from his entrance into Parliament in 1623 continued to play an important part throughout the troublous reign of Charles; sincerely attached to the Parliamentary side, he was one of the framers of the Petition of Right, and suffered imprisonment with Holies and the others; sat in the Long Parliament, but, all through out of sympathy with the extremists, disapproved of the execution of Charles; held various offices, e. g.  Keeper of the Rolls and Records in the Tower; continued to write learned and voluminous works on biblical and historical subjects, but is best remembered for his charming ’Table-talk, a book of which Coleridge remarked, “There is more weighty bullion sense in this book than I can find in the same number of pages of any uninspired writer” (1584-1654).

SELENE, in the Greek mythology the moon-goddess, the sister of Helios, and designated Phoebe as he was Phoebus; she became by Endymion the mother of 50 daughters.

SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE, a resolution of the Long Parliament passed in 1644, whereby the members bound themselves not to accept certain executive offices, particularly commands in the army.

SELIM I., a warlike sultan of Turkey, who, having dethroned and put to death his father, Bajazet II., entered upon a victorious career of military aggrandisement, overcoming the Persians in 1515, conquering and annexing Egypt, Syria, and the Hejaz in 1517, finally winning for himself the position of Imam or head of the Mohammedan world; greatly strengthened his country, and strove according to his lights to deal justly with and ameliorate the condition of the peoples whom he conquered (1467-1520).

SELJUKS, a Turkish people who in the 10th century, headed by a chief named Seljuk (whence their name), broke away from their allegiance to the khan of Kirghiz, adopted the Mohammedan faith, and subsequently conquered Bokhara, but were driven across the Oxus and settled HI Khorassan; under Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, they in the 11th century won for themselves a wide empire in Asia, including the provinces of Syria and Asia Minor, whose rulers, by their cruel persecution of Christian pilgrims, led to the Crusade movement in Europe.  The Seljuks were in part gradually absorbed by the advancing Mongol tribes, while numbers fled westward, where they were at length incorporated in the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century.

SELKIRK (6), county town of Selkirkshire, on the Ettrick, 40 m.  SE. of Edinburgh; famed at one time for its “Souters”; is a centre of the manufacture of tweeds.

SELKIRKSHIRE (27), a south inland county of Scotland; extends S. from the corner of Midlothian to Dumfriesshire, between Peebles (W.) and Roxburgh (E.); the grassy slopes of its hills afford splendid pasturage, and sheep-farming is a flourishing industry; manufactures are mainly confined to Galashiels and Selkirk; is traversed by the Ettrick and the Yarrow, whose romantic valleys are associated with much of the finest ballad literature of Scotland.