SAMSON, ranked as judge of Israel, but the story of his life is as
of a Jewish hero, distinguished for his feats of strength; employed in
the service of his country against the Philistines.
SAMSON AGONISTES, the strong man of a nation or race caught in the
net of his and their enemies, and, encompassed by them, wrestling in his
soul's agony to free himself from them; the imagery here being suggested
by the story of Samson in the hands of the Philistines.
SAMUEL, a Jewish prophet, born, of the tribe of Levi, about 1155
B.C.; consecrated by his mother from earliest years to the service of the
Lord; who became a judge when he was 40, anointed first Saul and then
David to be king over the till then disunited tribes of Israel, and thus
became the founder of the Jewish monarchy.
SAMUEL, BOOKS OF, two books of the Old Testament, originally one,
and divided in the Septuagint into two, entitled respectively the First
and Second Books of Kings; the narrative embraces a period of 125 years,
and extends from the time of the Judges to the close of the reign of
David, including the intermediate judgeship of Samuel and the reign of
Saul, with the view of exalting the prophetic office on the one hand and
the kingly office on the other.
SAN ANTONIO (53), the second city of Texas, of Spanish origin, on a
river of the name, 80 m. W. of Austin; has a Catholic college, cathedral,
arsenal, &c.; does a good trade in the produce of a fertile
neighbourhood, and manufactures flour, leather, beer, &c.
SAN DIEGO (16), a thriving port in S. California, situated on a
handsome bay of the same name, 124 m. SE. of Los Angeles; wool is the
chief export.
SAN DOMINGO (25), capital of the Dominican Republic, a fortified
port on the S. coast of Hayti; has a 16th-century Gothic cathedral,
college, hospital, &c.; founded by Columbus.
SAN FRANCISCO (342), capital of California, and commercial
metropolis of the W. coast of America; occupies the NE. corner of a
tongue of land stretching between the Pacific and San Francisco Bay,
which, with San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay--extensions to the N.--forms a
handsome land-locked sheet of water 65 m. long, communicating with the
ocean by Golden Gate Strait; has practically sprung into existence since
the discovery of gold in 1847, and is now a spacious and evenly laid-out
city, with every modern convenience--electric light, cable tramways, &c.;
many of the dwelling-houses are of wood, but marble and granite give
dignity to Government buildings, hotels, theatres, &c.; there is a
remarkable number of religious sects; has a fine park, many free schools,
a number of colleges, and a university; as the western terminus of the
great continental railroads and outlet for the produce of a rich wheat
district it has a large shipping trade; important industries are
shipbuilding, whale-fishing, sugar-refining, iron-works, &c.
SAN JOSÉ (18), a city of California, and capital of Santa Clara
county, on the Guadalupe River, 50 m. SE. of San Francisco; has a couple
of Catholic colleges, a Methodist university, pretty orchards, &c.;
fruit-canning and the manufacture of flour and woollen goods are the
chief industries. The name also of small towns in Guatemala, Lower
California, and Uruguay.
SAN JOSÉ (19), capital of Costa Rica, situated on a fertile and
elevated plain between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific; grain, the
vine, and many fruits are grown in the neighbourhood; flour-milling and
distilling (Government works) are the principal town industries; there is
a university.
SAN JUAN (125), a mountainous province of the Argentine Republic, on
the Chilian border; is rich in metals, but, save coal, not worked;
agriculture is the chief industry. San Juan (12), on a river of the same
name, is the capital, lies 98 m. N. of Mendoza; has public baths, a
bull-ring, library, &c.; exports cattle and fodder, chiefly to Chile. The
name of numerous other towns in different parts of Spanish South America.
SAN MARINO (8), a little republic of Europe which has maintained its
independence since the 4th century; comprises a town (same name) and
several villages occupying rocky and elevated sites on the eastern slopes
of the Apennines; some agriculture and cattle-rearing are done; is under
the friendly protection of Italy.
SAN REMO (12), a town in Northern Italy, on a bay in the Gulf of
Genoa, in the Riviera, 26 m. NE. of Nice; is sheltered by a semicircle of
hills, and from its mild climate is a favourite winter resort; trades in
olive-oil, palms, and lemons.
SAN SALVADOR (20), capital of SALVADOR (q. v.), situated on
a fertile and elevated plain at the base of an extinct volcano; has
suffered frequently and severely from earthquakes, and after the disaster
of 1854 a new town, Nueva San Salvador, was built 12 m. to the SW., only
to suffer a similar fate.
SAN SEBASTIAN (30), a fortified seaport of North Spain, on a small
peninsula jutting into the Bay of Biscay, 10 m. from the French frontier;
is guarded by a strong citadel, and since its bombardment by Wellington
in 1813 has been spaciously rebuilt; has a beautiful foreshore, and is a
favourite watering-place; has a fair export trade.
SAN STEFANO, a Turkish village, a few miles W. of Constantinople,
where a preliminary treaty was signed between Turkey and Russia after the
war of 1877-78.
SANCHEZ, THOMAS, a Spanish casuist, born at Cordova; author of a
treatise on the "Sacrament of Marriage," rendered notorious from the
sarcastic treatment it received at the hands of Pascal and Voltaire
(1550-1610).
SANCHO PANZA, the immortal squire of Don Quixote. See PANZA,
SANCHO.
SANCHONIATHON, a Phoenician historian of uncertain date; author of a
history of Phoenicia, of which only a few fragments remain, and that of a
translation into Greek; he is supposed to have lived in the time of
Semiramus.
SANCROFT, WILLIAM, an English prelate, born in Suffolk; rose through
a succession of preferments to be Archbishop of Canterbury; was with six
other bishops committed to the Tower for petitioning against James II.'s
second Declaration of Indulgence; refused to take the oath of allegiance
to William and Mary, and was driven from his post, after which he retired
to his native place (1616-1693).
SAND, GEORGE, the assumed name of Aurore Dupin, notable French
novelist, born in Paris; married Baron Dudevant, a man of means, but with
no literary sympathies; became the mother of two children, and after nine
years effected a separation from him (1831) and went to Paris to push her
way in literature, and involved herself in some unhappy _liaisons_,
notably with ALFRED DE MUSSET (q. v.) and Chopin; after 1848 she
experienced a sharp revulsion from this Bohemian life, and her last
twenty-five years were spent in the quiet "Châtelaine of Nohant"
(inherited) in never-ceasing literary activity, and in entertaining the
many eminent _littérateurs_ of all countries who visited her; her
voluminous works reflect the strange shifts of her life; "Indiana,"
"Lélia," and other novels reveal the tumult and revolt that mark her
early years in Paris; "Consuelo," "Spiridion," &c., show her engaged with
political, philosophical, and religious speculation; "Elle et Lui" and
"Lucrezia Floriani" are the outcome of her relations with Musset and
Chopin; the calm of her later years is reflected in "La Petite Fadette,"
"François le Champi," and other charming studies of rustic life; her
"Histoire de ma Vie" and posthumous letters also deserve notice; her work
is characterised by a richly flowing style, an exuberant imagination, and
is throughout full of true colour and vivid emotion (1804-1876).
SANDEAU, LÉONARD JULES, French novelist, born at Aubusson; gave up
law for literature; was George Sands first "friend" in Paris, and wrote
with her "Rose et Blanche"; contributed to the _Revue des Deux Mondes_;
wrote many novels and plays, and was elected to the Academy (1858), and
during his later life held the librarianship at St. Cloud (1811-1883).
SANDEMANIANS. See GLASSITES.
SANDERSON, BURDON, English physiologist; professor of Physiology
first at University College, London, and since 1882 at Oxford; is one of
the greatest authorities on the subject; _b_. 1828.
SANDERSON, ROBERT, English prelate, great casuist; became chaplain
to Charles I. in 1631, and bishop of Lincoln in 1660 (1587-1663).
SANDHURST or BENDIGO (27), a mining city of Victoria,
Australia, on Bendigo Creek, 101 m. NW. of Melbourne; came into existence
with the "gold rush" of 1851; mines are still of value; a good trade in
grain, brewing, iron-founding, &c., is also done.
SANDRINGHAM, an estate in Norfolk of over 7000 acres, 7½ m. NE. of
Lynn, the property of the Prince of Wales since 1862.
SANDWICH (3), one of the old CINQUE PORTS (q. v.) in Kent,
on the Stour, and once on the sea, but now, by the receding of the sea, 2
m. distant; 12 m. E. of Canterbury; an interesting place of many
historical associations; has a splendid golf course, which attracts
summer visitors.
SANDWICH ISLANDS. See HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
SANGHA, the Buddhist Church, and the third term of the Triratna or
Buddhist trinity, the two other being Buddha and Dharma, his law.
SANGRAAL. See GRAAL, HOLY.
SANHEDRIM, a council of the Jews which held its sittings in
Jerusalem, and claimed authority and jurisdiction over the whole Jewish
people; it was an aristocratic body, and was presided over by the
high-priest; its authority was limited from time to time, and it ceased
to exist with the fall of Jerusalem; there is no note of its existence
prior to the Grecian period of Jewish history.
SANKARA, a Hindu teacher of the philosophy or the Vedas, who lived
some time between 800 and 200 B.C., and was the author of a number of
commentaries on the sacred writings of the Hindus, the teachings of
which he contributed to develop.
