alienation of church lands, and wrote on the subject his work entitled De non temerandis Ecclesiis. On the revival of the society of antiquaries in 1614, sir H. Spelman became a member, and produced a Discourse concerning the Original of the four Law-terms of the Year. In his researches into legal archæology, he found it necessary to study the Saxon language; and this led to the composition of his great work, the Archæological Glossary. He printed a specimen in 1621, and in 1626 appeared the first part, entitled Archæologus in Modum Glossarii ad Rem antiquam posteriorem (folio). Before he had completed the glossary, he engaged in preparing a History of English Councils, of which the first part, to the Norman conquest, appeared in 1639; and two additional volumes were subsequently published, partly from the papers of Spelman, by sir W. Dugdale. In 1639, likewise, appeared his last work, entitled the History of Tenures by Knights' Service in England. His death took place in 1641, and his body was interred in Westminster abbey. Besides the works already noticed, he was the author of a History of the Civil Affairs of the Kingdom from the Conquest to the Grant of the Magna Charta; a Treatise concerning Tithes; a History of Sacrilege; Aspilogia; &c. His English works were published, collectively in a folio volume, in 1727. SPELTER. (See Solder.) SPENCE, Joseph, a critic, born in 1698, received his education at Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship. In 1727 appeared his Essay on Pope's Translation of the Odyssey, which led to an intimate friendship with the poet. In 1728, he was elected professor of poetry at Oxford; and he afterwards travelled abroad with the earl of Lincoln. On his return, he obtained a living in Buckinghamshire, and, in 1754, was promoted to a prebendal stall in Durham cathedral. After the death of his friend, Mr. Rudge, in 1763, he resided much with the widow of that gentleman, who usually spent the summer months at Weybridge, in Surrey. On the morning of Aug. 20, 1768, Mr. Spence was found, by a servant, lying on his face in a shallow piece of water, into which it appeared that he had fallen, and, being unable to extricate himself, he was unfortunately drowned. His principal work is entitled Polymetis, or an Enquiry into the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of ancient Artists (1747, fol.). In 1819 appeared Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and of other Persons, from a manuscript of Mr. Spence, with his life, &c. by S. W. Singer (8vo.). SPENCER, George John, earl, is of the second branch of the Spencer family. the elder possessing the title of duke of Marlborough. His father, in 1761, was created baron Spencer, and, in 1764, viscount Althorpe and earl Spencer. The present earl was born in 1758, and was educated at Harrow, and afterwards had for his tutor the celebrated sir Wilham Jones. From Harrow he removed Trinity college, Cambridge. When he had completed his education, he travelled, and on his return was elected member of parliament for the county of Northamp ton. In 1789, by his father's death, be became earl Spencer. In the house of lords, he voted with the whigs, till the period of the French revolution, when, with some others of the party, he joined the administration, and held the place of first lord of the admiralty. In 1801, he retired with Mr. Pitt, but afterwards again joined his old friends, and, when they came into place, in 1805, he was appointed secretary of state for the home department. Earl Spencer is one of the principal members of the Roxburghe (q. v.) club, and has the largest and richest private library in the world: the foundation of it was laid in 1789, by the purchase of count Rewiczki's collection, for an annuity of £500 sterling. This he increased, at a great expense, by collecting books in all parts of Europe. The greater part of the library is at his seat, Althorp, in Northamptonshire, and consists of 45,000 volumes: the rest is at London. A catalogue of the rarest and most costly works of the collection has been prepared by Dibdin-Bibliotheca Spenceriana, or a descriptive Catalogue of the Books printed in the fifteenth Century, and of many valuable first Editions (4 vols., 1814). It contains engravings, wood cuts and fac similes illustrative of 1004 incunabula.