The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 407

SMECTYMNUUS, a pamphlet written in 1641, the t.i.tle of which is made up of the initial letters of the names of the authors.

SMELFUNGUS, a name given by Sterne to Smollett as author of volume of "Travels through France and Italy," for the snarling abuse he heaps on the inst.i.tutions and customs of the countries he visited; a name Carlyle a.s.sumes when he has any seriously severe criticisms to offer on things particularly that have gone or are going to the bad.

SMILES, SAMUEL, author of "Self-Help," born in Haddington; was bred to medicine, and professed it for a time, but abandoned it for literary and other work; wrote the "Life of George Stephenson" in 1857, followed by "Self-Help" two years after; _b_. 1812.

SMITH, ADAM, political economist, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife; studied at Glasgow and Oxford, went to Edinburgh and became acquainted with David Hume and his confreres; was appointed to the chair of Logic in Glasgow in 1751, and the year after of Moral Philosophy; produced in 1759 his "Theory of Moral Sentiments," visited Paris with the young Duke of Buccleuch, got acquainted with Quesnay, D'Alembert, and Necker, and returning in 1766, settled in his native place under a pension from the Duke of Buccleuch, where in 1776 he produced his "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," a work to which he devoted 10 years of his life, and which has had a world-wide influence, and that has rendered his name world-famous; in 1778 he settled in Edinburgh as Commissioner of Customs for Scotland, and in 1787 was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University (1723-1790).

SMITH, ALEXANDER, poet, born in Kilmarnock; began life as a pattern-designer, contributed to the _Glasgow Citizen_, wrote a volume of poems, "A Life Drama," and produced other works in a style characterised as "spasmodic," and which, according to Tennyson, "showed fancy, but not imagination" (1880-1807).

SMITH, GEORGE, a.s.syriologist, born at London; trained as a bank-note engraver, but attracted the attention of Sir Henry Rawlinson by his interest in cuneiform inscriptions, and in 1867 received an appointment in the British Museum; acquired great skill as an interpreter of a.s.syrian inscriptions, published "Annals of a.s.surbanipal," and in 1872 discovered a tablet with the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge"; carried through important expeditions (1871-3-6) in search of antiquities in Nineveh and other parts of a.s.syria, accounts of which he published; wrote also histories of Babylonia, a.s.syria, Sennacherib, &c. (1840-1876).

SMITH, GOLDWIN, English man of letters, born in Berks; was at one time intimately a.s.sociated with Oxford University, went to America and became professor of English History in Cornell University, and since 1871 has settled in Canada, and believes that Canada will be annexed to the United States; has written a number of books and pamphlets, one on the "Relations between England and America" and another on "The Political Destiny of Canada"; he is an ultra-Liberal; _b_. 1823.

SMITH, JAMES AND HORACE, authors of the famous parodies "The Rejected Addresses," born at London: James, in business as a solicitor, and Horace, a wealthy stockbroker; both were occasional contributors to the periodical press before the public offer of a prize for the best poetical address to be spoken at the re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre prompted them to issue a series of "Rejected Addresses," parodying the popular writers of the day--Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, &c.; intensely clever, these parodies have never been surpa.s.sed in their kind; Horace was also a busy writer of novels now forgotten, and also published two vols. of poetry; James subsequently wrote a number of Charles Mathews' "Entertainments" (James, 1775-1839; Horace, 1779-1849).

SMITH, JOHN, Cambridge Platonist, born in Northamptonshire; left "Select Discourses," giving signs both of spiritual insight and vigour of thinking (1616-1652).

SMITH, JOHN, sailor, born in Lincolnshire; had a life of adventure and peril, and became leader of the English colonists of Virginia; established friendly relations with the Indians, returned to this country twice over, and introduced POCAHONTAS (q. v.) to the Queen; died at Gravesend (1580-1631).

SMITH, SYDNEY, political writer and wit, born at Woodford, Ess.e.x, of partly English and partly Huguenot blood; educated at Westminster and Oxford, bred for the Church; after a brief curacy in Wiltshire settled in Edinburgh from 1798 to 1803, where, while officiating as a clergyman, he became one of the famous editors of the _Edinburgh Review_, and a contributor; settled for a time afterwards in London, where he delivered a series of admirable lectures on ethics, till he was appointed to a small living in Yorkshire, and afterwards to a richer living in Somerset, and finally a canonry in St. Paul's; his writings deal with abuses of the period, and are, except his lectures perhaps, all out of date now (1771-1845).

SMITH, SIR WILLIAM, cla.s.sical and biblical scholar, born in London; distinguished himself at the university there and took a course of law at Gray's Inn, but followed his bent for scholarship, and in 1840-42 issued his great "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," following it up with the "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology" and the "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography"; did eminent service to the cause of education by a series of popular editions of Greek and Latin texts, school grammars, dictionaries, &c.; not less valuable are his "Dictionary of the Bible," &c.; was editor of the _Quarterly Review_ from 1867, and in 1892 received a knighthood (1813-1893).

SMITH, WILLIAM ROBERTSON, biblical scholar and critic, born at Keig, Aberdeenshire; educated for the Scottish Free Church, became professor of Hebrew in the connection at Aberdeen; was prosecuted for heresy in the matter of the origin of the books of the Old Testament, and finally removed from the chair; became joint-editor of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and finally professor of Arabic at Cambridge; he was a man of versatile ability, extensive scholarship, keen critical ac.u.men, and he contributed not a little to vindicate the claims of the scholar in regard to the Bible (1846-1894).

