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Easiness and difficulty are relative terms, and relate to some power; and a thing may be difficult to a weak man, which yet may be easy to the same person, when assisted with a greater strength. Tillotson. We plainly feel whether at this instant we are easy or uneasy, happy or miserable.

Smalridge.

Will he for sacrifice our sorrows ease? And can our tears reverse his firm decrees? Prior. Not soon provoked, she easily forgives; And much she suffers, as she much believes.

Id. A marriage of love is pleasant; a marriage of interest easy; and a marriage where both meet-happy. Addison's Spectator.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations. Id. Freeh. Though he speaks of such medicines as procure sleep, and ease pain, he doth not determine their doses. Arbuthnot.

True case in writing comes from art, not chance; As those move easiest who have learned to dance.

Pope. Praise the easy vigour of a line, Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. Id.

This plea, under a colour of friendship to religion, invites men to it by the easiness of the terms it offers. Rogers.

Give yourselves ease from the fatigue of waiting.

Swift.

He has the advantage of a free lodging, and some

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His scruples thus silenced, Tom felt more at ease, And went with his comrades the apples to seize ; He blamed and protested, but joined in the plan; He shared in the plunder, but pitied the man.

Cowper. EASEL, among painters, the frame whereon the canvas is laid.

EASEL PIECES are such small pieces, either portraits or landscapes, as are painted on the easel; thus called to distinguish them from larger pictures drawn on walls, ceilings, &c.

EASING, in the sea-language, signifies the slackening a rope or the like. Thus, to ease the bow-line or sheet, is to let them go slacker; to ease the helm, is to let the ship go more large, more before the wind, or more larboard.

EAST, n. s. & adj.) Sax. east; Belg. oost; EAST'ERLY, adj. Swed. and Teut. oest; EASTERLING, N. s. Goth. aust, cyst (austa, EAST'ERN, adj. to put forth). Mr. Tooke EAST'LAND, thinks, from yrst, angry, EAST'WARD. enraged, those who cannot pronouncer, usually supplying its place with a;' but ustoth is Mod. Goth. for the morn, and Gr. ɛws, the dawn, much more probable derivations. Minsheu says, ab Heb. xvin, à radice N, to

come or go forth. An easterling is an inhabitant of the east; eastland, pertaining to that quarter of the world; eastward, in that direction. He oft in battle vanquished

Those spoilful, rich, and swarming Easterlings. Spenser.

I would not be the villain that thou thinkest For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, And the rich East to boot.

Shakspeare. Macbeth. When the easterly winds or breezes are kept off by some high mountains from the vallies, whereby the air, wanting motion, doth become exceeding unhealthful. Raleigh. The gorgeous East, with richest hand, Pours on her kings barbarick pearl, and gold. Milton.

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The moon, which performs its motion swifter than the sun, gets eastward out of his rays, and appears when the sun is set. Browne's Vulgar Errours. What shall we do, or where direct our flight? Eastward, as far as I could cast my sight, From opening heavens, I saw descending light. Dryden. These give us a view of the most easterly, southerly, and westerly parts of England.

Graunt's Bills of Mortality. They counting forwards towards the East, did allow 180 degrees to the Portugals eastward. Abbot.

The eastern end of the isle rises up in precipices.

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EAST, One of the four cardinal points of the world; being that point of the horizon where the sun is seen to rise when in the equinoctial. In Italy, and throughout the Mediterranean, the east wind is called the levante: in Greek avarodn and annwrns, because it comes from the side of the sun, an' 8; in Latin, eurus.

EA'STER, n. s. Sax. eartɲe; Dut. ooster; Germ. ostern. The day on which the Christian church commemorates our Saviour's resurrection. See below.

Didst thou not fall out with a taylor for wearing his new doublet before Easter?

Shakspeare. Romeo and Juliet. Victor's unbrother-like heat towards the Eastern churches, in the controversy about Easter, fomented Decay of Piety. that difference into a schism.

