Page images
PDF
EPUB

obftructions of the vifcera. The efficacy of foaped on pain of 201. without giving proper notice of his intention. And if any maker shall conceal any foap or materials, he fhall forfeit the fame, and alfo sool. Every barrel of foap fhall contain 256 lb. avoirdupois, half barrel 128 lb. firkin 64 lb. half-firkin 32 lb. befides the weight or tare of each cafk; and ail foap, excepting hard cake foap and bail foap, fhall be put into fuch cafks and no other, on pain of forfeiture, and 5 1. The maker fhall weekly enter in writing at the next office the foap made by him in each week, with the weight and quantity at each boiling, on pain of 50l.; and within one week after entry clear of the duties, on pain of double duty. See alfo ftat. 5 Geo. III. cap. 43. 12 Geo. III. cap. 46. 11 Geo. cap. 30. i Geo. ftat. 2. cap. 36.

is jaundice was experienced by Sylvius, and recommended by various authors; and it was thought of ufe in fupplying the place of bile in the pamæ viæ. but it has loft much of its reputata in jaundice, fince it is now known that gall Bre, have been found in many after death, who had been daily taking foap for months and even Years. Of its good effects in urinary calculous thons, we have the teftimony of feveral, efpeCy when diffolved in Ime water, by which its cacy is confiderably increated; for it thus beexes a powerful folvent of mucus, which an ingous modern author fuppofes to be the chief apest in the formation of calcuii: it is however, cy in the incipient ftate of the difeafe, that these remedies promife effectual benefit; though they xenerally abate the more violent symptoms where they cannot remove the caufe. With Boerhaave fup was a general medicine: for as he attributed Et complaints to vifcidity of the fluids, he, and t of the Boerhaavian school, prefcribed it in junction with different refinous and other fabPisces, in gout, rheumatism, and various vifce, complaints. Soap is alfo externally employed a refolvent, and gives name to feveral officinal preparations. From its properties foap must be a very effectual and convenient anti-acid. It abacids as powerfully as pure alkalis, and abbest earths, without having the caufticity of the Esmer, and without oppreffing the stomach by weigh like the latter. Soap muit a fo be one of the best of all antidotes to flop quickly, and wrt the leaft inconvenience, the bad effects of apid corrofive poifons, as aquafortis, corrolive fubLmate, &c.

I

9. SOAP, STARKEY's. See CHEMISTRY, Ind. 10.) SOAP, TAXES ON. Soap imported is fubby to Ann. cap. 19. to a duty of 2d. a pound wver and above former duties;) and by 12 Ann. Lat. 1. cap. 9. to the farther fum of 1 d. a pound. And by the fame acts, the duty on foap made in the kingdom is råd. a pound. By 17 Geo. III. rap. 52. no perfon within the limits of the head fice of excife in London fhall be permitted to make any foap unless he occupy a tenement of 10. a year, be affeffed, and pay the parifh rates; er elfewhere, unless he be affeffed, and pay to Curch and poor. Places of making are to be entered on pain of sol. and covers and locks to be provided under a forfeiture of 100 l.; the furnace or of every utenfil ufed in the manufacture of Lap thall be locked by the excife officer, as foon 1, the fire is damped or drawn out, and fastenings vided, under the penalty of sol., and openng or damaging fuch faftening incurs a penalty tool. Officers are required to enter and fury at all times, by day or night, and the penalty of bftructing is 20l. and they may unlock and xamine every copper, &c. between the hours of fve in the morning and eleven in the evening, and the penalty of obstructing is Icol. Every maker ot foap before he begins any making, if within the bills of mortality, fhall give 12 hours, if elfewhere 24 hours, notice in writing to the officer, of the time when he intends to begin, on pain of ol. No maker thall remove any foap un'urvey

VOL. XXI. PART I.

