Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/923

* ELIOT. 801 ELIOT. familiar wild Italiiin life, sudi as Biinvniiij;. Ros- setti, and William Story, frankly said that tlicy could not read it, boeaust'. in spito of the erudi- tion, the book as a whole ilid not rin<; true. Middhmanh. whieh represents a return to the author's earlier field, has had its sliare of eliani- pions. It has sometimes been defined as a j^reat prose epic of English provincial life, a huge picture of the manners and customs of social strata a degree or two higher up tlian the Dod- sons and the Poysers. Like real life, it is com- posite, an intricate fabric of many interwoven stories. Yet tlie princi])al actors — Dorothea and Casaubon. Kosamiind and l.ydgalt — stand out distinct, familiar pcui raits in the permanent gal- lery of characters in Knglish fiction. The fiercest controversy of all has been waged over Dciniel Deronda. It has been stigmatized as a tendency novel, the strongest jiroof of Lewes's pernicious influence. The characters have been pronounced severally and collectively unreal. Mordecai has been declared a bore, and hisJdreani of restoring the Jewish nationality chimerical. Deronda himself is "an amiable monnmaniac and ])rosy moralist." Yet other critics have .seen in it "a work as far superior to Adum liedc as Hamlet is superior to Much Ado About Nothing." an effort to scale the loftiest heii'lits and sound the lowest depths of human nature, and. conceding the impossi- bility of the task, have recognized the nobility of the partial failure. George Eliot's claims to recognition as a poet rest almost wholly upon one long dramatic poem. The (S'/xni i.sn Oi/psi/. The motive is a young girl's renunciation of happiness when, on the eve of marriage, she learns that her father is a gypsy, who is about to found a gypsy nation in Africa, and requires her to sacrifice lover, country, and religion, in order to join him. The verse, however, is at best not of a high order. and the plot lacks common sense. The first collected edition of her works was made in Edinburgh and London. 1878-80. Consult: George Eliot's Life as lielnted in Ber Letters and Journals, arranged and edited by her hus- band .J. V. Cross (3 vols., London. 188.5) ; Park- inson, ftcenes from the George Eliot Country (Leeds. 1888) ; .Tames, Partial Portraits (Lon- don. 1888) : Blinde, George Eliot (London, 1883) ; Dowden, Studies in Literature (London, 1878) ; Browning, Life of George Eliot (London, 1892) : Stephen. George Eliot (Xew York, 1902). ELIOT, or ELLIOT, George AtGUSTUS. See Heathfieli). Geokue Augustls. ELIOT, Sir .Tonx (1592-1632). An English patriot and statesman, born at Port Eliot, Cornwall, April 20, 1502. He spent three years at Exeter College, Oxford, when-, however, he did not take a degree, and after studying law trav- eled on the Continent, where he became friendly with George Villiers. afterwards Duke of Buck- ingham. At the age of twenty-two be entered Parliament, and at twenty-seen was made Viee- Admiral of Devon, in which office he captured Xutt. a fanmus pirate, whose depredations were a constant infiiction upon the commerce of the southern coast. By bribery Xutt obtained his release and continued his depredations, while Eliot was imprisimed. on false charges, for four months in the Alarshalsea. He received popular .sympathy, and inuueilialely upon his release, in 1624, was returned to Parliament, where, during the first three Parliaments of Charles I., with Pyni, Hampden, Selden, and Coke, he was the foremost leader in resisting the encroacliments of the Crown. He spoke boldly against the venality of Ihe .Ministry and the unwarranted foreign poliiy of his former friend ISuckingham, and urged Parliament to withhold supplies until an account was given of the money already voted. For comparing Buckingham to Sejanus he was imprisoned in the Tower in 1620, but the Com- mons compelled his release and exonerated him by special vole. He suffered another short im- prisonment for petitioning the King against forced loans, and later received sentence of out- lawry. These persecutions only increased his popularity, and though strenuously opposed by the Court, he was again returned to Parliament in 1628. He took part in drawing up the Peti- tion of Right, .and. on the la.st day of that Par- liament, directed Holies and V^alentine to hold the Speaker in the chair by force, while he read a protest against tonnage and poundage and otlier taxes ami ads lumuthorized by Parliament. Being summoned lieforc the Council, with Holies, Selden, Valentine, and others, he refused to answer for his acts in Parliament except to Par- liament itself and was confined in the Tower, with his fellow-members, for more than two months, until popular indignation compelled the King to. bring him to trial. The offenders were heavily fined and sentenced to be imprisoned during the King's pleasure; and not to be re- leased until they had given security for good behavior, submitted to the King, and acknowl- edged their offenses. The confinement of the others was greatly relaxed until they were all released, but Eliot could make no conscientious submission. The rigor of his imprisonment was increased, and his health suffered. His simple and manly petitions for temporary release were ignored, and he was allowed to sicken and die after tw'o years' imprisonment, on X^ovember 27, 1632. His death contributed largely to the downfall and execution of Charles. During the Commonwealth Eliot's .sentence of conviction was reversed by act of Parliament. His writings in- clude TheMonarehy of Man (1879) ; .-In Apology for Socrates (1881); Negotiuni Posterorum (IS81): De .Jure 'Majestatis (1882); and the Letter-Book of Sir John Eliot (1882). Consult: .Tohn Forster. Life of Sir John Eliot (2d ed. London. 1.S7I); and Gardiner. Uistory of Eng- land (London. 1893-95), vols, v.-vii. ELIOT, .Toii.N (1604-90). A clergy-man of early Boston, known as 'the .postle to the In- ilians.' He was born at Xazing. Essex, England, in 1604. He was educated at .lesus College, Cam- bridge, and took orders in the Church of Eng- land. Infiuenced by Thomas Hooker, he l)ecame a non-conformist, and went to Boston in 1631. For a year he preached in the church of Mr. Wil- son in Boston, and in 1632 became settled as •teacher" of the church in Roxbury. He re- nniincd there the rest of his life. He acquired the language of the Pequot Indians from a young native taken prisoner in 1637. He first prea<'hed bcf(U-e the Indians without an inter])reter at X'onantum, now Brighton, about five miles west of Boston, on Octol)er 2S, 1646. This was the beginning of years of toil for the conversion of the Indians, during which Eliot traveled north- ward to the .Merriniae River and into the south-