Effen (Justus van), Dutch writer, b. Utrecht, 11 Feb. 1684. Edited the Misanthrope, Amsterdam, 1712–16; translated Robinson Crusoe, Swift’s Tale of a Tub, and Mandeville’s Thoughts on Religion, 1722; published the Dutch Spectator, 1731–35. Died at Bois-le-Duc, 18 Sept. 1735.
Eichhorn (Johann Gottfried), German Orientalist and rationalist, b. 16 Oct. 1752, became Professor of Oriental Literature and afterwards Professor of Theology at Gottingen. He published Introductions to the Old and New Testaments and A Commentary on the Apocalypse, in which his criticism tends to uproot belief in the Bible as a divine revelation. He lectured every day for fifty-two years. Died 25 June, 1827.
“Elborch (Conrad von),” the pseudonym of a living learned Dutch writer, whose position does not permit him to reveal his true name. Born 14 Jan. 1865, he has contributed to De Dageraad (The Daybreak), under various pen-names, as “Fra Diavolo,” “Denis Bontemps,” “J. Van den Ende,” etc. He has given, in ’88, a translation of the rare and famous Latin treatise, De Tribus Impostoribus (On Three Impostors) [Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad], with an important bibliographic and historical introduction.
“Eliot (George),” the pen-name of Mary Ann Lewes (née Evans) one of the greatest novelists of the century, b. at Arbury Farm, near Griff, Warwickshire, 22 Nov. 1819. In ’41 the family removed to Foleshill, near Coventry. Here she made the friendship of the household of Charles Bray, and changed her views from Evangelical Christianity to philosophical scepticism. Influenced by The Inquiry into the Origin of Christianity, by C. C. Hennell (Bray’s brother-in-law), she made an analysis of that work. Her first literary venture was translating Strauss’ Leben Jesu, published in 1846. After the death of her father (’49) she travelled with the Brays upon the Continent, and upon her return assisted Dr. Chapman in the editorship of the Westminster Review, to which she contributed several articles. She translated Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity, ’54, the only work published with her real name, and also translated from Spinoza’s Ethics. Introduced by Herbert Spencer to George Henry Lewes, she linked her life with his in defiance of the conventions of society, July, ’54. Both were poor, but by his advice she turned to fiction, in which she soon achieved success. Her Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, and Theophrastus Such have become classics. As a poet, “George Eliot” does not rank so high, but her little piece, “Oh, may I join the choir invisible,” well expresses the emotion of the Religion of Humanity, and her Spanish Gipsy she allowed was “a mass of Positivism.” Lewes died in 1878, and within two years she married his friend, J. W. Cross. Her new happiness was short-lived. She died 22 Dec. 1880, and is buried with Lewes at Highgate.
Ellero (Pietro) Italian jurisconsult, b. Pordenone, 8 Oct. 1833, Counsellor of the High Court of Rome, has been Professor of Criminal Law in the University of Bologna. Author of many works on legal and social questions. His Scritti Minori, Scritti Politici and La Question Sociale have the honor of a place on the Roman Index.
Elliotson (John, M.D., F.R.S.), an eminent medical man, b. London, 1791. He became physician at St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1822, and made many contributions to medical science. By new prescriptions of quinine, creasote, etc., he excited much hostility in the profession. He was the first in this country to advocate the use of the stethoscope. He was also the first physician to discard knee-breeches and silk stockings, and to wear a beard. In ’31 he was chosen Professor at University College, but, becoming an advocate of curative mesmerism, he resigned his appointments, ’38. He was founder and President of the London Phrenological Society, and, in addition to many medical works, edited the Zoist (thirteen vols.), translated Blumenbach’s Physiology, and wrote an introduction to Engledue’s Cerebral Physiology, defending materialism. Thackeray dedicated Pendennis to him, ’50, and he received a tribute of praise from Dickens. Died at London, 29 July, 1868.
Eichthal (Gustave d’), French writer, b. of Jewish family, Nancy, 22 March, 1804. He became a follower of Saint Simon, was one of the founders of the Société d’Ethnologie, and published Les Evangiles, a critical analysis of the gospels, 2 vols, Paris, ’63. This he followed by The Three Great Mediterranean Nations and Christianity and Socrates and our Time, ’84. He died at Paris, April, 1886, and his son published his Mélanges de Critique Biblique (Miscellanies of Biblical Criticism), in which there is an able study on the name and character of “Jahveh.”
Emerson (Ralph Waldo), American essayist, poet, and philosopher, b. Boston 25 May, 1803. He came of a line of ministers, and was brought up like his father, educated at Harvard College, and ordained as a Unitarian minister, 1829. Becoming too broad for the Church, he resigned in ’32. In the next year he came to Europe, visiting Carlyle. On his return he settled at Concord, giving occasional lectures, most of which have been published. He wrote to the Dial, a transcendentalist paper. Tending to idealistic pantheism, but without systematic philosophy, all his writings are most suggestive, and he is always the champion of mental freedom, self-reliance, and the free pursuit of science. Died at Concord, 27 April, 1882. Matthew Arnold has pronounced his essays “the most important work done in prose” in this century.
Emerson (William), English mathematician, b. Hurworth, near Darlington, 14 May, 1701. He conducted a school and wrote numerous works on Mathematics. His vigorous, if eccentric, individuality attracted Carlyle, who said to Mrs. Gilchrist, “Emerson was a Freethinker who looked on his neighbor, the parson, as a humbug. He seems to have defended himself in silence the best way he could against the noisy clamor and unreal stuff going on around him.” Died 21 May, 1782. He compiled a list of Bible contradictions.
Emmet (Robert), Irish revolutionist, b. in Dublin 1778, was educated as a barrister. Expelled from Dublin University for his sympathy with the National Cause in 1798; he went to the Continent, but returned in 1802 to plan an ill-starred insurrection, for which he was executed 20 Sept. 1803. Emmet made a thrilling speech before receiving sentence, and on the scaffold refused the services of a priest. It is well known that his desire to see once more his sweetheart, the daughter of Curran, was the cause of his capture and execution.