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. as y, 7i Efc but thcfe laft are Somewhat more difficult to execute, by reafon of the three Verfes to one Rhime.
The 'French lay it down as a Rule, That if the firft Stanza begin with a Mafculine or a Feminine Verfe, the Second is to begin and end with the fame. Every Stanza ought not only to contain a perfect Senfe, but to be terminated with fome lively and ingenious Thought, or fome juft and pertinent Reflexion.
Stanzas were firft introduced from the Italian into the Wrench Poetry, about the Year 1580, and thence transfer'd into the Evgiijb.
The Ufe of Stanza's in Tragedy or Comedy, is condemn'd by all the bed Criticks : Tor 'though we fpeak Verfe on the Stage, 'tis ftill prefumed we are Speaking Profe. Stanza's fhew a kind of Ingenuity, on the Part of the Poet, which has nothing of Nature in it on the Part of the Actor. Add to this, That Stanza'sare hot fit to exprefs every thin*?. Wrath, Threatening, (gc. fit very ill on a regular Stanza : Though Irrefolution, Reveries, and every Thing that leads the Actor to think on what he is to refolv'e, agrees well enough with the unequal Cadence of the Stanza.
STAPES, in Anatomy, a little Bone fituate in a Cavity of the Feneftra ovalis ; thus call'd from its refembling a Stirrop. See Ear.
The Stapes, is one of the Four little Bones faftencd to the Tympanum of the Ear ; firft difcovered and publifhed, as Fallopius tells us, by John Philab IngraJJia, a Phyfician of Sicily. Its Ufe is in ftretching or relaxing the Membrana fympaai. See Tympanum ; 'fee alfoHEARiNo and Ear.
STAPLE, primarily, fignifics a publick Place or Market, whither Merchants, %$c. are obliged to bring their Commo- dities to be bought by the People • fuch as the Greve, or rather the 'Places along the Seine, for the Wines and Corns at 'Paris ; whither the Merchants of other Parts are obliged to bring thofe Commodities.
Menage derives the Word from Staphs, which is found in the Ripuary Laws, to fignify a Place where Juftice is admi- niftred. Cithers derive it frorri the German, Stapel, or rather Stapula-, which Soxhomius derives further, from the German, Stapekn, to put in a Heap.
Staple alio fignifies a City or Town, where Merchants jointly agree to carry certain Commodities, as Wooll, Cloth, Lead, Tin, s£c. in order to their being commodioufly fold by the Great.
In England, Staples were fettled and appointed, to be con- stantly kept at Turk, Lincoln, Ne-wcaftle upon L*me, Norwich, Weftminfter, Canterbury, Chichejter, Winchefier; Exeter and Sriftol ; to which Places Merchants and Traders were to carry Goods to fell in thofe Parts.
- The Staple Commodities of England, were chiefly Wooll, Leather, Cloth, Tin, Lead, £i?c. though by Staple Goods, is now generally meant, any proper faleable Commodities, not eafily fubject to perifh. See Wooll, fcjfc.
The Principal Staples now exifting, are Amfterdam for all Goods from the Eaji-Iudies, Spain, the Mediterranean, and the Saltick : Flufiing for thofe of the Weft-Indies ; Middle- toiirgfci French Wines; 'Don for Rbenifl Wines and Englifl Cloth ; Verre in Zeland for Scotch Merchandizes, cifc.
The Staples in the Levant, call'd by the French, Efchelles Scales, are fuch Cities where the Englifi], French, 'Dutch, Italians, i£b. have Confuls, Factors and Magazines ; and whither they fend Veflels- regularly each Year. The principal of thefe are Smyrna, Alexandretta, Aleppo, Seyda, Cyprus, Sallee, Alexandria, Cairo, funis, Algiers, Tripoli, the Morea, Candia and the Iflandsof the Archipelago. See Factory.
STAR, in Aftronomy, a general Name for all the heavenly Bodies. See Heavenly Sody.
The Stars are diftinguifh'd, from the Phenomena rjf their Motion, cjfe. into Fix'd and Erratic,
Erratic or wandering Stars, are thofe whofe Diftances and Places, with regard to each other, are continually changing. Thefe are what we properly call Planets. See Planet.
Though, to the fame Clafs, may likewife be refer'd, what we popularly call Blazing Stars or Comets. See Comet.
Fix'd Stars, call'd alfo, by way of Eminence, limply, Stars, are thofe which continually keep the fame Diilance, with regard to each other.
Concerning the fix'd Stars.
The principal Points that haye come under the Confider- ation of Aftronomcrs, are their Diftance, Magnitude, Number, Nature and Motion.
Diftance of the fix'd Stars.
The Fix'd Stars, are Bodies exceedingly remote from us ; fo remote, that we have no Diftances in the Planetary Syftem to compare to them. See Distance.
Their immenfe Diftance is argueefhence, That they have no fenfiblc Parallax : that is, that'the Diameter of the Earth's Orbit bears no fenfible Proportion thereto ; but they are feen the very fame, in all the Points thereof. Mr. Flamftead, in- deed, feems to have difcovered a fmall Parallax : Sirius, e.gr.
