spots are considered to adhere to the sun, and the latter is considered to turn according to the order of the signs round its axis, which is inclined at an angle of 82° to the ecliptic of the earth. The real duration of this rotation, as deduced from the apparent rotation of twentyseven days, is equal to twenty-five days. This difference is occasioned by the fact that the earth, from which this rotation is observed, is itself moving in the mean time. Herschel's opinion on the nature of these spots we have mentioned in the previous part of this article. SUN-DIAL. (See Dial.)

SUNDA ISLANDS; a group of islands lying to the south of Farther India. The principal islands of the group are Sumatra, Borneo and Java. (See the articles.) The straits of Sunda lie between Sumatra and Java.

SUNDAY; the first day in the week, which has its name from the sun, as this day was already called dies solis with the Romans. It is celebrated by Christians in commemoration of Christ's having risen on the first day of the week. It was also on the first day of the week that the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the disciples. We have given a history of the Christian Sunday under the article Sabbath, and shall here only refer the reader, for more information on some points, to Hallam's Constitutional History of England (ch. vii. viii.). In the church services of Europe, the Sundays are named from the feasts which precede them, or from the collects or passages of Scripture with which the religious service was formerly commenced on the several Sundays :1. Sunday after New Year, so called when new year begins on one of the four last days of the week. 2. Sundays after Epiphany, which vary from one to six, according to the time of Easter. 3. Septuagesima (q. v.), Sexagesima, and Esto mihi (in the English church, quinquagesima (q. v.) Sunday). The third has its Latin name from the beginning of the lesson of the day (Psalm lxxi, 3). 4. Sundays in Lent. (q. v.) Their names are taken from the words with which the lessons of the day begin: Invocavit (Psalm xci, 15); Reminiscere (Psalm xxv, 6); Oculi (Psalm xxv, 15); Latare (Isaiah Ixvi, 10); Judica (Psalm xliii, 1); Palmarum, Palm Sunday. (q. v.) 5. Sundays after Easter, six in number, which almost all have names of rejoicing: Quasimodogeniti (1 Peter ii, 2), or Whitsunday (see Pentecost); Misericordias Domini (Psalm xxiii, 6, or Psalm lxxxix, 2); Jubilate (Psalm Íxvi, 1); Cantate (Psalm xcvi, 1);

Rogate (Matt. vii, 7); Exaudi (Psalm xxvii, 7). 6. Sundays after Trinity. The feast of Trinity was established in 1150. The greatest number of these Sundays is twenty-seven: the number depends upon the time of Easter. The later Easter falls, the more Epiphany Sundays and the fewer Trinity Sundays are there. 7. Sundays in Advent. (See Advent.) 8. Sunday after Christmas, so called when this festival falls upon one of the first four days of the week, reckoned from Monday. (See Festivals.) In the English church, the sixth Sunday after Easter is called Sunday after Ascension, and the seventh Whitsunday.

SUNDAY LETTER. (See Dominical Letter.)

SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The founder of the modern Sunday schools was Mr. Raikes (q. v.), editor of the Gloucester (England) Journal. Struck with the wretched appearance of a number of children whom he saw playing in the street in the suburbs, he was informed by an inhabitant to whom he addressed himself, that on Sundays, when they were released from work, and the few who enjoyed the benefit of any instruction during the week, were let loose from school, they presented a more afflicting sight of misery and vice. This observation immediately suggested to him the idea that the profanation of the day might be prevented by putting them to school; and he engaged several women, who kept schools in the neighborhood, to receive such children as he should send to them on Sundays, and instruct them in reading and the catechism, paying each of them a shilling for their day's work. He soon collected a considerable number of children, distributed books among them, gave them advice, settled their quarrels; and the effects of his benevolent exertions were so striking, that his example was followed by other charitable persons in different quarters of the city; and in a few years Sunday schools were established in almost every part of England. Mr. Raikes made his first experiment in 1781, and, in 1786, it was estimated that 250,000 children were receiving instruction in Sunday schools. (See a letter of Mr. Raikes, giving an account of his proceedings, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. liv, p. 410, 1784.) A Sunday school society was formed in 1785 for the encouragement of Sunday schools by pecuniary aid, &c., the schools having been at first taught by hired teachers. Gratuitous instruction was a great improvement in the system, and appears to have become gen

