Chapter LXXX: Part 80

SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR SEYMOUR, English composer, born in London; won the Mendelssohn scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, and by means of it completed his musical education at Leipzig; in 1862 composed incidental music for "The Tempest," well received at the Crystal Palace; since then has been a prolific writer of all kinds of music, ranging from hymns and oratorios to popular songs and comic operas; his oratorios include "The Prodigal Son" (1868), "The Light of the World," "The Golden Legend," &c., but it is as a writer of light and tuneful operas (librettos by W. S. GILBERT, q. v.) that he is best known; these began with "Cox and Box" (1866), and include "Trial by Jury," "The Sorcerer" (1877), "Pinafore," "Patience" (1881), "Mikado" (1885), &c., in all of which he displays great gifts as a melodist, and wonderful resource in clever piquant orchestration; received the Legion of Honour in 1878, and was knighted in 1883; _b_. 1842.

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, a long and narrow island, a favourite sea-bathing resort, on the N. of the entrance to Charleston Harbour, South Carolina, U.S.

SULLY, MAXIMILIEN DE BÉTHUNE, DUKE OF, celebrated minister of Henry IV. of France, born at the Château of Rosny, near Mantes, whence he was known at first as the Baron de Rosny; at first a ward of Henry IV. of Navarre, he joined the Huguenot ranks along with him, and distinguished himself at Coutras and Ivry, and approved of Henry's policy in changing his colours on his accession to the throne, remaining ever after by his side as most trusted adviser, directing the finances of the country with economy, and encouraging the peasantry in the cultivation of the soil; used to say, "Labourage et pasteurage, voilà les deux mamelles dont La France est alimentée, les vraies mines et trésors de Pérou," "Tillage and cattle-tending are the two paps whence France sucks nourishment; these are the true mines and treasures of Peru;" on the death of the king he retired from court, and occupied his leisure in writing his celebrated "Memoirs," which, while they show the author to be a great statesman, give no very pleasant idea of his character (1560-1611).

SULLY-PRUDHOMME, French poet, born in Paris; published a volume of poems in 1865 entitled "Stances and Poèmes," which commanded instant regard, and have been succeeded by others which have deepened the impression, and entitled him to the highest rank as a poet; they give evidence of a serious mind occupied with serious problems; was elected to the Academy in 1881; _b_. 1839.

SULPICIUS SEVERUS, an ecclesiastical historian, born in Aquitaine; wrote a "Historia Sacra," and a Life of St. Martin (363-406).

SULTAN, the title of a Mohammedan sovereign, Sultana being the feminine form.

SULU ISLANDS (75), an archipelago of 162 islands in Asiatic waters, lying to the NE. of Borneo, and extending to the Philippines; belongs to the Spaniards who, in 1876, subdued the piratical Malay inhabitants; the trade in pearls and edible nests is mainly carried on by Chinese.

SUMATRA (3,572, including adjacent islands), after Borneo the largest of the East Indian islands, stretches SE. across the Equator between the Malay Peninsula (from whose SW. coast it is separated by the Strait of Malacca) to Java (Strait of Sunda separating them); has an extreme length of 1115 m., and an area more than three times that of England; is mountainous, volcanic, covered in central parts by virgin forest, abounds in rivers and lakes, and possesses an exceptionally rich flora and peculiar fauna; rainfall is abundant; some gold and coal are worked, but the chief products are rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, petroleum, pepper, &c.; the island is mainly under Dutch control, but much of the unexplored centre is still in the hands of savage tribes who have waged continual warfare with their European invaders. Padang (150) is the official Dutch capital.

SUMBAWA (150), one of the Sunda Islands, lying between Lombok (W.) and Flores (E.); mountainous and dangerously volcanic; yields rice, tobacco, cotton, &c.; is divided among four native rulers under Dutch authority.

SUMNER, CHARLES, American statesman and abolitionist, born in Boston; graduated at Harvard (1830), and was called to the bar in 1834, but found a more congenial sphere in writing and lecturing; during 1837-40 pursued his favourite study of jurisprudence in France, Germany, and England; was brought into public notice by his 4th of July oration (1845) on "The True Grandeur of Nations," an eloquent condemnation of war; became an uncompromising opponent of the slave-trade; was one of the founders of the Free Soil Party, and in 1851 was elected to the National Senate, a position he held until the close of his life, and where he did much by his eloquent speeches to prepare the way for emancipation, and afterwards to win for the blacks the rights of citizenship (1811-1874).

SUMNER, JOHN BIRD, archbishop of Canterbury; rose by a succession of preferments to the Primacy, an office which he discharged with discretion and moderation (1780-1862).

SUMPTUARY LAWS, passed in various lands and ages to restrict excess in dress, food, and luxuries generally; are to be found in the codes of Solon, Julius Cæsar, and other ancient rulers; Charles VI. of France restricted dinners to one soup and two other dishes; appear at various times in English statutes down to the 16th century against the use of "costly meats," furs, silks, &c., by those unable to afford them; were issued by the Scottish Parliament against the extravagance of ladies in the matter of dress to relieve "the puir gentlemen their husbands and fathers"; were repealed in England in the reign of James I.; at no time were they carefully observed.

SUMTER, FORT, a fort on a shoal in Charleston harbour, 3½ m. from the town; occupied by Major Anderson with 80 men and 62 guns in the interest of the secession of South Carolina from the Union, and the attack on which by General Beauregard on 12th April 1861 was the commencement of the Civil War; it held out against attack and bombardment till the month of July following.

SUN, THE, is a star; is the centre of the solar system, as it is in consequence called, is a globe consisting of a mass of vapour at white heat, and of such enormous size that it is 500 times larger than all the planets of the system put together, or of a bulk one million and a half times greater than the earth, from which it is ninety-two and a half million miles distant; the bright surface of it is called the _photosphere_, and this brightness is diversified with brighter spots called _faculæ_, and dark ones called _sun-spots_, and by watching which latter as they move over the sun's disk we find it takes 25 days to revolve on its axis, and by means of SPECTRUM ANALYSIS (q. v.) find it is composed of hydrogen and a number of vaporised metals.

