Sorrows of the Virgin. See Seven Dolours.

Sorrows of Werther, a work by Goethe and one of his earliest, the production of which constituted a new era in the life of the poet, and marks a new era in the literature of Europe, "as giving expression to a class of feelings deeply important to modern minds, but for which our older poetry offered no exponent, and perhaps could offer none, because they are feelings that arise from Passion incapable of being converted into Action, and belong to an ignorant, uncultivated, and unbelieving age such as ours," feelings that Byronically, "in dark wayward" mood reflect a mere sense of the miseries of human life.

Sortes Virgilianæ, consulting the pages of Virgil to ascertain one's fortune, by opening the book at random, putting the finger on a passage and taking that for the oracle of fate one is in quest of.

Sostratus, architect of the Pharos of Alexandria, lived in the 3rd century B.C., and was patronised by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

Sothern, Edward Askew, comedian, born in Liverpool; at 23 went on the stage, and for some time was a member of the stock company of the Theatre Royal, Birmingham; afterwards acted in America, and made his mark in Tom Taylor's "Our American Cousin" (1858) in the small part of Lord Dundreary, which he gradually developed into an elaborate and phenomenally successful caricature of an English peer, and in which he appeared thousands of times in America and England; scored a great success also as David Garrick in Robertson's well-known comedy (1826-1881).

Soubise, Duc de, French soldier; served first under Prince Maurice of Orange, and commanded the Huguenots against Louis XIII., but after some successes was compelled to take refuge in England; distinguished himself at the defence of Rochelle, but was defeated again and had to betake himself to England as before, where he died (1589-1641).

Soubise, Prince de, marshal of France; was aide-de-camp to Louis XV. in Flanders, was favoured by Pompadour, held an important command in the Seven Years' War, but was defeated by Frederick the Great at Rossbach (1713-1787).

Soudan or "The Land of the Blacks," the cradle of the negro race, a vast tract of territory stretching E. and W. across the African continent from the Atlantic (W.) to the Red Sea and Highlands of Abyssinia (E.), between the Sahara (W.) and the Gulf of Guinea and the central equatorial provinces (S.); divided into (a) Upper Soudan, embracing Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Ashanti, Dahomey, Liberia, and west coast-lands; (6) Lower Soudan, including the Fulah States, Massina, Gando, Sokoto, &c.; (c) Egyptian Soudan, which in 1882 was subdivided into (1) West Soudan, including Dar-Fur, Kordofan, Bahr-el-Ghazal, and Dongola; (2) Central Soudan, comprising Khartoum, Sennaar, Berber, Fashoda, and the Equatorial Province, &c.; (3) Eastern Soudan, bordering on the Red Sea, and embracing Taka, Suakim, and Massowah; (4) Harar, stretching E. of Abyssinia. The extension of Egyptian rule into this territory began in 1819 with the capture of Khartoum, which became the base of military operations, ending in the gradual conquest of the surrounding regions in 1874. A serious revolt, fanned by religious fanaticism, broke out in 1882, and headed by the Mahdi (q. v.) and his lieutenant Osman Digna, ended in the utter rout of the Egyptian forces under Hicks Pasha and Baker Pasha; Gordon, after a vain attempt to relieve him, perished in Khartoum; but Stanley was more successful in relieving Emin Bey in the Equatorial Province. Anarchy and despotism ensued until the victorious campaign of Kitchener (q. v.) again restored the lost provinces to Egypt.

Soufflot, French architect of the Pantheon of Paris (1713-1780).

Soul, the name given to the spiritual part of man, the seat of reason (q. v.) and conscience, by which he relates and subordinates himself to the higher spiritual world, inspiring him with a sense of individual responsibility.

Soult, Nicolas-Jean de Dieu, duke of Dalmatia and marshal of France, born at St. Amans-la-Bastide, department of Tarn; enlisted as a private in 1785, and by 1794 was general of a brigade; gallant conduct in Swiss and Italian campaigns under Masséna won him rapid promotion, and in 1804 he was created a marshal; served with the emperor in Germany, and led the deciding charge at Austerlitz, and for his services in connection with the Treaty of Tilsit received the title of Duc de Dalmatia; at the head of the French army in Spain he outmanoeuvred the English in 1808, conquered Portugal, and opposed to Wellington a skill and tenacity not less than his own, but was thwarted in his efforts by the obstinate incompetence of Joseph Bonaparte; turned Royalist after the abdication of Napoleon, but on his return from Elba rallied to the emperor's standard, and fought at Waterloo; was subsequently banished, but restored in 1819; became active in the public service, and was honoured as ambassador in England in 1838; retired in 1845 with the honorary title of "Marshal-General of France" (1769-1851).

