well polished, and ground extremely true, with a frame round it, or a groove cut in its edges, to keep the superfluous mercury from running off; secondly, lead, weights covered with cloth, to keep them from scratching the glass, from one pound weight to twelve pounds each, according to the size of the glass laid down; thirdly, rolls of tin-foil; fourthly, mercury. The artist then proceeds as follows:-the tin-foil is cut a little larger than the glass, and laid flat upon the stone, and with a straight piece of hard wood, about three inches long, stroked every way, that there may be no creases or wrinkles in it: a little mercury is then dropped upon it, and with a piece of cotton wool, or hare's foot, it is spread all over the foil; then, the marble slab being kept nearly level with the horizon, the mercury is poured all over the foil, which is covered with a fine paper; two weights are placed near its lower end, to keep the glass steady, while the artist draws the paper from between the silver-foil and the glass. This must be done with great care, so that no air-bubbles be left. After the paper is drawn out, weights are placed upon the glass to press out the superfluous mercury, and make the foil adhere. Another method is, to slide the glass over the foil without the assistance of paper. To make shell silver, silver leaf is ground with gum-water, or honey: the gum, or honey, is washed away, and the powder which remains is used with gum-water, or white of eggs, laid on with a hair pencil.

SILVESTRE DE SACY. (See Sacy.) SIMEON STYLITES. (See Stylites.) SIMOIS; a river of Troas, which rises in mount Ida, and falls into the Xanthus. It is celebrated by Homer, and most of the ancient poets, as many battles were fought in its neighborhood during the Trojan war. Modern travellers call it a small rivulet, and some have even disputed its existence. (See Scamander.)

SIMON MAGUS, or the Magician; an impostor, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, a native of Samaria, who pretended to be an aon of an exalted nature, and called himself the supreme power of God. (See Gnostics.) Struck with astonishment at the miracles of the Apostles, he offered them money for their secret. (See Simony.) He then went about making proselytes, carrying with him a Tyrian courtesan, whom he represented as Helen, who had been the cause of the Trojan war, and sometimes as Minerva; calling her, at the same time, the first in telligence, or mother of all things. Other

stories are related of him, but se well authenticated. It has also been said that he was worshipped as a god at Rome. and that his statue was erected there, wit! the inscription Simoni Deo sancto. His fo! lowers are called Simonians. (See Her etics.)

The

SIMON, ST.; an ancient French family which claims to derive its origin, through the counts of Vermandois, from Charle magne. Louis de Rouvroy, duke de St Simon, a peer of France, known as the au thor of some very curious memoirs, was born in 1675, and died in 1755. He was employed in several diplomatic missions, and was made one of the council of re gency by the notorious regent, duke of Orleans (q. v.), after whose death he retired to his estates. His memoirs remained a long time in manuscript, and were afterwards published in a mutilated form, with many suppressions. first complete edition appeared in Paris, in 1829-30 (in 21 vols., 8vo.), under the title of Mémoires complets et authentiques du Duc de Saint Simon sur le Siècle de Louis XIV, et la Régence, publiés pour la première Fois sur le Manuscrit original entièrement écrit de la Main de l'Auteur, par M. le Marquis de Saint Simon-Claude Henri, count de St. Simon, founder of the politicophilosophical-religious sect of St. Simonians, or of the New Christianity, which has recently attracted attention in France, was born in 1760. We know little of his youth; but he appears to have been early tinctured with a spirit of enthusiasm, as we are told that he caused himself to be called, every morning, with the words, "Get up, count; you have great things to accomplish." He was attached to the French auxiliary corps, which served in this country in the last years of our revolutionary war, and, soon after his return to France, was promoted to a colonelcy. Previous to the breaking out of the French revolution, the count travelled in Holland and Spain; but he took no part in the great events of 1789. He died in 1825, the last thirty-four years of his life, if we may believe his own account, having been devoted to the objects of his mission, as the apostle of the New Christianity. His disciples are not very com municative in regard to the history of their founder, whose reputation appears not to have been always the best. In 1790, he entered into financial speculations, for the purpose, as we are told, of raising the funds necessary to aid his great projects. His partner not participating in his philanthropic views, St. Simon re

