SPENCE'S METAL 



SPENSER 



625 



Spence's Metal is made by melting together 

 a metallic sulphide, such as sulphide of iron (iron 

 pyrites), along with sulphur. The result is a 

 grayish- black substance, without metallic lustre, 

 which takes a good polish. It can be coloured to 

 imitate bronze and other metals, and as it melts 

 at 320 F. it can readily be cast into moulds from 

 Udh it takes a sharp impression. Busts, medal- 

 lion* &c. have been made of it, and it is also used 

 like lead for the joints of pipes. It is but slightly 

 acted on by acids. First made in 1879, it is more 

 of the nature of a hard cement than a metal. 



Spener, PHILIPP JAKOB, an illustrious German 

 reformer, and the founder of the movement known 

 as Pietism, was horn at Rappoltsweiler in Upper 

 Alsace, January 13, 1635. Pious from his cradle 

 IB studied at Strasburg, where in Johann Schmid 

 he found his 'father in Christ.' Next he studied 



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under the younger Buxtorf at Basel, afterwards 

 siting Geneva, Stuttgart, and Tubingen. In 

 3 lie became a preacher at Strasburg, and three 

 years later was transferred to Frankfort, and here 

 he laboured with the most devoted zeal to reawaken 

 the dormant and mechanical Christianity of the 

 day by constant catechising and earnest preaching 

 based on Scripture and Christian experience. Yet 

 Spener was the very opposite of what is commonly 

 called a mystic. The devotion which he sought to 

 excite was not to show itself in transcendental 

 stasies, but in acts of piety, humility, and 

 He had a strong aversion to formal 

 theology, which he considered a hateful caricature 

 of the free word of life ; and he commenced in the 

 year 1670, at his house, meetings for the cultiva- 

 tion of evangelical morality. Out of these grew 

 the famous collegia pietatis, whose influence for 

 good on the German character, in those days 

 of stony and barren orthodoxy, cannot easily be 

 overvalued. His earnest and plain-spoken Pia 

 Dendena (1675) spread the movement far beyond 

 the range of his personal influence, but aroused the 

 enmity of many in high places. In 1686 he became 

 court preacher at Dresden and member of the 

 L pper Consistory. Here he infused new life into 

 the theological teaching of the university of Leipzig, 

 despite the opposition of Carpzov and others ; but 

 having in 1689 rebuked the Elector Johann Georg 

 [. for his vices, he soon found his position so 

 intolerable that he gladly accepted an invitation 

 to Berlin to become Provost of the church of St 

 Nicholas and consistorial inspector, offices which 

 Jie retained to the end of his life. The Elector of 

 Brandenburg encouraged his efforts after religious 

 reform, and entrusted theological instruction in the 

 in-w iiiiiv.-r-ity of Halle to Francke, Breithaupt, 

 Anton, and other disciples of Spener the later 

 leaders of the pietistic movement. This excited 

 v'ri-at irritation in the theological faculties of 

 itenberx and Leipzig, which fonnally censured 

 ii IflBftM heretical no less than 264 propositions 

 drawn from .Spener's writings. Spener died at 

 Berlin, February 5, 1705, leaving behind a reputa- 

 tion for piety, wisdom, and practical Christian 

 energy which all the excesses of the later pietists 

 iiave not obscured. Indeed Ritechl (Gesch. des 

 Ptetirmtu) maintains that he himself was not a 

 Pietist, having no part in their characteristic 

 <|iiietist and separatist instincts. 



His writings re numerous ; the chief are Pia Degidtria. 

 1675), Dot geiittiche Prietterthum (1677), ChrMichc 

 Jsiehenpretligten ( 13 vola. 1677), Dr thdtigen Chriitcn- 

 thumi NothwendiiikeU (1679), Klagen ilber dan rerdor- 

 bene Ckriitenthum (1684), Evarujelitche Glnubentlehre 

 ( l'W8), nd Thenlof/uche Rfdenten (5 vols. 1700-2). See 

 1. (i. Wlch, BtlipiiHii-ntreitiglttiUn der Lutheritchen 

 Ktrthe (5 vols. 1730-39) ; the Lives by Hossbach (1828 

 3.1 ...I. 1W1 ), Thilo (1841 ), Wildenhalm (1847 ; trans, by 

 Wmzel. Phila. 1881), and GrUnberg (1892-97). 

