yards, with fruit-trees. Here you behold splendid ruins of ancient edifices, on the Mare morto, near the Elysian fields. In the charming environs of the capital lies the lake of Agnano, a sunken volcano, and in its neighborhood the grotta del Cane. (See Naples.) The climate is warm. In Abruzzo alone the winter is severe. The strawberry ripens in January. The summer is sultry, and brings with it the debilitating sirocco wind from the south-east. The chief productions of this beautiful country, which is, however, not even yet sufficiently cultivated, are excellent wheat, maize, fruits of various kinds, oil, hemp, and flax, cotton, the nuces Avellana of Pliny, wines (lachrymæ Christi), capers, saffron, &c. The Neapolitan horses, the breed of swine, in Abruzzo, the silk, wool, buffaloes, mules, poultry, quails, &c., are celebrated. Among the noxious animals are wolves, tarantulas, and scorpions. Important articles of trade are furnished by the pozzolana earth, marine and fossil salt, marble, iron, brimstone, jasper, lava, alabaster, alum, saltpetre, &c. There is, however, a deficiency of wood, so that in some places buffalo dung is used as fuel. In this warm country, however, the datepalm, the Spanish cane, the aloe, and Indian fig, thrive. The Neapolitan is lively, intelligent, and good-natured, but impoverished and exasperated by feudal oppression; the defective administration of justice often allows excesses, and the banditti are not yet rooted out. The Neapolitan dialect differs much from the Italian employed in literature. In the south, near Otranto, you still meet with villages inhabited by Arnauts and Greeks (about 40,000). Manufactures are more flourishing in Naples than in Sicily. Naples contains silk, woollen and cotton manufactories; linen is woven and metal ware made, besides articles of marble and precious stones. Mining is neglected. The maritime commerce is almost confined to exports of natural productions. The inland commerce is obstructed by the want of good roads, canals, and navigable rivers. The principal commercial towns are Naples, Palermo, and Messina. The people are extremely ignorant, being mostly unable to read and write. Among the better class, however, there are persons of distinguished talents, particularly among the Neapolitans. Antiquities are a favorite subject of study. The people are passionate lovers of music. Cicero, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Statius, Tasso, Thomas Aquinas, Filangieri, Galiani, and other men of eminence in the arts and sciences, were natives of Naples. Sicily

is the native soil of pastoral poetry. There are universities at Naples, Salerno, Palermo and Catania, and academies at Naples and Palermo. There are schools for music, and cabinets of works of art at Naples (Museo Borbonico, with a particular gallery for the paintings of the Neapolitan school); the Herculaneum museum at Portici; a cabinet of medals and an observatory at Palermo. In Naples, there are four public libraries and fortyfive printing-offices. The institution for the deaf and dumb deserves mention; likewise the lunatic hospital at Aversa, which is peculiarly well arranged. The kingdom of Naples (al di qua del Faro, in 1817, was divided into fifteen provinces-Naples, with the volcanic islands Capri, Procida, and Ischia; Abruzzo Ulteriore I and II, with Aquila, Sulmona, &c.; Abruzzo Citeriore; Terra di Lavoro, with Caserta, Gaeta, Arpino, and the volcanic island Ponza; Principato Citeriore, with Salerno, Amalfi and Pæstum; Principato Ulteriore; Capitanata; Molise; Bari: Otranto, with Lecce; Basilicata; Calabria Citeriore and Ulteriore I and II, with Reggio, Sciglio (where the rock so celebrated among the ancients, under the name of Scylla, projects into the strait) and Pizzo, where Murat fell, and which the king called the most faithful town, and declared free of taxes, on account of its fidelity. The united kingdom of the Two Sicilies forms, according to the fundamental law of 12th December, 1816, a constitutional monarchy, hereditary in the male and female line. Agreeably to this law, which, however, was never carried into effect, the king possesses supreme executive power. In the absence of the king, a governor (luogotenente generale) resides in Palermo, as viceroy of Sicily. This was the crown-prince until 1820. All public offices in the island are to be held by natives. The feudal system is now abolished in Sicily. It was earlier abolished in Naples. It existed at the time of the breaking out of the revolution, July 7, 1820. By the concordate concluded with the pope in 1818, the bond of feudal dependence on the papal see was totally broken, and the papal power in general limited. Nevertheless, the Jesuits were reestablished. The duchies of Pontecorvo and Benevento were restored to the papal government. The clergy of the Two Sici lies (24 archbishops, 91 suffragan, and 21 exempt bishops, 368 abbots, 47,233 secular priests, 25,399 monks, 26,659 nuns, with 3700 parishes and 19,300 pious institutions, in the kingdom of Naples, and 3 archbishops, 7 bishops, 51 abbots and priors,

