Eager to express your love, You ne'er consider whom you shove, But rude press before a duke. Swift. The seamen towed, and I shoved, till we arrived within forty yards of the shore. Gulliver's Travels. I was forced to swim behind, and pushed the boat forward with one of my hands; and, the tide favouring me, I could feel the ground: I rested two minutes, and then gave the boat another shove. Id. Cards were superfluous here, with all the tricks That idleness has ever yet contrived To fill the void of an unfurnished brain, To palliate dulness, and give time a shove. Cowper. SHOVEL, n. s. & v. a. SHOVELBOARD, n. s. SHOVELLER. Sax. rcofl; Teut. schoeffel. An instrument to throw or heap up with: to throw or heap up; to gather in great quantities: shovelboard is a board on which metal pieces are shoved along at a mark: a shoveller is one who uses a shovel, also a bird. A handbarrow, wheelbarrow, shovel, and spade. To die upon the bed my father died, Shakspeare. Winter's Tale. Pewets, gulls, and shovellers, feed upon flesh, and yet are good meat. Bacon. Ducks shovel them up as they swim along the waters; but divers insects also devour them. SHOVEL, DRAINING, a tool employed for the purpose of clearing out the loose crumbly earthy materials from the bottom parts of drains. It is formed with a crooked handle, the edges of the shovel part being turned up on the sides, in order to prevent the materials which are scraped up from falling off. In consequence of the crookedness of the handle, the workman is prevented from stooping so much as would other wise be the case, in performing the work. There are different constructions of this implement made use of, in managing business of this sort. A scoop is sometimes made use of, both with and without this implement, for the purpose of scooping up and clearing out all the crumbs, loose mould, and other similar materials, from the bottom parts of drains, before they are laid or filled with spray, brush-wood, or any other substance, in order that they may be quite clear and free of any sort of obstruction. The tool is formed in a crooked scoop-like manner at the head, and of different shapes, sizes, and breadths, according to the nature of the drains and openings in which it is to be employed; being, in working, drawn, or pushed along the bottoms of the cuts or drains. The handle has also occa sionally a crooked form, in order to ease the workman in using it. off the sward or turf from the surface of ground, SHOVEL, PARING, a tool employed in paring in order to burn it. The shovel which is used in Devonshire for this purpose has a hollow heart-shaped form in the shovel part, with a long handle, which makes it a very powerful implement. The plate of the mouth part is from nine to ten inches in width, where the handle is inserted, which is made with a considerable curve upwards; the blade is about twelve inches in which, with its sides, are constantly kept very length, terminating with a broad angular point, sharp and keen for cutting; on the left hand, or land side of the tool, a sharp wing, comb, or coulter, rises up in an oblique manner, to cut and divide the slice part from the whole ground. This, however, in consequence of the toughness of the surface, and the impediments presented by the roots of furze, flags, heather, and other similar matters, is not unfrequently dispensed with; the slice being rent or torn off by the workman from the side of the whole ground, while it is cut up and separated from the earth below. When a foot or fifteen inches of the slice rises upon the handle of the shovel, it is separated from the uncut part of the surface by a sudden effort or exertion with the tool, and by a turn of it is whelmed or laid over the mould side upwards. Where the state and circumstances of the surface will permit, as by not being too much loaded and encumbered with the above sorts of plants, the effort of separating the cut from the uncut sward may in all cases be much lessened by having the slice, which is next to be pared, cut or nicked in such lengths as may be most convenient to the workmen. And, in some particular places and situations of land, the regular nicking of the slice to be pared from the ground is indeed found indispensably necessary, as where the ground is of such a moory quality as to render the operation impracticable without it. In all such instances it is, however, probably much better, as being more convenient and expeditious, to have the shovel formed with a cutting wing, by which the whole may be done at once, without any sort of delay in the business. SHOVEL (Sir Cloudesly), a brave English admiral, born about 1650, of parents rather in the lower rank of life. He was put apprentice to a shoemaker; but, disliking this profession, he abandoned it and went to sea. He was at first a cabin boy with Sir Christopher Mynns, but, applying to the study of navigation with indefatigable industry, his skill as a seaman soon raised him. The corsairs of Tripoli having committed great outrages on