Seisin is the same, in the canon law, as livery and seisin at the common law. Ayliffe's Parergon.

In her sad breast the prince's fortunes roll, And hope and doubt alternate seize her soul. Pope. Henry continued to burn protestants after he had cast off the pope; and his seizure of ecclesiastical revenues cannot be reckoned as a mark of the church's liberty.

Swift.

Let there be no sudden seizure of a lapsed syllable to play upon it. Watts.

SEISURE, in commerce, an arrest of some merchandise, moveable, or other matter, either in consequence of some law or of some express order of their sovereign. Contraband goods, those fraudulently entered, or landed without entering at all, or at wrong places, are subject to seizure. In seizures, among us, one half goes to the informer, and the other half to the king. SELAGO, in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order, belonging to the didynamia class

of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the forty-eighth order aggregatæ. The calyx is quinquefid; the tube of the corolla capillary, with the limb nearly equal, and a single seed. There are twenty-one species.

SELAH, Heb. no, a word often used in the book of Psalms, and three times in the prayer of Habakkuk, iii. 3, 9, 13. Commentators are not agreed about its use or meaning. Some consider it as a note of music, others as a mark of attention or emphasis; others take it for a name of the Deity; and others consider it as synonymous with Amen.

SELAH, in ancient geography, the capital of the ancient Edomites, in Arabia, seated in a plain surrounded with rocks, as its name signifies. It was taken by Amaziah king of Judah, who changed its name to Joktheel, and massacred its inhabitants.-2 Kings. xiv. 7.

SELBURY HILL, an ancient artificial hill of England in Wiltshire, near Kennet, and half a mile from Aubury on the road from Marlborough to Bath. It is high and round, but its age and object of erection are equally unknown.

SELBY, a market-town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the west bank of the Ouse, twelve miles south by east from York, and 1781 north by west from London. The town has been greatly improved of late years by a canal which connects the Ouse with the Aire and Calder. Large ships are built here, and a pretty good trade is carried on to London. Here has lately been erected a most complete and handsome timber bridge over the river Ouse, particularly admired for the despatch used in admitting vessels through it, by means of a swivel in the centre, working on balls similar to cannon-balls: although estimated to weigh seventy tons, or upwards, it can be opened and shut in a minute. Here are an iron-foundery, a good ship-yard, and a branch custom-house. A Benedictine abbey was founded here by William the Conqueror, the conventual church belonging to which is now the parish church, and is a fine specimen of the architecture of that period. King Henry I. was born at this town. Market on Monday. Fairs, Easter is a vicarage. Patron the archbishop of York. Tuesday, 22d of June, and 10th of October. It

SEL'DOM, adv. SEL DOMNESS, n. s. SELD'SHOWN, adj.

Sax. reloan, rarely; reldon, more rarely; seldort, most rarely. Seldan is supposed to be contracted from relvan or reld, rare, and hpænne, when; Belg. selden. Rarely; not often; not frequently: seldshown is, seldom

SELDON (John), called by Grotius the glory of England, was born at Salvington in Sussex in 1584. He was educated at Chichester; whence he was sent to Hart Hall in the university of Oxford, where he studied four years. In 1612 he entered in Clifford's Inn to study the law; and in 1614 removed to the Inner Temple, where he soon acquired great reputation. He had already published several works; and wrote verses in Latin, Greek, and English, upon Mr. William Browne's Britannia's Pastorals. In 1614 he published his Titles of Honor; and in 1616 his Notes on Sir John Fortescue's book De Laudibus Legum Angliæ. In 1618 he published his History of Tythes; which gave great offence to the clergy, and for which he was called before the high commission court, and obliged to make a public acknowledgment of his sorrow for having published it. In 1621, being sent for by the parliament, though he was not then a member of the house, and giving his opinion very strongly in favor of their privileges, in opposition to the court, he was committed to the custody of the sheriff of London, but liberated five weeks afterwards. In 1623 he was chosen M. P. for Lancaster; but, amidst all the divisions of the nation, kept himself neuter, prosecuting his studies with such application, that, though he was the next year chosen reader of Lyon's Inn, he refused that office. In 1625 he was chosen M. P. for Great Bedwin in Wiltshire, in the first parliament of king Charles I., in which he declared himself warmly against the duke of Buckingham; and, on the duke's impeachment, was appointed one of the managers of the articles against him. In 1627 and 1628 he opposed the court party with great vigor. The parliament being prorogued to January 20th, 1629, he retired to the earl of Kent's house at Wrest, in Bedfordshire, where he finished his Marmora Arundeliana. The parliament being met, he, among others, again distinguished himself by his zeal against the court; when the king, dissolving the parliament, ordered him and several other members to be committed to the tower. Mr. Seldon insisting on the benefit of the laws, and refusing to make his submission, was removed to the king's bench prison. Being here in danger of his life on account of the plague, then raging in Southwark, he petitioned the lord high treasurer, at the end of Trinity-term, that he might be removed to the Gate-house, Westminster, which was granted; but in Michaelmas following the judges issued an order for conveying him back to the king's bench, whence he was released in the end of the same year; but fifteen years after the parliament ordered him £5000 for the losses he had sustained on this occasion. He was afterwards committed, with several other gentlemen, for dispersing a libel; but the author, who was abroad, being discovered, they were set at liberty. In 1634 a dispute arising between the English and Dutch, concerning the herring fishery on the British coast, he was prevailed upon by archbishop Laud to draw up his Mare Clausum, in answer to Grotius's Mare Liberum; which

