in a picturesque region on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two miles S.W. is Mount St. Mary’s College (Roman Catholic), founded in 1808 by the Rev. John du Bois (1764–1842)—its president until 1826, when he became bishop of New York—and chartered by the state in 1830. The Ecclesiastical Seminary of the college has been a great training school, and has been called the “Nursery of Bishops”; among its graduates have been Bishop Hughes, Cardinal McCloskey and Archbishop Corrigan. In 1908 the college had 25 instructors and 350 students, of whom 57 were in the Ecclesiastical Seminary, and 61 in the Minim Department. Half a mile S. of the town is St Joseph’s College and Academy (incorporated in 1816), for young women, which is conducted by the Sisters of Charity—this order was introduced into the United States at Emmitsburg by Mrs Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1809. The first settlement at Emmitsburg was made about 1773. It was at first called “Silver Fancy,” and then for a time was known as “Poplar Fields”; but in 1786 the present name was adopted in honour of William Emmitt, one of the original settlers. The town was incorporated in 1824.
EMMIUS, UBBO (1547–1625), Dutch historian and geographer,
was born at Gretha in East Friesland on the 5th of December
1547. After studying at Rostock, he spent two years in Geneva,
where he became intimate with Theodore Beza; and returning
to the Netherlands was appointed the principal of a college at
Norden, a position which he lost in 1587 because, as a Calvinist,
he would not subscribe to the confession of Augsburg. Subsequently
he was head of a college at Leer, and in 1594 became
rector of the college at Groningen, and when in 1614 this college
became a university he was chosen principal and professor of
history and Greek, and by his wise guidance and his learning
speedily raised the new university to a position of eminence.
He was on friendly terms with Louis, count of Nassau; corresponded
with many of the learned men of his time; and died
at Groningen on the 9th of December 1625. He was twice
married, and left a son and a daughter. The chief works of
Emmius are: Rerum Frisicarum historiae decades, in six parts,
a complete edition of which was published at Leiden in 1616;
Opus chronologicum (Groningen, 1619); Vetus Graecia illustrata
(Leiden, 1626); and Historia temporis nostri, which was first
published at Groningen in 1732. An account of his life, written
by Nicholas Mulerius, was published, with the lives of other
professors of Groningen, at Groningen in 1638.
See N. G. van Kampen, Geschiedenis der letteren en wetenschappen in de Nederlanden (The Hague, 1821–1826).
EMMONS, EBENEZER (1800–1863), American geologist, was
born at Middlefield, Massachusetts, on the 16th of May 1800.
He studied medicine at Albany, and after taking his degree
practised for some years in Berkshire county. His interest in
geology was kindled in early life, and in 1824 he had assisted
Prof. Chester Dewey (1784–1867) in preparing a geological map of
Berkshire county, in which the first attempt was made to classify
the rocks of the Taconic area. While thus giving much of his
time to natural science, undertaking professional work in natural
history and geology in Williams College, he also accepted the
professorship of chemistry and afterwards of obstetrics in the
Albany Medical College. The chief work of his life was, however,
in geology, and he has been designated by Jules Marcou as
“the founder of American palaeozoic stratigraphy, and the first
discoverer of the primordial fauna in any country.” In 1836
he became attached to the Geological Survey of the State of
New York, and after lengthened study he grouped the local
strata (1842) into the Taconic and overlying New York systems.
The latter system was subdivided into several groups that
were by no means well defined. Emmons had previously
described the Potsdam sandstone (1838), and this was placed
at the base of the New York system. It is now regarded as
Upper Cambrian. In 1844 Emmons for the first time obtained
fossils in his Taconic system: a notable discovery because the
species obtained were found to differ from all then-known
Palaeozoic fossils, and they were regarded as representing the
primordial group. Marcou was thus led to advocate that the
term Taconic be generally adopted in place of Cambrian. Nevertheless
the Taconic fauna of Emmons has proved to include only
the lower part of Sedgwick’s Cambrian. Considerable discussion
has taken place on the question of the Taconic system, and
whether the term should be adopted; and the general opinion
has been adverse. Emmons made contributions on agriculture
and geology to a series of volumes on the natural history of New
York. He also issued a work entitled American Geology;
containing a statement of the principles of the Science, with full
illustrations of the characteristic American Fossils (1855–1857).
From 1851 to 1860 he was state geologist of North Carolina. He
died at Brunswick, North Carolina, on the 1st of October 1863.
See the Biographical Notice of Ebenezer Emmons, by J. Marcou; Amer. Geologist, vol. vii. (Jan., 1891), p. 1 (with portrait and list of publications).
EMMONS, NATHANAEL (1745–1840), American theologian,
was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, on the 20th of April
1745. He graduated at Yale in 1767, studied theology under
the Rev. John Smalley (1734–1820) at Berlin, Connecticut, and
was licensed to preach in 1769. After preaching four years in
New York and New Hampshire, he became, in April 1773,
pastor of the Second church at Franklin (until 1778 a part of
Wrentham, Massachusetts), of which he remained in charge
until May 1827, when failing health compelled his relinquishment
of active ministerial cares. He lived, however, for many years
thereafter, dying of old age at Franklin on the 23rd of September
1840. It was as a theologian that Dr Emmons was best known,
and for half a century probably no clergyman in New England
exerted so wide an influence. He developed an original system
of divinity, somewhat on the structural plan of that of Samuel
Hopkins, and, in Emmons’s own belief, contained in and evolved
from Hopkinsianism. While by no means abandoning the
tenets of the old Calvinistic faith, he came to be looked upon
as the chief representative of what was then known as the
“new school” of theologians. His system declared that holiness
and sin are free voluntary exercises; that men act freely under
the divine agency; that the slightest transgression deserves
eternal punishment; that it is through God’s mere grace that
the penitent believer is pardoned and justified; that, in spite
of total depravity, sinners ought to repent; and that regeneration
is active, not passive, with the believer. Emmonsism was
spread and perpetuated by more than a hundred clergymen,
whom he personally trained. Politically, he was an ardent
patriot during the War of Independence, and a strong Federalist
afterwards, several of his political discourses attracting wide
attention. He was a founder and the first president of the
Massachusetts Missionary Society, and was influential in the
establishment of Andover Theological Seminary. More than
two hundred of his sermons and addresses were published
during his lifetime. His Works were published in 6 vols. (Boston,
1842; new edition, 1861).
See also the Memoir, by Dr E. A. Park (Andover, 1861).
EMPEDOCLES (c. 490–430 B.C.), Greek philosopher and
statesman, was Born at Agrigentum (Acragas, Girgenti) in Sicily
of a distinguished family, then at the height of its glory. His
grandfather Empedocles was victorious in the Olympian chariot
race in 496; in 470 his father Meto was largely instrumental
in the overthrow of the tyrant Thrasydaeus. We know almost
nothing of his life. The numerous legends which have grown
up round his name yield very little that can fairly be regarded
as authentic. It seems that he carried on the democratic tradition
of his house by helping to overthrow an oligarchic government
which succeeded the tyranny in Agrigentum, and was
invited by the citizens to become their king. That he refused
the honour may have been due to a real enthusiasm for free
institutions or to the prudential recognition of the peril which
in those turbulent times surrounded the royal dignity. Ultimately
a change in the balance of parties compelled him to leave
the city, and he died in the Peloponnese of the results of an
accident in 430.
Of his poem on nature (φύσις) there are left about 400 lines in unequal fragments out of the original 5000; of the hymns of purification (καθαρμοί) less than 100 verses remain; of the
