connected. Id. Consciousness being interrupted, and we losing sight of our past selves, doubts are raised whether we are the same. Id. Body cannot be self-existent, because it is not self-moved; for motion is not of the essence of body, because we may have a definitive conception of body, abstracted from that of motion: wherefore motion is something else besides body, something without which body may be conceived to exist. Grew. Light, which of all bodies is nearest allied to spirit, is also most diffusive and self-communicative. Norris. A fatal self-imposture, such as defeats the design, and destroys the force, of all religion. Id. When he intends to bereave the world of an illustrious person, he may cast him upon a bold selfopinioned physician, worse than his distemper, who shall make a shift to cure him into his grave. Id. This fatal hyprocisy and self-deceit is taken notice of in these words, Who can understand his errours? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Addison's Spectator. Men had better own their ignorance, than advance doctrines which are self-contradictory. Id. What could the most aspiring selfish man desire more, were he to form the notion of a being to whom he would recommend himself, than such a knowledge as can discover the least appearance of perfection, and such a goodness as will proportion a reward to it? Id. The guilt of perjury is so self-evident, that it was always reckoned amongst the greatest crimes, by those who were only governed by the light of reason. Addison. Self-sufficiency proceeds from inexperience. Id. By the blast of self-opinion moved, We wish to charm, and seek to be beloved. Prior. Confidence, as opposed to modesty, and distinguished from decent assurance, proceeds from selfopinion occasioned by ignorance or flattery. Collier of Confidence. Bewildered, I my author cannot find, Till some first cause, some self-existent mind, Who formed and rules all nature, is assigned. Blackmore. Nick does not pretend to be a gentleman: he is a tradesman, a self-seeking wretch. Arbuthnot's History of John Bull. Every animal is conscious of some individual, selfmoving, self-determining principle. Pope and Arbuthnot. Mart. Scribb. Shall nature, erring from her first command, Self-preservation, fall by her own hand? Granville. demonstrate to philosophical inquirers the necessary Living and understanding substances do clearly self-existence, power, wisdom, and beneficence of Bentley. their Maker. If it can intrinsically stir itself, and either commence or alter its course, it must have a principle of self-activity, which is life and sense. Id. Sermons. tained the self-sufficiency of the godhead, and seldom The philosophers, and even the Epicureans, mainor never sacrificed at all. Bentley. Matter is not endued with self-motion, nor with a power to alter the course in which it is put: it is merely passive, and must ever continue in that state it is settled in. Cheyne. I heard in Crete, this island's name; For 'twas in Crete, my native soil, I came Self-banished thence. Pope's Odyssey. Achilles' courage is furious and untractable; that of Ajax is heavy and self-confiding. What is loose love? a transient gust, A vapour fed from wild desire, Pope. Id. By mighty Jove's command, Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land; For who self-moved with weary wing would sweep Such length of ocean? They who reach Parnassus' lofty crown Employ their pains to spurn some others down; And, while self-love each jealous writer rules, Contending wits become the sport of fools. He can your merit selfishly approve, And show the sense of it without the love. Id. Id. Id. No wonder such a spirit, in such a situation, is provoked beyond the regards of religion or self-conviction. Swift. It may be thought that Ulysses here is too ostentatious, and that he dwells more than modesty allows upon his own accomplishments; but self-praise is sometimes no fault. I took not arms till urged by self-defence, The eldest law of nature. Broome. Rowe's Ambitious Stepmother The fondness we have for self, and the relation which other things have to our selves, furnishes another long rank of prejudices. Watts. His labour and study would have shown his early mistakes, and cured him of self-flattering delusions. Id. This is not to be done in a rash and self-sufficient manner; but with an humble dependance on divine grace, while we walk among snares. Id. The religion of Jesus, with all its self-denials, virtues, and devotions, is very practicable. Id. But, hark! I'll tell you of a plot, Though dinna ye be speaking o't; I'll nail the self-conceited Scot As dead's a herrin : Niest time we meet, I'll wad a groat, He gets his fairin! Burns. Great censoriousness is great hypocrisy. Thou hypocrite, &c., all this is nothing but the effect of woeful self-ignorance. Mason. The reason they are not better acquainted with them is, because they hate self-inspection. Id. Humility is not more necessary to salvation, than self-knowledge is to humility. Id. He trod the very self-same ground