the various characters are remarkably appropriate, and the whole is pervaded by a manly heroism, which marks what is noblest in the Spanish character. In the latter part of the work, various episodes are introduced, and many moral reflections on the caprices of fortune, of which the author had experienced his full share. Ercilla returned to Europe at the age of twenty-nine, a disappointed man, for Philip seems never afterwards to have regarded him with favour. He travelled in various parts of Europe, and was made gentleman of the bedchamber to Randolph II., emperor of Germany. From 1580 to 1595, Ercilla lived at Madrid, but the only honour he received was being made a knight of the order of St. Iago. A short erotic poem—in Sedano's Parnaso Español—and an unpublished work on the family of Santa Cruz, with which he was connected by marriage, are his only other productions. His widow founded, after his death in 1595, a Carmelite convent at Ocaña, which still exists.—F. M. W.
ERCKERN, Lazarus, a German metallurgist who flourished at Guttenberg towards the end of the sixteenth century, and held during three successive reigns the post of superintendent of the imperial mines in Transylvania and Hungary. He published a correct and luminous account of all the mining and metallurgical processes then in use, without attempting any improvement, or going into the rationale of any operation. Of this work a bad English version was brought out in 1683 by Sir H. Pettus, under the title Heta Minor. Erckern was a vulgar, conceited routineer, and steadfastly set his face against all improvement, and all improvers.—J. W. S.
ERCOLE DA FERRARA. See Grandi.
ERCRAN. See Aileran.
ERDELYI, John, Professor at Saros Patak in Hungary, was born in 1814. His lyrics have no lasting merit, but his collection of Hungarian popular poetry and folkslore, published in 1846-47, established his reputation. Compromised in the war of independence in 1849, he was placed by the Austrians under the superinspection of the police; but when the terrorism abated, the protestant college of Saros Patak, where he had got his education, elected him professor of philosophy. His critical essays are highly esteemed.—F. P., L.
* ERDINAN, Axel, the most profound mineralogist of the present time in Sweden, was born 12th August, 1814, in Stockholm. He was formerly teacher in the mining-school of Fahlun, and is now member of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. He is at present occupied in endeavouring to describe the geological structure of Sweden. The result of some of his important labours may be found in the proceedings of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, Vitensk. Ak. Handlingar, 1848-58; and others in his "Lärabok i Mineralogien," 1853, and "Vagledning till bergarternas kännedom," 1855.—M. H.
* ERDMANN, Johann Eduard, a German philosopher, professor in the university of Halle, was born in Livonia in 1805. He studied theology at Dorpat, and philosophy at Berlin, under Schleiermacher and Hegel. He was for some time pastor of a congregation in his native province, and after a short residence at Berlin, was appointed to the chair of philosophy in the university of Halle. He has published a number of works, the most important of which are—"Versuch einer wissenschaftlichen Darstellung der Geschichte der neueurn Philosophie;" "Natur und Schöpfung;" "Grundriss der Psychologie;" "Grundriss der Logik und Metaphysik."—J. S., G.
ERHARD, Heinrich August, was born at Erfurt in Upper Saxony in 1793. He received his education at Göttingen, and took his degree of medicine in his native town in 1812. Attaching himself to the army, he accompanied the troops to France in 1815, but returned home the year following, and retired from his profession to pursue the more congenial studies of archæology and belles-lettres. His reputation was sufficient to procure him the post of librarian at Erfurt in 1821, and he was subsequently keeper of the archives at Magdeburg in 1824, and at Münster in 1831. He was a diligent antiquarian and historian, and many valuable works in both these departments of literature were the result of his labours. He died at Erfurt on the 22nd of June, 1851.—J. F. W.