-Earl Spencer's eldest son, John Charles, known as viscount Althorp, chancellor of the exchequer, and therefore ministerial leader in the house of commons, was born in 1782, educated at Cambridge, entered parliament in 1803, was one of the lords of the treasury during Fox's short administration (1806), and was soon after returned for Northamptonshire, which he has since continued to represent. His services and exertions in favor of the reform bill have gained him much reputation, as well as great popularity. SPENER, Philip Jacob, a celebrated divine of the Lutheran church in the seventeenth century, was born in 1635, at Rappolsweiler, in Upper Alsace. His piety was early awakened by his patroness, the countess of Rappolstein, and was confirmed by witnessing, at the age of fourteen years, her preparation for death. In 1651, he commenced his theological studies at Strasburg, became, in 1654, tutor of the princes of the Palatinate, and delivered lectures on philosophy and history. From 1659 to 1662, he travelled in Germany, Switzerland and France, where he became acquainted with the Jesuit Menestrier, celebrated for his knowledge of heraldry, and, having been thus led to study this science, wrote several works on heraldry, still much esteemed. In 1664, he was made doctor of theology at Strasburg, and, in 1666, he received the first place among the clergy at Frankfort on the Maine. His practical sermons, which deviated entirely from the dogmatico-polemic method then universal, were received with much applause. In 1670, he instituted his celebrated collegia pietatis, which, against his will, became the origin of pietism. (q. v.) From this time, Spener's history is wholly connected with this remarkable change in the religious state of Protestant Germany, as it was chiefly owing to his example and the spirit of his writings. The Lutheran church, at that time, was fast sinking into a lifeless dogmatism. Doctrines, forms and polemics were confounded with a religious life. Spener, in his Pia Desideria and other treatises, exposed the evils of this state of things, and showed how the important office of the ministry had become alienated from its proper purpose-that of instructing the people in true religion, correcting their faults, and alleviating their afflictions. He was violently opposed by the clergy, who reproached him with not making any difference between practical and theoretical theology. But posterity acknowledges his services in the restoration of catechetical instruction, which had been almost entirely forgotten. From 1686 to 1691, he was preacher to the court in Dresden, and even then occupied himself with the religious teaching of children. A representation which he made to the elector in writing, respecting his faults, brought him into disgrace. He went, in 1691, to Berlin, where he took an active part in the foundation of the university of Halle. In 1698, the court of Dresden invited him to return; but he preferred to remain in Berlin, where he was in the possession of high appointments. He died in that city, in 1705. In his letters, reports, opinions, &c., a truly Christian benevolence and zeal for the cause of goodness is perceptible. Spener may be compared with Fenelon. SPENSER, Edmund, a celebrated English poet, was born in London, near the Tower, about 1553. It is not known where he received his early education, but he was admitted as a sizar of Pembroke hall, Cambridge, in 1569, and graduated M. A. in 1576. On leaving the university, he took up his residence with some relations in the north of England, probably as a tutor, where he unsuccessfully wooed a lady, whom he records in his Shepherd's Calendar, under the name of Rosaline, which was his first publication, and appeared in 1576. The year preceding, he had been advised by his friend Gabriel Harvey to remove to London, where he was introduced to sir Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicated the Shepherd's Calendar. In 1580, he accompanied lord Grey de Wilton, lord lieutenant of Ireland, as his secretary. He returned, in 1582, with lord Grey, who, in conjunction with the earl of Leicester and sir Philip Sidney, procured for him, in 1586, a grant of 3028 acres in the county of Cork, out of the forfeited lands of the earl of Desmond; on which, however, by the terms of the gift, he was obliged to become resident. He accordingly fixed his residence at Kilcolman, in the county of Cork, where he was visited by sir Walter Raleigh, who became his patron in lieu of sir Philip Sidney, then deceased, and whom he celebrates under the title of the Shepherd of the Ocean. He was then engaged in the composition of the Faery Queen, of which he had written the first three books. With these he accompanied Raleigh, the next year, to England, where they were published, with a dedication to queen Elizabeth, and an introductory letter to Raleigh, explaining the nature of the poem. Raleigh also gained him the favor of the queen, who rewarded his poetry and dedication with a pension of fifty pounds per annum. In 1591, he returned to Ireland; and, the succeeding year, his rising reputation induced his bookseller to collect and print his smaller pieces. He then passed an interval of two or three years in Ireland, where, in 1594, he married, being then in his forty-first year. His happiness was disquieted by the disturbances excited by the earl of Tyrone, which were probably the cause of his revisiting England the following