SANKHYA, one of three systems of Hindu philosophy, Yoga and Vedânta
being the other two, and the system which is most in affinity with the
doctrine of Buddha.
SANNAZARO, JACOPO, an Italian poet, enjoyed the favour of King
Frederick III. of Naples, and wrote amongst other things a pastoral
medley in verse and prose called "Arcadia," which ranks as an Italian
classic (1458-1530).
SANS SOUCI (i. e. No Bother), "an elegant, commodious little
'country box,' one storey high, on a pleasant hill-top near Potsdam"; the
retreat of Frederick the Great after his wars were over, and in part
sketched by himself, and where he spent the last 40 years of his life,
specially as years advanced; it is 20 m. from Berlin, and the name is
Frederick's own invention.
SANSCULOTTES (i. e. fellows without breeches), a name of contempt
applied by the aristocratic party in France to the Revolutionists, and at
length accepted by the latter as a term of honour, as men who asserted
their claim to regard on their naked manhood.
SANSCULOTTISM, belief in the rights of man, stript of all the
conventional vestures and badges by which alone, and without any other
ground of right, one man maintains an ascendency over another.
SANSKRIT, the name given to the ancient literary language of the
Hindus, still preserved in their literature, belongs to the Aryan family
of languages, in their purest form and most perfect development.
SANTA-ANNA, ANTONIO DE, a noted soldier and President of Mexico,
entered the army as a boy, and from the proclamation of the Republic in
1822 till his final exile in 1867 was embroiled in all the wars,
intrigues, and revolutions of his country; was four times President, and
on the last occasion (1853) was appointed for life, but his habitual
harshness alienated the people in two years; fled the country as on many
former crises in his life; intrigued against the newly-established
empire, but was captured and sentenced to death (1867); allowed to
expatriate himself, and died in exile; he was one of the most forceful
characters in Mexican history (1795-1876).
SANTA CLAUS, contraction of ST. NICHOLAS (q. v.).
SANTA CRUZ or NITENDI (5), the largest of the Queen Charlotte
or Santa Cruz Islands, in the South Pacific, 100 m. N. of the New
Hebrides; on one of the smaller islands Bishop Patteson was brutally
murdered by the natives in 1871.
SANTA CRUZ or ST. CROIX (20), one of the Virgin Islands;
produces sugar, rum, and cotton; ceded by France to Denmark in 1733; a
serious nigger revolt took place in 1878; capital is Christianstadt (6).
SANTA CRUZ or TENERIFFE (13), capital and chief seaport of the
Canary Islands, situated on the NE. side of Teneriffe; has an excellent
and strongly-fortified harbour; is an important coaling port for ocean
steamers; cochineal, wine, and garden-produce are the chief exports.
SANTA FÉ, 1, on the Rio Solado, capital (15) of a rich agricultural
province (240) of the Argentine Republic, lying N. of Buenos Ayres. 2,
Capital (7) of New Mexico, U.S.; holds an elevated site amid the
Rockies; is the centre of a good mining district; has the oldest Spanish
cathedral in the United States.
SANTALS, one of the aboriginal tribes of India, inhabiting a
district in the province of Bengal, which stretches southward from the
Ganges; they are chiefly hunters, but also agriculturists; dwell by the
forest edges, are fond of music, and are sun-worshippers; number
considerably over a million.
SANTANDER (42), a flourishing port of North Spain, stands on a fine
bay facing the Bay of Biscay, 316 m. N. of Madrid; actively engaged in
cigar-making, brewing, cotton-spinning, flour-milling, &c.; exports
flour, wine, and cereals; a popular seaside resort.
SANTERRE, ANTOINE JOSEPH, a popular wealthy brewer, born in Paris;
assisted at the fall of the Bastille; played a conspicuous part during
the Revolution; became commander of the National Guard in 1792; proposed
as a relief in famine that every citizen should live two days a week on
potatoes, and that every man should hang his dog; conducted King Louis
into the judgment, holding him by the arm; with a stamp of his foot
ordered him to mount the guillotine; failed in quelling the insurrection
in La Vendée, and was recalled; was made brigadier-general by Napoleon as
a reward for keeping the peace which he would fain have disturbed on the
18th Brumaire in 1797 (1752-1809).
SANTIAGO (393), capital of Chile, beautifully situated on a wide
fertile and elevated plain overhung on the N. and E. by the snow-clad
peaks of the Andes, 90 m. SE. of Valparaiso; the Mapocho, a mountain
stream, passes through the N. part of the city, is handsomely laid out
with spacious plazas, a noble alameda, and well-paved streets; has many
fine public buildings, hotels, a cathedral, a university, art,
agricultural, and military schools, botanical and zoological gardens,
&c.; in the pretty neighbourhood there is a popular racecourse; is an
important commercial centre, with a stock exchange, law-courts, and
manufactures of cloth, flour, ships' biscuits, beer, ice, &c.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELLA (23), a city of Spain, in Galicia, of which
it was formerly the capital, 26 m. NE. of Carril, on the coast; has an
interesting old Romanesque cathedral, a noted place of pilgrimage in the
Middle Ages, a university, and several ruined monasteries; manufactures
linen, leather, &c.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA (71), formerly capital of Cuba, on a beautiful
land-locked bay on the S. coast; the harbour is strongly fortified; is
the see of an archbishop, and has an old Spanish cathedral, also
flourishing sugar-factories, foundries, &c.
SANTLEY, CHARLES, a well-known baritone singer, born in Liverpool;
studied at Milan; made his _début_ in 1857, and ever since has been an
accepted favourite with the public both as an oratorio and operatic
singer; has published a volume of reminiscences; _b_. 1834.
SANTORIN or THERA (17), a volcanic island in the Ægean, one of
the Cyclades; is the southmost of the group, and lies 70 m. N. of Crete;
the vine grows luxuriantly, and there is a good wine trade; has many
interesting prehistoric remains; chief town, Thera or Phera, on the W.
coast.
SÃO FRANCISCO, one of the great rivers of Brazil, for the most part
navigable; rises in the SW., near the source of the Paraná, and flows N.,
NE., and SE. till it reaches the S. Atlantic after a course of 1800 m.,
forming in its lower part the boundary between the maritime provinces
Sergipe and Alagoas; higher it divides Bahia and Pernambuco.
SÃO PAULO (35), a manufacturing town of Brazil (minerals, coffee);
capital of a productive and healthy State (1,387) of the same name,
situated on a plain 310 m. W. by S. from Rio de Janeiro; has pretty
suburbs, electric light, &c.; is the chief centre of the Brazilian coffee
trade, and has manufactories of cotton, tobacco, spirits, &c.; is the
seat of a law-school.
SAÔNE, a tributary of the Rhône; rises among the Faucelles
Mountains, in Vosges, and flows SW. and S. to the Rhône at Lyons; length
282 m., of which one-half is navigable.
SAÔNE, HAUTE- (281), a department in the E. of France, near the
Alsace border, between Vosges (N.) and Doubs (S.); forests abound; about
one-half is under cultivation, and there are fine cherry orchards;
watered by the Saône and its affluents.
SAÔNE-ET-LOIRE (620), an east-midland department of France, bounded
SE. and W. by the Saône and Loire; has a fine fertile surface, and is
noted for its cattle and abundant output of wine; iron and coal are
wrought, and its towns are busy with the manufacture of cotton goods,
pottery, machinery, &c.
SAPPHIRE, a precious stone of the corundum class, and differing from
the RUBY (q. v.) only in colour, which is a blue of various
shades; the finest specimens are found in Ceylon; its value depends
chiefly on quality, and not so much (like the ruby) on size.
SAPPHO, a lyric poetess of Greece of the 7th century B.C., and a
contemporary of Alcæus; was a woman of strong passions and of
questionable morality, but of undoubted genius, her lyrics being among
the masterpieces of antiquity, though only two of her odes and some short
fragments of others remain; of her history little is known, and what is
known is far from reliable.
SARACENS, the name given in mediæval times to the Arabs or
Mohammedans, and extended to all the non-Christian races with whom the
Crusaders or Christian races came to grips.
SARAGOSSA (95), an interesting city of Spain, and capital of Aragon,
on the Ebro, which flows through it, 212 m. NE. of Madrid; its history
goes back to far Roman times, and includes fierce struggles between
Goths, Moors, and Spaniards, and a memorable siege by the French in 1808;
being one of the earliest Christian cities of Spain it contains many
interesting relics, cathedrals, &c.; there is a university, citadel,
archiepiscopal palace, &c.; manufactures embrace cloth, silks, leather,
&c.
SARASATE, MARTIN MELITON, a Spanish violinist, and one of the most
finished of the day, a Basque by birth, but educated at Paris; has
travelled over the world, winning fame and a fortune; made his first
appearance in London in 1874; is composer of some light pieces; _b_.
1844.
SARASVATI, a Hindu goddess, and ultimately the wife of Brahma and
goddess of music and eloquence.
SARATOFF (122), a handsome city of Russia, on the Volga, 500 m. SE.
of Moscow; has thriving industries in distilling, flour, oil, and
tobacco, and trades in corn, salt, textiles, &c.; the government of
Saratoff (2,433) is a prosperous agricultural district.