Sound, The, a strait, 50 m. long, between Sweden and Denmark, which connects the Cattegat with the Baltic Sea; dues at one time levied on ships passing through the channel were abolished in 1857, and over three millions paid in compensation, Britain contributing one-third and undertaking to superintend the navigation and maintain the lighthouses.

South, Robert, an English divine, born at Hackney; obtained several preferments in the Church, but refused a bishopric; was distinguished for his hostility to the Dissenters, and was never tired of heaping ridicule on them and their principles; wrote a book in defence of the Trinity in a somewhat rationalistic view of it, which involved him in a furious controversy with Dr. Sherlock; was a man of great wit and good sense as well as refinement; his chief writings consist of "Sermons" (1633-1716).

South African Company. See Rhodesia.

South African Republic. See Transvaal.

South Australia (320), second largest of the five colonies of Australia, stretches N. and S. in a broad band, 1850 in. long, through the heart of the continent from the Southern Ocean to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea, having Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria on the E., and Western Australia on the W.; ten times the size of Great Britain, but the greater portion comprises the Northern Territory, which consists, save a low alluvial coastal strip, of parched and uninhabited tableland. South Australia proper begins about 26° S. latitude, and is traversed southwards by the Finke River as far as Eyre Lake (3706 sq. m.), by the Flinders Range, and the lower Murray River in the E., and diversified here and there by low ranges and Lake Amadeus (NW.), Torrens and Gairdner (S.); the S. coast is penetrated by the great gulfs of Spencer and St. Vincent, round and to the N. and E. of which the bulk of the population is gathered in a region not much larger than Scotland; is the chief wheat-growing colony, and other important industries are mining (chiefly copper), sheep-rearing, and wine-making; chief exports, wool, wheat, and copper; the railway and telegraph systems are well developed, the Overland Telegraph Line (1973 m.) stretching across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin being a marvel of engineering enterprise. Adelaide is the capital. The governor is appointed by the crown, and there are a legislative council or upper house, and an assembly or lower house. State education is free. Began to be settled in 1836, and five years later became a Crown colony.

South Sea Bubble, the name given to the disastrous financial project set on foot by Harley (q. v.) to relieve the national debt and restore public credit, which produced an unparalleled rush of speculation, ending in the ruin of thousands of people. Through the efforts of Harley a company of merchants was induced in 1711 to buy up the floating national debt of £10,000,000 on a government guarantee of 6 per cent. interest, and a right to a monopoly of trade in the South Seas. The shares rose by leaps and bounds as tales of the fabulous wealth of the far South Seas circulated, till, in 1720, £200 shares were quoted at £1000; earlier in the same year the company had taken over the entire national debt of upwards of 30 millions. In the craze for speculation which had seized the public hundreds of wild schemes were floated. At length the "Bubble" burst. The chairman and several directors of the company sold out when shares had reached £1000; suspicion followed, confidence vanished, stock fell, and in a few days thousands from end to end of the country were bewailing their ruin. The private estates of the fraudulent directors were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers. To Sir Robert Walpole belongs the credit of extricating the finances of the country from the muddle into which they had fallen.

Southampton (94), an important seaport of South Hampshire, 79 m. SW. of London, situated on a small peninsula at the head of Southampton Water (a fine inlet, 11 m. by 2), between the mouths of the Itchen (E.) and the Test (W.); portions of the old town-walls and four gateways still remain; is the head-quarters of the Ordnance Survey; has splendid docks, and is an important steam-packet station for the West Indies, Brazil, and South Africa; yacht and ship building and engine-making are flourishing industries.