you tread, And victory refuted all he said. Cowper. SELF-ACCENSION, or spontaneous inflammation, the burning of a body, animal or vegeiable, by a fire produced from the person or body itself. SELF-COMMAND is that steady equanimity which enables a man in every situation to exert his reasoning faculty with coolness, and to do what the existing circumstances require. It depends much upon the natural temperament of the body, and much upon the moral cultivation of the mind. He who enjoys good health, and has braced his frame by exercise, has always a greater command of himself than a man of equal mental powers, who has suffered his constitution to become relaxed by indolence; and he who has from his early youth been accustomed to make his passions submit to his reason, must, in any sudden emergency, be more capable of acting properly than he who has tamely yielded to his passion. Hence recluse and literary men, when forced into the bustle of public life, are incapable of acting where promptness is requisite; and men who have once or twice yielded to a sense of impending danger seldom acquire afterwards that command of themselves which may be necessary to extricate them from subsequent dangers. In one of the earliest battles fought by Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, the sovereign was among the first men who quitted the field had he done so a second and third time, he would never have become that hero whose actions astonished Europe. SELF-DEFENCE implies not only the preservation of one's life, but also the protection of one's property, because without property life cannot be preserved in a civilised nation. The extent of property essential to life is indeed small, and this consideration may enable us to decide a question which some moralists have made intricate. By what means, it has been asked, may a man protect his property? May he kill the person who attacks it, if he cannot otherwise repel the attack? That a man, in the state or nature, may kill the person who makes an attack on his life, if he cannot otherwise repel the attack, is a truth which has never been controverted; and he may do the same in civil society, if his danger be so imminent that it cannot be exerted by the interposition of the protection provided by the state. In all possible situations, except the three following, whatever is absolutely necessary to the preservation of life may be lawfully performed, for the law of self-preservation is the first and most sacred of those laws which are impressed upon every mind by the Author of nature. The three excepted situations are those of a soldier in the day of battle, of a criminal about to suffer by the laws of his country, and of a man called upon to renounce his religion. The soldier hazards his life in the most honorable of all causes, and cannot betray his trust, or play the coward, without incurring a high degree of moral turpitude. But the soldier needs hardly be excepted; as, by the very profession in which he is engaged, while he fights for his country, he is necessarily obliged to defend himself against every individual of the enemy, who attacks him. The criminal under sentence of death cannot, without adding to his guilt, resist the execution of that sentence; for the power of inflicting punishment is essential to society, and society is the ordinance of God. The man who is called upon to renounce his religion ought to submit to the cruellest death rather than comply with that request, since religion is his only security for future and permanent happiness. But, even in this case, Christianity allows the persecuted to fly from persecution if it be possible. In every other situation, that which is absolutely necessary to the preservation of life is undoubtedly lawful. Hence, a person sinking in water is never thought guilty of any crime, though he drag his neighbour after him by his endeavours to save himself; and a man in danger of perishing by shipwreck may drive another from a plank which cannot carry them both, for, since one of two lives must be lost, no law, human or divine, calls upon either of them to prefer his neighbour's life to his own. But though the rights of self-defence authorise us to repel every attack made upon our life, and in case of extremity to save ourselves at the expense of the life of our innocent neighbour, it is not so evident that, rather than give to an unjust demand a few shillings or pounds, we may lawfully deprive a fellow creature of life. A few pounds lost may be easily regained; but life can never be restored. If these pounds, indeed, be the whole of a man's property; if they include his clothes, his food, and the house where he shelters his head-there cannot be a doubt but that, rather than part with them, he may lawfully kill the aggressor, for no man can exist without shelter, food, and raiment. But it is seldom that an attempt is made, or is indeed practicable, to rob a man at once of all that he possesses. The important question then is, may a man put a robber to death rather than part with