rica; 4. Græcum; 5. Japonicum; 6. Latifolium; 7. Ninsi; 8. Nodiflorumn; 9. Repens; 10. Rigidus; 11. Siculus; 12. Sisarum. Of these the first three following are natives of Britain: 1. S. angustifolium, the narrow leaved water parsnep, has 'pinnated leaves; the axillary umbels are pedunculated, and the general involucrum is pinnatifid. It grows in ditches and rivulets, but is not common. 2. S. latifolium, the great water parsnep, grows spontaneously in many places both of England and Scotland on the sides, of lakes, ponds, and rivulets. The stalk is erect and furrowed, three feet high or more. The leaves are pinnated, with three or four pair of large elliptic pinnæ, with an odd one at the end, all serrated on the edges. The stalk and branches are terminated with erect umbels, which is the chief characteristic of the species. Cattle are said to have run mad by feeding upon this plant. 3. S. nodiflorum, reclining water parsnep, has pinnated leaves, but the axillary umbels are sessile. It grows on the sides of rivulets. 4. S. sisarum, the skirret, is a native of China, but has been long cultivated in Europe, particularly in Germany. The root is a bunch of fleshy fibres, each of which is about as thick as a finger, but very uneven, covered with a whitish rough bark, and has a hard core or pith running through the centre. From the crown of this bunch come several winged leaves, consisting of two or three pair of oblong dentated lobes each, and terminated by an odd one. The stalk rises to about two feet, is set with leaves at the joints, and breaks into branches towards the top, each terminating with an umbel of small white flowers, which are succeeded by striated seeds like those of parsley. Skirrets come nearest to parsneps of any of the esculent roots, both for flavor and nutritive qualities. They are rather sweeter than the parsnep, and therefore to some palates are not altogether so agreeable. Mr. Margraaf extracted from half a pound of skirret root one ounce and a half of pure sugar. SIUT, a considerable town of Upper Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile. The country round is exceedingly fertile: a great quantity of hemp is also cultivated, not for manufacture, but for the intoxicating quality which the smoked seed possesses. The inhabitants are chiefly Copts. They are employed in an extensive maaufacture of blue cloth, and Siut is the rendez7ous of the caravans which proceed from Egypt southwards into the interior of Africa, to Sennaar and Darfur. Siut is the see of a Coptic bishop, and supposed to be the ancient Lycopolis. Let the appearing circle of the fire be three feet diameter, and the time of one entire circulation of it the sixtieth part of a minute, in a whole day there will be but 86,400 such parts. Digby on Bodies. What blinder bargain ere was driven, Or wager laid at six and seven. Hudibras. That of six hath many respects in it, not only for the days of the creation, but its natural consideration, as being a perfect number. Browne's Vulgar Errours. No incident in the piece or play but must carry on the main design: all things else are like six fingers to the hand, when nature can do her work with five. Arbuthnot. Only the other half would have been a tolerable seat for rational creatures, and five sixths of the whole globe would have been rendered useless. Cheyne's Philosophical Principles. The goddess would no longer wait; Pope. Swift. SIX CLERKS, officers in chancery of great account, next in degree below the twelve masters, whose business is to enrol commissions, pardons, patents, warrants, &c., which pass the great seal, and to transact and file all proceedings by bill, answer, &c. They were anciently clerici, and forfeited their places if they married; but, when the constitution of the court began to alter, a law was made to permit them to marry. Stat. 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. cap. 8. They are also solicitors for parties in suits depending in the court of chancery. Under them are six deputies and sixty clerks, who, with the under clerks, do the business of the office. SIX NATIONS, Indians who live on the banks of the Niagara. Each nation was, at one time, divided into three tribes, of which the principal were called the turtle tribe, the wolf tribe, and the bear tribe. Each tribe has two cr more chiefs, called sachems; and this distinction is hereditary in the family, but descends along the female line for instance, if a chief dies, one of his sister's sons, or one of his own brothers, will be appointed to succeed him. Among these no preference is given to proximity or primogeniture; but the sachem, during his life time, pitches upon one whom he supposes to have more abilities than the rest; and in this choice