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 the eternal tragedy of the human heart... with so much sympathy,” he adds, “the smile on her face so near tears, that we cannot read her pages without feeling ourselves won to that lofty toleration of hers” (1819-1880).

ELIOT, JOHN, the apostle of the Indians, born in Hertfordshire; entered the Church of England, but seceded and emigrated to New England; became celebrated for his successful evangelistic expeditions amongst the Indians during his lifelong occupancy of the pastorate at Roxbury (1604-1690).

ELIS, a district of Greece, on the W. coast of the Peloponnesus, sacred to all Hellas as the seat of the greatest of the Greek festivals in connection with the Olympian Games, a circumstance which imparted a prestige to the inhabitants.

ELISA or ELISSA, Dido, queen of Carthage, in love with AEneas.

ELISHA, a Jewish prophet, the successor of Elijah, who found him at the plough, and consecrated him to his office by throwing his mantle over him, and which he again let fall on him as he ascended to heaven.  He exercised his office for 55 years, but showed none of the zeal of his predecessor against the worship of Baal; was, however, accredited as a prophet of the Lord by the miracles he wrought in the Lord’s name.

ELIZABETH, sister of Louis XVI.; was guillotined (1764-1794).

ELIZABETH FARNESE, queen of Spain, a daughter of Odoardo II. of Parma; in 1714 she married Philip V. of Spain, when her bold and energetic nature soon made itself felt in the councils of Europe, where she carried on schemes for territorial and political aggrandisement; was an accomplished linguist; is called by Carlyle “the Termagant of Spain”; her Memoirs are published in four volumes (1692-1766).