SOAP-STONESOCRATES. 



297 



in terminal and branching panicles, and the berries 

 are pendulous. 



SOAP-STONE; a species of steatite. The 

 name is derived from its colour, and from the pe- 

 culiar unctuous sensation which it imparts to the 

 feeling. See Steatite. 



SOBIESKI, JOHN. See John Sobieski. 



SOCAGE, OR SOCCAGE, in its most extensive 

 signification, seems to denote a tenure by any cer- 

 tain and determinate service. And thus old writers 

 constantly put it in opposition to tenure by knight- 

 service, which was uncertain. It is of two sorts ; 

 free socage, where the services are not only certain 

 but honourable, and villein socage, where the ser- 

 vices, though certain, are of a baser nature. 



SOCCATOO ; the present capital of the Fel- 

 latah (q. v.) dominions; lat. 13 4' 52" N. ; Ion. 

 6 12' E. Captain Clapperton says it appeared to 

 him the most populous town which he visited in 

 the interior of Africa. The inhabitants are mostly 

 Fellatahs. See Clapperton's Travels. 



SOCIAL CONTRACT. See Rousseau, Jean 

 Jacques. 



SOCIETIES, LEARNED. See Academies. 



SOCIETY ISLANDS ; a cluster of islands in 

 the South Pacific ocean, discovered by captain 

 Cook, in 1769, and lying between lat. 16 and 18 C 

 S. and Ion. 149 and 152 W. Some authorities 

 limit the name to a group composed of the six small 

 islands of Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa (Otaha), Bora- 

 bora, Tubai (Toobooai) and Maurua, giving the 

 name of Georgian islands to the group comprising 

 Tahiti (Otaheite) and Eimeo, about 'fifty leagues 

 to the south-east of the former. Tahiti, the largest 

 island of the cluster, is about 100 miles in circum- 

 ference, being upwards of thirty miles long, and 

 twenty, where widest, broad. The population, 

 estimated by Cook at 200,000, is said by Ellis not 

 to exceed, at present, 10,000 souls, which is nearly 

 half of that of the whole cluster. This great de- 

 crease of the population is probably in part owing 

 to the practice of infanticide which formerly pre- 

 vailed, and in part to the diseases introduced among 

 the islanders by the licentiousness of their European 

 visitors. The general reception of Christianity has 

 been attended by the improvement of the moral and 

 physical condition of the people, and the abolition 

 of the cruel rites and debaucheries which were pre- 

 viously practised. The soil of these islands is gene- 

 rally fertile, yielding bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bana- 

 nas, plantains, yams, jambo, arum or taro, sugar- 

 cane, &c. -The animals are swine, dogs, poultry, 

 rats, ducks, pigeons, parroquets, and a few other 

 birds. The inhabitants are described as tall and 

 well made, affable and kind in disposition, and fond 

 of music. The complexion of the islanders is olive, 

 or reddish brown ; the hair black, or dark brown, 

 and rather coarse. The language of Tahiti was the 

 first Polynesian language reduced to writing. This 

 was done by the missionaries : and there are now, 

 besides translations of the Scriptures, numerous 

 other works, printed in the native language, which 

 very nearly resembles that of the Sandwich islands. 

 A singular institution prevailing in the Society 

 islands, previous to the prevalence of Christianity, 

 was the areoi society, many of the regulations and 

 practices of which were of the most licentious and 

 shocking description. The members of the society 

 were not prohibited from marrying, but, in case 

 they had offspring, they were required to put them 

 to death. In 1797, eighteen missionaries from Eng- 

 land were settled upon this island. During fifteen 



years, they laboured with very little success. In 

 1814, the number of those who, in Tahiti, had vo- 

 luntarily renounced idolatry, and embraced Chris- 

 tianity, amounted to about fifty. Since that time, 

 the efforts of the missionaries have been attended 

 with great success, almost the whole of the inha- 

 bitants of this and the neighbouring islands having 



renounced idolatry and embraced Christianity 



See Ellis's Polynesian Researches (2 vols., 1829); 

 Barrow's Otaheite and Pitcairne s Island ; Stewart's 

 Visit to the South Seas. 



SOCINIANS. See Socinus, and Unitarians. 



SOCINUS, LJELIUS, of the respectable family of 

 the Sozzini, in Sienna, was born in 1525, and aban- 

 doned the science of jurisprudence, in which his 

 ancestors had been distinguished, and to which he 

 had himself devoted his youth, for the study of the 

 Holy Scriptures and theology. Doubts concerning 

 some of the dogmas of the Roman Catholic church 

 induced him to visit Germany and Switzerland, 

 where he became acquainted with the leading re- 

 formers. He passed nearly three years at Witten- 

 berg, and studied the Oriental languages. He like- 

 wise visited France, England and Poland, and in 

 the latter country formed connexions with other 

 individuals of similar sentiments, but taught his 

 doctrines in secret. Having become obnoxious to 

 suspicion, he averted the danger which threatened 

 him only by disguising his real sentiments. His 

 unquiet life was terminated at Zurich, in 1562 ; but 

 his opinions were adopted and promulgated by his 

 nephew Faustus, born in 1539. The latter had 

 been obliged to leave Sienna, from supicions of his 

 entertaining heretical notions, as early as in his 

 twentieth year, and had retired to Lyons. On the 

 death of his uncle, he came into possession of the 

 manuscripts of the latter, by the study of which he 

 found his former opinions confirmed. He began to 

 publish his views at Florence (where he lived seve- 

 ral years at the court of the grand-duke), in anony- 

 mous writings ; and he afterwards retired to Basle 

 to avoid the persecutions of the Italian inquisition. 

 His opinions were still more fully developed during 

 a residence in Transylvania, and in Poland he had 

 numerous adherents. The Unitarian societies in 

 that country, although they agreed with him in 

 some points of doctrine, yetxliffered so far on others, 

 that they would not receive him into their commun- 

 ion. He formed, however, some small societies of 

 followers there, but suffered persecution in that 

 country, and the confiscation of his property in 

 Italy. His death took place in Poland, in 1604. 

 See Unitarians. 



SOCK (SOCCMS); a sort of low shoe worn by the 

 Greeks, and also by the Roman women, who had 

 them highly ornamented. They were likewise worn 

 by comic actors, the buskin, or cothurnus, being 

 used in tragedy. Sock is hence often used for 

 comedy. 



SOCRATES. In the instance of this great 

 man, posterity has shown, in a striking manner, that 

 true merit does not appeal to its decisions in vain. 

 He who perished in the conflict with his own age, 

 is now venerated as a noble model of wisdom and 

 worth in thought and action, and as the true source 

 of the most valuable results in philosophy attained 

 by the noblest spirits of Greece. Socrates claims 

 our highest respect alike for the powers of his 

 highly cultivated mind, the purity of his sentiments, 

 the excellence of his instructions, the extent of his 

 influence, and the end of his godlike life. He was 

 born B. C. 470. His father, Sophroniscus, was a 



