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S E L 
SELAH, a word which occurs no less than seventy times, 
in the Hebrew text in the Psalms, and which has occasioned 
great difficulty to the critics. The Septuagint renders it 
Zia^jahu.a, q. d. a pause in singing: and this, it must be 
owned, was greatly wanted before the Psalms were divided 
into verses. 
SELAMA, a village of the island of Ceram, one of the 
spice islands, situated at the bottom of Sawa Bay, on the 
north coast, in lat. 2. 56. S. 
SELAME, an island, or rather cluster of small islands, 
near the coast of Arabia, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, 
near Cape Mussendoon. 
SELANG, a very small island in the Eastern seas, lying 
off the south coast of the island of Batchian, one of the Mo¬ 
luccas. It is not flat and low, neither is it very high; but 
the east part slopes down to where it seems to join the main¬ 
land of Batchian; the straits there being narrow, and not 
five feet deep. The island forms two harbours with the 
mainland, an inner and outer harbour, into either of which 
there is no danger of running, except what is clearly seen. 
Lat. 0. 50. S. long. 124. 10. E. 
SELANIEH. See Selenieh. 
SELANION, in Botany, a name by which some authors 
have called the common Crocus Vernus, or the garden 
spring-flower. 
SELB, a town of Bavarian Franconia; 14 miles south-east 
of Hof. Population 1500. 
SELBA, a small rocky island of Austrian Dalmatia, at 
the entrance of the canal of Zara. It is not fertile, and is in¬ 
habited by mariners and fishermen. 
SELBISTAN, a town of Persia, in the eastern part of the 
province of Fars, in a well peopled and cultivated country, 
bordering on Kerman. 
SELBITZ, a small river of Germany, in Bavarian Franco¬ 
nia, which flows into the Saale; 2 miles north-east of Lich- 
tenberg. 
SELBITZ, a small town of Bavarian Franconia, near the 
above river; 3 miles south-south-east of Lichtenberg. Po¬ 
pulation 1000. 
SELBORNE, a parish of ^ngland, in Southamptonshire; 
4 miles south-by-east of Alton. This parish contained an¬ 
ciently a priory of Black canons, and a house for knights 
templars. Population 770. 
SELBURY-HILL is a high hill of England, in Wiltshire, 
near the village of Kennet, on the road from Marlborough to 
Bath. It is an artificial mound, for what purpose raised is 
unknown; but it is reckoned the largest and most uniform 
barrow in England. 
SELBY, a market town of England, in the West Riding 
of Yorkshire, situated on the right bank of the river Ouse. 
It is a small but populous town; and the river here being 
navigable for vessels of burden, it carries on a considerable 
trade to London and other places.' This trade has been 
much improved of late years by the opening of a new canal, 
which communicates from hence with the rivers Aire and 
Calder. A handsome and very complete wooden bridge 
has been lately erected over the Ouse here, much admired 
for the facility with which it can be opened for the admis¬ 
sion of vessels, by means of a leaf or swivel in the centre. 
The principal business within the town consists in ship¬ 
building, and in the manufacture of leather, sail-cloth, and 
iron articles. Selby is a place of great antiquity 1 , and was 
known in Saxon times by the appellation of Salebia. It was 
noted as the birth-place of Henry I., son of William the Con¬ 
queror. William had, in 1070, erected a monastery here, 
to which he was shortly after paying a visit along with his 
queen, when the latter was delivered. The abbey stood at 
the west end of the town, and was filled with Benedictine 
monks. It was granted, along with its revenues, to Sir 
Ralph Sadler, by king Henry VIII. Since that period, the 
buildings have been appropriated to various purposes, and 
most of them are now demolished, except the church, which 
seems to have been a very spacious and elegant structure. 
From the various styles of its architecture, it appears evi¬ 
dently to have been erected at different periods. The oldest 
S E L 
parts are the body and the nave, which are of Norman origin, 
and are probably coeval with the foundation of the abbey. 
