Espronceda (José), popular Spanish poet, b. Almendralejo (Estremadura) in 1810. After the War of Independence he went to Madrid and studied under Alberto Lista, the poet and mathematician. He became so obnoxious to the government by his radical principles that he was imprisoned about the age of fifteen, and banished a few years later. He passed several years in London and Paris, and was brought under the influence of Byron and Hugo. He fought with the people in the Paris Revolution of July, 1830. On the death of the Spanish King in '33 he returned to Madrid, but was again banished for too free expression of his opinions. He returned and took part in the revolutionary contest of '35-36. He was elected to the Cortes in '41, and appointed secretary of embassy to The Hague. Died 23 May, 1842. Among his works are lyrical poems, which often remind us of Heine; an unfinished epic, El Pelayo; and El Diablo-Mundo (the Devil-World), a fine poem, due to the inspiration of Faust and Don Juan. Espronceda was a thorough sceptic. In his Song of the Pirate he asks, "Who is my God?--Liberty"; and in his concluding lines to a star he says: I unheedingly follow my path, At the mercy of winds and of waves. Wrapt thus within the arms of Fate, What care I if lost or saved. Estienne (Henri), the ablest of a family of learned French printers, known in England as Stephens; b. Paris, 1528. At the age of eighteen he assisted his father in collating the MSS. of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. In 1557 he established a printing office of his own, and issued many Greek authors; and in 1572 the Thesaurus Linguæ Græcæ. His Apologie pour Herodote (Englished as a World of Wonders) is designed as a satire on Christian legends, and directed against priests and priestcraft. He was driven from place to place. Sir Philip Sidney highly esteemed him, and "kindly entertained him in his travaile." Died 1598. Garasse classes him with Atheists. Esteve (Pierre), French writer, b. Montpelier at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He wrote a History of Astronomy and an anonymous work on the Origin of the Universe explained from a Principle of Matter; Berlin, 1748. Ettel (Konrad), Austrian Freethinker, b. 17 Jan. 1847, at Neuhof, Sternberg. Studied at the Gymnasium Kremsier, and at the wish of his parents at the Theological Seminary Olmütz, which he left to study philosophy at Vienna. He has written many poems and dramas. His Grundzuge der Natürlichen Weltanschauung (Sketch of a Natural View of the World), a Freethinker's catechism, 1886, has reached a fourth edition.