SARATOGA SPRINGS (12), one of the best-known watering-places of the
United States, in New York State, 38 m. N. of Albany; plentifully
supplied with mineral springs; once a village, now growing into a town of
hotels, &c.; 12 m. to the E. is the scene of Burgoyne's surrender to
Gates, October 17, 1777.
SARA`WAK (320), a principality of North-West Borneo, fronting the
Chinese Sea on the NW. and contiguous to Dutch Borneo; was granted as an
independent Rajahship to Sir James Brooke by the sultan of Borneo in
1841, and governed by him and afterwards by his son, by whom it was put
under British protection in 1888; is very fertile, and grows sugar,
coco-nuts, rice, sago, rubber, tea, &c.; is rich in minerals, and mining
is carried on of antimony, quicksilver, gold, and coal; capital Kuching
(25), on the Sarawak River.
SARDANAPÁLUS, the last king of Assyria; led a luxurious, effeminate
life, but surprised when at his ease by a large army of invaders he
suddenly developed into a hero, till hard pressed at length and shut up
in Nineveh, and after two years' defence finding resistance hopeless, he
reared a funeral pile, and setting fire to it, threw himself upon it and
perished in the flames.
SARDINIA (682), an island of the Mediterranean, 170 m. long and 75
m. broad, the second largest, Sicily being larger, and to the S. of
Corsica; is since 1859 part of the kingdom of Italy; it has a fruitful
soil, and presents a diversified surface of hill and valley; the chief
export is salt, and there are extensive fisheries; the capital is
Cagliari, in the S.; it is rich in mineral resources, but the
exploitation of these is in a backward state.
SARDIS, capital of ancient Lydia, in Asia Minor, at the foot of
Mount Tmolus, celebrated for its wealth, its trade, and luxury, through
the market-place of which the river Pactolus flowed with its sands of
gold.
SARDOU, VICTORIEN, a popular French playwright, born at Paris; gave
up medicine for literature, and his first successes were "Monsieur Garat"
and "Les Prés Saint-Gervais," both in 1800; from that date his popularity
and wealth began to flow in upon him; his work has been taken up by Sarah
Bernhardt, for whom he wrote "Fédora," "Théodora," and "La Tosca" (1887);
a number of his plays have been translated into English, such as "A Scrap
of Paper," "Diplomacy," &c.; was elected to the Academy in 1877; his
plays are characterised by clever dialogue and stage effects, and an
emotionalism rather French than English; _b_. 1831.
SARMATIANS or SARMATS, an ancient race, embracing several
warlike nomadic tribes, who spoke the Scythian language, and inhabited
the shores of the Black Sea and Eastern Europe as far as the Caucasus;
fought with Mithridates against the Romans; were overwhelmed by the Goths
in the 4th century A.D., and afterwards gradually absorbed by the Slavs.
SARPEDON, the "Nestor" and king of the Lycians, was son of Zeus and
Europa.
SARPI, PAUL, an Italian historian of the monastic order, born at
Venice; was a man of wide attainments and liberal views; was the champion
of the Republic against the Pope; was summoned to Rome, and on his
refusal to obey, excommunicated; his life being in peril he retired into
his monastery, and wrote the "History of the Council of Trent," with
which his name has ever since been associated; he was held in high honour
by the Venetians, and was honoured at his death by a public funeral
(1565-1623).
SARTO, ANDREO DEL (i. e. Andrew, the tailors son), a Florentine
artist; painted in oil and fresco numerous works; died of the plague at
Florence, his work displays accuracy of drawing and delicacy of feeling
(1486-1531).
SARTOR RESARTUS (i. e. the tailor patched), a book written by
Carlyle at CRAIGENPUTTOCK (q. v.) in 1831, published piecemeal
in _Frazer's Magazine_ in 1833-34, and that first appeared in a book form
in America, under Emerson's auspices, in 1836, but not in England till
1838. It professes to be on the PHILOSOPHY OF "CLOTHES" (q. v.),
and is divided into three sections, the first in exposition of the
philosophy, the second on the life of the philosopher, and the third on
the practical bearings of his idea. It is a book in many respects
unparalleled in literature, and for spiritual significance and worth the
most remarkable that has been written in the century. It was written _in_
the time and _for_ the time by one who understood the time as not another
of his contemporaries succeeded in doing, and who interprets it in a
light in which every man must read it who would solve its problems to any
purpose. Its style is an offence to many, but not to any one who loves
wisdom and has faith in God. For it is a brave book, and a reassuring, as
well as a wise, the author of it regarding the universe not as a dead
thing but a living, and athwart the fire deluges that from time to time
sweep it, and seem to threaten with ruin everything in it we hold sacred,
descrying nothing more appalling than the phoenix-bird immolating herself
in flames that she may the sooner rise renewed out of her ashes and soar
aloft with healing in her wings. See CARLYLE, THOMAS, EXODUS FROM
HOUNDSDITCH, NATURAL SUPERNATURALISM, &C.
SASKATCHEWAN, one of the great and navigable rivers of Canada, rises
among the Rockies in two great branches, called respectively the North
and South Saskatchewan, 770 and 810 m., which flowing generally E.,
unite, and after a course of 282 m. pass into Lake Winnipeg, whence it
issues as the Nelson, and flows 400 m. NE. to Hudson's Bay. The upper
branches traverse and give their name to one of the western territories
of Canada.
SASSARI (32), the second city of Sardinia, in the NW., prettily
situated amid olive and orange groves, 12 m. from the Gulf of Asinara;
has an old cathedral, castle, and university, and does a good trade in
olive-oil, grain, &c.
SATAN, an archangel who, according to the Talmud, revolted against
the Most High, particularly when required to do homage to Adam, and who
for his disobedience was with all his following cast into the abyss of
hell. See DEVIL.
SATANIC SCHOOL, name applied by Southey to a class of writers headed
by Byron and Shelley, because, according to him, their productions were
"characterised by a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety," and
who, according to Carlyle, wasted their breath in a fierce wrangle with
the devil, and had not the courage to fairly face and honestly fight him.
SATELLITES (lit. attendants), name given to the secondary bodies
which revolve round the planets of the solar system, of which the Earth
has one, Mars two, Jupiter four, Saturn eight, Uranus four, and Neptune
is known to have at least one, as Venus is surmised to have.
SATIRE, a species of poetry or prose writing in which the vice or
folly of the times is held up to ridicule, a species in which Horace and
Juvenal excelled among the Romans, and Dryden, Pope, and Swift among us.
SATRAP, a governor of a province under the ancient Persian monarchy,
with large military and civil powers; when the central authority began to
wane, some of them set up as independent rulers.
SATURN, in the Roman mythology a primitive god of agriculture in
Italy, often confounded with the Greek Kronos, the father of Zeus, and
sovereign of the Golden Age; was represented as an old man bearing a
sickle.
SATURN, the planet of the solar system whose orbit is outside that
of Jupiter, is 880 millions of miles from the sun, round which it takes
10,759 days or nearly 30 years to revolve, revolving on its own axis in
about 10½ hours; its diameter is nine times greater than that of the
earth; it is surrounded by bright rings that appear as three, and is
accompanied by eight moons; the rings are solid, and are supposed to
consist of a continuous belt of moons.
SATURNALIA, a festival in ancient Rome in honour of Saturn, in which
all classes, free and bond, and young and old, enjoyed and indulged in
all kinds of merriment without restraint.
SATYRS, in the Greek mythology semi-animal woodland deities who
roamed the hills generally in the train of DIONYSUS (q. v.),
dancing to rustic music; represented with long pointed ears, flat noses,
short horns, and a hair-clad man's body, with the legs and hoofs of a
goat; they are of lustful nature, and fond of sensual pleasure generally.
SAUERKRAUT, a favourite article of food in Germany and elsewhere in
North Europe; formed of thinly sliced young cabbage laid in layers, with
salt and spice-seeds, pressed in casks and allowed to ferment.
SAUERTEIG (i. e. leaven), an imaginary authority alive to the
"celestial infernal" fermentation that goes on in the world, who has an
eye specially to the evil elements at work, and to whose opinion Carlyle
frequently appeals in his condemnatory verdict on sublunary things.
SAUL, a Benjamite, the son of Kish, who fell in with Samuel as he
was on the way in search of his father's asses that had gone astray, and
from his stature and stately bearing was anointed by him to be first king
of Israel; he distinguished himself in the field against the enemies of
his people, but fell at the hands of the Philistines after a reign of 40
years, and after several insane attempts on the life of David, who had
been elected to succeed him.
SAUMAREZ, JAMES, BARON DE, English admiral, born at Guernsey;
entered the navy at 13, distinguished himself in the American War,
captured a French frigate in 1793, which brought him knighthood; was
second in command at the battle of the Nile, and gained a great victory
off Cadiz in 1801; was raised to the peerage in 1831 (1757-1836).
SAUMUR (14), a town of France, in the department of Maine-et-Loire,
situated on the Loire and partly on an island in the river, 32 m. SE. of
Angers; once famous for its Protestant theological seminary, and till the
Edict of Nantes a stronghold of the Huguenots; has interesting churches,
a castle (still used as an arsenal), and a noted cavalry school; has
trade in grain, dried fruits, rosaries, &c.