and 70-80,000 clergymen of all kinds, on the island of Sicily) are in possession of nearly a third of the landed property. The inquisition was abolished in Sicily in 1782. In no country are there so many princes (120), dukes (150), marquisses (170), counts and barons, as in Naples. However, the king abolished the fideicommissa (q. v.) in Sicily (1818), which threatened to bring the whole of the landed property into a few hands, and were a great impediment to moral improvement. The great abuses in the judicial administration and in the condition of the prisons (particularly in Sicily) have been gradually remedied. In consequence of the new constitution of the courts of 29th May, 1818, all the proprietary and local jurisdictions have been done away, and the royal courts of justice put on much the same footing as those of France. This system was extended to the island of Sicily, by the decree of 22d December, 1818, and a supreme court of justice established there. A new civil code was drawn up for this island in 1819. The revenue, in 1820, amounted to about twelve and a half million dollars. The new land force amounts to 30,000 men; the naval force comprises three ships of the line, five frigates, four corvettes, and a number of gunboats. The standing army in Sicily is said not to exceed 8000 men. The orders of knights are, that of saint Januarius; the order of Constantine; the order of St. Ferdinand, and of merit; and the order S. Giorgio della riunione. Among the latest publications respecting this country are to be noticed the work of the Russian senator count Orloff, Mémoires historiques, politiques et literaires sur le Royaume de Naples avec des Notes par Amaury Duval (5 vols., Paris, 1819), and the Costituzione del Regno di Sicilia, stabilita dal Parlamento dell' Anno 1812 (Palermo, 1813, 2 vols.); History of the Kingdom of Naples, from 1800 to 1820 (Darmstadt, 1828), taken from the memoirs of prince Pignatelli Strangoli, and other original sources. Count Forbin's Souvenirs de la Sicile (Paris, 1823) present a faithful picture of the beauties of nature, and the degeneracy of society in Sicily. Captain Will. Hen. Smith's Memoir Descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants and Hydrography of Sicily and its Islands, &c. (London, 1824, 4to.), accompanied by an accurate atlas of charts, is a work of much observation. Rich in interesting research is the work of Blunt-Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily (London, 1822).—

Respecting the noble remains of antiquity in the churches of Messina, Catania, Palermo, and particularly in the cathedral of Montereale, see Architecture Moderne de la Sicile, ou Recueil des plus beaux Monumens, mesurés et dessinés par J. Hittorff et L. Zanth (Paris, 1827, 1st livr., fol.).

SICILY (anciently Trinacria and Sicilia); the largest, most fruitful, and most populous island of the Mediterranean, lies to the south of Italy, from which it is separated by the strait or faro of Messina, which, in the narrowest part, is only two miles wide. The surface is greatly diversified by mountains and valleys. A chain of mountains extends through the island from east to west; but the most elevated summit is the famous volcano, mount Ætna. (q. v.) The climate is warm, but pleasant, the winters mild, and the heat of summer tempered by sea breezes. Sicily has always been celebrated for its fertility, and is well watered by a great number of streams and rivulets; but the state of cultivation is very backward. The principal products are maize, wheat, other kinds of grain, flax, hemp, vines, saffron, cotton, silk, olives, and various fruits. The exports consist chiefly of silk, corn, salt, olive oil, sumac, wine and fruits. The manufactures, consisting of silk, cotton, linen, and some woollens, are confined to the three large towns of Palermo, Messina, and Catania. According to the last census, Sicily contains 1,787,771 inbabitants, of whom 300,000 are ecclesiastics, or persons living on ecclesiastical revenues. There are in the island 1117 convents, containing 30,000 monks and 30,000 nuns. The nobility of this small population consists of six dukes, 217 princes, 217 marquisses, 2000 barons, and the same number of an order called gentlemen. In 1817, the island was divided into seven intendancies, which take the names of their chief towns-Palermo, Catania, Messina, Girgenti, Siragosa (Syracuse), Trapani, and Calatanisetta. To Sicily belong the groups of the Lipari (Eolian) islands on the north, and Egades on the west, Pantellaria on the south, &c. Between the latter island (which is twenty-one leagues from the coast) and Sciacca, in Sicily, a volcanic island about one mile in circumference and 150-160 feet high, rose from the sea, in the summer of 1831, but disappeared after a few months, and again appeared in the spring of 1832. Notwithstanding the natural wealth of the island, the inhabitants are kept in a state of poverty by the great numbers of the religious and nobles (who