SUNDA ISLANDS, a name sometimes applied to the long chain of islands stretching SE. from the Malay Peninsula to North Australia, including Sumatra, Timor, &c., but more correctly designates the islands Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sandalwood Island, &c., which lie between Java and Timor, are under Dutch suzerainty, and produce the usual East Indian products. See various islands named.

SUNDERBUNDS or SUNDARBANS, a great tract of jungle, swamp, and alluvial plain, forming the lower portion of the Ganges delta; extends from the Hooghly on the W. to the Meghna on the E., a distance of 165 m.; rice is cultivated on the upper part by a sparse population; the lower part forms a dense belt of wild jungle reaching to the sea, and is infested by numerous tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, pythons, cobras, &c.

SUNDERLAND (142), a flourishing seaport of Durham, situated at the mouth of the Wear, 12 m. SE. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; embraces some very old parishes, but as a commercial town has entirely developed within the present century, and is of quite modern appearance, with the usual public buildings; owes its prosperity mainly to neighbouring coal-fields, the product of which it exports in great quantities; has four large docks covering 50 acres; also famous iron shipbuilding yards, large iron-works, glass and bottle works, roperies, &c.

SUNDERLAND, CHARLES SPENCER, THIRD EARL, son of succeeding, and son in law of the Duke of Marlborough; was a Secretary of State in Queen Anne's reign during 1706-1710, and in the following reign, as leader of the Whigs, exercised unbounded influence over George I.; narrowly escaped, chiefly through Walpole's help, being found guilty of accepting heavy bribes from the South Sea Company; lost office, and was displaying his father's propensity to underhand scheming by intriguing with the Tories and the Pretender's party when death cut short his career (1675-1722).

SUNDERLAND, ROBERT SPENCER, SECOND EARL OF, an English statesman prominent in the reign of Charles II., James II., and William III.; was for some years engaged in embassies abroad before being appointed Secretary of State in 1679; adroit and insinuating, and with great capacity for business, he soon became a leading minister; attached himself to the Duchess of Portsmouth, and in the corrupt politics of the two Stuart kings played his own hand with consummate if unscrupulous skill, standing high in King James's favour as Prime Minister, although he had formerly intrigued in favour of Monmouth; supported the Exclusion Bill, and even then was in secret communication with the Prince of Orange; after the Revolution rose to high office under William; was instrumental in bringing the Whigs into power, and during 1695-1697 was acknowledged head of his Government (1640-1702).

SUNNITES, the orthodox Mohammedans, a name given to them because they accept the _Sunna_, i. e. traditional teaching of the Prophet, as of the same authority as the Korân, in the matter of both faith and morals, agreeably to a fundamental article of Mohammedanism, that not only the rule of life, but the interpretation of it, is of divine dictation.

SUN-WORSHIP, the worship of the sun is conceived of as an impersonation of the deity, that originated among races so far advanced in civilisation as to recognise what they owed to its benignant influence, in particular as tillers of the soil, and, is associated with advance as the worship of Bacchus was, which could not originate prior to cultivation of the vine.

SUONADA, the Inland Sea of Japan, separating Kyushu and Shikoku from the Main Island, Honshiu, a fine sheet of water (250 m. by 50), picturesquely studded with islands which, however, render navigation difficult.

SUPEREROGATION, WORKS OF, name given in the Roman Catholic theology to works or good deeds performed by saints over and above what is required for their own salvation, and the merit of which is held to be transferable to others in need of indulgence.

SUPER-GRAMMATICAM (above grammar), name given to Sigismund, emperor of Germany, from his rejoinder to a cardinal who one day on a high occasion mildly corrected a grammatical mistake he had made in a grand oration, "I am King of the Romans, and above grammar."

SUPERIOR, LAKE, largest fresh-water lake on the globe, lies between the United States and Canada, the boundary line passing through the centre; area, 31,200 sq. m., almost the size of Ireland; maximum depth, 1008 ft.; St. Mary's River, the only outlet, a short rapid stream, carries the overflow to Lake Huron; receives upwards of 200 rivers, but none of first-class importance, largest is the St. Louis; is dotted with numerous islands; water is singularly clear and pure, and abounds with fish; navigation is hindered in winter by shore-ice, but the lake never freezes over.

SUPERSTITION, the fear of that which is not God, as if it were God, or the fear of that which is not the devil, as if it were the devil; or, as it has in more detail been defined by Ruskin, "the fear of a spirit whose passions and acts are those of a man present in some places and not others; kind to one person and unkind to another, pleased or angry, according to the degree of attention you pay him, or the praise you refuse him; hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrificing part of that pleasure into permitting the rest."

SUPRALAPSARIANISM, the doctrine of the extreme Calvinists, that the decree of God as regards the eternal salvation of some and the eternal reprobation of others is unconditional.

SUPREMACY, ROYAL, the supremacy of the sovereign in matters ecclesiastical and matters of civil right to the exclusion of matters spiritual and the jurisdiction in the former claimed by the Pope.

SURABAYA (127), a seaport on the NE. coast or Java, is the head-quarters of the Dutch military, and exports tropical products; of the population 6000 are European, and 7000 or so Chinese.

SURAT (109), a city of India, Bombay Presidency, on the Tapti, 14 m. from its entrance into the Gulf of Bombay; stretches along the S. bank of the river, presenting no architectural features of interest save some Mohammedan, Parsee, and Hindu temples, and an old castle or fortress; chief exports are cotton and grain; the English erected here their first factory on the Indian continent in 1612, and with Portuguese and Dutch traders added, it became one of the principal commercial centres of India; in the 18th century the removal of the English East India Company to Bombay drew off a considerable portion of the trade of Surat, which it has never recovered.

