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S E L 



Talk," which contains much curious matter, and became 

 popular. 



" Selden," fays Dr. Aikin, to whofe lives of Seldcn 

 andUflierour readers are referred for much curious and in- 

 terelliiig matter, " was one of the molt learned men of his 

 time, and though the nature of his fubjedls, and a harlh and 

 difficult llyle, have thrown his works out of the ordinary 

 courfe of reading, yet he has been a confiderable benefaftor 

 to htcrature, and his merit, as fuch, has been freely acknow- 

 ledged by the mod eminent fcholars at home and abroad. 

 Grotius, Salmafius, Bochart, Gerard VolHus, Gronovius, 

 Daniel Heinfius, and many other writers of great celebrity, 

 have mentioned him with high encomium, and in England 

 he was looked up to as at the head of a literary body. He 

 was liberal in his patronage of men of letters, and appears 

 to have been free from the jealoufy and arrogance too fre- 

 quently accompanying the learned charaAer. Lord Claren- 

 don, though widely different from him in political fenti- 

 ments, has, in his own life, fpoken of him in terms of pro- 

 found refpedl and admiration ; and from perfonal knowledge, 

 has teltiiied to the amiable qualities of his heart, and urba- 

 nity of his manners, as well as to the powers of his under- 

 ftanding." Another author obferves that he was a man of 

 uncommon gravity and greatnefs oi foul, averlc from flattery, 

 liberal to fcholars, and charitable to the poor. His works 

 were publiftied coUeftively in three vols, folio, by Dr. David 

 Wilkins, In 1726, with a Latin life of the author. 



Selden is celebrated in German mufical diftionaries, as a 

 mufical writer, for his notes on the Arundelian Marbles, con- 

 cerning Hyagnis, the inventor of tlie flute, the Ambabaia:, 

 Terpander, and the Nomes of the ancients. 



SELE, in Axicient Geography, a town of Afia, in the 

 interior of Sufiana. Ptolemy. 



Sele, in Geography, a river of Naples, which runs into 

 the gulf of Salerno, N. lat. 40^ 28'. E long. 13^. — Alfo, 

 a town of Nubia ; 85 miles W. of Arkiko. 



SELEBAR, a river on the W. coall of Sumatra, which 

 runs into the fea, S. lat. 4° 2'. E. long. 102° 15'. 



SELECTI JuDlCES, in the Roman Republic, were per- 

 fons appointed by the prietor with the mutual confent of 

 contending parties, and bearing in many refpedls a remark- 

 able refemblance to our juries ; for they were firll returned 

 by the prstor, then their names were drawn by lot, till a cer- 

 tain number was completed ; then the parties were allowed 

 their challenges ; next they ilruck what we call a tales ; 

 and, laftly, the judges, like our jury, were fworn. 



SELEFKE', or Itsckil, in Geography, a town of 

 Afiatic Turkey, in the province of Caramania, feated on a 

 river which foon after palfing the town difcharges itfclf into 

 the Mediterranean, oppollte to the ifland of Cyprus ; an- 

 ciently called Seleucia. It is now the refldence of a fa;i- 

 giac, under tiie government of Cyprus. N. lat. 36° 43'. E. 



'o"K- 33'^ 3°'- 



SELEMEUS, m Ancient Geography, a river of Achaia, 

 N.W. and E. of the river Charadrus, which difcharged itfelf 

 iiito the gulf of Corinth. 



SELEMIE, in Geography, a town of Egypt, on the E. 

 branch of the Nile ; 43 miles N. of Cairo. 



SELENiE, i;!Xii»,ti, in Antiquity, a kind of cakes ufed 

 in facritices, and fo called from their being broad and horned, 

 in imitation of the new moon. 



SELENDERS, in the Manege, are chaps or mangy 

 fores in the bending of a horfe's hough, as the malanders are 

 in the knees. 



SELENEUSIACA Terra, Earth of Seleneufia, in 

 the Materia Medica of the Ancients, a light fungous eartli, 

 called by later naturalills agaricus mineralis, and when 



found in form of powder, or in a difcontinuous ftate, lac 

 lunx. 



