ELLIS
EMMET
ELLIS, William, philanthropist. B.
Jan. 1800. Ed. Bromley (London) ele
mentary school. Entering Lloyds as a
clerk at the age of fourteen, he became in
1824 assistant-underwriter, and in 1827
chief manager of the Indemnity Marine
Insurance Company. Devoting his leisure
to economics, he adopted the philosophy
of J. S. Mill and used his means to embody
it in practice. He founded nine Birkbeck
schools at his own expense and wrote
various text-books for them. At one time
he gave lectures to the royal children at
Buckingham Palace, and he was greatly
esteemed in London. Of high ideals and
great generosity, Ellis, a friend of Mill and
Holyoake, contributed materially to the
work of reform. D. Feb. 18, 1881.
ELPHINSTONE, The Honourable Mountstuart, statesman. B. Oct. 6, 1779. Ed. Edinburgh High School and private school, Kensington. In 1796 he entered the Indian Civil Service, and won rapid promotion. In 1803 he was appointed Eesident at Nagpur, in 1808 ambassador to the Afghan Court, in 1810 Eesident at Poona, and from 1819 to 1827 he was Governor of Bombay. Elphinstone was one of the most enlightened and con scientious of our Indian administrators, and the Diet. Nat. Biog. quaintly observes : " It is remarkable that a man so sceptical, retiring, unselfish, and modest should be one of the chief founders of the Anglo- Indian Empire." At his retirement he refused all honours and devoted himself to writing his well-known History of the Hindu and Muhamadan Periods. Sir C. Colebrooke gives in his Life of M. Elphinstone (1884, p. 410) his only known reference to religion, a eulogy of Pope s " Universal Prayer," from which it is clear that he was a Deist. D. Nov. 20, 1859.
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo, LL.D., American moralist. B. May 25, 1803. Ed. Harvard. After graduation he taught for some time in a Boston Girls School, but he disliked the work and in 1825 237
entered the Cambridge Divinity School.
In 1826 he became a Unitarian minister.
Six years later he severed his connection
with the Unitarian Church, and, after
travelling in Europe, settled to lecturing
and writing, and gathered a remarkable
group of men about him. They became
known as "the Transcendentalists," but
Emerson never accepted Transcenden
talism, or any fixed code of doctrine. He
held a very liberal and refined Theism, or
believed in an " Over-Soul "; but he was
especially on guard against finality in
opinions, and was content to use his
splendid gifts as essayist and lecturer for
ethical education. In 1847 he lectured in
England, and he formed a high opinion of
the English (see English Traits, 1856).
He wrote several volumes of verse in
addition to his graceful essays, and was
one of the greatest and noblest forces of
progress in America. D. Apr. 27, 1882.
EMERSON, William, mathematician. B. May 14, 1701. Ed. private schools, Newcastle and York. He devoted himself to mathematical study, published his impor tant work Fluxions in 1749, and continued until 1776 to make material contributions to his science. He refused to enter the Eoyal Society. The Ency. Brit, says that there is no foundation for the statement that he was a sceptic, but his clerical biographer, the Eev. W. Bowe, admits that he rejected Christianity and was a Theist [Deist] (Some Account of the Life of W. Emerson, 1793, pp. xi and xii). Carlyle rightly describes him as an advanced Free thinker. D. May 20, 1782.
EMMET, Robert, Irish patriot. B. 1778. Ed. private schools and Trinity College, Dublin. After a brilliant course of study he espoused the cause of rebellion, and in 1800 he went to France, where he adopted Deism. In 1802 he had interviews with Napoleon and Talleyrand, and returned to Ireland. In 1803 he organized a premature rising, and was arrested and condemned to be hanged. He refused the priest s minis- 238
