SEC 
SEC 
respectable mover and seconder, by a perversion of their 
sense and expressions, that their proposition halts between 
the ridiculous and the dangerous. Burke. 
SECONDIGLIANO, a small town in the north-west of 
the kingdom of Naples, not far from the capital, with 4800 
inhabitants. Swine are reared in great numbers in the 
neighbourhood, and the chief trade of the place is in pork. 
SECONDIGNY EN GRAND, a small town in the west 
of France, department of the Two Sevres, on the river 
Thoue, with 1500 inhabitants; 21 miles north of Niort. 
SE'CONDLY, adv. In the second place.—First, she 
hath disobeyed the law; and secondly, trespassed against 
her husband. Ecclus. 
SECOND MOON, a township of the United Stafes, in 
Beaver county, Pennsylvania. Population 1245. 
SECONDO, St., a small town of the north-west of Italy, 
in Piedmont, near the river Chiamagna. Population 1600; 
2 miles south-by-west of Pinerolo. 
SECONDO, St., a small town of Italy, in the duchy of 
Parma, between the rivers Taro and Parola; 10 miles west- 
north-west of Parma. 
SECONDO, St., a small fortified island of Austrian Italy, 
near the mouth of the Laguno, at Venice. 
SE'COND-RATE, s. The second order in dignity or va¬ 
lue.—They call it thunder of the second-rate. Addison .— 
It is sometimes used adjectively; of the second order.—He 
was not then a second-rate champion, as they would have 
him, who think fortitude the first virtue in a hero. Dryden. 
SECOURSSE (Denys-FraoQois), was bom at Paris, in 
1691. He was one of the earliest pupils of the celebrated 
Rollin, and being brought up to the bar, he was for some 
time a pleader. This profession, however, he quitted, in 
order that he might devote himself entirely to literature, in 
which the study of French history was his principal object. 
In 1723 he was admitted into the Academy of Inscriptions 
and Belles Lettres. The office of censor-royal was con¬ 
ferred upon him, and he was appointed, in 1746, to examine 
the public documents preserved in the newly conquered 
towns of the Low Countries. He died at Paris, in 1754. 
His publications were, the Collection of Royal Ordonnances, 
from the second to the ninth volume inclusive; “ Memoires 
pour servir a l’Histoire de Charles le Mauvais,” two vols. 
4fo.; an edition of the “ Memoires de Conde,” six vols. 
4to., in conjunction with the abbe Lenglet; and several dis¬ 
sertations in the “ Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions." 
SE'CRECY, s. Privacy; state of being hidden; con¬ 
cealment. 
In Nature’s book of infinite secrecy, 
A little can I read. Shakspearc. 
Solitude; retirement; not exposure to view. 
Thou in thy secrecy, although alone. 
Best with thyself accompany’d, seek’st not 
Social communication. Milton. 
Fidelity to a secret; taciturnity inviolate; close silence.— 
Secrecy and fidelity were their only qualities. Burnet. 
SE'CRET, adj. [secret , Fr., secretus, Lat.] Kept hid¬ 
den; not revealed; concealed.—The secret things belong 
unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed 
belong unto us. Deut. —Retired; private; unseen. 
There secret in her sapphire cell. 
He with the Nai's wont to dwell. Fenton. 
Faithful to a secret entrusted. Unused. 
Secret Romans, that have spoke the word, 
And will not palter > Shakspeare. 
Private; affording privacy. 
The secret top 
Of Oreb or of Sinai. Milton. 
Occult; not apparent. 
My heart, which by a secret harmony 
Still moves with thine, join’d in connexion sweet. Milton. 
Privy; obscene. 
899 
SE'CRET, s. [secret , Fr., secretum, Lat.] Something 
studiously hidden. 
Infected minds 
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. Shakspeare. 
A thing unknown; something not yet discovered.—All 
secrets of the deep, all Nature’s works. Milton —The Ro¬ 
mans seem not to have known the secret of paper-credit. 
Arbuthnot —Privacy; secrecy; invisible or undiscovered 
state.—Bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Prov. —In secret, 
riding through the air she comes. Milton. 
To SE'CRET, v. a. To keep private.—Great care is to 
be used of the clerks of the council, for the secreting of their 
consultations. Bacon. 
SE'CRETARYSHIP, s. [secretaire,V y~\ The office of a 
secretary.—Since your secretaryship in the queen’s time I 
believe you were so glutted with the office, that you had not 
patience to venture on a letter to an absent, useless acquaint¬ 
ance. Swift. 
SECRETARIUM, among the Romans, a recluse room, 
where the judges considered the causes that had been liti¬ 
gated before them, and came to a resolution what sentence 
they were to pass from the tribunal. It was most usually 
separated from the tribunal by a veil. 
SE'CRETARY, s. [ secretaire, Fr., sccretarius, low 
Latin.] One entrusted with the management of business; 
one who writes for another.—That which is most of all 
profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries, and em¬ 
ployed men of ambassadors. Bacon. 
Secretaries of State, are officers attending the 
king, for the receipt and dispatch of letters, grants, petitions, 
and many of the most important affairs of the kingdom, both 
foreign and domestic. 
Till the reign of king Henry VIII., there was only one 
secretary of state; but then, business increasing, that prince 
appointed a second secretary; both were of equal power 
and authority, and both styled principal Secretaries of State. 
Before queen Elizabeth’s time, the secretaries did not sit at 
the council board; but that princess admitted them to the 
place of privy counsellors, which honour they have held 
ever since; and a council is never, or at least very seldom, 
held without one of them. On the union of England and 
Scotland, queen Anne added a third secretary, on account 
of the great increase of business, which, as to Britain, was 
equally and distinctly managed by all the three, although 
the last was frequently styled Secretary of State for North 
Britain. We have had also a secretary of state for the Ame¬ 
rican department. But both these offices are now abolished, 
and there still remain three principal secretaries, viz., one of 
the Home Department, another of Foreign Affairs, and the 
third of the Colony and War Department, who have under 
their management and direction the most considerable affairs 
of the nation, and are obliged to a constant attendance on 
the king ; they receive and dispatch whatever comes to their 
hands, be it for the crown, the church, the army, private 
grants, pardons, dispensations, &c., as likewise petitions to 
the sovereign, which, when read, are returned to the secre¬ 
taries for answer; all which they dispatch according to the 
king’s command and direction. 
Ireland is under the direction of the chief secretary to the 
lord-lieutenant, who has under him a resident under secre¬ 
tary. 
Each of the three principal secretaries has two under secre¬ 
taries, and one or more chief clerks, besides a number of other 
clerks and officers, wholly depending upon them. 
Our secretaries of state are allowed power to commit per¬ 
sons for treason, and other offences against the state, in order 
to bring them to their trial. Some have said that this power 
is incident to their office ; and others, that they derive it in 
virtue of their being named in the commissions of the peace 
for every county in England and Wales, 
The secretaries of state have the custody of that seal, pro¬ 
perly called the signet, and the direction of the signet office ; 
in which there are four chief clerks and three deputies em¬ 
ployed, who prepare suchthingsas are to pass the signet, in or¬ 
der 
