SIMSON, ROBERT, a celebrated Scotch mathematician, was b. at Kirton Hall iu Ayr shire, Oct., 1687. He was educated at the university of Glasgow with a view to the clerical profession, and attained groat eminence in classical and mathematical knowledge. His taste for mathematics gradually gained the ascendency, and all other pursuits were abandoned. After a brief residence in London, during which he made the acquaintance of Dr. Halley, Mr. Dittcn, and others, he returned to Glasgow, where in 1711 h'e was appointed professor of mathematic,, for 50 years discharged his professorial duties.
Simson's reputation rests chiefly on " restorations," or, as they might more properly be called, '• reconstructions," of the Greek geometers. Some good judges are of opinion that he has corrected many errors in the original text, though his respect for the Greek init:hematicians always led him to refer these to the ignorance of editors and the negli g•nce of copyists. Ills first attempt in this direction was to discover the signification of Euclid's porisms..the only datum being a most obscure andtantalizing description of them by Pappus, the indefiniteness of which had foiled both Fermat and Halley. In this difficult task Simeon, however, succeeded; and a similar attempt: attended with sirmlar su ecesn,_ on the "loci plani" and the " sect io determinata" of Apollonius, stamped him as one of•the most elegant geometers of modern times. With the thorough insight which he thus obtained into the nature and processes of the Greek analysis. Ile set himself to the correction of Euclid's Elements. This last work was published in 1753, and lias deservedly enjoyed a high character; it has been frequently re-edited and repub lished as it school-book, especially the eilhion by Playfair, Simeon also published, along with his edition of Euclid, a list of Euclid's "data." of which be subsequently issued a second edition; but of his other works, sonic of which were almost ready for publica tion, none were printed till after his death. Lie retired from his professorship in 1761, and employed himself chiefly in the correction of his various works till his death, Oct. 1, 1763. Eight years after Simson's death, earl Stanhope caused to be published (fo• private circulation) at his own expense, the work on porisms, the two restored works of Apollonius, a posthumous tract on ratios, and another on logarithms; and an edition of Pappus, which was discovered after Simson's death, was presented to the university of Ox ford.
SIN is the name given by theologians to the evil of human nature, to the moral defect or perversion which appears an inherent quality of the human will, and in a greater or less degree unavoidably characterizes it in this life. It is something more than evil as affirmed of the• external world or of the lower creation. Eoil, as denoting decay or corruption in nature, is admittedly a mere relative term, for in truth decay is just as normal a process of creation as renovation, and corruption is the eondition of restored health and beauty. In a similar manner, evil. such as it exists in the lower animal crea tion. in Um form of prey and in the forms of pain, of sickness, and of death—whatever be the special view taken of such phenomena—is never reckoned evil in the sense of In order to constitute the special idea of sin, it is always necessary to suppose a moral element in the evil to which it is applied. Whatever form of evil is independent of the human will as its or agent is not sin. Theolorrians, indeed, speak of original sin or the sin of lininan nature, as distinguished from actual sin, or the par ticular transgression of the individuals composing mankind. According to a common theological view, men are not only sinners individually, lint they' are partakers of a sin ful nature, with which their will has had nothing do--with reference to which they have had no choice of genii or evil. The evil has come to them by natural descent from the original parents of the race. But even the most extreme view of original sin preserves a hypothetical relation between every individual will and the primal transgression which it considers to be sin, not merely in those who committed It, but in those who have descended from them. All mankind are supposed to have been in Adam, the first sinner, as their represee halve, so that " they sinned in him and fell with hiin in his first trans gression." Without such a hypothesis of unity between Adam and his race, so that his will was sonic 111 en-Siire the typical or representative will of the race, the notion of original sin could ma be maintained. For the relation between sin and will as a moral power, having the choice of good and evil, is a cardinal relation without which it world seen, impossible to distinguish sin as a quality from other forms of evil in the world.