# The Nuttall Encyclopædia/T

T
Tabard, a tunic without sleeves worn by military nobles over their arms, generally emblazoned with heraldic devices. “Toom Tabard,” empty king's cloak, nickname given by the Scotch to John Balliol as nothing more.
Tabernacle, a movable structure of the nature of a temple, erected by the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness; it was a parallelogram in shape, constructed of boards lined with curtains, the roof flat and of skins, while the floor was the naked earth, included a sanctum and a sanctum sanctorum, and contained altars for sacrifice and symbols of sacred import, especially of the Divine presence, and was accessible only to the priests. See Feasts, Jewish.
Table Mountain, a flat-topped eminence in the SW. of Cape Colony, rising to a height of 3600 ft. behind Cape Town and overlooking it, often surmounted by a drapery of mist.
Tables, The Twelve, the tables of the Roman laws engraven on brass brought from Athens to Rome by the decemvirs.
Tablets, name given to thin boards coated with wax and included in a frame for writing on with a stylus.
Table-turning, movement of a table ascribed to the agency of spirits or some recondite spiritual force acting through the media of a circle of people standing round the edge touching it with their finger-tips in contact with those of the rest.
Taboo or Tabu, a solemn prohibition or interdict among the Polynesians under which a particular person or thing is pronounced inviolable, and so sacred, the violation of which entails malediction at the hands of the supernatural powers.
Tabor, Mount, an isolated cone-shaped hill, 1000 ft. in height and clothed with olive-trees, on the NE. borders of Esdraëlon (q. v.), 7 m. E. of Nazareth. A tradition of the 2nd century identifies it as the scene of the Tranfiguration, and ruins of a church, built by the Crusaders to commemorate the event, crown the summit.
Tabriz (170), an ancient and still important commercial city of Persia, 320 m. SE. of Tiflis, 4500 ft. above sea-level; occupies an elevated site on the Aji, 40 m. E. of its entrance into Lake Urumiah; carries on a flourishing transit trade and has notable manufactures of leather, silk, and gold and silver ware; has been on several occasions visited by severe earthquakes.
Tacitus, Cornelius, Roman historian, born presumably at Rome, of equestrian rank, early famous as an orator; married a daughter of Agricola, held office under the Emperors Vespasian, Domitian, and Nerva, and conducted along with the younger Pliny the prosecution of Marius Priscus; he is best known and most celebrated as a historian, and of writings extant the chief are his “Life of Agricola,” his “Germania,” his “Histories” and his “Annals”; his “Agricola” is admired as a model biography, while his “Histories” and “Annales” are distinguished for “their conciseness, their vigour, and the pregnancy of meaning; a single word sometimes gives effect to a whole sentence, and if the meaning of the word is missed, the sense of the writer is not reached”; his great power lies in his insight into character and the construing of motives, but the picture he draws of imperial Rome is revolting; b. about A.D. 54.
Tacna (14), capital of a province (32) in North Chile, 38 m. N. of Arica, with which it is connected by rail; trades in wool and minerals; taken from Peru in 1883.
Tacoma (38), a flourishing manufacturing town and port of Washington State, on Puget Sound; has practically sprung into existence within the last 15 years, and is the outlet for the produce of a rich agricultural and mining district.
Tadmor. See Palmyra.
Tael, a Chinese money of account of varying local value, and rising and falling with the price of silver, but may be approximately valued at between 6s. and 5s. 6d. The customs tael, equivalent in value to about 4s 9d., has been superseded by the new dollar of 1890, which is equal to that of the United States.
Taganrog (50), a Russian seaport on the N. shore of the Sea of Azov; is the outlet for the produce of a rich agricultural district, wheat, linseed, and hempseed being the chief exports. Founded by Peter the Great in 1698.
Taglioni, Maria, a famous ballet-dancer, born at Stockholm, the daughter of an Italian ballet-master; made her début in Paris in 1827 and soon became the foremost danseuse of Europe; married Count de Voisins in 1832; retired from the stage in 1847 with a fortune, which she subsequently lost, a misfortune which compelled her to set up as a teacher of deportment in London (1804-1884).
Tagus, the largest river of the Spanish peninsula, issues from the watershed between the provinces of Guadalajara and Teruel; follows a more or less westerly course across the centre of the peninsula, and, after dividing into two portions below Salvaterra, its united waters enter the Atlantic by a noble estuary 20 m. long; total length 566 m., of which 190 are in Portugal; navigable as far as Abrantes.
Tahiti (11), the principal island of a group in the South Pacific; sometimes called the Society Islands, situated 2000 m. NE. of New Zealand; are mountainous, of volcanic origin, beautifully wooded, and girt by coral reefs; a fertile soil grows abundant fruit, cotton, sugar, &c., which, with mother-of-pearl, are the principal exports; capital and chief harbour is Papeete (3); the whole group since 1880 has become a French possession.
Taillandier, Saint-René, French littérateur and professor, born at Paris; filled the chair of Literature at the Sorbonne from 1863; wrote various works of literary, historical, and philosophical interest, and did much by his writings to extend the knowledge of German art and literature in France; was a frequent contributor to the Revue des Deux Mondes, and in 1873 was elected a member of the Academy (1817-1879).
Tailors, Carlyle's humorsome name in “Sartor” for the architects of the customs and costumes woven for human wear by society, the inventors of our spiritual toggery, the truly poetic class.
Tailors, The Three, of Tooley Street, three characters said by Canning to have held a meeting there for redress of grievances, and to have addressed a petition to the House of Commons beginning “We, the people of England.”
Tain (2), a royal burgh of Ross-shire, on the S. shore of the Dornoch Firth, 44 m. NE. of Inverness; has interesting ruins of a 13th-century chapel, a 15th-century collegiate church, an academy, &c.
Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe, an eminent French critic and historian, born at Vouziers, in Ardennes; after some years of scholastic drudgery in the provinces returned to Paris, and there, by the originality of his critical method and brilliancy of style soon took rank among the foremost French writers; in 1854 the Academy crowned his essay on Livy; ten years later became professor of Æsthetics at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and in 1878 was admitted to the French Academy; his voluminous writings embrace works on the philosophy of art, essays critical and historical, volumes of travel-impressions in various parts of Europe; but his finest work is contained in his vivid and masterly studies on “Les Origines de la France Contemporaine” and in his “History of English Literature” (1833-4; Eng. trans, by Van Laun), the most penetrative and sympathetic survey of English literature yet done by a foreigner; he was a disciple of Sainte-Beuve, but went beyond his master in ascribing character too much to external environment (1828-1893).
Tai-Pings, a name bestowed upon the followers of Hung Hsiû-ch`wan, a village schoolmaster of China, who, coming under the influence of Christian teaching, sought to subvert the religion and ruling dynasty of China; he himself was styled “Heavenly King,” his reign “Kingdom of Heaven,” and his dynasty “Tai-Ping” (Grand Peace); between 1851 and 1855 the rising assumed formidable dimensions, but from 1855 began to decline; the religious enthusiasm died away; foreign auxiliaries were called in, and under the leadership of Gordon (q. v.) the rebellion was stamped out by 1865.
Tait, Archibald Campbell, archbishop of Canterbury, of Scotch 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 Tammuz.
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.
Tibert, Sir, the cat in “Reynard the Fox.”
Tibet (6,000), a country of Central Asia, and dependency of China since 1720, called by the natives themselves Bod or Bodyul, comprises a wide expanse of tableland, “three times the size of France, almost as cold as Siberia, most of it higher than Mount Blanc, and all of it, except a few valleys, destitute of population”; enclosed by the lofty ranges of the Himalaya and Kuen-lun Mountains, it has been left practically unexplored; possesses great mineral wealth, and a large foreign trade is carried on in woollen cloth (chief article of manufacture); polyandry and polygamy are prevailing customs among the people, who are a Mongolic race of fine physique, fond of music and dancing, jealous of intrusion and wrapt up in their own ways and customs; the government, civil and religious, is in the hands of the clergy, the lower orders of which are numerous throughout the country; a variation of Mongol Shamanism is the native religion, but Lamaism is the official religion of the country, and the supreme authority is vested in the Dalai Lama, the sovereign pontiff, who resides at Lhassa, the capital.
Tibullus, Albius, Roman elegiac poet, a contemporary of Virgil and Horace, the latter of whom was warmly attached to him; he accompanied Messala his patron in his campaigns to Gaul and the East, but had no liking for war, and preferred in peace to cultivate the tender sentiments, and to attune his harp to his emotions.
