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Grenville Kleiser - "The world's great sermons, Volume 8"

George Horace Lorimer - "Old Gorgon Graham"

G. K. Chesterton - "All Things Considered"

Anonymous - "Wee Ones' Bible Stories"

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Richard Seaver Dies
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The Nuttall Encyclopaedia by Edited by Rev. James Wood

E >> Edited by Rev. James Wood >> The Nuttall Encyclopaedia





DUPLESSIS, MORNAY, a soldier, diplomatist, and man of letters; a
leader of the Huguenots, who, after the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
visited England, where he was received with favour by Elizabeth in 1575;
entered the service of the King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of
France, but on Henry's reconciliation with the Church of Rome, retired
into private life and devoted himself to literary pursuits; he was called
the "Pope of the Huguenots"; _d_. 1623.


DUPONT, PIERRE, French song-writer; his songs, "Le Chant des
Ouvriers" and "Les Boeufs," the delight of the young generation of 1848
(1820-1872).


DUPONT DE L'EURE, a French politician, born at Neubourg; filled
several important offices in the successive periods of revolution in
France; was distinguished for his integrity and patriotism, and made
President of the Provisional Government in 1848 (1767-1855).


DUPONT DE NEMOURS, French political economist; took part in the
Revolution; was opposed to the excesses of the Jacobin party, but escaped
with his life; wrote a book entitled "Philosophie de l'Universe"
(1739-1817).


DUPUIS, CHARLES FRANCOIS, a French savant; was a member of the
Convention of the Council of the Five Hundred, and President of the
Legislative Body during the Revolution period; devoted himself to the
study of astronomy in connection with mythology, the result of which was
published in his work in 12 vols., entitled "Origine de tous les Cultes,
ou la Religion Universelle"; he advocated the unity of the astronomical
and religious myths of all nations (1742-1809).


DUPUY, M. CHARLES, French statesman, born at Puy; elected to the
Chamber in 1885; became Premier in 1893 and in 1894; was in office when
Dreyfus was condemned and degraded, and resigned in 1895; _b_. 1851.


DUPUYTREN, BARON, a celebrated French surgeon, born at
Pierre-Buffiere; he was a man of firm nerve, signally sure and skilful as
an operator, and contributed greatly, both by his inventions and
discoveries, to the progress of surgery; a museum of pathological
anatomy, in which he made important discoveries, bears his name
(1777-1835).


DUQUESNE, ABRAHAM, MARQUIS, an illustrious naval officer of France,
born at Dieppe; distinguished himself in many a naval engagement, and did
much to enhance the naval glory of the country; among other achievements
plucked the laurels from the brow of his great rival, De Ruyter, by, in
1676, defeating the combined fleets of Spain and Holland under his
command; Louis XIV. offered him a marshal's baton if he would abjure
Calvinism, but he declined; he was the only one of the Huguenots excepted
from proscription in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but his last
days were saddened by the banishment of his children (1610-1688).


DURA DEN, a glen near Cupar-Fife, famous for the number of ganoid
fossil fishes entombed in its sandstone.


DURANCE, a tributary of the Rhone, which, after a rapid course of
180 m., falls into that river by its left bank 3 m. below Avignon.


DURAND, an Indian officer; served in the Afghan and Sikh Wars, and
became Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab (1828-1871).


DURANDAL, the miraculous sword of Orlando, with which he could
cleave mountains at a blow.


DURBAN (27), the port of Natal, largest town in the colony, with a
land-locked harbour.


DURBAR, a ceremonious State reception in India.


