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STABAT MATER

1807

STAEL

America, but are poorly represented in South America and in Europe. There are two natural divisions of the squirrel family, the

¥ round-squirrels and the tree-squirrels. he latter are graceful, agile animals, with slender bodies and very long, bushy tails. They feed mainly on acorns and nuts, but occasionally eat animal food and birds' eggs. They sit upon their haunches and handle nuts adroitly with their fore feet. They cut through the shell with their sharp teeth. The red squirrel, which repr sentsthe common squirrel of Europe, is the smallest and prettiest of our tree-squirrels. It is about eight inches long, and ranges southward from the northern limit of trees. The gray squirrel is one of the best-known species. It reaches a length of about ten inches, and is common east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It is subject to great color variations, being sometimes black. This tendency for one species to vary in color is common to all tree-squirrels. Other gray squirrels are found in the western parts of the United States. The fox-squirrel is the species found east of the Great Plains. It reaches a length of 12 inches, and has a large tail of about the same length. Tree squirrels have nests both in branches and hollow trees. The latter are also used for food storage and winter homes. The ground-squirrels make burrows, which they also supply with food. North America is the richest of all countries in ground-squirrels. The group includes such forms as woodchucks, prairie-dogs gophers and chipmunks. The latter, called also striped squarrels, are the best known. They stand on the dividing line between the burrowing forms and the tree-squirrels. All have cheek-pouches, in which their stores are carried to their nests. Tree-squirrels are

§ood eating, and the fur of those inhabiting iberia and Russia is of commercial value.

Sta'bat Ma'ter ("the mother was standing") is a celebrated Latin hymn on the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary, It has been set to music by many composers, among them Haydn and Rossini, It dates back to the i^th century, and is thought to have been written by Jacopone, a Franciscan monk. It is used by the Roman Catholic church in its services in passion-week.

Sta'dium, originally the Greek measure of length or distance when undertaking a journey; also used by the Romans as a linear measurement. As used at the foot-race course (stadium) at Olympia, it indicated one eighth of the Roman mile or a little over 600 English feet. The term, has come to be applied to the structures erected on race-courses and athletic fields, from which spectators witness games or contests. The stadium recently restored at Athens and the stadium of Harvard College in the United States are examples.

Sta'el (std'-el), Madame de, a celebrated

Frenchwoman, was born at Paris, April 22, 1766. Her maiden name was Anne Louise Germaine Necker, as she was the daughter of Necker (q. v.), the French statesman. She wrote romances in her girlhood and a volume of Letters to Rousseau. She was married in 1786 to the Baron de Stael-Holstein, the Swedish ambassador at Paris, from whom she separated in 1798, though only to save her fortune from his debts, hastening to his bedside when he died. This marriage made her the center of the brilliant society of Paris, for which she was fitted by her wonderful powers of conversation and her strong enthusiasm and passion. She believed in the Revolution, but hated its horrors, making a vain effort to save the life of the queen and saving Montmorenci and other friends from the guillotine at the risk of her own life. She left Paris in 1792, spending four months in London; "four months of happiness saved from the shipwreck of a life" she called them. In 1797 she returned to Paris, where her great influence made Joseph Bonaparte anxious to win her to his brother's cause by offering to secure for her $4,000,000, which was owing to her father from the treasury. She refused the gift, afterwards accepting it from Louis XVIII. Napoleon hated her; and, finding her salon the center of the disaffected party and himself the butt of the brilliant wit of her circle, he banished her from Paris. She went to Weimar, adding to her intimate circle Schiller, Goethe and Schlegel. Her book on The Influence of the Passions was published in 1796, and the famous one on Literature Considered in Its Relations to Social Institutions in 1800; and after her father's death she wrote his life. Her first romance was Delphine, her own story, followed by the well-known Corinne^ written in 1805, after a sojourn in Italy, which made her name known throughout Europe and revealed Italy to France. Her Germany was finished in 1810 and approved by the censorship, but when 10,000 copies had been printed, the whole edition was seized and destroyed by Napoleon's order on the plea that "it was not French." The manuscri^ t had been saved, and the book was published in London in 1813. Her exile now became imprisonment, as she was surrounded with spies, her friends exiled for visiting her, and her walks restricted to a circle of two miles around her home. She escaped to Russia and finally to London, welcomed in the principal cities, not only because of her genius, but as the enemy of Napoleon Under Louis XVIII her old position in Paris was resumed until ended by the return of Napoleon from Elba. In 1811 she had secretly married a French officer, much younger than herself, a marriage acknowledged in her will and made public after her death by her children. She died