Shakspeare.

Hosea, in the person of God, sayeth of the Jews, they have reigned, but not by me; they have set a seigniory over themselves: which place proveth plainly, that there are governments which God doth not avow. Bacon.

William, earl of Pembroke, being lord of all Leinster, had royal jurisdiction throughout that province, and every one of his five sons enjoyed that seigniory successively. Davies.

SE'IGNORAGE.N.s. [scigneuriage, French; from seignior.] Authority; acknowledgment of power.

They brought work to the mint, and a part of the money coined to the crown for seignorage. Locke.

TO SE'IGNORISE. v. a. [from seignior.] To lord over.

As fair he was as Cytherea's make,

As proud as he that seignoriseth hell. Fairfax. SEINE. n. s. [rezne, Saxon; seine, senne, seme, Fr.] A net used in fishing.

They have cock-boats for passengers, and seine boats for taking of pilchards.

Carew.

SEINER. n.s. (from seine) A fisher with

nets.

Seiners complain, with open mouth, that these drovers work much prejudice to the commonwealth of fishermen, and reap small gain to Carew. themselves.

To SEIZE. v. a. [saisir, French.]
1. To take hold of; to gripe; to grasp.
Then as a tiger, who by chance hath spy'd,
In some purlieu, two gentle fawns at play,
Straight couches close, then rising changes oft
His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground,
Whence rushing he might surest seize them both,
Both griped in each paw.

2. To take possession of by force.
At last they seize

Milton.

The scepter, and regard not David's sons. Milt. 3. To take possession of; to lay hold on; to invade suddenly.

In her sad breast the prince's fortunes roll, And hope and doubt alternate seize her soul.

Pope.

To take forcible possession of by law. An escheator of London had arrested a clothier that was outlawed, and seized his goods. Camden.

It was judged by the highest kind of judgment, that he should be banished, and his whole estate confiscated and seized, and his houses pulled down.

Bacon.

5. To make possessed; to put in posses

sion of.

Soth' one for wrong, the other strives for right: As when a griffin, seized of his prey,

A dragon fierce encount'reth in his flight, Through wildest air making his idle way.

Fairy Queen.

So Pluto, seiz'd of Proserpine, convey'd To hell's tremendous gloom tin' affrighted maid,

To SEIZE. v. n. To fix the grasp or the power on any thing.

Fairest Cordelia, Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon: Be 't lawful I take up what 's cast away? Shaks. Where there is a design of supplanting, that necessarily requires another of accusing: even Jezebel projects not to seize on Naboth's vine. yard without a precedent charge. Dec. of Piety. SE'IZIN. n. s. [saisine, French.] 1. [In law.] Is of two sorts: seisin in fact, and seisin in law. Seisin in fact, is when a corporal possession is taken: seisin in law, is when something is done which the law accounteth a seisin, as an enrolment. This is as much as a right to lands and tenements, though the owner be by wrong disseized of them. Cowell. 2. The act of taking possession.

Every indulged sin gives Satan livery and seisin of his heart, and a power to dispose of it as he pleases. Decay of Piety.

Seisin is the same, in the canon law, as livery and seisin at the common law.

5. The things possessed.

Ayliffe

Many recoveries were had, as well by heirs as successors, of the seizin of their predecessors.

SEIZURE. n. 5. [from seize.] 1. The act of seizing.

2. The thing seized.

Hale,

Sufficient that thy pray'rs are heard, and death, Then due by sentence when thou didst trans

gress, Defeated of his seisure, many days Giv'n thee of grace.

Milton.

3. The act of taking forcible possession. Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine,

Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands. bakspeare.

In the general town he maintained a seizure,
Wotion.

and possession of the whole.
Henry continued to burn protestants, after he
had cast off the pope; and his seizure of ecclesi-
astical revenues cannot be reckoned as a mark
of the church's liberty.

4. Gripe; possession.

Swift.

And shall these hands, so lately purg'd of blood, Unyoke this seizure, and this kind regret?

Sbakspeare.

Make o'er thy honour by a deed of trust, And give me seizure of the mighty wealth.

5. Catch.

Dryden.

Watts.