DUeRER, ALBERT, the great early German painter and engraver, born at
Nuernberg, son of a goldsmith, a good man, who brought him up to his own
profession, but he preferred painting, for which he early exhibited a
special aptitude, and his father bound him apprentice for three years to
the chief artist in the place, at the expiry of which he travelled in
Germany and other parts; in 1506 he visited Venice, where he met Bellini,
and painted several pictures; proceeded thence to Bologna, and was
introduced to Raphael; his fame spread widely, and on his return he was
appointed court-painter by the Emperor Maximilian, an office he held
under Charles V.; he was of the Reformed faith, and a friend of
Melanchthon as well as an admirer of Luther, on whose incarceration in
Wartburg he uttered a long lament; he was a prince of painters, his
drawing and colouring perfect, and the inventor of etching, in which he
was matchless; he carved in wood, ivory, stone, and metal; was an author
as well as an artist, and wrote, among other works, an epoch-making
treatise on proportion in the human figure; "it could not be better done"
was his quiet, confident reply as a sure workman to a carper on one
occasion (1471-1528).


D'URFEY, TOM, a facetious poet; author of comedies and songs; a
great favourite of Charles II. and his court; of comedies he wrote some
30, which are all now discarded for their licentiousness, and a curious
book of sonnets, entitled "Pills to Purge Melancholy"; came to poverty in
the end of his days; Addison pled on his behalf, and hoped that "as he
had made the world merry, the world would make him easy" (1628-1723).


DURGA, in the Hindu mythology the consort of Siva.


DURHAM (15), an ancient city on the Wear, with a noble cathedral and
a castle, once the residence of the bishop, now a university seat, in the
heart of a county of the same name (1,106), rich in coal-fields, and with
numerous busy manufacturing towns.


DURHAM, ADMIRAL, entered the navy in 1777; was officer on the watch
when the _Royal George_ went down off Spithead, and the only one with
Captain Waghorn who escaped; served as acting-lieutenant of a ship under
Lord Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and commanded the _Defence_, a ship
of 74 guns, at the battle of Trafalgar (1763-1815).


DURHAM, JOHN G. L., EARL OF, an English statesman, born in Durham
Co.; a zealous Liberal and reformer, and a member of the Reform
Government under Earl Grey, which he contributed much to inaugurate; was
ambassador in St. Petersburg, and was sent governor-general to Canada in
1839, but owing to some misunderstanding took the extraordinary step of
ultroneously returning within the year (1792-1840).


DURWARD, QUENTIN, a Scottish archer in the service of Louis XI., the
hero of a novel of Scott's of the name.


DUeSSELDORF (176), a well-built town of Rhenish Prussia, on the right
bank of the Rhine; it is a place of manufactures, and has a fine
picture-gallery with a famous school of art associated.


DUTENS, JOSEPH, a French engineer and political economist
(1763-1848).


DUTENS, LOUIS, a French savant, born at Tours; after being chaplain
to the British minister at Turin, settled in England, and became
historiographer-royal; was a man of varied learning, and well read in
historical subjects and antiquities (1730-1812).


DUTROCHET, a French physiologist and physicist, known for his
researches on the passage of fluids through membranous tissues
(1776-1847).


DUUMVIRS, the name of two Roman magistrates who exercised the same
public functions.


DUVAL, CLAUDE, a French numismatist, and writer on numismatics;
keeper of the imperial cabinet of Vienna; was originally a shepherd boy
(1695-1775).


DWIGHT, TIMOTHY, an American theologian, grandson of Jonathan
Edwards, and much esteemed in his day both as a preacher and a writer;
his "Theology Explained and Defended," in 5 vols., was very popular at
one time, and was frequently reprinted (1752-1817).


DWINA, a Russian river, distinguished from the DUeNA (q. v.),
also called Duna, and an important, which flows N. to the White
Sea.


DYAKS, the native name of tribes of Malays of a superior class
aboriginal to Borneo.


DYCE, ALEXANDER, an English literary editor and historian, born in
Edinburgh; edited several of the old English poets and authors, some of
them little known before; also the poems of Shakespeare, Pope, &c.; was
one of the founders of the Percy Society, for the publication of old
English works (1798-1869).


DYCE, WILLIAM, a distinguished Scottish artist, born in Aberdeen,
studied in Rome; settled for a time in Edinburgh, and finally removed to
London; painted portraits at first, but soon took to higher subjects of
art; his work was such as to commend itself to both German and French
artists; he gave himself to fresco-painting, and as a fresco-painter was
selected to adorn the walls of the Palace of Westminster and the House of
Lords; his "Baptism of Ethelbert," in the latter, is considered his best
work (1806-1864).