EASTER is called by the Greeks, Ilaçya, and by the Latins Pascha, from no, a Hebrew word signifying passage, applied to the Jewish feast of

the passover. It is called Easter in English, from the Saxon goddess Eostre, whose festival was held in April. The Asiatic churches kept their Easter upon the very same day that the Jews observed their passover, and others on the first Sunday after the first full moon in the new year. This controversy was determined in the council of Nice; when it was ordained that Easter should be kept upon one and the same day, which should always be Sunday, in all Christian churches in the world. But though the Christian churches differed as to the time of celebrating Easter, yet they all agreed in showing particular respect and honor to this festival. On this day, prisoners and slaves were set free, and the poor liberally provided for. The eve or vigil of this festival was celebrated with more than ordinary pomp, which continued till midnight, it being a tradition of the church that our Saviour rose a little after midnight; but in the east the vigil lasted till cock-crowing. It was in conformity to the custom of the Jews, in celebrating their passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, that the primitive fathers ordered that the fourteenth day of the moon, from the calendar new moon which immediately follows the 21st of March, at which time the vernal equinox happened upon that day, should be deemed the paschal full moon, and that the Sunday after should be Easter-day; and it is upon this account that the English rubric has appointed it upon the first Sunday after the first full moon immediately following the 21st day of March. Whence it appears that the true time for celebrating Easter, according to the intention of the council of Nice, was to be the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, or when the sun entered into the first point of Aries; and this was pope Gregory's principal design in reforming the calendar, to have Easter celebrated according to the determination of the council of Nice. For finding Easter, see CHRONOLOGY.

EASTER ISLAND, an island in the South Sea, thought to have been first discovered, in 1686, by one Davis an Englishman, who called it Davis's Land. It was next visited by commodore Roggewein, a Dutchman, in 1722, who gave it the name of Easter Island, and published many fabulous accounts concerning the country and its inhabitants. It was also visited by a Spanish ship in 1770, the captain of which gave it the name of St. Carlos. The most authentic account of this island, however, which has appeared, is that of captain Cook and Mr. Forster, who visited it in March 1770. According to them, the island is about ten or twelve leagues in circumference, and of a triangular figure; its greatest length from north-west to south-east is about four leagues, and its greatest breadth two. The hills are so high that they may be seen at the distance of fifteen or sixteen leagues. The north and east points of the island are of a considerable height; between them, on the south-east side, the shore forms an open bay, in which captain Cook thinks the Dutch anchored in 1722. He himself anchored on the west side of the island, three miles north from the south point. This, he says, is a good road with easterly winds, but a dangerous one when the wind blows from the contrary quarter,

as the other on the south-east side must be with easterly winds: so that there is no good accommodation to be had for shipping round the whole island. The island is extremely barren; and bears evident marks not only of a volcanic origin, but of having been not very long ago entirely ruined by an eruption. As they approached the south point, Mr. Forster informs us that they observed broken rocks, whose cavernous appearance, and black and ferruginous color, seemed to indicate that they had been thrown up by subterraneous fire. Two detached rocks lie about a quarter of a mile off this point; one of them is singular on account of its shape, and represents a huge column; and both were inhabited by multitudes of sea-fowls. On landing, and walking into the country, they found the ground covered with rocks and stones of all sizes, which appeared to have been exposed to a great fire, where they seemed to have acquired a black color and porous texture. Several shrivelled species of grasses grew among these stones, and softened the desolate appearance of the country. The farther they advanced, the more ruinous the face of the country seemed to be. The roads were intolerably rugged, and filled with heaps of volcanic stones, among which the Europeans could not make their way but with the greatest difficulty; but the natives leaped from one stone to another with surprising agility and ease. As they went northward along the island, they found the ground still of the same nature; till at last they met with a large rock of black melted lava, which seemed to contain some iron, and on which was neither soil nor grass, nor any mark of vegetation. Notwithstanding this general barrenness, however, there are several large tracts covered with cultivated soil, which produces potatoes of a gold yellow color, as sweet as carrots, plantains, and sugar-canes. The soil is a dry hard clay; and the inhabitants use the grass which grows between the stones in other parts of the island as a manure, and for preserving their vegetables when young from the heat of the sun. The most remarkable curiosity belonging to this island is a number of colossal statues; of which however very few remain entire. These statues are placed only on the sea-coast. On the east side of the island were seen the ruins of three platforms of stone work, on each of which had stood four of these large statues; but they were all fallen down from two of them, and one from the third: they were broken or defaced by the fall. One that had fallen measured fifteen feet in length, and six broad over the shoulders: each statue had on its head a large cylindric stone of a red color, wrought perfectly round. Others were found that measured nearly twenty-seven feet, and upwards of eight feet over the shoulders; and a still larger one was seen standing, the shade of which was sufficient to shelter all the party, consisting of nearly fifty persons, from the heat of the sun. The workmanship is rude, but not bad, nor are the features of the face ill formed; the ears are long, according to the distortion practised in the country, and the bodies have hardly any thing of a human figure about them. The water of this island is in general brackish, there being only one well perfectly fresh, which is towards the east.

