Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/771

Rh E V E E V K 735 the civil war and the accession of Anne. Written with no thought of publication, it embodies the frankest expression of its author s opinions, and affords much curious and interesting information which the historian would have probably passed over, .but which throws a strong light upon the customs and feelings of the age. And Evelyn s statements are always worthy of at least a respectful hearing. In an age of fiercest political and ecclesiastical conflict, himself subject to strong tempta tions to partisanship, he maintained throughout life the same calm temperance of judgment ; and, amid general profligacy, the purity and integrity of his character remained unstained. The competence of his fortune and the moderation of his ambition rendered him politically independent. His attachment to monarchy did not blind him to the vices of kings. Though an earnest Protestant and a firm Episcopalian, he did not allow himself to be carried away into the extravagant bigotry so common among his contemporaries ; he deprecated the persecution of the Protestant dissenters, and though he wrote against the Jesuits, he refused to join in the mad hatred with which all who professed the Roman Catholic faith were popularly regarded. In 1652 Evelyn returned home with his wife, the amiable and talented daughter of Sir Richard Browne, and settled at Sayea Court, the house afterwards famous as the residence of Peter the Great. Though well known to be a royalist, he was not molested, except on one occasion, when he was arrested by a party of fanatic soldiers for observing Christmas Day, but, nothing else being proved against him, was at once released. On the death of Cromwell, he published an Apology for the Royal Party, and tried in vain to persuade Colonel Morley to declare for Charles II. From the Restora tion till his death in 170G he enjoyed unbroken court favour. In the reign of James II., during the absence of the earl of Clarendon in Ireland, he acted as one nf the commissioners of the Privy Seal, and honour ably distinguished himself by refusing, at the risk of offending the king, to sign an illegal licence of popish books. But, with this exception, he never accepted au office of political importance. His life, however, is filled with useful work. He was commissioner for improving the streets and buildings of London, for charitable uses&quot; (/.&amp;lt;?., for examining into the affairs of charitable institutions), and for taking care of the wounded who were brought home during the Dutch war, commissioner of the mint, commissioner of trade and plantations, &c. His love of sci3nce led to his being chosen secretary of the Royal Society, and he twice declined the presidency. It was through his influence that the Anmdelian marbles and the library and MSS. of the earl of Arnndel were presented to the university of Oxford, a service which the university recognized by conferring upon him the degree of D.C.L. His writings were exceedingly numerous. The best known were his Diary and Sylva, an elaborate treatise on arboriculture. Among the others may be mentioned Navigation and Commerce) their Original and Progreess, intended as an introduction to a history of the Dutch war, which he both commenced and laid aside at the command of Charles II.; a Parallel of Ancient and Modern Architecture ; Public Employment preferred to Solitude ; and The History of the Four Great Imjtostors. The first collection of Evelyn s miscellaneous writings, several of which had been published anonymously, ap peared in 1825, printed in facsimile, and edited by W. Upcott. EVEMERUS, or EUREMERUS, a Greek mythographer, who flourished in the latter half of the 4th century B.C. The place of his birth is unknown, but most probably it was either Messina in Sicily or Agrigentum. He is noted chiefly for his Sacred History (Ifpa draypa^), founded professedly on archaic inscriptions which he had collected during his travels in various parts of Greece, and more especially on those observed on the temple of Jupiter Triphylianus, in the island of Panchaea. In this work he introduced a new method of interpreting the popular myths, asserting that tlie gods who formed the chief objects of popular worship had been originally heroes and con querors, who had thus earned a claim to the veneration of their subjects. Till the end of the last century there were many who accepted this system of Evemerus, and the early Christians especially appealed to it as a confirmation of their belief that the ancient mythology was merely an aggregate of fables of human invention. Evemerus was a firm upholder of the Cyrenaic philosophy, and by many ancient writers he was regarded as an atheist. His work was translated by Ennius into Latin, but the work itself is lost, and of the translation only a few fragments, and these very short, have come down to us. EVERDINGEN. Three painters of this name are recorded in the history of Dutch art, all of them related; but one only deserves to be remembered. ALLART vox EVERDINGEX (1621-11675), the son of a Government clerk at Alkmaar, was born, it is said, in 1621, and educated, if we believe an old tradition, under Roeland Savery at Utrecht. He wandered in 1645 to Haarlem, where he studied under Peter de Molyn, and finally settled about 1657 at Amsterdam, where he re mained till his death, It would be difficult to find a greater contrast than that which is presented by the works of Savery and Everdingen. Savery inherited the gaudy style of the Breughels, which he carried into the 17th century ; whilst Everdingen realized the large and effec tive system of coloured and powerfully shaded land scape which marks the precursors of Rembrandt. It is not easy on this account to believe that Savery was Everdingen s master, while it is quite within the range of probability that he acquired the elements of landscape painting from De Molyn. Pieter de Molyn, by birth a Londoner, lived from 1624 till 1661 in Haarlem. He went periodically on visits to Norway, and his works, though scarce, exhibit a broad and sweeping mode of execution differing but slightly from that transferred at the opening of the 17th century from Jan van Goyen to Solomon Ruysdael. His etchings have nearly the breadth and effect of those of Everdingen. It is still an open question when De Molyn wielded influence on his clever disciple. Alkmaar, a busy trading place near the Texel, had little of the picturesque for an artist except polders and downs or waves and sky. Accordingly we find Allart at first a painter of coast scenery. But on one of his expeditions he is said to have been cast ashore in Norway, and during the repairs of his ship he visited the inland valleys, and thus gave a new course to his art. In early pieces he cleverly represents the sea in motion under varied, but mostly clouded, aspects of sky. Their general intonation is strong and brown, atid effects are rendered in a powerful key, but the execution is much more uniform than that of Jacob Ruysdael. A dark scud lowering on a rolling sea near the walls of Flushing characterizes Everdingen s Mouth of the Schelde in the Hermitage at St Petersburg. Storm is the marked feature of sea-pieces in the Stscdel or Robartes collections ; and a strand with wreckers at the foot of a cliff in the Munich Pinakothek may be a reminiscence of personal adventure in Norway. But the Norwegian coast was studied in calms as well as in gales ; and a fine canvas belonging to Professor Piloty at Munich shows fishermen on a still and sunny day taking herrings to a smoking hut at the foot of a Norwegian crag. The earliest of