it to several causes sufficiently whimsical. The poets pretended it was a person of that name metamorphosed, and that she affected to take up her abode in particular places, for they found that she was not to be met with every where. But the moderns, who know sound to consist in a certain tremor or vibration in the sonorous body communicated to the contiguous air, and by that means to the ear, give a more consistent account of echo. See ACOUSTICS. A tremulous body, striking on another solid body, may be repelled without destroying or diminishing its tremor; and, consequently, a sound may be redoubled by the resilition of the tremulous body to the air. But a simple reflection on the sonorous air is not enough to solve the echo; for then every plain surface of a solid hard body, being fit to reflect a voice or sound, would redouble it; which we find does not hold. To produce an echo, therefore, it should seem, that a kind of concameration or vaulting were necessary, to collect, and, by collecting, to heighten and increase, and afterwards reflect the sound; as we find is the case in reflecting the rays of light, where a concave mirror is required. In fact, as often as a sound strikes perpendicularly on a wall, behind which is any thing of a vault or arch, or even another parallel wall, so often will it be reverberated in the same line, or other adjacent ones. For an echo to be heard, therefore, it is necessary that the ear be in the line of reflection; for the person who made the sound to hear its echo, it is necessary he be perpendicular to the place which reflects it: and, for a manifold or tautological echo, it is necessary there be a number of walls, and vaults or cavities, either placed behind or fronting each other. A single arch or concavity, &c., can scarcely ever stop and reflect all the sound; but, if there be a convenient disposition behind it, part of the sound propagated thither, being collected and reflected as before, will present another echo: or, if there be another concavity, opposed at a due distance to the former, the sound reflected from the one upon the other will be tossed back again by this last, &c. Any sound, falling directly or obliquely on any dense body of a smooth superficies, whether plain or arched, is reflected, or echoes, more or less. The surface must be smooth, otherwise the air, by reverberation, will be put out of its regular motion, and the sound thereby broken and extinguished. Echoes may be produced with different circumstances. For, 1. A plane obstacle reflects the sound back in its due tone and loudness, allowance being made for the proportionable decrease of the sound, according to its distance. 2. A convex obstacle reflects the sound somewhat smaller and somewhat quicker though weaker, than otherwise it would be. 3. A concave obstacle echoes back the sound, bigger, slower, and also inverted; but always according to the order of words. 4. The echoing body being removed farther off, it reflects more of the sound than when nearer; which is the reason why some echoes repeat but one syllable, some one word, and some many. 5. Echoing bodies may be so contrived and placed, as that reflecting the sound from one to the other, either directly and mutually, or obliquely and by

succession, out of one sound, a multiple echo or many echoes shall arise. A multiple echo may be made by so placing the echoing bodies at unequal distances, that they may reflect all one way, and not one on the other, by which means a manifold successive sound will be heard; one clap of the hands like many; one ha like a laughter; one single word like many of the same tone and accent; and so one viol, like many of the same kind, imitating each other. Lastly, echoing bodies may be so ordered, that, from any one sound given, they shall produce many echoes different both as to tone and intention: by which means a musical room may be so contrived, that not only one instrument playing therein shall seem many of the same sort and size, but even a concert of different ones, only by placing certain echoing bodies so that any note played shall be returned by them in thirds, fifths, and eighths.

ECHO is also used for the place where the repetition of the sound is produced or heard. In echoes, the place where the speaker stands is called the centrum phonicum; and the object or place that returns the voice, the centrum phonocampticum. Echoes are distinguished into two kinds; viz. single and tautological, or multiple.

ECHO, in architecture, a term applied to certain kinds of vaults and arches, most commonly of the elliptic and parabolic figures used to redouble sounds, and produce artificial echoes.

ECHO, in poetry, a kind of composition wherein the last words or syllables of each verse contain some meaning, which, being repeated apart, answers to some question or other matter contained in the verse; as in this beautiful one from Virgil:

Crudelis mater magis, an puer, improbus ille? Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater. The elegance of an echo consists in giving a new sense to the last words; which reverberate, as it were, the motions of the mind, and by that means affect it with surprise and admiration.

ECHO, in mythology, a daughter of Aer and Tellus, who chiefly resided in the vicinity of the Cephisus. She was once one of Juno's attendants, and became the confidant of Jupiter's amours. Her loquacity, however, displeased Jupiter, and she was deprived of the power of speech by Juno, and only permitted to answer the questions which were put to her. Pan had formerly been one of her admirers, but he never enjoyed her favors. Echo, after she had been punished by Juno, fell in love with Narcissus; but being despised by him pined to death, having nothing left but her voice.

ECHOMETER, among musicians, a kind of scale or rule, with several lines thereon, serving to measure the duration and length of sounds, and to find their intervals and ratios.

