from among whom Romulus carried off wives for his | in order to hear them safely, had the ears of his crew followers on founding Rome.

SALLUST, a Roman historian, whose works, though not lengthened, are justly valued for their style and

accuracy.

SAPPHO, a famous poetess of Lesbos, whose scanty fragments indicate extraordinary powers, and who was so tortured by love as to throw herself into the sea. SARDANAPALUS, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, noted for his luxury and effeminacy. His officers having conspired against him, and besieged him in Nineveh, he set fire to his palace, and was consumed in the flames, with all his slaves, concubines, and treasures. SATURNALIA, festivals held in honour of Saturn, and intended to commemorate the freedom and equality which prevailed in the golden age, when Saturn was king. From the privileges enjoyed during these holidays by the poor man and the slave, any revels where a free and levelling spirit is displayed have been called Saturnalia.

SATURN, son of the heaven and earth, and supreme ruler of the earth till he was dethroned by his son Jupiter. Saturn afterwards fled to Italy, and so cultivated there the arts of peace and simple industry, that his reign was called the golden age. Saturn is represented as an aged man with a scythe in his hand and & serpent wound into a circle, to indicate the ceaseless round of time. Chronos, or Time, is also one of the names of Saturn.

SATYR.-The Satyrs were minor deities of the country, shaped like goats inferiorly, and having horns on their head and long hair over the body. The idea of them most probably came from the baboon tribe.

SCIPIO, the patronymic of an illustrious family of Rome, one member of whom, surnamed Africanus from the feat, was the conqueror of Hannibal at Zama. He was equally famous for his private virtues as for his military successes; and "the continence of a Scipio," a common phrase, had its origin in the refusal of Africanus to see a beautiful princess who had fallen into his hands, lest the frailty of human nature should tempt him to take any advantage of his power over her fate. SCYLLA, a rock off Sicily, famous as dangerous to mariners, in combination with the whirlpool Charybdis. The ancients called the rock a monster, into which the nymph Scylla had been changed by Circe.

SEMELE, daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Bacchus by Jupiter, destroyed by her vain wish to behold her Jover in all the insupportable blaze of his divinity. SEMIRAMIS, a queen of Assyria, celebrated for her masculine strength of character, her warlike successes, and the magnificent buildings which she constructed in Babylon.

SERAPIS, a deity of the ancient Egyptians. SESOSTRIS, an early king, renowned for the extent of his conquests and the mildness of his sway. SIBYL-The Sibyls were women inspired by the gods with the spirit of prophecy. The most famous of them was the Cumaan Sibyl, who is said to have resided at Cuma in Italy, and to have obtained from Apollo the privilege of living for as many years as there were grains in a handful of sand. But she forgot to ask for youth also, and grew old and decrepid. It is stated that the Sibyl sold three of nine volumes of prophecies to the monarch Tarquin, and that these were preserved and consulted by the Romans with great reverence, until they were destroyed by fire. A book of Sibylline verses is extant, but scholars universally deem it spurious and modern. Every gipsey fortuneteller is familiarly named a Sibyl.

SILENUS, a son of Pan, and attendant of Bacchus, usually painted as a jolly intoxicated old man riding on an ass, and crowned with flowers.

SINON, a Greek, whose frauds before Troy have made his name a by-word.

stuffed, and himself tied to the mast of his ship. He was enchanted with the music, but the crew would not obey his commands to stop, and thus he listened and yet lived. The disappointed Sirens threw themselves into the sea. Fine female singers are now Sirens in common speech.

SISYPHUS, a crafty prince of the heroic times of Greece, who, for some uncertain offence to the gods, was doomed, in the infernal regions, to roll a huge stone up a hill, whence it re-descended immediately, rendering his punishment perpetual. The fruitless toil of Sisyphus is often the theme of allusion and comparison.

SOCRATES, the wisest and best character, perhaps, of antiquity. He was born and lived in Athens, where, in an unpretending way, he taught men to love virtue and cultivate knowledge. His opinions and actions, as recorded by his pupils Plato and Xenophon, have filled posterity with admiration for him from whom they came. Socrates was at length accused by the ungrateful Athenians of offences against religion, and died, according to his sentence, by drinking a cup of hemlock presented to him. His last moments, spent among his weeping friends, brought out his character in even a nobler light than it had before appeared in.

SOLON, one of the seven wise men of Greece, celebrated for the equity of the laws dictated by him to the Athenians. His fame for wisdom has caused men of similar repute to be called Solons.

SOMNUS, the god of Sleep, and son of Night. SOPHOCLES, a tragic poet of Greece, who composed in a grave and lofty style.

