SELWYN, GEORGE, a noted wit in the social and literary life of London in Horace Walpole’s time, born, of good parentage, in Gloucestershire; was expelled from Oxford in 1743 for blasphemy; four years later entered Parliament, and supported the Court party, and received various government favours; his vivacious wit won him ready entrance into the best London and Parisian society; is the chief figure in Jesse’s entertaining “George Selwyn and his Contemporaries” (1719-1791).

SELWYN, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, the first bishop of New Zealand, in which capacity he wrought so zealously, that his diocese, by his extension of Episcopacy, was subdivided into seven; on his return to England he was made bishop of Lichfield (1809-1878).

SEMAPHORE, a name applied to the mechanism employed for telegraphing purposes prior to the discovery of the electric telegraph; invented in 1767 by Richard Edgeworth, but first extensively used by the French in 1794, and afterwards adopted by the Admiralty in England; consisted at first of six shutters set in two rotating circular frames, which, by opening and shutting in various ways, were capable of conveying sixty-three distinct signals; these were raised on the tops of wooden towers erected on hills; later a different form was adopted consisting of a mast and two arms worked by winches.  The speed at which messages could be transmitted was very great; thus a message could be sent from London to Portsmouth and an answer be received all within 45 seconds.  The railway signal now in use is a form of semaphore.

SEMELE, in the Greek mythology the daughter of Cadmus and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus, was tempted by Hera to pray Zeus to show himself to her in his glory, who, as pledged to give her all she asked, appeared before her as the god of thunder, and consumed her by the lightning.  See DIONYSUS.

SEMINOLES, a nomadic tribe of American Indians who from 1832 to 1839 offered a desperate resistance to the Americans before yielding up their territory SE. of the Mississippi (Florida, etc.); finally settled in the Indian Territory, where they now number some 3000, and receive an annuity from the American Government; missionary enterprise among them has been successful in establishing schools and churches.

SEMIPALATINSK (586), a mountainous province of Asiatic Russia, stretching between Lake Balkash (S.) and Tomsk; encloses stretches of steppe-land on which cattle and horses are reared; some mining of silver, lead, and copper is also done.  Semipalatinsk, the capital (18), stands on the Irtish; has two annual fairs, and is an important trading mart.

SEMI-PELAGIANISM.  See PELAGIUS.

SEMIRAMIS, legendary queen of Assyria, to whom tradition ascribes the founding of Babylon with its hanging gardens, and is said to have surpassed in valour and glory her husband Ninus, the founder of Nineveh; she seems to have in reality been the Venus or Astarte of the Assyrian mythology.  The story goes that when a child she was deserted by her mother and fed by doves.