Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

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eery or to reftore ftolen goods, or to provoke unlawful love,
II or to hurt any man or beaft, though the fame were not
rre*‘ effe&ed, he or file fhould fuffer imprifomnent and pil¬
lory for the tirft offence, and death for the fecond.
Thefe afts continued in force till lately, to the terror
of all ancient females in the kingdom ; and many poor
wretches were facrificed thereby to the prejudice of their
neighbours and their own illufions, not a few having
by fome means or other confeffed the fa cl at the gal¬
lows. But all executions for this dubious crime are now
at an end •, our legiflature having at length followed the
wife example of Louis XIV. in France, who thought
proper by an edift to reftrain the tribunals of juftice
from receiving informations of witchcraft. And accord¬
ingly it is with us enacted, by flatute 9 Geo. II. c. 5.
that no profecution fhall for the future be carried on
againft any perfon for conjuration, witchcraft, forcery,
or inchantment: But the miidemeanor of perfons pre¬
tending to ufe witchcraft, tell fortunes, or difeover ftolen
goods, by Ik ill in the occult feiences, is Hill defervedly
punifhed with a year’s imprifonment, and Handing four
times in the pillory.
SOREX, the Shrkw, a genus of animals belonging
to the clafs of mammalia, and order of ferce. See
Mammalia Index.
SORITES, in Logic, a fpecies of reafonxng in which
a great number of propofitions are fo linked together,
that the predicate of the one becomes continually the
fubjeil of the next following, till at laft a conelufion is
formed by bringing together the fubjeft of the firft pro-
pofition and the predicate of the laft. Such was that
merry argument of Themiftocles, to prove that his little
fon under ten years old governed the whole world.
Thus : My fon governs his mother ; his mother me ; I
the Athenians ; the Athenians the Greeks ; Greece com¬
mands Europe ; Europe the whole world: therefore my
fon commands the whole world. See Logic, N° 96, 97.
SORNING, in Scots Law. See Law, N° clxxxvi.
3°*
SORREL, in Botany, a fpecies of the rumex, which
grows in paftures and meadows, and is well known. The
natives of Lapland boil large quantities of the leaves in
water, and mix the juice when cold with the milk of
the rein-deer, which they efteem an agreeable and
wholefome food. The Dutch are faid to cultivate this
plant for its ufefulnefs in the dyeing of woollen cloths
black and wte know that by means of the common
broad-leaved forrel an excellent black colour is, in many
places of Scotland, given to woollen Huffs without the
aid of copperas. As this mode of dyeing does not in
the fmalleft degree injure the texture of the cloth, which
continues to the laft foft and filky, without that hard-
nefs to the touch which it acquires when dyed black by
means of copperas, our readers will probably thank us
for the following receipt, with which we have been fa¬
voured by a learned phyfieian :
Let the fluff to be dyed be well wafhed with foap
and water, and afterwards completely dried. Then of
the common broad-leaved forrel boil as much as {hall
make an acid decoftion of fufficient quantity to let the
fluff to be dyed lie in it open and eafy to be ftirred. The
greater quantity of forrel that is ufed, the better will
the colour be ; and therefore if the pot or cauldron will
not hold enough at once, when part has been fufficiently
boiled, it muft be taken out and wrung, and a frefti
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quantity be boiled in the fame juice or deeoflion. When Sorrel
the liquor is made fufficiently acid, ftrain it from the 1), ^
forrel through a lieve, put the cloth or yarn into it, and .' * ’
let it boil for two hours, ftirring it frequently. If {lock¬
ings be among the fluff to be dyed, it will be expe¬
dient, after they have been an hour in the boiling li¬
quor, to turn them in fide out, and at the end of the
fecond hour let the whole be poured into a tub or any
other veffel. The pot or cauldron muft then be wafhed,
and water put into it, with half a pound of logwood,
chips for every pound of dry yarn or cloth. The log¬
wood and water ffiould boil {lowly for four hours ; and
then the cloth or yarn being wrung from the four liquor,
and put into the logwood decoction, the whole muft be
fuffered to boil flowly for four hours, (lockings, if there
be any, being turned infide out at the end of two hours.
Of this laft decodlion there muft, as of the former, be
enough to let the cloth lie open and eafy to be ftirred
while boiling. At the end of the four hours the cloth
muft be taken out, and among the boiling liquor, firft
removed from the fire, muft be poured a Scotch pint or
half an Englifh gallon of Hale urine for every pound of
dry cloth or other fluff to be dyed. When this com¬
pound liquor has been If irred and become cold, the cloth
muft be put into it and fuffered to remain well covered
for 12 hours, and then dried in the (hade-, it is then
wafhed in cold water, and dried for ufe.
Wood-SORREL. See OxALIS, BOTANY Index.
SORREL-Colour, in the manege, is a reddifti colour,
generally thought to be a fign of a good borfe.
SORRENTO, a fea-port town of Naples j feated in
a peninfula, on the bay of Naples, at the foot of a moun¬
tain of the fame name, and 15 miles fouth-eaft of Naples.
Sorrentum was famous in ancient times for its beautiful
earthen veffels, particularly goblets and drinking cups j
and claims the honour of being the birth-place of Tor¬
quato Taflb. E. Long. 14. 24. N. Lat. 40. 40.
SORTILEGE, (^Sortilegiuni) a fpecies of divination
performed by means of fortes or lots.
The fortes Preneflinee, famous in antiquity, confifled
in putting a number of letters, or even whole words,
into an urn •, and then, after (baking them together,
they were thrown on the ground ; and whatever fen-
tences could be made out of them, conftituted the an-
fwer of the oracle. To this method of divination fuc-
ceeded that which has been called the fortes Homeriance
and fortes Virgiliaiue, a mode of inquiring into futurity,
which undoubtedly took its rife from a general cuftoAi
of the oracular priefts of delivering their anfwers in
verfe \ it fubfifted a long time among the Greeks and
Romans 5 and being from them adopted by the Chrif-
tians, it was not till after a long fucceffion of centuries
that it became exploded. Among the Romans it con¬
fided in opening fome celebrated poet at random, and
among the Chriftians the Scriptures, and drawing, from
the firft paffage which prefented itfelf to the eye, a
prognoftic of what would befal one’s felf or others, or
direftion for conduct when under any exigency. There
is good evidence that this was none of the vulgar errors j
the greateft perfons, philofophers of the bell repute,
adrtntted this fuperftition. Socrates, when in prifon,
hearing this line of Homer,
Within three days I Phthia’s fhore ffiall fee,
immediately faid, within three days I {hall be out of the
3 O 2 world;
C 475 1