Christe's colledge, Cambridge. Made by Mr. S., master of arts"—1575.

"Gammer Gurton's Needle" is found in several collections of old plays. Still seems to have written it in his twenty-third year. It seems, however, to have been preceded by "Ralph Roister Doister," which was in existence in 1561, and is the earliest drama of the kind; and by "Misogynus," supposed to have been written about 1560. But the famous drinking song in the second act of "Gammer Gurton's Needle "is believed to be older than Still's time.—J. E. STILLINGFLEET, Edward, an eminent bishop and polemic, was born at Cranbourne, Dorsetshire, on the 17th April, 1635. He entered St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1648, and such were his character and promise that he was chosen a fellow in 1653. He received ordination from Bishop Brownrigg, and through the influence of Sir Francis Burgoyne, in whose family he had been tutor, he obtained in 1651 the rectory of Sutton in Bedfordshire. In 1659, and at the early age of twenty-four, Stillingfleet published his "Irenicum," or on the question of embracing prevalent sects within the pale of the church. "Comprehension" was a familiar project in those times, and Stillingfleet, in favour of it, argued against the divine right of all forms of government and discipline. But he soon recanted these views, and apologized for his treatise as the "result of youth, and want of consideration." His next work is his greatest, which he published in 1662, "Origines Sacræ, a rational account of the christian faith as to the truth and divine authority of the scriptures." The work displays great research and learning; expounding often very successfully some obscure points of chronology, showing the consistency of faith with reason, exhibiting the grounds of belief in the scriptures, and proving how utterly insufficient, independently of revelation, are all attempts to explain creation and providence, which are so distinctly and fully disclosed to us in the inspired volume. The book, though now to some extent superseded by more recent investigations on many points, contains a vast amount of well-digested information—the extent and accuracy of which astonish us in a young man of twenty-eight. Two years afterwards appeared his treatise, "A Rational Account of the Grounds of the Protestant Religion," with a vindication of Archbishop Laud's conference with the Jesuit Fisher, in answer to an attack on the archbishop called Laud's Labyrinth. This work, written at the request of Dr. Henchman, bishop of London, gained him both reputation and preferment. Sir Harbottle Grimstone, master of the rolls, appointed him preacher of the Rolls chapel, and he was also promoted to the rectory of St. Andrews, Holborn. He became in addition chaplain-in-ordinary to Charles II., and on his commencing D.D., his Latin address gained him great applause by its cogent reasonings, and the clearness, fluency, and correctness of its style. In 1671 he was made a canon-residentiary of St. Paul's, and in 1677 dean of St. Paul's. Socinians, nonconformists, and sceptics received his attentions in turn; for he now lived in polemical labour. "The Reason of Christ's Suffering for us" was published in 1678, and other volumes in defence of his views speedily followed. Popery was his special hatred, as may be seen in his "Discourse on the Idolatry, Fanaticism, and Divisions of the Church of Rome," and other vindicatory tracts that followed; and in 1673 he published "Answers to several Treatises," occasioned by that work. Some of the papers so answered are said to have been written by Charles II. In 1680 he preached before the lord mayor a "Discourse on the Mischief of Separation"—a violent attack on nonconformists, which called forth replies from Owen, Baxter, Howe, and others. Stillingfleet's defence was in a quarto—"The Unreasonableness of Separation" in 1681—to which Baxter formally replied in a characteristic and pungent volume. In 1685 Stillingfleet published his "Origines Britannicæ, or antiquities of the British churches," a work of considerable antiquarian research and interest, after the style of Archbishop Usher, and bearing especially on the question of popish domination. Previously to the Revolution Stillingfleet was prolocutor in the lower house of convocation. He refused to be a member of King James' ecclesiastical commission, and he wrote against its legality. After the Revolution he was raised to the see of Worcester, being consecrated in 1689. Not long after his elevation he published "A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity," in which he objected to some of Locke's statements on the doctrine of ideas and the notion of substance. The philosopher was not slow to reply in triumphant self-vindication. It was thought that