ELZEVIRS. 



EMERSON, WILLIAM. 



and afterward* in 1536 to th emperor Charles V. Sir Thorn** Elyot's 

 literary ami philosophical attainment* were various, ud he wu courted 

 by HKMt of the learned men of hi* time, and by none in a more friendly 

 manner than by Sir Thomas More. He died in 1546, and was buried 

 la the church of Corieton in Cambridgeshire, of which county he hod 

 bMniheriff. 



From a letter of Sir Thomas Elyot to Secretary Cromwell, among 

 the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum, it appears that 

 Wobey made him clerk of the king'* council 



Sir Thorns* Elyot s work* of greatest note were his book named the 

 Oorernor, 1 hi* 'Cattle of Health,' and hi* ' Dictionary,' all of which 

 went through nuuirrou* edition* between 1631 and 1580. He also 

 published a amall treatise ' Of the Knowledge which maketh a Wise 

 Han,' Sro, London, 1533 ; and ' The Banquet of Sapience,' 8ro, 1545 ; 

 band** several translations from Plutarch, Isocratee, St Cyprian, &c. 



ELZEVIRS, the name of a family of celebrated printer* and pub- 

 liahen at Amsterdam, Leyden, the Hague, and Utrecht, who adorned 

 the republic of letters with many beautiful editions of the beat author* 

 of antiquity. The right name of the family wo* Elaevier. They are 

 believed to have come originally either from Liege or Louvain. In 

 neatness and in the elegance of small type they exceeded even the 

 family of the Stephen*. [STEPHENS.] Their Virgil, their Terence, 

 and their Greek Testament, are considered the masterpieces of their 

 production*; bat the Virgil is *aid to bo incorrect 



The first trace of the name of Elzevir is found in an edition of 

 Eutropiu", printed in 1 592, published at Leyden by Louis Elzevir, who 

 wo* still lit ing there in 1617. Matthew, his eldest son, died at Leyden 

 in 1640. Oilea, hi* second son, wu a bookseller at the Hague in 1599. 

 Isaac, the eldest son of Matthew, was the first printer of his family, 

 and printed from 1617 to 1628. Abraham and Bonaventure, the third 

 and fourth son* of Matthew, were printers and booksellers. Bona- 

 Tenture wo* a partner with his father in 1618, and occurs associated 

 with liis brother Abraham in 1626. The set of Elzevirs which the 

 French call ' Le* Petite* Republiques,' the ' Account* of the Nations 

 of the World,' were published l.y Abraham and Bonaventure, and in 

 fact gave to the family their celebrity. Their brother Jacob printed 

 at the Hague in 1626. Both Abraham and Bonaventure died at 

 Leyden in 1652. Louis, the second of the name, the son of Isaac, was 

 established aa a printer at Amsterdam from 1640 to his death in 1662. 

 Fetor, the son of Arnout, the second son of Matthew Elzevir, printed 

 at Utrecht in 1669, and wa* living in 1680. John and Daniel were 

 on* of Abraham, and printed in partnership in 1652; but John 

 printed alone in 1655, when Daniel appears to have been associated 

 with hi* cousin Louis. John died in 1661 ; Daniel in 1680. Daniel 

 left children who carried on the business, but passes for the last of 

 the family who excelled in it. Their descendant* still remain, but no 

 Elzevir has for cousiderably over a century been engaged in printing. 

 Isaac Elzevir was governor of Curacao in 1820. 



