sians; the king was forced to raise, July 30, the siege of Dresden, which he had commenced on the 14th; Glatz had gone over to the Austrians, and Frederic was obliged to march into Silesia for its protection. With 30,000 Prussians he entrenched himself at Liegnitz; the hostile troops, under Daun and Laudon, were more than 100,000 strong, and threatened an attack. But Laudon was defeated, Aug. 15, at Liegnitz, and Daun was unable to afford him any assistance. The Austrians lost 10,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners, 23 standards and 82 pieces of cannon. Frederic's loss I was 1800 killed and wounded. Meanwhile, a corps of Russians and Austrians had advanced to Berlin, and levied contributions on the people. Frederic hastened thither to cut off the enemy; but, not finding them there, he returned to Saxony, where the imperial forces were stationed, and Daun and Lascy had united. At Torgau he attacked the enemy, Nov. 3, defeated them in a bloody engagement, which was gained chiefly by the sagacity and courage of Ziethen and Möllendorf, and then went into winter-quarters in Saxony. Laudon, also, was driven back in Silesia to the county of Glatz, and the Russians were forced to raise the siege of Colberg and to retire to Poland. The allied forces, under Ferdinand of Brunswick, defeated the French, July 31, at Marburg; but the latter remained in Hesse, where they had extensive magazines. February 11, 1761, Ferdinand attacked the French in their quarters; they fled, and many of their fortifications and magazines fell into the hands of the conquerors. A corps of French and Saxon troops was defeated, February 14, at Langensalza; but the allies were obliged to raise the siege of Ziegenhain, Marburg and Cassel, with loss, and the French once more became masters of all Hesse, and had an unobstructed passage to Hanover. The people all wished for peace; but not so their rulers, except the king of Prussia. Maria Theresa would not now be satisfied merely with the restoration of Silesia. The empress Elizabeth was desirous of retaining Prussia, and the French minister Choiseul sought to revenge himself for a poetical epistle, in which Frederic had satirized him, by protracting the war. The proposals of peace, made by England and Prussia, were not accepted, and Frederic endeavored to protect Silesia against the Austrians and Russians, who had united, in August, at Striegau. The king maintained his

camp at Schweidnitz against a much superior force, and the greatest part of the Russians were obliged to retire to Poland, for want of provisions. Laudon surprised Schweidnitz Oct. 1. A garrison of 3700 men, several magazines, and a large quantity of military stores, fell into the hands of the Austrians. Prince Henry, in Saxony, was also reduced to great straits by Daun. In Pomerania, detached bodies of the Prussians were defeated by the Russians, and, after a brave resistance, Dec. 16, they lost the fortress of Colberg. The Swedes, on the contrary, were driven back to Stralsund; and, July 15, Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, gained a brilliant victory at Billingshausen over the French; but the triumph was of little importance. Frederic felt himself in a desperate condition, and, in consequence of all these misfortunes and the superior strength of his enemies, seemed to be verging to his ruin. But, January 5, 1762, Elizabeth, the empress of Russia, died; and her successor, Peter III, the personal friend and admirer of Frederic, concluded an armistice with him, March 16, 1762; which was followed, May 5, by the peace of Petersburg. Sweden, likewise, made peace with Prussia; and, as Peter's intercession with Austria was ineffectual, the Russian emperor sent a body of troops to aid the Prussians. But the emperor's early death soon broke the alliance with Frederic, and his successor, Catharine II, recalled the Russian troops, amounting to 20,000 men, from the Prussian service. Frederic, however, was delivered from one dangerous enemy, and had gained an important preponderance of strength over the rest. He now drove an Austrian corps from their entrenchments at Burkersdorf, recovered Schweidnitz in October, left the duke of Bevern with an army for the defence of Silesia, and marched to Saxony. After several successful engagements, prince Henry gained, Oct. 29, an important victory over the Austrian and the imperial troops at Freiberg, and the king now concluded an armistice with the Austrians; but it related only to Saxony and Silesia. Under duke Ferdinand and the hereditary prince of Brunswick, the allies commenced, unsuccessfully, the campaign of 1762 against the French; but the latter were defeated, June 24, at Wilhelmsthal, driven from their fortified camp at Cassel, and extremely weakened. Cassel itself was besieged, and, November 1, surrendered to the allies. Two days after this, the preliminaries of peace between England

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 a happy 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 Plinliminon 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.), at 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 immediate ly marched towards Rome to crush Didi is 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 a sumed the purple only to revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severas gained many adherents, and was enabled to banish the pretorians, whose insolence and avarice had become alarming, no 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 put ished, in a most cruel mamer, the parte sans of his unfortunate rival. Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, which had shut her gates against him; and aber he had conquered several nations in the East, he returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, with whom he had hith erto 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 de cided on the plains of Gaul. Albinus was defeated, and the conqueror insultesi the dead body of his rival, and order dit 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 Mari and Sylla. The richest of the citizens were sacrificed, and their money became the property of the emperor. Commodas received divine honors, and his murderers were punished in the most wanton manner. Tired of the inactive life he led in Rome, Severus marched into the East with his two sons Caracalla and Gea; made himself master of Seleucia, Babylon and Ctesiphon; and advanced far into the Parthian territories. From Parthia, he marched towards the more southern

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.) SEVIGNÉ, 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

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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 Ixbilla; 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.

ū

SEXAGESIMALS, or SEXAGESIMAL FRACTIONS; fractions whose denominators proceed in a sexagecuple ratio; that is, a prime, or the first minute,; a secand a third=1. 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 inventa a F. A. Spohn et 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