tired from the business at the expiration of seven years, and next applied himself to the study of the sciences. He took up his residence near the polytechnic school, formed an acquaintance with the professors, and attended their lectures. Three years were thus occupied with the study of inorganic nature, and the succeeding four years were spent in the study of organic bodies, for which purpose he lived near the medical school, conversed with the professors, heard their lectures, and kept open house and free table for men of science. A tour in Germany, England and Italy, completed his 'inventory of the philosophical treasures of Europe,' and lie now felt himself master of his ideas and ready to communicate them. His fortune, however, was exhausted, and his friends had deserted him. His Introduction aux Travaux scientifiques du 19e Siècle (1807), contains an exposition of his philosophical views at this time. After the restoration, in 1814, his attention was turned to politics; and, partly in conjunction with his disciple and adopted son Augustus Thierry and others, he wrote several works, which show his political opinions. Among these are De la Réorganisation de la Société Européenne (1814); Du Système Industriel (1821); Catéchisme des Industriels (1824); Discussions politiques, morales et philosophiques (4 vols., 1817-18); and Opinions littéraires, philosophiques et industrielles. Seven years had thus been spent in obtaining pecuniary resources, seven in collecting scientific materials, ten in effecting the reformation of philosophy, and ten that of politics; and St. Simon, reduced to extrême want by the exhaustion of his resources, and to despair by neglect and ill success, attempted to shoot himself through the head. The ball grazed his forehead; but "his hour," say his pupils, after their master, was not yet come; the philosopher and legislator becomes the prophet of a law of love; God raises him from the abyss; sheds over him a religious inspiration which animates, sanctifies and renews his whole being; a hymn of love is poured forth from that mutilated body; the divine man is manifested; the New Christianity is sent to the world; the kingdom of God is come upon earth." The Nouveau Christianisme (8vo., 1825) is an exposition of St. Simon's religious notions. By this new religion, the principle of antagonism is done away; a universal church, a brotherhood of peace, unites all mankind, and sanctifies all. Science is

holy, industry is holy; society is formed only of priests, savans and laborers (industriels); government consists only of the chiefs of these three classes. The basis of the political system of the St. Simonians is a new mode of the distribution of property, by substituting the right of capacity for the right of inheritance. "Each one according to his capacity, each capacity according to its works," is the rule of this new right. All property becomes, at the death of the proprietor, the property of the church or society; all children receive a general education to a certain point till their capacities are ascertained, and then, chacun à sa capacité, each becomes a priest (or artist), savant, or industriel, as his talents point the way; and thus whatever he acquires is the fruit of his own industry. There is nothing, however, like a distinct system developed in the writings of St. Simon or his disciples, but abundance of crude notions and vague speculations, of which we cannot attempt to give an account. See Doctrine de St. Simon (3d ed., 1831), and the numbers of the Globe and Organi sateur, the organs of one party, and of the Revue Encyclopédique (since the close of 1831), that of another party of St. Simonians. At the time of the death of the founder, this sect consisted of a small number of disciples, of whom Olinde Rodrigues was the principal, and who established the Producteur, a monthly journal, as the organ of their views. This, however, was discontinued for want of funds, when the revolution of July gave a new impulse to the society. A great number of converts was made, funds collected, and the Globe, a journal of reputation, passed into the hands of St. Simonian editors. Families were organized, churches built, schools constituted, and the hierarchy established, under Enfantin and Bazard, who were entitled pères suprêmes (chief fathers). But when the time came for the developement of a regular system, schisms began to appear in the society. The most important of these took place in November, 1831. Enfantin and Bazard were at the head of two parties, Rodrigues of a third, and Carnot (editor of the Revue Encyclopé dique) belonged to a fourth. These divisions were produced partly by questions of government and partly by differences of doctrine. One of the new doctrines, in which, however, all parties seem to agree, is, that man is not, as heretofore, alone to form the political being, but that man and woman together are to form tha

social individual. But, on this principle, Enfantin declares that the moral law can be revealed only by the coöperation of woman; and he, therefore, awaits the appearance of the woman who shall be called to complete the couple révélateur. The Globe and Organisateur are in the interest of Enfantin. The French government has left the sect to itself; but the courts have decided that St. Simonianism is not a religion, the priests of the society having claimed exemption from military duty on the ground of their religious office. (See the Quarterly Review for July, 1831, and the Westminster Review for April, 1832.)

