The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 400

SeVRES, DEUX- (354), a department of West France; is watered by two rivers, and in the N. thickly wooded; a varied agriculture, cattle and mule breeding, and cloth manufacture are the princ.i.p.al industries. Niort is the capital.

SEWARD, ANNA, poetess, born at Eyam, Derbys.h.i.+re, but from the age of seven spent her life at Lichfield, where her father was residentiary canon; was a friend and indefatigable correspondent of Mrs. Piozzi, Dr.

Darwin, Southey, Scott, and others; author of "Louisa," a novel in poetry, "Sonnets" and other poems, which had in their day considerable popularity; her correspondence is collected in 6 vols. (1747-1809).

SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY, American statesman, born at Florida, New York State; was called to the bar at Utica in 1822, and soon took rank as one of the finest forensic orators of his country; engaged actively in the politics of his State, of which he was governor in 1838 and 1840; entered the U.S. senate in 1849 as an abolitionist, becoming soon the recognised leader of the Anti-Slavery party; was put forward by the Republican party as a candidate for presidential nomination, but failing in this he zealously supported Lincoln, under whom he served as Secretary of State, conducting with notable success the foreign affairs of the country during the Civil War and up to the accession of President Grant in 1869; spent his closing years in travel and retirement (1801-1872).

s.e.xTANT, an instrument used in navigation (sometimes also in land-surveying) for measuring the alt.i.tudes of celestial bodies and their angular distances; consists of a graduated bra.s.s sector, the sixth part of a circle, and an arrangement of two small mirrors and telescope; invented in 1730 by John Hadley.

SEYCh.e.l.lES (16), a group of some 30 islands, largest Mahe (59 sq.

m.), situated in the Indian Ocean, 600 m. NE. of Madagascar; taken from the French by Britain in 1798, and now under the governor of Mauritius; are mountainous and mostly surrounded by coral reefs; export fibres, nuts, palm-oil, &c.; Victoria, in Mahe, is the chief town, and an imperial coaling station.

SFORZA (i. e. stormer), Italian family celebrated during the 15th and 16th centuries, founded by a military adventurer, a peasant of the name of Muzia Allendolo, and who received the name; they became dukes of Milan, and began by hiring their services in war, in which they were always victorious, to the highest bidder, the first of the number to attain that rank being Francesco Sforza, the son of the founder, in 1450 (1401-1466), the last of the series being Francois-Marie (1492-1535).

SGRAFFITO, a decorative wall painting, produced by layers of plaster applied to a moistened surface and afterwards operated on so as to produce a picture.

SHADWELL, THOMAS, dramatist, who lives as the "MacFlecknoe" of Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel," born, of a good family, in Norfolk; studied law and adopted literature, in which he made a successful start with the comedy "The Sullen Lovers" (1668); his numerous plays, chiefly comedies, are of little poetic value, but serve as useful commentaries on the Restoration period; quarrelled with and satirised Dryden in the "Medal of John Bayes," which drew forth the crus.h.i.+ng retort in Dryden's famous satire; succeeded Dryden as poet-laureate in 1688 (1640-1692).

SHAFITES, a sect of the Sunnites or orthodox Mohammedans, so called from Shafei, a descendant of Mohammed.

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF, a notable politician, prominent in the times of Cromwell and Charles II., born, of good parentage, in Dorsets.h.i.+re; pa.s.sed through Oxford and entered Lincoln's Inn; sat in the Short Parliament of 1640; changed from the Royalist to the Parliamentary side during the Civil War, and was a member of Cromwell's Council of State, but latterly attacked the Protector's Government, and was one of the chief promoters of the Restoration; Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1661, and later a member of the "Cabal"; he in 1672 was created an earl and Lord Chancellor, but, hoodwinked by Charles in the secret Treaty of Dover, went over to the Opposition, lost his chancellors.h.i.+p, supported an Anti-Catholic policy, leagued himself with the Country Party, and intrigued with the Prince of Orange; came into power again, after the "Popish Plot," as the champion of toleration and Protestantism, became President of the Council, and pa.s.sed the Habeas Corpus Act; his virulent attacks on James and espousal of Monmouth's cause brought about his arrest on a charge of high treason (1681), and although acquitted he deemed it expedient to flee to Holland, where he died; one of the ablest men of his age, but of somewhat inscrutable character, whose s.h.i.+fting policy seems to have been chiefly dominated by a regard for self; is the "Achitophel" of Dryden's great satire (1621-1683).

