once speculative and historical, published
in 1748, characterised in "Sartor" as the work, like many others, of "a
clever infant spelling letters from a hieroglyphic book the lexicon of
which lies in Eternity, in Heaven."

ESPY, JAMES POLLARD, a meteorologist, born in Pennsylvania; did
notable work in investigating the causes of storms, and in 1841 published
"The Philosophy of Storms"; was appointed to the Washington observatory,
where he carried on experiments in the cooling of gases and atmospheric
expansion (1785-1860).

ESQUIRE, originally meant a shield-bearer, and was bestowed upon the
two attendants of a knight, who were distinguished by silver spurs, and
whose especial duty it was to look after their master's armour; now used
widely as a courtesy title.

ESQUIROS, HENRY ALPHONSE, poet and physician, born at Paris; his
early writings, poems and romances, are socialistic in bias; member of
the Legislative Assembly in 1848; retired to England after the _coup
d'etat_; returned to France and rose to be a member of the Senate (1875);
wrote three works descriptive of the social and religious life of England
(1814-1876).

ESSEN (79), a town in the Rhine province of Prussia, 20 m. NE. of
Duesseldorf, the seat of the famous "Krupp" steel-works.

ESSENES, a religious communistic fraternity, never very numerous,
that grew up on the soil of Judea about the time of the Maccabees, and
had establishments in Judea when Christ was on earth, as well as
afterwards in the time of Josephus; they led an ascetic life, practised
the utmost ceremonial cleanness, were rigorous in their observance of the
Jewish law, and differed from the Pharisees in that they gave to the
Pharisaic spirit a monastic expression; they represented Judaism in its
purest essence, and in the spirit of their teaching came nearer
Christianity than any other sect of the time; "Essenism," says Schuerer,
"is first and mainly of Jewish formation, and in its non-Jewish features
it had most affinity with the Pythagorean tendency of the Greeks."

ESSEQUIBO, an important river in British Guiana, 620 m. long, rises
in the Sierra Acaray, navigable for 50 m. to small craft, flows northward
into the Atlantic.

ESSEX (785), a county in the SE. of England, between Suffolk on the
N. and Kent in the S., faces the German Ocean on the E.; is well watered
with streams; has an undulating surface; is chiefly agricultural; brewing
is an important industry, and th