ECIJA, or EXIJA, a considerable town of Spain, in the province of Seville, beautifully situated on the Xenil, and surrounded with small hills, which make it the warmest place of Andalusia. Wool and hemp are its chief riches; but tanning and the manufacture of leather, employ a portion of its inhabitants, who, altogether, amount to 28,000. This town is the Colonia Augusta Firmia of the ancients, and many Roman antiquities have been discovered here. It

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh,
That unmatched form, and feature of blown youth,
Blasted with ecstasy.
Id. Humlet.

Return, my soul! from this ecstacie
And meditation of what thou shalt be
To earthly thoughts, till it to thee appear
With whom thy conversation must be there.

Donne.
Would she but shade her tender brows with bay,
That now lye bare in carelesse willful rage;
And trance herselfe in that sweet ertacy,
That rouzeth drouping thoughts of bashful age.

Bp. Hall.

Milton.

He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; Which when I did, he on the tender grass Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy. There doth my soul in holy vision sit, n pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatick fit. Id.

When one of them, after an extatical manner, fell down before an angel, he was severely rebuked, and bidden to worship God. Stillingfleet.

These are as common to the inanimate things as to the most erstasied soul upon earth. Norris.

A pleasure, which no language can express; An ecstacy that mothers only feel, Plays round my heart. Philips's Distressed Mother. In trance ecstatick may thy pangs be drowned; Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round. Pope.

The very kine that gambol at high noon, The total herd receiving first from one, That leads the dance, a summons to be gay, Though, wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth Their efforts, yet resolved with one consent, To give such act and utterance as they may To ecstasy too big to be suppressed. Wakes from his trance, alarmed with Finds his new sex, and feels ecstatic fire; From flower to flower with honeyed lip he springs, And seeks his velvet loves on silver wings.

Couper. young Desire,

Darwin.

And let not this seem strange; the devotee Lives not in earth, but in his ecstasy ; Around him days and worlds are heedless driven; His soul is gone before his dust to heaven. Byron. ECSTATICI, Eкsarikol, from snu, I am entranced; in antiquity, a kind of diviners who were cast into trances or ecstacies, in which they

lay like men dead or asleep, deprived of all sense and motion; but, after some time, returning to themselves, gave strange relations of what they had seen and heard.

ÉCTHESIS, in church history, a confession of faith, in the form of an edict, published A D. 639, by the emperor Heraclius, to pacify the troubles occasioned by the Eutychian heresy in the eastern church. He however revoked it, on being informed that pope Severinus had condemned it, as favoring the Monothelites; declaring at the same time, that Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, was the author of it.

ECTHLIPSIS, among Latin grammarians, a figure of prosody whereby the m, at the end of a word, where the following word begins with a vowel, is elided, or cut off, together with the vowel preceding it, for the sake of the measure of the verse: thus they read mult' ille, for multum ille.

ECTROPIUM, in surgery, is when the eyelids are inverted, or retracted, so that they show their internal or red surface, and cannot sufficiently cover the eye. E'ČTYPE, n. s. Gr. εκτυπος. A copy. The complex ideas of substances are ectypes, copies, Locke. but not perfect ones; not adequate.

EDA, or EDAY, one of the Orkney Isles, about five miles and a half long, and nearly one and a half broad, situated eight miles N. N. E. from Pomora. It consists chiefly of hills of a moderate height, affording excellent pasture; and contains several villages, and has two good harbours or road-steads, each sheltered by a small islet, where vessels of any burden may ride in safety. There is an old chapet in ruins, and the remains of several religious houses. Near this island are several pasture isles or holms, on which are the ruins of several reiigious edifices.

EDA'CITY, n. s. Į Lat. edacitas. Voracity; EDA'CIOUS, adj. ravenousness; greediness;

rapacity.

The wolf is a beast of great edacity, and digestion; it may be the parts of him comfort the bowels. Bacon.

EDAM, a town of North Holiand, near the Zuyder-zee, with a good harbour, forined by the river Ey. The inhabitants derive their subsistence partly from ship-building, and partly from salt and oil works. It is an old market for cheese, although much fallen off. Twelve miles north of Amsterdam.

EDAM, an island on the coast of Java, about two miles in circuit and very woody. Here the Dutch have several salt warehouses, and a convict establishment for making cordage.

EDDA, the system of the ancient Icelandic or Runic mythology, containing many curious particulars of the theology, philosophy, and manners of the northern nations of Europe; or of the Scandinavians who had migrated from Asia, and from whom our Saxon ancestors were descended. Mr. Mallet apprehends that it was originally compiled, soon after the Pagan religion was abolished, as a course of poetical lectures, for the use of such young Icelanders as devoted themselves to the profession of a scald or poet. It consists of two principal parts: the first containing a brief system