Let there be no sudden seizure of a lapsed syllable, to play upon it. SE'LCOUTH. adj. [reld, rare, Sax. and couth, known.] Rarely known; uncommon: Spenser. The same with uncouth. SELDOM. adv. [reldan, rarely; reldor, more rarely; seldort, most rarely. Seldan is supposed to be contracted from reldæn, or reld, rare, and hpænne, when, Saxon; selden, Dutch; seltan, German.] Rarely; not often; not frequently.

Wisdom and youth are seldom joined in one; and the ordinary course of the world is more ac cording to Job's observation, who giveth men

Hevelius, in his accurate selenography, or description of the moon, hath well translated the known appellations of regions, seas, and mountains, unto the parts of that luminary. Brown'. SELF. pronoun; plur. selves [silba, Gothick; rýlf, rýlpa, Saxon; self, selve, Dutch.

1. Its primary signification seems to be that of an adjective. Very; particular; thisabove others; sometimes, one's own. Shoot an arrow that self way Which you did shoot the first.

The cruel ministers, by self and violent hands,

Took off her life.

Shakspeare.

Shakspeare.

On these self hills the air is so thin, that it is not sufficient to bear up the body of a bird.

Raleigh.

At that self moment enters Palamon The gate of Venus.

Dryden.

2. It is united both to the personal pronouns, and to the neutral pronoun it, and

is always added when they are used reciprocally, or return upon themselves: as, I did not hurt him, be hurt himself; the people biss me, but I clap myself; thou lovest thyself, though the world scorns thee.

They cast to build a city,

And get themselves a name. -
He permits

Within himself unworthy pow'rs to reign
Over free reason.

Milton

Milton.

Locke.

Self is that conscious thinking thing, which is sensible or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness and misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends. 3. It is sometimes used emphatically in the nominative case: as, myself will decide it; I myself will come; himself shall revenge it. This use of self, thus compounded, without the pronoun personal, is chiefly poetical.

4. Compounded with him, a pronoun substantive, self is in appearance an adjective: joined to my, thy, our, your, pronoun adjectives, it seems a substantive. Even when compounded with him it is at last found to be a substantive, by its variation in the plural, contrary to the nature of English adjectives, as himself.

themselves.

No more be mention'd then of violence Against ourselves, or wilful barrenness. Milton. 5. Myself, himself, themselves, and the rest, may, contrary to the analogy of my, bim, them, be used as nominatives.

6. It often adds only emphasis and force to the pronoun with which it is compounded: as, he did it himself.

A horse well bitted which bimself did dress. Dryden. And touch'd with miseries myself have known, I learn to pity woes so like my own. Dryden. 7. It signifies the individual, as subject to his own contemplation or action.

The spark of noble courage now awake, And strive your excellent self to excel. F. Queen. Next to the knowledge of God, this knowledge of our selves seems most worthy of our endeavour.

Hale.

The fondness we have for self, and the relation which other things have to our selves, furnishes another long rank of prejudices. Watts. 8. It is much used in composition, which it is proper to explain by a train of examples. It is to be observed, that its composition in Shakspeare is often harsh. Then held she her tongue, and cast down a self-accusing look, finding that in herself she had shot out of the bow of her affection a more quick opening of her mind than she minded to have done.

Sidney.

Alas! while we are wrapt in foggy mist Of our self-love, so passions do deceive, We think they hurt when most they do assist. Sidney. Till Strephon's plaining voice him nearer drew, Where by his words his self-like case he knew. Sidney.

Ah! where was first that cruel cunning found, To frame of earth a vessel of the mind, Where it should be to self-destruction bound? Sidney.

Before the door sat self-consuming Care, Day and night keeping wary watch and ward. Fairy Queen.

My strange and self-abuse Is the initiate fear that wants hard use. Shaksp.

I have heard so much,

And with Demetrius thought t' have spoke

thereof;

And prize me at her worth.

Shabspeare.

In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way, with more advised watch, To find the other forth. Sbakspeare.

He may do some good on her:

A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is. Shakspcare. But lest myself be guilty of self-wrong,

I 'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's song. Sbakspeare.

He conjunct, and flatt'ring his displeasure, Tript me behind: being down, insulted, rail'd, Got praises of the king,

For him attempting who was self-subdu'd. Shak. The Everlasting fixt

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.

Know if his last purpose hold,

Or whether since he is advis'd by aught
To change the course. He's full of alteration,

Than by self-offences weighing:

With a joyful willingness these self-loving reformers took possession of all vacant preferments, and with reluctance others parted with their beloved colleges and subsistence. Walton.

