s o c 



SOD 



iiot attend, at once, to all the affairs of the univerfe ? Such 

 15 the nature of the Divinity, that he fees all things, hears all 

 things, is every where prefent, and conltantly fupcriiitends 

 all events." Again : " He who difpofes and directs the 

 univerfe, who is tlie fource of all that is fair and good, who, 

 annidd fucceffive changes, preferves the courfe of nature un- 

 impaired, and to whofe laws all beings are fubjeft, tliis Su- 

 preme Deity, though himfelf iavifible, is manifeiUy feen in 

 his magnificent operations. Learn, then, from the things 

 ^vhich are produced, to infer the exiftence of an invifible 

 power, and to reverence the Divinity." 



Befides the one Supreme Deity, Socrates admitted the 

 exigence of beings who pofiefs a middle ftation between God 

 and man, to whofe immediate agency he afcrlbed the ordi- 

 nary phenomena of nature, and whom he fuppofed to be par- 

 ticularly concerned in the management of human affairs. 

 f"lence, fpeaking of the gods, who take care of men, he fays, 

 " Let it fulfice you, whillt you obferve their works, to 

 revere and honour the gods : and be perfuaded, that this is 

 tlie way in which they makethemfelves known ; for, among 

 nil the gods, who beltow bleffings upon men, there are none 

 who, in the diltribution of their favours, make themfelves 

 vilible to mortals." Hence, he fpoke of thunder, wind, and 

 other agents in nature, as fervants of God, and encouraged 

 the praftice of divination, under the notion, that the gods 

 lometimes dilcover future events to good men. 



Concerning the human foul, the opinion of Socrates, ac- 

 cording to Xenophon, was, that it i? allied to the divine 

 being, not by a participation of eflence, but by a fimilarity 

 of nature ; that man excels all other animals in the faculty 

 of reafon ; and that the exiftence of good men will be con- 

 tinued after death, in a ftate in which they will receive the 

 reward of their virtue. Although it appears that, on this 

 latter topic, Socrates was not wholly free from uncertainty, 

 the confolation which he profefledto derive from this fource 

 in the immediate profpcft of death, leaves little room to 

 doubt, that he entertained a real belief and expcftation of 

 immortality. The dodiine which Cicero afcribes to So- 

 crates, on this head, is, that the human foul is a divine prin- 

 ciple, which, when it paffes out of the body, returns to hea- 

 ven ; and that this pallage is moll eafy to thofe who have, in 

 tliis life, made the greateft progrefs in virtue. 



The fyltem of morality which Socrates made it the bufi- 

 nefs of his life to teach, was raifed upon the firm bafis of 

 religion. The firft principles of virtuous conduft, which 

 arc common to all mankind, are, according to this excellent 

 inoraliit, laws of God : and the conclufive argument by 

 which he fupports this opinion is, that no man departs from 

 thefe principles with impunity. " It is frequently polTible," 

 lays he, " for men to fcreen themfelves from the penalty of 

 human laws, but no man can be unjull, or ungrateful, with- 

 out fuft'eriiig for his crime : hence, I conclude, that thcfe 

 laws mull have proceeded from a more excellent legiflator 

 than man." Socrates taught, that true felicity is not to be 

 derived from external policinoiis, but from wifdom, which 

 confills in the knowled[re and prattice of virtue ; that the 

 cultivation of virtuous manners is necedarily attended with 

 plcafure, as well as profit ; that the honeft man alone 

 is happy ; and that it is abfurd to attempt to fcparate 

 things, which are in nature fo clofely united as virtue and 

 interell. 



But it is impoflible, fays the author whom we are citing, 

 in detached fentences, to give the reader any tolerable idea 

 of the moral doftrines of Socrates. We mud tliereforc 

 refer him, on this head, to that valuable trcafurc of ancient 

 wifdom, the '-Memorabilia" of Socrates ; a work in which he 

 will find his original converfations on many iDtcrelking tofics, 



related with that beautiful fimplicity, which dilkinguilhes the 

 writings of Xenophon. 



The followers of Socrates may be divided into three clafles. 

