Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

Another friend states that the grey squirrel is a common dish in Virginia. It is usually broiled, and is very palatable. Peromys Sabrinus, var. B. Alpinus; Rocky Mountain Flying-Squirrel.

Description.-Yellowish brown above: tail flat, longer than the body, blackish grey; flying membrane with a straight border. Length 14 inches 3 lines; of which the tail, including fur, measures 6 inches 3 lines.

This is the Pteromys Alpinus of Richardson, Zool. Journ., vol. iii., p. 519.

Dr. Richardson observes that this animal was discovered by Mr. Drummond, on the Rocky Mountains, living in dense pine-forests, and seldom venturing from its retreats, except in the night. Dr. Richardson had received specimens of it from the head of the Elk river, and also from the south branch of the Mackenzie. It approaches, be says, nearer to the Pt. volans of Siberia in the colour of its fur than to Pt. Sabrinus, but it has much resemblance to the latter in its form. It is, he adds, entirely destitute of any rounded process of the flying membrane behind the foreleg, and when its skull is compared with that of Pl. Sabrinus, the frontal bone between the orbits appears narrower. The size of its limbs and tail is also greater. These remarks were made by Dr. Richardson on a comparison of the specimens of this animal and of Pt. Sabrinus, which he at first received, and he was induced to think that they were specifically distinct; but having afterwards had an opportunity of examining a more complete suite of specimens from Hudson's Bay, doubts were excited on the subject, and although he thought it probable, from the distance between their respective localities, that they may prove eventually to be distinct, he considered it better, when he wrote, to describe them as mere varieties. He concludes by observing that, except that the size of both these species is considerably greater than that of Pt. volans, they might be united with that species without any great inconvenience.

SRINAGHUR. [SERINAGHUR.]

STA'AVIA, a genus of plants of the natural family of Bruniaceæ, which was so named by Thunberg after Staaf, one of the botanical correspondents of Linnæus. The genus consists of several small shrubs, which are indigenous at the Cape of Good Hope, and are remarkable for their flowers being arranged in heads resembling those of some of the Composite. Calyx with the lower part of its tube attached to the ovary. Petals 5, stamens 5, inserted into the calyx Capsule crowned by the calyx, dioecious, cocci bivalved at the apex, and one-seeded. A few specimens are cultivated in our greenhouses, and may be propagated from cuttings in sand covered with a bell-glass. STABLE. [FARM.]

STABLE AND UNSTABLE; STABILITY. A system. is said to be stable when a slight disturbance of its actual condition would not produce a continually increasing effect, but one which finally ceases to increase, diminishes, becomes an effect of a contrary character, and so on, in ar oscillatory manner. The ordinary vibration of a pendulu is an instance; the oscillation takes place about a stable position of equilibrium. We can give no instance of an unstable position; for by definition, such a thing is a mathematical fiction. Any disturbance, however slight, produces upon an unstable system an effect which continually increases: no unstable equilibrium therefore can exist a moment, for, no system made by human hands can be placed with mathematical exactness in a given position. The pendulum of which we have just been speaking has a position of equilibrium exactly opposite to that about which it can oscillate, but no nicety of adjustment will retain it in that position: it may appear to rest for a moment, but will almost instantly begin to fall.

The following curves or lines are all such that, supposing them to be rigid matter, a molecule placed at A would rest:

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

5

In the first, a displacement to the right or left would produce nothing but oscillation, and the equilibrium is stable; in the second, neither displacement would be followed by any tendency to restoration, and the equilibrium is unstable; in the third, displacement would only be a removal to another position of rest, and the equilibrium is called indifferent. In the fourth, displacement to the right would be followed by restoration, but the velocity acquired in restoration would carry the molecule to the left, on which side there is no tendency to restoration: the equilibrium would then be permanently disturbed, and practically unstable; though it might be convenient to say that it is stable as to disturbances to the right, and unstable as to those to the left. In the fifth, the equilibrium at A is unstable, but if a push, however slight, were given to the molecule, it would obviously, by reason of the two contiguous stable positions, oscillate about A as if A were itself a stable position: and in the same manner a stable position, with an unstable ore near to it, might, for a disturbance of sufficient magnitude, present the phenomena of an unstable position.