DYCK, VAN. See VANDYCK.


DYER, JOHN, English poet; was a great lover and student of landscape
scenery, and his poems, "Grongar Hill" and the "Fleece," abound in
descriptions of these, the scenery of the former lying in S. Wales
(1700-1758).


DYNAM, the unit of work, or the force required to raise one pound
one foot in one second.


DYNAMITE, a powerful explosive substance, intensely local in its
action; formed by impregnating a porous siliceous earth or other
substance with some 70 per cent. of nitro-glycerine.


DYNAMO, a machine by which mechanical work is transformed into
powerful electric currents by the inductive action of magnets on coils of
copper wire in motion.




E


EACUS. See AEACUS.


EADMER, a celebrated monk of Canterbury; flourished in the 12th
century; friend and biographer of St. Anselm, author of a History of His
Own Times, as also of many of the Lives of the Saints; elected to the
bishopric of St. Andrews in 1120; resigned on account of Alexander I.
refusing to admit the right of the English Archbishop of Canterbury to
perform the ceremony of consecration.


EADRIC, a Saxon, notorious for his treachery, fighting now with his
countrymen against the Danes and now with the Danes against them, till
put to death by order of Canute in 1017.


EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN, an American engineer, born in Laurenceburg,
Indiana; designed ingenious boats for floating submerged ships; built
with remarkable speed warships for the Federalists in 1861; constructed a
steel bridge spanning the Mississippi at St. Louis, noteworthy for its
central span of 520 ft. (1820-1887).


EAGLE, the king of birds, and bird of Jove; was adopted by various
nations as the emblem of dominant power, as well as of nobility and
generosity; in Christian art it is the symbol of meditation, and the
attribute of St. John; is represented now as fighting with a serpent, and
now as drinking out of a chalice or a communion cup, to strengthen it for
the fight.


EAGLE, ORDER OF THE BLACK, an order of knighthood founded by the
Elector of Brandenburg in 1701; with this order was ultimately
incorporated the ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE, founded in 1734 by the
Markgraf of Bayreuth.


EAGLE OF BRITTANY, DU GUESCLIN (q. v.).


EAGLE OF MEAUX, BOSSUET (q. v.).


EAGRE, a name given in England to a tidal wave rushing up a river or
estuary on the top of another, called also a BORE (q. v.).


EARL, a title of nobility, ranking third in the British peerage;
originally election to the dignity of earl carried with it a grant of
land held in feudal tenure, the discharge of judicial and administrative
duties connected therewith, and was the occasion of a solemn service of
investiture. In course of time the title lost its official character, and
since the reign of Queen Anne all ceremony of investiture has been
dispensed with, the title being conferred by letters-patent. The word is
derived from the Anglo-Saxon _eorls_ which signified the "gentle folk,"
as distinguished from the _ceorls_, the "churls" or "simple folk."


EARL MARSHAL, a high officer of State, an office of very ancient
institution, now the head of the college of arms, and hereditary in the
family of the Dukes of Norfolk; formerly one of the chief officers in the
court of chivalry, a court which had to do with all matters of high
ceremonial, such as coronations.


EARLOM, RICHARD, a mezzotint engraver, born in London; celebrated
for his series of 200 prints after the original designs of Claude de
Lorraine (1743-1822).


EARLSTON or ERCILDOUNE, a village in Berwickshire, with
manufactures of ginghams and other textiles. In its vicinity stand the
ruins of the "Rhymer's Tower," alleged to have been the residence of
Thomas the Rhymer.


EARLY ENGLISH, a term in architecture used to designate that
particular form of Gothic architecture in vogue in England in the 13th
century, whose chief characteristic was the pointed arch.


