STRABO 



5582 



STRADIVARIUS 



as literature. Her masterpiece was written from 

 an impulse to show the Northern states the 

 real nature of slavery, and it is naturally 

 strongly partisan. It does not fail, however, 

 to reveal the pleasant side of the slave life. 

 Since it was written under pressure in order to 

 keep up with its publication as a serial, it has 

 the faults which belong to all hasty work, but 

 it is, nevertheless, a great book because of its 

 strong and clear pictures. That it is remark- 

 ably dramatic in its nature is shown by the 

 great popularity it still has in parts of the 

 country as a play. Uncle Tom's Cabin has 

 been translated into at least twenty-three lan- 

 guages, and it is not too much to say that it 

 has not only had a wider sale than any other 

 work by an American novelist, but has been 

 farther-reaching in its effects than any other 

 piece of fiction ever written. 



Of Mrs. Stowe's other works, the best are 

 The Minister's Wooing and Oldtown Folks, 

 really charming sketches of New England life. 

 Dred is a novel of slave life which never be- 

 came very popular, and A Dog's Mission and 

 Little Pussy Willow are stories for children. 



Consult L. B. Stowe's Harriet Beecher Stowe: 

 The Story of Her Life. 



STRA'BO (about 64 B! c.-about A.D. 19), a 

 celebrated Greek geographer and historian. He 

 was born at Amasia, in Pontus, removed to 

 Rome when he was about thirty-five years of 

 age, and made that city his home for most of 

 the rest of his life. He traveled extensively, 

 however, in Arabia and through Southern Eu- 

 rope and Northern Africa. It was on these 

 journeys, supplemented by the works of earlier 

 writers on geography, that his great Geography 

 was based. The seventeen books of this work 

 are extant, the first two dealing with physical 

 geography, the next eight with Europe, six with 

 Asia, and one with Africa. This is the most 

 important work on geography which has come 

 down from ancient times, in that it attempted 

 to gather together all the knowledge of the 

 science attainable. Strabo also wrote a history 

 in forty-three books in continuation of the 

 work of Polybius, but this has been lost. 



STRACHAN, strawn, JOHN (1778-1867), a 

 Canadian churchman and educator, first Ang- 

 lican bishop of Toronto, first president of the 

 University of King's College (now the Univer- 

 sity of Toronto), founder of Trinity University, 

 and member of the "Family Compact." Bishop 

 Strachan was the most conspicuous figure in 

 the Church of his day. He was at the same 

 time a skilful statesman, and, more than any 



of his contemporaries, he directed the policy of 

 the ruling group. 



Bishop Strachan was born at Aberdeen, Scot- 

 land. He attended the grammar school there 

 and was graduated from King's College, Cam- 

 bridge, in 1796. 

 Three years later 

 he emigrated to 

 Canada, where he 

 opened a boys' 

 school at Kings- 

 ton. There, and 

 later at Cornwall, 

 and at Toronto, 

 the school flour- 

 ished and eventu- 

 ally became the 

 most famous of JOHN STRACHAN 



its kind in Canada. Under his influence came 

 many boys who were afterwards powerful in 

 Canadian affairs. Two of his pupils were Rob- 

 ert Baldwin and Sir John Beverley Robinson. 



While continuing his school, Strachan en- 

 tered the Anglican ministry, was ordained dea- 

 con in 1803 and priest in 1804, and for eight 

 years was curate at Cornwall. He removed to 

 Toronto in 1812, became archdeacon in 1827 

 and first bishop of Toronto in 1839. During 

 the War of 1812 he was active in public affairs, 

 and in 1815 was rewarded by an appointment 

 to the -Executive Council. For nearly forty 

 years thereafter his activities were almost as 

 much political as ecclesiastical. His political 

 activities, to be sure, concerned themselves, for 

 the most part, with religious or educational 

 matters. Strachan opposed the division of the 

 Clergy Reserves, but his special aim was to se- 

 cure church control of higher education. To 

 this end he founded the University of King's 

 College in 1843. When King's College was re- 

 organized as a provincial institution free of re- 

 ligious tests and given a new name as the Uni- 

 versity of Toronto, Bishop Strachan founded 

 Trinity University in 1852. Even though he 

 founded this second institution, he seems to 

 have realized that the Anglican Church could 

 not have a legalized preference in education, 

 and in the closing years of his life he restricted 

 his activities to his ecclesiastical duties. Am- 

 bitious, shrewd, forceful, able, Bishop Strachan 

 was one of the strong men of his day. 



STRADIVARIUS , strad iva'ri us, ANTONIO 

 (1644-1737), one of the greatest violin makers 

 of all time. He was born at Cremona, Italy, 

 and early entered the employ of Nicola Amati, 

 a celebrated Cremonese master of violin mak- 



