2)3 



SACHTLEVEN, CORNELIUS. 



SACRO-BOSCO, JOHANNES DE. 



with neither Greek nor Latin, and knew the works of the ancients only 

 through such translations as were then to be procured. Yet, though 

 excluded from the learned languages, his reading was remarkably 

 extensive. After all, whatever imperfections criticism may allege 

 against the writer, biography has none to record against tho man, save 

 those which are common to human nature. He uniformly employed 

 his pen with the best of motives to reform and instruct; and not 

 only was his personal character irreproachable, but the amiable 'bon- 

 hoinmie ' of his disposition such as to obtain for him the appellation 

 of ' Honest Hans Sachs.' 



SACHTLEVEN (or ZACHTLEVEN), CORNELIUS, was born at 

 Rotterdam in 1606. It is not known under what master he studied, 

 but it is apparent that he was a careful observer of nature. He settled 

 at Antwerp, and gained great reputation by painting subjects from low 

 life in imitation of Brauwer. His corps-de-garde are much praised for 

 their judicious grouping and truth to nature. He painted also the 

 interiors of farmhouses, and the sports and recreations of the villagers, 

 in the style and manner of D. Teniers. Though much inferior to the 

 two great artists whom he chose for his models, his works have con- 

 siderable merit, and are found in the best collections. He died in 1685. 



SACHTLEVEN, HERMAN, was bora at Rotterdam in 1609, and 

 studied under John van Goyen. He did not however confine himself 

 to the style of his master, but applied with the greatest diligence to 

 the study of nature, making numerous sketches and designs, which 

 are highly esteemed by the curious. The scenery of the Netherlands 

 not being suitable to his taste, he visited the countries on the banks 

 of the Rhine and the Meuse, which afforded him more picturesque 

 subjects. Some writers have affirmed that he visited Italy, but the 

 Dutch biographers appear to have proved that he never travelled 

 farther from home than to the countries above mentioned. His pic- 

 tures are highly finished, with a light free touch, and a skilful manage- 

 ment of the aerial perspective. He generally introduces into his 

 landscapes a great number of figures and boats, which are drawn with 

 great correctness and spirit. His skies and distances are in general 

 clear, and he often endeavours to express the effects of the vapour 

 between the eye and remote objects, like Berghem and "Wouvermans. 

 His merit was appreciated by his contemporaries, and his best pictures, 

 which are not common, are still highly esteemed. He died in 1&85, at 

 the age of seventy-six. 



SACKVILLE, .THOMAS, EARL OF DORSET, was born in 1536, 

 at Buckhurst in Sussex. He was the only son of Sir Richard Sackville, 

 the representative of a very ancient family, who had been high in office 

 under Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. After studying some time 

 both at Oxford and Cambridge, and taking the degree of M.A. in the 

 latter university, he removed to the Inner Temple, and was called to 

 the bar. Shortly afterwards he was elected a member of the House of 

 Commons. His youth, though passed in dissipation and extravagance, 

 was not wholly misspent, as is shown by his poems, which were written 

 at an early period of life, and were the first-fruits of his vigorous and 

 fertile mind. At the time of his father's death, in 1566, he returned 

 from the Continent, which he had visited after his marriage. In the 

 same year he was created Lord Buckhurst by Elizabeth, and having on 

 a sudden reformed his habits of profuseness, received from that time 

 various marks of royal favour. In 1570 he was sent on an embassy to 

 France, to treat of the marriage then proposed between the queen and 

 the Duke of Anjou; and in 1587 was employed as ambassador extra- 

 ordinary to the United States of the Netherlands, to adjust the differ- 

 ences between them and the Earl of Leicester, whose anger he drew 

 upon himself in the discharge of this duty. He was in consequence 

 imprisoned till the death of his formidable enemy in 1588, after which 

 event he was at once restored to Elizabeth's confidence, and filled a 

 variety of state offices. In 1598, on the death of Burghley, he was 

 made lord-trea&urer, which situation he held during the next reign till 

 his death, April 19, 1608, having, with rare good fortune, had his great 

 services fully appreciated by two royal personages of very different 

 character. His letters, many of which are preserved in the Cotton 

 Collection in the British Museum, show that he was distinguished by 

 the qualities which befit a statesman, and they confirm the judgment 

 of his contemporaries. 



His poems are the tragedy of ' Ferrex and Porrex ' (called in a later 

 edition 'Gorboduc'); 'The Induction,' or poetical preface to 'The 

 Mirror for Magistrates ; ' together with ' The Complaint of the Duke 

 of Buckingham,' in the same collection. Of these ' The Induction ' 

 possesses great merit, and reminds us of the poems of Spenser, to 

 which, though inferior in richness of imagery, it bears great resem- 

 blance not only in the curious exactness with which the lively por- 

 traiture of allegorical personages is made out, but in the language and 

 metre. The earnestness and quaintness of antiquated forms of speech, 

 and the stately structure of the verse, contribute much in the compo- 

 sitions of both poets to the solemn effect of the pictures which are 

 presented in succession to the reader. Warton, in his ' History of 

 English Poetry,' considers Dorset to have furnished the model upon 

 which Spenser formed his style. For some further information see 

 Wood's ' Athense Oxonienses ' (Bliss). 



