b which his ideas are presented to the mind of the spectator. Poetry and elocution of every sort make use of signs, but those signs are arbitrary and conventional. The sculptor employs the representation of the thing itself; but still as a means to a higher end-as a gradual ascent always advancing towards faultless form and perfect beauty. It may be thought at the first view that even this form, however perfectly represented, is to be valued and take its rank only for the sake of a still higher object, that of conveying sentiment and character, as they are exhibited by attitude, and expression of the passions. But we are sure, from experience, that the beauty of form alone, without the assistance of any other quality, makes of itself a great work, and justly claims our esteem and admiration. As a proof of the high value we set on the mere excellence of form, we may produce the greatest part of the works of Michel Angiolo, both in painting and sculpture; as well as most of the antique statues, which are justly esteemed in a very high degree, though no very marked or striking character or expression of any kind is represented. But, as a stronger instance that this excellence alone inspires sentiment, what artist ever looked at the Torso without feeling a warmth of enthusiasm, as from the highest efforts of poetry! Whence does this proceed? What is there in this fragment that produces this effect, but the perfection of this

SCUM, n. s. & v. a. Fr. escume; Ital. schiuma ; Dan. and Goth. skum. That which rises to the top of any liquor; spume; froth; refuse: hence, in contempt, the lowest of the people: to clear off the scum.

The rest had several offices assigned; Some to remove the scum as it did rise, Others to bear the same away did mind, And others it did use according to his kind.

Faerie Queene. There flocked unto him all the scum of the Irish out of all places, that ere long he had a mighty army. Spenser.

Some forty gentlemen excepted, had we the very scum of the world, such as their friends thought it an exceeding good gain to be discharged of.

Raleigh's Essays.

The salt part of the water doth partly rise into a scum on the top, and partly goeth into a sediment in the bottom. Bacon.

Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, Self-fed and self-consumed.

Milton.

science of abstract form? A mind elevated to the contemplation of excellence perceives in this defaced and shattered fragment, disjecta membra poetæ, the traces of superlative genius, the relics of a work on which succeeding ages can only gaze with inadequate adiniration.

It may be said that this pleasure is reserved only to those who have spent their whole life in the study and contemplation of this art; but the truth is that all would feel its effects, if they could divest themselves of the expectation of deception, and look only for what it really is, a partial representation of nature. The only impediment of their judgment must then proceed from their being uncertain to what rank, or rather kind of excellence, it aspires; and to what sort of approbation it has a right. This state of darkness is, without doubt, irksome to every mind; but by attention to works of this kind the knowledge of what is aimed at comes of itself, without being taught, and almost without being perceived. The sculptor's art is limited in comparison of others, but it has its variety and intricacy within its proper bounds. Its essence is correctness: and when to correct and perfect form is added the ornament of grace, dignity of character, and appropriate expression, as in the Apollo, the Venus, the Laocoon, the Moses of Michel Angiolo, and many others, this art may be said to have accomplished its purpose.'

off.

What corns swim upon the top of the brine, sc Mortimer's Husbandry. The great and innocent are insulted by the scum and refuse of the people. Addison's Freeholder.

SCUPPER HOLES, n. s. Belg. schoepen, to draw off. In a ship, small holes on the deck, through which water is carried into the sea. The leathers over those holes are called scupper leathers; and the nails with which they are fastened, scupper nails.

Ward.

The blood at scupper holes run out. SCUPPERS, in a ship, are certain channels cut through the water-ways and sides of a ship, at proper distances, and lined with plated fead, to carry the water off from the deck into the sea. The scuppers of the lower deck of a ship of war are usually furnished with a leathern pipe, called the scupper hose, which hangs downward from the mouth or opening of the scupper. The intent of this is to prevent the water from entering when the ship inclines under a weight of

sail.

SCURVY, in medicine. See MEDicine. SCURVY-GRASS, common officinal, or cochlearia officinalis, grows upon rocks on the seacoast, and on the Highland mountains, abundantly. It has an acrid bitter, and acid taste, and is highly recommended for the scurvy. As it abounds with acid salts, there can be no doubt but that it is a great resister of putrefaction. The best way of taking it is raw in a sallad. It is also diuretic, and useful in dropsies. The Highlanders esteem it as a good stomachic. 'SCUSES. For excuses. A mere barbarism of Shakspeare's. I shifted him away,

And laid good scuses on your ecstasy.