year. Here chiefly from the Faery Queen, the predominant excellences of which are imagery, feeling, and melody of versification. With all its defects, it furnishes admirable examples of the noblest graces of poetry, sublimity, pathos, unrivalled fertility of conception, and exquisite vividness of description. Its great length and want of interest, as a fable, added to the real and affected obsoleteness of the language, may, indeed, deter readers in general from a complete perusal ; but it wil always be resorted to by the genuine lorers of poetry as a rich store-house of invention. The stanza which Spenser has adopted in the Faery Queen, is usually called the Spenserian, either because he invented it, or was the first to apply it to extensive use. It consists of a strophe of eight decasyllabic verses, and an Alexandrine, and has a three-fold rhyme-the first and third verses forming one, the second, fourth, fifth and seventh another, and the sixth, eighth and ninth the third. It is susceptible of great variety of expression, and admits equally of the most different kinds of composition-the droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical. The best editions of Spenser's works are those of Hughes and Todd (8 vols., 8vo., 1805, with notes and a life).—See Warton's Observations on the Faery Queen. he printed some poems, and drew up his View of the State of Ireland; which, in consequence, it is supposed, of the severity of some of its suggestions, lay in MS. until printed, in 1633, by sir James Ware, who bestows much applause on the information and judgment displayed in it. In 1596, he published a new edition of his Faery Queen, with three additional books. Of the remaining six, which were to complete the original design, two imperfect cantos of Mutabilitie only have been recovered, which were introduced into the folio edition of 1609, as a part of the lost book, entitled the Legend of Constancy. There has been much controversy in respect to the presumed loss of the remainder of these six books on the poet's flight from Ireland: the most probable conclusion, from the investigation, is, that they were never finished, but that some parts of them were lost on that melancholy occasion. In 1597, he returned to Ireland, and, in September, 1598, was recommended to be sheriff of Cork. The rebellion of Tyrone, however, took place in October, and with such fury as to compel Spenser and his family to quit Kilcolman in so much confusion that an infant child was left behind, and burnt with his house. The unfortunate poet arrived in England with a heart broken by these misfortunes, and died the 16th of the following January, 1599, in the forty-sixth year of his age. It is asserted that he terminated his life in great distress; but it has been contended that the poverty referred to by Camden and several of his poetical contemporaries, applies rather to his loss of property generally than to absolute personal suffering. This inference seems the more probable, as he was interred in Westminster abbey at the expense of the earl of Essex, who would scarcely have allowed the man to starve whom he thus honored. A monument was afterwards erected over his remains by the celebrated Anne, countess of Dorset. Of the personal SPEZIALE, member of the junta of character of Spenser there is no direct government, instituted in 1799, at Naples, testimony; but the friendships which he was the son of a peasant of Borgetto, not formed are favorable to its respectability, far from Palermo. His servile deportment which is also to be implied from the pu- procured him a place in the corte pretoririty, devotion, and exalted morality of his ana e capitanale at Palermo. When the writings. Neither, although he paid as- court of Naples fled to Sicily, he showed siduous court to the great, was he guilty a bitter hatred towards the French, and of the mean adulation so common in his violently persecuted the suspected, so that time, except, indeed, to queen Elizabeth, the chevalier Acton (q. v.) appointed him by whom, both as a sovereign and a wo- to try the persons accused of having takman, it was levied as a kind of tax. As en part in the revolution. Even before a poet, although his minor works contain the French had left Naples, he began to many beauties, Spenser will be judged exercise his office on the island of Proci SPERMACETI, SPERM OIL. (See Fat, and Whale.) SPESSART; a woody, mountainous chain of Germany, in the Bavarian circle of the Lower Maine, extending along the right bank of the Maine, by which it is nearly surrounded. The highest summit is Geyersberg, 2000 feet high. There are about 300,000 acres (morgen) of forest, belonging principally to the crown of Bavaria, and consisting chiefly of oak and beech. Cobalt, copper and iron are obtained in the Spessart. Aschaffenburg, on the south-western edge, is the principal place. SPEYER, OF SPEIER. (See