he frequently consults the principal men of the tribe. If the successor happens to be a child, the offices of the post are performed by some of his friends until he is of sufficient age to act himself. Each of these posts of sachem has a name peculiar to it, and which never changes, as it is always adopted by the successor; nor does the order of precedency of each of these names or titles ever vary. Nevertheless, any sachem, by abilities and activity, may acquire greater power and influence in the nation than those who rank before him in point of precedency; but this is merely temporary, and dies with him. Each tribe has one or two chief warriors; which dignity is also hereditary, and has a peculiar name attached to it. These are the only titles of distinction which are permanent in the nation; for although any Indian may, by superior talents, either as a counsellor or as a warrior, acquire influence in the nation, yet it is not in his power to transmit this to his family. The Indians have also their great women as well as their great men, to whose opinions they pay great deference; and this distinction is also hereditary in families. They do not sit in council with the sachems, but have separate ones of their own. When war is declared, the sachems and great women generally give up the management of public affairs into the hands of the warriors. But a sachem may at the same time be also a chief warrior. SIXTUS I., bishop of Rome, according to Dr. Watkins, succeeded Alexander I., A. D. 119, suffered martyrdom for Christianity, A. D. 127, and was afterwards canonised as a saint. But Alstedius and Marcel place his accession in, 131-2, and his martyrdom in 142. SIXTUS II., a native of Athens, succeeded Stephen I. as bishop of Rome, A. D. 257. He suffered martyrdom during the persecution under Valerian, three days before his disciple St. Lawrence, A. D. 258. SIXTUS III. was a priest in the Roman church, and was elected pope in 432. He was an author, and his Epistles are extant. He suppressed the heresies of Pelagius and Nestorius in the west; and died in 440. SIXTUS IV. was the son of a fisherman, born in 1412, and, entering among the Cordeliers, became very learned. He was eminent as a professor of theology, in several universities in Italy, and was raised to the cardinalship by Paul II., whom he succeeded in 1471. He attempted to stir up a new crusude, but without success; but obtained some signal advantages over the Turks by his own galleys. He wrote several Treatises on Theology; but gave offence even to Catholics, by publishing a bull ordaining an annual festival in honor of the immaculate conception. He died in 1484, aged seventy-two. SIXTUS V., pope, was born the 13th of De cember, 1521, in La Marca, a village in the seigniory of Montalto. His father, Francis Peretti, was a gardener, and his mother a servant maid. He was their eldest child, and was called Felix. At the age of nine he was hired out to an inhabitant of the village to keep sheep; but, disobliging his master, he was degraded to be keeper of the hogs. He was engaged in this employment when F. Michael Angelo Selleri, a Franciscan friar, asked the road to Ascoli, where he was going to preach. Young Felix conducted him thither, and struck the father so much with his eagerness for knowledge, that he recommended him to the fraternity to which he had come. Accordingly he was invested with the habit of a lay brother, and placed under the sacristan, to assist in sweeping the church, lighting the candles, and the like; for which he was to be taught the responses and the rudiments of grammar. His progress in learning was so surprising that at the age of fourteen he was qualified to begin his noviciate, and was admitted at fifteen to make his profession. He pursued his studies with unwearied assiduity; and was ordained priest in 1545, when he assumed the name of father Montalto; soon after he took his doctor's degree, and was appointed professor of theology at Sienna, where he so effectually recommended himself to cardinal di Carpi, and his secretary Bossius, that they ever remained his steady friends. Meanwhile the severity and obstinacy of his temper incessantly engaged him in disputes with his monastic brethren. His reputation for eloquence, which was now spread over Italy, about this time gained him some new friends. Among these were the Colonna family, and F. Ghisilieri, by whose recommendation he was appointed inquisitor-general at Venice; but he exercised that office with so much severity that he was obliged to flee precipitately from that city. Upon this he went to Rome, where he was made procurator-general of his order, and soon after accompanied cardinal Buon Compagnon into Spain, as a chaplain and consultor to