Southcott, Joanna, a prophetess, born in Devon, of humble parents; became a Methodist; suffered under religious mania; gave herself out as the woman referred to in Revelation xii.; imagined herself to be with child, and predicted she would on a certain day give birth to the promised Prince of Peace, for which occasion great preparations were made, but all to no purpose; she died of dropsy two months after the time predicted; she found numbers to believe in her even after her death; she traded in passports to heaven, which she called "seals," and persuaded numbers to purchase them (1750-1814).

Southern Cross, a constellation of the southern heavens, the five principal stars of which form a rough and somewhat irregular cross, the shape of which is gradually changing; it corresponds in the southern heavens to the Great Bear in the northern.

Southey, Robert, poet-laureate, born, the son of a linen-draper, at Bristol; was expelled from Westminster School for a satirical article in the school magazine directed against flogging; in the following year (1793) entered Balliol College, where he only remained one year, leaving it a Unitarian and a red-hot republican; was for a time enamoured of Coleridge's wild pantisocratic scheme; married (1795) clandestinely Edith Frickes, a penniless girl, sister to Mrs. Coleridge, and in disgrace with his English relatives visited his uncle in Lisbon, where in six months he laid the foundation of his knowledge of Spanish history and literature; the Church and medicine had already, as possible careers, been abandoned, and on his return to England he made a half-hearted effort to take up law; still unsettled he again visited Portugal, and finally was relieved of pecuniary difficulties by the settlement of a pension on him by an old school friend, which he relinquished in 1807 on receiving a pension from Government; meanwhile had settled at Keswick, where he prosecuted with untiring energy the craft of authorship; "Joan of Arc," "Thalaba," "Madoc," and "The Curse of Kehama," won for him the laureateship in 1813, and in the same year appeared his prose masterpiece "The Life of Nelson"; of numerous other works mention may be made of his Histories of Brazil and the Peninsular War, Lives of Bunyan and Wesley, and "Colloquies on Society"; declined a baronetcy offered by Peel; domestic affliction—the death of children, and the insanity and death of his wife—saddened his later years, which were brightened in the last by his second marriage (1839) with the poetess and his twenty years' friend, Caroline Bowles; as a poet Southey has few readers nowadays; full of miscellaneous interest, vigour of narrative, and spirited rhythm, his poems yet lack the finer spirit of poetry; but in prose he ranks with the masters of English prose style "of a kind at once simple and scholarly" (1774-1843).

Southport (41), a watering-place of Lancashire, situated on the southern shore of the Ribble estuary, 18 m. N. of Liverpool; is a town of quite modern growth and increasing popularity; has a fine sea-shore, esplanade, park, theatre, public library, art gallery, etc.

Southwark (339), or the Borough, a division of London, on the Surrey side of the Thames, opposite the City, and annexed to it in 1827; it sends three members to Parliament, and among its principal buildings are St. Saviour's Church and Guys Hospital.

Southwell, Robert, poet, born in Norfolk; studied at Douay, and became a Jesuit priest; came to England as a missionary, was thrown into prison, tortured ten times by the rack, and at length executed at Tyburn as a traitor for disseminating Catholic doctrine; his poems are religious chiefly, and excellent, and were finally collected under the title "St. Peter's Complaint," "Mary Magdalen's Tears, and Other Works"; "The Burning Babe" is characterised by Professor Saintsbury as a "splendid poem" (1560-1595).

Souvestre, Émile, French novelist and playwright, born at Morlaix; at 30 he established himself in Paris as a journalist, and became noted as a writer of plays and of charming sketches of Breton life, essays, and fiction; "Les Derniers Bretons" and "Foyer Breton" are considered his best work (1806-1854).

Souza, Madame de (maiden name Adelaide Filleul), French novelist, born in Paris, and educated in a convent, on her leaving which she was married to the Comte de Flahaut, a man much older than herself, and with whom she lived unhappily; fled to Germany and then to England on the outbreak of the Revolution; afterwards returned to Paris, and as the wife of the Marquis de Souza-Botelho presided over one of the most charming of salons, in which the chief attraction was her own bright and gifted personality; her novels, "Eugène de Rothelin," "Eugénie et Mathilde," etc., breathe the spirit of the old régime, and are full of natural and vivacious pictures of French life (1761-1836).

