The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 416

STOBSaeUS, JOANNES, a native of Stobi, in Macedonia; flourished at the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th century; celebrated as the compiler (about 500 A.D.) of a Greek Anthology, through which many valuable extracts are preserved to us from works which have since his day been lost.

STOCK EXCHANGE, a mart for the buying and selling of Government stocks, company shares, and various securities, carried on usually by the members of an a.s.sociated body of brokers having certain rules and regulations. Such a.s.sociations exist now in most of the important cities of the United Kingdom and commercial world generally (on the Continent are known as _Bourses_). The London Stock Exchange, transacting business in handsome buildings in Capel Court, facing the Bank of England, was established in 1801, stock-exchange transactions previous to then being carried on in a loose, ill-regulated fashion by private parties chiefly in and around Change Alley, the scene of the memorable SOUTH SEA BUBBLE (q. v.) speculation. The great development in stock-exchange business in recent times is due chiefly to the sale of foreign and colonial bonds, and the remarkable growth and spread of joint-stock companies since the Joint-Stock Company Act of 1862.

STOCKHOLM (246), capital of Sweden; occupies a charming site on the channel leading out of Lake Malar into a bay of the Baltic; stands partly on the mainland and partly on nine islands, communication between which is facilitated by handsome bridges and a busy service of boats; its wooded and rocky islands, crowned with handsome buildings, its winding waterways, peninsulas, crowded wharves, and outlook over the isleted lake, combine to make it one of the most picturesque cities of Europe; Town Island, the nucleus of the city, is occupied by the royal palace, House of n.o.bles, princ.i.p.al wharf, &c., while on Knights' Island stand the Houses of Parliament, law-courts, and other public buildings; Norrmalm, with the Academy of Science, National Museum, Academy of Fine Arts, Hop Garden, &c., is the finest quarter of the city; manufactures embrace sugar, tobacco, silks, linen, cotton, &c., besides which there are flourishing iron-works and a busy export trade in iron and steel, oats, and tar, despite the hindrance caused by the ice during three or four months in winter; founded in 1255 by Birger Jarl.

STOCKMAR, BARON DE, statesman, born at Coburg; bred to medicine, became physician to Leopold I. of Belgium, and at length his adviser; was adviser also of Queen Victoria before her accession; accompanied Prince Albert to Italy before his marriage, and joined him thereafter in England as the trusted friend of both the queen and him; he had two political ideals--a united Germany under Prussia, and unity of purpose between Germany and England (1757-1863).

STOCKPORT (70), a cotton town of East Cheshire; occupies a site on the slopes of a narrow gorge overlooking the confluence of the Thame and Goyt (forming the Mersey), 37 m. E. of Liverpool; a handsome viaduct spans the river; has an old grammar-school, free library, technical school, &c.; during the present century has grown to be a busy centre of cotton manufactures, and has besides flourishing iron and bra.s.s foundries, machine-shops, breweries, &c.

STOCKTON-ON-TEES (69), a prosperous manufacturing town and port of Durham, on the Tees, 4 m. from its mouth; an iron bridge spanning the river connects it with Thornaby-on-Tees; has the usual public buildings; steel and iron shipbuilding building, potteries, foundries, machine-shops are flourishing industries; iron and earthenware are the chief exports, and with imports of corn and timber give rise to a busy and increasing shipping, facilitated by the excellent river-way.