Now, suppose that the point A, instead of being a single molecule, is the centre of gravity of a system acted on by its own weight only; and let the curve drawn be the path of the centre of gravity, which, owing to the connection of the parts of the system with its supports, that centre is obliged to take. The phenomena of the single point still remain true: there is in every case a position of equilibrium when the system is placed in such a position that its centre of gravity is at A. In (1) the equilibrium is stable; in (2), unstable; in (3) indifferent; in (4), stable or unstable, ac cording to the direction of disturbance; in (5), unstable, with results like those of stability. It is an error to state,

Pieromys Alpinus, or Pierones Sabrinus, var. B. (Richardson, Fauna Bo. as is frequently done, that there is no equilibrium in such

reali-Americana.)

FOSSIL SQUIRRELS.

Fossil squirrels (Sciurus) occur in the Eocene period of the tertiary series of strata (first lacustrine period). They have been found in the gypsum quarries in the neighbourhood of Paris. Their remains have also been taken from the loam which fills the cavities of the gypsum in the valley of the Elster near Köstritz in Saxony. [SouSLIK.]

a system except when its centre of gravity is highest or lowest; as is obvious from (3) and (4). The general proposition which is true is this-that a system acted on by its own weight is in equilibrium then, and then only, when its centre of gravity is placed at that point of its path which has its tangent parallel to the horizon, or perpendicular to the direction of gravity.

When a system is supported on three or more points, it is well known that there is no equilibrium unless the

vertical passing through the centre of gravity cuts the polygon formed by joining these points. This must not be confounded, as is sometimes done, with a case of distinction between stable and unstable equilibrium; for it is a case of equilibrium or no equilibrium, according as the central vertical cuts or does not cut the base of the figure. Of course it is in the power of any one to say that stability means equilibration and instability non-equilibration: but such is not the technical use of these words in mechanics: stability and instability refer to equilibrium, stable equilibrium being that which would only be converted into oscillation by a disturbance, and unstable equilibrium that which would not be so converted.

Neither must the effects of friction or other resistances be confounded with those of a stable or unstable disposition. A ladder resting against horizontal ground and a vertical wall is maintained by friction; were it not for friction, there would not be rest in any position; and as it is, the angle which the ladder makes with the ground must not be too small. There is thus a set of positions, from the vertical one to a certain inclination, depending on the amount of friction, in all of which there is equilibrium; while in every other position there is no equilibrium. Again, when a bar rests on two inclined planes, without friction, there is a position of equilibrium which is really unstable: any displacement would throw the bar against one of the planes without any restoration. The stable position of equilibrium is found by inverting the position of the inclined planes, or turning their angle downwards, grooving them to support the ends of the bar, which are formed so as to be retained in the grooves. The bar will now, if left to itself, begin to oscillate about its position of equilibrium, unless it happened to be placed at first in that position. But introduce friction, and the upper position of equilibrium alters its character: a small displacement will not destroy the equilibrium. This is the effect of friction, which affords certain limits within which there is always equilibrium. For none of these cases must the words stability and instability be used in such manner as to confuse their popular with their technical sense.

We have already [SOLAR SYSTEM] pointed out what is meant by the stability of the solar system. When a system has a motion of a permanent character, it is stable if a small disturbance only produce oscillations in that motion, or make permanent alterations of too slight a character to allow the subsequent mutual actions of the parts to destroy the permanent character of the motion. Suppose a material body, for instance, to revolve about an axis passing through the centre of gravity unacted on by any forces except the weight of its parts. If this axis be one of the principal axes, the rotation on it is permanent, that is, the axis of rotation will continue unaltered, even though that nxis be not fixed. The rotation however, though permanent, is not stable about more than two out of the three principal axes. Let the first rotation be established about the axis which has the greatest moment of rotation, or the least, and if a slight displacement or disturbance be given, which has the effect of producing a little alteration of the axis of rotation, that alteration will not increase indefinitely, but will only occasion a perpetual transmission of the rotation from axis to axis, all the lines lying near to the principal axis first mentioned. But if that axis be chosen about which the moment of inertia is neither greatest nor least, any disturbance, however slight, will continually remove the axis of rotation farther and farther from the first axis, near which it will not return until it has made a circuit about one of the other two principal axes.

For the mathematical part of this subject, so far as we give it, see VIRTUAL VELOCITIES.

