SIMON1ANS, ST SIMOOM. 



267 



;omea a priest (or artist), savant, or indvstriel, 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 Organisateur, the organs 

 of one party, and of the Revue Encyclopedique (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 or- 

 ganized, churches built, schools constituted, and the 

 hierarchy established, under Enfantin and Bazard, 

 who were entitled peres supremes (chief fathers). 

 But when the time came for the development of a 

 regular system, schisms began to appear in the so- 

 ciety. The most important of these took place in 

 November, 1831. Enfantin and Bazard were at 

 the head of two parties, Rodrignes of a third, and 

 Carnot (editor of the Revue Encyclopedique) be- 

 longed 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 the social individual. But, on this 

 principle, Enfantin declares that the moral law can 

 be revealed only by the co-operation of woman ; 

 and he, therefore, awaits the appearance of the 

 woman who shall be called to complete the couple 

 revilateur. The Globe and Organisateur are in tr/e 

 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 mili- 

 tary 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 favourite 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 as 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 re- 

 collecting 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 him- 

 self 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 JEschylus, in a poetical contest, at the 

 celebration of the victory of Marathon. During a 

 residence in Sparta, he sang the heroic death of 

 Leonidas, 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 contained in 

 Brunck's Analccta. The ancients 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, , , |, \, a, is attii- 

 buted 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 Chaldaean Magus, Simon, who, 

 according to the Acts of the Apostles, wished to 

 purchase from the apostles the communication ol 

 the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands. Simony 

 was committed in the middle ages with scandalous 

 publicity and frequency. 



SIMOOM, OR S AMIEL (that is, poison); a noxi- 

 ous, hot wind, which blows at the period of the 

 equinoxes, on the borders of Arabia, in the neigh- 

 bourhood 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 hur- 

 ried 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 howl- 

 ings, 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 immoveable 

 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 swell, and very quickly begin to put- 

 refy. The fine dust which the wind brings pene- 

 trates 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 electri- 

 city The simoom is different from the chamseen 



or khamseen, a south-west wind, which blows three 

 or four days, between July 15 and August 15, in 