a small part of his property? Paley doubts whether he could innocently do so in a state of nature, 'because it cannot be contended to be for the auginentation of human happiness, that one man should lose his life or limb, rather than another a pennyworth of his property.' But we think that the protection of property by the death of the aggressor may be completely vindicated upon more general principles. It is necessary, in every state, that property be protected, or mankind could not subsist; and the sum of human happiness will be more augmented by cutting off such worthless wretches than by exposing property to perpetual depredation; and therefore, if general utility be the criterion of moral good, a man may in every case lawfully kill a robber, rather than comply with his unjust demand. But if a man may, without guilt, preserve his property by the death of the aggressor, when it cannot be preserved by any other means, much more may a woman have recourse to the last extremity to protect her chastity from forcible violation. This, indeed, is admitted by Paley himself, and will be controverted by no man who reflects on the importance of the female character, and the probable consequences of the smallest deviation from the established laws of female honor. See SEDUCTION. SELF-EXAMINATION, a duty much insisted on by divines, and particularly the ancient fathers, by way of preparation to repentance. St. Ignatius reduces it to five points, viz:-1. A returning thanks to God for his benefits. 2. A begging of grace and light, to know and distinguish our sins. 3. A running over all our actions, occupations, thoughts, and words, to learn what has been offensive to God. 4. A begging of pardon, and conceiving a sincere sorrow for having displeased him. 5. Making a firm resolution not to offend him any more; and taking the necessary precautions to preserve ourselves from it. SELF-KNOWLEDGE, the knowledge of one's own character, abilities, opinions, virtues, and vices. This has always been considered as a difficult though important acquisition. It is difficult, because it is disagreeable to investigate our errors, our faults, and vices; because we are apt to be partial to ourselves, even when we have done wrong; and because time and habitual attention are requisite to enable us to discover our real character. But these difficulties are more than counterbalanced by the advantages of selfknowledge. By knowing the extent of our abilities, we shall never rashly engage in enterprises where our ineffectual exertions may be productive of harm: by investigating our opinions, we may discover those which have no foundation, and those also which lead us insensibly into vice. By examining our virtues and vices, we shall learn what principles ought to be strengthened, and what habits ought to be removed. One of the first advices of the philosophers of antiquity was, Know thyself. It is difficult to lay down rules for the acquisition of this self-knowledge, because almost every man is blinded by a fallacy peculiar to himself. But, when one has got rid of that partiality which arises from self-love, he may easily form a just estimate of his moral improvements, by comparing the general course of his conduct with the standard of his duty; and, if he has any doubt of the extent of his intellectual attainments, he will most readily discover the truth by comparing them with the attainments of others who have been most successful in the same pursuits. Should vanity arise in his mind from such a comparison, let him then compare the extent of his knowledge with what is yet to be known, and he will then be in no danger of thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think. SELF-LOVE is that instinctive principle which impels every animal, rational and irrational, to preserve its life and promote its own happiness. It is very generally confounded with selfishness; but the one propensity is quite distinct from the other. Every man loves himseif; but every man is not selfish. The selfish man grasps at all immediate advantages, regardless of the consequences which his conduct may have upon his neighbour. This principle is the parent of every vice and crime that disgrace human nature. Self-love only prompts him who is actuated by it to procure to himself the greatest possible sum of happiness during the whole of his existence. Self-love, as distinguished from selfishness, always comprehends the whole of a man's existence; and, in that extended sense of the phrase, every man is a self-lover; for, with eternity in his view, it is surely not possible for the most disinterested of the human race not to prefer himself to all other men, if their future and everlasting interests could come into competition. But this they never can do; for in the pursuit of a prize which is to be gained only by sobriety, righteousness, and piety, there can be no rivalship; the success of one being no injury to another. It has been a question in morals, whether self-love be not the incentive to every action, however virtuous or