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1. Echoes, Polysyllabical, are those which return manysyllables, words, and sentences. Of tiiis last kind is that tine echoin Wood-stock park, which Dr. Plot assures us, in the day-time,will return very distinctly 17syllables, and in the night 20.
2, Echoes, Tonical, are those which only return a voice,when modulated into some particular musical tone.
ii. Echoes, Tautological, or Multiple, are those that re-turn syllables and words, the same oftentimes repeated. At thesepulchre of Metella, wife of Crassus , was an echo, which repeatedwhat a man said five times. Authors mention a toner at Cyzicus ,where the echo repeated seven times. One of the finest echoeswe read of is that mentioned by Hart hi us, in bis notes on StatiusisThebais, lib. vi. 30, which repeated the words a man uttered 17times: it was on the banks of the Naha, between Coblentz andBingen. Barthius assures us, he had proved what he writes; andhad told 17 repetitions. In common echoes, the repetition is notheard till some time after hearing the word spoken, or the notessung; hut in this, the person who speaks or sings is scarce heard atall ; but the repetition most clearly, and always in surprising va-rieties; the echo seeming sometimes to approach nearer, andsometimes to be further off. Sometimes the voice is heard verydistinctly, and sometimes scarce at all. One hears only one voice,and another several: one hears the echo on the right, and the otheron the left, &c. At Milan in the late Cisalpine republic , is an echowhich reiterates the report of a pistol 55 times; and if the reportis very loud, upwards of 60 reiterations may be counted. Thefirst 20 echoes are pretty distinct; but as the noise seems to flyaway, and answer at a great distance, the reiterations are sodoubled, that they can scarce be counted.
Echo, in architecture, a term applied to certain kinds of vaultsand arches, most commonly of the elliptic and parabolic figuresused to redouble sounds, and produce artificial echoes.
Echo, in poetry, a kind of composition wherein the last wordsor syllables of each verse contains some meaning, which, beingrepeated apart, answers to some question or other matter containedin the verse ; as in this beautiful one from Virgil :
Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille ?
Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater.
The elegance of an echo consists in giving a new sense to the lastwords; which reverberate, as it were, the motions of the mindand by that means affect it with surprise and admiration.
Echo, in the mythology, a daughter of Acr and Tell us, whochiefly resided in the vicinity of the Cephisus. She was once oneof Juno’s attendants, and became the confidant of Jupiter ’s amours.Her loquacity however displeased Jupiter , and she was deprivedof the power of speech by Juno, and only permitted to answer thequestions which were put to her. Echo, after she had beenpunished by Juno, fell in love with Narcissus; but being despisedby him, pined to death, having nothing but her voice left.
ECIIOMETER, [5 sound, and /xirf w to measure,] amongmusicians, a kind of scale or rule, with several lines thereon, serv-ing to measure the duration and length of sounds, and to find theirintervals and ratios.
ECIJA, or ENIJA, a town of Spain, in Andalusia , 55 milesE. N. E. of Seville ,
ECKARDSBERGA, a town of Germany in Upper Saxony, 10miles VV. S. W. of Naumburg .
ECKTERNAC, a town ot France , in the department of Forets,18 miles N. E. of Luxemburg . Lon. 6. 33. E. Lat. 49. 50. N.
ECLECTICS, [from to choose,] ancient philosophers,
who, without attaching themselves to any particular sect, chosewhat they judged good and solid from each. Laertius says thatthey were also denominated Analogetici; but that they call them-selves Philaletbes, i. e. lovers of truth. The lounder of theEcledici was one Potamon of Alexandria, w ho lived under Augus-tus and Tiberius ; and who, weary of doubting of all things withthe Sceptics and Pyrrhonians, formed the Eclectic sect; whichVossius calls the Eciective.
Eclectics w ere also a certain set of physicians among the an-cients, of whom Archigenes, under Trajan , was the chief, who se-lected from the opinions of all the other sects, that which appearedto them best and most rational ; hence they were called eclectics,and their prescriptions medicina eclectica.
