The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 392

SO FRANCISCO, one of the great rivers of Brazil, for the most part navigable; rises in the SW., near the source of the Parana, 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.

SO 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.

SAoNE, a tributary of the Rhone; rises among the Faucelles Mountains, in Vosges, and flows SW. and S. to the Rhone at Lyons; length 282 m., of which one-half is navigable.

SAoNE, 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 Saone and its affluents.

SAoNE-ET-LOIRE (620), an east-midland department of France, bounded SE. and W. by the Saone 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 cla.s.s, 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 Alcaeus; was a woman of strong pa.s.sions 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 mediaeval 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 G.o.ddess, and ultimately the wife of Brahma and G.o.ddess 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 princ.i.p.ality of North-West Borneo, fronting the Chinese Sea on the NW. and contiguous to Dutch Borneo; was granted as an independent Rajahs.h.i.+p 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.

SARDANAPaLUS, the last king of a.s.syria; 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 Pres 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 "Fedora," "Theodora," and "La Tosca" (1887); a number of his plays have been translated into English, such as "A Sc.r.a.p 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 sh.o.r.es 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 a.s.sociated; 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 G.o.d. For it is a brave book, and a rea.s.suring, 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. pa.s.s 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.

Sa.s.sARI (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 h.e.l.l. See DEVIL.

SATANIC SCHOOL, name applied by Southey to a cla.s.s of writers headed by Byron and Sh.e.l.ley, 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, Ura.n.u.s 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 G.o.d 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 10 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.