28 SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION 
 
 
way. His ship, in its home passage, was 
wrecked off the coast of Aberdeen, and 
every one on board was lost. The inci- 
dent has furnished the subject of a spirited 
Scotch ballad by Lady Lindsay. 
 
   Spenser. The Spenser of English Prose 
 Writers, Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667). 
 
   Spenser. From Spenser to Flecknoe, that 
is, from the top to the bottom of all 
poetry; from the sublime to the ridicu- 
lous.-Dryden, Comment on Spenser, etc. 
 
   Spenser's Monument, in Westminster 
Abbey, was erected by Anne Clifford, 
countess of Dorset. 
 
  Spider's Net (A). When Mahomet 
fled from Mecca, he hid in a cave, and a 
spider wove its net over the entrance. 
When the Koreishites came thither, they 
passed on, being fully persuaded that no 
one had entered the cave, because the 
cobweb was not broken. 
  In the Talmud, we are told that David, 
in his flight, hid himself in the cave of 
Adullam, and a spider spun its net over 
the opening. When Saul came up and 
saw the cobweb, he passed on, under the 
same persuasion. 
 
  Spindle (Jack), the son of a man of 
fortune. Having wasted his money in 
riotous living, he went to a friend to bor- 
row £100. "Let me see, you want £100, 
Mr. Spindle; let me see, would not £50 
do for the present?" "Well," said Jack, 
"if you have not £100, I must be con- 
tented with £50." "Dear me, Mr. Spin- 
dle!" said the' friend, "I find I have but 
£20 about me." "Never mind," said Jack, 
"I must borrow the other £30 of some 
other friend." "Just so, Mr. Spindle, just 
so. By-the-by would it not be far better 
 
 
to borrow the whole of that friend, and 
then one note of hand will serve for the 
whole sum ? Good morning, Mr. Spindle; 
delighted to see you! Tom, see the gen- 
tleman down."-Goldsmith, The Bee, iii. 
(1759). 
   Spirit of the Cape (The), Adamastor, 
 a hideous phantom, of unearthly pallor, 
 "erect his hair uprose of withered red," 
 his lips were black, his teeth blue and dis- 
 jointed, his beard haggard, his face scarred 
 by lightning, his eyes "shot livid fire," his 
 voice roared. The sailors trembled at the 
 sight of him, and the fiend demanded how 
 they dared to trespass "where never hero 
 braved his rage before?" He then told 
 them "that every year the shipwrecked 
 should be made to deplore their foolhardi- 
 ness." According to Barreto the "Spirit 
 of the Cape" was one of the giants who 
 stormed heaven.--Camoens, The Lusiad 
 (1572). 
 In me the Spirit of the Cape behold ... 
 That rock by you the "Cape of Tempests" 
    named . . . 
With wide-stretched piles I guard ... 
Great Adamastor is my dreaded name. 
                              Canto v. 
  Spiri'to, the Holy Ghost as the friend 
of man, personified in canto ix. of The 
Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). 
He was married to Urania, and their off- 
spring are: Knowledge, Contemplation, 
Care, Humility, Obedience, Faith or Fido, 
Penitence, Elpi'nus or Hope, and Love, 
the foster-son of Gratitude. (Latin, spi4. 
tus, " spirit.") 
 
  Spitfire (Will), or WiLL SprrTAL, serv- 
ing-boy of Roger Wildrake, the dissipated 
royalist.-Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, 
Commonwealth). 
 
  Spontaneous Combustion.        There 
are above thirty cases on record of death 
 
 
0 
 
 
SPENS