at Tillotson's death in 1694 Stillingfleet would succeed him in the see of Canterbury, but the appointment was not made. After a period of infirm health, he died of gout in Park Street, Westminster, March 27, 1699. His remains were interred in the choir of Worcester cathedral, and a Latin epitaph from the pen of his chaplain, Dr. Bentley, is inscribed on the monument. His large library was bought by Monck, archbishop of Armagh, and sent over to Dublin; and his collection of MSS. was purchased by the earl of Oxford, and is now in the Bodleian library. In person Stillingfleet was tall and handsome, and he is said to have been somewhat lofty in temper. His industry was incessant, and he stood out the champion of the Church of England against all antagonists, as his numerous writings above referred to abundantly testify. Lord Clarendon praises "the strength and vigour of his ratiocination, the clearness of his style and expression, and the softness, gentleness, and civility of his language." His works were collected in 1710 in six volumes folio, and his "Origines Sacræ" has been several times reprinted.—J. E. STILPO, was an influential philosopher of the Megaric school, the founder of which was Euclid, a disciple of Socrates and friend and contemporary of Plato. He was a native of Megara, and lived during the time of Alexander the Great, 350-323 b.c. After Alexander's death he is said to have spent some time in the newly-founded city of Alexandria, to which he had been invited by its ruler, Ptolemy Soter. This, however, is uncertain. His life was passed principally, if not entirely, in his native town, where he was highly respected, and to which crowds of disciples were attracted by the fame of his instructions. The Megaric sect (called also eristic from its love of disputation) was a prolongation of the Eleatic, modified by Socratic influences. It was famous for those logical puzzles which sometimes present real difficulties, but are for the most part mere quibbles, or a play upon words. Such are "the heap," "the bald-head," and others—(Does a grain of corn make a heap? No; Do two grains? No; Three? No; and so on until the answer is—Yes, now there is a heap: on which the absurdity emerges that one grain makes the difference between a heap and no heap of corn). To these exercitations Stilpo's principal contribution seems to have been the statement, that "no one thing can be predicated of another, because no two things are the same;" from whence it follows that the only true propositions are those in which the predicate is identical with the subject. Thus we may say "man is man," but not "man is good," inasmuch as good is different from man; and, therefore, to say "man is good," is equivalent to saying "man is not man," which is a contradiction. But as none of the writings of Stilpo have come down to us, we are scarcely in a position either to understand or to criticise his doctrine. In morals Stilpo inculcated apathy, or an insensibility to the evils of life, as the chief good of the soul. He was the instructor of Zeno, the founder of the stoical philosophy.—J. F. F. STIERNSTOLPE, Jonas M., a Swedish poet of the present century. He is the author of some light and sportive effusions, and has also travestied, not unsuccessfully, in the fashion of Blumauer the Austrian poet, folk-lore and mythologic fables; but his productions are devoid of any deeper humour, and of any essential and abiding merit. He died in 1831.—J. J. STIRLING, James, a Scottish mathematician and metallurgist, was born at St. Ninian's in Stirlingshire about the beginning of the seventeenth century, and died at Leadhills in Lanarkshire on the 5th of December, 1770. He was educated at first at the university of Glasgow, whence, by the aid of one of the exhibitions founded by Snell, he went to Oxford. He soon became distinguished for skill in mathematics, and went to Venice to teach that science, by the invitation of the Venetian ambassador in England. While there he became acquainted with Nicholas Bernoulli, then professor of mathematics in the university of Padua. He also succeeded in learning the secret of making plate-glass, then practised at Venice only, and afterwards introduced that manufacture into Britain. After teaching mathematics for some time in London, he was appointed manager of the lead mines at Leadhills in Scotland, in which capacity he acted with much skill and success until his death. In 1729 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he contributed various papers. His principal mathematical work was a treatise of high repute on series, and on what is now called the "calculus of finite differences"—it is entitled "Tractatus de summatione et interpolatione serierum infinitarum," and was published in London in 1730.—W. J. M. R.