376* E A 11 
X"7 Jt1ie fifth letter of the alphabet as a 
numeral, stands for 2J0. In music, it 
denotes the tone e-la-mi. In the ca- 
lendar, it is the fifth of the dominical letters. 
And in sea-charts, it distinguishes all the 
easterly points : thus, E. alone denotes east, 
E. by S. and E. by N. east by south and east 
by north. 
" EAGLE, in ornithology. See Falco. 
Eagle, in heraldry, is accounted one of 
the most noble bearings. The reason why 
eagles are generally borne with their wings 
and tail expanded is, because this posture is 
best fitted to fill up the escutcheon. How- 
ever, there are eagles borne in other postures, 
though not so common; all which will be 
explained under their respective articles. 
The arms of the emperor ot Germany are, 
or, a spread eagle with two heads, sable ; 
diademed, langued, beaked, and membered, 
gules. Some authors express the two heads 
bv the term displayed. The kingdom of 
Poland bore, gules, an eagle, argent; 
crowned and membered, or. 
Eagle-stone. See Tttxes. 
Eagle, Black, an order of knighthood, 
instituted by the elector of Brandenburgh, 
in 1701, on his being crowned king of Prussia. 
The knights of this order wear an orange- 
coloured ribband, suspending a black eagle. 
Eagle, White, a like order in Poland, in- 
stituted in 1325, by Uladislaus V. on occasion 
of the marriage of his son Casimir to t lie 
daughter of the great-duke of Lithuania. 
The knights of this order wore a chain ot 
gold, suspending a silver eagle, crowned. 
. EAR, auris, in anatomy, the organ of 
bearing. See Anatomy. 
' EARING, in the sea-language, is that part 
of the bolt-rope which, at the four corners of 
the sail, is left open, in the shape of a ring. 
The two uppermost parts are put over the 
ends. of the yard-arms, and so the sail is made 
fast to the yard ; and into the lowermost ear- 
ings, the sheets and tacks are seized or bent 
at the clew. 
EARL, a British title of nobility, next 
below a marquis, and above a viscount. 
Earls were antieutlv called comitas, because 
they were wont comil nr i rtgan, to wait upon 
the king, for council and advice. The Ger- 
mans call them graves, as landgrave, mar- 
grave, palsgrave, rheipgrave ; the Saxons 
ealdormen, ''unless that title might be more 
•properly applied to our dukes ; the Danes, 
eorias ; and the English, earls. The title 
originally died with the -man. William the 
Conqueror first made it hereditary, giving it 
hi fee to his nobles, and allotting, them for 
the support of their state the third penny out 
of the sheriff’s court, issuing out of all pleas 
of the shire ; whence they had their title. 
But now the matter is quite otherwise ; for 
formerly comes and comitatus were corre- 
latives; and there was no comes or earl but 
bad a county or shire tor Ins earl do n ; of 
later -years, the number of earls increasing, 
an 1 no more counties being left, divers have 
made choice of some eminent part o; a eoun- 
f v\ as Lindsey, Holland, Cleveland, Ac. ; 
EAR 
some of a lesser part, as Stafford, Ac. ; others 
have chosen for their tide some eminent 
town, as Marlborough, Exeter, Bristol, &c. ; 
and some have taken for their title the name 
of a small village, or their own seat or park, as 
Godolphin, Clarendon, Ac. ; and others have 
the title added to the family name, as earl 
Rivers, earl Stanhope, &c. An earl is created 
by cincture of sword, mantle ot state put 
upon him by the king himself, a cap and a 
coronet put upon his head, and a charter in 
his hand. 
Earl marshal of England, is a great 
officer, who had anciently several courts 
under his jurisdiction, as the court of chivalry, 
and the court of honour. Under him is also 
the heralds’ office, or college of arms. He 
has some pre-eminence in the court of 
marshalsea, where he piay sit in judgment 
against those who offend within the verge of 
the king’s court. This office is of great anti- 
quity in England, and anciently of greater 
power than now ; and has been tor several 
ages hereditary in the most noble family of 
Howard. 
1 EARNEST, is Hie money advanced to 
bind the parties to the performance of a ver- 
bal agreement. The person who gives it, is 
in strictness obliged to abide by his b irgain ; 
and in case lie declines, is not discharged upon 
forfeiting his earnest, but may be sued for the 
whole money stipulated, and damages ; and 
by the statute of frauds 29 C. If. c. 3. no 
contract for sale of goods to the value of 10/. 
or more is to be valid, unless such earnest is 
given, 
EARTH, in astronomy and geography, 
one of the primary planets, being this terra- 
queous globe which we inhabit. 
