ELISHA 



2012 



ELIZABETH 



Psalm Book, an English metrical version of 

 the Psalms, the first book printed in New Eng- 

 land. 



ELI'SHA, a great prophet of Israel who, as 

 successor of Elijah (which see), continued and 

 carried forward the work which he had begun. 

 He petitioned for a double portion of Elijah's 

 spirit as he saw him carried up to heaven in 

 the fiery chariot (// Kings II, 11), and many 

 miracles of power and knowledge were per- 

 formed by Elisha in the name of the Lord. He 

 held his office for sixty-five years and was the 

 last prophet to work miracles among the peo- 

 ple of Israel. 



ELIX'IR, from the Arabian el ik sir, or 

 philosopher's stone, is in t modern medicine a 

 spicy, sweetened preparation or tincture used 

 in medicine to disguise its disagreeable taste. 

 In alchemy, or the chemistry of the Middle 

 Ages, it was a substance which was supposed to 

 have the property of changing the baser metals 

 into silver or gold, of restoring youth and pro- 

 longing life. The word is also used figuratively 

 in its modern sense, as in Bayard Taylor's 

 Lands oj the Saracen, "The air we breathed 

 was an elixir of immortality." 



ELIZ'ABETH (1533-1603), the "Good Queen 

 Bess" of England, whose reign was one of the 

 most glorious periods in the history of her 



ELIZABETH 



country. Adored in her own day as almost 

 more than m.ortal, she has not lacked severe 

 critics in the years that have followed, but as 

 to the importance of her reign there cannot 



be two opinions. In literature the names of 

 Shakespeare, Bacon and Spenser made it of 

 surpassing worth ; daring mariners sought new 

 shores, and by their accounts stirred the imag- 

 inations of those at homo; the beginnings of 

 the colonial empire were made, and living con- 

 ditions were so changed for the better that 

 England was like a new country. Indeed, it 

 was the transition time from medieval to mod- 

 ern England, and for most of the great advance 

 Elizabeth was given the credit, justly or un- 

 justly. 



The Religious Question. Elizabeth was the 

 daughter of Henry VIII and the famous Anne 

 Boleyn (which see), and was declared heiress 

 to the crown almost immediately after her 

 birth. But when the queen fell from favor and 

 was beheaded, the young princess was de- 

 clared illegitimate and for a time had an un- 

 happy life. Finally, however, she was given 

 her place in the succession, after Edward and 

 Mary, and during Edward's reign she lived a 

 peaceful life. While Mary was on the throne 

 she was more or less an object of suspicion, for 

 it was well known that she had been brought 

 up a Protestant, but at Mary's death in 1558 

 her right to the crown was unquestioned. The 

 great issue confronting her was that of religion, 

 and she showed herself capable of dealing with 

 it wisely. She restored Protestantism, rein- 

 stated the English Book of Common Prayer 

 and asserted the royal supremacy over the 

 Church, but she avoided fanaticism and showed 

 herself willing to call to her aid Catholic as 

 well as Protestant ministers. Indeed, one of 

 the things which most clearly showed Eliz- 

 abeth's wisdom was her choice of councillors. 

 She might object violently to their advice, but 

 if they could once convince her that it was for 

 the good of the country she usually yielded. 

 Greatest of her ministers was Sir William Cecil 

 (Lord Burleigh), in whom for forty years she 

 placed implicit confidence. 



The Marriage Question. One of the ques- 

 tions on which Elizabeth's first Parliament ap- 

 proached her was that of her marriage there 

 must be, they felt, a successor to the crown, 

 or it might come into the hands of a Catholic. 

 For a time Elizabeth played with the question. 

 She would marry then she would not; so 

 all her life she was a coquette, yearning for 

 love and flattery. She had her favorites, nota- 

 bly the Earl of Leicester, whom she would 

 probably have married had she not feared the 

 displeasure of her subjects; and she kept for- 

 eign princes, as Philip II of Spain and the Duke 