Repent the sin; but if the punishment Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids. Milt. Him fast sleeping soon he found,

In labyrinth of many a round self-roll'd. Milt.
Oft times nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right,
Well manag'd.

Milton.

Self-knowing, and from thence Magnanimous, to correspond with heav'n. Milt. So virtue giv'n for lost,

Deprest and overthrown, as seem'd,
Like that self-begotten bird,

In th' Arabian woods embost,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay ere while a holocaust,

From out her ashy womb now teem'd. Milton.
He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,
My motions in him; longer than they move,
His heart I know how variable and vain,
Self-left.

Milton.

Seneca approves this self-homicide. Hakeroill. Thyself from flatt'ring self-conceit defend,

Nor what thou dost not know, to know pretend. Denbam.

Man's that savage beast, whose mind,

From reason to self-love declin'd,
Delights to prey upon his kind.

Farewell, my tears;

Denbam.

And, my just anger, be no more confin'd
To vain complaints, or self-devouring silence.

Denbam.

Shakspeare.

And self-reproving.

Sbakspeare.

If the image of God is only sovereignty, cere tainly we have been hitherto much mistaken, and hereafter are to beware of making ourselves unlike God, by too much self-denial and humility.

South.

More nor less to others paying,

Shame to him whose cruel striking

Kills for faults of his own liking! Shakspeare.

If a man would have a devout, humble, sinabhorring, self-denying, frame of spirit, he cannot take a more efficacious course to obtain it than by praying himself into it.

South.

Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof,

Confronted him with self-caparisons, Point against point.

Shakspeare.

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin

A full hot horse, who, being allow'd his way, Self-mettle tires him.

Shakspeare.

His lords desire him to have borne His bruised helmet and his bended sword Before him though the city; he forbids it, Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride, Shakspeare.

You promis'd

To lay aside self-harming heaviness,

And entertain a cheerful disposition. Shaksp. In their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Genesis.

The most ordinary cause of a single life is li

Let a man apply himself to the difficult work of self-examination, by a strict scrutiny into the whole estate of his soul.

South.

came,

From Atreus though your ancient lineage Yet my self-conscious worth, your high renown, Your virtue, through the neighb'ring nations Dryden. He has given you all the commendation which his self-sufficiency could afford to any. Dryden.

blown.

Below yon sphere There hangs the ball of earth and water mixt, Self-center'd and unmov'd. Dryden.

All these receive their birth from other things, But from himself the phenix only springs; Self-born, begotten by the parent flame In which he burn'd, another and the same. Dryd. The burning fire, that shone so bright, Flew off all sudden with extinguish'd light, And left one altar dark, a little space, Which turn'd self-kindled, and renew'd the Dryden. Thou first, O king! release the rights of sway; Pow'r, self-restrain'd, the people best obey. Dryd. Eighteen and nineteen are equal to thirty-seven, by the same self-evidence that one and two are equal to three.

blaze.

Locke.

A contradiction of what has been said is a mark of yet greater pride and self-conceitedness, when we take upon us to set another right in his story.

Locke.

I am as justly accountable for any action done many years since, appropriated to me now by this self-consciousness, as I am for what I did the last moment.

Locke.

This self-existent being hath the power of perfection, as well as of existence, in himself; for he that is above, or existeth without, any cause, that is, hath the power of existence in himself, cannot be without the power of any possible existence. Greau.

Body cannot be self-existent, because it is not self-movent; for motion is not of the essence of body, because we may have a definitive conception of body, abstracted from that of motion: wherefore motion is something else besides body, something without which body may be conceiv

ed to exist.

Grew.

Matter is not endued with self-motion, nor with a power to alter the course in which it is put: it is merely passive, and must ever continue in that state it is settled in.

Cheynz.

I took not arms, till urg'd by self-defence,

The eldest law of nature.

Rorve.

The religion of Jesus, with all its self-denials, virtues, and devotions, is very practicable. Watts. I heard in Crete this island's name; For 't was in Crete, my native soil, I came Self-banish'd thence.

Popr Achilles's courage is furious and untractable;

Pops

that of Ajax is heavy and self-confiding.
I doom, to fix the gallafint ship,
A mark of vengeance on the sabie deep;
To warn the thoughtless self-confiding train
No more unlicens'd thus to brave the main.

