South's Sermons. Earths are opake, insipid, and, when dried, friable, or consisting of parts easy to separate, and soluble in water; not disposed to burn, flame, or take fire. Woodward. divisible; possible to be disjoined from some- affairs you ought not, in conscience, to obey them. thing else; the noun substantive corresponding: separately, separateness, and separation, follow the sense of separate as an adjective: a separatist is one who separates; a schismatic: separator, one who divides or makes a separation: separatory, used in, or conducive to, sepa ration. The infusions and decoctions of plants contain the most separable parts of the plants, and convey not only their nutritious but medicinal qualities into the blood. Arbuthnot. The most conspicuous gland of an animal is the system of the guts, where the lacteals are the emissary vessels, or separatory ducts. Cheyne's Philosophical Principles. SEPHARVAIM, or SEPHARVITES, a tribe of the Samaritans, supposed by Calmet to be originally the Safpires on the north of Media; but by Dr. Gill natives of Sipporhæ in Syro-Phonicia. They were partly cut off by the Assyrians; and the rest were transplanted into the land of Israel, after the overthrow of that king dom, and the captivity of the ten tribes. SEPIA, the cuttle-fish, or ink-fish, a genus belonging to the order of vermes mollusta. There are eight brachia interspersed on the interior side with little round serrated cups, by the contraction of which the animal lays fast hold of any thing. Besides these eight arms, it has two tentacula longer than the arms, and frequently pendunculated. The mouth is situated in the centre of the arms, and is horny and hooked, like the bill of a hawk. The eyes are below the tentacula, towards the body of the animal. The body is fleshy, and received into a sheath as far as the breast. Their food are tunnies, sprats, lobsters, and other shell fish. With their arms and trunks they fasten themselves, to resist the motion of the waves. Their beak is like that of a parrot. The females are distinguished by two paps. They copulate as the polypi do, by a mutual embrace, and lay their eggs upon seaweed and plants, in parcels like bunches of grapes. Immediately after they are laid they are white, and the males pass over and impreg nate them with a black liquor, after which they grow larger. On opening the egg, the embryocuttle is found alive. The males are very constant, accompany their females every where, face every danger in their defence, and rescue them intrepidly at the hazard of their own lives. The timorous females fly as soon as they see the males wounded. The noise of a cuttle-fish, on being dragged out of the water, resembles the grunting of a hog. When the male is pursued by the sea-wolf or other ravenous fish, he shuns the danger by stratagem. He squirts his black liquor, sometimes to the quantity of a dram, by which the water becomes black as ink, under shelter of which he baffles the pursuit of his enemy. This ink or black liquor has been denominated by M. le Cat ethiops animal, and is reserved in a particular gland. In its liquid state it resembles that of the choroid in man; and would then communicate an indelible dye; when dry, it might be taken for the product of the black liquor in negroes dried, and made a precipitate by spirit of wine. This æthiops animal in negroes, as well as in the cuttle-fish, is more abundant after death than even during life. It may serve either for writing or printing; in the former of which ways the Romans used it. It is said to be an ingredient in the composition of Indian ink mixed with rice. There are five species:-1. S. loligo, the great cuttle, with short arms and long tentacula; the lower part of the body rhomboid and pinnated, the upper thick and cylindric. They inhabit all our seas, where, having blackened the water by the effusion of their ink, they abscond, and with their tail leap out of the water. They are gregarious, and swift in their motions: they take their prey by means of their arms, and, embracing it, bring it to their central mouth. They adhere to the rocks, when they wish to be quiescent, by means of the concave discs placed along their arms. 2. S. media, the middle cuttle, with a long slender cylindric body, tail finned, pointed, and carinated on each side; two long tentacula; the body almost transparent green, but convertible into a dirty brown; confirming the remark of Pliny, that they change their color through fear, adapting it, chamelion-like, to that of the place they are in. The eyes are large and smaragdine. 3. S. octopodia, the eight-armed cuttle. The arms are connected at their bottom by a membrane. This is the polypus of Pliny, which he distinguishes from the loligo and sepia by the want of the tail and tentacula. They inhabit our seas, but abound most in the Mediterranean. In hot climates these are found of an enormous size. The Indians affirm that some have been seen two fathoms broad over their centre, and each arm nine fathoms long. When the Indians navigate their little boats they go in dread of them; and, lest these animals should fling their arms over and sink them, they never sail without an axe to cut them off. When used for food they are served up red from their own liquor, which, from boiling with the addition of nitre, becomes red. Barthol says, upon cutting one of them open, so great a light broke forth, that at night, upon taking away the candle, the whole house seemed to be in a blaze. 