 400 



fpennymoor, a town of Durham, 4 miles 

 JNJi. of Bishop Auckland, with iron-foundries and 

 coal-pits. Pop. ( 1851 ) 659 ; ( 1891 ) 6041. 



Spenser, EDMUND, one of the chief Elizabethan 

 poets, was, as we learn from the Prothalamion (one 

 of his minor poems), born in London, probably in 

 Hast Snuthfield near the Tower. From one of his 

 Amoretti the date of his birth can with fair cer- 

 tainty be concluded to be 1552. As to his family, 

 there are many indications that he was well con- 

 nected, though his circumstances were poor. He 

 speaks of himself as taking his name from 'an 

 house of ancient fame,' and also of 'the noble 

 famihe, of which I meanest boast myself to be.' 

 This noble family was that of the Spencers of 

 Althorp. With the ladies of it he associates 

 several of his poems. Thus in the dedication of 

 Jhe leares of the Muses to the Lady Strange (in 

 honour of whom in her old age it is interesting to 

 notice Milton's Arcades was composed) he writes 

 The causes for which ye have thus deserved of 

 e to be honoured (if honour it be at all) are both 

 your particular bounties, and also some private 

 bands of affinitie, which it hath, pleased your 

 Ladiship to acknowledge.' But in what degree he 

 was connected with the Althorp Spencers has not 

 yet been ascertained ; it seems slear it was not a 

 close relationship. What is fairly certain is that 

 the poet s branch of the family belonged to the 

 neighbourhood of Burnley in east Lancashire 

 Possibly his father came from Hurstwood, near 

 Burnley. Gabriel Harvey, an intimate friend of 

 hpenser s, speaks of Lancashire as Spenser's county 

 and there is much corroborative evidence of that 

 statement to be drawn from the poet's own works 

 as well as from the Burnley parish registers. But, 

 however 'good' his family, Spenser's father was 

 by no means well-to-do. It is conjectured that he 

 was at one time ' a free journeyman ' in the ' arte 

 or mystene of clothmakynge.' It is certain that 

 his pecuniary means were so limited that in the 

 education of his son, or sons, he was glad of assist- 

 ance, and that even with assistance the poet went 

 up to the university as a 'sizar.' So from the 

 l-eginniug Spenser did not enjoy worldly pros- 

 perity ; from the beginning the saying of one of 

 his admirers applies : ' Poorly, poor man, he lived ; 

 poorly, poor man, he died. ' Of his mother nothing 

 whatever is at present known, except that her 

 Christian name was Elizabeth (Amoretti, Ixxiv.). 



His life appears to have been spent in London till 

 his going up to Cambridge in 1569. The publication 

 The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell 

 of Reade Hall, Lancashire, brother of Dean Alex- 

 ander Powell, 1568-1580,' has informed us that he 

 was sent to the Merchant Taylors' School, then 

 newly founded. He is first mentioned in those 

 accounts as one of six 'poor scholars' of the 

 Merchant Taylors' School, to whom the generous 

 squire gave stuff for gowns. Thus Spenser wculd 

 be a pupil of Mulcaster, though it was certainly 

 not from him he learned to write English- 

 unless indeed Mulcaster's theory was a great deal 

 better than his practice, the style of his Positions 

 being singularly affected and discommendable. 



The Merchant Taylors' School was directly asso- 

 ciated with Pembroke Hall (now College) at 

 Cambridge ; and in May 1569 Spenser duly pro- 

 ceeded from one to the other. No well's beneficence 

 still attended him. Both at 'his going to Pem- 

 broke Hall' and twice at least while there he 

 received presents. And these with the benefits of 

 a sizarship must have reduced his university 

 expenses to an amount which can have been no 

 great burden to his father and family As a 

 scholar he does not seem to have specially distin- 

 guished himself at Cambridge. Perhaps, like 

 Wordsworth two centuries later, he did not feel 



