Part 397 (1/2)
SEALED ORDERS, the orders given the commanding officer of a s.h.i.+p or squadron that are sealed up, which he is not allowed to open till he has proceeded a certain length into the high seas; an arrangement in order to ensure secrecy in a time of war.
SEA-SERPENT, a marine monster of serpent-like shape whose existence is still a matter of question, although several seemingly authentic accounts have been circulated in attestation. The subject has given rise to much disputation and conjecture on the part of naturalists, but opinion mostly favours the supposition that these gigantic serpent-like appearances are caused by enormous cuttlefish swimming on the surface of the water, with their 20 ft. long tentacles elongated fore and aft. Other fishes which might also be mistaken for the sea-serpent are the barking-shark, tape-fish, marine snake, &c.
SEBASTIAN. ST., a Roman soldier at Narbonne, and martyred under Diocletian when it was discovered he was a Christian; is depicted in art bound naked to a tree and pierced with arrows, and sometimes with arrows in his hand offering them to Heaven on his knees, he having been shot first with arrows and then beaten to death.
SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, Italian painter, born at Venice; was an excellent colourist, and collaborated with Michael Angelo (1485-1547).
SEBASTOPOL (34), a fortified seaport of Russia, situated on a splendid natural harbour (4 m. by ), on the SW. of the Crimea; during the Crimean War was destroyed and captured by the French and English after a siege lasting from October 9, 1854, to September 18, 1855; has, since 1885, been restored, and is now an important naval station; exports large quant.i.ties of grain.
SEBILLOT, PAUL, celebrated French folk-lorist; _b_. 1843.
SECKER, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Sibthorpe, Nottinghams.h.i.+re; first studied medicine and graduated at Leyden in 1721, but was induced to take orders, and after a year at Oxford was ordained a priest in 1723; held various livings till his appointment to the Primacy in 1758; noted as a wise and kindly ecclesiastic (1693-1768).
SECOND-SIGHT, name given to the power of seeing things future or distant; a power superst.i.tiously ascribed to certain people in the Highlands of Scotland.
SECULARIST, name given to one who, discarding as irrelevant all theories and observances bearing upon the other world and its interests, holds that we ought to confine our attention solely to the immediate problems and duties of this, independently of all presumed dependence on revelation and communications from a higher sphere.
SEDAN (20), a town of France, in department of Ardennes, on the Maas, 164 m. NE. of Paris; once a strong fortress, but dismantled in 1875, where in 1870 Napoleon III. and 86,000 men under Marshal Macmahon surrendered to the Germans; noted for its cloth manufactories. Previous to the Edict of Nantes was a celebrated centre of Huguenot industry and theological learning.
SEDGEMOOR, district in central Somersets.h.i.+re, 5 m. SE. of Bridgwater, scene of a famous battle between the troops of James II. and those of the Duke of Monmouth on July 6, 1685, in which the latter were completely routed.
SEDGWICK, ADAM, geologist, born at Dent, Yorks.h.i.+re; graduated at Cambridge in 1808, became a Fellow in the same year, and in 1818 was elected to the Woodward chair of Geology; co-operated with Murchison in the study of the geological formation of the Alps and the Devonian system of England; strongly conservative in his scientific theories, he stoutly opposed the Darwinian theory of the origin of species; his best work was contributed in papers to the Geological Society of London, of which he was President 1829-1831; published ”British Palaeozoic Rocks and Fossils”
(1785-1873).
SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT, author of ”Ecce h.o.m.o,” born in London; studied at Cambridge, became professor of History there in 1869 on Kingsley's retirement; his ”Ecce h.o.m.o” was published in 1865, a piece of perfect literary workmans.h.i.+p, but which in its denial of the self-originated spirit of Christ offended orthodox belief and excited much adverse criticism; wrote in 1882 a work ent.i.tled ”Natural Religion,”
in which he showed the same want of sympathy with supernatural ideas, as also several historical works (1834-1895).
SEGOVIA (14), a quaint old Spanish city, capital of a province (154) of the same name; crowns a rocky height looking down on the river Eresma, 32 m. NW. of Madrid; its importance dates from Roman times; has a great aqueduct, built in Trajan's reign, and a fine Moorish castle and Gothic cathedral; cloth-weaving the only important industry.
SEGU (36), a town of West Africa, on the Joliba, 400 m. SW. of Timbuctoo; chiefly occupied by trading Arabs; once the capital of a now decayed native State.
SEINE, an important river of France, rises in the tableland of Langres, takes a winding course to the NW., pa.s.sing many important towns, Troyes, Fontainebleau, Paris, St. Denis, Rouen, &c., and discharges into the English Channel by a broad estuary after a course of 482 m., of which 350 are navigable.
SEINE (3,142), the smallest but most populous department of France, entirely surrounded by the department of Seine-et-Oise; Paris and its adjacent villages cover a considerable portion of the area; presents a richly wooded, undulating surface, traversed by the Seine in a NW.
direction.