EARTH HOUSES, known also as Yird Houses, Weems and Picts' Houses,
underground dwellings in use in Scotland, extant even after the Roman
evacuation of Britain. Entrance was effected by a passage not much wider
than a fox burrow, which sloped downwards 10 or 12 ft. to the floor of
the house; the inside was oval in shape, and was walled with overlapping
rough stone slabs; the roof frequently reached to within a foot of the
earth's surface; they probably served as store-houses, winter-quarters,
and as places of refuge in times of war. Similar dwellings are found in
Ireland.


EARTHLY PARADISE, poem by William Morris, his greatest effort,
considered his masterpiece; consists of 24 tales by 24 travellers in
quest of an earthly paradise.


EAST INDIA COMPANY, founded in 1600; erected its first factories on
the mainland in 1612 at Surat, but its most profitable trade in these
early years was with the Spice Islands, Java, Sumatra, &c.; driven from
these islands by the Dutch in 1622, the Company established itself
altogether on the mainland; although originally created under royal
charter for purely commercial purposes, it in 1689 entered upon a career
of territorial acquisition, which culminated in the establishment of
British power in India; gradually, as from time to time fresh renewals of
its charter were granted, it was stripped of its privileges and
monopolies, till in 1858, after the Mutiny, all its powers were vested in
the British Crown.


EAST RIVER, the strait which separates Brooklyn and New York cities,
lying between Long Island Sound and New York Bay, about 10 m. long; is
spanned by a bridge.


EASTBOURNE (35), a fashionable watering-place and health resort on
the Sussex coast, between Brighton and Hastings, and 66 m. S. of London;
has Roman remains, and is described in "Domesday Book."


EASTER, an important festival of the Church commemorating the
resurrection of Christ; held on the first Sunday after the first full
moon of the calendar which happens on or next after 21st of March, and
constituting the beginning of the ecclesiastical year; the date of it
determines the dates of other movable festivals; derives its name from
Eastre, a Saxon goddess, whose festival was celebrated about the same
time, and to which many of the Easter customs owe their origin.


EASTERN STATES, the six New England States in N. America--Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.


EASTLAKE, SIR CHARLES LOCK, artist and author, born at Plymouth;
studied painting in London and in Paris; produced the last portrait of
Napoleon, which he executed from a series of sketches of the emperor on
board the _Bellerophon_ in Plymouth harbour; he travelled in Greece, and
from 1816 to 1830 made his home at Rome; "Christ Weeping over Jerusalem,"
his greatest work, appeared in 1841; was President of the Royal Academy;
wrote several works on subjects relating to his art, and translated
Goethe's "Farbenlehre" (1793-1865).


EASTWICK, EDWARD BACKHOUSE, Orientalist and diplomatist, born at
Warfield, in Berkshire; went to India as a cadet, acquired an extensive
knowledge of Indian dialects and Eastern languages, and passed an
interpretership examination, gaining the high proficiency reward of 1000
rupees; carried through peace negotiations with China in 1842; invalided
home, he became professor of Hindustani at Haileybury College; afterwards
studied law and was called to the bar; entered Parliament, and held
various political appointments, including a three years' embassy in
Persia; was a fellow of many antiquarian and philological societies;
amongst his numerous philological productions and translations his
"Gulistan" and "Life of Zoroaster" from the Persian are noted
(1814-1883).


EAU CREOLE, a liqueur from the distillation of the flowers of the
mammee apple with spirits of wine.


EAU-DE-COLOGNE, a perfume originally manufactured at Cologne by
distillation from certain essential oils with rectified spirit.


EBAL, MOUNT, a mountain with a level summit, which rises to the
height of 3077 ft. on the N. side of the narrow Vale of Shechem, in
Palestine, and from the slopes of which the people of Israel responded to
the curses which were pronounced by the Levites in the valley.


EBERHARD, JOHANN AUGUST, German philosophical writer, born at
Halberstadt; professor at Halle; rationalistic in his theology, and
opposed to the Kantian metaphysics; was a disciple of Leibnitz; wrote a
"New Apology of Socrates," in defence of rationalism in theology, as well
as a "Universal History of Philosophy," and a work on German synonyms
(1739-1809).


