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SELAH, silo: A musical or liturgical term which occura seventy-four times in the Bible (seventy-one times in the Psalms, and in Hab. iii. 3, 9, 13). Its meaning is not known, and modern scholars are much divided over its interpretation. It has been supposed (1) to represent the Greek psalle, " play on the harp," or " staccato "; (2) to be an abbreviation; (3) to mean °' pause "; (4) to mean " for ever " (so the Targum, Aquila, Theodotion); or (5) to be a direction to raise the voice, equivalent to the musical sign forte, or fortissimo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. A. Brig, in JBL, xviii (1899), 132-143, J. Parisot in Revue biblique internatianale, viii (1899), 573-581; Emilie G. Brig, in American Journal of Semitic Languages, xvi (1899-1900), 1-29: DB, iv. 431 132; EB, iv. 4346-47;. and the commentaries on the Psalms.

SELBIE, JOHN ALEXANDER: United Free Church of Scotland; b. at Maryculter (7 m. s.w. of Aberdeen), Kincardineshire, Feb. 4, 1856. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen (M.A., 1876), the University of Tubingen (1878), and Free Church College, Aberdeen (from which he was graduated in 1880). In 1882 he became minister of Birsay Free Church, Orkney, and in 1896 succeeded his father as minister at Maryculter. In 1905 he retired from the ministry to devote himself entirely to literary work. Since 1893 he has been the assistant of James Hastings in the preparation of the Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols., Edinburgh, 1898-1904), Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (2 vols., 1906-07), the Dictionary of Religion and Ethics (1908 sqq.), and Smaller Dictionary of the Bible (1908). He is editor of the foreign department of The Expository Times, and has translated E. Kdnig's Exiles' Book of Consolation (Edinburgh, 1899). In theology he is an adherent of the school represented by Driver's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, and is " generally in sympathy with all modern liberal currents of theological opinion."

BIBLIoaRAPRY: Expository Times, Feb.. 1907, contains sketch and portrait.

SELBIE, WILLIAM BOOTHBY: Congregationalist; b. at Chesterfield (22 m. n. of Derby) Dec. 24, 1862. He received his education at Manchester Grammar School and Brasenose and Mansfield colleges, Oxford (M.A., Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1904); was lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament, Mansfield College, Oxford, 1889-90; minister of Highgate Congregational Church, London, 1890-1902, and of Emmanuel Congregational Church, Cambridge, 1902-09; became principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, 1909. He has written Life and Teachings of Jesus (London, 1908); and Aspects of Christ (New York, 1909).

SELBORNE, ROUNDELL PALMER, EARL OF: B. at Mixbury (55 m. n.w. of London), Oxfordshire, Nov. 27, 1812; d. at Blackmoor, Petersfield (50 m. s.w. of London), May 4, 1895. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford (B.A., 1834; M.A., 1837); called to the bar, 1837; became a queen's counsel, 1849; member of parliament, 1847-52, 1853-57, 186182- solicitor-general, 1861; attorney-general, 1863-86; and lord chancellor of England,

the University of St. Andrew's, 1877; raised to the peerage, 1882; and was president of the first house of laymen of the Church of England, Westminster, Feb., 1886. His principal significance for theology lies in the fact that he edited Book of Praise, from the Best English Hymn-Writers (London, 1863 and often), marking one of the great advances in English praise books (see SEDGwic$, DANIEL).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. T. Davidson and W. Benham, Life of Archibald Campbell Tait, 2 vols., London, 1891; W. Ward, William George Ward and the Oxford Movement, ib., 1889; idem, William George Ward and the Catholic Revival, ib. 1893; DNB, xliii. 150-154; Julian, Hymnology, p. 1589. SELBY, THOMAS GUNN: English Wesleyan, b. at New Radford (2 m. n. of Nottingham) June 5, 1846; d. at Bromley (8 m. s.e. of London) Dec. 12, 1910. His father was a silk merchant, and educated him first in private schools at Nottingham and Derby, then in the Wesleyan College at Richmond, but he did not study for a degree. He was missionary at Fatshan and Shin Chau Foo in Canton Province, China, from 1868 till 1881, after which time he traveled extensively in other provinces. On his return to England in 1883 he served as Wesleyan minister at different places. In 1898 he retired for literary work to Bromley. He wrote several good books on China, The Chinaman in his own Stories (London, 1895); Chinamen at Home (1900); As the Chinese see us (1901); he also wrote a life of Christ in Chinese and was active on the executive board of the Anti-Opium Society from 1883 to his death. But it is as a preacher that he will be longest remembered. He published many volumes of sermons, The Imperfect Angel, and other Sermons (1890, 4th ed., 1894); The Lesson of a Dilemma, and other Sermons (1893, 4th ed., 1899); The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege (1894); The Unheeding God, and other Sermons (1st and 2d ed., 1899); The God of the Frail (1902); The Alienated Crown (1904); A Strenuous Gospel (1906); The Divine Craftsman, and other Sermons (1909). He delivered the Fernley lecture at Liverpool on The Theology of Modern Fiction (1896); contributed to the series of Books for Bible Students that on The Ministry of the Lord Jesus (1896); to Clerical Life, Letters to Ministers (1898); and to The Cross and the Dice-box: Sermons and Addresses to Workingmen (Manchester, 1903); and published independently The God of the Patriarchs. Studies in the Early Scriptures of the Old Testament (1904).

SELDEN, JOHN: English jurist, statesman, and archeologist; b. at Salvington, West Tarring (11 m. w. of Brighton), Sussex, Dec. 16, 1584; d. in London Nov. 30, 1654. Selden received his education at Chichester free school, and Hart Hall, Oxford, but did not graduate, leaving college to take up the study of law at Clifford Inn. In 1604 he was admitted to the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1612. Influenced by Ben Jonson Camden, and especially by Robert Bruce Cotton, he turned to theoretical and historical juridical investigations resulting in Analecton Anglo-Britannieon (1607); Jani Anglorum fades altera (1610); England's epinomis (1610); and De laudibus legum Anglite (1616). He first won fame with his De die