JE S Y 
•orditvg to the fame author; whether for his own plea fare, 
or upon the affairs of Croefus, is uncertain ; and, palling 
by Athens foon after Piliffratus had ufurped the fovereign 
f iower, and, finding that the Athenians bore the yoke very 
mpatiently, lie told them the fable of the frogj who peti¬ 
tioned Jupiter for a king. The images made life of by 
yEfop are certainly very happy inventions to inftrudt man¬ 
kind ; they pofl'efs all that is neceflary to perfect a pre¬ 
cept, having a mixture of the ufeful with the agreeable. 
“ /£fop the fabulift (fays Aldus- Gellius) was delervedly 
efteemed wife, fince he did not, after the manner of the 
philofophers, rigidly and imperioully dictate fuch things 
as were proper to be advifedand perluaded ; but, framing 
entertaining and agreeable apologues, he thereby charms 
and captivates the human mind.” ./Efop was put to death 
at Delphi. Plutarch tells us, that he came there with a 
great quantity of gold and filver, being ordered by Croe- 
fus to offer a facrifice to Apollo, and to give a confiderable 
fum to each inhabitant: but, a quarrel arifing betwixt him 
and the Delphians, he fent back the money to Croefus; 
for he thought thofe for whom the prince defigned it had 
rendered themfelves unworthy of it. The inhabitants of 
Delphi contrived an accufation of facrilege againft him; 
and, pretending they had conviCted him, threw him head¬ 
long from a rock. For this cruelty and injuftice, we are 
told they were vifited with famine and peftilence; and, 
confulting the oracle, they received for anfwer, that the 
god defigned this as a punifhment for their treatment of 
A ifop: they endeavoured to make an atonement, by rai¬ 
ling a pyramid to his honour. 
./Esop (Clodius), a celebrated aCtor, who flouriflied 
about the 670th year of Rome. He and Rofcir.s were co¬ 
temporaries, and the beft performers who ever appeared 
upon the Roman ffage, the former excelling in tragedy, 
the latter in comedy. Cicero put himfelf under their di¬ 
rection to perfeCt his aCtion. .Efop lived in a molt expen- 
live manner, and at one entertainment is faid to have had 
a diffi which colt above 800I. this dilh, we are told, w'as 
filled with flinging- and fpeaking birds, fome of which colt 
near 50I. The delight which Efop took in this fort of 
birds proceeded, as Mr. Bayle obferves, from the ex¬ 
pence. He did not make a dilh of them becaufe they could 
(peak, according to the refinement of Pliny upon this cir- 
cumltance, this motive being only by accident; but be¬ 
caufe of their extraordinary price. If there had been any 
birds that could not fpeak, and yet more fcarce and dear 
than thefe, he would have procured fuch for his table. 
Efop’s Ion was no lefs luxurious than his father, for he 
dilfolved pearls for his gueffs to fwallow. Some fpeak of 
this as a common practice of his; but others mention his 
hilling into this excels only on a particular day, when he 
was treating his friends. Horace fpeaks only of one pearl 
of great value, which he dilfolved in vinegar, and drank. 
Alt' op, notwithftanding his expences, is faid to have died 
worth above i6o,oool. When he was upon the ffage, he 
entered into his part to fuch a degree, as fometimes to be 
feized with a perfeCt exffacy. Plutarch mentions it as re¬ 
ported of him, that, whilll he was reprefenting Atreus 
deliberating how he fliould revenge himfelf on Thyeftes, 
he was fo tranfported beyond himfelf in the heat of ac¬ 
tion, that with his truncheon he (mote one of the fervants 
eroding the ffage, and laid him dead on the fpot. 
ESTIMATIO CAPITIS, f. a term met with in old 
law-books for a fine anciently paid for offences committed 
againli perfons of quality, according to their feveral de¬ 
grees. 
zb STU ARIA, f, in geography, denotes an arm of the 
fea which runs a good way within land. Such is the Brif- 
tol Channel, and many of the Friths of Scotland. 
ESTU ARIES, J. in ancient baths, were fecret paffa- 
ges from the hypocauftum into the chambers. 
ESTUARY, f. among phyficians, a vapour-bath, or 
any other inftrument for conveying heat to the body. 
