Electrome. electricity was not strong enough to affect the most delicate electrometer. ter Elemeats. ELECTROPHORUS. See ELECTRICITY Index. ELECTRUM, in Natural History. See AMBER. ELECTUARY, in Pharmacy, a form of medicine composed of powders and other ingredients, incorporated with some conserve, honey, or syrup; to be divided into doses, like boluses, when taken. Vossius observes, that all the remedies prescribed for the sick, as well as the confections taken by way of regale, were called by the Greeks εκλείγματα, and εκλεικTa, of the verb aux, “I like;" whence, says he, was formed the Latin electarium, and afterwards electuarium. This conjecture he supports from the laws of Sicily, where it is ordained, that electuaries, syrups, and other remedies, be prepared after the legal manner. The Bollandists, who relate this etymology, seem to confirm it. For the composition and different sorts of electuaries, see PHARMACY. ELEEMOSYNA Carucarum, or pro Aratris, or Aratri, in our ancient customs, a penny which King Ethelred ordered to be paid for every plough in England towards the support of the poor. Sometimes it is also called eleemosyna regis, because first appointed by the king. ELEEMOSYNARIUS, in our old writers, is used for the almoner or peculiar officer who received the eleemosynary rents and gifts, and distributed them to pious and charitable uses. There was such an officer in all religious houses. The bishops also used to have their almoners, as now the king has. ELEGANCE, (from eligo, "I choose,") denotes a manner of doing or saying things politely, agreeably, and with choice. With choice, so as to rise above the common manners; politely, so as to strike people of delicate taste; and agreeably, so as to diffuse a relish which gratifies every body. ELEGANCE, in oratory and composition, an ornament of politeness and agreeableness shown in any dis course, with such a choice of rich and happy expres sions, as to rise politely above the common manners, so as to strike people of a delicate taste. It is observed, that elegance, though irregular, is preferable to regularity without elegance: that is, by being so scrupulous of grammatical construction, we lose certain licences wherein the elegance of language consists. ELEGIAC, in ancient poetry, any thing belonging to elegy. See ELEGY. ELEGIT, in Law, a writ of execution, which lies for a person who has recovered debt or damages; or upon a recognizance in any court against a defendant that is not able to satisfy the same in his goods. ELEGY, a mournful and plaintive kind of poem. See the article POETRY. ELEMENTS, in Physics, the first principles of which all bodies in the system of nature are composed. These are supposed to be few in number, unchangeable, and by their combinations to produce that extensive variety of objects to be met with in the works of nature. That there is in reality some foundation for this doctrine of elementary bodies is plain; for there are some principles evidently exempted from every change or decay, and which can be mixed or changed into differ- Elements. ent forms of matter. A person who surveys the works of nature in an inattentive manner, may perhaps form a contrary opinion, when he considers the numerous tribes of fossils, plants, and animals, with the wonderful variety that appears among them in almost every instance. He may from thence be induced to conclude, that nature employs a vast variety of materials in producing such prodigious diversity. But let him inquire into the origin of this apparent diversity, and he will find that these bodies which seem the most different from each other are composed nearly of the same elements. Thus the blood, chyle, milk, urine, &c. as well as the various solid parts of animals, are all composed of one particular substance; grass, for instance, by the assistance of air and water, and even sometimes of very insipid kinds of grass. The same simplicity presents itself in the original composition of the nourishment of vegetables, notwithstanding the variety among them with respect to hardness, softness, elasticity, taste, odour, and medical qualities. They chiefly depend, for these, upon water, and the light of the son; and the same simplicity must take place in animals that are fed on vegetables. The analysis of animal substances confirms this hypothesis; for they can all be reduced into a few principles, which are the same in all, and only differ with regard to the proportions in which they are combined. With regard to animals, the case appears to be the same: and the more we are acquainted with them, the more reason we have to believe that the variety in their origin is very small. Notwithstanding the infinite variety of natural productions, therefore, it appears, that the materials employed in their formation