eral about 1800. In 1803, the first Sunday school union was formed in London, and the example was soon imitated in many large towns and some of the counties. In 1826, the number of Sunday schools in England under the care of the established church was about 8000, with 550,450 pupils: the number of those established by dissenters is also very great. The Scotch Sabbath evening schools (first established in Edinburgh in 1787) arose from the English Sunday schools, but are modified by the circumstance that, as nearly all the children in that country are taught to read in the parochial schools, the Sabbath evening schools are more entirely devoted to direct religious instruction than the Sunday schools. In this country, the first Sunday schools were opened at New York, in 1816; and they have since multiplied rapidly, and overspread the whole country.

SUNDERBUNDS; an extensive, woody, inhospitable district of Hindoostan, intersected by the mouths of the Ganges, in the south part of the country of Bengal. This district is about 10,000 square miles in extent, and is intersected by innumerable rivers and creeks, all of which are salt; and through the whole tract nothing but brackish water is found; and it is generally uninhabited, except by tigers and deer. The navigation by boats through the Sunderbunds is very romantic, and boats coming down to Calcutta in the hot season are obliged to take this route. The trees are all of small size, not useful for timber, but very valuable in affording a supply of fuel for Calcutta and other towns on the river.

SUNDERLAND; a market-town and scaport of England, county of Durham, near the mouth of the Wear. Here the malignant cholera made its first appearance in England in 1831. With Monk Wearmouth and Bishop Wearmouth, it forms one connected town. The High street is spacious, and tolerably handsome, especially the central part, which rises with a considerable ascent. Some of the other streets are narrow and dirty; but of late years the general appearance of the town has been improved. Of its public buildings, the church, a chapel of ease, a Methodist chapel, and meeting houses for the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and Unitarians, the exchange, &c., are the principal. The harbor is formed by two piers, on the south and north sides of the river. The iron bridge consists of an arch of iron frame-work, thrown over the river, 237 feet span, and rising 100 feet above the

level of the water; so that ships of 400 tons can sail under it, by striking their top-gallant masts. The trade of Sunderland has been long on the increase. Coal is the staple article of export, employing 600 craft. The manufactures are chiefly of flint and bottle glass, earthen ware, copperas. Coal is the staple article of export. Ship-building is carried on to a great extent. By the reform bill it returns, with the Wearmouths, two members to parliament. Population of the whole town in 1821,33,911. 267 miles north from London.

SUN-DEW (drosera). These delicate plants are found in marshes and moist places. They attract attention chiefly from their leaves, which are all radical, and fringed with hairs, each of which supports a globule of pellucid, dew-like liquor, even in the hottest weather. The flowers are small, and mostly white; but in one North American species, they are conspicuous, and of a fine purple color. These plants are remarkable for having the unexpanded leaves rolled up in the same manner as the ferns-a disposition almost unique among phænogamous plants. The most common species, D. rotundifolia, is an acrid, caustic plant, which curdles milk, removes warts and corns, and takes away freckles and sunburn: distilled with wine, it produces a very stimulating spirit; and it was formerly much used as a tincture, spiced and sweetened.

SUN-FISH (Orthagor scus); a cartilaginous fish of a very singular form: the body is compressed, broad, abruptly truncated, resembling, in fact, the head of a large fish separated from the body: the mouth and eyes are very small. Its nearly circular form, and the silvery whiteness of the sides, together with their brilliant phosphorescence during the night, have obtained for it very generally the appellations of sun or moon-fish. While swimming, it turns upon itself like a wheel. It grows to an immense size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, and sometimes even that of twelve, and weighing from three to five hundred pounds. It is very fat, and yields a great quantity of oil; but the flesh is ill tasted, and exhales a disagreeable odor. is found in all seas, from the arctic to the antarctic circle. Two or three species are known. In the U. States, the same name is often applied to a fish of the perch family (pomotis), of a compressed and elevated form, very common in most of our lakes and rivers. The genus pomotis is peculiar to North America, and several species are now known.

