeled covered wagon to conceal his feet in it. For this reason, Jupiter placed him among the stars, where he became a constellation, under the name of Boötes (q. v.)

ERIDANUS (probably the Po, in Italy); a river famous in mythology, mentioned in the return of the Argonauts. When Phaeton, who is also called Eridanus, was struck by the thunderbolts of Jupiter, he fell into this river-and his three sisters, the Heliades, lamented him till they were changed into poplars. They did not cease to weep for him even in this condition; and their tears, falling into the water of the river, became transparent amber. It is believed by many, that the amber found on the shores of the Baltic passed, by barter, through several savage tribes, until it reached the Adriatic sea, where Greek and Phoenician merchants came to buy it.

ERIE; a lake of North America, through which the boundary line runs which separates the United States from Canada; about 280 miles in length from S. W. to N. E., from 10 to 63 in breadth, and 658 in circumference; containing about 12,000 square miles. It is 120 feet deep, and its surface is 334 feet above that of lake Ontario, with which it is connected by the Welland canal, and 565 feet above the tide water at Albany, with which it is connected by the great Erie canal; lon. 78° 35′ to 83° 10 W.; lat. 41° 20′ to 42° 50 N. This lake is of dangerous navigation, on account of the great number of rocks which project, for many niles together, from the northern shore,

without any shelter from storms. A constant current sets down lake Erie, and, with the prevalence of north-western and south-western winds, renders the up-lake navigation tedious. There are several tolerably good harbors on the south shore, the principal of which are Buffalo and Dunkirk, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; Sandusky, Ohio, besides the harbor at Put-in-bay island. It discharges its waters at the north-east end into the river Niagara. A battle was fought on this lake, Séptember 10th, 1813, between the American fleet, under commodore Perry, and the English fleet, in which the latter was taken. The lake is now navigated by seven steam-boats. The rapid progress of civilization is also perceptible in the region beyond it. In 1812, the news of the declaration of war against G. Britain by the U. States did not reach the post of Michilimackinac under two months. It is now within ten days' distance from the Atlantic ocean. Its navigation will probably be much increased when the Ohio and Erie canal is finished. (See Canals, and Internal Navigation.)

ERIGENA (John Scotus). The birthplace of this eminent scholar and metaphysician has been disputed; notwithstanding the patronymic usually affixed to his name, signifying the Irishman, the weight of evidence seems to predominate in favor of Ayrshire, in Scotland. At an early age, he visited Greece, and especially Athens, where he devoted himself to the study of Oriental as well as classical literature, and became no mean proficient in logic and philosophy. Charles the Bald, king of France, invited him to his court, and encouraged him in the production of some metaphysical disquisitions, which gave great offence to the church, by the boldness with which he impugned the doctrines of transubstantiation and predestination. But his grand offence was the translating into Latin a pretended work of Dionysius the Arcopagite, the supposed first Christian preacher in France. Many passages in this treatise, although popular among the clergy of the east, were extremely obnoxious to the Romish hierarchy; and a peremptory order from pope Nicholas to Charles, commanding the immediate transmission of the culprit to Rome, induced that monarch to connive at his escape into England, in preference to delivering him up to the vengeance of the papal sec. Alfred the Great received Erigena gladly, and placed him at the head of the establishment lately founded by him in Oxford, then called

« 上一頁繼續 »