South Side, the side of an altar on the south or epi-ile side: ili.'ii part of the altar at which the priest, ilurint' the Mass, wiys or singB the collects and the epis- tle for ilie day. See S<ji'Tn Knd.
Southcott, Joanna, a noted enthusiast, was born nlN,ui I7.'i<i at (Mdisliam, in Devonshire. She was the dnugbier of a fnriner at St. Mary Ottery's, in Devon- xbire, and, until her name became cehdjrat'ed, she ob- tained her living as a domestic servant. Her case is a very curioun one. Ixith in the historj' of psychology and of religious enihuHiasm. From her mother, who lived till Joanna ha<l reached the age of womanhood, she re- reivid ilie tnosi exalted reliniouJi ideas, the exuberance of wliicli ht r laibtr often felt liim.si If called upon to
chock : she was still, however, a sober member of the Church of England. At length she joined the early morning and evening meetings of the Wosleyans, and in 1792 associated exclusively with that body; but she was soon exjielled from it on account of her pretend- ed visions. The religious exercises to which Joanna was thus introduced seem to have produced, as exciting causes, her remarkable visions and dreams, which soon took the form of prophecies, and commanded universal attention. Some of her predictions received a remark- able fuUilment, esiipcially that which she published im- diately after the conclusion of the Peace of Amiens, in 1801 ; for she then derided the joy of the nation, and gave the solemn assurance that a calamitous scries of wars were about to break out, the events of which woidd be more terrible than any on record. At a later period, she as solemidy asserted that Napoleon would never land in England, and that his power would be overthrown. The visions which formed the ground of these prophecies are often very striking as dramatic pictures, and the rude doggerel of her prophetic chants as frequently becomes picturestpie, if once the cultivated mind can overcome the disgust first excited by their uncouthness, and their deficiency in common grammat- ical correctness. She began the publication of her ])ro- phetic pamphlets in 1794. and about 1804 was brought up to London and lodged at the West End by some of her admirers, many of whom were persons of consider- ation in society. Soon after this event, an old man named Thomas Dowland and a poor boy named Jo- sejdi also had visions, and a paper-manufacturer named Carpenter (in whose eraploytTient they were) finally published many of them. We mention them here, how- ever, because this Carpenter, conceiving himself to be the " right man" of Joanna's prophecies, finally took her place as the chief of the sect who followed her, having first led the secession when she was believed by the more enlightened of her followers to have fallen under a delusion. That delusion consisted in the belief that she was destined to bring forth Shiloh, or the IMessiah, and its origin is explained by Carpenter as the result of her believing that she was the Church, or bride, itself, instead of its shadow or representative. We may here mention that previous to its arrival at this idolatrous pitch, which it is still painful to contemplate, Joainia had occupied a year in " sealing" her followers, general- ly but most unjustly regarded as a mere trick to make money. The old man Dowland expired in 1804, ten years after the commencement of his, Joseph's, and Jo- anna's prophecies, and 1814 was fixed upon by her for the birth of Shiloh. She was deceived by appearances, and expired on the 27th of December in that year, hav- ing previously declared her conviction that "if she was deceived, she had, at all events, been the sport of some spirit, good or evil." The whole case, like many others of the kind, may be explained by the easily ascertained laws of psychology. The appearance which Joanna mistook for pregnancy was the result of a diseased con- dition, ex])lained when her body was opened. The pre- vailing thought of her writings is the redemjition of man by the agency of 7/,v)7««?i, the supposed cause of his fall. .See .Soi tiicottians.
Soiithcottians, or Soi'TiicoTTF:ns, the followers of .loanna Snuilicott (q. v.), who in 1792 professed to bo a proplieless. 'Vhv liook in which Joanna i)ublished her prophecies is dated London, April 2.'), 1804; and she be- gins by declaring that she herself did not inidcrstand the comnnnncations given her by the Si)irit till they were afterwards ex])lained to her. In November, 1803, she was told to mark the weather during the twenty-four lirsl (lays of Ilie succeeding year, and then the Spirit informed her that tlie weather each day was typical of the events of each succeeding month : New-year's-day to corresiiond with .lanuary, Jaiuiary 2 with February, etc. After this she relates a dream she had in 1792, and declares she foretold the death of bishop Huller, and appeals to a letter put into the hands of a clergy-
SOUTHGATE
897
SOUTHWORTH