when, being desirous of penetrating farther into the true sense of the Scriptures, he studied Greek, Hebrew, and even Arabic. In 1547 he left Italy to converse with the Protestants; and spent four years in travelling through France, England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, and at length settled at Zurich. He thus became acquainted with the most learned men of his time, who testified by their letters the esteem they had for him; but, as he discovered to them his doubts, he was greatly suspected of heresy. He, how ever, conducted himself with such prudence, that he lived among the capital enemies of his opinions, without receiving any injury, and he met with some disciples, who heard his instructions with respect these were Italians who left their native country on account of religion, and wandered about in Germany and Poland. He communicated likewise his sentiments to his relations by his writings, which he caused to be conveyed to them at Sienna. He died at Zurich in 1562. Those who were of sentiments opposite to his, and were personally acquainted with him, confess that his outward behaviour was blameless. He wrote a Paraphrase on the first chapter of St. John; and other works are ascribed to him. SOCINUS (Faustus), nephew of the preceding, and principal founder of the Socinian sect, was born at Sienna in 1539. The letters which his uncle Lælius wrote to his relations, and which infused into them many seeds of heresy, made an impression upon him; so that he fled as well as the rest, when the inquisition began to persecute that family. He was at Lyons when he heard of his uncle's death, and departed immediately to take possession of his writings. He returned to Tuscany, and made himself so agreeable to the grand duke, that the charms which he found in that court, and the honorable posts he filled there, hindered him for twelve years from putting the last hand to the system of divinity of which his uncle Lælius had made a rough draught. At last he went into Germany, in 1574, and paid no regard to the grand duke's advices to return. He staid three years at Basil, and studied divinity there; and, having adopted a set of principles very different from that of Protestants, he resolved to maintain and propagate them; for which purpose he wrote a treatise De Iesu Christo Servatore. In 1579 Socinus retired into Poland, and desired to be admitted into the communion of the Unitarians; but, as he differed from them in some points, he met with a repulse. How ever, he did not cease to write in defence of their churches against those who attacked them. At length his book against James Paleologus furnished his enemies with a pretence to exasperate the king of Poland against him; but, though the mere reading of it was sufficient to refute his accusers, Socinus left Cracow, after having resided there four years. He then lived under the protection of several Polish lords, and married a lady of a good family; but her death, which happened in 1587, so deeply afflicted him as to injure his health; and, to complete his sorrow, was deprived of his patrimony by the death of Francis de Medicis grand duke of Florence. The consolation he found in seeing his sentiments at last approved by several ministers, was greatly he interrupted in 1598; for he met with a thousand insults at Cracow, and was with great difficulty saved from the hands of the rabble. His house was plundered, and he lost his goods; but this loss was not so uneasy to him as that of some MSS., which he extremely regretted. To deliver himself from such dangers, he retired to a village about nine miles from Cracow, where he spent the remainder of his days at the house of Abraham Blonski, a Polish gentleman, and died there in 1604. The following epitaph was inscribed on his tomb : Tota licet Babylon destruxit tecta Lutherus, Muros Calvinus, sed fundamenta Socinus : i. e. Luther destroyed the houses of Babylon, Calvin the walls, but Socinus subverted the foundations. The sentiments of Socinus, with regard to the principal theological subjects controverted among Christians, appear in the following abstract of his writings; and the collection of them, in two volumes, folio, forms part of the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum. Socinus maintained that Jesus Christ was a man, conceived and formed in the womb of the Virgin, without the intervention of a man, by the power of the divine Spirit; on this account he was, in a peculiar sense, God's own and only begotten son, as no other person ever was the son of God in the same way, by the immediate origin of his being. Moreover, he was constituted the son of God by his resurrection from the dead, and was then begotten by God, when God raised him from the dead. As to those passages which have been supposed to assert Christ's existence in the heavenly world, previous to his birth and appearance among men, he explains them, by alleging that Christ himself, after he was born, and before he entered on the office assigned him by his Father, was, in consequence of the divine counsel and agency, in heaven, and remained there for some