Spire.) da, which was protected by Nelson. He surrounded himself with gibbets and executioners, and every day was marked with executions. The cruelty of his character now became manifest. No sex, age or class was spared. No defence was allowed. Hardly was the cardinal Ruffo in possession of the capital, when Speziale received orders to transfer his bloody court thither. He even deceived his own friends, and allured them to their destruction. This monster followed the court to Palermo in 1806, became insane soon after, and died distracted, in 1813, loaded with the curses of the nation. SPEZZIA. (See Hydra.) SPHAGNUM. (See Appendix, end of this volume.) SPHERE; a solid, every point of the surface of which is equally distant from a certain point within the same, called its centre. It is generated by the rotation of a circle upon one of its diameters as an axis. Any circle described on the sphere, and whose centre is that of the sphere, is called a great circle. The solid contents of a sphere are to those of a cylinder (q. v.) of equal base and altitude (the diameter of the base of the cylinder being equal to that of the sphere) in the proportion of two to three; to those of a cone of equal base and altitude as two to one. These proportions were discovered by Archimedes. Nature, from the egg of the smallest worm, and from the drop of dew to the largest body in the universe, strives after the form of the sphere. Therefore, in antiquity, when the spiritual was represented by the sensible, many philosophers conceived of God under the form of a sphere. SPHEROID; a solid, generated by the entire rotation of a semi-ellipse, or other curve not differing much from it, upon its axis. As our earth has the form of a sphere, flattened at the poles, it belongs to the spheroids. Telescopes show a similar form in Jupiter and Saturn; and there are sufficient grounds for ascribing the same form to all the heavenly bodies which have a rotation on their axis. (See Earth.) SPHINX; a fabulous monster, which figures both in the Grecian and Egyptian mythologies, and was probably of Egyptian origin. The sphinx of the Greeks is distinguished for cruelty as well as wisdom. Juno, says the fable, provoked with the Thebans, sent the sphinx, the daughter of Typhon and Echidna, to punish them. It laid this part of Boeotia under continual alarms by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. The Thebans were told by the oracle that the sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of the enigmas she proposed was explained. In this enigma, the question proposed was, what animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening. Upon this, Creon, king of Thebes, promised his crown and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who should deliver his country from the monster by a successful explanation of the enigma. It was, at last, happily explained by Edipus, who observed that man walked on his hands and feet when young, or in the morning of life; at the noon of life he walked erect; and in the evening of his days, he supported his infirmities upon a stick. (See Edipus.) The sphinx no sooner heard this explanation than she threw herself from a rock, and immediately expired.-The Egyptian sphinx does not appear to have been distinguished by the same traits of character. It is formed with a human head on the body of a lion; is always in a recumbent posture, with the fore-paws stretched forward, and a head-dress resembling an old-fashioned wig. The features are like those of the ancient Egyptians, found in the ancient ruins. The colossal sphinx, near the group of pyramids at Gize, has recently been uncovered by Caviglia. It is about 150 feet long and sixty-three feet high: the body is monolithic; but the paws, which are thrown out fifty feet in front, are constructed of masonry. The sphinx of Sais, formed of a block of red granite twenty-two feet long, is now in the Egyptian museum in the Louvre. There has been much speculation concerning the signification of these figures. Winckelmann observes that they have the head of a female, and the other parts of a male, which has led to the conjecture that they are intended as emblems of the generative powers of nature, which the old mythologies are accustomed to indicate by the mystic union of the two sexes in one individual. SPHRAGISTICS (from oppayıs, a seal); a branch of diplomatics (q. v.) which teaches the history of seals and the means which they afford of determining the genuineness of the documents to which they are attached. Originally, only persons of rank, churches, convents, or corporations, had the right to use seals. The old seals represented the persons to whom they belonged either on foot (sigilla pedestria) or on horseback (sigilla equestria), or had figures emblematical of their dignity. They are round or oval, impressed in gold, silver, lead, but generally in wax