Sowerby Bridge (10), manufacturing town in West Riding of Yorkshire, 3 m. SW. of Halifax; cotton-spinning, woollen manufactures, and dyeing are the chief; it was the birthplace of Tillotson.

Soy, a sauce or condiment used in Japan and China; prepared from a bean which is extensively cultivated in those countries.

Soyer, Alexis, a famous cook, born at Meaux; turned aside from a tempting career as a vocalist and took up gastronomy as a profession; during the 1830 Revolution he narrowly escaped with his life to London, which he henceforth made his head-quarters, rising to the position of cook to the Reform Club; rendered important services as a culinary expert in Ireland during the 1847 famine, and at the Crimea (1855); was the author of various highly popular works on the art of cooking, "The Modern Housewife," "Shilling Cookery Book," etc. (1809-1858).

Spa (7), a watering-place in Belgium, 20 m. SE. of Liège; a favourite health and fashionable resort on account of its springs and its picturesque surroundings, the number of visitors during the season amounting to 12,000.

Spahi, an Algerine cavalry soldier serving in the French army.

Spain (17,800), a kingdom of South-West Europe, which with Portugal (less than one-fifth the size of Spain) occupies the entire Iberian Peninsula, and is divided from France on the N. by the Pyrenees Mountains, and on the E. and S. is washed by the Mediterranean; the NW. corner fronts the Bay of Biscay (N.) and the Atlantic (W.), while Portugal completes the western boundary; its area, three and one-third times the size of England and Wales, is, along with the Canaries and the Balearic Isles, divided into 49 provinces, although the more familiar names of the 14 old kingdoms, states, and provinces (New and Old Castile, Galicia, Aragon, etc.) are still in use; forms a compact square, with a regular, in parts precipitous, coast-line, which is short compared with its area; is in the main a highland country, a vast plateau (2000 to 3000 ft. high) occupying the centre, buttressed and crossed by ranges (Sierra Nevada in the S., Sierra de Guadarrama, Sierra Morena, etc.), and diversified by the long valleys of the Ebro, Douro, Tagus, Guadalquivir, and other lesser rivers, all of which are rapid, and only a few navigable; climate varies considerably according as one proceeds to the central plains, where extremes of heat and cold are experienced, but over all is the driest in Europe; agriculture, although less than a half of the land is under cultivation, is by far the most important industry, and Valencia and Catalonia the provinces where it is most successfully carried out, wheat and other cereals, the olive and the vine, being the chief products; other important industries are mining, the Peninsula being extremely rich in the useful minerals; Merino sheep farming, anchovy and sardine fisheries, wine-making, and the manufacture of cotton, silk, leather, and paper; chief exports are wine, fruits, mineral ores, oil and cork; Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Malaga are the chief towns; the widest variety of character exists among the natives of the various provinces, from the hard-working, thrifty Catalan to the lazy, improvident Murcian, but all possess the southern love "of song, dance, and colour," and have an inherent grace and dignity of manner; Roman Catholicism is the national religion; and although systems of elementary and secondary schools are in vogue, education over all is in a deplorably backward condition; the Government is a hereditary and constitutional monarchy; the Cortes consists of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; universal suffrage and trial by jury are recent innovations. The outstanding fact in the history of Spain, after the downfall of the Roman Empire, of which she had long formed a part, is the national struggle with the Moors, who overran the peninsula in the 8th century, firmly established themselves, and were not finally overthrown till Granada, their last possession, was taken in 1492; sixteen years later the country became a united kingdom, and for a brief period, with its vast American colonies and wide European possessions, became in the 16th century the dominant power of Europe; since then she has lagged more and more in the race of nations, and her once vast colonial empire has gradually crumbled away till now, since the unsuccessful war with America in 1898, only an island or two remains to her.

Spalato (15), a historic and flourishing town of Dalmatia, finely situated on a promontory on the E. side of the Adriatic, 160 m. SE. of Fiume; a place of considerable antiquity, and one of the great cities of the Roman world; is chiefly famed for the vast palace built by Diocletian, and which became his residence after his abdication; subsidiary buildings and grounds were enclosed by walls, within which now a considerable part of the town stands; the noblest portions of the palace are still extant; the modern town carries on an active trade in grain, wine, cattle, etc.; is noted for its liqueurs.