SACKVILLE, CHARLES, EARL OF DORSET, was born 

 January 24, 1637. In his youth he travelled into Italy, and returned 

 a little before the Restoration ; he afterwards sat in parliament for the 

 borough of East Grinstead in Sussex. Being, like most young noblemen 



of his day, of a dissolute turn, he engaged in no public employment, 

 and he became a great favourite with Charles II. In 1665, being then. 

 Lord Buckhurst, he attended the Duke of York as a volunteer in the 

 Dutch war ; and on the eve of the battle in which the enemy were 

 defeated, and Opdam, their admiral, killed, he is said to have composed 

 the celebrated song beginning ' To all ye ladies now on land.' He was 

 employed after this in short embassies to France. Having become 

 Earl of Dorset by the death of his father, 1677, he soon after chose 

 for his second wife a daughter of the Earl of Northampton. 



Dorset was favourably noticed by James II., but ceased to be one 

 of his adherents as he grew more violent in his measures. After the 

 king's departure, he sat with other peers in council to preserve the 

 public peace. At the accession of William III. he was appointed lord- 

 chamberlain of the household, and received other marks of royal 

 favour. His health after this declined, and he died at Bath, January ] 9, 

 1705-6. A rare felicity, both in speech and action, seems to have 

 distinguished Dorset above all his contemporaries. This is admitted 

 by those of his brother courtiers who were themselves most remarkable 

 for wit and address. Something of the ease and sprightliness of his 

 conversation has been transmitted to us through his poems, though 

 there is little to justify the extravagant praises of Dryden and others, 

 these compositions being few in number and on trifling subjects. They 

 are printed among the minor poets. An elaborate panegyric by Prior, 

 and a biography by Johnson, abridged from a longer one by Cibber, 

 may be consulted for his life. See also Walpole's ' Royal and Noble 

 Authors' (Park). 



SACKVILLE, LORD GEORGE, a younger son of the ducal house 

 of Dorset, was born January 26, 1716. During the reign of George II. 

 he was actively engaged both as a statesman and a politician ; he 

 served at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and at the battle of Minden, 

 fought in 1759, he commanded the British forces under Prince Ferdi- 

 nand of Brunswick. To this he owes the greater part of his notoriety : 

 having failed to execute the prince's orders to charge, by which default 

 the victory was rendered less decisive than it might have been, he 

 was insulted by his commander, and, at his own request, recalled to 

 England, where he_ demanded, and with some difficulty obtained, a 

 court-martial, by which, April 3, 1760, he was adjudged incapable of 

 serving thereafter in any military capacity. George II., who was highly 

 incensed at Sackville's conduct, took every means of rendering his 

 punishment most galling; and among other things, erased with his 

 own hand, in council, Lord George Sackville's name from the list of 

 privy-councillors. In the reign of George III., to whom he was per- 

 sonally acceptable, he returned to public life ; and having attached 

 himself to Lord North, was made secretary of state for the colouies in 

 1775, and had the direction of the American war: with what success 

 need not be here said. In 1782, he, with his leader, retired from 

 office, having just before been raised to the peerage by the titles of 

 Viscount Sackville and Baron of Bolebrook, titles united to the dukedom 

 of Dorset by the accession of Lord George's eldest son to that superior 

 dignity. In 1770 Lord George Sackville took the name of Germain, 

 for an inheritance, under which name he is equally well known. He 

 died August 26, 1785. 



Two explanations may be found of his misconduct at Miuden : one, 

 lack of personal courage, of which he had before been suspected ; the 

 other, personal pique against Prince Ferdinand, indisposing him to act 

 with vigour. The latter is perhaps less creditable than the former. 

 It is to be added however that some inconsistency seems to have 

 existed in the orders delivered to him, which may have given rise to 

 hesitation in a man unequal to the emergency, without gross cowardice 

 or wilful and predetermined betrayal of trust. Of his political career 

 nothing need be said. 



SACRO-BOSCO, JOHANNES DE, an. eminent English mathe- 

 matician of the 13th century, contemporary with Roger Bacon. The 

 place of his birth is generally supposed to have been Holy wood, but is 

 not positively known, there having been at that period at least two 

 towns in England of that name. According to Mackenzie, who has 

 claimed him for a native of Scotland without any satisfactory evidence, 

 he was admitted a member of the University of Paris in the year 

 1221, where he afterwards greatly distinguished himself as professor 

 of mathematics. All the biographers agree in asserting that he spent 

 the greater part of his life in Paris, and it is equally certain that he 

 was some few years at Oxford, where he is said by Whethamstede to 

 have lectured before large audiences with great applause. He died at 

 Paris in the year 1256, as appears from the inscription on his monu- 

 ment in the cloisters of the Mathurine convent at that place. As an 

 author, he is more distinguished by a few elementary works which he 

 left behind him, and which obtained a most extended popularity, than 

 for much originality of talent. His treatise ' De Sphsera Mundi,' 

 which is merely a paraphrased translation of a portion of Ptolemaeus's 

 'Almagest,' continued to be used in the schools for nearly four centuries ; 

 it was printed for the first time in the year 1472, passed through more 

 than twenty editions, and was commented on by several first-rate 

 astronomers. In 1244 he composed a tract, 'De Computo Ecclesiastico,' 

 which contains the common rules of that science ; a curious colophon, 

 which Wallis and Vossius give from old manuscript copies, is our 

 authority for the date of its composition. Perhaps however his most 

 popular work is a tract 'De Algorismo,' one of the earliest knowa 

 works on arithmetic in which the Arabic numerical notation is em- 