Tichborne, a village and property of Hampshire, which became notorious in the “seventies” through a butcher, from Wagga Wagga, in Australia, named Thomas Castro, otherwise Thomas Orton, laying claim to it in 1866 on the death of Sir Alfred Joseph Tichborne; the “Claimant” represented himself as an elder brother of the deceased baronet, supposed (and rightly) to have perished at sea; the imposture was exposed after a lengthy trial, and a subsequent trial for perjury resulted in a sentence of 14 years' penal servitude. Orton, after his release, confessed his imposture in 1895.
Ticino (127), the most southerly canton of Switzerland, lies on the Italian frontier; slopes down from the Lepontine Alps in the N. to fertile cultivated plains in the S., which grow olives, vines, figs, &c.; the inhabitants speak Italian, and the canton, from the mildness of its climate and richness of its soil, has been called the “Italian Switzerland,” embraces most of Lakes Lugano and Maggiore, and is traversed by the St. Gothard Railway.
Ticino, a river of Switzerland and North Italy; springs from the S. side of Mount St. Gothard, flows southwards through Lake Maggiore and SE. through North Italy, joining the Po 4 m. below Pavia, after a course of 120 m.
Tickell, Thomas, a minor English poet, born at Bridekirk, Cumberland; enjoyed the friendship and favour of Addison, who praised him in the Spectator, and held till his death the appointment of secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland; his poetry does not count for much in the history of English literature, but he was happy in the composition of occasional poems, e. g. “The Prospect of Peace,” “The Royal Progress,” and in ballads, such as “Colin and Lucy,” &c., and his translation of the first book of the “Iliad” was so good as to rouse the jealousy of Pope (1686-1740).
Ticknor, George, American man of letters, born in Boston; studied in various European cities, where he was received in the best literary circles, and of which he has left in his journal interesting impressions; held the professorship of French and Spanish in Harvard University for a number of years; published in 1849 his “History of Spanish Literature,” the standard work on the subject; also wrote lives of Lafayette and Prescott, &c. (1791-1871).
Ticonderoga (3), a township of New York, on Lake Champlain, 100 m. N. of Albany; has various factories, mines in the vicinity, &c.; a place of much prominence during the struggles with the French and later during the revolutionary war.
Tieck, Ludwig, German poet, born in Berlin; was one of the founders of the Romantic school in Germany, was a friend of the Schlegels and Novalis; wrote novels and popular tales and dramas; his tales, in particular, are described by Carlyle as “teeming with wondrous shapes full of meaning; true modern denizens of old fairyland ... shows a gay southern fancy living in union with a northern heart;... in the province of popular traditions reigns without a rival” (1773-1853).
Tientsin (950), an important city and river-port of China, on the Pei-ho, 34 m. from its mouth and 80 m. SE. of Peking, of which it is the port; since 1858 has been one of the open treaty ports, and in 1861 a British consulate was established; three months of the year the Pei-ho is frozen over; there is an increasing transit trade with Russia.
Tierra del Fuego, a compact island-group at the southern extremity of the South American continent, from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan; the most southerly point is Cape Horn (q. v.); of the group Tierra del Fuego, sometimes called King Charles South Land, belongs partly to the Argentine and partly to Chile, to which also belong the other islands, except Staten Island, an Argentine possession; save for a few fertile plains in the N., where some sheep-farming goes on, the region is bleak, barren, and mountainous, with rocky, fiord-cut coasts swept by violent and prolonged gales; scantily peopled by now harmless Indians of a low type.
Tiers État (third estate), name given to the Commons section in the States-General of France.
Tiflis (105), capital of a mountainous, forest-clad government (875) of the same name and of Russian Caucasia, on the Kar, 165 m. SE. of the Black Sea; is a city of considerable antiquity and note, and owes much to-day to the energy of the Russians, who annexed it in 1802; noted for its silver and other metal work.
Tigris, an important river of Turkey in Asia; rises in the mountains of Kurdistan, flows SE. to Diarbekir, E. to Til (where it receives the Bitlis), and hence SE. through a flat and arid country, till, after a course of 1100 m., it unites with the Euphrates to form the Shat-el-Arab, which debouches into the Persian Gulf 90 m. lower; is navigable for 500 m. to Bagdad; on its banks are the ruins of Nineveh, Seleucia, and Ctesiphon.
Tilbury Fort, on the Essex bank of the Thames, opposite Gravesend; the main defence of the river above Sheerness; in 1886 extensive docks, quays, a tidal basin, &c., were opened.
Tillotson, John Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, born in Sowerby, Yorkshire, of a Puritan family, and trained on Puritan lines; studied at Clare Hall, Cambridge, came under the influence of Cudworth (q. v.), conformed to the Established Church at the Restoration and became king's chaplain and a prebend of Canterbury, till at length he rose to be dean and primate; was an eloquent preacher, a man of moderate views, and respected by all parties; his “Sermons” were models for a time, but are so no longer (1630-1694).
Tilly, Johann Tserklaes, Count of, one of the great generals of the Thirty Years' War (q. v.), born in Brabant; was designed for the priesthood and educated by Jesuits, but abandoned the Church for the army; was trained in the art of war by Parma and Alva, and proved himself a born soldier; reorganised the Bavarian army, and, devoted to the Catholic cause, was given command of the Catholic army at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, during the course of which he won many notable battles, acting later on in conjunction with Wallenstein, whom in 1630 he succeeded as commander-in-chief of the imperial forces, and in the following year sacked with merciless cruelty the town of Magdeburg, a deed which Gustavus Adolphus was swift to avenge by crushing the Catholic forces in two successive battles—at Breitenfeld and at Rain—in the latter of which Tilly was mortally wounded (1559-1632).
Tilsit (25), a manufacturing town of East Prussia, on the Memel or Niemen, 65 m. NE. of Königsberg; here was signed in 1807 a memorable treaty between Alexander I. of Russia and Napoleon, as the result of which Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia was deprived of the greater part of his dominions.
Timbuctoo (20), an important city of the Western Soudan, situated at the edge of the Sahara, 8 m. N. of the Upper Niger, at the centre of five caravan routes which lead to all parts of North Africa; carries on a large transit trade, exchanging European goods for native produce; was occupied by the French in 1894.
Timoleon, a celebrated general of ancient Greece, born, of a noble family, in Corinth, about 395 B.C.; ardently espoused the cause of the Greeks in Sicily, who were in danger of forfeiting their liberties to the Carthaginians, and headed an army to Syracuse, where he defeated and drove out Dionysius the Younger (344), subsequently cleared the island of the oppressors, and brought back order and good government, after which he quietly returned to private life, and spent his later years at Syracuse, beloved by the Sicilians as their liberator and benefactor; d. 337 B.C.
Timon of Phlius, a Greek philosopher, a disciple of Pyrrho (q. v.), flourished 280 B.C.; wrote a satirical poem on the whole Greek philosophy up to date, which is the source of our knowledge of his master's opinions. Also the name of a misanthrope of Athens, a contemporary of Socrates.
Timor (500), the largest of the long chain of islands which stretches eastward from Java, of volcanic formation, mountainous, wooded, and possessing deposits of various metals, but mainly exports maize, sandal-wood, wax, tortoise-shell, &c.; population consists chiefly of Papuans, whose native chiefs are the real rulers of the island, which belongs, the W. portion of it to Holland and the E. to Portugal; E. of Timor lies a group of three low-lying islands of coral formation, known as Timor-Laut or Tenimber Islands (25); Dutch possession.
Timothy, a convert of St. Paul's, associate and deputy, to whom, as in charge of the Church at Ephesus, he wrote two epistles in the interval between his imprisonment and death at Rome, the First Epistle to direct him in the discharge of his pastoral duties, and the Second to invite him to Rome, and counsel him, should he not be dead before he arrived.
Timur the Tartar. See Tamerlane.
Tindal, Matthew, English deistical writer, born in Devonshire; studied at Oxford, became Fellow of All Souls', was first a Protestant, then a Catholic, and then a free-thinker of a very outspoken type, exhibited in a polemic which provoked hostility on all sides; his most famous work was “Christianity as old as Creation; or, the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature,” a work which did not attack Christianity, but rationalised it (1656-1733).