the English in the Mediterranean, Sir John Narborough was sent in 1674 to reduce them to reason. As he had received orders to try the effects of negociation before he proceeded to hostilities, he sent Mr. Shovel, then a lieutenant in his fleet, to demand satisfaction. The dey treated him with a great deal of disrespect, and sent him back without an answer. Sir John despatched him a second time, with orders to remark particularly the situation of things on shore. The behaviour of the dey was worse than ever. Upon Mr. Shovel's return he informed Sir John that it would be possible, notwithstanding their fortifications, to burn all the ships in the harbour. The boats were accordingly manned, and the command of them given to lieutenant Shovel, who seized the guardship and burnt four others, without losing a man. This action so terrified the Tripolins that they sued for peace. Sir John Narborough gave so favorable an account of this exploit that Mr. Shovel was soon after made captain of the Sapphire, a fifth rate ship. In the battle of Bantry Bay, after the revolution, he commanded the Edgar, and, for his gallant behaviour in that action, was knighted by king William. Next year he was employed in transporting an army into Ireland; a service which he performed with so much diligence and dexterity that the king raised him to the rank of rear admiral of the blue, and delivered his commission with his own hands. Soon after he was made rear admiral of the red, and shared the glory of the victory at La Hogue. In 1694 he bombarded Dunkirk. In 1703 he commanded the grand fleet in the Mediterranean, and did every thing in his power to assist the Protestants who were in arms in the Cevennes. Soon after the battle off Malaga he was presented by prince George to queen Anne, who received him graciously, and next year employed him as commander-inchief. In 1705 he commanded the fleet, together with the earls of Peterborough and Monmouth, which was sent into the Mediterranean; and it was owing to him chiefly that Barcelona was taken. After an unsuccessful attempt upon Toulon, he sailed for Gibraltar, and thence homeward with a part of the fleet. On the 22nd of October, at night, his ship, with three others, was cast away on the rocks of Scilly. See SCILLY. All on board perished. His body was found by some fishermen on the island of Scilly, who stripped it of a valuable ring and afterwards buried it. Mr. Paxton, the purser of the Arundel, hearing of this, found out the fellows, and obliged them to discover where they had buried the body. He carried it on board his own ship to Portsmouth, whence it was conveyed to London, and interred with great solemnity in Westminster Abbey. A monument was afterwards erected to his memory by the direction of the queen. He had married the widow of his patron, Sir John Narborough, by whom he left two daughters, co-heiresses. SHOVELLER, in ornithology. See ANAS. The shoveller and spoonbill, mentioned above as synonymous by Dr. Grew, are quite different species or rather genera of birds: the shoveller is a species of anas: the spoonbill is the English name of the genus platalea. Brown is also in the same mistake. SHOUGH, n. s. For shock. A species of shaggy or shock dog. In the catalogue ye be for men, As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'cleped All by the name of dogs. Shakspeare. Macbeth. A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough, A back friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that commands The passages of alleys. Id. Comedy of Errours. Dudman, a well-known foreland to most sailors, here shoulders out the ocean, to shape the same a large bosom between itself. Carew's Survey of Cornwall. It is a fine thing to be carried on men's shoulders; but give God thanks that thou art not forced to carry a rich fool upon thy shoulders, as those poor men do. Taylor. Archimedes's, lifting up Marcellus's ships, finds little more credit than that of the giant's shouldering mountains. Glanville. Emily dressed herself in rich array; Fresh as the month, and, as the morning fair, Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair. Dryden. So vast the navy now at anchor rides, That underneath it the pressed waters fail, And, with its weight, it shoulders off the tides. Id. When you riyet a pin into a hole, your pin must that the shoulder slip not through the hole as well as have a shoulder to it thicker than the hole is wide, the shank. Around her numberless the rabble flowed, Shouldering each other, crowding for a view. Moxon. Rowe's Jane Shore. He took occasion from a shoulder of mutton to cry up the plenty of England. Addison's Freeholder. The head of the shoulder bone, being round, is inserted into so shallow a cavity in the scapula, that, were there no other guards for it, it would be thrust out upon every occasion. Wiseman. When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend The wretch who living saved a candle's end; Shouldering God's altar a vile image stands, Belies his features, nay, extends his hands. Pope. The horse will take so much care of himself as to come off with only a strain or a shoulder-slip. Swift. But rude at first, and not with easy slope Receding wide, they pressed against the ribs, And bruised the side; and, elevated high, Taught the raised shoulders to invade the ears. Long time elapsed or e'er our rugged sires Complained, though incommodiously pent in, And ill at ease behind. Cowper. tation: a vehement or loud cry of this kind; the other noun substantive corresponding. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Psalm xlvii. 1. The shouting for thy summer fruits and harvest is fallen. Isaiah. It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Ex. xxxii. The Rhodians, seeing the enemy turn their backs, gave a great shout in derision. Knolles's History of the Turks. This general applause and chearful shout Shakspeare. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for? Id. He storms and shouts; but flying bullets now To execute his rage appear too slow: They miss, or sweep but common souls away; For such a loss Opdam his life must pay. Waller. All clad in skins of beasts, the javelin bear; And shrieks and shoutings rend the suffering air. Dryden. What hinders you to take the man you love? The people will be glad, the soldiers shout; And Bertran, though repining, will be awed. A peal of loud applause rang out, And thinned the air, till even the birds fell down Upon the shouter's head. Id. Cleomenes. Id. There had been nothing but howlings and shoutings of poor naked men, belabouring one another with snagged sticks. More. SHOUT, clamor, in antiquity, was frequently used on ecclesiastical, civil, and military occasions, as a sign of approbation, and sometimes of indignation. Thus as Cicero, in an assembly of the people, was exposing the arrogance of L. Antony, who had the impudence to cause himself to be inscribed the patron of the Romans, the people, on hearing this, raised a shout to show their indignation. In the ancient military discipline shouts were used, 1. Upon occasion of the general's making a speech or harangue to the army from his tribunal. This they did in token of their approving what had been proposed. 2. Before an engagement, in order to encourage and spirit their own men, and fill the enemy with dread. This is a practice of great antiquity; for, as mankind are endowed with two senses, hearing and seeing, by which fear is raised in the mind, it is proper to make use of the ear as well as the eye for that purpose. Shouts were also raised in the ancient theatre, when what was acted pleased the spectators. It was usual for those present at the burning of the dead to raise a great shout, and call the dead person by his name, before they set fire to the pile. SHOW, v. a., v. N., &` Pret. showed and SHOWBREAD, [n.s.shown; part. pass. SHOW'ISH, adj. shown. Sax. rceapan; SHOW'Y. Belg. schowen. This word, frequently written shew, is always pronounced show; which is favored by the Belg. schowen and Teut. schauen. To exhibit; give to sight; make to see; prove; explain; inform; publish; discover: to appear; look; have appearance: a show is a spectacle; mere appearance; semblance; likeness; exhibition; pomp; phantom: for the bread see SHEWBREAD: showish and showy mean, glaring; ostentatious; pompous. VOL. XX. I raised thee up to shew in thee my power. Set upon the table shew-bread before me. Id. xxv. 30. Thou shalt utterly destroy them; make no cove. nant with them, nor shew mercy unto them. Deut. vii. 2. To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend. Job vi. 14. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Psalm 1xxxviii. 10. Forasmuch as knowledge and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, let him be called. Dan. v. 12. Felix willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. Acts xxiv. 27. Ye are a chosen generation, that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness. 1 Peter ii. Shall I say O Zelmane? Alas, your words be against it. Shall 1 say prince Pyrocles? Wretch that I am, your show is manifest against it. Sidney. The places of Ezechiel have some show in them, for there the Lord commanded the Levites which had committed idolatry to be put from their dignity, and serve in inferior ministries. Whitgifte. My lord of York, it better showed with you, Shakspeare. Henry IV. She shews a body rather than a life, A statue than a brother. Id. Antony and Cleopatra. When devils will their blackest sins put on They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. Id. Othello. This I urge to show Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved. Shall lead hell captive, maugre hell, and show I through the ample air in triumph high, The powers of darkness bound. Achates' diligence his duty shows. Stand before her in a golden dream; Set all the pleasures of the world to show And in vain joys let her loose spirits flow. The kindred of the slain forgive the deed, But a short exile must for show precede. Just such she shows