Elginshire, Eli.

tensive forests. The lower parts, towards the north, are rich and fertile; but might easily be rendered more productive. The principal rivers are, the Spey, Find horne, and Lossie; all of which abound with salmon. It contains two royal boroughs, viz. Elgin, the county town, and Forres; and several considerable towns, as Grantown, Garmouth, Lossiemouth, &c. The principal seats are Gordon-castle, the seat of the duke of Gordon; Castle Grant, the seat of Sir James Grant; Altyre, the seat of Colonel Cumming, &c. Morayshire abounds with many remains of antiquity; the principal of which are the magnificent cathedral of Elgin, the priory of Pluscardine near the town of Elgin, the bishop's palace at Spynie, the castles of Lochindorb, Dunphail, and the dun of Relugas, in the parish of Edenkeillie. The ancient Scottish historians, particularly Fordun and Buchanan, give accounts of the Danes landing in Moray, about 1008, when Malcolm II. marched against them, and was defeated near Forres: after this they brought over their wives and children, and were in possession of the country for some time; until they were finally expelled by that monarch, after the victories gained over them at Luncarty near Perth, at Barrie in the county of Angus, and at Mortlach in the county of Banff. There are many monuments of that nation; the most remarkable of which is Sweno's stone or pillar, on the road from Nairn and Forres, in the parish of Rafford. Except freestone, limestone, and marl, no mineral substance of value has been discovered.

Speymouth

994

777 1347

865

1500

602

unquestionably great. He did not exert his magisterial authority in the exemplary punishment of vice, and even permitted his own sons with impunity to perpetrate the most atrocious acts of impiety and debauchery. This want of firmness, to give it no worse a name, was very reprehensible in one who filled such an important office, and peculiarly so in a man who was himself a saint.

The celebrated Samson made his appearance during the administration of Eli, taking part in the management of public affairs for about 20 years, by whose astonishing deeds the independent spirit of that people was in some measure revived. The circumstances attending the death of Samson, which proved so calamitous to the nobility of the Philistines, might have induced the Jews to throw off the yoke; but they did not possess a sufficient degree of virtue and public spirit for such an exertion. Eli at this period was very far advanced in years, and, if possible, still more negligent in the discharge of his duty as a chief magistrate, allowing his two sons, Hophui and Phineas, to proceed to the most extravagant height of impiety and debauchery, whose example had a most powerful influence on the manners of the people. He was far from being unacquainted with their conduct, but he reproved them with such gentleness as was highly reprehensible, and but ill calculated to produce any change on the beha viour of his sons.

The deity was so justly offended with this deportment of Eli, that a sacred seer was commissioned to upbraid him for his ingratitude and want of resolution. Young Samuel likewise was favoured with a vision of the approaching ruin of Eli's family, which he related to the otherwise venerable old man, on being solemnly adjured not to conceal a single circumstance. When Eli heard the declaration of the young prophet, being fully convinced that his conduct had been highly reprehensible, he exclaimed, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." Soon after this the Israelites sustained a considerable loss in attempting to procure their emancipation, carrying the ark of God into their camp to animate the people, and intimidate their enemies; but the ark was captured by the Philistines, and Hophni and Phineas were slain. This intelligence having been brought to Eli, he no sooner heard that the ark of God was taken, than he fell backwards from his seat, broke his neck, and died in the 98th year of his age.

ELIAS, the prophet, memorable for having escaped the common catastrophe of mankind; being taken up alive into heaven, in a fiery chariot, about 895 B. C. See the Bible.

ELIJAH, who is sometimes denominated Elias, was one of the most distinguished of the Jewish prophets, and surnamed the Tishbite, probably from the district in which he was born. He began his prophetic office about 920 years before Christ, in the reign of wicked Ahab, by whom the Sidonian idolatry was introduced among the Israelites. The prophet was commissioned to appear before this impious prince, and threaten the country with a long drought as a punishment for his crimes. The indignation of Ahab was so great against the prophet for this prediction, that he resolved to punish him in a signal manner; but Elijah withdrew to

a

plished; and not long after this the holy prophet, at the divine command, divided asunder the waves of Jordan, dropped his prophetic mantle to the astonished Elisha, took the flaming chariot commissioned for his reception, and rode in majesty to heaven.

a secret place from his fury, at the divine command, where he was sustained in a miraculous manner. He was afterwards ordered to go to Sarepta, in the territory of Sidon, where a miraculous interposition of heaven, in the house of an indigent widow, sustained him for some time, whose son the prophet restored to life.

