SPONSOR SPORTS. 



361 



be destitute of irritability as well as of any locomo- 

 tive power ; and sortie recent writers have main- 

 tained that it is during a part of its existence a 

 vegetable, and during the rest an animal. The 

 opinion that sponge is, like coral, the work of a 

 polype, is erroneous. 



SPONSOR. (See Godfather.) To the re- 

 marks contained in that article we will only add 

 that, when the person baptized is an adult, the 

 sponsor answers for his religious belief. Some sup- 

 pose that sponsors came into use in the first cen- 

 turies of Christianity, when the assurance of a 

 Christian of known character, that those who pre- 

 sented themselves for baptism were worthy of it, 

 was considered requisite. This surety was also to 

 answer for their further instruction. But Neander, 

 in his excellent General History of the Christian 

 Religion and Church (Hamburg, 1826, vol. i., part 

 2), says that sponsors were probably introduced 

 with the baptism of infants, in order to make a pro- 

 fession of the Christian faith in their name, and to 

 guarantee their religious education. Tertullian,who 

 opposed the baptism of infants, mentions the case 

 of the sponsors as one of the objections, because 

 they must take upon themselves an obligation, 

 which they may be prevented from fulfilling by 

 death or the sinfulness of the godchild. The Ro- 

 man and Greek Catholic churches consider the re- 

 lation of the sponsor to the godchild a kind of adop- 

 tion, and therefore forbid marriage between them. 

 Between the sponsors themselves, they do not al- 

 low marriage to take place. The Catholics some- 

 times take a sponsor for confirmation. 



SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. The phe- 

 nomenon of combustion, it is well known, is often 

 produced by friction, fermentation, and other causes, 

 without the application of fire. Forests have some- 

 times been set on fire by the friction of dry wood ; 

 and it is well known that moist wool, hay, corn, 

 madder, meal, malt, hemp and flax, and linseed-oil, 

 and other animal and vegetable substances, take 

 fire of themselves. In the latter case, the combus- 

 tion is the result of a chemical action, being pro- 

 duced by the decomposition of the substance in- 

 flamed, and a new combination of its component 

 parts, or by some other chemical change, attended 

 with the evolution of heat. (See Combustion and 

 Oxygen.) A similar phenomenon is exhibited on 

 sprinkling new-burnt lime with water, which is 

 rapidly absorbed with the evolution of heat and 

 light. The heat, in this instance,proceeds from the 

 consolidation of the liquid water into the lime, and 

 the consequent developement of the latent caloric 

 which always attends the conversion of a liquid into 

 a solid. (See Caloric.) There have also been in- 

 stances of spontaneous combustion taking place in 

 living bodies, by which they have been reduced to 

 ashes. It has been observed that persons who have 

 suffered in this way were addicted to the excessive 

 use of ardent spirits. 



SPORADES ; the general name for nineteen 

 islands in the Archipelago (q. v.), lying to the east 

 of the Cyclades. The principal are Scio, or Chios, 

 Samos, Cos., Rhodes and Lesbos (see the articles). 

 Patmos, or Pathmos, a small rocky island of the 

 Sporades, is celebrated as the place of St John's 

 exile. The grotto in which he is said to have 

 written the Apocalypse is still shown, and a monas- 

 tery, called the monastery of the Apocalypse, has 

 been erected in commemoration of the event. The 

 name Sporades is derived from the Greek onuom, 

 to sow, indicating the scattered position of the 



islands : hence the medical phrase sporadic diseases, 

 in opposition to epidemic, signifying those which 

 seize a few persons at any time or season. 



SPORTS. The national amusements and pas- 

 times of a people form an important feature in the 

 national character. Taking their tone from the 

 manners, habits and condition of the age or countiy 

 in which they prevail, they lead us behind the scene 

 on which the great drama of public life is exhibited, 

 to the daily and familiar customs and events of po- 

 pular life. The sports of a nation are of a religious 

 or martial spirit, gay and mild, or dark and fierce, 

 rude or refined, bodily or intellectual, as they are 

 tinged by its habits and character, on which they 

 reciprocally exercise a powerful influence. Besides 

 numerous local holidays and sports, such as the 

 harvest-home, in honour of Ceres and Bacchus, the 

 panathenaea, celebrated in honour of Minerva by all 

 the people of Attica, &c., there were four great 

 national festivals among the Greeks, open to all 

 people of the Grecian name. The Olympic, Pythian, 

 Nemffian and Isthmian games (see the, articles), 

 were great public festivals, which inspired that 

 polished people with a love of the arts, and imbued 

 them with the spirit of social life. In these games, 

 which were at once religious festivals and commer- 

 cial fairs, the gymnastic and musical contests were 

 exhibited in union (see Music) ; and the produc- 

 tions of genius, poems and histories, were rehearsed 

 before all that was choice and learned of Greece, 

 surrounded by the masterpieces of statuary, paint- 

 ing and architecture. The public amusements of 

 the Romans were of a fierce and sanguinary, or of a 

 coarse and rude character. Their triumphs, their 

 gladiatorial fights, their combats of wild beasts, 

 their religious festivities, which were scenes of 

 boisterous revelry, showed how much behind 

 the Greeks they were in refinement and taste. 

 (See Circus, Gladiators, and Triumph.) In the 

 middle ages, religion and war were the chief ele- 

 ments of the social life, and the amusements were 

 chiefly of a religious or military character. (See 

 Festivals, Chivalry, and Tournament.) Many of 

 the modern popular sports originated from religious 

 festivals ; such are morris-dances, theatrical shows 

 (see Mysteries, and Moralities), &c. Bull-fights 

 continue to form the national amusement of the 

 Spaniards, though the baiting of beasts has nearly 

 gone out of use in England. Cock-fighting, horse- 

 racing, and boxing, national dances, and the field 

 sports of hunting, hawking or archery, are the 

 favourite amusements of some people. But, in 

 some countries, the progress of industry, the habits 

 of domestic life, and the general diffusion of books, 

 have in a great measure superseded the pastimes 

 which were formerly so universal. (See Strutt's 

 Sports and Pastimes of the People of England ; 

 Brand's Popular Antiquities; and Smith's Festivals, 

 Games and Amusements.) Among the amusements 

 .of most nations, games of chance hold an important 

 place, and are undoubtedly of very ancient origin. 

 Those in which the fingers are the instruments, as 

 in the Italian mora (q. v.), are probably the oldest. 

 The invention of dice (q. v.) is attributed to the 

 Greek Palamedes; that of chess (q. v.) to the peo- 

 ple of India. Both games were known to the 

 Greeks and Romans. The games of mixed chance 

 and skill are also of early origin. These were 

 known to the Romans, but they were principally 

 attached to games of chance (/e), although they 

 were prohibited by law, and the players reputed in- 

 famous. The ancient Germans, according to the 



