Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/813

Rh Scientific Society of Gottingen, and in 1819 Gelieimer Justizrath of Hanover. His health was shattered by an attack of inflammation of the lungs in the year 1825, but he regularly continued his prelections to a large number of students until attacked by fever on the 14th June 1827. He died on the 27th of that month. Eichhorn is the author of a good many historical works, but it is as a biblical critic that he is best known. He may almost be said to have originated the science of biblical criticism, for he first properly recognized its scope and the problems it had to solve, and began many of its most important discus sions. He was the first to see the necessity of finding a firm historical foundation for everything in Christianity that was to be accepted as fact. Preliminary to his endeavours towards this end, he took for granted that all the so-called supernatural facts relating to the Old and New Testaments were explicable on natural principles. He sought to judge them from the stand-point of the ancient world, and to account for them by the supersti tious beliefs which were then generally in vogue. He did not perceive in the biblical books any religious ideas of much importance for modern times ; they interested him merely historically, and for the light they cast upon antiquity. The supernatural element which they contained he attributed partly to the artificial delusions of magic, and partly to the natural delusions of a superstitious time. He regarded as ^ungenuine many books of the Old Testament and some of the Epistles, and he was the first to suggest that the Gospels were compiled by later writers from documents which have now perished. He did not appreciate as sufficiently as Strauss and the Tubingen critics the difficulties which a natural theory has to sur mount, nor did he support his conclusions by such elaborate and minute discussions as they have deemed necessary, but he may be justly denominated the founder of their school of biblical criticism. 1em  EICHHORN, (1781-1854), a son of the preceding, and a learned writer on jurisprudence, was born at Jena on the 20th November 1781. He entered the university of Gottingen in 1797. In 1805 he obtained the professorship of law at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, holding it till 1811, when he accepted the same chair at Berlin. On the call to arms in 1813 he became a captain of horse, and he received at the end of the war the decoration of the Iron Cross. In 181 7 he was offered the chair of law at Got tingen, and, preferring it to the Berlin professorship, taught at Gottingen with great success till ill health compelled him to resign in 1828. His successor in the Berlin chair having died in 1832, he again entered on its duties, but resigned it two years afterwards. In 1832 he also received an appointment in the ministry of foreign affairs, which, with his labours on many state committees and his legal researches and writings, occupied him till his death in July 1854. Eichhorn is regarded as one of the principal autho rities on German constitutional law. His chief work is Deutsche Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, 4 vols. In company first with Savigny and Goschen, and then with Iliidorf, he edited the Zeitschrift fur geschichtliche ReclitswissenscJiaft. He is the author besides of Einlcitung in das dculsclic Privatrecht mit Einschluss des Lehnrcchts and the Grundsatze des Kirchenrechts der kath. und evang. Rdigionspartei in Deutschland.  EICHSTÄDT, or, originally Eistet, a town in the Bavarian district of Franconia, is situated in a deep valley on the Altmiihl, about 35 miles south of Nuremberg. It is inclosed by walls, and has a very antique appearance. It is the seat of a bishop, and since 1838 of the appeal court of Middle Franconia. The making of stoneware, iron smelting, brewing, and weaving constitute its chief in dustries. It possesses a good many educational institutions. Among its principal buildings are the palace occupied by the dukes of Leuchtenberg, with its beautiful park, and con taining a celebrated Brazilian cabinet ; the town-house ; the cathedral, containing some beautiful paintings and windows, and the grave of Wilibald, the first bishop and founder of the town ; and the church of St Walpurgis, under whose altar the bones of the saint of that name are said to rest. Near the town is the famous stronghold Wilibaldsburg, occupying the site of a Roman castle, and built for a bishop s residence by St Wilibald in 740.

1em  EIDER (Icelandic, jEff-iir), a large marine Duck, the Somateria mollissima of ornithologists, famous for its down, which, from its extreme lightness and elasticity, is in great request for filling bed-coverlets. This bird generally fre quents low rocky islets near the coast, and in Iceland and Norway has long been afforded every encouragement and protection, a fine being inflicted for killing it during the breeding-season, or even for firing a gun near its haunts, while artificial nesting-places are in many localities contrived for its further accommodation. From the care thus taken of it in those countries it has become exceedingly tame at its chief resorts, which are strictly regarded as property, and the taking of eggs or down from them, except by authorized persons, is severely punished by law. In appearance the Eider is somewhat clumsy, though it flies fast and dives admirably. The female is of a dark reddish- brown colour barred with brownish-black. The adult male in spring is conspicuous by his pied plumage of sable beneath, and creamy-white above : a patch of shining sea&amp;lt; green on his head is only seen on close inspection. This plumage he is considered not to acquire until his third year, being when young almost exactly like the female, and it is certain that the birds which have not attained their full dress remain in flocks by themselves without going to the breeding-stations. The nest is generally in some con venient corner among large stones, hollowed in the soil, and furnished with a few bits of dry grass, seaweed, or heather. By the time that the full number of eggs (which rarely if ever exceeds five) is laid the down is added. Generally the eggs and down are taken at intervals of a few days by the owners of the &quot; Eider-fold,&quot; and the birds are thus kept depositing both during the whole season ; but some experi ence is needed to insure the greatest profit from each com modity. Every Duck is ultimately allowed to hatch an egg or two to keep up the stock, and the down of the last nest is gathered after the birds have left the spot. The story of the Drake s furnishing down, after the Duck s sup ply is exhausted, is a fiction. He never goes near the nest. The eggs have a strong flavour, but are much relished by 