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Rh belongs to Dr Laza Lazarevich. After him the most popular authors of short stories are: Stefan Sremats, whose mild satire and sparkling humour earned for him the name of the “Servian Dickens”; Yanko Veselinovich, author of some delightful sketches from the life of Servian peasants; Sima Matavuly, whose stories give a true picture of the Servians of Dalmatia and of Montenegro. Delightful stories of old times and of the Adriatic coast were written by Stefan Mitrov Lyubisha (1824-1878).

In dramatic literature the Servians are comparatively rich. The poet Dr Laza Kostich made excellent translations from Shakespeare (King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, King Richard III.), and gave the Servian stage two of its best tragedies: Maxim Tsrnoyevich and Petar Segedinats; also the comedy Gordana. Matiya Ban's Meyrimah is considered the best tragedy in the Serbo-Croatian language. The patriotic drama Balkanska Tsaritsa, by Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, has been often played and enthusiastically received by the public, but the critics deny to it much dramatic value. Milosh Tsvetich has given fine and lasting contributions to the Servian stage in his drama Stefan Nemanya and tragedy Todor of Stalach. Among the writers of comedy the first place must be assigned to Kosta Trifkovich (d. 1875); Milovan Glishich (d. 1908) was also very popular; and Branislav Nushich was the most successful of Servian dramatists early in the 20th century.

In modern scientific literature the principal Servian names are those of the electrician Nicholas Tesla, the botanist Dr Josif Panchich, and the geologists Dr Yovan Zhuyevich and Dr Yovan Tsviyich (Cvijić). In philology a very high place is occupied by Gyuro Danichich, once professor of philology at the high school in Belgrade and secretary to the South Slavonic Academy at Agram, where he was for years the principal editor of the great lexicon of the Servian or Croatian language. He had a very distinguished pupil in Stoyan Novakovich, who wrote numerous studies on philological subjects, and whose Servian grammar is still the standard book in all Servian schools. In historical literature, we find besides Yovan Raich, mentioned earlier, Panta Sretykovich, with his History of the Servian Nation; Stoyan Boshkovich (d. 1908), with his Servia under Tsar Dushan; Stoyan Novakovich, with his numerous essays on subjects from the medieval history of Servia, his History of Servian Literature, his Resurrection of the Servian National State and Rising against the Dahis (the two last-named books appeared in Bvelgrade in 1904); Lyubomir Kovachevich and Lyuba Yovanovich, who together wrote a standard work on the history of the Servian nation; Chedo Mijatovich, with his monographs on Gyuragy Brankovich and the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.

.—The best works on the Servian language and literature are those already mentioned as written by Servian authors: Karajich, Danichich, Stoyan Novakovich, &c. See also on the language Dr F. Miklosich's ''Vergleichende Lautlehre der slav. Sprachen''; Section II.: Serbisch und Chorvatisch (Vienna, 1879), and his ''Wortbildungslehre der slav. Sprachen'' (Vienna, 1876); W. Vondrak Vergleichende slavische Grammatik (Göttingen, 1906 and 1908); J. Florinsky, Lektsi po slavyankomu yazykoznaniye (Kiev, 1895). Good text-books are P. Budmani, Grammatica della lingua serbo-croata (Vienna, 1867): Parchich, Grammaire de la langue serbo-croate (Paris, 1877); Fr. Vymezal, Serbische Grammatik (Brünn, 1882). For the literature see A. N. Pypin and V. D. Spassovich, History of Slavonic Literatures (in Russ., St Petersburg, 1879, in French, Paris, 1881), and Dr Mathias Murko, Die Kultur osteuropäischer Literaturen und die slavischen Sprachen (Berlin and Leipzig, 1908).