Eclectics, or Modern Platonics, asect of Christians, whoarose about the end of the second century. They professed tomake truth the only object of their enquiry, and to be ready to
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adopt from all the different systems and sects, such tenets as thevj,thought agreeable to it. However, they preferred Plato totheother philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning Cod,the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spiritand genius of the Christian doctrine.
ECLEGMA, [«* and A:ix. tlv >] a form of medicine made by theincorporation of o.ls with syrups, and which is to he taken upon aliquorice stick.
ECLIPSE, [oO.fiJ.ir,] an obscuration of the luminaries ofheaven ; the snn is eclipsed by the intervention of the moon ; themoon In the interposition of the earth. See Astronomy.
ECLIPTA, in botany, a genus of the polygamia supevfiua or-der, and syngenesia class] Receptacle chaffy ; no pappus; corol-luhv of the disk quadritid. It has live species natives of both theIndies.
ECLIPTIC , [ni.foTrixo.;,] a great circle of the sphere, passingthrough the middle of the Zodiac. See Astronomy.
ECLOGUE, [ticXoyti, Gr. choice ,] in poetry, a kind of pastoralcomposition, wherein shepherds are introduced conversing to-gether. According to the etymology, eclogue should he no moreIlian a select or choice piece; but custom lias determined it to afarther signification, viz. a little elegant composition in a simplenatural style and manner. Idyllion and eclogue, in their primaryintention, are the same thing: thus, the idyllia, iiJuxxire, of Theo-critus , ate pieces written perfectly in the same vein with theeclog® of Virgil . But custom has made a difference betweenthem, and appropriated the name eclogue to pieces whereinshepherds are introduced speaking; itly liion, to those written likethe eclogue, in asimple natural style, hut without any shepherds inthem.
ECLUSE, a town of France , in the department of the North,and late province of Dutch Flanders. Lon. 3. 10 E. Lat. 50.52. N.
ECONOMY, [oixovof.ua,] a term of extensive signification, andif its meaning be properly understood and practised, the result can-not fail to be attended with the happiest effects. It is, in particu-lar, applied to rural, domestic, animal, political, and other objects,to denote the regulation and management of them, and the ascer-taining of their uses, advantages, &c.
ECONOMICS, the art of managing our affairs in an appropri-ate and advantageous mi'inier.
ECOUTE', in the manege, a pace or motion of a horse, whenhe rides well upon the hands and the heels, is compactly put uponhis haunches, and hears or listens to the heels or spurs, and conti-nues duly balanced between the heels, w ithout throwing to eitherside. 'iVis happens when a horse has a fine sense of the aids of thehand and heel.
ECPtlOllA, in architecture, commonly signifies the distancebetween the extremity of a member or moulding, and the nakedof the column, or any other part it projects from. Some authors,however, account for the eephora from the axis of the column, anddefine it to be the right line intercepted between the axis ami theoutermost surface of a member or moulding.
ECPHRACTICS, [rx and pjaflw,] such medicines as rendertough humours more thin, so as to promote their discharge. SeeAttenuant, Deobstruent, and Detergents.
ECSTAT1CI, [»xr«i7i*M, from ifiri/xi, I um entranced,'] in an-tiquity, a kind of diviners who were cast into trances or ecstasies,in which they lay like men dead or asleep, deprived of all senseand motion; but, after some lime, returning to themselves, cavestrange relations of what they had seen and heard.
ECTI1ES1S, [Gr.]in church history, a confession of faith, in theform of an edict, publishedA.D.639, by the emperor Ileraclius, topacify the troubles occasioned hv the Eulyehian heresy in theeastern church.
EC r JTI LIPSIS, among Latin grammarians, a figure of prosedywhereby the m at the end of a word, when the following word be-gins with a vowel, is elided, or cut off, together with the vowelpreceding it, for the sake of the measure of the verse: thus, for“Monstrum horrendum,informe, ingens, .cui lumen ademptmu”they read. Monstru’ horrend’ inform’ mgeas, cui lumen ademptum.
ECTROPIUM, in surgery, is when the eye-lids ar.' inverted,or retracted,'so that they shew their internal or re sin face, andcannot sufficiently cover the eye.
ECTYLOTICS, remedies proper or consuming callosities,
KCTYPE, [txrv-gb’,] among antiquarians, an impression of a3 O medal,
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