tioned in detail in this article, produce what the previous loop is slipped off, this serves as is called the stocking stitch or chain work, a new one to support the work. This consethe same as in common hand-knitting with quently hangs upon the needles by a single two or more needles, or in crocheting, which loop upon each one. The thread as the operaconsists of loops formed in succession upon a tion goes on is rapidly carried to each needle single thread, each one locked by that which in turn, and the movement is instantly profollows it. The fastening of the end finally se- duced that adds a new loop and slips off the cures the whole and prevents its ravelling. old one. In the straight frames the work is These machines may be distinguished by the done first across the needles in turn in one didifferent kinds of needles they employ, and also rection and then back in the other, and so on; by the manner in which these are arranged- but in the rotary round machines the revoluwhether on a straight horizontal line, all point- tion carries the needles constantly round in the ing the same way, as in the common stocking same direction, each one taking up the thread loom, or around an open horizontal circle, all in turn, and so rapidly that the movements pointing toward the centre. The latter are cannot be clearly perceived. The one class of known as the rotary round machines. All the machines produces a flat web, and the other a needles are hooked at the end, so as to hold the cylindrical or tubular one, each of which hangs thread laid across it that is to form the next from the needles and is drawn down as it inloop, while the loop previously formed on the creases in length, by means when necessary same needle slips back on the shank as the of a weight attached to it. The number of needle is pushed forward, and with its return stitches or loops which each machine can form runs over the hook and off the end. The con- in a minute varies with the gauge of the neetrivance by which this is effected distinguishes dles or the distance apart at which they are the several needles. In the spring or bearded set. The machine of Mr. Aiken for ordinary needle used in the original stocking frames, stockings, containing 92 horizontal needles and and still in common use, the hook is drawn run by power in the factories, may make from out to considerable length and is made elastic, 100 to 200 revolutions per minute, producing so that when its point is pressed down into the the same number of stitches to each needle, groove upon its shank it may spring up when thus amounting to 9,200 to 18,400 stitches per the pressure is removed. In the machines this minute. The machines constructed for family pressure is applied by means of a wheel bear- use, and worked by a treadle or crank like a ing down upon the beard of the hook for an sewing machine, make about half as many instant with the production of every loop. A stitches as the factory machines. In the facvery efficient rotary round machine using this tory 3 or 4 machines are easily tended by one needle, and introduced in many of the factories boy. Ribbed work is performed in the same of the United States, is that invented by Mr. machines by bringing in play a set of vertical Goff of Seneca Falls, N. Y. A second needle needles, so arranged as to work in connection is that used in the McNary patent seamless with the horizontal and produce the additional hosiery machine. It is a short slender needle stitches required. As the needles are set to a with a groove upon the top of the shank, in particular gauge, they necessarily produce the which works a tongue distinct from the nee- same number of stitches to the inch; and the dle. This is a rotary round machine, and is only variations practicable in the work are in distinguished for producing the whole stock- using yarns or threads of different degrees of ing without seam. The stocking was patented fineness, and in altering the tension so as to in 1856, the machine in 1860, and improve- make the work closer or more open. In the ments in 1861. The capacity of each machine stocking frames this is of no great importance; is to produce from 2 to 3 dozen pairs of half but in the various kinds of fancy work, subject hose per day, and one female operator of or- to the fluctuations of fashion, the machines dinary skill will tend 3 or 4 machines. An- adapted for special patterns may be suddenly other needle is known as the latch needle, rendered almost worthless by the demand for and this is used in the machines of Mr. J. those patterns ceasing.