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF, grandson of the preceding, philosopher, born in London; was an ardent student in his youth, made the grand tour, and entered Parliament in 1694, moving to the Upper House on the death of his father in 1699, where, as a staunch Whig, he gave steady support to William III.; withdrew from politics, never a congenial sphere to him, on the accession of Anne, and followed his bent for literature and philosophy; in 1711 his collected writings appeared under the t.i.tle "Characteristics," in which he expounds, in the polite style of the 18th century, with much ingenuity and at times force, a somewhat uncritical optimism, enunciating, among other things, the doubtful maxim that ridicule is the test of truth (1671-1713).

SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, SEVENTH EARL OF, statesman and philanthropist, born in London; was a distinguished graduate of Oxford, and entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1826, took office under Wellington in 1828, and was a lord of the Admiralty in Peel's ministry of 1834; succeeded to the earldom in 1851; but his name lives by virtue of his n.o.ble and lifelong philanthropy, which took shape in numerous Acts of Parliament, such as the Mines and Collieries Act (1842), excluding women and boys under 13 working in mines; the Better Treatment of Lunatics Act (1845), called the Magna Charta of the insane; the Factory Acts (1867); and the Workshop Regulation Act (1878); while outside Parliament he wrought with rare devotion in behalf of countless benevolent and religious schemes of all sorts, notably the Ragged School movement and the better housing of the London poor; received the freedom of Edinburgh and London; was the friend and adviser of the Prince Consort and the Queen (1801-1885).

SHAH (Pers. "King"), an abbreviation of Shah-in-Shah ("King of Kings"), the t.i.tle by which the monarchs of Persia are known; may also be used in Afghanistan and other Asiatic countries, but more generally the less a.s.suming t.i.tle of Khan is taken.

SHAH-JEHAN ("King of the World"), fifth of the Mogul emperors of Delhi; succeeded his father in 1627; a man of great administrative ability and a skilled warrior; conquered the Deccan and the kingdom of Golconda, and generally raised the Mogul Empire to its zenith; his court was truly Eastern in its sumptuous magnificence; the "Peac.o.c.k Throne"

alone cost 7,000,000; died in prison, a victim to the perfidy of his usurping son Aurungzebe; _d_. 1666.

SHAKERS, a fanatical sect founded by one Ann Lee, so called from their extravagant gestures in wors.h.i.+p; they are agamists and communists.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, great world-poet and dramatist, born in Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwicks.h.i.+re; his father, John Shakespeare, a respected burgess; his mother, Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer, through whom the family acquired some property; was at school at Stratford, married Anne Hathaway, a yeoman's daughter, at 18, she eight years older, and had by her three daughters; left for London somewhere between 1585 and 1587, in consequence, it is said, of some deer-stealing frolic; took charge of horses at the theatre door, and by-and-by became an actor. His first work, "Venus and Adonis," appeared in 1593, and "Lucrece" the year after; became connected with different theatres, and a shareholder in certain of them, in some of which he took part as actor, with the result, in a pecuniary point of view, that he bought a house in his native place, extended it afterwards, where he chiefly resided for the ten years preceding his death. Not much more than this is known of the poet's external history, and what there is contributes nothing towards accounting for either him or the genius revealed in his dramas.