Tinewald, The, name of the Manx Parliament.
Tinnevelli (23), a town of Madras Presidency, SE. India, capital of a district (1,916) of the same name; lies 50 m. N. of Cape Comorin, and adjoins Pallamcotta, head-quarters of the British military and government; is a centre of Protestant mission work, and possesses a Sind temple and a Hindu college.
Tintagel Head, a rocky headland, 300 ft high, on the W. Cornish coast, 22 m. W. of Launceston; associated with the Arthurian legend as the site of King Arthur's castle and court; 6 m. distant lies Camelford, the famous Camelot.
Tintern Abbey, one of the most beautiful ruined abbeys of England, founded by the Cistercian monks in 1131 on the Wye, in Monmouthshire, 5 m. above Chepstow; associated with Wordsworth's great poem, “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.”
Tintoretto, baptized Jacopo Robusti, a famous Italian artist, one of Ruskin's “five supreme painters,” born at Venice; save for a few lessons under Titian he seems to have been self-taught; took for his models Titian and Michael Angelo, and came specially to excel in grandeur of conception and in strong chiaroscuro effects; amongst his most notable pictures are “Belshazzar's Feast,” “The Last Supper,” “The Crucifixion,” “The Last Judgment,” “The Resurrection,” &c.; some of these are of enormous size (1518-1594).
Tipperary (173), a south-midland county of Ireland, in the province of Munster, stretching N. of Waterford, between Limerick (W.) and Kilkenny (E.); possesses a productive soil, which favours a considerable agricultural and dairy-farming industry; coal is also worked; the Suir is the principal stream; the generally flat surface is diversified in the S. by the Galtees (3008 ft.) and Knockmeledown (2609 ft.), besides smaller ranges elsewhere; county town Tipperary (7), 110 m. SW. of Dublin; noted for its butter market.
Tippoo Saib, son of Hyder Ali (q. v.), whom he succeeded in the Sultanate of Mysore in 1782; already a trained and successful warrior in his father's struggles with the English, he set himself with implacable enmity to check the advance of British arms; in 1789 invaded Travancore, and in the subsequent war (1790-1792), after a desperate resistance, was overcome and deprived of half of his territories, and compelled to give in hostage his two sons; intrigued later with the French, and again engaged the English, but was defeated, and his capital, Seringapatam, captured after a month's siege, himself perishing in the final attack (1749-1799).
Tipton (29), an iron-manufacturing town of Staffordshire, 8½ m. NW. of Birmingham.
Tiraboschi, Girolamo, an Italian writer, who for some time filled the chair of Rhetoric at Milan University, and subsequently became librarian to the Duke of Modena; is celebrated for his exhaustive survey of Italian literature in 13 vols., a work of the utmost value (1731-1794).
Tiresias, in the Greek mythology a soothsayer, who had been struck blind either by Athena or Hera, but on whom in compensation Zeus had conferred the gift of prophecy, and length of days beyond the ordinary term of existence.
Tirnova (11), a fortified town of Bulgaria, 35 m. SSE. of Sistova; is the seat of the Bulgarian patriarch; formerly the State capital.
Tiryns, an ancient city of Greece, excavated by Schliemann in 1884-1885; situated in the Peloponnesus, in the plain of Argolis, 3 m. from the head of the Argolic Gulf; legend associates it with the early life of Hercules; has ruins of a citadel, and of Cyclopean walls unsurpassed in Greece.
Tischendorf, Constantin von, biblical scholar, born in Saxony; spent his life in textual criticism; his great work “Critical Edition of the New Testament” (1815-1874).
Tisiphone, one of the three Furies (q. v.).
Titania, the wife of Oberon and the queen of the fairies.
Titanium, a rare, very hard metal, always found in combination.
Titans, in the Greek mythology sons of Uranos and Gaia, beings of gigantic strength, and of the dynasty prior to that of Zeus, who made war on Zeus, and hoped to scale heaven by piling mountain on mountain, but were overpowered by the thunderbolts of Zeus, and consigned to a limbo below the lowest depths of Tartarus; they represent the primitive powers of nature, as with seeming reluctance submissive to the world-order established by Zeus, and symbolise the vain efforts of mere strength to subvert the ordinance of heaven; they are not to be confounded with the Giants, nor with their offspring, who had learned wisdom from the failure of their fathers, and who, Prometheus one of them, represented the idea that the world was made for man and not man for the world, and that all the powers of it, from highest to lowest, were there for his behoof.
Tithonus, in the Greek mythology son of Laomedon, who was wedded to Eos, who begged Zeus to confer on him immortality but forgot to beg for youth, so that his decrepitude in old age became a burden to him; he was changed into a cicada.
Titian, Vecellio, great Italian painter, born at Capo del Cadore, the prince of colourists and head of the Venetian school; studied at Venice, and came under the influence of Giorgione; he was a master of his art from the very first, and his fame led to employment in all directions over Italy, Germany, and Spain; his works were numerous, and rich in variety; he was much in request as a portrait-painter, and he painted most of the great people he knew; he ranks with Michael Angelo and Raphael as the head of the Italian renaissance; lived to a great age (1477-1576).
Titiens, Teresa, a famous operatic singer, born of Hungarian parents in Hamburg; made her début in 1849 at Altona, in the character of Lucrezia Borgia (1849), and soon took rank as the foremost singer on the German lyric stage; appeared with triumphant success in London (1858), and henceforth made her home in England, associated herself with the management of Mapleson; visited America in 1875; her commanding physique and powerful acting, together with her splendid voice, made her an ideal interpreter of such tragic characters as Norma, Fidelio, Margarita, Ortrud, &c. (1834-1877).
Titmarsh, Michael Angelo, pseudonym assumed for a series of years by Thackeray.
Titus, a convert of St. Paul, a Greek by birth, appears to have accompanied St Paul on his last journey, and to have been with him at his death; Paul's Epistle to him was to instruct and encourage him during his ministry in Crete.
Titus, Flavius Vespasianus, Roman emperor, born at Rome, the son of Vespasian, served in Germany and Britain, and under his father in Judæa; on his father's elevation to the throne persecuted the Jews, laid siege to Jerusalem, and took the city in A.D. 70; on his accession to the throne he addressed himself to works of public beneficence, and became the idol of the citizens; his death was sudden, and his reign lasted only three years; during that short period he won for himself the title of the “Delight of Mankind” (40-81).
Tityus, a giant whose body covered nine acres of land, son of Zeus and Gaia, who for attempting to force Latona was punished in the nether world by two vultures continually gnawing at his liver.
Tiverton (11), an interesting old town of Devonshire, pleasantly situated between the Exe and Loman, 12 m. N. by E. of Exeter; possesses public baths, assembly rooms, almshouses, and a 17th-century grammar-school; noted for its lace manufactures.
Tivoli (9), a town of Italy, known to the ancients as Tibur, beautifully situated on the Teverone, 18 m. E. of Rome; was much resorted to by the wealthy Roman citizens, and is celebrated by Horace; is full of interesting remains.
Tlaxcala (138), a State of North Mexico, and formerly an Aztec republic; capital, Tlaxcala (4); has woollen manufactures.
Tobago (21), one of the Windward Islands (q. v.), the most southerly of the group; a British possession since 1763, politically attached to Trinidad; is hilly, picturesque, and volcanic; exports rum, molasses, and live-stock.
Tobit, The Book of, a book of the Apocrypha giving account of the life and vicissitudes of a pious Israelitish family in the Assyrian captivity, that consisted of Tobit, Anna his wife, and Tobias his son; all three are held up to honour for their strict observance of the Law of the Lord and their deeds of charity to such as loved it, and notable for the prominence given in it to the ministry of angels, both good and bad, among the former Raphael and among the latter Asmodeus, and is the work of a Jew whose mind was imbued with Oriental imagery.
Tobolsk (20), a town and government (1,313), of W. Siberia, picturesquely planted at the confluence of the Irtish and Tobol, 2000 m. E. of St. Petersburg; has a cathedral, barracks, theatre, prison for Siberian slaves, &c.
Toby, Uncle, the hero of Sterne's “Tristram Shandy,” a retired captain, distinguished for his kindness, gallantry, and simplicity.
Tocantins, one of the great rivers of Brazil, rises in the State of Goyaz; flows northwards, and after a course of 1500 m. enters the estuary of the Pará, one of the mouths of the Amazon, 138 m. from the Atlantic; receives the Araguay from the S., an affluent 1600 m. long.
