and France were signed, and the peace itself was confirmed at Paris, Feb. 10, 1763. (See Paris, Treaties concluded at.) Frederic was thus exposed alone to his enemies; but he had already acquired a decided superiority. A Prussian force, under Kleist, also obliged several of the most important states of the empire to declare themselves neutral. After a short negotiation, and without the aid of foreign mediation, Frederic concluded a peace with Austria and Saxony at Hubertsburg (q. v.), Feb. 15, by which each power received again all the territories which it had possessed before the war, though in a miserable condition. The unity of purpose, which marked all the measures of Frederic, and the great supplies both of men and money, which he obtained from the conquest of Saxony, his comprehensive genius, his numerous and excellent generals, and the bravery of his troops, gave the Prussian monarch a superiority over his enemies, and brought to ahappy conclusion a war which had made the Prussian kingdom more than once tremble on the brink of destruction. This war cost Europe a million lives, and exhausted all the states which took part in it, without having procured to any but England the smallest advantage. See Hist. de la Guerre de sept Ans, in the posthumous works of Frederic II; History of the Seven Years' War, by Lloyd and Tempelhof; Ratzow's Charakteristik der merkwürd., &c.; the Geständnisse eines Oestreich. Veterans [Confessions of an Austrian Veteran], by Kuniaczo; and lord Dover's Life of Frederic II (London, 1832). SEVENTY, THE. (See Septuagint.) SEVERIANS, SEVERITES. (See Gnostics, and Monophysites.)

SEVERN (anciently Sabrina); a river which rises near Plinlimmon hill, North Wales, passes by Shrewsbury, Worcester, Upton, Tewksbury and Gloucester, and, entering the sea, its mouth is called Bristol Channel. A communication between this river and the Thames, the Trent, the Dee, and the Mersey and other rivers, has been opened by different canals; length of its course to the sea, about 200 miles. SEVERUS, Alexander. (See Alexander Severus.)

SEVERUS, Lucius Septimius; a Roman emperor, born at Leptis, in Africa, of a noble family. He successively exercised all the offices of the state, and recommended himself to notice by an ambitious mind and a restless activity, that, for the gratification of avarice,could endure the greatest hardships. After the murder of Pertinax, Severus

resolved to remove Didius Julianus, who had bought the imperial purple when exposed to sale by the pretorians (q. v.), and proclaimed himself emperor on the borders of Illyricum, where he was stationed against the barbarians. To support himself, he took, as his partner in the empire, Albinus, who was at the head of the Roman forces in Britain, and immediately marched towards Rome to crush Didius and his partisans. He was received with acclamation; and Julian was deserted by his favorites, and assassinated by his own soldiers. In professing that he had assumed the purple only to revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severus gained many adherents, and was enabled to banish the pretorians, whose insolence and avarice had become alarming, not only to the citizens, but to the emperor. But while he was victorious at Rome, Pescennius Niger was in the East, at the head of a powerful army, and with the name and ensigns of Augustus. Many obstinate battles were fought between the imperial rivals, till, on the plains of Issus, Niger was totally ruined by the loss of 20,000 men. The head of Niger was cut off and sent to the conqueror, who punished, in a most cruel manner, the partisans of his unfortunate rival. Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, which had shut her gates against him; and after he had conquered several nations in the East, he returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, with whom he had hitherto reluctantly shared the imperial power.

He attempted to assassinate him by his emissaries; but when this had failed of success, Severus had recourse to arms, and the fate of the empire was again decided on the plains of Gaul. Albinus was defeated, and the conqueror insulted the dead body of his rival, and ordered it to be thrown into the Rhone, after he had suffered it to putrefy before the door of his tent, and to be torn by his dogs. The adherents of Albinus shared his fate; and the return of Severus to the capital exhibited the bloody triumphs of Marius and Sylla. The richest of the citizens were sacrificed, and their money became the property of the emperor. Commodus received divine honors, and his murderers were punished in the most wanton man

