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 STIFTER

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STIGMATA

and "Nouvelle maniere de fortifications par Aclases ". These were the last pubhcations made during his lifetime, but he left important MSS., the chief of which were published in 1649 by his son Henri, who composed the "BurgherUcke Stoffen" (poUtical ques- tions); the others were lost, but later recovered. Bierens de Haan edited two of them at Amsterdam in 1884: "Spiegeling der singconst" (mirror of the art of singing) and "Van de molens" (on mills). After Stevin's death Albert Girard translated several of his works and annotated others, thus forming a large folio volume published at Leyden in 16.34 by the Elzevirs as "CEuvres mathematiques de Simon Stevin de Bruges". Abroad Stevin is often known only through this translation, but it does not convey an adequate idea of his works and should be supple- mented by several of the original editions mentioned above. Unfortunately these have become bibliograph- ical rarities almost unobtainable outside of Belgium and the Netherlands. M. Ferd. van der Haeghen has made them the subject of a masterly study in his "Bibliotheca Belgica" (1st series, XXIII, Ghent and The Hague, 1880-90), in which he notes most of the copies preserved in the hbraries of both countries.

GoETH^LS, Notice hist. suT la vie et hs travaux de Simon Stevin de Bruges (Brussels, 1841); Steichen, Mem. sur la vie et les travaux de Simon Stevin (Brussels, 1846); Cantor, Vorlesungen iiber Gesch. des Mathematik, II (2nd ed., Leipzig. 1900).

H. BOSMANS.

Stifter, AD.4LBERT, poet and pedagogue, b. at Oberplan in Bohemia, 23 October, 1805 ; d. at Linz, 28 October, 1868. His father was a linen weaver and flax dealer. In these humble surroundings the tal- ented boy received the first intellectual stimulus from his mother and grandmother, who told him fairy- tales, stories, and legends. At school he was an apt scholar and, among other things, showed talent for music and drawing. After the sudden death of his father in 1817, his grandfather sent him to the Bene- dictine gymnasium at Kremsmtinster in Upper Aus- tria, where Father Plazidus Hall took the clever boy under his care. In 1827 Stifter went to the Univer- sity of Vienna. Here, after completing the usual philosophical course, he appUed himself to legal studies; but his natural bent eventually led him to attend lectures in mathematics and the natural sciences. He sujjported himself by giving private les- sons among the leading families, and in this way formed a wide connexion among the Viennese aristocracy, his circle of acquaintances including the family of the imperial chancellor, Prince Mettemich. He wished to be a teacher of natural science and passed the written examination for this with honour in 1830, without the oral examination, however. Although now thirty- two years old and still a candidate for the position of teacher, he married the penniless daughter of a retired artillery officer. It was impossible for him to find a more secure position, and he was obliged to continue earning a precarious livelihood by giving private les- sons. His position, however, impro\ed when a story, "Der Condor", ])ublished in the " Wiener Zeitschrift " in 1840, suddenly made him famous. This was soon followed by other stories, which were later collected and published under the title of "Studien".

A new era in Stiff er's existence began with the year 1848. It was in that year that the revolutionary uprisings, which filled the streets of Vienna with tur- moil and violence, drove him from the capital to Linz. There, after vainly trying to obtain a position as a teacher, he offered his services t o t he provincial govern- ment of Ui)per .\ustria, and his great ])edagogical abil- ities were now at last recognized. Coimt Leo 'I'luni.t he reorganizer of the Austrian school .system, appointed Stifter in 1850 a member of the school board at Linz. There was no longer any lack of honours and recogni- I ion : he received the medal for art and science and the cross of a knight of the Order of Francis Joseph, and

was greatly esteemed by the Empress Elizabeth. But, in spite of all this, Stifter graduall>- became morose and eccentric. It became impossible for liim to overcome an ever-increasing depression, the after-effect of his early disappointments. As he entered the sixties, a severe liver complaint developed which obliged him to make repeated visits to Karlsbad. In I860 he retired with his full salary and the title of imperial councillor. He visited his home for the last time in 1867, and soon after was seized with the painful illness which, in spite of his wife's careful nursing, proved fatal. He died childless.

As a poet, Stifter belonged to the late Romantic School, like Droste-HUlshoff and Morike. His con- templative spirit, his dehcate perception of nature, the richness of his imagination, and his shrinking from the tumult of the day are all traits of true Romanti- cism, as is evident in his "Studien", and "Bunte Steine". As an older man, about 1850, the greater composure of his style bore a resemblance to the classicism of Goethe, as is shown in his "Nach- sommer", and still more in his "W'itiko". That he was also an excellent pedagogue is made evident not only in his work as a member of the school-board, but also in his writings, which bear evidence of his excel- lent pedagogical knowledge. His latest biographer says: "In advance of his times, he held up as the aim of the future most of the achievements which have been realized by modern pedagogy, and was thus, untQ death, in word and deed a model, a leader, and a dis- coverer of new paths for the school he loved so dearly." Several of his works were often rejirinted during his lifetime. A complete edition, edited by Apprent, was issued at Pesth in 1870. A popular edition of selected works was published at Leipzig in 1887. Professor Sauer is editing a new and carefully prcjiared edition for the "Library of German Authors of Bohemia" ("Bibhothek deutscher SchriftsteUer aus Bohmen", Prague, 1901 ).

Hein, Adalbert Stifter, sein Leben und seine Werke (Prague, 1904) : Adalbert Stifter, eine Selbstcharakteristik des Menschen und des Kiinstlers, ausgewdhlt und eingeleitet von P. G. Harmuth (Mu- nich, 1905); KoscH. Adalbert Stifter (Leipzig, 1905); Adalbert Stifter und die Romantik, in Prager deutsche Studien, I (1905); HuLLER, Zu Stifters Stil, in Euphorion, XVI (1909), 136-47, 460-71.

N. SCHEID.

Stigmata, Mystical. — I. To describe merely the facts without deciding whether or not they may be explained by supernatural causes, history tells us that many ecstatics bear on hands, feet, side, or brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings. These are called visible stig- mata. Others only have the sufferings, without any outward mark, and these ])henomena are called in- visible stigmata. Their existence is so well estab- lished historically that, as a general thing, they are no longer disputed by unbelievers, who now seek only to explain them naturally. Thus a free-thinking physician. Dr. Duma,s, professor of religious psy- chology at the Sorbonne, clearly admits the facts (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 May, 1907), as does also Dr. Pierre Janet (Bulletin de I'lnstitut psychologique international, Paris, July, 1901).

St. Catherine of Siena at first had visible stigmata but through humility she a.sked that they might be made invisible, and her prayer was heard. This w.as also the case with St. C;itlierine de' Kicci, a Florentine Dominican of the sixtecntli century, and with several other sligmatics. The sulTerings may be considered the essential part of visible stigmata; the substance of this grace consists in |)ity for Christ, participation in Ilis sufferings, .sorrows, and for the same end — the expiation of the sins uncesisingly conuiiitted in the world. If the sufferings were absent, the wounds would be but an empty symbol, theatrical representa- tion, conducing to pride. If the stigmata really come from God, it would be unworthy of His wisdom to