Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/377

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SECOND 321 SECRETARY BIRD he graduated B.A. at Oxford, and in that and the following year he was ordained deacon and priest. His preferments were Houghton-le-Spring (1724), Ryton and a prebend at Durham (1727), chaplain to the king (1732), St. James's, London (1733), Bishop of Bristol (1735), of Ox- ford (1737), Dean of St. Paul's, for which he resigned the living of St. James's (1750), and the primacy (1758). He died Aug. 3, 1768. SECOND, the 60th part of a minute of time or of a minute of a degree. In music, the interval of a second is the difference between any sound and the next nearest sound above or below it. There are three kinds — the minor second or semitone, the major second, and the extreme sharp second. Also a lower part added to a melody when arranged for two voices or instruments. SECOND ADVENTISTS, a religious organization having six slightly differing branches in the United States. They are Protestants and their belief is character- ized by faith that at some time in the future there will be a visible reappear- ance of Christ. They do not agree among themselves whether this "divine return" will be visible to all the Church, or to the whole world, or to certain elect "first- fruits" of the Church. The original Ad- ventists were called Millerites, and were followers of William Miller (1782-1849). Miller promulgated a belief that the world would end and that the millennium would begin in October, 1843. Many peo- ple had such implicit faith in his proph- ecy that they did not "plant or reap" crops, neglected their business, and spent months of time before the appointed hour in religious exercises so as to be in readi- ness to ascend to heaven. When Miller's prediction proved a failure, some of his followers lost faith in the doctrine, while others decided that an error in calcula- tion had been made. Other predictions have been made since that time. Disap- pointment, however, has not materially lessened the number of Adventists, since from 50,000 in 1843 they increased to 60,- 000 in 1890, and in 1900 attained a fol- lowing of over 125,000. In 1919 there were 4,181 churches with a membership of 162,667, and 5,610 Sunday schools with 171,914 members. _ All sects of Advent- ists are congregational in church govern- ment. They are very orthodox and strict to an extreme in their mode of living. Many kinds of amusements are prohib- ited. The denominations are: Evangeli- cal Adventists, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God, Life and Advent Union, Age to Come Adventists, and the Advent- Christians. SECONDARY SCHOOLS, educational institutions in the United States higher in grade than the Common Schools (g. v.) and next below the grade of colleges. Under this head are classed all public high schools, academies, etc. Under spe- cial secondary schools are included all preparatory, normal and manual training schools. The increase and development of public secondary schools has been very rapid. In 1918 there were 678,469 pu- pils enrolled in the high schools of the United States. SECOND SIGHT, a gift of prophetic vision, long supposed in the Scotch High- lands and elsewhere to belong to particu- lar persons. The most common form it took was to see the wraith, fetch, or shadowy second self of some person soon to die, often wrapped in a shroud, or attended with some other of the special circumstances of death or burial. SECRETARY BIRD, the SerpentarU us secretarius, from South Africa, a bird protected by the native and English au- thorities for the service it renders in de- stroying venomous serpents, which it kills SECRETARY BIRD by blows from its powerful feet and bill. The secretary bird stands about four feet high; upper surface grayish-blue, shaded with reddish-brown on wing coverts; throat white, thighs black, tail feathers very long, black at base paling into gray, tipped with white ; two long central feath- ers bluish-gray tipped with black and white. Crest of 10 feathers black or gray tipped with black. From the fancied re-