E, in music, is the third note or degree of the diatonic scale, answering to the mi of the Italians and French.
Eadie (ē´di), John, D.D., a Scottish preacher and theologian, born 1810, died 1876. He was educated at Glasgow University, and entered the ministry of the Secession Church, becoming in 1843 professor of biblical literature in the Divinity Hall of the Church, a post which he continued to hold after the Secession body was merged in the United Presbyterian Church (in 1847). Among his works are Biblical Cyclopædia; Analytical Concordance to the Scriptures; Ecclesiastical Cyclopædia; Commentary on the Greek Text of Ephesians, and similar works on Colossians, Philippians, and Galatians; and The English Bible. He was one of the scholars engaged on the Revised Version of the New Testament.
Ead´mer, an English monk, the friend and biographer of St. Anselm. In 1120 he was chosen Bishop of St. Andrews; but as the Scottish king refused to recognize the right of the Archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate him, he returned to England and died a simple monk about 1124. Besides the life of St. Anselm, Eadmer wrote lives of St. Wilfrid, St. Dunstan, St. Odo, and other English saints, as well as a valuable history (Historiæ Novorum) of events in England and the English Church from 1066 to 1122.
Eagle (Lat. aquila, Fr. aigle), the general name of raptorial birds that form a group or sub-family (Aquilīnæ) of the great family
Falconidæ, which includes the eagles, falcons, and hawks. The eagle is popularly regarded as the noblest and most courageous of the rapacious birds. It soars to a greater height than any other European bird, from which circumstance the ancients considered it as the bird or messenger of Jove. The genus Aquĭla, which includes the most typical eagles, is distinguished by its long and powerful bill, the curve commencing at the cere, by its wings reaching to the tip of the tail, and by its tarsi being feathered to the toes. The imperial eagle (A. mogilnik) of Central Europe, North-East Africa, India, and China is probably the species to which the popular belief in the courage, strength, and nobleness of eagles is to be traced. A. chrysaëtus, the golden eagle, is the chief British species. It measures over 6 feet from tip to tip of the expanded wings, and 3 feet from the beak to the end of the tail. The adults have the body brownish, becoming darker with age; the feathers of the head and neck pointed, and of a golden-red hue. This species is found all over the northern hemisphere. It was once common in the Highlands of Scotland, but is now becoming rare. The Kirghis and other tribes of Central Asia use the golden eagle to kill antelopes, foxes, and even wolves. Another British eagle is the erne or sea-eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla) found near the sea-coast or lakes, and feeding largely on fish. The general colour is greyish-brown, the head pale-coloured, the tail white. The bald eagle (Haliaëtus leucocephălus), found in North America and North-East Asia, is the symbol of the United States, though Franklin deplores the selection on account of his mean and dishonest habit of robbing the industrious osprey of the fish caught by him. Like all members of the genus, his diet is less restricted than that of the true eagles; and he even takes carrion. See also Harpy Eagle.
Eagle, as a symbol. The eagle first appears as a war standard amongst the Persians, through whom it reached the Egyptians. As the standard of the Roman armies it was first used by Marius, and afterwards took the place of all the other emblems at the head of the legions. It was first made of wood, then of silver, and finally, under Cæsar and his successors, of gold. In the Mediæval Ages the eagle became the heraldic emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, and was made double-headed in the fourteenth century. When the Holy Roman Empire fell to pieces in 1806, the double-headed eagle was retained by Austria. The double-headed eagle was assumed by Tsar Ivan III in 1472, and became the national military symbol of Russia; the single-headed eagle was assumed by the modern German Empire in 1871, and by the United States of America. The American eagle stands with outspread wings guarding a shield, with the motto E pluribus unum. The eagle was also the badge of several orders, the
chief of which were the order of the Black Eagle, founded by the Elector of Brandenburg in 1701, and the highest order in Prussia; the order of the Red Eagle, also a Prussian order, and founded in 1705; and the Russian order of the White Eagle, originally Polish, and instituted in 1325.