Tocqueville, Alexis Clérel de, French economist, born at Verneuil, of an old Norman family, bred to the bar, and specially distinguished as the author of two works in high repute, “La Democratie en Amérique” and “L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution”; died at Cannes, leaving much of his work unfinished (1805-1861).
Todhunter, Isaac, mathematician, born at Rye; educated at University College, London, and at Cambridge, where he graduated senior wrangler and Smith's prizeman in 1848; elected Fellow and principal mathematical lecturer of his college (St. John's), and soon became widely known in educational circles by his various and excellent handbooks and treatises on mathematical subjects (1820-1884).
Todleben, Eduard Ivanovitch, a noted Russian general of German descent, who, trained in the engineer corps, greatly distinguished himself by his defensive operations at Sebastopol during its siege by the French and English in the Crimean War, and subsequently by the reduction of Plevna, his greatest achievement, which brought to a close the war with Turkey in 1877; subsequently became commander-in-chief in Bulgaria (1818-1884).
Todmorden (25), a cotton town prettily situated amid hills on the border of Lancashire and Yorkshire, on the Calder, 21 m. NE. of Manchester; coal abounds in the vicinity.
Toga, an outer garment, usually of white wool like a large blanket, folded about the person in a variety of ways, but generally with the right arm free, thrown over the left shoulder, and hanging down the back; it was at once the badge of manhood and Roman citizenship.
Togoland, a German protectorate on the Slave Coast, in Upper Guinea, Gold Coast Colony on the W., and Dahomey on the E.; exports palm-oil and ivory.
Tokay (5), a Hungarian town on the Theiss, 130 m. NE. of Pesth; greatly celebrated for its wines, of which it manufactures 34 different sorts.
Tokyo or Tokei (1,376), formerly called Yeddo, capital of the Japanese Empire, situated on a bay of the same name on the SE. coast of Hondo, and partly built on the delta of the river Sumida; is for the most part flat and intersected by canals and narrow irregular streets, and has a finely-wooded river-side avenue 5 m. long; on account of frequent earthquakes most of the houses are of light bamboo structure, which, however, renders them liable to destructive fires; has a fine castle, government offices, university, and some 700 schools and colleges; as the political, commercial, and literary metropolis it possesses an overshadowing influence over the national life of the empire. Yokohama, 17 m. distant, is the port of entry.
Tola, a weight in India for gold and silver, equal to 180 grains troy.
Toland, John, political and deistical writer, born in Derry, of Catholic parents; abandoned the Catholic faith; studied at Leyden and Oxford; his first work, “Christianity not Mysterious,” which created a great stir, and was burned in Ireland by the common hangman; it was succeeded, along with others, by “Nazarenus,” which traced Christianity to conflicting elements in the early Church; he was a disciple of Locke (1669-1722).
Toledo (20), a city of Spain, capital of a province (360), and former capital of the kingdom, occupies a commanding site amid hills, on the Tagus, 40 m. SW. of Madrid; within and without presents a sombre and imposing appearance; is the see of the primate of Spain, and possesses a noble Gothic cathedral, ruins of the Cid's castle, and remains of the Moorish occupation (712-1085); the manufacture of sword-blades, famous in Roman times, is still carried on in a government establishment a mile out of the city.
Toledo (131), capital of Lucas County, Ohio, on the Maumee River, 80 m. W. of Lake Erie; is a busy centre of iron manufactures, and does a large trade in grain, flour, lumber, &c., facilitated by a fine harbour, canal, and railway systems.
Toleration Act, a statute passed in 1689 to relieve all Dissenters from certain penalties, except Roman Catholics and Unitarians.
Tolstoi, Count Leo, novelist, social reformer, and religious mystic, born in Tula, of a noble family; served for a time in the army, soon retired from it, and travelled; married, and settled on his estate near Moscow in 1862; his two great works are “War and Peace” (1865-68) and “Anna Karenina” (1875-78); has written many works since, all more or less in a religious vein, and in the keenest, deepest sympathy with the soul-oppression of the world, finding the secret of Christianity to lie in the precept of Christ, “Resist not evil,” and exemplifying that as the principle of his own life; b. 1828.
Tommy Atkins, the British soldier, as Jack Tar is the British sailor, from a hypothetical name inserted in a War Office schedule at one time issued to each soldier.
Tomsk (37), a town and government (1,300) of W. Siberia, on the Tom, 55 m. from its confluence with the Obi; has a university, and is an important depôt on the trade-route to China.
Tone, Theobald Wolfe, Irish patriot, born in Dublin; called to the bar in 1789; found a congenial sphere for his restless, reckless nature in the disturbed politics of his time, and was active in founding the “United Irishmen,” whose intrigues with France got him into trouble, and forced him to seek refuge in America, and subsequently France, where he schemed for a French invasion of Ireland; eventually was captured by the English while on his way with a small French squadron against Ireland; was condemned at Dublin, but escaped a death on the gallows by committing suicide in prison (1763-1798).
Tonga Islands or Friendly Islands (19), an archipelago in the S. Pacific, 250 m. SE. of Fiji; Tonga-tabu is the largest; volcanic and fruit-bearing; missionary enterprise (Wesleyan Methodist) has done much to improve the mental, moral, and material condition of the natives, who belong to the fair Polynesian stock, and are a superior race to the other natives of Polynesia, but are diminishing in numbers. See Friendly Islands.
Tongaland (100), a native State on the E. coast of South Africa, stretching N. of Zululand.
Tongking, Tonquin, or Tonkin (9,000), a fertile northern province of Annam (q. v.), ceded to France in 1884; is richly productive of rice, cotton, sugar, spices, &c., but has an unhealthy climate.
Tongres (9), an episcopal city of Belgium, 12 m. NW. of Liège; its church of Notre Dame dates from 1240.
Tonnage and Poundage, the name given to certain duties first levied in Edward II.'s reign on every tun of imported wine, and on every pound weight of merchandise exported or imported; Charles I.'s attempt to levy these without parliamentary sanction was one of the complaints of his Long Parliament; were swept away by the Customs Consolidation Act of 1787.
Tooke, John Horne, baptismal name John Horne, born, the son of a well-to-do poulterer, in London; graduated at Cambridge, and to please his father took holy orders in 1760, but after some years, during which he had tutored abroad, zealously assisted Wilkes in his election to Parliament, and successfully encountered “Junius”; he abandoned the Church and studied for the bar, to which, on account of his holy orders, he was refused a call; became an active political free-lance, and acquired great popularity as a strenuous advocate of parliamentary reform; entered Parliament in 1801, but in the following year was excluded by an Act making it illegal for any one in priest's orders to be returned; inherited the fortune and assumed the name of his friend William Tooke of Purley; is best known as the author of the “Diversions of Purley,” “a witty medley of etymology, grammar, metaphysics, and politics” (1736-1812).
Toole, John Lawrence, a celebrated comedian, born in London, where he was educated at the City School, and afterwards put to business, but soon took to the stage, serving his apprenticeship and gaining a considerable reputation in the provinces before making his appearance at St. James's Theatre in London in 1854; became the leading low-comedian of his day, and in 1880 took over the management of the Folly Theatre, which he re-named Toole's Theatre; has unrivalled powers of blending pathos with burlesque, and in such characters as Paul Pry, Caleb Plummer, Chawles, &c., is a special favourite all over the English-speaking world; b. 1832.
Toom Tabard. See Tabard.
Tope, the popular name in Buddhist countries for a species of cupola-shaped tumulus surmounted by a finial, in shape like an open parasol, the emblem of Hindu royalty; these parasol finials were often placed one upon the top of the other until a great height was reached; one in Ceylon attains a height of 249 ft., with a diameter of 360 ft.; were used to preserve relics or to commemorate some event.
Topeka (34), capital of Kansas, on the Kansas River, 67 m. W. of Kansas City; is a spacious, well laid out town, the seat of an Episcopal bishop, well supplied with schools and colleges, and busy with the manufacture of flour, heavy iron goods, &c.
Töpffer, Rudolf, caricaturist and novelist of Geneva, where he founded a boarding-school, and became professor of Rhetoric in the Geneva Academy; author of some charming novels, “Nouvelles Genévoises,” “La Bibliothèque de mon Oncle,” &c. (1799-1846).
