Chapter Est-il-possible to Eulen-spiegel of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Eternal Fitness of Things The congruity between an action and the agent.

"Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right, and the eternal fitness of things?" - Fielding: Tom Jones, book iv. chap. iv.

Eternal Tables A white pearl, extending from east to west, and from heaven to earth, on which, according to Mahomet, God has recorded every event, past, present, and to come.

Etesian Wind (An). "Etesia flabra Aquilorium, " says Lucretius (v. 741). A wind which rises annually about the dog-days, and blows forty days together in the same direction. It is a gentle and mild wind. (Greek, ethsioz annual.)

"Deem not, good Porteus, that in this my song
I mean to harrow up thy humble mind,
And stay that voice in London known so long;
For balm and softness, an Etesian wind."
Peter Pindar: Nil Admiraro.

Ethnic Plot The Popish plot. In Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, Charles II. is called David, the royalists are called the Jews, and the Papists Gentiles or Ethnoi, whence "Ethnic plot" means the Gentile or Popish plot.

"Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun ...
`Gainst form and order they their power employ,
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy."
Part i. 518, 532-3.

Ethnophrones (4 syl.). A sect of heretics of the seventeenth century, who practised the observances of the ancient Pagans. (Greek, ethnos-phren, heathen-minded.)

E'thon The eagle or vulture that gnawed the liver of Prometheus.

Etiquette (3 syl.). The usages of polite society. The word means a ticket or card, and refers to the ancient custom of delivering a card of directions and regulations to be observed by all those who attended court. The original use was a soldier's billet. (French, etiquette; Spanish, etiqueta, a book of court ceremonies.)

"Etiquette ... had its original application to those ceremonial and formal observances practised at Court ... The term came afterwards ... to signify certain formal methods used in the transactions between Sovereign States." - Burke: Works, vol. viii. p. 329.

Etna Virgil ascribes its eruption to the restlessness of Enceladus, a hundred-headed giant, who lies buried under the mountain. (Æn. iii. 578, etc.) In Etna the Greek and Latin poets place the forges of Vulcan and the smithy of the Cyclops.

Etrennes (2 syl.). New-year's gifts are so called in France. Strenia, the Roman goddess, had the superintendence of new-year's gifts, which the Romans called strenæ. Tatius entered Rome on New-year's Day, and received from some augurs palms cut from the sacred grove, dedicated to the goddess Strenia. Having succeeded, he ordained that the 1st of January should be celebrated by gifts to be called strenæ, consisting of figs, dates, and honey; and that no word of ill omen should be uttered on that day.

Ettrick Shepherd James Hogg, the Scotch poet, who was born in the forest of Ettrick, Selkirkshire. (1772-1835.)

"The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide."
Wordsworth.

Etzel - i.e. Attila. King of the Huns, a monarch ruling over three kingdoms and more than thirty principalities; being a widower, he married Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried. In the Nibelungen-Lied, where he is introduced (part ii.), he is made very insignificant, and sees his liegemen, and even his son and heir, struck down without any effort to save them, or avenge their destruction. He is as unlike the Attila of history as possible.

Eucharis in Fénelon's Télémaque, is meant to represent Mdlle. de Fontanges.

Eucharist literally means a thank-offering. Our Lord said, "Do this in remembrance of me" - i.e. out of gratitude to me. The elements of bread and wine in the Lord's supper. (Greek, eu-charistia.)

Euclio A penurious old hunks in one of the comedies of Plautus (Aulularia).

Eucrates (3 syl.). More shifts than Eucrates. Eucrates, the miller, was one of the archons of Athens, noted for his shifts and excuses for neglecting the duties of the office.