SIMONIANS, ST. (See Simon, St.) SIMONIDES; a Greek lyric poet, born in the island of Cos, about 557 B. C., went to Athens, where he became the favorite of Hipparchus, and a friend of Anacreon and Theognis. In Thessaly, he was a welcome guest of the Scopades, whose victories at the public games he celebrated in song. According to a story related by Cicero, as he was once sitting at a feast with Scopas, having recited a hymn in praise of his patron, in which he dwelt much on the merits of the Dioscuri, Scopas told him that he could pay him only half of the price promised for the hymn, and that he must get the rest from the Dioscuri, who had occupied so large a share of his praises. Soon after, some one called him out of the house, with the information that two youths wished to speak to him. On going out, he found no person, and before he could return, the hall fell in, burying the guests under its ruins. When the rubbish was removed, it being impossible to distinguish the bodies, disfigured by bruises, Simonides was enabled to determine them by recollecting the order in which they had sat. This led him to the plan of facilitating the recollection of events by certain artificial associations with places or things. (See Mnemonics.) Another wonderful escape of Simonides is related. Having once buried a body which he had found on the beach, as he was himself about to set sail, the spirit of the deceased warned him not to trust himself to the deceitful element. He complied with the warning, and soon after received news of the loss of the vessel, with all her crew. Simonides visited Athens several times, and is said to have conquered Aschylus, in a poetical contest, at the celebration of the victory of Marathon. During a residence in Sparta, he sang the heroic death of Le

onidas, in several poems. An invitation from Hiero, king of Syracuse, induced him to go to Sicily, where he spent the rest of his days, and died, B. C. 467. Of his numerous poems, some fragments have come down to us, which are con tained in Brunck's Analecta. The an cients celebrate the grace, ease, and simplicity of his poems; but he is accused of avarice, and of having been the first to take pay for his writings. The invention of five letters of the Greek alphabet. ,,,, w, is attributed to him.

SIMONY; the crime of trafficking with sacred things, particularly the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice for money or reward. Simony is also committed by buying or selling the sacrament of the Lord's supper, baptism, ordination or absolution. It is a crime severely prohibited by all Christian sects, though the theologians of the Roman curia do not consider the selling of certain church offices simony. The name of this offence, in which the seller and the buyer are equally guilty, is derived from the Chaldæan Magus, Simon, who, according to the Acts of the Apostles, wished to purchase from the apostles the communication of the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands. Simony was committed in the middle ages with scandalous publicity and frequency.

SIMOOM, or SAMIEL (that is, poison); a noxious, hot wind, which blows at the period of the equinoxes, on the borders of Arabia, in the neighborhood of Mecca, on the Euphrates, and in Persia, and is fatal to animal life. It comes over burning deserts of sand, and its approach is indicated by terrible appearances. A dark yellow hue suddenly pervades the eastern horizon; a thick sulphureous exhalation rises from the ground, which is first hurried round in rapid gyrations, and then ascends into the air, and covers the whole heavens. Hissing and crackling noises are heard, and a hot current of air accompanied by low sounds rushes over the ground. Even the beasts manifest their terror by their howlings, and, when the burning current overtakes a caravan in the desert, bend their heads to the earth; camels plunge their nose and mouth into the sand. Travellers may have learned this means of safety from them, as they also throw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and lie immovable until the hot exhalation has passed, which it does within a half hour at the most. Persons in a stream have nothing to fear. The bodies of those who perish by it

well, and very quickly begin to putrefy. The fine dust which the wind brings penetrates into all the folds of the clothes, and even into boxes and bales. It is not improbable that these and other hot winds are overcharged with electricity.-The simoom is different from the chamseen, or khamseen, a south-west wind, which blows three or four days, between July 15 and Aug. 15, in Egypt, Arabia, and on the Persian gulf, and is accompanied by similar appearances. It is very hot and drying. In those whom it surprises in the desert, the lungs are compressed, the breathing difficult, the skin dry; the body appears as if consumed by fire. The corpses of those who have thus perished are dried up, but do not putrefy. The same means of protection are employed as against the samiel. Still different from either of these winds is the harmattan. (q. v.)