(11.) SOAP, WHITE. Of this one fort is made after the fame manner as green soft soap, oil alone excepted, which is not ufed in white. The other fort of white foft foap is made from the lees of afhes of lime boiled up two different times with tallow. Frit, a quantity of lees and tallow are put into the copper together, and kept boiling, being fed with Ices as they boil, until the whole is boiled fufficiently; then the lees are feparated or discharged from the tallowifh part, which part is removed into a tub, and the lees are thrown away; this is called the first half-boil then the copper is filled again with fresh tallow and lees, and the firft half boil is put out of the tub into the copper a fecond time, where it is kept boiling with fresh lees and tailow till the foap is produced. It is then put out of the copper into the fame fort of cafks as are used for green foft foap. The common foft foap ufed about London, generally of a greenith hue, with fome white lumps, is prepared chiefly with tallow a blackish fort, more common in fome other places, is faid to be made with whale oil.

SOAP-APPLE, .. a fpecies of SAPINDUS.

SOAP-ASHES, n. f. [foap and aftes.] The subftance that remains after the foap-boiler has drawn his lic. A. Mortimer recommends them as excellent manure. See SOAP, I.

SOAP-BERRY TREE. See SAPINDUS.

* SOAPBOILER, n. f. [ /bap and boil.] One whose trade is to make foap.-A foapboiler condoles with me on the duties on Caftile foap. Addisont SOAP-EARTH. See STEATITES.

SOAPERY, n.f. The place where foap is made. Afh.

72

SOAP-LER, ..Soap and lec.] The liquor which remains after the foap is boiled. 4h.

SOAP-LIE, . . [foap and lie.] The lie ufed in making foap. Ajh.

SOAP SUDS, n.. [Soap and fuds.] Water impregnated with foap, wrought up to a lather, in which clothes are wafhed.

(1.) * SOAPWORT. n.Į. [japonaria, Lat.] Is a fpecies of campion. Miller.

(2.) SOAPWORT. See SAPONARIA.

(1.) SOAPY, adj. [from foap.] Like foap; covered with foap. 4. Lathered with foap; fapo naceous.

(2.) SOAPY ROCK, a cape or rock of the Englifh Channel, clote to the coaft of Cornwall; 4 miles NW. of Lizard Point.

[ocr errors]

SOAR.

* SOAR. n. J. [from the verb.] Towering flight.

Within fear

Of tow'ring eagles.

Milton.

* To SOAR. v. n. [ forare, Italian.] 1. To fly aloft; to tower; to mount; properly to fly without any visible action of the wings. Milton ufes it actively.

'Tis but a bafe ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can foar. Shak.

Feather'd foon and fledg'd,

They fumm'd their pens, and foaring th' air fublime,

With clang defpis'd the ground.

Milton. 2. To mount intellectually; to tow'r with the mind.

How high a pitch his refolution foars. Shak.
Valour fears above

What the world calls misfortune.

3. To rife high.

Who afpires must down as low

As high he foar'd.

Addison.

Milton. Flames rife and fink by fits; at last they foar In one bright blaze, and then defcend no more, Dryden. Swailows fleet foar high. Gay. SOAR, or a river of England, in Leicestershire. SOARE, anciently called Leire. SAOVO, a town of the Italian kingdom, (cidevant republic,) in the dep. of the Mincio, diftrict and late territory of Verona; 10 miles E. of Ve

[blocks in formation]

Sighs, Jobs, and paffions, and the war of tongues.

Pope.

(2.) SOB, in geography, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Oby, 32 miles SW. of Obdorskoi. (1.) * To SOB. v. n. [feob, complaining, Saxon. Perhaps it is a mere onomatopaia copied from the found.] To heave audibly with convulfive forrow; to figh with convulfion.

He twenty times made pause to fob and weep. Shak. Some tears the fhed, with fighs and fobbings mixt. Fairfax. She figh'd, fhe fobb'd, and furious with de. fpair,

She rent her garments. Dryden. -When children have not the power to obtain their defire, they will, by their clamour and fobbing, maintain their title to it. Locke.

I fobb'd ;-and with faint eyes Look'd upwards to the Ruler of the skies. Harte. (2.) To SOB. v. a. To foak. A cant word.

The tree being fobbed and wet, fwells. Mort. SOBATZ, a town of Slavonia, on the Save; 30 miles WSW. of Belgrade, and 80 SW. of Teniefvar.