possess almost all the land), the heavy duties upon commerce, and the want of secure communication. Sicily has been, from ancient times, a prize of war. The original inhabitants appear to have been Iberians (Niebuhr, Roman History, ch. On the Three Islands); but the conquests and colonies of the Greeks rendered the Greek language prevalent, and, in reality, converted Sicily into a Greek island-a character which it retained till the middle ages. The Carthaginians also founded colonies here. The island was divided between different republics, among which Syracuse was the wealthiest and most powerful, and most celebrated, in ancient history, for its princes (Gelo, Agathocles, Hiero), its wars, and the high degree of cultivation to which it carried the arts and sciences. See Gartner's Views of the Greek Monuments in Sicily (Munich, 1819). Next to Syracuse, Messana, now Messina, and Agrigentum (Girgenti), were most famous in history. In the middle of the third century B. C., the Romans became masters of Sicily, and remained in possession of it until Genseric, king of the Vandals, conquered it, in the middle of the fifth century A. D. Belisarius, Justinian's general, drove out the Vandals (535); and it remained in the hands of the Greek emperors nearly three centuries, when it was taken by the Saracens (827). The Normans, who ruled in Naples, conquered Sicily in 1072, and received it from the pope as a papal fief. Roger, a powerful Norman prince, took the title of king of Sicily (1102), and united the island with the kingdom of Naples, under the name of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, (See Sicilies, The Two.) But a dislike always prevailed between the Sicilians and the Neapolitans; whence frequent attempts on the part of the former to obtain their independence. This idea was encouraged by the constitution given them by the British, and their old right to a separate parliament. This was the root of the furious outbreak of July 16-20, 1820, in Palermo. (See Naples and Sicily, Revolution of.) The pastoral muse has never abandoned this island; and the first notes of Italian poetry were heard in Sicily. (See Italy, division Italian Poetry.) The idyls of the Sicilian poet Giovanni Meli, published by the ablate Scopa, at Paris, 1820, unite depth of feeling and simplicity with uncommon grace and sweetness. For the recent works on Sicily, see those mentioned at the close of the article Sicilies, The Troo, and, likewise, Bigelow's Travels in Sicily and Malta (Boston, 1831)

SICKINGEN, Francis von, a German knight of the palatinate of the Rhine, imperial counsellor and general, one re the noblest characters of the disturbed times in which he lived, was born in 14~1 at Sickingen. From early youth, be devoted himself to the military life. The protection of the oppressed was his chief occupation. He assisted many a creditor in procuring what was due him from powerful debtor. He was the enem of tyranny, of princes and priests. Without being a scholar, he loved science, and protected men of learning (for instance Reuchlin, whom he defended against the monks of Cologne); and in his castle, caleed Ebernburg, many persecuted scholars found a safe asylum. He was a friend of the reformation, and contributed greatly to extend it in the countries which bordered on the Rhine. At last, he engaged in a quarrel with Treves, the palatinate and Hessia, which drew upon him the ban of the empire. He died in 1523, soon after the surrender of Landstuhl, one of his castles, having previously received a severe injury from a fall during a sally.

SICYON (now Basilicon, a village with about fifty families); one of the oldest, most celebrated, and handsomest cities of ancient Greece, lying not far from the gulf of Corinth, on which it had a port The city was occupied by the Dorians but the Sicyonians enjoyed so much consideration, that, with the Spartans, they acted as umpires and mediators. They were not less distinguished for their supe riority in the arts of peace than the Spartans for their military fame. Sicyon, although powerful by sea, was seldom engaged in wars; but was celebrated for schools of sculpture and painting. The city, with its environs, formed a smai state (Sicyonia) at a very early period: and the names of several princes, who? are said to have reigned there, are gives At the time of the return of the Herarlidæ (q. v.), it formed a part of the kingdom of Argos. It afterwards became a democracy, and the supreme power was several times usurped by individuals. I maintained its independence subsequently to the period of the Persian war, but suffered much from the civil contests among the Greeks, in which it was sa times in favor of, and sometimes in oppo sition to, Athens. Sicyon was indeed, by the influence of Aratus (q. v., to pa the Achæan league, in which it acted an important part, and of which it fina. 'v shared the fate, and fell under the dominion of Rome.