SURINAM. See GUIANA, DUTCH.

SURPLICE, a linen robe with wide sleeves worn by officiating clergymen and choristers, originating in the rochet or alb of early times.

SURREY (1,731), an inland county, and one of the fairest of England, in the SE. between Kent (E.) and Hampshire (W.), with Sussex on the S., separated from Middlesex on the N. by the Thames; the North Downs traverse the county E. and W., slope gently to the Thames, and precipitously in the S. to the level Weald; generally presents a beautiful prospect of hill and heatherland adorned with splendid woods; the Wey and the Mole are the principal streams; hops are extensively grown round Farnham; largest town is Croydon; the county town, Guildford.

SURREY, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF, poet, son of the Duke of Norfolk; early attached to the court of Henry VIII., he attended his royal master at the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," and took part in the coronation ceremony of Anne Boleyn (1533); was created a Knight of the Garter in 1542, and two years later led the English army in France with varying success; imprisoned along with his father on a charge of high treason, for which there was no adequate evidence, he was condemned and executed; as one of the early leaders of the poetic renaissance, and introducer of the sonnet and originator of blank verse, he deservedly holds a high place in the history of English literature (1516-1547).

SURYA, in the Hindu mythology the sun conceived of as a female deity.

SUSA (the Shushan of Daniel, Esther, &c.), an ancient city of Persia, now in ruins, that spread over an area of 3 sq. m., on the Kerkha, 250 m. SE. of Bagdad; was for long the favourite residence of the Persian kings, the ruins of whose famous palace, described in Esther, are still extant.

SUSAN, ST., the patron saint and guardian of innocence and saviour from infamy and reproach. See SUSANNA.

SUSANNA, THE HISTORY OF, a story in the Apocrypha, evidently conceived to glorify Daniel as a judge, and which appears to have been originally written by a Jew in Greek. She had been accused of adultery by two of the elders and condemned to death, but was acquitted on Daniel's examination of her accusers to their confusion and condemnation to death in her stead. The story has been allegorised by the Church, and Susanna made to represent the Church, and the two elders her persecutors.

SUSQUEHANNA, a river of America, formed by the junction at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, of the North Branch (350 m.) flowing out of Schuyler Lake, central New York, and the West Branch (250 m.) rising in the Alleghany Mountains; flows in a shallow, rapid, unnavigable course S. and SE. through beautiful scenery to Port Deposit, at the N. end of Chesapeake Bay; length, 150 m.

SUSSEX (550), a S. maritime county of England, fronts the English Channel between Hampshire (W.) and Kent (E.), with Surrey on its northern border; is traversed E. and W. by the South Downs, which afford splendid pasturage for half a million sheep, and terminates in Beachy Head; in the N. lies the wide, fertile, and richly-wooded plain of the Weald; chief rivers are the Arun, Adur, Ouse, and Rother, of no great size; is a fine agricultural county, more than two-thirds of its area being under cultivation; was the scene of Cæsar's landing (55 B.C.), of Ælla's, the leader of the South Saxons (whence the name Sussex), and of William the Conqueror's (1066); throughout the country are interesting antiquities; largest town, Brighton; county town, Lewes.

SUTHERLAND (22), a maritime county of N. Scotland; presents a N. and a W. shore to the Atlantic, between Ross and Cromarty (S.) and Caithness (E.), and faces the North Sea on the SE., whence the land slopes upwards to the great mountain region and wild, precipitous loch-indented coasts of the W. and N.; scarcely 3 per cent, of the area is cultivated, but large numbers of sheep and cattle are raised; the Oykell is the longest (35 m.) of many streams, and Loch Shin the largest of 300 lochs; there are extensive deer forests and grouse moors, while valuable salmon and herring fisheries exist round the coasts; is the most sparsely populated county in Scotland. Dornoch is the county town.

SUTLEJ, the eastmost of the five rivers of the Punjab; its head-waters flow from two Thibetan lakes at an elevation of 15,200 ft., whence it turns NW. and W. to break through a wild gorge of the Himalayas, thence bends to the SW., forms the eastern boundary of the Punjab, and joins the Indus at Mithankot after a course of 900 m.

SUTRAS, name given to a collection of aphorisms, summaries of the teachings of the Brahmans, and of rules regulative of ritual or religious observances, and also given to these aphorisms and rules themselves.

SUTTEE, a Hindu widow who immolates herself on the funeral pile of her husband, a term applied to the practice itself. The practice was of very ancient date, but the custom was proclaimed illegal in 1829 under Lord William Bentinck's administration, and it is now very seldom that a widow seeks to violate the law. In 1823, in Bengal alone, 575 widows gave themselves to be so burned, of whom 109 were above sixty, 226 above forty, 209 above twenty, and 32 under twenty.

SUWARROW or SUVOROFF, Russian field-marshal, born at Moscow; entered the army as a private soldier, distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War, and after 20 years' service rose to command; in command of a division he in 1773 routed an army of the Turks beyond the Danube, and in 1783 he reduced a tribe of Tartars under the Russian yoke; his greatest exploit perhaps was his storming of Ismail, which had resisted all attempts to reduce it for seven months, and which he, but with revolting barbarities however, in three days succeeded by an indiscriminate massacre of 40,000 of the inhabitants; his despatch thereafter to Queen Catharine was "Glory to God and the Empress, Ismail is ours!" he after this conducted a cruel campaign in Poland, which ended in its partition, and a campaign in Italy to the disaster of the French and his elevation to the peerage as a prince, with the title of Italinski; he was all along the agent of the ruthless purposes of POTEMKIN (q. v.) (1730-1800).

SVEABORG, a strong fortress in Finland, protecting Helsingfors, in the Baltic, 3 m. distant from that town, and called the "Gibraltar of the North."

SVIR, a Russian river that flows into Lake Ladoga.