time; that he might hear from God, and being with him, as the Scripture says, might see those things which he was to announce to the world, in the name of God himself; though he explains John iii. 13, as figurative language. In explaining the first words of St. John's gospel, In the beginning was the word, &c., he observes, that the terms, in the beginning, do not relate to eternity, but to the order of those things which John was about to write concerning Jesus Christ; imitating Moses, who, in writing his history, opens his introduction with this word beginning, in reference to the transactions which he was about to record. And Jesus is called the Word, he supposes, not on account of his nature or substance, but because of the office he discharged when he revealed to us the word of the gospel from the Father. The word was with God, i. e. Jesus, as the word of God, before he was pointed out by the preaching of the Baptist, was known to God alone. And the word was God: the term God, says this commentator, does not denote substance, but authority, power, and beneficence, which were derived from the Father, and which entitled Christ, according to the opinion of this writer, to adoration and worship. His ideas of the efficacy of our Lord's death and mediation are utterly repugnant to those that have been generally entertained by persons called Calvinists. Nothing, he says, can be more incompatible with each other, than a free pardon and satisfaction. He adds no man of judgment and piety ought to entertain the idea of a satisfaction for sin; since it plainly does very much derogate from the power and authority, or goodness and mercy of God; and, though a propitiation be not the same thing as a satisfaction, and though God never refrained from the punishment of sin on account of any real satisfaction given him, yet it is certain that in remitting the punishment of our sins by Jesus Christ no propitiation intervened; but God has, from his free will, exhibited himself so propitious to us in Christ, as not to exact the punishment of our sins, though he might justly have done it. How ever, he allows not only that the death of Christ, and the pouring out of his blood for us, was an offering and sacrifice to God, but that this sacrifice may be said to have been offered up for our sins in order to their being forgiven; yet he apprehended that this sacrifice, as far as it was expiatory, was offered by Christ, not on the cross, but in heaven itself, after his resurrection. To which purpose he observes that Christ did not obtain eternal redemption for us before he entered into the holy place, and there assumed the priesthood; and without a priesthood no expiatory offering could be made. Socinus does also expressly deny the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost. Socinus thought that the progenitor of our race was mortal, i. e. liable to death, by reason of his frame, and incapable of exemption, without an exertion of the divine favor and influence, which was not granted to him at creation; and, therefore, when the apostle asserts that by sin death entered into the world, he meant not natural mortality, but the necessity of dying, or eternal death. To this purpose he explains himself: Adam, if he had not sinned, might have been preserved from death by the kindness of God, though naturally mortal; or, if he had died, have been restored to life, and made immortal. By his sin he did, as it were, refuse to give himself and his posterity this blessing; and, therefore, unless the favor of God be renewed to us, we must all die, and remain in the state of the dead. As to the nature of the human soul, it seems to have been the opinion of Socinus, that, after this life, it doth not so subsist of itself, without the body, as to be capable of any reward or punishment, or any sensations at all. To the question, whether the first man had any original righteousness before he sinned? Socinus replies, that if by original righteousness be meant such a condition that he could not sin, this certainly was not the state of Adam, as it is clear he did sin. But if original righteousness consisted in this, that his reason had the absolute rule over his appetites and senses, and invariably directed them, then the opinion of those who ascribe it to Adam is supported by no argument: hence it should seem from Adam's fall that there was no perfect harmony between them; and that his appetites and senses had the dominion over his reason. If it be asked, says Socinus, whether there is original sin? he answers, this is the same as the enquiry, whether men, when they are born, because they derive their origin from Adam, have, on account of his fall, contracted any guilt or punishment, or are obnoxious to either? Therefore, since the consent of the will must constitute guilt, and there can be no punishment without antecedent guilt, it seems not at all possible that either of these should pertain to a man when he is born, as he neither has, nor could have before, any use of his own will. If by original sin be understood certain innate desires, or evil concupiscence in man, and a