3SO 



SELDEN, JOHN. 



SELEUCID^E. 



390 



resolutions which ultimately caused the exclusion of the bishops from 

 the house of peers. Afterwards we find him agreeing to a protestation 

 that the House of Commons should maintain the Protestant religion 

 according to the doctrines of the English Church, and defend the 

 authority, privileges, and person of the king. He also appears to have 

 offered no opposition to the illegal proceedings of this parliament in the 

 affair of Sir John Hotham ; but as he did not expressly favour them, 

 the court continued to regard him as their friend, until the quarrel of 

 tun king with his Commons arose about the militia, when Selden 

 spoke against the commission of array which Charles had been driven 

 to resort to on being deprived of all authority over his own army. 

 Lord Falkland, by the king's desire, wrote a friendly letter to Seldeu, 

 asking his reasons for the strong opinion which he gave in this 

 question. In his answer Selden still urged the illegality of the com- 

 mission, but ut the same time he inveighed against the ordinauce for 

 the militia, which the parliament had declared as being "without any 

 shadow of law or pretence of precedent, and most destructive to the 

 government of Jihe kingdom." He further declared his intention of 

 speaking against this ordinance, and he did his utmost to obtain the 

 rescinding of it, though without success. 



Charles about this time becoming displeased with the wavering 

 conduct of the Lord Keeper Littleton, inclined to take from him the 

 great seal, and give it either to Banks or Selden. He did not doubt 

 the affection of the latter to his person, yet knowing that he was in 

 years, and preferred ease to any preferment, and private studies to 

 public business, he abandoned the idea ; indeed throughout his whole 

 life Selden was devoted to retirement and to literary pursuits, and it is 

 not easy to decide to which party he most inclined ; it is probable 

 that he was respected by the king, who knew his honesty. His last 

 public acts of any importance were the discussions in which he took 

 part in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, to which he was 

 appointed one of the lay members, and where he is said to have 

 perpk-xed Ms ecclesiastical antagonists by the depth of his learning 

 and the variety of his knowledge. In 1643 he took the Covenant, and 

 in the same year the parliament made him chief keeper of the rolls 

 and records in the Tower. In 164 5 he was] one of the twelve com- 

 moners appointed to be commissioners of the Admiralty ; and he was 

 chosen to succeed Dr. Eden as master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, an 

 honour which he declined. In the following year the parliament, 

 sensible of his services, voted him the sum of 5QOOL " Though some 

 there are that say that he refused and could not out of conscience 

 take it, and add that his mind was as great as his learning, full of 

 generosity and harbouring nothing that seemed base" (Wood's 

 4 Athense ') ; and though these latter acts are proof of his adherence to 

 the popular party, yet he continued to be much esteemed by many of 

 the royalists, and Charles, even if he had the will, was by this time 

 deprived of the power to retaliate. Selden had great influence in the 

 House of Commons, and he frequently used it for the best purposes. 

 He procured the restitution of the endowment of the Arabic pro- 

 fessorship in Oxford, which had been seized on the attainder of Laud, 

 by whom it was founded ; and he succeeded in preserving the library 

 of Archbishop Usher from dispersion. He remained in parliament 

 after the execution of the king, though it does not appear what his 

 conduct or opinions were in that transaction. He withdrew from 

 public affairs as much as possible, and declined to write an answer to 

 the ' Eikon Basilike,' at the request of Cromwell. Selden died 

 November, 30, 1654, at the Carmelite or White Friars, the house of 

 Elizabeth, countess dowager of Kent, whose estates he had latterly 

 managed. He had lived with the countess for some time, and it was 

 reported that he had been married to her. He was buried in the 

 Temple Church, where a monument was erected to him. He be- 

 queathed his very valuable collection of books to his executors, of 

 whom one was Sir Matthew Hale, to be placed in some convenient 

 library or college. His original intention was to give it to the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford, but having taken offence at the authorities of the 

 Bodleian, for requesting a bond of restitution from him on an occa- 

 sion of his desiring to borrow one of their MSS., he struck the 

 bequest from his will. Hale and his co-executors however, considering 

 themselves executors " of his will, and not of his passion," sent the 

 books, about 8000 volumes, to Oxford, where a noble room was 

 allotted for their reception. It is said the executors first offered them 

 to the society of the Inner Temple, but the society, neglecting to 

 provide a proper place for them, lost the valuable gift. 



Selden was a diligent student, and his literary labours only ended 

 with his life. In the treatise entitled ' Mare Clausum,' published 

 in 1635, he maintains the right of England to exclude the fishermen 

 of Holland from the seas, which ehe asserted to be her own, in 

 answer to the treatise of Grotius, entitled 'Mare Liberum,' which 

 denied the right. The controversy arose from a dispute between the 

 British and the Dutch concerning the herring fishery on the British 

 coast. Selden maintained that a dominion over any part of the sea 

 may be acquired. This work greatly raised his reputation at Court, 

 where his arguments were considered conclusive. In 1640 appeared 

 his great work, 'De Jure Natural! et Gentium, juxta Disciplinam 

 Ebrseorurn.' " The object of the author," says Hallam, " was to trace 

 the opinions of the Jews on the law of nature and nations, or of moral 

 obligation, as distinct from the Mosaic law j the former being a law to 

 which they held all mankind to be bound. This theme hud been of 



course untouched by the Greek and Roman philosophers, nor was 

 much to be found upon it in modern writers. His purpose is there- 

 fore rather historical than argumentative ; but he seems so generally 

 to adopt the Jewish theory of natural law, that we may consider him 

 the disciple of the Rabbis as much as their historian." (Uallain'ti 

 'Literature of Europe,' vol. iii. p. 334.) He published also 'A Brief 

 Discourse concerning the Power of Peers and Commons ; ' ' Privileges 

 of the Baronage of England ; ' an edition of the ' Origines ' of Euty- 

 chius ; 'De Anno Civili et Calendario Judaico,' &c. 