Shakspeare. Othello. SCUT, n. s. Isl. skott; Goth. skot. The tail of certain animals whose tails are very short. In the hare it is aversely seated, and in its distension inclines unto the coccix or scut.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. He fled to earth, but first it cost him dear; He left his scut behind, and half an ear.

Swift.

SCUTAGE, n. s. [Sax. scutagium, scildpening] was a tax or contribution raised by those that held lands by knights' service, towards furnishing the king's army with one, two, or three his voyage to the Holy Land, had a tenth granted merks for every knight's fee. Henry III., for by the clergy, and scutage, three merks of every knight's fee by the laity. This was also levied by Henry II., Richard I., and king John.

SCUTARI, a lake of Albania, Greece, situated about fifteen miles from the coast. It is about

sixteen miles in length, and seven in breadth, containing several small islands. The Moracca enters its northern extremity, and issues from its south-eastern, where it is known as the Bojane.

SCUTARI, or ISKENDERJE, a large fortified town of Albania, on the Bojane, at the south-east extremity of the lake of Scutari. Its highest point is crowned by a castle. The town consists of four quarters; and has several mosques and Greek churches, being the see of a Greek bishop. The neighbouring plain is one of the richest in Albania in vines and olive plantations. Scutari is the capital of a pachalic, one of the most considerable in Albania. Population 12,000. Fifty miles east by south of Cattaro, and 448 west of Constantinople.

SCUTARI, a large town on the Bosphorus, immediately opposite to Constantinople. Its site is most beautiful, on the slope of several hills, and thickly intermingled with trees. The strait appears here like a lake, planted round with cities and the minarets of Scutari command the most brilliant views of Constantinople. It carries on a considerable trade as a rendezvous for caravans from the interior of Asia. Population 30,000.

:

SCUTCHEON, n. s. Ital. scuccione, from

But Scylla from her den, with open jaws, The sinking vessel in her eddy draws, Then dashes on the rocks: a human face, And virgin bosom, hide her tail's disgrace, ! Her parts obscene below the waves descend, With dogs enclosed, and in a dolphin end. Dryden. The description of Virgil, above cited, differs from that of Homer only in placing a deep gulf below. Strabo, Isidorus, Tzetzes, Hesychius, Didymus, Eustathius, &c., concur in the same description. The abbé Spallanzani thus describes Scylla in his time: It is a lofty rock, twelve miles from Messina, which rises almost perpendicularly from the sea on the shore of Calabria, and beyond which is the small city of the same name. Though there was scarcely any wind, I began to hear, two miles before I came to the rock, a murmur and noise like a confused barking of dogs, and on a nearer approach readily discovered the cause. This rock, in its lower parts, contains a number of caverns, one of the largest of which is called by the people there Dragara. The waves, when in the least agitated, rushing into these caverns, break, dash, throw up frothy bubbles, and thus occasion these various and multiplied sounds. I then perceived with how much truth and resemblance of nature Homer and Virgil, in their personifications of Scylla, had portrayed this scene, by describing the monster they drew as lurking in the darkness of a vast cavern, surrounded by ravenous mastiffs, together with wolves, to increase the horror.

The same author thus describes Charybdis: 'Charybdis is distant from the shore of Messina about 750 feet, and is called by the people of the country Calofaro, not from the agitation of the =waves, as some have supposed, but from raλog and papos; that is, the beautiful tower, from the light-house erected near it for the guidance of vessels. The phenomenon of the Calofaro is observable when the current is descending; for when the current sets in from the north, the pilots call it the descending rema or current; and, when it runs from the south, the ascending rema. The current ascends or descends at the rising or setting of the moon, and continues for six hours. In the interval between each ascent or descent there is a calm which lasts at least a quarter of an hour, but not longer than an hour. Afterwards, at the rising or setting of the moon, the current enters from the north, making various angles of incidence with the shore, and at length reaches the Calofaro. This delay sometimes continues two hours; sometimes it immediately falls into the Calofaro; and then experience has taught that it is a certain token of bad weather.' The saying which became proverbial among the ancients, Incidit in Scyllam, qui vult vitare Charybdim; he who endeavours to avoid Charybdis, dashes upon Scylla,' is still in a great measure true. If a ship be extricated from the fury of Charybdis, and carried by a strong southerly wind along the strait towards the northern entrance, it will indeed pass out safely; but, should it meet with a wind in a nearly opposite direction, it would become the sport of both these winds, and, unable to advance or recede, be driven in a middle course between their two directions, that is to say, full upon the rock

of Scylla, if it be not immediately assisted by the pilots.