proneness to sin, this opinion Socinus denies, and labors to refute; concluding, upon the whole, that there is no such thing as original sin, i. e. a taint or pravity in consequence of the sin of the first man, necessarily produced, or by any means inflicted on the human race; and that no other evil necessarily flows to all his posterity from that first transgression, than by some means or other the necessity of dying; not indeed through the influence of that transgression, but because man, being naturally mortal, was on that account left by God to his own natural mortality, and what was natural became necessary as a punishment on the offender; consequently they who were born of him must be born in the same circumstances, for he was deprived of nothing he naturally had or could have. From reasoning on this subject, Socinus concludes that there is a freedom of will in man, and that the powers of man are not so few and feeble, but that he may, with the assistance of God, obey the divine law by the right use and application of his powers. Divine assistance he considers as external and internal; and the latter, he says, is twofold: the one, when God by some means impresseth on the heart what he has promised to them that obey him; and the other, when he instructs and illuminates the mind rightly to discern his will, in those instances which cannot be expressly contained in his written word: however, this internal assistance belongs only to those who have made good use of the external. The doctrine of predestination Socinus absolutely denies, and he endeavours to account for the prescience of the Deity, without admitting that notion of his decrees which some divines have adopted. On the head of justification, Socinus observes that God out of his mere mercy justifies us, i. e. pronounces us righteous, and grants us forgiveness of sins, and eternal life; but he requireth from us, before this be done, that we believe in Christ, i. e. confide in and obey him; and our good works, or the obedience we render to Christ, though not the efficient or meritorious cause, are the sine qua non, or indispensable pre-requisite, of our justification before God, and eternal salvation, But if any should deviate from this obedience, by falling into sin, and continuing therein, they cease to be justified; nevertheless, by repentance and amendment of life, they may be justified again: but this second repentance, he says, is not in our power, God granting an ability for it to whom he pleaseth. Finally, Socinus denied the perpetuity of baptism, as an ordinance, alleging that it was not prescribed for those who in any other way have publicly given their names to Christ, or from their earliest years have been educated in the Christian discipline; or, if it is to be retained in these days, he apprehends it should be retained principally on account of those who have been converted from other religions to the Christian. He farther thought, that, in order to the right administration of baptism, it is previously necessary that the baptised person should be a believer, and he, therefore, reckoned the practice of infant baptism unscriptural and erroneous. All Faustus Socinus's works are contained in the two first volumes of the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum. SOCINUS (Marianus), LL. D., an eminent Italian lawyer, descended from an ancient family which had produced several civilians. He was born at Sienna, in Tuscany, in 1482; and took his degree of L. L. D. in 1503. He taught civil law as professor at Sienna several years; he afterwards went to Padua, and last to Bologna in 1543, where he died in 1556. SOCK, n. s. Sax. rocc; Belg. socke; Lat. soccus. Something put between the foot and shoe. Ere I lead this life long, I'll sow nether socks and mend them, and foot them too. Shakspeare. Henry IV. A physician, that would be mystical, prescribeth for the rheum to walk continually upon a camomile alley; meaning he should put camomile within his socka. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild. Bacon. Milton. Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear; But gentle Simpkin just reception finds Amidst the monument of vanished minds. Dryden. On two figures of actors in the villa Mathei at Rome we see the fashion of the old sock and larva. Addison. SOC'KET, n. s. Fr, souchette. Any hollow pipe; the hollow of a candlestick; hollow of the eye, &c. . SOCKNA, a town in the northern part of Fezzan, Africa, situated on an immense gravel plain, bounded on the south by the Soudeck mountains. It is surrounded by a wall with seven gates, only one of which can admit a loaded camel. The streets are narrow, and the houses built of mud, having no windows, the light being admitted only by doors. The town is surrounded by extensive plantations of fine dates, but there is no food for camels. The population is estimated by captain Lyon at 2000. SOCONUSCO, a province of Guatimala, North America, bounded on the north by Vera Paz, Chiapa, Guaxaca, and Honduras, on the south by the Pacific, on the east by Nicaragua, and on the west by Guaxaca and the Pacific Ocean. Guatimala