cter than
orthodoxy of belief (1583-1643).

EPISTOLAE OBSCURORUM VIRORUM (i. e. letters of obscure men), a
celebrated collection of Latin letters which appeared in the 16th century
in Germany, attacking with merciless severity the doctrines and modes of
living of the scholastics and monks, credited with hastening the
Reformation.

EPITAPH, an inscription placed on a tombstone in commemoration of
the dead interred below. The natural feeling which prompts such
inscriptions has manifested itself among all civilised peoples, and not a
little of a nation's character may be read in them. The Greeks reserved
epitaphs for their heroes, but amongst the Romans grew up the modern
custom of marking the tombs of relatives with some simple inscription,
many of their sepulchres being placed on the side of the public roads, a
circumstance which explains the phrase, _Siste, viator_--Stay,
traveller--found in old graveyards.

EPITHALAMIUM, a nuptial song, sung before the bridal chamber in
honour of the newly-wedded couple, particularly among the Greeks and
Romans, of whom Theocritus and Catullus have left notable examples; but
the epithalamium of Edmund Spenser is probably the finest specimen extant
of this poetic form.

EPPING FOREST, as it now exists in the SE. of Essex, is a
remnant--5600 acres--of the famous Epping or Waltham Forest, which once
extended over all Essex, and which then served as a royal hunting-ground,
is now a favourite pleasure-ground and valuable field for explorations of
botanical and entomological collectors.

EPSOM, a market-town in Surrey, skirting Banstead Downs, 15 m. SW.
of London; formerly noted for its mineral springs, now associated with
the famous Derby races.

EQUINOCTIAL POINTS are the two points at which the celestial equator
intersects the ECLIPTIC (q. v.), so called because the days and
nights are of equal duration when the sun is at these points.

EQUINOXES, the two annually recurring times at which the sun arrives
at the EQUINOCTIAL POINTS (q. v.), viz., 21st March and 22nd
September, called respectively the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes in
the northern hemisphere, but vice versa in the southern; at these times
the sun is directly over the equator, and day and night is then of equal
length over the whole globe.

EQUITES, THE, a celebrated equestrian order in ancient Rome,
supposed to have been instituted by Romulus; at first purely military, it
was at length invested