SAUSSURE, HORACE BENEDICT DE, geologist and physicist, born in
Geneva; was the first to ascend Mont Blanc in the interest of science,
and was distinguished for his researches in the same interest all over
the Alps and on other mountain ranges; he invented or improved several
scientific instruments (1740-1799).
SAVAGE, RICHARD, English poet, with a worthless character, who
gained the regard of Johnson; his chief poem, "The Wanderer," of no
poetic merit (1697-1743).
SAVANNAH, a name used chiefly in Florida and neighbouring States to
designate the wide treeless plains of these parts; is practically an
equivalent for "pampa," "prairie," &c.; comes from a Spanish word meaning
"a sheet."
SAVANNAH (54), a city and port of the United States, capital of
Chatham County, Georgia, on the Savannah River, 18 m. from its mouth;
well equipped with parks, electric light, handsome churches, government
buildings, &c., an important naval stores station and second cotton port
of the U.S., and has foundries, rice, flour, cotton, and paper-mills,
&c.
SAVE, a tributary of the Danube, rises in the Julian Alps and flows
SE. across Southern Austria till it joins the Danube at Belgrade after a
course of 556 m., of which 366 are navigable.
SAVIGNY, KARL VON, a German jurist, born in Frankfort-on-the-Main,
of French parentage; wrote a treatise on the Right of Property, became
professor of Roman Law at Berlin; his chief works were the "History of
Roman Law in the Middle Ages" and the "History of Roman Law in Modern
Times" (1779-1861).
SAVILLE, SIR HENRY, a learned scholar, born in Yorkshire; was tutor
to Queen Elizabeth and provost of Eton, and founder of the Savilian
professorships of Geometry and Astronomy at Oxford (1549-1642).
SAVONA (24), a seaport of Italy, on the Gulf of Genoa, in the
Riviera, 26 m. SW. of Genoa, in the midst of orange groves, &c.;
handsomely laid out; has a 16th-century cathedral, castle, palace,
picture gallery, &c.; exports pottery and has prosperous iron-works,
glass-works, tanneries, &c.
SAVONAROLA, GIROLAMO, Italian reformer, born at Ferrara of a noble
family; was in his youth of a studious ascetic turn, became at 24 a
Dominican monk, was fired with a holy zeal for the purity of the Church,
and issued forth from his privacy to denounce the vices that everywhere
prevailed under her sanction, with threats of divine judgment on her
head, so that the impressions his denunciations made were deep and
wide-spread; the effect was especially marked in Florence, where for
three years the reformer's influence became supreme, till a combination
of enemies headed by the Pope succeeded in subverting it to his ejection
from the Church, his imprisonment, and final execution, preceded by that
of his confederates Fra Domenico and Fra Silvestro; it was as a reformer
of the morals of the Church and nowise of its dogmas that Savonarolo
presented himself, while the effect of his efforts was limited pretty
much to his own day and generation (1452-1498).
SAVOY, DUCHY OF (532), in the SE. of France, on the Italian
frontier, comprises the two departments of Haute-Savoie and Savoie;
previous to 1860 constituted a province of the kingdom of Sardinia; Lake
of Geneva bounds it on the N. and the lofty Graian Alps flank it on the
E., forming part of the Alpine highlands; it is charmingly picturesque,
with mountain, forest, and river (numerous tributaries of the Rhône); has
excellent grazing lands; grows the vine abundantly, besides the usual
cereals; the people are industrious and thrifty, but for the most part
poor. Aix-les-Bains, Evian, and Challes are popular watering-places.
Chambéry was the old capital.
SAVOY, HOUSE OF, an ancient royal house of Europe (represented now
by the king of Italy), whose territorial possessions were constituted a
county of the empire in the 12th century under the name Savoy; was
created a duchy in the 15th century. By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) the
island of Sicily was ceded to Savoy and the title of king bestowed upon
the duke; in 1720 Victor Amadeus II. was forced to cede Sicily to Austria
in exchange for Sardinia, which with Savoy and Piedmont, &c., constituted
the kingdom of Sardinia till its dissolution in 1860, when Savoy was
ceded to France and the remaining portion merged in the new Italian
kingdom under Victor Emmanuel.
SAVOY, THE, a district of the Strand, London, in which a palace was
built in 1245 called of the Savoy, in which John of France was confined
after his capture at Poitiers; was burnt at the time of the Wat Tyler
insurrection, but rebuilt in 1505 as a hospital; it included a chapel,
which was damaged by fire in 1864, but restored by the Queen.
SAXE, MAURICE, marshal of France, natural son of Augustus II., king
of POLAND (q. v.) distinguished himself under various war
captains, Marlborough and Prince Eugene in particular, and eventually
entered the service of France; commanding in the War of the Austrian
Succession he took Prague and Egra, and was made a marshal, and appointed
to the command of the army of Flanders, in which he gained victories and
captured fortresses, and was thereafter loaded with honours by Louis XV.;
was one of the strongest and most dissolute men of his age; died of
dropsy, the result of his debaucheries (1698-1750).
SAXE-COBURG, DUKE OF, second son of the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh;
married a daughter of Alexander II., czar of Russia; succeeded to the
dukedom in 1893; retains his annuity as an English prince of £10,000;
_b_. 1844.
SAXE-WEIMAR, AMALIA, DUCHESS OF, was of the Guelph family, and
married to the duke, and in two years was left a widow and in government
of the duchy, attracting to her court all the literary notabilities of
the day, Goethe the chief, till in 1775 she resigned her authority to her
son, who followed in her footsteps (1739-1807).
SAXO GRAMMATICUS, a Danish chronicler who flourished in the 12th
century; wrote "Gesta Danorum," which brings the history of Denmark down
to the year 1158, and is in the later sections of great value.
SAXON SWITZERLAND, name given to a mountainous region in Saxony, SE.
of Dresden.
SAXONS, a people of the Teutonic stock who settled early on the
estuary of the Elbe and the adjoining islands, who in their piratical
excursions infested and finally settled in Britain and part of Gaul, and
who, under the name of Anglo-Saxons, now hold sovereign sway over large
sections of the globe.
SAXONY (3,502), a kingdom of Germany, lies within the basin of the
Elbe, facing on the E., between Bavaria (S.) and Prussia (N.), the
mountainous frontier of Bohemia; a little less in size than Yorkshire,
but very densely inhabited; spurs of the Erzgebirge, Fichtelgebirge, and
Riesengebirge diversify the surface; is a flourishing mining and
manufacturing country; Dresden is the capital, and other important towns
are Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Freiburg; the government is vested in the king
and two legislative chambers; is represented in the Reichstag and
Reichsrath of the empire; by the time of the Thirty Years' War the
electorate of Saxony, which in its heyday had stretched to the North Sea,
and from the Rhine to the Elbe, had sadly dwindled away; it suffered much
at the hands of Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War, and in
1815, having sided with Napoleon, a portion of its territory was, by the
Congress of Vienna, ceded to Prussia; was defeated along with Austria in
1866, and thus joined the North German Confederation, to be incorporated
afterwards in the new German Empire.
SAXONY, PRUSSIAN (2,580), a province of Prussia, chiefly comprises
that part of SAXONY (q. v.) added to Prussia in 1815; situated
in the centre of Prussia, N. of the kingdom of Saxony; is watered by the
Elbe and its numerous affluents, and diversified by the Harz Mountains
and Thuringian Forest; contains some of the finest growing land in
Prussia; salt and lignite are valuable products, and copper is also
mined; the capital is Magdeburg, and other notable towns are Halle (with
its university), Erfurt, &c.
SAYCE, ALEXANDER HENRY, philologist, born near Bristol; has written
works on the monuments of the East, bearing chiefly on Old Testament
history; _b_. 1846.
SCÆVOLA, CAIUS MUCIUS, a patriotic Roman who, when sentenced to be
burnt alive by Lars Porsena the Etrurian, then invading Rome, for
attempting to murder him, unflinchingly held his right hand in a burning
brazier till it was consumed, as a mark of his contempt for the sentence.
Porsena, moved by his courage, both pardoned him, and on hearing that 300
as defiant had sworn his death, made peace with Rome and departed. The
name Scævola (i. e. left-handed) was given him from the loss of his
right hand on the occasion.
SCAFELL, a Cumberland mountain on the borders of Westmorland, with
two peaks, one 3210 ft., and the other 3161 ft. high, the highest in
England.
SCALE, DELFA, a prince of Verona, and a general of the Ghibellines
in Lombardy, who offered Dante an asylum when expelled from Florence
(1291-1329).
SCALIGER, JOSEPH JUSTUS, eminent scholar, son of the following, born
at Agen; educated by his father; followed in his father's footsteps, and
far surpassed him in scholarship; travelled over Europe, and became a
zealous Protestant; accepted the chair of _belles lettres_ in the
University of Leyden on condition that he should not be called upon to
lecture, and gave himself up to a life of study, especially on matters
philological and literary; was a man of universal knowledge, and the
creator of modern chronology (1540-1609).
SCALIGER, JULIUS CÆSAR, surnamed the Elder, classical scholar,
became page to the Emperor Maximilian, and served him in war and peace
for 17 years; at 40 quitted the army, and took to study the learned
languages among other subjects; wrote a treatise on poetics and a
commentary on the physics and metaphysics of Aristotle, and became an
authority on the Aristotelian philosophy (1484-1558).