Of the man, says Carlyle, "the best judgment not of this country, but of Europe at large, is slowly pointing to the conclusion that he is the chief of all poets. .h.i.therto--the greatest intellect, in our recorded world, that has left record of himself in the way of literature. On the whole, I know not such a power of vision, such a faculty of thought, if we take all the characters of it, in any other man--such a calmness of depth, placid, joyous strength, all things in that great soul of his so true and clear, as in a tranquil, unfathomable sea.... It is not a transitory glance of insight that will suffice; it is a deliberate illumination of the whole matter; it is a calmly _seeing_ eye--a great intellect, in short.... It is in delineating of men and things, especially of men, that Shakespeare is great.... The thing he looks at reveals not this or that face, but its inmost heart, its generic secret; it dissolves itself as in light before him, so that he discerns the perfect structure of it.... It is a perfectly _level_ mirror we have here; no _twisted_, poor convex-concave mirror reflecting all objects with its own convexities and concavities, that is to say, withal a man justly related to all things and men, a good man.... And his intellect is an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of.... His art is not artifice; the n.o.blest worth of it is not there by plan or pre-contrivance. It grows up from the deeps of Nature, through this n.o.ble sincere soul, who is a voice of Nature.... It is Nature's highest reward to a true, simple, great soul that he got thus to be _part of herself_." Of his works nothing can or need be said here; enough to add, as Carlyle further says, "His works are so many windows through which we see a glimpse of the world that was in him.... Alas!

Shakespeare had to write for the Globe Playhouse; his great soul had to crush itself, as it could, into that and no other mould. It was with him, then, as it is with us all. No man works save under conditions. The sculptor cannot set his own free thought before us, but his thought as he could translate into the stone that was given, with the tools that were given. _Disjecta membra_ are all that we find of any poet, or of any man." Shakespeare's plays, with the order of their publication, are as follows: "Love's Labour's Lost," 1590; "Comedy of Errors," 1591; 1, 2, 3 "Henry VI.," 1590-1592; "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1592-1593; "Midsummer-Night's Dream," 1593-1594; "Richard III.," 1593; "Romeo and Juliet," 1591-1596 (?); "Richard II.," 1594; "King John," 1595; "Merchant of Venice," 1596; 1 and 2 "Henry IV.," 1597-1598; "Henry V.," 1599; "Taming of the Shrew," 1597 (?); "Merry Wives of Windsor," 1598; "Much Ado about Nothing," 1598; "As You Like It," 1599; "Twelfth Night," 1600-1601; "Julius Caesar," 1601; "All's Well," 1601-1602 (?); "Hamlet," 1602, "Measure for Measure," 1603; "Troilus and Cressida," 1603-1607 (?); "Oth.e.l.lo," 1604; "Lear," 1605; "Macbeth," 1606; "Antony and Cleopatra,"

1607; "Coriola.n.u.s," 1608; "Timon," 1608; "Pericles," 1608; "Cymbeline,"

1609; "Tempest," 1610; "Winter's Tale," 1610-1611; "Henry VIII.,"

1612-1613 (1564-1616).

SHAKESPEARE OF DIVINES, an epithet sometimes applied to JEREMY TAYLOR (q. v.) on account of his poetic style.

SHALOTT, LADY OF, subject of a poem of Tennyson's in love with Lancelot; wove a web which she must not rise from, otherwise a curse would fall on her; saw Lancelot pa.s.s one day, entered a boat and glided down to Camelot, but died on the way.

SHAMANISM, the religion of the native savage races of North Siberia, being a belief in spirits, both good and evil, who can be persuaded to bless or curse by the incantations of a Priest called a Shaman.

SHAMMAI, an eminent Jewish rabbi of the time of Herod, who held the position of supreme judge in the Sanhedrim under the presidency of HILLEL (q. v.), and whose narrow, rigid orthodoxy and repressive policy became the leading principles of his school, "the House of Shammai," which, however, carried the system to a pitch of fanatical zeal not contemplated by its originator.

SHAMROCK, a small trefoil plant, the national emblem of Ireland; it is matter of dispute whether it is the wood-sorrel, a species of clover, or some other allied trefoil; the lesser yellow trefoil is perhaps the most commonly accepted symbol.

