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* SHIELDS. 84 SHIITES. Philosophy, or System of Perfeclible Knoivlcdye Issuing from ike Harmony of Hcience and Reli- gion (1877; 3d fd., entitled I'hilosophia Ullima; or The Science of the ticieiices. 188S) ; The Ordvr of the Sciences (1882) ; The Historic Episcopate (1894); and The United Church of the United States (1895). He also published The Reformer of Geneva. An Historical Drama (1898), and The Scientific Evidences of Revealed Religion ( 1900, being the Paddock lectures for that year). SHIELDS, James (1810-79). An American soldier and political leader, born at Duugannon, County T'rone, Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1826, and in 1832 began the practice of the law at Kaskaskia, 111. He served in the Slexican War as a brigadier-general, and was brevetted major-general for gallantry at Cerro Gordo. On his return to the United States he was appointed Governor of Oregon Territory ( 184?), but resigned the next year to accept an election from the Democrats as United States Senator from Illinois. In 1855, however, he re- moved to Minnesota, and three years later was elected Senator from that State, but in 1859 he went to California. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, and in Jlarch, 1862, succeeded to the command of General Lander's division. He was in command at the successful engagement at Winchester (March 23d), where he was severely wounded, and at Port Republic (June 9th), where he was defeated by 'Stonewall' .Jackson. In March, 1863, he resigned from the army and soon afterwards settled at Carrollton, Mo. He was appointed United States Senator from Mis- souri in 1879 to fill an unexpired term. SHIELDTAIL. One of an Oriental family (Uropeltida>) of small burrowing snakes, some- times called 'earth-snakes,' in which the tail is obliquely truncated and covered by an oval horny plate. SHIFTING USE. A use which arises by virtue of an express limitation in a deed, or which may be created by a person named therein upon certain conditions, and which is in deroga- tion of some other estate. For example, if land is conveyed in fee to the use of A and his heirs intil B marries C, then to the use of B and his heirs, a shifting use is thereby created, as it is in derogation of A's estate. The doctrine of shifting uses affords a means of limiting a 'fee upon a fee,' which was not possible under the early connnon law. Shifting uses are not recog- nized as such to-day, but the principles governing them have been adopted into the modern law of trusts. In a few States the doctrine of uses has been expressly abolished by statute. Consult Gilbert. Laic of Uses and Trusts (3d ed., Lon- don, isn ). SHIITES, she'Its (from Ar. sAi'a/i, party, sect, from sha'a, to accompany, follow, spread abroad). The sect in Islam which insists upon the sole legitimacy of Ali and his descendants as the successors of Mohammed, and so are opposed to the Sunnites (q.v. ). The division has its root in the different opinions and struggles concerning the successor of the Prophet. (See Mohammedan Sects.) Ali seems to have been capable of in- voking an extraordinary enthusia.sm in his fol- lowers, such as even the Prophet never gained, and the personal element has since remained one of the sources of Shiite strength. Further, the tragedies of his house have given a sentimental motif to his party, which is richer and more at- tractive than anything found in the jn'osaio ortho- do.xy of Islam. The memor}- of the tragedy is still celebrated from year to year by the Shiite world in a kind of passion play on the tenth day of iluharrani, the anniversarj- of Kerbela. (See Hasan and Hosein.) The conservatives ac- knowledged All's caliphate and revered him as a saint and martyr, but they possessed no such legitimist principles as his adherents. A bitter struggle followed his selection as Caliph. (See Ommiads; Moawiyah.) The resulting history is a I'emarkably eumplieated one, partly by reason of the interfusion of the Shiites throughout ortho- do.x Islam, and partly because the party itself soon split upon all kinds of political purposes, per- sonal ambitions, and theological tenets. We find them in part founding new States, in part es- tabli.shing mystical fraternities and schools of liberal thouglit, in part cherishing, more or less patiently, millennial hopes. As has been said, the root of the sect lay in the personality of Ali. Politically, this involved the sole right of succession as inherent in his de- scendants. Here, however, various views de- veloped according to the claims of various lines; some held that descent must pass through Fa- tima, the daughter of Mohammed and wife of Ali, others that any of All's descendants were legitimate. Further, about All's person arose a theology which was incongruous to original Is- lam, and which gave room for all forms of the- osophic speculation. He came to be named in the creed along with God and Mohanmied as 'the representative of God.' Some, even in his lifetime, held him to be an incarnation of (_!od. Others, starting from his violent death, taught that he was reserved for a future reappearance, as the Hidden Imam, or Mahdi (q.v.), who should establish the millennium ; this notion was contributed to by the large numbers of Jewish and Christian converts that came into Islam. Yet another development of thought held that Ali was reincarnated in the Imams, his legiti- mate descendants ; this was the product of Ori- ental theosophy coming in through Persia and India. In general, the doctrine was that God never left Himself without an authoritative rep- resentative or Imam in the world, and that it was the business of the faithful to find him. The strength, therefore, of the Shiites lay in the doc- trine of legitimism, and in the opportunity it gave to those temperaments and races Avhich desired a richer theology than that of simple Moslem unitarianism. With the passing of Is- lam out of Arabian hands, the development of history made the whole doctrine of a legitimacy of blood or race as a sine qua non of the ruler a pure fiction, and in its opportunism lay the strength of Sunnite orthodoxy, which was thus able to assimilate the barbarian races which conquered original Islam. As for the pe- culiar Shiite theologies, they antagonized in gen- eral the spkit and letter of the Koran, to which as a religion of a book Islam is necessarily boiuid. Thus we find Shiism perpetuating itself secretly and coming to the surface sporadically or on the periphery of Islam, but never able to gain any but a temporary control over the great Moslem body. Its history, therefore, is a story