854 



EMPEC1NADO EMPEROR. 



soon became a leader. Their object was revolution, 

 and an independent government tor I re) mid. Enunet 

 acted as one of the grand executive committee of 

 the societies, who consisted of at least 500,000 men. 

 March 12, 1798, he was arrested, and committed to 

 prison at Dublin, as a conspirator, by the vice-regal 

 government, along with Oliver Bond, doctor Mac- 

 neven, ami oilier chiefs of the disaffected party. In 

 July, after a severe confinement, an interview took 

 place between Emmet and lordCastlereagh, at Dub- 

 lin castle, and it was agreed, that he and the other 

 Mate prisoners should be permitted to go to America, 

 as soon as they had made certain disclosures 'of their 

 plans of revolution, and the projected alliance be- 

 tween the united Irishmen and France. These dis- 

 closures were made in a memoir, delivered August 

 4, but without the confession of any names, which 

 were inflexibly refused by the writers. They were, 

 goon after, examined in person before the secret com- 

 mittees of both houses of the Irish parliament. In- 

 stead, however, of being sent to America, Emmet 

 and nineteen more were, early in 1799, landed in 

 Scotland, and consigned to fort George, a fortress in 

 the county of Nairn. Here they were liberally 

 treated, but their detention lasted three years. 

 At the expiration of that period, the list of par- 

 dons arrived, including the name of every prisoner 

 except Emmet The governor of the fortress 

 released him notwithstanding, taking all the respon- 

 sibility. 



Emmet, and his exemplary wife, who had shared 

 unremittingly his imprisonment, both in Ireland and 

 Scotland, were landed at Cuxhaven from a British 

 frigate, spent the winter of the year 1802 in Brussels, 

 and that of 1803 in Paris. In October, 1804, they 

 sailed from Bourdeaux for the United States, and ar- 

 rived in New York on the 1 Ith of the next month. 

 Emmet, then about forty years of age, at first hesi- 

 tated between the professions of the law and medi- 

 cine; but his friends determined him to undertake 

 the former. George Clinton, then governor of the 

 state of New York, induced him to abandon his ori- 

 ginal plan of settling in Ohio, and to remain in the 

 city of New York. He was admitted to the bar at 

 once, by special dispensation, and reached the first 

 ranks of the profession in a short time, by indefati- 

 gable industry and fervid eloquence. 



In the course of a few years, he rivalled in busi- 

 ness and fame the most eminent of the American 

 lawyers. Occasionally the ardour of his tempera- 

 ment and the vivacity of his recollections betrayed 

 him into party politics ; but his general career and 

 character were those of a laborious, able, and most 

 successful pleader, an energetic and florid orator, a 

 sound republican citizen, and a courteous gentleman. 

 In 1812, he was appointed to the office of attorney- 

 general of the state of New York. His death 

 took place in November, 1827. Mr Emmet was a 

 thorough classical scholar, and conversant with the 

 physical sciences. During his detention at the for- 

 tress in Scotland, he wrote part of an Essay towards 

 the History of Ireland, which was printed in New 

 York, in 1807. His private life was irreproachable, 

 1 is countenance strong and regular, and his frame 

 m anly and healthy. 



EM PEC IN ADO, THE. See Diez. 



EMPEDOCLES, a Greek philosopher whose 'doc- 

 trines, in many respects, resembled those of Pytha- 

 goras, was born 460 B. C. at Agrigentum, in Sicily. 

 His fellow citizens esteemed him so highly, that they 

 wished to make him king; but being an enemy to 

 all oppression, and elevation of a few above the rest, 

 he refused the offer, and prevailed on them to abolish 

 aristocracy, and introduce a democratical form of 

 government. The Agrigentiues regarded him with 



the highest veneration, as the restorer and preserver 

 of their liberty, the public benefactor, the great poet, 

 orator, and physician, the favourite of the gods, the 

 predicter of future events, and the mighty magician 

 who could stop the course of nature, and overrule 

 the power of death itself. He is said to have thrown 

 himself into the crater of mount Etna, in order to 

 make it believed, by his sudden disappearance, that 

 he was of divine origin. According to others, he 

 was a victim to his rash curiosity, when, in order to 

 examine more accurately the nature of the mountain, 

 and of its fiery eruptions, he went too near the edge 

 of die chasm and fell in. But it is probable that 

 this is a fiction, as well as the story of Lucian about 

 him, that his sandals were thrown out from the vol- 

 cano, and thus the manner of his death ascertained, 

 and the people undeceived as to his pretended di- 

 vinity. Others assert, that he was drowned in his 

 old age. Empedocles presented his philosophy in a 

 poetical dress. His verses are marked by bold and 

 glowing imagery, as well as by harmony and soft- 

 ness. Lucretius was his imitator. The iambic poem 

 on the spheres, formerly ascribed to him, is now con- 

 sidered spurious. The poems of his yet extant have 

 been published together, with a treatise on his life 

 and philosophy, by F. VV. Sturz (Leipsic, 1806). 

 Eropedocles holds the four elements earth, water, 

 fire, air as the fundamental and indestructible prin- 

 ciples, from whose union and separation every tiling 

 that exists is formed. To these material principles 

 are added the ideal principles of friendship and ha- 

 tred. Domenico Scina has written Memoirs on the 

 Life and Philosophy of Empedocles (Palermo, 

 1825). 



EMPEROR (from the Latin imperator ; in Ger- 

 man, Kaiser, from Casar*) ; the title of the highest 

 rank of sovereigns. The word imperator, from impe- 

 rare, to command, had very different meanings among 

 the Romans at different periods. In the most gen- 

 eral sense, it signified the commander of an army, as 

 imperium did the command itself. In early times, 

 consuls were called imperator es before they entered 

 on their office. The soldiers afterwards conferred 

 the title on their general, after a victory, by hailing 

 him imperator; the senate also called a victorious 

 general imperator until he had celebrated his 

 triumph. At a still later period, no one was hon- 

 oured with this title, who had not defeated a hostile 

 army of at least 10,000 men. After the overthrow 

 of the republic, imperator became the title of the 

 rulers, or emperors, and indicated the supreme 

 power ; the word rex being too odious to be assumed. 

 Victorious generals were still, however, sometimes 

 saluted with the title imperator, in its original sense. 

 In the time of the republic, the title was put after 

 the name, as Cicero imperator ; when it came to sig- 

 nify emperor, it was put before the name, as im- 

 perator Claudius, 



With the destruction of the Roman empire, the 

 title was lost; but it was renewed in 800 A. D., 

 when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the 

 West. For a long time, the title was considered as 

 belonging to the sovereignty of Rome ; hence, on 

 the division of the empire among the sons of Louis- 

 le-Debonnaire, Lothaire, king of Italy, received the 

 title. Charles the Bald, and several princes of Italy 

 bore it until Otho I., in 962 A. D., finally united the 



* Derived from the title of dignity Ctxsar, which in the 

 last ages of the Roman dominion, denoted only the assis. 

 I ants and successors of the actual emperor. The name 

 i'ff.iar, it is well known, was adopted by the successors of 

 Julius Ccesar, as a title of honour, as the brothers of 

 Napoleon were called Sapoleon, after having ascended 

 thrones, HS Joseph Napoleon, Jerome Napoleon. The Rus- 

 sian Czar, is not derived from Ca'sar, but u of Sclavonic 

 origin. 