When the three years of famine, occasioned by the drought, were expired, the prophet was ordered to appear before the king, and exhort him to that genuine repentance which an interposition of the deity so very remarkable unquestionably demanded. He had an interview with Obadiah, the governor of the king's house, who was a religious man, and had frequently screened many from the vengeance of Jezebel the queen, at the hazard of his own life. Fired with undaunted fortitude, the prophet said to Obadiah, "Go, tell thy lord, behold Elijah is here." The good man's regard for the prophet was so great, that he was afraid to deliver this message, since he knew that Ahab had used every effort to discover the prophet's retreat. The king was informed of his coming; and the first interview was distinguished by invectives on the part of the intrepid prophet and the proud sovereign, the former giving a promise of rain on the following terms. The priests of the Sidonian gods, and an assembly of the people of Israel, were to meet on Mount Carmel, where the prophet Elijah intended to give an incontestable proof of the almighty power of the God of Israel, and the total in significance of the Sidonian divinities. For a detailed account of this memorable experiment, we must refer our readers to the book of Kings, as an abridgement of such a beautiful narration would do it manifest injury. It produced the fullest conviction in the minds of the Israelites, that Jehovah alone was entitled to adoration; and the priests of Baal were instantaneously put to death, as the most abominable perverters of the divine law.

This was followed by abundance of rain, in answer to the devout prayers of the prophet; but his glorious triumph over idolatry so exasperated Jezebel, that she resolved to murder the prophet, to avoid whose rage he fled into the wilderness, till the deity again employed him in the honourable, but often hazardous, duties of a prophet. He afterwards foretold that Hazael should be king of Syria, Jehu king over Israel; and he appointed Elisha the son of Shaphat to be his own successor. He denounced dreadful judgments against Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel; but those which respected the king were not executed during his life, on account of the genuine repentance which he discovered. The successor of Ahab having been confined to bed in consequence of an accident, the god of Ekron was consulted relative to his recovery, which induced the prophet to declare that he should assuredly die. The king being informed that it was Elijah who dared to send such a message, he dispatched a captain and 50 men to force him into the royal presence; but they were destroyed by fire from heaven, and a second company shared the same fate. A third company confessed the visible interference of heaven in the prophet's behalf, and the captain throwing himself on the mercy of Elijah, went with him to the king. In the royal presence he undauntedly repeated the same denunciation against the idolatrous monarch, which was very soon accom

ELIQUATION, in Chemistry, an operation by which a more fusible substance is separated from one that is less so, by means of a heat sufficiently intense to melt the former, but not the latter. Thus an alloy of copper and lead may be separated by a heat capable of melting the latter, but not the former. ELIS. See ELEA.

ELIS, in Ancient Geography, the capital of the district of that name in Peloponnesus, situated on the Peneus, which ran through it. It was the country of Phædo the philosopher, scholar of Socrates, and friend of Plato; who inscribes with his name the dialogue on the immortality of the soul. Pyrrho also was of this city, at the head of the sect called after him Pyr. rhonists.