are but few; that these are uniformly and certainly the same, totally exempted from any change or decay; and that the constant and gradual change of one body into another is produced by the various separations and combinations of the original and elementary parts, which is plain from the regularity and uniformity of nature at all times. There is a change of forms and combinations through which it passes, and this has been the case from the earliest accounts of time; the productions of nature have always been of the same kind, and succeeded one another in the same order. If we examine an oak, for instance, we find it composed of the same matter with that of any other that has existed from the earliest ages. This regularity and uniformity in the course of nature shows that the elementary parts of bodies are perma. nent and unchangeable; for if these elementary parti cles which constituted an oak some thousand years ago, had been undergoing any gradual decay, the oaks of the present times would have been found considerably different from those that existed long ago; but as no difference has been observed, it would seem that the ultimate elements of bodies have always continued the same. Reflections of this kind have suggested an idea of several principal elements of which all other bodies are composed, which by their various combinations furnished all the variety of natural bodies. Democritus, and other great philosophers of antiquity, fixed the number to four, which have retained the name of elements ever since. These are, fire, air, earth, and water; each of which they imagined was naturally B 2 disposed Elements. disposed to hold its own place in the universe. Thus the earth, as heaviest, naturally tended towards the centre, and occupied the lower parts; the water as approaching next to it in gravity, was spread chiefly on the outside of the earth: the air, being more subtile and rare, occupied the middle place; while the fire, being still more subtile and active, receded to the great est distance of all, and was supposed to compose the planets and stars. This system was extended to all the productions of nature. Meteors were produced from a combination of fire and air; animals were considered as composed of earth and water; and those that were warm had likewise a proportion of the element of fire. Thus they went on, explaining some of the most striking qualities of the several productions of nature from the different proportions of the four elements they contained. But though this system appears not at all destitute of beauty and propriety, and on this account has been long received, we know from modern discoveries that these four substances are not really elementary bodies; nor do they answer our purpose in forming a system, as we know too little of the intimate structure and texture of them to enable us to explain other bodies by them. Any other attempts that have been made to assign the number of elementary bodies have been much less fortunate. The older chemists, with Paracelsus at their head, pretend to speak of four elementary bodies, salt, sulphur, earth, and mercury: but when we attempt to form an idea of what they mean, we find it very perplexed; and that the expressions concerning them are enveloped in so much obscurity, that they cannot be comprehended; and the theory is built entirely upon experiments made on metallic substances. veral philosophers, particularly the count de Tressan in E Attempts have been made by some to show that 3 In some experiments which were made by the ingenious Mr Watt, it was found that nitrous acid might be phlogisticated by the purest earth or metallic calx; whence, according to this doctrine, it is not unreasonable to suppose that phlogiston may be only a certain modification of earth, and not an element distinct from it: but with regard to the basis of dephlogisticated air, no experiment has ever shown that it can either be procured by itself, or changed into any other substance; so that it appears to have the nature of an element as much as light or heat. Though we should therefore be inclined to divide the whole matter of the universe into two classes, the one active and the other acted upon, we must allow that the passive matter even on this earth is not precisely of the same kind: much less are we to extend our speculations in this respect to the celestial regions; for who can determine whether the substance of the moon is the same with that of our earth, or that the elements of Jupiter are the same with those of Saturn? There is even a difficulty with regard to the division which seems so well established, viz. of matter in general into active ELE [ 13 Elements active and passive; for no person can prove, that the matter which is active in one case may not be passive Elephants