It is an earth common enough, wherever there are ftone 

 quarries, all over the world ; but the finelt ever met with is 

 that from Sicily, the place where the ancient Seleneufia, or 

 Selinus flood, and from whence the ancient phyficians had 

 it. Some of them have called it the creia Seleneuftaca ; but 

 all their defcriptions agree in proving it to be this very earth 

 now found there. Diofcorides and Galen mention its re- 

 markable diilufibility in water, and Pliny mentions its melt- 

 ing in a kuid of juice, or fmooth homogene fubllance with 

 it ; properties fo very apphcable to this earth, and fo little 

 fo to any otiier, as to leave no doubt of their having been 

 origir:ally r.pplied to the very fame fubllance. 



The ancients gave it internally as an aftringent ; but its 

 principal uL" was external, as a cofmetic among the ladies. 

 And Dr. Plot recommends our lac lunse, on perfonal ex- 

 perience, for the fame purpofes. 



SELENGA, in Geography, a river which rifes in Chinefe 

 Tartary, and traverliiig tiie confines of RufTia, runs into 

 the Baikal lake, 36 miles W.N.W. of Verchnei Udinll<. 



SELENGJNSK, a town of RulTia, in the government of 

 Irkutflv, at the conflux of the Selenga and Chilok. It was 

 made an ulhog in the year 1666, and about 20 years after- 

 wards, the fort, which is now Handing, was built, and to 

 this the place owes its profperity. The town lies parallel 

 to the river, and contains two ohurches, and about 15a 

 houfes, inclolcd within the fortification. This is defended 

 by five pieces of brafs cannon, and as many iron guns ; and 

 the gairifon confills of a regiment of foldiers. The in- 

 habitants are nicknamed " Perofhniki," from the great quan- 

 tities of fand found in thefe parts. The whole adjacent 

 country is mountainous and barren, but a few miles below 

 it tliere is good arable land. The country about Selcnginfk 

 yields a great quantity of rhubarb, infomuch that the rhu- 

 barb exported from RulFia grows in thefe parts ; 84 miles 

 S.E. of Irkutflc. N. lat. 51". E. long. 106° 44'. 



SELENIACON, a name for a kind of amulet worn for 

 the epilcpfv. 



SELENITE, \n Mineralogy, cryftaUized gypfum. See 

 Gypsum, and Sulphate of Lime. 



SELENIZ, in Geography, a mountain of Carinthia ; 10 

 miles S. of Clagcnfurt. 



SELENOGRAPHY, formed from a-iXmri, moon, and 

 y^-y-yri, defcription, a branch of cofmography, which dcfcribe« 

 the moon, and all the parts and appearances of it, as geo- 

 graphy does thole of the earth. 



Since the invention of the telefcope, felenography is very 

 much improved. 



We have now diftindl names for moll of the regions, 

 mountains, &c. vifible in the moon's body. Thefirltwho 

 attempted, but in a very rude manner, to make a map of 

 the !iioon's furface, was Riccioli. Hevelius, a celebrated 

 altrommer, who was a bnrglier-maller of Dantzic, and 

 who publiflied his felenography, reprelented the appearance 

 of the moon in its different Hates from the new to the full, 

 and from the full to the new, and named the fevcral places 

 of the moon from thole of the earth, wliich figures Mayer 

 prefers; but Langreiius and Ricciolus named tliem after- 

 wards, from the names of the celebrated allronomers and 

 philolbpliers, afTigning the largell fpots to thofe of the moll 

 celebrated charailers, wiiich dillinttion 13 now generally fol- 

 lowed. Thus, what tile one calls mons Porphyritct, the 

 other calls Ariflarchus. What the one calls JEtna, Sinai, 

 Athos, Apenninus, &c. the otiier calls Copernicus, Po/ldonius, 

 Tycho, Gaffirndus, &c. A map of the moon, as it appears 

 when full, was drawn by Caflini, who publiflied a work 

 C c 2 entitled 



