house of representatives is chosen (Const. i. 2.) by the house itself.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY. (See Gravity.) SPECIFICS, in medicine; such articles in the materia medica as have the special power of curing particular diseases in all persons and under all circumstances. Multitudes of such medicines are continually announced by quacks; but men of science and sense do not now believe in the existence of any specific, in the full sense of the word. Peruvian bark was formerly supposed to be a certain cure for intermittents and agues; but it is now known to fail in many cases, and not to be more efficacious than some other tonic . medicines. The two medicines which approach nearest the character of specifics, are sulphur as an antidote to the itch, and mercury to venereal poison. Yet there are cases of disease not distinguishable from lues venerea, which are cured without the aid of mercury; and the power of sulphur in curing the itch is considerably augmented by the addition of other substances.

SPECTACLES are of two sorts, according as they are intended to assist shortsighted or far-sighted persons. In the foriner case they must be concave, in the latter convex; concave to diminish the excessive refraction of the rays of light by the humors of the eye, convex to increase the refraction. In both cases care should be taken to adapt the degree of concavity or convexity to the condition of the eye; for since the eye gradually accustoms itself to glasses continually used, the defect in the vision will be increased by the use of such as are too powerful, while it may be diminished, or, at least, prevented from increasing, by those of an opposite character. In addition to this, it ought to be considered, that, with most persons, the field of vision in one eye is greater than that in the other. But if a person, in the selection of spectacles, suffers himself to be guided merely by the first impression, he will commonly choose glass es that are too powerful, and seldom be able to adapt them to both eyes. Opticians have a contrivance for determining the degree of short or far sightedness, and the glasses are numbered according to their degree of convexity or concavity, so that suitable ones may be more readily selected. Those persons who are far-sighted should refrain, as long as they conveniently can, from increasing the power of the glasses. To afford the means of seeing distinctly, and to be used without injury, spectacles should be regularly formed; that is to

say, the concavity or convexity should be uniform. Moreover, the glasses should be perfectly transparent, and entirely destitute of color. Green spectacles are to be recommended only to such persons as have very sensitive eyes, or to such as are exposed for a long time to a glittering white surface (for instance, snow in bright sunshine). Spectacles are also used to cure squinting. These have no glasses, but consist merely of a thin plate of some substance. In the middle, opposite the axis of the eye, there is a small opening, to which the pupil must turn, in order to see any thing. In this way it gradually becomes accustomed to the proper direction. The ancient Greeks

and Romans were entirely unacquainted with the use of spectacles. In the twelfth century, we find a discovery mentioned by an Arabic writer, Alhazen, which might have led to the invention of spectacles. At the close of the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon speaks of them. The common spectacles must have been invented in 1280 and 1311. In Germany, a kind of spectacles were known in 1270. (For further information, see the article Optics, section Vision.)

SPECTRUM, PRISMATIC. (See Colors, Doctrine of; also Optics.)

SPEECH, ORGANS OF. (See Voice.) SPELMAN, Sir Henry, a celebrated English antiquary and philologist, born in 1562, was sent, at the age of fifteen, to Trinity college, Cambridge, and entered as a law student at Lincoln's Inn; but he seems to have paid little attention to legal science at this period, and within three years he settled on his estate in the country.. At length embarrassments, partly arising from a numerous family, aroused him to the exertion of his talents. He went to Ireland in 1607, as member of a board of commissioners for settling the titles to lands and manors in that kingdom; and he was afterwards employed to investigate the subject of the exaction of fees by the civil and ecclesiastical courts. On this occasion, he drew up his treatise De Sepultura, in which he demonstrates the flagrant abuses which had occurred to his notice. His services were rewarded with the honor of knighthood. In 1612, he settled in London, devoting his leisure to the study of the juridical antiquities of his native country. Having purchased the lands which had belonged to two suppressed monasteries, and meeting with obstacles to the quiet enjoyment of the property, he began to entertain scruples of conscience relative to the

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

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 character of Spenser there is no direct testimony; but the friendships which he formed are favorable to its respectability, which is also to be implied from the purity, devotion, and exalted morality of his writings. Neither, although he paid assiduous court to the great, was he guilty of the mean adulation so common in his time, except, indeed, to queen Elizabeth, by whom, both as a sovereign and a woman, it was levied as a kind of tax. As a poet, although his minor works contain many beauties, Spenser will be judged

chiefly from the Faery Queen, the predominant excellences of which are im agery, feeling, and melody of versificstion. With all its defects, it furnishes admirable examples of the noblest graces of poetry, sublimity, pathos, unrivaled 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 will always be resorted to by the genuine lov ers 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 pathet ic, 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. 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 summut 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.)

SPEZIALE, member of the junta of government, instituted in 1799, at Naples, was the son of a peasant of Borgetto, not far from Palermo. His servile deportment procured him a place in the corte pretoriana e capitanale at Palermo. When the court of Naples fled to Sicily, he showed a bitter hatred towards the French, and violently persecuted the suspected, so that the chevalier Acton (q. v.) appointed him to try the persons accused of having taken part in the revolution. Even before the French had left Naples, he began t exercise his office on the island of Proci

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. There fore, 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 payıs, 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