4. S. officinalis, the officinal cuttle, with an ovated body, has fins along the whole of the sides, almost meeting at the bottom; and two long tentacula. The body contains the bone, the cuttle-bone of the shops, which was formerly used as an absorbent. The bones are frequently flung on all our shores; the animal very rarely. The conger eels bite off their arms or feet; but they grow again, as does the lizard's tail (Plin. ix. 20). They are preyed upon by the plaise. This fish emits (in common with the other species), when frightened or pursued, the black liquor which the ancients supposed darkened the circumambient wave, and concealed it from the enemy. The ancients sometimes made use of it instead of ink. Persius mentions this species in his description of the noble student. This animal was esteemed a delicacy by the ancients, and is eaten even at present by the Italians. Rondeletius gives us two receipts for the dressing. Athenæus also gives the method of making an antique cuttle-fish sausage; and we learn from Aristotle that these animals are in highest season when pregnant. 5. S. sepiola, the small cuttle, with a short body rounded at the bottom, has a round fin on each side and two tentacula. They are taken off Flintshire, but chiefly inhabit the Mediterranean. SEPIARIÆ (from sepes, a hedge), the name of the forty-fourth order of Linnæus's Fragments of a Natural Method, consisting of a beautiful collection of woody plants, some of which, from their size and elegance, are very proper furniture for hedges. See BOTANY, Index. SEPIAS, in ancient geography, a cape of Thessaly, now called St. George. A clan; SEPS, in zoology. See LACERTA. SEPT, n. s. Fr. cep; Lat. septum. race; family; generation. A word used chiefly with regard or allusion to Ireland. This judge, being the lord's brehon, adjudgeth a better share unto the lord of the soil, or the head of that sept, and also unto himself for his judgment a greater portion, than unto the plaintiffs. Spenser on Ireland. The English forces were ever too weak to subdue so many warlike nations, or septs of the Irish, as did possess this island. Davies on Ireland. The true and ancient Russians, a sept whom he had met with in one of the provinces of that vast empire, were white like the Danes. Boyle. SEPTARIÆ, in the old system of mineralogy, a large class of fossils, named also ludus Helmontii and waxen veins. They were defined to be fossils not inflammable, nor soluble in water; of a moderately firm texture and dusky hue, divided by several septa or thin partitions, and composed of a sparry matter greatly debased by earth; not giving fire with steel; fermenting with acids, and in great part dissolved by them; and calcining in a moderate fire. Of this class were reckoned two distinct orders of bodies, and under these six genera. The first order were those which are usually found in large masses, of a simple uniform construction, but divided by large septa either into larger and more irregular portions, or into smaller and more equal ones called talc. The genera of this order are four: 1. Those divided by septa of spar, called secomiæ. 2. Those divided by septa of earthy matter, called gaiophragmia. 3. Those divided by septa of the matter of the pyrites, called pyritercia. And, 4. Those divided by septa of spar, with an admixture of crystal, called diaugophragmia. Those of the second order are such as are usually found in smaller masses, of a crustated structure, formed by various incrustations round a central nucleus, and divided by a very thin septa. Of this order were only two genera: 1. Those with a short roundish nucleus, enclosed within the body of the mass; and, 2. Those with a long nucleus, standing out beyond the ends of the mass. SEPTAS, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the order of heptagynia, and the class of heptandria; natural order thirteenth, succulentæ : CAL. divided into seven parts; the petals are seven; the germens seven: CAPS. also seven, and contain many seeds. There is only one species, viz. S. Capensis, which is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, is round-leaved, and flowers in August and September. SEPTEM [Lat.], seven, forms part of the names of some ancient places: as Septem Aquæ, SEPTENNIAL ELECTIONS. Blackstone, in his Commentaries, vol. i. p. 189, says (after observing that the utmost extent of time allowed the same parliament to sit by the stat. 6 W. & M. c. 2, was three years), But by the statute 1 Geo. I. st. 2. c. 38 (in order professedly to prevent the great and continued expenses of frequent elections, and the violent heats and animosities consequent thereupon, and for the peace and security of the government, just then recovering from the late rebellion), this term was prolonged to seven years; and, what alone is an instance of the vast authority of parliament, the very same house that was chosen for three years enacted its own continuance for seven. SEPTENTRIO, in astronomy, a constellation more usually called ursa minor. SEPTENTRION, n. s. & adj. ̄ S trion; Fr. septenLat. septentrio. The north northerly: to send northerly. As the antipodes are unto us, Shakspeare. Henry VI. men From cold septentrion blasts. Milton's Paradise Regained. If they be powerfully excited, and equally let fall, they commonly sink down, and break the water, at SEPTICAL, adj. 