SOEEL
SOURY
(1834) she pointed out that the pertur
bations of Uranus probably implied the
existence of an outer planet, and this hint
led the Cambridge astronomers to look for
it and discover Neptune. In 1848 she
published her Physical Geography. She
was elected an honorary member of the
Koyal Astronomical Society ; and she
received the gold medal of the Royal
Geographical Society (1869) and the gold
medal of the Italian Royal Geographical
Society. Somerville Hall and the Mary
Somerville Scholarship at Oxford perpetuate
her memory. Her daughter wrote a kind
of biography of her (Personal Recollections,
1873), in which she grudgingly admits that
Mrs. Somerville was a Rationalistic Theist
(pp. 374-76). She discarded Church doc
trines at an early age, refused to admit
miracles, and took the side of science in
the struggle against Genesis. On one
occasion she was " publicly censured by
name from the pulpit of York Cathedral."
D. Nov. 29, 1872.
SOREL, Professor Albert, French historian and sociologist. B. Aug. 13, 1842. Ed. Paris. He graduated in law, but for some years followed a diplomatic career ; and in 1872 he was appointed professor of diplomatic history at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques. In 1876 he became general secretary to the President of the Senate. Sorel was a member of the French Academy and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, corresponding member of the Academies of Cracow, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Berlin, and of the English Royal Historical Society. He was President of the Commission Superieure des Archives Nationales, and Vice -President of the Commission des Archives Diplomatiques. His historical and political works (chiefly L Europe et la revolution franqaise, 8 vols., 1885-91) were numerous ; and his Chilte de la Eoyaute (2 vols., 1885-87) was crowned by the French Academy. Sorel wrote no specific works on religion, but he is outspoken in his histories. D. June 29, 1906.
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SORLEY, Professor William Ritchie,
M.A., Litt.D., LL.D., philosopher. B. Nov. 4, 1855. Ed. Edinburgh and Cam bridge (Trinity College). He was elected fellow of Edinburgh University in 1878, and of Trinity College in 1883. From 1882 to 1887 he was on the Cambridge University Local Lecturers Syndicate ; in 1886-87 deputy professor of the philosophy of mind and logic at London University College ; from 1888 to 1894 professor of logic and philosophy at Cardiff University College ; and from 1894 to 1900 professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen. Since 1900 he has been Knightsbridge professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and was in 1913-15 Gifford Lecturer. Professor Sorley edited Professor Adamson s works (2 vols., 1903), and has written a number of volumes on philosophy (The Ethics of Naturalism, 1885 ; The Interpretation of Evolution, 1910 ; etc.). He tells of his rejection of " revealed religion " in the Hibbert Journal, April, 1913.
SOURY, Professor Jules Auguste,
D. es L., French writer. B. May 28, 1842. Ed. Lycee Louis le Grand, Lycee Saint Louis, and Ecole des Chartes. Soury had followed his father s trade as an optician for some time before he went to college. He studied Hebrew under Renan, and adopted advanced ideas. In 1865 he was appointed sub-librarian at the National Library, and in 1882 professor of physio logical psychology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. In 1897 he became Director of Studies. Soury was a volu minous writer and a very advanced Ration alist. His very drastic opinion of Christ and Christianity is given in his Jesus et les evangiles (1878) and Jesus et la religion d Israel (1898), and his general philo sophical views in his Breviaire de I histoire de materialisme (1880). He translated Haeckel, Noldeke, and other writers into French ; and his Systeme nerveux central (1899) was crowned by the Academies of Science and Medicine. He was an esteemed 750