provinces of Asia, and, after he had visited the tomb of Pompey the Great, entered Alexandria. The revolt of Britain recalled him from the East. After he had reduced it under his power, he built a wall across the northern parts of the island to defend it against the frequent invasions of the Caledonians. (See Picts' Wall.) Hitherto successful against his enemies, Severus now found the peace of his family disturbed. Caracalla attempted to murder his father, as he was concluding a treaty of peace with the Britons; and Severus, worn out with infirmities which the gout and the uneasiness of his mind increased, soon after died at York, A. D. 211, in the 66th year of his age. Severus has been so much admired for his military talents that some have called him the most warlike of the Roman emperors. As a monarch, he was cruel; and it has been observed that he never did an act of humanity or forgave a fault. In his diet, he was temperate, and he always showed himself an enemy to pomp and splendor. He loved the appellation of a man of letters, and he even composed a history of his own reign.

SEVERUS'S WALL. (See Picts' Wall.) SÉVIGNÉ, Marie de Rabutin, marquise de, a French woman of quality, greatly distinguished for her epistolary talents, was born in 1627. Her father, the baron of Chantal, who was the head of the house of Bussy Rabutin, left her, during infancy, his sole heiress. The graces of her person and conversation procured her many admirers; and in 1644 she married the marquis de Sévigné, who was killed in a duel in 1651, leaving her the mother of a son and daughter. She formed no second union, but devoted herself to the education of her children, and to the cultivation of her mind, by reading and literary society. She was extremely attached to her daughter, who, in 1669, married the count de Grignan, and accompanied him to his government of Provence. The absence of her daughter from the metropolis gave rise to the greater part of the Letters which have gained madame de Sévigné so much reputation. The subject of many of these epistles are so entirely domestic as to produce little interest; but others abound with court anecdotes, remarks on men and books, and the topics of the day, which are conveyed with great ease and felicity. They are models of the epistolary style, perfectly natural from their expression, lively sentiment and description, and a playfulness which gives grace and interest to trifles. In her letters to her daugh29

VOL. XI.

ter, the reader is sometimes wearied with an excess of flattery of her beauty and talents, the preservation of the former of which seems to have formed the principal object of her maternal anxiety. In fact, although endowed with abilities and penetration, she did not rise much above the level of her age in taste and principles. She was highly attached to rank and splendor, loved admiration, and felt the usual predilection of high life for manners and accomplishments in preference to solid worth. She had a strong feeling of religion, but was often inconsistent in her sense of it, and in reference to the proceedings against the French Protestants, expresses herself with bigotry and want of feeling. The most complete edition of her Letters is that which appeared at Paris in 1818 (11 vols., 8vo). An English translation was published in London about 1758. She died in 1696, at the age of seventy.

SEVILLE, SEVILLA (anciently Hispalis); a city of Spain, in Andalusia, on the Guadalquivir, capital of a province of the same name, forty-five miles north of Cadiz, 250 south-west of Madrid; lon. 5° 39′ W.; lat. 37° 24′ north; population, 94,000. It is an archiepiscopal see, and stands in a fine plain, surrounded by an old wall, built of cement, with twelve gates, and 166 turrets. The interior of the city is built in the Moorish style, the streets being often so narrow that a person can touch the houses on both sides at once; and it is badly paved. The squares are neither numerous nor spacious. There are several beautiful public walks, one, in particular, on the banks of the Guadalquivir. The city contains a cathedral, twenty-nine churches, eighty-four convents, and twenty-four hospitals. The cathedral is the largest Gothic edifice in Spain, and one of the largest churches in Europe. It was built in the fifteenth century, contains eighty-two altars, and has a tower 250 feet high, considered the finest in Spain. Other conspicuous edifices are the alcazar, or palace, a Moorish building, containing a library of 20,000 volumes, a garden, &c.; the longa or exchange, the artillery school and the mint. The houses generally cover a large space, but towards the street they have often a mean appearance, the Moors being accustomed to confine their embellishments to the interior. Seville contains an academy for the physical sciences, one for the fine arts, a medical society, and a university, founded in 1502, almost as backward as at the time of its foundation. The silk manufactures of Seville were