apparently disinterested? Those who maintain the affirmative say that the prospect of immediate pleasure, or the dread of immediate pain, is the only apparent motive to action in the minds of infants, and indeed of all who look not before them, and infer the future from the past. They own that when a boy has had some experience, and is capable of making comparisons, he will often decline an immediate enjoyment which he has formerly found productive of evil more than equivalent to all its good; but in doing so they think justly, that he is still actuated by the principle of self-love, pursuing the greatest good of which he knows himself to be capable. After experiencing that truth, equity, and benevolence in all his dealings is the readiest, and indeed the only certain method of securing to himself the kindness and good offices of his fellow-creatures, and much more when he has learned that they will prove infinitely advantageous to him in a future world, they admit that he will practise truth, equity, and benevolence; but still, from the same principle, pursuing his own ultimate happiness as the object which he has always in view. The prospect of this great object will make him feel an exquisite pleasure in the performance of the actions necessary to its attainment, till at last, without attending to their consequences, he will, by the great associating principle, feel a refined enjoyment in the actions themselves, and perform them, as occasions offer, without deliberation or reflection. Such, they think, is the origin of benevolence itself, and of every other virtue. Those who take the other side of the question can hardly deny that selflove, thus modified, may prompt to virtuous and apparently disinterested conduct; but they think it degrading the dignity of man to suppose him actuated solely by motives which can be traced back to a desire of his own happiness. The other theory supposes that the exciting motive is the hope of future happiness, and the dread of future misery; the instinctive scheme supplies a present motive, in the self-complacency arising in the heart from a consciousness of right conduct. The former is a rational motive; the latter has nothing more to do with reason than the enjoyment arising from eating or drinking, or from the intercourse between the sexes. But we need not pursue the subject farther, but conclude with observing that there is certainly a virtuous as well as a vicious self-love, and that 'All true self-love and social are the same." SELF-MURDER. See SUICIDE. SELF-PARTIALITY is a phrase employed by some philosophers to express that weakness of human nature through which men overvalue themselves when compared with others. (See Lord Kaimes's Art of Thinking). It is distinguished from general partiality, because it is thought that a man is led to over-rate his own accomplishments, by a process of intellect different from that by which he over-rates the accomplishments of his friends or children. The former kind of partiality is wholly selfish; the latter partakes much of benevolence. This distinction may perhaps be deemed plausible by those who consider the human mind as little more than a bundle of instincts; but it must appear ridiculous to such as resolve the greater part of apparent instincts into early and deeprooted associations of ideas. If the partialities which most men have to their friends, their families, and themselves, be instinctive, they are certainly instinets of different kinds; but an instinctive partiality is a contradiction in terms. Partiality is founded on a comparison between two or more objects; but genuine instincts form no comparisons. See INSTINCT. The origin of self-partiality is not difficult to be found; and our partialities to our friends may be traced to a similar source. By the constitution of our nature we are impelled to shun pain, and to pursue pleasure; but remorse, the severest of all pains, is the never-failing consequence of vicious conduct. By magnifying to himself the temptations which led him astray, and diminishing the injuries which his conduct has done in the world, and by adopting a course diametrically the reverse when estimating the morality or immorality of the conduct of his neighbours, one soon becomes to believe that he is at least not more wicked than they. Thus is self-partiality formed in the mind, and quickly blinds him who is under its influence so completely, as to hide from him the very faults which he sees and blames in others. Partiality is formed in the very same manner to natural or acquired accomplishments, whether mental or corporeal. These procure respect to him who is possessed of them; and, as respect is accompanied with many advantages, every man wishes to obtain it for himself. If he fail in his attempts, he consoles himself that it is due to his merits, and is only withheld by envy. He compares the particular branch of science or bodily accomplishment in which he himself most excels, with those which have conferred splendor on his rival; and finds that his own