S T A 
542 
wedge shaped, awnless.—Native of the South of France and 
Malta. Wheeler observed it in Greece. 
17. Statice echioides, or rough-leaved sea lavender.— 
Scape panicled, round, jointed; leaves rugged.—Native of 
the South of Europe, and in Barbary, near Mascar, in the 
clefts of rocks. 
18. Statice speciosa, or plaintain-leaved sea lavender.— 
Scape branched, round; branches ancipital, winged; flowers 
imbricate; leaves obovate-cusped, mucronate, cartilaginous 
at the edge.—Native of Russia. 
19. Statice Tatarica, or Tartarian sea lavender.—Scape 
branched, divaricating; branches three-sided; flowers distant; 
leaves lanceolate-obovate, mucronate.—Nativeof Russia. 
20. Statice echinus.—Scape panicled; leaves subulate, 
mucronate.—Native of Greece, and the deserts of Media.— 
The remaining species of this section are Statice flexuosa, 
purpurata, longifolia, minuta, pectinata, suffruticosa, mono- 
petala, axillaris, cylindrifolia, linifolia, aurea, ferulacea- 
pruinosa, sinuata, lobata, spicata, mucronata, globularia, 
and spathulata. 
Propagation and Culture. —Thrift may be propagated 
by parting the roots in autumn, that the plants may take 
good root before frost comes on, and that they may flower 
stronger if they were planted in the spring. The common 
sea lavender, and most of the other sorts are abiding plants, 
and will thrive in the open air. 
STATICS, s. [(ra7</o), Gr.; statique, Fr.] The science 
which considers the weight of bodies.—This is a catholick 
rule of staticks, that if any body be bulk for bulk heavier 
than a fluid, it will sink the bottom; and if lighter it will 
float upon it, having part extant, and part immersed, as that 
so much of the fluid as is equal in bulk to the immersed part 
be equal in gravity to the whole. Bentley. 
Those who define mechanics the science of motion, make 
statics a subordinate part of it; viz. that part which considers 
the motion of bodies arising from gravity. 
Others make them two distinct doctrines, restraining me¬ 
chanics to the doctrine of motion and weight, in reference to 
the structure and power of machines; and statics to the doc¬ 
trine of motion, considered merely as arising from the weight 
of bodies, without any immediate respect to machines. 
On which footing, statics should be the doctrine or theory of 
motion; and mechanics, the application of it to machines. 
STATION, s. [ statio , Lat.] The act of standing. 
In station like the herald. Mercury, 
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill. Shakspeare. 
A state of rest.—All progression is performed by drawing 
on or impelling forward some part which was before in sta¬ 
tion or at quiet, where there are no joints. Brown. —A 
place where any one is placed.—The planets in their station 
listening stood. Milton. —Post assigned; office.—Michael 
in either hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery serpent 
waving behind them, and the cherubims taking their stations 
to guard the place. Milton. —Situation; position. 
The fig and date, why love they to remain 
In middle station and an even plain; 
While in the lower marsh the gourd is found. 
And while the hill with olive-shade is crown’d ? Prior. 
Employment; office.—Whether those who are leaders 
of a party arrive at that station more by a sort of instinct, 
or influence of the stars, than by the possession of any great 
abilities, may be a point of much dispute. Swift. —Cha¬ 
racter ; state.—Far the greater part have kep t their station. 
Milton. —Rank ; condition of life.—I can be contented with 
an humbler station in the temple of virtue, than to be set 
on the pinnacle. Dry den. 
To STATION, v. a. To place in a certain post, rank, 
or place.—He gained the brow of the hill, where the English 
phalanx was stationed. Lyttleton. 
STATIONARII, were men, thus called in the middle 
ages, who trafficked in books, made large fortunes by lend¬ 
ing them out to be read, at exorbitant prices, not in volumes, 
but in detached parts, according to the estimation in which 
the author was held. 