The Elzevirs printed several catalogues of their editions ; but the 

 be.t, a* being the latest lists and account* of them, are contained in 

 the ' Notice de hi Collection d'Auteurs Latin, Francai*, et Italian*, 

 impi-imce de format petit en 12mo, par les Elzevier,' in Brunet's 

 'Manuel du Libraire,' 3rd edit, 8vo, Paris, 1820, voL iv. pp. 533-567; 

 and in Barard'i ' Esiai Bibliographique sur les Editions de* Elzevirs, 

 precede' d'une Notice sur ces Imprimeurs CVlcbres,' 8vo, Paris. Didot, 

 1822. See also Pietiers, ' Analyse de* MaUSriaux lea plu* utile* pour 

 d* futures Annales de 1'Imprimerie des Elsevier,' Gaud, 1848; De 

 baume, ' Recherches historiquea, genealogiques, et bibliographiques 

 sur lea Elsevier.' Bruxelles, 1847; Ch. M. [Motteley], 'Apercu sur le* 

 Erreurs do la Bibliographic Specials de* Elsevirs et de leun Annexe*,' 

 Paris, 1840 ; Brunet in ' Nouv. Biog. Gen.,' 1856. 



The usual imprint upon the Elzevir edition* is either ' Apud 

 Hwvirio*,' or ' Ex officina Elzeviriorum,' or ' Elzeviriana :' the names 

 of the different branches of this family are rarely found in the title- 

 page* of their edition*. ' Else ' in Dutch signifie* an elm, and, by 

 extension of signification, wood in general ; ' vuur ' is fire. These 

 word* explain a device of a wood-pile burning in the title-page* of 

 some of the EUevir productions, a* in that of the Sleidanus, 1631 ; of 

 Cunu de Republica Hebnoorum,' 1632; the Creaar and Terence of 

 ICSfi ; the ' Memoir* of Comine*,' ate. 



EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, the ion of a Unitarian clergyman 

 at Boston, United State*, was born about 1803. Having graduated in 

 his eighteenth year at Harvard University, Mr. Emerson accepted an 

 invitation to become the pastor of a Unitarian church in hi* native 

 For some seven or eight yean he continued to discharge the 

 duties of this office, when differences of opinion respecting some of 

 ths form* of worship and point* of creed, led to the severance of the 

 connection ; and, abandoning the ministry, be retired to the village of 

 >cord, when be gave himself up to the free investigation of tho 

 I 1 '!' 1 *' f '""opt of moral*, and of philosophy. During some 

 winters he lectured in Boston, and he contributed to the ' North 

 American Review ' paper* on the great writers and artiste of Europe. 

 But it wa* not till the publication of hi* 'Nature,' in 1886, that hi* 

 original strain of thinking began to be recognised. In August 1837 

 ha delivered an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Cambridge, 

 UA, on Man Thinking.' which produced a marked *en*ation, and this 

 wi* diffused throughout the intellectual circles of America on it* 

 publication. On a Sunday ev.ning in July 1838 be delivered an 



address before the senior elan in Divinity College, Cambridge, in 

 which he treated of man and his relations to the universe, of ' 

 and Christianity, the present condition of religion, and like lofty 

 subject* from the most transcendental point of view ; laying down at 

 the same time a " sublime creed," which has been described as an 

 " idealistic pantheism." It was at any rate a great advance on any 

 theory of philosophical religion which had yet been put forth in 

 America, although American theologians and metaphysician* hod 

 been by no means timid in their enterprises in that direction. 

 Contemporaneously with the ' Address,' appeared an oration entitled 

 ' Literary Ethic*,' delivered a few days after the ' Address ' before the 

 Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, in which the same style of 

 thought wa* punued ; and the literary student, like the divine, was 

 urged to put off the past, or " blend it with the new and divine life, 

 and grow with God." Profound was the impression everywhere pro- 

 duced by these addresses, and Emerson soon came to be looked up to 

 by a Urge section of the youug theological student* and literary men 

 of America as their guide and master, while the orthodox regarded 

 him with something like horror. These remarkable productions soon 

 reached England, and found much acceptance as well as stirred up 

 much opposition here ; but to the majority they appeared to be a 

 scarcely intelligible rifacimento of the speculations of Coleridge and 

 (,'arlyle, with a seasoning of German transcendentalism ; and though 

 Emerson ho* doubtless influenced to a certain extent the substance 

 and the style of English literature, the influence began at a later 

 period, and has not extended very fir. 