STACHYS (from oraxúc, a spike), the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Lamiaceæ, or Labiatæ. It has a 5-toothed, 10-ribbed, nearly equal, acuminate, subcampanulate calyx; a corolla with the tube as long as the calyx, or longer; upper liperect, or spreading, a little arched; lower lip usually longer, spreading, and 3-lobed; the middle segment large, entire, or emarginate; four stamens; bifid style with stigmas at each apex; fruit an achenium. The species are very numerous, above 100 being enumerated. They are herbs or under-shrubs, with their flowers arranged in whorls. The majority of them are European plants.

S. betonica, common betony: stems erect, rather pilose; lower leaves on long petioles, and crenated; upper leaves sessile, toothed; uppermost ones linear, quite entire; whorls many-flowered; bracts ovate; corolla twice as long

[ocr errors]

as the calyx. This species is the Betonica officinalis of Linnæus. It is now a species of the genus Stachys, but it was formerly a species of the genus Betonica; but the characters which constituted the difference between the latter and the former having been considered too trifling to constitute separate genera, the genus Betonica has been abolished by later botanists. The common betony is a native of Europe and some parts of Asia, inhabiting woods, heaths, and pastures. It is very plentiful in Great Britain. It was formerly much used in medicine, and is now a popular remedy for some complaints. When taken fresh it is said to possess intoxicating properties. The leaves have a rough bitter taste, and are slightly aromatic. The roots are nauseous and very bitter, and when taken, act as purgatives and emetics.

S. lanata, woolly woundwort: whole plant clothed with dense silky wool; leaves oblong, narrowed at both ends; floral leaves small, the upper ones of which are shorter than the whorls; whorls many-flowered; bracts linear-lanceolate, the same length as the calyx ; calyx incurved, toothed; corolla woolly. This plant is a native of Europe, in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean. Dr. Sibthorp found it in Laconia, where it is called oraxos by the modern Greeks. This plant is remarkable for its woolly covering, as well as the S. Germanica (German woundwort), on which account they have been introduced into our gardens. Many other species are covered with hairs so as to give them a powdery-looking woolly character, as the S. Alpina, S. Italica, &c.

S. coccinea, scarlet hedge-nettle: stem erect, clothed with soft villi; herbaceous ovato-lanceolate petiolate leaves; flowers six in a whorl; corolla pubescent, three times as long as the tube. This is the most beautiful species of the genus, having large dark scarlet flowers an inch in length. It is a native of Chili and Peru. It must be cultivated as a greenhouse plant, and is readily increased by cuttings or parting its roots.

S. palustris, marsh-woundwort, or clown's all-heal: stems erect, pubescent, herbaceous; leaves subsessile, oblong, crenated, wrinkled, hispid; whorls with 6 or more flowers; calyx with lanceolate acute teeth; corolla twice as long as the calyx. It has pale purple flowers, with a variegated lower lip of the corolla. This plant is a native of Europe, Asia, and North America. It is abundant in watery places, by road sides, in meadows, and corn-fields in Great Britain. It is called clown's all-heal by Gerard. The young shoots and the roots also, when cooked, form an excellent esculent. On the farm it is a weed that should be well looked after, as it exhausts the soil and increases very rapidly.

S. sylvatica, the hedge-woundwort, is another common British species, differing from the last in having stalked leaves which are cordato-ovate shaped. It inhabits woods, hedges, and shady places. This herb is very pungent, and has an unpleasant fœtid smell.

S. Corsica, Corsican woundwort: procumbent, pilose; leaves with petioles; flowers in 2-4-flowered whorls; corolla twice as long as the calyx, lower lip large. This is a pretty little plant worthy of cultivation. It has downy, rosy-white, or pink flowers, which are large for the size of the plant. It is a native of corn-fields in Corsica and Sardinia.

S. lavandulæfolia, lavender-leaved woundwort: leaves of the stem oblong, lanceolate with petioles, floral leaves sessile; whorls 2-6-flowered; teeth of calyx longer than corolla. It is a native of the Caucasus, in dry stony places. It is shrubby in its habit, and is well adapted for rock-work.

The whole of the species are easily cultivated in common garden soil. The herbaceous sorts may be increased by dividing their roots; the shrubby sorts, by cuttings; annuals may be sown in spring in an open border.