SHAMYL, a great Caucasian chief, head of the Lesghians, who combined the functions of priest and warrior; consolidated the Caucasian tribes in their resistance to the Russians, and carried on a successful struggle in his mountain fastnesses for thirty years, till his forces were worn out and himself made captive in 1859; _d_. 1871.

SHANGHAI (380), the chief commercial city and port of China, on the Wusung, an affluent of the Yangtse-kiang, 12 m. from the coast, and 160 m. SE. of Nanking; large, densely-peopled suburbs have grown round the closely-packed and walled city, which, with its narrow, unclean streets, presents a slovenly appearance; the French and English occupy the broad-streeted and well-built suburbs in the N.; the low-lying site exposes the city to great heat in the summer, and to frequent epidemics of cholera and fever; an extensive system of ca.n.a.ls draws down a great part of the interior produce, and swells the export trade in tea, silk, cotton, rice, sugar, &c.

SHANNON, the first river of Ireland, and largest in the British Islands, rises in the Cuilcagh Mountains, Co. Cavan; flows in a south-westerly direction through Loughs Allen, Ree, and Derg, besides forming several lough expansions, to Limerick, whence it turns due W., and opens out on the Atlantic in a wide estuary between Kerry (S.) and Clare (N.); has an entire course of 254 m., and is navigable to Lough Allen, a distance of 213 m.

SHANS or LAOS, the name of a people, descendants of aborigines of China, forming several large tribes scattered round the frontiers of Burma, Siam, and South China, whose territory, roughly speaking, extends N. as far as the Yunnan Plateau of South China; some are independent, but the bulk of the tribes are subject to Siam, China, and the British in Burma; practise slavery, are Buddhists, somewhat superst.i.tious, indolent, pleasure-loving, and for the most part peaceable and content; chased gold and silver work, rice, cotton, tobacco, &c., are their chief exports.

SHARON, a fertile region in Palestine of the maritime plain between Carmel and Philistia.

SHARP, ABRAHAM, a schoolmaster of Liverpool, and subsequent bookkeeper in London, whose wide knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, &c., attracted FLAMSTEED (q. v.), by whom he was invited in 1688 to enter the Greenwich Royal Observatory, where he did notable work, improving instruments, and showing great skill as a calculator; published "Geometry Improved," logarithmic tables, &c. (1651-1742).

SHARP, BECKY, an intriguing character in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair,"

very clever, but without heart.

SHARP, GRANVILLE, a noted abolitionist, born in London; trained for the bar, but accepted a post in the London Ordnance Office, which he held until the outbreak of the American War; was a voluminous writer on philology, law, theology, &c., but mainly devoted himself to the cause of negro emanc.i.p.ation, co-operating with Clarkson in founding the a.s.sociation for the Abolition of Negro Slavery, and taking an active interest in the new colony for freedom in Sierra Leone; won a famous decision in the law-courts to the effect that whenever a slave set foot on English soil he becomes free; he was also one of the founders of the Bible Society (1734-1813).

SHARP, JAMES, archbishop of St. Andrews, born in Banff Castle; educated at Aberdeen University, visited England, where he formed important friends.h.i.+ps, and in 1643 was appointed "regent" or professor of Philosophy at St. Andrews, a post he resigned five years later to become minister of Crail; during the Protectorate he sided with the "Resolutioners" or Moderates, and appeared before Cromwell in London to plead their cause; in 1660 received a commission to go to London to safeguard the interests of the Scottish Church, a trust he shamefully betrayed by intriguing with Charles at Breda, and with Clarendon and the magnates of the English Church to restore Prelacy in Scotland, he himself (by way of reward) being appointed Archbishop of St. Andrews; henceforward he was but a pliant tool in the hands of his English employers, and an object of intense hatred to the Covenanters; in 1668 his life was attempted in Edinburgh by Robert Mitch.e.l.l, a covenanting preacher, and ultimately on Magus Muir, May 1679, he was mercilessly hacked to pieces by a band of Covenanters headed by Hackston and John Balfour (1618-1679).