formerly extensive. In the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, it is said there were 6000 looms. These manufactures declined in the middle and end of the seventeenth century, but revived again in the eighteenth, and between 2000 and 3000 looms are now employed. Other manufactures are coarse woollens, leather, tobacco and snuff. Vessels drawing more than ten feet of water must unload eight miles below the city, and the largest vessels stop at St. Lucar, at the mouth of the river. Seville is one of the most ancient cities of Spain; by the Romans called Hispalis; by the Goths Hispalia; by the Arabians Irbilla; hence, by the Castilians Sevilla. It was the residence of the Gothic kings before they moved to Toledo. Ferdinand III, king of Castile, after a year's siege, forced Seville to open its gates to him. At this time it is said to have contained 600,000 inhabitants; and upon the capitulation 300,000 Moors abandoned the city. After the discovery of America, it became the centre of the commerce of the new world, and was very flourishing; but the difficulty in navigating the river, and the superior advantages of the port of Cadiz, induced the government to order the galleons to be stationed at the latter place.

SEVRES; a village, with 2700 inhabitants, about half way between Paris and Versailles (two leagues from each), lying near St. Cloud, on the Seine. It is celebrated for its glass and porcelain manufactories. The porcelain of Sevres is unrivalled for brilliancy of color and delicacy of execution. The finest specimens are made for the court, and are annually exhibited at Christmas in the halls of the Louvre, with the products of the Gobelin looms. (See Porcelain, and Pottery.)

SEWARD, Anna, daughter of Thomas Seward, rector of Eyam, Derbyshire, and canon residentiary of Lichfield, was born at Eyam, in 1747, and in childhood exhibited a taste for poetical composition, which was rather checked than encouraged by her father. Miss Seward's first separate publication was an Elegy on the Death of Captain Cook, with an Ode to the Sun (1780, 4to.); and this was followed by a Monody on Major André, with Letters to her from Major André, written in 1769 (1781, 4to.), and Louisa, a Poetical Novel, in four Epistles (1784, 4to.). In 1799, she published a collection of sonnets; and in 1804 appeared her Life of Doctor Darwin. She died at the episcopal palace at Lichfield, in 1809. Her cor

respondence was published, with a biographical memoir, in 6 vols., 8vo.

SEX is the term used to designate the two divisions of all organic bodies into male and female. It is a law of nature, that all organic bodies shall be produced by their like, and each class is endowed with particular organs appropriated to this service, which constitute the distinction of sexes. In the vegetable world, the sexes are, for the most part, united in one bud; although, in many classes, they are distributed in different flowers upon the same plant, or upon different plants. Among animals, especially the more perfectly formed, the division of the sexes is complete. In general, the male sex, in comparison with the female, is stronger; the female more delicate and tender. The fundamental characters of the two sexes appear more or less distinctly in most kinds of living beings, till in man they are found in a degree of developement corresponding to his rank in creation. The muscular system of man is firmer and more powerful; his chest wider, his lungs more capacious and stronger; the outlines of his form are more distinct, and his whole frame larger and stronger. The female form is more slender; the bones are smaller and softer; the flesh less solid; the chest narrower; the lungs smaller; the heart and arterial system weaker: on the other hand, the venous and lymphatic systems predominate (thus inclining the person to delicacy and inactivity); the space between the skin and the interior parts is more loaded with fat; and thus the contour is more rounded, forming the waving line; the whole proportion, in fine, of the body smaller, and more delicate. Hence the form of man conveys the idea of strength; the form of woman, that of beauty. Man is more active, grasping distant objects; more inclined to effort, to occupy his faculties upon abstract subjects, and extensive plans. The quick and violent passions belong to the man; the quiet, the domestic, and the retiring, to the woman. woman is confined to a smaller circle, with which, however, she is more thoroughly acquainted; and is more patient and enduring in the performance of the ordinary duties of life. Man must acquire; woman strives to keep: man strives to effect his object by force; woman by kindness or by cunning. The one is busied with the bustle of out-door life, the other is devoted to domestic quiet. Man labors in the sweat of his brow, and, exhausted by his efforts, requires deep re

The

pose; woman is always busy in a quiet activity.

