scy 
SCRIBING, in joinery, &c. is a term 
used when one yde of a piece of stuff is to 
be fitted to another that is irregular. In 
order to make these join close all the way, 
they scribe it ; that is, they lay the piece 
to be scribed close to the other they intend 
to scribe it to, and opening their compasses 
to the widest distance these two pieces 
stand from each otlier, they bear the point 
of one of the legs against the side they in- 
tend to scribe to, and with the other point 
draw a line on the stuff to be scribed. Thus 
they form a line on the irregular piece pa- 
rallel to the edge of the regular one ; and 
if the stuff be cut exactly to the line, when 
these pieces are put together they will seem 
a joint. 
SCROPHULARIA, in botany, figwort, 
a genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia 
class and order. Natural order of Perso- 
nate. Scrophularioe, Jussieu. Essential 
character: calix five-cleft; corolla subglo- 
bular, resupine ; capsule two celled. There 
are twenty-two species. 
SCROTUM. See Anatomy. 
SCROWLS, or Scrolls, in architec- 
ture, the same with volutes. 
SCRUPLE, a weight equal to the third 
part of a dram, or to twenty grains. Among 
goldsmiths it is equal to twenty-four grains. 
SCUDDING, in naval affairs, is the 
movement by which a ship is carried preci- 
pitately before a tempest, and is either per- 
formed with a sail extended on her fore- 
mast ; or, if the storm is excessive, without 
any sail, which is then called scudding un- 
der bare poles. In sloops and schooners, 
and other small vessels, the sail employed 
for this purpose is called the square-sail. 
In larger ships it is the fore-sail. 
SCULPTURE. It is beyond human re- 
search to ascertain when this art was first 
practised, and by what nation. We may, 
however, safely conjecture that it was al- 
most one of the original propensities of 
man, and may be said to have been bom 
with him in every climate. This will still ap- 
pear in the ardent and irresistible implnse of 
youth to make representations of objects 
in wood, and the attempts of savages to 
embody their conceptions of their idols. If a 
command from the Author of our being 
was necessary to prevent the ancient Israel- 
ites from making graven images, it may be 
naturally inferred that the inhabitants of the 
rest of the earth possessed similar propen- 
sities. The descriptions of the scriptures 
demonstrate that the art had been brought 
to great perfection at the period of which 
scu 
they treat ; but they could not be so parff. 
cular as to enable us to judge whether their 
excellence approached the remains we pos- 
sess derived from other sources. 
To proceed methodically on this subject, 
it becomes necessary to make a distinction 
between carving and sculpture ; the former 
belonging exclusively to wood, and thelatter 
to stone. It is extremely probable that 
every essay at imitating animated objects 
was in each nation made in wood originally, 
and it is vain to suppose the tools were any 
other at first than the sharp edges of broken 
stones or flints ; a visit to the British Mu- 
seum will afford the curious spectator a 
competent idea of what the nearest descend- 
ants' of Adam accomplished in the art of 
carving with instruments of tiie above de- 
scription in the figures of the South sea idols. 
The least enlightened nations possess in- 
dividuals of superior observation, who see 
the defects of their neighbours, and by in- 
struction or ridicule produce an attempt at 
reformation; this has evidently been the 
case amongst the Egyptians and Greeks, 
who of all the people of antiquity made 
the earliest and greatest progress in the art 
of sculpture. If the former commenced their 
imitation of nature in wood, it is probable 
they soon discovered that it was incapable 
of a durability commensurate with their 
wishes, they therefore adopted a close grain- 
ed and beautiful granite, which not only re- 
quired tools of iron, but those of the most 
perfectly tempered steel, to cut it ; and with 
such they have left us at this very distant 
time vast numbers of excavated figures, as 
complete and as little injured as if executed 
within our own memory. 
In examining the various sculptures of 
the Egyptians, we find that a general cha- 
racter prevails throughout their outlines, 
which demonstrate that the sculptors were 
natives of Egypt, and that they rigidly 
copied the expression and character of their 
coimtrymen. Had the persons employed in 
decorating ihe numerous magnificent works, 
the ruins of which still surprise the spectator, 
been invited from other countries, a variation 
of style in the drawing would have been 
readily discovered. The circumstance of 
their figures, both male and female, strongly 
resembling each other in every instance, 
proves that this people were not deficient 
in genius ; and their spirited imitations of 
animals adds to our conviction, that had 
nature been more kind to the Egyptian in 
their forms and features, their sculptors were 
fully competent to give an accurate repre- 