or St. Jago de Guatimala is its capital. It is subdivided into the districts, from the north to the south, along the coast of the Pacific, of Soconusco, Suchitepec, Sansonate, St. Salvador, St. Miguel, Tiguesgalpa, and Choluteca or Xeres. It is thirty-five leagues long from north to south, and as many more from east to west. The air is exceedingly hot, and the general state of the climate either rainy or sultry. The soil is not so fertile in corn as some other parts of Guatimala; but, to compensate this, it produces pimento, indigo, and cacao, in great quantities. SOCONUSCO, the capital of the above province, is situated on a small river which runs into the Pacific Ocean, long. 120° 40′ W., lat. 18° 30′. N. 460 miles south-east of Mexico. SOCORRO, the largest of the Revillagigedo islands in the north Pacific Ocean, about 200 miles from the west coast of Mexico. It is uninhabited and barren, about fifteen or twenty miles broad, and as many long, and about 3657 feet above the level of the sea. Long. 110° 9′ W., lat. 18° 48' N. It was visited in 1793 by cap Two goodly beacons, set in watches stead, Therein gave light, and flamed continually; For they of living fire most subtilly Were made, and set in silver sockets bright. Faerie Queene. The sockets and supporters of flowers are figured; as in the five brethren of the rose, and sockets of gilly-tain Collnett. flowers. She at your flames would soon take fire, And like a candle in the socket Dissolve. Bacon. Hudibras. As the weight leans wholly upon the axis, the grating and rubbing of these axes against the sockets wherein they are placed, will cause some inaptitude and resistency to inat rotation of the cylinder which would otherwise ensue. Wilkins. SOCOTARA, an island of the Indian Ocean, about forty leagues to the eastward of cape Guardafui, twenty-seven leagues long and seven broad. It is high and mountainous, with a bold shore, which affords, however, excellent harbours. It is governed by a king, who generally pays tribute to Arabia. The chief commodity for which the island is resorted to is aloes. Dragon's blood may also be met with in small quantity; and bullocks, goats, fish, and dates, are to be procured reasonably. SOCRATES, the greatest and wisest, perhaps, of the ancient philosophers, was born at Alopece, a village near Athens, in the fourth year of the seventy-seventh olympiad. His parents were of low rank; his father Sophroniscus being a statuary, and his mother Phænarete a midwife. Sophroniseus brought up his son, contrary to his inclination, in his own manual employment; in which Socrates, though his mind was continually aspiring after higher objects, was not unsuccessful; for he formed statues of the Graces, which were allowed a place in the citadel of Athens. Upon the death of his father he was left in such straitened circumstances as laid him under the necessity of exercising that art to procure the means of subsistence, though he devoted, at the same time, all the leisure which he could command to the study of philosophy. His distress, however, was soon relieved by Crito, a wealthy Athenian; who, remarking his strong propensity to study, and admiring his ingenuous disposition and distinguished abilities, generously took him under his patronage, and entrusted him with the instruction of his children. The opportunities which Socrates thus enjoyed of attending the public lectures of the most eminent philosophers, so far increased his thirst after wisdom that he determined to relinquish his occupation, and every prospect of emolument which that might afford, to devote himself entirely to his favorite pursuits. Under Anaxagoras and Archelaus he prosecuted the study of nature in the usual manner of the philosophers of the age, and became well acquainted with their doctrines. Prodicus the sophist was his preceptor in eloquence, Evenus in poetry, Theodorus in geometry, and Damo in music. Aspasia, a woman no less celebrated for her intellectual than her personal accomplishments, whose house was frequented by the most celebrated characters, had also some share in the education of Socrates. Under such preceptors he became master of every kind of learning which the age could afford; and, being blessed with very uncommon talents, he appeared under the respectable characters of a good citizen and a true philosopher. Being called upon by his country to take arms, in the long and severe struggle between Athens and Sparta, he signalised himself at the siege of Potidea, both by his valor and by the hardiness with which he endured fatigue. During the severity of a Thracian winter, whilst others were clad in furs, he wore only his usual clothing, and walked barefoot upon the ice. In an engagement in which he saw Alcibiades falling down wounded, he advanced to defend him, and saved both him and his arms; and, though the prize of valor was on this occasion unquestionably due to Socrates, he generously gave his vote that it might be bestowed upon Alcibiades, to encourage his rising merit. He served in other campaigns with distinguished bravery, and on one occasion saved the life of Xenophon by