Chapter Earle to Edwards of E by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Earle to Edwards

Earle, John (1601-1665).—Divine and miscellaneous writer, born at York, and educated at Oxford, where he was a Fellow of Merton. He took orders, was tutor to Charles II., a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1643, Chaplain and Clerk of the Closet to Charles when in exile. On the Restoration he was made Dean of Westminster, in 1662 Bishop of Worcester, and the next year Bishop of Salisbury. He was learned and eloquent, witty and agreeable in society, and was opposed to the “Conventicle” and “Five Mile” Acts, and to all forms of persecution. He wrote Hortus Mertonensis (the Garden of Merton) in Latin, but his chief work was Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the World discovered in Essays and Characters (1628), the best and most interesting of all the “character” books.

Eastlake, Elizabeth, Lady (Rigby) (1809-1893).—daughter of Dr. Edward Rigby of Norwich, a writer on medical and agricultural subjects, spent her earlier life on the Continent and in Edinburgh In 1849 she married Sir Charles L. Eastlake, the famous painter, and president of the Royal Academy. Her first work was Letters from the Shores of the Baltic (1841). From 1842 she was a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Review, in which she wrote a very bitter criticism of Jane Eyre. She also wrote various books on art, and Lives of her husband, of Mrs. Grote, and of Gibson the sculptor.

Echard, Laurence (circa 1670-1730).—Historian, born at Barsham, Suffolk, and educated at Cambridge, took orders and became Archdeacon of Stow. He translated Terence, part of Plautus, D’Orleans’ History of the Revolutions in England, and made numerous compilations on history, geography, and the classics. His chief work, however, is his History of England (1707-1720). It covers the period from the Roman occupation to his own times, and continued to be the standard work on the subject until it was superseded by translations of Rapin’s French History of England.

Edgar, John George (1834-1864).—w riter for Boys, son of Rev. John E. Hutton, Berwickshire. Among his books are Boyhood of Great Men (1853), Runnymede and Lincoln Fair (1866), Footprints of Famous Men, Cressy and Poictiers. He was also the first editor of Every Boy’s Magazine.

Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849).—Novelist, daughter of Rich. Lovell Edgeworth, of Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, was born near Reading. Her father, who was himself a writer on education and mechanics, bestowed much attention on her education. She showed early promise of distinction, and assisted her father in his literary labours, especially in Practical Education and Essay on Irish Bulls (1802). She soon discovered that her strength lay in fiction, and from 1800, when her first novel, Castle Rackrent, appeared, until 1834, when her last, Helen, was published , she continued to produce a series of novels and tales characterised by ingenuity of invention, humour, and acute delineation of character, notwithstanding a tendency to be didactic, and the presence of a “purpose” in most of her writings. It was the success of Miss Edgeworth in delineating Irish character that suggested to Sir W. Scott the idea of rendering a similar service to Scotland. Miss Edgeworth, who had great practical ability, was able to render much aid during the Irish famine. In addition to the works above mentioned, she wrote Moral Tales and Belinda (1801), Leonora (1806), Tales of Fashionable Life (1809 and 1812), and a Memoir of her father

Edwards, Jonathan (1702?-1758).—Theologian, son of a minister, was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, educated at Yale Coll., and licensed as a preacher in 1722. The following year he was appointed as tutor at Yale, a position in which he showed exceptional capacity. In 1726 he went to Northampton, Conn., as minister of a church there, and remained for 24 years, exercising his ministry with unusual earnestness and diligence. At the end of that time, however, he was in 1750 dismissed by his congregation, a disagreement having arisen on certain questions of discipline. Thereafter he acted as a missionary to the Indians of Massachusetts. While thus engaged he composed his famous treatises, On the Freedom of the Will (1754), and On Original Sin (1758). Previously, in 1746, he had produced his treatise, On the Religious Affections. In 1757 he was appointed president of Princeton Coll., New Jersey, but was almost immediately thereafter stricken with small-pox, of which he died on March 22, 1757. Edwards possessed an intellect of extraordinary strength and clearness, and was capable of sustaining very lengthened chains of profound argument. He is one of the ablest defenders of the Calvinistic system of theology, which he developed to its most extreme positions. He was a man of fervent piety, and of the loftiest and most disinterested character.