SCANDERBEG (i. e. Prince or Bey Alexander), the patriot chief of
Albania, and the great hero of Albanian independence, who in the 15th
century renounced Islamism for Christianity, and by his military prowess
and skill freed Albania from the Turkish yoke; throughout his lifetime
maintained its independence, crushing again and again the Turkish armies;
was known among the Christians as George Castriot (1403-1468).
SCANDEROON or ALEXANDRETTA (2), the port of Aleppo, in Turkey
in Asia, situated in the Gulf of Scanderoon, in the NE. of the Levant, 77
m. NW. of Aleppo; is itself an insignificant place, but has a large
transit trade.
SCANDINAVIA, the ancient name (still used) of the great northern
peninsula of Europe, which embraces NORWAY (q. v.) and SWEDEN (q. v.);
also used in a broader sense to include Denmark and Iceland.
SCARBOROUGH (34), a popular seaside town and watering-place on the
Yorkshire coast; built on rising ground on the shores of a fine bay; is a
place of great antiquity, with interesting ruins; has churches, harbour,
piers, and a fine promenade; noted for the manufacture of jet.
SCARPA, ANTONIO, Italian anatomist, professor at Pavia (1747-1832).
SCARRON, PAUL, a French humourist, writer of the burlesque, born, of
good parentage, in Paris; entered the Church, and was for some years
somewhat lax-living abbé of Mans, but stricken with incurable disease
settled in Paris, and supported himself by writing; is chiefly remembered
for his "Virgile Travesti" and "Le Roman Comique," which "gave the
impulse out of which sprang the masterpieces of Le Sage, Defoe, Fielding,
and Smollett"; married in 1652 Françoise d'Aubigné, a girl of fifteen,
afterwards the famous MADAME DE MAINTENON (q. v.); was a man who
both suffered much and laughed much (1610-1660).
SCATTERY ISLAND, in the Shannon estuary, 3 m. SW. of Kilrush; an
early Christian place of pilgrimage, with ruins and a "round tower"; is
fortified and marked by a lighthouse.
SCEPTICISM, primarily doubt respecting, and ultimately disbelief in,
the reality of the super-sensible, or the transcendental, or the validity
of the evidence on which the belief in it is founded, such as reason or
revelation, and in religious matters is tantamount to infidelity more or
less sweeping.
SCEPTRE, the symbol of royal power, power to command and compel,
originally a club, the crown being the symbol of dominion.
SCHADOW, JOHANNES GOTTFRIED, sculptor, born in Berlin; was trained
in Rome under the best masters, returned to Berlin, and became Director
of the Academy of Arts; laboured here for 62 years, and produced works
which placed him among the first rank of artists; he had two sons, one of
whom distinguished himself as a sculptor, and the other as a painter
(1764-1850).
SCHAFF, PHILIP, a theologian, born in Switzerland; studied in
Germany; came recommended by high names to the United States, and became
professor first in Pennsylvania, and finally in New York (1819-1893).
SCHAFFHAUSEN (38), a canton in the extreme N. of Switzerland,
surrounded NE. and W. by Baden; the Rhine flanks it on the S.; is hilly,
with fertile valleys sloping to the Rhine, and is chiefly given up to
agriculture. The capital, Schaffhausen (19), occupies a picturesque site
on the Rhine, 31 m. NW. of Constance; has a 12th-century cathedral, an
interesting old castle, &c. The famous falls, the finest on the Rhine,
are 3 m. below the town.
SCHÄFFLE, DR. ALBERT, eminent German economist, born in Würtemberg;
has written, besides other works, "The Quintessence of Socialism," an
able _exposé_; _b_. 1831.
SCHALL, JOHANN ADAM VON, Jesuit missionary to China, born at
Cologne; was received with honours at the Imperial Court; obtained
permission to preach, and founded churches to the spread of Christianity,
a privilege which was revoked by the next emperor; he was subjected to
imprisonment, which shortened his life (1591-1669).
SCHAMYL. See SHAMYL.
SCHARNHORST, GERHARD VON, a Prussian general, distinguished as the
organiser of the Prussian army, to the establishment of a national force
instead of a mercenary; died of a wound in battle (1756-1813).
SCHEELE, CARL WILHELM, Swedish chemist, born in Pomerania, was an
apothecary at Upsala and Köping; during his residence at the latter made
numerous important discoveries, and published many chemical papers, his
chief work "Experiments on Air and Fire" (1742-1786).
SCHEFFEL, JOSEPH VICTOR VON, German poet, bred to law, but abandoned
it for literature; his first and best work "Der Trompeter von Sakkingen,"
a charming tale in verse of the Thirty Years' War, succeeded by
"Gaudeamus," a collection of songs and ballads familiar to the German
students all over the Fatherland (1826-1886).
SCHEFFER, ARY, painter, born at Dordrecht, of German and Dutch
parentage; settled in Paris; began as a _genre_-painter; illustrated
Dante, Goethe, and Byron, and in the end painted religious subjects; he
did excellent portraits also; was of the Romantic school (1795-1858).
SCHEHERAZADE, daughter of the grand vizier, who, in the "Arabian
Nights," marries the Sultan and saves her life by entertaining him night
after night with her tales.
SCHELDT, an important river of Belgium and Holland, rises in the
French dep. of Aisne, and flows northwards past Cambrai (its highest
navigable point) and Valenciennes, entering Belgium a little S. of
Tournay and continuing northward, with Oudenarde, Ghent, and Antwerp on
its banks; enters Holland, and at the island of S. Beveland splits into
the Wester Scheldt and the Ooster Scheldt, which enter the North Sea, the
former at Flushing, the latter at Bergen-op-Zoom; length 267 m., much the
greater part being in Belgium.
SCHELLING, FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEPH, German philosopher, born in
Würtemberg; studied at Tübingen, where he became acquainted with Hegel;
wrote first on theological subjects and then on philosophical; went to
Jena and became a disciple and follower of Fichte; gradually abandoned
Fichte's position and began to develop ideas of his own, and in
conjunction with Hegel edited the _Critical Journal of Philosophy_; held
afterwards a professorship at Münich and a lectureship at Berlin; his
philosophy is no finished or completed system, but is essentially a
history of the progressive stages through which he himself passed; during
the reign of Hegel he kept silence, and only broke it when Hegel was
dead; thought to outstrip him by another philosophy, but the attempt has
proved fruitless of any important results (1775-1854).
SCHEMNITZ (15), a town of Hungary, noted as a mining centre since
Roman times, situated in the midst of a mountainous region, 65 m. N. by
W. of Pesth; gold, silver, copper, and lead are largely wrought, chiefly
in the interests of the State.
SCHENKEL, DAVID, German theologian, born in Switzerland, became,
after a pastorate at Schaffhausen, professor first at Basel and then at
Heidelberg; was a man of liberal principles, and was zealous for the
union of the Protestants, Lutheran and Reformed, in one body on a broad
basis; is noted as author of a work entitled "Das Characterbild Jesu,"
being an attempt to construe the character of Christ on rationalistic
lines (1813-1885).
SCHERER, EDMOND, French critic, born in Paris, spent his early years
in England, his mother being English; was for some time devoted to
theology and the Church, but changed his views; settled in Paris, and
took to journalism and politics, distinguishing himself more especially
in literary criticism (1815-1889).
SCHILLER, FRIEDRICH, German poet and dramatist, born at Marbach on
the Neckar, son of an army-surgeon; bred first to law and then to
medicine, but took chief interest in philosophy and literature, to the
cultivation of which he by-and-by devoted his life; his first work, a
play, "The Robbers," which on its publication in 1782 produced quite a
ferment, and was followed in 1783 by two tragedies, "Fresco" and "Kabale
und Liebe"; but it was with "Don Carlos" in 1787 his mature authorship
began, and this was followed by the "History of the Netherlands" and
"History of the Thirty Years' War," to be succeeded by "Wallenstein"
(1799), "Maria Stuart" (1800), "The Maid of Orleans" (1801), "The Bride
of Messina" (1803), and "Wilhelm Tell" (1804); he Wrote besides a number
of ballads and lyrics; in 1794 his friendship with Goethe began, and it
was a friendship which was grounded on their common love for art, and
lasted with life; he was an earnest man and a serious writer, and much
beloved by the great Goethe (1759-1805). See CARLYLE'S "LIFE OF
SCHILLER," and his essay on him in his "MISCELLANIES."
SCHLEGEL, AUGUST WILHELM VON, German man of letters, born at
Hanover; studied theology at first, but turned to literature and began
with poetry; settled in Jena, and in 1798 became professor of Fine Arts
there; was associated in literary work with Madame de Staël for 14 years;
delivered "Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature" at Vienna in 1708,
and finished with a professorship of Literature at Bonn, having
previously distinguished himself by translations into German of
Shakespeare, Dante, &c.; he devoted himself to the study of Sanskrit when
at Bonn, where he had Heine for pupil (1767-1845).