before a rising storm. T Id. Id. Id. Id. Dryden. Sends from above ten thousand blessings down, Nor is he set so high for show alone. Granville. She taking him for some cautious city patient, that came for privacy, shews him into the dining-room. The escutcheons of the company are showish, and will look magnificent. Swift. Id. Still on we press; and here renew the carnage, So great that in the stream the moon showed purple. Philips. I envy none their pageantry and show, I envy none the gilding of their woe. Young. SHOW'ER, n. s. & v. a. Sax. rcup; Belg. SHOW'ERY, adj. scheure; Goth. skura. Rain either moderate or violent: hence any liberal distribution: to pour down; wet with rain; scatter or distribute profusely: showery is rainy; abundant in showering. Couper. Or when a storm drew near. When no soft shower descends, no dew distils, Her wave worn channels dry, and mute her rills; When droops the sickening herb, the blossom fades, And parched earth gapes beneath the withered glades. Darwin. SHOWER, in meteorology, a cloud condensed to rain. See CLOUDS, METEOROLOGY, and RAIN. SHOWER (John), an eminent nonconformist divine, born in London in 1660, and educated under Mr. Doolittle at Islington. In 1687 he became pastor of a congregation in Jewin Street. He was eminent for his piety, and published Sacramental Sermons, and Reflections on Time and Eternity; two works much esteemed. He died at Hoxton in 1718, aged fifty-eight. SHOWERS OF STONES, &c. In the ancient histories of most nations marvellous anecdotes are told, and wonderful facts seriously recorded, of preternatural rains; such as the raining of stones, of sand, of dust, of blood, nay even of living animals, such as fish, young frogs, &c., from the clouds. That in the early periods of society, when historical records were not regularly kept, and when consequently historical facts were few and of little importance, historians should have been anxious to collect every thing wonderful that tradition or credulity invented or reported, to render their histories entertaining and agreeable to the taste of those times, is by no means surprising. Herodotus, one of the most ancient and respectable of the Grecian historians, has filled his history with miracles of every kind that he could collect in all the countries through which he travelled. Livy, one of the best of the Roman historians, followed his example, and has interlarded his history, otherwise respectable, with numerous fables and pretended miracles. In the dark ages of modern times, when history was chiefly entrusted to the priests and monks, it is not surprising that the same plan should have been continued of collecting and recording every report, and the more wonderful, i. e. the more incredible, the better. But that in the present age, when scepticism is so prevalent that not only the most important truths of revealed religion are called in question, but mathematical demonstration is required for almost every thing in history and science; that at such a period, and in such a nation as France, where infidelity still prevails, in spite of Buonaparte's hypocrisy, more than in any other nation in Europe, a philosopher should be found pleading seriously for the truth and possibility of such preternatural showers, is one of those phenomena in the history of the human mind which seems totally unaccountable. Yet the learned Joseph Izarn, M. D., professor of natural philosophy, member of the Society of Sciences, Belles Lettres, and Arts, of Paris, &c. &c., has, within these two years, published a work at Paris, consisting of 430 pages, and in more scientific language by M. Biot, member of the National Institute, who was commissioned by government to investigate the fact. This gentleman observes, in his truly wonderful report, that 'the district in which the stones were precipitated forms an elliptical extent of nearly two leagues and a half, and of about one in breadth; the greater dimension being in a direction from south-east to north-west, with a declination of about 22°, thus curiously coinciding with the magnetic meridian. The largest stone which fell weighed about 17 lbs., and the smallest about 1000th part of that weight. The whole number of stones exceeded 2000 or 3000!' See Journal de Physique; Prairial, Annee xi, and Journal des Debates, 14 Thermidor, Annee xi. Such are the principal facts related by Dr. Izarn in support of his system of atmospheric lithology. His anecdotes of showers of fire we need not quote, as no person who knows how universally the electric fluid is diffused through the atmosphere, and who has considered its powerful effects in producing storms of thunder and lightning, fire-balls, luminous meteors, &c., will doubt that it may on some occasions have assumed the form of a shower of fire. But Dr. Izarn, in his zeal for his system of atmospherical lithology, endeavours to establish and account for it, by connecting it with something like atmospherical electricity (though he elsewhere rejects all connexion with that powerful fluid), in the following conclusions:-1. That very considerable masses have sometimes fallen to the earth. 