Spalding, a market-town in Lincolnshire, 34 m. SE. of Lincoln, in the heart of the Fens; is a very ancient place; has a trade in agricultural produce, and is a railway centre.

Spallanzani, Lazaro, a noted Italian scientist, born at Scandiano, in Modena; held chairs of Philosophy and Greek in the Universities of Reggio and Modena, but more attracted to natural science he in 1768 became professor of Natural History at Pavia; wrote elaborate accounts of expeditions to Sicily and elsewhere; overturned Button's theory of spontaneous generation, and in important works made some valuable contributions to physiological science (1729-1799).

Spandau (45), an important town and fortress of Prussia, in Brandenburg, at the confluence of the Spree and Havel, 8 m. W. by N. of Berlin; fortifications are of the strongest and most modern kind, and in the "Julius Tower" of the powerful citadel the German war-chest of £6,000,000 is preserved; there is an arsenal and large Government cannon-foundries, powder-factories, etc.

Spanheim, Friedrich, a theological professor at Geneva (1631), and afterwards at Leyden (1641); author of the work on "Universal Grace" (1600-1648). His son, Ezechiel Spanheim (1629-1710) became professor of Eloquence in his native town, Geneva, and after acting as tutor to the sons of the Elector Palatine was employed on several important diplomatic missions to Italy, England, and France; meanwhile devoted his leisure to ancient law and numismatics, publishing learned works on these subjects. Friedrich Spanheim, brother of preceding, was a learned Calvinistic professor of Theology at Heidelberg (1685), and afterwards at Leyden (1632-1701).

Spanish Main (i. e. mainland), a name given at one time to the Central American provinces of Spain bordering on the Caribbean Sea, and also to the Caribbean Sea itself.

Sparks, James, president of Harvard University, born in Connecticut; bred a carpenter, took to study, attended Harvard, where he graduated, studied theology, and became Unitarian, becoming a minister in that body, but retired from the ministry and settled in Boston; edited the North American Review; wrote and edited biographies of eminent Americans, and edited the writings of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington (1789-1866).

Sparta or Lacedemon, the capital of ancient Laconia, in the Peloponnesus, on the right bank of the Eurotas, 20 m. from the sea; was 6 m. in circumference, consisted of several distinct quarters, originally separate villages, never united into a regular town; was never surrounded by walls, its walls being the bravery of its citizens; its mythical founder was Lacedemon, who called the city Sparta from the name of his wife; one of its early kings was Menelaus, the husband of Helen; Lycurgus (q. v.) was its law-giver; its policy was aggressive, and its sway gradually extended over the whole Peloponnesus, to the extinction at the end of the Peloponnesian War of the rival power of Athens, which for a time rose to the ascendency, and its unquestioned supremacy thereafter for 30 years, when all Greece was overborne by the Macedonian power.

Spartacus, leader of the revolt of the slaves at Rome, which broke out about 73 B.C.; was a Thracian by birth, a man of powerful physique, in succession a shepherd, a soldier, and a captain of banditti; was in one of his predatory expeditions taken prisoner and sold to a trainer of gladiators, and became one of his slaves; persuaded his fellow-slaves to attempt their freedom, and became their chief and that of other runaways who joined them; for two years they defied and defeated one Roman army after another sent to crush them, and laid Italy waste, till at the end of that time Licinius Crassus, taking up arms in earnest, overpowered them in a decisive battle at the river Silarus, in which Spartacus was slain.

Spasmodic School, name given to a small group of minor poets about the middle of the 19th century, represented by Philips, James Bailey, Sydney Dobell, and Alexander Smith, from their strenuous, overstrained, and unnatural style.

Specific Gravity, the weight of a body compared with another of equal bulk taken as a standard, such as the weight of a cubic inch of water.

Spectrum, the name given to coloured and other rays of pure light separated by refraction in its transmission through a prism, as exhibited on a screen in a darkened chamber.

Spectrum Analysis, name given to the method of determining the composition of a body by means of the spectrum of light which it gives forth or passes through it, founded on the principle that a substance powerfully absorbs exactly the rays it radiates, and every substance has its own absorbing powers; or it may be defined the method of distinguishing different kinds of matter by their properties in relation to light.

