ELS 
the Hunte and the Wefer, whole toll amounts to 30,000 
rixdoliars a-year: fev. nteen miles north-eaft of Oldenburg. 
ELS'GAU, a part of the bifhopiic of Bale, which lies 
between the.mountains and the Larg, comprehending the 
town and bailiwic of Porentrui, and twenty parifhes. 
ELSHEI'MER (Adam), a painter of great merit, 
born in 1.574, at Frankfort-on-the-Main. A decided in¬ 
clination for the pencil caufed him to be placed for in- 
ftru&ion under Philip Uffenbach, who was foon ftirpaffed 
by his fcholar. A laudable ambition to excel infpired 
Elflfeimer with the refolution of completing his ftudies 
in Italy. Attentive to nothing but his improvement, he 
avoided Society, and employed himfelf affiduoufly in co¬ 
pying the various objects of art and nature prefented by 
that country, in which he was affifted by a happy me¬ 
mory, which enabled hint to. copy with great exadfnefs 
in the morning, what he had contemplated the preceding 
evening. He formed to himfelf a peculiar ftyle of paint¬ 
ing, confifring of landfcapes, with hi/lorical figures in 
final], which he finifiied with exquifite neatnefs. The 
diminutive fize of his pictures did not prevent a grand 
tafie in his defigns, and no one better underllood the ma¬ 
nagement of lights and fliades, and all the magic of co¬ 
louring. His drawing is correct, his touch light and fine, 
and his pieces will bear the minuted examination. He 
purchafed thefe excellences by the renunciation of for¬ 
tune ; for he worked fo flowly, that though in his life¬ 
time his pidtures bore an extraordinary price, he was un¬ 
able to live by his profeffion. He refided in Italy, where 
he married, and had a large family. He was received 
into the academy of St. Luke, and was patronifed by the 
pope; yet he became overwhelmed with debt, and was 
throwm into prifon. His friends releafed him from con¬ 
finement ; but the difgrace fo preyed upon his fpirits, 
that he foon after died at Rome, in 1620, at the age of 
forty-fix. He left feveral capital performances, which 
are highly valued. His principal pidture is the Flight 
into Egypt, of which there is a print by his friend and 
benefadlor, count Goud. Several others of his works 
have been engraved. It is faid to have been from the. 
ftudy of his manner that David Teniers and Bamboccio 
acquired their excellence. 
EL'SINBURG. See Helsingborg. 
EESINO'RE. See Helsingof.r. 
. ELSNAB'BEN, a fea-port town of Sweden, in the 
province of Sudermania, on the coaft of the Baltic : 
thirty-two miles eaft-north-eaft of Nikioping. 
ELS'NER (James), doftor of theology, a counfellor 
of the confifiory to his Prufiian majefty, firft preacher in 
the reformed parochial church of Berlin, and direftor of 
the philological clafs in the academy of fciences, born in 
March, 1692, at Saalfeld, in Pruffia, where his father, 
a rich citizen originally from Bohemia, deftined him for 
trade, and therefore treated him with great feverity on 
account of his attachment to letters. After he had re¬ 
ceived the rudiments of his education in the provincial 
lchool, he went to Utrecht and Leyden, where he formed 
an intimacy with the mod eminent literary characters of 
thofe two cities. In 1720 he left Holland, in confequence 
of an invitation from his Priiflian majefiy, to be profeflor 
of theology and of the oriental languages at Lingen ; but 
before he quitted Utrecht he got himfelf admitted to the 
degree of doftor; and on taking pofleffion of his new of¬ 
fice, delivered an excellent oration on the zeal proper for 
a divine. At the fame time he was appointed paftor of the 
church in that city; but he had fcarcely remained two 
years in this fituation, when he was made firft mafter of, 
Joachim’s fchool at Berlin. On the 28th of October, 
1722, he pronounced an inaugural difcourfe on the obli¬ 
gation of uniting piety to learning; and the month after 
was chofen a member of the royal academy of fciences. 
His occupations did not prevent him from appearing in 
the pulpit, and his difcourfes were heard with great ap¬ 
probation. As he had a ftrong predilection for the mi- 
niftry, he refigned his reCtorfliip in 1730, and accepted 
Vol. VI. Ho. 366. 
E LS 431 
the place of paftor of the parochial church of the Cloifter. 