in another, and occasionally resume its activity. Some thing like this certainly happens in the case of the ELEMENT, in a figurative sense, is used for the prin- ELEMENTS, in Astronomy, are those principles deduced from astronomical observations and calculations, and those fundamental numbers which are employed in the construction of tables of the planetary motions. Thus, the elements of the theory of the sun, or rather of the earth, are his mean motion and eccentricity, and the motion of the aphelia. The elements of the theory of the moon are its mean motion; that of its node and apogee, its eccentricity, the inclination of its orbit to the plane of the ecliptic, &c. ELE in ] island, about five miles from the castle of Bombay in Elephanta. the East Indies. Of this we have the following deseription in Mr Grose's Voyage to the East Indies. "It can at most be but about three miles in compass,. and consists almost all of hill; at the foot of which, as you land, you see, just above the shore, on your right, an elephant, coarsely cut out in stone, of the natural bigness, and at some little distance not impossible to be taken for a real elephant, from the stone being natu rally of the colour of that beast. It stands on a platOn the back of form of stones of the same colour. this elephant was placed, standing, another young one,. appearing to have been all of the same stone, but has been long broken down. Of the meaning, or history, of this image, there is no tradition old enough to give any account. Returning then to the foot of the hill, you ascend an easy slant, which about half way up the hill brings you to the opening or portal of a large cavern hewn out of a solid rock into a magnificent temple: for such surely it may be termed, considering the immense workmanship of such au excavation; and seems to me a far more bold attempt than that of the pyramids of Egypt. There is a fair entrance into this subterraneous temple, which is an oblong square, length about 80 or 90 feet, by 40 broad. The roof is nothing but the rock cut flat at top, and in which I could not discern any thing that did not show it to be all of one piece. It is about ten feet high, and supported towards the middle, at equidistance from the sides and from one another, with two regular rows of pillars of a singular order. They are very massive, short in proportion to their thickness, and their capital bears some resemblance to a round cushion pressed: by the superincumbent mountain, with which they are also of one piece. At the further end of this temple are three gigantic figures: the face of one of them is at least five feet in length, and of a proportionable breadth. But these representations have no reference or connection either to any known history or the mythology of the Gentoos. They had continued in a tolerable state of preservation and wholeness, considering the remoteness of their antiquity, until the arrival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters of the place; and in the blind fury of their bigotry,. not suffering any idols but their own, they must have even been at some pains to maim and deface them, as they now remain, considering the hardness of the stone. It is said they even brought field-pieces to the demolition of images, which so greatly deserved to be spared for the unequalled curiosity of them. Of this Queen Catherine of Portugal was, it seems, so sensible, that she could not conceive that any traveller would return from that side of India without visiting the wonders of this cavern; of which too the sight appeared to me to exceed all the descriptions I had heard of them. About two-thirds of the way up this temple, on each side, and fronting each other, are two doors or outlets into smaller grots or excavations, and freely open to the air. Near and about the door-way, on the right hand, are several mutilated images, single and in groups.. In one of the last, I remarked a kind of resemblance to the story of Solomon dividing the child, there standing a figure with a drawn sword, holding in one hand an infant with the head downwards, which it appears in act to cleave through the middle. The ELEMI, or ELEMY, in the Materia Medica. See AMYRIS. ELENCHUS, in antiquity, a kind of ear-rings set with large pearls. ELENCHUS, in Logic, by the Latins called argumentum and inquisitio, is a vicious or fallacious argument, which deceives under the appearance of a truth; the same with what is otherwise called sophism. ELEPHANT. See ELEPHAS, MAMMALIA Index. American ELEPHANT; an animal only known in a fossil state, and that but partially, from the teeth, some of the jaw-bones, the thigh-boues, and vertebræ, found with many others five or six feet beneath the surface on the banks of the Ohio. But these bones differ in several respects from