I 
404 - ELD 
Old people; p.eiTons worn out with years.—They count 
him ot' the g.reen-hait’d dd. Chapman. 
EL'DA, a town of Spain, in the provinceof Valencia: 
twenty miles weft-north-weft of Alicant. 
EL'DAD, [Heb. the love of God.] A man’s name. 
EI.DAG'SEN, or Eldagshausen, a town of Ger¬ 
many, in the circle of Lower Saxony, and principality of 
Calenburg: lixteen miles eaft-north-eaft cf Hanieln. 
EL'DKN HOLE, in Derbyfhire. See Peak. 
ELDE'N A, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, and duchy of Pomerania : three miles eaft of 
Griefswalda. 
EL'DER,/i in botany. SeeSAMBUCUS and V i buenum. 
EL/DER, adj. the comparative of dd, now corrupted 
to old-, [ealb, ealboja, Sax.] Surpaffing another in years; 
furvivor; having the privileges of primogeniture : op- 
pofed to younger. —They bring the companion ot younger 
daughters conforming themfelves in attire to their elder 
fillers. Hooker. 
Fame’s high temple (lands; 
Stupendous pile; not rear’d bv mortal hands! 
Whate’en.proud Rome, or artful Greece beheld, 
Or elder Babylon, its frame excell’d. Pope. 
EL'DER-GUN, f. A pop-gun made of elder: 
Who difmherited one .fon 
For firing olf an elder.gun. Churchill. 
EL'DERS, /. Perfons whofe age gives them a claim 
to credit and reverence.—Rebuke not an elder, but in¬ 
treat him as a.father, and the younger men as brethren, 
i Tim. v. i . 
The blulhing youth their virtuous awe difclofe,^ 
And from their feats the reverend elders role. Sandys. 
Anceftors.—Says the goofe, If it will be no better, e’en 
■ carry your head as your elders have done before you. 
L ' EJlrange. 
I dole my patience, and I own it too, 
Where works are cenfur’d, not as bad, but new ; 
While, if our elders break all feafon’s laws, 
Thofe fools demand not pardon, but applaufe. Pope. 
Thofe who are older than others.—At the board, and in 
private, it very well becometh children’s innocency to 
pray, and their elders to fay, Amen. Hooker. 
Elders, in the Jewifit hiftory, were perfons the raoll 
confiderable forage, experience, and wifdom. Of this 
fort were the Seventy men whom Moles alfociated to him- 
felf in the government of his.people; fueh, likewife, af¬ 
terwards were thofe who held the firlf mark in the 
fvnagogue, as prefidents. In the fit'll affemblies ot the 
primitive Chriftians, thofe who held the firft places were 
called dders. The word prefhyler , often ufed in the New 
Tellament, is -of the fame fignification: hence-the fii 11 
councils of Chrillians were called prejbyteria , or councils 
of elders. The fame denomination is (till retained in the 
prelbyterian difeipline in Scotland. The elders ate offi¬ 
cers, who, in conjunction with the pallors, or minifters, 
and deacons, compofe the confiltories or kirk-fellions, 
meeting to confider, infpell, and regulate, matters of re¬ 
ligion and difeipline. 4 hey are chofen from among tIte 
people, and are received publicly with fome degree of 
ceremony. 
EI/DERXY, adj. Inclining to old age. 
EL'DERSHIP, f. Seniority; primogeniture.—The 
■world, while it had fcarcity of people, underwent no 
other dominion than paternity and eldcrjhip. Raleigh. 
Nor were the elderjhip^ 
Of Artaxerxes worth our leal! of tears, 
If Memnoii’s interefl did not prop his caufe. Rowe. ' 
Prefbytery; eccleliaftical fenate; kirk-feffion.—That con- 
troverfy fprang up between Beza and Eraltus, about the 
-matter of excommunications ; whether there ought to be 
in all churches an elderjhip, having power to excommuni- 
E L E 
cate, and a part of that elderjhip to be Of necefiity certain 
chofen out from among!! the laity.. Hooker. 