excellencies are of the highest order, and entitled to the greatest share of public esteem. Hence the polite scholar despises the mathematician; the reader of Aristotle and Plato all the modern discoveries in physical and moral science; and the mere experimentalist holds in contempt a critical knowledge of the ancient languages. The pupil of the ancients denies the merits of the moderns, whilst the mere modern allows nothing to the ancients; and thus each becomes partial to his own acquisitions, and of course to himself, for having been at the trouble to make them. All partialities are prejudices of the worst kind. They ought therefore to be guarded against with the utmost care. And he who is partial to his own virtue or knowledge will do well to compare the former, not with the conduct of his neighbour, but with the express rule of his duty; and to consider the latter as no farther valuable than as it contributes to the sum of human happiness. SELIM I., emperor of the Turks, was the second son of Bajazet II. He made war upon his father, and, though defeated in 1511, he at last dethroned him, took him prisoner, and poisoned him, with his elder brother Achmet, and his younger Korkud, an amiable and enlightened prince. He next marched against Campson Gaury, sovereign of Egypt, gained a great victory at Aleppo, and slew their general. But, though the sultan perished in that battle, the Mamelukes determined to oppose the emperor. Selim, entering their country at the head of his army, defeated the Egyptians in two battles, and ordered Tumanbey, the new elected sultan, who had fallen into his hands, to be hanged. He then took Cairo and Alexandria, and soon reduced all Egypt. Thus ended the dominion of the Mamelukes in Egypt, which had continued for more than 260 years. See EGYPT. He confirmed the ancient privileges of the Venetians in Egypt and Syria, by which they carried on their commerce with India, and formed a league with them to destroy the power of the Portuguese in that country. Selim had before this gained a great victory over the Persians, and stripped them of Tauris and Keman. He was preparing to attack Christendom, when he was seized with an ulcerous sore in the back. Thinking that the air of Adrianople would restore his health, he ordered himself to be conducted thither; but he died at Clari in Thrace, on his road to that city, in 1520, in the very spot where he had poisoned his father. He reigned eight years and lived fifty-four. He was a prince of great courage, sobriety, and liberality; he was fond of history, and wrote some verses. But these good qualities were obscured by the most abominable crimes that ever disgraced human nature: he made his way to the throne by shedding the blood of his father, and secured it by murdering his brothers and eight nephews, and every bashaw who had been faithful to his duty. SELIM II., the son of Solyman II. and grandson of Selim I., succeeded his father in 1566. He made a truce for eight years with the emperor Maximilian, and confirmed his father's treaty, with the Venetians: but, in 1570, declared war against them, and took Cyprus, where his general Mustapha committed great cruelties. In 1571 he lost the battle of Lepanto, which threw all Constantinople into consternation, and obliged him to make peace with the emperor. He died in 1574, aged fifty-two, with the character of a weak and dissolute prince. SELINGUNSTAD, or SELIGENSTADT, a town in Hesse-Darmstadt. Population, 2300. SELINTY, a cape of Caramania, in Asia Minor, formed by a "omantic headland, on which are the ruins of the ancient Trajanopolis. The hill rises steeply from the plain, and breaks off into a chain of magnificent cliffs. On the highest point are the ruins of a castle, whic commands the hill in every direction, and looks perpendicularly down upon the sea. The ancient line of fortification is marked by a wall, within which there are many remains of houses; while outside of them, between the foot of the hill and the river, are the remains of large buildings. The most remarkable of these is a low edifice, of about seventy feet by fifty, the top of which is flat, and which appears to have been formerly the basement of some splendid structure. It stands in the centre of a quadrangle, along each side of which there was a row of thirty small columns; but they have been all broken off close to the ground. Lower down the river are the remains of a small theatre. Near its mouth are some baths; and fronting the theatre is a long ruined aqueduct on arches, which, crossing the stream, communicates with a distant hill. At the south-east point of the hill are numerous tombs. The coast is marked by petrified gravel, which, at a distance, has the appearance of loose stones; but, on approaching, proves to be a solid crust of pudding stone. The ancient city was called originally Selinus, until Trajan gave his own name to it. SELINUM, in botany, milk parsley, a genus of the digynia order, and pentandria class of plants; natural order forty-fifth, umbellatæ. The fruit is oval, oblong, compressed, plane, and striated in the middle: the involucrum is reflexed; the petals cordate and equal. There are seven species, viz. S. carvifolia, Chabræi, custriacum, Monnieri, palustre, seguieri, and sylvestre. SELINUNS, SELINUS, or SELINUNTUM, in ancient geography, a town on the south of Sicily, founded A. U. C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It was so named from otλivov, parsley, which it abounded with. It was anciently a place of great importance, as is proved by the venerable relics of its ruins still visible at Mazara which was built on its site.