STACHYTARPHA (from στάχυς, a spike, and ταρφής, dense), the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Verbenacea. It is known by its tubular 4-toothed calyx; hypocrateriform unequal 5-cleft corolla with a curved tube; 4 stamens, 2 of which are fertile. The species are natives of South America and the West India Islands. Many of them have been described as Vervains, but they are distinct from that genus. They are herbaceous or shrubby, and many of them are handsome plants.

S. Jamaicensis, Jamaica Bastard Vervain, is an undershrub, with scattered hairy branches; leaves nearly two inches long, oblong-ovate, coarsely and sharply serrated, quite entire at the base, with the midrib beset with hairs; the spike is dense, bearing flowers of a lilac colour, and

having ovate bracts which are shorter than the calyx. This plant is a native of the West India Islands, and has there a reputation something like that which distinguished our common Vervain.

STACKHOUSE, THOMAS, born 1681, died 1752, a divine of the English church, and one of the first persons who wrote extensive works in theology for the booksellers, expressly for the purpose of sale among the less educated portions of the population. Of his birth, education, and early history, nothing appears to be known. The letters M.Á. appear after his name on his monument, and in the title-pages of some of his books, but his name is not found in the lists of graduates of Oxford or Cambridge. We have his own authority for saying that he was in early life living at Amsterdam, and performing clerical duties there, but we look in vain in Mr. Stevens's work on the English and Scottish churches in Holland for any notice of him; and the first that is known of him when in England is, that he was curate at Richmond, as afterwards at Ealing and at Finchley, in all which places he was much respected. He continued a curate for the greater part of his life, and the utmost preferment which he obtained was the vicarage of Benham in Berkshire, which was given him in 1733, and where he died and was buried.

Various anonymous tracts have been attributed to him, and there are others to which his name is affixed that are supposed to be by other, writers, but none of them are of sufficient importance to require more than this general notice. His first publication was on a subject which continued ever after to be a favourite one with him-the hardships of the inferior clergy, especially those in and about London. This appeared in the form of A Letter to a Right Reverend Prelate' in 1722. In the next year he published Memoirs of Bishop Atterbury, and in 1729 appeared his Complete Body of Divinity, in a folio volume. He engaged at this period in the controversy with the Freethinkers of the time, and in a manner to gain great credit. In 1731 he published Reflections on the Nature and Property of Language.' In 1732 he was engaged in an acrimonious dispute with a bookseller, for whom he had engaged to write a work, to be published in numbers, entitled A History of the Bible.' A full account of this affair is given in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,' vol. ii., p. 394-398. The work appeared, and forms two volumes in folio. It embraces the whole of the Sacred History from the beginning to the establishment of Christianity, with maps, prints, and useful tables. In 1747 he published in folio A New and Practical Exposition of the Apostles' Creed. There are other published writings of his not here particularly named. He lived a laborious and necessitous life, and just before his death he deplored his miserable condition in all the keen expressions of despair and bitter disappointment,' in a poem published in the year of his decease, which he entitled Vana Doctrinæ Emolumenta.'

STACKHOUSE, JOHN, principally known as a botanist, was the youngest son of William Stackhouse, a minister of the established church, and the nephew of Thomas Stackhouse. He pursued his studies at Oxford, and was made a fellow of Exeter college, which he resigned in 1763, and went to live at Bath, where he resided all his life. He employed the leisure which an independent fortune gave him in the pursuit of botany, and made many valuable contributions to that science. He was one of the earliest fellows of the Linnean Society. His attention was principally directed to the study of Algae. In 1801 he published his Nereis Britannica in folio, a work containing descriptions in Latin and English of the Fuci, Algae, and Confervæ growing in England, and illustrated with coloured plates. Many new species of marine Algae were described in this work, and dissections given of some other species. Of this work a second edition appeared in quarto in 1816; the descriptions are entirely in Latin, and the plates uncoloured. In 1814 he published an edition of Theophrastus On Plants, in two volumes, which was illustrated with plates, and contained a catalogue of the plants of Theophrastus, with a copious glossary and many valuable notes. In 1811 he published Illustrationes Theophrasti,' in which the plants of that author are arranged according to the Linnæan system, and the modern synonyms are given. He also published an essay on the Balsam and Myrrh trees, with remarks on the notices of them by modern travellers and antient writers, especially Theophrastus. He contributed two papers to the

Linnæan Transactions,' one on the Ulva punctata, the other on the preparation of plants for herbaria. He died at Bath, in November, 1819.

