pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
SPECULUM for reflecting telescopes. See Optics and TELESCOPE.
SPEED, John, an English historian, was born at Faring ton in Cheshire, in the year 1542. He was by trade a tailor, and a freeman of the company of merchant tailors in the city of London. In 1606 he published his “Theatre of Great Britain,” which was afterwards reprinted in folio, under the title of “The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain.” In 1614 appeared his “History of Great Britain;” and in 1616 he published in octavo, “The Cloud of Witnesses, or, the Genealogies of Scripture.” These genealogies were prefixed to many editions of the English translation of the Bible; and King James gave him a patent for securing the property to him and his heirs. He had twelve sons and six daughters; and died in 1629. He was interred in the church of St. Giles’s, Cripplegate, London, where a monument was erected to his memory.
SPELDHURST, a large parish in the hundred of Washlingstone and county of Kent, thirty-three miles distant from London. A great part of the township of Tunbridge[7:20:532] Wells is comprehended in it, to which circumstance it owes its increased inhabitants, who were, in 1801, 1618; in 1811, 1901; in i821, 2297; and in 1831, 2640.
SPELLING, in Grammar, that part of orthography which teaches the true manner of resolving words into their syllables.

All words are either simple or compound, as use, disuse; done, undone; and the rules for dividing each must be such as are derived from the analogy of language in general, or from the established custom of speaking; which, for the English language, are reduced to the following rules: 1. A consonant between two vowels must be joined with the latter in spelling, as nature, ve-ri-ly, ge-ne-rous; except, however, the letter x, which is joined to the first, as in flax-en, ox-en, &c ., and compound words, as in upon, unused, &c. 2. A double consonant must be divided, as in letter, manner, &c. 3. Those consonants which can begin a word, must not be parted in spelling, as in defraud, re-prove, distinct: this rule, however, is sometimes found to fail; for though gn begins a word, as in gnaw, gnat, &c., yet it must be divided in spelling, as in cog-ni-zance, ma-lig-ni-ty, &c. 4. Those consonants which cannot begin a word must be divided, as ld in seldom, lt in multitude, mp in tem-per, rd in ar-dent; but in final syllables there are exceptions, as tl in title, dl in handle, &c. 5. When two vowels come to gether, and are both of them distinctly sounded, they must be separated in spelling, as in co-e-val, mutual, &c. 6. The grammatical terminations or endings must be separated in spelling, as ed in wing-ed, edst in de-li-ver-edst,ing in hearing, ance in deliverance, &c . 7. Compound words must be resolved into their simple and component words, as up on, into, neverthe∙less, not∙withstand∙ing, &c.
SPELMAN, Sir Henry, an eminent antiquary, was descended from an ancient family, and born at Congham, near Lynn in Norfolk, about the year 1561. He was knighted by King James I. who had a particular esteem for him on account of his known capacity for business; and he employed him several times in Ireland in public affairs. When he was about fifty years of age, he went to reside in London; where falling into a study to which his own genius had always inclined him, he collected all such books and MSS. as concerned the subject of antiquities, either fo reign or domestic. In 1626, he published the first part of his well-known “Glossarium Archaiologicum," which he never carried beyond the letter L; because, as some have suggested, he had made remarks under “Magna Charta,” and “Maximum Consilium,” which could not then have appeared without giving offence. Upon his death, all his papers came into the hands of his son Sir John Spelman, a gentleman who had abilities to have completed his father’s design, if death had not prevented him. The second part was after wards published by Sir William Dugdale, but with all the marks of a scanty unfinished performance. The next work which he undertook was an edition of the English Councils; of which he published the first volume in 1639, leaving the second volume, as well of this as of his Glossary, to be published by Dugdale. The second volume appeared in 1664. Spelman wrote several other works relating to ancient laws and customs, and died in 1641. His Treatise concerning Tithes, and his History of Sacrilege, deserve a passing notice. His Posthumous Works were published at Oxford, in folio, in the year 1698, under the inspection of Mr. Gibson, afterwards Bishop of London.
SPENCER, JoHN, a very learned theologian, was born at Boctonunder-Blean, in Kent, in the year 1630. From , the grammar school of Canterbury he was removed to Cor pus Christi College at Cambridge, where he was entered on the 25th of March 1645. Having taken the degree of A.B. in 1648, and of A.M. in 1652, he was chosen a fellow in 1655. In 1660 he preached a sermon before the university, and during the same year it was published under the title of “The righteous Ruler.” He afterwards published a learned and curious work, entitled, “A Discourse concerning Prodigies.” To the second edition, corrected and enlarged, he added “A Discourse concerning vulgar Prophecies.” Lond. 1665, 8vo. During the same year, he proceeded D.D. In 1667, he was presented by his college to the rectory of Landbeach, and on the 3d of August elected master of the college. About a month after his election, he was preferred by the king to the archdeaconry of Sud bury, in 1672 to a prebend of Ely, and in 1677 to the deanery of that church. In 1669 he had published a La tin dissertation concerning Urim and Thummim. But his most elaborate work is De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus, et earum Rationibus, libri tres. Cantab. 1685, 2 tomfol. An edition, with the author’s additions and improve ments, was published at Cambridge in 1727; and several editions, one by Pfaff, were printed on the continent. “It is,” as Mr. Orme has remarked, “a very learned, but a very dangerous work; the great object of which is to show, that the Hebrew ritual was almost entirely borrowed from the Egyptians, and accommodated to the taste and prejudices which the Jews had acquired among that people. The same hypothesis had been stated by Maimonides, a philosophizing Jew, in his More Nevochim, and was greedily laid hold of by Sir John Marsham, in his Canon Chronicus Aegyptiacus. A masterly refutation of the work of Spencer was furnished by Witsius, in his Aegyptiaca; and Shuck ford, in his Connections, supplies also many arguments on the same side. Warburton partly espoused the system of Spencer, and replied to Witsius, for which he is very properly censured by Dr. Magee, in his work on the Atone ment. Socinians and infidels have made very liberal use of the work and arguments of Spencer.”^[1. Orme’s Bibliotheca Biblica, p. 417. Edinb. 1824, 8vo. ] *