the inquisition; where he was treated with great respect. Pius IV. dying, father Ghisilieri, or cardinal Alexandrino, succeeded him under the name of Pius V.; and Montalto was immediately invested by the pontiff with new dignities. He was made general of his order, bishop of St. Agatha, raised to the dignity of cardinal, and received a pension. About this time he was employed by the pope to draw up the bill of excommunication against queen Elizabeth. He began now to look towards the papacy; and, to obtain it, formed and executed a plan of hypocrisy with unparalleled constancy and success. He became humble, patient, and affable. He changed his dress, his air, his words, and his actions, so completely, that his most intimate friends declared him a new man. there such an absolute victory gained over the passions; never was a fictitious character so wel' maintained, nor the foibles of human nature so artfully concealed. He had formerly treated his relations with the greatest tenderness, but he now changed his behaviour to them entirely. When Pius V. died in 1572, he entered the conclave with the other cardinals, but seemed Never was altogether indifferent about the election, and never left his apartment except to his devotion. When cardinal Buon Compagnon, or Gregory XIII., was elected, Montalto flattered him, but the new pope treated him with the greatest contempt, and deprived him of his pension. He now assumed all the infirmities of old age; his head hung down upon his shoulders; he tottered as he walked, and supported himself on a staff. His voice became feeble, and was often interrupted by a cough so exceedingly severe that it seemed every moment to threaten his dissolution. He interfered in no public transactions, but spent his whole time in acts of devotion and benevolence. Mean time he constantly employed the ablest spies, who brought him intelligence of every particular. When Gregory XIII. died, in 1585, he entered the conclave with reluctance, and appeared perfectly indifferent about the event of the election. He joined no party, yet flattered all. He knew that there would be divisions in the conclave, and that when the leaders of the different parties were disappointed in their own views, they often agreed in the election of some old and infirm cardinal, the brevity of whose life would soon occasion a new vacancy. Three cardinals, the leaders of opposite factions, being unable to procure the election which each of them wished, unanimously agreed to make choice of Montalto. When they came to acquaint him with their intention, he fell into a violent fit of coughing, and told them that his reign would last but a few days. He conjured them to take the whole weight of affairs upon their own shoulders. The cardinals swallowed the bait, and Montalto was elected. He now pulled off the mask which he had worn for fourteen years. No sooner was his election secured, than he started from his seat, and appeared almost a foot taller than he had done for several years. His former complaisance and humility disappeared, together with his infirmities, and he now treated all around him with reserve and haughtiness. The first care of Sixtus V. was to correct the abuses, and put a stop to the enormities, daily committed in the ecclesiastical state. The lenity of Gregory's government had introduced a general licentiousness of manners. It had been usual with former popes to release delinquents on the day of their coronation, who therefore surrendered themselves voluntarily prisoners after the election of the pope. When the governor of Rome and the keeper of St. Angelo waited on his holiness, to know his intention in this particular, he replied, We have too long seen the prodigious degree of wickedness that reigns in the state to think of granting pardons. Let the prisoners be brought to a speedy trial, and punished as they deserve, to show the world that Divine Providence has called us to the chair of St. Peter, to reward the good and chastise the wicked; that we bear not the sword in vain, but are the minister of God, and a revenger to execute wrath on them that do evil.' Accordingly he appointed commissioners to inspect the conduct of the judges, displaced. those who were inclined to lenity, and put others of severe dispositions in their room. He offered rewards to any person who could convict them of corruption or partiality. He ordered the syndics of all th: towns and signiories to make out a complete list of the disorderly persons within their districts. The syndic of Albano was scourged in the market-place because he had left his nephew, an incorrigible libertine, out of his list. He made laws equally severe and just against robbers and assassins. Adulterers, when discovered, suffered