、 Gr. oŋatiko. Having power to promote or produce putrefaction. As a septical medicine Galen commended the ashes of a salamander. Browne's Vulgar Errours. SEPTICS, substances which promote putrefaction, chiefly the calcareous earths, magnesia, and testaceous powders. From many curious experiments made by Sir John Pringle, to ascertain the septic and antiseptic virtues of natural bodies, it appears that there are very few substances of a truly septic nature. Those comand volatile salts, he found to be no wise septic. monly reputed such by authors, as the alkaline However, he discovered some, where it seemed least likely to find any such quality; these were chalk, common salt, and testaceous powders. He mixed twenty grains of crabs' 'eyes, prepared with six drams of ox's gall, and an equal quantity of water. Into another phial he put an equal quantity of gall and water, but no crabs' eyes. Both these mixtures being placed in the furnace, the putrefaction began much sooner where the powder was than in the other phial. On making a like experiment with chalk, its septic virtue was found to be much greater than that of the crabs' eyes : nay, what the doctor had never met with before, in a mixture of two drams of flesh with two ounces of water and thirty grains of prepared chalk, the flesh was resolved into a perfect mucus in a few days. To try whether the testaceous powders would also dissolve vegetable substances, the doctor mixed them with barley and water, and compared this mixture with another of barley and water alone. After a long maceration by a fire, the plain water was found to swell the barley, and turn mucilaginous and sour; but that with the powder kept the grain to its natural size, though it softened it, yet made no mucilage and remained sweet. Nothing could be more unexpected than to find sea salt a hastener of putrefaction; but the fact is thus: one dram of salt preserves two drams of fresh beef, in two ounces of water, above thirty hours uncorrupted, in a heat equal to that of the human body; or, which is the same thing, this quantity of salt keeps flesh sweet twenty hours longer than pure water; but then half a dram of salt does not preserve it above two hours longer; twenty-five grains have little or no antiseptic virtue, and ten, fifteen, or even twenty grains, manifestly both hasten and heighten the corruption. The quantity which had the most putrefying quality, was found to be about ten grains to the above proportion of flesh and water. Many inferences might be drawn from this experiment: one is, that since salt is never taken in aliment beyond the proportion of the corrupting quantities, it would appear that it is subservient to digestion chiefly by its septic virtue, that is, by softening and resolving meats; an action very different from what is commonly believed. The above experiments were made with the salt kept for domestic uses. See Pringle on the Diseases of the Army, p. 348, et seq. SEPTILATERAL, adj. Lat. septem and lateris. Having seven sides. By an equal interval they make seven triangles, the bases whereof are the seven sides of a septilateral figure, described within a circle. Browne's Vulgar Errours. SEPTIMIUS (Titus), a Roman knight, celebrated for his poems, both tragic and lyric. He was intimate with the emperor Augustus, and the poet Horace, who addressed the sixth ode of his second book to him. SEPTIZON, or SEPTIZONIUM, in Roman antiquity, a celebrated mausoleum, built by Septimius Severus, in the tenth region of the city of Rome: it was so called from septem and zona, by reason it consisted of seven stories, each of which was surrounded by a row of columns. SEPTUAGINT, n. s. Lat. septuaginta. The old Greek version of the Old Testament, so called as being supposed the work of seventy-two interpreters. See below. The three hundred years of John of times, or Nestor, cannot afford a reasonable encouragement beyond Moses's septuagenary determination. Browne's Vulgar Errours. In our abridged and septuagesimal age, it is very rare to behold the fourth generation. Id. Which way soever you try you shall find the product great enough for the extent of this earth; and, if you follow the Septuagint chronology, it will still be far higher. Burnet. The SEPTUAGINT is said to be the work of seventy-two Jews, who are usually called the seventy interpreters, because seventy is a round number. The history of this version was expressly written by Aristeas, an officer of the guards to Ptolemy Philadelphus. The substance of his account is as follows:-Ptolemy having erected a fine library at Alexandria, which he took care to fill with the most curious and valuable books from all parts of the world, was informed that the Jews had one containing the laws of Moses, and the history of that people; and, being desirous of enriching his library with a Greek translation of it, applied to the highpriest of the Jews; and, to