In 1840 Mr. Emerson commenced the publication of a monthly 

 magazine called the ' Dial,' in which religion, philosophy, and lite- 

 rature were freely discussed: it lasted four years. In 1841 he 

 published ' Man the Reformer,' a lecture ; ' The Method of Nature,' 

 an oration delivered before the Society of the Adelphi, in Waterville 

 College, Maine ; ' Lectures on the Times ;' and the first series of his 

 ' Efgays." His second series of ' Essays ' appeared in 1844, and he also 

 gave some lectures on ' New England Reformers' ' Negro Emanci- 

 pation,' kc. In 1846 he published a volume of poems, containing 

 much that is very striking along with much that is in hardly any sense 

 poetical In all these publications there was the same resolute self- 

 dependency, the some fearless condemnation of the master evils of 

 American society, the same eager calls to live and work under an 

 abiding sense of duty without regard to public opinion, which gave so 

 fresh and vigorous a tone to his earlier public addresses, and, it 

 mast be confessed, the same crudeness of thought and obscurity of 

 expression. 



In 1849 Mr. Emerson visited England, and met with a very cordial 

 reception from the literary and general society of the metropolis. 

 Whilst here he delivered a scries of lectures, which formed the 

 substance of his volume entitled ' Representative Men.' Here, as in 

 his previous volumes, there wa* much of mysticism, much that was 

 obscure, paradoxical, strange; but when speaking of men whose 

 names are common property, of Shakspere and Gothe, of Napoleon 

 and Montaigne, where he laid aside the ' terminology ' of bis meta- 

 physics, there was much that to every mind seemed as true and 

 impressive aa it was novel and graceful But here, as in his orations 

 and essays, or even more than in his oration* and essay*, the sense of 

 in oppressive vagueness and insufficiency was predominant Nothing 

 of much consequence bos since appeared from the pen of Mr. Emerson , 

 unless it be hi* portion of the strangely-conttructed ' Memoirs 

 of Margaret Fuller;' but he is still found ready to lift up hi* 

 voice against any social wrong, or to aid in eradicating any popular 

 prejudice, 



l.MKUSON, WILLIAM, an eminent mathematician, philosopher, 

 and mechanist, was born at Hurworth, a village about three mile* 

 from Darlington, in June 1701. He died May 20tn, 1782, at his native 

 place, aired nearly eighty-one years. 



His father, Dudley Emerson, was a schoolmaster, and is said to have 

 been a tolerable proficient in the mathematics of that time : this 

 circumstance furnished his son with ample means of cultivating hU 

 taste for the same science, both by means of a good mathematical 

 library which his father possessed, and the good mathematical tuition 

 which he received in his earlier years. A youug clergyman, then 

 curate of Hurworth, also lodged in his father's house, and from him 

 he received all requisite assistance in the study of the Greek and 

 Roman classics, in which he became well versed. 



After the death of his father, Emerson attempted to continue the 

 school, which however he soon relinquished ; but whether it arose 

 from the impetuosity of hi* temper, which rendered him unfit, for 

 such an occupation, or that a small competence loft him by his father 

 (he being an only child) rendered it a matter of indifference to him to 

 increase his income, cannot be ascertained. He devoted hi> long life 

 to writing a series of mathematical works, which, except those of 

 Simpson, were, till a comparatively recent time, the very best in pur 

 language. Ho also contributed largely to the different mathematical 

 periodicals of his time, though almost always under some fanciful 

 name, a* Merones, Philofluentimecanalgegeomastrolongo, Ac. 



Mr. Emerson wo* in person rather short, but strong and well formed, 

 with an open honest countenance and ruddy complexion. A portrait 

 of him, by Sykes, wo* painted and engraved in the latter part of his 

 life ; but it is not often to be met with, a* only a few copies of it i 



