Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/543

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SWEET BRIER hence the incarnation ; and hence the various forms of religion which exist in the world, all of which embody more or less the essentials of salvation, namely, the worship of God and abstinence from evils as sins against him. The smaller treatises of Swedenborg are mostly extracts from his larger works, with amplifica- tions and additions. The fullest account of him and his writings is that of William White (2 vols., London, 1867, since republished in one volume). See, also, "Documents concerning Swedenborg," by R. L. Tafel (London, 1875 et aeq.). All of his theological and some of his scientific works have been translated into Eng- lish. The theological works have also been reprinted in Latin by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, of Tu- bingen, Germany, and partially translated and published in French, German, Italian, Danish, and Swedish. Societies for promoting their circulation are in operation both in the Uni- ted States and in Europe. The principal wri- ters who have undertaken the exposition of Swedenborg's doctrines in England are John Clowes, Robert Hindmarsh, 0. A. Tulk, Sam- uel Noble, J. J. G. Wilkinson, and Jonathan Bayley; in France, E. Richer and J. F. Les Boys-des-Guays ; and in the United States, George Bush, Theophilus Parsons, E. H. Sears, Henry James, B. F. Barrett, W. B. Hayden, and Chauncey Giles. For an account of the ecclesiastical organization based upon Sweden- borg's doctrines, see NEW JERUSALEM. SWEET BRIER. See EGLANTINE. SWEET GUM. See LIQUIDAMBAE. SWEET POTATO. See POTATO, SWEET. SWEETWATER, a central county of Wyoming, extending across the territory from Montana on the north to Colorado and Utah on the south; area, about 35,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,916. It is crossed by the Wind River and Rocky mountains, and is watered in the north by the Big Horn river and its head streams, and in the south by the Sweetwater and Green rivers. It contains deposits of coal and gold. The S. part is crossed by the Union Pacific railroad. In 1870 there were 3 saw mills and 4 quartz mills. Capital, South Pass City. SWEET WILLIAM. See PINK. SWETCHINE, or Svetchin, Anne Sophie, a French writer, born in Moscow in 1782, died in Paris, Sept. 10, 1857. She was the granddaughter of Gen. Boltin, a translator of the Encyclopedic into Russian, and daughter of Soimonoff, one of the founders of the academy of sciences at Moscow, and private secretary to Catharine II., at whose court she was brought up. In 1799 she married Gen. Svetchin (born in 1758, died Nov. 23, 1850) to please her father, who was banished from St. Petersburg and died soon afterward at Moscow. Her mother hav- ing died, the education of her younger sister (the future princess Gregory Gagarin) devolved upon her, in addition to that of her hus- band's adopted daughter. At the. same time she gathered round her the most eminent Rus- sians and French emigrants, who cultivated SWIFT 519 her society even after the sudden removal in 1801 of her husband from his offices as mili- tary commandant and provisional governor of St. Petersburg. Her delicate health and her sorrow for the loss of her father in- creased her proneness to religious meditation, which was still further developed by her filial relations with the count Joseph de Maistre, French ambassador at the Russian court, al- though her final conversion in 1815 to Roman Catholicism was more directly ascribed to the writings of the abbe Fleury. As soon as the prescriptive measures against the Jesuits were announced, she publicly avowed her change of religion ; and as it was feared that her ascen- dancy over the emperor Alexander might be- come as great as that of Mme. Krudener, she was compelled to depart from Russia by vexa- tious proceedings against her husband on this and subsequent occasions. She spent the win- ter of 1816-'! 7 in Paris. In 1818 she and her husband were at St. Petersburg, and she never returned again to Russia excepting once about 12 years later. After spending several years in Italy, she settled permanently in Paris in 1825. De Falloux, her literary executor, has published Mme. Swetchine, so, me et ses ceuvres (2 vols., 1859, vol. ii. comprising her Pensees, &o.); her Lettres (2 vols., 1862); Journal de sa conversion (1863) ; and Lettres inedites (1866). Harriet W. Preston has translated the "Life and Letters of Madame Swetchine" (Boston, 1867; 8th ed., 1875), and "The Wri- tings of Madame Swetchine " (1869). See also Mme. Swetchine's correspondence with Lacor- daire (Paris, 1864), and with Lagrange (1875). SWIETEN, Gerard van, a Dutch physician, born in Ley den, May 7, 1700, died in Schonbrunn, Austria, June 18, 1772. He was a favorite pupil of Boerhaave, and after a few years' prac- tice became professor of medicine at Leyden ; but on account of his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith he was compelled to resign. In 1745 he went to Vienna as physician-in-chief to the empress Maria Theresa, and professor of medicine and anatomy ; and he held several other important offices there. His great medi- cal work, Commentarii in H. Boerhaami Apho- rismos de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis (5 vols. 4to, Leyden, l741-'72), was translated into German, English, and French. SWIFT, the general name of the cypselidce, a subfamily of birds formerly placed among the swallows, but by modern ornithologists ranked as a separate family coming near the humming birds, on account of certain anatomical pecu- liarities, and particularly of the absence of sing- ing muscles in the lower larynx. The swifts resemble the swallows in habits and in their general form ; the bill is more suddenly curved, unprovided with bristles at the base ; nostrils very large, oblong, with an elevated margin ; wings extremely long, curved and narrow, with ten primaries ; tarsi short and weak, and more or less feathered ; toes short and thick, and all four are or may be directed forward; claws