Eg´lantine, one of the names of the sweetbrier (Rosa rubiginosa), a kind of wild rose. The name has sometimes been erroneously used for other species of the rose and for the honeysuckle.
Eg´mont, Lamoral, Count, Prince of Gavre, was born in 1522, of an illustrious family of Holland. He adopted a military career, accompanied Charles V in his African expeditions, and distinguished himself under Philip II in the battles of St. Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558). Philip having gone to Spain, Egmont soon became involved in the political and religious disputes which arose between the Netherlands and their Spanish rulers. He tried to adjust the difficulties between both parties, and in 1565 went to Spain to arrange matters with Philip. He was well received, sent back with honour, but quite deceived as to the king's real intentions. In 1567 the Duke of Alva was sent with an army to the Netherlands to reduce the insurgents. One of his first measures was to seize Count Egmont and Count Horn. After a trial before a tribunal instituted by Alva himself they were executed at Brussels 5th June, 1568. A well-known drama of Goethe's is founded on the story of Egmont.
E´goism, as a philosophical doctrine, the view that the elements of all knowledge and the reality of the things known are dependent on the personal existence of the knower. This theory is also called Subjective Idealism or Solipsism. It maintains that his individual ego is the only being that a man can logically assert to exist. As an ethical theory (practical egoism) it is the opposite of altruism. It maintains that the governing principle of conduct for the individual is his own good on the whole, and that self-interest is the basis of morality. Egoism is to be distinguished from egotism, which denotes the practice of putting forward or dwelling upon oneself, of thinking, talking, or writing about oneself.
Egremont, a town of England, in Cumberland, in the valley of the Ehen, 3 miles from the sea, giving name to a parliamentary division. It has ruins of an ancient (twelfth century) castle associated with a legend that served Wordsworth as the subject of a poem. Iron-ore and limestone are worked. Pop. 6300.
Eg´ret, a name given to those species of white herons which have the feathers of the lower part of the back elongated and their webs disunited, reaching to the tail or beyond it at certain seasons of the year. Their forms are more graceful than those of common herons. The American egret (Ardĕa egretta) is about 37 inches long to the end of the tail; plumage soft and blended; head not crested; wings moderate; the tail short, of twelve weak feathers. The European egret (A. alba) is about 40 inches long, of a pure white plumage; the bill is black or dark brown, yellow at the base and about the nostrils, and the legs are almost black. The little egret (A. garzetta) is about 22 inches long from bill to end of tail, the plumage is white. The term egret is used in the feather trade for a bunch of the loose plumes, valued as an ornament.
Egypt (from Gr. Aiguptos) is, as Herodotus has said, "the gift of the Nile". This great river, about 4000 miles in length, rises as the White Nile, three degrees south of the equator, drawing its waters from the Central African lakes. To the south of Khartoum, and 1350 miles from the sea, it is joined by the Blue Nile, which rises in the mountains of Abyssinia, and about 140 miles farther on it is fed by the Atbara, its last tributary. On the tableland of Nubian sandstone between Khartoum and Elephantine the river forms two great loops, and is intercepted by shallows or cataracts, of which there are six in all. The 'first cataract'—the last on the journey northward—is at Assouan, where a ridge of intercepting granite crops up. At Edfu, about 68 miles farther north, the limestone formation is entered, and the Nile then flows uninterrupted between flanking hills that here and there attain the height of 1000 feet. Egypt proper extends from Assouan to the Mediterranean. At a distance of about 100 miles from the sea the Nile divides into the branches forming the Delta. To the south of Cairo it sends out the Bahr Yusuf, a branch about 200 miles long, which flows into the fertile Fayum. The narrow valley, the average breadth of which is 10 miles, is 'the land of Egypt'. Its cultivable area is not so large as Belgium, being under 10,000 sq. miles in extent. Rain falls to the north of Cairo, but in Upper Egypt there are showers only once in every three or four years. The fertility of the country is due to the Nile. Each year the great river rises in flood when the equatorial lakes are suddenly swollen by heavy tropical rains and the snow melts in the Abyssinian mountains. The mean summer heat is 83° F. in the Delta and 122° F. in the valley. It is a dry heat, not so oppressive as that of India, and malaria is practically unknown. The most trying part of the year is during the period of 'Low Nile'. Before the surplus waters were stored in the Assouan Dam, the river shrank so low that its flow seemed uncertain. For about two months the hot and blistering 'hanseen' (or 'sand-wind') keeps blowing. A new season is ushered in by the cool north wind—the Etesian wind of the Greeks—which clears the accumulated dust from vegetation. It is lauded in ancient texts by priestly poets and Pharaohs. About the same time the conspicuous star Sirius makes its appearance. It was anciently regarded as a form of the Mother Goddess. On the 'Night of the Drop', in June, a fertilizing tear was supposed to fall from this star, and thereafter the 'new Nile' was born. For about four days (before the Assouan Dam was constructed) the rising river flowed green, the slimy matter on the marshes of Upper Egypt being pushed forward by the 'new water'. This was the 'Green Nile'. Then the Nile turned blood-red with Abyssinian clay. This was the 'Red Nile'. As soon as the fertilizing 'new water' touched the parched sands, Egypt awoke to new life. Countless
insects appeared, new grass and flowers sprang up, and trees and shrubs broke into brilliant blossoms that filled the air with sweet perfume. Bursting over its banks, the steadily rising river flooded the valley generously and refreshingly. According to the Coptic Calendar, the inundation season lasted from June till September, the seed-time from October till January, and the harvest began in February.