Iron is the only mineral found and worked to any great extent; but the chief articles of trade are corn, flour, and wool. The department is divided into the four arrondissements of Chartres, ChâteauDun, Dreux, and Nogent-le-Rotrou, with the town of Chartres for capital.

EURIPIDÉS, the latest of the three great Greek tragedians, was born at Salamis, 480 B.C., on the very day (23d September), it is said, of the glorious victory gained by the Greeks over the Persians near that island. The Arundel Marble, however, gives as the date of his birth 485 B. C., while Müller, following Eratosthenes, makes it four years later. His education was very good. At first, he was trained to gymnastic exercises (in consequence of the prediction of an oracle that he should be crowned with 'sacred garlands'); he next turned his attention to painting; then studied philosophy under Anaxagoras, and rhetoric under Prodicus, and formed a lasting friendship with Socrates. The first play of E.'s which was performed was the Peliades (456 B. C.). In 441 B. C., he gained the first prize for tragedy, and continued to write for the Athenian stage until 408 B. C., when he accepted an invitation to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia. Scandal has invented other reasons for E.'s leaving Athens, but they are unworthy of notice. He is said to have been killed (406 B. c.) by dogs, which were set upon him by two brother-poets who envied him his reputation. In E.'s time, Greek tragedy had been brought to its highest perfection by Sophocles, who was fifteen years older than Euripides. The latter, however, was the second favourite author of his time; nay, on more than one occasion, his tragedies were preferred to those of Sophocles; but his liberal and even neologistic tendencies in regard to religion, excited the hostility of that witty but scurrilous champion of Greek orthodoxy Aristophanes, who frequently ridiculed E. in cutting parodies. There can be no doubt that E. was systematically abused by the Athenian Tory party, of whom Aristophanes was the literary chief, and to whose unscrupulous opposition it was owing that he gained the prize only five times out of 75 competitions. But against the censure of Aristophanes, may be set the praise of two much greater men-Aristotle and John Milton. E.'s plays are reckoned by some to have amounted to 75, by others to 92. Only 18 have come down to us. These are Alcestis (438 B. C.), Medea (431 B. C.), Hippolytus (428 B. C.), Hecuba (424 B. C.), Heracleida (421 B. C.?), Supplices (421 B. C.?), Ion (date not ascertainable), Hercules Furens (date not ascertainable), Andromache (420 -417 B. C.), Troades (415 B. C.), Electra (415413 B. C.), Helena (412 B. c.), Iphigeneia in Tauris (date uncertain), Orestes (408 B. C.), Phanissa (probably same year), Baccha (probably written in Macedonia), Iphigeneia in Aulis (posthumously represented in Athens); and finally, Cyclops (uncertain). Rhesus, attributed to E., is probably not genuine. Concerning E., and his tragedies, A. W. Schlegel remarks: Of few authors can so much good and evil be predicated with equal truth. He was a man of infinite talent, skilled in the most varied intellectual arts; but although abounding in brilliant and amiable qualities, he wanted the sublime earnestness and artistic skill which we admire in Eschylus and Sophocles. He aspires only to please, no matter by what means. For this reason, he is so frequently unequal to himself; producing at times passages of exquisite beauty, and frequently sinking into positive vulgarity.' The main object of E. was to excite emotion, and his works laid open a totally new world (in literature), that of the heart, which, beyond dispute, contributed much to their popularity. On the other