engage him to comply with his request, set at liberty all the Jews whom his father Ptolemy Soter had reduced to slavery. After such a step he easily obtained what he desired; Eleazar the Jewish high-priest sent back his ambassadors with an exact copy of the Mosaical law, written in letters of gold, and six elders of each tribe, in all seventy-two, who were received with marks of respect by the king, and then conducted into the Isle of Pharos, where they were lodged in a house prepared for their reception, and supplied with every thing necessary. They set about the translation without loss of time, and finished it in seventy-two days, and, the whole being read in the presence of the king, he admired the profound wisdom of the laws of Moses, and sent back the deputies laden with presents, for themselves, the high-priest, and the temple. Aristobulus, who was tutor to Ptolemy Physcon; Philo, who lived in our Saviour's time, and was contemporary with the apostles; and Josephus, speak of this translation as made by seventy-two interpreters, by the care of Demetrius Phalareus, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. All the Christian writers, during the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era, have admitted this account of the Septuagint as an undoubted fact. But, since the Reformation, critics have boldly called it in question, because it was attended with circumstances which they think inconsistent or improbable. Du Pin has asked, why were seventy-two interpreters employed, since twelve would have been sufficient? Such an objection is trifling. We may as well ask, why did king James I. employ fifty-four translators in rendering the Bible into English, since twelve, or even two, might have been sufficient? 1. Prideaux objects that the Septuagint is not written in the Jewish, but in the Alexandrian dialect, and could not therefore be the work of natives of Palestine. But these dialects were probably at that time the same; for both Jews and Alexandrians had received the Greek language from the Macedonians about fifty years before. 2. Prideaux farther contends that all the books of the Old Testament could not be transdifference of style. To this it is sufficient to related at the same time; for they exhibit great ply that they were the work of seventy-two men, each of whom had separate portions assigned Aristobulus, Philo, and Josephus, all directly him. 3. The dean also urges that Aristeas, tell us that the law was translated without mentioning any of the other sacred books. But nothing was more common among writers of the Jewish nation than to give this name to the Scriptures as a whole. In the New Testament law is used as synonymous with what we call the Old Testament. Besides, it is expressly said by Aristobulus, in a fragment quoted by Eusebius (Præp. Evan. I. 1), that the whole sacred Scripture was rightly translated through the means of Demetrius Phalereus, and by the command of Philadelphus. Josephus indeed, says the learned dean, asserts, in the preface of his Antiquities, that the Jewish interpreters did not translate for Ptolemy the whole Scriptures, but the law only. Here the evidence is contradictory, and we have only to enquire whether Aristobulus or Josephus had the best opportunity of knowing the truth. Aristobulus was an Alexandrian Jew, tutor to an Egyptian king, and lived within 100 years after the translation was made, and certainly had access to see it in the royal library. Josephus was a native of Palestine, and lived not until 300 years or more after the translation was made, and many years after it was burnt, along with the whole library of Alexandria, in the wars of Julius Cæsar. Supposing the veracity of these two writers equal, as we have no proof of the contrary, which of them ought we to consider as the best evidence? Aristobulus surely. If the writings which have passed under his name were a forgery of the second century, it is surprising that they should have imposed upon Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived in the same century, and was a man of abilities, learning, and well acquainted with the writings of the ancients. Eusebius, too, in his Præp. Evan., quotes the commentaries of Aristobulus. And in answer to the dean's objections, that neither Philo nor Josephus have quoted Aristobulus, it is sufficient to observe that it was not the uniform practice of these times to name the authors from whom they derived their information. 4. Prideaux farther contends that the sum which Ptolemy is said to have given to the interpreters is too great to be credible. If his computation were just, it certainly would be so. He makes it £2,000,000 sterling; but Dr. Blair reduces it to £85,421, and others to £56,947; neither of which is a sum so very extraordinary in so great and magnificent a prince as Philadelphus, who spent, according to a passage in Athenæus, lib. v., no less than 10,000 talents on the furniture of one tent; which is six times more than what was spent in the whole of the embassy and translation, which amounted only to 1552 talents. 