Speculative, The, that which we think and which as such goes no deeper than the intellect, which is but the eye of the soul, not the heart of it. See Spiritual, The.

Spedding, James, editor of Bacon, born at Mirehouse, near Keswick, son of a Cumberland squire; scholar and honorary Fellow of Cambridge; became in 1847 Under-Secretary of State with £2000 a year; devoted his life to the study of Bacon, the fruit of which the "Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon, including all his Occasional Works, newly selected and set forth with a Commentary, Biographical and Historical," in 7 vols.; a truly noble man, and much esteemed by his contemporaries in literature (1808-1881).

Speke, John Banning, African explorer, born in Somersetshire; became a soldier, and served in the Punjab; joined Burton in 1854 in an expedition into Somaliland, and three years after in an attempt to discover the sources of the Nile, and setting out alone discovered Victoria Nyanza, which he maintained was the source of the river, but which Burton questioned; on his return he published in 1863 an account of his discovery, which he was about to defend in the British Association when he was shot by the accidental discharge of his gun while he was out hunting (1827-1864).

Spence, Joseph, a miscellaneous writer, born in Hants; educated at and a Fellow of Oxford; his principal work, "Polymetis; or, an Inquiry into the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of Ancient Artists"; his "Anecdotes" are valuable from his acquaintance with the literary class of the time, and have preserved his name (1699-1768).

Spencer, Herbert, systematiser and unifier of scientific knowledge up to date, born at Derby, son of a teacher, who early inoculated him with an interest in natural objects, though he adopted at first the profession of a railway engineer, which in about eight years he abandoned for the work of his life by way of literature, his first effort being a series of "Letters on the Proper Sphere of Government" in the Nonconformist in 1842, and his first work "Social Statics," published in 1851, followed by "Principles of Psychology" four years after; in 1861 he published a work on "Education," and his "First Principles" the following year, after which he began to construct his system of "Synthetic Philosophy," which fills a dozen large volumes, and has established his fame as the foremost scientific philosopher of the time. Following in the lines of Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill, he takes a wider sweep than either of them, fills the field he occupies with fuller and riper detail, resolves the whole of science into still more ultimate principles, and works the whole up into a more compact and comprehensive system. He is valiant before all for science, and relegates everything and every interest to Agnosticism that cannot give proof of its scientific rights. "What a thing is in itself," he says, "cannot be known, because to know it we must strip it of all that it becomes, of all that has come to adhere to it." The ultimate thus arrived at he finds to be, and calls, Energy, and that therefore, he says, we don't and can't know. That a thing is what it becomes seems never to occur to him, and yet only the knowledge of that is the knowledge of the ultimate of being, which is the thing he says we cannot know. To trace life to its roots he goes back to the cell, whereas common-sense would seem to require us, in order to know what the cell is, to inquire at the fruit. This is the doctrine of St. John, "The Word was God." In addition to agnosticism another doctrine of Spencer's is Evolution, but in maintaining this he fails to see he is arguing for an empty conception barren of all thought, which thought is the alpha and omega of the whole process, and is as much an ultimate as and still more so than the energy in which he absorbs God. Indeed, his philosophy is what is called the Aufklärung (q. v.) in full bloom, and in which he strips us of all our spiritual content or Inhalt, and under which he would lead us out of "Houndsditch" (q. v.), not with, but without, all that properly belongs to us; b. 1820.

Spencer Gulf, a deep inlet on the coast of South Australia, 180 m. by 90 m.

Spener, Philip Jacob, German Protestant theologian, founder of the Pietists (q. v.), born in Alsace, studied in Strasburg; in 1670 held a series of meetings which he called "Collegia Pietatis," whence the name of his sect; established himself in Dresden and in Berlin, but Halle was the centre of the movement; he was an earnest and universally esteemed man (1636-1705).