SIMPLON (Italian Sempione); a mounsain in the Swiss canton of Valais, 10,600 feet high, belonging to the high Alpine ridge which separates Switzerland from Italy, and extends from Mont Blanc to St. Gothard. (See Alps.) As this ridge is traversed by a valley, which lies below the snow line, Napoleon laid out one of his most remarkable roads here. (See Alps, Roads over.) The Hospitium (q. v.), left unfinished by Napoleon, was sold by the government of the canton to the fathers of the Great St. Bernard in 1824, who have since completed it.

SIN. Every evil disposition, thought or action, by which the divine law (whether the positive revealed law, or the moral law, which God has implanted in the mind of man) is violated, is sin in the wider sense of the word, considered in relation to morals or religion; considered as an offence against the laws of society, an evil act is called a crime, misdemeanor, &c. Strictly speaking, sin can attach only to an intelligent and free agent, who has or might have a knowledge of the existence and sacredness of the law. The imputation of sin to the transgressor of the divine law is the regarding him as the author of this transgression, and as justly punishable for it. Theologians and moral philosophers distinguish several species of sins, either with reference to the nature of the law which the sinner transgresses, or to the subject against which the sin is committed, or to the sinner, or to the nature and quality of the action itself. In the first point of view, sins are divided into those of omission and commission; but this division amounts, in fact, to nothing,

because, whenever a man sins, he omits something which he ought to have done, and commits something which he ought to have left undone. The same sin may fall under either class, according as we express the moral law which is violated positively or negatively. The moral relations between man and the objects of his duty are much too close to allow an essential difference between omission and commission. Sins are divided, like duties, into those towards God, our fellow-men and ourselves; but this division is little more than formal, for every sin falls, in some degree, under all three heads. As regards the sinner, sins are divided into premeditated and unpremeditated, the latter being the fruit of sudden impulse, and not of deliberate purpose. Moreover, there are internal and external sins (the former include bad appetites, evil thoughts, &c.), conditional and unconditional sins. Sin is often used also for that state of the soul which is properly called sinfulness. Lastly, sin is divided by theologians into original sin and actual sin: the former again into inherent sin (denoting that corruption of nature which is believed to have been transmitted from the first man to all his offspring), and imputed sin, denoting that liability to punishment to which all the posterity of Adam are subject by the imputation of his transgression. Actual sin is again divided by theologians into mortal and venial. Mortal sins, according to 1 John v, 16, 17, are those the commission of which is followed by spiritual death, that is, the loss of God's grace, and differ from those which may be more easily forgiven. All Christians, in early times, were of opinion that there was a difference between those sins which a Christian might fall into from the strength of natural propensity, and those which evidently showed that the offender was yet entirely in the slavery of sin, and not regenerated, such as the denial of Christianity, inurder, theft, adultery, fraud, &c. But while one party (which subsequently became predominant) acted on the principle that the church was bound to receive every sinner, on condition of sincere penitence, and that absolution and communion could not be withheld from him, particularly in the hour of death, if his repentance had continued until then, there was another party which would never receive again one who had broken his baptismal vow, by committing a moital sin, because, said they, we know of no revelation which authorizes us to do this What sins were to be regarded as mortal

