[Sylvester, St.], the first Pope of the name, said to have converted Constantine and his mother by restoring a dead ox to life which a magician for a trial of skill killed, but could not restore to life; is usually represented by an ox lying beside him, and sometimes in baptizing Constantine.
[Symbolism] has been divided into two kinds, symbolism of colour and symbolism of form. Of colours, black typifies grief and death; blue, hope, love of divine works, divine contemplation, piety, sincerity; pale blue, power, Christian prudence, love of good works, serene conscience; gold, glory and power; green, faith, immortality, resurrection, gladness; pale green, baptism; grey, tribulation; purple, justice, royalty; red, martyrdom for faith, 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 so religiously did the Jewish people observe it that it continues a characteristic ordinance of Judaism to this day. The study of the law became henceforth their one vocation, and the synagogue was instituted both to instruct them in it and to remind them of the purpose of their separate existence among the nations of the earth. High as the Temple and its service still stood in the esteem of every Jew, from the period of the Captivity it began to be felt of secondary importance to the synagogue and its service. With the erection and extension of the latter the people were being slowly trained into a truer sense of the nature of religious worship, and gradually made to feel that to know the will of God and do it was a more genuine act of homage to Him than the offering of sacrifices upon an altar or the observance of any religious rite. Under such training the issue between the Jew and the Samaritan became of less and less consequence, and he and not the Samaritan was on the pathway which led direct to the final worship of God in spirit and in truth (John iv. 22).
[Synagogue, the Great], the name given to a council at Jerusalem, consisting of 120 members, there assembled about the year 410 B.C. to give final form to the service and worship of the Jewish Church. A Jewish tradition says Moses received the law from Sinai; he transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, to the men of the Great Assembly, who added thereto these words: "Be circumspect in judgment, make many disciples, and set a hedge about the law." To them belong the final settlement and arrangement of the Jewish Scriptures, the introduction of a new alphabet, the regulation of the synagogue worship, and the adoption of sundry liturgical forms, as well as the establishment of the [Feast of Purim] (q. v.), and probably the "schools" of the Scribes.
[Syncretism], name given to an attempted blending of different, more or less antagonist, speculative or religious systems into one, such as Catholic and Protestant or Lutheran and Reformed.
[Syndicate], in commercial parlance is a name given to a number of capitalists associated together for the purpose of carrying through some important business scheme, usually having in view the controlling and raising of prices by means of a monopoly or "corner."