STACKHOU'SIA, a small order of plants belonging to the syncarpous group of polypetalous Exogens. They are herbaceous plants, with simple, entire, alternate, sometimes minute leaves, with lateral very minute stipules. The flowers are arranged in spikes, each flower having three bracts. The calyx is 1-leaved, 5-cleft equal, tube inflated; petals 5, arising from the top of the tube of the calyx, the claws forming a tube which is longer than the calyx; stamens 5, arising from the throat of the calyx; ovary superior 3-5-lobed; fruit dry, with albuminous seeds and erect embryo. This order was constituted by Brown, and its nearest relations are with Celastraceae and Euphorbiacea. From the first it differs in the possession of stipules, the cohesion of the petals, and the deep-lobed ovary; from the last, in the structure of their fruit, and in the position of their seeds. All the species are natives of New Holland. The only genus of the order at present is Stackhousia which was named in honour of John Stackhouse.d

[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

4, Petals, showing their union to form a tube. 5, Stamens arising from ealy 1, Spike with flowers. 2, Cutting with leaves. 3, Calyx, corolla and braels 6, Ovary and styles. 20 rudmus aidt bns eveb s

STADE, the capital of the duchy of Bremen in the king dom of Hanover, is in 55° 36' N. lat. and 9° 24' E. long. It is situated in a marshy country on the banks of the river Schwinge (which is navigable at high-water), which falls into the Elbe about three miles below the town. Stade was formerly strongly fortified, but the works were blown up at the end of the eighteenth century. They have however since been repaired, Among the public buildings are three churches, in which there are some bandsome monuments; a town-hall, a gymnasium, an orphan asylum, and a poorhouse. The town, with the suburbs, contains about 800 houses and 5500 inhabitants, who have manufac tures of flannel, worsted stockings, hats, and lace. There are breweries and brandy distilleries, a cannon foundry, and a ropewalk. This town is the seat of the public offices for the provinces of Bremen and Verden. The foreign trade is not so considerable as it appears to have formerly been. The transit trade is of some importance: the exports are fat oxen, wooden wares, and stockings. Some vessels go every year to the Greenland whale-fishery, and also to the seal and herring fishery. ayd Is into the

At the place where the Schwinge falls into the Elbe there is a fort with a garrison, called the Schwinger Schanze, off which a royal cutter of four or eight guns is constantly sta tioned, for the purpose of collecting the duties levied by the Hanoverian government on all vessels passing up or down the Elbe. The original duties, which were regulated by a treaty in 1691, were light, but have been greatly increased and the Hanoverian government acknowledges that they now produce about 33,000l., though it is stated by some that

T

they yield as much as 45,000l. a-year. For this sum neither a light house nor other establishments advantageous to navigation are maintained. By the treaty of Vienna the navigation of all rivers from the sea to the highest navigable point is declared to be free of all imposts, except for the support of buoys, lights, or towing-paths; and the collection of the Stade duty is in direct contravention of this treaty. Negociations between England and Hanover are actually pending on the subject. The duties are rigorously collected, and the tariff embraces nearly seven thousand different articles. An erroneous insertion of cotton-twist' for cottons,' which made a difference of only seven shillings in the duty, subjected a ship on one occasion to 2157. fine and expenses. The average duty on each British ship which ascends to Hamburgh is about 187.

6

STADIUM (ὁ στάδιος and τὸ στάδιον), the principal Greek measure of length, was equal to 600 Greek or 625 Roman feet, that is, to 606 feet 9 inches English. The Roman mile contained 8 stadia. The Roman writers often measure by stadia, chiefly in geographical and astronomical measurements. (Herod., ii. 149; Plin., Hist. Nat., ii. 23 or 21; Columell., Re. Rust., v. 1; Strabo, vii., p. 497.) The standard length of this measure was the distance between the pillars at the two ends of the foot-race course at Olympia, which was itself called stadium, from its length, and this standard prevailed throughout Greece. writers have attempted to show that there were other stadia in use in Greece besides the Olympic. The only passages in which anything of the kind seems to be stated are one in Censorinus (De Die Natali, c. 13), which, as far as it can be understood, evidently contains some mistake; and another which is quoted by Aulus Gellius (i. 1) from Plutarch, but which speaks of the race-courses called stadia,

not of the stadium as a measure.