He was alfo made a counfellor of the confiftory, and he 
retained the infpettion of the fchool in which he had been 
reCtor. In 1742, El finer became director of the clafs of 
the belles-lettres in the royal academy; and when the 
fociety was renewed in 1744, lie retained the fame office, 
and maintained the character which he had always flip- 
ported, both by attention to his academical duties, 
and by the learned diftertations with which lie enriched 
the memoirs of the inftitution. He died on the 8th of 
OCtobcr, 1750. His principal works are, 1 . Obfervationes' 
Jacra in Novi Tejiamenti I.ibros, Tom. i. Libras hijloricos corn- 
plexus ; Utrecht, 1720, 8vo. 2. Tom. ii. Epijlolas Apojlolo- 
rum £? Apocalypjin complexus ; ibid. 1728, Svo. 3. Dijfertat. 
in Locum AB. xiii. 48 ; Lingen, 1721, 4to. 4. Dijfcitat. 
in Locum vexatum Deut. xxix. iS; ibid. 1721, 4to. Both 
thefe are to be found in Thefaurus Llollandicus. 4. Common- 
tatio in illujlrc Jacobi Oraculum, Gtncf. xlix. 10, eminentijjimum 
Ventaiis Chrijhana Propvgnaculum , nova Ratione communitum ; 
Berol. 1729, folio. 5. New Defcription of the State of 
the Greek Chriftians in Turkey, with Annotations; ibid. 
- 1 737 » Svo. 6. The Epiftle of Paul to the Philippians 
explained, in a Series of Sermons, with Notes, and an 
Introduction ; ibid. 1741, 4to. 7. Schediajina criticum, quo 
AuEleres aliaque Anliquitatis Monumcnta, bjcriptioncsAtcm & 
Numifmata emendantur , vindicantur & expomintur, ad Continna- 
tionem, Tom. vii. Mijcdlaneorum Regie? Societat. Scicntiarum 
Bcrohn ; ibid. 1744,410. 8. Continuation of the Newell 
Defcription of the State of the Greek Chriftians in Tur¬ 
key; ibid. 1747, Svo. Befides thefe works, he wrote fe¬ 
veral diftertations on different fubjeCts, which may be 
found in tiie TranfaCtions of the Academy of Sciences at 
Berlin. 
EL'STER, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up¬ 
per Saxony, and circle of Thuringia : fix miles eaft of 
Wittenberg. 
EL'STER, a river of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, which paffies by Adorf, Oelnitz, Plauen, Zeitz, 
Pegau, I.eipfic, &c. and joins the Sala about five miles 
from Halle. 
EL'STER, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, on a river of the fame name, in the circle of the 
Vogtland: ten miles fiouth of Oelnitz. 
EL'STER (Scl\wartz), or Black Elster, a river of 
Germany, in the circle of Upper Saxony,.which rifes 
about ten miles eaft from Stolpenin, in the marggraviate 
of Meiffen, and runs into the Elbe fix miles eaft of 
Wittenberg. 
EL'STERBERG, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and circle of the Vogtland: fifteen miles 
fouth-weft of Zwickau. 
ELSTERWER'DA, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony, and marggraviate of Meilfien: fevcn 7 
teen miles north of Meiffen, and twenty-fix north-north- 
weft of Drefden. 
EL'STOB (William), an Englifh divine and antiquary, 
born at Nevycaftle-upon-Tyne, in 1673. His grammatical 
education he received at Eton, whence he was Cent to 
Catharine-hall, Cambridge ; but the air of that country 
not agreeing with him, he removed to Queen’s-college, 
Oxford. In this feminary he acquired fo much reputa¬ 
tion, that he was chofen fellow of Univerftty-college, and 
appointed one of the tutors of that inftitution. In 1697, 
he was admitted mafter of arts; and, in 1701, he tranflated 
into Latin the Saxon Homily of Lupus, with notes, for 
Dr. Hickes. About the fame time he tranflated into Eng- 
lifih fir John Cheke’s Latin verfion of Plutarch De Super- 
Jlitione, which tranflation was printed at the end of Strype’s 
Life of Cheke. In 1702, M17. Elftob was appointed rec¬ 
tor of the united parifties of St. Swithin and St. Mary 
Bothaw, in the city of London; which appears to have 
been the only eccl.efiaftical preferment that he ever ob¬ 
tained. In the following year he publiflied an edition of 
Roger Afcham’s Latin Letters. He was alfo the author 
cf An Elfiay on the great Affinity and mutual Agreement 
6 G between 
