pose; woman is always busy in a quiet activity.

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 alutudes 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 (Sextr 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. (Sce 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

ocean. The old ones likewise return, and at this time are emaciated and unfit for food. The form of the shad is the same as that of the other herrings, very much compressed, with the abdomen gradually becoming thinner, and forming a serrated edge; and, like them, the bones are much more numerous and more slender than in other fish. The shad which frequents our waters has not been accurately compared with the European, but is probably a different species. It usually weighs four or five pounds, but sometimes twelve: the scales are easily detached, when a row of dark spots is exposed on each side. It is found in all the rivers of our Atlantic coast, is highly esteemed for food, and is consumed in great quantities, in the fresh state, in our principal cities. During the season they are an important source of wealth to the inhabitants of the borders of the Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake. Great quantities are salted, but are less esteemed than when eaten fresh.

SHADDOCK; a large species of orange, attaining the diameter of seven or eight inches, with a white, thick, spongy and bitter rind, and a red or white pulp, of a sweet taste, mingled with acidity. It is a native of China and Japan, and was brought to the West Indies by a captain Shaddock, from whom it has derived its name. It is often called pampelmoes. (See Orange.)

SHADWELL, Thomas, an English dramatic poet, was born at Stanton-hall, Norfolk, a seat of his father's, about 1640, educated at Cambridge, and afterwards placed at the Middle Temple, where he studied the law for some time, and then visited the continent. On his return from his travels, he applied himself to the drama, and wrote seventeen plays. His model was Ben Jonson, whom he imitated in drawing numerous characters, chiefly in caricature, of eccentricities in the manners of the day. Although coarse, and of temporary reputation, the comedies of Shadwell are not destitute of genuine humor. At the revolution he was created poet laureate, on the recommendation of the earl of Dorset; and as he obtained it by the dispossession of Dryden, the latter exhibited the bitterest enmity towards his successor, against whom he composed his severe satire of Mac Flecknoe. He died Dec. 6, 1692, in consequence, it is supposed, of taking too large a dose of opium, to which he was attached. Besides his dramatic writings, he was author of several pieces of poetry of no great

merit. The best edition of his works was printed in 1720 (4 vols., 12mo.).

SHAFTESBURY, LORD. (See Cooper.) SHAGREEN, OF CHAGREEN (in the Levant, Saghir); a kind of grained leather, of u close and solid substance, used for forming covers for cases, &c., which easily receives different colors. It is prepared by the Tartars, Russians and Tripolitans, from the skin of the Bucharian wild ass, and is also made, in some parts of Russia, and in Persia, of horse-skin. The hinder back piece of the hides of these animals is cut off just above the tail and around the loins, in the form of a crescent. The piece thus separated is soaked several days in water, till the hair drops off. It is then stretched, and the hair and epidermis are removed with a scraper. After a second soaking, the flesh side is scraped in a similar manner; the skins are then stretched on wooden frames, and the hair side is covered with the seeds of the chenopodium album, or goose-foot. The seeds are then trodden into the leather which, being dried, and freed from the seeds, is left full of indentations, which produce the grain of the shagreen. The dried skins are tnen scraped with a piece of sharp iron, till the inequalities are removed, and soaked again for twenty-four hours; the parts where the impressions of the seed were produced, are thus swollen and raised above the scraped surface. The skins are next immersed in ley, and are ready to receive their color. The most common color is sea-green (given by means of copper filings and a solution of sal ammoniac); but blue, red, black, and other colors, are also given it. Shagreen is also made of the skins of the sea-otter, seal, &c.

SHAH, or SCHAH, in Persian, signifies king; whence Shahnameh (book of kings). (See Ferdusi, and Persian Literature.)

SHAH, NADIR. (See Nadir Shah.)
SHAKE, in music. (See Trill.)