Spenser, Edmund, author of the "Faërie Queene," and one of England's greatest poets; details of his life are scanty and often hypothetical; born at London of poor but well-connected parents; entered Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, as a "sizar" in 1569, and during his seven years' residence there became an excellent scholar; took a master's degree, and formed an important friendship with Gabriel Harvey; three years of unsettled life followed, but were fruitful in the production of the "Shepheards' Calendar" (1579), which at once placed him at the head of the English poets of his day; had already taken his place in the best London literary and political circles as the friend of Sir Philip Sidney and Leicester, and in 1580 was appointed private secretary to Lord Grey, then proceeding to Ireland as the Lord Deputy, and although his master soon returned to England Spencer continued to make his home in Ireland, where he obtained some civil appointments, and in 1591 entered into possession of a considerable portion of the forfeited estates of the Earl of Desmond, adjacent to his house, Kilcolman Castle, co. Cork; seems to have been a pretty stern landlord, and, as expounded in his admirable tract, "A View of the Present State of Ireland," the advocate of a policy of "suppression and repression"; consequently was little loved by the Irish, and on the outbreak of Tyrone's rebellion in 1598 his house was sacked and burned, and he himself forced to flee to London, where he died a few weeks later "a ruined and heart-broken man"; the rich promise of the "Shepheards' Calendar" had been amply fulfilled in the "Complaints," "Amoretti," "Colin Clout's Come Home Again," the "Epithalamium" the finest bridal song in any language, and above all in the six published books of "The Faërie Queene" (1589 and 1596), in which all his gifts and graces as a poet are at their best; "He may be read," says Professor Saintsbury, "in childhood, chiefly for his adventure; in later youth, for his display of voluptuous beauty; in manhood, for his historical and ethical weight; in age, for all combined" (1552-1599).

Spermaceti, a white waxy matter obtained in an oily state from the head of the sperm-whale inhabiting the Pacific and Indian Oceans; candles made of it yield a particularly steady and bright light.

Spey, a river in the N. of Scotland which, rising in Badenoch, flows NE. through Inverness, Elgin, and Banffshire, falls into the Moray Firth after a course of 107 miles; the salmon-fisheries are valuable; it is the swiftest of the rivers of Great Britain.

Spezia (20), the chief naval station, "the Portsmouth," of Italy; occupies a strongly fortified site at the head of a bay on the W. side of Italy, 56 m. SE. of Genoa; here are the naval shipbuilding yards, national arsenal, navy store-houses, besides schools of navigation, manufactures of cables, sail-cloth, &c.

Sphinx, a fabled animal, an invention of the ancient Egyptians, with the body and claws of a lioness, and the head of a woman, or of a ram, or of a goat, all types or representations of the king, effigies of which are frequently placed before temples on each side of the approach; the most famous of the sphinxes was the one which waylaid travellers and tormented them with a riddle, which if they could not answer she devoured them, but which Oedipus answered, whereupon she threw herself into the sea. "Such a sphinx," as we are told in "Past and Present," "is this life of ours, to all men and nations. Nature, like the Sphinx, is of womanly celestial loveliness and tenderness, the face and bosom of a goddess, but ending in the claws and the body of a lioness ... is a heavenly bride and conquest to the wise and brave, to them who can discern her behests and do them; a destroying fiend to them who cannot. Answer her riddle—Knowest thou the meaning of to-day?—it is well with thee. Answer it not; the solution for thee is a thing of teeth and claws."

Spice Islands. See Moluccas.

Spinello, Aretino, a celebrated Italian fresco-painter, born at Arezzo, where, with visits to Florence, his life was chiefly spent; was in his day the rival of Giotto, but few of his frescoes are preserved, and such of his paintings as are to be found in various galleries of Europe are inferior to his frescoes (1330-1410).

Spinola, Ambrosio, Marquis of, great Spanish general under Philip II. of Spain, born at Genoa, with a following of 9000, maintained at his own expense, took Ostend after a resistance of 3 years, in consequence of which feat he was appointed commander-in-chief, in which capacity maintained and again maintained a long struggle with Prince Maurice of Nassau, terminated only with the death of the latter; his services on behalf of Spain, in the interest of which he spent his fortune, were never acknowledged, and he died with poignant grief (1571-1630).