was not fully determined by the first fathers of the church. Augustine considered blasphemy, incontinency and murder, as falling under this class. Petrus Lombardus (Magist. Sentent. ii, 41, 6), following Cassianus and Gregory the Great, enumerates the following: superbia (pride), avaritia (avarice), luxuria (voluptuousness), ira (wrath), gula (gluttony), invidia (envy), acedia (sluggishness of heart); and, in order to facilitate the remembrance of them, invented the word saligia, composed of the initial letters of the several names. These are the seven mortal sins which, since the twelfth century, have been enumerated in the scholastic theology, and even now are set forth in the doctrinal works of the Catholics, particularly in Catholic catechisms for the people, though even the contemporary of Petrus Lombardus, Richard de St. Victor (De Differentia Peccati mortalis et venalis, Rouen, 1650), justly makes the degree of immorality in the sinner, the wrong done to others, and the contempt shown for God, the standard of mortal sin; and other schoolmen gave the name of crying sins to murder, sodomy, oppression of innocence, and forcible retention of well-earned wages, and, in fact, to all those sins which St. Paul mentions in Gal. v, 19-21. But many modern Catholic writers have found this number insufficient, and some of them have classed other mortal sins under some of these general heads, while others give an entirely different list; and some, again, as the writer of the article Péché, in the Dictionnaire de Théologie (Toulouse, 1817), mention none by name, and say it is extremely difficult, in some cases, to distinguish whether a sin is mortal. Many Protestants also (the Calvinists excepted) adopt the distinction between mortal sins and those which may be forgiven; but they make this difference to consist only in the degree of moral responsibility or desert of punishment; so that every intentional and well-known violation of duty is followed by the loss of God's grace. The views of the Greek church are much like those of the Roman Catholic on this point.

SINAI; a mountain of Arabia, near the head of the Red sea, celebrated in Scripture history as the spot whence the law was given to Moses. It is situated in the heart of a vast and gloomy desert, the few inhabited spots of which are occupied by hordes of Arabs, who subsist by plunder, and render the road impassable, unless for a large and well-defended caravan. At the foot of the mountain is the Greek

convent of St. Catharine, founded in 1331 by William Bouldesell, which has ever since continued to afford hospitality to the pilgrims whose zeal impels them to brave the perils of this road. The monks are kept, as it were, imprisoned in this convent by the wild Arabs of the surrounding country. 150 miles south-east of

Suez.

SINAMARI; a river of French Guiana, which flows into the Atlantic in lat. 5° 39' N. To its banks were transported the victims of the 18th Fructidor. (q. v.)

SINAPISM; a poultice of mustard. These poultices are made in different ways. One is of mustard-seed and linseed or crumb of bread equal parts, vinegar a sufficient quantity; another of mustard-seed pulverized, any quantity, vinegar a sufficient quantity.

SINCAPORE, OF SINGAPURA; capital of a small island at the southern extremity of Malacca, lat. 1° 15′ N.; lon. 104° E. It was ceded, with the neighboring islands within ten miles around it, to the East India company by the sultan of Johor, in 1824, who had previously, however, made a similar treaty, in consequence of which it had been occupied by sir T. S. Raffles in 1819. The climate is healthy. The interior is laid out in gardens and plantations, and its shores supply a valuable ar ticle of commerce in the agar-agar, a kind of sea-weed (fucus saccharinus), which is used in China for paint, glue and varnish, and the finer sorts make a sweetmeat. The town stands on a point of land near a bay affording a safe anchorage at all seasons, and commanding the navigation of the straits of Malacca. The population, which, in 1819 was 150, had increased, in 1830, to above 16,600 persons, exclusive of the garrison and the floating population. Many of the settlers are Chinese. The exports exceed £3,000,000 per annum. (See Crawfurd's Embassy to Siam and Cochin-China.)

SINDH. (See Indus.)

SINDON. (See Byssus.)

SINE, in mathematics; a line drawn perpendicularly from one end of an arc upon the radius, drawn to the other end. The sine of the arc is also the sine of the angle subtended by the arc. Trigonometry (q. v.) teaches that, in plain triangles, the sides are to each other as the sines of the opposite angles; in spherical triangles, however, the sines of the sides are to each other as the sines of the angles opposite to these sides. Hence it appears how important the sine is for finding certain parts of triangles, from certain given