STOFFLET, Nicolas, distinguished in the war in La Vendée, was the son of a miller, and born at Luneville in 1751. He entered the army as a private and had been in it for fifteen years, reaching no higher a rank than that of corporal, when the colonel of his regiment, whose life he had saved, made him his head game-keeper. In 1793 he headed the insurrection in his master's district, and by his daring and energy soon became one of the military chiefs of the movement. On the death of La Rochejacquelin, he assumed the chief command of the insurgents whom that nobleman had led. At one time the convention was disposed to treat with the formidable insurgent; but at last he was captured by Hoche's troops, and executed at Angers on the 25th of February, 1796.—F. E.
* STOKES, George Gabriel, one of the greatest mathematicians and physical discoverers of the present time, was born at Skreen, in the county of Sligo in Ireland, on the 13th of August, 1819. He studied at Cambridge, where he distinguished himself very highly; became a fellow of Pembroke college; and in 1849 was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics. In 1851 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and has been one of its secretaries. His earlier writings relate mainly to difficult questions of pure mechanics, and especially of hydrodynamics, on which he in many cases threw a new light. In 1851, by his researches on the dynamical theory of diffraction, he discovered a method of deciding experimentally the question as to the direction of the vibrations which constitute plane polarized light. In 1852 he made the discovery of the true nature and laws of the class of phenomena known as "fluorescence," in which a transparent medium absorbs more refrangible rays, and emits less refrangible rays instead of them—a discovery which has since been followed up by a long series of experimental researches. He is a member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and various other learned bodies. His scientific labours have been published chiefly in the Philosophical Transactions, the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Philosophical Magazine, and the Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.—R.
STOLBERG, Christian Graf zu, and his brother Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, take as high a name in German literature as they do in the German nobility.—Christian, the elder brother, was born at Hamburg, 15th October, 1748. He received a most liberal education, which he completed at the university of Göttingen, 1769-74. Here he was a member of the so-called Hainbund, a literary club of young talents, who by their earnest study of ancient as well as modern literature did excellent service to German poetry, and formed the transition from the artificial schools of Gottsched and others, to the truly national and classic period. They cast off the trammels of French æsthetics, they solemnly burned the works of Wieland, and worshipped Klopstock as the father of modern German poetry. Most of them (for instance, Bürger, J. H. Voss, and Höltz) rose to high literary distinction. In 1777 Count Stolberg accepted the office of Amtmann at Tremsbüttel, Holstein, the duties of which he honourably discharged till 1800, when he retired to his estate of Windebye, near Eckernförde, where he died, on the 18th January, 1821. Besides his lyrical poems he wrote "Plays, with Choruses," Leipsic, 1787, in imitation of the ancient drama. However chaste in feeling and composition and powerful in language, they never could get hold of the stage. A greater share of popularity fell to his translations from the Greek, particularly to that of Sophocles in blank verse, Leipsic, 1787, 2 vols., which greatly contributed towards a nearer acquaintance with the Greek drama.—Friedrich Leopold, whose poetical parts and productions rank above those of his brother, was born at Bramstedt, Holstein, 7th November, 1750. Like his brother he studied at Göttingen, where, like him, he was a prominent member of the Hainbund, and became deeply imbued with the spirit of ancient poetry. In 1777 he was appointed ambassador from the prince-archbishop of Lübeck to the Danish court, and in 1789 Danish ambassador at Berlin. Two years later he was placed at the head of the prince-archbishop's government at Eutin. This office he resigned in 1800, and with his family embraced the Roman catholic faith at Münster, which was then and is still a stronghold of Romanism. The conversion of Count Stolberg, which produced the greatest noise throughout Germany, and by his friends was justly denounced as a desertion from his political and religious principles, was chiefly owing to the eccentric Princess Galitzin, then residing at Münster, where she assembled a circle of eminent men of letters around her, whom she was eager to convert. The severest attack on Stolberg was made by his intimate friend J. H. Voss, in the pamphlet—Wie ward Fritz Stolberg ein Unfreier? The subsequent writings of Count Stolberg, particularly his "History of the Religion of Jesus," Hamburg, 1811-18, 15 vols., continued by Fr. von Kerz, vols. 19-45, and by Brischar, vols. 46-48, gave ample proofs of the religious prepossessions of his mind; even his "Life of Alfred the Great," 1815, is not free from them. His poetical works, however, chiefly date before his conversion and show him a true poet, full of national feeling, of noble aspirations, and true pathos. Like his brother he wrote lyrical poems of every description, and plays, with choruses. He also published translations of the Iliad, of four tragedies of Æschylus, and of the poems of Ossian. To the number of his prose works must be added his novel, "The Island," 1788, and his "Journey through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily," 1794. Complete works of the Brothers Stolberg, Hamburg, 1821-26, 22 vols.—(Life of Friedrich Leopold, by Nicolovius, Mayence, 1846; Menge. Graf Leop. Friedr. von Stolberg, Gotha, 1862, 2 vols.)—K. E.