of various colors. The difference in the color of the wax indicated different degrees of dignity, &c. In the sixteenth century, sealing-wax came into use. (See Seal.) Sphragistics, as a science, dates from the great work of Heineccius on seals, in 1709 (new ed. 1719, folio, Leipsic) See also Ficoroni's I Piombi Antichi (Rome, 1740, 4to.); Manni's Osservazioni istoriche sopra i Sigilli antichi de' Secoli Bassi (Florence, 1739-86, 30 vols., 4to.); and Ph. W. Gercken's Anmerkungen über die Siegel zum Nutzen der Diplomatik (Augsburg, 1781; Stend., 1786). SPICE ISLANDS. (See Moluccas.) SPIDER. (See Appendix, end of this vol.) SPINAGE. (See Appendix, end of this vol.) SPINE (from spina, thorn, so called from the shape of the processes of the vertebræ), in anatomy, the vertebral or spinal column, the back-bone in common language, is the articulated bony pillar at the back of the trunk, forming the foundation or basis of support and connexion to all the other parts of the frame. It is placed perpendicularly in the body, supporting the head on its upper extremity, while the lower end rests on the pelvis. The bones of the chest, to which the upper extremities are attached, are fixed to its sides, while the ossa innominata, or the great bones to which the lower limbs are articulated, are immovably united to it below. It is the point of attachment and support in front for the viscera of the thorax and abdomen, and for the great trunks of the blood-vessels. We may thus regard it as the central and most essential piece of the skeleton, as the centre of motion for the head and limbs, and the basis of support for all the great internal organs. Again, the bones which compose it give attachment to the principal muscles moving the head, the shoulders and the arms, to those which act on the trunk, and to some part of the abdominal muscles, and of those which move the lower limbs. Further, it constitutes a canal, which receives and protects the spinal marrow, and gives issue to the various nerves proceeding from that organ to the trunk and limbs. The importance of the spine is so great that it modifies all the details of the organization of the animals which possess it. It is formed of twentynine pieces of bone, strongly articulated into each other, and placed in succession from above downwards. The twentyfour upper ones are called vertebræ. Distortions of the Spine are the unnatu ral inflections of the spine, which give a more or less deformed figure to the trunk, and even to the limbs; hence wry neck, high shoulders, humpback, uneven hips, lameness, &c., are very frequent among the higher classes of our time, particularly among females, and generally owing to want of care or judgment in those who have charge of children, or to the injudcious habits of the persons afflicted, and frequently aggravated or made permanent by improper means used for remedying them. The beauty of the whole body depends chiefly upon the natural forma tion of the spine. This column of vertebræ ought not permanently to devine from the straight line to the right or left; but it has naturally some slight curvatures forwards and backwards. In the region of the loins, it is bent a little forward; in the region of the chest, a little backward, and, at the neck, again, somewhat forward. This regular formation of the spine is produced by the character of the vertebræ, the cartilages which unite them, and the muscles of the back, which support and move them. If the vertebræ themselves suffer from disease, as, for instance, in case of rickets, the spine is not capable of supporting the head and keeping the body straight, it becomes curved, and, if remedies are not applied in season, this unnatural curvature increases daily, and permanent distortion at length takes place. If the cartilages and ligatures suffer relaxation, as in case of a debilitated state of the body, the spine cannot, after every motion, resume its proper position, and it may easily happen that some vertebræ become partially dislocated, and thus a disposition to distortion takes place, because the part of the spine over these vertebræ is deprived of its proper support, and must incline to one side. The muscles of the back, situated on both sides of the spine, equal in number and form, and destined not only to execute the manifold movements of the trunk, but also to maintain, by the equilibrium of their power, the straight direc tion of the spine, frequently occasion distortions, by losing their vigor; for the spine, in this case, wanting its natural support, inclines sideways or backwards. The same effect may be produced by too frequent or too continued use of one set of muscles in a particular way; for the spine becomes at last permanently fixed in the posture which it has been compelled to assume during the exercise. This survey shows us the various causes of distortions, and the proper means for pre |