SIDDONS, Mrs., daughter of Roger Kemble, the manager of an itinerant company of players, was born at Brecknock, in South Wales, in 1755. She commenced her theatrical career as a singer, but soon relinquished that line, and attempted tragedy. In her fifteenth year, she conceived a passion for a young man, who was an actor of all work in her father's company; but her parents, considering her too young to form a connexion with him, placed her, as lady's maid, with a lady in Warwickshire. In her eighteenth year, however, she was married to Siddons, with their consent; and the new-married pair entered into a strolling company. She and her husband played at Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places, gaining both reputation and profit. The theatrical character which she had acquired induced the manager of Drury lane to offer her an engagement, which she accepted. It was, however, only in secondary parts that she appeared. But in a short time she quitted the London boards, in consequence of the scurrilous attacks of a disappointed editor of a newspaper, in whose condemned after-piece she had been unlucky enough to perform. Bath was the next scene of her exertions; and, while there, she improved rapidly, and became a general favorite. The duchess of Devonshire, then in the zenith of her charms and influence, became her friend; and, through the intervention of that accomplished lady, she was again engaged at Drury lane. The re-appearance of Mrs. Siddons in London took place on the 10th of October, 1782, in the character of Isabella. Her success was complete. The public were astonished by her powers. She was acknowledged to be the first tragic actress of the English stage, and tragedy became fashionable. The manager gave her an extra benefit, and increased her salary. For that benefit she came forward as Belvidera, and at once exalted her fame, and made a considerable increase to her fortune. Such was the delight which she gave, that the gentlemen of the bar subscribed a hundred guineas as a present to her. She subsequently visited Dublin and Edinburgh with equal applause. In 1784, some calumnies circulated against her, with respect to her conduct towards an unhappy sister, occasioned her to meet with an unkind reception from a London audience, and affected her so much, that she resolved to retire from the stage; but the calumnies were speedily refuted, and her

resolution was given up. For more than twenty years, she continued to astonish and enchant the lovers of the drama; and she was often invited to Buckingham house and to Windsor to read plays to their majesties. But her readings there were rather productive of honor than of profit. The fortune which she had accumulated was, however, large, and for many years she enjoyed it in the privacy of domestic life. It was not only as an actress that Mrs. Siddons displayed talents. She had considerable merit as a sculptor, in which capacity she produced, among other things, a medallion of herself, a bust of her brother, John Philip Kemble (q. v.), in the character of Coriolanus, a study of Brutus before the death of Cæsar, and a bust of president Adams. The symmetry of her person was captivating. Her face was peculiarly happy, having strength of features, but so well harmonized when quiescent, and so expressive when impassioned, that most people thought her more beautiful than she was. So great, too, was the flexibility of her countenance, that it caught the instantaneous transitions of passion with such variety and effect, as never to fatigue the eye. Her voice was plaintive, yet capable of firmness and exertion. Her eye was large; her brow capable of contracting with disdain or dilating with sympathy or pity; and her articulation clear, penetrating, and distinct. So entirely was she mistress of herself, so collected and so determined in her gestures, tone and manner, that she seldom erred, like other actors, because she doubted her own powers of comprehension: she studied her author attentively; she was sparing in action; though her acting was the result of the most refined and assiduous attention, no studied trick or start could be predicted; none of those arts in which the actress is seen, and not the character, could be found in Mrs. Siddons. What was still more delightful, she was an original; she copied no one, living or dead, but acted from nature and herself. Mrs. Siddons, having acquired an ample fortune, took her leave of the stage, in 1812, before an audience which melted into tears on the occasion. She, however, performed, in 1816, for the benefit of her brother, Mr. Charles Kemble, and a few nights in Edinburgh, to assist her daughter-in-law. Her greatest characters are well known to have been Catharine, in Henry VIII, and lady Macbeth, in which she manifested a dignity and sensibility rarely equalled. She

died June 8th, 1831.-See Boaden's Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons (2 vols. 1827).

