descent, born in Edinburgh; educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford;
when at Oxford led the opposition to the Tractarian Movement; in 1842
succeeded Arnold as head-master at Rugby; in 1850 became Dean of
Carlisle; in 1856 Bishop of London; and in 1868 Primate. This last office
he held at a critical period, and his episcopate was distinguished by
great discretion and moderation (1811-1882).
TAIT, PETER GUTHRIE, physicist and mathematician, born at Dalkeith;
educated in Edinburgh; became senior wrangler at Cambridge, and Smith's
prizeman in 1852; was in 1854 elected professor of Mathematics at
Belfast, and in 1860 professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh; has
done a great deal of experimental work, especially in thermo-electricity,
and has contributed important papers on pure mathematics; wrote, along
with Lord Kelvin, "Treatise on Natural Philosophy," and along with
Balfour Stewart "The Unseen Universe," followed by "Paradoxical
Philosophy"; _b_. 1831.
TAI-WAN (70), capital of FORMOSA (q. v.), an important
commercial emporium, situated about 3 m. from the SW. coast, on which,
however, it has a port, ranking as a treaty-port.
TAJ MAHAL. See AGRA.
TALARIA, wings attached to the ankles or sandals of Mercury as the
messenger of the gods.
TALAVERA DE LA REINA (10), a picturesque old Spanish town on the
Tagus, situated amid vineyards, 75 m. SE. of Madrid; scene of a great
victory under Sir Arthur Wellesley over a French army commanded by Joseph
Bonaparte, Marshals Jourdan and Victor, 27th July 1809.
TALBOT, WILLIAM HENRY FOX, one of the earliest experimenters and a
discoverer in photography, born in Chippenham, which he represented in
Parliament; was also one of the first to decipher the Assyrian cuneiform
inscriptions (1800-1877).
TALE OF A TUB, a great work of Swift's, characterised by Professor
Saintsbury as "one of the very greatest books of the world, in which a
great drift of universal thought receives consummate literary form ...
the first great book," he announces, "in prose or verse, of the 18th
century, and in more ways than one the herald and champion at once of its
special achievements in literature."
TALENT, a weight, coin, or sum of money among the ancients, of
variable value among different nations and at different periods; the
Attic weight being equal to about 57 lbs. troy, and the money to £243,
15s.; among the Romans the great talent was worth £99, and the little
worth £75.
TALFOURD, SIR THOMAS NOON, lawyer and dramatist, born at Doxey, near
Stafford; was called to the bar in 1821, and practised with notable
success, becoming in 1849 a justice of Common Pleas and a knight; was for
some years a member of Parliament; author of four tragedies, of which
"Ion" is the best known; was the intimate friend and literary executor of
Charles Lamb (1795-1854).
TALISMAN, a magical figure of an astrological nature carved on a
stone or piece of metal under certain superstitious observances, to which
certain wonderful effects are ascribed; is of the nature of a charm to
avert evil.
TALLARD, COMTE DE, marshal of France; served in the War of the
Spanish Succession; was taken prisoner by Marlborough at Hochstädt, on
which occasion he said to the duke, "Your Grace has beaten the finest
troops in Europe," when the duke replied, "You will except, I hope, those
who defeated them" (1652-1728).
TALLEMANT DES RÉAUX, GÉDÉON, French writer, native of La Rochelle;
author of a voluminous collection of gossipy biographies, or anecdotes
rather, "Historiettes," filling five volumes, which throw a flood of
light on the manners and customs of 17th-century life in France, though
allowance must be made for exaggerations (1619-1692).
TALLEYRAND DE PÉRIGORD, CHARLES MAURICE, PRINCE OF BENEVENTO, French
statesman and diplomatist, born in Paris, of an illustrious family;
rendered lame by an accident, was cut off from a military career; was
educated for the Church, and made bishop of Autun; chosen deputy of the
clergy of his diocese to the States-General in 1789, threw himself with
zeal into the popular side, officiated in his pontifical robes at the
feast of the Federation in the Champs de Mars, and was the first to take
the oath on that side, but on being excommunicated by the Pope resigned
his bishopric, and embarked on a statesman's career; sent on a mission to
England in 1792, remained two years as an _émigré_, and had to deport
himself to the United States, where he employed himself in commercial
transactions; recalled in 1796, was appointed Minister of Foreign
Affairs; supported Bonaparte in his ambitious schemes, and on the latter
becoming Emperor, was made Grand Chamberlain and Duke of Benevento, while
he retained the portfolio of Foreign Affairs; in a fit of irritation
Napoleon one day discharged him, and he refused to accept office again
when twice over recalled; he attached himself to the Bourbons on their
return, and becoming Foreign Minister to Louis XVIII., was made a peer,
and sent ambassador to the Congress of Vienna; went into opposition till
the fall of Charles X., and attached himself to Louis Philippe in 1830;
Carlyle in his "Revolution" pronounced him "a man living in falsehood and
on falsehood, yet, as the specialty of him, not what you can call a false
man ... an enigma possible only in an age of paper and the burning of
paper," in an age in which the false was the only real (1754-1838).
TALLIEN, JEAN LAMBERT, a notable French Revolutionist, born in
Paris; a lawyer's clerk; threw in his lot with the Revolution, and became
prominent as the editor of a Jacobin journal, _L'Ami des Citoyens_; took
an active part in the sanguinary proceedings during the ascendency of
Robespierre, notably terrorising the disaffected of Bordeaux by a
merciless use of the guillotine; recalled to Paris, and became President
of the Convention, but fearing Robespierre, headed the attack which
brought the Dictator to the block; enjoyed, with his celebrated wife,
Madame de Fontenay, considerable influence; accompanied Napoleon to
Egypt; was captured by the English, and for a season lionised by the
Whigs; his political influence at an end, he was glad to accept the post
of consul at Alicante, and subsequently died in poverty (1769-1820).
TALLIS, THOMAS, "the father of English cathedral music," born in the
reign of Henry VIII., lived well into the reign of Elizabeth; was an
organist, and probably "a gentleman of the Chapel Royal"; composed
various anthems, hymns, Te Deums, etc., including "The Song of the Forty
Parts" (c. 1515-1585).
TALLY, a notched stick used in commercial and Exchequer transactions
when writing was yet a rare accomplishment; the marks, of varying
breadth, indicated sums paid by a purchaser; the stick was split
longitudinally, and one-half retained by the seller and one by the buyer
as a receipt. As a means of receipt for sums paid into the Exchequer, the
tally was in common use until 1782, and was not entirely abolished till
1812. Tally System, a mode of credit-dealing by which a merchant provides
a customer with goods, and receives in return weekly or monthly payments
to account.
TALMA, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH, a famous French tragedian, born in Paris,
where in 1787 he made his _début_; from the first his great gifts were
apparent, and during the Revolution he was the foremost actor at the
Théâtre de la République, and subsequently enjoyed the favour of
Napoleon; his noble carriage and matchless elocution enabled him to play
with great dignity such characters as Othello, Nero, Orestes, Leicester,
etc.; introduced, like Kemble in England, a greater regard for historical
accuracy in scenery and dress (1763-1826).
TALMUD, a huge limbo, in chaotic arrangement, consisting of the
Mishna, or text, and Gemara, or commentary, of Rabbinical speculations,
subtleties, fancies, and traditions connected with the Hebrew Bible, and
claiming to possess co-ordinate rank with it as expository of its meaning
and application, the whole collection dating from a period subsequent to
the Captivity and the close of the canon of Scripture. There are two
Talmuds, one named the Talmud of Jerusalem, and the other the Talmud of
Babylon, the former, the earlier of the two, belonging in its present
form to the close of the 4th century, and the latter to at least a
century later. See HAGGADAH and HALACHA.
TALUS, a man of brass, the work of Hephæstos, given to Minos to
guard the island of Crete; he walked round the island thrice a day, and
if he saw any stranger approaching he made himself red-hot and embraced
him.
TAMATAVE, the chief town of Madagascar, on a bay on the E. coast.
TAMERLANE or TIMUR, a great Asiatic conqueror, born at Hesh,
near Samarcand; the son of a Mongol chief, raised himself by military
conquest to the throne of Samarcand (1369), and having firmly established
his rule over Turkestan, inspired by lust of conquest began the wonderful
series of military invasions which enabled him to build up an empire that
at the time of his death extended from the Ganges to the Grecian
Archipelago; died whilst leading an expedition against China; was a
typical Asiatic despot, merciless in the conduct of war, but in
peace-time a patron of science and art, and solicitous for his subjects'
welfare (1336-1405).
TAMESIS, the Latin name for the Thames, and so named by Cesar in his
"Gallic War."
TAMIL, a branch of the Dravidian language, spoken in the S. of India
and among the coolies of Ceylon.
TAMMANY SOCIETY, a powerful political organisation of New York
City, whose ostensible objects, on its formation in 1805, were charity
and reform of the franchise; its growth was rapid, and from the first it
exercised, under a central committee and chairman, known as the "Boss,"
remarkable political influence on the Democratic side. Since the gigantic
frauds practised in 1870-1871 on the municipal revenues by the then
"Boss," William M. Tweed, and his "ring," the society has remained under
public suspicion as "a party machine" not too scrupulous about its ways
and means. The name is derived from a celebrated Indian chief who lived
in Penn's day, and who has become the centre of a cycle of legendary
tales.
TAMMERFORS (20), an important manufacturing city of Finland,
situated on a rapid stream, which drives its cotton, linen, and woollen
factories, 50 m. NW. of Tavastehuus.
TAMMUZ, a god mentioned in Ezekiel, generally identified with the
GREEK ADONIS (q. v.), the memory of whose fall was annually
celebrated with expressions first of mourning and then of joy all over
Asia Minor. Adonis appears to have been a symbol of the sun, departing in
winter and returning as youthful as ever in spring, and the worship of
him a combined expression of gloom, connected with the presence of
winter, and of joy, associated with the approach of summer.
TAMPICO (5), a port of Mexico, on the Panuco, 9 m. from its entrance
into the Gulf of Mexico; the harbour accommodation has been improved, and
trade is growing.
TAMWORTH (7), an old English town on the Stafford and Warwickshire
border, 7 m. SE. of Lichfield; its history goes back to the time of the
Danes, by whom it was destroyed in 911; an old castle, and the church of
St. Edith, are interesting buildings; has prosperous manufactures of
elastic, paper, &c.; has a bronze statue of Sir Robert Peel, who
represented the borough in Parliament.
TANAÏS, the Latin name for the Don.
TANCRED, a famous crusader, hero of Tasso's great poem; was the son
of Palgrave Otho the Good, and of Emma, Robert Guiscard's sister; for
great deeds done in the first crusade he was rewarded with the
principality of Tiberias; in the "Jerusalem Delivered" Tasso, following
the chroniclers, represents him as the very "flower and pattern of
chivalry"; stands as the type of "a very gentle perfect knight"; died at
Antioch of a wound received in battle (1078-1112).
TANDY, JAMES NAPPER, Irish patriot, born in Dublin, where he became
a well-to-do merchant, and first secretary to the United Irishmen
association; got into trouble through the treasonable schemes of the
United Irishmen, and fled to America; subsequently served in the French
army, took part in the abortive invasion of Ireland (1798); ultimately
fell into the hands of the English Government, and was sentenced to death
(1801), but was permitted to live an exile in France (1740-1803).
TANGANYIKA, a lake of East Central Africa, stretching between the
Congo Free State (W.) and German East Africa (E.); discovered by Speke
and Burton in 1858; more carefully explored by Livingstone and Stanley in
1871; the overflow is carried off by the Lukuga into the Upper Congo; is
girt round by lofty mountains; length 420 m., breadth from 15 to 80 m.
TANGIER or TANGIERS (20), a seaport of Morocco, on a small bay
of the Strait of Gibraltar; occupies a picturesque site on two hills, but
within its old walls presents a dirty and crowded appearance; has a
considerable shipping trade; was a British possession from 1662 to 1683,
but was abandoned by them, and subsequently became infested by pirates.
TANIS, an ancient city of Egypt, whose ruins mark its site on the
NE. of the Nile delta; once the commercial metropolis of Egypt, and a
royal residence; fell into decay owing to the silting up of the Tanitic
mouth of the Nile, and was destroyed in A.D. 174 for rebellion.
TANIST STONE, monolith erected by the Celts on a coronation,
agreeably to an ancient custom (Judges ix. 6).
TANISTRY, a method of tenure which prevailed among the Gaelic Celts;
according to this custom succession, whether in office or land, was
determined by the family as a whole, who on the death of one holder
elected another from its number; the practice was designed probably to
prevent family estates falling into the hands of an incompetent or
worthless heir.
TANJORE (54), capital of a district (2,130) of the same name, in
Madras Province, India, situated in a fertile plain 180 m. SW. of Madras,
and about 45 m. from the sea; surrounded by walls; contains a rajah's
palace, a British residency, and manufactures silk, muslin, and cotton.
TANNAHILL, ROBERT, Scottish poet, born at Paisley; the son of a
weaver, was bred to the hand-loom, and with the exception of a two years'
residence in Lancashire, passed his life in his native town; an
enthusiastic admirer of Burns, Fergusson, and Ramsay, he soon began to
emulate them, and in 1807 published a volume of "Poems and Songs," which,
containing such songs as "Gloomy Winter's noo Awa," "Jessie the Flower o'
Dunblane," "The Wood o' Craigielea," &c., proved an immediate success;
disappointment at the rejection by Constable of his proffered MSS. of a
new and enlarged edition of his works and a sense of failing health led
to his committing suicide in a canal near Paisley; his songs are marked
by tenderness and grace, but lack the force and passion of Burns
(1774-1810).
TANNER, THOMAS, bishop and antiquary, born at Market Lavington,
Wiltshire; became a graduate and Fellow of Oxford; took orders, and rose
to be bishop of St. Asaph; his reputation as a learned and accurate
antiquary rests on his two great works "Notitia Monastica, or a Short
Account of the Religious Houses in England and Wales," and "Bibliotheca
Britannico-Hibernica," a veritable mine of biographical and
bibliographical erudition; bequeathed valuable collections of charters,
deeds, &c., to the Bodleian Library (1674-1735).
TANNHÄUSER, a knight of medieval legend, who wins the affection of a
lady, but leaves her to worship in the cave-palace of Venus, on learning
which the lady plunges a dagger into her heart and dies; smitten with
remorse he visits her grave, weeps over it, and hastens to Rome to
confess his sin to Pope Urban; the Pope refuses absolution, and protests
it is no more possible for him to receive pardon than for the dry wand in
his hand to bud again and blossom; in his despair he flees from Rome, but
is met by Venus, who lures him back to her cave, there to remain till the
day of judgment; meanwhile the wand he left at Rome begins to put forth
green leaves, and Urban, alarmed, sends off messengers in quest of the
unhappy knight, but they fail to find him.
TANNIN, an astringent principle found in gallnuts and the bark
chiefly of the oak.
TANTALUS, in the Greek mythology a Lydian king, who, being admitted
from blood relationship to the banquets of the gods, incurred their
displeasure by betraying their secrets, and was consigned to the nether
world and compelled to suffer the constant pangs of hunger and thirst,
though he stood up to the chin in water, and had ever before him the
offer of the richest fruits, both of which receded from him as he
attempted to reach them, while a huge rock hung over him, ever
threatening to fall and crush him with its weight.
TANTIA TOPEE, the most daring and stubborn of Nana Sahib's
lieutenants during the Indian Mutiny; in alliance with the Rani of Jhansi
he upheld for a time the mutiny after the flight of his chief, but was
finally captured and executed in 1859.
TAOISM, the religious system of LAOTZE (q. v.).
TAORMINA (2), a town of Sicily; crowns the summit of Monte Tauro, 35
m. SW. of Messina; chiefly celebrated for its splendid ruins of an
ancient theatre, aqueducts, sepulchres, &c.
TAPAJOS, one of the greater affluents of the Amazon; its head-waters
rise in the Serra Diamantina, in the S. of Matto-Grosso State; has a
northward course of over 1000 m. before it joins the Amazon; is a broad
and excellent waterway, and navigable in its lower course for 150 m.
TAPLEY, MARK, body-servant to Martin Chuzzlewit, in Dickens's novel
of the name.
TAPTI, a river of Bombay; has its source in the Betul district of
the Central Provinces, and flows westward across the peninsula 450 m. to
the Gulf of Cambay; is a shallow and muddy stream, of little commercial
use.
TARA, HILL OF, a celebrated eminence, cone-shaped (507 ft.), in
county Meath, 7 m. SE. of Navan; legend points to it as the site of the
residence of the kings of Ireland, where something like a parliament was
held every three years.
TARANAKI (22), a provincial district of New Zealand, occupying the
SW. corner of North Island; remarkable for its dense forests, which cover
nearly three-fourths of its area, and for its beds (2 to 5 ft. deep) of
titaniferous iron-sand which extend along its coasts, out of which the
finest steel is manufactured; New Plymouth (4) is the capital.
TARANTO (25), a fortified seaport of South Italy, situated on a
rocky islet which lies between the Gulf of Taranto and the Mare Piccolo,
a broad inlet on the E., 72 m. S. of Bari; is well built, and contains
various interesting buildings, including a cathedral and castle; is
connected with the mainland on the E. by a six-arched bridge, and by an
ancient aqueduct on the W.; some textile manufactures are carried on, and
oyster and mussel fisheries and fruit-growing are important; as the
ancient Tarentum its history goes back to the time when it was the chief
city of Magna Græcia; was captured by the Romans in 272 B.C., and after
the fall of the Western Empire was successively in the hands of Goths,
Lombards, and Saracens, and afterwards shared the fate of the kingdom of
Naples, to which it was united in 1063.
TARAPACA (47), a maritime province of North Chili, taken from Peru
in 1883; its immense deposits of nitrate of soda are a great source of
wealth to the country; capital IQUIQUE (q. v.)
TARARE (12), a town of France, dep. of Rhône, 21 m. NW. of Lyons;
busy with the manufacture of muslins, silks, and other fine textiles.
TARASCON (7), a picturesque old town of France, 18 m. SW. of
Avignon; is surrounded by walls, has a 15th-century castle (King Rent's),
a Gothic church, silk and woollen factories.
TARBES (25), an old historic town of France, on the Adour, 100 m.
SW. of Toulouse; has a fine 12th-century cathedral, a Government cannon
factory, etc.
TARE AND TRET, commercial terms, are deductions usually made from
the gross weight of goods. Tare is the weight of the case or covering,
box, or such-like, containing the goods; deducting this the _net weight_
is left. Tret is a further allowance (not now so commonly deducted) made
at the rate of 4 lb. for every 104 lb. for waste through dust, sand, etc.
TARENTUM. See TARANTO.
TARGUMS, translations, dating for the most part as early as the time
of Ezra, of several books of the Old Testament into Aramaic, which both
in Babylonia and Palestine had become the spoken language of the Jews
instead of Hebrew, executed chiefly for the service of the Synagogue;
they were more or less of a paraphrastic nature, and were accompanied
with comments and instances in illustration; they were delivered at first
orally and then handed down by tradition, which did not improve them. One
of them, on the Pentateuch, bears the name of Onkelos, who sat at the
feet of Gamaliel along with St. Paul, and another the name of Jonathan,
in the historical and prophetical books, though there are others, the
Jerusalem Targum and the Pseudo-Jonathan, which are of an inferior stamp
and surcharged with fancies similar to those in the TALMUD (q. v.).
TARIFA (13), an interesting old Spanish seaport, the most southerly
town of Europe, 21 m. SW. of Gibraltar, derives its name from the Moorish
leader Tarif, who occupied it 710 A.D.; held by the Moors for more than
500 years; still thoroughly Moorish in appearance, dingy, crowded, and
surrounded by walls; is connected by causeway with the strongly-fortified
Isleta de Tarifa.
TARNOPOL (26), a town of Galicia, Austria, on the Sereth, 80 m. SE.
of Lemberg; does a good trade in agricultural produce; inhabitants
chiefly Jews.
TARNOV (25), a town of Galicia, Austria, on the Biala, 48 m. SE. of
Cracow; is the see of a bishop, with cathedral, monastery, etc.;
manufactures linen and leather.
TARPEIAN ROCK, a precipitous cliff on the W. of the Capitoline Hill
at Rome, from which in ancient times persons guilty of treason were
hurled; named after Tarpeia, a vestal virgin, who betrayed the city to
the Sabine soldiers, then besieging Rome, on condition that they gave her
what they wore on their left arms, meaning their golden bracelets;
instead the soldiers flung their shields (borne on their left arms) upon
her, so keeping to the letter of their promise, but visiting perfidy with
merited punishment; at the base of the rock her body was buried.
TARQUINIUS, name of an illustrious Roman family of Etruscan origin,
two of whose members, according to legend, reigned as king in Rome:
LUCIUS TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, fifth king of Rome; the friend and
successor of Ancus Martius; said to have reigned from 616 to 578 B.C.,
and to have greatly extended the power and fame of Rome; was murdered by
the sons of Ancus Martius. LUCIUS TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, seventh and
last king of Rome (534-510), usurped the throne after murdering his
father-in-law, King Servius Tullius; ruled as a despot, extended the
power of Rome abroad, but was finally driven out by a people goaded to
rebellion by his tyranny and infuriated by the infamous conduct of his
son Sextus (the violator of Lucretia); made several unsuccessful attempts
to regain the royal power, failing in which he retired to Cumæ, where he
died.
TARRAGONA (27), a Spanish seaport, capital of a province (349) of
its own name, situated at the entrance of the Francoli into the
Mediterranean, 60 m. W. of Barcelona; contains many interesting remains
of the Roman occupation, including an aqueduct, still used, and the Tower
of the Scipios; possesses also a 12th-century Gothic cathedral; has a
large shipping and transport trade, and manufactures silk, jute, lace,
&c.
TARRYTOWN (4), a village of New York State, on the Hudson, 21 m. N.
of New York; associated with the arrest of Major André in 1780, and the
closing scenes of Washington Irving's life.
TARSHISH, a place frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, now
generally identified with Tartessus, a Phoenician settlement in the SW.
of Spain, near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, which became co-extensive
with the district subsequently known as Andalusia; also conjectured to
have been Tarsus, and also Yemen.
TARSUS (8), a city of great antiquity and interest, the ancient
capital of Cilicia, now in the province of Adana, in Turkey in Asia, on
the Cydnus, 12 m. above its entrance into the Mediterranean; legend
ascribes its foundation to Sennacherib in 690 B.C.; in Roman times was a
famous centre of wealth and culture, rivalling Athens and Alexandria;
associated with the meeting of Antony and Cleopatra and the deaths of the
emperors Tacitus and Maximinus; here St. Paul was born and notable Stoic
philosophers; in the hands of the Turk has decayed into a squalid
residence of merchants busy with the export of corn, cotton, wool, hides,
&c. In winter the population rises to 30,000.
TARTARS (originally TATARS), a name of no precise ethnological
signification, used in the 13th century to describe the Mongolic,
Turkish, and other Asiatic hordes, who, under GENGHIS KHAN (q. v.),
were the terror of Eastern Europe, and now bestowed upon various
tribes dwelling in Tartary, Siberia, and the Asiatic steppes.
TARTARUS, a dark sunless waste in the nether deeps, as far below
earth as heaven is above it, into which Zeus hurled the Titans that
rebelled against him; the term was subsequently sometimes used to denote
the whole nether world and sometimes the place of punishment.
TARTESSUS, the Greek and Roman name for the Scriptural Tarshish.
TARTINI, GIUSEPPE, a famous Italian violinist and composer, born at
Pirano, in Istria; got into trouble over his clandestine marriage with
the niece of the archbishop of Padua, and fled for sanctuary to a
monastery at Assisi; subsequently reunited to his wife established
himself in Padua as a teacher and composer; wrote a "Treatise on Music,"
and enjoyed a wide celebrity, and still ranks as one of the great
violinists of the past (1692-1770).
TARTUFFE, a knave, a creation of Molière's, who makes a cloak of
religion to cover his knaveries, and the name of the play in which the
character appears, Molière's greatest.
TASHKAND or TASHKENT (100), capital of Russian Turkestan, on
the Tchirshik, 300 m. NE. of Samarcand; an ancient place still surrounded
by its 12 m. circuit of wall, and fortified; Russian enterprise has done
much for it, introducing schools, &c.; carries on a brisk trade, and
manufactures silks, leather, porcelain ware, &c.
TASMAN SEA, the sea lying between the New Zealand group and the
islands of Australia and Tasmania.
TASMANIA (146), an island and colony of Britain, lying fully 100 m.
S. of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass Strait; about the
size of Scotland; the beauty of its mountain and lake scenery has won it
the name of "the Switzerland of the South"; extensive stretches of
tableland diversified by lakes--largest Great Lake, 90 m. in
circumference--occupy the centre; wide fertile valleys stretch down to
the coastal plains, often richly wooded with lofty eucalyptus and various
pine trees; rivers are numerous, and include the Derwent and Tamar, which
form excellent waterways into the interior; enjoys a genial and temperate
climate, more invigorating than that of Australia; sheep-farming and
latterly mining (coal in particular), and fruit-growing are the principal
industries; gold, silver, and tin are also wrought; the flora, as also
the fauna, is practically identical with that of Australia; has a long,
irregular coast-line, with many excellent harbours; chief exports are
wool, tin, fruit, timber, coal, and gold; was discovered in 1642 by
Tasman, a Dutchman, and first settled by Englishmen in 1803; the
aborigines are now completely extinct; was till 1852 a penal settlement,
and received representative government in 1855; is divided into 18
counties; government is conducted by a legislative council, a house of
assembly, and a crown-appointed governor; most of the colonists belong to
the Church of England; compulsory education is in vogue; is well supplied
with railways and telegraphs; was formerly called Van Diemen's Land after
Van Diemen, the Dutch governor-general of Batavia, who despatched Tasman
on his voyage of discovery.
TASSO, BERNARDO, an Italian poet of some repute in his own day, but
now chiefly remembered as the father of the greater Torquato, born in
Venice (1493-1569).
TASSO, TORQUATO, an illustrious Italian poet, son of preceding, born
at Sorrento, near Naples; educated at a Jesuit school in Naples, he
displayed unusual precocity, and subsequently studied law at the
university of Padua, but already devoted to poetry, at 18 published his
first poem "Rinaldo," a romance in 12 cantos, the subject-matter of which
is drawn from the Charlemagne legends; in 1566 he entered the service of
Cardinal Luigi d'Este, by whom he was introduced to Alfonso, Duke of
Ferrara, brother of the cardinal, within whose court he received the
needful impulse to begin his great poem "La Gerusalemme Liberata"; for
the court stage he wrote his pastoral play "Aminta," a work of high
poetic accomplishment, which extended his popularity, and by 1575 his
great epic was finished; in the following year the symptoms of mental
disease revealed themselves, and after a confinement of a few days he
fled from Ferrara, and for two years led the life of a wanderer, the
victim of his own brooding, religious melancholy, passing on foot from
city to city of Italy; yielding to a pent-up longing to revisit Ferrara
he returned, but was coldly received by the duke, and after an outburst
of frenzy placed in confinement for seven years; during these years the
fame of his epic spread throughout Italy, and the interest created in its
author eventually led to his liberation; in 1595 he was summoned by Pope
Clement VIII., from a heartless and wandering life, to appear at Rome to
be crowned upon the Capitol the poet-laureate of Italy, but, although he
reached the city, his worn-out frame succumbed before the ceremony could
take place; "One thing," says Settembrini, the literary historian of
Italy, "Tasso had, which few in his time possessed, a great heart, and
that made him a true and great poet, and a most unhappy man;" Fairfax's
translation of the "Jerusalem Delivered" is one of his great
translations in the English language (1544-1595).
TATAR, a word derived from a Turanian root signifying "to pitch a
tent," hence appropriate to nomadic tribes, became converted by European
chroniclers into Tartar, a fanciful derivative from Tartaros (Gr. hell),
and suggestive of fiends from hell. Tartary, as a geographical expression
of the Middle Ages, embraced a vast stretch of territory from the
Dnieper, in Eastern Europe, to the Sea of Japan; but subsequently
dwindled away to Chinese and Western Turkestan.
TATE, NAHUM, poet-laureate, born in Dublin, where he was educated at
Trinity College; came to London to ply the craft of letters, and in 1690
succeeded Shadwell in the laureateship; improvident, and probably
intemperate, he died in the Mint, the refuge of bankrupts in those days;
wrote some dramatic pieces, but is to be remembered mainly for his
metrical version of the Psalms, executed in conjunction with Nicholas
Brady, which superseded the older version done by STERNHOLD (q. v.)
and Hopkins (1652-1715).
TATIUS, ACHILLES, a Greek romancer who flourished about the
beginning of the 4th century A.D.; wrote the romance of "Leucippe and
Cleitophon."
TATTERSALL'S, a noted horse-mart and haunt of racing men at
Knightsbridge, London, established by Richard Tattersall (1724-1795), an
auctioneer, who in 1766 obtained a 99 years' lease from Lord Grosvenor of
premises in Hyde Park Corner; the present premises were occupied on the
expiry of the lease in 1867.
TATTOOING, a practice of imprinting various designs, often
pictorial, upon the skin by means of colouring matter, e. g. Chinese
ink, cinnabar, introduced into punctures made by needles; widely in vogue
in past and present times amongst uncivilised peoples, and even to some
extent amongst civilised races; like the use of rouge, was mainly for the
purpose of ornamentation and for improving the appearance, but also in
some cases for religious purposes; reached its highest perfection in
Japan, where it seems to have been largely resorted to as a substitute
for clothing, and was never employed on the face, feet, or hands; among
the South Sea islanders the custom is universal, and is still practised
by considerable numbers of the lower-class criminals of Europe.
TAU, CROSS OF, or ST. ANTHONY'S CROSS, a cross resembling the
letter T.
TAUCHNITZ, KARL CRISTOPH TRAUGOTT, a noted German printer and
bookseller, born at Grosspardau, near Leipzig; trained as a printer, he
started on his own account in Leipzig in 1796, flourished, and became
celebrated for his neat and cheap editions of the Roman and Greek
classics; introduced stereotyping into Germany (1761-1836). The
well-known "British Authors" collection was started in 1841 by CHRISTIAN
BERNARD, BARON VON TAUCHNITZ, a nephew of the preceding, who
established himself as a printer and publisher in Leipzig in 1837; was
ennobled in 1860, and made a Saxon life-peer in 1877; _b_. 1816.
TAULER, JOHANN, a German mystic, born in Strasburg, bred a monk of
the Dominican order, had, along with the rest of his order, to flee the
city, and settled in Basel, became a centre of religious life there, and
acquired repute as one of the most eloquent preachers of the day; his
sphere was not speculative thought but practical piety, and his "Sermons"
take rank among the aboriginal monuments of German prose literature
(1300-1361).
TAUNTON, 1, (18), a trim, pleasantly-situated town of Somersetshire
(18), on the Tone, 45 m. SW. of Bristol; has a fine old castle founded in
the 8th century, rebuilt in the 12th century, and having interesting
associations with Perkin Warbeck, Judge Jeffreys, and Sydney Smith; has
various schools, a college, barracks, &c.; noted for its hosiery, glove,
and silk manufactures, and is also a busy agricultural centre. 2, Capital
(31) of Bristol County, Massachusetts, on the Taunton River, 34 m. S. of
Boston, a well equipped and busy manufacturing town.
TAURIDA (1,060), a government of South Russia, of extensive area,
jutting down in peninsular shape into the Black Sea, and including the
Crimea and isthmus of Perekop; forms the western boundary of the Sea of
Azov; cattle-breeding and agriculture the staple industries.
TAURUS, or THE BULL, a constellation, the second in size of the
zodiac, which the sun enters towards the 20th of April.
TAURUS, MOUNT, a mountain range of Turkey in Asia, stretching W. for
about 500 m. in an unbroken chain from the head-waters of the Euphrates
to the Ægean Sea, and forming the S. buttress of the tableland of Asia
Minor; in the E. is known as the Ala Dagh, in the W. as the Bulghar Dagh.
The Anti-Taurus is an offshoot of the main range, which, continuing to
the NE., unites with the systems of the Caucasus.
TAVERNIER, JEAN BAPTIST, BARON D'AUBONNE, a celebrated French
traveller, born in Paris, the son of an Antwerp engraver; was a wanderer
from his boyhood, starting on his travels at the age of 15, and by the
end of 1630 had made his way as valet, page, &c., over most of Europe;
during the years 1630-1669 he in six separate expeditions traversed most
of the lands of Asia in the capacity of a dealer in jewels; reaped large
profits; was honoured by various potentates, and returned with stores of
valuable information respecting the commerce of those countries, which
with much else interesting matter lie embodied in his great work, "Six
Voyages," a classic now in travel-literature; was ennobled in 1669 by
Louis XIV. (1605-1689).
TAVIRA (11), a seaport in the S. of Portugal; has a Moorish castle,
and good sardine and tunny fisheries.
TAVISTOCK (6), a market-town of Devon, situated at the western edge
of Dartmoor, on the Tavy, 11 m. N. of Plymouth; has remains of a
10th-century Benedictine abbey, a guild-hall, grammar school, &c.; is one
of the old stannary towns, and still largely depends for its prosperity
on the neighbouring tin, copper, and arsenic mines.
TAXIDERMY, the art of preparing and preserving the skins of animals
for exhibition in cabinets.
TAY, a river of Scotland whose drainage area lies almost wholly
within Perthshire; rises on the northern slope of Ben Lui, on the Argyll
and Perthshire border, and flowing 25 m. NE. under the names of Fillan
and Dochart, enters Loch Tay, whence it sweeps N., SE., and E., passing
Aberfeldy, Dunkeld, Perth, and Dundee, and enters the North Sea by a
noble estuary 25 m. long and from ½ m. to 3½ m. broad; chief affluents
are the Tummel, Isla, Almond, and Earn; discharges a greater body of
water than any British stream; is renowned for the beauty of its scenery,
and possesses valuable salmon fisheries; has a total length of 120 m.,
and is navigable to Perth; immediately W. of Dundee it is spanned by the
TAY BRIDGE, the longest structure of its kind in the world,
consisting of 95 spans, with a total width of 3440 yards; Loch Tay, one
of the finest of Highland lochs, lies at the base of Ben Lawers,
stretches 14½ m. NE. from Killin to Kenmore, and varies from ½ m. to 1½
m. in breadth.
TAYGETUS, a range of mountains in the Peloponnese, separating
Laconia from Messina.
TAYLOR, BAYARD, a noted American writer and traveller, born at
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania; was bred to the printing trade, and by 21
had published a volume of poems, "Ximena," and "Views Afoot, or Europe
seen with Knapsack and Staff," the fruit of a walking tour through
Europe; next for a number of years contributed, as travel correspondent,
to the _Tribune_, visiting in this capacity Egypt, the greater part of
Asia, Central Africa, Russia. Iceland, etc.; during 1862-1863 acted as
Secretary of Legation at St. Petersburg, and in 1878 was appointed
ambassador at Berlin; his literary reputation rests mainly on his poetic
works, "Poems of the Orient," "Rhymes of Travel," etc., and an admirable
translation of Goethe's "Faust"; also wrote several novels (1825-1878).
TAYLOR, SIR HENRY, poet, born at Bishop. Middleham, in Durham; after
a nine months' unhappy experience as a midshipman obtained his discharge,
and having acted for some years as clerk in the Storekeeper-General's
Department, entered the Colonial Office in 1823, where he continued till
his retirement in 1872; literature engaged his leisure hours, and his
four tragedies--the best of which is "Philip van Artevelde"--are an
important contribution to the drama of the century, and characterised as
the noblest effort in the true taste of the English historical drama
produced within the last century; published also a volume of lyric poems,
besides other works in prose and verse, including "The Statesman," and a
charming "Autobiography," supplemented later by his no less charming
"Correspondence"; received the distinctions of K.C.M.G. (1869) and
D.C.L. (1800-1886).
TAYLOR, ISAAC, a voluminous writer on quasi-philosophic subjects,
born in Lavenham, Suffolk; passed his life chiefly at Ongar engaged in
literary pursuits; contributed to the _Eclectic Review_, _Good Words_,
and wrote amongst other works "Natural History of Enthusiasm," "Natural
History of Fanaticism," "Spiritual Despotism" and "Ultimate Civilisation"
(1787-1865). His eldest son, Isaac, entered the Church, and rose to be
rector of Settrington, in Yorkshire, and was collated to a canonry of
York in 1885; has a wide reputation as a philologist, and author of
"Words and Places," and "The Alphabet, an Account of the Origin and
Development of Letters," besides "Etruscan Researches," "The Origin of
the Aryans," etc.; _b_. 1829.
TAYLOR, JEREMY, great English divine and preacher, born at
Cambridge, son of a barber; educated at Caius College; became a Fellow of
All Souls', Oxford; took orders; attracted the attention of Laud; was
made chaplain to the king, and appointed to the living of Uppingham; on
the sequestration of his living in 1642 joined the king at Oxford, and
adhered to the royal cause through the Civil War; suffered much
privation, and imprisonment at times; returning to Wales, he procured the
friendship and enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Carberry, in whose
mansion at Grove he wrote a number of his works; before the Restoration
he received preferment in Ireland, and after that event was made bishop,
first of Down and then of Dromore; his life here was far from a happy
one, partly through insubordination in his diocese and partly through
domestic sorrow; his works are numerous, but the principal are his
"Liberty of Prophesying," "Holy Living and Holy Dying," "Life of Christ,"
"Ductor Dubitantium," a work on casuistry; he was a good man and a
faithful, more a religious writer than a theological; his books are read
more for their devotion than their divinity, and they all give evidence
of luxuriance of imagination, to which the epithet "florid" has not
inappropriately been applied; in Church matters he was a follower of Laud
(1613-1667).
TAYLOR, JOHN, known as the "Water-Poet," born at Gloucester; was
successively a waterman on the Thames, a sailor in the navy, public-house
keeper in Oxford, etc.; walked from London to Edinburgh, "not carrying
any money to or fro, neither begging, borrowing, or asking meat, drink,
or lodging," and described the journey in his "Penniless Pilgrimage";
wrote also "Travels in Germanie," and enjoyed considerable repute in his
time as a humorous rhymester (1580-1654).
TAYLOR, TOM, a noted playwright and journalist, born at Sunderland;
was elected to a Fellowship at Cambridge, for two years filled the chair
of English Literature at University College, London; in 1845 was called
to the bar, but shortly afterwards took to journalism, writing leaders
for the _Morning Chronicle_ and _Daily News_; during 1850-1872 held
secretarial appointments to the Board of Health and in the Local
Government Act Office; succeeded Shirley Brooks as editor of _Punch_ in
1874; was throughout his life a prolific writer and adapter of plays,
staging upwards of 100 pieces, of which the best known are "To Parents
and Guardians," "Still Waters Run Deep," "Our American Cousin,"
"Ticket-of-Leave Man," etc. (1817-1880).
TAYLOR, WILLIAM, literary historian and critic, born at Norwich;
residence on the Continent enabled him to master French, Italian, and
especially German, and confirmed him in his taste for literature, to
pursue which he abandoned business; various essays and reviews formed the
groundwork of his elaborate "Historic Survey of German Literature," the
first systematic survey of German literature presented to English
readers; taught German to George Borrow, who in "Lavengro" sketched his
interesting personality, which may be further studied in his
correspondence with Southey, Scott, etc. (1765-1836).
TAYLOR, ZACHARY, twelfth President of the United States, born in
Orange County, Virginia; obtained a lieutenancy in the navy in 1808;
first saw service in Indian wars on the north-west frontier; in 1836
cleared the Indians from Florida and won the brevet of brigadier-general;
great victories over the Mexicans on the Texan frontier during 1845-48
raised his popularity to such a pitch that on his return he was carried
triumphantly into the Presidency; the burning questions of his brief term
of office were the proposed admission of California as a free State and
the extension of slavery into the newly-acquired territory; was a man of
strong character, a daring and skilful general, of unassuming manners,
and loved by the mass of the people, to whom he was known as "Old Rough
and Ready" (1784-1850).
TAYLOR INSTITUTE, a building in Oxford erected from bequests by Sir
Robert Taylor and Dr. Randolph as a gallery to contain works of art left
to the university, and which contains a noble collection.
TE DEUM (Thee, O God), a grand hymn in Latin, so called from the
first words, sung at matins and on occasions of joy and thanksgiving; of
uncertain authorship; is called also the Ambrosian Hymn, as ascribed,
though without foundation, to St. Ambrose; is with more reason seemingly
ascribed to Hilary, bishop of Aries.
TEAZLE, LADY, the heroine in Sheridan's "School for Scandal,"
married to a man old enough to be her father, Sir Peter Teazle.
TECK, a German principality, named after a castle which crowns an
eminence called "The Teck," in the Swabian Alb, 20 m. SE. of Stuttgart,
conferred in 1868 on Duke Albert of Würtemberg's son, who in 1866 married
the Princess Mary of Cambridge; their daughter, Princess May, became in
1893 the Duchess of York.
TEES, English river, rises on Cross Fell, Cumberland, and flows E.,
forming the boundary between Durham and York; enters the North Sea 4 m.
below Stockton.
TEGNER, ESAIAS, a popular Swedish poet, born at Kyrkerud, the son of
a country parson; graduated with distinction at Lund University in 1802,
and shortly afterwards became lecturer in Philosophy; in 1812, already a
noted poet, he was called to the chair of Greek, and in later years was
the devoted bishop of Vexiö; his poems, of which "Frithiof's Saga" is
reckoned the finest, have the clearness and finish of classic models, but
are charged with the fire and vigour of modern romanticism (1782-1846).
TEGUCIGALPA (12), capital of Honduras, situated near the centre of
the country at a height of 3400 ft., in the fertile valley of the Rio
Grande, surrounded by mountains; has a cathedral and university.
TEHAMA, a low, narrow plain in Arabia, W. of the mountain range
which overlooks the Red Sea.
TEHERAN (210), capital of Persia, stands on a plain near the Elburz
Mountains, 70 m. S. of the Caspian Sea; is surrounded by a bastioned
rampart and ditch, 10 m. in circumference, and entered by 12 gateways;
much of it is of modern construction and handsomely laid out with parks,
wide streets, and imposing buildings, notable among which are the shah's
palace and the British Legation, besides many of the bazaars and wealthy
merchant's houses; heat during the summer drives the court, foreign
embassies, and others to the cooler heights in the N.; staple industries
are the manufactures of carpets, silks, cottons, &c.
TEHUANTEPEC, an isthmus in Mexico, 140 m. across, between a gulf of
the name and the Bay of Campeachy; it contains on the Pacific coast a
town (24) of the same name, with manufactures and pearl fisheries.
TEIGNMOUTH (8), a watering-place and port of Devonshire, on the
estuary of the Teign (here crossed by a wooden bridge 1671 ft. long), 12
m. S. of Exeter; has a Benedictine nunnery, baths, pier, &c.; does some
shipbuilding.
TEINDS, in Scotland tithes derived from the produce of the land for
the maintenance of the clergy.
TELAMONES, figures, generally colossal, of men supporting
entablatures, as Caryatides of women.
TEL-EL-KEBIR (the "Great Mound"), on the edge of the Egyptian
desert, midway between Ismaila and Cairo, the scene of a memorable
victory by the British forces under Sir Garnet Wolseley over the Egyptian
forces of Arabi Pasha (September 13, 1882), which brought the war to a
close.
TELEMACHUS, the son of Ulysses and Penelope (q. v.), who an infant
when his father left for Troy was a grown-up man on his return; having
gone in quest of his father after his long absence found him on his
return in the guise of a beggar, and whom he assisted in slaying his
mother's suitors.
TELEOLOGY, the doctrine of final causes, particularly the argument
for the being and character of God from the being and character of His
works, that the end reveals His purpose from the beginning, the end being
regarded as the thought of God at the beginning, or the universe viewed
as the realisation of Him and His eternal purpose.
TELEPATHY, name given to the supposed power of communication between
mind and mind otherwise than by the ordinary sense vehicles.
TELFORD, THOMAS, a celebrated engineer, born, the son of a shepherd,
in Westerkirk parish, Eskdale; served an apprenticeship to a stone-mason,
and after a sojourn in Edinburgh found employment in London in 1782; as
surveyor of public works for Shropshire in 1787 constructed bridges over
the Severn, and planned and superintended the Ellesmere Canal connecting
the Dee, Mersey, and Severn; his reputation now made, he was in constant
demand by Government, and was entrusted with the construction of the
Caledonian Canal, the great road between London and Holyhead (including
the Menai Suspension Bridge), and St. Katherine Docks, London; but his
bridges, canals, harbours, and roads are to be found in all parts of the
kingdom, and bear the stamp of his thorough and enduring workmanship;
"the Colossus of Roads," Southey called him (1757-1834).
TELL, a fertile strip of land of 47 m. of average breadth in
North-West Africa, between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea;
produces cereals, wine, &c.
TELL, WILLIAM, Swiss hero and patriot, a peasant, native of the
canton of Uri, who flourished in the beginning of the 14th century;
resisted the oppression of the Austrian governor Gessler, and was taken
prisoner, but was promised his liberty if with his bow and arrow he could
hit an apple on the head of his son, a feat he accomplished with one
arrow, with the second arrow in his belt, which he told Gessler he had
kept to shoot him with if he had failed. This so incensed the governor
that he bound him to carry off to his castle; but as they crossed the
lake a storm arose, and Tell had to be unbound to save them, when he
leapt upon a rock and made off, to lie in ambush, whence he shot the
oppressor through the heart as he passed him; a rising followed, which
ended only with the emancipation of Switzerland from the yoke of Austria.
TELLEZ, GABRIEL, the assumed name of Tirso de Molina, Spanish
dramatist, born in Madrid; became a monk; wrote 58 comedies, some of
which keep their place on the Spanish stage; as a dramatist ranks next to
Lope de Vega, whose pupil he was (1583-1648).
TELLICHERRI (27), a seaport on the Malabar coast, Madras Presidency,
India; is fortified and garrisoned; surrounding country is pretty, as
well as productive of coffee, cardamoms, and sandal-wood.
TELLURIUM, a rare metal usually found in combination with other
metals.
TEMESVAR (40), a royal free city of Hungary, on the Bega Canal, 75
m. NE. of Belgrade; is a strongly-fortified, well-built city, equipped
with theatre, schools, colleges, hospitals, &c., and possesses a handsome
Gothic cathedral and ancient castle; manufactures flour, woollens, silks,
paper, &c.
TEMPE, VALE OF, a valley in the NE. of Thessaly, lying between
Olympus on the N. and Ossa on the S., traversed by the river Peneus, and
for the beauty of its scenery celebrated by the Greek poets as a
favourite haunt of Apollo and the Muses; it is rather less than 5 m. in
length, and opens eastward into a spacious plain.
TEMPLARS, a famous order of knights which flourished during the
Middle Ages, and originated in connection with the Crusades. Its founders
were Hugues de Payen and Geoffroi de St. Omer, who, along with 17 other
French knights, in 1119 formed themselves into a brotherhood, taking vows
of chastity and poverty, for the purpose of convoying, in safety from
attacks of Saracens and infidels, pilgrims to the Holy Land. King Baldwin
II. of Jerusalem granted them a residence in a portion of his palace,
built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and close to the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre, which became the special object of their protection.
Hence their assumption of the name "Templars." The order rapidly
increased in numbers, and drew members from all classes. "The Templar was
the embodiment of the two strongest passions of the Middle Ages--the
desire for military renown and for a monk's life." A constitution was
drawn up by Bernard of Clairvaux (1128), and later three ranks were
recognised--the knights, who alone wore the mantle of white linen and red
cross, men-at-arms, and lower retainers, while a grand-master, seneschal,
and other officers were created. During the first 150 years of their
existence the Templars increased enormously in power; under papal
authority they enjoyed many privileges, such as exemption from taxes,
tithes, and interdict. After the capture of Jerusalem by the infidels
Cyprus became in 1291 their head-quarters, and subsequently France. But
their usefulness was at an end, and their arrogance, luxury, and quarrels
with the Hospitallers had alienated the sympathies of Christendom.
Measures of the cruellest and most barbarous kind were taken for their
suppression by Philip the Fair of France, supported by Pope Clement IV.
Between 1306 and 1314 hundreds were burned at the stake, the order
scattered, and their possessions confiscated.
TEMPLE, FREDERICK, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Santa Maura, in
Leukas, one of the Ionian Islands; was highly distinguished at Balliol
College, Oxford, as graduate, fellow, and tutor; in 1846 became Principal
of Kneller Hall Training College, was one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools,
and during 1858 and 1869 was head-master of Rugby; a Liberal in politics,
he supported the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and as a
Broad-Churchman was elected to the bishopric of Exeter (1869), of London
(1885), and in 1896 was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury; contributed
to the celebrated "Essays and Reviews"; published "Sermons Preached in
Rugby Chapel," and in 1884 was Bampton Lecturer; _b_. 1821.
TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, diplomatist and essayist, born in London, and
educated at Cambridge; travel on the Continent, courtship, and marriage,
and some years of quiet and studious retirement in Ireland, occupied him
during the Protectorate; in 1660 was returned to the Convention
Parliament at Dublin, and five years later, having resettled in England,
began his diplomatic career, the most notable success in which was his
arrangement in 1668 of the Triple Alliance between England, Holland, and
Sweden to hold in check the growing power of France; as ambassador at The
Hague became friendly with the Prince of Orange, whose marriage with the
Princess Mary (daughter of James II.) he negotiated; was recalled in
1671, but after the Dutch War returned to his labours at The Hague, and
in 1679 carried through the Peace of Nimeguen; although offered a State
Secretaryship more than once, shrank from the responsibilities of office
under Charles II., a diffidence he again showed in the reign of William
III.; the later years of his life were spent in Epicurean ease, in the
enjoyment of his garden, and in the pursuit of letters at his villa at
Sheen, and, after 1686, at Moor Park, in Surrey, where he had Swift for
secretary; is remembered in constitutional history for his scheme (a
failure ultimately) to put the king more completely under the check of
the Privy Council by remodelling its constitution; was a writer of
considerable distinction, his miscellaneous essays and memoirs being
notable for grace and perspicuity of style (1628-1699).
TEMPLE, THE, of Jerusalem, a building constructed on the same plan
and for the same purpose as the TABERNACLE (q. v.), only of
larger dimensions, more substantial and costly materials, and a more
ornate style; it was a magnificent structure, contained treasures of
wealth, and was the pride of the Hebrew people. There were three
successive structures that bore the name--Solomon's, built by Solomon in
1004 B.C., and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 588 B.C.; Zerubbabel's,
built in 515, and pillaged and desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167
B.C.; and Herod's, on the ruins of the former, begun in 16 B.C.,
finished in 29 A.D., and destroyed by Titus in 70 A.D. All three were
built on Mount Moriah, on the spot where Abraham offered up Isaac, and
where David afterwards raised an altar to the Lord; and of the number the
palm must be given to the Temple of Solomon, it was the Temple _par
excellence_.
TEMPLE BAR, a famous London gateway, which formerly divided Fleet
Street from the Strand; pressure of traffic caused its removal in 1879;
now stands in Theobald's Park, Cheshunt.
TENASSERIM (972), the southernmost division of Burma, forms a long
coastal strip facing the Bay of Bengal and backed by the mountain barrier
of Siam; acquired by the British in 1825.
TENBY (5), a popular little watering-place of Pembrokeshire, has a
rocky site on Carmarthen Bay coast; ruins of its old wall and of a castle
still remain; has a fine 13th-century Gothic church, marble statue of the
Prince Consort, &c., while its extensive sands and splendid bathing
facilities attract crowds of summer visitors.
TENCIN, MADAME DE, a French writer of romances, a woman of clever
wit and of personal charms, who abandoned a religious life and, coming to
Paris in 1714, immersed herself in the political and fashionable life of
the city; was not too careful of her morals, and ranked among her lovers
the Regent, Fontenelle, and Cardinal Dubois; used her influence against
the Jansenists; more circumspect in later life she presided over a
fashionable salon; was the mother of D'Alembert (1681-1749).
TENDON ACHILLES, name given to the tendon of the leg above the heel,
so called as being the tendon by which Thetis held Achilles when she
dipped him in the Styx, and where alone he was in consequence vulnerable.
TENEDOS, a rocky but fertile little island belonging to Turkey, in
the Ægean, 3 m. off the mainland of Turkey in Asia, and 12 m. S. of the
entrance to the Dardanelles; it was the place the Greeks made a feint
they had returned to during the Trojan War.
TENERIFE (108), the largest of the Canary Islands (q. v.), of
volcanic formation, with cliff-bound coast; richly fruit-bearing; chief
exports, cochineal, tobacco, and wine; capital, SANTA CRUZ (q. v.);
most notable natural feature is the famous Peak of Tenerife, a
conical-shaped dormant volcano, 12,000 ft. in height, at the summit of
which there is a crater 300 ft. in circuit; last eruption took place in
1798.
TENIERS, DAVID, the elder (1582-1649), and DAVID TENIERS, the
younger (1610-1690), father and son, both famous masters of the Flemish
school of painting, and natives of Antwerp; the greater genius belonged
to the younger, who carried his father's gift of depicting rural and
homely life to a higher pitch of perfection.
TENNANT, WILLIAM, a minor Scottish poet, born at Anstruther, Fife;
was educated at St. Andrews, and after a short experience of business
life betook himself to teaching in 1813, filling posts at Dunino,
Lasswade, and Dollar; his most notable poem, "Anster Fair" (1812), was
warmly received, and in 1835 his knowledge of Eastern languages won him
the chair of Oriental Languages in St. Andrews (1784-1848).
TENNEMANN, W. GOTTLIEB, German historian of philosophy; was
professor at Marburg; wrote both a history and a manual of philosophy
(1761-1819).
TENNESSEE (1,768, of which 434 are coloured), one of the central
States of the American Union, lies S. of Kentucky, and stretches from the
Mississippi (W.) to North Carolina (E.); is one-third larger than
Ireland; politically it is divided into three districts with
characteristic natural features; East Tennessee, mountainous, with ridges
of the Appalachians, possessing inexhaustible stores of coal, iron, and
copper; Middle Tennessee, an undulating, wheat, corn, and tobacco-growing
country; and West Tennessee, with lower-lying plains growing cotton, and
traversed by the Tennessee River, the largest affluent of the Ohio;
Nashville is the capital and largest city; became a State in 1796.
TENNIEL, JOHN, a celebrated cartoonist who, since 1864, has week by
week drawn the chief political cartoon in _Punch_, the merits of which
are too well known to need comment; illustrations to "Æsop's Fables,"
"Ingoldsby Legends," "Alice in Wonderland," and other works, reveal the
grace and delicacy of his workmanship; born in London, and practically a
self-taught artist; joined the staff of _Punch_ in 1851; was knighted in
1893; _b_. 1820.
TENNYSON, ALFRED, LORD, poet-laureate, born at Somersby, in
Lincolnshire, son of a clergyman, and of aristocratic descent; was
educated at the grammar school of Louth and at Trinity College,
Cambridge, which latter he left without taking a degree; having already
devoted himself to the "Ars Poetica," an art which he cultivated more and
more all his life long; entered the university in 1828, and issued his
first volume of poems in 1830, though he had four years previously
contributed to a small volume conjointly with a brother; to the poems of
1830 he added others, and published them in 1833 and 1842, after which,
endowed by a pension from the Civil List of £200, he produced the
"Princess" in 1847, and "In Memoriam" in 1850; was in 1851 appointed to
the laureateship, and next in that capacity wrote his "Ode on the Death
of the Duke of Wellington"; in 1855 appeared his "Maud," in 1859 the
first four of his "Idylls of the King," which were followed by "Enoch
Arden" and the "Northern Farmer" in 1864, and by a succession of other
pieces too numerous to mention here; he was raised to the peerage in 1884
on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone; he was a poet of the ideal, and
was distinguished for the exquisite purity of his style and the harmony
of his rhythm; had a loving veneration for the past, and an adoring
regard for everything pure and noble, and if he indulged in a vein of
sadness at all, as he sometimes did, it was when he saw, as he could not
help seeing, the feebler hold regard for such things had on the men and
women of his generation than the worship of Mammon; Carlyle thought
affectionately but plaintively of him, "One of the finest-looking men in
the world," he writes to Emerson; "never had such company over a pipe!...
a truly interesting son of earth and son of heaven ... wanted a _task_,
with which that of spinning rhymes, and naming it 'art' and 'high art' in
a time like ours, would never furnish him" (1809-1892).
TENTERDEN, a market-town in Kent, once a Cinque Port; the steeple of
the church of which is reported to have been the cause of the Goodwin
Sands, the stones intended for the dyke which kept the sea off having
been used instead to repair the church.
TENTERDEN, LORD, English judge, born at Canterbury; wrote a
"Treatise on the Law relative to Merchant Ships and Seamen"; was raised
to the peerage; an obstinate enemy of Reform (1762-1832).
TEOCALLI, among the ancient Mexicans a spirally-terraced pyramidal
structure surmounted by a temple containing images of the gods.
TEPLITZ (15), a popular health resort in N. Bohemia, finely situated
in a valley between the Erzgebirge and Mittelgebirge, 20 m. NW. of
Leitmeritz; its thermal springs are celebrated for the cure of gout,
rheumatism, &c.
TERAPHIM, small images, a sort of household gods among the Hebrews,
consulted as oracles, and endowed with some magic virtue.
TERATOLOGY, the branch of biology which treats of malformations or
departures from the normal type.
TERBURG, GERHARD, a noted Dutch painter, whose portraits and _genre_
pictures are to be found in most of the great European galleries; born at
Zwolle; after travelling in Germany, Italy, England, and Spain, settled
at Deventer, where he became burgomaster; his most famous pictures are a
portrait of William of Orange, "Father's Advice," and his "Congress of
Münster, 1648," which last was bought for £7280 and presented to the
National Gallery, London (16081681).
TERCEIRA (45), the second largest of the Azores; rears cattle, and
yields grain, oranges, &c.; chief town Angra, capital of the group.
TERENCE, Roman comic poet, born at Carthage; brought thence as a
slave; educated by his master, a Roman senator, and set free; composed
plays, adaptations of others in Greek by Menander and Apollodorus; they
depict Greek manners for Roman imitation in a pure and perfect Latin
style, and with great dramatic skill (185-159 B.C.).
TEREUS. See PHILOMELA.
TERMINUS, in Roman mythology a deity who presided over boundaries,
the worship of whom was instituted by _Numa_ (q. v.).
TERPSICHORË, the Muse of choral song and dancing.
TERRA-COTTA, a composition of fine clay and fine colourless sand
moulded into shapes and baked to hardness.
TERRAY, ABBÉ, "dissolute financier" of Louis XV.; "paying eightpence
in the shilling, so that wits exclaim in some press at the play-house,
'Where is Abbé Terray that he might reduce it to two-thirds!'"; lived a
scandalous life, and ingratiated himself with Madame Pompadour; he held
his post till the accession of Louis XVI., and fell with his iniquitous
colleagues (1715-1778).
TERRE-HAUTE (37), capital of Vigo County, Indiana, stands on a
plateau overlooking the Wabash, 178 m. S. of Chicago; is situated in a
rich coal district, and has numerous foundries and various factories; is
well equipped with schools and other public institutions.
TERRY, ELLEN (Mrs. Charles Kelly), the most celebrated of living
English actresses, born at Coventry; made her _début_ at the early age of
eight, appearing as Mamilius in "The Winter's Tale," at the Princess
Theatre, then under the management of Charles Kean; during 1864--74 she
lived in retirement, but returning to the stage in 1875 achieved her
first great success in the character of Portia; played for some time with
the Bancrofts and at the Court Theatre; in December 1878 made her first
appearance at the Lyceum Theatre, then under the management of HENRY
IRVING (q. v.), with whose subsequent successful career her own is
inseparably associated, sharing with him the honours of a long list of
memorable Shakespearian and other performances; _b_. 1848.
TERSANCTUS, the ascription of praise, Holy, Holy, Holy, preliminary
to the consecrating prayer in Holy Communion.
TERTULLIAN, QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS, one of the Latin Fathers,
born at Carthage, the son of a Roman centurion; was well educated; bred a
rhetorician; was converted to Christianity, became presbyter of Carthage,
and embraced MONTANIST VIEWS (q. v.); wrote numerous works,
apologetical, polemical, doctrinal, and practical, the last of an ascetic
tendency (150-230).
TEST ACT, act of date 1673, now repealed, requiring all officials
under the crown to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, &c.;
directed equally against Dissenters, Roman Catholics, &c.
TESTUDO (tortoise-shell), in ancient Roman warfare a covering of the
shields of the soldiers held over their heads as protection against
missiles thrown from the walls when besieging a city.
TETANUS or LOCK-JAW, a nervous affection of a most painful and
fatal character, which usually begins with intensely painful and
persistent cramp of the muscles of the throat and jaws, spreading down to
the larger muscles of the body. As the disease progresses the muscles
become more and more rigid, while the paroxysms of pain increase in
violence and frequency. Death as a rule results from either sheer
exhaustion or failure of breath through the spasmodic closure of the
glottis. The cause of the disease is now ascertained to be due to the
action of a microbe, which may find an entrance through any wound or
abrasion of the skin, not necessarily of the thumb as is the popular
belief.
TETHYS, in the Greek mythology a daughter of Uranus and Gaia, wife
of OCEANUS (q. v.), and mother of the river-gods.
TETRAGRAMMATON, the mystic number "four," symbolical of deity, whose
name in different languages is composed of four letters.
TETUAN (22), a port and walled town of Morocco, on the Martil, 4 m.
above its entrance into the Mediterranean and 22 m. S. of Ceuta; has a
fortified castle and wall-towers; exports provisions to Ceuta, and has a
good trade in fruit, wool, silk, cotton, &c.
TETZEL, JOHN, a Dominican monk, born at Leipzig; was employed in the
sale of indulgences to all who subscribed to the fund for building St.
Peter's at Rome, in opposition to whom and his doings Luther published
his celebrated theses in 1517, and whose extravagances involved him in
the censure of the Church (1455-1519).
TEUFELSDRÖCK, the hero of "Sartor" and prototype of the author as a
thinker and a man in relation to the spirit of the time, which is such
that it rejects him as its servant, and he rejects it as his master; the
word means "outcast of the devil," and the devil is the spirit of the
time, which the author and his prototype here has, God-compelled, risen
up in defiance of and refused to serve under; for a time the one or the
other tried to serve it, till they discovered the slavery the attempt
more and more involved them in, when they with one bold effort tore
asunder the bands that bound them, and with an "Everlasting No" achieved
at one stroke their emancipation; a man this born to look through the
show of things into things themselves.
TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, like the TEMPLARS (q. v.) and
Hospitallers, a religious order of knighthood which arose during the
period of the Crusades, originally for the purpose of tending wounded
crusaders; subsequently became military in character, and besides the
care of the sick and wounded included among its objects aggressive
warfare upon the heathen; was organised much in the same way as the
Templars, and like them acquired extensive territorial possessions;
during the 14th and 15th centuries were constantly at war with the
heathen Wends and Lithuanians, but the conversion of these to
Christianity and several defeats destroyed both the prestige and
usefulness of the knights, and the order thenceforth began to decline. As
a secularised, land-owning order the knighthood lasted till 1809, when it
was entirely suppressed in Germany by Napoleon; but branches still exist
in the Netherlands and in Austria, where care for the wounded in war has
been resumed.
TEUTONS, the most energetic and progressive section of the Aryan
group of nations, embracing the following races speaking languages
traceable to a common stock: (1) Germanic, including Germans, Dutch,
Flemings, and English; (2) Scandinavian, embracing Danes, Swedes,
Norwegians, Icelanders. But naturally Celts and other race-elements have
in the course of centuries entered into the composition of these peoples.
TEWFIK PASHA, MOHAMMED, khedive of Egypt from the time of his
father's abdication in 1879; a man of simple tastes and religious
disposition, friendly and loyal to the English; Arabi Pasha's
insurrection, closed at TEL-EL-KEBIR (q. v.), the Mahdi's rising
and capture of Khartoum, occurred during his reign, which, however, also
witnessed Egypt's steadily increasing prosperity under English rule
(1852-1892).
TEWKESBURY (5), a market-town of Gloucestershire, at the confluence
of the Avon and Severn (here spanned by one of Telford's bridges), 10 m.
NE. of Gloucester; possesses one of the finest of old English churches in
the Norman style; trades chiefly in agricultural produce; half a mile
distant is the field of the battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471), where the
Yorkists under Edward IV. crushed the Lancastrians.
TEXAS (2,236, including 493 coloured), the largest of the United
States of America, in the extreme SW., fronts the Gulf of Mexico for 400
m. between Mexico (W.) and Louisiana (E.); has an area more than twice
that of the British Isles, exhibiting a great variety of soil from rich
alluvial valleys and pastoral prairies to arid deserts of sand in the S.
Climate in the S. is semi-tropical, in the N. colder and drier. The
useful metals are found in abundance, but agriculture and stock-raising
are the chief occupations, Texas being the leading cattle-raising and
cotton State in the Union; seceded from the republic of Mexico in 1835,
and was an independent State till 1845, when it was annexed to the
American Union. Austin is the capital and Galveston the principal port.
TEXEL (7), an island of North Holland, situated at the entrance to
the Zuider Zee and separated from the mainland by a narrow strait called
the Marsdiep, the scene of several memorable naval engagements between
the Dutch and English; staple industries are sheep and dairy farming.
TEZCUCO (15), a city of Mexico which, under the name Acolhuacan, was
once a centre of Aztec culture, of which there are interesting remains
still extant; is situated on a salt lake bearing the same name, 25 m. NE.
of Mexico City.
THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE, novelist, born in Calcutta, educated
at the Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge; after leaving
college, which he did without taking a degree, travelled on the
Continent, making long stays at Rome and Paris, and "the dear little
Saxon town (Weimar) where Goethe lived"; his ambition was to be an
artist, but failing in that and pecuniary resources, he turned to
literature; in straitened circumstances at first wrote for the journals
of the day and contributed to _Punch_, in which the well-known "Snob
Papers" and "Jeames's Diary" originally appeared; in 1840 he produced the
"Paris Sketch-Book," his first published work, but it was not till 1847
the first of his novels, "Vanity Fair," was issued in parts, which was
followed in 1848 by "Pendennis," in 1852 by "Esmond," in 1853 by "The
Newcomes," in 1857 by "The Virginians," in 1862 by "Philip," and in 1863
by "Denis Duval"; in 1852 he lectured in the United States on "The
English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," and in 1855 on "The Four
Georges," while in 1860 he was appointed first editor of _Cornhill_. When
"Vanity Fair" was issuing, Mrs. Carlyle wrote her husband: "Very good
indeed; beats Dickens out of the world"; but his greatest effort was
"Esmond," which accordingly is accounted "the most perfect, artistically,
of his fictions." Of Thackeray, in comparison with Dickens, M. Taine
says, he was "more self-contained, better instructed and stronger, a
lover of moral dissertations, a counsellor of the public, a sort of lay
preacher, less bent on defending the poor, more bent on censuring man;
brought to the aid of satire a sustained common-sense, great knowledge of
the heart, consummate cleverness, powerful reasoning, a store of
meditated hatred, and persecuted vice with all the weapons of
reflection... His novels are a war against the upper classes of his
country" (1811-1863).
THAÏS, an Athenian courtezan who accompanied Alexander the Great on
his expedition into Asia; had children after his death to Ptolemy Lagi.
THALBERG, SIGISMUND, a celebrated pianist, born at Geneva; early
displayed a talent for music and languages; was intended and trained for
a diplomatic career, but, overcoming his father's scruples, followed his
bent for music, and soon took rank as one of the most brilliant pianists
of the age; "Thalberg," said Liszt, "is the only pianist who can play the
violin on the key-board"; composed a large number of pianoforte pieces,
chiefly fantasias and variations (1812-1871).
THALES, philosopher of Greece, and one of her seven sages; was a
philosopher of the physical school, and the father of philosophy in
general, as the first to seek and find within Nature an explanation of
Nature; "the principle of all things is water," he says; "all comes from
water, and to water all returns"; flourished about the close of the 7th
century B.C.
THALIA, one of the THREE GRACES (q. v.), as also of the
NINE MUSES (q. v.).
THALLIUM, a rare metallic element similar to lead, but heavier,
discovered in 1861 by the green in the spectrum in the flame as it was
being volatilised.
THAMES, the most important river of Great Britain, formed by the
junction at Lechdale of four head-streams--the Isis, Churn, Coln, and
Leach--which spring from the SE. slope of the Cotswold Hills; winds
across the southern midlands eastwards till in a wide estuary it enters
the North Sea; forms the boundary-line between several counties, and
passes Oxford, Windsor, Eton, Richmond, London, Woolwich, and Gravesend;
navigable for barges to Lechdale, and for ocean steamers to Tilbury
Docks; tide is felt as far as Teddington, 80 m.; length estimated at 250
m.
THANE or THEGN, a title of social distinction among the
Anglo-Saxons, bestowed, in the first instance, upon men bound in military
service to the king, and who came to form a nobility of service as
distinguished from a nobility of blood; these obtained grants of land,
and had thegns under them; in this way the class of thegns widened;
subsequently the name was allowed to the ceorl who had acquired four
hides of land and fulfilled certain requirements; after the Norman
Conquest the thegnhood practically embraced the knighthood; the name
dropped out of use after Henry II.'s reign, but lasted longer in
Scotland.
THANET, ISLE OF (58), forms the NE. corner of Kent, from the
mainland of which it is separated by the Stour and the rivulet
Nethergong; on its shores, washed by the North Sea, stand the popular
watering-places, Ramsgate, Margate, and Broadstairs; the north-eastern
extremity, the North Foreland, is crowned by a lighthouse.
THASOS (5), an island of Turkey, in the Ægean Sea, near the
Macedonian coast; is mountainous and richly wooded; inhabited almost
entirely by Greeks.
THAUMUZ. See TAUMUZ.
THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, theatre in the Palais Royal, Paris, where the
French classic plays are produced and rendered by first-class artistes.
THEBAÏDE, a desert in Upper Egypt; the retreat in early times of a
number of Christian hermits.
THEBANS, name given to the inhabitants of Boeotia, from Thebes, the
capital; were reckoned dull and stupid by the Athenians.
THEBES, an ancient city of Egypt of great renown, once capital of
Upper Egypt; covered 10 sq. m. of the valley of the Nile on both sides of
the river, 300 m. SE. of Cairo; now represented by imposing ruins of
temples, palaces, tombs, and statues of colossal size, amid which the
humble dwellings of four villages--Luxor, Karnack, Medinet Habu, and
Kurna--have been raised. The period of its greatest flourishing extended
from about 1600 to 1100 B.C., but some of its ruins have been dated as
far back as 2500 B.C.
THEBES, capital of the ANCIENT GRECIAN STATE BOEOTIA (q. v.),
whose site on the slopes of Mount Teumessus, 44 m. NW. of Athens,
is now occupied by the village of Thiva; its legendary history, embracing
the names of Cadmus, Dionysus, Hercules, Oedipus, &c., and authentic
struggles with Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, its rise
to supremacy under Epaminondas over all Greece, and its destruction by
Alexander, have all combined to place it amongst the most famous cities
of ancient Greece.
THEISM, belief in the existence of God associated in general with a
belief in Providence and Revelation.
THEISS, the longest river of Hungary and largest of the affluents of
the Danube; is formed in East Hungary by the confluence of the White
Theiss and the Black Theiss, both springing from south-western slopes of
the Carpathians; after a great sweep to the NW. bends round to the S.,
and flows steadily southward through the centre of Hungary until it joins
the Danube 20 m. above Belgrade, after a course of 750 m.; with its
greater tributaries, the Maros and the Bodrog, it forms a splendid means
of internal commerce.
THEMIS, in the Greek mythology the goddess of the established order
of things; was a daughter of Uranos and Gaia, and the spouse of Zeus,
through whom she became the mother of the divinities concerned in
maintaining order among, at once, gods and men.
THEMISTOCLES, celebrated Athenian general and statesman; rose to
political power on the ostracism of Aristides, his rival; persuaded the
citizens to form a fleet to secure the command of the sea against Persian
invasion; commanded at Salamis, and routed the fleet of Xerxes, and
afterwards accomplished the fortification of the city in spite of the
opposition of Sparta, but falling in popular favour was ostracised, and
took refuge at the court of Artaxerxes of Persia, where he died in high
favour with the king (520-453 B.C.).
THEOBALD, LEWIS, Shakespearian critic, born at Sittingbourne, Kent;
bred to the law by his father, an attorney, but took to literature; wrote
a tragedy; contributed to _Mist's Journal_, and in 1716 began his
tri-weekly paper, the _Censor_; roused Pope's ire by his celebrated
pamphlet, "Shakespeare Restored," an exposure of errors in Pope's
edition, and although ruthlessly impaled in his "Dunciad," of which he
was the original hero, made good his claim to genuine Shakespearian
scholarship by his edition, in 1733, of the dramatist's works, an edition
which completely superseded Pope's (1688-1744).
THEOCRACY, government of a State professedly in the name and under
the direction as well as the sanction of Heaven.
THEOCRATES, great pastoral poet of Greece, born at Syracuse; was the
creator of bucolic poetry; wrote "Idyls," as they were called,
descriptive of the common life of the common people of Sicily, in a
thoroughly objective, though a truly poetical, spirit, in a style which
never fails to charm, being as fresh as ever; wrote also on epic subjects
(300-220 B.C.).
THEODICY, name given to an attempt to vindicate the order of the
universe in consistency with the presence of evil, and specially to that
of Leibnitz, in which he demonstrates that this is the best of all
possible worlds.
THEODORA, the famous consort of the ROMAN EMPEROR JUSTINIAN
I. (q. v.), who, captivated by her extraordinary charms of wit and
person, raised her from a life of shame to share his throne (527), a high
office she did not discredit; scandal, busy enough with her early years,
has no word to say against her subsequent career as empress; the poor and
unfortunate of her own sex were her special care; remained to the last
the faithful helpmate of her husband (508-548).
THEODORE, "King of Corsica," otherwise Baron Theodore de Neuhoff,
born in Metz; a soldier of fortune under the French, Swedish, and Spanish
flags successively, whose title to fame is his expedition to Corsica,
aided by the Turks and the Bey of Tunis, in 1736, to aid the islanders to
throw off the Genoese yoke; was crowned King Theodore I., but in a few
months was driven out, and after unsuccessful efforts to regain his
position came as an impoverished adventurer to London, where creditors
imprisoned him, and where sympathisers, including Walpole, subscribed for
his release (1686-1756).
THEODORE, bishop of Mopsuestra, in Cilicia, born at Antioch; was a
biblical exegete, having written commentaries on most of the books of the
Bible, eschewing the allegorical method of interpretation, and accepting
the literal sense; he held Nestorian views, and his writings were
anathematised; he was a friend of St. Chrysostom; _b_. 429.
THEODORET, Church historian, born at Antioch; as bishop of the
Syrian city, Cyrus, gave himself to the conversion of the Marcionites; a
leader of the Antioch school of theology, he took an active part in the
Nestorian and Eutychian controversies, and was deposed by the so-called
robber-council of Ephesus, but was reinstated by the Council of Chalcedon
in 451 (about 390-457).
THEODORIC, surnamed the Great, founder of the monarchy of the Ostro- or
East Goths, son of Theodemir, the Ostrogothic king of Pannonia; was
for ten years during his youth a hostage at the Byzantine Court at
Constantinople; succeeded his father in 475, and immediately began to
push the fortunes of the Ostrogoths; various territories fell into his
hands, and alarm arose at the Imperial Court; in 493 advanced upon Italy,
overthrew Odoacer, and after his murder became sole ruler; was now the
most powerful of the Gothic kings, with an empire embracing Italy,
Sicily, and Dalmatia, besides German possessions; as a ruler proved
himself as wise as he was strong; became in after years one of the great
heroes of German legend, and figures in the "Nibelungenlied" (455-526).
THEODOSIUS I., THE GREAT, Roman emperor; was the son of Theodosius
the Elder, a noted general, whose campaigns in Britain and elsewhere he
participated in; marked out for distinction by his military prowess he,
in 379, was invited by the Emperor Gratian to become emperor in the East,
that he might stem the advancing Goths; in this Theodosius was
successful; the Goths were defeated, conciliated, had territory conceded
to them, and became in large numbers Roman citizens; rebellions in the
Western Empire and usurpations of the throne compelled Theodosius to
active interference, which led to his becoming sole head of the empire
(394), after successfully combating the revolutionaries, Franks and
others; was a zealous Churchman, and stern suppressor of the "Arian
Heresy"; the close of his reign marks the beginning of the end of the
Roman Empire, for his death opened the floodgates of barbarian invasion,
and from this date begins the formation of the new kingdoms of Europe
(346-395).
THEOGNIS, an elegiac poet of Megara; flourished in the second half
of the 6th century B.C.; lost his possessions during a revolution at
Megara, in which the democrats overpowered the aristocrats, to which
party he belonged; compelled to live in exile, he found solace in the
writing of poetry full of a practical and prudential wisdom, bitterly
biased against democracy, and tinged with pessimism.
THEOLOGY, the science which treats of God, particularly as He
manifests Himself in His relation to man in nature, reason, or
revelation.
THEOPHRASTUS, a peripatetic philosopher, born in Lesbos; pupil,
heir, and successor of Aristotle, and the great interpreter and expounder
of his philosophy; was widely famous in his day; his writings were
numerous, but only a few are extant, on plants, stars, and fire; _d_. 286
B.C.
THEOSOPHY (lit. divine wisdom), a mystic philosophy of very
difficult definition which hails from the East, and was introduced among
us by Madame Blavatsky, a Russian lady, who was initiated into its
mysteries in Thibet by a fraternity there who professed to be the sole
custodiers of its secrets as the spiritual successors of those to whom it
was at first revealed. The radical idea of the system appears to be
reincarnation, and the return of the spirit to itself by a succession of
incarnations, each one of which raises it to a higher level until, by
seven stages it would seem, the process is complete, matter has become
spirit, and spirit matter, God has become man, and man God, agreeably
somewhat to the doctrine of Amiel, that "the complete spiritualisation of
the animal element in us is the task of our race," though with them it
seems rather to mean its extinction. The adherents of this system, with
their head-quarters at Madras, are numerous and wide-scattered, and form
an organisation of 300 branches, having three definite aims: (1) To
establish a brotherhood over the world irrespective of race, creed,
caste, or sex; (2) to encourage the study of comparative philosophy,
religion, and science; and (3) to investigate the occult secrets of
nature and the latent possibilities of man. The principal books in
exposition of it are, "The Secret Doctrine," "Isis Unveiled," "The Key to
Theosophy," by Mme. Blavatsky; "Esoteric Buddhism," "The Occult World,"
&c., by Sinnett; "The Ancient Wisdom," "The Birth and Evolution of the
Soul," &c., by Annie Besant.
THERAPEUTÆ, a Jewish ascetic sect in Egypt, who lived a life of
celibacy and meditation in separate hermitages, and assembled for worship
on Sabbath.
THERMO-DYNAMICS, name given to the modern science of the relation
between heat and work, which has established two fundamental principles,
that when heat is employed to do work, the work done is the exact
equivalent of the heat expended, and when the work is employed to produce
heat, the heat produced is exactly equivalent to the work done.
THERMOPYLÆ (i. e. "the hot gates"), a famous pass in N. Greece,
the only traversable one leading southward into Thessaly, lies 25 m. N.
of Delphi, and is flanked on one side by Mount Oeta, and on the other by
the Maliac Gulf (now the Gulf of Zeitouni); for ever memorable as the
scene of Leonidas' heroic attempt with his 300 Spartans to stem the
advancing Persian hordes under Xerxes (480 B.C.); also of Greece's
futile struggles against Brennus and the Gauls (279 B.C.), and Philip
the Macedonian (207 B.C.)
THERSITES, a deformed Greek present at the siege of Troy,
distinguished for his insolent raillery at his betters, and who was slain
by Achilles for deriding his lamentation over the death of
PENTHESILEA (q. v.).
THESEUS, legendary hero of Attica, and son of Ægeus, king of Athens;
ranks second to Hercules, captured the Marathonian bull, and slew the
MINOTAUR (q. v.) by the help of ARIADNE (q. v.); waged war against the
Amazons, and carried off the queen; assisted at the Argonautic
expedition, and is famed for his friendship for Perithous, whom he aided
against the Centaurs.
THESPIS, the father of Greek tragedy, hence Thespian art for the
drama.
THESSALONIANS, EPISTLE TO THE, epistles of St. Paul to the Church at
Thessalonica; of which there are two; the first written from Corinth
about A.D. 53 to exhort them to beware of lapsing, and comforting them
with the hope of the return of the Lord to judgment; the second, within a
few months after the first, to correct a false impression produced by it
in connection with the Lord's coming; they must not, he argued, neglect
their ordinary avocations, as though the day of the Lord was close at
hand; that day would not come till the powers of evil had wrought their
worst, and the cup of their iniquity was full; this is the first purely
dogmatic epistle of St. Paul.
THESSALONICA. See SALONICA.
THESSALY, the largest division of ancient Greece, a wide, fertile
plain stretching southward from the Macedonian border to the Maliac Gulf,
and entirely surrounded by mountains save the Vale of Tempe in the NE.
between Mounts Ossa and Olympus; was conquered by Philip of Macedon in
the 4th century B.C., and subsequently incorporated in the Roman Empire,
on the break up of which it fell into the hands of the Venetians, and
eventually of the Turks (1335), and remained a portion of the Ottoman
Empire till 1881, when the greater and most fertile part was ceded to
Greece. Chief town, Larissa.
THETFORD (4), a historic old market-town on the Norfolk and Suffolk
border, at the confluence of the Thet and Little Ouse, 31 m. SW. of
Norwich; a place of importance in Saxon times, and in Edward III.'s reign
an important centre of monasticism; has interesting ruins, a notable
Castle Hill, and industries in brewing, tanning, &c.
THETIS, in the Greek mythology the daughter of NEREUS (q. v.)
and Doris, who being married against her will to Peleus, became the
mother of Achilles; she was therefore a NEREID (q. v.), and
gifted with prophetic foresight.
THEURIET, ANDRÉ, modern French poet and novelist, born at Marly le
Roi, near Paris; studied law, and in 1857 received a post in the office
of the Minister of Finance; has published several volumes of poems,
dealing chiefly with rustic life, but is more widely known by his novels,
such as "Mademoiselle Guignon," "Le Mariage de Gérard," "Deux Soeurs,"
&c., all of them more or less tinged with melancholy, but also inspired
by true poetic feeling; _b_. 1833.
THIALFI, in the Norse mythology the god of manual labour, Thor's
henchman and attendant.
THIERRY, JACQUES NICOLAS AUGUSTIN, French historian, born at Blois;
came early under the influence of Saint-Simon, and during 1814-17 lived
with him as secretary, assimilating his socialistic ideas and ventilating
them in various compositions; Comte became his master next, and history
his chief study, an outlet for his views on which he found in the
_Censeur Européen_, and the COURRIER FRANÇAIS, to which he
contributed his "Letters on French History" (1820); five years later
appeared his masterpiece, the "Conquest of England," to be followed by
"Letters on History" and "Dix Ans d'Études" (1835), in which same year he
was appointed librarian at the Palais Royal; in 1853 appeared his "Tiers
État," the last of his works; has been called the "father of romantic
history," and was above all a historical artist, giving life and colour
to his pictures of bygone ages, but not infrequently at the cost of
historic accuracy (1795-1856).
THIERS, LOUIS ADOLPHE, French statesman and historian, born at
Marseilles, of parents in poor circumstances; studied law at Aix, became
acquainted with Mignet the historian; went with him to Paris, and took to
journalism; published in 1827 his "History of the French Revolution,"
which established his rank as a writer; contributed to the July
revolution; supported Louis Philippe, and was in 1832 elected a deputy
for Aix; obtained a post in the ministry, and eventually head; was swept
out of office at the revolution of 1848; voted for the presidency of
Louis Napoleon, but opposed the _coup d'état_; withdrew from public life
for a time; published in 1860 the "History of the Consulate and the
Empire" a labour of years; entered public life again, but soon retired;
at the close of the Franco-German War raised the war indemnity, and saw
the Germans off the soil; became head of the Provisional Government, and
President of the Republic from 1871 to 1873; his histories are very
one-sided, and often inaccurate besides; Carlyle's criticism of his
"French Revolution" is well known, "Dig where you will, you come to
water" (1795-1877).
THING, name for a legislative or judicial assembly among the
Scandinavians.
THINKER, THE, defined to be "one who, with fresh and powerful
glance, reads a new lesson in the universe, sees deeper into the secret
of things, and carries up the interpretation of nature to higher levels;
one who, unperturbed by passions and undistracted by petty detail, can
see deeper than others behind the veil of circumstance, and catch
glimpses into the permanent reality."
THIRLMERE, one of the lakes in the English Lake District, in
Cumberland, 5 m. SE. of Keswick; since 1885 its waters have been
impounded for the use of Manchester, the surface raised 50 ft. by
embankments, and the area more than doubled.
THIRLWALL, CONOP, historian, born at Shepney; was a precocious
child, was educated at the Charterhouse, had Grote for a school-fellow,
and was a student of Trinity College, Cambridge; called to the bar, but
took orders in 1827, having two years previously translated
Schleiermacher's "Essay on St. Luke," and was thus the first to introduce
German theology into England; wrote a "History of Greece," which, though
superior in some important respects, was superseded by Grote's as wanting
in realistic power, a fatal blemish in a history; was a liberal man, and
bishop of St. David's for half a lifetime (1797-1875).
THIRTY YEARS' WAR, the name given to a series of wars arising out of
one another in Germany during 1618-48; was first a war of Catholics
against Protestants, but in its later stages developed into a struggle
for supremacy in Europe. On the Catholic side were Austria, various
German Catholic princes, and Spain, to whom were opposed successively
Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, and France; originated in Bohemia,
where the Protestants were goaded to revolt against the intolerance of
the empire, Moravians and Hungarians came to their assistance, but the
imperial forces were too powerful and the rising was suppressed, only to
be renewed in 1624, when Denmark espoused the Protestant cause, but
struggled vainly against Catholic armies under Wallenstein and Tilly. The
tactless oppression of the Emperor Ferdinand again fanned into flame the
fires of rebellion; Swedish armies now came to the assistance of the
Protestants, and under Gustavus Adolphus waged successful war against the
emperor, but the death of Gustavus at Lützen (1632) turned the tide in
favour of the imperial forces; the German Protestant prince made a
disadvantageous peace in 1635, but Sweden, now joined by France,
continued the struggle against the Austrian empire. Turenne and Condé
became the heroes of the war, and a series of decisive victories rolled
back the imperial armies, and by 1848 were converging upon Austria, when
diplomacy brought the war to an end by the Peace of Westphalia, the chief
gains of which were the securing of religious tolerance and the
recognition of the independence of Switzerland and the United Provinces.
THISBE. See PYRAMUS.
THISTLE, ORDER OF THE, an order of Scottish knighthood, sometimes
called the Order of St. Andrew, instituted in 1687 by James VII. of
Scotland (James II. of England); fell into abeyance during the reign of
William and Mary, but was revived by Queen Anne in 1703; includes the
sovereign, 16 knights, and various officials. The principal article in
the insignia is a gold collar composed of thistles intertwined with
sprigs of rue.
THOLUCK, FRIEDRICH AUGUST, theologian, born at Breslau; came under
the influence of Neander (q. v.) and became professor of Theology at
Halle, where he exercised a considerable influence over the many students
who were attracted from far and near by his learning and fervour
(1799-1877).
THOM, WILLIAM, a minor Scottish vernacular poet, author of "The
Mitherless Bairn," &c.; was a native of and hand-loom weaver at Aberdeen;
endured much hardship and poverty (1799-1848).
THOMAS, AMBROISE, French composer, born at Metz; proved himself a
brilliant student at the Paris Conservatoire; became professor of
Composition in 1852, and nine years later succeeded Auber as director of
the Conservatoire; a prolific writer in all forms of musical composition,
but has won celebrity mainly as a writer of, operas, the most popular of
which are "La Double Échelle," "Mignon," "Hamlet," &c.; was decorated
with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1880 (1811-1896).
THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING, composer, born near Eastbourne; studied at
the Paris Conservatoire and Royal Academy for Music, London; became
popular through the merit of his operas "Esmeralda," "Nadeshda," the
cantata "Sun-worshippers," and songs; committed suicide (1851-1892).
THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY, American general, born in Virginia; a man of
fine character, lacking none of the sterner stuff of the soldier, but
blended with modesty and gentleness; universally popular in the army,
which he joined in 1840 and continued in till his death, rising to be
general of a division through gallantry in the Indian frontier wars and
in the Civil War, in which, at the battle of Nashville (1864), he
completely routed the Confederate forces; had command of the military
division of the Pacific at the time of his death (1816-1870).
THOMAS, ST., the Apostle, is represented in art as bearing a spear
in his hand, and sometimes an arrow, a book, and a carpenter's square.
THOMAS THE RHYMER. See RHYMER, THOMAS THE.
THOMASIUS, CHRISTIAN, a German jurist, born at Leipzig; was the
first to prelect on jurisprudence in the German tongue, on which account,
as on account of his advanced theological views, he encountered no small
persecution; became at length professor of Jurisprudence at Halle, his
influence on the study of which was considerable (1655-1728).
THOMISM, the doctrine of THOMAS AQUINAS (q. v.),
particularly in reference to predestination and grace.
THOMS, WILLIAM JOHN, a noted antiquary and bibliographer, born in
Westminster; a clerk for 20 years in the Chelsea Hospital and
subsequently in the House of Lords, where during 1863-1882 he was
deputy-librarian; his leisure was given to his favourite pursuits, and
bore fruit in many volumes dealing with "folk-lore" (a word of his own
invention) and the like; was secretary of the Camden Society, and in 1849
founded, and continued to edit till 1872, _Notes and Queries_
(1803-1885).
THOMSON, SIR CHARLES WYVILLE, zoologist, born at Bonsyde,
Linlithgow; educated at Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, and at the
university there; a lecturer on botany at Aberdeen (1850), professor of
Natural History in Queen's College, Cork (1853), of Geology at Belfast
(1854), and of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh (1870);
accompanied the _Challenger_ expedition (1872-1876) as head of the
scientific department; knighted 1876; wrote "The Depths of the Sea" and
"The Voyage of the _Challenger_" (1830-1882).
THOMSON, GEORGE, a noted collector of songs, who set himself to
gather in one work every existing Scotch melody; his untiring zeal
resulted in the publication of 6 vols. of Scotch songs, the words of
which had been adapted and supplied by a host of writers, including
Scott, Campbell, Joanna Baillie, and above all, Robert Burns, who
contributed upwards of 120; Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, and others
were engaged to supply instrumental preludes and codas; also published
collections of Irish songs and Welsh melodies; was a native of Limekilns,
Fife, and for 60 years principal clerk to the Board of Trustees,
Edinburgh (1759-1851).
THOMSON, JAMES, the poet of the "Seasons," born, the son of the
parish minister, at Ednam, Roxburghshire; was educated and trained for
the ministry at Edinburgh University, but already wooing the muse, he,
shortly after his father's death in 1725, went to London to push his
fortune; his poem "Winter," published in the following year, had
immediate success, and raised up a host of friends and patrons, and what
with tutoring and the proceeds of "Summer," "Spring," "Autumn," various
worthless tragedies, and other products of his pen, secured a fair
living, till a pension of £100 from the Prince of Wales, to whom he had
dedicated the poem of "Liberty," and a subsequent £300 a year as
non-resident Governor of the Leeward Islands, placed him in comparative
affluence; the "Masque of Alfred," with its popular song "Rule
Britannia," and his greatest work "The Castle of Indolence" (1748), were
the outcome of his later years of leisure; often tediously verbose, not
infrequently stiff and conventional in diction and trite in its
moralisings, the poetry of Thomson was yet the first of the 18th century
to shake itself free of the town, and to lead, as Stopford Brooke says,
"the English people into that new world of nature which has enchanted us
in the work of modern poetry" (1700-1748).
THOMSON, JAMES, the poet of pessimism, born, a sailor's son, at
Port-Glasgow, and brought up in an orphanage; was introduced to
literature by MR. BRADLAUGH (q. v.), to whose _National
Reformer_ he contributed much of his best poetry, including his gloomy
yet sonorous and impressive "The City of Dreadful Night," besides essays
(1834-1882).
THOMSON, JOHN, the artist minister of Duddingston, born at Dailly,
in Ayrshire; succeeded his father in the parish of Dailly (1800), and
five years later was transferred to Duddingston parish, near Edinburgh;
faithful in the discharge of his parochial duties, he yet found time to
cultivate his favourite art of painting, and in the course of his 35
years' pastorate produced a series of landscapes which won him wide
celebrity in his own day, and have set him in the front rank of Scottish
artists (1778-1840).
THOMSON, JOSEPH, African explorer, born at Thornhill, studied at
Edinburgh University, and in 1878 was appointed zoologist to the Royal
Geographical Society's expedition to Lake Tanganyika, which, after the
death of the leader, Keith Johnston, at the start, he, at the age of 20,
carried through with notable success; in 1882 explored with important
geographical results Massai-land, and subsequently headed expeditious up
the Niger and to Sokoto, and explored the Atlas Mountains; published
interesting accounts of his various travels (1858-1895).
THOMSON, SIR WILLIAM, LORD KELVIN, great physicist, born at Belfast;
studied at St. Peter's College, Cambridge; was senior wrangler in 1845,
and elected professor of Natural Philosophy in Glasgow in 1846; it is in
the departments of heat and electricity he has accomplished his greatest
achievements, and his best-known work is the invention of the
siphon-recorder for the Atlantic cable, on the completion of which, in
1866, he was knighted, to be afterwards raised to the peerage in 1892; he
has invented a number of ingenious and delicate scientific instruments,
as well as written extensively on mathematical and physical subjects;
_b_. 1824.
THOR, in the Norse mythology "the god of thunder; the thunder was
his wrath, the gathering of the black clouds is the drawing down of
Thor's angry brows; the fire-bolt bursting out of heaven is the
all-rending hammer flung from the hand of Thor; he urges his loud chariot
over the mountain tops--that is the peal; wrathful he 'blows in his
beard'--that is the rustling of the storm-blast before the thunder
begin"; he is the strongest of the gods, the helper of both gods and men,
and the mortal foe of the chaotic powers.
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID, an American author who, next to his friend and
neighbour Emerson, gave the most considerable impulse to the
"transcendental" movement in American literature, born in Concord, where
his life was mostly spent, of remote French extraction; was with
difficulty enabled to go to Harvard, where he graduated, but without
distinction of any sort; took to desperate shifts for a living, but
simplified the problem of "ways and means" by adopting Carlyle's plan of
"lessening your denominator"; the serious occupation of his life was to
study nature in the woods around Concord, to make daily journal entries
of his observings and reflections, and to preserve his soul in peace and
purity; his handicrafts were unwelcome necessities thrust upon him; "What
after all," he exclaims, "does the practicalness of life amount to? The
things immediate to be done are very trivial; I could postpone them all
to hear this locust sing. The most glorious fact in my experience is not
anything I have done or may hope to do, but a transient thought or vision
or dream which I have had"; his chief works are "Walden," the account of
a two years' sojourn in a hut built by his own hands in the Concord Woods
near "Walden Pool," "A Week on the Concord and Merrimac River," essays,
poems, etc. (1817-1862).
THORN (27), a town and fortress of the first rank in West Prussia,
on the Vistula, 115 m. NW. of Warsaw; formerly a member of the
HANSEATIC LEAGUE (q. v.); was annexed by Prussia in 1815; the
birthplace of Copernicus; carries on a brisk trade in corn and timber.
THORNBURY, GEORGE WALTER, a miscellaneous writer, author of numerous
novels, "Songs of the Cavaliers and Roundheads," "Life of Turner," "Old
and New London," etc.; born in London, where his life was spent in
literary work (1828-1876).
THORNHILL, SIR JAMES, an English artist of the school of Le Brun,
born at Woodland, Dorsetshire; treated historical subjects in allegorical
fashion, and was much in request for decorative work, his most notable
achievements being the decoration of the dome of St. Paul's, of rooms in
Hampton Court, Blenheim House, and Greenwich Hospital; was
sergeant-painter to Queen Anne, and was knighted by George I.; member of
Parliament from 1719 till his death (1676-1734).
THORNYCROFT, HAMO, sculptor, born in London; has done statues of
General Gordon (1885), John Bright (1892), and Oliver Cromwell (1899);
_b_. 1850.
THOROUGH, name given by the EARL OF STRAFFORD (q. v.) to a
scheme of his to establish absolute monarchy in England.
THORWALDSEN, BERTEL, an eminent Danish sculptor, born near
Copenhagen, the son of a poor Icelander; won a Government scholarship at
the Academy of Copenhagen in 1793, which enabled him to study in Rome,
where he was greatly inspired by the ancient Greek sculptures, and fired
with the ambition of emulating the classical masters; Canova encouraged
him, and a fine statue of Jason established his reputation; his life
henceforth was one of ever-increasing fame and prosperity. Denmark
received him with highest honour in 1819, but the milder Italian climate
better suited his health, and he returned to Rome, where he executed all
his great works; these deal chiefly with subjects chosen from the Greek
mythology, in which he reproduces with marvellous success the classic
spirit and conception; executed also a colossal group of "Christ and the
Twelve Apostles," "St. John Preaching in the Wilderness," and other
religious subjects, besides statues of Copernicus and Galileo, and the
celebrated reliefs "Night" and "Morning": bequeathed to his country his
large fortune and nearly 300 of his works, now in the Thorwaldsen Museum,
one of the great sights of Copenhagen (1770-1844).
THOTH, the Egyptian Mercury, inventor of arts and sciences;
represented as having the body of a man and the head of a lamb or ibis.
THOU, JACQUES-AUGUSTE DE, a celebrated historian, born at Paris;
enjoyed the favour of Henry III., and by Henry IV. was appointed keeper
of the royal library; his history of his own times is a work of great
value as a clear and remarkably impartial survey of an interesting period
of European history (1553-1617).
THOUSAND ISLANDS, 2000 islands which stud the river St. Lawrence
below Kingston, at the outlet of the river from Lake Ontario.
THRACE, in ancient Greece, was a region, ill defined, stretching N.
of Macedonia to the Danube, and W. of the Euxine (Black Sea); appears
never to have been consolidated into one kingdom, but was inhabited by
various Thracian tribes akin to the Greeks, but regarded by them as
barbarians; since the capture of Constantinople by the Turks the northern
portion of Thrace has been annexed to Eastern Roumelia, while the
remainder has continued a portion of the Turkish empire.
THRASYBULUS, famous Athenian general and democratic statesman; came
to the front during the later part of the Peloponnesian War; took an
active share in overturning the oligarchy of the Four Hundred, and in
recalling Alcibiades (411 B.C.); was exiled by the Thirty Tyrants, and
withdrew to Thebes, but subsequently was permitted to return, and later
was engaged in commanding Athenian armies against Lesbos and in support
of Rhodes; was murdered (389 B.C.) by natives of Pamphylia.
THREE HOURS' AGONY, a service held on Good Friday from 12 noon till
3 o'clock to commemorate the Passion of Christ.
THREE RIVERS (9), capital of St. Maurice Co., Quebec, 95 m. NE. of
Montreal; does a considerable trade in lumber, iron-ware, &c.; is the
seat of a Roman Catholic bishop.
THRING, EDWARD, a celebrated educationist, born at Alford Rectory,
Somersetshire; educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he obtained a
Fellowship; entered the Church, and served in various curacies till in
1853 he began his true lifework by an appointment to the head-mastership
of Uppingham School, which he raised to a high state of efficiency, and
stamped with the qualities of his own strong personality, as did Arnold
at Rugby; published various educational works, "The Theory and Practice
of Teaching," "Addresses," "Poems and Translations," &c. (1821-1887).
THROGMORTON, SIR NICHOLAS, English diplomatist; was ambassador in
Paris under Elizabeth, and afterwards to Scotland; fell into disgrace as
involved in an intrigue for the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, with
the Duke of Norfolk (1513-1571).
THUCYDIDES, historian of the Peloponnesian War, born in Athens nine
years after the battle of Salamis, of a wealthy family; was in Athens
during the plague of 430 B.C.; was seized, but recovered; served as
naval commander in 424 in the Peloponnesian War, but from neglect of duty
was banished; returned from exile 20 years after; his great achievement
is his history, all derived from personal observation and oral
communication, the materials of which were collected during the war, and
the whole executed in a style to entitle it to rank among the noblest
literary monuments of antiquity; it is not known how or when he died, but
he died before his history was finished.
THUGS, a fraternity of professed worshippers of the goddess Kali,
the wife of Siva, who, professedly to propitiate her, practised murder,
and lived on the spoils of the victims. THUGGEE, a name for the
practice, originally by strangling and at times by poisoning.
THULE, ULTIMA, name given by the ancients to the farthest N. part of
Europe, which they conceived as an island.
THUN (6), a quaint old town of Switzerland, on the Aar, 17 m. SE. of
Bern, and barely 1 m. distant from Lake of Thun (12 m. by 2 m.); has a
12th-century castle, &c.
THUNDERER, name given to the _Times_, from certain powerful articles
in it ascribed to the editor, Captain Edward Stirling.
THURGAU (105), a canton of Switzerland, on the NE. frontier, where
Lake Constance for a considerable distance forms its boundary;
inhabitants are mainly Protestant; country is hilly but not mountainous,
fertile, and traversed by the river Thur, a tributary of the Rhine;
capital Frauenfeld.
THURIBLE, a censer suspended by chains and held in the hand by a
priest during mass and other offices of the Romish Church.
THÜRINGIA, originally the territory of the Thuringians (an ancient
German tribe), now an integral portion of the German empire, occupies a
central position, with Saxony on its N. and E., and Bavaria on the S.; a
considerable portion of it is covered by the Thuringian Forest.
THURLES (5), a town of Tipperary, on the Suir, 87 m. SW. of Dublin;
is the seat of a Catholic archbishop, college, and cathedral; in the
vicinity are the fine ruins of Holy Cross Abbey.
THURLOW, EDWARD, BARON, a noted lawyer and politician of George
III.'s reign, born, a clergyman's son, at Bracon-Ash, Norfolk; quitted
Cambridge without a degree, and with a reputation for insubordination and
braggadocio rather than for scholarship; called to the bar in 1754, he
soon made his way, aided by an imposing presence, which led Fox to
remark, "No man ever was so wise as Thurlow looked"; raised his
reputation by his speeches in the great Douglas case, and through
influence of the Douglas family was made a King's counsel; entered
Parliament in 1768; became a favourite of the king, and rose through the
offices of Solicitor-General and Attorney-General to the Lord
Chancellorship in 1778, being raised to the peerage as Baron; lost his
position during the Coalition Ministry of Fox and North, but was restored
by Pitt, who, however, got rid of him in 1792, after which his
appearances in public life were few; not a man of fine character, but
possessed a certain rough vigour of intellect which appears to have made
considerable impression on his contemporaries (1732-1806).
THURSDAY, fifth day of the week, dedicated to THOR (q. v.).
THURSDAY ISLAND, a small island in Normanby Sound, Torres Strait,
belonging to Queensland, and used as a Government station; has a fine
harbour, Port Kennedy, largely used for the Australian transit trade;
also the centre of valuable pearl fisheries.
THURSO (4), a seaport in Caithness, at the mouth of the Thurso
River, 21 m. NW. of Wick; does a brisk trade in agricultural produce,
cattle, and paving stones.
THYRSUS, an attribute of Dionysus, being a staff or spear entwined
with ivy leaves and a cone at the top; carried by the devotees of the god
on festive occasions; the cone was presumed to cover the spear point, a
wound from which was said to cause madness.
TIAN-SHAN ("Celestial Mountains"), a great mountain range of Central
Asia, separating Turkestan from Eastern and Chinese Turkestan; highest
summit Kaufmann Peak, 22,500 ft.
TIBER, a river of Italy celebrated in ancient Roman history, rises
in the Apennines, in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany; rapid and turbid in
its upper course, but navigable 100 m. upwards from its mouth; flows
generally in a S. direction, and after a course of about 260 m. enters
the Mediterranean about 15 m. below Rome.
TIBERIUS, second Roman emperor, born at Rome; was of the Claudian
family; became the step-son of Augustus, who, when he was five years old,
had married his mother; was himself married to Agrippina, daughter of
Agrippa, but was compelled to divorce her and marry Augustus's daughter
Julia, by whom he had two sons, on the death of whom he was adopted as
the emperor's successor, whom, after various military services in various
parts of the empire, he succeeded A.D. 14; his reign was distinguished
by acts of cruelty, specially at the instance of the minister Sejanus,
whom out of jealousy he put to death; given up to debauchery, he was
suffocated in a fainting fit by the captain of the Prætorian Guards in
A.D. 37, and succeeded by Caligula; it was during his reign Christ was
crucified.