S I M 
S I M 
S I N 
674 
tudes i assailing sucii travellers as pass | 
through J.lu:ir haunts with an minute number 
of sportive and mischievous gambols ; chat- 
tering and throwing down dry sticks, swing- 
ing by their tails from the boughs, and endea- 
vouring to intimidate the passengers by a va- 
riety of menacing gestures. 
SIMILAR, in arithmetic and geometry, | 
the same with like. In mathematics, similar 
parts have the same ratio to their wholes; 
and it the wholes have l tie same ratio to the 
parts, the parts are similar. Similar angles 
are also equal angles; In solid angles, when 
the planes under which they are contained 
are equal, both in number and magnitude, 
and are disposed in the same order, they are 
similar, and consequently equal. Similar 
arches of a circle are such as are like parts of 
their whole circumferences, and consequently 
equal. Similar plane numbers are those 
numbers which may be ranged into the form 
fef similar rectangles, that is, into rectangles 
whose sides are proportional; such are 12 
and 48, for the sides of 12 are 6 and 2, and 
the sides of 48 are 12 and 4 ; but 6:2:: 12 
: 4, and therefore those numbers are similar. 
Similar polygons are such as have their angles 
severally equal, and the sides about those 
angles proportional. Similar rectangles are 
those which have their sides about the equal 
angles proportional. Hence, 1. All squares 
are similar rectangles. 2. All similar rect- 
angles are to each other as the squares of 
their homologous sides. Similar right-jined 
figures are such as -have equal angles, and 
the sides about those equal angles propor- 
tional. Similar segments of a circle are such 
as contain equal angles. Similar curves: two 
segments of two curves are called similar, if, 
any right-lined ligure being inscribed within 
one of them, we can inscribe always a similar 
fight-lined ligure in the other. Similar conic 
sections: two couic sections are said to be 
similar, when any segment being taken in the 
one, we can assign always a similar segment 
in the other. Similar diameters of two conic 
sections: the diameters in two conic sections 
are said to be similar, when they make the 
same angles with their ordinates. Similar 
solids are such as are contained under equal 
numbers of similar planes al^ke situated. 
Similar triangles are such as have Iheir three 
angles respectively equal to one another. 
Ii ence, 1. All similar triangles have the sides 
about their angles proportional. 2. All si- 
milar triangles are to one another as the 
squares of their homologous sides. 
Similar Figures, in geometry, such as 
have their angles respectively equal, and the 
^ides about the equal angles proportional. 
SfMONIANS, in church history, a sect 
©f antient Christians, so called from Iheir 
founder, Simon Magus, or the magician. 
The heresies of Simon Magus were princi- 
pally his pretending to be the great power of 
God, and thinking that the gifts of the Holy 
Ghost were venal. 
SIMONY, is the corrupt presentation of 
any one to an ecclesiastical benefice,, for mo- 
ney, gift, reward, or benefit. 
By one of the canons of 1603, every person 
before his admission to any ecclesiastical pro- 
motion, shall, before the ordinary, take an 
oath, that he has made no simoniacal con- 
tract, promise, or payment, directly or indi- 
rectly, by himself or any other, for the ob- 
taining of the said promotion ; and that he will 
not afterwards perform or satisfy any such 
kind of payment, contract, or promise, by 
any other without his knowledge or consent, 
To purchase a presentation, the living being 
actually vacant, is open and notorious simo- 
ny; this being expressly in the face of the 
statute. Moor. 01 4. 
The sale of an advowson, during a vacan- 
cy, is not within the statute of simony, as 
the sale of the next presentation is ; but it is 
void by the common law. 2 Black. 22. 
A bond of resignation is a bond 'given by 
the person intended to be presented to a be- 
nefice, with condition to resign the same, and 
is special or general. The condition of a 
special one is to resign the heneiice in favour 
ofsome certain person, as a son, kinsman, or 
friend of the patron, when he shall be capable 
of taking the same. By a general bond, the 
incumbent is bound to resign on the request 
of the patron. 4 Bac. Abr. 470. 
A bond with condition to resign within 
three months after being requested, to the in- 
tent that the patron might present his son 
when be should be capable, was held good ; 
and the judgment was affirmed in the exche- 
quer-chamber ; for a man may, without 
any colour of simony, bind himself for good 
reasons, as if he takes a second benefice, or 
if he is non-resident, or that the patron pre- 
sents Iris son, to resign ; but if the condition 
had been to let the patron have a lease of the 
glebe or tithes, or to pay a sum of money, it 
would have been simoniacal. 