SWABIA, an ancient duchy in the SW. of Germany, and most fertile part, so called from the Suevi, who in the 1st century displaced the aboriginal Celts, and which, along with Bavaria, formed the nucleus of the Fatherland; was separated by the Rhine from France and Switzerland, having for capital Augsburg, and being divided now into Würtemberg, Bavaria, Baden, and Lichtenstein.

SWAHILI (i. e. coast people), a people of mixed Bantu and Arab stock occupying Zanzibar and the adjoining territory from nearly Mombasa to Mozambique; they are an enterprising race, and are dispersed as traders, hunters, carriers, &c., far and wide over Central Africa.

SWALE, a river in the North Riding of Yorkshire, uniting, after a course of 60 miles, with the Ure to form the Ouse.

SWAMMERDAM, JAN, a Dutch entomologist, born at Amsterdam, where he settled as a doctor, but turning with enthusiasm to the study of insect life, made important contributions to, and practically laid the foundations of, entomological science (1637-1680).

SWAN OF AVON, sweet name given by Ben Jonson to Shakespeare.

SWAN OF MANTUA, name given to Virgil, as born at Mantua.

SWANSEA (90), a flourishing and progressive seaport of Glamorganshire, at the entrance of the Tawe, 45 m. into Swansea Bay; has a splendid harbour, 60 acres of docks, a castle, old grammar-school, &c.; is the chief seat of the copper-smelting and of the tin-plate manufacture of England, and exports the products of these works, as well as coal, zinc, and other minerals, in large quantities.

SWATOW (30), a seaport of China, at the mouth of the Han, 225 m. E. of Canton; has large sugar-refineries, factories for bean-cake and grass-cloth; since the policy of "the open door" was adopted in 1867 has had a growing export trade.

SWAZILAND (64), a small South African native State to the E. of the Transvaal, of which in 1893 it became a dependency, retaining, however, its own laws and native chief; is mountainous, fertile, and rich in minerals; the Swazis are of Zulu stock, jealous of the Boers, and friendly to Britain.

SWEATING SICKNESS, an epidemic of extraordinary malignity which swept over Europe, and especially England, in the 15th and 16th centuries, attacking with equal virulence all classes and all ages, and carrying off enormous numbers of people; was characterised by a sharp sudden seizure, high fever, followed by a foetid perspiration; first appeared in England in 1485, and for the last time in 1551.

SWEATING SYSTEM, a term which began to be used about 1848 to describe an iniquitous system of sub-contracting in the tailoring trade. Orders from master-tailors were undertaken by sub-contractors, who themselves farmed the work out to needy workers, who made the articles in their own crowded and foetid homes, receiving "starvation wages." The term is now used in reference to all trades in cases where the conditions imposed by masters tend to grind the rate of payment down to a bare living wage and to subject the workers to insanitary surroundings by overcrowding, &c., and to unduly long hours. Kingsley's pamphlet, "Cheap Clothes and Nasty," and novel, "Alton Locke," did much to draw public attention to the evil. In 1890 an elaborate report by a committee of the House of Lords was published, and led in the following year to the passing of the Factory and Workshops Act and the Public Health Act, which have greatly mitigated the evil.

SWEDEN (4,785), a kingdom of Northern Europe, occupying the eastern portion of the great Scandinavian Peninsula, bounded W. by Norway, E. by Russian Finland, Gulf of Bothnia, and the Baltic, and on the N. stretches across the Arctic circle between Norway (NW.) and Russia (NE.), while its southern serrated shores are washed by the Skager-Rack, Cattegat, and Baltic. From the mountain-barrier of Norway the country slopes down in broad terrace-like plains to the sea, intersected by many useful rivers and diversified by numerous lakes, of which Lakes Wenner, Wetter, and Mälar (properly an arm of the sea) are the largest, and lying under forest to the extent of nearly one-half its area; is divided into three great divisions: 1, Norrland in the N., a wide and wild tract of mountainous country, thickly forested, infested by the wolf, bear, and lynx, in summer the home of the wood-cutter, and sparsely inhabited by Lapps. 2, Svealand or Sweden proper occupies the centre, and is the region of the great lakes and of the principal mineral wealth (iron, copper, &c.) of the country. 3, Gothland, the southern portion, embraces the fertile plains sloping to the Cattegat, and is the chief agricultural district, besides possessing iron and coal. Climate is fairly dry, with a warm summer and long cold winter. Agriculture (potatoes, grain, rye, beet), although scarcely 8 per cent. of the land is under cultivation, is the principal industry, and with dairy-farming, stock-raising, &c., gives employment to more than one-half of the people; mining and timber-felling are only less important; chief industries are iron-works, sugar-refineries, cotton-mills, &c.; principal exports timber (much the largest), iron, steel, butter, &c., while textiles and dry-goods are the chiefly needed imports. Transit is greatly facilitated by the numerous canals and by the rivers and lakes. Railways and telegraphs are well developed in proportion to the population. As in Norway, the national religion is Lutheranism; education is free and compulsory. Government is vested in the king, who with the advice of a council controls the executive, and two legislative chambers which have equal powers, but the members of the one are elected for nine years by provincial councils, while those of the other are elected by the suffrages of the people, receive salaries, and sit only for three years. The national debt amounts to 14½ million pounds. In the 14th century the country became an appanage of the Danish crown, and continued as such until freedom was again won in the 16th century by the patriot king, Gustavus Vasa. By the 17th century had extended her rule across the seas into certain portions of the empire, but selling these in the beginning of the 18th century, fell from her rank as a first-rate power. In 1814 Norway was annexed, and the two countries, each enjoying complete autonomy, are now united under one crown.