-The shaping of the B. Aiken, of Franklin, N. H. It has a very web to fit the foot is a matter of no little inshort hook, and is provided with a little tongue genuity. The flat web is either knit in long or latch working upon a pivot in the shank, so strips of sufficient width to make when turned as to close down upon the point of the hook over several stockings which are cut out from and thus allow the loop to run over it. The these; or the web is at once knit upon the latch works back and forth as it is pushed by machine in the shape required for making a the loop when the needle moves first forward stocking when the parts are properly folded and then back. The first movement, sending over. The former is known as cut work, and the loop on to the shank from the hook, the latter as regular work. In the latter the first throws back the latch for the loop to slide wider part, when turned over and fastened, eiover it, and the next closes the latch upon the ther by lapping and sewing with the sewing point of the hook, allowing the loop to run off machine, or by seaming with a needle and the end of the needle. In the working of the thread, forins the leg of the stocking. Two machine, the thread while the latch is open is open is narrow strips at the base of this part, turned laid across the needle in the hook; and when under and joined together upon the machine or by other means, form the heel; while a central strip twice the length of the foot, being turned over at the toe, forms the top and bottom of the foot, and is neatly united to the heel and around its edges by knitting or seaming. The cutting and fitting of the broad webs cannot be intelligibly described without the aid of drawings. In forming the foot to the circular webs after these are cut off in suitable lengths, a slit is made above the heel half across the web, which admits of the part designed for the foot being curved out at the instep. The loops along the edges of the cut are then taken up on hand needles, and the space for the heel is filled out by hand knitting, the edges being carefully united. In the same manner the toe is completed; and thus the stocking is finished without a seam. An important machine was very recently invented by Mr. Leslie of Brooklyn, N. Y., which accomplishes what has never been done before upon rotary round machines -the narrowing of the work in any manner desired. Notwithstanding the large number of machines employed in knitting, stockings are still largely produced by the old method of hand knitting, which admits of the use of a harder and firmer yarn than that adapted to the machines; and even where the machine work is produced in large mills employing steam power, the hand looms are also in extensive use, many of them in the houses of the operatives, who work at their own hours and at their own convenience. In the factories the knitting machines are also made to produce many other articles of apparel, as undershirts, drawers, comforters, scarfs, opera hoods, talmas, nubias, gloves, mits, &c. One factory in Philadelphia, that of Martin Landenberger, employs about 500 hands, and consumes annually more than 250,000 lbs. of American wool. The total operations in Philadelphia for the year 1857 have been estimated as follows: 500 knitting frames averaging $1,657.50 .. 7 factories in Germantown and Kensington.. Total value of woollen bosiery. 200 knitting frames on cotton hosiery, $897 each.... Total...... $828,750 800,000 $1,628,750 179,400 $1,808,150 The other principal establishments in the United States are the factories in Cohoes, Troy, and Seneca Falls, N. Y., Paterson, N. J., and the Brooklyn knitting works, Brooklyn, N. Y. STOCKPORT, a manufacturing and market town and parliamentary borough of Cheshire, England, at the junction of the Mersey and the Thame, 5 m. S. E. from Manchester; pop. in 1861, 54,681. It stands upon a hill, and the houses rise above each other in irregular tiers. The river is crossed by 4 bridges, and there are several suburbs, the most extensive of which are Heaton-Norris, Edgeley, and Portwood. The principal public buildings are the barracks, court house, union workhouse, and the building for the Sunday school, which is attended by nearly 4,000 children. In former times the manufacture of silk was extensively carried on here; but lat terly it has been supplanted by that of cotton, for the spinning and weaving of which there are in the town and suburbs about 100 factories, employing nearly 4,000 horse power. One of these buildings is 300 feet long, 200 feet broad, and 6 stories high, and has 100 windows in each story. There are also several establishments for bleaching, dyeing, and printing cotton, brass and iron founderies, &c. Rich coal mines are worked in the vicinity, and great facilities are given to trade by the Manchester and Ashton canal, and by several lines of railway which have their junction at Stockport.