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he finds to have a Parallax of 20 Seconds. Admitting this, we have Data enough to determine their Diftance, a thing hitherto defpair d of. *>
For thus, the Sun's Parallax being had, and his mean Di- ftance being 34377 Semi-diameters of rhe Earth, the Diftance of Struts from the Earth will be found to be 3 54 7 , u 6 4 Semi - diameters of the Earth. See Parallax.
Mr. Buygens attempts the Diftance of the Stars by another Method, lire, by making the Aperture of a Telefcope fo fmall, as that theSun through it appcarsno bigger than Sirius. In this State he found the Sun's Diameter only -; T of his Di- amcter when feen with the naked Eye. Were the Sun's Diftance, then, 2 7664 times as great as it is, it would be feen of the fame Diameter with Sirius ; fo that allowing Sirius to be equal in Magnitude with the Sun (which is a very reafoii- able Suppofition) the Diftance of Sirius from the Earth, will be found to be to that of the Sun from the Earth, as 27664 to 1. On which Principle, Sirius will be 951005328 Semi- diameters diftant from the Earth.
If it be urged, that thefe Methods are too precarious; to conclude any thing from rhem, yet this we can demonflrate, that the Stars arc remoter than Saturn ; nay, that they are vaftly more remote than Saturn, as Saturn has a great Pa- rallax, and the Star's fcarce any at all.
Magnitude of the fix'd St ars.
The Magnitudes of the fix'd Stars, appear to be very different ; which Difference arifes, notfrom any diverfity in their real Magnitudes, but from their Diftances, which are different. From this Difference, the Stars become diftributed into Seven feveral Claries, call'd Magnitudes. See Magnitude.
The firft Clafs, or thofe of the firft Magnitude, are thofe neareft us, and whofe Diameters are, therefore, biggeft. Next thefe, arc thofe of the fecond Magnitude, and fo on to the Sixth, which comprehends the fmalleft Stars vifibic to the naked Eye. All beyond, are called 'Telefmpic Stars : Not that all the Stan of each Clafs appear juftly of the fame Magnitude; there is a great Latitude in this refpefl; and thofe of the firft Magnitude, appear almoft all different in Luftre and Size. Other Stars there are, of intermediate Magnitudes, which Aftronomcre cannot refer to this, rather than the next Clafs, and therefore place them between the Two.
Procyon, for Inftance, which P>tohmy makes of the firft Magnitude, and Tycho of the Second, Mr. Flamftead lays down as between the Firft and Second.
Thus, ihftead of Six feveral Magnitudes, we have really Six times Six.
Some Authors lay it down, that the Stars of the firft Mag- nitude, are feen under an Angle of at leaft a Minute ; but the Earth's Orbit feen from the fix'd Stars, we haveobferved only fubtends an Angle of 20 Seconds ; and hence they conclude, That rhe Diameter of the Stars is vaftly greater than that of the Earth's whole Orbit.
Now a Sphere, whofe Semi-diameter only equals the Diftance between the Sun and Earth, is Ten Millions of times greater than the Sun ; confequently, the fix'd Stars muff be much mote than Ten Millions of times wreater rhan the Sun. . a
But here is a Miftake; for the Diameters, even of the largeft Stars viewed through a Telefcope, which magnify, e.gr. 100 Times, fubtend no fenfible Angle at all, but axi mere lucid Points.
• The Stars are likewife diftinguifhed, with regard to theit' Situation, into Ajlerifms or Confiellations, whichlire norhino but Affemblages of feveral neighbouring Stars, confider'd as conftituting fome determinate Figure, as of an Animal, r$c. and denominated therefi-om : A Divifion as ancient as the Book of Job ; wherein we find mention of Orion and the 'Pleiades', SSc. ■ See Constellation.
Befide the Stars thus diftinguifhed into Magnitudes and Confiellations, there are others not reduced to either. Thofe not reduced into Conftellarions, are called Informcs, or un- form'd Stars ; of which Kind, feveral fo reputed' by the Ancients, have been fince form'd into New Conflellations by the Modern Aftronomers; as Cor Carol i by Dn Halle'; Scutum Sobtefii, by Hevelius, fgc. SeelNFokMEs.
Thofe not reduced to Claffes or Magnirudes, are call'd Nebulous Stars, being fuch as only appear faintly, in Form of little lucid Nebula; or Clouds. See Nebulous.
Number of the Stars. ^Number of Stars is vaftly great, almoft infinite ; yet have Aftronomers long ago, afcertain'd the Number of thofe vifible to the Eye ; which are found vaftly fewer than one would imagine. Hipparchus, 125 Years before the Incarna- tion, oh occafion of a new Star then appearing, made a Catalogue of the Stars, i. e, an Enumeration thereof, with an exact Defcfiption of their Magnitudes, Situations, Longitudej Latitude. ?£c. that it might be known, if arty the like Change fhould be made for the future in the Heavens. Hip- parchus, made the Number . of vifible Stars 1022. Thefe { H h ] w;