SHAKERS, or SHAKING QUAKERS; a sect which arose at Manchester, in England, about 1747, and has since been transferred to America, where it now consists of a number of thriving families. The founders were a number of obscure Quakers; and the Shakers still agree with the Friends in their rejection of the civil and ecclesiastical authority, and military service, in their objections to taking oaths. their neglect of the common courtesies of society, their rejection of the sacra ments, and their belief in the immediate revelations of the Holy Ghost (gifts). At first, the motions from which they derive

their name were of the most violent, wild and irregular nature-leaping, shouting, clapping their hands, &c.; but at present, they move in a regular, uniform dance, to the singing of a hymn, and march round the hall of worship, clapping their hands in regular time. There are at present fifteen families, as their communities, are called, in the U. States, comprising 6000 individuals. In these communities, the property is held in common, and the members are distinguished for their industry, frugality, honesty and good morals. Celibacy is enjoined, and their numbers are recruited by converts. The of fice of leader is bestowed by impulse or revelation on him who has the gift to assume it. The sect of Shakers was first introduced into this country by Anne Lee, who, in 1770, became their leader. She was born at Manchester, in 1736, and was the daughter of a blacksmith of Manchester, where she also, at an early age, became the wife of a blacksmith. Her first "testimony of salvation and eternal life," borne in 1770, was the injunction of celibacy as the perfection of human nature, and the holding forth herself as a divine person. She was from this time honored with the title of "mother Anne," and she styled herself "Anne the word." Having been persecuted in England, she came out to America in 1774, with several members of the society, and formed the first community at Watervliet, near Albany, where she died in 1784. Societies were soon organized at New Lebanon, in New York, and at Enfield, in Connecticut, and have gradually increased to their present number. (See the official work, The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearance, or the article The Shakers, in the 16th volume of the North American Review.)

SHAKSPEARE, William, the greatest dramatic poet, not only of England, but of all the nations of Teutonic origin, was born in 1564, at Stratford on the Avon, a market-town in Warwickshire. The day of his birtn is generally said to have been April 23, 1564. His father, according to Rowe, and most of the subsequent biographers of the poet, was a considerable dealer in wool; but according to John Aubrey (who entered himself as a student at Oxford in 1642, only twenty-six years after Shakspeare's death, and who derived his information from some of the neighbors of the family), he was a butcher; according to Malone, a glover. Malone says that William was the second of eight chiltrou. In regard to his early educa

tion, there is much uncertainty. probable, however, that he learned Latin in the school in his native town: the French and Italian, which he often introduces in his plays, he may have acquired afterwards by himself. Before he was sixteen years old, his father required his aid in his trade; and, in his eighteenth year, he married Anne Hathaway of Shottery, who was twenty-five years of age, and who became the mother, in 1583, of his favorite daughter Susanna, and, in 1584, of his twin children, Hamnet and Judith. It must have been soon after this event that he visited London. The time usually assigned is 1586, when he was in his twenty-second year; but the cause of his leaving his native place, as well as his connexions and prospects in London, are unknown. Rowe relates, and others have adopted the opinion, that, having fallen into bad company, he was induced more than once to assist his associates in stealing deer from the park of sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlcote, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman so severely, that he at first wrote a satirical ballad on him, and afterwards fled from his home to avoid arrest. This story, however, does not rest on sufficient evidence to entitle it to credence. Without dwelling on this circumstance, or crediting another improbable story of his holding horses at the door of a theatre for his livelihood, we shall find a rational motive for his visiting London, and resorting to the theatre, by knowing that he had a relative and townsman already established there, and in some estimation. This was Thomas Green, a comedian. He became an actor, but, according to Rowe, he never rose higher than the performance of the ghost in his own Hamlet. Others, however, have endeavored to prove that he was an excellent actor. His greatest patron was a friend of Essex, the earl of Southampton, who is said to have presented him, on one occasion, with a thousand pounds. Queen Elizabeth, who was much delighted with his Falstaff in Henry IV, is said to have ordered him to write another play, in which the facetious knight might appear in love, which gave rise to the Merry Wives of Windsor. He was also favored with a letter from James I, in return, as doctor Farmer supposes, for the compliment in Macbeth. How long he acted has not. been discovered; but he finally became a proprietor and manager, by license, of the Globe theatre in Southwark; and it was in this situation that he

