Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 18, RHI-SCR

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Scatrcn tion in favour of fotne of his comedies, of fome pa o
11 in his Eneid traveftied, and his Comic Romance, ve
Stei,tir* muft acknowledge that all the reft of his works are on-
v ’ ly fit to be read by footmen and buffoons. It has been
faid that he was the moft eminent man m his age tor
burlefque. This might make him an agreeable compa¬
nion to thofe who choofe to.laUgh away their time *, but
as he has left nothing that can inftru6t pofterity, he has
but little title to pofthumous fame.
SCENE, in its primary fenfe, denoted a theatie, or
the place where dramatic pieces and other public (hows
were exhibited j for it does not appear that the ancient
poets were at all acquainted with the modern way of
changing the fcenes in the different parts of the play, m
ord« to raife .ho idea of the perfous reprefented by the
aftors being in different places.
The original feene for afting of plays was as fimp e
as the reprefentations themfelves: it confifted only of
a plain plot of ground proper for the occafion, which
Avas in fome degree (haded by the neighbouring trees,
whofe branches were made to meet together and their
vacancies fupplied with boards, (ticks, and the like;
and to complete the ftielter, thefe Were fometimes co¬
vered with (kins, and fometimes with only the branches
of other trees newly cut down, and full of leaves.
Afterwards more artificial fcenes, or feenical reprefenta¬
tions, Avere introduced, and paintings ufed mftead of the
obi efts themfelves. Scenes were then of three forts 5
tragic, comic, and fatiric. The tragic feene reprefent¬
ed (lately magnificent edifices, with decorations of pil¬
lars, ftatues, and other things fuitable to the palaces of
k; ’ : the Comic exhibited private houfes Atith balco¬
nies and windows, in imitation of common buildings :
and the fatiric was the reprefentation of groyesb y10™-
tains, dens, and other rural appearances* and theie de¬
corations either turned on pivots, or did along grooves
as thofe in our theatres. , , r _
To keep clofe to nature and probability, the feene
{hould never be (hifted from place to place in the courle
of the play : the ancients were pretty fevere in this re-
fpeft, particularly Terence, in fome of whofe P1^8 th®
feene never (hifts at all, but the whole is tranfafted at
the door of fome old man’s houfe, whither with inimi¬
table art he occafionally brings the aft or s. I he French
are pretty drift with refpeft to this rule * but the En6-
li(h pay very little regard to it.
Scene is alfo a part or divifion of a dramatic poem.
Thus plays are divided into afts, and afts are again
fubdivided into fcenes * in Avhich fenfe the. feene is pro¬
perly the perfons prefent at or concerned in the aftion
on the ftage at fuch a time : whenever, therefore, a new
aftor appears, or an old one difappears, the aftion is
changed into other hands * and therefore a new feene
then commences. , . r ,
It is one of the Iuavs of the ftage, that the fcenes be
well connefted * that is, that one fucceed another in fuch
a manner as that the ftage be never quite empty till the
end of the aft. See Poetry. /-
SCENOGRAPHY, (from the Greek nmjeene,
and defcription\ in perfpeftive a reprefentation
of a body on a perfpeftive plane * or a defcnption there¬
of in all its dimenfions, fuch as it appears to the eye.
See Perspectjve.
SCEPTIC, wxxmh, from tncarropcti, 1 conncier,
look about, or deliberate,” properly figmfies conftdera-
tive and inquifitme, or one who- is always Weighing rea- S
fons on one fide and the other, without ever deciding be¬
tween them. It is chiefly applied to an ancient feft of
philofophers founded by Pyrrho (fee Pyrrho), who,
according to Laertius, had various other denominations.
From their mafter they were called P'yrrhonians ; from
the diftinguilhing tenets or charafteriftic of their phi-
lofophy they derived the name of Aporctici, from
“ to doubt *” from their fufpenfion and hefitation they
Avere called epheBici, from “ to flay or keep
back and laftly, they were called %etetici, or feekers,
from their never getting beyond the fearch of truth.
That the fceptical philofophy is abfurd, can admit of
no difpute in the prefent age * and that many of the fol¬
lowers of Pyrrho carried it to the moft ridiculous height,
is no lefs true. But we cannot believe that he himfelf
was fo extravagantly fceptical as has fometimes been
afferted, when we refleft on the particulars of hia hie,
which are (till preferved, and the refpeftful manner in
which we find him mentioned by his contemporaries
and writers of the firft name who flouriftred foon after
him. The truth, as far as at this diftance of time it
can be difeovered, feems to be, that he learned from De¬
mocritus to deny the real exiftence of all qualities m bo¬
dies, except thofe which are effential to primary atoms,
and that he referred every thing elfe to the perceptions
of the mind produced by external objefts, in other Avords,
to appearance and opinion. All knowledge of comic
appeared to him to depend on the fallacious report ot
the fenfes, and confequently to be uncertain * and m
this notion he was confirmed by the general Runt of
the Eleatic fchool in which he was educated. He was
further confirmed in his fcepticifm by the fubtilties of
the Dialeftic fchools, in which he had been inftrufted
by the fon of Stilpo * choofing to overturn the cavihj
of fophiftry by recurring to the doftnne of umyerfal
uncertainty, and thus breaking the knot which he
could not unloofe. For being naturally and habitually
inclined to confider immoveable tranquilltity as the
great end of all philofophy, he was eafily led to defpife
the diffenfions of the dogmatifts, and to infer from their
endlefs difputes, the uncertainty of the queftions on
which they debated 5 controverfy, as it has often hap¬
pened to others, becoming alfo with refpeft to him the
parent of fcepticifm.
Pyrrho’s doftrines, however new and extraordinary,
were not totally difregarded. He was attended by e-
veral fcholars, and fucceeded by feveral followers, who
preferved the memory of his notions. 1 he moft emi¬
nent of his followers wasTimon (fee TlMON), in whom
the public fucceflion of profeffers in the Pyrrhomc fchool
terminated. In the time of Cicero it was almoft ex-
tinft, having fuffered much from thejealonfy of the dog¬
matifts, and from a natural averfion m the human mind
to acknowledge total ignorance, or to be left in ab -
lute darknefs. The difciples of Timon, however, ftiU
continued to profefs fcepticifm, and their notions were
embraced privately at lead by many others. The fchool
itfelf was afterwards revived by Ptolaemeus a Cyreman,
and was continued by /Enefidemtis a contemporary o(U-
cero, who wrote a treatife on the principles of the Pyr-
rhonic philofophy, the heads of which are preferved ^y
Photius. From this time it was continued throng
a feries of preceptors of little note to Sextus Enq
ricus, who alfo gave a fummary of the fceptical doftrin^