ESYMNIUM, in antiquity, a monument erefted to 
the memory of the heroes, by Efymnus the Megaream 
T H 17 9 
He, confulting the oracle in what manner the Megareans 
might be mod happily governed, was anfwered, “ If they 
held confultation with the more numerous:” whom beta¬ 
king for the dead, built the faid monument, and a fenate- 
houfc that took within its compafs the monument; imagi¬ 
ning that thus the dead would aflift at their confultations. 
ESTATE PROBANDA, f. was a writ that lay to en¬ 
quire, whether the king’s tenant holding in cabite by- 
knight’s fervice, was of full age to receive his lands into 
his own hands. It was directed to the efcheator of the 
county, but is now difufed, fince wards and liveries were 
by ffatute taken away. 
EETH, or Ath, a ftrong little town in the Auffrian 
Netherlands and province of Hainault, (ituated on the ri¬ 
ver Dender, about twenty miles S. W. of Bruffels. 
ETHAI.IA, or Ii.ua, now Elba; an ifland on the 
coaft of Etruria, in compafs an hundred miles, abounding 
in iron. 
./ETHIOPIA. See Ethiopia. 
ETHIOPIS,y. in botany. See Salvia. 
ETHUSA, J. [aiScwcra, beggarly.] In botany, a genus 
of the pentandria digynia clafs, ranking in the natural or¬ 
der of umbellatae or umbcllifene. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx: umbel univerfal fpreading, the rays gra¬ 
dually Ihortening towards the middle : partial alfo fpread¬ 
ing but fmall; involucre univerfal none, partial placed on 
the outfide, only confiding of three very long, linear, pen¬ 
dulous leaflets; proper perianthium fcarcely obfervable- 
Corolla: univerfal nearly uniform, with all the flofcules 
fertile: partial has the petals bent in, heart-fhaped and 
unequal. Stamina: filaments finiple with roundifii an- 
thene. Piftillum germ inferior; ftyles reflex with ob- 
tufe feigmas; fruit roundilh, (freaked, bipartile. Seeds: 
two, roundifii, (freaked, except on a third part of the fur- 
face, which is plane.- E.JJ'ential CkaraElcr. Partial in¬ 
volucre halved, three-leaved, pendulous; fruit (freaked. 
Species. 1. Ethufa cynapium, or common fool’s parf- 
ley: leaves conform. Fool’s parfley, called alfo lelfer 
hemlock, is a very common weed in kitchen gardens, and 
in a (light degree poifoiious. It is ealily diftinguifhed 
when in flower (July and Auguff) from true parffey and 
chervil, by the three narrow pendent folioles or leaflets 
of the involucre, placed on the outer part only of the um¬ 
bel; whereas thofe of the partial umbels in chervil fur- 
round them entirely, growing equally on every (ide : and, 
as to parfley, it has only a few fhort leaflets fine aimed as 
hairs, and diftributed indifferently at the bafe of both um¬ 
bels. Fool’s parfley is a much humbler plant than either 
of the others. They can only be confounded in a very 
young date, and even then the leaves may be obferved to 
have a different form, a darker hue, and, on being bruifed, 
to emit in a flight degree- a difagreeable venomous fmell. 
The fafeft way to avoid all doubt is to cultivate the curled 
parfley. Molt cattle eat it: but it is faid to be-noxious to 
geefe. 
2. Ethufa bunius, or coriander-leaved fool’s parffey: 
radical leaves pinnate, cauline manifold-fetaceous. Thisr 
fpecies is perennial, and it is a native of the Pyrennees. 
3. Ethufa meum, or Cpignel, mew, or bawd-money: alt 
the leaves manifold-fetaceous. This is alfo a perennial 
plant, riling a foot and a half high, with channelled dalles,, 
terminated by an umbel of flowers, that are white with a 
little tinfture of green, and are fucceeded by oblong' 
fmooth feeds. The leaves are much branched, and com- 
pofed of line capillary leaflets, fet clofe, and of a deep 
green. The old name of this fpecies is meum, but it 
flood in the genus athamanta in Liniireus’s Works, till the 
fourteenth edition of the Syftenra Naturae. It grows wild 
in the mountains of Switzerland, Germany, Auftria, Car- 
niola, Italy, and Spain. Alfo in the high padures of Well- 
moreland, Cumberland, Lancafhire, and Merionethfhire^ 
The roots and feeds are aromatic and acrid : they are re¬ 
commended as carminatives and ftomachics; in the done, 
ftoppage of urine, and- all uterine diforders; fometimes 
they are given to cure tertians. Spignel is uu ingredient 