SCHLEGEL, FRIEDRICH VON, German critic and author, born at Hanover,
brother of preceding, joined his brother at Jena, and collaborated with
him; became a zealous promoter of all the Romantic movements, and sought
relief for his yearnings in the bosom of the Catholic Church; wrote
lectures, severally published, on the "Philosophy of History," of
"Literature," of "Life," and on "Modern History," and book on Sanskrit
and the philosophy of India (1772-1829).
SCHLEICHER, AUGUST, German philologist, did eminent service by his
studies in the Indo-Germanic languages, and particularly in the Slavonic
languages (1821-1868).
SCHLEIERMACHER, FRIEDRICH ERNEST DANIEL, great German theologian,
born at Breslau; brought up among the Moravians, his mind revolted
against the narrow orthodoxy of their creed, which was confirmed by his
study of Plato and the philosophy of the school of Kant, as it for him
culminated in Schelling, though the religious feeling he inherited never
left him; under these influences he addressed himself to the task of
elaborating a theology in which justice should be done to the claims of
the intellect and the emotions of the heart, and he began by translating
Plato; soon he formed a school, which included among its members men such
as Neander and others, distinguished at once for their learning and their
piety, and to which all the schools of theology in Germany since have
been more or less affiliated; his great merit lay in the importance he
attached to the religious consciousness as derived from that of Christ,
and the development therefrom in the life and history of the Church of
Christ; it was to the religious interest he dedicated his life and
consecrated all his learning, which was immense (1768-1834).
SCHLEMIHL, PETER, the name of a man who in Chamisso's tale sold his
shadow to the devil, a synonym of one who makes a desperate or silly
bargain.
SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH, a German explorer, born in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin; excavated at his own cost the ruins, among others
in Greece, of Hissarlik, in the Troad, believing them to be those of
Troy; spent 12 years in this enterprise, collecting the spoils and
depositing them in safe keeping in Berlin; died at Naples before his
excavations were complete (1822-1890).
SCHLOSSNER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, German historian, born in
Oldenburg; was studios of the moral factor in history, and gave especial
prominence to it (1776-1861).
SCHMALKALDIC LEAGUE, a league of the Protestant States of Germany
concluded in 1531 at Schmalkalden, Prussia, in defence of their
religious and civil liberties against the Emperor Charles V. and the
Catholic States.
SCHNITZER, EDUARD, physician, born in Breslau; went to Turkey,
entered the Turkish medical service, adopted the name Emin Pasha, and was
appointed by Gordon medical officer of the Equatorial Province of Egypt,
and raised to the rank of Pasha; soon after the outbreak of the Mahdist
insurrection he was cut off from civilisation, but was discovered by
Stanley in 1889 and brought to Zanzibar, after which he was murdered by
Arabs (1840-1893).
SCHOLASTICISM, the name given to the philosophy that prevailed in
Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in the second half of them,
and has been generally characterised as an attempt at conciliation
between dogma and thought, between faith and reason, an attempt to form a
scientific system on that basis, founded on the pre-supposition that the
creed of the Church was absolutely true, and capable of rationalisation.
SCHOLIASTS, name given to a class of grammarians who appended
annotations to the margins of the MSS. of the classics.
SCHOLIUM, a marginal note explanatory of the text of a classic
author.
SCHOLTEN, HENDRIK, a Dutch theologian of the rationalistic school
(1811-1885).
SCHOMBERG, DUKE OF, French marshal, of German origin and the
Protestant persuasion; took service under the Prince of Orange, and fell
at the battle of the Boyne (1618-1690).
SCHÖNBRUNN, imperial palace near Vienna, built by Maria Theresa in
1744.
SCHOOLCRAFT, HENRY ROWE, a noted American ethnologist, born in New
York State; at 24 was geologist to an exploring expedition undertaken by
General Cass to Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi; married the
educated daughter of an Ojibway chief; founded the Historical Society of
Michigan and the Algic Society at Detroit; discovered the sources of the
Mississippi in 1832; was an active and friendly agent for the Indians,
and in 1847 began, under Government authorisation, his great work of
gathering together all possible information regarding the Indian tribes
of the United States, an invaluable work embodied in six great volumes;
author also of many other works treating of Indian life, exploration,
etc. (1793-1864).
SCHOOLMEN, teachers of the SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY (q. v.).
SCHOPENHAUER, ARTHUR, a bold metaphysical thinker, born in Danzig,
of Dutch descent; was early dissatisfied with life, and conceived
pessimistic views of it; in 1814 jotted down in a note-book, "Inward
discord is the very bane of human nature so long as a man lives," and on
this fact he brooded for years; at length the problem solved itself, and
the solution appears in his great work, "Die Welt als Wille und
Vorstellung" ("The World as Will and Idea"), which he published in 1718;
in it, as in others of his writings, to use the words of the late
Professor Wallace of Oxford, Schopenhauer "draws close to the great heart
of life, and tries to see clearly what man's existence and hopes and
destiny really are, which recognises the peaceful creations of art as the
most adequate representation the sense-world can give of the true inward
being of all things, and which holds the best life to be that of one who
has pierced, through the illusions dividing one conscious individuality
from another, into that great heart of eternal rest where we are each
members one of another essentially united in the great ocean of Being, in
which, and by which, we alone live." Goethe gives a similar solution in
his "Wilhelm Meister"; is usually characterised as a pessimist, and so
discarded, but such were all the wise men who have contributed anything
to the emancipation of the world, which they never would have attempted
but for a like sense of the evil at the root of the world's misery; and
as for his philosophy, it is a protest against treating it as a science
instead of an art which has to do not merely with the reasoning powers,
but with the whole inmost nature of man (1788-1860).
SCHOUVALOFF, COUNT PETER, a Russian ambassador, born at St.
Petersburg; became in 1806 head of the secret police; came to England in
1873 on a secret mission to arrange the marriage of the Emperor Alexander
II.'s daughter with the Duke of Edinburgh; was one of Russia's
representatives at the Congress of Berlin (1827-1889). His brother, Count
Paul, fought in the Crimean War, helped to liberate the Russian serfs,
fought in the Russo-Turkish War, and was governor of Warsaw during
1895-1897; _b_. 1830.
SCHREINER, OLIVE, authoress, daughter of a Lutheran clergyman at
Cape Town; achieved a great success by "The Story of an African Farm" in
1883, which was followed in 1890 by "Dreams," also later "Dream Life and
Real Life"; she is opposed to the South African policy of Mr. Rhodes.
SCHREINER, RIGHT HON. W. P., Premier of the Cape Parliament, brother
of preceding; bred to the bar, favours arbitration in the South African
difficulty, and is a supporter of the Africander Bond in politics.
SCHUBERT, FRANZ PETER, composer, born, the son of a Moravian
schoolmaster, at Vienna; at 11 was one of the leading choristers in the
court-chapel, later on became leading violinist in the school band; his
talent for composition in all modes soon revealed itself, and by the time
he became an assistant in his father's school (1813) his supreme gift of
lyric melody showed itself in the song "Erl King," the "Mass in F," etc.;
his too brief life, spent chiefly in the drudgery of teaching, was
harassed by pecuniary embarrassment, embittered by the slow recognition
his work won, though he was cheered by the friendly encouragement of
Beethoven; his output of work was remarkable for its variety and
quantity, embracing some 500 songs, 10 symphonies, 6 masses, operas,
sonatas, etc.; his abiding fame rests on his songs, which are infused, as
none other are, by an intensity of poetic feeling--"divine fire"
Beethoven called it (1797-1828).
SCHULZE-DELITZSCH, HERMANN, founder of the system of "people's
savings-banks," born at Delitzsch, and trained to the law; he settled in
his native town and give himself to social reform, sat in the National
Assembly in Berlin on the Progressionist side, but opposed Lasalle's
socialistic programme; his project of "people's savings-banks" was
started in 1850, and immediately took root, spreading over the country
and into Austria, Italy, Belgium, etc. (1808-1883).
SCHUMANN, ROBERT, an eminent German composer and musical critic,
born at Zwickau, in Saxony; law, philosophy, and travel occupied his
early youth, but in 1831 he was allowed to follow his bent for music, and
settled to study it at Leipzig; two years later started a musical paper,
which for more than 10 years was the vehicle of essays in musical
criticism; during these years appeared also his greatest pianoforte
works, songs, symphonies, and varied chamber music; "Paradise and the
Part" and scenes from "Faust" appeared in 1843; symptoms of cerebral
disease which in the end proved fatal, began to manifest themselves, and
he withdrew to a quieter life at Dresden, where much of his operatic and
other music was written; during 1850-54 he acted as musical director at
Düsseldorf, but insanity at length supervened, and after attempting
suicide in the Rhine he was placed in an asylum, where he died two years
later; his work is full of the fresh colour and variety of Romanticism,
his songs being especially beautiful (1810-1856).
SCHÜRER, EMIL, biblical scholar, born at Augsburg, professor of
Theology at Kiel, author of "History of the Jewish People"; _b_. 1844.
SCHUYLER, PHILIP JOHN, leader in the American War of Independence,
born at Albany, of Dutch descent; served in arms under Washington, and
health failing for action, became one of Washington's most sagacious
advisers (1733-1804).
SCHUYLKILL, a river of Pennsylvania, rises on the N. side of the
Blue Mountains and flows SE. 130 m. to its junction with the Delaware
River at Philadelphia; is an important waterway for the coal-mining
industry of Pennsylvania.
