Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/223

Rh E G E JS r G 213 two volumes of sermons (1768-1770), as well as a collec tion of hymns and family prayers, which raet with a very favourable reception. In 1770 he was appointed tutor and lecturer on the belles-lettres at Warriugton academy, an office which he held till the dissolution of the academy in 1783. On accepting it he obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws from the university of Edinburgh. Simultaneously with his tutorial appointment he held the pastoral charge of the dissenting congregation of Warrington. After an interval of two years spent in private tuition, he was chosen pastor of the dissenting (Unitarian) congregation of Octagon Street, Norwich, where he remained till his death, which toak place November 3, 1797, in the 57th year of his age. Of the works of Dr Enfield a considerable number are mere compilations, in which no higher quality is displayed than the taste which dictated the selection. To tins class belong the Preacher s Directory (1771), the English Preacher (1773-4), the Speaker (1775), and others. The last named work, an elocutionary manual, has pissed through numerous editions, and Enfield s name is better known in connection with it than through any of his other works. Among his original works, however, and especially those published or written at tlie close of his life, there are some that display considerable powers of thought and great elegance of expression. His posthumous sermons on the principal characters of the Old and New Testaments not only evince the author s ability as a commentator, but show profound insight into the ethics of history. In theology he was a Socinian. At the recommendation of Dr Bagot, bishop of Norwich, he published an abridg ment of Brucker s History of Philosophy, in 2 vols. 4to. He also wrote a work, entitled the Institutes of Natural Philosophy, Theoretical and Experimental, 4to, 1783, besides a variety of occasional pamphlets and sermons. His last literary employment was in writing for his friend Dr John Aikin s Biographical Dictionary. More than half the lives in the first volume of that work are from his pen. ENGADINE (the ancient Vallis Eniatina or CKniyadena, German Engadin, Italian Engadina the valley of the Inn from its source to the Austrian frontier at Martinsbruck, a distance (by road) of about 65 miles. It is divided politically into two districts, the Upper and Lower Engadine, and four circles, which form part of the Gofcteshausbund, one of the three leagues comprised in canton of Orisons, Switzerland, The Upper Engadine has only one circle, whose chief village is Samaden. It consists of the valley of the Inn with its tributaries. The river flows through a long and straight trough, about 30 miles iu length, and varying from a mile to half a mile in breadth, lying between lofty mountains, at a mean height of 5500 feet above the sea, being, after the Avers and Spol valleys, the highest inha bited region of central Europe. Unlike most Alpine valleys the Engadine is closed at its head only by a low bank. The Maloya Pass (5942 feet) is hardly 100 feet above the lake of Sils. The lakes of Silvaplaua and St Moritz lie at nearly the same level. Samaden (ad sum- mum CEni) stands at the junction of the Inn and its first considerable tributary the Flatzbach. This stream drains the principal glaciers of the Bernina chain, the largest glacier group in eastern Switzerland, remarkable for its closely-clustered summits, the highest of which, Piz Bernina, attains a height of 13,294 feet. Beside the Flatzbach runs the road to the Bernina Pass (7658 feet), leading into the Val Tellina. It passes Pontresiua, a village of late years much frequented in summer by travellers of all nations. Its name has been assumed to be a trace of the presence of Saracens in this part of the Alps (Pons Saracenorum). Another and more plausible deriva tion (Pons Rluetiie) has been suggested. The valley below Samaden is for some distance level and uniform, and studded with nourishing hamlets. The boundary between the two Engadines lies between Scaufs and Zernetz, in an uninhabited part of the valley. Owing to its great elevation, the scenery of the Upper Engadine has a bleak northern aspect. Pines and larches alone flourish, garden vegetables are grown only in sunny spots, and there is no tillage. The Alpine flora, however, is very rich and varied, and the Upper Engadine has been called &quot; a paradise for the botanist.&quot; Snow always lies low on the mountain sides, and often falls even in the valley in the month of August. Hence the climate is described in the proverb &quot; Nine months winter and three mouths cold weather.&quot; The mean annual temperature is 3 6 5 Fahr., that of the summer months 50 - 8 Fahr., of the winter 17 5 Fahr. The villages are built entirely of stone. The houses are large and roomy, a cattle stable being often included under the same roof. The small deeply-set windows bear witness to the severity of the climate. Those of the lower story are protected with iron gratings, a precaution the character of the people does not justify. An abundant use of paint and whitewash gives many of the dwellings an almost Dutch air of cleanliness, and the window-sills are usually decorated with carnations and other bright flowers. The Lower Engadine is divided into three circles. Schuls is the chief village ; next in importance is Zer netz, which stands at the junction of the Inn and Spol. The latter stream issues from Val di Livigno, the only inhabited valley north of the Alps belonging to Italy. A.t this point the Inn flows for a few miles due N. through a wooded defile before resuming its N.E. course. From Suss to Finstermunz it runs in a deep channel, while the villages lie high on terraces on the mountain sides, cut off from one another by deep ravines, through which descend streams from the glaciers of the Silvretta (Silva RhaBtiaa) range on the N. and from the wild dolomite ridges of the Scarlthal on the S. Iu the recesses of the latter bears are still found. The villages of the Lower Engadine are not so well built as those of the upper valley, and the inhabi tants are said to be less energetic and more ignorant than their neighbours. Below the village of Schuls, on the left bank of the Inn, lie the baths of Tarasp, much resorted to by North Germans. The springs to which they chiefly owe their repute are saline-alkaline in character. One of the highroads into Italy has since early times passed through the Upper Engadine. The Romans used the Bernina Pass in conjunction with the Julier. In the Middle Ages this route was the most frequented between the Mont Cenis and the Brenner, and was chosen by travellers who wished to avoid the Milanese territory and the Spanish troops. In recent years the old mule-track over the Bernina Pass has been converted into a military road, and the internal communications of the country have been opened up on all sides. Roads have been made over the Albula, Fluela, and Ofen Passes, and the villages of the Lower Engadine, previously almost inaccessible on wheels, have been united by a good road both to the upper valley and to Tyrol. The population of the valley at the last census (1870) was 9756, of which 8402 are Protestants and 1335 Catho lics. The Catholics are found chiefly at Tarasp and in the secluded glens of Samnaun and Sainpnoir on the Tyrolese frontier. The people are industrious, frugal, and alive to their own interests, and at the same time more independent in manner, and less courteous to strangers than those of central Switzerland. With the exception of Tarasp, which is mostly German, the whole district is &quot; Romautsch.&quot; The language is a dialect known as Ladin,&quot; nearly allied to