Earth, figure of, was accounted by 
some of the antients to be like that of an 
oblong cylinder; by others, of the form of a 
drum ; and by others to be Hat. The mo- 
derns demonstrate it to be nearly spherical, 
from .the following among other considera- 
tions. 1. All the appearances of the heavens, 
both at land and at sea, are the same as they 
would be if the earth was a globe. 2. In 
eclipses of the moon, which are caused by the 
shadow of the earth falling upon the moon, 
this shadow is alway circular, and a body can 
be no other than a globe, which, in all situa- 
tions, casts a circular shadow. 3. Several 
navigators have sailed quite round the globe, 
steering their course directly south and west 
till they came to the Magellanic sea, and 
thence to the north and west till they re- 
turned to their port from the east; and all 
the phenomena, which should naturally arise 
from the earth’s rotundity, happened to them. 
Besides, their method of sailing was also 
founded upon tins hypothesis, which could 
never have succeeded, if the earth had been 
of. auv other figure. It is true, the surface 
of the' earth is not an exact geometrical globe, 
but then the inequalities are so inconsiderable, 
that the highest mountain bears no greater 
proportion to the bulk of the earth, than a 
grain of dust does to a common globe. The 
figure of the earth was formerly considered, 
JE A ft 
by mathematicians and geographers, as per- j 
fectly spherical, excepting the small inequaii- j 
ties on its surface, of mountains and valleys.; 1 
till an accident engaged the attention of sir ; 
Isaac Newton and Mr. Huygens, who demon- J 
stalled from the laws of .hydrostatics, and the j 
revolution of the earth about its axis, that its 
figure was not a true sphere, but an oblate 1 
spheroid Hatted towards the poles. Monsieur j 
Richer, when at the island of Cayenne, about j 
live degrees distant from the equator, found j 
that lus clock which* at Paris, kept true time, j 
here lost two minutes and twenty-eight seconds 
every day. Now, though heat will lengthen i 
pendulums, and consequently retard their 
motion, it is certain the heats of Cayenne 
were not Sufficient to solve this phsenomonon, j 
which can flow only from a diminution in the j 
pressure of gravity. For, as the earth re- 1 
volves about its axis, all its parts will endea- 1 
votir to recede from the axis of motion, and 
the equatorial parts where the motion is | 
quickest will tend less towards the centre than 1 
the rest ; their endeavour to fly off from the 1 
axis about which they revolve, taking off part I 
of their tendency that way ; so that those ] 
parts will become lighter than such as are j 
nearer the poles. The polar parts therefore, ; 
will press in towards the centre, and raise the ] 
equatorial parts, till the quantity of matter in j 
the latter is so far increased as to compensate j 
for its lightness, and an equilibrium is restored ; 1 
on which account, the form which the earth 
assumes will be that of an oblate spheroid, ] 
whose shorter axis passes through the poles. 1 
By virtue only of the rotation of the earth 
about its axis, the weight of bodies at the j 
equator is less than at the poles, in the pro- j 
portion of 238 to 239. Hence arises, as be- ] 
tore observed, a spheroidical form of the 1 
earth ; and from that spheroidical form arises j 
another diminution of gravity at the equator, i 
by which, if the earth was homogeneous I 
throughout, bodies at the equator would lose 1 
one pound In 1121 ; and so on both accounts j 
taken together, the gravity of bodies at the j 
poles would be to the same at the equator as 
230 to 229- Whence, if we suppose the j 
gravity of bodies within the earth to be] 
directly as their distance from the centre, j 
those numbers will also express the relation j 
between its polar and equatorial diameter. 
The proportion of the two diameters was] 
calculated by Newton in the following man- ; 
ner. Having found that the centrifugal force j 
at the equator is -i^th of gravity, he assumes, : 
’ as an hypothesis, that the axis of the eartli is] 
to the diameter of the equator as 100 to 101, j 
and thence determines what must be the cen- i 
trifugal force at the equator to give the earth ] 
such a form, and finds it to be ths> of ] 
gravity: then, by the rule of proportion, if a j 
centrifugal force, equal to * 5 ths of gravity, 1 
would make the earth higher -at the equator j 
than at the poles by — A~th of the who’ el 
height at the poles, a ceutntugal force that isj 
the -rt^.th of gravity will make it higher by a j 
proportional excess, which, by calculation, is ] 
qy h of the height at. the poles ; and thus he j 