SCHWANN, THEODOR, German physiologist, born at Neuss; made several
discoveries in physiology, and established the cell theory (1810-1882).
SCHWANTHALER, LUDWIG, German sculptor, born at Münich, of an old
family of sculptors; studied at Rome; has adorned his native city with
his works both in bas-reliefs and statues, at once in single figures and
in groups; did frescoes and cartoons also (1802-1848).
SCHWÄRMEREI (lit. going off in swarms, as bees under their queen),
name given to a more or less insane enthusiasm with which a mass of men
is affected.
SCHWARZ, BERTHOLD, an alchemist of the 13th century, born at
Fribourg, a monk of the order of Cordeliers; is credited with the
discovery of gunpowder when making experiments with nitre.
SCHWARZ, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH, German missionary in India, born in
Brandenburg; laboured 16 years at Trichinopoly, gained the friendship of
the Rajah of Tanjore, and settled there in 1778; succeeded also in
winning the favour of Hyder Ali of Mysore, and proved himself to be in
all senses a minister of the gospel of peace (1726-1798).
SCHWARZBURG, HOUSE OF, one of the oldest noble families of Germany;
first comes into authentic history in the 12th century with Count Sizzo
IV. (the first to take the title of Schwarzburg), and in the 16th century
divides into the two existing branches, the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt--which give their names to two sovereign
principalities of Central Germany wedged in between Prussia and the
lesser Saxon States, the latter embracing part of the Thuringian Forest;
both are prosperous agricultural and mining regions.
SCHWARZENBURG, KARL PHILIP, PRINCE VON, Austrian general, born at
Vienna, of a noble family there; entered the army and distinguished
himself in the wars against the Turks, the French Republic, and Napoleon;
fought at Austerlitz and Wagram, negotiated the marriage of Napoleon with
Maria Louisa, commanded the Austrian contingent sent to aid France in
1812, but joined the allies against Napoleon at Dresden and Leipzig, and
captured Paris in 1814 at the head of the army of the Rhine (1771-1820).
SCHWARZWALD, the Black Forest in Germany.
SCHWEGLER, ALBERT, theologian, born at Würtemberg; treated first on
theological subjects, then on philosophical; is best known among us by
his "History of Philosophy," translated into English by Dr. Hutcheson
Stirling, "written, so to speak, at a single stroke of the pen, as, in
the first instance, an article for an encyclopædia," ... the author being
"a remarkably ripe, full man" (1819-1857).
SCHWEINFURTH, GEORG AUGUST, German traveller in Africa, born at
Riga; wrote "The Heart of Africa," which gives an account of his travels
among the mid-African tribes; _b_. 1836.
SCHWENCKFELD, CASPAR VON, a Protestant sectary, born in Lower
Silesia, of a noble family; as a student of the Scriptures embraced the
Reformation, but differed from Luther on the matter of the dependence of
the divine life on external ordinances, insisting, as George Fox
afterwards did, on its derivation from within; like Fox he travelled from
place to place proclaiming this, and winning not a few disciples, and
exposed himself to much persecution at the hands of men of whom better
things were to be expected, but he bore it all with a Christ-like
meekness; died at Ulm; his writings were treated with the same indignity
as himself, and his followers were after his death driven from one place
of refuge to another, till the last remnant of them found shelter under
the friendly wing of COUNT ZINZENDORF (q. v.) (1490-1561).
SCHWERIN (34), capital of the grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin;
has a pretty site on Lake of Schwerin (14 m. by 3), 47 m. SE. of Lübeck;
has a 14th-century cathedral, Renaissance castle, arsenal, &c., and
manufactures of lacquered ware, machinery, &c.
SCHWYZ (50), one of the three original cantons of Switzerland,
German speaking and Catholic; Lake Zurich forms part of the N. border,
and Lake Lucerne part of the S.; Zug with its lake is on the W.; is
mountainous, but good pasturage favours cattle-breeding, sheep and goat
rearing, &c.; important industries in cotton and silk are carried on;
Einsiedeln, with its famous monastery, attracts thousands of pilgrims,
and the Rigi is a favourite resort of summer visitors. The capital (7),
same name, is prettily situated 26 m. E. of Lucerne.
SCIENCE, as it has been said, "has for its province the world of
phenomena, and deals exclusively with their relations, consequences, or
sequences. It can never tell us what a thing really and intrinsically is,
but only why it has become so; it can only, in other words, refer us to
one inscrutable as the ground and explanation of another inscrutable." "A
science," says Schopenhauer, "anybody can learn, one perhaps with more,
another with less trouble; but from art each receives only so much as he
brings, yet latent within him.... Art has not, like science, to do merely
with the reasoning powers, but with the inmost nature of man, where each
must count only for what he really is."
SCILLY ISLANDS, a rugged group of islands belonging to Cornwall, 27
m. SW. of Land's End; consists of six larger islands--St. Mary's (1528
acres, pop. 1200), the largest--and some 30 smaller, besides numerous
rock clusters, the name Scilly being strictly applicable to a rocky islet
in the NW. of the group; climate is damp and mild; the cultivation and
export of large quantities of lilies is the principal industry, but
generally industries have decayed, lighthouses have reduced greatly the
hereditary occupation of pilotage, and emigration goes on; the only town
is Hugh Town (with two hotels, banks, pier, &c.), on St. Mary's; there
are some interesting ecclesiastical ruins, &c.; since 1834 much has been
done to improve the condition of the islanders by the then proprietor Mr.
A. J. Smith, and his nephew, T. A. Darien Smith, who succeeded in 1872.
SCIOPPIUS, CASPAR, a Protestant renegade, born in the Palatinate;
turned Catholic on a visit to Rome, and devoted his life to vilify his
former co-religionists, and to invoke the Catholic powers to combine to
their extermination; he was a man of learning, but of most infirm temper
(1576-1649).
SCIPIO, P. CORNELIUS, THE ELDER, surnamed Africanus Major, a
celebrated Roman general; was present at the engagement near the Tacinus
and at Cannæ; was appointed proconsul of Spain at the age of 24, and made
himself master of nearly the whole of it against the Carthaginians; on
his return to Rome was made consul; transferred the seat of war against
Carthage to Africa, and landed at Utica; met Hannibal on the field of
Zama, and totally defeated him, and ended the Second Punic War in 202
B.C. (234-183 B.C.).
SCIPIO, P. CORNELIUS, THE YOUNGER, surnamed Africanus Minor, adopted
by the preceding, the proper name being L. Paullus Æmelius; after
distinguishing himself in Spain proceeded to Africa to take part in the
Third Punic War; laid siege to Carthage, took it by storm, and levelled
it with the ground in 146 B.C.; he was afterwards sent to Spain, where
he captured Numantia after a stubborn resistance, to the extension of the
sway of Rome; he was an upright and magnanimous man, but his character
was not proof against assault; he died by the hand of an assassin.
SCONE (pronounced Scoon), a, village in Perthshire, on the left bank
of the Tay, 2 m. N. of Perth; once the capital of the Pictish kingdom,
and the place of the coronation of the Scottish kings; near it is the
seat of the Earl of Mansfield.
SCOPAS, Greek sculptor, born at Paros, who flourished in 4th century
B.C.
SCORESBY, WILLIAM, scientist, born at Whitby; began life as a
sailor; visited the Arctic regions twice over, and wrote an account of
his explorations; took to the Church, and held several clerical charges,
but retired in 1849, and gave himself to scientific researches, both at
home and abroad (1787-1857).
SCORY, JOHN, a Cambridge Dominican friar in 1530, who became bishop
of Rochester in 1551, and later of Chichester; was deprived of his living
on Queen Mary's accession; recanted, but fled abroad, whence he issued
his "Epistle to the Faytheful in Pryson in England"; returned in
Elizabeth's reign, and became bishop of Hereford; _d_. 1585.
SCOT, REGINALD, author of a famous work, "The Discoverie of
Witchcraft" (1584), remarkable as one of the earliest exposures of the
absurdities of witchcraft and kindred superstitions, which provoked King
James's foolish defence "Dæmonology"; son of a Kentish baronet; educated
at Oxford, and spent a peaceful life gardening and studying; wrote also
"The Hoppe Garden" (1538-1599).
