504 



SYRINX SYSTEM OF Till. I MVERSE. 



ilso joined them. In the eleventh century, they 

 converted the Tartar tribe, whose Christian ruler 

 is known in history under the name of Prester 

 John. His people remained attached to Christi- 

 anity and the Nestorian faith, after having been re- 

 duced, in 1202, by Goings Khan, under the domi- 

 nion of the Mongols. Until the wars of Timour, 

 in the fourteenth century, there existed, also, in 

 Central and North-eastern Asia, Nestorian com- 

 munities. The Nestorians are believed to have 

 carried Christianity even to China, as has been con- 

 cluded from a Christian document of the year 781, 

 found in China; and the connexion of Lamaism 

 with Christianity has also been explained by the 

 influence of Nestorian missions. The chiefs of the 

 Syrian Christians are hereditary patriarchs. The 

 principal one among them resided, in the fifth cen- 

 tury, in Babylon; at present, he resides at Elkesh, 

 near Mosul, in Mesopotamia, and has the title 

 Catholicos. Under him are five bishoprics. He, 

 and another Nestorian patriarch at Diarbekir, in 

 Syria, acknowledge, at present, the supremacy of 

 the pope, and are, with their flocks, united Nesto- 

 rians, who, like the united Greeks, have retained 

 their old rites. They have only been obliged to 

 renounce the marriage of the priests, and to adopt 

 the seven sacraments. The doctrine and worship 

 of the Nestorians agree perfectly with those of the 

 orthodox Greek church, except that they are hostile 

 to pictures in the churches, where they allow no 

 image but that of the cross to be seen. The Sy- 

 rian patriarch at Giulamork, in the high mountains 

 of Acaria, and the bishops and dioceses under him, 

 do not belong to the united Nestorians. The Sy- 

 rian language is a Semitic dialect, and important 

 for the study of Hebrew. The study of it was 

 first scientifically pursued by Michaelis, the father, 

 then by his son, in 1748, afterwards by the Swede 

 Agrell, and, since that time, particularly by A. 

 Theoph. Hoffmann at Jena (Grammatica Syriaca, 

 Halle, 1827, 4to.). 



SYRINX ; a Naiad, daughter of the river Ladon, 

 in Arcadia. Flying from the pursuit of Pan, she 

 was arrested in her course by the waters of the La- 

 don, and calling upon her sisters for aid, was 

 changed by them into a reed. The wind sighing 

 through it produced sweet sounds, which charmed 

 the god, who made himself a pipe from the reed, 

 and called it syrinx. The syrinx was composed of 

 seven pieces of reed, of unequal length, joined to- 

 gether with wax, and was the favourite instrument 

 of the Greek and Latin shepherds. 



SYRTES ; two large sand banks in the Medi- 

 terranean, on the coast of Africa, one of which was 

 near Leptis, and the other near Carthage. The 

 Syrtis Minor, or Lesser Syrtis, is in the south-east 

 part cf Tunis ; and the Syrtis Major (now Sidra) 

 in the eastern part of Tripoli. 



SYRUPS are viscous liquids, in the composition 

 of which are commonly put two parts of sugar to 

 one of some liquid. Generally, water, charged with 

 the remedial principles of plants, is used in the 

 preparation of syrups. The process, varied accord- 

 ing to the nature of the remedies employed, may 

 be conducted with or without heat. These pre- 

 parations are likewise simple or compound. 



SYSTEM (Greek, <,?*?*, a putting together); 

 an assemblage of facts, or of principles and con- 

 clusions scientifically arranged, or disposed accord- 

 ing to certain mutual relations, so as to form a 

 complete whole. The object of science is to col- 

 lect the fragmentary knowledge which we possess, 



on any subject, into a system, classifying natural 

 objects into orders, genera and species, accord- 

 ing to their peculiar properties, or distribut- 

 iniT them according to their powers and reciprocal 

 relations, and arranging maxims, rules, facts :md 

 theories into anorganic, living body. (See Method.) 

 System is, therefore, sometimes nearly synonymous 

 with classification, and sometimes with hypothesis, 

 or theory. Thus we speak of a mythological system, 

 or a chronological system, in the historical sciences, 

 of a botanical system, or a mineralogical system, in 

 natural science, &c. So in astronomy the solar or 

 planetary system signifies that collection of heavenly 

 bodies which revolve around the sun as a common 

 centre, and the Copemican, Ptolemaic or Tychnnii: 

 system, the hypothesis by which each of those phi- 

 losophers respectively explained their position and 

 motions. The purpose of a system is to classify 

 the individual subjects of our knowledge in such a 

 way as to enable us readily to retain and employ 

 them, and at the same time to illustrate each by 

 showing its connexion with all; and although it 

 may appear that a mere arrangement of facts already 

 possessed, implies no addition to our former know- 

 ledge, yet it is/nevertheless, true that a simple and 

 judicious classification may suggest new views and 

 point out new relations of things. The constitu- 

 ent parts of a system are a fundamental principle, 

 which serves as a basis for the whole, and a large 

 collection of facts, from which the various laws are 

 to be deduced, which themselves all flow together 

 into the common principle. 



SYSTEM, in music. See Tone. 



SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE; a certain 

 arrangement of the several parts of the universe, 

 fixed stars, planets and comets, by which their ap. 

 pearances and motions are explained. We know 

 little of the universe by actual inspection : its in- 

 finity escapes the grasp of our limited vision ; but 

 reasoning leads us to conclusions beyond the reach 

 of sense. (See Astronomy.) We first become ac- 

 quainted with our own globe, and with the other 

 planets revolving with it round the sun, by obser- 

 vation; and from this little corner of the universe 

 we draw our inferences as to the rest. In our own 

 system, we see the sun forming a fixed centre, 

 about which the earth and the other planets, with 

 their moons, regularly revolve. Our earth we know 

 to be the residence of organized, sensitive and think- 

 ing beings : observation teaches us that the other 

 planets of the solar system resemble the earth in 

 many respects; and we therefore conclude that they 

 are the residences of sensitive and rational beings. 

 Further observation makes it probable that the 

 fixed stars are bodies like our sun, since they shine 

 by their own light, and never change their relative 

 positions. From this we are led to conjecture that 

 each of them has its train of planets like our earth, 

 and that there are as many solar systems as fixed 

 stars. Then, as observation proves to us, that all 

 the bodies of our system are mutually related to 

 each other, we may conjecture that the different 

 solar systems are not entirely disconnected with 

 each other. Wherever we turn our eyes, we see 

 connexion, order and stability; and we suppose 

 these laws to embrace the whole universe, which 

 thus forms a harmoniously framed whole. New 

 observations confirm our reasonings on this point : 

 they teach us that the fixed stars, which were for- 

 merly considered absolutely stationary, have a com- 

 mon motion, which becomes perceptible only in 

 long periods ; and we are led to the hypothesis 