SEXAGESIMALS, or SEXAGESIMAL FRACTIONS; fractions whose denominators proceed in a sexagecuple ratio; that is, a prime, or the first minute,; a secand; a third. Anciently there were no other than sexagesimals used in astronomy; and they are still retained in many cases, though decimal arithmetic has now grown into use in astronomical calculations. In these fractions, which some call astronomical fractions, the denominator, being always sixty, or a multiple thereof, is usually omitted, and the numerator only written down, thus, 4° 59′ 32′ 50′′ 16 is to be read, four degrees, fifty-nine minutes, thirty-two seconds, fifty thirds, sixteen fourths, &c. It is readily seen how great the advantage of the decimal division (according to which the circle has 400 degrees, each degree 100 minutes, each minute 100 seconds, &c.) is over the sexagesimal division; but as this change was one of the effects which the revolution produced in France, the sexagesimal division gained ground again under the elder line of the Bourbons. Biot often expresses the results of his calculations according to both divisions; and to show how different the expressions are, we will only state that the sun's parallax is, according to the sexagesimal division, :8", 8.. and according to the centesimal (less properly called decimal), 27", 1. . . . .

SEXTANT; an instrument for taking altitudes and other angular distances. It is constructed on a principle similar to the quadrant (q. v.); but the arc, containing a sixth part of a circle, may be taken to 120°. Sextants are generally fitted with apparatuses for ascertaining the angular distances, &c., in lunar observations.

SEXTUS (surnamed Empiricus, from his belonging to the empiric school of medicine) was a celebrated sceptic, who flourished towards the close of the second century. He was probably a Greek by birth, studied at Alexandria and Athens, became a pupil of the sceptic philosopher Herodotus of Tarsus, and combined extensive learning with great acuteness. Scepticism appears in his writings in the most perfect state which it had reached in ancient times; and its object and method are more clearly developed than they had been by his predecessors. (See Scepticism.) He is often sophistical in the application of his sceptical principles. We have two works by him, written in the Greek language, and which are the

source of our knowledge of the Greek sceptical philosophy. One of them, entitled Institutes of Pyrrhonism (in three books), explains the method of Pyrrho (q. v.); the other, entitled Against the Mathematicians, is an attempt to apply that method to all the prevailing philosophical systems, and other branches of knowledge. Fabricius edited both works (Sexti Empirici Opera, Gr. et Lat., Leipsic, 1718). SEXUAL SYSTEM. (See Botany.)

SEYD, or ZEID; the name of a slave of Mohammed,who was one of the first to acknowledge the divine mission of his master, was adopted by him, and received Zeinab, a cousin of Mohammed, as his wife; the prophet, however, having fallen in love with her himself, Seyd was ready to resign her. Voltaire, in his Mahomet, makes Seyd an innocent but blindly submissive youth, who, at the prophet's order, kills a person, who turns out to be his own father. Seyd is therefore sometimes used to denote a man blindly devoted to the will of another. Thus St. Just is called by Mr. Nodier the Seyd of Robespierre; and the duke of Rovigo says, in his Memoirs, that he has often been taken for the Seyd of Napoleon.

SEYFFARTH, Gustavus, professor in the university of Leipsic, made himself known by editing Spohn's explanation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. (See Spohn.) He returned, in 1828, from a tour made through Italy, France and England, to try Spohn's system of deciphering. He has published Contributions to the Knowledge of the Literature, Art, Mythology and History of Ancient Egypt (first number, with four lithographic plates, 4to., Leipsic); Rudimenta hieroglyphica ; Brevis Defensio hieroglyphices invente a F. A. Spohn ei G. Seyfarth (4to.); Réplique aux Objections de M. J. F. Champollion le jeune contre le Système hieroglyphique de M. Spohn et G. Seyfarth. (See Hieroglyphics.)

