neighbouring town of Cornigliano is a bridge, where Masséna signed the capitulation of Genoa.
SAMPLE (through the O. Fr. essemple, from Lat. exemplum;
a doublet of “example”), a small portion of merchandise taken
from the whole to serve as a specimen or evidence of the whole;
hence a pattern or model. Sale by sample obviates the necessity
on the part of sellers of keeping large quantities of goods on
premises unsuitable for storage, and on the part of buyers of
having to make a special visit' to inspect the goods in bulk.
The sale of goods by sample is dealt with in England by the Sale
of Goods Act 1893, s. 15, which provides that a contract of sale
shall be a contract for sale by sample Where there is a term in the
contract, express or implied, to that effect. In the case of such
a contract, there must be (a) an implied condition that the bulk
shall correspond with the sample in quality; (b) an implied
condition that the buyer shall have a reasonable opportunity
of comparing the bulk with the sample; (c) an implied condition
that the goods shall be free from any defect, rendering them
unmerchantable, which would not be apparent on reasonable
examination of the sample. (See also Sale of Goods.)
SAMPLER (from O. Fr. essemploire, with dropping of initial
a, Late Lat. exemplariam, from exemplum, example; it is a
doublet of “examplar” or “exempler,” as “sample” is of
“example”), a model or pattern to be copied, particularly a
small rectangular piece of embroidery worked on canvas or other
material as a pattern or example of a beginner’s skill in needlework,
as a means of teaching the stitches. Down to comparatively
recent times every little girl worked her “sampler,” and
examples of 17th-century work are still found and have become
the object of the collector’s search. They usually contained
the alphabet, the worker’s name, the date, and Bible texts,
verses, mottoes, the whole surrounded with some conventional
design.
The earliest sampler in existence is dated 1643 and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington (see M. B. Huish, Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries, 1900, and List of Samplers in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Board of Education, South Kensington, 1906).
SAMPSON, WILLIAM THOMAS (1840–1902), American
naval commander, was born at Palmyra, New York, on the 9th of
February 1840, and graduated at the head of his class from
the U.S. Naval Academy in 1861. In this year he was promoted
to master, and in the following year was made lieutenant. He
was executive officer in the “Patapsco” when she was blown up
in Charleston Harbor in January 1865. He served on distant
stations and (1868–1871 and 1876–1878) at the Naval Academy,
and became lieutenant-commander in 1866 and commander
in 1874. He was a member of the International Prime Meridian
and Time Conference in 1884, and of the Board of Fortifications
in 1885–1886; was superintendent of the Naval Academy from
1886 to 1890; and was promoted to captain and served as
delegate at the International Maritime Conference at Washington
in 1889. He was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in 1893–1897.
About 95% of the guns employed in the Spanish-American War
were made under his superintendence. His influence was felt
decisively in the distribution of guns and armour, and in the
training of the personnel of the navy. He superintended the
gunnery training and prepared a new drill-book for the fleet.
In February 1898 Sampson, then a captain, was president of
Board of Inquiry as to the cause of destruction of the “Maine.”
At the outbreak of the war with Spain he was placed in charge
of the N. Atlantic squadron, and conducted the blockade of
Cuba. When it was known that Admiral Cervera, with a Spanish
fleet, had left the Cape Verde Islands, Sampson withdrew a
force from the blockade to cruise in the Windward Passage,
and made an attack upon the forts at San Juan, Porto Rico.
After his return to the coast of Cuba he conducted the blockade
of Santiago, and the ships under his command destroyed the
Spanish vessels when they issued from the harbor of Santiago
and attempted to escape (see Spanish-American War).
Sampson himself was not actually present at the battle, having
started for Siboney just before it began to confer with General
Shafter, commanding the land forces. He reached the scene
of battle as the last Spanish vessel surrendered, and the engagement
was fought in accordance with his instructions. He was
promoted to commodore in 1898, to rear-admiral on the 3rd
of March 1899, and was made commandant of the Boston
(Charlestown) Navy Yard in October of the same year. He died
on the 6th of May 1902.
SAMSON (cf. Heb. shémesh, “sun”), in the Bible, the antagonist
of the Philistines, reckoned as one of the “judges” of Israel
(Judg. xv. 20, xvi. 31), the story itself (Judg. xiii. 2–xvi. 31a),
however, represents him not as a judge but as a popular hero
of vast strength and sarcastic humour. He is consecrated
from his birth to be a Nazarite or religious devotee (ch. xiii.,
cf. Samuel), and it is possible that this was conceived simply
as a vow of revenge, which is the meaning it would have in an
Arab story (W. R. Smith). But he is inspired by no serious
religious or patriotic purpose, and becomes the enemy of the
Philistines only from personal motives of revenge, the one
passion which is stronger in him than the love of women. The
stories of his exploits are plainly taken from the mouths of the
people and have all the appearance of folk-tales, not unmixed
with mythical motives. Samson commenced his career by
strangling a lion on his way to visit a Philistine woman. On
his return he found that the carcase, like the skull of Onesilus
(Herod. v. 114), was occupied by a swarm of bees; he took the
honey and the incident suggested a riddle. The narrative of
Samson’s marriage and riddle is of peculiar interest as a record
of manners; specially noteworthy is the custom of the wife
remaining with her parents after marriage.[1] His next exploit,
an act of revenge for the faithlessness of his wife, was to catch
300 foxes and set them loose in the fields with firebrands tied
to their tails. (Analogous customs, e.g. the Roman Cerealia,
are referred to in G. F. Moore’s Commentary, p. 341.) The
Philistines retaliated by burning her and her father’s household,
and Samson in his turn smote them “hip and thigh” and slew
a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass.[2] The story has
apparently been influenced by the existence of a rock, called
by reason of its shape, “Ass’s Jawbone,” from which issued a
fountain called En-haḳḳōrē, “the spring of the caller” (a name
for the partridge). 'The well-known removal of the gates of
Gaza to Hebron, 40 m. distant—“no journey of the Sabbathday”
(Milton, Samson Agonistes)—has been rendered still more
marvellous by a later exaggeration (xvi. 2). Finally the Philistine
Delilah (q.v.) worms out of Samson the secret of his strength,
and by shaving his head[3] renders him an easy captive. He
is blinded and put to menial work, and as his hair grows again
his invincible strength returns. At a festival of Dagon he is
led out before the Philistines in the temple, and by pulling down
the house upon their heads kills more at his death than in all
his life-time.
Points of similarity between Samson and the Babylonian Gilgamesh, the Egyptian Horus-Ra and Hercules, have been observed by many writers, and it has been inferred that the whole story of Samson is a solar myth. His name, and the proximity of Beth-shemesh (“house of the sun”) to his father’s home, favour the view that mythical elements have attached themselves to what may have been originally a legendary figure of the Danites, the tribe whose subsequent fortunes
- ↑
In Judg. xiv. 1-10 the narrative has been revised; originally
Samson went down alone to Timnath to contract his marriage.
The metrical riddle and its answer are thus translated by G. F. Moore
(Sacred Books of the Old Testament: Judges):
- “Out of the eater came something to eat,
- And out of the strong came something sweet."
- “If with my heifer ye did not plough,
- Ye had not found out my riddle, I trow.”
- ↑ The punning couplet of the original is thus rendered by G. F. Moore: “with the jawbone of an ass, I assailed my assailants” (more literally “I piled them in heaps,” or perhaps “flayed them clean”).
- ↑ For the hair as the seat of strength cf. J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough,” iii. 390 seq. In ch. xiii. the consecration of the hair is regarded differently.
