The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 415

STERLING, JOHN, a friend of Carlyle's, born at Kames Castle, Bute, son of Captain Sterling of the _Times_; studied at Glasgow and Cambridge; a man of brilliant parts and a liberal-minded, but of feeble health; had Julius Hare for tutor at Cambridge, and became Hare's curate at Hurstmonceaux for eight months; wrote for reviews, and projected literary enterprises, but achieved nothing; spent his later days moving from place to place hoping to prolong life; formed an acquaintances.h.i.+p with Carlyle in 1832; became an intelligent disciple, and believed in him to the last; Hare edited his papers, and wrote his life as a clergyman, and Carlyle, dissatisfied, wrote another on broader lines, and by so doing immortalised his memory (1806-1843).

STERN, DANIEL. See AGOULT.

STERNE, LAURENCE, English humourist, born at Clonmel, Ireland, son of Roger Sterne, captain in the army; his mother an Irishwoman; was educated at Halifax and Cambridge, by-and-by took orders, and received livings in Sutton and s.h.i.+llington, became a prebend at York, and finally got a living at c.o.xwold; in 1759 appeared the first two volumes of "Tristram Shandy," and in 1767 the last two; in 1768 his "Sentimental Journey," and in the interim his "Sermons," equally characteristic of the man as the two former productions. Stopford Brooke says, "They have no plot, they can scarcely be said to have any story. The story of 'Tristram Shandy' wanders like a man in a labyrinth, and the humour is as labyrinthine as the story. It is carefully invented, and whimsically subtle; and the sentiment is sometimes true, but mostly affected. But a certain unity is given to the book by the admirable consistency of the characters," his masterpieces, among which is "Uncle Toby"; the author died in London of pulmonary consumption (1713-1763).

STERNHOLD, THOMAS, princ.i.p.al author of the first English metrical version of the Psalms, originally attached to the Prayer-Book as augmented by John Hopkins; continued in general use till Tate and Brady's version of 1696 was subst.i.tuted in 1717; was a Hamps.h.i.+re man, and held the post of Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. (1500-1549).

STEROPES, one of the three CYCLOPS (q. v.).

STESICHORUS, a celebrated Greek lyric poet, born in Sicily; contemporary of Sappho, Aleacus, and Pittacus; at his birth it is said a nightingale alighted on his lips and sang a sweet strain (632-652 B.C.).

STETTIN (116), capital of Pomerania, and a flouris.h.i.+ng river-port on both banks of the Oder, 30 m. from its entrance into the Baltic, and 60 m. NE. of Berlin; lies contiguous to, and is continuous with, the smaller towns of Bredow, Grabow, and Zullchow; princ.i.p.al buildings are the royal palace (16th century), the Gothic church of St. Peter (12th century), and St. James's (14th century); is a busy hive of industry, turning out s.h.i.+ps, cement, sugar, spirits, &c., and carrying on a large export and import trade.

STEUBEN, BARON VON, general in the American War of Independence, born in Magdeburg; originally in the Prussian service under Frederick the Great, and had distinguished himself at the siege of Prague and at Rossbach; emigrating to America at the end of the Seven Years' War he offered his services, which were readily welcomed, and contributed to organise and discipline the army, to the success of the revolution (1730-1794).

STEVENSON, ROBERT, an eminent Scottish engineer, born at Glasgow, the son of a West India merchant; adopted the profession of his stepfather Thomas Smith, and in 1796 succeeded him as first engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses, a position he held for 47 years, during which he planned and erected as many as 23 lighthouses round the coasts of Scotland, his most noted erection being that on the Bell Rock; introduced the catoptric system of illumination and other improvements; was also much employed as a consulting engineer in connection with bridge, harbour, ca.n.a.l, and railway construction (1772-1850).

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS BALFOUR, novelist and essayist, grandson of the preceding, born at Edinburgh, where in 1875 he was called to the bar, after disappointing his father by not following the family vocation of engineering; had already begun to write for the magazines, and soon abandoned law for the profession of letters, in which he rapidly came to the front; in 1878 appeared his first book, "An Inland Voyage," quickly followed by "Travels with a Donkey," "Virginibus Puerisque," "Familiar Studies"; with "Treasure Island" (1883) found a wider public as a writer of adventure and romance, and established himself permanently in the public favour with "Kidnapped" (1886, most popular story), "The Master of Ballantrae," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," &c.; his versatility in letters was further revealed in his charming "A Child's Garden of Verse,"

"Ballads," "Memories and Portraits," and "A Footnote to History" (on Samoan politics); in 1890 failing health induced him to make his home in the island of Samoa, where he died and is buried; "His too short life,"

says Professor Saintsbury, "has left a fairly ample store of work, not always quite equal, seldom quite without a flaw, but charming, stimulating, distinguished as few things in this last quarter of a century have been" (1850-1894).