Toplady, Augustus Montague, hymn-writer, born at Farnham, Surrey; became vicar of Broad Hembury, Devonshire, in 1768; was an uncompromising Calvinist, and opponent of the Methodists; survives as the author of “Rock of Ages,” besides which he wrote “Poems on Sacred Subjects,” and compiled “Psalms and Hymns,” of which a few are his own (1740-1778).
Torgau (11), a fortified town of Prussia, on the Elbe, 70 m. SW. of Berlin; has a church consecrated by Luther, and in the town-church the wife of the great reformer lies buried; scene of a victory of Frederick the Great over the Austrians in November 1760.
Toronto (181), the second city of Canada, and metropolis of the W. and NW. regions, capital of Ontario; situated on a small bay on the NW. coast of Lake Ontario, 315 m. SW. of Montreal; is a spacious and handsomely built city, with fine churches, a splendidly equipped university, Parliament buildings, law courts, theological colleges, schools of medicine and music, libraries, &c.; does a large shipping and railway trade in lumber, fruit, grain, coal, &c.
Torquay (26), a popular watering-place of South Devon, on Tor Bay, 23 m. S. of Exeter; with a fine climate and beautiful surroundings, has since the beginning of the century grown from a little fishing village to be “the Queen of English watering-places”; a great yachting centre, &c.
Torquemada, Thomas de, a prior of a Dominican monastery who became in 1483, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, head of the Inquisition, a “holy office” he administered with merciless cruelty (1420-1498).
Torres Strait separates Australia from New Guinea, 80 m. broad, and from its numerous islands, shoals, and reefs is exceedingly difficult to navigate.
Torres-Vedras (5), a town of Portugal, 26 m. N. of Lisbon; celebrated for the great lines of defence Wellington constructed in 1810, and behind which he successfully withstood the siege of the French under Massena, thus saving Lisbon, and preparing the way for his subsequent expulsion of the French from the Peninsula.
Torricelli, Evangelista, a celebrated Italian physicist; devoted himself to science, and attracted the attention of Galileo, whom he subsequently succeeded as professor at the Florentine Academy; discovered the scientific principle of the barometer, which is sometimes called the Torricellian tube, and made notable advances in mathematical and physical science (1608-1647).
Torrington (3), a market-town of North Devon, built on an eminence overlooking the Torridge, 10 m. SW. of Barnstaple; manufactures gloves; was the scene of a Parliamentary victory in 1646, during the great rebellion.
Torture, Judicial, torture to extort a confession, practised in England till 1588, and in Scotland by thumbscrews and the boot till 1690.
Tory, the old name for a Conservative in politics, generally of very decided type; originally denoted an Irish robber of the English in Ireland.
Totemism, division of a race into tribes, each of which has its own Totem, or animal, as the symbol of it and the name, and as such treated with superstitious veneration, as involving religious obligation.
Totnes (4), a quaint old market-town of Devonshire, overlooking the Dart, 29 m. SW. of Plymouth; has interesting Norman and other remains; a centre of agricultural industry.
Toul (12), a strongly-fortified town of France, on the Moselle, 20 m. W. of Nancy; has a noble Gothic cathedral and lace and hat manufactures; was captured by the Germans in 1870.
Toulon (74), chief naval station of France, on the Mediterranean, situated 42 m. SE. of Marseilles; lies at the foot of the Pharon Hills, the heights of which are strongly fortified; has a splendid 11th-century cathedral, and theatre, forts, citadel, 240 acres of dockyard, arsenal, cannon foundry, &c.; here in 1793 Napoleon Bonaparte, then an artillery officer, first distinguished himself in a successful attack upon the English and Spaniards.
Toulouse (136), a historic and important city of South France, capital of Haute-Garonne, pleasantly situated on a plain and touching on one side the Garonne (here spanned by a fine bridge) and on the other the Canal du Midi, 160 m. SE. of Bordeaux; notable buildings are the cathedral and Palais de Justice; is the seat of an archbishop, schools of medicine, law, and artillery, various academies, and a Roman Catholic university; manufactures woollens, silks, &c.; in 1814 was the scene of a victory of Wellington over Soult and the French. Under the name of Tolosa it figures in Roman and mediæval times as a centre of learning and literature, and was for a time capital of the kingdom of the Visigoths.
Tourcoing (65), a thriving textile manufacturing town of France, 9 m. NE. of Lille.
Tournaments, real or mock fights by knights on horseback in proof of skill in the use of arms and in contests of honour.
Tournay (35), a town of Hainault, Belgium, on the Scheldt, 35 m. SW. of Brussels; in the 5th century was the seat of the Merovingian kings, but now presents a handsome modern appearance; has a fine Romanesque cathedral and flourishing manufactures of hosiery, linen, carpets, and porcelain.
Tourneur, Cyril, a later Elizabethan dramatist, who seems to have led an adventurous life, and whose “Atheist's Tragedy” and “Revenger's Tragedy” reach a high level of dramatic power, and have been greatly praised by Swinburne; wrote also the “Transformed Metamorphosis” and other poems; lived into James I.'s reign; almost nothing is known of his life.
Tours (60), a historic old town of France, on the Loire, 145 m. SW. of Paris; presents a spacious and handsome appearance, and contains a noble Gothic cathedral, archbishop's palace, Palais de Justice, besides ancient châteaux and interesting ruins; is a centre of silk and woollen manufactures, and does a large printing trade; suffered greatly by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and during the Franco-German War; became the seat of government after the investment of Paris and until its capitulation to the Germans.
Tourville, Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, Count de, a French naval hero, born at Tourville, La Manche; entered the navy in 1660, established his reputation in the war with the Turks and Algerines, and in 1677 won a victory over the Dutch and Spanish fleets; supported James II. in 1690, and in the same year, as commander of the French Channel fleet, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Dutch and English; but off Cape La Hogue in 1692, after a five days' engagement, had his fleet all but annihilated, a memorable victory which freed England from the danger of invasion by Louis XIV.; was created a marshal in 1693, and a year later closed his great career of service by scattering an English mercantile fleet and putting to flight the convoy squadron under Sir George Rooke (1642-1701).
Toussaint L'Ouverture, a negro hero of Hayti, born, the son of an African slave at Breda; took part in the native insurrection of 1791, and in 1797 became a general of brigade in the service of the French, and by gallant soldiership cleared the English and Spanish out of Hayti; became president for life of the republic of Hayti, and began to work for the complete independence of the island; in 1801, when Napoleon endeavoured to re-introduce slavery, he revolted, but was subdued by a strong French force and taken to France, where he died in prison; is the subject of a well-known sonnet by Wordsworth (1743-1803).
Tower Hamlets, a parliamentary division of London E. of the city, originally a group of hamlets at one time within the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant of the Tower.
Towers of Silence, towers in Persia and India, some 60 ft. in height, on the top of which the Parsees deposit their dead to be gnawed by vultures.
Townshend, Charles, Viscount, statesman, born at Raynham, Norfolk; succeeded to the title on his father's death, and after taking his seat in the Upper House turned Whig, and soon became prominent in the party; was one of the commissioners who arranged the Scottish Union; accompanied Marlborough as joint-plenipotentiary to the Gertruydenburg Conference (1709); got into political trouble for signing the Barrier Treaty while acting as ambassador to the States-General; under George I. rose to high favour, became acknowledged leader of the Whigs, passed the Septennial Act, but after 1721 was eclipsed in the party by the greater abilities of Walpole, and after unpleasant rivalries was forced to withdraw from the ministry (1730); gave himself then to agricultural pursuits (1674-1738).
Townshend, Charles, statesman and orator, grandson of preceding; entered Parliament in 1747 as a Whig, and after his great speech against the Marriage Bill of 1753 ranked among the foremost orators of his day; held important offices of State under various ministers, Bute, Chatham, and Rockingham, and as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1767 was responsible for the imposition of the paper, tea, and other duties on the American colonies which provoked the War of Independence and led to the loss of the colonies; a man of brilliant gifts and noted wit, but led by what Burke termed “an immoderate love of fame” to play “the weathercock” in politics; died when on the point of attaining the premiership (1725-1767).
Towton, a village of Yorkshire, 3 m. SE. of Tadcaster, where in 1461 Edward IV. at the head of the Yorkists completely routed the Lancastrians under the Duke of Somerset.