Some

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

2. The race-course for foot-races at Olympia was called stadium, as above mentioned, and the same name was applied to all other such courses.

The stadium consisted of a flat area, surrounded by raised seats, and was made either in a spot which had by nature the required shape, or in the side of a hill, or on a plain. In the last two cases the stadium was constructed by forming a mound of earth of the proper shape, and covering it with stone or marble for the seats. The second of these Of the third we have three forms was the most common. a fine example in the Panathenaic Stadium at Athens. [ATHENS.] The area of the stadium was oblong, termibounded by a wall, at the two extremities of which were nating at one end in a semicircle. At the other end it was the entrances, one on each side of the stadium. Here was the starting-place (apeois, ypaμμý, venλnk, or Baλbic), marked by a square pillar in the middle of the breadth of the area. Another such pillar was placed at the other end of the course, at the distance of stadium from the former, and The principal argument for a variety of stadia is that of at or near the centre of the semicircular end of the area. Major Rennell (Geog. of Herod., s. 2); namely, that when This pillar marked the termination of the simple foot-race antient authors have stated the distances between known [OLYMPIC GAMES]. but in the Diaulus the runners turned places, and a comparison is made between their statements round it and went back to the starting-place; in the Doliand the actual distances, the distances stated by them are chus they turned round both pillars several times, according invariably found to be too great, never too small. Hence to the number of stadia of which the course consisted. The the conclusion is drawn that they used an itinerary stade end of the course was called τέρμα, βατήρ, τέλος, καμπτήρ shorter than the Olympic. If so, it is strange that the very and voca. Halfway between these pillars stood a third. writers who have left us these statements of distances have On the pillar at the starting-place was inscribed the word not said a word about the itinerary stade which they are apiareve (excel); on the middle one, orEvde (hasten); on The semicircular supposed to have used, while several of them often speak of the one at the goal, ráμfov (turn). the Olympic stade as containing 600 Greek feet. But there end of the area (pevdový) was thus not used in the footis a very simple explanation of the difficulty, which is given Here probably the other gymnastic contests took by Ukert, in his Geographie der Griechen und Römer (i.; place; for though the stadium was originally intended only ii., p. 56, &c.). The common Greek method of reckoning for the foot-race, yet as the other contests came to be added distances, both by sea and land, was by computation, not by to the games, they also took place in the stadium, except measurement. A journey or voyage took a certain number the horse-races, for which a separate course was set apart, of days, and this number was reduced to stadia, by allow-shaped like the stadium, but larger: this was called izzóing a certain number of stadia to each day's journey. The number of stadia so allowed was computed on the supposition that circumstances were favourable to the traveller's

progress; and therefore every impediment, such as wind, tide, currents, windings of the coast, a heavily laden or badly sailing ship, or any deviation from the shortest track by sea, and the corresponding hindrances by land, would all tend to increase the number of days which the journey took, and consequently the number of stadia which the distance was computed to contain. These circumstances, together with the fact that the Greek writers are by no means agreed as to the number of stadia contained in a day's journey, and other sources of inaccuracy which we know to have existed, furnish a satisfactory explanation of the discrepancies which we find in their statements of distances, both when compared with one another, and when compared with the actual fact, without there being any occasion to resort to the supposition of a stade different from the Olympic. Colonel Leake, who has recently investigated this subject (On the Stade as a Linear Measure, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. ix., 1839), has also come to the conclusion that the stade, as a linear measure, had but one standard, namely, the length of the foot-race, or interval between the aperipta and xapro in all the stadia of Greece, and which is very clearly defined as having contained 600 Greek feet.'

[ocr errors]

The calculations of Romé de l'Isle and Gosselin respect ing the various stadia which they suppose to have been used in Greece depend entirely upon the improbable assumption that the Greek astronomers were acquainted with the true length of a great circle of the earth.

race.

poμos.

Among the seats which surrounded the area, a conspicuous place, opposite to the goal, was set apart for the three Hellanodicae, who decided the contests, and who entered the stadium by a secret passage. Opposite to them, on the other side of the stadium, was an altar, on which the priestesses of Demeter Chamyne sat to view the games. area was ornamented with several altars and statues. The position of the stadium was sometimes, but not always, in connection with the gymnasium.