bearing him, when covered with wounds, out of the reach of the enemy. It was not till Socrates was upwards of sixty years of age that he undertook to serve his country in any civil office, when he was chosen to represent his own district, in the senate of 500. In this office, though he at first exposed himself to some ridicule from the want of experience in the forms of business, he soon convinced his colleagues that he was superior to them all in wisdom and integrity. Whilst they, intimidated by the clamors of the populace, passed an unjust sentence of condemnation upon the commanders who, after the engagement at the Arginusian Islands, had been prevented by a storm from paying funeral honors to the dead, Socrates stood forth singly in their defence, and to the last refused to give his suffrage against them, declaring that no force should compel him to act contrary to justice and the laws. Under the subsequent tyranny he never ceased to condemn the oppressive and cruel proceedings of the thirty tyrants; and when his boldness provoked their resentment, so that his life was in hazard, fearing neither treachery nor violence, he still continued to support, with undaunted firmness, the rights of his fellow-citizens. Having given these proofs of public virtue, both in a military and civil capacity, he wished to do still more for his country. Observing with regret how much the opinions of the Athenian youth were misled, and their principles and taste corrupted by philosophers, who spent all their time in refined speculations upon nature and the origin of things, and by sophists who taught in their schools the arts of false eloquence and deceitful reasoning; Socrates formed the wise and generous design of instituting a new and more useful method of instruction. He justly conceived the true end of philosophy to be, not to make an ostentatious display of superior learning and ability in subtle disputations or ingenious conjectures, but to free mankind from the dominion of pernicious prejudices; to correct their vices; to inspire them with the love of virtue; and thus conduct them in the path of wisdom to true felicity. He therefore assumed the character of a moral philosopher; and, looking upon the whole city of Athens as his school, and all who were disposed to lend him their attention as his pupils, he seized every occasion of communicating moral wisdom to his fellow-citizens. He passed the greater part of his time in public; and the me thod of instruction of which he chiefly made use was to propose a series of questions to the person with whom he conversed to lead him to some unforeseen conclusion. He first gained the consent of his respondent to some obvious truths, and then obliged him to admit others from their relation or resemblance to those to which he had already assented. Without making use of any direct argument, or persuasion, he chose to lead the person he meant to instruct, to deduce the truths of which he wished to convince him, as a necessary consequence from his own concessions. He commonly conducted these conferences with such address as to conceal his design till the respondent had advanced too far to recede. On some occasions he made use of ironical language, that vain men might be caught in their own replies and be obliged to confess their ignorance. He never assumed the air of a morose and rigid preceptor, but communicated useful instruction with all the ease and pleasantry of polite conversation. Though eminently furnished with every kind of learning, he preferred moral to speculative wisdom. Convinced that philosophy is valuable, not as it furnishes questions for the schools, but as it provides men with a law of life, he censured his predecessors for spending all their time in abstruse researches into nature, and taking no pains to render themselves useful to mankind. His favorite maxim was, 'Whatever is above us doth not concern us.' He estimated the value of knowledge by its utility, and recommended the study of geometry, astronomy, and other sciences, only so far as they admit of a practical application to the purposes of human life. His great object was to lead men into an acquaintance with themselves, to convince them of their follies and vices, to inspire them with the love of virtue, and to furnish them with useful moral instructions. Through his whole life this good man discovered a mind superior to the attractions of wealth and power. Contrary to the general practice of the preceptors of his time, he instructed his pupils without receiving from them any gratuity. He frequently refused rich presents, which were offered him by Alcibiades and others, though importunately urged to accept them by his wife. The chief men of Athens were his stewards: they sent him in provisions, as they apprehended he wanted them; he took what his present wants required and returned the rest. Observing the numerous articles of luxury which were exposed to sale in Athens, he exclaimed, 'How many things are there which I do not want!' With Socrates moderation supplied the place of wealth. In his clothing and food he consulted only the demands of