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SPA his hands when in England, and afterwards he entered his service, and remained in it till his death. In 1686 the elector sent him as ambassador extraordinary to the court of Louis XIV., and he remained in this station for nearly nine years, having been made in the interval a minister of state. During this period the elector assumed the title of king, and conferred on Spanheim a patent of nobility. In 1702 he came as ambassador to England, and remained in London till his death in November, 1710, in his eighty-first year. He was interred in Westminster abbey. When Spanheim's busy public life is considered, the wonder is how he could achieve such literary distinction. Immense learning and industry characterize his works. His principal works are—"Dissertationes de præstantia et usu numismatum antiquorum," 4to, Romæ, 1664; "Orbis Romanus;" Commentaries, or separate observations on Callimachus, Strabo, Aristophanes; "Notae in Josephum; Juliani imperatoris Opera;" "Theses contra D. Capellum pro antiquitate literarum Hebræarum;" "Disquisitio critica contra Amyraldum;" "Discours du Palatinate," against the duke of Bavaria, &c.—J. E.  SPANHEIM,, a famous divine, was born at Amberg in 1600; his father, Wigand, being provost of the college, and ecclesiastical counsellor to the elector palatine. After studying under his father, he proceeded to complete his academic education at Heidelberg and Geneva. He also passed over to England, and on his return to the continent resided for a season at Paris. The promising youth was offered a professorship at Lausanne, but declined it; accepting, however, a chair of philosophy at Geneva in 1627, and in 1631 a chair of theology. He was translated to Leyden in 1642, having been made D.D. at Basle, and was famous both as a lecturer and a preacher. The prince of Orange valued him highly, and Usher was in frequent correspondence with him. Queen Christina of Sweden was also among his admirers. His incessant industry tended to shorten his days, and he died in 1649. His principal works are—"Exercitationes de gratia universali," in three vols.—a treatise against the innovations of Amyrald; "Dubia Evangelica," 4to, two vols., &c.; "Comment. historique de la vie et de la mort de Christophe Viscomte de Dhona," a diatribe on the origin and history of the anabaptists; "Epistola ad Buchananum de controversiis Anglicanis," a pamphlet interrupted by his death. Many of his MSS. could not be edited after his decease, on account of his bad handwriting.—A son of his, of his own name, was also a distinguished divine. Born at Geneva in 1632, and died of paralysis in 1711. He wrote "Geographia sacra," "Exercit. de auctore epistolæ ad Hebræos," "Historia Ecclesiastica," and numerous other works.—J. E.  SPARK,, an English divine, the son of the Rev. Archibald Spark of Northop, Flintshire, was born in 1655, and was educated at Westminster school, and at Christ Church college, Oxford. He was chaplain to Sir George Jefferies, who nominated him to some good preferments. Spark became eventually a prebendary of Lichfield and Rochester. His principal works were an edition of Lactantius, Oxford, 1684, and "Notæ in Libros sex novæ Historiæ Zozini Comitis," ibid., 1679; afterwards translated into English.—F.  SPARKE,, an English puritan divine, was born at South-Somercote in Lincolnshire in 1548, and was educated at Magdalen college, Oxford, of which he became a fellow, after taking his bachelor of arts degree in 1570. He was incumbent of Bletchley in Buckinghamshire, chaplain to Cooper bishop of Lincoln, and archdeacon of Stow. In 1581 he took degrees in divinity, and in the next year resigned his archdeaconry, but he became prebend of Sutton-in-Marisco, in the church of Lincoln. In 1603, he was called to the puritan conference at Hampton court, but he expressed himself in favour of conformity, and subsequently published "A Brotherly Persuasion to Unity and Uniformity in Judgment and Practice touching the received and present Ecclesiastical Government, and the Authorized Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England," which was replied to by two anonymous writers. He was also the author of "A Comfortable Treatise for a Troubled Conscience;" "A Brief Catechism;" "An Answer to Mr. John de Albina's Discourse against Heresies;" "The Highway to Heaven," a reply to Bellarmine and others on the 37th, 38th, and 39th verses of the 7th chapter of John. Dr. Sparke died October 8, 1616, and left three sons, Thomas, Andrew, and William, all learned men, the last of whom wrote "Vis Naturæ et Virtus Vitæ Explicata," 1612, and the "Mystery of Godliness," 1628.—F.  