EBERS, GEORGE MORITZ, German Egyptologist, born at Berlin;
discovered an important papyrus; was professor successively at Jena and
Leipzig; laid aside by ill-health, betook himself to novel-writing as a
pastime; was the author of "Aarda, a Romance of Ancient Egypt,"
translated by Clara Bell (1837-1898).


EBERT, KARL EGON, a Bohemian poet, born at Prague; his poems,
dramatic and lyric, are collected in 7 vols., and enjoy a wide popularity
in his country (1801-1882).


EBIONITES, a sect that in the 2nd century sought to combine Judaism
and the hopes of Judaism with Christianity, and rejected the authority of
St. Paul and of the Pauline writings; they denied the divinity of Christ,
and maintained that only the poor as such were the objects of salvation.


EBLIS, in Mohammedan tradition the chief of the fallen angels,
consigned to perdition for refusing to worship Adam at the command of his
Creator, and who gratified his revenge by seducing Adam and Eve from
innocency.


EBONY, a name given to Blackwood by James Hogg, and eventually
applied to his magazine.


EBRO, a river of Spain, rises in the Cantabrian Mountains, flows SE.
into the Mediterranean 80 m. SW. of Barcelona, after a course of 422 m.


ECBATANA, the ancient capital of Media, situated near Mount Orontes
(now Elvend); was surrounded by seven walls of different colours that
increased in elevation towards the central citadel; was a summer
residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The modern town of Hamadan
now occupies the site of it.


ECCE HOMO (i. e. Behold the Man), a representation of Christ as He
appeared before Pilate crowned with thorns and bound with ropes, as in
the painting of Correggio, a subject which has been treated by many of
the other masters, such as Titian and Vandyck.


ECCHYMOSIS, a discolouration of the skin produced by extravasated
blood under or in the texture of the skin, the result of a blow or of
disease.


ECCLEFECHAN, a market-town of Dumfriesshire, consisting for the most
part of the High Street, 5 m. S. of Lockerbie, on the main road to
Carlisle, 16 m. to the S.; noted as the birth and burial place of Thomas
Carlyle.


ECCLESIASTES (i. e. the Preacher), a book of the Old Testament,
questionably ascribed to Solomon, and now deemed of more recent date as
belonging to a period when the reflective spirit prevailed; and it is
written apparently in depreciation of mere reflection as a stepping-stone
to wisdom. The standpoint of the author is a religious one; the data on
which he rests is given in experience, and his object is to expose the
vanity of every source of satisfaction which is not founded on the fear,
and has not supreme regard for the commandments, of God, a doctrine which
is the very ground-principle of the Jewish faith; but if vanity is
written over the whole field of human experience, he argues, this is not
the fault of the system of things, but due, according to the author, to
the folly of man (chap. vii. 29).


ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, THE LAW OF, a vindication of the Anglican
Church against the Puritans, written by Richard Hooker; the most splendid
and stately piece of literary prose that exists in the language.


ECCLESIASTICAL STATES, territories in Italy once subject to the Pope
as a temporal prince as well as ecclesiastically.


ECCLESIASTICUS, one of the books of the Apocrypha, ascribed to
Jesus, the son of Sirach, admitted to the sacred canon by the Council of
Trent, though excluded by the Jews. It contains a body of wise maxims, in
imitation, as regards matter as well as form, of the Proverbs of Solomon,
and an appendix on the men who were the disciples of wisdom. Its general
aim, as has been said, is "to represent wisdom as the source of all
virtue and blessedness, and by warnings, admonitions, and promises to
encourage in the pursuit of it." It was originally written in Hebrew, but
is now extant only in a Greek translation executed in Egypt, professedly
by the author's grandson.


ECCLESIOLOGY, the name given in England to the study of church
architecture and all that concerns the ground-plan and the internal
arrangements of the parts of the edifice.


ECGBERHT, archbishop of York; was a pupil of Bede, and the heir to
his learning; founded a far-famed school at York, which developed into a
university; flourished in 766.