SMITH, SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY, British admiral, born at Westminster; entered the navy at 12, became a captain after many gallant services at 18, was naval adviser to the king of Sweden and knighted, joined Lord Hood off Toulon and helped to burn the French fleet; was taken prisoner by the French in 1796, and after two years made his escape; forced Napoleon to raise the siege of Acre, and was wounded at Aboukir; was rewarded with a pension of 1000, and raised in the end to the rank of admiral (1764-1840).

SMITHFIELD or SMOOTHFIELD, an open s.p.a.ce of ground in London, N. of Newgate, long famous for its live-stock markets; in olden times lay outside the city walls, and was used as a place of recreation and of executions; the scene of William Wallace's execution and the death of Wat Tyler; gradually surrounded by the encroaching city, the cattle-market became a nuisance, and was abolished in 1855; is partly laid out as a garden.

SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTION, a celebrated American inst.i.tution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," in Washington; founded and endowed by James Macie Smithson, a natural son of the Duke of Northumberland, a zealous chemist and mineralogist, after having had a paper rejected by the Royal Society, of which he was a Fellow. The building is one of the finest in the capital; is under government control, and the President of the United States is _ex officio_ the head of the inst.i.tution; encourages scientific research, administers various funds, and directs expeditions for scientific purposes.

SMOKY CITY, Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, from the effect produced by the bituminous coal used in the manufactories.

SMOLENSK (34), an ancient town of Russia, and capital of a government (1,412) of the same name, on the Dnieper, 244 m. SW. of Moscow; is surrounded by walls; has a fine cathedral, and is strongly fortified; carries on a good grain trade; here in 1812 Napoleon defeated the Russians under Barclay de Tolly and Bagration on his march to Moscow in August 1812.

SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE, novelist, born at Dalquhurn, Dumbartonshire, of good family; bred to medicine, but drifted to literature, in prosecution of which he set out to London at the age of 18; his first effort was a failure; he took an appointment as a surgeon's mate on board a war-ship in 1746, which landed him for a time in the West Indies; on his return to England in 1748 achieved his first success in "Roderick Random," which was followed by "Peregrine Pickle" in 1751, "Count Fathom" in 1755, and "Humphrey Clinker" in 1771, added to which he wrote a "History of England," and a political lampoon, "The Adventures of an Atom"; his novels have no plot, but "in inventive tale-telling and in cynical characterisation he is not easily equalled" (1721-1771).

SMRITI, in the Hindu religion the name given to traditional usage, as opposed to Sruti, or revelation, and from which proceeded, at a later date, the body of laws, such as that of Manu, in which the morality prescribed is, "sound, solid, and practical."

SMYRNA (210), a town of great antiquity, since ancient times the chief port of Asia Minor; is situated amid surrounding hills at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna, an arm of the aegean Sea; has no imposing structures, and is, especially in the Turkish quarter, ill-drained and crowded; is the seat of the Turkish Governor-General of the province, of archbishops, Roman Catholic, Greek, and Armenian; manufactures embrace carpets, pottery, cottons and woollens; a splendid harbour favours a large import and export trade; for long a possession of Greece and then of Rome, it finally fell into the hands of the Turks in 1424.

SMYRNA, GULF OF, an inlet of the aegean Sea, 40 m. in length by 20 m.

in breadth, with an excellent anchorage.

SNAKE RIVER, chief tributary of the Columbia; rises in Wyoming amid the Rockies; flows S. and NW. through Idaho, forming the Shoshone Falls, rivalling Niagara, which they exceed in height; through Southern Washington it flows W. under the name of the Lewis River or Fork, and discharges into the Columbia after a course of 1050 m.

SNAKE-STONES, stones popularly believed to cure the bites of snakes, probably due to a porosity in their substance drawing off the poison.

SNIDER, JACOB, American mechanical genius; invented a method of converting muzzle-loading rifles into breech-loading; died unrewarded in 1866.

SNODGRa.s.s, AUGUSTUS, a member of the Pickwick Club in the "Pickwick Papers."

SNORRI STURLASON, Icelandic historian and poet; published the collection of sagas ent.i.tled "Heimskringla," among which were many songs of his own composition; was a man of position and influence in Iceland, but having provoked the ill-will of Haco was at his instigation a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1241. See EDDA.

SNOWDON, a mountain range in Carnarvon, North Wales, extending from the coast to near Conway; it has five distinct summits, of which Moel-y-Wyddfa (the conspicuous peak) is the highest, being 3560 ft.; the easiest ascent is from Llanberis on the N., and is the route usually taken by tourists, for whose behoof there is a house on the summit.

SOANE, SIR JOHN, English architect, who left his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields with art collection to the nation at his death in 1837.

SOBIESKI, surname of the great patriot king of Poland, John III., in the 17th century; born at Olesko, in Galicia; was elected king of Poland in 1674, having, by repeated victories over the Turks and Russians, shown himself the greatest soldier of his country; proved a wise and brave ruler, a true leader of his people, and with unbroken success defied the utmost efforts of the infidel Turks (1624-1696).

SOBRAON (4), a town in the Punjab, India, on the Sutlej, in the vicinity of which Sir Henry Gough won the decisive victory over the Sikhs, 10th February 1846.

SOCAGE, name given to a feudal tenure by a certain and determinate service other than knight service.

SOCIAL WAR, name given to an Insurrection of the allied States in Italy against the domination of Rome, and which lasted from 90 to 88 B.C., in consequence of their exclusion from the rights of citizenship and the privileges attached; they formed a league to a.s.sert their rights, which ended in defeat.