Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/547

Rh E R N E II P 527 more through the greater excellence of their methods, are entitled to be held the founders of the new German school of ancient literature. Both, but especially Ernesti, detected grammatical niceties in the Latin tongue, in regard to the consecution of tenses, for instance, which had escaped preceding critics. His canons are, however, not without exceptions. As an editor of the Greek classics, Ernesti deserves hardly to be named beside his Dutch contem poraries, Hemsterhuis, Valckenaer, Ruhnken, or his col league lleiske. The higher criticism was not even at tempted by Ernesti. But to him and to Gesner the praise is due of having formed, partly by their discipline and partly by their example, philologists greater than them selves, and of having kindled the national enthusiasm for ancient learning. As a theologian, Ernesti is far less conspicuous than as a scholar, and his influence is not so marked either on his contemporaries or on his successors. It is, indeed, chiefly in hermeneutics that Ernesti has any claim to the char acter of a great theologian. But here his merits are distinguished, and, at the period when his Institutio Interpretis j r. T. was published, almost peculiar to himself. In it we find the principles of a general interpretation, formed without the assistance of any particular philosophy, but consisting of observations and rules which, though already enunciated, and applied in the criticism of the profane writers, had never rigorously been employed in biblical exegesis. He admits in the sacred writings as in the classics only one acceptation, and that the grammatical, convertible into and the same with the logical and historical. He therefore justly censures the opinion of those who in the illustration of the Scriptures refer everything to the illumination of the Holy Spirit, as well as that of others who, disregarding all knowledge of the languages, would explain words by things, and thus introduce into the holy writings their peculiar glosses and opinions. The &quot; analogy of faith,&quot; as a rule of interpretation, he greatly limits, and teaches that it can never alone afford the explanation of words, but only determine the choice among their possible significations, and must always stand in need of philology as an assistant. Every principle of his interpretation, however, rests on the assumption of the inspiration of the Scriptures, and he seems unconscious of any inconsistency between that doctrine as usually received and his principles of hermeneutics. It must be admitted that those of his followers who have seen the inconsistency, and endeavoured by one means or other to obviate it, have been more logical than their master. In the higher criticism of the sacred books Ernesti did nothing. In dogmatic he always expressed great contempt of strict systematic theology ; and thuugh he lectured for many years on the Aj)korisms of Neumann, it was rather in refutation than in support of his text-book. Among his works the following are the more important : I. In classical liter.iture : Initia Doctrince Solidioris, 1736, 8vo, many subsequent editions; Initia Rhctorica, 1730; editions, mostly annotated, of Xenophon s Memorabilia (1737), Cicero (1737-39), Suetonius (1743), Tacitus (1752), the Clouds of Aristophanes (1754) Homer (1759-64), Callimachus (1761), Polybius (1764), as well as of the Qucesiura of Corradus, the Greek lexicon of Hedericus, and the Bibliolhfca, Latino, of Fabrieius (unfinished) ; Archceologia Liitcraria, 1763, a new and improved edition by Martini; JIorcJAiis Turftellinus de Particulis, 1769. II. In sacred litera ture: Antimuratorius, sive Confutat.io Disputationis Muratoriance de rebus lilurtjids, 1755-58; Neue Thcologische Bibliothck, vols. i. to x. 1760-69, 8vo; Institutio Interpretis Nov. Test., 3d ed., 1775, 8vo; NciKste Thcologische Bibliothck, vols. i. to x. 1771-75, 8vo! Besides these, he published above a hundred smaller works in the form of prefaces, academical dissertations, programmata, memoria?, elogia, epistles, orations, translations, &c., many of which have been collected in the three following publications : Opuscida Oratoria, 1762, 2d edit. 1767, 8vo; Opiiscula Philologica et Critica, 1764, 2d edit. 1776, 8vo; Opussula T/ieologica, 1773, 8vo. ERNESTI, JOHANN CHRISTIAN GOTTLIEB (1756-1802), nephew of the preceding, a distinguished classical scholar and critic, was born at Arnstadt, Thuringia, in 1756. After attending the gymnasium of his native town, he entered the university of Leyden, where he had the advantage of his uncle s superintendence in his studies. He obtained his master s degree in 1777, but continued his studies till 1782. On the 5th June of that year he was made supplementary professor of philosophy at his native university ; and on the death of his cousin August Wilhelm, he was in 1802 elected professor of rhetoric. He died on the 5th June of the same year, having discharged his new professionil duties for only five months. His principal works are an edition of JEsopi fabulce Gfr. (1781 Uesychii glossce sacrce emendationibus notisquc illustrates (I78b), Suidce et Phavorini glossce sacrce (1786), Silii Italici Punicorum Libri Septemdccim, etc., 2 vols. (1791 and 1792), Lexicon Techno- logice Grcecorum rhctoricce (1795), Lexicon Technologies Roman- orum rhctoricce (1797), and Cicero s Geist und Kunst (1799-1802). He also edited some of his uncle s works. ERNST, HEINRICH WILHELM (1814-1865), an emi nent violinist and composer, was born at Brunn, in Moravia, in 1814. He received his musical education at the Conservatorium of Vienna, studying the violin under Joseph Boehm and Mayseder, and composition under Seyfried. At the age of sixteen he made a concert tour through various towns of south Germany, which was the means of establishing his reputation as a violinist of the highest promise. In 1832 he visited Paris, where he found a warm reception, and continued to reside for several years. During this period he formed that intimacy with Stephen Heller of which a permanent memorial has been left in their charming joint-compositions the Pensees Fugitives for piano and violin. In 1843 he paid his first visit to London at the close of the musical season. The impression which he then made on a limited circle was more than confirmed during a longer residence in the following year, when his rare powers as a violinist were recognized by the general body of the musical public. Thenceforward he visited Engla,nd nearly every year, until his health entirely broke down under the pressure of long continued neuralgic disease of a most severe kind, which frequently incapacitated him from the exercise of his art. The last seven years of his life were spent in retirement, chiefly at Nice, where he died on the 8th October 1865. As a violinist Ernst was distinguished for his almost unrivalled executive power, for his loftiness of conception, and for his intensely passionate expression. As a com poser he wrote chiefly for his own instrument, and his Elegie and Otello Fantasia rank among the most treasured works for the violin. Ernst was a man of a singularly generous nature, as was shown by the unfailing readiness with which he gave his services for the benefit of his brother artists. EROS, in Greek mythology, Love or Desire. By later poets he is represented as a son of Zeus and Gaia (the Earth), or Aphrodite, or Artemis ; but in the Hesiodic theogony he makes up, with CHiaos, Gaia, and Tartarus, the number of self-existent deities, and as the most beautiful of all the gods, he conquers the mind and will of both gods and men. The name Eros answers to the Vedic Arusha, a name applied to the sun, but only at his rising. Arusha, like the Greek Eros and the Latin Cupido, is spoken of as a child with beautiful wings. ERPENIUS (original name, VON ERPE), THOMAS (1584-1624), a distinguished Orientalist, was born at Gor- cum, in Holland, September 11, 1584. After completing his early education at Leyden, he entered the university of that city, and in 1608 took the degree of master of arts. By the advice of Scaliger he studied the Oriental languages whilst taking his course of theology; and he even then