Toynbee Hall, an institution in Whitechapel, London, founded in 1885 for the social welfare of the poor in the district, established in memory of Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883), who had come under Ruskin's influence and took a deep interest in the working-classes, his zeal for whose benefit shortened his days.
Tractarianism, the tenets of the High Church party in the English Church advocated in “Tracts for the Times,” published at Oxford between 1833 and 1841, the chief doctrine of which was that the Church, through its sacraments in the hands of a regularly-ordained clergy, is the only divinely-appointed channel of the grace of Christ.
Trade, Board of, a Government office which, as now constituted, dates from 1786, but whose functions within recent times have been considerably widened; consists of a president (a Cabinet minister), and ex officio the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury, First Lord of the Treasury, the principal Secretaries of State, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Speaker, and others, but the actual work of the Board is left in the hands of the president and his secretarial staff; comprises five departments: (1) statistical and commercial; (2) railway; (3) marine; (4) harbour; (5) financial.
Trafalgar, Cape, on the S. coast of Spain, at the NW. entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar; scene of naval engagements in which Nelson lost his life after inflicting (October 21, 1805) a crushing defeat on the combined fleets of France and Spain.
Trajan, Marcus Ulpius, Roman emperor, born in Spain; his great deeds in arms won him a consulship in 91, and in 97 Nerva invited him to be his colleague and successor; a year later he became sole emperor, ruled the empire with wisdom and vigour, set right the finances, upheld an impartial justice, and set on foot various schemes of improvement; suppressed the Christians as politically dangerous, but with no fanatic extravagance; remained above all a warrior and true leader of the legions, and crowned his military fame by his successful conquest of Dacia, in commemoration of which he is said to have erected the famous Trajan Column, which still stands in Rome (56-117).
Trajan's Column, a column erected by Trajan in the Forum at Rome in memory of his victory over the Dacians, and sculptured with the story of his exploits, is 125 ft. in height, and ascended by 185 steps; was surmounted by a statue of Trajan, for which Pope Sextus V. substituted one of St. Peter.
Transcaucasia, an extensive tract of Russian territory stretching E. and W. between the Caucasus (N.) and Turkey in Asia and Persia (S.). See Caucasia.
Transcendentalism, name now principally employed to denote the great doctrine of Kant and his school, that there are principles of a priori derivation, that is, antecedent to experience, that are regulative and constitutive of not only our thoughts but our very perceptions, and the operation of which is antecedent to and sovereign over all our mental processes; which principles are denominated the categories of thought; the name is also employed to characterise every system which grounds itself on a belief in a supernatural of which the natural is but the embodiment and manifestation. See Natural Supernaturalism.
Transmigration, the doctrine prevalent in the East, that the soul is immortal, and that when it leaves the body at death it passes into another, a transition which in certain systems goes under the name of reincarnation.
Transubstantiation, the doctrine of Roman Catholics as defined by the Council of Trent, that the bread and wine of the Eucharist is, after consecration by a priest, converted mystically into the body and blood of Christ, and is known as the docrine of the Real Presence.
Transvaal, formerly South African Republic (1350), a country of SE. Africa, stretching northwards from the Vaal River, and bounded N. by Matabeleland, E. by Portuguese E. Africa and Swaziland, S. by Natal and the Orange River Colony, and W. by Bechuanaland and Bechuanaland Protectorate; comprises elevated plateaux, but is mountainous in the E.; about the size of Italy; has a good soil and climate favourable for agriculture and stock-raising, to which latter the inert Dutch farmer chiefly devotes himself; its chief wealth, however, lies in its extremely rich deposits of gold, especially those of the “Rand,” of which it exports now more than any country in the world; its advance since the gold discoveries has been great, but the trade is almost entirely in the hands of the British immigrants; Johannesburg (q. v.) is the largest town, and Pretoria (15) the seat of Government. In 1856 the region was settled by Dutch farmers, who had “trekked” from Natal (recently annexed by Britain) to escape British Rule, as in 1835, for a similar reason, they had come from the Cape to Natal. Fierce encounters took place with the native Basutos, but in the end the “Boers” made good their possession. In 1877 the Republic, then in a disorganised and impoverished condition, and threatened with extinction by the natives, came under the care of the British, by whom the natives were reduced and the finances restored. In 1880 a rising of the Boers to regain complete independence resulted in the Conventions of 1881 and 1884, by which the independence of the Republic was recognised, but subject to the right of Britain to control the foreign relations. Within recent years agitations were carried on by the growing “Uitlander” population to obtain a share in the government to which they contributed in taxes the greater part of the revenue, and a succession of attempts were made by the British Government to get the Boers to concede the franchise to the “Uitlanders” and remedy other grievances; but the negotiations connected therewith were suddenly arrested by an ultimatum of date 9th October 1899, presented to the British Government by the Transvaal, and allowing them only 48 hours to accept it. It was an ultimatum they were bound to ignore, and accordingly, the time having expired on the 11th, war was declared by the Boers. It proved a costly and sanguinary one to both sides in the conflict; but the resistance of the Boers was ultimately overcome, and hostilities ceased in May 1902. Previously to this, the Colony had been annexed by Great Britain (1900). It is at present (1905) administered by a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and an Executive Council; but it is proposed that, in the near future, representative institutions should be granted.
Transylvania (2247), eastern division of the Austrian Empire; is a tableland enclosed NE. and South by the Carpathians, contains wide tracts of forests, and is one-half under tillage or in pasture; yields large crops of grain and a variety of fruits, and has mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, &c., though the manufactures and trade are insignificant; the population consists of Roumanians, Hungarians, and Germans; it was united to Hungary in 1868.
Trapani (32), an ancient seaport of Sicily, known in Roman times as Drepanum, in the NW., 40 m. W. of Palermo; presents now a handsome modern appearance, and trades in wheat, wine, olives, &c.
Trappists, an order of Cistercian monks founded in 1140 at La Trappe, in the French department of Orne, noted for the severity of their discipline, their worship of silence and devotion to work, meditation, and prayer, 12 hours out of the 24 of which they pass in the latter exercise; their motto is “Memento Mori”; their food is chiefly vegetables.
Trasimene Lake, a historic lake of Italy; lies amid hills between the towns Cortona and Perugia; shallow and reedy, 10 m. long; associated with Hannibal's memorable victory over the Romans 217 B.C.
Travancore (2,557), a native State in South India, under British protection, between the Western Ghâts and the Arabian Sea; it is connected with the Madras Presidency; it is traversed by spurs of the Western Ghâts, beyond which, westward, is a plain 10 m. wide, covered with coco-nut and areca palms; the population mainly Hindus; there are native Christians and some black Jews; Trivandrum is the capital.
Traviata, an opera representing the progress of a courtezan.
Trebizond (50), a city and thriving seaport NE. of Asia Minor, the outlet of Persia and Armenia, on the Black Sea; is walled, and outside are various suburbs; manufactures silks.
Trelawney, Edward John, friend of Shelley and Byron; entered the navy as a boy, but deserted and took to adventure; met with Shelley at Pisa; saw to the cremation of his body when he was drowned, and went with Byron to Greece; was a brave, but a restless mortal; wrote “Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron” (1792-1881).
Trelawney, Sir Jonathan, one of the seven bishops tried under James II.; is the hero of the Cornish ballad, “And shall Trelawney die?” d. 1721.
Trench, Richard Chevenix, archbishop of Dublin, born in Dublin; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge; took orders; became curate to Samuel Wilberforce, and wrote “Notes on the Miracles and Parables” and “The Study of Words”; was Dean of Westminster before he became archbishop (1807-1886).
Trenck, Baron von, general, first in the service of Austria, then of Russia; dismissed from both; commanded a regiment of pandours in the Austrian Succession War in the interest of Maria Theresa; tried to capture Frederick the Great; was caught, tried, and condemned to prison, escaped, was captured, and took poison; had a cousin with a similar fate (1711-1749).
Trent, an English river, rises in NW. of Staffordshire, flows NE., and unites with the Ouse, 15 m. W. of Hull.
Trent (21), an Austrian town in S. of Tyrol, in a valley on the Adige, 60 m. N. of Verona; has an Italian appearance, and Italian is spoken.
Trent, Council of, an oecumenical council, the eighteenth, held at Trent, and whose sittings, with sundry adjournments, extended from 13th December 1545 until 4th December 1563, the object of which was to define the position and creed of the Church of Rome in opposition to the doctrines and claims of the Churches of the Reformation.
