, where he died; his
Journal and Letters are published (1811-1863).

ELGIN MARBLES, a collection of ancient sculptured marbles brought
from Athens by the Earl of Elgin in 1812, and now deposited in the
British Museum, after purchase of them by the Government for L35,000;
these sculptures adorned certain public buildings in the Acropolis, and
consist of portions of statues, of which that of Theseus is the chief, of
alto-reliefs representing the struggle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, and
of a large section of a frieze.

ELIA, the _nom de plume_ adopted by Charles Lamb in connection with
his Essays.

ELIAS, MOUNT, a mountain in NW. coast of N. America; conspicuous far
off at sea, being about 18,000 ft. or 31/2 m. above it.

ELIJAH, a Jewish prophet, born at Tishbe, in Gilead, near the
desert; prophesied in the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, in the 10th
century B.C.; revealed himself as the deadly enemy of the worship of
Baal, 400 of whose priests he is said to have slain with his own hand;
his zeal provoked persecution at the hands of the king and his consort
Jezebel, but the Lord protected him, and he was translated from the earth
in a chariot of fire, "went up by a whirlwind into heaven." See
PROPHETS, THE.

ELIOT, GEORGE, the _nom de plume_ of Mary Ann Evans, distinguished
English novelist, born at Arbury, in Warwickshire; was bred on
evangelical lines, but by-and-by lost faith in supernatural Christianity;
began her literary career by a translation of Strauss's "Life of Jesus";
became in 1851 a contributor to the _Westminster Review_, and formed
acquaintance with George Henry Lewes, whom she ere long lived with as his
wife, though unmarried, and who it would seem discovered to her her
latent faculty for fictional work; her first work in that line was
"Scenes from Clerical Life," contributed to _Blackwood_ in 1856; the
stories proved a signal success, and they were followed by a series of
seven novels, beginning in 1858 with "Adam Bede," "the finest thing since
Shakespeare," Charles Reade in his enthusiasm said, the whole winding up
with the "Impressions of Theophrastus Such" in 1879; these, with two
volumes of poems, make up her works; Lewes died in 1878, and two years
after she formally married an old friend, Mr. John Cross, and after a few
months of wedded life died of inflammation of the heart; "she paints,"
says Edmond Scherer, "only ordinary life, but under these externals she
makes us assist at th