charity, divine love; ROSE-COLOUR, martyrdom;
SAFFRON, confessors; SCARLET, fervour and glory; SILVER, chastity and
purity; VIOLET, penitence; WHITE, purity, temperance, innocence,
chastity, and faith in God. Instances of form: ANCHOR typifies hope;
PALM, victory; SWORD, death or martyrdom; the LAMB, christ; UNICORN,
purity. Of stones, moreover, the AMETHYST typifies humility; DIAMOND,
invulnerable faith; SARDONYX, sincerity; SAPPHIRE, hope, &c.

SYME, JAMES, a great surgeon, born in Edinburgh; was demonstrator
under Liston; was elected to the chair of Clinical Surgery in 1833; gave
up the chair to succeed Liston in London in 1848, but returned a few
months after; was re-elected to the chair he had vacated; he was much
honoured by his pupils, and by none more than Dr. John Brown, who
characterised him as "the best, ablest, and most beneficent of men"; he
wrote treatises and papers on surgery (1799-1870).

SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON, English man of letters, born at Bristol;
educated at Harrow and Oxford; author of "The Renaissance in Italy," a
work which shows an extensive knowledge of the subject, and is written in
a finished but rather flowery style, and a number of other works of a
kindred nature showing equal ability and literary skill; his translation
of Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography is particularly noteworthy; was
consumptive, and spent his later years at Davos, in the Engadine
(1840-1893).

SYMPHLAGADES, two fabulous floating rocks at the entrance of the
Euxine, which, when driven by the winds, crushed every vessel that
attempted to pass between them; the ship ARGO (q. v.) managed to
pass between them, but with the loss of part of her stern, after which
they became fixed.

SYMPHONY, an elaborate orchestral composition consisting usually of
four contrasted and related movements; began to take distinctive shape in
the 17th century, and was for long merely a form of overture to operas,
&c., but as its possibilities were perceived was elevated into an
independent concert-piece, and as such exercised the genius of Mozart and
Haydn, reaching its perfection of form in the symphonies of Beethoven.

SYNAGOGUE, a Jewish institution for worship and religious
instruction which dates from the period of the Babylonian Captivity,
specially to keep alive in the minds of the people a knowledge of the
law. The decree ordaining it required the families of a district to meet
twice every Sabbath for this purpose, and