SPHINX, a monster with the head and chest of a woman, a dog's body, a serpent's tail, and the wings of a bird, sent by Juno to devastate Boeotia. An oracle told that the Sphinx. would destroy herself on one of her enigmas being explained, and Edipus, on being asked by her what animal walked on four legs at morn, two at noon, and three in the evening, correctly answered "man," referring to infancy, manhood, and old age. The Sphinx then killed herself against a rock.

STAGYRA, the birth-place of Aristotle, whence he was called the Stagyrite.

STENTOR, a Greek whose voice, according to Homer, equalled those of fifty men combined. "Stentorian" is a settled synonyme for excessively loud enunciation.

STOIC.-The Stoics were a sect of philosophers founded by Zeno, who professed so grave and stern a morality that their designation has been applied to men who exhibit great powers of self-restraint and endurance.

STYX, a cold and venomous river of the infernal regions, famous on account of the estimation in which it was held by the gods, who swore by it, and held such oaths inviolable.

SYBARIS, a town on the bay of Tarentum in Italy, the inhabitants of which were so effeminate, that "a Sybarite" has become a phrase applied to any person of such a character.

TACITUS, a Roman annalist of the empire, whose writings have been deemed models of excellence in historical literature.

TANTALUS, who, for murdering his own son, and serving him up to Jupiter to try his divine insight, was condemned to remain up to the neck in water, which ever fled from his lips as he sought to slake his perpetual thirst. Hence the word " tantalise," now firmly fixed in various modern languages.

TARPEIA, a woman who is said to have given name to the Tarpeian rock on which stood the Capitol, and from which great malefactors were hurled by the Romans.

TARQUIN. From the son of the last Tarquin of Rome, forcible despoilers of female honour have gained a name appropriate to their actions.

SIRENS.-Three sea-nymphs who lived on a small TARTARUS, the most familiar name of the infernal island near Sicily, and so charmed the passing voy-regions. Though taken often for the whole, Tartarus ager with their melodious voices that he forgot all properly expressed the last abode of the wicked, as else, and died of starvation while listening. Ulysses, Elysium indicated that of the good.

TELEMACHUS, Son of Ulysses, who showed his filial | piety by travelling in quest of his father, when the latter wandered from place to place on his way from Troy. Minerva accompanied the young prince under the form of an old man named Mentor, whence a common term for a counsellor and guide.

TEMPE, a vale of Thessaly, described by the poets as the most delightful spot on the earth, and used as a by-name for all similar scenes of natural beauty.

TERPSICHORE, the Muse of dancing.

THALES, one of the seven wise men of Greece, peculiarly famous for his skill in astronomy.

THALIA, the Muse who presided over comic poetry, pastorals, and festival celebrations.

THEMIS, a goddess whom Homer calls the presiding guardian of justice and civil law, and whom modern lawyers nominally acknowledge as their patroness. She is painted holding a sword and scales.

THEMISTOCLES, a famous Athenian commander, who conquered the Persians at the great naval fight of Salamis, Several anecdotes of him are often quoted. 'Strike, but hear me !" were words used by him to an angry adversary. Napoleon Bonaparte, at his surrender to England, compared himself to Themistocles, who in a similar way had planted himself on "the hearth" of a foreign king and sought refuge.

THEOCRITUS, a native of Syracuse, styled the father of pastoral poetry.

THESEUS, an Athenian prince of the heroic ages, renowned for his great deeds. In youth he went to Crete as one of the tributary band to be sacrificed in the Labyrinth to the Minotaur, but he slew the monster, and escaped by the help of the Clue of Ariadne. He afterwards deserted Ariadne. The share of Theseus in the battle of the Lapithæ, his friendship for Pirithous, proverbial for its closeness, and a visit to Tartarus, are among the principal other features in his story.

THESPIS, an ancient Greek poet, from whom, as the supposed inventor of tragedy, springs the phrase of the Thespian art, applied to the drama.

THETIS, a sea-deity, who, by marriage with the mortal Peleus, became the mother of Achilles.

THISBE, a maiden of Babylon, beloved by Pyramus. THUCYDIDES, a historian of Athens, highly esteemed for his fidelity and the merits of his style.

THULE, an island in the northern parts of the German Ocean, termed by the Romans Ultima Thule, as the ultimate point of the earth in that direction. Some have thought it Greenland and some Iceland, but the probability is that the name was really applied to the Shetland Isles.

TIBERIUS (CESAR), successor of Augustus, and only less proverbial for cruelty than his successors Nero and Domitian.

TIBULLUS, a poet of Rome, whose graceful and chaste compositions have gained for him a first place among elegiac bards.

TIMOTHEUS, a poet and musician who followed the fortunes of Alexander, and is celebrated by Dryden as "raising a mortal to the skies"—that is, flattering his master as a divinity.

TIRESIAS, a famous Theban, struck blind, as the story runs, by Juno, but gifted with prophecy by Jupiter, and consulted during his life by all Greece.

TISIPHONE, one of the three Furies.