It

SUN-FLOWER (helianthus); a genus of

plants, so called from the ideal resemblance of the yellow flowers to the sun with his golden rays. The root is mostly perennial; the stem herbaceous, upright, and often very tall; the leaves opposite or alternate, undivided, often rigid and scabrous; the flowers large and terminal, usually disposed in a corymb. It belongs to the composite. The species are numerous, and mostly inhabit North America. The gigantic sun-flower (H. annuus), so common in our gardens, is a native of Peru. The root is annual; the stem thick, cylindrical, rough, from six to fifteen feet in height; the leaves alternate, petiolate, large, and somewhat heartshaped; the flowers, sometimes a foot in diameter, are so inclined as to take nearly a vertical position, and usually are turned towards the south; they have the disk very large, and the rays short in proportion. The seeds form excellent nourishment for poultry and for cage birds; and an edible oil has also been expressed from them.-H. tuberosus is a native of Brazil, and has been extensively cultivated in Europe for the sake of its tuberous roots, which are used as a substitute for the potato. It is often called Jerusalem artichoke, the first term being a corruption of the Italian word girasole; and the latter has been applied to it from the resemblance in the flavor of the roots to that of the common artichoke. These roots are eaten cooked in various manners, but are not so generally liked as potatoes; neither are they so nourishing or wholesome: they are, however, excellent for sheep and other domestic animals during the winter season. The plant flourishes in every soil, requiring little attention; but in a good soil the roots are larger and of a better quality. When once planted, they may be left for years upon the same ground, as there are always enough roots remaining for reproduction, after the removal of all that are wanted for the purposes of aliment. The season in which they are dug up for use is from about the middle of September to November. So extremely productive is this valuable plant, that between seventy and eighty tons of the roots are said to have been obtained in one season from a single acre of ground. This plant grows to the height of eight or nine feet: the flowers are much smaller than those of the preceding.

SUNNA; with the ancient northern tribes, the goddess of the sun. Her brother was Mani, god of the moon. In *In German, the sun (Sonne) is feminine, and the moon (Mond) masculine.

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honor of her, a boar was fattened through the year; and at the beginning of February, it was sacrificed, with many ceremonies. Eight days before January, the boar was carried to the ruler of the country, and on its back the principal men took. the oath of fidelity and allegiance. The image of Sunna was a half-naked woman, standing upon a column, with rays round her head. Before her breast she held a radiant wheel with out-stretched arms.

SUNNA, in the Mohammedan religion. (See Sunnites.)

SUNNITES; those Mohammedans who receive the Sunna (i.e. a collection of traditions relating to Mohammedanism) as of equal importance with the Koran. There are several diversities in the copies of the Sunna. Those of the Persians, Arabians and Africans are entirely opposed to each other; hence the various sects. The adherents of Ali, who reject the Sunna, and regard Ali as Mohammed's successor in the dignity of high-priest (for instance, the Persians), are called by the Sunnites (the Ottoman Turks) Shiites (i. e. heretics).

SUOVETAURILIA; a Roman sacrifice, usually offered after the census of the people had been taken. It consisted of a hog (sus), a sheep (ovis), and a steer (taurus); hence the name. All these animals

were males.