2. That these masses, penetrated by fire, roll in the atmosphere, like burning globes, which diffuse light and heat to great distances. 3. That they seem to have received a motion parallel to the horizon, though they really describe a curve. 4. That they become soft, or are fused into a paste-like consistency, as is proved by their varnished substance, and the impressions formed on their surface by the bodies which they encounter. 5. That they have fallen in England, Germany, Italy, France, and the East Indies. 6. That all these stones resemble one another in their physical characters and chemical composition.' After having laid down some general maxims relative to natural appearances, illustrated the principal, that substances may exist in a solid, liquid, or gaseous modification, without undergoing any change of identity, and estimated the application of this recognized fact, Dr. Izarn endeavours to establish his philosophical transubstantiation by these four conclusions: 1. That there must exist, in the gaseous mass which envelopes our globe, different aëriform substances, which are unknown to us, which are mostly insulated by one another, and disposed in spherical masses (massées spheriquement), by the pressure which is exercised on them in all directions. 2. That detonations take place in the atmosphere, which are not the consequence of electrical phenomena; and which perhaps have nothing in common with electricity. 3. That we ought not to ascribe every luminous matter to the combustion of hydrogen, since the phenomena present us only with a disengagement of light, which may be effected by any gaseous substance passing into another state. 4. Lastly, entitled Des Pierres tombees du Ciel, &c., i. e. A Treatise on Stones fallen from the Clouds; or, Atmospheric Lithology; exhibiting the Progress and actual State of the Science; a View of the Phenomena of Thunder Stones, Showers of Stones, Stones fallen from the Heavens, &c., several unpublished Observations, with an Essay on the Theory of the Formation of the Stone. From this extraordinary work we suppose a very few extracts will sufficiently gratify the curiosity of our readers:-I. 'According to Paul Lucas,' says the Dr., an eye witness, a stone fell from the air at Larissa, in Macedonia, in January 1706. It weighed 72 lbs., resembled the dross of iron, and was seen to proceed from the north, with a loud hissing, apparently enveloped in a small cloud, from which it burst, and fell with a very loud explosion.' II. The celebrated Gassendi, whose accuracy is allowed to have equalled his knowledge, relates that, on the 27th November 1627, when the sky was very clear, he saw a burning stone, apparently four feet in diameter, fall on mount Vaiser, between the towns of Guillaumes and Perne in Provence. It was surrounded by a luminous circle of different colors, like a rainbow; and its fall was accompanied by a noise like that of many cannons fired at once. This stone weighed 59 lbs. Its weight was to that of marble as 14 to 11. III. A shower of common and very fine sand fell in the Atlantic, at eight or nine leagues from land, on the 6th of April 1719, and continued from ten o'clock P. M. till one P. M. of the following day.' IV. In September 1753, about one P. M., the weather being very warm and serene, without any clouds, a great noise was heard like the firing of two or three cannons. Though of very short duration, it was audible at the distance of six leagues in every direction. It was loudest in the neighbourhood of Pont de Vesle. A hissing sound, like that of a squib, was likewise heard at Liponas, a village three leagues from Pont de Vesle, and four from Bourg. On the same evening there were found at Liponas, and at Pin, a village near Pont de Vesle, three leagues from Liponas, two blackish masses, of a figure nearly circular, but very unequal, which had fallen on ploughed ground, into which they had sunken half a foot by their own weight. One of them weighed about 20 lbs. They were broken, and the fragments were shown to all the curious. A similar noise was heard on St. Peter's day, in 1750, in Lower Normandy; and a mass very nearly of the same nature, but much larger, fell at Niort. One of the stones, weighing 11 lbs., may be seen at Dijon, in the museum of M. Varenne de Beost, principal secretary to the states of Burgundy, and correspondent of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.-M. De Lalande's Narrative, in the Historical Almanack of Bresse, 1756. V. Messrs. Chladen, Pallas, A. G. Duluc, Patrin, and others, mention a mass of native iron that fell from the clouds in Siberia. But, as the truth of this story rests on a doubtful tradition among the Tartars, it merits no credit. VI. A more remarkable instance of the fall of stones than any which Dr. Izarn has recorded, has been related with artless simplicity by M. Marais, în inhabitant of Aigle in Normandy, |