* SOBER. adj. [fobrius, Latin; fobre, Fr.) 1. Temperate, particularly in liquors; not drunken. -Live a fober, righteous, and godly life. Common Prayer.-The vines give wine to the drunkard as well as to the feber man. Taylor.-No fober temperate perfon can look with complacency upon the drunkennefs of his neighbour. South. 2. Not overpowered by drink.-A law there is among the Grecians, that he which being overcome with drink did then ftrike any man, fhould fuffer punifhment double, as much as if he had done the fame being fober. Hooker. 3. Not mad; right in the understanding.-Another, who had a great genius for tragedy, foliowing the fury of his natural temper, made every man and woman in his plays ftark raging mad: there was not a fober person to be had. Dryden.—No fober man would put him. self into danger, for the applause of escaping without breaking his neck. Dryden. 4. Regular; calm; free from inordinate paffion.-This fame young fober blooded boy a man cannot make him laugh. Shak.-Cieca travelled all over Peru, and is a grave and fober writer. Abbot.-Young men likewife exhort to be fober minded. Tit. ii. 6.—The governour of Scotland being of great courage, and fober judgment, amply performed his duty before the battle and in the field. Hayward.-Thefe confufions difpofed men of any fober understanding to wish for peace. Clarendon.-Among them some fober men confeffed, that as his majesty's affairs then ftood, he could grant it. Clarendon.

To thefe, that fober race of men, whofe lives Religious, titled them the fons of God, Shall yield up all their virtue.

Milton. -Be your defigns ever fo good, your intentions ever fo fober. Waterland. 5. Serious; folemn; grave.

Difguis'd in fober robes.
Come, civil night,

Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black.
Twilight grey

Shak.

Shak.

Milton.

Prior.

Had in her fober liv'ry all things clad.
What parts gay France from fober Spain?
A little rifing rocky chain.

For Swift and him defpis'd the farce of ftate, The fober follies of the wife and great. Pope. -See her fober over a fampler. Pope.

*To SOBER. v. a. [from the adjective.] To make fober.

Shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely fobers us again. Pope. * SOBERLY. adv. [from fober.] 1. Without intemperance. 2. Without madnefs. 3. Temperately; moderately.-Let any prince think foberly of his forces, except his militia of natives be valiant foldiers. Bacon. 4. Coolly; calmly.Whenever children are chaftifed, let it be done without paffion, and foberly. Locke.

* SOBERNESS. n.s. [from sober.] 1. Temperance in drink.-Keep my body in temperance, Jobernefs, and chastity. Common Prayer. 2. Calmnefs; freedom from enthuliafm; coolnefs.-A perfon noted for his foberness and skill in spagyrical preparations, made Helmont's experiment fucceed very well. Boyle.-The foberness of Virgil might have fhewn the difference. Dryden.

SOBERNHEIM, a town of Germany, in the circle of the Upper Rhine, and ci-devant county

of

of Sponheim; now annexed to the French empre, and included in the dep. of Mont-Tonrere. It is feated on the Nave, 10 miles WSW. of Kreutznach, and 30 WSW. of Mentz. Lon. 15. 4. E. Ferro. Lat. 49. 49. N.

SOBIESKI, John, an excellent monarch of Poland. See POLAND, Ý 20, 21.

SOBIESLAU, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Bechin; 10 miles E. of Bechin, and 48 SSW. of CzaЛlaw.

SOBRADA, a town of Spain, in Galicia. SOBRADILLO, a town of Spain, in Leon. *SOBRIETY. n. J. [from fobrieté, Fr. Jobrius, La 1. Temperance in drink; fobernefs. Surety hath obtained to fignify temperance in draking. Taylor. 2. Prefent freedom from the power of ftrong liquor. 3. General temperance. -Moderation and fobriety in diet. Hooker. 4. Freedom from indordinate paffion.-The liberLe could not prevail on men of virtue and foariety to give up their religion. Rogers. 5. Calmels; coolnes.-Enquire with all fobriety and feverty, what the force of imagination 18. Bacon. -Sobriety in our riper years is the effect of a well Cuscotted warmth. Dryden.-If fometimes Ovid appears too gay, there is a fecret gracefulness of youth which accompanies his writings, though the fobriety of age be wanting. Dryden. 6. Serioaacs; gravity.-A report without truth; and I had almoft faid, without any fobriety, or modety. Waterland.

Mirth makes them not mad; Nor fobriety fad.