ERIC the Red—so known from his surname of Rauda, or Red-head—the son of Thorwald a Norwegian noble, fills an important place in the chronicles of Scandinavian voyages. His achievements form one of the links in the chain of evidence which proves the fact of the discovery of America by the northmen of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The northmen first visited Iceland about 861, and that island became, a few years later, the seat of a Norwegian colony. In 982 Eric emigrated to Iceland with his father, who had been obliged to fly from Norway on account of a deadly feud in which he was concerned. Shortly afterwards he was himself compelled to leave Iceland for a like reason; and, proceeding on a voyage of discovery to the westward, he formed a settlement on the coast of Greenland, near its southern extremity, beside an estuary, which hence acquired the name of Ericsfiord. This settlement continued to hold intercourse with the parent country, Norway, down to as late a period as 1448, when it disappears from history.—Lief Ericson, that is. Lief, the son of Eric the Red, followed up in the year 1000 the discoveries made, in a direction to the south-west of Greenland, by Biarne, the son of one of the followers of Eric. He first came to the land which Biarne had already seen, and bestowed on it the name of Helluland; thence he proceeded to a country which he called Markland (Woodland), from its abundant forests, and afterwards visited a region which he called Vinland, from the abundance of wild vines. Here he and his companions wintered. The regions visited in succession by the Scandinavian adventurer correspond to the Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England, of modern geography.—Thorwald Ericson, the brother of Lief Ericson, pursued yet further the course of discovery above indicated. In 1002 he sailed to Vinland, and fixed his residence at Liefsbooths, as the dwelling-places built by Lief and his companions were called. He thence explored the adjacent country in various directions, ultimately losing his life in an encounter with the native Skrelligs or Esquimaux. His followers returned to Greenland in 1005.—A third son of Eric, named Thorstein, is mentioned in connection with the same curious traces of early adventure and discovery. Intercourse between the Greenland colony and the newly-discovered Vinland was maintained down to at least as late a date as 1121.—W. H.
ERICEYRA de Menezes, Francisco Xavier, Conde da, a Portuguese poet, chiefly notable as having been the first to introduce the French taste into the literature of his country. Born in 1673, he was elected, in his twentieth year, president of one of the academies founded in Lisbon on the model of those in Italy, and soon afterwards translated Boileau's Art of Poetry into Portuguese. He made several campaigns in the Spanish war of succession, and attained the rank of major-general, but literature was through life his chief pursuit. In 1714 he became rector of the Portuguese academy, and in 1721 codirector of the new academy of history. His chief work (begun in 1738, published in 1741) is the "Henriqueida," of which Henry of Burgundy, the founder of the Portuguese monarchy, is the hero. It is wanting in the rude poetic vigour of earlier writers, without the polish of a classical style; but the descriptive portions evince no slight talent, and the work as a whole tended to give an impetus to Portuguese literature. Ericeyra died in 1743. A list of his numerous poems may be found in Barbosa Machado, and detailed criticisms in Bouterwek's Portuguese Literature.—F. M. W.
* ERICHSEN, John, a distinguished English surgeon. He was educated at University college, London, and is now professor of surgery in that institution, and surgeon to the hospital connected with its medical school. He has especially distinguished himself by his researches on asphyxia, for which he was awarded the Fothergillian gold medal by the Royal Humane Society in 1844. He has written a valuable work on surgery, with the title "The Science and Art of Surgery." He has also published many papers in the medical journals, and the Transactions of the Royal Medico-chirurgical Society.—E. L.
* ERICHSON, W. F., a distinguished German entomologist. His papers on the subject of insects and Crustacea are very numerous in the German scientific journals. He is best known in England from his reports on the progress of entomology and its allied sciences, which have from time to time been translated and published in the reports of the Ray Society. Dr. Erichson has also conducted for some time the Archiv of Natural History, formerly published by Wiegmann.—E. L.
ERICKSON, Jön, Danish conferentsraad, was born in Iceland. He held for twelve years the office of first professor of law at the academy of Sorö, was appointed in January, 1764, tutor to the hereditary prince, Frederik, and in 1771 was called to take his place in the newly-erected Norwegian chamber; and from 1773 to 1781 he held many posts under government in the department of toll and trade, when he became conferentsraad,
