ELGIN MARBLES 



2009 



ELIOT 



Hincks finally went to Washington, D. C., and 

 in a few weeks settled the terms, which in- 

 cluded free trade in the natural products of 

 the farms, forests, mines and seas. This treaty 

 was abrogated by the United States in 1866. 



At the close of 1854 Lord Elgin returned to 

 England, his successor in Canada being Sir 

 Edmund Walker Head. He lived quietly for 

 two years, but in 1857 was sent to China on 

 an important mission. He was then a member 

 of the British Cabinet for a short time, and in 

 1859 was again sent to China as special am- 

 bassador to force Chinese compliance with 

 certain British demands. He was successful and 

 almost at once after his return to England, 

 early in 1861, was appointed to the Viceroyalty 

 of India. He was the first Viceroy after the 

 great Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the first to 

 hold his office directly under the control of the 

 British government. Unfortunately he died 

 before he could leave a sharp impress on the 

 organization and policy of the Indian govern- 

 ment. It is interesting to note that his son 

 Victor, ninth Earl of Elgin (1849- ), was 

 Viceroy of India from 1894 to 1899. W.F.Z. 



ELGIN, el 'gin, MARBLES, a splendid collec- 

 tion of sculptures, mainly from the Parthenon 

 in Athens, which was purchased from Lord 

 Elgin by the English government in 1816 for 

 $175,000 and placed in the British Museum in 

 London. When Lord Elgin, who was very fond 

 of art, was appointed British ambassador to 

 Constantinople, he made plans to collect some 

 of the ruined statues of the neighboring Greeks. 

 During the year 1801 he worked steadily at 

 the Parthenon (which see), gathering the prin- 

 cipal figures from the pediments; he secured 

 fifteen square slabs, called metopes, each dec- 

 orated with two figures, and fifty-six slabs from 

 the famous frieze. In addition he collected 

 one of the Caryatids from the Erechtheum, 

 part of the frieze of the Temple of Nike and 

 numerous fragments, all of which he shipped 

 to England. 



The people in his native country either 

 thought little of the collection or denounced 

 him as a robber, until some of the prominent 

 critics on art pointed out its wonderful his- 

 torical and artistic value, for much of this work 

 was done by the famous Greek sculptor Phidias. 

 Even Lord Byron in Childe Harold mourned 

 over "the walls defaced, the moldering shrines 

 removed by British hands." In reality it was 

 the best thing that could have happened to 

 preserve this sculpture, for the Turks later 

 overran the land and burned much of the 



marble to make lime for mortar, and probably 

 these beautiful works of art would have met 

 that fate. See PARTHENON ; SCULPTURE. 



E'LI, a high priest and judge of the Israel- 

 ites for forty years, who took care of Samuel 

 during his boyhood. Deeply pious himself, he 

 was not a firm enough father to train his two 

 sons to follow God, and for that reason he was 

 warned that they would die in battle. When 

 the news of their death was brought to him, 

 he was also told that the Ark of God had been 

 taken, and this shock killed him. See I Samuel 

 IV, 18. 



ELI'JAH, the great prophet-reformer of Is- 

 rael, whose sole object was to awaken his 

 people to the conviction that Jehovah alone is 

 God. He lived at a period when there was a 

 life-and-death struggle between the religion 

 of Jehovah and Baal worship, because Ahab, 

 king of Israel, had introduced the worship of 

 other gods. By miracles and prophecies Elijah 

 proved God's divinity and denounced the king 

 for his crime, telling him that Jehovah would 

 punish him. In // Kings II, 11, it is recorded 

 that during the reign of the next king, Elijah 

 was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot, after 

 appointing Elisha as his successor. See ELISHA. 



ELIOT, el'iut, CHARLES WILLIAM (1834- 

 ), one of the most renowned of American 

 educators, for forty years president of Harvard 

 University. Higher education in the United 

 States since the War of Secession has been 

 more strongly in- 

 fluenced by Eliot 

 than by any 

 other man; 

 chiefly to him are 

 due the introduc- 

 tion of the elec- 

 tive system, the 

 inclusion of all 

 branches of 

 knowledge as sub- 

 jects for study, 

 and the mainte- 

 nance of highest CHARLES W. ELIOT 

 scientific ideals in graduate and professional 

 departments. These new principles he fought 

 hard to establish, and before the close of his 

 active career he had the satisfaction of seeing 

 them accepted as fundamental and undebatable 

 bases of higher education. 



Eliot was born in Boston on March 20, 1834, 

 and was graduated from Harvard College at the 

 age of nineteen. After graduation he became 

 a Harvard tutor in mathematics, at the same 