afforded Ben Jonson the opportunity of appearing as a dramatic writer. Having a sobriety and moderation in his views of life, not very common in the profession which he adopted, our great dramatist retired early, with a respectable fortune of from £200 to £300 per annum, equivalent, perhaps, to £1000 in our own day, and spent the remainder of his life in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. For some years before his death, he resided at Stratford, in a house which continued in the possession of his descendants until the restoration. Garrick, Macklin, and others, were entertained, in 1742, under the mulberry-tree planted by Shakspeare. The house was afterwards sold to a clergyman of the name of Gastrel, who, being rated for the poor higher than it pleased him to pay, peevishly declared that the house should never pay again; and, from ill-will to the inhabitants of Stratford, who were benefited by the company it brought to the town, he pulled it down, and sold the materials. He had previously cut down the mulberry-tree for fuel; but a silversmith purchased the whole of it, which he manufactured into memorials of the poet. Shakspeare died on the anniversary of his birth-day, April 23, 1616, having completed his fifty-second year. He was interred in the church of Stratford. Aubrey says that Shakspeare was "a handsome, well-shaped man, verie good company, and of a verie pleasant, reddie and smooth witt." His son died at the age of twelve years. His widow survived him seven years. Susanna, who married a physician named John Hall, died aged sixty-six; and Judith, who married a Mr. Guiney, died aged seventy-seven. The children of these ladies were all without offspring; but, in 1819, mention was made of a female relation of the family of Shakspeare. In 1741, a monument was erected to him in Westminster abbey, and paid for by the proceeds of benefits at the two great theatres. In 1769, by the efforts of Garrick, a festival was celebrated in honor of the poet in his native town of Stratford. There was a splendid procession of triumphal cars, in which king Lear, Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, accompanied with music and the shouts of the populace, moved to a splendid temple, where speeches, oratorios and odes were combined to do honor to Shakspeare. The next year, the spectacle was exhibited at Drury lane in London, and was repeated for one hundred nights.

A. W. Schlegel has devoted to the character of Shakspeare one of the most valuable of his Lectures on the Drama, which are now translated into English. Schlegel is one of the first critics of our age; and it may not be uninteresting to our readers to know the opinions of such a man on the great English poet, whose works he has himself translated and naturalized in Germany, where they have been as much admired as in England, and perhaps more profoundly criticised by men of distinguished talent. "The ignorance or learning of the poet," says Schlegel, "has been the subject of endless controversy; and yet it is a matter very easily settled. Shakspeare was poor in dead learning, but he possessed a fulness of living and applicable knowledge. He knew Latin, and even something of Greek, though not probably enough to read Greek writers with ease in the original. With the French and Italian he had also but a superficial acquaintance. He had a very extensive knowledge of English books, original and translated. He was sufficiently intimate with mythology to employ it in the only manner he wished-as a symbolical ornament. He had formed the most correct notions of the spirit of ancient history, and more particularly of that of the Romans; and the history of his own country was familiar to him, even in detail. He was an attentive observer of nature. He knew the technical language of mechanics and artisans. He seems to have travelled much in the interior of England, and to have been a diligent inquirer of navigators respecting other countries; and he was most accurately acquainted with all the popular usages, opinions and traditions which could be of use in poetry. The proofs of his ignorance on which the greatest stress is laid, are a few geographical blunders and anachronisms. Because, in a comedy founded on a tale, he makes ships arrive in Bohemia, he has been laughed at. But, in such matters, Shakspeare is only faithful when he treats historical subjects relating to his own country. When he worked on novels, he avoided disturbing his audience, to whom they were known, by the correction of errors in secondary things. Shakspeare's anachronisms are, for the most part, committed purposely. It was frequently of importance to him to bring the subject exhibited from the background of time quite near to us: hence, in Hamlet, though avowedly an cl northern story, there prevails the tone of fashionable society, and. in every respect.