578 S T E 
thedral. By means of his wife, he became possessed of the 
living of Stillingfleet, where, and also at Sutton, the place 
of his residence, he performed duty for nearly twenty years. 
During this time, as he informs us, he amused himself with 
books, painting, fiddling, and shooting. About this time, 
the only production of his pen was a little piece entitled 
“ The History of a Watch-Coat,” printed, but not pub¬ 
lished, about 1738, describing with humour some squabbles 
among the dignitaries of York, after the manner of Swift. 
In 1759 appeared two volumes of his “ Life and Opinions 
of Tristram Shandy,” a kind of peculiar novel, which was 
much read, and generally admired. Some commended and 
some censured it. However, it secured profit to himself, as 
it was bought by the booksellers, and as it was the means of 
procuring for him the presentation of the curacy of Cox- 
would. Several volumes appeared in succession, and the 
last, or 9th, in 1760. This is an eccentric performance, 
formed upon the idea of a kind of self-taught philosopher, 
in. the person of an elderly country gentleman, full of odd 
and singular notions, which he displays chiefly in the plan 
he forms for the education of an only son, commencing 
from, or rather before, his birth. The work is original in 
its composition and style; and abounds with a variety of 
characters, observations, and exquisite touches of the pa¬ 
thetic, intermixed with a sufficient quantity of the indeli¬ 
cate and indecorous. It was new in its plan and execution, 
and though it has been often imitated, nothing strictly re¬ 
sembling it has yet appeared. In 1768, our author pub 
lished another work, entitled “ Sentimental Journey,” in 
2 vols. 12mo., which exceeded the former publication in 
popularity. With regard to purity and decorum, it is 
chargeable with the same, though perhaps not with equal, 
blemishes with the former. In 1760, availing himself of 
his fame, he published two volumes of “ Sermons of Mr. 
Yorick,” and two more in 1766. Sterne had long con¬ 
tended with a tendency to pulmonary consumption, which 
at length became a confirmed disease, and terminated his life 
in March 1768. He left a widow and- a, daughter. The 
latter married a French gentleman, and published, in 1775, 
a collection of her father’s letters, in 3 vols. 12mo., to 
which were prefixed “ Memoirs of his Life and Family.” 
Jn the same year, an anonymous editor published “ Letters 
from Yorick and Eliza,” which were regarded as an au¬ 
thentic correspondence of Sterne with Mrs. Draper, an East 
Indian lady. 
STERNFIELD, a parish of England, in Suffolk, near 
Saxmundham. 
STE'RNLY, adv. (j.typnbce, Sax.] In a stem manner; 
severely; truculently. 
Sternly he pronounc’d 
The rigid interdiction. Milton. 
STE'RNNESS, s. Severity of look. 
Of stature large, and eke of courage bold, 
That sous of meu amaz’d their sternness to behold. 
Spenser. 
Severity or harshness of manners, 
I have sternness in my soul enough 
To hear of soldiers’ work. Dryden. 
STERNOMANTIS ['ZrepvopMVTtz, Gr.], a designation 
given to the Delphian priestess, more usually called Pythia, 
Sternomantis is also used for any one that had a 
prophesying demon with him. 
STE'RNON, or, more usually Sternum, s. [?rrprov, 
Gr.] The breast-bone.—A soldier was shot in the breast 
through the sternon., Wiseman. 
STERNOPTYX, in Ichthyology, a genus of fishes, of 
the order Apodes, of which the Generic Character is as fol¬ 
lows :—Head obtuse, teeth, very .minute ; no gill-membrane; 
the body is compressed, without apparent scales; breast ca¬ 
rinate, folded; belly pellucid, A single species only is men¬ 
tioned by Gmelin, viz.:— 
Sternoptyx diaphana.—This is found in the American 
S T E 
seas: it is small, compressed, truncate before, narrowed and 
silvery behind. The eyes are large, and of an amber colons; 
the mouth is perpendicular; the tongue thick and rough; 
the upper lip is short, lower perpendicular, with four semi¬ 
circular depressed cavities from the ridge, and three others 
under the aperture of the gills ; the aperture is oblique, with 
soft covers; the folds of the breast form a pellucid ridge; 
the back is of a greenish-brown colour, gibbous behind the 
fin, with a double ridge diverging towards the nostrils; it 
has no lateral line; the dorsal fin with an oblique, strong, 
spinous, immoveable ray, joined to which is a membrane 
very finely toothed at the edge: pectoral fins of a fine amber 
colour; tail bifid. 