SIMOOM. A wind or haze was observed 
by Mr. Bruce, in the course of his travels to 
discover the sources of the Nile, which is 
supposed to be in some respects analogous 
to the sirocco. It is called by Mr. Bruce 
the simoom, and from its effects upon the 
lungs, we can entertain but littie doubt, that 
it consists chiefly of carbonic acid gas in a 
very dense state, and perhaps mixed with 
some other noxious exhalations. 
In the same desert Mr. Bruce observed the 
astonishing phenomenon of moving pillars of 
sand, which are probably the effects of a 
number of whirlwinds in those torrid regions. 
As the description of these pillars is in some 
degree blended with that of the simoom, 
we shall extract the passage. Jn relating 
the particdlars of his journey across a certain 
part of the deserts of Africa, Mr. Bruce ob- 
serves, “ We were here at once surprised 
and terrified by a sight surely one of the most 
magnificent in the world. In that vast ex- 
panse of desert, from west and to the north- 
west of us, we saw a number of prodigious 
pillars of sand at different, distances, at times 
moving with great celerity, and at others 
stalking on with a majestic slowness ; at inter- 
vals we thought they were coming, in a verv 
fewjjninutes to overwhelm us ; and small 
quamities of sand did actually more than 
once reach 11 s. Again they would retreat so 
as to be almost out of sight, their tops reach- 
ing to the very clouds. There the tops often 
separated from the bodies ; and these, once 
disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not 
appear more. Sometimes they were broken 
near the middle, as if struck with a large can- 
non-shot. About noon they began to ad- 
vance with considerable swiftness upon us, 
the wind being very strong at north. Eleven 
of them ranged alongside of us about the 
distance of three miles. The greatest dia- 
meter of the largest appeared to me at that 
distance as if it would measure ten feet. '\ hey 
retired from us with a wind at south-east* 
leaving an impression upon my mind to which 
I can give no name, though surely one ingre- 
dient in it was fear, with a considerable deal 
of wonder and astonishment It was in vain 
to think of flying ; tne swiftest horse, or 
fastest-sailing ship, could be ot no use to carry 
us out of this danger ; and the full persuasion 
of this ri vetted me as if to the spot where £ 
stood, and let the camels gain on me so much 
in my state of lameness, that it was with some 
difficulty I could overtake them.” 
SIMPLE, in music, a term applied to that 
counterpoint in which note is set against note* 
and which is called simple, in opposition to 
more elaborate composition, known by the 
name of figurative counterpoint. Simple 
fugue, or simple imitation, is that style of 
composition in which a single subject is adopt- 
ed, or some partial echo preserved amongst 
the several parts. This word in the music 
of the last age is frequently used in contradis- 
tinction to double, applied to variations, as 
double 1, double 2, &c. and signifies the plain 
motivo, or subject, on which the variations 
are founded. Simple cadence is that in which 
the notes are equal through all the parts. 
Simple concords are those wherein we heap 
only two notes in consonance ; and simple 
intervals are those in which no parts or divi- 
sions are supposed, and which the undents- 
Greeks called diastems. 
Simple Sound, a pure, unmixed, single 
sound. Some theorists will not allow that 
there is, musically speaking, any such sound 
in nature; but assert on the contrary that, 
every sound which is produced is at least ac- 
companied with its twelfth and seventeenth. 
Simple, in pharmacy, a general name 
given to all herbs or plants, as having each 
its particular virtue, whereby it becomes a 
simple remedy. 
Simple Substances. See Elements. 
SIMPLICITY , in composition, a natural 
unadorned melody, or incomplex combina- 
tion of parts, in which the composer endea- 
vours, rather by the force of his genius and 
feeling than the refinement of science, to 
awaken the softer passions, or rouse the mind 
to ardour. In performance, simplicity is that 
chaste, unaffected style, which, rejecting all 
vain and unmeaning flourish, only aims at 
conveying the ideas of the composer, without 
disturbing the purity of the text. 
SINAPIS, mustard, a genus of plants be- 
longing to the class of tetradynamia, and to 
the order of siliquosa, and in the natural sys- 
tem ranged under the 39th order, siliquosa’. 
The calyx consists of four expanding strap- 
shaped deciduous leaves ; the ungues or bases 
of the petals are straight; two glandules be- 
tween the shorter stamina and pistillum, also 
between the longer and the calyx. There are 
19 species, three of them natives of Britain. 
1. The alba, or white mustard, which is ge- 
nerally cultivated as a salad-herb for winter 
and spring use. 2. The nigra, or common 
mustard, which is frequently found growing 
naturally in many parts of Britain, but is also 
cultivated in fields for the seeds, of which the 
sauce called mustard is made. 3. The ar- 
vensis grows naturally on arable land in many 
parts of Britain. The seed of this is com- 
monly sold under the title of Durham mus- 
tard seed-. Of this there are two varieties, 
