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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hweitz fea, on tlie Hope of a hill, and at the bottom of two
(1 high, {harp, and rugged rocks, called the Schweitzer
;^ra? Hahuen. The church is an edifice both large and mag¬
nificent. It is io miles fouth-eaft of Lucerne. E. Long.
8. 30. N. Lat. 46. 55.
SCHWENKFELDI A, a genus of plants belonging
to the pentandria clafs ; and in the natural method
ranking with thofe that are doubtful. See Botany/«</<?#.
8CHWENKIA, a genus of plants belonging to the
diandria clafs. See Botany Index.
SCHWINBURG, a town of Denmark, on the fouth
coaft of the ifland of Funen, oppofite to the illands of
Arroa and Langeland. E. Long. 10.30. N. Lat.55.10.
SCI ACC A, anciently called Thennce Selinuntice, in
Sicily, derives its prefent denomination from the Ara¬
bic word Scheich. It is a very ancient j^lace, being
mentioned in the accotint of the wars between the
Greeks and. Carthaginians, to the latter of whom it
belonged. It is defended by ancient walls and the
caftle of Luna. It ftands upon a very fteep rock,
hanging over the fea, and excavated in every direction
into prodigious magazines, where the corn of the neigh¬
bouring territory is depofited for exportation j there is
no harbour, but a fmall bay formed by a wooden pier,
where lighters lie to load the corn which they carry
out about a mile to fhips at anchor.
The town is irregularly but fubftantially built, and
contains 13,000 inhabitants, though Amico’s Lexicon
Topographicum fays the laft enumeration found only
9484. His accounts do not take in ecclefiaftics, and
feveral denominations of lay perfons.
SCIiENA, a genus of fifties belonging to the order
thoracici. See Ichthyology Index.
SCI AGRAPHY,or Sciography, the profile or ver¬
tical feftion of a building, ufed for {hewing theinfide of it.
Sciagraphy, in Ajlronomy, &.c. is a term made ufe Sciagraphy*
of by fome authors for the art of finding the hour of the Sciente‘
day or night, by the fhadow of the fun, moon, ftars, &c* v"" f
SCIATICA, the Hip-Gout. See Medicine
SCIENCE, in Philofophij, denotes any dodtrines de¬
duced from felf-evident principles.
Sciences may be properly divided as follows : 1. The
knowledge of things, their conftitutions, properties, and
operations: this, in a little more enlarged fenfe of the
word, may be called <pvc-t>ct), or naturalphiiofop/iy ; the
end of which is fpeculative truth. See Philosophy
and Physics.—2. The {kill of rightly applying thefe
powers, irgssxTocs!: The tnoft confiderable under this
head is ethics, which is the feeking out thofe rules and
meafures of human aftions that lead to happinefs, and
the means to pradtife them (fee Moral Philosophy) ;
and the next is mechanics, or the application of the
powers of natural agents to the ufes of life (fee Me¬
chanics).—3. The dodtrine of figns, mpuaTiKti ; the
moft ufual of which being words, it is aptly enough
termed logic. See Logic.
This, fays Mr Locke, feems to be the moft general,
as well as natural, divifion of the objedts of our Under-
ftanding. For a man can employ his thoughts about
nothing but eitherthe contemplation of things themfelve*
for the difcovery of truth ; or about the things in his
own power, which are his adlions, for the attainment of
his own ends ; or the figns the mind makes ufe of both
in the one and the other, and the right ordering of them
for its clearer information. All which three, viz. things
as they are in thetnfelves knowable, adlions as they de¬
pend on us in order to happinefs, and the right ufe of
figms in order to knowledge, being toto ccelo different,
they feem to be the three great provinces of the intellec¬
tual ivorld, wholly feparate and diftindl one from another.
SCIENCE, AMUSEMENTS OR RECREATIONS OF,
Lure and A DESIRE of amufement and relaxation is natural
(py of to man. The mind is foon fatigued with contem-
r cations P^a*-*n£ t^ie rno^ biblime truths, or the moft refined fpe-
‘ culations, while thefe are addreffed only to the under-
ftanding. In philofophy, as in polite literature, we
muft, to pleafe and fecure attention, fometimes addrefs
ourfelves to the imagination or to the paflions, and thus
combine the agreeable with the ufeful. For want of
this combination, we find that pure mathematics (com¬
prehending arithmetic, geometry, algebra, fluxions, &c.),
notwithftanding their great and acknowledged utility,
are ftudied but by few; while the more attradlive
fciences of experimental philofophy and chemiftry, are
almoft univerfally admired, and feldotn fail to draw
crowds of hearers or fpedlators to the ledlures of their
profeffors. The numerous ftriking phenomena which
thefe latter fciences prefent to our fenfes, the fplendid
experiments by which their principles may be illuftrat-
ed, and the continual application which they admit, of
thofe principles and experiments to the affairs of com¬
mon life, have a powerful influence on the imagination ;
fix and keep alive the attention ; excite the paflions of
joy, terror, or furprife, and gratify that love of the mar¬
vellous which nature has implanted in the human mind.
Even the more abftrufe fubjedts of pure mathematics,
Vol. XVIIL Part II.
efpecially arithmetic and geometry, may be fometimes
enlivened by amufing examples and contrivances ; and
are found the more pleating, in proportion as they are
fufceptible of fuch elucidation.
Thefe experimental contrivances, and ufeful applica¬
tions to the purpofes of common life, conftitute what we
may term the Amufements or Recreations of SCIENCE.
They have very properly been denominated rational re¬
creations, as they ferve to relax and unbend the mind
after long attention to the cares of bufinefs, or to fe-
verer ftudies, in a manner more rational, and often more
fatisfadtory, than thofe frivolous purfuits which too oftea
employ the time, and injure the health of the riling ge¬
neration.
In the preceding volumes of this work we have fup- ObjeA an*
plied our readers with many examples of fcientiflc re-plan of this
creation. Thus, the articles Legerdemain and PY-artiele-
ROTECHNY may be regarded as entirely of this nature ;
and in the experimental parts of Chemistry, Elec¬
tricity, Galvanism, and Magnetism; in the ar¬
ticles Acoustics, Hydrodynamics, Mechanics,
Optics, and its corelative divifions, Catoptrics, Di¬
optrics, Perspective, and Microscope ; in Pneu¬
matics and Aerostation, we have related a variety
of interefting experiments, and defcribed many ingeni-
3 ^ eus