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hand, his inartistic and careless plots compelling him to a constant use of the Deus ex machina solution of difficulties, and occasionally even the subjects of his art themselves, leave ample room for criticism. Archelaus refused to allow his bones to be removed to Athens, and erected a splendid monument to him in Pella, with the inscription: Never, O Euripides, will thy memory be forgotten!' Still more honourable was the inscription on the cenotaph erected to him by the Athenians on the way to the Piraeus: All Greece is the monument of Euripides; Macedonian earth covers but his bones.' Sophocles, who survived him, publicly lamented his loss; and the orator Lycurgus afterwards erected a statue to him in the theatre at Athens. editio princeps of E. appeared, it is thought, at Florence, toward the end of the 15th century. The best modern editions are those of Beck (Leip. 1778-1788), Matthiae (Leip. 1813-1829), and the Glasgow edition of 1821. An English translation in verse, by Potter, appeared at Oxford in 1814. EUROPE, the smallest, but also the most highly civilised and most populous of the three great divisions of the old continent. It is separated from America on the west and north-west by the Atlantic; from Africa on the south by the Mediterranean; and from Asia by the Archipelago, Sea of Marmora, Black Sea, Caucasian ridge, Caspian Sea, Ural River and Mountains, and the Kara River. It is in the form of a huge peninsula, projecting from the north-west of Asia. Its extent from Cape St Vincent on the south-west to the mouth of the Kara River on the north-east is 3400 miles; and from Cape Nordkun, the most northerly point of the Scandinavian mainland, to Cape Matapan, the southmost point of Greece, 2400 miles. The continent of E., irrespective of islands, lies within lat. 36° 1′-71° 6' N., and long. 9° 30′ W.-68° 30' E. Its area is estimated at nearly 3,800,000 square miles; and its coast-line, more extensive in proportion to its size than that of any other great natural division of the globe, is estimated at 19,500 miles; giving a proportion of 1 linear mile of coast for every 190 square miles of surface. It has a population of 282,000,000, which gives an average of about 75 for every square mile.

The body of the European continent divides itself naturally into two great portions-the great plain in the north-east, and the Highlands in the south-west, the mountainous peninsula of Scandinavia, lying, as it were, apart from either, being to some extent exceptional. The plain occupies about two-thirds (2,500,000 square miles) of the entire extent of the continent. It reaches from the eastern boundary of E., north to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, south to Mount Caucasus and the Black Sea, and westward over the whole extent of the continent; gradually, however, becoming narrower in its progress west. In shape, this plain resembles a triangle; its base rests on the eastern boundary, and it may be said to reach its apex on the shores of Holland. It separates the two mountain systems of E.-the Scandinavian system (see DOFRINES, SCANDINAVIA) on the north, and on the south the system of Southern Europe. See ALPS, APENNINES, BALKAN, CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS, CEVENNES, PYRENEES, &c.

Jutting out in numerous peninsulas, and indented by extensive bays and gulfs, E. has no town at a much greater distance from the sea than 400 miles, save those in the centre of the eastern plain; but even here, by means of numberless rivers and the canals, which, from the nature of the country, are easily constructed and maintained, a splendid system of communication by water now exists. See VOLGA, DUNA, DNIEPER, NIEMEN, &c.; also RUSSIA.

considered under the different countries. See also ALPS, PYRENEES, &c.

Natural History. The natural history of E. very much agrees with that of the corresponding latitudes of Asia. As the mountain systems and the plains of the one continent extend into the other, so also do their floras and faunas. The natural history of the European countries on the Mediterranean Sea is very similar to that of Syria and of Asia Minor. The natural history of the more northern regions of E. resembles that of the great plains of Central Asia and Siberia. The most northern regions have the strictly arctic flora and fauna common in a great measure to all the arctic and subarctic regions, European, Asiatic, and American; whilst the natural history of the most southern countries assumes a sub-tropical character. The European countries near the Mediterranean produce fewer of the shrubby and odoriferous Labiata than the Caucasus and adjoining regions, whilst the Caryophyllaceae are more abundant. The extreme abundance of Cistaceae may be mentioned as a peculiar feature of the flora of Spain and Portugal. The Primulaceæ are parti

cularly plentiful in all the Alpine regions of the south of E., but this characteristic is in some measure shared by the Himalaya. A great abundance of umbelliferous and cruciferous plants is a characteristic of all Europe. In no other part of the world do they form so large a proportion of the flora.

The temperature of the western and northern parts of E. being raised by the Gulf-stream and the winds from the great mass of dry and desert land in Africa above what is elsewhere found in similar latitudes, the flora and fauna exhibit a corresponding character, affected, however, by the great amount of moisture derived from the Atlantic Ocean; and also to a still greater degree by the comparative uniformity of temperature which the proximity of the ocean produces. The effect of the last-mentioned causes is so great, that the northern limit of some plants is sooner reached on the shores of the Atlantic than in the more central parts of E., where the winters are much colder, and the average temperature of the year is lower. Of this the vine is a notable example, and maize may be mentioned as another. Plants which require a mild

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