EASEMENT (ante), a legal term signifying some right of the public, or of an indi vidual, in lands owned by another; a right existing either at common law or by statute; such, for example, as the right of way across another's estate, or to receive water from, or discharge it across, such estate. The E. is either affirmative or negative; affirmative when the owner of an estate is entitled to do something on the estate of another; nega tive when he is forbidden to do something, otherwise lawful, on his own premises. It may arise from the nature of things, or from special contract, express or implied. It is an E. when the owner of land makes a grant thereof for public use, as for a road or park, whereby the public gains only a right of use for the purppse specified, the title still remaining with the grantor. An E. in the land of another may also he acquired by prescription—that is, by the continuous and open enjoyment of a privilege without objection for a certain term of years. Easements may be extinguished by release or abandonment, or by a union of the two estates in the same person.
EAST (Ger. Ost; allied probably to Greek eos, the morning, and Lat. oriens, the rising, i.e., sun) is, vaguely speaking, that quarter of the horizon where the sun rises, or which a person with his face to the s. has on his left hand. It is only at the equinoxes that the sun rises exactly in the e. point. A line at right angles to the meridian of a place points exactly e. and west. See MERIDIAN and IIonizoN.
From very early times, the e. has been invested with a certain sacred character, or at least held in respect over other points of the compass. It was the practice of the ancient pagans to fix their altar in the eastern part of their temples, so that they might sacrifice towards the rising sun, which in itself was an object of worship. The custom of venerating the a. was perpetuated by the early Christian church from various cir
cumstances mentioned in the sacred record. For example: " The glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east."—Ezek. xliii. 2. " There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."—Matt. ii. 1. "And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them."—Matt. ii. 0. Tradition heightened respect for the east. It was said that Christ had been placed in the tomb with his feet tit:1\yard,-; the e., and that at the day of judgment he should come from the eastward in the heavens. Looking towards the sun in the e. in praying or repeating the creed, was thought to put wor shipers in remembrance that Christ is the son of righteousness, and such an attitude was accordingly adopted as an aid to devotion. From these various circumstances, the building of churches with the chancel (q.v.) to the e., bowing to the e. on uttering the name of Jesus, and burying with the feet to the e., were introduced as customs in the church. In recent times there has been a general disregard to the practice of turning formally with the face to the e. on repeating the creed, and, as is well known, the attempt to revive it by a party in the English church has caused considerable dispeace. It is a curious instance of the inveteracy of popular custom, that in Scotland, where everything that savored of ancient usage was set aside as popish by the reformers, the practice of burying with the feet to the e. was maintained in the old churchyards, nor is it uncommon still to set down churches with a scrupulous regard to c. and west. In modern cemeteries in England and Scotland, no attention appears to be paid to the old punctilio of interring with the feet to the e., the nature of the ground alone being con sidered in the disposition of graves.