SWEDENBORG, EMMANUEL, a mystic of the mystics, founder of the "New Church," born at Stockholm, son of a bishop, a boy of extraordinary gifts and natural seriousness of mind; carefully educated under his father, attended the university of Upsala and took his degree in philosophy in 1709; in eager quest of knowledge visited England, Holland, France, and Germany; on his return, after four years, was at 28 appointed by Charles XII. assessor of the Royal College of Mines; in 1721 went to examine the mines and smelting-works of Europe; from 1716 spent 30 years in the composition and publication of scientific works, when of a sudden he threw himself into theology; in 1743 his period of illumination began, and the publication of voluminous theological treatises; the Swedish clergy interfered a little with the publication of his works, but he kept the friendship of people in power. He was never married, his habits were simple, lived on bread, milk, and vegetables, occupied a house situated in a large garden; visited England several times, but attracted no special attention; died in London of apoplexy in his eighty-fifth year. "He is described, in London, as a man of quiet, clerical habit, not averse to tea and coffee, and kind to children. He wore a sword when in full velvet dress, and whenever he walked out carried a gold-headed cane." This is Emerson's account in brief of his outer man, but for a glimpse or two of his ways of thinking and his views the reader is referred to Emerson's "Representative Men." The man was a seer; what he saw only himself could tell, and only those could see, he would say, who had the power of transporting themselves into the same spiritual centre; to him the only real world was the spirit-world and the world of sense only in so far as it reflected to the soul the great invisible (1688-1772).

SWEDENBORGIANS, the members of the "New Jerusalem Church," founded on the teaching of EMMANUEL SWEDENBORG (q. v.) on a belief in direct communion with the world of spirits, and in God as properly incarnate in the divine humanity of Christ.

SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE, name popularly given to JENNY LIND (q. v.).

SWERGA or SVARGA, the summit of Mount Meru, the Hindu Olympus, the heaven or abode of INDRA (q. v.) and of the gods in general.

SWETCHINE, MADAME, a Russian lady, Sophie Soymanof, born at Moscow, who married General Swetchine, and, after turning Catholic, became celebrated in Paris during 1817-51 as the gracious hostess of a salon where much religious and ethical discussion went on; plain and unimposing in appearance, she yet exercised a remarkable fascination over her "coterie" by the elevation of her character and eager spiritual nature (1782-1857).

SWIFT, JONATHAN, born at Dublin, a posthumous son, of well-connected parents; educated at Kilkenny, where he had Congreve for companion, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was a somewhat riotous and a by no means studious undergraduate, only receiving his B.A. by "special grace" in 1686; two years later the Revolution drove him to England; became amanuensis to his mother's distinguished relative Sir William Temple, whose service, however, was uncongenial to his proud independent nature, and after taking a Master's degree at Oxford he returned to Dublin, took orders, and was presented to the canonry of Kilroot, near Belfast; the quiet of country life palling upon him, he was glad to resume secretarial service in Temple's household (1696), where during the next three years he remained, mastering the craft of politics, reading enormously, and falling in love with STELLA (q. v.); was set adrift by Temple's death in 1699, but shortly afterwards became secretary to Lord Berkeley, one of the Lord-Deputies to Ireland, and was soon settled in the vicarage of Laracor, West Meath; in 1704 appeared anonymously his famous satires, the "Battle of the Books" and the "Tale of a Tub," masterpieces of English prose; various squibs and pamphlets followed, "On the Inconvenience of Abolishing Christianity," &c.; but politics more and more engaged his attention; and neglected by the Whigs and hating their war policy, he turned Tory, attacked with deadly effect, during his editorship of the _Examiner_ (1710-11), the war party and its leader Marlborough; crushed Steele's defence in his "Public Spirit of the Whigs," and after the publication of "The Conduct of the Allies" stood easily the foremost political writer of his time; disappointed of an English bishopric, in 1713 reluctantly accepted the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin, a position he held until the close of his life; became loved in the country he despised by eloquently voicing the wrongs of Ireland in a series of tracts, "Drapier's Letters," &c., fruitful of good results; crowned his great reputation by the publication (1726) of his masterpiece "Gulliver's Travels," the most daring, savage, and amusing satire contained in the world's literature; "Stella's" death and the slow progress of a brain disease, ending in insanity, cast an ever-deepening gloom over his later years (1667-1745).

SWILLY, LOUGH, a narrow inlet of the Atlantic, on the coast of Donegal, North Ireland, running in between Dunaff Head (E.) and Fanad Point (W.), a distance of 25 m.; is from 3 to 4 m. broad; the entrance is fortified.

SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES, poet and prose writer, born in London, son of Admiral Swinburne; educated at Balliol College, Oxford, went to Florence and spent some time there; his first productions were plays, two of them tragedies, and "Poems and Ballads," his later "A Song of Italy," essay on "William Blake," and "Songs before Sunrise," instinct with pantheistic and republican ideas, besides "Studies in Song," "Studies in Prose and Poetry," &c.; he ranks as the successor of Landor, of whom he is a great admirer, stands high both as a poet and a critic, and is a man of broad and generous sympathies; his admirers regard it as a reproach to his generation that due honour is not paid by it to his genius; _b_. 1837.

SWINDON (32), a town in Wiltshire, 77 m. W. of London; contains the Great Western Company's engineering works, which cover 200 acres, and employ 10,000 hands.

SWINEMÜNDE (9), a fortified seaport on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic, near the mouth of the Swine, one of the outlets of the Oder.

SWISS CONFEDERATION, a league of the several Swiss cantons to resist an attempt on the part of the Emperor Albrecht to incorporate certain of the free towns into his family possessions.

SWISS GUARDS. See GARDES SUISSES.

SWITHIN, ST., bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862; was buried by his own request in Winchester Churchyard, "where passers-by might tread above his head, and the dews of heaven fall on his grave." On his canonisation, a century after, the chapter resolved to remove his body to a shrine in the cathedral, but their purpose was hindered on account of a rain which lasted 40 days from the 15th July; hence the popular notion that if it rained that day it would be followed by rain for 40 days after.

