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49 
veyeth his speech either to prosopopeia, sermocination, &cc. 
Peacham. —No sermocinations of ironmongers, felt-makers, 
coblers, broom-men! Bp. Hall. 
SERMOCINA'TOR, s. [ sermocmor , Lat.] A preacher; 
a speechmaker.—These obstreperous sermocinators make 
easy impression upon the minds of the vulgar. Howell. 
SERMOLOGUS, or Sermologue, an ecclesiastical book 
composed of sermons, or homilies of popes, and other per¬ 
sons of eminence and sanctity, formerly read at the feasts 
of the Confessors, the Purification, All Saints, and on every 
day from Christmas to the octave of the Epiphany. 
SE'RMON, s. [sermon , Fr.; sermo, Lat.] A religious 
discourse pronounced by a divine from the pulpit. 
This our life, exempt from public haunt. 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. Shakspeare. 
Sermons he heard, yet not so many 
As left no time to practise any: 
He heard them reverently, and then 
His practice preach’d them o’er again. Crashaw. 
Many, while they have preached Christ in their sermons, 
have read a lecture of Atheism in their practice. South. 
To SE'RMON, v. a. [sermoner, Fr.] To discourse as 
in a sermon. Unused. —Some would rather have good dis¬ 
cipline delivered plainly by way of precept, or sermoned at 
large, than thus cloudily inwrapped in allegorical devices. 
Spenser. —To tutor; to teach dogmatically. 
Come, sermon me no farther: 
No villainous bounty yet hath pass’d my heart. Shakspeare. 
To SE'RMON, v. n. To compose or deliver a sermon. 
Unused. —A weekly charge of sermoning. Milton. 
SERMONES, the title which Horace gives his Satires. 
See Satire. 
Critics are divided about the reason of the name; the 
opinion of father Bossu seems best grounded. A mere ob¬ 
servance of feet and measure, such as we find in Terence, 
Plautus, and in Horace’s Satires, he thinks is not sufficient 
to constitute verse, to determine the work to be poetical, or 
to distinguish it from prose; unless it have some farther air, 
or character of poetry ; somewhat of the fable or the sub¬ 
lime. 
Hence he judges it is, that Horace calls his Satires prose, 
or sermons: his Odes have quite another air, and are there¬ 
fore called poems, carmina. 
SERMONETA, a small town of the States of the Church, 
in the Campagna di Roma, situated on a hill difficult of 
access. It is supposed by some to stand on the site of the 
ancient Sora, by others on that of Salmona; 13 miles south 
of Veletri. 
SE'RMONING, s. Discourse; instruction; advice; per¬ 
suasion. 
I trow there nedeth litle sermoning 
To maken you assenten to this thing. Chaucer. 
Canons and quaint sermonings, interlined with barbarous 
Latin. Milton. 
SERMONIUM, in Old Records, a kind of interlude or 
historical play, which the inferior orders of clergy, assisted 
by boys, &c., used at times to act in the body of the church, 
suitable to the solemnity of some festival or high procession 
day. 
This is supposed to have been the origin of the modern 
drama. 
To SE'RMONIZE, v. n. To preach.—Under a pretence 
of sermonizing, they have cast off God’s solemn worship on 
this day :•—the primitive church never thought preaching the 
sole work of the Lord’s day. Bp. Nicholson. —To incul¬ 
cate rigid rules.'—If you consider them as the dictates of a 
morose and sermonizing father, I am sure they will be not 
only unattended to, but unread. Ld. Chesterfield. 
SE'RMOUNTAIN, s. [sermontain, Fr.] A plant. See 
Seseli. 
SERNANIELHE, a small but tolerably well-built town 
- Vol. XXIII. No. 1554. 
in the central part of Portugal, province of Beira; 13 miles 
south-south-west of St. Joao de Pesqueira, and 19 south¬ 
east of Lamego. 
SERNIN, St., a small town in the south of France, 
department of the Aveyron, situated on an eminence near 
the Ranee. Population 1000. In the neighbourhood are 
mines of alum; 21 miles east of Alby. 
SEROGLASOVSKAIA, a fortress of Asiatic Russia, in 
the government of Caucasus, on the Volga; 24 miles north¬ 
west of Astracan. 
SERON, a measure: of almonds, 2 cwt.; of anniseed, 
from 3 to 4 cwt. 
SERONGE, a town of Hindostan, province of Malwah, 
belonging to the Mahrattas. It is a large open town, situ¬ 
ated in a fertile country, and celebrated for its manufacture 
of Chintzes, but from its exposed situation, has been often 
plundered by contending parties. In the year 1804, it was 
made over by Holkar, to the celebrated freebooter Ameer 
Khan, who some years after gave himself up to the British, 
and received a grant of lands in Goorackpore. At this 
period Seronge, with the dependent district, was estimated 
at about 60001. per annum. Lat. 24. 8. N. long. 78. E, 
SEROOSKERKE, a village of the Netherlands, in the 
province of Zealand, containing 800 inhabitants. 
SERO'SITY, s. [serosite, Fr.] Thin or watery part of 
the blood: the serum. 
SEROUGE, a village of Diarbekir, in Asiatic Turkey; 
80 miles south-west of Diarbekir. 
SE'ROUS, ad), [sereux, Fr., serosus, Lat.] Thin; wa¬ 
tery. Used of the part of the blood which separates in con¬ 
gelation from the grumous or red part. Adapted to the 
serum.—This disease is commonly an extravasation of serum, 
received in some cavity of the body; for there may be also 
a dropsy by a dilatation of the serous vessels, as that in the 
ovarium. Arbuthnot. 
SEROWICZ, a small town in the south of Bohemia; 
25 miles east-south-east of Tabor. Population 1800. 
SERPA, a small but strong frontier town in the south¬ 
east of Portugal, in the province of Alentejo, situated on a 
rocky height near the Guadiana, with about 4000 inhabit¬ 
ants. There is a fertile district adjacent, full of clumps of fig 
and olive trees; 17 miles south-west of Mourao, and 100 
south-east of Lisbon. 
SERPEISK, a small town in the central part of European 
Russia, in the government of Kaluga, with 1000 inhabit¬ 
ants ; 53 miles west of Kaluga. 
SERPENS HYPNOTICUS. See Hypnoticus. 
SERPENS RUBESCENS, the Red Serpent Fish, in 
Ichthyology, the name of a fish, properly of the taenia 
kind. 
SERPENS TERRENUS, the Earth-Serpent, a name 
given by some of the chemical writers to nitre. 
SE'RPENT, s. [serpens , Lat.] A well-known creeping 
animal that moves without legs. 
She was arrayed all in lily while. 
And in her right hand bore a cup of gold, 
With wine and water filled up to the height; 
Iu which a serpent did himself enfold. 
That horror made to all that did behold. Spenser. 
A sort of firework. 
In fireworks give him leave to vent his spite, 
These are the only serpents he can write. Drj/den . 
A bass musical instrument. 
SERPENT CUCUMBER, in Botany. See Tricho- 
santhes. 
SERPENT ISLANDS, small islands near the north coast 
of Lake Huron. Lat. 46. 2. N. lat. 82. 45. W. 
SERPENT-STONES. See Snake-Stones. 
SERPENT’S-TONGUE, in Botany, a genus of the cryp- 
togamia filices class; comprehending five species. 
SERPENTS’ TONGUES. The island of Malta abounds 
with glossopetrae, or the petrified teeth of sharks, which, 
from their resemblance to a tongue, are by the vulgar sup- 
O posed 