SUPERIOR; the largest lake in North America, and the largest body of fresh water that has been discovered in any part of the globe. Its length is differently estimated by travellers and geographers: some make it 490 or 500 miles long, and 1700 in circumference; others, 350 miles long, and 1500 miles in circumference. Its widest part is said to be 190 miles. This is the most western of the great chain of lakes, which discharge their waters by the St. Lawrence. Its surface is 641 feet above the Atlantic. It is 900 feet deep. Its waters are very pure and transparent; and it abounds with trout, white fish and sturgeon. The names of these fish are likely to convey diminutive ideas both as to numbers and quantity; but we must think of trout quite equal in size to the cod of the Newfoundland banks, and of white fish and sturgeon comparatively large. The average weight of the trout exceeds twelve pounds, and many weigh forty, and some even fifty pounds. These fish exist in such numbers, that there can be no doubt that they will supply the whole country in the north-west section of the U. States,

and Upper Canada, with dried fish, when that country shall be peopled by many millions. Lakes Huron and Michigan also abound with them. This lake, and the others, also, abound with pike, pickerel, carp, bass, herring, and numerous other kinds of fish. The great lakes, from the comparative shallowness of their beds, and the circumstance that their waters possess less specific gravity than those of the ocean,—and it may be from other causes,-when swept by the winds, raise waves more rough and dangerous than those of the sea, though not quite so mountainous. It has been often as serted that they have diurnal and septennial fluxes and refluxes. This, however, is not an established fact; and we are certain that, even if they exist, they are irregular and inconsiderable. The waters of lake Superior are partly derived from the marshes and shallow lakes, covered with wild rice, which supply the upper waters of the Mississippi. These are slimy and unpalatable until they find their level, and undergo the action of the lake, where they become transparent, and lose their swampy taste. The lower strata of the waters of the lake never gain the temperature of summer. A bottle sunk to the depth of a hundred feet, and there filled, in midsummer, feels, when brought to the surface, as if filled with ice-water. The shores of this lake, especially on the north and south, are rocky and nearly barren. In some places, the coast is very rough, and highly elevated. The lake is of difficult navigation; but there seem to be no insurmountable obstacles to its becoming a pathway for all vessels of strength and good size. It contains many islands. Isle Royal, the largest, is said to be one hundred miles long, and forty broad. It receives more than thirty rivers, and discharges its waters into lake Huron by the river or strait of St. Mary. The pictured rocks, so called from their appearance, are on the south side of the lake, towards the east end. They are an extraordinary natural curiosity. They form a perpendicular wall 300 feet high, extending about twelve miles. They present a great variety of forms, having numerous projections and indentations, and vast caverns, in which the entering waves make a jarring and tremendous sound. Among the objects here which attract particular attention, are the cascade La Portaille and the Doric arch. The cascade consists of a considerable stream, precipitated from the height of about seventy feet by a

single leap into the lake. It leaps to such a distance, that a boat may pass dry between it and the rocks. The Doric rock, or arch, has the appearance of a work of art, consisting of an isolated mass of sandstone, with four pillars supporting an entablature or stratum of stone, covered with soil, and a handsome growth of pine and spruce trees, some of which are fifty or sixty feet high. The only outlet to this lake is St. Mary's strait. This extends to lake Huron: others connect the other lakes; and the combined waters of all find their way to the ocean by the St. Lawrence. It is not, however, to be imagined, that the St. Lawrence discharges an amount of water that is at all comparable with what the lakes receive. They spread over so great a surface, that the evaporation from them must be immense. They are scarcely affected by the spring floods of the hundreds of rivers which they receive; and their outlets have no such floods. Like the ocean itself, these mighty inland seas seem to receive without increase, and to impart without diminution.

SUPERIOR PLANETS. (See Planets.) SUPERNATURALISM, a word chiefly used in German theology, is contradistinguished to rationalism. It is difficult to give any satisfactory view of these conflicting religious opinions, within our limits; but the subject is too interesting to be wholly passed over. In its widest extent, supernaturalism is the doctrine, that religion and the knowledge of God require a revelation from God. So far there is no difference of sentiment. All admit that God cannot be conceived of, except on the supposition that he has manifested himself; but the next step gives rise to disagreement. What is this manifestation or revelation, from which we derive the knowledge of God? Some conceive such knowledge to be conveyed only by a direct external communication from God ; to which it is objected that freedom of faith and knowledge would be thereby destroyed, and, at the same time, all examination of true religion, and distinction of it from superstition and fanaticism, would cease. To this supernaturalism, which considers religion as something supernat ural, excluding the free activity of the intellectual nature of man, is opposed the other extreme, that religion is founded on human reason alone, and can dispense with a revelation from God. But, generally speaking, the words supernaturalism and rationalism are used particularly in reference to the Christian religion. Rationalism