What is loose love? a transient gust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wand'ring self-consuming fire.

Popr.

Pope

In dubious thought the king awaits, And self-considering, as he stands, debates. Pops.

By mighty Jove's command, Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land; For who self-mov'd with weary wing would sweep Such length of ocean? Pope.

They who reach Parnassus' lofty crown Employ their pains to spurn some others down; And, while self-love each jealous writer rules, Contending wits become the sport of fools. Pope.

It may be thought that Ulysses here is too ostentatious, and that he dwells more than modesty allows upon his own accomplishments; but self-praise is sometimes no fault.

Broome.

No wonder such a spirit, in such a situation, is provoked beyond the regards of religion or selfconviction. Swift. SE'LFHEAL. n. s. [brunella, Lat.] A plant, the same with sanicle. SE'LFISH. adj. [from self.) Attentive only to one's own interest; void of regard for others.

What could the most aspiring selfish man desire more, were he to form the notion of a being

to whom he would recommend himself, than such a knowledge as can discover the least appearance of perfection, and such a goodness as will proportion a reward to it?

Spectator.

Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, List under reason, and deserve our care; Those that imparted court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. Pope.

SE'LFISHNESS. n. s. [from selfish.] Attention to his own interest, without any regard to others; self-love.

This sublimer love, being, by an intimate conjunction with its object, thoroughly refined from all base dross of selfishness and interest, nobly begets a perfect submission of our wills to the

will of God.

Boyle.

SE'LFISHLY. adv. [from selfish.] With regard only to his own interest; with-, out love of others.

He can your merit selfishly approve, And shew the sense of it without the love. Pope. E'LFSAME.adj. [self and same.] Exactly the same.

I have no great cause to look for other than the self-same proportion and lot, which your manner hath been hitherto to lay on them that concur not in opinion with you. Hooker. Flight pursu'd one way the self-same hour.

I have been base,

Milton.

I will buy with you, sell with you; but I wil not eat with you. Sbakspeare. Ecclus.

Ainsworth.

Consult not with a buyer of selling. SE'LLANDER. n.s. A dry scab in a horse's hough or pastern. SE'LLER. n.s. [from sell.] The person that sells; vender.

To things of sale a seller's praise belongs.

Shakspeare. The name of the agent, of the seller, notary, and witnesses, are in both instruments. Addison. SELVAGE. n. s. [Of this word I know

not the etymology. Skinner thinks se vage is said as salvage, from its saving the cloth.] The edge of cloth where it is closed by complicating the threads. Make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the salvage in the coupling. Exodus. SELVES. The plural of self.

Consciousness being interrupted, and we los ing sight of our past selves, doubts are raised whether we are the same. Locke.

SE'MBLABLE. adj. [semblable, French.] Like; resembling.

Then be abhorr'd All feasts, societies, and throngs of men! His semblable, yea himself, Timon disdains. Shakspeare,

With semblable reason we might expect a regularity in the winds. Brown. SEMBLABLY. adv. (from semblable.] With resemblance.

A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt; Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Shakspeare. SEMBLANCE. n. s. [semblance, French; from semblant.]

I. Likeness; resemblance; similitude; representation.

Solicit Henry with her wond'rous praise: Bethink thee on her virtues, that surmount Her natural graces, that extinguish art: Repeat their semblance often.

Shakspeare.

She's but the sign and semblance of her honour; Behold how like a maid she blushes here! O, what authority and shew of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal! Shakspeare. He with high words, that bore Semblance of worth, not substance, gently rais'd Their fainting courage, and dispell'd their fears. Milton.

This last effort brought forth the opinion, that these bodies are not what they seem to be; that they are no shells, but mere sportings of active nature, and only semblances or imitations of shells. Woodward.

It is not his meaning that we put on the out ward face and semblance of virtue, only to conceal and disguise our vice. Rogers.

2. Appearance; show; figure.

Be you the soldier; for you likest are, For manly semblance, and for skill in war. Spens. Their semblance kind, and mild their gestures

were,

Peace in their hands, and friendship in their face. Fairfax.

All that fair and good in thy divine Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray, United I beheld.

Milton. SE'MBLANT. adj. [semblant, Fr.] Like; resembling; having the appearance of any thing. Little used.

Thy picture, like thy fame, Entire may last; that, as their eyes survey The semblant shade, yet men unborn may say,