greatly recommended him to the favor of the court. In 1640 he was chosen M. P. for the university of Oxford; where he again opposed the court, though he might, by complying, have raised himself very considerably. In 1643 he was appointed one of the lay members in the assembly of divines at Westminster, and keeper of the records in the tower. In 1645 he was made a commissioner of the admiralty, and elected master of Trinity College Cambridge; but declined accepting. He died in 1654; and was interred in the temple church, where a monument is erected to his memory. Dr. Wilkie says he was a man of uncommon greatness of soul, averse to flattery, liberal to scholars, charitable to the poor; and, though he had great latitude in his principles with regard to ecclesiastical power, yet he had a sincere regard for the church of England. He wrote many learned works besides those already mentioned; as, 1. De Jure Naturali et Gentium, juxta Disciplinam Hebræorum; 2. De Nuptiis et Divorciis; 3. De Anno Civili veterum Hebræorum; 4. De Nummis; 5. De Diis Syris; 6. Uxor Hebraica; 7. Jani Anglorum Facies altera, &c. All his works were printed together in 1726, in 3 vols. folio. SELECT, v. a. & adj.~ SELECTION, n. s. choose in preference to others rejected; nicely chosen; choice: selec

SELECT'NESS,

SELECTOR.

Lat. selectus.

Το

tion is the act of choosing; choice made: selectness, the state of being select.

The footmen, selected out of all the provinces, were greatly diminished, being now scarce eight thousand strong.

To the nuptial bower

Knolles.

I led her, blushing like the morn: all heaven,
And happy constellations, on that hour
Shed their selectest influence.

Milton's Paradise Lost. While we single out several dishes, and reject others, the selection seems but arbitrary.

Browne's Vulgar Errors. The pious chief A hundred youths from all his train selects. Dryden. Select from vulgar herds, with garlands gay, Prior. A hundred bulls ascend the sacred way.

SELEFKEH, a town of Caramania, near the mouth of a river called Ghiuk Sooyoo, the ancient Calicadnus. It is the residence of an aga, from Cyprus; but the modern town is only an assemblage of mud and wooden huts. It is chiefly distinguished by being on the site of the ancient Seleucia, vestiges of which remain. They are scattered over a large extent of ground on the west, and include the remains of a theatre, partly cut out of the side of a hill, and facing the south-east; and in front of it a long line of considerable ruins, with porticoes and other large buildings. Farther on is a temple, which was once converted into a Christian church, and several large Corinthian columns about four feet in diameter, a few of which are still standing. A quarter of a mile southward of the theatre, near a marble quarry which seems to have supplied all the materials of the town, is an extensive cemetery, containing several sarcophagi of coarse workmanship; and in a vein of soft stone on the northern side of the hill some catacombs, which, as usual, have been all emptied. At these two

places appear a variety of inscriptions. Near the catacombs there is an enormous reservoir, hewn out of this soft stone. The roof is supported by parallel rows of square pillars. Its dimensions are 150 feet by seventy-five, and thirty-five in depth. On a hill west of the town are the remains of the citadel, o. an oval form, surrounded by a well built wall, flanked by towers and a double ditch. The interior is full of ruined houses and columns. Long. 33° 55′ E., lat. 36° 20′ N.

SELENGA, a considerable river of Siberia, in the government of Irkoutsk, rising beyond the frontier, in the country of the Mongols, where it receives the Kharatale and the Iga. On approaching the frontiers it begins to be navigable, then flows from south-east to north-west, and falls by three mouths into the lake Baikal. The Russians have built several towns on its right bank, particularly Verschuei Oudinsk, Selenginsk, and Kiachta. A great quantity of a species of white fish, called omouli, is taken in this river towards the end of August.