The western front, though very irregular, is extremely cu¬ 
rious, both in regard to structure and ornaments. The en¬ 
trance on this side, and also on the northern porch, are 
particularly worthy of attention. The form of the church is 
that of a cross, the shaft of which is 267 feet in length, and 
its transept 100 feet. From the centre of the building rises 
a massive tower, which was rebuilt in 1702. On each side 
of the choir are 12 ancient stalls, similar in form and work¬ 
manship to those of the cathedral at York. In the windows 
are considerable remains of stained glass. Selby parish con¬ 
tains 742 houses, and 3363 inhabitants. Market on Mondav ; 
14 miles south-by-east of York, and 181 north-by-west “of 
London. Lat 53. 46. N. long. 1. 3. W. 
SELBY PORT, a township of the United States, in Alle¬ 
gany county, Maryland. 
SELCHOW, a village of Prussia, in the Middle Mark 
of Brandenburg; 12 miles south-by-east of Berlin. 
SELCHOW, a village of Prussia, in Pomerania; 18 
miles south-by-west of Stettin. 
SELCKE, a small river of Germany, in Saxony, which 
rises in the mountainous district of the Harz, and falls into 
the larger stream of the Bode. 
SE'LCOUTH, adj. [pelfa, rare. Sax. and couth, known.] 
Rarely known ; uncommon. Unused. 
Yet nathemore his meaning she ared, 
But wondred much at his so selcouth case. Spenser. 
SELDEN (John), a very distinguished scholar, and an 
eminent political character, called by Grotius “the glory of 
England,” was born at Salvington, in Sussex, in 1584. He 
was educated at the free-school at Chichester, whence he was 
sent to Hart-hall, Oxford, where he resided about four years. 
He then removed to London, for the study of the law, and 
with this view entered himself in Clifford’s-Inn, and about 
two years alter he removed to the Inner Temple, where he 
soon acquired great reputation by his learning. He had 
already made himself known by some works of great 
merit, and he now wrote verses in Latin, Greek and 
English, upon Mr. William Browne’s Britannia’s Pas¬ 
torals. 
Having been called to the bar, he occasionally pleaded, 
but was much more employed as a chamber counsellor. 
The first object of his private studies, was the history and 
antiquities of his own country, and, in 1607, he drew up a 
work, entitled “ Analecton Anglo-Brittannicon,” which was 
a chronological summary of English history down to the 
Norman conquest. This work was followed, in 1610, by 
“ England’s Epinomis,” and “ Jani Anglorum Facies al¬ 
tera,’’ a Latin and English treatise on the origin and pro¬ 
gress of English law. By these compositions, he became 
known as a diligent enquirer into the early history and con¬ 
stitution of his country, and acquired the esteem of several 
eminent literary characters, among whom were Camden, 
Spelman and Sir Robert Cotton. He was also on familiar 
terms with Ben Jonson, Drayton, Browne and other poets 
of that period, who seem to have regarded his learning and 
talents with great respect, and his own genius appears to have 
been inclined to poetry. In 1614, he published his largest 
English work, a treatise on “ Titles of Honour,” in which 
he displayed a vast extent of reading, directed by sound 
judgment. It became a standard authority with regard to 
all that concerns the degrees of nobility and gentry in this 
kingdom, in which light it is still referred to ; and it abounds 
in historical information concerning the origin of such dis¬ 
tinctions as he traced through other countries. In the year 
1617, he entered upon a wider field of literature, and made 
himself known to the learned throughout Europe, by a cele¬ 
brated work “ De Diis Syris.” The chief or leading object 
of this performance, was to treat on the heathen deities men¬ 
tioned in the Old Testament; but he extended it to an en¬ 
quiry into Syrian idolatry in general, with occasional illus¬ 
trations of the theology of other nations. This work was 
received with great applause by the learned world, and a 
new 