EL'DEST, adj. The fuperlativc of eld, now changed 
to old-, £ealb, ealbopi, ealbptte, Sax.] The oldeft; that 
lias the right of primogeniture : 
We will eflnblifli our ellate upon 
Our eldejl Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
The prince of Cumberland. Shckcfpeare. 
The perfon that has lived moll years.— Tldrjl parents fig- 
nifies either the oldeft men and women that have had 
children, or thofe who have longeft had iffue. Locke. 
ELDITZ'KA, a fortrefs of Ruflia, in the government 
of Uplui, on the river Upha : fifty miles north of Upha. 
ELD'PACH, a town of Germany, in the archduchy of 
Auftria : fix miles fouth of Ips. 
EL'DR ED, a man’s name. 
ELE'A, in ancient geography, a d ill riel of Pelopon- 
nefus, fituated between Achaia and Meftenia, reaching 
from Arcadia to the Ionian fea. 
ELE A'LEH, Jlleb. the alcenfion of God.] A city of 
Paleftine, fituated in tile land of the Amorites, eaft of 
Jordan. This city was deftroyed by the Ifraelites in their 
conteTl with Sihon, during the journey to Canaan, and 
was afterwards afiigned to the Reubenites, who rebuilt it. 
Num. xxxii. 37. 
ELEA'SA, the place where Judas Maccabeus en¬ 
camped previous to the battle in which he loft his life. 
1 A face. ix. 5. 
EL'EANOR, [Camden fuppofes it to be a corruption 
of Helena-, others derive it from sel eamen, Sax. all fruit¬ 
ful.] A name of women. 
ELEA'TIC, adj. Belonging to Elea; belonging to the 
felt founded by Parmenides, a native of Elea, 
• ELEA'TIC PHILOSOPHY, among the ancients, a 
name given to that of the Stoics, becaufe taught at EA ia, 
in Latin Vclia, a town of the Lucani. The founder ot the 
Eleatic feel is fuppofed to have been Xenophanes, who 
lived about the 56th olympiad, alnioft 600 years before 
Chrift. This feci was divided into two parties, the one 
rejelting, and the other approving, the appeal to full 
and experiment. Of the former kind were Xenophanes, 
Parmenides, Mcliflus, and Zeno, of Elea. They are fup¬ 
pofed to have maintained principles not unlike thofe of 
Spinoza; they held the eternity and immutability of the 
world; that whatever exifted was only one being; that 
this one being was immoveable and immutable, and was 
the true God ; and whatever changes feemed to happen 
in the univerfe, they confidered as mere illuftons of fenfe. 
The other branch of the Eleatic felt were the atomic 
philofophers, who formed their fyftem from an attention 
to the phenomena of nature ; of thefe the molt confidera- 
ble were Leucippus, Democritus, and Protagoras. 
ELEA'ZAR, [tvAn Heb. of bx God, and W help, i. e. 
the help of God.] A man’s name. 
ELEA'ZAR, high-prieft of the Hebrew nation, was 
the third fon of Aaron, and his fuccelfor in that office. 
His elder brethren, Nadab and Abihu, were (truck dead 
during their father’s life-time for prefuming to burn in- 
cenfe'm the tabernacle with ftrange fire, contrary to the 
divine command. On the death ot Aaron on mount Hor, 
about the year before Chrift 1+52, Eleazar was inverted 
by Mofes with the robes belonging to his father’s dignity. 
We have little information concerning him, excepting 
that he continued'' to difeharge the duties of the high- 
priefthood during the remainder of the life of Moles, 
and the whole of the adminiftration of Joftnia; and that 
he furvived the latter but a rtiort time, dying mod pro¬ 
bably about the year before Chrift 1427. 
ELEA'ZAR, high-prieft of the Jews, was raifed to 
that office on the death ot his brothei, Simon .lie Juft, 
about 292 years before Chrift. It was during his ponti¬ 
ficate, according to the teftimony of Ariftteas, which was 
implicitly received by Jofephus, and after hint by Juftin 
Martyr, Irenaeus. Cyril, Chryloftom, Epiphanius, and 
3 others 