Dr. Spencer died on the 27th of May 1695, in the sixty third year of his age. He was a great benefactor to his college, to which he bequeathed an estate that had cost him L.3600. He married Hannah, the daughter of Isaac Pullen of Hertford, and had a son and a daughter, who both died before their father.

Spencer Cape, a pointed rocky cape, the east point of entrance into Spencer’s Gulf on the south shore of New Holland. Long. 136. 56. E. Lat. 35. 18. S.

Spencer’s Gulf, a large gulf on the south coast of New Holland, which extends 185 miles into the interior of the country, in a northeast direction. The entrance between Cape Catastrophe on the west, and Cape Spencer on the east, is forty-eight miles wide. Captain Flinders traced it to within eight miles of its termination.
SPERMACETI, a whitish, unctuous, flaky substance, prepared from oil, but chiefly from the brains of a species of whale called physeter macrocephalus.
SPEUSIPPUS, an Athenian philosopher, the nephew and successor of Plato. Contrary to the practice of his mas ter, Speusippus required from his pupils a stated gratuity. He placed statues of the Graces in the school which Plato had built. On account of his infirm state of health, he was commonly carried to and from the Academy in a ve hicle. On his way thither he one day met Diogenes, and saluted him: the surly philosopher refused to return the sa 1ute, and told him, that such a feeble wretch ought to be ashamed to live; Speusippus replied, that he lived not in his limbs, but in his mind. At length being wholly incapacitated, by a paralytic stroke, for the duties of the chair, he resigned it to Xenocrates. He is said to have been of a violent temper, fond of pleasure, and exceedingly avaricious. Speusippus wrote many philosophical works, which are now lost, but which Aristotle thought sufficiently valuable to purchase at the expense of three talents. From a few fragments which remain of his philosophy, it appears that he adhered very strictly to the doctrine of his master.
SPEY, a river of Scotland, rises from a lake of the same name in Badenoch, and after a serpentine course of seventy six miles, passes by Rothes castle, and falls into the German ocean at Gamoch near Elgin.
SPHERE is a solid contained under one uniform round surface, every point of which is equally distant from a cer tain point in the middle called its centre; and is formed by the revolution of a semicircle about its diameter.