STEWARD, LORD HIGH, in early times the highest office of state in England, ranking in power next to the sovereign; hereditary during many centuries, the office lapsed in the reign of Henry IV., and since has been revived only on special occasions, e. g. a coronation, a trial of a peer, at the termination of which the office is demitted, the Lord High Steward himself breaking in two his wand of office.

STEWART, BALFOUR, physicist, born in Edinburgh; after finis.h.i.+ng his university curriculum went to Australia and engaged for some time in business; returned to England; became director at Kew Observatory, and professor of Natural Philosophy at Owens College, Manchester; made discoveries in radiant heat, and was one of the founders of SPECTRUM a.n.a.lYSIS (q. v.); published text-books on physics, in wide repute (1828-1887).

STEWART, DUGALD, Scottish philosopher, born in Edinburgh, son of Matthew Stewart; attended the High School and the University; studied one session at Glasgow under Dr. Reid; a.s.sisted his father in conducting the mathematical cla.s.ses in Edinburgh, and succeeded Adam Ferguson in the Moral Philosophy chair in 1785, a post, the active duties of which he discharged with signal success for twenty-five years, lecturing on a wide range of subjects connected with metaphysics and the science of mind; he wrote "Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind," "Philosophical Essays," &c.; "His writings," says Carlyle, who held him in high veneration, "are not a philosophy, but a making ready for one. He does not enter on the field to till it; he only encompa.s.ses it with fences, invites cultivators, and drives away intruders; often (fallen on evil days) he is reduced to long arguments with the pa.s.sers-by to prove that it _is_ a field, that this so highly-prized domain of his is, in truth, soil and substance, not clouds and shadows. It is only to a superficial observer that the import of these discussions can seem trivial; rightly understood, they give sufficient and final answer to Hartley's and Darwin's and all other possible forms of Materialism, the grand Idolatry, as we may rightly call it, by which, in all times, the true Wors.h.i.+p, that of the Invisible, has been polluted and withstood" (1753-1858).

STEWART, HOUSE OF. See STUART.

STEWART, MATTHEW, mathematician, born at Rothesay; bred for the Church, was for a time minister of Roseneath, and succeeded Maclaurin as professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh in 1747; was the author of a mathematical treatise or two, and the lifelong friend of Robert Simson (1717-1785).

STEYER (17), a manufacturing town of Upper Austria, at the junction of the Steyer and Enns, 20 m. NE. of St. Valentin; noted for its flouris.h.i.+ng iron and steel manufactures, of which it is the chief seat in Austria.

STHENO, one of the THREE GORGONS (q. v.).

STIELER, a celebrated German cartographer, born at Gotha; his atlases are deservedly held in high esteem for their excellence (1775-1836).

STIER, RUDOLF EWALD, German theologian; was a devout student of the Bible as the very Word of G.o.d, and is best known as the author of the "Words of the Lord Jesus" (1800-1862).

STIGAND, archbishop of Canterbury and favourite of Edward the Confessor, who advanced him to the bishoprics of Elmham and Winchester and to the Primacy in 1052; his appointment was popularly regarded as uncanonical, and neither Harold nor William the Conqueror allowed him to perform the ceremony of coronation; through William's influence was by the Pope deprived of his office and condemned to imprisonment.

STIGMATA, impressions of marks corresponding to certain wounds received by Christ at His crucifixion, and which certain of the saints are said to have been supernaturally marked with in memory of His. St.

Francis in particular showed such marks.

STILICHO, a Roman general, son of a Vandal captain under the emperor Valens; on the death of Theodosius I., under whom he served, became the ruler of the West, and by his military abilities saved the Western Empire; defeated Alaric the Goth in a decisive battle and compelled him to retire from Italy, as he did another horde of invading barbarians afterwards; aspired to be master of the Roman empires, but was a.s.sa.s.sinated at Ravenna in 403.

STILL, JOHN, bishop of Bath and Wells, born at Grantham; rose in the Church through a succession of preferments: is credited with the authors.h.i.+p of one of the oldest comedies in the English language, "Gammer Gurton's Needle," turning on the loss and recovery by her of the needle with which she was mending her goodman's breeches (1543-1607).

STILLING, JUNG, a German mystic; studied medicine at Strasburg, and when there became acquainted with Goethe, who took a liking for him and remained his warm friend; settled as a physician at Elberfeldt and became professor at Marburg and at Heidelberg; he was distinguished for his skill in operations on the eye, and is said to have restored to sight without fee or reward 3000 poor blind persons; he is best known by his autobiography; Carlyle defines him as the German "Dominie Sampson."