SEYMOUR, Edward; duke of Somerset in the reign of Edward VI, to whom he was maternal uncle, being the son of sir John Seymour, of Wolf-hall, in Wiltshire, and brother of lady Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII. He was educated at Oxford, and early devoted himself to the military profession. On the marriage of his sister with the king, in 1536, he was raised to the peerage, by the title of viscount Beauchamp, and the following year created earl of Hertford. He commanded in a maritime expedition against the Scots, in 1544, when he landed a body of troops at Leith, and set fire to the city of Edinburgh. On the death of

Henry VIII, he rose to unbounded power, both in the church and state. By the will of Henry he had been nominated one of the council of regency, during the minority of Edward VI (q. v.); but, not content with his share of power, he procured himself to be appointed governor of the king and protector of the kingdom. In 1548, he obtained the post of lord treasurer, was created duke of Somerset, and made earl marshal. The same year he headed an army, with which he invaded Scotland, and, after having gained the victory of Musselburgh, returned in triumph to England. His success excited the jealousy of the earl of Warwick and others, who procured his confinement in the Tower, in October, 1549, on the charge of arbitrary conduct and injustice; and he was deprived of his offices, and heavily fined. But he soon after obtained a full pardon from the king, was admitted at court, and ostensibly reconciled to his adversary, lord Warwick (see Dudley, John), whose son espoused one of his daughters. The reconciliation was probably insincere, as Warwick, who had succeeded to his influence over the young king, caused Somerset to be again arrested, in October, 1551, on the charge of treasonable designs against the lives of some of the privy counsellors. He was tried, found guilty, and beheaded on Tower-hill, in 1552.

SEYMOUR, Jane. (See Henry VIII.) SFORZA; a celebrated Italian house, which played an important part in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, gave six sovereigns to Milan, and formed alliances with most of the princely houses of Europe. The founder of the house was a peasant of Cotignola, in Romagna, Giacomo Attendolo, whose skill and courage as a statesman and a warrior made him one of the most powerful condottieri of Italy. As he was one day laboring in the field, he was attracted by the sight of some mercenaries, and, throwing his axe against a tree, determined to become a soldier if it stuck in the tree, and to remain a peasant if it fell. Fate doomed him to become a soldier, and he served Joanna II, queen of Naples, who regarded him as the stay of her throne. The name of Sforza he assumed from the vigor with which he had hurled his axe. To his equally valiant son Francesco, he left, with a body of devoted followers, a power which made him formidable to any of the Italian states. Francesco became the son-in-law of Philip Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, and received the command of

the Milanese forces in the war against Venice. But, after the death of his fatherin-law (1447), symptoms of distrust appeared between him and the leaders of the Milanese state. He seemed to possess the power and the will to seize upon the throne, to which his wife Bianca had a hereditary claim. He accordingly concluded a treaty with Venice, advanced against Milan, and compelled the citizens by famine to surrender the city. They chose him duke in 1448, and Francesco, a fortunate and celebrated prince, became the founder of a dynasty, that did not inherit his fame nor his fortune. He died in 1466.-His son, Galeazzo Maria, a barbarian and a voluptuary, was murdered by some conspirators in 1476.—The son of Galeazzo, Giovanni Galeazzo, was deposed by his uncle Ludovico, surnamed the Moor (il Moro). The latter formed a connexion with Charles VIII (q. v.) of France, to whom he opened the passage through Italy to Naples (1494), and thus prevented Giovanni's father-in-law, Alphonso, king of Naples, from rendering assistance to his son. At a subsequent period, he joined the league against France, and was on that account deposed by Louis XII (1499). By the help of the Swiss, he expelled the French in the same year; but Louis again took the field against him, and prevailed upon the Swiss in his service to refuse to fight against their countrymen in the French ranks. Ludovico was afterwards betrayed by one of his Swiss mercenaries to the king, who (1500) carried him to France, where he died at Loches, in 1510. -His son, Maximilian, once more drove the French from his territories by the aid of the Swiss, but, in consequence of the battle of Marignano, was obliged to cede his dominions to Francis I (1515), in consideration of a pension. Francis was afterwards driven from Italy by the emperor Charles V, who invested Francesco, brother of Maximilian, with the duchy of Milan, in 1529. On the death of Francesco, in 1535, Charles V conferred the duchy on his son Philip II, king of Spain. (See Milan.)

S'GRAVESANDE. (See Gravesande.)

SHAD; a large species of herring (clupea), which inhabits the sea near the mouths of large rivers, and in the spring ascends them for the purpose of depositing its spawn in the shallow water about their sources. The young fry remain for a season in the waters which gave them birth, but on the approach of cold weather descend the rivers, and take refuge n the