those of the elephant; for which, see Fossil BONES. As yet the living animal has evamore than ded our search. Mr Pennant thinks it " probable, that it still exists in some of those remote parts of the vast new continent unpenetrated yet by Europeans. created speevery Providence maintains and continues cies; and we have as much assurance that no race of animals will any more cease while the earth remains, than seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day or night." See MAMMUTH. ELEPHANT Beetle. See SCARABEUS, ENTOMOLOGY Index. Knights of the ELEPHANT, an order of knighthood in Denmark, conferred upon none but persons of the first quality and merit. It is also called the order of St Mary. Its institution is said to have been owing to a gentleman among the Danish croises having killed an elephant, in an expedition against the Saracens, in 1184; in memory of which, King Canutus instituted this order, the badge of which is a towered elephant, with an image of the holy virgin encircled with rays, and hung on a watered sky-coloured ribbon, like the george in England. ELEPHANTA, a small, but very remarkable outlet years, and were at last abolished by Theodosius the E Great. Eleusinia biggest, in commemoration of the travels of the god dess, and, of her lighting a torch in the flames of Mount Etna. The sixth day was called Iaxxos, from Iacchus, the son of Jupiter and Ceres, who accompanied his mother in her search after Proserpine, with a torch in his hand. From that circumstance his statue had a torch in his hand, and was carried in solemn procession from the Ceramicus to Eleusis. The statue, with those that accompanied it, called Ixxxxywyor, was crowned with myrtle. In the way nothing was heard but singing and the noise of brazen kettles as the votaries danced along. The way through which they issued from the city was called 'Iga odos, the sacred way, the resting place 'Isga ruxn, from a fig-tree which grew in the neighbourhood. They also stopped on a bridge over the Cephisus, where they derided those that passed by. After they had passed this bridge, they entered Eleusis by a place called uurin rodos, the mystical entrance. On the seventh day were sports, in which the victors were rewarded with a measure of barley, as that grain had been first sown in Eleusis. The eighth day was called Exdaugiau iμega, because once Esculapius at his return from Epidaurus to Athens, was initiated by the repetition of the less mysteries. It became customtherefore to celebrate them a second time upon this, that such as had not hitherto been initiated might be lawfully admitted. The ninth and last day of the festival was called Пnuoxons, earthen vessels, because it was usual to fill two such vessels with wine; one of them being placed towards the east, and the other towards the west; which, after the repetition of some mystical words, were both thrown down, and the wine being spilt on the ground, was offered as a libation. ary The story of Ceres and Proserpine, the foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries, was partly local. It was both verbally delivered, and represented in allegorical show. Proserpine was gathering flowers when she was stolen by Pluto. Hence the procession of the holy basket, which was placed on a car dragged along by oxen, and followed by a train of females, some carrying the mystic chests, shouting, Hail, Ceres! At night a procession was made with lighted torches, to commemorate the goddess searching for her daughter. A measure of barley, the grain which, it was believed, she had given, was the reward of the victors in the gymnic exercises; and the transactions at the temple had a reference to the legend. A knowledge of these things and places, from which the profane were excluded, was the amount of initiation; and the mode of it, which had been devised by craft, was skilfully adapted to the reigning superstitions. The operation was forcible, and the effect in proportion. The priesthood flourished as piety increased. The dispensation was corrupt, but its tendency not malignant. It produced sanctity of manners and an attention to the social duties; desire to be as distinguished by what was deemed virtue as by silence. Some have supposed the principal rites at this festival to have been obscene and abominable, and that from thence proceeded all the mysterious secrecy. They were carried from Eleusis to Rome in the reign of Adrian, where they were observed with the same ceremonies as before, though perhaps with more freedom and licentiousness. They lasted about 1800 ELEUSIS, in Ancient Geography, a town in Attica, between Megara and the Piraeus, celebrated for the festivals of Ceres. See the preceding article.