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La Fontaine, Jean de

(Encyclopedia)La Fontaine, Jean de zhäN də [key], 1621–95, French poet, whose celebrated fables place him among the masters of world literature. He was born at Château-Thierry to a bourgeois family. A restless...

Read, Sir Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Read, Sir Herbert, 1893–1968, English poet and critic. His studies at the Univ. of Leeds were interrupted by World War I, in which he served with a Yorkshire regiment. After the war he completed his...

Cripps, Sir Stafford

(Encyclopedia)Cripps, Sir Stafford, 1889–1952, British statesman. A brilliant and successful patent and corporation lawyer, he joined the Labour party in 1929 and became solicitor general in 1930, being knighted ...

chiropractic

(Encyclopedia)chiropractic kīrəprăkˈtĭk [key] [Gr.,=doing by hand], medical practice based on the theory that all disease results from a disruption of the functions of the nerves. The principal source of inter...

Esther

(Encyclopedia)Esther ĕsˈtər [key], book of the Bible. It is the tale of the beautiful Jewish woman Esther [Heb.,= Hadassah], who is chosen as queen by the Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I or II) after he has rep...

utilitarianism

(Encyclopedia)utilitarianism yo͞oˌtĭlĭtrˈēənĭzəm, yo͞otĭˌ– [key], in ethics, the theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most happines...

Grimké, Angelina Emily

(Encyclopedia)Grimké, Angelina Emily grĭmˈkē [key], 1805–79, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, b. Charleston, S.C. Converted to the Quaker faith by her elder sister Sarah Moore Grimké, sh...

statistics

(Encyclopedia)statistics, science of collecting and classifying a group of facts according to their relative number and determining certain values that represent characteristics of the group. The most familiar stat...

Netscher, Caspar

(Encyclopedia)Netscher, Caspar käsˈpär nĕchˈər [key], 1639–84, Dutch portrait and genre painter, b. Heidelberg. He moved to Holland, where he studied with Ter Borch. Netscher was especially adept in the ren...

Mount Holyoke College

(Encyclopedia)Mount Holyoke College hōlˈyōk [key], at South Hadley, Mass.; for women; chartered 1836, opened 1837 as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary under Mary Lyon, rechartered as Mount Holyoke College 1893. Ther...