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

SOU r 480 1 SPA
tion lie exerted his pulpit-eloquence again!! the Pre?%-
terians •, and in the reign of Queen Anne, was a warm
advocate for Sacheverel.
South, one of the four cardinal points from which
the winds blow.
SOUTH Sea, or Pacific Ocean, is that vaft body of
Avater interpofed between Alia and America. It does
not, however, ftrietly I peaking, reach quite to the con¬
tinent of Aha, excepting to the northward of the pe-
ninfula of Malacca : for the water interpofed between
the eaftern coaft of Africa and the peninfula juft men¬
tioned has the name of the Indian ocean. The South
fea then is bounded on one fide by the weftern coaft of
America, through its whole extent, from the unknown
regions in the north to the ftraits of Magellan and
Terra del Fuego, where it communicates with the fou-
thern part of the Atlantic. On the other fide, it is
bounded by the coaft of Afia, from the northern pro¬
montory of Tfchukotfkoi Nofs, to the peninfula of Ma¬
lacca already mentioned. Thence it is bounded to the
fouthward by the northern coafts of Borneo, Celebes,
Macaflar, New Guinea, New Holland, and the other
iflands in that quarter, which divide it from the Indian
ocean. Then, waftiing the eatfern coaft of the great
ifiand of New Holland, it communicates with that vaft
body of water encompafling the whole fouthern part of
the globe, and which has the general name of the Sou¬
thern ocean all round. Thus does this vaft ocean occu¬
py almoft the femicircumference of the globe, extend¬
ing almoft from one pole to the other, and about the
equatorial parts extending almoft 180° in longitude, or
12,500 of our miles.
The northern parts of the Pacific ocean are entirely
deftitute of land •, not a fingle illand having yet been
difcovered in it from the latitude of 40° north and up¬
wards, excepting fuch as are very near the coaft either
of Afia or America ; but in the fouthern part there
are a great number.
Till very lately the South fea was in a great meafure
unknown. From the great extent of ice which covers
the fouthern part of the globe, it was imagined that
much more land exifted there than in the northern re¬
gions : but that this could not be juftly inferred mere¬
ly from that circumftance, is plain from what has been
advanced under the article America, N°3—24.*, and
the fouthern continent, long known by the name of
Terra Aufiralis, has eluded the fearch of the moft ex¬
pert navigators fent out from Britain and France by
royal authority. See Terra Australis.
South Sea Company. See Company;
SOUTHAMPTON, a fea-port town of Hampftrife
in England } is feated on an arm of the fea •, is a place
of good trade, and in 1801 contained nearly 8000 in¬
habitants. It is furrounded by walls and feveral watch-
towers, and had a ftrong caftle to defend the harbour,
now in ruins. It is a corporation and a county of itfelf,
with the title of an earldom, and fends two members to
parliament. W. Long. 1. 24. N. Lat. 50. 54.
SOUTHERN, Thomas, an eminent dramatic wri¬
ter, was born at Dublin in 1660, and received his
education in the univerfity there. He came young to
London to ftudy law •, but inftead of that devoted
himfelf to poetry and the writing of plays. His Per-
fian Prince, or Loyal Brother, was introduced in 1682,
when the Tory intereft was triumphant in England j
and the chara£ler of the Loyal Brother being intended SostfiJj
to compliment James duke of York, he rewarded the I! j
author when he came to the throne w ith a commiffion, Pi ,
in the army. On the Revolution taking place, he re- J
tired to his ftudies, and wrote feveral plays, from which ,
he is fuppofed to have derived a very handfome fuhfift-
ence, being the firil who railed the advantage of play-
writing to a fecond and third night. The moft finifiied
of all his plays is Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave, which
is built on a true ftory related in one of Mrs Behn’s no¬
vels. Mr Southern died in 1746, in the 86th year of
his age 5 the latter part of which he fpent in a peaceful
ferenity, having by his commiffion as a foldier, and the
profits'of his dramatic vrorks, acquired a handfome for¬
tune *, and being an exaft economift, he improved what
fortune he gained to the bell advantage. He enjoyed
the longeft life of all our poets-, and died the richeft of
them, a very few excepted. His plays are printed in
two volumes l2mo.
Southern Continent. See America, N° 3—24.
and Terra Aufiralis.
SOUTHERNWOOD. See Artemisia, Botany
Index.
SOUTHWARK, a town of Surrey, and a fuburb
of the city of London, being feparated from that me¬
tropolis only by the Thames. See LONDON, N° 96-
SOW. See Sus, Mammalia Index.
Sow, in the iron works, the name of the block or
lump of metal they wmrk at once in the iron furnace.
Sow-Thifile. See Sonchus, Botany Index.
SOWING, in Agriculture and Gardening, the depo-
fiting any kind of feed in the earth for a future crop.
See Agriculture.
Drill-Sotting. See DRiLL-Sowing.
SOY. See Dolichos.
SOZOMENUS, Hermias, an ecclefiaftical hifto-
rian of the 5th century, was born in Bethelia, a town
■ of Paleftine. He was educated for the law, and be¬
came a pleader at Conftantinople. He wrote an A-
bridgement of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, in two books, from
the afcenfion of our Saviour to the year 323.. This
compendium is loft but a continuation of it in nine
books, written at greater length, down to the year
440, is ftill extant. He feems to have copied Socrates,
who wrote a hiftory of the fame period. The ftyle of
Sozomenus is perhaps more elegant} but in other re-
fpefts he falls far fhort of that writer, difplaying through¬
out his whole book an amazing credulity and a fuper-
ftitious attachment to monks and the monaftic life.
The beft edition of Sozomenus is that of Robert Stephen
in 1 ^44. He has been tranflated and publiftied by ya-
lefius, and republiffied with additional notes by Reading
at London, 1720, in 3 vols folio.
SPA, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weftpha-
lia and bifhopric of Liege, famous for its mineral wa¬
ter, lies in E. Long 5. ro. N. Lat. 50. 30. about 21
miles fouth-eaft from Liege, and 7 fouth-weft from
Lomburg. It is fituated at one end of a deep valley
on the banks of a fmall rivulet, and is furrounded on all
fides by high mountains. The fides of thefe mountains
next to Spa are rude and uncultivated, prefenting a
nigged appearance as if fliattered by the convulfions 0
earthquakes •, but as they are ftrewed with tall oaksanQ
abundance of ffirubs, the country around forms a wild,
romantic, and beautiful landfcape. I he accef? to t e