nature. He commonly appeared in a neat but plain cloak, with his feet uncovered. Though his table was only supplied with simple fare he did not scruple to invite men of superior rank to partake of his meals; and when his wife, upon some such occasion, expressed her dissatisfaction on being no better provided, he desired her to give herself no concern: for if his guests were wise men they would be contented with whatever they found at his table; if otherwise, they were unworthy of notice. Though Socrates was exceedingly unfortunate in his domestic connexion, he converted this infelicity into an occasion of exercising his virtues. Xantippe, concerning whose ill humor ancient writers relate many amusing tales, was certainly a woman of a high and unmanageable spirit. But Socrates, while he endeavoured to curb the violence of her temper, improved his own. When Alcibiades expressed his surprise that his friend could bear to live in the same house with so perverse and quarrelsome a companion, Socrates replied that, being daily inured to ill humor at home, he was the better prepared to encounter perverseness and injury abroad. In the midst of domestic vexations and public disorders Socrates retained such an unruffled serenity, that he was never seen either to leave his own house or to return home with a disturbed countenance. In acquiring this entire dominion over his passions and appetites he had the greater merit, as it was not effected without a violent struggle against his natural propensities. Zopyrus, an eminent physiognomist, declared that he discovered in the features of the philosopher evident traces of many vicious inclinations. The friends of Socrates who were present ridiculed his ignorance; but Socrates acknowledged his penetration, and confessed that he was in his natural disposition prone to vice, but that he had subdued his inclinations by reason and philosoVOL. XX. phy. Through the whole of his life Socrates gave himself up to the guidance of unbiassed reason, which is supposed by some to be all that he meant by the genius or dæmon from whom he professed to receive instruction. But this opinion is inconsistent with the accounts given by his followers of that dæmon, and even with the language in which he spoke of it himself. Plato sometimes calls it his guardian, and Apuleius his god; and, as Xenophon attests that it was the belief of his master that the gods occasionally communicate to men the knowledge of future events, it is probable that Socrates admitted, with the generality of his countrymen, the existence of those intermediate beings called dæmons, of one of which he might fancy himself the peculiar care. (See DAMON.) Convinced of the weakness of the human understanding, and perceiving that the pride of philosophy had led his predecessors into futile speculations on the nature and origin of things, he judged it most consistent with true wisdom to speak with caution and reverence concerning the divine nature. The wisdom and the virtues of this great man, whilst they procured him many followers, created him also many enemies. The sophists (see Sophists), whose knavery and ignorance he took every opportunity of exposing to public contempt, became inveterate in their enmity against so bold a reformer, and devised an expedient by which they hoped to check the current of his popularity. They engaged Aristophanes, the first buffoon of the age, to write a comedy in which Socrates should be the principal character. Aristophanes, pleased with so promising an occasion of displaying his low and malignant wit, undertook the task, and produced the comedy of the Clouds, still extant in his works. In this piece Socrates is introduced hanging in a basket in the air, and thence pouring forth absurdity and prophaneness. But the philosopher showing, in a crowded theatre, that he was wholly unmoved by this ribaldry, the satire failed of its effect; and when Aristophanes attempted the year following to renew the piece, with alterations and additions, the representation was so much discouraged that he was obliged to discontinue it. From this time Socrates continued for many years to pursue without interruption his laudable design of instructing and reforming his fellowcitizens. At length, however, when the inflexible integrity with which he had discharged the duty of a senator, and the firmness with which he had opposed every kind of political corruption and oppression, had greatly increased the number of his enemies, clandestine arts were employed to raise a general prejudice against him. The people were industriously reminded that Critias, who had been one of the most cruel of the thirty tyrants, and Alcibiades, who had insulted religion, by defacing the public statues of Mercury, and performing a mock representation of the Eleusinian mysteries, had in their youth been disciples of Socrates; and, the minds of the populace being thus prepared, a direct accusation was preferred against him before the supreme court of judicature. His accusers were Anytus a leather-dresser, who had long entertained a personal enmity against Socrates, for reprehend 2 P |