hold's version never attained the popularity of Marot's. He executed in all fifty-one of the Psalms, leaving his work to be continued by others. See Warton's History of Poetry, iii., 146-156. He died in 1549.—R. H.
STESICHORUS, a Greek lyric poet, was born at Himera in Sicily about 630 b.c. He travelled in Greece and elsewhere, and spent some time in Athens. On returning to Sicily, he took an active part in animating his fellow-citizens against Phalaris the tyrant of Agrigentum. Nothing more is known of his life. His death occurred about 550 b.c. He was buried at Catana, where a magnificent tomb was erected to his memory. Stesichorus was unanimously recognized as one of the noblest lyric poets of the ancient world, and the scanty fragments that remain fully bear out this opinion. Of one of them Col. Mure remarks, that it is not easy to imagine anything more perfectly harmonious as to structure, measure, and sound, than these lines. By Cicero and Longinus he is much praised, and is even compared with Homer. He wrote in the Doric dialect, and his poems, though essentially lyrical, were strongly marked by the heroic cast of thought and expression peculiar to Homer. Of all the ancient writers now extant, Pindar approaches most nearly to Stesichorus in the character of his genius and the sublimity of his odes.—G.
STEUBEN, Charles, a celebrated painter of the French school, was born in 1791 at Manheim in Germany. His father, an officer of the Wirtemberg army, having been exiled for a political offence, went to St. Petersburg, where young Steuben studied in the Imperial art academy. In 1803 he was sent to Paris, and became a pupil of Prudhon. He first appeared as an exhibitor at the salon in 1812, with a picture of "Peter the Great on the Lake of Ladoga," and he continued to contribute regularly historical and semi-historical subjects for the next thirty years. He early acquired distinction as a portrait painter by his likenesses of Alexander Humboldt and other eminent German patrons, and he painted many portraits later in life. But Steuben is best known by the battle-pieces and like spectacle subjects painted for the state after his naturalization in 1823. Among the most conspicuous of these are the battles of Poitiers, Waterloo, &c., and the portraits of the kings of France in the galleries of Versailles; and the "Battle of Ivry" and others in the Louvre. He also painted for different French governments a great many battle-pieces, subjects from the national history, allegories, both in oil and fresco, for various museums and public buildings in Paris and the provinces. His "Mercury and Argus," and some other classical easel pictures, are in the gallery of the Luxembourg. A great many of his works have been engraved. His "Napoleon and the King of Rome" and "The Death of Napoleon" were among the most popular prints of their time; and his "Esmeralda" pictures were also very popular. M. Steuben's death occurred at Paris in November, 1856.—J. T—e.
STEVENS, George Alexander, born perhaps about 1720, was the son of a London tradesman, and brought up for some mechanical occupation, which he deserted to become an actor. He is chiefly remembered as the giver of a successful entertainment which he called "Lecture on Heads," and in which he illustrated would-be lively descriptions of character and society by casts of heads appropriately coifféd. It was a great pecuniary success, and after he had realized a fortune by it he sold the lecture and idea of the entertainment to others, by whom it continued to be given. He wrote songs, and the little operatic comedy of the "Trip to Portsmouth." He died in 1784.—F. E.
STEVENS, Richard James Samuel, a musical composer, was born at London in 1753, and died in 1837. Stevens was organist to the Temple church, London, then to the Charterhouse, and in 1801 succeeded Dr. Aylwood as professor of music in Gresham college. His five-voiced glee, from Ossian, "Some of my Heroes are Low" is well known.
STEVENS, William, a learned English writer, the son of a London tradesman, was born in St. Saviour's, Southwark, March 2, 1732. His early education was conducted simultaneously with that of his cousin, who afterwards became Bishop Home; but when Home went to college, Stevens was apprenticed to a hosier, and acquired during his leisure such knowledge as his cousin was gaining under more favourable auspices at college. He continued his attention to business meanwhile with unabated vigour, and did not forego it until he was enabled to retire to his more congenial studies with a sufficient fortune. He wrote an "Essay on the Nature and Constitution of a Christian Church;" "A Discourse on the English Constitution;" "Strictures on a Sermon by Dr. Watson, entitled the Principles of the Revolution Vindicated," &c. He also wrote several other controversial treatises, edited the works of Jones of Nayland in twelve volumes, and some of the volumes of Bishop Home's sermons. Stevens died in February, 1807.—F.