STILLINGFLEET, EDWARD, bishop of Worcester, born in Dorsets.h.i.+re; was a scholarly man, wrote on apologetics, in defence of the Church of England as a branch of the Church Catholic, in support of the doctrine of the Trinity, and in advocacy of harmony in the Church; was an able controversialist and a generous minded; was a handsome man, and popularly called the "Beauty of holiness" (1635-1699).

STIPPLE, a mode of engraving by dots instead of lines, each dot when magnified showing a group of small ones.

STIRLING, JAMES HUTCHISON, master in philosophy, born in Glasgow; bred to medicine and practised for a time in South Wales; went to Germany to study the recent developments in philosophy there, on his return to Scotland published, in 1863, his "Secret of Hegel: being the Hegelian System in Origin, Principle, Form, and Matter," which has proved epoch-making, and has for motto the words of Hegel, "The Hidden Secret of the Universe is powerless to resist the might of thought! It must unclose before it, revealing to sight and bringing to enjoyment its riches and its depths." It is the work of a master-mind, as every one must feel who tackles to the study of it, and of one who has mastered the subject of it as not another in England, or perhaps even in Germany, has done. The grip he takes of it is marvellous and his exposition trenchant and clear. It was followed in 1881 by his "Text-book to Kant," an exposition which his "Secret" presupposes, and which he advised the students of it to expect, that they might be able to construe the entire Hegelian system from its root in Kant. It is not to the credit of his country that Dr. Stirling has never been elected to a chair in any of her universities, though it is understood that is due to the unenlightened state of mind of electoral bodies in regard to the Hegelian system and the prejudice against it, particularly among the clergy of the Church. He was, however, elected to be the first Gifford Lecturer in Edinburgh University, and his admirers have had to content themselves with that modic.u.m of acknowledgment at last. He is the author of a critique on Sir William Hamilton's theory of perception, on Huxley's doctrine of protoplasm, and on Darwinianism, besides a translation of SCHWEGLER'S "History of Philosophy," with notes, a highly serviceable work. His answer to Huxley is crus.h.i.+ng. He is the avowed enemy of the Aufklarung and of all knowledge that consists of mere Vorstellungen and does not grasp the ideas which they present; _b_.

1820.

STIRLING, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF, poet, born at Menstrie, near Alloa; was for a time tutor to the family of Argyll; was the author of sonnets called "Aurora," some curious tragedies, and an "Elegy on the Death of Prince Henry"; he was held in high honour by James VI. and followed him to London, obtained a grant of Nova Scotia, and made Secretary of State for Scotland; he has been ranked as a poet with Drummond of Hawthornden, who was his friend (1580-1640).

STIRLING-MAXWELL, See MAXWELL, STIRLING.

STIRLING (17), the county town of Stirlings.h.i.+re, and one of the most ancient and historically-interesting cities of Scotland; occupies a fine site on the Forth, 36 m. NW. of Edinburgh and 29 m. NE. of Glasgow; most prominent feature is the rocky castle hill, rising at the westward end of the town to a height of 420 feet, and crowned by the ancient castle, a favourite Stuart residence, and a.s.sociated with many stirring events in Scottish history, and utilised now as a garrison-station; interesting also are "Argyll's Lodging," Greyfriars Church (Pointed Gothic of the 15th century), the fine statue of Bruce, &c.; has manufactures of tartans, tweeds, carpets, &c., and a trade in agricultural and mining products.

STIRLINGs.h.i.+RE (126), a midland county of Scotland, stretching E. and W. from Dumbarton (W.) to the Forth (E.); between Lanark (S.) and Perth (N.) it forms the borderland between the Lowlands and the Highlands; Loch Lomond skirts the western border, and on the northern Loch Katrine, stretching into Perths.h.i.+re; Ben Lomond and lesser heights rise in the NW.; main streams are the Avon, Carron, Bannock, &c.; between Alloa and Stirling stretches the fertile and well-cultivated plain, "The Ca.r.s.e of Stirling"; in the W. lies a portion of the great western coal-field, from which coal and iron-stone are largely extracted; princ.i.p.al towns are STIRLING (q. v.), Falkirk, and Kilsyth; interesting remains of Antoninus' Wall, from Forth to Clyde, still exist; within its borders were fought the battles of Bannockburn, Sauchieburn, Stirling Bridge, Falkirk, &c.

STIRRUP CUP, a "parting cup" given by the Highlanders to guests when they are leaving and have their feet in the stirrups.