of mythology, properly called the Edda: and the second being a kind of art of poetry, and called scalda. The most ancient Edda was compiled by Soemund Sigfusson, surnamed the learned, who was born in Iceland about A. D. 1057. This was abridged, and rendered more intelligible, about 120 years afterwards, in the form of a dialogue, by Snorro Sturleson, who was supreme judge of Iceland in 1215 and 1222. He added also the second part in the form of a dialogue, being a detail of different events transacted among the divinities. The only three pieces that are known to remain of the more ancient Edda of Soe mund, are the Voluspa, the Havamaal, and the Runic chapter. The Voluspa, or prophecy of Vola or Fola, appears to be the text, on which the Edda is the comment. It contains, in 200 or 300 lines, the whole system of mythology, disclosed in the Edda, and may be compared to the Sibylline verses, on account of its laconic yet bold style, and its imagery and obscurity. It is professedly a revelation of the decrees of the Father of Nature, and the actions and operations of the gods. It describes the chaos, the formation of the world, with its various inhabitants, the functions of the gods, their most signal adventures, their quarrels with Loke, or Lak, their great adversary, and the vengeance that ensued ; and concludes with a long description of the final state of the universe, its dissolution and conflagration, the battle of the inferior deities, and the evil beings, the renovation of the world, the happy lot of the good, and the punishment of the wicked. The Havamaal, or Sublime Discourse, is attributed to the god Odin, who is supposed to have given these precepts of wisdom to mankind. It is comprised in about 120 stanzas, and resembles the book of Proverbs. The Runic chapter contains a short system of ancient magic, and especially of the enchantments wrought by the operation of Runic characters. A manuscript copy of the Edda of Snorro is preserved in the library of the university of Upsal; the first part of which has been published with a Swedish and Latin version by M. Goranson. The Latin version is printed as a supplement to M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. The first edition of the Edda was published by Resenius, professor at Copenhagen, in a large 4to. volume, in 1665, containing the text of the Edda, a Latin translation, by an Icelandic priest, a Danish version, and various readings from different MSS. M. Mallet has also given an English translation of the first part, accompanied with remarks, from which we learn that the Edda teaches the doctrine of the Supreme, called the Universal Father, and Odin, who lives for ever, governs all his kingdom, and directs the great things, as well as the small, who formed the heaven, earth, and air; made man, and gave him a spirit or soul, which shall live after the body shall have mouldered away; and then all the just shall dwell with him in Gimle or Vingolf, the palace of friendship; but wicked men shall go to Hela, or death, and from thence to Nislheim, or the abode of the wicked, which is below in the ninth world. It inculcates also the belief of several inferior gods and goddesses, the chief of whom is Frigga, or Frea, i. e. lady, meaning

hereby the earth, who was the spouse of Odin or the Supreme God; whence we may infer that, according to the opinion of these ancient philosophers, this Odin was the active principle or soul of the world, which, uniting itself with matter, had thereby put it into a condition to produce the intelligences or inferior gods, and men and all other creatures. The Edda likewise teaches the existence of an evil being called Loke, the calumniator of the gods, the artificer of fraud, who surpasses all other beings in cunning and perfidy. It teaches the creation of all things out of an abyss or chaos; the final destruction of the world by fire; the absorption of the inferior divinities, both good and bad, into the bosom of the grand divinity, from whom all things proceeded, as emanations of his essence, and who will survive all things; and the renovation of the earth in an improved state.

EDDER, v. a. & n. s. Probably from edge. To bind or interweave a fence. Not in common

use.

To add strength to the edge, edder it; which is, bind the top of the stakes with some small long poles, on each side. Mortimer's Husbandry. In lopping and felling, save edder and stake, Thine hedges, as needeth, to mend or to make.

Tusser.

E’DDY, n. s., adj. & v. a. Icel. ida ; but it is better derived from Goth. idga, to agitate: Sax. e, backward, again, and ea, water. Water that runs contrary to the main stream: whirl. It is used also as a verb active.

My praises are as a bulrush upon a stream; if they of the current, which supports their lightness; but they sink not, 'tis because they are borne up by the strength

are carried round again, and return on the eddy where they first began. Dryden.

And chaff with eddy winds is whirled around, And dancing leaves are lifted from the ground. Id. Virgil.

The wild waves mastered him, and sucked him in, And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. Dryden.

So, where our wide Numidian wastes extend, Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend, Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play, Tear up the sauds, and sweep whole plains away. Addison's Cuto.

Cowper.

Tis thine to cherish and to feed The pungent nose-refreshing weed: Which, whether pulverized it gain A speedy passage to the brain, Or whether, touched with fire, it rise In circling eddies to the skies, Does thought more quicken and refine Than all the breath of all the Nine. Through her fine limbs the mimic lightnings dart, And flames innocuous eddy round her heart; O'er her fair brow the kindling lustres glare, Blue rays diverging from her bristling hair. Darwin. The sea-tide's opposing motion, In azure column proudly gleaming, Beats back the current many a rood In curling foam and mingling flood, While eddying whirl, and breaking wave, Byron. Roused by the blast of winter, rave. EDDYSTONE Rocks, the name of some rocks in the English Channel, so called from the great variety of contrary currents in their vicinity. They are situated nearly S.S.W. from the middle of Plymouth Sound, their distance from the port