-Those rites were finally extinguished in Greece upon the invasion of Alaric the Goth. Eleusis, on the overthrow of its goddess and the cessation of its gainful traffic, probably became soon an obscure place, without character or riches. For some ages, however, it was not entirely forsaken, as is evident from the vast consumption of the ancient materials, and from the present remains, of which the following account is given by Dr Chandler *. "The port was small and of a circular # 7 form. The stones of one pier are seen above water, into and the corresponding side may be traced. About half p. 1 a mile from the shore is a long hill, which divides the plain. In the side next the sea are traces of a theatre, and on the top are cisterns cut in the rock. In the way to it, some masses of wall and rubbish, partly ancient, are standing; with ruined churches; and beyond, a long broken aqueduct crosses to the mountains. The Christian pirates had infested the place so much, that in 1676 it was abandoned. It is now a small village at the eastern extremity of the rocky brow, on which was once a castle; and is inhabited by a few Albanian families, employed in the culture of the plain, and superintended by a Turk, who resides in an old square tower. The proprietor was Achmet Aga, the primate or principal person of Athens. "The mystic temple at Eleusis was planned by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon. Pericles was overseer of the building. It was of the Doric order; the cell so large as to admit the company of a theatre. The columns on the pavement within, and their capitals, were raised by Corabus. Mentagenes of Xypete added the architraves and the pillars above them, which sustained the roof. Another completed the edifice. This was a temple in antis, or without exterior columns, which would have occupied the room required for the victims. The aspect was changed to Prostylos under Demetrius the Phalerean; Philo, a famous architect, erecting a portico, which gave dignity to the fabric, and rendered the entrance more commodious. The site was beneath the brow, at the east end, and encompassed by the fortress. Some marbles, which are uncommonly massive, and some pieces of the columns, remain on the spot. The breadth of the cell is about 150 feet; the length, including the pronaos and portico is 216 feet; the diameter of the columns, which are fluted, 6 inches from the bottom of the shafts, is 6 feet, and more than six inches. The temple was a decastyle, or had 10 columns in the front, which was to the east. The peribolus or inclosure, which surrounded it on the north-east and on the south side, measures 387 feet in length from north to south, and 328 feet in breadth from east to west. On the west side it joined the angles of the west end of the temple in a straight line. Between the west wall of the inclosure and temple and the wall of the citadel was a passage of 42 feet 6 inches wide, which led to the summit of a high rock at the north-west angle of the inclosure, on which are visible the traces of a temple in antis, in length 74 feet 6 inches from north to south, and in breadth from the east Eleusis, east to the wall of the citadel, to which it joined on Eleutheria. the west, 54 feet. It was perhaps that sacred to Triptolemus. This spot commands a very extensive view of the plain and bay. About three-fourths of the cottages are within the precincts of the mystic temple, and the square tower stands on the ruined wall of the inclosure. "At a small distance from the north end of the inclosure is a heap of marble, consisting of fragments of the Doric and Ionic orders; remains, it is likely, of the temples of Diana Propylea and of Neptune, and of the Propyleum or gateway. Wheler saw some large stones carved with wheat-ears and bundles of poppy. Near it is the bust of a colossal statue of excellent workmanship, maimed, and the face disfigured; the breadth at the shoulders, as measured by Pococke, five feet and a half; and the basket on the head above two feet deep. It probably represented Proserpine. In the heap are two or three inscribed pedestals; and on one are a couple of torches, crossed. We saw another fixed in the same stairs, which lead up the square tower on the outside. It belonged to the statue of a lady, who was hierophant or priestess of Proserpine, and had covered the altar of the goddess with silver. A well in the village was perhaps that called Callichorus, where the women of Eleusis were accustomed to dance in honour of Ceres. A tradition prevails, that if the broken statue be removed, the fertility of the land will cease. Achmet Aga was fully possessed with this superstition, and declined permitting us to dig or measure there, until I had overcome his scruples by a present of a handsome snuff-box containing several zechins or pieces of gold." ELEUTHERIA, a festival celebrated at Plataa in honour of Jupiter