SIDEREAL MAGNETISM, with the believers in animal magnetism (q. v.), denotes the beneficial influence of the stars upon patients.

SIDEREAL TIME. A sidereal day is the time during which the whole body of fixed stars appears to revolve round the earth. It is found by observing two successive passages of the same star over the meridian. The time from one passage to the other consists of twenty-four hours, each of sixty minutes, each of sixty seconds, &c. Sidereal time is not adapted to the purposes of common life (see Solar Time), but is particularly suitable for astronomical observations, on account of its perfect uniformity. Astronomers have sidereal clocks. The sidereal day, and of course each subdivision, is shorter than the solar day, because the sidereal day is determined simply by the rotation of the earth on its axis, and is completed as soon as this rotation is performed; but in the case of the solar day, the earth's revolution round the sun is also to be taken into the account. The earth advances in its orbit nearly a degree each day; and to bring the sun to any particular meridian, it has to make so much more than a complete rotation on its axis as will counterbalance its advance in its orbit. The average amount of this daily advance is 59 8. So much, therefore, must the earth turn on its axis beyond one rotation in order to complete the solar day, which is therefore 3 minutes 56 seconds longer than a sidereal day. Hence the mean solar day is 24 hours 3 minutes 56 seconds sidereal time; or the sidereal day is 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds mean solar time. -See Lalande's Abregé d'Astronomie (Paris, 1795); see, also, the article Day.

SIDERISMUS (from nov, iron); the name given by the believers in animal magnetism (q. v.) to the effects produced by bringing metals and other inorganic bodies into a magnetic connexion with the human body. Hence we hear of sideric bodies and sideric power. The former are inorganic bodies, in contradistinction to the animated bodies, which produce somnambulism.

SIDEROGRAPHY; the art of engraving on steel. (See Engraving.) The word comes from einov, iron.

SIDMOUTH, LORD. (See Addington.) SIDNEY, Sir Philip, an ingenious writer and accomplished statesman in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was the son of sir

Henry Sidney, of Penshurst, in Kont where he was born November 29, 1554. After studying at Christ-church, Oxford, and Trinity college, Cambridge, he set otī on his travels, at the age of eighteen, visited France, Hungary and Italy, and, returning through Germany and Flanders, arrived in England in 1575. He became a favorite with the queen, who, in 1576, sent him on an embassy to Germany. Having bad a quarrel with the earl of Oxford, in cons quence of a dispute at a tournament. her majesty interposed her authority to prevent a duel from taking place. Sadney, displeased at the issue of the affair, retired to Wilton, in Wiltshire, 15-0, and amused himself with the composition of a pastoral romance, which, in compl ment to his sister, was entitled the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. In 151, he again appeared at court, where he da tinguished himself in the jousts and tournaments celebrated for the entertamment of the duke of Anjou; and on the return of that prince to the continent, he accompanied him to Antwerp. The prince palatine being invested with the order of the garter in 1583, Mr. Sidney was appointed his proxy, when he recei ed the honor of knighthood. In 1585 he projected, in concert with sir Francis Drake, an expedition against the Spaniards in America; and he had gone to Plymouth to embark on the undertaking, when an express mandate from the queva recalled him to court. Her influence also was exerted to prevent him from be ing elected king of Poland; “refusing,” as Camden says, “to further his advancement, out of fear that she should lose th jewel of her times." He was subse quently appointed governor of Flushing, and general of the cavalry under hum uncle, Dudley, earl of Leicester, who commanded the forces sent to assist the Dutch against the Spaniards. Septem ber 22, 1586, being at the head of a detachment of the English troops, be fell in with a convoy of the enemy marchig towards Zutphen. An engagement took place, in which his party gained the vartory, dearly purchased with the life of their commander, who received a shot in his thigh, which shattered the bone. was carried to Arnheim, where he expired, October 17. His works, besude the Arcadia, consist of the Defence of Poesy; Astrophel and Stella; a collection, entitled Songs and Sonnets; and other poetical pieces. The Defence was republished in 1752 (12mo.), and in I^il (Boston); and a complete edition of has

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