The following is an account of these bugbears of antiquity, given by captain Smyth, an intelliobserves our author, can seldom bear to be gent British seaman: The flights of poetry,' shackled by homely truth; and if we are to receive the fine imagery that places the summit of this rock (Scylla) in clouds, brooding eternal mists and tempests; that represents it as inaccessible, even to a man provided with twenty hands and twenty feet, and immerses its base among ravenous sea-dogs; why not also receive the whole circle of mythological dogmas of Homer, who, though so frequently dragged forth as an authority in history, theology, surgery, and geography, ought in justice to be read only as a poet? In the writings of so exquisite a bard, we must not expect to find all his representations strictly confined to a mere accurate narration of facts. Moderns of intelligence, in visiting this spot, have gratified their imaginations, already heated by such descriptions as the escape of the Argonauts, and the disasters of Ulysses, with fancying it the scourge of seamen, and that, in a gale, its caverns roar like dogs;' but I, as a sailor, never perceived any difference between the effect of the surges here, and on any other coast; yet I have frequently watched it closely in bad weather. It is now, as I presume it ever was, a common rock, of bold approach, a little worn at its base, and surmounted by a castle, with a sandy bay on each side. The one on the south side is memorable for the disaster that happened there, during the dreadful earthquake of 1783, when an overwhelming wave (supposed to have been occasioned by the fall of part of a promontory into the sea) rushed up the beach, and, in its retreat, bore away with it upwards of 2000 people. Outside the tongue of land, or Braccio di St. Rainierê, that forms the harbour of Messina, lies the Salofaro, or celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which has, with more reason than Scylla, been clothed with terrors by the writers of antiquity. To the undecked boats o the Rhegians, Locrians, Zancleans, and Greeks, it must have been formidable; for, even in the present day, small craft are sometimes endangered by it; and I have seen several men-of-war, and even a seventy-four-gun ship, whirled round on its surface; but, by using due caution, there is generally very little danger or inconvenience to be apprehended. It appears to be an agitated water, of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. It is owing, probably, to the meeting of the harbour, and lateral currents, with the main one, the latter being forced over, in this direction, by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees, in some measure, with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian Seas; and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effect. Many wonderful stories are told respecting this vortex, particularly some, said to have been related by the celebrated diver Colas, who lost his life here.' See also our article MEDITERRANEAN.

SYCROS, in ancient geography, an island in the Agean Sea, at the distance of about twentyeight miles north-east from Eubœa. Fifty miles in circumference. It was originally in the possession of the Pelasgians and Carians. Achilles retired thither to avoid going to the Trojan war, and became father of Neoptolemus by Deidamia, the daughter of king Lycomedes. Scyros was conquered by the Athenians under Cimon. It was very rocky and barren. It is now called Sciro.

SCYTALA LACONICA, in antiquity, a stratagem of the Lacedemonians, for the secret writing of letters, so that, if they should chance to be intercepted, nobody might be able to read them.To this end they had two wooden cylinders, perfectly alike and equal; one of which was kept in the city, the other by the person to whom the letter was directed. A skin of very thin parchment was wrapped round the roller, in which the letter was written; which done, it was taken off, and sent away to the party, who, upon putting it in the same manner upon his roller, found the lines and words in the same order as when they were first written. This expedient they set a a very high value on; though, in truth, artless and simple enough.

SCYTALIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and octandria class of plants: CAL. very short, monophyllous, and somewhat quinquedentated COR. pentapetalous; filaments hairy at the base; berry unilocular: SEED one of a soft pulpy consistence. There is only one species, viz.