STEVENSON, John Hall, the author of "Crazy Tales." and other poems, was born in 1718. He is less celebrated for his writings than for his friendship with Laurence Sterne, with whom he became acquainted at Jesus college, Cambridge. At his seat, Skelton castle, Yorkshire, there was a library of curious old books to which Sterne was mainly indebted for the quaint passages of his Tristram Shandy. In that strange work of genius Mr. Hall Stevenson figures as Eugenius, who bears a touching part in the deathbed scene of Yorick. His love of fun, not to say his extreme levity and licentiousness, are apparent in his published works, which include, in addition to the "Crazy Tales," "Fables for grown Gentlemen," "Lyric Epistles," "Moral Tales," &c. They were published separately in his lifetime, and collectively in three volumes in 1795. He died in 1785. From a letter of Garrick's printed in Nichols' Anecdotes (vol. v., p. 617), it may be seen that Sterne and Hall were believed to be associates in literary production, and that they incurred together the suspicion of writing licentious poetry.—(See Memoir prefixed to Hall Stevenson's works.)—R. H.
STEVENSON, Sir John Andrews, a musician, was born in Ireland in 1773, and died at Dublin in 1833. He received his education in the choir of St. Patrick's cathedral, of which foundation he afterwards became a vicar-choral. His taste in music was considerable. The degree of doctor of music was conferred on him at Trinity college, and he received the honour of knighthood from the lord-lieutenant. He composed many glees and some dramatic music; but the work by which he is best known, is Moore's Irish Melodies, to which he composed symphonies and accompaniments.—E. F. R.
STEVENSON, Robert, an eminent Scottish civil engineer, was born at Glasgow on the 8th of June, 1772, and died at Edinburgh on the 12th of July, 1850. He was the son of a West India merchant, whose family were left in circumstances of difficulty at his death. About 1787 his mother contracted a second marriage with Thomas Smith of Edinburgh, engineer to the board of commissioners of the Northern lighthouses, to whom Stevenson became an apprentice, and afterwards an assistant, superintending the works of the Little Cumbrae lighthouse in the frith of Clyde at the early age of nineteen. During the intervals of cessation from work in the winter, which occurred in the course of the erection of the Cumbrae and other lighthouses, Stevenson attended scientific classes in the Andersonian institution of Glasgow, and the university of Edinburgh. He subsequently became Mr. Smith's partner, and in 1799 the husband of his eldest daughter; and ultimately his successor as engineer to the Northern lighthouse board. He retained that office till 1843, when he resigned it, and was succeeded by his sons. His greatest engineering work was the Bell Rock lighthouse, off the coast of Forfarshire; an undertaking planned after the model of the Eddystone lighthouse—(see Smeaton)—but of greater size, and in a more difficult situation, the Eddystone rock being scarcely covered at high water, while the Bell Rock is barely uncovered at low water. The Bell Rock lighthouse tower contains also some improvements in the details of its construction. The first proposal to erect this lighthouse, illustrated by a model, was laid by Stevenson before the board in 1800. John Rennie was afterwards called in as consulting or chief engineer, and by his advice the board proceeded with the lighthouse, which was executed, in spite of great danger and difficulty, under Stevenson's constant superintendence, with occasional inspections by Rennie. A complete account of the work was afterwards published by Stevenson. He brought the catoptric system of illumination to great perfection; and in 1821 he induced the Northern lighthouse board to commence the use of the dioptric system. He designed and executed several important engineering works, such as Hutcheson bridge at Glasgow, the Regent's bridge at Edinburgh, and various road and harbour works; and he appears to have been one of the first, if not the first, to propose the use of long parallel wrought-iron rails for railways. His sons, Alan, David, and Thomas Stevenson, have succeeded him in his business and reputation. Mr. Alan Stevenson is specially distinguished as the engineer of the Skerryvore
