Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/734

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
640
*

EDELFELT. 640 EDEN. EDELFELT, a'llrl-folt, Aluert Gustav Aris- TED ( lSo4 — ). A Finnish painter, born at Hel- sinjitors. lie .studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and then under GOrome in Paris. His work includes studies of the life and scenerj' in his native country; two of these are in the Luxembourg, "Uivine Service on the Sea- shore" (1SS2), and "A December Day in Fin- land." He is also known as a water-color and pastel artist. He received a second-class medal in 18S2. EDELMANN, aMrl-nian, .JouA.xx Ciiristi..N' ( IG'JS-lTtiT ) . A German rationalist, born at Weissenfels. He studied theology at the Univer- sity of Jena, resided for a time with Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut, and participated in the translation of the Berleburg Jiible. Soon after he turned weaver, donned a ilcnnonist smock- frock, and continued authorship only at the request and with the support of interested friends. Having come to Neuwied, he was there com|)ellcd by the Count to draw up a confession of faith; and when this was printed, without his consent and in a garbled version, he retorted by publishing the true copy with annot:vtions as an Ahyeiwtifitcs, jcdoch andcrn nicht iciedfr auf- f/cnoligtcs (llaiibenshckciintiiis (1740). Per.se- cuted as a freethinker, he fled to Altona. where he lived in concealment, not venturing into Ham- burg by day for fear of the derision of the work- men from the cordage factories. In 1749 he went to Berlin, where Frederick II., though forbidding him to publish further^ tolerated him, on the ground, it is said, that fools had to be endured. He was described as a choleric and laborious per- son. He was among the first German opponents of positive religion, which he denounced as super- stition. His views were not new, but were pro- claimed with a blaspheiuous emphasis which attracted brief attention. Among his other works are Moscx mil aufgcdccktem Angesiiht (1740), and Dir (liiltlichkcit der Vernunft (1742). An autobiography, edited by Klose, appeared in Berlin in 1849. EDELWEISS, a'dd-vis (Ger.. noble white, fnjm cdd. noble + ircifis, white), Lronlopodium rilpiiuiDi. An alpine perennial woolly plant of the composite family, found in Switzerland, the Tyrol, Carinthia, Alpine Austria, and Siberia. It bears heads of (lowers surrounded by woolly bracts and sage-green leaves. It is famous, not by reason of its beauty, but because of its scar- city, and the supposed dilliculty of obtaining it in its elevated haunts, and is so rare in Switzer- land that several cantons protect it by law. It is readily cultivated and may be frequently seen in gardens in America and Europe. In Swiss poetry and legend it jilays a prominent part. E'DEN (Ileb.. 'rden. delight). According to the biblical account, the first residence of man. On the supposition that the narrative in Genesis describes a real country, endless views have been brought forward in regard to the situation of Eden. Josephus and several of the Fathers con- ceived that Eden was a term <lenoting the entire region between the Ganges and Nile. Calvin, Huet, Boekart. Wells, and others, have, with slight differences of detail, decided in favor of Kornah in Babylonia, not far from the Per- sian Gulf: Behind. Calmet, Hales, Faber, .T. Pye Smith, in favor of Armenia, near the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates; Le Clerc, in favor of the region near Damascus, while even Australia and the North Pole have been advo- cated. The description in Genesis (ch. ii.) points unquestionably to southern Babylonia, but the geographical notions of the writer are confused, and he has complicated his description of Eden by introducing mythological conceptions, found among other peoples, of a great river which forms the source of all the larger streams. He knows of four such streams, the Tigris, Eu- phrates, Gihon, and Pishon. He is well ac- quainted with the first two, but has only hazy notions of the latter. It is quite likely that he intended the Gihon for the Nile, as Josephus al- ready has it (Ant. i. 1-3), and if it be recalled that many centuries later Arabic geograjihcrs supposed the Nile to have its rise in India, it is not strange to find a writer of the seventh cen- tury n.c. placing the source of the Nile in Baby- lonia. The Pishon. which 'encompasses' the land of Haviiah, i.e. southern Arabia, may be after all, as seems most natural, the Arabian Sea ; and since the Persian Gulf is in cuneiform in- scriptions called a 'river,' it is not improbable that a writer who had only heard of southern Arabia should call the body of water flowing around it a river. However that may be, the original habitat of mail for the biblical writer is in the same region in which mankind dwells before the disjiersion. It has been su[iposed that Edinnn was the "Sumerian" name of the plain of Babylon, but this is doubtful, though the idcntifieation of Eden with Edinnu may be ad- mitted. Of the vast literature on Eden, but lit- tle is of value at present. It will be sullicient to refer to Delitzsch's work Wo lag dns I'linidUxf (1881), although his theory of the identification of Gihon and Pishon with two of the canals of Babylonia is not tenable. See also (he Com- mentaries on (5encsis by Dillmann, Holzinger, Strack, and more particularly that of Gunkel (1900). EDEN. The name of an American town in Dickens's Martin Chuzzleifit. From speculators in the East, young Martin and JIark Tapley buy land in Eden, which is reprcseuted to them as a flourishing business centre. Wlien they reach it. however, they find only a malarious swamp, EDEN, George. See Aitkl^vxd, George Edex, E.VKL DC. EDEN. Sir T^ORF.RT (1741-84). An Kmjlish banin('(, the last proprietary Governor of .Mary- land. He was the second son of Robert Eden, of Winderstone Hall, Durham. The eldest brother inheriled the baronetcy and scat in Parliament; two brothers raised themselves to the peerage as Lord Auckland and Lord Henley; another became auditor of Greenwich Hospital, and was the father of an admiral and a lieutenant-general, and a sister married .rchbishop Moore, of Canter- bury. Before he was sixteen. Robert obtained a commission in the Royal Regiment of Artillery; in 17.58 he was raised from cadet to ensign in (he Coldstream Guards, and in 1702 he was promoted captain. He served in Geniianv during the Seven Years' War, and soon after redirning to England married the sister of Frederick, (he sixtli and last Lord Baltimore. His appoinlmen( as Governor of Maryland in 1708 was ihie (o his family connccdon; but af(er his arrival in' .Tune, 1700, he displayed tact and ability in (he stormy times which he came upon, and endeared