Trenton (73), capital of New Jersey State, on the Delaware River, 57 m. SW. of New York; divided into two portions by Assanpink Creek, and handsomely laid out in broad, regular streets; public buildings include a state-house, federal buildings, &c.; is the great emporium in the United States of crockery and pottery manufactures.
Trepanning, an operation in surgery whereby portions of the skull are removed by means of an instrument called a trepan, which consists of a small cylindrical saw; resorted to in all operations on the brain.
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, politician and man of letters, born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, son of Sir Charles Trevelyan (a distinguished servant of the East India Company, governor of Madras, baronet, and author) and Hannah, sister of Lord Macaulay; educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1865; has held successively the offices of parliamentary secretary to the Board of Admiralty, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the Cabinet, and Secretary for Scotland; resigned his seat in 1897; has written “Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay,” “Early History of Charles James Fox,” “The American Revolution,” &c., all of which are characterised by admirable lucidity and grace of style; b. 1838.
Trèves (36), a famous old city of Prussia, beautifully situated on the Moselle, 69 m. SW. of Coblenz; held to be the oldest city in Germany, and claiming to be 1300 years older than Rome; is full of most striking Roman remains, and possesses an interesting 11th-century cathedral, having among many relics the celebrated seamless “Holy Coat,” said to have been the one worn by Christ; manufactures woollens, cottons, and linens, and wine.
Tribunes, in ancient Rome officers elected by the plebs to preserve their liberties and protect them from the tyranny of the aristocratic party, their institution dating from 493 B.C., on the occasion of a civil tumult.
Trichinopoli (91), capital of a district of same name in Madras Presidency, on the Kaveri, 56 m. inland; is a fortified town, with an imposing citadel, barracks, hospital, &c.; noted for its cheroots and jewellery; seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric and college.
Tricolour, a flag adopted by the French Revolutionists in 1789, and consisting of three vertical stripes, blue, white, and red, the blue next the staff.
Trident, originally a three-pronged fork used by fishermen, and at length the symbol, in the hands of Poseidon and Britannia, of sovereignty over the sea.
Trieste (158), an ancient town and still the first seaport of Austro-Hungary; at the head of the NE. arm of the Adriatic, 214 m. SW. of Vienna; an imperial free city since 1849; consists of an old and a new town on the level fronting the sea; has a fine harbour and extensive manufactures, embracing shipbuilding, rope-making, &c.
Trim, Corporal, Uncle Toby's attendant in “Tristram Shandy.”
Trimurti, the Hindu trinity, embracing Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva (q. v.) the Destroyer; represented sometimes as a body with three heads, that of Brahma in the centre, of Vishnu on the right, and of Siva on the left.
Trincomalee (10), an important naval station and seaport on the NE. coast of Ceylon, 110 m. NE. of Kandy; possesses barracks, official residences, and a splendid harbour, a haven of shelter to shipping during the monsoons, and is strongly fortified.
Trinidad (208), the largest of the Windward Islands, and most southerly of the Antilles (q. v.), lies off the mouth of the Orinoco, 7 m. from the coast of Venezuela; is of great fertility, with a hot, humid, but not unhealthy climate; sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cocoa are the chief exports; a source of great wealth is a wonderful pitch lake which, despite the immense quantities annually taken from it, shows no perceptible diminution; inhabitants are mainly French; taken by the British in 1797, and forms, with Tobago, a crown colony; capital, Port of Spain.
Trinitarians, name applied to those who believe in an ontological as well as those who believe in a theological trinity, that is to say, who recognise the like principle pervading the universe of being.
Trinity, the doctrine, variously interpreted, that in the godhead or divine nature there are three persons, respectively denominated Father, Son, and Spirit—Father, from whom; Son, to whom; and Spirit, through whom are all things; is essentially triunity in unity.
Tripitaka, (the three baskets), name given to the collection of the sacred books of Buddhism, as being formed of three minor collections, bearing the Sutras on discipline, the Vinaya on doctrine, and the Abidharma on metaphysics.
Tripod, seat with three legs on which the priestess of Apollo sat when delivering her oracles.
Tripoli (17), a seaport of Syria, 40 m. NE. of Beyrout; a place of great antiquity, and successively in the hands of the Phoenicians, Crusaders, and Mamelukes; it has many interesting Saracenic and other remains; its trade is passing over to Beyrout.
Tripoli (1,000), a province (since 1835) of Turkey, in North Africa, most easterly of the Barbary States; stretches northwards from the Libyan Desert, lies between Tunis (W.) and Fezzan (E.), with which latter, as also with Barca, it is politically united; carries on a brisk caravan trade with Central Africa; capital, Tripoli (20), situated on a spit of rocky land jutting into the Mediterranean; surrounded by high walls, and Moorish in appearance.
Triptolemus, in the Greek mythology the favourite of Demeter (q. v.), the inventor of the plough, and of the civilisation therewith connected; played a prominent part in the Eleusinian Mysteries; was favoured by Demeter for the hospitality he showed her when she was in quest of her daughter.
Trismegistus (thrice greatest), the Egyptian Hermes, regarded as the fountain of mysticism and magic.
Tristan da Cunha, the largest of three small islands lying out in the South Atlantic, about 1300 m. SW. of St. Helena; 20 m. in circumference; taken possession of by the British in 1817, and utilised as a military and naval station during Napoleon's captivity on St. Helena; now occupied by a handful of people, who lead a simple, communistic life.
Tristram, Sir, one of the heroes of mediæval romance, whose adventures form an episode in the history of the Round Table.
Triton, in the Greek mythology a sea deity, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; upper part of a man with a dolphin's tail; often represented as blowing a large spiral shell; there were several of them, and were heralds of Poseidon.
Tritratna, name given to the Buddhist trinity, Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (q. v.).
Trochu, Louis Jules, a distinguished French general, who came to the front during the Crimean end Italian campaigns, but fell into disfavour for exposing in a pamphlet (1867) the rotten state of the French army; three years later, on the outbreak of the Franco-German War, was appointed Governor of Paris, and, after the proclamation of the Republic, general of the defence of the city till its capitulation, after which he retired into private life (1815-1896).
Trollope, Anthony, English novelist; belonged to a literary family; his mother distinguished as a novelist no less; educated at Winchester and Harrow; held a high position in the Post Office; his novels were numerous; depict the provincial life of England at the time; the chief being “Barchester Towers,” “Framley Parsonage,” and “Dr. Thorne”; wrote a “Life of Cicero,” and a biography of Thackeray; he was an enthusiastic fox-hunter (1815-1882).
Tromp, Cornelius, Dutch admiral, son of succeeding, born at Rotterdam; fought many battles with the English and proved himself a worthy son of a heroic father; was created a baron by Charles II. of England (1675); aided the Danes against Sweden, and subsequently succeeded Ruyter as lieutenant admiral-general of the United Provinces (1629-1691).
Tromp, Martin Harpertzoon, famous Dutch admiral, born at Briel; trained to the sea from his boyhood, in 1637 was created lieutenant-admiral, and in two years' time had twice scattered Spanish fleets; defeated by Blake in 1652, but six months later beat back the English fleet in the Strait of Dover, after which he is said to have sailed down the Channel with a broom to his masthead as a sign he had swept his enemies from the seas; in 1653 Blake renewed the attack and inflicted defeat on him after a three days' struggle; in June and July Tromp was again defeated by the English, and in the last engagement off the coast of Holland was shot dead (1597-1653).
Tromsö, a town (6) and island (65) of Norway, in the NW.
Trondhjem (29), an important town, the ancient capital of Norway, on Trondhjem Fjord, 250 m. N. of Christiania; is well laid out with broad level streets, most of the houses are of wood; possesses a fine 13th-century cathedral, where the kings of Norway are crowned; carries on a flourishing trade in copper ore, herrings, oil, &c.; is strongly fortified.
Trophonius, in Greek legend, along with his brother Agamedes, the architect of the temple of Apollo at Delphi; had a famous oracle in a cave in Boeotia, which could only be entered at night.
Tropics, two parallels of latitude on either side of the equator, which mark the limits N. and S. of the sun's verticality to the earth's surface, the distance being in each case 23½°; the northern tropic is called the Tropic of Cancer, and the southern the Tropic of Capricorn.
Troppau (21), capital of Austrian Silesia, 184 m. E. of Vienna; contains a castle, gymnasium, and an extensive library; manufactures linen and woollen textiles, beetroot sugar, &c.