death; and they who willingly submitted to the prostitution of their wives, a custom then common in Rome, received the same punishment. He was particularly careful of the purity of the female sex; and his execution of justice was as prompt as his edicts were rigorous. A Swiss, happening to give a Spanish gentleman a blow with his halberd, was struck by him so rudely with a pilgrim's staff that he expired on the spot. Sixtus informed the governor of Rome that he was to dine early, and that justice must be executed on the criminal before he sat down to table. The Spanish ambassador and four cardinals entreated him not to disgrace the gentleman by suffering him to die on a gibbet, but to order him to be beheaded. He shall be hanged (replied Sixtus), but I will alleviate his disgrace by doing him the honour to assist personally at his death.' He ordered a gibbet to be erected before his own windows, where he continued sitting during the whole execution. When Sixtus ascended the throne, the whole ecclesiastical state was infested with bands of robbers, who from their numbers and outrages were exceedingly formidable; but by his vigorous conduct he soon extirpated the whole of these banditti. Nor was the vigor of his conduct less conspicuous in his transactions with foreign nations. Before he had been pope two months, he quarrelled with Philip II. of Spain, Henry III. of France, and Henry king of Navarre. His intrigues, indeed, in some measure influenced all the councils of Europe. After his accession to the pontificate, he sent for his family to Rome, with orders that they should appear in a decent and modest manner. Accordingly his sister Camilla came thither, accompanied by her daughter and two grand-children. Some cardinals, to pay court to the pope, went out to meet her, and introduced her in a very magnificent dress. Sixtus pretended not to know her, and asked two or three times who she was. Her conductors at last found it necessary to carry her to an inn, and strip her of her finery. When Camilla was again introduced, Sixtus embraced her tenderly, and said, 'Now we know indeed that it is our sister; nobody shall make a princess of you but ourselves.' He stipulated with his sister that she should neither ask any favour in matters of government, nor intercede for criminals, nor interfere in the administration of justice; declaring that such requests would meet with a certain refusal. These terms being agreed to, and punctually observed, he made the most ample provision not only for Camilla but for his whole relations. This great man was also an encourager of learning. He caused an Italian translation of the Bible to be published, which raised a good deal of discontent among the Catholics. When some cardinals reproached him for his conduct in this respect, he replied, It was published for the benefit of you cardinals who cannot read Latin.' He died 27th of August, 1590, after a reign of little more than five years. To the indulgence of a disposition naturally severe, all the defects of this wonderful man are to be ascribed. Clemency was a stranger to his bosom; his punishments were often too cruel, and seemed sometimes to border on revenge. But, though the conduct of Sixtus seldom excites love, it generally commands our esteem and sometimes our admiration. He strenuously defended the cause of the poor, the widow, and the orphan; he never refused audience to the injured, however wretched or forlorn. He never forgave those magistrates who were convicted of partiality or corruption; nor suffered crimes to pass unpunished, whether committed by the rich or the poor. He was frugal, temperate, sober, and never neglected to reward the smallest favor which had been conferred on him before his exaltation. When he mounted the throne, the treasury was not only exhausted, but in debt; at his death it contained 5,000,000 of gold. Rome was indebted to him for several of her greatest embellishments, particularly the Vatican, library; it was by him, too, that trade was first introduced into the ecclesiastical state; and he allotted 3000 crowns a year for the redemption of Christian slaves from the Turks. SIYA-GHUSH, the caracal of Buffon, a species of Lynx. : SİZAR, or SIZER, in Latin sızator, an appellation by which the lowest order of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin are distinguished, is derived from the word To size, which in Cambridge, in the language of the university, signifies to get any sort of victuals from the kitchens which the students may want in their own rooms, or in addition to their commons in the hall, and for which they pay the cooks or butchers at the end of each quarter. A size of any thing is the smallest quantity of the thing which can be thus bought two