STONE, Edmund, a Scottish mathematician, was born at Inverary, shortly before the year 1700, and died at Manchester in the spring of 1768. His father was gardener to John, duke of Argyll, who observed the boy's talent for mathematics, and provided for his education. From 1725 till 1762 he was a fellow of the Royal Society. He was the author, translator, and editor of some publications of good standing in their day.—W. J. M. R.
STONE, Frank, A.R.A., was born at Manchester, August 23, 1800. The son of a cotton-spinner, he was educated for business, and up to his twenty-fourth year remained in his father's factory. He then turned his attention to art, at first practising chiefly as a water-colour painter. In 1831 he came to London. In 1832 he was elected a member of the old Society of Painters in Water Colours, and continued to exhibit his graceful drawings in the gallery of the society till 1847, when he resigned his connection with it, with a view to his election into the Royal Academy. Mr. Stone sent his first subject picture in oil, "The Legend of Montrose," to the Royal Academy in 1840. It attracted much notice, and the pictures of each succeeding year served to strengthen the position he had thus obtained. He was elected A.R.A. in 1851. For long Mr. Stone was best known as a painter of sentimental subjects, some of which—as "The Bashful Lover and the Maiden Coy," "The First Appeal," "The Last Appeal," "The Impending Mate," and "Mated," when engraved—obtained an amount of popularity altogether out of proportion to their merits. But he painted many pictures of a much better class, such as a "Scene from Hamlet—the Queen and Ophelia;" "Scene from the Merchant of Venice;" his two scriptural subjects—"Christ and the Woman of Bethany," and "The Master is Come;" and some very admirable scenes of French peasant and fishing life, including "Bonjour, Messieurs," "The Mussel Gatherers," "The Missing Boat," and "The Merry and Sad Heart," a work exhibited after the painter's death. Mr. Stone died of disease of the heart, November 18, 1859. His son Marcus is a promising painter of subject pictures.—J. T—e.
STONHOUSE, Sir James, an English clergyman who enjoyed much celebrity in his day as a preacher, was born at Tubney, near Abingdon, in 1716. His father was a country gentleman of a good family, and died when he was young. After being educated at Winchester and at St. John's college, Oxford, he studied medicine in London and also on the continent. He practised for twenty years with great success at Northampton, where he took the chief part in the foundation of the county infirmary. While at Northampton he was brought into contact with the poet Akenside, who endeavoured to establish himself as a physician in the town, but without success. Dr. Stonhouse was, as he himself confesses, for several years "a confirmed infidel," having imbibed these opinions from Dr. Frank Nicholls, in whose house he resided for some time as a medical student. He owed his conversion to Christianity to the preaching of Dr. Doddridge, who was living at Northampton when he first settled there. In 1763 he relinquished his profession and entered holy orders. He left Northampton and settled at Bristol, where he preached first at All Saints, afterwards at St. Werburgh's, and lastly at the Wells chapel, and where he resided almost entirely until his death in 1795. He was also rector of Great and Little Cheverel, Wiltshire, and succeeded to a baronetcy on the death of his
