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SOUND SOUTH AMERICA. 



the state of the soul before its union with the 

 body ? and what will it be after death ? It was a 

 noble conception of this philosopher, that the soul, 

 before its temporal existence, was imbued with the 

 pure ideas of truth, beauty, and virtue (Platonic 

 prctexistence), which, though impaired in this world 

 of sensible phenomena, still remain in a degree, and 

 may be freed by effort from the influence of dis- 

 turbing causes. As the ideas of truth, beauty, and 

 virtue are infinite, and each of them forms a charac- 

 teristic of the human soul, and strives to elevate it 

 above every thing finite and concrete, we may con- 

 clude that the soul itself must be infinite. But 

 connected with the quality of infinity are those of 

 immateriality, freedom, and immortality. The 

 original faculties of the soul afford further assurance 

 of its elevated nature. Conscience, faith, the deep 

 longing for a higher good, seem inconsistent with a 

 finite nature. The Stoics and Plato conceive the 

 soul to partake both of a material, or sensual, and 

 an intellectual, or rational nature. 



SOUND. See Acoustics, and Ear. 



SOUND (properly Oresound, or Oeresound) ; 

 the strait between the Danish of Zealand and the 

 Swedish province of Schonen, which forms the 

 usual passage from the North sea into the Baltic. 

 The narrowest part, at Elsinore, is about 2J miles 

 wide, and is commanded by the Danish fortress of 

 Cronburg on Zeeland. The crown of Denmark 

 has, from time immemorial, commanded not only 

 the passage through the sound, but also through 

 the two other straits connecting the North sea and 

 the Baltic, the Great and Little Belt, and imposes 

 a toll upon all vessels passing in and out, which is 

 paid at Elsinore. French, British, Dutch and 

 Swedish vessels pay one per cent, on the value of 

 their cargoes; those of other nations, and even 

 Danish vessels, pay 1^ per cent. The Dutch ships 

 are only required to show their papers ; other ships 

 must submit to a search. The annual amount of 

 this toll is about 135,000. The number of ships, 

 up and down, in 1827, was 13,016; of which 5199 

 were British. 



SOUNDING; the operation of trying the depth 

 of the water, and the quality of the ground, by 

 means of a plummet sunk from a ship to the bot- 

 tom. Two plummets are used, one called the 

 hand lead, weighing about eight or nine pounds; 

 and the other, the deep-sea lead, weighing from 

 twenty-five to thirty pounds : both are shaped like 

 the frustum of a cone or pyramid. The former is 

 used in shallow waters, and the latter at a great 

 distance from the shore, particularly on approaching 

 the land after a sea-voyage. The lines employed 

 are called the deep-sea lead and the hand-lead line. 

 The hand-lead line, which is generally twenty 

 fathoms in length, is marked at every two or three 

 fathoms, so that the depth of water may be ascer- 

 tained either in the day or night. Sounding with 

 the hand lead, called heaving the lead by seamen, is 

 generally performed by a man who stands in the 

 main-chains, to windward. Having the line all 

 ready to run out without interruption, he holds it 

 nearly at the distance of a fathom from the plum- 

 met, and having swung the latter backwards and 

 forwards three or four times, in order to acquire 

 the greater velocity, he swings it round his head, 

 and thence as far forward as is necessary ; so that, 

 by the lead's sinking while the ship advances, the 

 line may be almost perpendicular wUen it reaches 

 the bottom. The deep-sea lead is marked with 

 two knots at twenty fathoms, three at forty, four 



at fifty, and so on to the end. It is also marked 

 with a single knot in the middle of each interval, 

 as at twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five fathoms, &c. 

 To use this lead more effectually at sea, or in 

 deep water on the sea-coast, it is usual previously 

 to bring to the ship, in order to retard her course; 

 the lead is then thrown as far as possible from the 

 ship on the line of her drift, so that, as it sinks, the 

 ship drives more perpendicularly over it. In sound- 

 ings implies the being so near the land, that a deep- 

 sea lead will attain the bottom, which is seldom 

 practicable in the ocean. Soundings is also a name 

 given to the specimen of the ground : a piece of 

 tallow, being stuck upon tfoe base of the deep-sea 

 lead, brings up distinguishing marks of the bottom, 

 as sand, shells, ooze, &c., which adhere to it. The 

 soundings, i. e. the depth of the water and the na- 

 ture of the ground, are carefully marked in the log- 

 book, as well to determine the distance of the place 

 from the shore, as to correct the observations of 

 former pilots. 



SOUP; a kind of pottage, made of bread, broth, 

 or the juice of flesh, with various other ingredients. 

 Portable soup is a kind of cake, formed of con- 

 centrated broth, which, being freed from all fat, 

 and, by long boiling, having the most putrescent 

 parts of the meat evaporated, is reduced to the con- 

 sistence of glue, and will keep sound for many years. 

 In long voyages, this has been found to be a most 

 valuable article of food. 



SOUR GUM. See Tupelo. 



SOUTH, ROBERT, a celebrated divine of the 

 church of England, the son of a London merchant, 

 was born at Hackney, in 1633, and educated at 

 Westminster school and Christ-church, Oxford. In 

 1654, he addressed a copy of Latin verses to Crom- 

 well, on the conclusion of peace with the Dutch ; 

 and the following year produced a poem entitled 

 Musica Incantans. In 1660, he was chosen public 

 orator of the university of Oxford; and soon after 

 was nominated domestic chaplain to lord Clarendon, 

 then lord chancellor. In 1663, he became a pre- 

 bendary of Westminster, was admitted D.D., and 

 obtained a living in Wales. On the disgrace of his 

 patron, he was made chaplain to the duke of York. 

 In 1670, he was installed canon of Christ-church; 

 and, in 1676, he went to Poland, as chaplain to the 

 English ambassador, Lawrence Hyde. On his re- 

 turn home in 1678, he was presented to the rectory 

 of Islip, in Oxfordshire. In the latter part of the 

 seventeenth century, Doctor South commenced a 

 controversy with Doctor Sherlock, relative to the 

 doctrine of the Trinity. Both disputants professed 

 to be orthodox sons of the church, their difference 

 relating to the mode of explaining the doctrine in 

 question. Doctor South died in 1716. He pos- 

 sessed an abundant share of wit and humour, which 

 he not unfrequently displayed in his most serious 

 compositions. His Sermons, which have been 

 much admired, were published in 11 vols., 8vo. He 

 also wrote an account of his journey to Poland, and 

 other works. 



SOUTH AMERICA; the southern half of the 

 new world, forms a triangle, extending from lat. 

 12 N. to 52 30', or, including the archipelago of 

 Terra del Fuego, to 55 58' S., and from 35 to 

 80 W. Ion. It is connected by the isthmus of 

 Panama with North America. Its extreme length 

 from the gulf of Maracaybo to the straits of Magel- 

 lan is 4600 miles; its greatest breadth from cape 

 St Roque to cape Blanco, in lat. 4 S., 3500; su- 

 perficial area, about 7,400,000 square miles. (See 



