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to correct some of the minor faults of the times, added certain characteristics from ancient fable and satire, and thus anticipated the manner of much of modern political and social humor. They also embodied their experiences and observations in fictitious characters, such as Sir Roger de Coverley, thus aiding in the development of the novel and the short story. They also elaborated the criticism of history and politics, of religion and morals, of literature, art and the drama, so that these have since been regarded as separate provinces, which leave the familiar essay of to-day to apply its casual, personal and suggestive method chiefly to social manners, fashions and humors. This narrowed form has continued to flourish in England, through Goldsmith, Lamb, Thackeray and Stevenson down to the present. Literary criticism in essay form is illustrated by Coleridge, Hazlitt and Matthew Arnold in England, Sainte-Beuve in France and Lowell and Whipple in America.
In the United States, Washington Irving imported the method of humor and satire in his Salmagundi (1807) and the general form of the essay in his Sketch-book (1819). The latter contains autobiographical matter; sketches of places, things, manners and customs; studies of national and racial traits; literary criticism; tales of sentiment; and tales of mystery, like Rip Van Winkle. In variety of content it thus is a precursor of the magazine of to-day. Among other American essayists, Emerson deals chiefly with religion and morals, Poe and Lowell with literature. Dr. Holmes, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, modified the form in the direction of table-talk. Thoreau’s Walden revived the nature essay. The tradition of Steele, Addison and Irving was continued, almost unchanged, by George William Curtis and Charles Dudley Warner.
Es′sen, a town of Prussia, 21 miles from Düsseldorf. It is situated in a rich coal and iron district, and has large manufactures of iron, tobacco, canes and vinegar, with dye works and breweries. It is known as the site of the celebrated Krupp gun-works and cannon-foundries, one of the largest establishments in the world. These works have 1,195 furnaces, 92 steam hammers, 286 boilers and 370 steam engines; they use 2,735 tons of coal and coke daily, and produce nearly 600 tons of iron a day. They employ over 20,000 workmen. The water-supply is brought by an aqueduct four miles in length. The town dates back to 873, and has an old church founded in that year. It was ruled until 1803 by the abbess of the Benedictine nunnery, who ranked as a princess of the empire. It was transferred to Prussia in 1803. Population, 294,629.
Es′sex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, was born on Nov. 10, 1567. His first service was in the Netherlands under the Earl of Leicester, his stepfather. At court he became a favorite of the queen, and was put in command of the forces sent to help Henry IV against the League in 1591. To him was largely due the capture of Cadiz (1596). He quarreled with the queen about an appointment, turning his back upon her in the presence of her ministers, and, when she resented the indignity with a box on the ear, drew his sword, swearing that he would not endure such treatment from Henry VIII himself. They were never really reconciled. After failing as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he formed a wild scheme to get rid of Elizabeth’s councilors, who were opposed to him. He entered London at the head of 300 men, expecting the people to rise in his favor, but was disappointed and forced to surrender. He was tried for treason, condemned, and beheaded on Feb. 25, 1601. Elizabeth was very unwilling to sign his death warrant, but the story of the ring given him by the queen for a safeguard and kept back by the countess of Nottingham, is now believed to be an invention. He was a writer of verse, built a monument to Spenser, and gave an estate to Bacon.
Esther (ĕs′ter) (a star), the Persian name of the Jewish maiden Hadassah. She was the foster-daughter of Mordecai, one of the officers of the Persian king, Ahasuerus, and was selected by the king as his wife instead of Vashti, who had refused to present herself to the king and his courtiers in the midst of a drunken revel. The king’s prime minister, Haman, out of jealousy toward Mordecai, had persuaded the king to issue a decree for the destruction of the Jews. But through the influence of Esther, acting under Mordecai’s direction, Haman was hanged, Mordecai was made chief in his place, and another decree issued permitting the Jews to destroy their enemies. The story is found in Esther. The Jews still observe the feast of Purim in memory of this event, and the whole book of Esther, called by them The Roll, is read in their synagogues on that day.
Ether, a medium of exceedingly great tenuity supposed to fill all known space, including that which we speak of as filled with ordinary matter. The necessity of such a medium was first recognized by Huygens, and was admitted by all other clear thinkers as soon as Römer discovered the fact that light travels with finite speed. For, when it has been shown that light requires eight minutes to travel from the sun to the earth, the query naturally arises as to what becomes of the light (i. e. luminous energy) between the time it leaves the sun and the time it reaches the earth. The simplest possible explanation is that it exists somewhere in the space between the sun and the earth. But in all our