TITAN. The gigantic family of the Titans, descended from the Heaven and Earth, warred against Jupiter, and tossed mountains at him in their fury, but were subdued and condemned to heavy punishments. This is the common fable, though other giants are said by some to have been Jupiter's enemies.

TRAJAN, a Roman emperor, whose many virtues are chiefly sullied by his cruelty to the primitive Christians of Rome. Trajan's pillar at Rome is a work of great celebrity.

TRIPTOLEMUS, a native of Eleusis, whom Ceres sought to make immortal by laying him upon flames to purge away the grossness of humanity; but his mother,

through curiosity, peeped upon the proceedings, u terrified at the sight, frustrated the design. In pensation, Ceres taught Triptolemus the art of agre ture, and gave him the honour of its dissemination the earth.

TRITON, a leading sea-god, represented as half c half dolphin, and always seen blowing a horn.

TUSCULUM, the country-seat of Cicero, from wi similar retreats of great men are sometimes a Tusculan villas.

TYRTEUS, a Greek poet, usually held the type of m tial verse writers.

ULYSSES, king of Ithaca, usually deemed the of the Greeks who went to Troy. After the ei the siege of that city, during which he carried of Palladium, and performed many feats of address. valour, he underwent many years of adventure, « scribed in the Odyssey, ere he reached his home. I he found his means wasted by suitors to his wife Pes lope, but the tried warrior soon slew or dispersed t all, and resumed his throne in peace. URANIA, the Muse who presided over astronomy

VENUS, the goddess of love and beauty, and of Cupid. Her parentage is not settled, but she spr.. directly, it is said, from the froth of the sea, mid immediately received among the deities. The charac given to Venus is one befitting only the gudden licentious pleasure. Her power to charm is stated have depended on her cestus or zone, and she usually represented sitting in a chariot drawn by e From various favourite spots she is called by the of the Cytherean, Cyprian, and Paphian goddess, well as by other names.

VERTUMNUS, the god of spring among the Romans. VESTA, usually termed the mother of the deitas, a patroness of the virgins called Vestal, who, like monde sisterhoods of nuns, retired from the world to ive i sacred establishments. Any departure from chas was fearfully punished in them, and to seduce a vel virgin was deemed a horrible crime in men. A fire wa kept burning continually in the vestal establishmen its extinction being dreaded as an omen of heavy mity. The phrases of "vestal virgins" and flames" are familiarly used in the sense here cated.

VIRGINIA, daughter of the tribune Virginius. Hav. ¡ arrested the licentious eye of Appius Claudius, th in power, he endeavoured to get possession of ter proving her to be his slave; but her father defe his nearly successful design by stabbing her with own hands, to preserve her honour. Many a poes h dwelt on this story.

VULCAN, son of Juno, and god of Fire, sappe to work, with his assistants the Cyclops, in the interur of Mount Etna. Though lame and deformed, he the husband of the goddess of beauty, and father Cupid. He acted as armourer to the gods, and times wrought for men, as in the case of Achilles. The worship of Vulcan was well established.

XANTIPPE, wife of Socrates, and so great a shre as to have given a name to all ladies similarly get

XENOPHON, an illustrious writer and soldier of Ath. who went to Persia to assist Cyrus to obtain the the as of that country. When Cyrus was defeated, the aux liary Greeks made that retreat homewards so uden adverted to as the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xear phon latterly was their leader.

ZOILUS, a critic, who made bimself so noted by hi animadversions on Homer and other writers, that a carper of the same craft is yet called by his name.

ZOROASTER, a famous Persian sage, who is sad to have founded or reformed the religion of the Magi.

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CHAMBERS'S

INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S
EDINBURGH JOURNAL, EDUCATIONAL COURSE, &c.

NUMBER 95.

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PRICE 14d.

DICTIONARY OF TERMS IN SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART.