S. sinensis, a native of China and the East Indies.

SCYTHES, in fabulous history, the son of Jupiter and Tellus, who was half man half serpent. According to Diodorus he became king of the country, called from him Scythia.

SCYTHIA, an ancient name for the northern parts of Asia, now called Tartary, and also for some of the north-east parts of Europe. This vast territory, which extends from the Ister or Danube, the boundary of the Celts, that is, from about 25°, to nearly 100° long. E., was divided into Scythia in Europe, and Scythia in Asia, including the two Sarmatias, or Sauromatias. Sarmatia was divided from the European Scythia by the Don or Tanais, which falls into the Palus Meotis; and from the Asiatic by the Rha, now the Wolga, which runs into the Caspian Sea.

SCYTHIA ASIATICA, the Asiatic Scythia, comprehended, in general, Tartary, and Russia in Asia. As for Sarmatia, it contained Albania, Iberia, and Colchis; which makes now the Circassian Tartary, and the province of Georgia.

SCYTHIA EUROPAA, Scythia in Europe, reached towards the south-west, to the Po and the Alps, by which it was divided from CeltoGallia. It was bounded on the south by the Ister or Danube and the Euxine Sea. Its northern limits have been supposed to stretch to the spring-heads of the Boristhenes or Nieper, and the Rha or Wolga, and so to those of the Ta nais. The ancients divided this country into Scythia Arimaspæa, which lay east, joining to Scythia in Asia; and Sarmatia Europeana on the west. In Scythia, properly so called,

were the Arimaspi on the north, the Geta or Dacians along the Danube on the south, and the Neuri between these two: so that it contained European Russia, and the Lesser Crim Tartary on the east, and on the west Lithuania, Poland, part of Hungary, Transylvania, Walachia, Bulgaria, and Moldavia. The ancient geographers divided the west part of Sweden and Norway from Northern Germany, by the Mare Sarmaticum or Scythicum, which they supposed ran up into the Northern Ocean, and, dividing Lapland into two parts, formed the western part of Sweden, with Norway, into one island, and Finland into another; supposing this also to be cut off from the continent by the gulf of that name.

SCYTHIANS, the natives of Scythia. Although the ancient Scythians were celebrated as a warlike people, yet their history is too uncertain and obscure to enable us to give any detail which would prove interesting. See the very opposite accounts given of the ancient Scythians, by Herodotus and Justin under SCULPTURE. Hist. Mr. Pinkerton, in a dissertation on their origin, endeavours to prove that they were the most ancient of nations; and he assigns for the place of their first habitation the country known by the name of Persia. From Persia, he thinks, they proceeded in numerous hordes westward, surrounded the Euxine, peopled Germany, Italy, Gaul, the countries bordering on the Baltic, with part of Britain and Ireland. That the Scythians were of Asiatic origin cannot, we think, be questioned; and, as Persia was peopled at a very early period, it may not improbably have been their parent country; but when our author contends that their empire had subsisted for more than 1500 years before Ninus the founder of the Assyrian monarchy, and that it extended from Egypt to the Ganges, and from the Persian Gulf and Indian Sea to the Caspian, we cannot help thinking that his prejudices against the Celts, and his desire to do honor to his favorite Goths, have made him advance a paradox inconsistent with the most authentic records of antiquity. His dissertation, however, is ingenious, and replete with a variety of curious learning.

SCYTHROPS, a generic name given by Mr. Latham to a bird of which hitherto but one spe

cies has been observed. It is about the size of a crow, and two feet three inches in length. The bill is large, convex, furrowed on the sides, and bent at the tip; the nostrils are placed at the base of it, and the tongue is cloven at the end. The general color of the plumage is a brownish ash, but the tip of each feather of the back, wings, and tail, is black. The tail has each feather banded with black at the end, and the tip itself white; but the inner webs of the feather are marked with black and white bands. The toes are placed two forwards and two backwards, as in the parrot genus. This curious bird is a native of New Holland.

SDEIGN, v. a. Ital. sdegnare. Used by Spenser and Milton for disdain.

They now, puft up with sdeignful insoler ce, Despise the brood of blessed sapience. Spense Lifted up so high,

I sdeigned subjection.

Milton.