SWITZERLAND (2,918), a republic of Central Europe, bounded by Germany (N.), France (W.), Italy (S.), and Austria and Germany (E.); in size is slightly more than one-half of Scotland, of semicircular shape, having the Jura Alps on its French border, and divided from Italy by the great central ranges of the Alpine system, whence radiate the Swiss Alps--Pennine, Lepontine, Bernese, &c.--covering the E. and S., and occupying with intervening valleys two-thirds of the country; the remaining third is occupied by an elevated fertile plain, extending between Lakes of Constance and Geneva (largest of numerous lakes), and studded with picturesque hills; principal rivers are the Upper Rhône, the Aar, Ticino, and Inn; climate varies with the elevation, from the high regions of perpetual snow to warm valleys where ripen the vine, fig, almond, and olive; about one-third of the land surface is under forest, and one quarter arable, the grain grown forming only one-half of what is required; flourishing dairy farms exist, prospered by the fine meadows and mountain pastures which, together with the forests, comprise the country's greatest wealth; minerals are exceedingly scarce, coal being entirely absent. Despite its restricted arable area and lack of minerals the country has attained a high pitch of prosperity through the thrift and energy of its people, who have skilfully utilised the inexhaustible motive-power of innumerable waterfalls and mountain streams to drive great factories of silks, cottons, watches, and jewellery. The beauty of its mountain, lake, and river scenery has long made Switzerland the sanatorium and recreation ground of Europe; more than 500 health resorts exist, and the country has been described as one vast hotel. The Alpine barriers are crossed by splendid roads and railways, the great tunnels through St. Gothard and the Simplon being triumphs of engineering skill and enterprise. In 1848, after the suppression of the SONDERBUND (q. v.), the existing league of 22 semi-independent States (constituting since 1798 the Helvetic Republic) formed a closer federal union, and a constitution (amended in 1874) was drawn up conserving as far as possible the distinctive laws of the cantons and local institutions of their communes. The President is elected annually by the Federal Assembly (which consists of two chambers constituting the legislative power), and is assisted in the executive government by a Federal Council of seven members. By an institution known as the "Referendum" all legislative acts passed in the Cantonal or Federal Assemblies may under certain conditions be referred to the mass of the electors, and this is frequently done. The public debt amounts to over two million pounds. The national army is maintained by conscription; 71 per cent. of the people speak German, 22 per cent. French, and 5 per cent. Italian; 59 per cent. are Protestants, and 41 per cent. Catholics. Education is splendidly organised, free, and compulsory; there are five universities, and many fine technical schools.

SYBARIS, an ancient city of Magna Græcia, on the Gulf of Tarentum, flourished in the 17th century B.C., but in 510 B.C. was captured and totally obliterated by the rival colonists of Crotona; at the height of its prosperity the luxury and voluptuousness of the inhabitants was such as to become a byword throughout the ancient world, and henceforth a Sybaris city is a city of luxurious indulgence, and Sybarite a devotee of pleasure.

SYBEL, HEINRICH VON, German historian, born at Düsseldorf; was a pupil of RANKE'S (q. v.), and became professor of History at Münich and Bonn; he was a Liberal in politics; his great works are a "History of the Period of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1795, and then to 1800," in five volumes, and the "History of the Founding of the German Empire under William I.," in five volumes; he has also written a "History of the First Crusade" (1817-1895).

SYCORAX, a hag in the "Tempest," the dam of Caliban.

SYDENHAM, a district of Kent and suburb of London, to the SE. of which it lies 7 m., includes the Surrey parish of Lambeth, where in 1852-54 the Crystal Palace was erected and still stands, a far-famed sight of London, containing valuable collections illustrative of the arts and sciences, and surrounded by a magnificent park and gardens.

SYDENHAM, FLOYER, Greek scholar; translated some of the Dialogues of Plato into English, and wrote a dissertation on Heraclitus, which failed of being appreciated, and involved in embarrassment, he was thrown into prison because he could not pay a small bill for provisions, and there died; his sad fate led to the foundation of the Literary Fund (1710-1787).

SYDENHAM, THOMAS, the "English Hippocrates," born in Dorsetshire, educated at Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls'; practised medicine in London, where, though regarded with disfavour by the faculty, he stood in high regard, and had an extensive practice, from his study of the symptoms of disease, and the respect he paid to the constitution of the patient; he used his own sense and judgment in each case, and his treatment was uniformly successful; he commanded the regard of his contemporaries Locke and Boyle, and his memory was revered by such experts as Boerhaave, Stahl, Pinel, and Haller; he ranks as a great reformer in the healing art (1624-1689).

SYDNEY (488), the capital of New South Wales, the oldest city in Australia, and one of the first in the world, on the S. shore of the basin of Port Jackson; and the entrance of a magnificent, almost land-locked, harbour for shipping of the largest tonnage; the situation of the city is superb, and it is surrounded by the richest scenery; the shores of the basin are covered with luxuriant vegetation, studded with islands and indented with pretty bays; it is well paved, has broad streets, and some fine buildings, the principal being the university, the two cathedrals, the post-office, and the town hall. It is a commercial rather than a manufacturing city, though its resources for manufacture are considerable, for it is in the centre of a large coal-field, in connection with which manufacturing industries may yet develop.

SYDNEY, ALGERNON. See SIDNEY, ALGERNON.

SYLLOGISM, an argument consisting of three propositions, of which two are called premises, major and minor, and the one that necessarily follows from them the conclusion.

SYLPHS, elemental spirits of the air, as salamanders, are of fire, of light figure with gliding movements and procreative power.

SYLVESTER, ST., the name of three popes: S. I., Pope from 314 to 335; S. II., Pope from 999 to 1003, alleged, from his recondite knowledge as an alchemist, to have been in league with the devil; and S. III., Anti-Pope from 1041 to 1046.

SYLVESTER, ST., the first Pope of the name, said to have converted Constantine and his mother by restoring a dead ox to life which a magician for a trial of skill killed, but could not restore to life; is usually represented by an ox lying beside him, and sometimes in baptizing Constantine.