-The town is believed to occupy the site of an old Roman station. Stockport castle, which has now disappeared, was held against Henry II. in 1173 by Geoffrey de Constantin. During the civil wars the town was garrisoned by parliamentary troops, was taken by Rupert in 1644, and retaken by Lesley the next year. It was occupied by Prince Charles Edward in 1745. STOCKS, a wooden machine once universally employed in England for confining unruly persons by the feet or hands, and sometimes by both. It has long gone out of use, but is still to be seen in secluded rural districts. STOCKS. See STOCK EXCHANGE. STOCKTON, a town, port of entry, and capital of San Joaquin co., Cal., situated on a channel of its own name, near the San Joaquin river, and 130 m. E. S. E. from San Francisco; pop. in 1860, 3,679. It is an important commercial point, vessels of 400 tons being able to navigate the channel. It is on the main road from Los Angeles to Sacramento, and is the chief point of trade with the southern gold mines. It has 3 newspapers, several churches, and a hospital. STOCKTON, RICHARD, an American statesman, and a signer of the declaration of independence, born near Princeton, N. J., Oct. 1, 1730, died there, Feb. 28, 1781. He was graduated at the college of New Jersey, at Newark, in 1748, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1754, and rose rapidly to the first rank as a lawyer. In 1766 he visited England. He was made a member of the executive council of New Jersey in 1768, and in 1774 appointed a judge of the supreme court. In 1776 he was elected to congress, and, though at first doubtful of its policy, cordially supported the declaration of independence. In the same year he served on the committee appointed to inspect the northern army and report its state to congress, and after his return to New Jersey was captured by the British and confined in the common prison at New York. The unusual severity with which he was here treated broke down his strength, and eventually caused his death.— ROBERT FIELD, an officer of the U. S. navy, grandson of the preceding, born in Princeton, N. J., in 1796. In his 15th year, while a student in Princeton college, he entered the navy as midshipman, became an aid to Commodore Rodgers on board the frigate President, receiving honorable notice for his gallantry in several bat tles, and in Dec. 1814, was promoted to a junior lieutenancy. In 1815 he was sent to the Mediterranean in the Guerrière in the war against Algiers, but was soon transferred to the Spitfire as first lieutenant, in which he distinguished himself by boarding with a boat's crew an Algerine war vessel. In Feb. 1816, he was ordered to the Washington, 74, the flag ship of Com. Chauncey, cruising in the Mediterranean, and subsequently transferred to the Erie. In 1821 he was sent to the United States in command of the Erie, and was then ordered to the coast of Africa, with permission to aid the colonization society in procuring a new site for its settlement. Accompanied by Dr. Ayres, the agent of the society, he succeeded with some difficulty in obtaining from the native chiefs a treaty ceding a tract of land around Cape Mesurado, which was the original territory of the present republic of Liberia. Durring his cruise on the African coast, Lieut. Stockton captured a considerable number of slavers, and a Portuguese privateer, the Marianna Flora, of 22 guns, which had attacked him. This vessel he sent to the United States, and a series of trials followed in the United States courts as to the propriety of her capture. Lieut. Stockton was finally justified in the supreme court, but the vessel was given up to Portugal as an act of comity. He also captured a French slaver, which led to litigation, but was again justified by the court. On his return from the African coast he was ordered to the West Indies to break up the nests of pirates preying upon our commerce, in which enterprise he was successful. In 1826-'38 he was for a considerable time absent on leave from the navy, at his home in Princeton, taking an active part in politics in favor of Gen. Jackson, and also in the promotion of internal improvements in the state. In 1838 he was sent to the Mediterranean as flag officer of the Ohio, Com. Hull's flag ship, and in 1839 promoted to a post-captaincy and recalled. He had for some years given much attention to gunnery, the construction of steam engines, and naval architecture, and obtained permission from the navy department to construct a war steamer after much solicitation, the previous attempts of the department having proved failures. Capt. Stockton's plans were new, and embraced designs which the naval constructors confidently pronounced impracticable; but the steam sloop of war Princeton, commenced at Philadelphia in 1842, and completed in 1844, proved to be superior to any war vessel at that time afloat, and has furnished substantially the model for numerous others, not only in the United States, but in England and France. Her speed and sailing qualities, her admirable model, the security of her motive power, which for the first time was placed below the water line, and her powerful_armament, all attracted attention. She carried 2 225-lb. wrought iron guns, made under the supervision of Capt. Stockton, beside 