[Eighteenth Century], "a sceptical century and a godless," according to Carlyle's deliberate estimate, "opulent in accumulated falsities, as never century before was; which had no longer the consciousness of being false, so false has it grown; so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone, that, in fact, the measure of the thing was full, and a French Revolution had to end it"; which it did only symbolically, however, as he afterwards admitted, and but admonitorily of a doomsday still to come. See "Frederick the Great," Bk. i. chap, ii., and ["Heroes."]
[Eikon Basilikë] (i. e. the Royal Likeness), a book containing an account of Charles I. during his imprisonment, and ascribed to him as author, but really written by Bishop Gauden, though the MS. may have been perused and corrected by the king; it gives a true picture of his character and possible state of mind.
[Eildons, The], a "triple-crested eminence" near Melrose, 1385 ft., and overlooking Teviotdale to the S., associated with Sir Walter Scott and Thomas the Rhymer; they are of volcanic origin, and are said to have been cleft in three by the wizard Michael Scott, when he was out of employment.
[Eimeo], one of the French Society Islands; is hilly and woody, but well cultivated in the valleys; missionary enterprise in Polynesia first found a footing here.
[Einsiedeln] (8), a town in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland; has a Benedictine abbey, containing a famous black image of the Virgin, credited with miraculous powers, which attracts, it is said, 200,000 pilgrims annually.
[Eisenach] (21), a flourishing manufacturing town in Saxe-Weimar, close to the Thuringian Forest and 48 m. W. of Weimar; is the birthplace of Sebastian Bach; in the vicinity stands the castle of Wartburg, the hiding-place for 10 months of Luther after the Diet of Worms.
[Eisleben] (23), a mining town in Prussian Saxony, 24 m. NW. of Halle; the birthplace and burial-place of Luther.
[Eisteddfod], a gathering of Welsh bards and others, now annual, at which, out of a patriotic motive, prizes are awarded for the encouragement of Welsh literature and music and the preservation of the Welsh language and ancient national customs.
[Ekaterinburg] (37), a Russian town on the Isset, on the E. side of the Ural Mountains, of the mining industry in which it is the chief centre; has various manufactures, and a trade in the cutting and sorting of precious stones.
[Ekron], a town in N. Palestine, 30 m. N. from Gaza and 9 m. from the sea.