Part 409 (2/2)
but doubt being cast on their authenticity, they were eventually placed in the a.r.s.enal of Agra.
SOMNATH, IDOL OF, ”a mere ma.s.s of coa.r.s.e crockery,” says Jepherson Brick, an imaginary friend of Carlyle's, ”not worth five s.h.i.+llings, sat like a great staring G.o.d, with two diamonds for eyes, which one day a commander of the Faithful took the liberty to smite once as he rode up with grim battle-axe and heart full of Moslem fire, and which thereupon s.h.i.+vered into a heap of ugly potsherds, yielding from its belly half a waggon-load of gold coins; the gold coins, diamond eyes, and other valuables were carefully picked up by the Faithful; confused jingle of potsherds was left lying; and the idol of Somnath, once showing what it _was_, had suddenly come to a conclusion.”
SOMNUS, the G.o.d of Sleep, a brother of Death, and a son of Night, represented, he and Death, as two youths sleeping or holding inverted torches in their hands; near the dwelling of Somnus flowed the river of Lethe, which crept along over pebbles, and invited to sleep; he was attended by Morpheus, who inspired pleasing dreams.
SONATA, a musical composition chiefly designed for solo instruments, especially the pianoforte, and consisting generally of three or four contrasted movements--the allegro, adagio, rondo, minuetto or scherzo; reaches its n.o.blest expression in the sonatas of Beethoven.
SONDERBUND, the name given to the union of the Catholic cantons (Lucerne, Zug, Freiburg, and Valais) of Switzerland, which led to the civil disturbances of 1845-1846, and the war of 1847.
SONNET, a form of poetical composition invented in the 13th century, consisting of 14 decasyllabic or hendecasyllabic iambic lines, rhymed according to two well-established schemes which bear the names of their two most famous exponents, Shakespeare and Petrarch. The Shakespearian sonnet consists of three four-lined stanzas of alternate rhymes clinched by a concluding couplet; the Petrarchan of two parts, an octave, the first eight lines rhymed abbaabba, and a sestet, the concluding six lines arranged variously on a three-rhyme scheme.
SONS OF THE PROPHETS. See NEBIIM.
SONTAG, HENRIETTA, a German singer, born at Coblenz; made her _debut_ at 15; had a brilliant career twice over (1806-1854).
SOOCHOO (500), a large city in China, 50 m. NW. of Shanghai; is intersected by ca.n.a.ls, walled all round, and manufactures fine silk.
SOPHERIM, THE, the name by which the SCRIBES (q. v.) are designated in Jewish literature.
SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER, youngest daughter of ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA (q. v.), and mother of George I. (1630-1714).
SOPHIA, ST., the personification of the Divine wisdom, to whom, as to a saint, many churches have been dedicated, especially the Church of Constantinople.
SOPHIE CHARLOTTE, wife of Friedrich I. of Prussia, born in Hanover, daughter of Electress Sophia; famous in her day both as a lady and a queen; was, with her mother, of a philosophic turn; ”persuaded,” says Carlyle, ”that there was some n.o.bleness for man beyond what the tailor imparts to him, and even very eager to discover it had she known how”; she had the philosopher Leibnitz often with her, ”eagerly desirous to draw water from that deep well--a wet rope with cobwebs sticking to it often all she got--endless rope, and the bucket never coming to view”
(1668-1705).
SOPHISTS, a sect of thinkers that arose in Greece, and whose radical principle it was that we have only a subjective knowledge of things, and that we have no knowledge at all of objective reality, that things are as they seem to us, and that we have no knowledge of what they are in themselves; ”on this field,” says SCHWEGLER, ”they disported, enjoying with boyish exuberance the exercise of the power of subjectivity, and destroying, by means of a subjective dialectic, all that had been ever objectively established,” such as ”the laws of the State, inherited custom, religious tradition, and popular belief.... They form, in short, the German AUFKLaRUNG (q. v.), the Greek Illumination (q. v.). They acknowledged only _private_ judgment and ignored the existence of a judgment that is not private, and has absolute rights irrespective of the sentiments of the individual.”
SOPHOCLES, Athenian tragic poet, born at Colonos, a suburb of Athens; when but 16, such was his musical talent, he was selected to lead the choir that sang the song of triumph over the victory of Salamis; his first appearance as a dramatist was in 488 B.C., when he had aeschylus as his rival and won the prize, though he was seven years afterwards defeated by Euripides, but retrieved the defeat the year following by the production of his ”Antigone.” That same year one of the 10 _strategi_ (or generals) and he accompanied Pericles in his war against the aristocrats of Samos. He wrote a number of dramas, over 100 it is alleged, but only 7 survive, and these in probable order are ”Ajax,” ”Antigone,” ”Electra,”
”Oedipus Tyrannus,” ”Trachineae,” ”Oedipus Coloneus,” and ”Philoctetes.”
Thus are all his subjects drawn from Greek legend, and they are all alike remarkable for the intense humanity and sublime pa.s.sion that inspires them and the humane and the high and holy resolves they stir up.
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