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S E L

SELL, one of Uie Western Islands of Scotland , on the coast ofArgyllshire.

SEIN, an island of France , near the coast of the department ofFinistetre, 2 miles W. of Point Raz, and 2S S. S. E. of Ushant .

SEINE, in geography, a river of France , which rises about 6miles S. of Aignay, in the department of Cote d’Or , and falls intothe English Channel at Havre de Grace.

Seine and Marne, a department of France , bounded on theN. by those of the Oise and the Aisne ; on the E. by those of theMarne and Aube: on the S. by that of the Loiret ; and onthe W. by those of the Loiret, and the Seine and Oise . It com-prehends part of the province of the Isle of France , and theprovince of Bri?. Melon is the capital.

Seine and Oise, a department of France , bounded on theN.by that of the Oise; on the E. by that of the Seine and Marne;on the S. by that of the Loiret ; and on the W. by those of theEure and the Loire. Versailles is the chief city .

Seine, Lower, a department of France , bounded on the W.and N. by the English Channel: on the E. by the departmentsof the Somme and the Oise ; and on the S. by those of the Eure and the Calvados , from both of which it is mostly separated by theSeine. It comprehends part of the province of Normandy .Rouen is the capital .

SEINS1IEIM, or MARKT SEINSI1EIM, a town of Fran-conia, 18 miles S. E. of Wurzburg . Lon. 10. 28. E. Lat. 40.40. N.

SEIR, or IIOR, a mountain of Asia , in Arabia Petrea, which janciently bounded Judaea on the S. and separated it from Idumea ,or Edom .

SEISIN, in English law, signifies possession; as premier seisin,for the first possession, &c. A seisin in law is held to be sufficient jto avow on ; though to the bringing of an assize, actual seisin is jrequired ; and where seisin is alleged, the person pleading it mustshew of what estate he is seised, &c. Seisin of a superior service [is deemed to be a seisin of all superior and casual services that areincident thereto ; and seisin of a lessee for years, is sufficient for !him in reversion. See Law.

SEIZURE, in commerce, an arrest of some merchandise,-moveable, or other matter, either in consequence of some law, orof some express order of the sovereign. Contraband goods, thosefraudulently entered, or landed without entering at all, or atwrong places, are subject to seizure. In seizures among us, one-jialf goes to the informer, and the other half to the king.

SELAGO, in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order, anddidynamia class of plants; natural order, Aggregatx. Calyxquinquefid ; tube of the corolla capillary, with the limb nearlyequal, and a single seed. There are twenty-two species.

SELAI1, [RiSd, Heb.] a word often u'ed in the book of I’salms,and three times in the prayer of Habakkuk , iii. 3, 9, 13. Com-mentators are not agreed about its use or meaning. Some considerit as a note of music, others as a mark of attention or emphasis;others take it for a name of the Deity ; and others consider it as jsynonymous with Amen. |

SELBY, a commercial town of Yorkshire , in the W. Riding; i13 miles S. of York, and 182 N, by W. of London . Lon. 1. 2.W. Lat. 53. 47. N.

SELDEN, John, called by Grotius the glory of England, wasborn at Salvington in Sussex, in 1584. From Chichester schoolhe removed to Hart hall, and from thence to the Inner Temple,where he was called to the bar, and became distinguished as a pro-found lawyer and antiquary. He drew up a Treatise on the CivilGovernment of England before the Conquest, at the age oftwenty-two, which gained him great reputation. In 1614 he pub-lished his Titles of Honour, and in 1618 his History of Tythes,which gave great alarm to the clergy, and was answered by severalwriters. Being prosecuted in tiie high commission court, he sub-scribed an acknowledgement of his fault. In 1621 he was com-mitted to custody as the principal promoter of the protest made bythe commons respecting their privileges. In 1623 he was chosenmember of parliament for Lancaster, and in the following one hesat for Great Redwin, in Wiltshire. He afterwards sat again forLancaster, and was a strenuous opposer of the duke of Bucking-ham, and had also a principal share in drawing up the petition ofright. For his opposition to the court he was sent to the Towerin 1628, from whence he was removed to the king’s bench, and in