STOICS, the disciples of Zeno; derived their name from the _stoa_ or portico in Athens where their master taught and founded the school in 340 B.C. The doctrines of the school were completely antagonistic to those of Epicurus, and among the disciples of it are to be reckoned some of the n.o.blest spirits of the heathen world immediately before and after the advent of Christ. These appear to have been attracted to it by the character of its moral teachings, which were of a high order indeed. The principle of morality was defined to be conformity to reason, and the duty of man to lie in the subdual of all pa.s.sion and a composed submission to the will of the G.o.ds. It came short of Christian morality, as indeed all Greek philosophy did, in not recognising the Divine significance and power of humility, and especially in its failure to see, still more to conform to, the great doctrine of Christ which makes the salvation of a man to depend on the interest he takes in, as well as in the fact of the salvation of, other men. The Stoic was a proud man, and not a humble, and was content if he could only have his own soul for a prey. He did not see--and no heathen ever did--that the salvation of one man is impossible except in the salvation of other men, and that no man can save another unless he descend into that other's case and stand, as it were, in that other's stead. It is the glory of Christ that He was the first to feel Himself, and to reveal to others, the eternal validity and divinity of this truth. The Stoic morality is selfish; the morality of Christ is brotherly.

STOKE-UPON-TRENT (24), chief seat of the "Potteries," in Staffordshire, on the Trent and the Trent and Mersey Ca.n.a.l, 15 m. SE. of Crewe; is of modern growth, with free library, infirmary, public baths, statue to Wedgwood, &c., and is busily engaged in the manufacture of all sorts of porcelain ware, earthenware, encaustic tiles, &c., besides which there are flourishing iron-works, machine-shops, coal-mines, &c.

STOKES, SIR GEORGE GABRIEL, mathematician and physicist, born in Skreen, co. Sligo; he is great in the department of mathematical physics, and has been specially devoted to the study of hydro-dynamics and the theory of light; has opened new fields of investigation, and supplied future experimenters with valuable hints; he was one of the foremost physicists of the day; _b_. 1819.

s...o...b..RG, CHRISTIAN, COUNT, German poet of the Gottingen school, to which Burger and Voss belonged, born in Hamburg; was with his brother a friend of Goethe's, and held a civil appointment in Holstein (1748-1821).

s...o...b..RG, FRIEDRICH LEOPOLD, COUNT OF, German poet, born in Holstein, brother of preceding; held State appointments in Denmark; joined the Romish Church, and showed a religious and ascetic temper (1750-1819).

STOLE, a long scarf worn by bishops and priests in the administration of the sacraments of the Church, and sometimes when preaching, as well as in symbol of authority.

STONE AGE, the name given to that period in the history of civilisation when the weapons of war and the chase and the implements of industry were made of stone, prior to employment for these purposes of bronze, characteristic of the age succeeding.

STONE CIRCLES, circles of STANDING STONES (q. v.) found in various parts of Great Britain, North Europe generally, and also, but of more recent origin, in North India; were certainly, in the most of cases, set up to mark the circular boundary of a place of burial; erroneously ascribed to the Druids; from the character of numerous cinerary urns exhumed, seem to have belonged to the bronze age in Great Britain; most interesting are those of Stennis, in Orkney, with a circ.u.mference of 340 ft., Avebury, in Wiltshire, and STONEHENGE (q. v.).

STONEHAVEN (4), fishing port and county town of Kincardineshire, situated at the entrance of Carron Water (dividing the town) into South Bay, 16 m. SSW. of Aberdeen; has a small harbour, and is chiefly engaged in herring and haddock fishing.

STONEHENGE, the greatest and best preserved of the STONE CIRCLES (q. v.) of Britain, situated in Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, 7 m. N. of Salisbury; "consists of two concentric circles, enclosing two ellipses"; the diameter of the s.p.a.ce enclosed is 100 ft.; the stones are from 13 ft. to 28 ft. high; is generally regarded as an exceptional development of the ordinary stone circle, but the special purpose of its unusual construction is still a matter of uncertainty.

STONYHURST, a celebrated Roman Catholic college in East Lancashire, 10 m. N. of Blackburn; established in 1794 by certain Jesuit fathers who, after the suppression of their seminary at St. Omer, in France, by the Bourbons, took up their residence at Bruges and then at Liege, but fled thence to England during the Revolution, and accepted the shelter offered them at Stonyhurst by Mr. Weld of Lulworth; there are about 300 students, and upwards of 30 masters; a preparatory school has been established at Hodder, a mile distant; in 1840 was affiliated to the University of London, for the degrees of which its students are chiefly trained; retains in its various inst.i.tutions many marks of its French origin.