SPARKS,, a diligent and successful contributor to the literature of American biography and history, was born about 1794, at Willington in the state of Connecticut. In youth he worked on a farm and in a grist and saw mill, diligently learning the while in the rural schools of his district. Apprenticed to a carpenter, he was released by his master from his indentures at the end of two years, and became a village schoolmaster. Kind clerical friends, attracted by his intelligence and zeal for knowledge, enlarged the sphere of his private studies, and otherwise so aided him, that in time he was enabled to enter himself in 1811 at Harvard, where he gained a scholarship, and eked out its results by district school-keeping. In 1817 he received the appointment of tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard, while he was studying for the unitarian ministry; and about the same time he became working editor of the North American Review. In May, 1819, he was made pastor of a unitarian church at Baltimore, Dr. Channing preaching his ordination sermon. During the next four years he published and edited various theological treatises, and in 1823, relinquishing his ministerial charge, he travelled in the Western states for the benefit of his health; on his return to Boston purchasing the North American Review, and editing it himself. Before this he had begun to make collections for an edition of the writings of Washington, exploring the archives of the original states, and securing the possession of the Washington papers at Mount Vernon. In 1828 he visited Europe for a year, to inspect and copy documents in the archives of London and Paris. After many years of preparation appeared in 1834-37 his great work, "The Writings of George Washington, &c., &c., with a life of the author," &c. It had been preceded by his "Life of John Ledyard, the American traveller," 1828; by his edition of "The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, published by order of Congress," 1829-30; and by his "Life of Gouverneur Morris," 1832. Mr. Sparks had also originated, in 1830, "The American Almanack and repository of useful knowledge." In 1835-40 Mr. Sparks published his valuable edition of the Works of Benjamin Franklin, containing masses of new correspondence and uncollected matter. In 1834 began the appearance of "The Library of American Biography," first series in 10 vols., 1834-38; second series in 15 vols., 1844-48; many of the lives being written, and the whole work edited, by Mr. Sparks. His "Correspondence of the American Revolution, being letters of eminent men to George Washington," appeared in 4 vols. in 1853. From 1849 to 1852, when he retired from ill health, Mr. Sparks was president of Harvard university. He spent many years on his "History of the American Revolution." From his "Writings of George Washington," selections have been translated into German by Raumer, and into French, under the direction of Guizot, who prefixed to the French edition his well-known essay on Washington. Mr. Sparks and Lord Mahon, now Lord Stanhope, had some years ago a pamphlet controversy—which ended creditably to the reputation of the American—on the general functions of an editor of original documents, and more particularly on some omissions and alterations made by Mr. Sparks, in printing Washington's letters from the originals. He died in 1866.—F. E.  SPARRMAN,, a distinguished naturalist, was born in the province of Upland in Sweden in 1747, and died at Stockholm in 1820. He studied medicine at the university of Upsal, and botany under the superintendence of Linnæus. He visited China and Africa, and when at the Cape of Good Hope in 1774, he became acquainted with Thunberg. He sailed with Captain Cook as assistant naturalist to the Messrs. Forster, and returned to Africa in 1775. He made an excursion into the interior of Africa, and visited the bank.' of the Great Fish river. He made large collections of African plants and animals. On his return to Sweden he took the degree of M.D., and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm. A genus of plants has been called Sparrmannia.—J. H. B.  SPARROW,, an eminent prelate, born in Debden, Suffolk, and educated at Queen's college, Cambridge, in which he obtained both a scholarship and fellowship, but was ejected by the parliamentary visitors in 1643. He accepted the benefice of Hawkdon in his native county; but after holding it five weeks, and regularly using the Book of Common Prayer, he was turned out by the central committee on religion in Westminster. After the Restoration he became president of his college, was restored to his living, elected one of the preachers of St. Edmund Bury, 