Chapter Schoolmistress to Scotch Breakfast of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Schoolmistress to Scotch Breakfast

Schoolmistress (The), by Shenstone, is designed for a “portrait of Sarah Lloyd,” the dame who first taught the poet himself. She lived in a thatched house before which grew a birch tree.

Scian (See Cean .)

Science The Gay Science or “Gay Saber.” The poetry of the Troubadours, and in its extended meaning poetry generally.

Science Persecuted
   (1) Anaxagoras of Clazomenae held opinions in natural science so far in advance of his age that he was accused of impiety, thrown into prison, and condemned to death. Pericles, with great difficulty, got his sentence commuted to fine and banishment.
   (2) Virgilius, Bishop of Salzburg, denounced as a heretic by St. Boniface for asserting the existence of antipodes. (Died 784.)
   (3) Galileo was imprisoned by the Inquisition for maintaining that the earth moved. In order to get his liberty he “abjured the heresy,” but as he went his way whispered half-audibly, “E pur si muove” (“but nevertheless it does move”). (1564- 1642.)
   (4) Gebert, who introduced algebra into Christendom, was accused of dealing in the black arts, and shunned as a magician.
   (5) Friar Bacon was excommunicated and imprisoned for diabolical knowledge, chiefly on account of his chemical researches. (1214-1294.)
   (6) Dr. Faust, the German philosopher, suffered in a similar way in the sixteenth century.
   (7) John Dee. (See Dee.)
   (8) Robert Grosseteste. (See Grosted.)
   (9) Averroes, the Arabian philosopher, who flourished in the twelfth century, was denounced as a heretic and degraded solely on account of his great eminence in natural philosophy and medicine. (He died 1226.)
   (10) Andrew Crosse, electrician, who asserted that he had seen certain animals of the genus Acarus, which had been developed by him out of inorganic elements. Crosse was accused of impiety, and was shunned as a “profane man,” who wanted to arrogate to himself the creative power of God. (1784-1855.)

Scienter Nesciens et Sapiente Indoctus was how Gregory the Great described St. Benedict.

Scio's Blind Old Bard Homer. Scio is the modern name of Chios, in the AEgean Sea.

“Smyrna, Chios, Colophon', Salamis', Rhodos, Argos, Athenae,
Your just right to call Homer your son you must settle between ye.”

Scipio dismissed the Iberian Maid (Paradise Regained, ii.). Referring to the tale that the conqueror of Spain not only refused to see a beautiful princess who had fallen into his power after the capture of New Carthage, but that he restored her to her parents, and actually gave her great presents that she might marry the man to whom she had been betrothed. (See Continence .)
   The Lusian Scipio. Nunio.

“The Lusian Scipio well may speak his fame,
But nobler Nunio shines a greater name;
On earth's green bosom, or on ocean grey,
A greater never shall the sun survey.”
Camoens: Lusiad, bk. viii.

Scissors to Grind Work to do; purpose to serve.

“That the Emperor of Austria [in the Servian and Bulgarian war, 1885] has his own scissors to grind goes without saying; but for the present it is Russia who keeps the ball rolling.”- Newspaper paragraph, November, 1885.

Sclavonic The language spoken by the Russians, Servians, Poles, Bohemians, etc.; anything belonging to the Sclavi.

Scobellum A very fruitful land, but the inhabitants “exceeded the cannibals for cruelty, the Persians for pride, the Egyptians for luxury, the Cretans for lying, the Germans for drunkenness, and all nations together for a generality of vices.” In vengeance the gods changed all the people into beasts: drunkards into swine, the lecherous into goats, the proud into peacocks, scolds into magpies, gamblers into asses, musicians into song-birds, the envious into dogs, idle women into milch-cows, jesters into monkeys, dancers into squirrels, and misers into moles. Four of the Champions of Christendom restored them to their normal forms by quenching the fire of the Golden Cave.” (The Seven Champions of Christendom, iii. 10.)