EMPEROR ENAMELING. 



855 



imperial crown with that of the German kings. Yet I 

 it was for many centuries considered necessary to be 

 crowned at Rome, in order to be formally invested 

 with the title of emperor. For reasons too many to 

 be enumerated here, the idea that the bishop of 

 Rome was the highest spiritual ruler, and the em- 

 peror of the holy Roman empire (or of Germany), the 

 highest temporal sovereign, was gradually developed. 

 One reason undoubtedly was, that the German or 

 Teutonic tribes were actually in the beginning of the 

 middle ages, the ruling people in most countries of 

 Europe ; but many other reasons, particularly a 

 strange confusion of the universal empire of Rome 

 with the universal empire of Christendom, and the 

 idea of a universal church, as an organized society, 

 to be supported, of course, by a temporal power con- j 

 tributed much to give this idea currency. 



The impartial historian cannot doubt, that in the 

 barbarous period of the middle ages, the authority 

 of the pope was beneficial to Europe, and almost the 

 sole support of civilization ; but it would be hard 

 to say what advantage Germany derived from taking 

 part, ex qfficio, in all the quarrels of Europe, and 

 from that unfortunate desire of possessing temporal 

 authority over Italy, which has been one of the chief 

 causes of her inferiority to some other states of 

 Europe, in respect to the developement of her po- 

 litical institutions. As the emperor was considered 

 the highest temporal officer in Christendom, all the 

 other states were regarded, as dependent upon him ; 

 some of these, therefore, to show their independence, 

 made claim to the imperial dignity, although they 

 did not assume the title ; as, for instance, the sov- 

 ereigns of Castile, France, and England. 



The eastern empire having been finally overthrown 

 by the conquest of Constantinople, in 1453, the im- 

 perial dignity in the East became extinct. The sul- 

 tans, who succeeded the emperors, have never re- 

 ceived, in official language, the title of emperor. 

 This title was adopted in Russia by Peter I., in 1721, 

 but the right of the Russian sovereign to its posses- 

 sion was not acknowledged by the German empire 

 until 1747 by France in 1745, and by Spain in 1759. 

 Napoleon adopted the old idea of an empire, as a 

 general union of states under the protection, or at 

 least political preponderance, of one powerful state ; 

 the political system of a balance of power, had proved 

 insufficient to maintain a general peace, and Henry 

 IV. 's plan of a great European confederacy held out 

 no prospect of permanent tranquillity. Napoleon 

 crowned himself as emperor in 1804. In 1806, the 

 German empire, 1000 years old, became extinct, and 

 the German emperor, Francis II., adopted the title 

 of Francis I., emperor of Austria. The French em- 

 pire was destroyed in 1814, by the peace of Paris. 



Great Britain is considered as an empire, the crown 

 is imperial, and the parliament is styled the Imperial 

 Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland; but the 

 king himself has never adopted the imperial title, 

 though this measure was proposed in parliament in 

 1804. 



The sovereigns of Siam, China, Japan, and of 

 Fez and Morocco, are often, though with little pro- 

 priety called emperors. 



At the coronation of the German emperors, princes 

 and kings appeared as servants ; the emperor pro- 

 mised to do justice, to be an upright sovereign, to 

 consult the good of his subjects, to protect the church, 

 to defend the empire, to be the guardian of .widows 

 and orphans ; and not until the assembled people 

 had replied to the question, " Will you submit to this 

 sovereign and prince, and obey him ?" with shouts 

 of Yes, Yes (Fiat, fiat, fiat), were the unction and 

 coronation (of which Goethe gives a description in his 

 account of his life) performed. Formerly it was only 



the coronation of the" sovereign as German king, that 

 took place at Frankfort, in Germany. This was fol- 

 lowed by the imposition ot the crown of Lombardy, 

 an iron circle, made of a nail reputed to be from the 

 cross of Christ, set in gold ; and finally by the coro- 

 nation as Roman emperor, performed by the pope in 

 Rome. But, from the time of Maximilian I., the 

 German emperors were crowned in Germany only. 

 After the fall of the French empire, a large number 

 of persons in Germany, without organization or set- 

 tled plan, desired the restoration of the German em- 

 pire. The Germans, from a want of practical know 

 ledge, then lost an opportunity of taking one step 

 towards securing personal liberty, by wasting the 

 time in vague declamation. That party, particularly, 

 who wished for the restoration of the empire, talked 

 of a glory, power, and happiness which had never 

 existed ; they were actuated by indistinct historical 

 recollections, and phantoms of their own creation, 

 and not a few by their aristocratical predilections. 

 A worse model of government, and a more perplexed 

 political system, than the late German empire, can- 

 not be contrived. 



EMPIRIC, in medical history (from the Greek 

 word Ipvnioia, experience) ; an appellation assumed 

 by a sect of physicians, who contended that all hypo- 

 thetical reasoning respecting the operations of the 

 animal economy was useless, and that observation 

 and experience alone were the foundation of the art 

 of medicine. Empiric, in modern medicine, is applied 

 to a person who sells or administers a particular drug, 

 or compound, as a remedy for a given disorder, with- 

 out any consideration of its different stages, or de- 

 grees of violence, in different constitutions, climates, 

 or seasons. For empiric philosophy, see Experimental 

 Philosophy. 



EMS ; a celebrated watering-place in the duchy 

 of Nassau, on the river Lahn. The environs are 

 beautiful. As early as 1583, it was used as a water- 

 ing-place. The mineral waters at Ems are warm 

 from 70 to 118 Fahr.; they are of the saline class, 

 containing large quantities of carbonic acid gas, and 

 are used with much effect in chronic catarrhs, pulmo- 

 nary complaints, diseases of the stomach, arising 

 from phlegm and acidity, gout, and some diseases of 

 the urinary vessels. See Die Heilquellen zu Ems, 

 Coblentz, 1821, by Vogler. Near Ems is a grotto, 

 similar to the grotto del cane, near Naples, the va- 

 pours from which cause asphyxia. About 50,000 

 bottles of the water of Ems are sent away annually. 



EMULSIONS ; a term applied to the imperfect 

 solutions of the fixed vegetable oils in water. They 

 are obtained by rubbing the seeds affording these 

 oils with water to which a little sugar has been 

 added. 



ENAMELING (from enamel, formed by a junction 

 of the inseparable particle en borrowed by us from 

 the French, who had taken it from the Latin in 

 and the old English word amel, taken from the 

 email of the French, both signifying the material used 

 in overlaying the variegated works which we call 

 enameled); the art of variegating with colours laid 

 upon or into another body ; also, a mode of painting, 

 with vitrified colours, on gold, silver, copper, &c., 

 and of melting these at the fire, or of making curious 

 works in them at a lamp. This art is of so great 

 antiquity, as to render it difficult or impossible to 

 trace it to its origin. It was evidently practised by 

 the Egyptians, from the remains that have been ob- 

 served on the ornamented envelopes of mummies. 

 From Egypt it passed into Greece, and afterwards 

 into Rome and its provinces, whence it was probably 

 introduced into Great Britain, as various Roman an- 

 tiquities have been dug up in different parts of the 

 island, particularly in the barrows, in which enamels 