sizes or a part of beef being nearly equal to what a young person will eat of that dish to his dinner; and a size of ale or beer being equal to half an English pint. The sizars are divided into two classes; viz. subsizatores, or sizars, and sizatores, or proper sizars. The former are supplied with commons from the table of the fellows and fellowcommoners; and in former times, when these were more scanty than they are now, they were obliged to supply the deficiency by sizing, as is sometimes the case still. The proper sizars had formerly no commons at all. In St. John's col lege they have now some commons allowed them for dinner, from a benefaction; but they are still obliged to size their suppers. In the other colleges they are allowed a part of the fellows' commons, but must size the rest; and, from being thus obliged to size the whole or part of their victuals, the whole order derived the name of sizars. In Oxford, the order similar to that of sizar is denominated servitor, a name evidently derived from the menial duties which they per form. In both universities these orders were formerly distinguished by round caps and gowns of different materials from those of the pensioners or commoners, the order immediately above them. But about forty years ago the round cap was entirely abolished in both seminaries. There is still, however, in Oxford, we believe, a distinction in the gowns, and there is also a trifling difference in some of the small colleges in Cambridge; but in the large colleges the dress of the pensioners and sizars is entirely the same. In Oxford the servitors are still obliged to wait at table on the fellows and gentlemen commoners; but, much to the credit of the university of Cambridge, this most degrading custom was entirely abolished about forty years ago, and of course the sizars of Cambridge are now on a much more respectable footing than the servitors of Oxford. The sizars are not upon the foundation, and therefore while they continue sizars are not capable of being elected fellows; but they may at any time if they choose become pensioners: and they generally sit for scholarships immediately before they take their first degree. If successful, they are then on the foundation, and are entitled to become candidates for fellowships when they have got that degree. In the mean time, while they continue sizars, besides the freecommons they enjoy many benefactions, which have been made at different times, under the name of sizars, prætor, exhibitions, &c., and the rate of tuition, the rent of rooms, and other things of that sort within their respective colleges, is less than to the other orders. But, though their education is thus obtained at a less expense, they are not now considered as a menial order; for sizars, pensioner-scholars, and even sometimes fellow-commoners, mix together with the utmost cordiality. It is worthy of remark that at every period this order has supplied the university with its most distinguished officers; and that many of the most illustrious members of the church, many of the most distinguished men in the other liberal professions, have, when undergraduates, been sizars, when that order was on a less respectable footing than it is now. SIZATORES. See the last article. SIZE, n. s. & v. a. SIZED, adj. SIZEABLE. Perhaps, says Johnson, rather cise, from Lat. incisa, or from Fr. assise. Bulk; quantity; comparative magnitude; settled quantity; condition; to adjust according to size; fix; settle: sized is having a particular magnitude: sizeable, reasonably bulky. I ever verified my friends, With all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer. "Tis not in thee Shakspeare. Coriolanus. To cut off my train, to scant my sizes, Id. King Lear. What my love is, proof hath made you know, And as my love is sized, my fear is so. Shakspeare. If any decayed ship be new made, it is more fit to make her a size less than bigger. Raleigh. There was a statute for dispersing the standard of the exchequer throughout England; thereby to siz weights and measures. Bacon's Henry VII. And, ere they venture on a stream, The foxes weigh the geese they carry, Know how to size themselves and them. Hudibras. The linstocks touch, the, ponderous ball expires. The distance judged for shot of every size, Dryden Two troops so matched were never to be found, Such bodies built for strength, of equal age, In stature sized. Id. Knight's Tale. Objects near our view are thought greater than those of a larger size, that are more remote. Locke. That will be a great horse to a Welshman which is but a small one to a Fleming; having, from the different breed of their countries, taken several sized ideas, to which they compare their great and their little. Locke. He should be