STILICHO STIMULANTS. 



409 



accepted the invitation from the church at Ports- 

 mouth, where he was looked up to with great ad- 

 miration. In 1788, he was chosen president in Yale 

 college, and continued to adorn that station, by his 

 great learning, abilities, and piety, until his death, 

 May 12, 1795, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

 In person doctor Stiles was small but well propor- 

 tioned. His countenance was expressive of be- 

 nignity and mildness, and his manners were amiable 

 and kind. He had a thorough knowledge of the 

 Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French languages ; 

 in the Samaritan, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic he 

 had made considerable progress, and had bestowed 

 some attention on the Persian and Coptic. He was 

 well versed in most branches of mathematical know- 

 ledge. He had a thorough acquaintance with the 

 rabbinical writings, and with those of the fathers of 

 the Christian church. Sacred literature was his 

 favourite study ; and next to it he most delighted 

 in astronomy. As a preacher he was impressive 

 and eloquent in a high degree ; the intrinsic excel- 

 lence of his sermons was enhanced by the energy of 

 his delivery. He published various discourses, 

 among which was an election sermon, entitled The 

 United States Elevated to Glory and Honour, 

 preached May 8, 1783. He also wrote a history of 

 the three judges of Charles I. (Whalley, Goffe, and 

 Dixwell), and left an unfinished ecclesiastical his- 

 tory of New England, and more than forty volumes 

 of manuscripts. 



STILICHO; a Vandalic general, in the service 

 of the emperor Theodosius the Great, whose niece 

 Serena he married. Theodosius having bequeathed 

 the empire of the East to his son Arcadius, and 

 that of the West to his second son, Honoring, the 

 former was left under the care of Rufinus, and the 

 latter under the guardianship of Stilicho. (See 

 Western Empire.) No sooner was Theodosius no 

 more, than Rufinus stirred up an invasion of the 

 Goths in order to procure the sole dominion, which 

 Stilicho put down, and effected the destruction of 

 his rival. After suppressing a revolt in Africa, he 

 marched against Alaric, whom he signally defeated 

 at Pollentia. After this, in 406, he repelled an 

 invasion of barbarians, who penetrated into Italy 

 under Rhadagasius, a Hun or Vandal leader, who 

 formerly accompanied Alaric, and produced the en- 

 tire destruction both of the force and its leader. 

 Either from motives of policy or state necessity, he 

 then entered into a treaty with Alaric, whose pre- 

 tensions upon the Roman treasury for a subsidy 

 he warmly supported. This conduct excited sus- 

 picion of his treachery on the part of Honorius, 

 who massacred all his friends during his absence. 

 He received intelligence of this fact at the camp of 

 Bologna, whence he was obliged to flee to Ravenna. 

 He took shelter in a church, from which he was in- 

 veigled by a solemn oath, that no harm was intended 

 him, and conveyed to immediate execution, which 

 he endured in a manner worthy his great military 

 character. Stilicho was charged with the design 

 of dethroning Honprius, in order to advance his son 

 Eucherius in his place; and the memory of this 

 distinguished captain has been treated by the ec- 

 clesiastical historians with great severity. Zosi- 

 mus, however, although otherwise unfavourable to 

 him, acquits him of the treason which was laid to 

 his charge; and he will live in the poetry of 

 Claudian as the most distinguished commander of 

 his age. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 29 

 and 30. 



STILL. See Distillation. 



STILLING. See Jung. 



STILLINGFLEET, EDWARD, bishop of Wor- 

 cester, was born in 1635, and received his education 

 at St John's college, Cambridge, where he was 

 elected, in 1653, to the first fellowship that be- 

 came vacant after he had taken his bachelor's de- 

 gree. His chief work, Oriyines Sacra, or a Ra- 

 tional Account of Natural and Revealed Religion, 

 is esteemed for the erudition which it displays. It 

 was followed (1664) by a treatise On the Origin 

 and Nature of Protestantism. Having distinguished 

 himself by the prominent part which he took pre- 

 vious to the revolution, against the establishment 

 of the Romish church in England, he was elevated 

 to the see of Worcester by William III. Besides 

 the writings enumerated, he was the author of an 

 appendix to Tillotson's Rule of Faith (1676); the 

 Unreasonableness of Separation (1683); and Ori- 

 ffines BritanniccE, or Antiquities of the Churches in 

 Britain (folio, 1685). A short time before his 

 death, bishop Stillingfleet engaged in a controversy 

 with Locke, respecting some part of that philoso- 

 pher's writings, which he conceived had a leaning 

 towards materialism. His death took place in 1699. 

 His works have been collected and published entire, 

 in six folio volumes (1710). 



STILL LIFE, in painting; the representation 

 of inanimate objects, such as dead animals (game, 

 fishes, &c.), furniture, sometimes with fruits and 

 flowers in addition. The interest of such repre- 

 sentations can consist only in the form, grouping 

 and light ; hence the pictures of still life belong to 

 the lowest species of painting. But some scenes 

 of still life are of a higher order than others. The 

 object of the lowest kind is merely to produce a 

 close imitation of nature. A higher kind combines 

 objects so as to form an interesting whole; and the 

 highest employs the objects only to express a poe- 

 tical idea, as in representing the room of a painter, 

 a table with Christmas presents, the game of a 

 hunter returned from his day's sport. All these 

 may be so represented as to have a poetical char- 

 acter, by reminding us of the individuals with whom 

 they are associated. The Dutch painters Van 

 JElst, John Fyt, Francis Sneyders, David Kon- 

 ing, John Weeninx, Melchior Hondekoeter, William 

 Kalf, and Van Streeck, are distinguished for the 

 representation of still life. 



STIMULANTS are all those medicinal sub- 

 stances, which, applied either externally or inter- 

 nally, have the property of accelerating the pulse 

 and quickening the vital actions. They are among 

 the most valuable and important of medicines, and 

 perhaps are more often the direct means of saving 

 life than any others. But as they are powerful, 

 their injurious effects, when misapplied, have been 

 even more prejudicial to mankind than their best 

 use has been beneficial. In fact, it may be said, 

 that the abuse of this one class of medicines, under 

 the names of cardiacs, cordials, alexipharmics, &c., 

 was the cause of more numerous deaths during the 

 dark ages of medicine, than the sword and the pes- 

 tilence united. The dreadful mortality of the 

 small-pox and of fevers during the middle ages, and 

 even during the earlier parts of the last century, 

 were mainly owing to the administration, by nurses 

 and physicians, of strong cordials, and heating 

 stimulants of all sorts, the tendency of all of which 

 was to increase the violence of the disease, although 

 they were intended merely to expel the noxious 

 and poisonous humours from the system. But, 

 happily for mankind, a more cautious use of these 