The city of Elis owed its origin to an union of small towns after the Persian war. It was not encompassed immediately with a wall; for it had the care of the temple at Olympia, and its territory was solemnly consecrated to Jupiter. To invade or not protect it was deemed impiety; and armies, if marching through, delivered up their weapons, which, on their quitting it, were restored. Amid warring states the city enjoyed repose, was resorted to by strangers, and flourished. The region round about it was called cœle or hollow, from the inequalities. The country was reckoned fertile, and particularly fit for the raising of flax. This, which grew nowhere else in Greece, equalled the produce of Judæa in fineness, but was not so yellow. Elis was a school, as it were, for Olympia, which was distant 37 miles. The athletic exercises were performed there, before the more solemn trial, in a gymnasium, by which the Peneus ran. The helanodics or præfects of the games paired the rival combatants by lot, in an area called Plethrum or The Acre. Within the wall grew lofty plane trees; and in the court, which was called the Xystus, were separate courses made for the foot races. A smaller court was called the Quadrangle. The præfects, when chosen, resided for ten months in a building erected for their use, to be instructed in the duties of their office. They attended before sunrise to preside at the races; and again at noon, the time appointed for the pentathlum or five sports. The horses were trained in the agora or market-place, which was called the Hippodrome. In the gymnasium were altars and a cenotaph of Achilles. The women, besides other rites, beat their bosoms in honour of this hero, on a fixed day towards sunset. There also was the townhall, in which extemporary barangues were spoken and compositions recited. It was hung round with bucklers for ornaments. A way led from it to the baths through the Street of Silence; and another to the market-place, which was planned with streets between porticoes of the Doric order adorned with altars and images. Among the temples, one had a circular peristyle or colonnade; but the image had been removed and the roof was fallen in the time of Pausanias. The theatre was ancient, as was also a temple of Bacchus, one of the deities principally adored at Elis. Minerva had a temple in the citadel, with an image of ivory and gold, made

C 2

(it

(it was said) by Phidias. At the gate leading to Olympia was the monument of a person, who was buried, as an oracle had commanded, neither within nor without the city. The structures of Elis, Dr Chandler ob serves, seem to have been raised with materials far less elegant and durable than the produce of the Ionian and Attic quarries. The ruins are of brick, and not considerable, consisting of pieces of ordinary wall, and an octagon building with niches, which, it is supposed, was the temple, with a circular peristyle. These stand detached from each other, ranging in a vale southward from the wide bed of the river Peneus; which, by the margin, has several large stones, perhaps relicks of the gymnasium. The citadel was on a hill, which has on the top some remnants of a wall.

ELISHA the prophet, famous for the miracles he performed, died about 830 B. C. See the Bible.

ELISION, in Grammar, the cutting off or suppressing a vowel at the end of a word, for the sake of sound or measure, the next word beginning with a vowel.

Elisions are pretty frequently met with in English poetry, but more frequently in the Latin, French, &c. They chiefly consist in suppressions of the a, e, and, though an elision suppresses any of the other vowels.

ELIXATION, in Pharmacy, the extracting the virtues of ingredients by boiling or stewing.

ELIXIR, in Medicine, a compound tincture extracted from many efficacious ingredients. Hence the difference between a tincture and an elixir seems to be this, that a tincture is drawn from one ingredient, sometimes with an addition of another to open it and to dispose it to yield to the menstruum; whereas an elixir is a tincture extracted from several ingredients at the same time.

ELIZABETH, queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, was born at Greenwich, September 7. 1533. According to the humour of the times, she was early instructed in the learned languages, first by Grindal, who died when she was about 17, and afterwards by the celebrated Roger Ascham. She acquired likewise considerable knowledge of the Italian, Spanish, and French languages. Dr Grindal was also her preceptor in divinity, which she is said to have studied with uncommon application and industry. That Elizabeth became a Protestant, and her sister Mary a Papist, was the effect of that cause which determines the religion of all mankind; namely, the opinion of those by whom they were educated: and this difference of opinion, in their tutors, is not at all surprising, when we recollect, that their father Harry was of both religions, or of neither.

But the studies of Elizabeth were not confined merely to languages and theology: she was also instructed in the political history of the ancients; and was so well skilled in music, as to sing and play "artfully and sweetly."

After the short reign of her brother Edward, our heroine being then about 20 years of age, her firebrand sister acceding to the crown, Elizabeth experienced a considerable degree of persecution, so as to be not a little apprehensive of a violent death. She was accused of nobody knows what; imprisoned; and, we are told, inhumanly treated. At last, by the interces

sion of King Philip of Spain, she was set at liberty; Eliz which she continued to enjoy, till, on the death of her pious sister, she, on the 17th of November 1558, ascended the throne of England. Her political history as a queen, is universally known and admired *: but * See her attention to the government of her kingdom did story not totally suspend her pursuit of learning. Ascham, Engl in his Schoolmaster, tells us, that, about the year 1 563, five years after her accession, she being then at Windsor, besides her perfect readiness in Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, she read more Greek in one day than some prebendaries of that church did read Latin in a whole week, (p. 21.)-She employed Sir John Fortescue to read to her Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Euripides, Eschines, and Sophocles. (Ballard, p. 219.). That the Latin language was familiar to her, is evident from her speech to the university of Oxford, when she was near sixty; also from her spirited answer to the Popish ambassador in the year 1598. And that she was also skilled in the art of poetry, appears not only from the several scraps which have been preserved, but likewise from the testimony of a contemporary writer, Puttenham, in his Art of Engl. Poetry (a very scarce book). These are his words: "But, last in re"cital, and first in degree, is the queen, whose learn"ed, delicate, noble muse, easily surmounteth all the rest, for sense, sweetness, or subtility, be it in ode, elegy, epigram, or any other kind of poem," &c. In this author are to be found only a specimen of 16 verses of her English poetry. "But," says Mr Walpole, “ a greater instance of her genius, and that too in La"tin, was her extempore reply to an insolent prohibi"tion delivered to her from Philip II. by his ambassa"dor, in this tetrastic.

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Te veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas:
Quæ Dracus eripuit, nunc restituantur oportet:
Quas pater evertit, jubeo te condere cellas:
Religio papæ fac restituatur ad unguem.

"She instantly answered him, with as much spirit as she used to return his invasions;

Ad Græcas, bone rex, fient mandata kalendas."

Being earnestly pressed by a Romish priest, during his persecution, to declare her opinion concerning the real presence of Christ's body in the wafer, she answered,

Christ was the word that spake it;
He took the bread, and brake it :
And what that word did make it,

That I believe and take it.-Fuller's Holy State.

She gave the characters of four knights of Nottinghamshire in the following distich:

Gervase the Gentle, Stanhope the stout,

Markham the lion, and Sutton the lout. Walp. Cat.

Coming into a grammar-school, she characterized three classic authors in this hexameter:

Persius a crab-staff; bawdy Martial; Ovid a fine wag. Full. Worth. of Warw. 126.

If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all.
Worth. of Devonsh. 261.

Doubtless, she was a woman of singular capacity and extraordinary acquirements: and if we could forget the story of the Scottish Mary, and of her favourite Essex, together with the burning of a few Anabaptists; in short, could we forbear to contemplate her character through the medium of religion and morality, we might pronounce her the most illustrious of illustrious women. See further the articles ENGLAND, MARY, and ScorLAND. She died in her palace at Richmond, the 24th of March 1602, aged 70, having reigned 44 years; and was interred in the chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. Her successor James erected a magnificent monument to her memory.-She wrote, 1. The Mirror, or Glass of the Sinful Soul. This was translated out of French verse into English prose, when she was eleven years old. It was dedicated to Queen Catharine Parr. Probably it was never printed; but the dedication and preface are preserved in the Sylloge epistolarum, in Hearne's edition of Livii ForoJuliensis, p. 161. 2. Prayers and Meditations, &c. Dedicated to her father, dated at Hatfield, 1545. Manuscript, in the royal library. 3. A Dialogue out of Xenophon, in Greek, between Hiero a King, yet some time a private person, and Simonides a Poet, as touching the life of the Prince and Private Man. First printed from a manuscript in her majesty's own handwriting, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743. 4. Two Orations of Isocrates, translated into Latin. 5. Latin Oration at Cambridge. Preserved in the king's library: also in Hollinshed's Chron. p. 1206.; and in Fuller's Hist. of Cambr. p. 138. 6. Latin Oration at Oxford. See Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxf. lib. i. p. 289. also in Dr Jebb's Append. to his Life of Mary Queen of Scots. 7. A Comment on Plato. 8. Boethius de consolatione philosophie, translated into English anno 1593. 9. Sallust de bello Jugurthino, translated into English anno 1590. 10. A play of Euripides, translated into Latin, (Cat. of Royal Auth.). II. A Prayer for the use of her fleet in the great expedition in 1596. 12. Part of Horace's Art of Poetry, translated into English anno 1598. 13. Plutarch de curiositate, translated into English. 14. Letters on various occasions to different persons: several speeches to her parliament; and a number of other pieces.