ECHIDNA, a fabulous monster that figures in the Greek mythology,
half-woman, half-serpent, the mother of Cerberus, the Lernean Hydra, the
Chimaera, the Sphinx, the Gorgons, the Nemean Lion, the vulture that
gnawed the liver of Prometheus, &c.


ECHO, a wood-nymph in love with Narcissus, who did not return her
love, in consequence of which she pined away till all that remained of
her was only her voice.


ECK, JOHN, properly MAIER, a German theologian, of Swabian
birth, professor at Ingolstadt; a violent, blustering antagonist of
Luther and Luther's doctrines; in his zeal went to Rome, and procured a
papal bull against both; undertook at the Augsburg Diet to controvert
Luther's doctrine from the Fathers, but not from the Scriptures; was
present at the conferences of Worms and Regensburg (1486-1543).


ECKERMANN, JOHANN PETER, a German writer, born at Winsen, in
Hanover; friend of Goethe, and editor of his works; the author of
"Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of his Life, 1823-32," a
record of wise reflections and of Goethe's opinions on all subjects, of
the utmost interest to all students of the German sage (1792-1854).


ECKHART, MEISTER, a German philosopher and divine, profoundly
speculative and mystical; entered the Dominican Order, and rapidly
attained to a high position in the Church; arraigned for heresy in 1325,
and was acquitted, but two years after his death his writings were
condemned as heretical by a papal bull; died in 1327.


ECKMUeHL, a village in Bavaria where Napoleon defeated the Austrians
in 1809, and which gave the title of Duke to DAVOUT (q. v.), one
of Napoleon's generals.


ECLECTICS, so-called philosophers who attach themselves to no
system, but select what, in their judgment, is true out of others. In
antiquity the Eclectic philosophy is that which sought to unite into a
coherent whole the doctrines of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, such as
that of Plotinus and Proclus was. There is an eclecticism in art as well
as philosophy, and the term is applied to an Italian school which aimed
at uniting the excellencies of individual great masters.


ECLIPTIC, the name given to the circular path in the heavens round
which the sun appears to move in the course of the year, an illusion
caused by the earth's annual circuit round the sun, with its axis
inclined at an angle to the equator of 231/2 degrees; is the central line
of the ZODIAC (q. v.), so called because it was observed that
eclipses occurred only when the earth was on or close upon this path.


ECONOMY, "the right arrangement of things," and distinct from
Frugality, which is "the careful and fitting use of things."


ECORCHEURS (lit. flayers properly of dead bodies), armed bands who
desolated France in the reign of Charles VII., stripping their victims of
everything, often to their very clothes.


ECSTATIC DOCTOR, Jean Ruysbroek, a schoolman given to mysticism
(1294-1381).


ECUADOR (1,271), a republic of S. America, of Spanish origin,
created in 1822; derives its name from its position on the equator; lies
between Columbia and Peru; is traversed by the Andes, several of the
peaks of which are actively volcanic; the population consists of Peruvian
Indians, negroes, Spanish Creoles; exports cocoa, coffee, hides, and
medicinal plants; the administration is vested in a president, a
vice-president, two ministers, a senate of 18, and a house of deputies of
30, elected by universal suffrage.


ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, an ecclesiastical council representative, or
accepted as representative, of the Church universal or Catholic. See
COUNCILS.


ECZEMA, a common skin disease, which may be either chronic or acute;
develops in a red rash of tiny vesicles, which usually burst and produce
a characteristic scab; is not contagious, and leaves no scar.


EDDA (lit. grandmother), the name given to two collections of
legends illustrative of the Scandinavian mythology: the Elder, or Poetic,
Edda, collected in the 11th century by Saemund Sigfusson, an early
Christian priest, "with perhaps a lingering fondness for paganism," and
the Younger, or Prose, Edda, collected in the next century by Snorri
Sturleson, an Icelandic gentleman (1178-1241), "educated by Saemund's
grandson, the latter a work constructed with great ingenuity and native
talent, what one might call unconscious art, altogether a perspicuous,
clear work, pleasant reading still."