The people are of a brown color and middle size. In general they are rather thin; go entirely naked; and have punctures on their bodies, a custom common to all the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. Their greatest singularity'is the size of their ears, the lobe of which is so stretched out that it almost rests on their shoulder; and is pierced with a very large hole, capable of admitting four or five fingers with ease. The chief ornaments for their ears are the white down of feathers, and rings made of the leaf of the sugarcane, which is very elastic, and for this purpose is rolled up like a watch-spring. Some were seen clothed in the same cloth used in Otaheite, tinged of a bright orange color with turmeric. But the most surprising circumstance with regard to these people, is the apparent scarcity of women among them. The nicest calculation that could be made never brought the number of inhabitants in this island to be above 700, and of these the females bore no proportion in number to the males. Either they have but few females, or else their women were restrained from appear ing during the stay of the ship. Those who appeared were of a very loose description. The dwellings of the natives are in general low miserable huts, very small, and scarcely capable of containing ten persons; but there are some of capacious size, constructed in the form of an inverted canoe, fifty or sixty feet long, and ten or twelve broad, with several entrances on one side; scarcely any of these exceed three feet in height or width. In addition they have also a kind of subterraneous dwellings. Their canoes are few, and none capable of carrying above four men: in swimming off to vessels, they support themselves on a matting of sugar-canes, neatly covered with rushes, four feet and a half long by fifteen inches broad. The workmanship is tolerably well executed. Voyagers have found them accomplished thieves. Fish are not plentiful on the coast; land and sea birds are far from numerous; the seal is the only quadruped that has been seen here. Easter Island is thirty-six miles in circumference. Long. 109° 46′ W., lat.

27° 5' S.

EAST MAIN, that part of Labrador, or New Britain, which extends eastward of James's Bay. EAST MAIN RIVER, a river of Canada, also called Slude, which enters James's Bay, in lat. 52° 8' N., long. 78° 45′ W.

EAST INDIA COMPANY. See INDIA. EASTON, a town of the United States, in Maryland, the capital of Talbot county, formerly named Talbot Court-House. It is seated on the east side of Chesapeake Bay, near the branches of the river Treadhaven, twelve miles above its confluence with the Choptank; five miles south by west of Williamsburgh; fifty south-east by south of Baltimore, and 118 south-west of Philadelphia. EASTON, OF EASTOWN, a township of Massachusetts, in Bristol county, famous for its manufactures in iron and steel, and a manufacture of linseed oil. Easton is seated near the head of the river Raynham, six miles north-west of the town so named, and twelve west of Bridgewater. Also a township of New York, in Washington county; and a town of Pennsylvania, the capital of "Northampton county, seated at the mouth of

the Lehigh, on the west side of the Delaware, Twelve miles north-east of Bethlehem, and seventy north of Philadelphia.

EAST RIVER, a river, or channel, of North America, between Long Island and New York Island, and between the state of Connecticut and Long Island. It is often called Long Island Sound. 2. A river of West Florida, which runs into Pensacola Bay, in long. 86° 50′ W., lat. 30° 34′ N. 3. A river of America, which runs into the West River, in the province of Maine, in long. 67° 20′ W., lat. 44° 48′ N. EAT, v.a. & v. n. EAT'ABLE, adj. & n. s. EA'TER, n. s. EA'TING, EA'TING-HOUSE.

Sax. eatan; Belg. eetan; Goth. etan, or itan; Sw. ata; Erse. eta; Lat. edere; Gr. Edelv. To take food; masticate and swallow food; devour: hence, generally, to gnaw; consume; wear or waste away; corrode. Eatable means that may be, or any thing that is, eaten.

And alle eeten the same spiritual mete, and alle drunken the same spiritual drynk, thei drunken of the same spyritual stoon folewynge hem, and that stoon was Crist. Wiolif. 1 Cor. x.

Locusts shall eat the residue of that which is escaped from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth.