Sphere, in Astronomy, that concave orb or expanse which invests our globe, and in which the heavenly bodies appear to be fixed, and at equal distance from the eye.
SPHEROID, in Geometry, a solid approaching to the figure of a sphere. It is generated by the entire revolution of a semi-ellipsis about its axis. When the revolution is made round the largest axis, the spheroid is called prolate; and when round the shortest, oblate. This last is the figure of the earth, and probably of all the planets.
SPHINCTER, in Anatomy, a term applied to a kind of circular muscles, or muscles in form of rings, which serve to close and draw up several orifices of the body, and prevent the excretion of the contents.
SPICE, any kind of aromatic drug that has hot and pun gent qualities; such as pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
SPILSBY, a market-town of Lincolnshire, in the hundred of Bolingbroke and the division of Lindsay, thirty-one miles from the city of Lincoln, and 132 from London. It[7:20:536] stands on an eminence, commanding an extensive view to wards the south. It is composed of four streets, uniting at the marketplace, which is a square with a cross, consisting of a plain octagonal shaft, with a quadrangular base; and near to it is the town-hall, rebuilt in 1764, in which the quarter sessions for the division of Lindsay are held. The parish church is a large old edifice, including a chapel with some ancient monuments. There is a good market on Saturday. The population was, in 1801, 932; in 1811, 963; in 1821, 1234; and in 1831, 1384.
SPINAGE, or Spinach. See Horticulture.
SPINDLE, in Geometry, a solid body generated by the revolution of some curve line about its base or double ordinate; in opposition to a conoid, which is generated by the rotation of the curve about its axis or absciss, perpendicular to its ordinate. The spindle is denominated cir cular, elliptic, hyperbolic, or parabolic, according to the figure of its generating curve.
SPINET, or Spinnet, (Ital. Spinetta), an old-fashioned musical instrument, of which the brass and steel wires were struck by quills fixed to the tongues of the jacks that were moved by finger-keys. It was the predecessor of the harpsichord and the pianoforte.
SPIRAL, in Geometry, a curved line of the circular kind, which in its progress recedes from its centre.
SPIRE, or Speyer, a city of Bavaria, in the province of the Rhine, the capital of a canton of the same name. It contains no less than fifteen Catholic and two Lutheran churches, though not more than 740 houses with 3900 in habitants, having greatly declined from its former extent and celebrity. Here the reformers of Germany, in 1529, entered a protest against the proceedings of the Diet, and thus obtained the name of Protestants. Lat. 49. 18.51. Long. 8. 31. 13. E. The bishopric, which was very rich, was secularized in 1795, when the French seized the coun try, and occupied it till the general peace in 1814.

Spire , in Architecture, was used by the ancients for the base of a column, and sometimes for the astragal or tore; but among the moderns it denotes a steeple that continually diminishes as it ascends, whether conically or pyramidally.
SPIRIT, in Metaphysics, an incorporeal being or intelligence; in which sense God is said to be a spirit, as are angels and the human soul.

Spirit, in Chemistry and Pharmacy, a name applied to every volatile liquid which is not insipid like phlegm or water; and hence the distinction into acid, alkaline, and vinous spirits.
SPLICING, in the sea-language, is the untwisting the ends of two cables or ropes, and working the several strands into one another by a fidd, so that they become as strong as if they were but one rope.
SPLUGEN, a village of Switzerland, remarkable from its position as the highest inhabited part of the most ancient road across the Alps, leading into the Austrian part of Italy from the countries through which the river Rhine passes. It is in the canton of the Grisons, and in the bailiwick of Schams. It contains a good hotel, which is also the post house, where relays of horses are always to be procured. It is 5928 feet above the level of the sea, and is surrounded with mountains of which the summits are perpetually' covered with snow. The descent from this spot, on both sides, excites the admiration of all travellers. To the south the road has been formed by the Austrian government. It is carried in traverses along the front of the rocky precipices, is of great breadth, with a very gradual descent; and in several parts there are long galleries, covered with bomb proof arches, to prevent the road from being choaked by avalanches, or by the enormous masses of rocks that some times are liable to fall from the lofty summits. The road that descends on the northern side has been formed by the canton of the Grisons, and is tolerably good, but is not equal to the Austrian portion. The descent to Andeer is made with neither risk nor difficulty, and at that village, where there is a good hotel and posthouse, the most picturesque scenery commences. This road leads to Tussis, through what from antiquity has received the name of the Via mala. It follows the course of the Rhine, sometimes far above it, sometimes close to its gulf, and frequently passing over it by strongly built bridges. It has two arched passages, cut with vast labour out of the solid rock. Splugen is sixteen miles from Chiavinna, in the Austrian territory; and twenty from Tussis, in the canton of the Grisons.
SPOILS, whatever is taken from the enemy in time of war.