S T A 
STATIONARY, adj. [stationnaire , Fr. Cotgrav t 
Fixed; not progressive.—Mine own businesses are rathef 
stationary than retrogade. Wot ton. 
STATIONER, s. A bookseller. [“ The term stationers 
was appropriated to booksellers in the year 1662.—The com¬ 
pany of stationers existed long before the invention of print¬ 
ing. A stationer, therefore, was a dealer who kept a shop 
or stall, as distinguished from an itinerant vender, whether 
of books or broomsticks.” Pegge. ] Some modern trage¬ 
dies are beautiful on the stage, and yet Tryphon the sta¬ 
tioner, complains they are seldom asked for in his shop. 
Dryden. —A seller of paper, pens, ink, &c. 
STATIONERY, s. The wares of a stationer—paper, 
pens, ink. 
STA'TISM, s. Policy; the arts of government.—Hence 
it is, that the enemies of God take occasion to blaspheme, 
and call our religion statism. South. 
STATIST, s. A statesman; a politician; one skilled 
in government. 
I do believe, 
Statist though I am none, nor like to be. 
That this shall prove a war. Shakspeare. 
STATPSTIC, or Statistical, adj. Political. [This 
word, as well as the substantive, is of very recent date in our 
language. Todd.'] 
STATISTICS, s. This word implies commonly that 
part of political science that regards the population, build¬ 
ings, agricultural and manufactured productions, revenue, &c. 
Neither the derivation of the word, the meanings of its colla¬ 
terals (of statist especially), nor the wants of our language, 
which has no word comprehending the whole of political 
science, warrant this restriction. 
STATIUS (Publius Papinus), an eminent Roman poet, 
was born at Naples, in which city his father was settled as 
a teacher of oratory, and was in great reputation both for his 
lectures and poetry, in which he gained several prizes. Statius 
was born probably about the year A. D. 61. He early dis¬ 
played a lively disposition and good talents, and soon became 
a votary of the muses with so much success, that during his 
father’s life he obtained the crown in the poetical contests 
of his native place. He was thrice a victor in the poetical 
games celebrated at Alba. The poems which he addressed to 
several of the principal persons in Rome, are proofs of the, 
friendships which he contracted with men of rank in that 
city; and a piece, which he recited in the quinquennial 
games instituted by Nero, and renewed by Domitian, pro¬ 
cured for him a golden crown from that emperor, and the 
honour of admission to his table. He was vanquished at 
a contest in the Roman games, on which occasion he recited 
a part of his principal work, the Thebaid. According to 
Juvenal, he was heard with delight by a crowd of auditors in 
other public recitations of this poem : the satirist at the same 
time intimating, that notwithstanding this applause, the 
author might have starved, had he not sold his “ Agave,” 
apparently a new composition, to a celebrated actor, a fa¬ 
vourite of Domitian. He possessed a small estate and country 
house near the site of the ancient Alba, and lived in a decent 
state of mediocrity. Having no children of his own, he 
adopted a son, whose death he tenderly laments in one of 
his miscellaneous poems. The time of his own death is not 
known, but it is thought to have been about the year 96, 
when he was only 35 years of age. He is not even men¬ 
tioned by any contemporary poet, except Juvenal. Martial, 
who celebrates many other poets, takes not the least notice 
of him. The existing works of Statius consist of the “ Sylvae,” 
or miscellaneous pieces,'in five books; the “Thebaid,” an 
epic poem, in twelve books ; and two books of an unfinished 
poem, entitled “ Achilles.” “ They all, says his biographer, 
“ display a considerable share of genius and real talent, but 
are vitiated by the false taste which then began to infest Latin 
poetry, and gave a turn to turgid and unnatural thoughts 
and expressions. Several pieces in the ‘ Sylvae’ are, how¬ 
ever, pleasing and elegant. His principal work, the * The¬ 
baid,’ holds no mean rank among epic poems, and - once if 
wr 
