S L E 
celebrated work of Sleidan’s is a compendium of ancient 
history, entitled “ De quatuor Sum mis Imperiis, Lib. ties,” 
which has gone through a great number of editions. He 
published likewise a Latin translation of the History of 
Philip de Comines, and an abridgment of that of Froissart, 
besides versions of other works on general history and 
politics. 
SLEIGHT, s. [Sax, phS or ply <5, deceitful, whence our 
slyj] Artful trick; cunning artifice ; dexterous practice: 
as, sleight of band; the tricks of a juggler. This is often 
written, but less properly, slight. 
Upon the corner of the moon, 
There hangs a vaporous drop, profound; 
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground ; 
And that distill’d by nragick sleights, 
Shall raise such artificial sprights, 
As, by the strength of their illusion. 
Shall draw him on to his confusion. Shalcspeare. 
SLEIGHT, adj. [j'lyb, Sax.] Deceitful; artful. 
Thus I hurle 
My powder’d spells into the spungie air. 
Of power to cheat the eye with sleight illusion. Milton. 
SLEl'GHTFUL, adj. Artful; cunning.— Sleightful 
otters left the purling rill. IF. Browne. 
SLEI'GHTILY, adv. Craftily; cunningly. TTuloet. 
SLEI'GHTY, adj. Crafty; artful. Hu/oet. —Though 
it [truth] be darkened with men’s sleygktye jugling and 
counterfait craftes, as it were with certain mists, for a while ; 
yet at the time of God appoynted, it bursteth out again, and 
sheweth itself clerely like the sunne. Transl. of Bp. 
Gardiner's Ds Ver. 
SLF.1TAL, Loch, a lake of Scotland, in Sutherlandshire, 
noted for its excellent trout. 
, SLEIVE. SeeSLEAVE. 
SLE'NDER, adj. [ slinder, Dutch.] Thin; small in 
circumference compared with the length; not thick. 
So thick the roses blushing round 
About her glow’d ; half stooping to support 
Each flower of slender stalk. 
Small in the waist; having a fine shape. 
Beauteous Helen shines among the rest, 
Tall, slender, straight, with all the graces blest. 
Not bulky; slight; not strong. 
Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains. 
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. 
Small; inconsiderable; weak. 
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; 
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. Shalcspeare. 
Sparing; less than enough: as, a slender estate and 
slender parts. 
At my lodging, 
The worst is this, that at so slender warning. 
You’re like to have a thin and slender pittance. Shalcspeare. 
Not amply supplied. 
The good Ostorius often deign’d 
To grace my slender table with his presence. Philips. 
In obstructions inflammatory, the aliment ought to be 
cool, slender, thin, diluting. Arbuthnot. 
SLE'NDERLY, adv. Without bulk; slightly; meanly. 
—If the debt be not just, we know not what may be deemed 
just, neither is it a sum to be slenderly regarded. Hay¬ 
ward. 
SLE’NDERNESS, s. Thinness; smallness of circum¬ 
ference.—Small whistles give a sound because of their ex¬ 
treme slenderness: the air is more pent than in a wider 
pipe. Bacon.— Want of bulk or strength.-—It is preceded 
by a spitting of blood, occasioned by its acrimony, and too- 
great a projectile motion, with slenderness and weakness of 
the vessels. Arbuthnot.— Slightness; weakness; incon- 
- Vol. XXIII. No. 1570. 
s L E * 285 
siderableness.—The slenderness of your reasons against the 
book, together with the inconveniences that must of ne¬ 
cessity follow, have procured a great credit unto it. Whit- 
gift. —Want of plenty.—As the coarseness of the raiment, so 
the slenderness of the diet, is equally to pretend towards a 
rigid and austere condition of life. Gregory. 
SLENINGFORD, a township of England, West Riding 
of Yorkshire ; 5 miles north-west of Rippon. 
SLENISH MOUNTAINS, mountains of Ireland, in the 
county of Antrim ; 12 miles north-north-east of Antrim. 
SLEPE, a hamlet of England, in Dorsetshire; 5 miles 
east-by-south of Wareham, 
SLEPT. The preterite of sleep. 
Silence: coeval with eternity. 
Thou wert ere nature first began to be, 
’Twas one vast nothing all, and all slept fast in thee. Pope. 
SLESWICIC, or Schlesswig, a duchv or province of the 
Danish dominions, which has Jutland to'the north, and Hol¬ 
stein to the south, while on the east and west it is bounded 
by the sea. Its form is oblong: its length is about 72 miles; 
its breadth, without including the islands to the east or west, 
varies from 30 to 56 miles. Like Jutland, it has no moun¬ 
tains, and not many elevations entitled to the name of hills. 
It is consequently not rich in Minerals, but most parts of it 
are fit for tillage. The products are barley, oats and rye, with 
comparatively little wheat, hemp, or flax. Sleswick corres¬ 
ponds in latitude to the northern counties of England; also 
in humidity of climate, rain being produced there frequently 
by easterly, and still more frequently by westerly winds. The 
weather is very variable, the atmosphere often cloudy, the 
extremes of cold and heat seldom intense or of long continu¬ 
ance. Unfortunately great part of the interior is dry and 
sandy, so that the population (300,000 on the mainland, and 
40,000 on the islands), is not large for a surface of 3600 
square miles. On the superior soils, the freshness of the pas¬ 
ture is such as, with little skill on the part of an ignorant 
peasantry, to give a size and strength to the horses andt 
horned cattle, which render them of value to foreigners, and 
lead to a regular, if not a large export. Butter and cheese 
are likewise abundant, and lorm articles of export; sheep 
have not been improved with equal success, their wool being 
short and coarse. 
The inhabitants of Slewsick are of mixed descent, parti¬ 
cularly of Danish, Saxon, and Friesland origin, each speak¬ 
ing their own dialect; but the prevalent languages are Ger¬ 
man and Danish. The principal river is the'Eyder, which, 
joined to the canal of Kielt affords a direct navigation from 
the north sea to the Baltic. The chief towns are— 
Population. 
Flensborg.15,000 
Kiel.7,100 
Sleswick ..7,000 
Tondern ..2,600 
Tonningen. 2,000 
Kiel and Tonningen have the benefit of the trade carried 
on by the canal and the Eyder; Flensborgh is an improving 
place; but the rest of the country exhibits little activity or 
increase of productive industry. The chief manufactures, 
woollen and linen, are carried on not in collective establish¬ 
ments, but in the cottages of the manufacturer. The lace 
manufactures at Tondern and other places, as well as those 
of stockmgs, have suffered by the general introduction of 
machinery in other countries. Fishing forms a considerable 
occupation on the coast, as well as in the arms of the sea. 
In regard to law, Sleswick, like Holstein, preserves its an¬ 
cient usages and institutions. The state of the peasantry is 
here somewhat less backward than in Jutland; but it was 
only in 1805 that feudal vassalage was definitively abolished. 
Sleswick has for many centuries been in close connection 
with Denmark, and governed sometimes directly by the king, 
at other times as a dependency, by a brother of the reigning 
sovereign—a separation attended at last with such pretensions 
4 D to 
Milton, 
Dry den. 
Pope. 
