Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/308

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SMITH. 26-2 SMITH. Naval Academy. He published A Manual of Topographical Drawing (1853) and A Majiual of Linear Perspective (1857). SMITH, Robert (1689-1768). An English mathematician and astronomer, born at Lea, near Gainsborough. He was educated at Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge. In 1716 he was elected to succeed Cotes as Plumian professor of astron- omy at Cambridge, a position which he held till 1760. Besides astronomy he also lectured on optics and hydrostatics, and was a defender of Newton's method of fluxions. He also efl'ected the completion of the observatory over the great gate at Trinity College. In 1742 he became master of Trinity College and also acted as vice-chancellor of the university (1742-43). He was also master of mechanics to George II., and mathematical preceptor to the Duke of Cumber- land. Smith was the founder of the prizes at Cambridge which bear his name. He wrote: .4 Compleat System of Opticks (2 vols., 1728: student's edition, 1778) ; Harmonics, or the Phi- losophy of Musical Sounds (1744; 2d ed. 1759, and postscript 1762). He also edited Cotes's works and left several papers on Cotes and New- ton, which were later bequeathed to the college and from which was collected the Correspondence of yrirton and Cotes, by Edleston (1850). SMITH^ Samuel (1752-1839). An American soldier, born at Lancaster, Pa. He removed to Baltimore with his father, .John Smith, a well- known merchant, in 1759: received a commercial education, and subsequently spent three years (1772-75) in Europe. He Ijccame a captain in Smalhvood's ilaryland Regiment in .January, 1776, and served with great gallantry at the battles of Long Island and White Plains, attain- ing the rank of lieutenant-colonel in February, 1777. He afterwards participated in the attack on Staten Island and in the battle of Brandy- wine, and from September 26th to October 23d was in command of Fort ilifflin (q.v.). repelling the repeated attacks of the English, though finally dangerously wounded. He was a mem ber of the JIaryland House of Delegates in 1792, commanded the quota of 5Iar>-land mili- tia sent to lielp suppress the Whisky Insurrection in 1794, was a member of Congress from 1793 to 1803 and from 1816 to 1822, was for a time in 1801 Secretary of the Nay, was L'nited States Senator from 1803 to 1815, commanded the State troops as major-general of militia in the defense of Baltimore in 1814, and was Mayor of Balti- more in 1835-38, SMITH, Samuel Fkancis (1808-95). An American clergj-man and hynui writer. He was born in Boston, graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and at Andover. He Avas pastor of the Baptist Church at Waterville, ile., and professor of modern languages in Waterville College, 1834- 42: pastor at Newton, Mass., 1842-54: editor of The Christian Review (Boston), 1842-48, and of the publications of the .merican Baptist ilis- sionarv Union, 1854-69. He wrote "My Countrv. 'Tis of Thee" (first .sung in the Park Street Church, Boston, .July 4, 1832), "The Morning Light Is Breaking" (1832). and other favorite hymns. His publications include a Life of Rev. •Joseph Grafton (1848) and of William Hague (1889); Missiomiry Sketches (1879: 2d ed. 1883); History of 'Newton, Mass. (1880); and Rambles in Mission Fields (1884). A collected edition of his poems appeared at New York in 1805. SMITH, Samuel Stanhope (1750-1819). An American clergjman and educator. He was liorn at Pequea, Pennsylvania; was graduated at the College of New Jerse.y. Princeton. 1769; was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry and preached in Virginia. 1774: was first president of llampden-Sidney College, 1775-79; was made professor of moral philosophy in the College of New Jersey, 1779; professor of theology. 1783; vice-president. 1786: and president, 1795-1812. Among his publications are: Lectures on the Evidences of the Christian Religion (1809); Lectures on Moral and Political Philosophy (1812); Comprehensive Vieics of Natural and Revealed Religion (1815). Consult the memoir prefixed to his Sermons (Philadelphia, 1821). SMITH, Seba (1792-1868). An American humorist, born at Buckfield, Jlaine. After grad- uating at Bowdoin in 1818 he became a jour- nalist in Portland, Maine, editing three papers, the last of which was The Daily Courier, to which he contributed, beginning in 1830, the humorous letters on local and national politics which pur- ported to be written by Olajor Jack Downing.' These letters, first collected in 1833. were im- mensely popular and are still readable in their Yankee dialect. They are not to be confounded with the amusing letters of a second 'Major Downing' published in 1834 by Charles Augustus Davis (1795-1867). an iron merchant of New York City. In 1839 Smith lost his property and three years later began life anew in New York. Here he succeeded at journalism and also published in the magazines many contribu- tions in prose and verse. Among his works may be named: Den-drops of the Nineteenth Century (1846) ; Powhatan, a Metrical Romance (1841) ; and Way Down East, or Portraitures of Yankee Life (1855). In 1859 he parodied the title of Senator Benton's great work by publishing My Thirty Years Out of the Senate, in which he collected 'Major Downing's' letters on Maine politics, on his relations with 'Old Hickory,' and with President Polk in connection with the Mex- ican War. This humorous performance is lioniely and vigorous, and justifies Smith's long continued popularity as a good-natured political satirist. SMITH, Sophia (1796-1870). An American philanthropist, founder of Smith College (q.v.). She was born in Hatfield, Mass.. one of seven children of a Revolutionary soldier. All of them Hied before her, the last in 1861, leaving her with a large fortune, Avliich she determined to devote to charity and in aid of education. She founded Smith Academy in her native town and gave lib- erally to Andover Theological Seminary and to foreign missions. The bulk of her estate, how- ever, amounting in all to about .'S400.000. she left for the establishment of the woman's college at Northampton, Mass., which bears her name. SMITH, Sydney (1771-1845). An English humorist, born at Woodford, in Essex. Sydney was sent to Winchester School, from which he passed to New College, Oxford (1789). In 1794 he was ordained to the curacy of Nether Avon, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire. From 1798 to 1803 he lived in Edinburgh. During this time he occasionally preached at the Charlotte