SONNET, a form of poetical composition invented in the 13th century, consisting of 14 decasyllabic or hendecasyllabic iambic lines, rhymed according to two well-established schemes which bear the names of their two most famous exponents, Shakespeare and Petrarch.  The Shakespearian sonnet consists of three four-lined stanzas of alternate rhymes clinched by a concluding couplet; the Petrarchan of two parts, an octave, the first eight lines rhymed abbaabba, and a sestet, the concluding six lines arranged variously on a three-rhyme scheme.

SONS OF THE PROPHETS.  See NEBIIM.

SONTAG, HENRIETTA, a German singer, born at Coblenz; made her debut at 15; had a brilliant career twice over (1806-1854).

SOOCHOO (500), a large city in China, 50 m.  NW. of Shanghai; is intersected by canals, walled all round, and manufactures fine silk.

SOPHERIM, THE, the name by which the SCRIBES (q. v.) are designated in Jewish literature.

SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER, youngest daughter of ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA (q. v.), and mother of George I. (1630-1714).

SOPHIA, ST., the personification of the Divine wisdom, to whom, as to a saint, many churches have been dedicated, especially the Church of Constantinople.

SOPHIE CHARLOTTE, wife of Friedrich I. of Prussia, born in Hanover, daughter of Electress Sophia; famous in her day both as a lady and a queen; was, with her mother, of a philosophic turn; “persuaded,” says Carlyle, “that there was some nobleness for man beyond what the tailor imparts to him, and even very eager to discover it had she known how”; she had the philosopher Leibnitz often with her, “eagerly desirous to draw water from that deep well—­a wet rope with cobwebs sticking to it often all she got—­endless rope, and the bucket never coming to view” (1668-1705).

SOPHISTS, a sect of thinkers that arose in Greece, and whose radical principle it was that we have only a subjective knowledge of things, and that we have no knowledge at all of objective reality, that things are as they seem to us, and that we have no knowledge of what they are in themselves; “on this field,” says SCHWEGLER, “they disported, enjoying with boyish exuberance the exercise of the power of subjectivity, and destroying, by means of a subjective dialectic, all that had been ever objectively established,” such as “the laws of the State, inherited custom, religious tradition, and popular belief....  They form, in short, the German AUFKLAeRUNG (q. v.), the Greek Illumination (q. v.).  They acknowledged only private judgment and ignored the existence of a judgment that is not private, and has absolute rights irrespective of the sentiments of the individual.”