STERLING, JOHN, a friend of Carlyle’s, born at Kames Castle, Bute, son of Captain Sterling of the Times; studied at Glasgow and Cambridge; a man of brilliant parts and a liberal-minded, but of feeble health; had Julius Hare for tutor at Cambridge, and became Hare’s curate at Hurstmonceaux for eight months; wrote for reviews, and projected literary enterprises, but achieved nothing; spent his later days moving from place to place hoping to prolong life; formed an acquaintanceship with Carlyle in 1832; became an intelligent disciple, and believed in him to the last; Hare edited his papers, and wrote his life as a clergyman, and Carlyle, dissatisfied, wrote another on broader lines, and by so doing immortalised his memory (1806-1843).

STERN, DANIEL.  See AGOULT.

STERNE, LAURENCE, English humourist, born at Clonmel, Ireland, son of Roger Sterne, captain in the army; his mother an Irishwoman; was educated at Halifax and Cambridge, by-and-by took orders, and received livings in Sutton and Shillington, became a prebend at York, and finally got a living at Coxwold; in 1759 appeared the first two volumes of “Tristram Shandy,” and in 1767 the last two; in 1768 his “Sentimental Journey,” and in the interim his “Sermons,” equally characteristic of the man as the two former productions.  Stopford Brooke says, “They have no plot, they can scarcely be said to have any story.  The story of ’Tristram Shandy’ wanders like a man in a labyrinth, and the humour is as labyrinthine as the story.  It is carefully invented, and whimsically subtle; and the sentiment is sometimes true, but mostly affected.  But a certain unity is given to the book by the admirable consistency of the characters,” his masterpieces, among which is “Uncle Toby”; the author died in London of pulmonary consumption (1713-1763).

STERNHOLD, THOMAS, principal author of the first English metrical version of the Psalms, originally attached to the Prayer-Book as augmented by John Hopkins; continued in general use till Tate and Brady’s version of 1696 was substituted in 1717; was a Hampshire man, and held the post of Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. (1500-1549).

STEROPES, one of the three CYCLOPS (q. v.).

STESICHORUS, a celebrated Greek lyric poet, born in Sicily; contemporary of Sappho, Aleacus, and Pittacus; at his birth it is said a nightingale alighted on his lips and sang a sweet strain (632-652 B.C.).

STETTIN (116), capital of Pomerania, and a flourishing river-port on both banks of the Oder, 30 m. from its entrance into the Baltic, and 60 m.  NE. of Berlin; lies contiguous to, and is continuous with, the smaller towns of Bredow, Grabow, and Zuellchow; principal buildings are the royal palace (16th century), the Gothic church of St. Peter (12th century), and St. James’s (14th century); is a busy hive of industry, turning out ships, cement, sugar, spirits, &c., and carrying on a large export and import trade.