1631 admitted to bail. In 1636 he published his Defence of theKing’s Dominion over the British Seas, in answer to Grotius . In1642 he was offered the great seal, which he refused. Though hetook the covenant, and was appointed keeper of the records, asalso a member of the assembly of divines, he refused to write indefence of the parliament. lie died in 1654, and was buried inthe Temple-church. He wrote many learned works besides thosealready mentioned; as, 1. De Jure Natural! et Gentium juxtaDisciplinam llcbratorum: 2. De Nuptiis et Divorciis: 3. DeAnno Civili veterum Uebraiorum : 4. De Nummis: 5. De DiisSyris: 6. Uxor Hebraica: 7. Jani Anglorum Facies altera, &c.All his works w ere printed together in 1726, in 6 vols. folio.

SELEFKIAH, or ITSCHIL, a town of Asiatic Turkey, inCaramania , 1 10 miles S. S. E. of Cogni.

SELENG1RSK, a town of Russia, in Irkutsk , 84 miles S. E.of likutsk, and 374 W. of Nertchinsk.

SELENITE, in chemistry, the same with Gyfsum, which sec.

SELENITES, in natural history, the name of a large class offossils, the characters of which are these : they are bodies com-posed of slender and scarcely visible filaments, arranged into fine,even, and thin, Hakes; and those disposed into regular figures inthe several dilferent genera, approaching to a rhomboid or hexan-gular column, ora rectangled parallelogram ; fissile, like the talcs,hut they not only lie in a horizontal, but also in a perpendicular,direction ; they are flexile in a small degree, but not at all elastic;they do not ferment with acid menstrua, but readily calcine in thefire.

SELENOGRAPHY, [s-iXaC! and y? r *fw,] a branch of cosmo-graphy, which describes the moon, and all the parts and appear-ances thereof, as geography does those of the eaith. See Astro-nomy.

SELEUCIA, in ancient geography, a city of Asia , surnameilBabylonia , because situated on its confines, at the confluence ofthe Euphrates and Tigris.

SELEUCIDAi, a sirname or patronymic of the Syro-Greciai»monarchs of Syria , who reigned in that country from the death ofAlexander the Great , till it was reduced to a Roman province ; sonamed from Sell ucus Nicator, the first of them.

Seleucidje, JEra of the, or the Syro-Macedonian Era, isa computation of time, commencing from the establishment of theSeleucidre, in Syria . This era we find expressed in Hie books oflire Maccabees, and ori a great number of Greek medals struck bythe cities of Syria , &c. r I he Rabbins call it the era of contracts,and the Arabs tlierik dilkarnain, that is, the" “ era of the twohorns.” According to the best accounts, the first year of this erafalls in the year 311 B. C. being twelve years after Alexander ’sdeath.

SELEUCIS, or SELEUCENA, a division of Syria , so namedfrom Seleucus Nicalor. It was alsq called Therapolis, from itscontaining four cities: viz. Seleucia, so named from Seleucus;Antioch from iiis father; Laodicea , after his mother; ad Apa-mea, from his wife,

SELF-COMMAND, is that steady equanimity which enablesaman in every situation to exert his reasoning faculty with coolness,and to do what the existing circumstances require. It dependsmuch upon the natural temperament of the body, and much uponthe moral cultivation of the mind.

Self-Defence, implies not only (liepreservation of one’s life,but also the protection of his property, because without propertylife cannot be preserved in a civilized nation. The extent of pro-perty essential to life is indeed small, and this consideration mayenable us to decide a question which some moralists have made initricate. By w hat means, it has been asked, may a man protect hisproperty? May he kill the person who attacks it, if he cannototherwise repel the attack? That a man, in the state of nature,may kill the person who makes an attack on his fife, if he cannototherwise repel the attack, is a truth which has never been contro-verted ; and he may do the same in civil society, if his danger beso imminent that it cannot be exerted by the interposition of theprotection provided by the state. In all possible situations, exceptthe three following, whatever is absolutely necessary to the preser*vation of life maybe lawfully performed, for the law of self-preser-vation is the first and most sacred of those laws which are impress-ed upon every mind by the Author ol nature. The three exceptedsituations are those of a soldier in the day of battle, of a criminal

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