Chapter Song of Degrees to Soul Cakes of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Sorbonne The institution of theology, science, and literature in Paris founded by Robert de Sorbon, Canon of Cambrai, in 1252. In 1808 the buildings were given to the University, and since 1821 have been the Académie universitaire de Paris.

Sorceress (See Canidia, Circe , etc. etc.)

Sordello A poem by Robert Browning, showing the conflict of a minstrel about the best way of making his influence felt, whether personally or by the power of song.

Sorites (Greek). A heaped-up or cumulative syllogism. The following will serve as an example:-
   All men who believe shall be saved.
   All who are saved must be free from sin.
   All who are free from sin are innocent in the sight of God.
   All who are innocent in the sight of God are meet for heaven.
   All who are meet for heaven will be admitted into heaven.
   Therefore all who believe will be admitted into heaven.
   The famous Sorites of Themistocles was: That his infant son commanded the whole world, proved thus:-
   My infant son rules his mother.
   His mother rules me.
   I rule the Athenians.
   The Athenians rule the Greeks.
   The Greeks rule Europe.
   And Europe rules the world.

Sorrows of Werther A novel by Goethe. The heroine is Charlotte.

Sortes Biblicae Same as the Sortes Virgilianae (q.v.), only the Bible was substituted for the works of the poet.

Sortes Virgilianae Telling one's fortune by consulting the Æneid of Virgil. You take up the book, open it at random, and the passage you touch at random with your finger is the oracular response. Severus consulted the book, and read these words: “Forget not thou, O Roman, to rule the people with royal sway.” Gordianus, who reigned only a few days, hit upon this verse: “Fate only showed him on the earth, but suffered him not to tarry.” But, certainly, the most curious instance is that given by Dr. Wellwood respecting King Charles I. and Lord Falkland while they were both at Oxford. Falkland, to amuse the king, proposed to try this kind of augury, and the king hit upon bk. iv. ver. 881-893, the gist of which passage is that “evil wars would break out, and the king lose his life.” Falkland, to laugh the matter off, said he would show his Majesty how ridiculously the “lot” would foretell the next fate, and he lighted on book xi. ver. 230-237, the lament of Evander for the untimely death of his son Pallas. King Charles, in 1643, mourned over his noble friend, who was shot through the body in the battle of Newbury.

Sorts Out of sorts. Not in good health and spirits. The French être dérangé explains the metaphor. If cards are out of sorts they are deranged, and if a person is out of sorts the health or spirits are out of order.
   In printers' language it means out of some particular letter, in which case they substitute for a time another letter.
   To run upon sorts. In printing, said of work which requires an unusual number of certain letters, etc.; as an index, which requires a disproportionate number of capitals.

Sosia The living double of another, as the brothers Antipholus and brothers Dromio in the Comedy of Errors, and the Corsican brothers in the drama so called. Sosia is a servant of Amphitryon, in Plautus's comedy so called. It is Mercury who assumes the double of Sosia, till Sosia doubts his own identity. Both Dryden and Molière have adapted this play to the modern stage, but the Comedy of Errors is based on another drama of the same author, called the Menæchmi. (See Amphitryon .)

Sotadics or Sotadic Verse.One that reads backwards and forwards the same, as “llewd did I live, and evil I did dwell.” So called from Sotades, the inventor. These verses are also called palindromic. (See Palindrome .)

Sothic Year The Persian year consists of 365 days, so that a day is lost in four years, and the lost bits in the course of 1,460 years amount to a year. This period of 1,460 years is called a sothic period, and the reclaimed year made up of the bits is called a sothic year. (Greek, sothis, the dog-star, at whose rising it commences.)