[A COMPREHENSIVE and minute Terminological Dictionary, or
vocabulary of all the terms now in use in literature, science, and
art, would require a much larger amount of space than can be
here afforded. Fortunately, so extensive a view of terminology is
not required, as the terms appertaining to many branches of
knowledge have already been explained in the present series.
For example, in those numbers of the "Information for the
People" which treat of Astronomy, Geology, Zoology, the Ana-
tomy of the Human Body, Chemistry, and Mechanics, the prin-
cipal terms connected with these subjects will be found, with
Ample accompanying explanations; and the case is the same as
rewards other matters discussed in the course of these sheets. It
is not in general difficult to discover the department, at least, of
science to which any word of doubtful meaning belongs, and re-
ference may be satisfactorily had, it is imagined, to the quarters
alluded to, for interpretations not given in the present dictionary.
As the insertion of radical or primitive words would have occu-
pied much space, without answering any good purpose, it may be
bere generally observed that men of science have almost univer-
sally selected the Greek language as the one best suited by its
liomatic peculiarities for the formation of compound terms. It
may be of some little advantage to name here a few of the most
common roots so used. Many of the names of sciences are framed
from the word grapho. Thus, Geography, derived from grapho,
which signifies to write, and ge, the earth, has the sense of "a
writing on or description of the earth." Other scientific terms
are formed from logos, a discourse. Thus, Ornithology means "a
discourse on Lirds," ornis being the Greek term for a bird. No-
, a late, composes other words; as, for example, Astronomy,
which signifies the "law of the stars," astron being the word for
a star. The word scope, an observation, compounds a few terms,
as Cranioscopy, which, with cranion, means "observation of the
skull." Various terms are also formed from metron, a measure;
thus, Geometry signifies a "measuring of the carth," and Ther-
mometer "a measure of heat," thermé being the term for heat or
warmth. In the science of Geometry, many words are com-
pounded of gonia, an angle, as in the case of Pentagon, a word
signifying "a figure of five (pente) angles;" and some are formed
from hedra, a base or side, as Octahedron, "a figure of eight sides."
Again, in the science of Botany, a great many words are framed
from andres, men, and gune, a woman. For instance, when the
former word is compounded with monos, alone or single, it forms
Monandria, a word applied to plants with one stamen to each of
its flowers. Monogynia, framed similarly with monos and guné,
signifies a plant with one pistil. The whole of the Greek nume-
rals are joined with these words in the like manner, and indicate
in each case the existing number of what are called the sexual
parts of plants. The following is the mode of the use of these
numerals with andres, and they are similarly compounded with
other words:-Monandria, 1; Diandria, 2; Triandria, 3; Te
trandria, 4; Pentandria, 5; Hexandria, 6; Heptandria, 7; Oc-
tandria, 8; Enneandria, 9; Decandria, 10; Dodecandria, 11 to
17. Where numbers not reckoned in detail are to be indicated,

Jelus, signifying many, is the compounding term, as in Polyan

dria, a plant with many stamens.

The same words monos and polus form many general terms, as Monotonous, in the sense of single-toned, and Polytechnic, hav

ing the meaning of many-scienced. The word polis, a city, comFunds many words, as Metropolis, signifying the mother-city. Hutor, water, and pur, fire, also forin a number of scientific

terms; as Hydrophobia, a dread of water, and Pyrotechny, the art of making fireworks.

These general hints on the compounding of technical terms are all that can be given here. As in the preceding instances, the majority of the epithets used in science are simple in construction; and in the present sheet, the language which renders the original roots most directly into English has been chosen in giving the sense of the words compounded from them. Some are disposed, it may be observed, to find fault with men of science for not making use of modern and vernacular language, but the complaint is made without due consideration. The idiom of the English and most living tongues is opposed altogether to such a system of compounding; and as cach country might fairly demand to employ her own language, what a maze of confusion scientific nomenclature would inevitably become were there not some common form of speech intelligible to all?]

ABEYANCE-Lands are said, in law, to be in abeyance when they are not actually in the possession, but only in the expectance, of the next inheritor.

ABORIGINES, a name given first to the ancient inhabitants of Latium, and now applied to the original natives of any country.

ACCIDENCE, a display of the variations of words accordThe term is often ing to their government or sense. applied to any work that teaches the rudiments of gram

mar.

ACCOLADE, the ancient ceremony of conferring knighthood, consisting, formerly, in an embrace given to the young knight by the sovereign. The neck is now gently touched with a sword instead.

ACCORDION, a new and small musical instrument, the sounds from which are produced by air acting on vibrating tongues. It is held during use in the hands.

ACIDS, compound chemical bodies which are tart to the taste, change the vegetable blues to red, and form salts with alkalies and earths.

ACOLYTE, a name applied to the young official attendants of the Catholic bishops.

ACOUSTICS, that branch of science which treats of the nature and modifications of sound. (See article AcousTICS, in the present series.)

ACROSTIC, a poem, the first letters of which compose, collectively, some name, title, or word chosen for the purpose.

ADIPOCERE, a fatty or waxen substance, into which, under certain circumstances, decomposed animal bodies resolve themselves.

ADVOWSON, the right of presentation to a church or benefice.

AEROLITES, meteoric stones which fall from the atmo

sphere, and have been found at different times in considerable numbers, some of them weighing but a few grains, and others upwards of a hundred pounds.

AERONAUTICS.-The art of aeronautics or aërostation consists in the navigation of the air by means of balloons filled with a gas of greater rarety than the atmosphere.

BLANC-MANGER, a light article of diet, compounded BANDANA, a species of calico-printing, first practised of milk, sugar, and other ingredients, purified by in India, and originally consisting of light spots im-isinglass, and garnished with blanched almonds. pressed on a red or dark ground.