12 42-lb. carronades. The unaccountable explosion of one of these large guns, at Washington, Feb. 28, 1844, led to the death of 5 distinguished men, among them the secretaries of war and the navy, and seriously injured Capt. Stockton himself. The naval court of inquiry which investigated the case, completely exonerated him from all blame or want of precaution either in the construction or firing of the gun. In Oct. 1845, he was sent with a reënforcement to the squadron on the Pacific coast, in the command of which he succeeded Com. Sloat soon after his arrival at Monterey, California. Here he was placed in circumstances which in his opinion required prompt and decisive action, while communication with his government was impossible. With a force of not over 1,500 men in all, of whom about 600 were sailors from the ships of the squadron, and the remainder mostly Californian settlers, in about 6 months he conquered the whole of California, and established the United States authority there. The collision between him and Brig. Gen. Kearny in relation to the right to the supreme command there, was subsequently made the subject of a court martial. Having established a provisional government, he returned to the east, overland, in June, 1847. In 1849 he resigned his commission in the navy, and in 1851 was elected to the U. S. senate, where he strenuously opposed the project of intervening in favor of Hungary and against Austria, as desired by Kossuth, and procured the passage of a law for the abolition of flogging in the navy. In 1853 he resigned his seat in the senate, and has since held no public position. STOCKTON, THOMAS HEWLINGS, D.D., an American clergyman, born at Mount Holly, N. J., June 4, 1808. He began to write for the press at the age of 16, and studied medicine in Philadelphia, but in May, 1829, commenced preaching, in connection with the Methodist Protestant church. In 1830 he was stationed at Baltimore, and in 1833 was elected chaplain to congress, and reëlected in 1835. From 1836 to 1838 he resided in Baltimore, and in addition to pastoral duties compiled the hymn book of the Methodist Protestant church, and was for a short time editor of the church newspaper, "The Methodist Protestant;" but, unwilling to submit to restrictions sought to be imposed upon him in its discussion of slavery by the Baltimore conference, he soon resigned and removed to Philadelphia, where he remained till 1847 as pastor and public lecturer. He then removed to Cincinnati, and wile resid ing there was elected president of Mami university, but declined, and in 1850 returned to Baltimore, where he was for 5 years associate pastor of St. John's Methodist church, and for 3 years temporary pastor of an Associate Reformed Presbyterian church. Since 1856 he has resided in Philadelphia. He was again chaplain of the U. S. house of representatives from 1859 to 1861, and is now (1862) chaplain of the senate. Dr. Stockton has edited several different periodicals, and published an edition of the New Testament in paragraph form, and, beside numerous pamphlets, sermons, and occasional addresses, the following works: "Floating Flowers from a Hidden Brook" (Philadelphia, 1844); “The Bible Alliance" (Cincinnati, 1850); "Sermons for the People" (Pittsburg, 1854); "The Blessing" (Philadelphia, 1857); "Stand up for Jesus" (1858); "Poems, with Autobiographic and other Notes" (1861); and "The Peerless Magnificence of the Word of God" (1862). STODDARD, a S. E. co. of Missouri, bordering on Arkansas, and bounded W. by the St. Francis and E. by the Castor and Whitewater rivers; area, 900 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 7,877, of whom 215 were slaves. The greater portion of the county is level, and there are a number of swamps and shallow lakes, the principal of the latter being Lake Nicormy, 25 m. long and 4 m. wide. It is a part of the "sunk country" produced by the earthquake of 1811. (See EARTHQUAKE, vol. vi. p. 722.) Large forests of cypress abound. The productions in 1850 were 151,094 bushels of Indian corn, 17,260 of oats, 5,972 of wheat, and 33,174 lbs. of butter. Capital, Bloomfield. STODDARD, Richard Henry, an American poet and author, born in Hingham, Mass., in July, 1825. His father, a sea captain, was lost on a voyage to Sweden in the early youth of the son, who for several years worked in an iron foundery in New York. His health failing in consequence, he became in 1848 a contributor to the magazines and newspapers. In 1849 he published a volume of poems under the title of "Footprints," followed in 1852 by a maturer collection. About the same time he was married and received an appointment in the New York custom house, which he still holds (1862). His remaining publications comprise "Adventures in Fairy Land" (Boston, 1853), a series of prose tales; "Songs of Summer" and "Town and Country, a Book for Children" (1857); and "The Loves and Heroines of the Poets" (New York, 1860). He is still a frequent contributor to the periodic press. STODDARD, SOLOMON, an American clergyman, born in Boston in 1643, died in Northampton, Mass., Feb. 11, 1729. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1662, was afterward appointed "fellow of the house," and was the first librarian of the college, which office he held from 1667 to 1674. During this time, on account of his health, he accompanied Gov. Serle to Barbados in the capacity of chaplain, and remained there nearly two years, preaching to the dissenters. In 1669 he was called to succeed the Rev. Eleazar Mather as minister of the church at Northampton, and was ordained as such Sept. 11, 1672. In Feb. 1727, Mr. Jonathan Edwards, a grandson of Mr. Stoddard, was elected as his colleague. In 1700 Mr. Stoddard published "The Doctrine of Instituted Churches," as an answer to the work of Increase Mather entitled "The Order of the Gospel," which occasioned an exciting controversy. He maintained that the sacrament of the Lord's supper is to be regarded as a converting ordinance, and that all baptized persons, not scandalous in life, may lawfully approach the table, though they know themselves to be destitute of true religion. In 1708 and 1709 the same controversy was renewed, and one or two able pamphlets on each side were written. He also published several miscellaneous and occasional sermons; "A Guide to Christ, or the Way of directing Souls in the Way of Conversion, compiled for Young Ministers" (1714); and "The Safety of appearing in the Day of Judgment in the Righteousness of Christ," which was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1792. STOICS (Gr. σroa, porch), or philosophers of the porch, one of the speculative schools of antiquity, so called from the place in which their founder Zeno gave his instructions. Of their earlier representatives, the most prominent were Zeno (about 300 B. C.), Ariston, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Zeno of Tarsus, Diogenes of Babylon, Antipater, Panatius of Rhodes, and Posidonius (probably 135-51 B. C.); of their later, Seneca (died A. D. 65), Epictetus, Marcus Antoninus, Arrian, and many of the most distinguished Roman citizens. Originally treating the three departments of logic, physics, and ethics, they are chiefly known as moralists, since they connected philosophy intimately with the duties of practical life, and taught the most complete of pagan ethical systems. In logic, they found the criterion of knowledge in sensuous impressions, which furnish the materials fashioned by reason, and combated scepticism, like the modern Scottish school, by affirming that every representation of an object implies the existence of the object itself. In. physics, they inclined to pantheism, regarding God and the world as power and its manifestation, matter being a passive ground in which dwells the divine energy. But though they conceived of the Deity as the controlling reason of the universe, the earlier of them sought a material expression for this conception, and spoke of him either as a rational breath or an artistic fire. Their ethics was a protest against growing moral indifference, and had in it something of the excess of a reaction. Their aim was to transfer the theory of nature, ruled by reason, to human life. To live in harmony with nature, conformably to reason, was their fundamental maxim. Reason is impersonal, universal; hence pleasure, whose ends are individual, must be disregarded; the passions, which are not rational impulses, are to be extirpated; and a state of apathy is to be cherished, which secures liberty, the prize and quality of virtue. To be free is to act by universal reason, looking only to universal good, disengaged from anger, jealousy, envy, and hatred, and with entire self-abnegation. Thus life is rendered always uniform and equal to itself. The sage is like a good actor, who, whether he take the part of Agamemnon or of Thersites, does it equally well. And as the divine reason is the law of virtue, every virtuous act is an act of piety; and as all things are well done in the city of God, the wise man will resign himself complacently to events. Thus there is no good but virtue, or obedience to reason, and no evil but vice. Pleasure, pain, health, wealth, life, and death are matters of indifference. Virtue depends exclusively on ourselves, and no one can take it from us; but all things else depend on others or on fortune, and the sage should be independent of them. But even the stoical apathy admitted the promptings of the heart as the impulse of nature; it did not, as Plutarch says, wish to transform men into Lapithæ of bronze and diamond; it allowed a choice in indifferent things, so far as they might enter into the account of a moral life; but it laid its stress on the inner light of duty, on resignation, piety, and tolerance. While it introduced a clear conception of