STO 
the long robe wore by the high-priest of 
the Jews. 
Stole, groom of the, the eldest gentleman 
of his Majesty’s bed-chamber, whose office 
and honour it is to present, and put on, his 
Majesty’s first garment, or shirt, every 
morning, and to order the things in the 
chamber. 
STOLEN goods. To help people to 
stolen goods for reward, without appre- 
hending the felon, is felony. 4 George I. 
c. 11. Persons having, or receiving, lead, 
iron, copper, brass, bell metal, or solder, 
knowing them to be stolen, shall be trans- 
ported. 29 George II. c. 30. 
STOMACH. See Anatomy. 
STOMOXYS, in natural history, a genus 
of insects of the order Diptera. Sucker 
with a single valved sheath, inclosing bris- 
tles, each in its proper sheath ; two feelers, 
short, setaceous, of five articulations; an- 
tennae setaceous. There are sixteen species 
in two sections : A. sheath convolute, and 
geniculate at the base, with two bristles. 
B. sheath covering the mouth with five 
bristles. 
STONE (Edmund), in biography, a dis- 
tinguislied self-taught mathematician, was 
born in Scotland ; but neither the place nor 
time of his birth are well known; nor have 
we any memoirs of his life, except a letter 
from the Chevalier de Ramsay, author of 
the “ Travels of Cyrus,” in a letter to Father 
Castel, a Jesuit at Paris, and published in 
the “ Memoirs de Trevoux,” p. 109, as fol- 
lows : “ True genius overcomes all the dis- 
advantages of birth, fortune, and education ; 
of which Mr. Stone is a rare example. 
Born the son of a gardener of the Duke of 
Argyle, he arrived at eight years of age be- 
fore he learned to read. By chance a ser- 
vant having taught young Stone the letters 
of the alphabet, there needed nothing more 
to discover and expand his genius. He ap- 
plied himself to study, and he arrived at the 
knowledge of the most sublime geometry 
and analysis without a master, without a 
conductor, without any other guide but 
pure genius. 
At eighteen years of age he had made 
these considerable advances without being 
known, and without knowing himself the 
prodigies of his acquisitions. The Duke of 
Argyle, who joined to his military talents a 
general knowledge of every science that 
adorns the mind of a man of his rank, W'alk- 
ing one day in his garden, saw lying on the 
grass a Latin copy of Sir Isaac Newton’s 
celebrated “ Principia.” He called some 
STO 
one to him to take and carry it back to his 
library. Onr young gardener told him that 
the book belonged to him. ‘ To you!’ re- 
plied the Duke. ‘ Do you understand geo- 
metry, Latin, Newton.'” ‘ I know a little 
of them,’ replied the young man, with an air 
of simplicity arising from a profound igno- 
rance of his own knowledge and talents. 
The Duke was surprised; and having d 
taste for the sciences, he entered into con- 
versation with the young mathematician: 
he asked him several questions, and was 
astonished at the force, the accuracy, and 
the candour of his answers. ‘ But how,’ 
said the Duke, ‘ came you by the know- 
ledge of all these things?’ Stone replied, 
‘ A servant taught me, ten years since, to 
read: does one need to know any thing 
more than the twenty-four letters in order 
to learn every thing else that one wishes?’ 
TheDuke’s curiosity redoubled ; he sat down 
upon a bank, and requested a detail of all 
his proceedings in becoming so learned. 
‘ I first learned to read,’ said Stone : ‘ the 
masons were then at work upon your house : 
I went near them one day, and I saw that 
the architect used a rule, compasses, and 
that he made calculations. I inquired what 
might be the meaning and use of these 
things; and I was informed that there w'as 
a science called arithmetic ; I purchased a 
book of arithmetic, and I learned it. I was 
told there was another science called geo- 
metry: I bought the books, and I learned 
geometry. By reading I found that there 
were good books in these two sciences in 
Latin: I bought a dictionary, and I learned 
Latin. I understood also that there were 
good books of the same kind in French : I 
bought a dictionary, and I learned French. 
And this, my Lord, is what I have done : it 
seems to me that we may learn every thing 
when we know the twenty-four letters of 
the alphabet.’ This account charmed the 
Duke. He drew this wonderful genius out of 
his obscurity; and he provided him with an 
employpient which left him plenty of time 
to appj^ himself to tlie sciences. He disco- 
vered in him also the same genius for music, 
for painting, for architecture, for all the 
sciences which depend on calculations and- 
proportions. 
“ I have seen Mr. Stone. He is a man 
of great simplicity. He is at present sen- 
sible of his own knowledge ; but he is not 
puffed up with it. He is possessed with a 
pure and disinterested love for the mathe- 
matics ; though he is not solicito.us to pass 
for a mathematician ; vanity having no part 