Denham. SOC, (Sax.] fignifies power or liberty to minifter juftice or execute laws: alfo the circuit or territory wherein such power is exercised. Whence the law Latin word focca is used for a feigniory or ordship enfranchifed by the king, with the liberty of holding or keeping a court of his fockAnd this kind of liberty continues in divers parts of England to this day, and is known by the names of SOKE and foken.

SOCAGE. See SOCCAGE.

1.) SOCCAGE. n. f. [foc, French, a plough. are; foccagium, barbarous Latin.] In law is a tenure of lands for certain inferiour or husbandly Services to be performed to the lord of the fee. A. fervices due for land being knight's fervice, or page; fo that whatever is not knight's fervice, ccage. This foccage is of three kinds; a foc e of tree tenure, where a man holdeth by free ervice of twelve pence a-year for all manner of Services. Soccage of ancient tenure is of land of ancient demefne, where no writ original fhall be feed, but the writ fecundum confuetudinem manerii. Stage of bafe tenure is where thofe that hold it may have none other writ but the monftraverunt, and tach fockmen hold not by certain fervice. Corel.-The lands are not holden in chief but by a mean tenure in foccage. Bacon.

1) SOCCAGE or SOCAGE, (fays the learned Blackftone, in his Comm. vol. II.) in its moft general and extenfive fignification, denotes a tenure by any determinate fervice. In this fenfe it is by ancient writers conftantly put in oppofition to CHIVALRY OF KNIGHT-SERVICE, where the render was precarious and uncertain. The fervice mat therefore be certain, to denominate it foccages

as to hold by fealty and 20 s. rent; or by homage, fealty, and 20 s. rent; or, by homage and fealty without rent; or, by fealty and certain corporal fervices, as ploughing the lord's land for three days; or by fealty only without any other fervice; for all thefe are tenures in focage. Socage is of two forts: free focage, where the fervices are not only certain but honourable; and villein focage, where the fervices, though certain, are of a bafer nature. (See VILLENAGE.) Such as hold by the former tenure are called, in Glanvil and other fubfequent authors, by the name of liberi fokemanni, or tenants in free focage. The word is derived from the Saxon appellation foc, which fignifies liberty or privilege; and, being joined to an ufual termination, is called forage, in Latin focagium; fignifying thereby a free or privileged tenure. It feems probable that the focage tenures were the relics of Saxon liberty; retained by fuch perfons as had neither forfeited them to the king, nor been obliged to exchange their tenure for the more honourable, as it was called, but at the fame time more burthenfome, tenure of knight-fervice. This is peculiarly remarkable in the tenure which prevails in Kent, called gavelkind, which is generally acknowledged to be a ipecies of focage tenure; the preservation whereof inviolate from the innovations of the Norman conqueror is a fact univerfally known. And those who thus preferved their liberties were faid to hold in free and common focage. As therefore the grand criterion, and diftinguishing mark of this fpecies of tenure, are the having its renders or fervices afcertained, it will include un der it all other methods of holding free lands by certain and invariable rents and duties; and in particular, PETIT SERGEANTY, TENURE IN BURGAGE, and GAVELKIND. See BURGACE, GAVELKIND, and SERGEANTRY.

2;

* SOCCAGER. n. f. [from foccage.] A tenant by foccage.

SOCERGA, a town of Maritime Auftria, in Iftria; 7 miles SE. of Capo.

SOCHACZOW, a town of Poland, in Maffovia, on a rivulet, 20 miles from the Viftula.

SOCHEU, a city of China, in Chenfi, the chief military one in that province. It has a fort and a temple dedicated to a blind man, who is faid to have been one of the greateft politicians that ever appeared in China. Lon. 112. 20. E. Lat. 38. 48. N.

*SOCIABLE. adj. [ fociable, French; fociabilis, Latin.] 1. Fit to be conjoined.-Another law toucheth them as they are fociable parts united into one body. Hooker. 2. Ready to unite in a general interest.

To make man mild, and fociable to man. Cato. 3. Friendly; familiar; conversible.—

Raphael, the fociable spirit, that deign'd
To travel with Tobias.

Milton. 4. Inclin'd to company.-In children I like not any thing born before his time, as this must needs be in that fociable and expofed age. Wotton.