Among the ancient Greeks, the spoils were divided among the whole army, only the general’s share was the largest; but among the Romans, the spoils belonged to the republic.
SPOLANK, a village on the south coast of Java, near to which are hot mineral springs, which raise Fahrenheit’s thermometer to 122°. It is 104 miles south from Samarang.
SPOLETO, one of the delegations into which the do minions of the church in Italy arc divided. It extends over 1401 square miles, contains six cities, fourteen towns, and 204 villages, with 102,053 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, at the foot of a hill, and on a brook which flows to the Maragia. It is the seat of a bishop, and likewise of the civil tribunals. Besides a cathedral and twenty-two parish churches, it contains twenty-two monasteries, with some hermitages and establishments of brotherhoods of devotion. The streets are narrow and crooked, the houses old and many of them dilapidated; but the city contains 7000 inhabitants. A magnificent aqueduct sup plies it with water. There are many interesting remains of antiquity, and among others, a triumphal arch of Hanni bal, ruins of a theatre, of a temple of Concord, of Jupiter, and of Mars, and of a palace of Theodoric. Lat. 42.44.50. Long. 13. 1. E.
SPONDEE, in ancient poetry, a foot consisting of two long syllables, as omnes.
SPONGIA, Sponge; a genus of animals. It is fixed, flexible, and very torpid, growing in a variety of forms, com posed either of reticulated fibres, or masses of small spines interwoven together, and clothed with a living gelatinous flesh, full of small mouths or holes on its surface, by which it sucks in and throws out the water. As early as the days of Aristotle, sponges were supposed to possess animal life; the persons employed in collecting them having observed them shrink when torn from the rocks, thus exhibiting symptoms of sensation. The same opinion prevailed in the time of Pliny; but no attention was paid to this subject till Mar sigli examined them, and declared them vegetables. Dr. Peysonell, in a paper which he sent to the Royal Society in the year 1752, and in a second in 1757, affirmed they were not vegetables, but the production of animals; and he has accordingly described the animals, and the process which they performed in making the sponges Mr. Ellis, in the year 1762, was at great pains to discover these animals. For this purpose he dissected the spongia urens, and was surprised to find a great number of small worms of the genus of nereis or sea scolopendre, which had pierced their way through the soft substance of the sponge in quest of a safe retreat. That this was really the case he was fully assured, by inspecting a number of specimens of the same kind of sponge, just fresh from the sea. He put them into a glass filled with sea water; and then, instead of seeing any of the little animals which Dr. Peysonell described, he observed the papillae or small holes with which the papillae are surrounded contract and dilate themselves. He examined another variety of the same species of sponge, and plainly perceived the small tubes inspire and expire the water. He therefore concluded that the sponge is an animal, and that the ends or openings of the branched tubes are the mouths by which it receives its nourishment, and discharges its excrements.
SPONSORS are those persons who, in the office of baptism, answer or are sureties for the persons baptized.
SPONTANEOUS, a term applied to such motions of the body and operations of the mind as we perform of our selves without any constraint.
SPOONING, in the sea-language, is said of a ship which, being under sail in a storm at sea, is unable to bear it, and consequently forced to go right before the wind.
SPORADES, among ancient astronomers, a name given to such stars as were not included in any constellation.[7:20:548]
SPORADIC DISEASES, among physicians, are such as seize particular persons at any time or season, and in any place; in which sense they are distinguished from epidemical and endemical diseases.
SPOTSWOOD, John, archbishop of St. Andrews, was descended from the lairds of Spotswood in the county of Berwick, and was born in the year 1565, being the son of John Spotswood, minister of Calder, and one of the super intendents. He was educated in the university of Glasgow, and succeeded his father in the parsonage of Calder when but eighteen years of age. In 1601 he attended Lodowick duke of Lennox as his chaplain, in an embassy to the court of France for confirming the ancient amity between the two nations, and returned in the ambassador’s retinue through England. When he entered upon the archbishopric of Glas gow, he found there was not a L.100 sterling of yearly revenue left; yet such was his care for his successors, that he greatly improved it, and much to the satisfaction of his diocese. After having filled this see eleven years, he was raised to that of St. Andrews in 1615, and thus became primate and metropolitan of all Scotland. He presided in several assemblies for bringing the Church of Scotland to some degree of uniformity with that of England. He continued in high esteem with King James VI., nor was he less valued by King Charles I., who was crowned by him in 1633, in the abbeychurch of Holyroodhouse. In 1635, upon the death of the earl of Kinnoull, chancellor of Scot land, the primate was advanced to that post; but he had scarcely held it four years, when the confusions beginning in Scotland, he was obliged to retire into England; and being broken with age, grief, and sickness, died at London on the 26th of December 1639, and was interred in Westminster Abbey. The only work which he is known to have published bears the title of “Refutatio Libelli de Regimine Ecclesiae Scoticanae.” Lond. 1620, 8vo. This was an answer to a tract of Calderwood, who replied in the Vindiciae subjoined to his Altare Damascenum. A more considerable work was published several years after his death: “The History of the Church and State of Scotland, beginning the year of our Lord 203, and continued to the end of the reign of James the VI. of ever blessed memory.” Lond. 1655, fol. An Appendix was afterwards added by Thomas Mid cleton.

The character of Spotswood is thus delineated by Laing: “In prosperity his behaviour was without moderation, in adversity without dignity; but the character of a leading, aspiring prelate has either been unduly extolled, or unjustly degraded. As a scholar and an historian he excelled his contemporaries; and it was his peculiar felicity, that his erudition was neither infected with the pedantry, nor con fined to the polemical disputes of the age. His abilities recommended him first to preferment; but his ambitious views were chiefly promoted by the supple, insinuative ha bits of craft and intrigue. His revenge was formidable to the nobility and officers of state, oppressive to the clergy, and, joined with an inordinate ambition, ultimately ruinous to his own order.”^[1. Laing’s Hiator, of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 154. ]