Exodus x. 4. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want.

Prov. xiii. 25.
And will not suffren hem by non assent,
Neyther to ben yberied ne ybrent,
But maketh houndes ete hem in despyte.

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Shakspeare. Cymbeline.
Thou best of gold art worst of gold;
Other less fine in carat is more precious,
Preserving life in medicine potable:

But thou, most fine, most honored, most renowned,
Hast eat thy bearer up.
Id. Henry IV.
Id.

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats. The difference between a rich man and a poor man is this the former eats when he pleases, and the latter Sir W. Raleigh. when he can get it.

the first blow, or for not accepting Polyphemus's Other states cannot be accused for not staying for courtesy, to be the last that shall be eaten up.

Bacon's War with Spain.

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Credit were not to be lost

By a brave knighterrant of the post,
That eats, perfidiously, his word,

And swears his ears through a two inch board. Hudibras. They entail a secret curse upon their estates, which does either insensibly waste and consume, or eat out the heart and comfort of it. Tillotson.

An hungry traveller stept into an eating-house for his dinner. L'Estrange. He that will not eat till he has a demonstration that it will nourish him, he that will not stir till he infallibly knows the business he goes about will succeed, will have little else to do but to sit still and perish.

Locke. The plague of sin has even altered his nature, and eaten into his very essentials. South.

If you all sorts of persons would engage, Suit well your eatables to every age.

Prior.

King's Art of Cookery.
But, thanks to my indulgent stars, I eat,
Since I have found the secret to be great.
A prince's court eats too much into the income of
Addison's Italy.
Even wormwood, eat with bread, will not bite,
because it is mixed with a great quantity of spittle.
Arbuthnot on Aliments.

a poor state.

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Fairfax.

Id.

The way was straight and eath.
EATON, or ETON, a town of England, in
Buckinghamshire. See ETON.

EATAW, a small river of South Carolina, which runs into the Santee. Near the source of this river, in 1781, a battle was fought between the British, under colonel Stuart, and the Americans under general Greene; in which the former had 500 men killed and wounded; both sides claiming the victory.

EAU DE LUCE, a fragrant alkaline liquor which was some years ago in great repute. We are told by Mr. Nicholson, in his Journal, that, having learned from a philosophical friend that the common recipes for making this compound did not succeed, and that the use of mastic in it had hitherto been kept a secret, he made the following experiments to procure a good eau de luce. 4 One dram of the rectified oil of amber was dissolved in four ounces of the strongest ardent spirit of the shops; its specific gravity being 840 at 60° of Fahrenheit. A portion of the clear spirit was poured upon a larger quantity of fine powdered mastic than it was judged could be taken up. This was occasionally agitated

without heat; by which means the gum resin was for the most part gradually dissolved. One part of the oily solution was poured into a phial, and to this was added one part of the solution of mastic. No opacity or other change appeared. Four parts of strong caustic volatile alkali were then poured in and immediately shaken. The fluid was of a dense opaque white color, affording a slight ruddy tinge when the light was seen through a thin portion of it. In a second mixture, four parts of the alkali were added to one of the solution of mastic; it appeared of a less dense and more yellowish white than the former mixture. More of the gum resinous solution was then poured in; but it still appeared less opaque than that mixture. It was ruddy by transmitted light. The last experiment was repeated with the oily solution instead of that of mastic. The white was much less dense than either of the foregoing compounds, and the requisite opacity was not given by augmenting the dose of the oily solution. No ruddiness nor other remarkable appearance was seen by transmitted light. These mixtures were left at repose for two days; no separation appeared in either of the compounds containing mastic; the compound, consisting of the oily solution and alkali, became paler by the separation of a cream at the top.' In a subsequent number of the same work we find the following recipe by one of the author's correspondents, who had frequently proved its value by experience. 'Digest ten or twelve grains of the whitest pieces of mastic, selected for this purpose and powdered, in two ounces of alcohol; and, when nearly dissolved, add twenty grains of elemi. When both the resins are dissolved, add ten or fifteen drops of rectified oil of amber, and fifteen or twenty of essence of bergamot: shake the whole well together, and let the fæces subside. The solution will be of a pale amber color. It is to be added in very small portions to the best aqua ammoniæ puræ, until it assumes a milky whiteness, shaking the phial well after each addition, as directed by Macquer. The strength and causticity of the ammoniac are of essential consequence. If, upon the addition of the first drop or two of the tincture, a dense opaque coagulated precipitate is formed, not much unlike that which appears on dropping a solution of silver into water slightly impregnated with common salt, it is too strong, and must be diluted with alcohol. A considerable proportion of the tincture, perhaps one to four, ought to be employed to give the liquor the proper degree of opacity.'