STOOL OF REPENTANCE, in Scotland in former times an elevated seat in a church on which for offences against morality people did penance and suffered rebuke.

STORM, THEODORE WOLDSEN, German poet and exquisite story-teller, born in Sleswig; was a magistrate and judge in Sleswig-Holstein (1817-1888).

STORM-AND-STRESS PERIOD, name given in the history of German literature to a period at the close of the 18th century, when the nation began to a.s.sert its freedom from artificial literary restraint, a period to which Goethe's "Goetz von Berlichingen" and Schiller's "Robbers"

belong, and the spirit of which characterises it; the representatives of the period were called Kraftmanner (Power-men), who "with extreme animation railed against Fate in general, because it enthralled free virtue, and with clenched hands or sounding shields hurled defiance towards the vault of heaven."

STORMS, CAPE OF, name originally given in 1486 to the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese navigator Bartholomew Dias.

STORNOWAY, a fishing-port, the capital of Lewis, and the chief town in the Outer Hebrides, with Stornoway Castle adjoining.

STORTHING (i. e. great court), the national Parliament of Norway, composed of two chambers, the Lagthing or Upper Chamber, and the Odelsthing or Lower.

STORY, JOSEPH, American jurist and judge, born in Ma.s.sachusetts (1779-1845).

STORY, WILLIAM WETMORE, poet and sculptor, son of preceding; _b_.

1819.

STOTHARD, THOMAS, artistic designer and book ill.u.s.trator, as well as painter, born in London, son of an innkeeper; ill.u.s.trated, among other works, "Pilgrim's Progress," and along with Turner, Rogers' "Italy"

(1755-1834).

STOURBRIDGE, manufacturing town in Worcestershire; its staple manufactures are gla.s.s and pottery.

STOW, JOHN, English antiquary, born in London; bred a tailor; took to antiquarian pursuits, which he prosecuted with the zeal of a devotee that spared no sacrifice; wrote several works on antiquities, the chief and most valuable being his "Survey of London and Westminster"; he ended his days in poverty (1525-1605).

STOWELL, WILLIAM SCOTT, eminent English judge, born at Heworth, brother of Lord Eldon; famed for his judicial decisions (1745-1836).

STRABO, ancient geographer, born at Amasia, in Pontus; flourished in the reign of Augustus, and the early part of that of Tiberius; was a learned man, lived some years in Rome, and travelled much in various countries; wrote a history of 43 books, all lost, and a work on geography, in 17 books, which has come down to us entire all to the 7th; the work is in general not descriptive; it comprehends princ.i.p.ally important political events in connection with the countries visited, with a notice of their ill.u.s.trious men, or whatever seemed to him characteristic in them or was of interest to himself; born about 63 B.C.

STRADDHA, the funeral rites and funeral offerings for the dead among the Hindus.

STRAFFORD, THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF, English statesman, born in London, of an old Yorkshire family; studied at Cambridge; after some months' travel on the Continent entered Parliament in 1614, but took no active part in affairs till 1621; he took sides at first with the party for freedom, but in 1622 felt compelled to side with the king, to his elevation of greater and greater influence as his counsellor; his policy, named "Thorough," was to establish a strong Government with the king at the head, and to put down with a strong hand all opposition to the royal authority; appointed Lord-Deputy in Ireland in 1633, he did all he could to increase the royal resources, and was at length, in 1640, exalted to the Lord-Lieutenancy, being at the same time created Earl of Strafford; he had risen by this time to be the chief adviser of the king, and was held responsible for his arbitrary policy; after the meeting of the Long Parliament he was impeached for high treason; the impeachment seemed likely to fail, when a Bill of Attainder was produced; to this the king refused his a.s.sent, but he had to yield to the excitement his refusal produced, and as the result Strafford was beheaded on Tower Hill (1593-1641).