in Philosophy, a body whose parts are so firmly connected together, as not easily to give way or slip from each other; in which sense solid stands opposed to fluid.

Geometricians define a solid to be the third species of magnitude, or that which has three dimensions, viz. length, breadth, and thickness or depth.

Solids are commonly divided into regular and irregular. The regular solids are those terminated by regular

(A) "I have remarked, that after a great fall of rain, the degree of heat in this water is much less; which will account for what Padre Torre says (in his book, intitled Histoire et Phenomenes du Vesuve), that when he tried it in company with Monsieur de la Condamine, the degree of heat, upon Reaumur's thermometer, was 68°." and equal planes, and are only five in number, viz. the tetrahedron, which consists of four equal triangles; the cube or hexahedron, of six equal squares; the octahedron, of eight equal triangles; the dodecahedron, of twelve; and the icosahedron, of twenty equal triangles.

The irregular solids are almost infinite, comprehending all such as do not come under the definition of regular solids; as the sphere, cylinder, cone, parallelogram, prism, parallelopiped, &c.

**Solids**, in Anatomy, are the bones, ligaments, membranes, muscles, nerves and vessels, &c.

The solid parts of the body, though equally composed of vessels, are different with regard to their consistence; some being hard and others soft. The hard, as the bones and cartilages, give firmness and attitude to the body, and sustain the other parts; the soft parts, either alone or together with the hard, serve to execute the animal functions. See Anatomy.

**Solidago**, a genus of plants belonging to the class of syngenesia, and to the order of polygamia superflua; and in the natural system ranging under the 49th order, Compositae. See Botany Index.

**Solidity**, that property of matter, or body, by which it excludes all other bodies from the place which itself possesses; and as it would be absurd to suppose that two bodies could possess one and the same place at the same time, it follows, that the softest bodies are equally solid with the hardest. See Metaphysics, No. 44, 173, &c.

Among geometricians, the solidity of a body denotes the quantity or space contained in it, and is called also its solid content.

The solidity of a cube, prism, cylinder, or parallelopiped is had by multiplying its basis into its height. The solidity of a pyramid or cone is had by multiplying either the whole base into a third part of the height, or the whole height into a third part of the base.

**Soliloquy**, a reasoning or discourse which a man holds with himself; or, more properly, according to Papins, it is a discourse by way of answer to a question that a man proposes to himself.

Soliloquies are become very common on the modern stage; yet nothing can be more artificial, or more unnatural, than an actor's making long speeches to himself, to convey his intentions to the audience. Where such discoveries are necessary to be made, the poet should rather take care to give the dramatic persons such confidents as may necessarily share their inmost thoughts; by which means they will be more naturally conveyed to the audience; yet even this is a shift which an accurate poet would not have occasion for. The following lines of the duke of Buckingham concerning the use and abuse of soliloquies deserve attention:

Soliloquies had need be very few, Extremely short, and spoke in passion too. Our lovers talking to themselves, for want Of others, make the pit their confidant: Nor is the matter mended yet, if thus They trust a friend, only to tell it us.

**Soliman II**, emperor of the Turks, surnamed the Magnificent, was the only son of Selim I, whom he succeeded in 1520. He was educated in a manner very different from the Ottoman princes in general; for he was instructed in the maxims of politics and the secrets of government. He began his reign by restoring those persons their possessions whom his father had unjustly plundered. He re-established the authority of the tribunals, which was almost annihilated, and bestowed the government of provinces upon none but persons of wealth and probity: "I would have my viceroys (he used to say) resemble those rivers that fertilize the fields through which they pass, not those torrents which sweep every thing before them."

After concluding a truce with Ismael Sophy of Persia, and subduing Gozeli Bey, who had raised a rebellion in Syria, he turned his arms against Europe. Belgrade was taken in 1522, and Rhodes fell into his hands the year following; after an obstinate and enthusiastic defence. In 1526 he defeated and slew the king of Hungary in the famous battle of Mohatz. Three years after he conquered Buda, and immediately laid siege to Vienna itself. But after continuing 20 days before that city, and assaulting it 20 times, he was obliged to retreat with the loss of 80,000 men. Some time after he was defeated by the Persians, and disappointed in his hopes of taking Malta. He succeeded, however, in dispossessing the Genoese of Chio, an island which had belonged to that republic for more than 200 years.

He died at the age of 76, while he was besieging Szigeth, a town in Hungary, on the 30th August 1566.

He was a prince of the strictest probity, a lover of justice, and vigorous in the execution of it; but he tarnished all his glory by the cruelty of his disposition. After the battle of Mohatz he ordered 1500 prisoners, most of them gentlemen, to be ranged in a circle, and beheaded in presence of his whole army.

Soliman thought nothing impossible which he commanded: A general having received orders to throw a bridge over the Drave, wrote him, that it was impossible. The sultan sent him a long band of linen with these words written on it: "The emperor Soliman thy master, orders thee to build a bridge over the Drave in spite of the difficulties thou mayest meet with. He informs thee at the same time, that if the bridge be not finished upon his arrival, he will hang thee with the very linen which informs thee of his will."

**Solipuga**, or Solifuga, in Natural History, the name given by the Romans to a small venomous insect of the spider-kind, called by the Greeks heliocentrus; both words signifying an animal which stings most in the country and seasons where the sun is most hot. Solinus makes this creature peculiar to Sardinia; but this is contrary to all the accounts given us by the ancients. It is common in Africa and some parts of Europe. Almost all the hot countries produce this venomous little creature. It lies under the sand to seize other insects as they go by; and if it meet with any uncovered part of a man, produces a wound which proves very painful; it is said that the bite is absolutely mortal, but probably this is not true. Solinus writes the word solifuga, and so do many others, erroneously deriving the name from the notion that this animal flies from the sun's rays, and buries itself in the sand.

**Solis, Antonio de**, an ingenious Spanish writer, of an ancient and illustrious family, born at Piacenza in Old Castile, in 1610. He was intended for the law; but his inclination toward poetry prevailed, and he cultivated it with great success. Philip IV. of Spain SOLIS made him one of his secretaries; and after his death the queen-regent appointed him historiographer of the Indies, a place of great profit and honour: his History of the Conquest of Mexico shows that she could not have named a fitter person. He is better known by this history at least abroad, than by his poetry and dramatic writings, though in these he was also distinguished. He turned priest at 57 years of age, and died in 1686.

SOLITARY, that which is remote from the company or commerce of others of the same species.