absolute right, founded on universal order and harmony, it failed to furnish a system of concrete duties. Its ideal of man was a divinity without earthly relations. The asylum of heroic moralists, it exerted a private and speculative but no political influence, and regenerated nothing in Greek society. More congenial to the genius of the Romans, it became among them an ardent faith, the religion of great souls, having its devotees and martyrs, and furnished to the empire its best rulers. During the period of decline, it disputed with Epicureanism for the supremacy. The one taught love of self, voluptuous repose, intellectual relaxation, moral suicide; the other, dwelling in the sanctuary of conscience, taught love of virtue, tended to concentration and force, killed the passions. The apathy of the one proceeded from a soft abandonment to circumstances; that of the other, from an earnest effort to save the dignity of man when all the interests of society seemed to be making shipwreck. The one had no higher view than pleasure; the other, in a falling empire, conceived of a universal republic, and of law as the queen of mortals and immortals, generalized the conditions of sympathy, and proclaimed beneficence a virtue equal to justice. The stoical and Christian ethical systems have often been compared. Stoici nostro dogmati in plerisque concordant, said St. Jerome. Others of the church fathers spoke of Seneca as Seneca pene noster. Montesquieu said that, if he could for a moment forget that he was a Christian, he would not hesitate to account the extinction of the sect of Zeno among the misfortunes of mankind. Yet the two systems belong to entirely different schemes and tempers of thought, and cannot be compared in detail. There is a more direct antagonism between stoicism and utilitarianism. Bentham, after stating the doctrine that pain is no evil, and that virtue of itself is sufficient to confer happiness, adds: "This was the sort of trash which a set of men used to amuse themselves with talking, while parading backward and forward in colonnades, called porches."-See Ravaisson, Essai sur la métaphysique d'Aristote, vol. ii. (1837); Tiedemann, System der stoischen Moral (1776); and Meyer and Klippel, Vergleichung der stoischen und christlichen Moral (1823). STOKE-UPON-TRENT, a town and parliamentary borough in Staffordshire, England, the latter including about of what is commonly called the Potteries, and embracing several parishes and townships, among which are Burslem, Lane-End, Longton, Hanley, &c. pop. of the borough in 1861, 101,303; of the town, 57,942. Stoke is situated on the river Trent, 16 m. N. by W. from Stafford, and 148 m. N. W. from London. It has very extensive manufactures of china and earthenware. The borough returns two members to parliament. STOKES, a N. co. of North Carolina, bordering on Virginia, and drained by a branch of the Dan river; area, 550 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 10,402, of whom 2,469 were slaves. The surface is hilly and the soil fertile. The productions in 1850 were 16,004 bushels of wheat, 223,000 of Indian corn, and 42,636 of oats. There were 6 iron forges, 19 tobacco manufactories, and 1,035 pupils attending public schools. Iron ore is abundant. Capital, Germantown. STOLBERG, FRIEDRICH LEOPOLD, count, a German author, born at Bramstedt, Holstein, Nov. 7, 1750, died near Osnabrück, Dec. 5, 1819. At Göttingen, where he completed his studies (1772-'5), he was a leader in the Dichterbund, including Boje, Bürger, Miller, Voss, Hölty, and Leisewitz, which acknowledged Klopstock for master. In 1775 he travelled with Klopstock, Goethe, and others through southern Germany and Switzerland; in 1777 was appointed ambassador of the prince-bishop of Lübeck at Copenhagen; fulfilled a diplomatic mission in Russia in 1785; became Danish ambassador at Berlin in 1789; and, on returning from travels in Italy (of which he wrote a narrative, 4 vols., 1794), was placed at the head of the administration of Lübeck in 1791. He had already published a translation of the Iliad (1778); a volume of lyrics (1784); the Schauspiele mit Chören (1786), in which Theseus and Timoleon are celebrated as founders of civil liberty; and the prose romance Die Insel (1788), a Utopian description of a perfect republic. In 1800 he united himself with the Roman Catholic church; and his position as a statesman and scholar lent importance to this event, which appears prominently in the contemporary writings of Voss, Gleim, Jacobi, Herder, Haller, Lavater, and Schiller, and which served as an example to the younger Schlegel and others of the romantic school. His principal subsequent work was the Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi (15 vols., Hamburg, 1811-'18), embracing the period from the creation to A. D. 430. It was continued by Kerz (vols. xvi. to xlvi., Mentz, 1825-'46), to the end of the 12th century, and |