Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/555

 S T E S T E 531 reconstruction of the whole framework of government, which, however, he himself was not to have an opportunity to effect. Stein's momentous ministry did not last much more than a year. Napoleon soon awoke to the eminently patriotic and energetic character of the man he had incautiously re- commended, and an intercepted letter gave him the oppor- tunity to demand Stein's dismissal. Frederick William had no option but to comply, as he shrank from the only possible alternative of an open breach with the French emperor. Stein was proscribed by Napoleon, his property in Westphalia was confiscated, and he himself had to take refuge in Austria from the French troops. 1 In 1812 the czar Alexander invited Stein to St Peters- burg, where he filled the post of unofficial adviser to his imperial majesty on German or rather on anti-Napoleonic affairs ; and it would perhaps be difficult to overestimate the influence of the proximity of such a man in keeping Alexander's courage screwed to the sticking-point. When the scene of the campaign of 1812 was transferred to Germany, Stein was entrusted with the administration of the Prussian districts occupied by the Russian troops, and he shares with Yorck the merit of arousing East Prussia to take arms against the French, and so of calling the " Landwehr " into existence for the first time. To Stein also mainly belongs the credit of effecting that union of Russia and Prussia (treaty of Kalisch, February 27, 1813) which was perhaps the main factor in the over- throw of Napoleon. After the battle of Leipsic Stein became supreme president of a central commission appointed to administer the lands occupied by the allied armies, in which post he was indefatigable in providing the men and material necessary for a successful prosecu- tion of the Avar. When the military struggle was over Stein's work was practically done. The two tendencies of absolutism on the one hand and particularism on the other which determined the tone of the Vienna congress were equally repugnant to him, and he took little part in its deliberations. He also refused the invitations of Austria and Prussia to represent them at the Frankfort diet, a makeshift in which he had no confidence or hope. The rest of his life he spent in retirement, sharing his time between Frankfort and his property in Westphalia, and the only office he ever again filled was that of marshal of the provincial estates. In 1819 he founded the society for the publication of the Momimenta Germanise, Historica, which has since done such admirable work. He died on June 29, 1831, in his seventy-fourth year, on his estate of Cappenberg in Westphalia, leaving a family of three daughters. His wife was Countess von Walmoden-Gim- born of Hanover, a granddaughter of George II. Stein's distinguishing merit as a statesman is that he was practically the first to see the urgent necessity of German unity, to contemplate its realization as possible, and to inaugurate a policy likely to bring it about. That which, now that it has been accomplished by Stein's great successor, seems to us almost a matter of course, was a mere chimera to most of our forefathers, and it required the faculty of a political seer to attain Stein's clear views of future possibilities. Stein saw, too, that the only hope of salvation lay in the people as such, that he must enlist the sympathies of the nation and raise its moral tone. To this end a series of great and just reforms was necessary. If a deep national sentiment was to be evoked, the people must be freed from feudal burdens ; if they were to carry on an effective struggle for independence, they must first acquire personal liberty. His emancipation edict, therefore, which has been called the habeas corpus act of Prussia, abolished serfdom, did away with the dis- tinctions of caste, and abrogated the feudal restrictions upon the free disposition of person and property (compare PRUSSIA, vol. xx. 1 The belief that Stein occupied himself during his retirement in propagating his opinions through the ' ' Tugendbund " seems from recent investigations to be erroneous. He had no sympathy with secret societies, and all indications go to show that he rather disapproved of the league than otherwise. pp. 11, 12). This reform, however, Stein found, in a sense, ready to his hand ; it was demanded by the spirit of the times, and can hardly be looked on as a purely individual achievement. His most distinctive work was a great scheme of political reform, in which he contemplated the conversion of the absolute monarchy of Prussia into a free representative state. He wisely began the process by introducing the principle of free local government in his Stadte-Ordnung, or municipal ordinance. The people had to be roused to take an interest in governing themselves, and it was easier to expand this interest from the local to the national than to work down from the national to the local. Stein did not see much more than this beginning of his plans, but the famous " Political Testament " he drew up on leaving office shows how wide-sweeping were the reforms he contemplated. The right of self-government was to be extended to the rural communes, and a thorough reform of every branch of the administration was to be effected, while the coping-stone of the new edifice was to take the form of a free representative parliament. Time, however, has been on his side, and it is not too much to say with Prof. Yon Tn-itschke that every advance Germany has since made in political life has brought it nearer the ideals of Stein. The standard work on Stein is the biography by G. H. Pcrtz. C vols., 1M9-55, hut few English readers will feel the need of going beyond Prof. Seeley's ad- mirable Life and Times of Stein, London, 1879, which also contains a full "biblio- graphy. (J. F. M.) STEIN AM ANGER (Hung. SzomlatMy Lat. Salaria), the chief town of the trans-Danubian county of Vas, Hungary, is an old place of some interest. Though it has only 12,000 inhabitants, it is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has a Dominican convent, a seminary, gymna- sium, chamber of advocates, large orphanage, fine theatre, and a number of superior Government offices. The in- terior of the cathedral is of great beauty, in the Italian style. The town is at the junction of four different rail- ways, and is rapidly rising in importance. STEINER, JAKOB (1796-1863), one of the greatest geometricians of all ages, was born on the 18th of March 1796 at the Swiss village of Utzendorf (canton Bern). Here he grew up helping his father in his agricultural pursuits, learning to write only at the age of fourteen. At eighteen he became a pupil of Pestalozzi, and after- wards studied at Heidelberg. Thence he went to Berlin, earning a livelihood here as in Heidelberg by giving private lessons. Here he became acquainted with Crelle, who, encouraged by his ability and by that of Abel, then also staying at Berlin, founded his famous Journal (1826). After Steiner's publication (1832) of his Systematische EntwicJcehmgen he got, through Jacobi's exertions, who was then professor at Konigsberg, an honorary degree of that university ; and through the influence of Jacobi and of the- brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt a new chair of geometry was founded for him at Berlin (1834). This he occupied till his death, which took place in Bern on April 1, 1863, after years of bad health. Steiner's mathematical work was confined to geometry. This he treated synthetically, to the total exclusion of analysis, which he hated, and he is said to have considered it a disgrace to synthetical geometry if equal or higher results were obtained by analytical methods. In his own field he surpassed all his contemporaries. His investiga- tions are distinguished by their great generality, by the fertility of his resources, and by a rigour in his proofs which rivals that of the ancients, so that he has been considered the greatest geometrical genius since the time of Apollonius. In his Systematische Entwiclcelung der Abhdngigkcit gcomcti-ischer Gcstalten von einander he laid the foundation on which synthetic geometry in its present form rests. He introduces what are now called the geometrical forms (the row, flat pencil, &c.), and estab- lishes between their elements a one-one correspondence, or, as calls it, makes them projective. He next gives by aid of these proiective rows and pencils a new generation of conies and rul quadric surfaces, "which leads quicker and more directly than former methods into the inner nature of conies and reveals 1 organic connexion of their innumerable properties and mystc In this work also, of which unfortunately only one volume ap- peared instead of the projected five, we see for the first time