STERNUTA'TION, s. [sternutatio , Lat.] The act of 
sneezing. 
STERNU'TATIVE, adj. [ sternutatif, Fr., from ster- 
nuto, Lat.] Having the quality of provoking to sneeze. 
STERNU'TATORY, s. [ sternutatoire , Fr., from ster- 
nuto, Lat.] Medicine that provokes to sneeze. 
STERQUILl'NOUS, adj. [ sterquilinium , Lat.; a dung¬ 
hill .] Mean; dirty; paltry. Not in nse. 
To STERVE, v. n. , [jeaeppan, Sax.; sterfen , Germ.] 
To perish. Spenser often uses it, for the sake of his rhyme, 
instead of starve. It is also used by Chaucer, Obsolete. 
Seven moneths he so her kept in bitter smart, 
Because his sinfull lust she would not serve. 
Untill such time as noble Britomart 
Released her, that else was like to starve 
Through cruel knife that her deare heart did kerve. Spenser. 
STERZINGEN, a small town of the Austrian states, in 
the Tyrol, at the. foot of Mount Brenner. It contains 800 
inhabitants, has a manufacture of sword blades, and in 
the neighbourhood a silver mine; 10 miles north-west of 
Brixen, 
STESICHORUS, a Greek lyric poet, was born at Himera, 
in Sicily, and flourished about the year B.C. 612, being a 
person of some consequence in his native city;; and he is 
said to have died in the year B.C. 556. His works were 
numerous, and much esteemed by the ancients. They were 
composed in the Doric dialect, but they.have all perished, 
except a few fragments, amounting to 50 or 60 lines, printed 
in the collection of Fulvius Uvsinus, Ant. 1568. To him 
we owe the first introduction into the ode of the triple divi¬ 
sion of strophe, antistrophe, and epode, which were called 
in a Greek proverb “ the three.things of Stesichorus," from 
which he is said to have derived his name, as signifying 
placer of the chorus.” 
STETTEN, a large village of Germany, in Bavaria, not 
far from Augsburg, on a small lake also called Stetten, with 
1100 inhabitants. 
STETTEN AM KALTENMARK, a large.village of the 
west of Germany, in Wirtemberg, in a rocky district called 
the Hart. Population 1000. 
STETTEN IM REMSTHAL, a small town of the west of 
Germany, in Wirtemberg, near Stutgard, with 1600 inha¬ 
bitants. 
STETTEN UNTERM HEUCHELBERG, another small 
town of Wirtemberg ; 11 miles west-by-south of Heilbronn. 
Population 1000. 
STETTIN, a large town of the Prussian states, the capital 
of Pomerania, is situated on the Oder, about 60 miles from 
the Baltic. It stands on an eminence on the left bank of the 
Oder, which is divided here into four streams. Opposite to 
it, and connected by a long bridge over the main stream, 
is the part of the town called Lastadie. Stettin, including 
its three suburbs, contains 21,000 inhabitants, part of whom 
are descendants of French Protestant refugees. It has five 
gates, and several small squares, Of the public buildings 
the principal are the castle, the government house, the 
arsenal, the barracks, the hospitals, the exchange, the theatre, 
the public library. The government offices are in the castle. 
The majority of the inhabitants are Lutherans; and there is 
here an academical gymnasium, with several professors, and 
two assistants, who hpld classes of divinity, law, medicine, 
as-. 