Eleutherius, or "the assertor of liberty," by delegates from almost all the cities of Greece. Its institution_originated in this: After the victory obtained by the Grecians under Pausanias over Mardonius the Persian general, in the country of Platæa, an altar and statue were erected to Jupiter Eleutherius, who had freed the Greeks from the tyranny of the barbarians. It was further agreed upon in a general assembly, by the advice of Aristides the Athenian, that deputies should be sent every fifth year, from the different cities of Greece, to celebrate Eleutheria, festivals of liberty. The Plateans celebrated also an anniversary festival in memory of those who had lost their lives in that famous battle. The celebration was thus: At break of day a procession was made with a trumpeter at the head, sounding a signal for battle. After him followed chariots loaded with myrrh, garlands, and a black bull, and certain free young men, as no signs of servility were to appear during the solemnity, because they in whose honour the festival was instituted had died in the defence of their country. They carried libations of wine and milk in large-eared vessels with jars of oil, and precious ointments. Last of all appeared the chief magistrate, who, though not permitted at other times to touch iron, or wear garments of any colour but white, yet appeared clad in purple, and taking a water-pot out of the city-chamber, proceeded through the middle of the town, with a sword in his hand, towards the sepulchres. There he drew water from a neighbouring spring, and washed VOL. VIII. Part I.. and anointed the monuments, after which he sacrificed Eleutheria a bull upon a pile of wood, invoking Jupiter and infernal Mercury, and inviting to the entertainment the Elginshire. souls of those happy heroes who had perished in the defence of their country. After this he filled a bowl with wine, saying, I drink to those who lost their lives in the defence of the liberties of Greece. There was also a festival of the same name observed by the Samians in honour of the god of love. Slaves, also, when they obtained their liberty, kept a holiday, which they called Eleutheria. ELF, a term now almost obsolete, formerly used to denote a fairy or hobgoblin; an imaginary being, the creature of ignorance, superstition, and craft. See FAIRY. ELF-Arrows, in Natural History, a name given to the flints anciently fashioned into arrow-heads, and still found fossil in Scotland, America, and several other parts of the world: they are believed by the vulgar to be shot by fairies, and that cattle are sometimes killed by them. ELGIN, the capital of the county of Moray in Scotland, and formerly a bishop's see, is situated on the river Lossie, about six miles north from the Spey, in W. Long. 2. 25. N. Lat. 57. 40. Mr Pennant says, it is a good town, and has many of the houses built over piazzas; but, excepting its great cattlefairs, has little trade. It is principally remarkable for its ecclesiastical antiquities. The cathedral, now in ruins, has been formerly a very magnificent pile. The west door is very elegant and richly ornamented. The choir is very beautiful, and has a fine and light gallery running round it; and at the east end are two rows of narrow windows in an excellent Gothic taste. The chapter-house is an octagon; the roof supported by a fine single column, with neat carvings of coats of arms round the capital. There is still a great tower on each side of this cathedral; but that in the centre, with the spire and whole roof, are fallen in; and form most awful fragments, mixed with the battered monuments of knights and prelates. Boethius says, that Duncan, who was killed by Macbeth at Inverness, lies buried here. The place is also crowded with a number of modern tomb-stones.The cathedral was founded by Andrew de Moray, in 1224, on a piece of land granted by Alexander II.; and his remains were deposited in the choir, under a tomb of blue marble, in 1244. The great tower was built principally by John Innes bishop of this see, as appears by the inscription cut on one of the great pillars: "Hic Jacet in Xto, pater et dominus, Dominus Johannes de Innes, hujus ecclesiæ Episcopus ;-qui hoc notabile opus incepit et per septennium ædificavit." Elgin is a royal borough. Population of the town and parish 4602. ELGINSHIRE, is the middle district of the ancient county of Moray. It is bounded on the north by that branch of the German ocean called the Moray Frith; on the east and south-east by Banff-shire; on the south-west, by Inverness-shire ; and on the west by the counties of Inverness and Nairn. It extends about 42 miles in length, and its average breadth is about 20. The southern part is rocky and mountainous, called the district of Braemoray, which is occupied with exC tensive |