As a learned lawyer Selden hplds a high rank. His ' Dissertation 

 on Fleta,' which, like most of his other works, is written in Latin, 

 shows him to have been thoroughly acquainted with the origin of our 

 own law, and its gradual development under the influence of tho 

 civil law. Some few errors have been detected in this valuable essay, 

 but it is an evidence of learning and research of which there havo 

 been few similar instances among English lawyers since his time. To 

 say that Selden wrote Latin with ease and sufficient correctness and 

 elegance is no great praise, considering the age in which he lived. 

 Whitelocke, his biographer, Wilkins, Baxter, and Clarendon, all bear 

 testimony to the excellence of his character and his learning. 

 Clarendon, who was his intimate friend, says, "Mr. Selden was a 

 person whom no character can flatter or transmit in any expressions 

 equal to his merit and virtue." 



Wood says of him : " After he had continued there (the Temple) a 

 sedulous student for some time, he did, by the help of a strong body 

 and a vast memory, not only run through the whole body of the law, 

 but became a prodigy in most parts of learning, especially in those 

 which were not common or little frequented or regarded by the 

 generality of students of his time. So that in few years his name 

 was wonderfully advanced not only at home but in foreign countries, 

 and was usually styled the great dictator of learning of the English 

 nation. . . He was a great philologist, antiquary, herald, linguist, 

 statesman, and what not." (Wood's 'Athena?.') 



There was an apparent indecision and variableness in Selden's public 

 conduct, which makes it difficult to determine what his political 

 principles really were. The most favourable and perhaps the most 

 correct judgment is, that he was sincerely opposed to the arbitrary 

 measures of the crown, and equally unwilling to go all lengths with 

 the parliaments. 



Selden was very intimate with Ben Jonson, who addressed a 

 poetical epistle to him, in which he styles his friend " monarch in 

 letters." Selden's name has been made familiar to many persons by a 

 small volume entitled ' Table-Talk,' which has been many times re- 

 printed. This valuable little collection of acute and learned remarks 

 was first published in 1689, thirty-five years after Selden's death, in a 

 quarto pamphlet of sixty pages, with the title of ' Table- Talk ; being 

 the Discourses of John Selden, Esq., or his sense of various matters 

 of weight and high consequence, relating especially to Eeligion and 

 State.' In the dedication, his amanuensis, Richard Milward, by whom 

 it had been compiled, states that he had had the opportunity of hear- 

 ing Selden's discourse for twenty years together, and that of what is 

 here collected " the sense and notion is wholly his, and most of the 

 words." Seldeu's ' Table-Talk ' contains many just remarks on matters 

 moral and political, expressed in a forcible manner; but though they 

 are not wanting in originality, they can hardly be said to be marked 

 by depth, and many of them are rather characteristic of a man of the 

 world than of a retired student. 



SELEUCID^E, a Greek dynasty in Asia, founded, after the death of 

 Alexander the Great, by SELEUCUS, the son of Antiochus. His father 

 was one of the generals of Philip, and he himself accompanied 

 Alexander in his Asiatic campaigns, in which he so distinguished 

 himself as to be ranked among his greatest generals. On the division 

 of the empire at the death of that prince, Seleucus was intrusted with 

 the important command of the body of cavalry called the Companions, 

 which had been before held by Hephasstion and Perdiccas ; and he 

 was also, according to Justin, made commander of the camp. The 

 satrapy of Babylon was bestowed upon him in the new partition, 

 after the death of Perdiccas (B.C. 321). In the war which followed, 

 he took the part of Antigonus against Eumenes. After the death of 

 the latter (B.C. 315), he received Antigonus into his territory with 

 great appearance of friendship; but taking offence at the tone of 

 superiority which his guest assumed, and dreading his power, he 

 fled to Egypt, and joined Ptolemy Soter, Lysimachus, and Cassander 

 in a league against him. 



The defeat of Demetrius at the battle of Gaza enabled Seleucua to 

 recover Babylon with a very small force. From this period, B.C. 312, 

 commences the era of the Seleucidte. Shortly afterwards he 

 obtained possession of Media, in consequence of his victory over 

 Nicanor, the satrap appointed by Antigonus over this province, whom 

 he is said to have killed with his own hand. After the sea-fight, 

 B.C. 306, in which Demetrius defeated Ptolemy, Seleucus, following 

 the example of the three other great monarchs, assumed the diadem 

 and the title of king. Extending his dominions partly by force and 

 partly by conciliation, he conquered Bactria, and probably most of 

 the provinces enumerated by Appian (' Syriaca,' 55), which Diodorus 

 calls the Upper Satrapies; and ia said, iu consequence of these 

 victories, to have assumed the title of Nicator. Making an expedi- 

 tion againbt Sandrocottus, au Iii-iuiu kiuy, he was induced to form au 