SCOTLAND (4,026), the northern portion of the island of Great
Britain, separated from England by the Solway, Cheviots, and Tweed, and
bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic and E. by the German Ocean; inclusive
of 788 islands (600 uninhabited), its area, divided into 33 counties, is
slightly more than one-half of England's, but has a coast-line longer by
700 m.; greatest length from Dunnet Head (most northerly point) to Mull
of Galloway (most southerly) is 288 m., while the breadth varies from 32
to 175, Buchan Ness being the eastmost point and Ardnamurchan Point the
westmost; from rich pastoral uplands in the S.--Cheviots, Moffat Hills,
Lowthers, Moorfoots, and Lammermoors--the country slopes down to the
wide, fertile lowland plain--growing fine crops of oats barley, wheat,
&c.--which stretches, with a varying breadth of from 30 to 60 m., up to
the Grampians (highest peak Ben Nevis, 4406 ft.), whence the country
sweeps northwards, a wild and beautiful tract of mountain, valley, and
moorland, diversified by some of the finest loch and river scenery in the
world; the east and west coasts present remarkable contrasts, the latter
rugged, irregular, and often precipitous, penetrated by long sea-lochs
and fringed with numerous islands, and mild and humid in climate; the
former low and regular, with few islands or inlets, and cold, dry, and
bracing; of rivers the Tweed, Forth, Tay, Dee, and Clyde are the
principal, and the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Hebrides the chief island
groups; coal and iron abound in the lowlands, more especially in the
plain of the Forth and Clyde, and granite in the Grampians; staple
industries are the manufacture of cottons, woollens, linen, jute,
machinery, hardware, paper, and shipbuilding, of which Glasgow is the
centre and commercial metropolis, while Edinburgh (capital) is the chief
seat of law, education, &c.; of cultivated land the percentage varies
from 74.8 in Fife to 2.4 in Sutherland, and over all is only 24.2; good
roads, canals, extensive railway and telegraph systems knit all parts of
the country together; Presbyterianism is the established form of
religion, and in 1872 the old parish schools were supplanted by a
national system under school-boards similar to England; the lowlanders
and highlanders still retain distinctive characteristics of their
Teutonic and Celtic progenitors, the latter speaking in many parts of the
Highlands their native Gaelic; originally the home of the PICTS
(q. v.), and by them called Alban or Albyn, the country, already
occupied as far as the Forth and Clyde by the Romans, was in the 5th
century successfully invaded by the Scots, a Celtic tribe from Ireland;
in 843 their king Kenneth was crowned king of Picts and Scots, and by the
10th century the country (known to the Romans as Caledonia) began to be
called Scotia or Scotland; government and power gradually centred in the
richer lowlands, which, through contact with England, and from the number
of English immigrants, became distinctively Anglo-Saxon; since the Union
with ENGLAND (q. v.) the prosperity of Scotland has been of
steady and rapid growth, manufactures, commerce, and literature (in all
branches) having flourished wonderfully.
SCOTS, THE, a tribe of Celts from Ireland who settled in the W. of
North Britain, and who, having gained the ascendency of the Picts in the
E., gave to the whole country the name of Scotland.
SCOTT, DAVID, Scotch painter, born in Edinburgh; he was an artist of
great imaginative power, and excelled in the weird; his best picture,
exhibited in 1828, was "The Hopes of Early Genius Dispelled by Death,"
though his first achievements in art were his illustrations of the
"Ancient Mariner"; but his masterpiece is "Vasco da Gama encountering the
Spirit of the Cape"; he was a sensitive man, and disappointment hastened
his death (1806-1849).
SCOTT, SIR GEORGE GILBERT, English architect, born in
Buckinghamshire, son of Scott the commentator; was the builder or
restorer of buildings both in England and on the Continent after the
Gothic, and wrote several works on architecture.
SCOTT, MICHAEL, a sage with the reputation of a wizard, who lived
about the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, of whose
art as a magician many legends are related.
SCOTT, THOMAS, commentator, born in Lincolnshire; became rector of
Aston Sandford, Bucks; was a Calvinist in theology, author of the "Force
of Truth" and "Essays on Religion," the work by which he is best known
being his "Commentary on the Bible," a scholarly exposition (1747-1821).
SCOTT, SIR WALTER, the great romancer, born in Edinburgh, through
both father and mother of Scottish Border blood; his father, a lawyer, a
man "who passed from the cradle to the grave without making an enemy or
losing a friend," his mother a little kindly woman, full of most vivid
memories, awakening an interest in him to which he owed much; was a
healthy child, but from teething and other causes lost the use of his
right limb when 18 months old, which determined, to a marked extent, the
course of his life; spent many of the months of his childhood in the
country, where he acquired that affection for all natural objects which
never left him, and a kindliness of soul which all the lower animals that
approached him were quick to recognise; he was from the first home-bred,
and to realise the like around his own person was his fondest dream, and
if he failed, as it chanced he did, his vexation was due not to the
material loss it involved, but to the blight it shed on his home life and
the disaster on his domestic relationships; his school training yielded
results of the smallest account to his general education, and a writer of
books himself, he owed less to book-knowledge than his own shrewd
observation; he proceeded from the school (the High School, it was) at 15
to his father's office and classes at the University, and at both he
continued to develop his own bent more than the study of law or learning;
at his sixteenth year the bursting of a blood-vessel prostrated him in
bed and enforced a period of perfect stillness, but during this time he
was able to prosecute sundry quiet studies, and laid up in his memory
great stores of knowledge, for his mind was of that healthy quality which
assimilated all that was congenial to it and let all that did not concern
it slip idly through, achieving thereby his greatest victory, that of
becoming an altogether _whole_ man. Professionally he was a lawyer, and a
good lawyer, but the duties of his profession were not his chief
interest, and though he received at length a sheriffship worth £300 a
year, and a clerkship to the court worth £1500, he early turned his mind
to seek promotion elsewhere, and chose a literary career. His first
literary efforts were translations in verse from the German, but his
first great literary success was the publication, in 1802, of "The
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," and in this he first gave evidence
both of the native force and bent of his genius; it gave the keynote of
all that subsequently proceeded from his pen. This was followed the same
year by "Cadzow Castle," a poem instinct with military ardour, and this
by "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" in 1805; the first poem which gained
him popular favour, by "Marmion" in 1808, and by "The Lord of the Isles"
in 1814. Much as the rise of Scott's fame was owing to his poetical
works, it is on the ground of his prose writings, as the freest and
fullest exhibition of his genius, that it is now mainly founded. The
period of his productivity in this line extended over 18 years in all,
commencing with the year 1814. This was the year of the publication of
"Waverley," which was followed by that of "Guy Mannering," "The
Antiquary," "Rob Roy," "Old Mortality," and "The Heart of Midlothian" in
the year 1819, when he was smitten down by an illness, the effects of
which was seen in his after-work. "The Bride of Lammermoor," "Ivanhoe,"
"The Monastery," "The Abbot," "Kenilworth," and "The Pirate" belong to
the years that succeeded that illness, and all more or less witness to
its sorrowful effects, of which last "The Abbot" and "The Monastery" are
reckoned the best, as still illustrating the "essential powers" of Scott,
to which may be added "Redgauntlet" and "The Fortunes of Nigel,"
characterised by Ruskin as "quite noble ones," together with "Quentin
Durward" and "Woodstock," as "both of high value." Sir Walter's own life
was, in its inner essence, an even-flowing one, for there were in it no
crises such as to require a reversal of the poles of it, and a spiritual
new birth, with crucifixion of the old nature, and hence it is easily
divisible, as it has been divided throughout, into the three natural
periods of growth, activity, and death. His active life, which ranges
from 1796 to 1826, lay in picturing things and traditions of things as in
youth, a 25 years' period of continuous crescent expansiveness, he had
learned to view them, and his slow death was the result, not of mere
weariness in working, but of the adverse circumstances that thwarted and
finally wrecked the one unworthy ambition that had fatally taken
possession of his heart. Of Scott Ruskin says, "What good Scott had in
him to do, I find no words full enough to express... Scott is beyond
comparison the greatest intellectual force manifested in Europe since
Shakespeare... All Scott's great writings were the recreations of a mind
confirmed in dutiful labour, and rich with organic gathering of boundless
resource" (1771-1832).
SCOTT, WILLIAM BELL, painter and poet, brother of David Scott, born
in Edinburgh; did criticism and wrote on artists; is best known by his
autobiography (1811-1890).
SCRANTON (102), capital of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, on the
Lackawanna River, 144 m. NW. of New York; does a large trade in coal, and
is the centre of a busy steel, iron, and machinery industry.
SCRIBE, EUGENE, French dramatist, a prolific and a successful, who
produced plays for half a century, well adapted for the stage, if
otherwise worthless (1791-1861).
SCRIBES, THE (i. e. writers), a non-priestly class among the Jews
devoted to the study and exposition of the Law, and who rose to a
position of importance and influence in the Jewish community, were known
in the days of Christ also by the name of Lawyers, and were addressed as
Rabbis; their disciples were taught to regard them, and did regard them
with a reverence superior to that paid to father or mother, the spiritual
parent being reckoned as much above the natural, as the spirit and its
interests are above the flesh and its interests.
SCRIBLERUS, MARTINUS, the subject of a fictitious memoir published
in Pope's works and ascribed to ARBUTHNOT (q. v.), intended to
ridicule the pedantry which affects to know everything, but knows nothing
to any purpose.
SCRIVENER, FREDERICK HENRY AMBROSE, New Testament critic, born at
Bermondsey, Surrey, educated at Cambridge; head-master of Falmouth School
from 1846 to 1856, and after 15 years' rectorship of Gerrans, became
vicar of Hendon and prebendary of Exeter; his "Plain Introduction to the
Criticism of the New Testament" ranks as a standard work; was editor of
the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, and one of the New Testament revisers
(1813-1891).
SCROGGS, SIR WILLIAM, an infamous Judge of Charles II.'s reign, who
became Chief-Justice of the King's Bench in 1678, and whose name is
associated with all manner of injustice and legal corruption; was
impeached in 1680, and pensioned off by the king; _d_. 1683.