5. Prideaux says, that which convicts the whole story of Aristeas of falsity is, that he makes Demetrius Phalereus to be the chief actor in it, and a great favorite of the king; whereas Philadelphus, as soon as his father was dead, cast him into prison, where he soon after died. But it is replied that I'hiladelphus reigned two years jointly with his father Lagus; and it is not said by Hermippus that Demetrius was out of favor with Philadelphus during his father's life. Now, if the Septuagint was translated in the beginning of the reign of Philadelphus, as Eusebius and Jerome think, the difficulty will be removed. Demetrius might have been librarian during the reign of Philadelphus, and yet imprisoned on the death of Lagus. Indeed, as the cause of Philadelphus's displeasure was the advice which Demetrius gave to his father, to prefer the sons of Arsinoa before the son of Berenice, he could scarcely show it till, his father's death. The Septuagint translation might therefore be begun while Philadelphus reigned jointly with his father, but not be finished till after his father's death. 6. Besides the above objections, there is only one more that deserves notice. The ancient Christians not only differ from one another concerning the time in which Aristobulus lived, but even contradict themselves in different parts of their works. Sometimes they tell us he dedicated his book to Ptolemy Philometer, at other times they say it was addressed to Philadelphus and his father. Sometimes they make him the same person who is mentioned in 2 Maccabees, chap. i., and sometimes one of the seventy-two interpreters, 152 years before. It is difficult to explain how authors fall into such inconsistencies; but it is probably occasioned by their quoting from memory. This was certainly the practice of almost all the early Christian writers, and sometimes of the apostles themselves. Mistakes were therefore inevitable. Josephus has varied in the circumstances of the same event, in his Antiquities and Wars of the Jews, probably from the same cause; but we do not hence conclude that every circumstance of such a relation is entirely false. In the account of the marquis of Argyle's death, in the reign of Charles II., we have a very remarkable contradiction. Lord Clarendon relates that he was condemned to be hanged, which was performed the same day: on the contrary, Burnet, Woodrow, Heath, and Echard, concur in stating that he was beheaded; and that he was condemned upon the Saturday and executed upon the Monday. Was any reader of English history ever sceptic enough to raise from hence a question, whether the marquis of Argyle was executed or not? Yet this ought to be left in uncertainty, according to the way of reasoning in which the facts respecting the translation of the Septuagint are attempted to be disproved. Such are the objections which the learned and ingenious Prideaux has raised against the common account of the Septuagint translation, and such are the answers which may be given to them. We support that opinion which is sanctioned by historical evidence, in preference to the conjectures of modern critics, however ingenious; being persuaded that there are many things recorded in history which, though perfectly true, yet, from our imperfect knowledge of the concomitant circumstances, may, at a distant period, seem liable to objections. To those who require positive evidence, it may be stated thus: Aristeas, Aristobulus, Philo, and Josephus, assure us that the law was translated. Taking the law in the most restricted sense, we have at least sufficient authority to assert that the Pentateuch was rendered into Greek under Ptolemy Philadelphus. Aristobulus affirms that the whole Scriptures were translated by the seventy-two. Josephus confines their labors to the books of Moses. He therefore who cannot determine which of the two is the most respectable, may suspend his opinion. It is certain, however, that many of the other books were translated before the age of our Saviour; for they are quoted both by him and his apostles; and, perhaps, by a minute examination of ancient authors, in the same way that Dr. Lardner has examined the Christian fathers to prove the antiquity of the New Testament, the precise period in which the whole books of the Septuagint were composed might, with considerable accuracy, be ascertained. For 400 years this translation was in high estimation with the Jews. It was read in their synagogues in preference to the Hebrew; not only in those places where Greek was the common language, but in many synagogues of Jerusalem and Judea. But, when they saw that it was equally valued by the Christians, they became jealous of it; and at length, in the second century, Aquila, an apostate Christian, attempted to substitute another Greek translation in its place. In this work he was careful to give the ancient prophecies concerning the Messiah a different turn from the Septuagint, that they might not be applicable to Christ. In the same design he was followed by Symmachus and Theodotion, who also, as St. Jerome informs us, wrote out of hatred to Christianity. In the mean time the Septuagint, from the ignorance, boldness, and carelessness of transcribers, became full of errors. To correct these, Origen published a new edition in the beginning of the third century, in which he placed the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. This edi |