SWINBURNE 



5658 



SWISS GUARDS 



artificial aids, which consist in inflated belts, 

 inflated bags, or "wings," belts to which a rope 

 and pulley are attached, planks, cork mat- 

 tresses and the like. Without doubt one may 

 learn to swim more quickly with one of these 

 aids than without it. On the other hand, there 

 is great danger of one's forming the habit of 

 relying upon a device and not becoming an in- 

 dependent swimmer. If one must learn in deep 

 water the device is a necessity, but to one who 

 has the advantage of shallow water, artificial 

 aids are of doubtful benefit. 



One can gain much help by practicing the 

 strokes on land, lying on a box or narrow 

 bench. One may practice the leg movement 

 in the water by pushing a raft or a boat in this 

 way. W.F.R. 



Consult Dalton's How to Swim; Spalding's 

 Athletic Library No. 37 R; Corsan's At Home in 

 the Water. 



SWINBURNE, swin'burn, ALGERNON CHARLES 

 (1837-1909), an English poet, born in London. 

 His father was Admiral Charles Henry Swin- 

 burne; his mother was Lady Henrietta, a 

 daughter of the third Earl of Ashburnham. 

 He was educated at Eton and at Oxford, where, 

 however, he did not complete his course. In 

 1861, the year that he left the university, he 

 published The Queen Mother and Rosamond, 

 both modeled on the Elizabethan drama; but 

 though they were very remarkable for the work 

 of so young a poet, they attracted little atten- 

 tion. In the same year he made a short conti- 

 nental tour, during which he visited Landor at 

 Florence. 



In 1865 his genius for the first time became 

 recognized, when Atalanta in Calydon, a 

 tragedy of exceptional metrical beauty, was 

 published. Not long afterward appeared his 

 Poems and Ballads, which brought upon him 

 vigorous censure because of his revolt against 

 conventional morality. The wonderful melody 

 of the verses could not be denied, however, and 

 it might almost be said that Swinburne, like 

 Byron, became famous in a night. A number 

 of political songs and odes followed, A Song of 

 Italy, Ode on the Proclamation of the French 

 Republic, Songs before Sunrise and Songs of 

 Two Nations. In 1881 was completed a trilogy 

 begun in 1865, of which Mary, Queen of Scots, 

 is the subject, the three parts being Chastelard, 

 Bothwell and Mary Stuart. Of his other poems 

 may be named the tragedy Erechtheus; a sec- 

 ond and a third collection of Poems and Bal- 

 lads; the odes addressed to Victor Hugo; Tris- 

 tram of Lyonesse; A Century of Roundels; the 



tragedies Locrine and Rosamund, Queen of the 

 Lombards; The Tale of Balen and Astrophel 

 and Other Poems. 



As a Critic. Swinburne was not a painstak- 

 ing judge, but arrived at conclusions by a sort 

 of instinct that was often clear and truthful. 

 Among his critical works are Essays and 

 Studies, Miscellanies, Studies in Prose and 

 Poetry and Under the Microscope, written in 

 reply to an attack on the Pre-Raphaelites, with 

 whom Swinburne was associated. Swinburne's 

 poetic genius consists in his mastery of metrical 

 form, in which he has never been surpassed in 

 English poetry, and an almost unerring choice 

 of the right word and phrase. 



Consult Drinkwater's Swinburne: An Estimate; 

 Mackail's Swinburne. 



SWINE. See HOG. 



SWIN'TON, WILLIAM (1833-1892), a Scot- 

 tish-American educator, and author of widely- 

 used textbooks, was born at Salton, in Scot- 

 land. When he was ten years old he emigrated 

 with his parents to America, and was educated 

 at Knox College, Toronto, and Amherst Col- 

 lege. He taught at girls' schools in North 

 Carolina and New York, and in 1858 became a 

 member of the staff of the New York Times. 

 During the War of Secession he was with the 

 Army of the Potomac as correspondent of the 

 Times, and at the close of the struggle traveled 

 in the South, studying educational conditions 

 there. 



In 1869 he was appointed professor of belles- 

 lettces in the University of California, but five 

 years later resigned and devoted himself to the 

 preparation of textbooks. His spelling and 

 language books, histories and geographies were 

 more widely used than almost any other books, 

 and he was awarded, various honors for them. 

 In the preparation of his grammars and geogra- 

 phies he called to his aid as coeditor John 

 Swett, that his methods of presenting his sub- 

 ject might be passed upon by a master of 

 pedagogy. He wrote also Rambles among 

 Words, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac 

 and The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War 

 and edited Masterpieces of English Literature. 



SWISS GUARDS, a famous body of Swiss 

 soldiers organized to protect King Louis XIII of 

 France in 1616 and annihilated by the infuri- 

 ated populace during the attack on the Tuile- 

 ries, August 10, 1792. Their courage and 

 devotion to duty is commemorated in the fa- 

 mous Lion of Lucerne, carved in the face of a 

 rock at Lucerne, Switzerland. This monument 

 is simply and pathetically dedicated to the 