The

Under the Romans many of the Grecian stadia were modified so as to resemble the amphitheatre.

There still exist considerable ruins of stadia: among the most remarkable of which are those at Delphi, Athens, Messene, Ephesus, and Laodicea.

(Pausanias, ii. 27, 6; vi. 20, 5, 6; 1x. 23, 1; Müller's Archäologie der Kunst, sec. 290; Krause, Die Gymnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen, i., p. 131, &c.)

STÄDTHOLDER (Statthalter in German, Stadhouder in Dutch) means lieutenant or governor. The appellative Statthalter is used in the cantons of German Switzerland to denote the civil officer who is next to the landamman or chief magistrate. In the federal republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, the stadhouder was himself the first magistrate or president of the Union. When several of the towns of Holland revolted against the tyranny of the Duke of Alba, the lieutenant of King Philip of Spain, they chose for their governor William, prince of Orange, swearing allegiance to him as the king's stadhouder, thus implying that they had revolted against the Duke of Alba and not against King Philip. But it was not until after the

death of William, in 1584, that the three united provinces | of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht agreed to have one stadhouder in common, and appointed to that office Maurice of Nassau, son of the deceased William. (Puffendorf.) From that time the stadhoudership continued in the house of Nassau till the death of William III. in 1702, when the male line of William I. becoming extinct, the office remained vacant, and was considered as tacitly abolished. But in 1747, after a struggle between the republican and the Orange parties, the latter, having triumphed, proclaimed William IV., of a collateral branch of the Nassau family, hereditary stadhouder of the Seven United Provinces. His son William V. was expelled by the French in 1795, and resigned the stadhoudership by treaty with France in 1802, since which the office has not been revived, the republic of the Netherlands having been transformed into a kingdom. [NASSAU, HOUSE OF; NETHERLANDS.]

STAEL, ANNE GERMAINE DE, born at Paris in 1768, was the only child of Necker, the wealthy Genevese banker, and afterwards minister of finance to Louis XVI. Her mother, a Swiss lady, was a woman of considerable acquirements, and her house was resorted to by the men of learning or of wit who lived in Paris. Madame Necker began very early to subject her daughter to a systematic and laborious course of study, until the physicians prescribed relaxation as absolutely necessary for her daughter's health. Mademoiselle Necker, being now left to follow her own taste, applied herself to literary composition, for which she had a natural facility. Her first essays were some tales and plays, which were soon forgotten. In 1788 she published a work of higher pretensions, Lettres sur les Ouvrages et le Caractère de J. J. Rousseau,' which began to attract public attention. About this time she was married, through her mother's management, to the Baron of Stael Holstein, the Swedish ambassador at Paris, a nobleman of high character and attainments, but disproportionately older than herself. This marriage however gave her rank and independence; and when the French Revolution broke out, and her parents had retired to Switzerland, the baron's diplomatic character was a protection to his household, and Madame de Stael remained at Paris through the first storms of that period. Her warm imagination was at first captivated by the bright prospects of a revolution which promised the reform of abuses, but her generous nature soon shrunk from the sight of the more frightful abuses which took the place of the old ones. She wrote several articles on the factious conduct of the various parties, and upon their total disregard of the true meaning of liberty. Madame de Stael felt for the oppressed, who were at that time the nobles, the priests, and the royal family. She interested herself especially for the royal family; and she even ventured to publish a defence of the Queen Marie Antoinette, then upon her trial, Réflexions sur le Procès de la Reine,' August, 1793. But the triumph of the terrorists drove her at last out of Paris, to seek refuge in other countries. After the fall of the terrorists Madame de Stael returned to Paris, where she became the leader of a distinguished circle of literary men and politicians. Being anxious for the preservation of something like order and individual security, she gave the support of her influence to the existing government of the executive directory. But that government, with out morality, sincerity, or dignity, was dying a natural death, when Bonaparte, after his return from Egypt, extinguished it by a bold manoeuvre, and established a military dictatorship in its place. Madame de Stael appears to have disliked and mistrusted Bonaparte from the first, and her salon became the opposition club of the time. She is said to have encouraged Benjamin Constant and other members of the tribunate in their opposition to the projects of law presented by the executive, and to have publicly applauded them for their independent speeches. When the concordat with the pope was under negotiation, Madame de Stael loudly expressed her disapprobation, professing to see in it a new device of Bonaparte's growing tyranny. About the same time, being on a visit to her friends in Switzerland, she was supposed to have encouraged her father to publish his last work, Dernières Vues de Politique et de Finance,' in which he descanted against the government of a single man. The work was forbidden in France. At last Bonaparte, first consul, sent Madame de Stael an order to quit Paris, and not to come within forty leagues of it. Strange as it may seem, Madame de Stael, wealthy and independent, was sorely grieved at this pro

