Single Combat has always been, among semi- civilized nations, a favorite resort to decide a dispute without the effusion of much blood. Classical history abounds with instances. The Bible also gives a few noteworthy cases, of which the contest between David (q. v.) and Goliath is the most remarkable. Similar customs still prevail among the Arabs (Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouin, p. 174). The practice has in mod- ern times degenerated into that of duelling. See the monographs on the subject cited by Volbeding, Index P7-o(jrammatum, p. 160.
Single Eye is a phrase used in the A.V, (Matt. vi, 29; Luke xi, 34) for 6(p^u\f.ioQ airXovQ, an ?/«- clouded vision, rather than a single aim. See the com- mentators ad loc, and the monographs of Zorn in the Miscell, Buisb, ii, 240 ; and Sommel (Lond. and Goth. 1787),
Singlin, Antoixe, a French theologian, was bom at Paris early in the 17th century, and by the advice of Vincent de Paul embraced the monastic life at the age of twenty-two. After learning Latin in the College de Paris, he entered the Hopital de Pitie to teach the cat- echism to children. Later he attached himself to the abbe of St. Cyran, who induced him to become a priest, and procured him a nomination as confessor to the Port- Royal recluses, to which duty he joined that of superior of two of their houses. His timidity at length caused him to seek a retreat with Madame de Longiieville, where he died, April 17, l(i()4. He was possessed of moderate learning, but sound sense, and a good knowl- edge of the Scriptures and the fathers — qualities which he showed in his Instructions Chretiennes (Paris. 1671-73, and later), being a collection of his sermons, wliich are highly spoken of. He is also the author of several let- ters in the Nouveaux Mhnoires de Poii- Royal. See his Ijife prefixed to Goujet's edition of the former work. — Hoefer, Xouv. Bioy. Generate, s. v.
Singular, a word used by old writers in the sense of Inrotnparalile, matchless, of imequalled excellence. The following examples are taken from king Edward VI's Printer: "Breathe into my heart i)v thy Holy Si)irit this most jirecious and sinyular gift of faith, which worketh by charity, . . . that when thou shalt call me out of this careful life [a life full of cares], I may en- joy that thy most sinynlar and last benefit, which is everlasting glory through Jesus Christ our Lord." — Staunton, Diet, of the Church, s. v.
SINIM
SIN-OFFERING
Si'nim (Heb. Sinim', ^3^0, prob. of foreign etj-- mology ; Sept. Wkpaai ; Vitlg. austrulis), a people whose country ("the land of Sinim") is noticed in Isa. xlix, 12 as being at the extremity of the known world, either in the south or east. The majority of the early inter- preters adopted the former view, but the Sept., in giv- ing }\rsiaits, favors the latter, and the weight of mod- ern authi)rity is thrown into the same scale, the name being identitied by Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, and others with the classical Since, the inhabitants of the southern part of China. No locality in the south equally com- mends itself to the judgment: Sin, the classical Pelu- sium, which Bochart [Phuleg, iv, 27) suggests, is too near, and Syene (jMichaelis, Spicil. ii, 32) would have been given in its well-known Hebrew form. There is no a priori improbability in the name of the Sinag being known to the inhabitants of Western Asia in the age of Isaiah ; for though it is not mentioned by the Greek geographers until the age of Ptolemy, it is certain that an inland commercial route connected the extreme east with the west at a very early period, and that a traffic was maintained on the frontier of China between the Sinaj and the Sc3'thians, in the manner still followed by the Chinese and the Russians at Kiachta. If any name for these Chinese traders travelled westward, it would probabh' be that of the Sinaj, whose town Thinaj (an- other form of the Sinre) was one of the great emporiums in the western part of China, and is represented by the modern Tsin or Tin, in the province of Shensi. The SinfB attained an independent position in Western China as early as the 8th century B.C., and in the 3d century B.C. established their sway under the dynasty of Tsin over the whole of the empire. The Rabbinical name of China, Tsin, as well as "China"' itself, was derived from this dynasty (Gesenius, Thesaur. s. v.). — Smith. This ancient people were known to the Arabians by the name of Sin, and to the Syrians by that of Tsini; and a Hebrew writer may well have heard of them, espe- cially if sojourning at Babylon, the metropolis, as it were, of all Asia. This name appears to have been given to the Chinese by other Asiatics; for the Chinese themselves, though not unacquainted with it, do not employ it, either adopting the names of the reigning dynasties, or ostentatiously assuming high-sounding titles, e. g. Tcfninr/kue, "central empire." But when the name was thus given by other nations, and whence it was derived, is uncertain. The opinion of those writers is possibly correct who suppose that the name d'^D'^O, Siiieses, came from the fourth dynasty, called Tshin, which held the throne from B.C. 249 to 206 (Du Halde, Descript. de la Chine, i, 1, 306; A. Remusat, Nouv. Melanges Asiatiques, ii, .334 sq. ; Klaproth, Journ. Asiaf. X, 53 sq.). A people called Tshinas are spoken of in the laws of Menu, and the name of this dynasty may have been known among foreign nations long be- fore it acciuired the sovereign power over all China. — Kitto. See the Zeitschr.Jur loissensch. Theol. 1863, vol. iv. See China.