SYMBOLISM has been divided into two kinds, symbolism of colour and symbolism of form. Of colours, BLACK typifies grief and death; BLUE, hope, love of divine works, divine contemplation, piety, sincerity; PALE BLUE, power, Christian prudence, love of good works, serene conscience; GOLD, glory and power; GREEN, faith, immortality, resurrection, gladness; PALE GREEN, baptism; GREY, tribulation; PURPLE, justice, royalty; RED, martyrdom for faith, charity, divine love; ROSE-COLOUR, martyrdom; SAFFRON, confessors; SCARLET, fervour and glory; SILVER, chastity and purity; VIOLET, penitence; WHITE, purity, temperance, innocence, chastity, and faith in God. Instances of form: ANCHOR typifies hope; PALM, victory; SWORD, death or martyrdom; the LAMB, christ; UNICORN, purity. Of stones, moreover, the AMETHYST typifies humility; DIAMOND, invulnerable faith; SARDONYX, sincerity; SAPPHIRE, hope, &c.

SYME, JAMES, a great surgeon, born in Edinburgh; was demonstrator under Liston; was elected to the chair of Clinical Surgery in 1833; gave up the chair to succeed Liston in London in 1848, but returned a few months after; was re-elected to the chair he had vacated; he was much honoured by his pupils, and by none more than Dr. John Brown, who characterised him as "the best, ablest, and most beneficent of men"; he wrote treatises and papers on surgery (1799-1870).

SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON, English man of letters, born at Bristol; educated at Harrow and Oxford; author of "The Renaissance in Italy," a work which shows an extensive knowledge of the subject, and is written in a finished but rather flowery style, and a number of other works of a kindred nature showing equal ability and literary skill; his translation of Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography is particularly noteworthy; was consumptive, and spent his later years at Davos, in the Engadine (1840-1893).

SYMPHLAGADES, two fabulous floating rocks at the entrance of the Euxine, which, when driven by the winds, crushed every vessel that attempted to pass between them; the ship ARGO (q. v.) managed to pass between them, but with the loss of part of her stern, after which they became fixed.

SYMPHONY, an elaborate orchestral composition consisting usually of four contrasted and related movements; began to take distinctive shape in the 17th century, and was for long merely a form of overture to operas, &c., but as its possibilities were perceived was elevated into an independent concert-piece, and as such exercised the genius of Mozart and Haydn, reaching its perfection of form in the symphonies of Beethoven.

SYNAGOGUE, a Jewish institution for worship and religious instruction which dates from the period of the Babylonian Captivity, specially to keep alive in the minds of the people a knowledge of the law. The decree ordaining it required the families of a district to meet twice every Sabbath for this purpose, and so religiously did the Jewish people observe it that it continues a characteristic ordinance of Judaism to this day. The study of the law became henceforth their one vocation, and the synagogue was instituted both to instruct them in it and to remind them of the purpose of their separate existence among the nations of the earth. High as the Temple and its service still stood in the esteem of every Jew, from the period of the Captivity it began to be felt of secondary importance to the synagogue and its service. With the erection and extension of the latter the people were being slowly trained into a truer sense of the nature of religious worship, and gradually made to feel that to know the will of God and do it was a more genuine act of homage to Him than the offering of sacrifices upon an altar or the observance of any religious rite. Under such training the issue between the Jew and the Samaritan became of less and less consequence, and he and not the Samaritan was on the pathway which led direct to the final worship of God in spirit and in truth (John iv. 22).

SYNAGOGUE, THE GREAT, the name given to a council at Jerusalem, consisting of 120 members, there assembled about the year 410 B.C. to give final form to the service and worship of the Jewish Church. A Jewish tradition says Moses received the law from Sinai; he transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, to the men of the Great Assembly, who added thereto these words: "Be circumspect in judgment, make many disciples, and set a hedge about the law." To them belong the final settlement and arrangement of the Jewish Scriptures, the introduction of a new alphabet, the regulation of the synagogue worship, and the adoption of sundry liturgical forms, as well as the establishment of the FEAST OF PURIM (q. v.), and probably the "schools" of the Scribes.

SYNCRETISM, name given to an attempted blending of different, more or less antagonist, speculative or religious systems into one, such as Catholic and Protestant or Lutheran and Reformed.

SYNDICATE, in commercial parlance is a name given to a number of capitalists associated together for the purpose of carrying through some important business scheme, usually having in view the controlling and raising of prices by means of a monopoly or "corner."

SYNERGISM, the theological doctrine that divine grace requires a correspondent action of the human will to render it effective, a doctrine defended by Melanchthon when he ascribes to the will the "power of seeking grace," the term "synergy" meaning co-operation.

SYNESIUS, BISHOP PTOLEMAIS, born at Cyrene; became a pupil of HYPATIA (q. v.) and was to the last a disciple, "a father of the Church without having been her son," and is styled by Kingsley "the squire bishop," from his love of the chase; "books and the chase," on one occasion he writes, "make up my life"; wrote one or two curious books, and several hymns expressive of a longing after divine things (375-414).

SYNOD, name given to any assembly of bishops in council, and in the Presbyterian Church to an assembly of a district or a general assembly.

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS, the first three Gospels, so called because they are summaries of the chief events in the story, and all go over the same ground, while the author of the fourth follows lines of his own.

SYRA (31), an island of the Cyclades group, in the Ægean Sea, 10 m, by 5 m., with a capital called also Hermoupolis; on the E. coast is the seat of the government of the islands, and the chief port.