Elliot.

ELIZABETH PETROWNA, (daughter of Peter the Elizabeth Great), the last empress of Russia, distinguished herself by her signal clemency. She made a vow that no person should be put to death in her reign, and she strictly observed it. The example was followed, and confirmed by law, under the august sovereign of Russia, Catharine II. Elizabeth died in 1762, in the 21st year of ber reign and 52d of her age.

ELK, in Zoology. See CERVUS, MAMMALIA Index. ELL, (ulna,) a measure which obtains, under different denominations, in most countries, whereby cloths, stuffs, linens, silks, &c. are usually measured; answering nearly to the yard of England, the canna of Italy, the vara of Spain, the palm of Sicily, &c.

Servius will have the ell to be the space contained between the two hands when stretched forth; but Suetonius makes it only the cubit.

The ells most frequently used with us are the English and Flemish; the former containing three feet nine inches, or one yard and a quarter; the latter only 27 inches, or three quarters of a yard; so that the ell English is to the Flemish ell as five to three. In Scotland, the ell contains 37 English inches.

M. Ricard, in his Treatise of Commerce, reduces the ells thus: 100 ells of Amsterdam are equal to 98 of Brabant, Antwerp, and Brussels; to 58% of England and France; to 120 of Hamburgh, Francfort, Leipsic, and Cologne; 125 of Breslaw; 110 of Bergen and Drontheim; and 117 of Stockholm.

ELLIOT, the Right Honourable George Augustus, Lord Heathfield, was the youngest son of the late Sir Gilbert Elliot, Baronet, of Stobbs (A) in Roxburghshire; and was born about the year 1718. He received the first rudiments of his education under a private tutor : and at an early time of life was sent to the university of Leyden, where he made considerable progress in classical learning, and spoke with fluency and elegance the German and French languages. Being designed for a military life, he was sent from thence to the celebrated Ecole Royale du Genie Militaire, conducted by the great Vauban at La Fere in Picardy; where he laid the foundation of what he so conspicuously exhibited at the defence of Gibraltar. He completed his military course on the continent by a tour, for the purpose of seeing in practice what he had studied in theory. Prussia was the model for discipline, and be continued some time as a volunteer in that service.

Mr Elliot returned in the 17th year of his age to his native country, Scotland; and was the same year, 1735, introduced by his father Sir Gilbert to Lieutenant-Colonel Peers of the 23d regiment of foot, then lying at Edinburgh, as a youth anxious to bear arms

for

for his king and country. He was accordingly entered as a volunteer in that regiment, where he continued for From the 23d regiment he went into the engineer corps at Woolwich, and made great progress in that study, until his uncle Colonel Elliot brought him in his adjutant of the second troop of horse grenadiers. With these troops he went upon service to Germany, and was with them in a variety of actions. At the battle of Dettingen he was wounded. In this regiment he bought the rank of captain and major, and afterwards purchased the lieutenant-colonelcy from Colonel Brewerton, who succeeded to his uncle. On arriving at this rank, he resigned his commission as an engineer, which he had enjoyed along with his other rank, and in which service he had been actively employed very much to the advantage of his country. He received the instructions of the famous engineer Bellidor, and made himself completely master of the science of gunnery. Had he not so disinterestedly resigned his rank in the engineer department, he would long before his death, by regular progression, have been at the head of that corps. Soon after this he was appointed aid-de-camp to George II. and was distinguished for his military skill and discipline. In the year 1759, he quitted the second troop of horse grenadier guards, being selected to raise, form, and discipline, the first regiment of light horse, called after him Elliot's. As soon as they were raised and formed, he was appointed to the command of the cavalry in the expedition on the coasts of France, with the rank of brigadier-general. After this he passed into Germany, where he was employed on the staff, and greatly distinguished himself in a variety of movements; where his regiment displayed a strictness of discipline, an activity and enterprise, which gained them signal honour and indeed they have been the pattern regiment both in regard to discipline and appointment, to the many light dragoon troops that have been since raised in our service. From Germany he was recalled for the purpose of being employed as second in command in the memorable expedition against the Havannah; the circumstances of which conquest are well known.