SELENITE is the term used by Dr. Thomson and other modern chemists for what was formerly called selenites. It is the same with gypsum.

SELENITES, in the old system of mineralogy, is the name of a large class of fossils, of which it is now unnecessary to describe the characters, since better arrangements and more accurate descriptions have been made. See MINERALOGY. Of the first order there were three generà; viz. 1. Leptodecarhombes, 2. Pachodecarhombes; 3. Tetradecarhombes. Of the second there were also three genera:-1. Ischnambluces; 2. Isambluces; 3. Oxuciæ. Of the third one, inamblucia. Of the fourth also only one genus, the sanidia. Of the fifth one, cathetolipes. Of the sixth order there were two genera; viz. 1. Lepastra; 2. Trichestra. Of the seventh one genus, symplexia. SELENITES, in chemistry, called also gypsum spatosum, a species of gypsum or plaster of Paris. See GYPSUM, and MINERALOGY.

SELENIUM, in chemistry, is a new elementary body, extracted by M. Berzelius from the pyrites of Fahlun, which, from its chemical properties, he places between sulphur and tellurium, though it has more properties in common with the former than with the latter substance. It was obtained in exceedingly small quantity from a large portion of pyrites. For the mode of extraction we must refer to his long and elaborate papers, translated from the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, ix. et seq. into the Annals of Philosophy, for June, August, October, and December 1819, and January 1820.

When selenium, after being fused, becomes solid, its surface assumes a metallic brilliancy of a very deep brown color, resembling polished hæmatites. Its fracture is conchoidal, vitreous, of the color of lead, and perfectly metallic. The powder of selenium. has a deep red color, but it sticks together readily when pounded, and then assumes a gray color and a smooth surface, as happens to antimony and bismuth. In very thin coats selenium is transparent, with a ruby red color. When heated it softens; and at 212° it is semi-liquid, and melts completely at a tempeVOL. XX.

and

rature a few degrees higher. During its cooling it retains for a long time a soft and semi-fluid state. Like Spanish wax it may be kneaded between the fingers, and drawn out into long threads, which have a great deal of elasticity, in which we easily perceive the transparency when they are flat and thin. These threads, viewed by transmitted light, are red; but, by reflected light, they are gray, and have the metallic lustre. When selenium is heated in a retort, it begins to boil at a temperature below that of a red heat. It assumes the form of a dark yellow vapor, which, however, is not so intense as that of the vapor of sulphur; but it is more intense than chlorine gas. The vapor condenses in the neck of the retort, and forms black drops, which unite into larger drops, as in the distillation of mercury.

If we heat selenium in the air, or in vessels so large that the vapor may be condensed by the cold air, a red smoke is formed, which has no particular smell, and which is condensed in the form of a cinnabar-red powder, yielding a species of flowers, as happens to sulphur in the same circumstances. The characteristic smell of horse-radish is not perceived till the heat becomes great enough to occasion oxidation.

Selenium is not a good conductor of heat. We can easily hold it between the fingers and melt it at the distance of one or two lines from the fingers without perceiving that it becomes hot. It is also a non-conductor of electricity. On the other hand M. Berzelius was not able to render it electric by friction. It is not hard; the knife scratches it easily. It is brittle like glass, and is easily reduced to powder. Its specific gravity is between 4.3 and 4.32.

The affinity of selenium for oxygen is not very great. If we heat it in the air, without touching it with a burning body, it is usually volatilised, without alteration; but if it is touched by flame its edges assume a fine sky-blue color, and it is volatilised with a strong smell of horse-radish. The odorous substance is a gaseous oxide of selenium, which, however, has not been obtained in an insulated state, but only mixed with atmospherical air. If we heat selenium in a close phial filled with common air, till the greatest part of it is evaporated, the air of the phial acquires the odor of oxide of selenium in a very high degree. If we wash the air with pure water, the liquid acquires the odor of the gas; but, as there are always formed traces of selenic acid, this water acquires the property of reddening litmus paper feebly, and of becoming muddy when mixed with sulphureted hydrogen gas. Selenic oxide gas is but very little soluble in water, and does not communicate any taste to it.

If we heat selenium in a large flask filled with oxygen gas, it evaporates without combustion, and the gas assumes the odor of selenic oxide, just as would have happened if the sublimation had taken place in common air; but, if we heat the selenium in a glass ball of an inch diameter, in which it has not room to volatilize and disperse, and if we allow a current of oxygen gas to pass through this ball, the selenium takes fire just when it begins to boil, and burns with a feeble flame, white towards the base, but green

C