* SOCIABLENESS. n. f. [from fociable.] 1. Inclination to company and converse.—

Such as would call her friendship love, and feign

To fociableness a name profane.

Donne. -Th

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

INTRODUCTION.

[blocks in formation]

SOCIETY. ЕТ У.

I may appear fomewhat excentric, if not sutré, to infert the article SOCIETY, in the form of a Science. But if it be confidered, how clofely all the Arts and Sciences are connected with Society, that they are all ftudied, dilcovered, cultivated, and improved, only in confequence of the affociation of mankind in civil Society, and that in a folitary or favage ftate, they can hardly have any exiftence, the propriety of inferting this important article in a fcientific form will appear felfevident.

Nor is this the only advantage. By avoiding the trammels of alphabetical arrangement, to which, upon our ufual lexicographical plan, all our detached articles, and their various fections and fubdivifions, are uniformly fubjected, we fhail be able to lay before our readers a more regular hiftorical account of Society in general, and of the nunerous Philofophical, Literary, Religious and Humane Societies in particular, which do honour to the prefent age and nation, than we could otherwife accomplifi.

Upon this plan, therefore, the fubject falls naturally to be divided into two parts; I. Concerning the rife, progress, perfection, and declenfion of civilized Society; and II. Giving a thort account of the various public Societies for the promotion, improvement, and general diffufion, of Arts, Sciences, Religion, Morals, and Humanity.

DEFINITIONS.

SOCIETY. n. S. [focieté, Fr. foceitas, Lat.] 1. Union of many in one general intereft. If the power of one fociety extend likewife to the making of laws for another foceity, as if the church could nake laws for the ftate in temporals; or the ftate make laws binding the church, relating to fpirituals, then is that fociety entirely fubject to the other. Lefly. 2. Numbers united in one interest; community.-As the practice of piety and virtue is agreeable to our reafon, fo is it for the intereft of private perfons and publick focieties. Tillotjan. 3. Company; converse.

To make fociety
The fweeter welcome, we will keep ourfe if
Till fupper-time alone.

Shak.
Whilft I was big in clamour, came there a

man,

[blocks in formation]

SECT. I. Of the ADVANTAGES of CIVILIZED

SOCIETY and its AUTHENTIC ORIGIN.

So great are the advantages which each individual evidently derives from living in a social state ; and fo helpless does any human being appear in a folitary ftate, that we naturally conclude, that if there ever was a period at which mankind were folitary beings, that period could not be of long duration; for their averfion to folitude and love of fociety would foon induce them to enter into fo. cial union. Such is the opinion which we conceive when we compare our own condition as members of civilized and enlightened fociety with that of the brutes, or with that of favages in the earlier and ruder periods of focial life, When we hear of Indians wandering naked thro the woods, deftitute of arts, unskilled in agriculture, fcarce capable of moral diftinctions, void of all religious fentiments, or poffeffed with the moft abfurd notions concerning fuperior powers, and procuring means of fubfiftence in a manner equally precarious with that of the beaft of prey -We look down with pity on their condition, or turn from it with horror. When we view the order of cultivated fociety, and confider our inftitutious, arts, and manners-we rejoice over our duperior wisdom and happiness.

Man in a civilized fate appears a being of a fuperior

fubunior order to man in a favage ftate; yet fome fpontaneous fruits of the earth, or by fishing or Diofophers teil us, that it is only he who, having hunting. Next, they fay, man rifes to the jep. been educated in fociety, has been taught to de- herd ftate, and next to that of husbandmen, when pend upon others, that can be helplets or mifer- they turn their attention from the management of abie when placed in a folitary ftate. They view flacks to the cultivation of the ground. Next, the favage who exerts himfelf with intrepidity to thefe hufbaudmen improve their powers, and betapply his wants, or bears them with fortitude, ter their condition, by becoming artizans and as the greateft bero, and poffeffing the greatest merchants; and the beginning of this period is happiness. the boundary between barbarity and civilization.

