ELDERS

Certain laymen who, according to the constitution of the Presbyterian church, form a council of which the minister is the moderator, and discharge the functions of a spiritual court. They also a ist the minister in the management of the concerns of the parish, attending to the interests of the poor, like the deacons of the primitive church. Among the Jews, elders were those persons most distinguished for age, rank, and wealth, who formed the council of the people. See Presbyters. EL DORADO. {^"^2^^. the golden region.) The name given by the Spaniards to an imaginary country, supposed in the 16th century to be situated in the interior of South America, between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, and, as the name implied, abounding in gold and all manner of precious stones. After the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru, the most exaggerated accounts of the wealth and riches of the newly acquired territory were circulated and believed. A new region was fabled to exist far surpa ing the wealth and splendour of Peru; expeditions were fitted out for the purpose of discovering it; and though all such attempts proved abortive, the rumours of its existence continued to be believed down to the beginning of last century. The term has now pa ed into the language of poetry, in which it is used to expre a land of boundle wealth and felicity, like the ancient Elysium or the Mohammedan Paradise. (See a learned article on " Sir Walter Raleigh " in vol. Ixxii. of the Edin. Review, which contains a resume of all the speculations that have been entertained upon this subject. [s. 399]