-Paus. vi. c. 19. SELINUS, or SELINUNTE, a celebrated ancient city on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Heraclea. Its ruins are seen about seven miles south of Castro Vetrano, and are described as of enormous bulk. From the traces of the walls, the town appears to have been built in the form of a horse-shoe, having a port in the centre; but the latter is now filled up. The chief ruins are two temples, of great extent. A stone of one of them has been lately found to measure twenty-one feet in length, five feet eight inches in height, and six feet nine inches in breadth. On the west side, the walls are in a considerable degree of perfection; and there are two vast flights of steps between this port and the upper part of the city. SELINUS, in ancient geography, the name of six rivers; viz. one each in Achaia, Cilicia, Elis, and Sicily; and of two in Ephesus: also, 7. of a town in Cilicia, where Trajan died and, 8. of a lake at the origin of the Cayster.-Livy Strabo, Pliny. SELISIA, a river of Maritime Austria, in Friuli, which joins the Cobera and forms the Meduna. SELKIRK (Alexander), whose adventures gave rise to the well-known historical romance of Robinson Crusoe, was born at Largo, in Fife, in 1676, and was bred a seaman. He went from England in 1703, in the capacity of master of a small vessel called the Cinque Ports, Charles Pickering captain, burthen about ninety tons, with sixteen guns, and sixty-three men; and in September the same year sailed from Cork, in company with another ship of twenty-six guns, and 120 men, called the St. George, commanded by that famous navigator William Dampier, intending to cruise against the Spaniards in the South Sea. On the coast of Brasil Pickering died, and was succeeded in his command by his lieutenant Stradling. They proceeded on their voyage round Cape Horn to the island of Juan Fernandez, whence they were driven by the appearance of two French ships of thirty-six guns each, and left five of Stradling's men there on shore, who were taken off by the French. Hence they sailed to the coast of America, where Dampier and Stradling quarrelled, and separated by agreement, on the 19th of May, 1704. In September following, Stradling came again to the island of Juan Fernandez, where Selkirk and his captain had a difference, which, with the circumstance of the ship's being very leaky and in bad condition, induced him to determine on staying there alone; but, when his companions were about to depart, his resolution was shaken, and he desired to be taken on board. The captain, however, refused to admit him, and he was obliged to remain, having nothing but his clothes, bedding, a gun, and a small quantity of powder and ball; a hatchet, knife, and kettle; his books, and mathematical and nautical instruments. He kept his spirits tolerably till he saw the vessel put off, when (as he afterwards related) his heart yearned within him, and melted at parting with his comrades and all human society at once. Such is the rooted love we bear mankind, All ruffians as they are. Left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the necessaries of life, he found himself in a situation hardly supportable. He had fish, goat's flesh, turnips and other vegetables; yet he grew dejected, languid, and melancholy, to such a degree as to be scarcely able to refrain from doing violence to himself. Eighteen months passed before he could, by reasoning, reading his Bible, and study, be thoroughly reconciled to his condition. At length he grew happy, employing himself in decorating his huts, chasing the goats, whom he equalled in speed, and scarcely ever failed of catching. He also tamed young kids, and kept a guard of tame cats about him, to defend him when asleep from the rats, which were very troublesome. When his clothes were worn out, he made others of goat skins, but could not succeed in making shoes, with the use of which, however, habit, in time, enabled him to dispense. His only liquor was water. He computed that he had caught 1000 goats during his abode in the island; of which he had let go 500, after marking them by slitting their ears. Commodore Anson's people, who were there about thirty years after, found the first goat which they shot upon landing was thus marked, and, as it appeared to be very old, concluded that it had been under the power of Selkirk. He made companions of his tame goats and cats, often dancing and singing with them; but he dreaded Thomson. |