STAEL-HOLSTEIN STAFFA. 



373 



approach of the French army, went to Petersburg, 

 and soon after, in the autumn of 1812, to Stockholm. 

 Here appeared her work on suicide (Reflexions sur 

 le Suicide'), which she had just completed, and 

 whicli points out to the unhappy the aids of religion 

 and morality. In the beginning of the next year, 

 she went to England, where she was received with 

 the most flattering attention. After a long exile, 

 the sufferings of which she has described in her Dix 

 Annces d'Exil, she landed at Calais, in 1814. The 

 allied princes treated her with great distinction, 

 and her influence contributed not a little to hasten 

 the removal of the foreign troops from France. On 

 the return of Napoleon, in 1815, she retired to 

 Coppet. It is said that Napoleon invited her to 

 return to Paris, that she might assist in the prepa- 

 ration of the new constitution, but that she refused, 

 adding, " He has dispensed with the constitution 

 and me for twelve years, and now he loves neither 

 of us." 



After the restoration, she received from the go- 

 vernment public stock to the amount of two mil- 

 lions of francs, the sum which her father had left in 

 the royal treasury, at the time of his dismission 

 from office. Surrounded by a happy domestic cir- 

 cle a beloved husband, an excellent son, and an 

 amiable and highly accomplished daughter, who was 

 united to a man of distinguished merit, the duke de 

 Broglio esteemed and courted by the most emi- 

 nent men of the capital, and cheered with the hope 

 of seeing her country's wounds healed by a free con- 

 stitution, she lived in Paris, with the exception of 

 a short absence, till her death. Until her last sick- 

 ness, she was employed on her Memoires et Conside- 

 rations sur les principaux Evenements de la Revolu- 

 tion Francaise (Paris, 1819, 3 vols.) Few persons 

 were more favourably situated than Mad. de Stael 

 for appreciating the importance of the events of 

 which she treated. She had three principal objects 

 in this work the justification of her father's public 

 life, a faithful delineation of the course and charac- 

 ter of the revolution, and a developement of the 

 political principles, consonant to the spirit of the 

 age. See the remarks on it in Bailleul's Examen 

 (2 vols., 1819). The completion of, this work was 

 interrupted by her death. She had suffered much 

 since the beginning of 1817, and in the summer of 

 that year her disease took a decided character. Al- 

 though reluctant to leave her friends, and dreading, 

 as she said to her physician, the thought of the dis- 

 solution of her body, she was not afraid to die. To 

 the last moment she retained her tranquillity, and 

 expressed her hope of again meeting her father. " I 

 think," she said one day, as if awaking from a dream, 

 " I think I know what the passage from life to 

 death is, and I am convinced that the goodness of 

 God Inakes it easy ; our thoughts become confused, 

 and the pain is not great." In the morning of July 

 14, 1817, she replied to the question of her nurse, 

 whether she had slept, " Soundly and deeply." 

 These were her last words. Her body was em- 

 balmed, and deposited in the family vault at Coppet. 



See the Notice sur le Caractere et les Ecrits de 

 Mad. de Stael, by Mad. Necker de Saussure, pre- 

 fixed to the complete edition of her works, published 

 at Paris, in 1821, in 17 vols. ; and Schlosser's 

 Parallel between Mad. de Stael and Mad. Roland 

 (in German and French, 1830). 



The taste of Mad. de Stael is not altogether 

 correct ; her style is irregular, and has too much 

 pretension ; her attempts at effect and her occasional 

 tendency to exaggeration sometimes mislead her 



judgment, and cause her to gire a false colouring to 

 facts. But in all her works we find original and 

 profound thought, great acuteness, a lively imagi- 

 nation, a philosophical insight into the human heart, 

 and into the truths of politics and literature. 



Her son Augustus, baron de Stael, born 1789, 

 died 1827, is favourably known by his Notice sur 

 M. Necker (1820), and his valuable Lettres sur 

 I'Angleterre. He left a son, the only descendant of 

 Mad. de Stael. 



STAFF (from the staff formerly borne by officers 

 in high command), in military affairs, means gene- 

 rally the officers whose command extends over 

 several bodies of troops, of which each has its par- 

 ticular officers. Thus the general staff (in French, 

 etat majeur general") is composed of the general, the 

 chief and the officers of the staff, the commanders 

 of artillery, and of the corps of engineers, and the 

 heads of the different departments of military ad- 

 ministration. The staff of a division comprises a 

 lieutenant-general, major-generals, and the officers 

 of the staff, of the artillery, engineers and adminis- 

 tration. The staff of a regiment comprises the 

 colonel, the superior officers, adjutant-majors, quar- 

 ter-masters, &c. In England, the chaplain and 

 surgeon of the regiment also belong to it. The 

 military divisions, fortified places, &c., have their 

 staffs composed in a similar manner to those of the 

 armies. Under the French empire, the staff of the 

 emperor had quite a peculiar organization, originat- 

 ing in his always commanding in person, and direct- 

 ing, in time of peace, the whole military machine 

 personally. In Prussia, the staff is employed in 

 preparing the maps of the kingdom, and in similar 

 duties. In time of peace, the officers of the staff 

 are attached in part to the various divisions of the 

 army. In Austria, the staff is employed in the 

 military topography of the empire ; trigonometrical 

 and geodesical operations ; the military, geographi- 

 cal and statistical description of the provinces; in 

 fortifications; in the care of the archives, &c. The 

 British army has a very good staff, which has pro- 

 duced an excellent military map of the part of Eng- 

 land along the coast from Portsmouth to the 

 Thames. The corps is under the command of the 

 quarter-master-general of the British forces. The 

 officers employed in it are examined, and go through 

 a course of studies. See Force Militaire de la 

 Grande Bretagne, by Charles Dupin, 

 STAFF, BISHOP'S. See Crosier. 

 STAFFA; a small island of the Hebrides, be- 

 longing to Argyleshire, celebrated for its basaltic 

 pillars and its natural caverns, particularly the cave 



of Fingal ; 

 seven miles 

 north of lo- 

 na, five west 

 of Mull. It 

 is of an oval 

 form, one 

 and a half 

 miles in cir- 

 cuit.present- 



ing an uneven table-land, terminating nearly all 

 round by cliffs of variable height. The greatest 

 elevation is 144 feet. The surface is covered by 

 a rich soil and luxuriant grass, affording excel- 

 lent pasture for a herd of black cattle ; but 

 there is no house on the island. A considerable 

 portion of the precipitous face of Staffa is in a co- 

 lumnar form : the highest point of this face is 112 

 feet above high-water mark. There are several 