EAVES, n. s. plur.
Sax. efese, or epese;
EAVES DROP, v. n.
the descents or descend-
EAVES DROPPER, n. s. ing parts of a thing:
old Fr. aive, eve, was also water. The edges of
a roof; and, colloquially, the water that drops
from them. To eavesdrop is likewise to catch
what comes from the eaves, or to listen under
windows.

Under our tents I'll play the eavesdropper,
To hear if any mean to shrink from me.

Shakspeare.
His tears run down his beard like winter drops
From eaces of reeds.
id. Tempest.

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behaviour.

EBAL, in ancient geography, a mountain of Samaria, near Shechem. Between it and Gerizim on the south side of it, there is a valley of 200 paces. On Ebal and Gerizim (the former extremely bare and barren, and the latter extremely verdant and fertile), the Hebrews were ranked, six tribes on each, who echoed Amen to the blessings and curses pronounced by the priests in the intervening valley. Deut. xxvii, xxviii. Josh. viii. 30, &c. EBB, n. s. & v. n. Į Belg. ebbe; Sax. ebba; EBB'ING, n. s. Swed. ebb; Fr. ebe, descent. The reflux of the tide; and as a verb to flow back, as the tide toward the sea. Hence, metaphorically, decline; decay; deterioration: and to fall off; decline; or waste away. Thou pinchist at my mutabilitie,

For I the lent a droppe of my richesse,
And now me likith to withdrawin me,

Why shouldist thou my roialtie oppresse?
The se maie ebbe and flowin more and lesse,
The welkin hath might to shine, rain, and haile.

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Chaucer.
You have finished all the war, and brought all
things to that low ebb which you speak of.
Spenser on Ireland.
Though my tide of blood

Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now,
Now it doth turn and ebb back to the sea.

Shakspeare. This tide of man's life, after it once turneth and declineth, ever runneth with a perpetual ebb and falling stream, but never floweth again.

Raleigh's History. still Since such Love's natural station is, may My love descend, and journeying down the hill; Not panting after growing beauties; so I shall ebb on with them who homeward go.

Donne.

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EBBSFLEET, anciently Wyppedsfleet, a hamlet of the Isle of Thanet, Kent, at the mouth of the river Stour, where the Saxons landed in 447 under Hengist and Horsa. In 463 a celebrated battle was fought in this vicinity between the Britons and Saxons, when the former were The Saxon leader Wypped, who is defeated. said to have fallen on this occasion, gave name to this hamlet.

EBENEZER, (Heb. the stone of help), the name of a field where the Philistines defeated the Hebrews, and seized on the sacred ark; and where afterwards, at Samuel's request, God discomfited the Philistines with thunder and hail, and gave the Hebrews a noted deliverance. On this occasion Samuel set up a stone, and gave it this designation, to mark that the Lord had helped them; and from it the whole field adjacent received its name. It is said to have been about forty miles south-west of Shiloh. 1 Sam. iv. 1., and vii. 12.

EBENEZER, a town of the United States, in Georgia, the capital of Effingham county, seated on the south-west bank of Savannah River. Twenty-five miles N. N.W. of Savannah, seventyfive south-east of Louisville, and 860 south-west of Philadelphia.

EBENUS, the ebony tree. See AMERIMNUM. EBERSBERG, a town of Upper Austria, situated on the river, and in the circle of the Traun, which is here divided into many branches, and crossed by a bridge of great length. Here is a castle said to have been built in the year 900; and in the neighbourhood was fought a severe action between the Austrians and French in May, 1809. It is eight miles north-west of Ens.

EBERSDORF, a small town of Lower Austria, on the right bank of the Danube, where Buonaparte had his head-quarters previous to the battle of Aspern in May, 1809. Inhabitants 1165. Eight miles E. S. E. of Vienna.

EBERSTHAL, or EBERSTAL, a town of Germany, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, and electorate of Mentz, two miles south of Krautheim; but on which side of the Rhine, and

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