SYRACUSE, 1, one of the great cities of antiquity (19), occupied a wide triangular tableland on the SE. coast of Sicily, 80 m. SW. of Messina, and also the small island Ortygia, lying close to the shore; founded by Corinthian settlers about 733 B.C.; amongst its rulers were the tyrants DIONYSIUS THE ELDER and DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER (q. v.) and Hiero, the patron of Æschylus, Pindar, &c.; successfully resisted the long siege of the Athenians in 414 B.C., and rose to a great pitch of renown after its struggle with the Carthaginians in 397 B.C., but siding with Hannibal in the Punic Wars, was taken after a two years' siege by the Romans (212 B.C.), in whose hands it slowly declined, and finally was sacked and destroyed by the Saracens in 878 A.D. Only the portion on Ortygia was rebuilt, and this constitutes the modern city, which has interesting relics of its former greatness, but is otherwise a crowded and dirty place, surrounded by walls, and fortified; exports fruit, olive-oil, and wine. 2, A city (108) of New York State, United States, 148 m. W. of Albany, in the beautiful valley of Onondaga; is a spacious and handsomely laid-out city, with university, &c.; has flourishing steel-works, foundries, rolling-mills, &c., and enormous salt manufactures.

SYRIA (2,000), one of three divisions of Asiatic Turkey, slightly larger than Italy, forms a long strip of mountains and tableland intersected by fertile valleys, lying along the eastern end of the Mediterranean from the Taurus range in the N. to the Egyptian border on the 8., and extending to the Euphrates and Arabian desert The coastal strip and waters fall within the LEVANT (q. v.). In the S. lies Palestine, embracing Jordan, Dead Sea, Lake of Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), Jerusalem, Gaza, &c.; in the N., between the parallel ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, lies the valley of Coele-Syria, through which flows the Orontes. Important towns are Aleppo, Damascus, Beyrout (chief port), &c.; principal exports are silk, wool, olive-oil, and fruits. Four-fifths of the people are Mohammedans of Aramæan (ancient Syrian) and Arabic stock. Once a portion of the ASSYRIAN EMPIRE (q. v.), it became a possession successively of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, and finally fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1516, under whose rule it now languishes. For further particulars see various names and places mentioned.

SYRIANUS, a Greek Neoplatonic philosopher of the 5th century; had PROCLUS (q. v.) for a disciple; left a valuable commentary on the metaphysics of Aristotle.

SYRINX, an Arcadian nymph, who, being pursued by Pan, fled into a river, was metamorphosed into a reed, of which Pan made his flute.

SYRTIS, MAJOR AND MINOR, the ancient names of the Gulfs of Sidra and Cabes on the N. coast of Africa, the former between Tripoli and Barca, the latter between Tunis and Tripoli.

SYRUS, PUBLIUS, a slave brought to Rome, and on account of his wit manumitted by his master; made his mark by composing memoirs and a collection of pithy sayings that appear to have been used as a school-book; flourished in 45 B.C.

SYSTÈME DE LA NATURE, a book, the authorship of which is ascribed to BARON HOLBACH (q. v.), which appeared in 1770, advocating a philosophical materialism and maintaining that nothing exists but matter, and that mind is either naught or only a finer kind of matter; there is nowhere anything, it insists, except matter and motion; it is the farthest step yet taken in the direction of speculative as opposed to political nihilism.

SYZYGY, the point on the orbit of a planet, or the moon when it is in conjunction with, or in opposition to, the sun.

SZECHUAN (71,000), the largest province of China, lies in the W. between Thibet (NW.) and Yunnan (SW.); more than twice the size of Great Britain; a hilly country, rich in coal, iron, &c., and traversed by the Yangtse-kiang and large tributaries; Chingtu is the capital; two towns have been opened to foreign trade, opium, silk, tobacco, musk, white wax, &c., being chief exports.

SZEGEDIN (89), a royal free city of Hungary, situated at the confluence of the Maros and Theiss, 118 m. SE. of Budapest, to which it ranks next in importance as a commercial and manufacturing centre; has been largely rebuilt since the terribly destructive flood of 1879, and presents a handsome modern appearance.

T

TABARD, a tunic without sleeves worn by military nobles over their arms, generally emblazoned with heraldic devices. "Toom Tabard," empty king's cloak, nickname given by the Scotch to John Balliol as nothing more.

TABERNACLE, a movable structure of the nature of a temple, erected by the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness; it was a parallelogram in shape, constructed of boards lined with curtains, the roof flat and of skins, while the floor was the naked earth, included a sanctum and a sanctum sanctorum, and contained altars for sacrifice and symbols of sacred import, especially of the Divine presence, and was accessible only to the priests. See FEASTS, JEWISH.

TABLE MOUNTAIN, a flat-topped eminence in the SW. of Cape Colony, rising to a height of 3600 ft. behind Cape Town and overlooking it, often surmounted by a drapery of mist.

TABLES, THE TWELVE, the tables of the Roman laws engraven on brass brought from Athens to Rome by the decemvirs.

TABLETS, name given to thin boards coated with wax and included in a frame for writing on with a stylus.

TABLE-TURNING, movement of a table ascribed to the agency of spirits or some recondite spiritual force acting through the media of a circle of people standing round the edge touching it with their finger-tips in contact with those of the rest.

TABOO or TABU, a solemn prohibition or interdict among the Polynesians under which a particular person or thing is pronounced inviolable, and so sacred, the violation of which entails malediction at the hands of the supernatural powers.

TABOR, MOUNT, an isolated cone-shaped hill, 1000 ft. in height and clothed with olive-trees, on the NE. borders of ESDRAËLON (q. v.), 7 m. E. of Nazareth. A tradition of the 2nd century identifies it as the scene of the Tranfiguration, and ruins of a church, built by the Crusaders to commemorate the event, crown the summit.

TABRIZ (170), an ancient and still important commercial city of Persia, 320 m. SE. of Tiflis, 4500 ft. above sea-level; occupies an elevated site on the Aji, 40 m. E. of its entrance into Lake Urumiah; carries on a flourishing transit trade and has notable manufactures of leather, silk, and gold and silver ware; has been on several occasions visited by severe earthquakes.