 SERVICE TREE, Pyrus domestica, a native of the Mediterranean region, not infrequently planted in southern Europe for its fruit. It has been regarded as a native of England on the evidence of a single specimen, which has probably been planted, now existing in the forest of Wyre. Though not much cultivated its fruit is esteemed by some persons, and therefore two or three trees may very well be provided with a place in the orchard, or in a sheltered corner of the lawn. The tree is seldom productive till it has arrived at a goodly size and age. The fruit has a. peculiar acid flavour, and, like the medlar, is fit for use only when thoroughly mellowed by being kept till it has become bletted. There is a pear-shaped variety, pyriformis, and also an apple-shaped variety, maliformis, both of which maybe propagated by layers, and still better by grafting on seedling plants of their own kind. The fruit is sometimes brought to market in winter. The service is nearly allied to the mountain ash, Pyrus Aucuparia, which it resembles in having regularly primate leaves. P. torminalis is the wild service, a small tree occurring locally in woods and hedges from Lancashire southwards; the fruit is sold in country markets. These, with other species, including P. Aria, white beam, so-called from the leaves which are white and flocculent beneath, form the subgenus Sorbus, which was regarded by Linnaeus as a distinct genus.  SERVIEN, ABEL, and  (1593-1659), French diplomat, was born at Grenoble, the son of Antoine Servien, procurator-general of the estates of Dauphiné. He succeeded his father in that office in 1616, and in the following year attended the assembly of notables at Rouen. In 1618 he was named councillor of state and in 1624 was called to Paris, where he found favour with Richelieu. He displayed administrative ability and great loyalty to the central government as intendant in Guienne in 1627, and in 1628 negotiated the boundary delimitation with Spain. Appointed president of the parlement of Bordeaux in 1630, he soon resigned to accept an embassy to Italy, where he was one of the signatories of the treaty of Cherasco and of the treaties with the duke of Savoy (1631-1632). In 1634 he was admitted to the French Academy. Two years later he retired from public life as the result of court intrigue. Servien lived at Angers or on his estates at Sablé until the death of Louis XIII., when Mazarin entrusted him with the conduct, conjointly with the comte d'Avaux, of French diplomatic affairs in Germany. After five years' negotiations, and a bitter quarrel with the comte d'Avaux, which ended in the latter's recall, Servien signed the two treaties of the 24th of October 1648 which were part of the general peace of Westphalia. He received the title of minister of state on his return to France in April 1649, remained loyal to Mazarin during the Fronde, and was made superintendent of finances in 1653. He was an adviser to Mazarin in the negotiations which terminated in the treaty of the Pyrenees (1659). He amassed a considerable fortune, and was unpopular, even in court circles. He died at the château of Meudon on the 17th of February 1659.

Servien left an important and voluminous correspondence. See R. Kerviler, A. Servien, étude sur sa vie politique et littéraire, (Mamers, 1879).  SERVITES, or “,” an order under the Rule of St Augustine, founded in 1233. In this year seven merchants of Florence, recently canonized as “the seven holy Founders,” gave up their wealth and position, and with the bishop's sanction established themselves as a religious community on Monte Senario near Florence. They lived an austere life of penance and prayer, and being joined by others, they were in 1240 formed into an order following the Augustinian rule supplemented by constitutions borrowed from the Dominicans. Soon they were able to establish houses in various parts of Italy, where within twenty-five years four provinces were formed; they also at an early date founded many houses in France, Germany and Spain, but they never came to England before the Reformation. The most illustrious member of the order and its chief propagator and organizer was St Filippo Benizi, the fifth general, who died in 1285. The order received papal approbation in 1255; in 1424 it was recognized as a Mendicant order, and in 1567 it was ranked with the four great orders of Mendicant friars. The Servites undertook missions in Tartary, India and Japan. As in the other orders there were various mitigation's and relaxations of the rule, producing a variety of reforms, the chief being that of the eremitical Servites. There are at the present day 64 Servites houses, mostly in Italy; there are two or three in England and in America.

There are Servite nuns and also tertiaries, founded by St Juliana Falconieri, 1305, who are widespread and devote themselves chiefly to primary education. They have several convents in England. The habit of the Servites is black.

The chief work on the Servites is the Monumenta by Morini and Soulier, 1897, &c. See Helyot, Histoire des ordres religieux (1715), iii. cc. 39-41; Max Heimbucher Orden u. Kongregationen (1907), ii. § 73; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed.); Herzog-Hauck Realencyklopädie (3rd ed.). The most interesting part of Servite history is told by P. Soulier, Vie de S. Philippe Benizi (1886).
 * (E. C. B.)

 SERVITUDE (Lat. servitus, from servire, to serve), a right over the property of another. In Roman law, servitudes were classified into (1) personal, i.e. those given to a particular person, and (2) praedial, i.e. those enjoyed over something else (praedium serviens) by being owner or tenant of a piece of land or a house (praedium dominans). Personal servitudes were subdivided into (a) usus, the right of using property; (b) usufructus the