Whatever be the fuppofed advantages of a folitury fate, certain it is that mankind, at the ear. left periods, were united in fociety. Various theanies have been formed concerning the circum farces and principles which gave rife to this union: but we have elsewhere shown, that the greater part of them are founded in error; that they appofe the original state of man to have been that of favages; and that fuch a fuppofition is contradicted by the most authentic records of antiquity. For though the records of the earlier ages are generally obfcure, fabulous, and imperfect; yet happily there is one free from the imperrections of the reft, and of undoubted authentici. ty, to which we may fafely have recourfe. (See SCRIPTURE, S. I.) This record is the Pentateuch of Moles, which prefents us with a genulae account of the origin of man and of society, perfectly confonant to what we have laid down in the article referred to. (See SAVAGISM.)

According to Moses, the firft fociety was that of a husband and wife united in the bonds of marrage: the first government that of a father and buiband, the master of his family. Men lived together under the patriarchal form of government while they employed themfeives chiefly in tending flocks and herds, Children in fuch circumftinces cannot foon rife to an equality with their parents, where a man's importance depends on his property, not on his abilities. When flocks and herds are the chief articles of property, the Fan can only obtain these from his father: in general therefore the fon must be entirely dependent on the father for the means of fubfiftence. If the parent during his life bestow on his children any part of his property, he may do it on fuch conditions as fhall make their dependence upon hem continue til the period of his death. When the community are by this event deprived of their Lead, inftead of continuing in a ftate of union, and feiecting fome one from among themfelves whom they may inveft with the authority of a parent, they feparate into fo many diftinét tribes, rach fubjected to the authority of a different lord, the mafter of the family, and the proprietor of all the flocks and herds belonging to it. Such was the fate of the firft focieties which the narrative of Mofes exhibits to our attention.

ECT. II. Of the HYPOTHESES OF PHILOSOPHERS refpe&ting an ORIGINAL STATE of SAVAGISM. THOSE philofophers who have made fociety, in its various stages between rudenefs and refine ment, the fubject of their speculations, have generally confidered mankind, in whatever region or climate of the globe, as proceeding uniformly through certain regular gradations from one extreme to the other. They regard them, firft, as gaining a precarious fubfiftence by gathering the

Thefe are the ftages, through which they who have written on the natural hiftory of fociety have generally conducted mankind from udenes to refinement: but they have overlooked the manner in which mankind were at first established on this earth; the circumftances in which the parents of the human race were originally placed; the degree of knowledge communicated to them; and the inftruction which they must have been capable of communicating to their pofterity. They rather appear to confider the inhabitants of every different region of the globe as aborigines, fpringing at first from the ground, or dropped on the fpot which they inhabit; no lefs ignorant than infants of the nature and relations of the objects around them, and of the purposes which they may accomplish by the exercife of their organs and faculties.

The abfurdity of this theory has been fully demonstrated elsewhere: (See SAVAGISM, § 1—4.) and if we receive the Mofaic account of the originai eftablishment of mankind, we shall view the phenomena of focial life in a light very different. Though many of the rudeft tribes are found in the flate of hunters or fishers; yet the hunting or fishing state cannot have been invariably the pri mary form of fociety. Notwithstanding the pow ers with which we are endowed, we are in a great meafure the creatures of circumstances. Phyfical caufes exert, though indirectly, a great influence in forming the character and directing the exertions of the human race.

MOSES informs us, that the first focieties of men iived under the patriarchal form of govern ment, and employed themselves in the cultivation of the ground and the management of Hocks. And as we know that mankind, being fubjected to the influence both of physical and moral caufes, are no lefs hable to degeneracy than capable of improvement; we may easily conceive, that though defcending all from the fame original pair, and though enlightened with much traditionary knowledge relative to the arts of life, the order of fociety, moral distinctions, and religious obligations; yet as they were gradually, and by vari ious accidents, difperfed over the earth, being removed to fituations in which the arts with which they were acquainted could but little avail them, Couraged, by the feverity or the profution of nawhere industry was overpowered, or indolence enture, they might degenerate and fall into a condition almost as humble and precarious as that of the brutal tribes.

If, then, laying afide the fpirit of theory and fyftem, we fet ourfeives to trace facts, and to litten to evidence, though our fuppofed difcoveries may be fewer, yet the knowledge we thus acquire will be more ufeful, and our fpeculations more confiftent with true philofophy,

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »