108 



EULOGIES EURIPIDES. 



duction Itistitutiones Calculi Differentialis (Berlin, 

 1755, 4to) ; his Institutiones Calculi Integrate (Pe- 

 tersburg, 1768 70, 3 vols. 4to; new edition 4 vols., 

 179^ 94) ; his remarkably clear and intelligible 

 Introduction to Algebra (ed. by Ebert, Berlin, 1801, 

 2 vols) ; his Dioptrica (Petersburg, 1767 71, 3 vols. 

 4to) ; his Opuscitla Analytica, &C. 



Euler was of an amiable character, unassuming in 

 his manners, of a cheerful and always pleasant tem- 

 per ; he was fond of society, and had the art of 

 enlivening it by an agreeable wit. Diu'ing the last 

 seventeen years of his life he was totally blind. By 

 his first marriage he had thirteen children, five of 

 whom were living when he married his second wife, 

 his sister-in-law. Of his sons, John Albert, born at 

 Petersburg, 1734, where he died, 1800, followed in 

 his father's steps, was a thorough and expert mathe- 

 matician, and wrote many treatises, of which seven 

 gained prizes. 



EULOGIES compose, particularly in French lite- 

 rature, a separate branch of belles-lettres. In the age 

 of Louis XIV. they took the place of biography. 

 Their object being the praise of distinguished men, 

 truth lias been often sacrificed in them to flattery. 

 The French academy, especially, has paid this tribute 

 to literary merit. The epoch of eulogies began with 

 Fontenelle, who published two volumes of them, in 

 1731, distinguished for their clearness, vivacity, and 

 elegance. Those which followed them were written 

 with much oratorical pomp. Some of the best eulo- 

 gies are by Thomas (author of Essais sur les Eloges), 

 D'Alembert, La Harpe, and Condorcet. 



EUMENIDES. See Furies. 



EUNOMIA. See Hours. 



EUNUCHS. See Castrates. Many of the eunuchs, 

 destined to become the guardians of the great harems 

 of the Turkish empire, are made such in a village near 

 Siout, the capital of Upper Egypt, where the opera- 

 tion is performed mostly by Coptic priests. The 

 slaves who suffer are too young to have any moral 

 repugnance to the ceremony which they have to pass 

 through ; on the contrary, they are, most of them, it 

 is said, delighted with the prospect of the fine clothes, 

 horses, &c., which they will have at command when 

 they become guardians of the harems. Buckhardt, 

 Sonnini, Belzoni, and other travellers, differ in respect 

 to the number of those who die in consequence of the 

 operation. Doctor Madden, to whom the Coptic 

 priests were ordered by the casheff to state the pro- 

 portion, says that, out of one hundred, fifteen die. See 

 Letter xxv. in R. R. Madden's Travels in Turkey, 

 Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, London, 1829. 



EUPATORIUM, a genus of plants, belonging to 

 the natural order composites, containing a great num- 

 ber of species, most of which are natives of America. 

 Their roots are perennial, possessing a rough, bitter, 

 or aromatic taste ; the leaves opposite, verticillate, 

 or, sometimes, alternate ; the flowers small, white, 

 reddish, or bluish, in corymbs. More than thirty 

 species inhabit the United States, among them the 

 E.perfoliatum (thorough-wort, or bone-set), a common 

 plant, in low grounds, throughout the Union. The 

 leaves of this plant are opposite, and joined together 

 at the base, the two forming, apparently, a single 

 leaf, which is perforated by the stem. This plant is 

 a popular remedy, acting powerfully as a sudorific 

 and emetic, and sometimes as a purgative. The E. 

 ayapana. of Brazil, which has been much celebrated, 

 possesses similar properties, and probably many others 

 of the genus do also. 



EUPHONY (from the Greek il^a, in Latin 

 euphonia, frohi <pavj, sound, and tu, well), means 

 agreeable and harmonious sound, particularly the 

 harmony of words ; thus, for instance, we say, in 

 Italian more regard has, probably, been paid to eu- 



phony than in any other modern European language ; 

 in fact, this language has often disregarded etymo- 

 logy for tlie sake of euphony. In general, it may be 

 said that the languages which are derived from the 

 Latin have paid more regard to euphony than those 

 of the Teutonic stock ; the latter adhering, too often 

 pedantically, to the etymology of words, as if the 

 language was intended only foV the eye, and not much 

 more for the ear. Euphony is more particularly 

 consulted in a language when it is still in its youth ; 

 but the more there has been written in it the less 

 regard is paid to euphony in the formation of new 

 words. From a similar cause, more regard is paid 

 to euphony among the lower than among the higher 

 classes. With the former, language is addressed 

 more to the ear than the eye ; but, as we ascend to 

 the higher classes, the language becomes more a 

 means of written communication, and euphony is 

 more neglected. Again, in that nation in which most 

 is written, and which affords the fewest occasions for 

 public speaking we mean the German compara- 

 tively little attention is paid to euphony, and much to 

 etymology ; so that, when the people have formed a 

 practical and euphonic word, contrary to the strict 

 rules of etymology, which, in England, would instantly 

 come into use, a German writer will not use it with- 

 out a cautious " so called " (sogenannt). The Greeks 

 gave its due weight to euphony, and the Romans, 

 also, allowed it a great influence, as every nation 

 will do in which the language is addressed more to 

 the ear than to the eye. 



EUPHRATES, or PHRAT, or FRAT ; one of 

 the largest and most celebrated rivers of Asia, which 

 has its rise in the mountains of Armenia, from two 

 principal sources, one issuing from a mountain in 

 the vicinity of Bajazid and Dradin, not far from mount 

 Ararat, the other from mountains around Erzerum. 

 These two streams unite near Palo. The general 

 course of the river is south-easterly. At Corna, 130 

 miles above its mouth, it is joined by the Tigris. 

 The united stream, called the Shut id Arab, flows 

 into the Persian gulf, seventy miles below Bassora. 

 The whole length is upwards of 1500 miles. It is 

 navigable for ships of 500 tons to Bassora, and, in 

 the driest season, for large boats to Shukaskac, a 

 day's sail above Corna. According to Kinneir, the 

 greatest increase of the Euphrates is in January, 

 when it rises twelve feet perpendicular. The Eu- 

 phrates is one of the most celebrated rivers of anti- 

 quity. On its banks is generally placed the paradise 

 of the Mosaic records ; and here Nimrod laid the 

 foundations of the Babylonian empire. Between the 

 Euphrates and the Tigris lay the fertile Mesopotamia, 

 the country of the patriarchs. 



EUPHROSYNE. See Graces. 



EURE , a river of France, which has given its 

 name to two departments, that of the Eure, and that 

 of the Eure and Loire. (See Department.) The 

 river rises hi the department of the Orne, and falls 

 into the Seine, on the left bank, near Pont-de-1'Arche, 

 after a course of 124 miles, being navigable for about 

 half the distance. 



EURIPIDES. This poet was born in the first 

 year of the 75th Olympiad, at Salamis, on the day on 

 which the vast navy of Xerxes was defeated by the 

 Greeks : and thus this event serves as a point of 

 connexion of the tliree greatest tragic poets of 

 Greece ; for ^Eschylus was one of the victors on this 

 occasion, and the young Sophocles danced at the 

 triumph. Of the youth of Euripides we know only 

 that his father, in consequence of some false predic- 

 tion, intended to train him for an athlete ; but his 

 natural inclination led him to different pursuits. At 

 first he studied painting, but afterwards applied him- 

 self to rhetoric, under Prodicus, asid to philosophy, 



