20,000,000 are visible by the telescope; of these in the MILKY WAY (q. v.) alone there are 18,000,000; they are distinguished by their colours as well as their brightness, being white, orange, red, green, and blue according to their temperature and composition; they have from ancient date been grouped into constellations of the northern and the southern hemispheres and of the ZODIAC (q. v.), the stars in each of which being noted by the Greek letters, as [Greek:  alpha], [Greek:  beta], according to their brightness; they all move more or less, and some go round each other, and are called double according as there are two or more of them so revolving; besides stars singly visible there are others called CLUSTERS OR NEBULAE (q. v.).

STARS AND STRIPES, the flag of the United States, the stripes representing the original States of the Union, and stars those annexed since.

STATEN ISLAND, 1, belonging to New York State (52), and comprising the county of Richmond; is a picturesque island (14 m. long), 5 m.  SW. of New York, separated from Long Island by the Narrows and from New Jersey by the Kill van Kull and Staten Island Sound; pretty watering-villages skirt its shores, and Forts Richmond and Wadsworth guard the entrance to the Narrows. 2, A lofty, precipitous, and rugged island, snow-clad most of the year, belonging to Argentina, lying to the SE. of Tierra del Fuego, from which it is separated by Le Maire Strait (40 m.).

STATES-GENERAL, name given to an assembly of the representatives of the three estates of nobles, clergy, and bourgeoisie, or the Tiers Etat as it was called, in France prior to the Revolution of 1789, and which was first convoked in 1302 by Philip IV.; they dealt chiefly with taxation, and had no legislative power; they were convoked by Louis XIII. in 1614, and dismissed for looking into finance, and not convoked again till the last time in 1789, for the history of which see Carlyle’s “French Revolution.”

STATES-RIGHTS, doctrine of the contention of the Democrats in the United States that the several States of the Union have all the rights, powers, and privileges not expressly made over to the central government, and by extremists even the right of secession.

STATIONERS’ HALL, the hall of the old Company of London Stationers, incorporated in 1557, who enjoyed till the Copyright Act of 1842 the sole right of having registered at their offices every pamphlet, book, and ballad published in the kingdom.  Although no longer compulsory, the practice of entering books at Stationers’ Hall is still found useful for copyright purposes.  The register-rolls of books entered at Stationers’ Hall have been carefully preserved, and are of the highest value to the literary historian.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS, steps in the passage of Jesus from the judgment-hall to Calvary, or representations of these, before each one of which the faithful are required to kneel and offer up a prayer.