[ocr errors]

hibition; and she and her friends exerted themselves, though in vain, to have the order recalled. Bonaparte is said to have replied, that he left the whole world open to Madame de Stael, except Paris, which he reserved to himself. (Thibaudeau; Las Cases.) For Madame de Stael however the salons of Paris were her own element; she felt the want of applause, and of literary and fashionable celebrity; for she had as much ambition as Bonaparte himself, though of a different and more innocuous kind. She went first to Switzerland, and then travelled through Italy, where she gathered materials for her 'Corinne,' which is a poetical description of Italy in the shape of a novel. The work was much admired: it is eloquent and impassioned; and the authoress has sketched with great truth many peculiarities of the Italian character and habits, which had been overlooked, or misrepresented or caricatured by other travellers. Madame de Stael had already published a novel in 1803, entitled 'Delphine,' which, though powerfully writ ten, is a work of very questionable morality, and she felt herself obliged to write an apology for it in her Réflexions sur le But moral de Delphine.' Corinne' displays a purer morality, and produces a much more elevating impression on the mind. As a work of fiction however it is decidedly weak: the plot is defective in arrangement, and deficient in dramatic power. The authoress has endeavoured to embody in some of her characters the national characters of their respective countries; she has succeeded in some, and has certainly failed in others. But as a descriptive work, a work of glowing and impassioned eloquence, on some of the most interesting topics with which man is concerned, religion, poetry, the beauties of nature, history, and love, as a poetical picture of a most poetical country, 'Corinne' has the highest merits, and they are of a permanent character.

After having published her book upon Italy, Madame de Stael, still debarred from Paris salons and Paris society, proceeded to visit and study a very different country-Ger many, and after her return she composed her work' De l'Allemagne,' in which she described the feelings, the literature, and the habits of the German people. This work was printed at Paris in 1810. The authoress was not allowed to go to Paris herself, but she was residing either at her scal at Coppet on the banks of the lake of Geneva, or in some provincial town of France forty leagues from the capital. The MS. was submitted to the censors, according to the existing laws, and after several passages had been expunged, the publication was authorised; 10,000 copies were struck off, when suddenly the whole stock was seized at the publisher's, by gendarmes sent by Savary, Napoleon's minister of police, and suppressed by his order. Madame de Stael, who was staying at Blois, received at the same time order to quit France immediately. She retired to Coppet in Switzerland, whence she remonstrated with Savary against this arbitrary proceeding, which was illegal even according to the new law of Napoleon, as the minister might have seized a work which he considered dangerous, even after the censors had permitted its being printed, but he had no right to destroy it, being bound to refer the matter to the council of state. (Thibaudeau, Empire, c. 69.) Madame de Stael understood or imagined that one reason for this severity was her having omitted to mention the name of the emperor Napeleon and his invincible armies, which, Savary said, had be come so familiar with Germany. Madame de Stael wrote from Coppet to Savary, saying that she did not see how the emperor and his armies could be introduced with propriety in a work purely literary. Savary's answer is characteristic of the man and the times; and it was prefixed by Madame de Stael to a new edition of her work in 1813. You must not seek for a cause of the order which I have signified to you in the silence which you have kept respecting the emperor in your last work, for there was no place in it worthy of him. Your exile is a natural consequence of your constant behaviour for years past. I have thought that the air of France was not suitable to you, for we are not yet reduced so low as to seek for models among the nations which you admire. Your last work is not French; and I have stopped its publication. I regret the loss which the bookseller will suffer in consequence, but I could not allow it to appear.' Independently of Madame de Stael's political opposition to Napoleon's arbitrary government, there was a decided antipathy between her turn of mind and literary taste and that of France in her time. French literature ever since the time of Louis XIV. had become exclusive

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »