233 
E C I 
like many of the fame kind, imitating each other. Lad- 
ly, echoing bodies may be fo ordered, that from any one 
found given, they dial! produce many echoes, different 
both as to tone and intenfion. By which means a raufi- 
cal room may be fo contrived, that not only one indru- 
ment playing in it fltall feem many of the fame fort and 
fize, but even a concert of different ones; this may be 
contrived by placing certain echoing bodies fo as that 
any note played (hall be returned by them in thirds, fifths, 
and eighths. There are, however, certain letters which no 
echo will return or exprefs, particularly an S, of which 
lord B aeon gives a pleafant inftance in a celebrated echo 
formed by the walls of a ruined church, at Pont Charen- 
ton, near Paris, where there was an old Parifian who took 
it to be the uork of fpirits, and of good fpirits; “ for, 
(faid lie,) if you call Satan, the echo will not deliver 
back the devil’s name, but will fay va-t'en, which (igni- 
fies avoid;” by which circumdance his lordfhip dil'co- 
yered that an echo would not return an S. 
E'CHO,yi The place where the repetition of a found 
is produced. This is either natural, or artificial. In 
echoes, the place where the fpeaker (lands, is called the 
centrum phonicum-, and the place that returns the voice, 
the centrum phonocampticum. 
E'CHO, f. in architecture, is applied to certain vaults 
and arches, modly of elliptical or parabolical figures; 
ufed fo redouble founds, and produce artificial echoes. 
The method of making them is taught by F. Blancani, 
in his Echometria, at the end of his book on the Sphere. 
Vitruvius tells us, that, in divers' parts of Greece and 
Italy, there were brazen veffels, artfully ranged under 
the (eats of the theatres, to render the foupd of the ac¬ 
tors’ voices more clear, and make a kind of echo ; by 
which means every one of the prodigious multitude of 
perfons, prefent at thofe fpeCtacles, might hear with eafe 
and pleafure. 
E'CHO, f. in poetry, a compofition wherein the lad 
words or fyllables of each verfe contains fotne meaning, 
which, being repeated apart, anfwers to fome quedion 
or other matter contained in the verfe; as in this beauti¬ 
ful one front Virgil : 
Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus i/be ? 
Improbus illc puer , crudclis tu quoque mater. 
The elegance of an echo confids in'giving a new fenfe to 
the lad words; which reverberate, as it were, the mo¬ 
tions of the mind, and by that means affeCt it with fnr- 
prife and admiration. 
E'CHO, in fabulous hiftory, a daughter of the Air and 
Tellus, who chiefly refided in the vicinity of the Cephi- 
fus. She was one of Juno’s attendants, and became the 
confidant of Jupiter’s amours. Her loquacity, however, 
difpleafed Jupiter; and (lie was deprived of the power of 
fpeech by Juno, and only permitted to repeat the quef- 
tions put to her. Pan had been one of her admirers, but 
he never enjoyed her favours. Echo, after (lie had been 
puniflted by Juno, fell in love with Narciflus; but being 
defpifed by him, (lie pined away, until nothing was left 
but the melancholy reverberation of her voice, which 
dill remains as her only immortal part. Ovid. 
E'CHO, a town of Spain, in the kingdom of Aragon : 
thirteen miles north-north-wefhoF Jaca. 
fc'CHO, a town of the American States, in the Tenna- 
fee government: fifty miles Couth of Knoxville. 
ECHO'METER, f. among muficians, a kind of fcale 
or rule, with feveral lines thereon, ferving to meafure the 
duration and length of founds, and to find their intervals 
and ratios. 
E'CHOS, f. [from Gr. found.] A medical name 
for the tinnitus aurium, or noife in the ears. 
ECH'ZELL, a town of Germany, in the-circle of the 
Upper Rhine, and upper principality of Helfe : fourteen 
miles fouth-ead of Wetzlar. 
ECI'J A, or Exija, a town of Spain, in the kingdom 
*f Seville, on the Xenil, containing fix pariflies, twenty 
E C L 
convents, fix hofpitals, and aboipt 9000 fouls, fituated in 
a valley furrounded with fmall hills, which makes it the 
warmed place of Andalufia. Wool and hemp are the 
chief riches of the place : fifty-five miles ead-north-eaft 
of Seville. Lat. 37. 33. N. Ion. 11.43. E. Peak of Te- 
neriffe. 
ECK ARDSBER'GA, a town of Germany, in the cir¬ 
cle of Upper Saxony, and circle of Thuringia : ten miles 
wed-fouth-wed of Naumburg, and ten (outh of Nebra. 
ECKELNFOHRE'DE, or Eckerford, a town cf 
Denmark, in the duchy of Slefwick : ten miles fouth of 
Slefwick. 
ECK'EREN, a village of Brabant, where a battle was 
fought in 1703, between the army of France and the al¬ 
lies: five miles north of Antwerp. 
ECK'ERO, a fmall ifland of Sweden, between the Bal¬ 
tic and the gulf of Finland, a little to the wed of the 
ifland of Aland. 
ECK'MUL, a town of Germany, in Lower Bavaria : 
fixteen miles wed of Straubing. 
ECK'OLSHEIM, or Eggoi.sheim, a town of Ger¬ 
many, in the circle of Franconia, and bifltopric of Bam¬ 
berg : three miles north of Forcheim. 
ECK'WERDSHEYDE, a town of Silefia, in the priii, 
cipality of Neyfze : feven miles north of Neyfze. 
ECLAIR'CISSEMENT, f. [Fr.] Explanation; the 
a£t of clearing up an affair by a verbal expodulation.—. 
The eclaircijfancnt ended in the difeovery of the informer. 
Clarendon. 
ECLAIRO'N, or Eclaron, a town of France, in the 
department of the Upper Marne, and chief place of a 
canton, in the didriCt of St. Dezier, on the river Blaife: 
five miles fouth-wed of St. Dezier. 
ECLAMP'SIS,yi [from ex.A ccy-vra, Gr. to fhine.]. The 
fparkling and flafhing lights which drike the eyes of epi¬ 
leptic perfons. 
ECLA'T, f. [Fr.] Splendour; fliow ; ludre.—No¬ 
thing more contributes to the variety, furprize, and eclat, 
of Homer’s battles, than that artificial manner of gaging 
his heroes by each other. Pope. 
ECLEC'TIC, adj. [from exAextixo;, Gr.] Selecting; 
choofing at will.—Cicero was of the ecledic feed, and chofe 
out of each fuch pofitions as came neared truth. V/atts. 
ECLEC'TICS, f. \ecledici , Lat.] A name given to 
fome ancient philofophers, who, without attaching them- 
felves to any particular fe6t, took what they judged good, 
and folid, from each. Hence their denomination ; which, 
in the original Greek, fignifies, “ that may be chofen,” or 
“ that choofes;” of the verb exAsyw,' I choofe. Laertius 
notes, that they were alfo, for the fame reafon, denomi¬ 
nated analogetici ; but that they call themfelves Philalethcs , 
i. e. lovers of truth. The chief or founder of the eclec- 
tici was Potamon, of Alexandria, who lived under An. 
gudus and Tiberius; and who, weary of doubting of all 
things with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonians, formed the 
eclectic fedt, which Voflius calls the ccledive. 
Towards the dole of the fecond century, a fedh arofe 
in the Chridian church under the denomination of eclec¬ 
tics, or modern Platonics. They profeffed to make truth 
the only object of their enquiry, and to be ready to adopt 
from all the difl'erent fydems and feds, fuch tenets as 
they thought agreeable to it. However, they preferred 
Plato to the other philofophers, and looked upon his 
opinions concerning God, the human foul, and things in- 
vifible, as conformable to the fpirit and genius of the 
Chridian dobtrine. One of the principal patrons of this 
fydeni was Ammonius Sac'cas, who at this time laid the 
foundation of that feCt, afterwards didinguithed by the 
name of the new Platonics, in the Alexandrian fchool. 
ECLEC'TICS, f. Were alfo a certain fet of phylicians 
among the ancients, of whom Archigenes, underTrajan, 
was the chief, who (elected from the opinions of all the 
other fects, that which appealed to them bed and mod 
rational ; hence they were called ecledics, and their pre¬ 
fer! ptions mcdicina eckdica. 
% ECLEG'MA, 