Spinoza, Benedict, great modern philosopher, born in Amsterdam, of Jews of Portuguese extraction in well-to-do circumstances, and had been trained as a scholar; began with the study of the Bible and the Talmud, but soon exchanged the study of theology in these for that of physics and the works of Descartes, in which study he drifted farther and farther from the Jewish creed, and at length openly abandoned it; this exposed him to a persecution which threatened his life, so that he left Amsterdam and finally settled at The Hague, where, absorbed in philosophic study, he lived in seclusion, earning a livelihood by polishing optical glasses, which his friends disposed of for him; his days were short; he suffered from ill-health, and died of consumption when he was only 44; he was a man of tranquil temper, moderate desires, purity of motive, and kindly in heart; his great work, his "Ethica," was published a year after his death; he had held it back during his lifetime because he foresaw it would procure him the name of atheist, which he shrank from with horror; Spinoza's doctrine is summed up by Dr. Stirling thus, "Whatever is, is; and that is extension and thought. These two are all that is; and besides these there is nought. But these two are one; they are attributes of the single substance (that which, for its existence, stands in need of nothing else), very God, in whom, then, all individual things and all individual ideas (modes of extension those, of thought these) are comprehended and take place"; thus we see Spinoza includes under the term extension all individual objects, and under thought all individual ideas, and these two he includes in God, as He in whom they live and move and have their being,—a great conception and a pregnant, being the speculative ground of the being of all that lives and is; not without good reason does Novalis call him "Der Gott-getrunkene Mensch," the God-intoxicated man (1632-1677).

Spinozism, the pantheism of Spinoza (q. v.), which regards God as the one self-subsistent substance, and both matter and thought attributes of Him.

Spires or Speyer, an old German town on the left bank of the Rhine, in the Palatinate, 14 m. SW. of Heidelberg, the seat of a bishop and with a cathedral, of its kind one of the finest in Europe, and the remains of the Retscher, or imperial palace, where in 1529 the Diet of the Empire was held at which the Reformers first got the name of Protestants, because of their protestation against the imperial decree issued at Worms prohibiting any further innovations in religion.

Spirit (lit. breath of life), in philosophy and theology is the Divine mind incarnating itself in the life of a man, and breathing in all he thinks and does, and so is as the life-principle of it; employed also to denote any active dominating and pervading principle of life inspired from any quarter whatever and coming to light in the conduct.

Spirit, The Holy, the Divine Spirit manifested in Christ which descended upon His disciples in all its fulness when, shortly after His decease, their eyes were opened to see the meaning of His life and their hearts to feel the power of it.

Spiritual, The, the fruit of the quickening and abiding action of a higher principle at the centre of the being, operating so as to suffuse the whole of it, pervade the whole of it, to its utmost limits, which, seating itself in the heart of the thoughts and affections, works and weaves itself into all the life tissues and becomes part and parcel of the very flesh and blood. No idea, however true, however elevated or elevating one may feel it, is spiritual till it centralises in the heart and affects all the issues thereof.

Spiritualism, a term that has two very different meanings, denoting at one time the doctrine that the only real is the spiritual (q. v.), and at another time a belief in the existence of spirits whom we, by means of certain media, can hold correspondence with, and who, whether we are conscious of it or not, exercise in some cases an influence over human destiny, more particularly of the spirits of dead men with whom in their disembodied state we can by means of certain mediums hold correspondence, and who, from their continued interest in the world, do in that state keep watch and ward over its affairs as well as mingle in them, forming a world of spirits gone from hence, yet more or less active in the sense world.

Spithead, the eastern portion of the strait which separates the Isle of Wight from the Hampshire coast, 14 m. long, with an average breadth of 4 m.; is a sheltered and safe riding for ships, and as such is much used by the British navy; receives its name from a long "spit" of sandbank jutting out from the mainland. See the Solent.

Spitzbergen, the name of an Arctic archipelago lying 400 m. N. of Norway, embracing West Spitzbergen (15,260 sq. m.), North-East Land, Stans Foreland, King Charles land or Wiche Island, Barents Land, Prince Charles Foreland, besides numerous smaller islands; practically lies under great fields of ice, enormous glaciers, and drifts of snow, pierced here and there by mountain peaks, hence the name Spitzbergen; the home of vast flocks of sea-birds, of polar bears, and Arctic foxes, while herds of reindeer are attracted to certain parts by a scanty summer vegetation; there are no permanent inhabitants, but the fiord-cut shores are frequented in summer by Norwegian seal and walrus hunters.