 The firit clafs conlifts of fuch as were neither philofophervs 

 by profeflion, nor addided to the ftudy of philofophy, but 

 attended upon Socrates as a moral preceptor, for the pur- 

 pofe of corrcfting and improving their manners. Among 

 thefe were feveral young men of the firft rank in Athens, 

 particularly Alcibiades and Critias. In this clafs may alfo 

 be placed the poets Euenes and Euripides, and the orators 

 Lyfias and Ifocrates. The fccond clafs included all thofe 

 who, after his death, became founders of particular fefts, 

 and, though they diff^ered from each other greatly, were 

 united under the general appellation of Socratic philofophers. 

 Thefe were Ariftippus, the founder of the Cyrenaic left ; 

 Phsdo, of the Eliac ; Euclid, of the Megaric ; Plato, of 

 the Academic ; and Antifthenes, of the Cynic. The third 

 clafs comprehends thofe difciples of Socrates, who, though 

 their names are found in the catalogue of philofopher:;, did 

 not inlUtute any new fedt. The molt diftinguifhed difciples 

 of the Socratic fchool are Xenophon, ^Ichines, Simon, and 

 Cebes ; for an account of whom, fee their reipeftive arti- 

 cles. Brucker's Hill, of Phil, by Enfield, vol. i. 



SOCRATIS Insula, in Ancient Geography^ an ifland of 

 the Arabic gulf, on the coaft of Arabia Fehx. Ptolemy. 



SOCUNDA, a town of Hyrcania, according to Ammi- 

 anus Marcellinus, named Socanaa by Ptolemy, who places 

 it on the coaft of the Cafpian fea, between the mouths of the 

 rivers Maxera and Oxus. 



SOD, in y^griculture, a portion of turf or fward, cut or 

 dug up. It alfo fignifies the foil or earth. The fquare 

 pieces of furface-turf and earth that are cut up in forming 

 embankments and earth-fences are likewife termed fods, and 

 require nice cutting, fo as to be exaftly. joined in perform- 

 ing the works. Sods are ufeful too in fome other opera- 

 tions of the rural kind. 



Sim-Burning, the praftice of paring oft' the fward or 

 mofty furface of the land. It is obferved by Mr. Marftiall, 

 in the Rural Economy of Weft Devonlhire, that the molt 

 noticeable particular of management in the foil procefs of 

 that diftridl, is that of " burning beat," as it is provincially 

 termed ; anfwering to the paring and burning, or more 

 technically, fod-burning, of other diftrids ; and that this 

 operation in agriculture has been praftifed, in this weftern 

 part of the ifland, from time beyond which memory or tra- 

 dition reaches. It has, he conceives, probably been imported 

 from the oppofite (liore of the continent. And in an old traft, 

 which he faw fome years ago in the Bntifti Muieum, this 

 operation is termed Devonjhiring, and it is to this day called 

 Denfliiringi in different diftrifls of the kingdom. He alfo fur- 

 ther ftatcs, that there are at prefent three dillmft niethods of 

 fcparating the fward or fod, provincially the " fpine," from 

 the foil. The one is performed with a " beating- axe,'* 

 namely, a large adze, fome five or iix inches wide, and teu 

 or twelve inches long, crooked, ami foniewhat hollow, or 

 ilijling. With this, "which was probably the oriirinal iiiftru- 

 ment employed in the operation, large chips, (havings, or 

 fods, are llruek oft'. It is ftill uf-d in rough uneven grounds, 

 efpccially where furze, or the ilubs of bruftiwood abound. 

 In ufing it, the workman appears to the eye of a ftrauger, 

 at fome diftance, to be beating the furface as with a beetle, 

 rather than to be chipping oft the fward with an edged tool. 

 This operation is provincially termed " hand-beating." 

 The next iiiftrument in ufe is, he fays, the fpade, re- 

 fembling the paring fpade, or breall-plough ot other dii- 

 trifts ; with, liowevcr, in fome inllanccs at leaft, a notable 

 addition, namely, a mould-board, fixed in fuch a manner ae 



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