maintains that the Christian religion must be judged of, like other phenomena, by the only means which we have to judge with, viz. reason. It often goes farther, and asserts, that Jesus was only a man of an elevated character, who purified religion from corruption, and inculcated nobler views respecting God, and the destiny of man, than those which had prevailed among the Jews and heathens before him, and preached and practised a purer morality, which, through God's favor, became widely diffused. All notions which cannot be reconciled with these, they say, ought to be considered as additions to the simplicity of Christianity, and to be set aside, or rejected. Supernaturalism considers the Christian religion as an extraordinary phenomenon, out of the circle of natural events, and as communicating truths above the comprehension of human reason. Jesus is that person of the Godhead who brought this supernatural truth to men, and, by his blood, saved the human species from the lost state to which it had been reduced by the fall of Adam, rose again, and now rules the world with God the Father. Human reason must therefore receive, unconditionally, the mysterious truths, divinely communicated in the Holy Scripture; and this is the only way to learn the truth and obtain salvation. These views are variously modified; and, as is the case with all important questions, many believe that both run into extremes; that in the one, too much is claimed for human reason, whilst in the other, feeling has an undue ascendency; that supernaturalism has depth without clearness, and rationalism, such as we have represented it, clearness without depth. This intermediate party, who by some have been termed rationalists, whilst the extreme party are called hyperrationalists, say that supernaturalism removes religious truth beyond the sphere of the human understanding, and even beyond the possibility of recognition. If, say they, divine truth is something which comes entirely from without, and is unconnected with other truth, where is our capacity to recognise it? The revelation of the omnipresent Ruler of the world, which pervades all ages, is, they further say, annihilated, if Christianity has no connexion with that revelation, or manifestation, and if it is essentially different from what existed before, or without it. On the other hand, they allow that the hyperrationalists misunderstand the character of human reason, and oppose it to Christianity, so as to reduce this to an or

dinary subject of human judgment. Christianity they consider as intermediate between these two views, as presenting in Christ the sublimest union of man with God, whilst it leaves to theological science the task of unfolding the full extent of revealed truth.

as

SUPERSTITION; the error of those who, in their opinions of the causes on which the fate of men depends, believe or disbelieve, without judgment and knowledge. The external causes by which the fate of men is decided, are God and nature; and accordingly there is a religious, and a philosophical superstition. Superstition shows itself either in deriving natural effects from supernatural causes, attributing, for instance, an uncommon disease, connected with striking symptoms, to the influence of some evil spirit, or in believing such events accidentally follow each other to be united by invisible connexions; as, for example, in considering a comet a messenger of distress, because it has happened sometimes, that, after the appearance of a comet, a misfortune has taken place. It is impossible to point out all the kinds of superstition, as they have existed among different nations, and to estimate the melancholy effects which they have had on human virtue and happiness. Yet it is not always easy to fix the limits of superstition; and many an assertion or opinion, which has been rejected, at one time, as mere superstition, has been proved, in later times, to be founded in truth. Medical science, in particular, affords many such instances.

SUPPLEMENT OF AN ARC, in geometry, is the number of degrees that it wants of being an entire semicircle; as complement signifies what an arc wants of being a quadrant. In literature, supplement is an appendage to a book, which supplies what was deficient in it.

SUPPORTERS, in heraldry; figures standing on the scroll, and placed by the side of the escutcheon, and seeming to support or hold up the same. They are sometimes human figures, and at other times animals, and creatures of the imagination.

SUPREMACY. According to the Roman Catholics, St. Peter was not only the head of the apostolical college, but the_pastor of the universal church. The Roman pontiff is the successor of this prince of the apostles, and, like him, has authority and jurisdiction over the whole church, all believers, without exception, owing him respect and obedience. The council of Trent declared that the sovereign pontiff