purged, sweated, vomited, and starved, till he come to a sizeable bulk. Arbuthnot. The martial goddess, Like thee, Telemachus, in voice and size, Pope. They do not consider the difference between elaborate discourses, delivered to princes or parliaments, and a plain sermon, for the middling or lower size of people. Swift. SIZE, n. s. nous. SIZE is also a sort of paint, varnish, or blue, used by painters, &c. The shreds and parings of leather, parchment, or vellum, being boiled in water and strained, make size. This substance is much used in many trades. The manner of using size is to melt some of it over a gentle fire; and, scraping as much whiting into it as will just color it, let them be well incorporated together; after which you may whiten frames, &c.,with it. After it dries, melt the size again, and put more whiting, and whiten the frames, &c., seven or eight times, letting it dry between each time; but before it is quite dry, between each washing with size, you must smooth and wet it over with a clean brush pencil in fair water. SIZE, GOLD. To make gold size, take gum animi and asphaltum, of each one ounce; minium, litharge of gold, and amber, of each half an ounce: reduce all into a very fine powder, and add to them four ounces of linseed oil, and eight ounces of drying oil: digest them over a gentle fire that does not flame, so that the mixture may only simmer, but not boil, lest it should run over and set the house on fire; stir it constantly with a stick till all the ingredients are dissolved and incorporated, and do not leave off stirring till it becomes thick and ropy; after being sufficiently boiled, let it stand till it is almost cold, and then strain it through a coarse linen cloth, and keep it for use. To prepare it for working, put what quantity you please in a horse-mussel shell, adding as much oil of turpentine as will dissolve it; and making it as thin as the bottom of your seedlac varnish, hold it over a candle, and then strain it through a linen-rag into another shell; add to these as much vermilion as will make it of a darkish red: if it is too thick for drawing, you may thin it SIZE, the name of an instrument used for finding the bigness of fine round pearls. It consists of thin pieces or leaves, about two inches long, and half an inch broad, fastened together at one end by a rivet. In each of these are round holes drilled of different diameters. Those in the first leaf serve for measuring pearls from half pearls from eight grains, or two carats, to five a grain to seven grains; those of the second for carats, &c.; and those of the third for pearls from six carats and a half to eight and a half. From the noun SIZER, or SER VITOR, n. s. substantive above. A certain rank of students in the universities. They make a scramble for degree: Masters of all sorts and of all ages, Keepers, sub-sizers, lackeys, pages. Bp. Corbett. SKAGGIE, a small river of Scotland, in Perthshire, which rises in the parish of Monzie, and falls into the Erne near Crieff. It SKAINS'MATE, n. s. (I suppose from skain, or skean a knife, and mate). A messmate. is remarkable that Dutch mes is a knife.-Dr. Johnson. Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt gills; I am none of his skainsmate. Shakspeare. Romeo and Juliet. SKATE, n. s. Sax. rceadda. A flat sea-fish; a flat kind of shoe armed with iron, for sliding on the ice. They sweep Thomson. SKATING, an exercise on ice, both graceful and healthy. Although the ancients were remarkable for their dexterity in most of the athletic sports, yet skating seems to have been unknown to them. It may therefore be considered as a modern invention; and probably it derived its origin in Holland, where it was practised, not only as a graceful and elegant amusement, but as an expeditious mode of travelling when the lakes and canals were frozen up during winter. In Holland long journeys are made upon skates with ease and expedition; but in general less attention is there paid to graceful and elegant movements than to the expedition and celerity of what is called journey skating. It is only in those countries where it is considered as an amusement that its graceful attitudes and movements can be studied; and there is no exercise whatever better calculated to set off the human figure to advantage. The acquirement of most exercises may be attained at an advanced period of life; but, to become an expert skater, it is necessary to begin the practice of the art at a very early age. It is difficult to reduce the art of skating to a system. It is principally by the imitation of a good skater that a young practitioner can form his own practice. The English, though often remarkable for feats of agility upon skates, are very deficient in gracefulness |