Trossachs, a romantic pass in the Perthshire Highlands, 8 m. W. of Callander, stretching for about a mile between Lochs Katrine and Achray, is charmingly wooded; is celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his “Lady of the Lake.”
Troubadours, a class of poets who flourished in Provence, Eastern Spain, and Northern Italy from the 11th to the 13th century, whose songs in the Langue d'Oc were devoted to subjects lyrical and amatory, and who not infrequently were men of noble birth and bore arms as knights, and as such were distinguished from the Jongleurs, who were mere strolling minstrels.
Trouvères, a class of ancient poets in Northern France, who like the Troubadours of Southern France were of court standing, but whose poems, unlike those of the Troubadours, were narrative or epic.
Trowbridge (12), a market-town of Wiltshire, 25 m. NW. of Salisbury; has a fine 15th-century Perpendicular church, in which the poet Crabbe is buried; has woollen and fine cloth manufactures.
Troy, a city of Troas, a territory NW. of Mysia, Asia Minor, celebrated as the scene of the world-famous legend immortalised by the “Iliad” of Homer in his account of the war caused by the rape of Helen, and which ended with the destruction of the city at the hands of the avenging Greeks.
Troy (61), capital of Rensselaer County, New York, on the Hudson River, 5 m. above Albany; possesses handsome public buildings, and is a busy centre of textile, heavy iron goods, and other manufactures; has daily steamship service with New York.
Troyes (50), a quaint old town of France, capital of the department of Aube, on the Seine, 100 m. SE. of Paris; possesses a fine Flamboyant Gothic cathedral, founded in 872, several handsome old churches, a large public library; has flourishing manufactures of textile fabrics, and trades in agricultural produce; here in 1420 was signed the Treaty of Troyes, making good the claims of Henry V. of England to the French crown.
Truck-system, the paying of workmen's wages in goods in place of money; found useful where works are far distant from towns, but liable to the serious abuse from inferior goods being supplied; Acts of Parliament have been passed to abolish the system, but evasions of the law are not uncommon.
Trumbull, Jonathan, an American patriot, judge and governor of Connecticut, who supported the movement for independence with great zeal; was much esteemed and consulted by Washington, whose frequent phrase, “Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says,” gave rise to the appellation “Brother Jonathan” (1710-1785).
Trunnion, Commodore Hawser, an eccentric retired naval officer in Smollett's “Peregrine Pickle,” affects the naval commander in his retirement.
Truro (11), an episcopal city and seaport of Cornwall; exports largely tin and copper from surrounding mines; its bishopric was revived in 1876, and a handsome Early English cathedral is nearing completion; has also infirmary, old grammar-school, libraries, &c.
Tuam (4), a town of Galway, Ireland, 129 m. NW. of Dublin; is the seat of an Anglican bishop and of a Catholic archbishop.
Tübingen (13), a celebrated university town of Würtemberg, 18 m. SW. of Stuttgart; is quaint and crowded in the old town, but spreads out into spacious and handsome suburbs, where is situated the new university. Under Melanchthon and Reuchlin the old university became a distinguished seat of learning, and later, during the professorship of Baur (q. v.), acquired celebrity as a school of advanced biblical criticism, which gave great stimulus to a more rationalistic interpretation of the Scripture narratives; has now an excellent medical school; also book printing and selling, and other industries are actively carried on.
Tucker, Abraham, author of “The Light of Nature Pursued”; educated at Oxford and the Inner Temple, but possessed of private means betook himself to a quiet country life near Dorking and engaged in philosophical studies, the fruit of which he embodied in seven volumes of miscellaneous theological and metaphysical writing (1705-1774).
Tucuman, a north-central province (210) and town (26) of the Argentine Republic, the latter on the Rio Sil, 723 m. NW. of Buenos Ayres.
Tudela (9), ecclesiastical city of Spain, on the Ebro, 46 m. NW. of Saragossa.
Tudor, the family name of the royal house that occupied the English throne from 1485 (accession of Henry VII.) to 1603 (death of Queen Elizabeth), founded by Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, who became Clerk of the Household, and subsequently the husband of Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V.; their son, Edmund, Earl of Richmond, married Margaret Beaufort, a direct descendant of Edward III., and became the father of Henry VII.
Tula (64), capital of a government (1,409) of the same name in Central Russia, 107 m. S. of Moscow, the residence of a military and of a civil governor, the seat of a bishop, and a busy centre of firearms, cutlery, and other manufactures.
Tulchan Bishops, bishops appointed in Scotland by James VI. to draw the Church revenues for his behoof in part, a tulchan being “a calf-skin stuffed into the rude similitude of a calf” to induce the cow to give her milk freely; “so of the bishops, which the Scotch lairds were glad to construct and make the milk come without disturbance.”
Tulle (15), a town of France, capital of the dep. of Corrèze, 115 m. NE. of Bordeaux; possesses a cathedral, episcopal palace, &c.; chief manufacture firearms; the fine silk fabric which takes its name from it is no longer manufactured here.
Tunbridge (10), a market-town of Kent, 11 m. SW. of Maidstone, with a fine old castle, a notable grammar-school, and manufactures of fancy wood-wares.
Tunbridge Wells (28), a popular watering-place on the border of Kent and Sussex, 34 m. SE. of London; with chalybeate waters noted for upwards of 250 years.
Tunis (1,500), a country of North Africa, slightly larger than Portugal; since 1882 a protectorate of France; forms an eastern continuation of Algeria, fronting the Mediterranean to the N. and E., and stretching S. to the Sahara and Tripoli; is inhabited chiefly by Bedouin Arabs; presents a hilly, and in parts even mountainous, aspect; its fertile soil favours the culture of fruits, olives, wheat, and esparto, all of which are in gradually increasing amounts exported; fine marble has been recently found, and promises well. The capital is Tunis (134), situated at the SW. end of the Lake of Tunis, a few miles SE. of the ruined city of Carthage (q. v.); is for the most part a crowded unwholesome place, but contains well-supplied bazaars, finely decorated mosques, the bey's palace, a citadel, and is showing signs of improvement under French management.
Tunstall (16), a market-town of Staffordshire, 4½ m. NE. of Newcastle-under-Lyme, is a coal-centre, with manufactures of earthenware and iron.
Tupper, Martin, author of “Proverbial Philosophy,” born in Marylebone; bred to the bar; wrote some 40 works, but the “Philosophy” (1838), though dead now, had a quite phenomenal success, having sold in thousands and hundreds of thousands, as well as being translated into various foreign languages (1810-1889).
Turenne, Vicomte de, a famous marshal of France, born at Sedan of noble parentage; was trained in the art of war under his uncles Maurice and Henry of Nassau in Holland, and entered the French service in 1630 under the patronage of Richelieu; gained great renown during the Thirty Years' War; during the wars of the Fronde (q. v.) first sided with the “Frondeurs,” but subsequently joined Mazarin and the court party; crushed his former chief Condé; invaded successfully the Spanish Netherlands, and so brought the revolt to an end; was created Marshal-General of France in 1660; subsequently conducted to a triumphant issue wars within Spain (1667), Holland (1672), and during 1674 conquered and devastated the Palatinate, but during strategical operations conducted against the Austrian general Montecuculi was killed by a cannon-ball (1611-1675).
Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques, French statesman, born at Paris, of Norman descent; early embraced the doctrines of the philosophe party, and held for 13 years the post of intendant of Limoges, the affairs of which he administered with ability, and was in 1774 called by Louis XVI. to the management of the national finances, which he proceeded to do on economical principles, but in all his efforts was thwarted by the privileged classes, and in some 20 months was compelled to resign and leave the matter to the fates, he himself retiring into private life (1727-1781).
Turin (230), a celebrated city of North Italy, a former capital of Piedmont, 80 m. NW. of Genoa; although one of the oldest of Italian cities it presents quite a modern appearance, with handsome streets, statues, squares, gardens, a Renaissance cathedral, palaces, university (over 2000 students), large library, colleges and museums, &c.; manufactures are chiefly of textiles; has an interesting history from the time of its first mention in Hannibal's day.
Turkestan, a wide region in Central Asia, divided by the Pamir plateau into sections: (1) Western Turkestan, which embraces Russian Turkestan (3,342), the Khanates of Khiva (q. v.) and Bokhara (q. v.), and Afghan Turkestan. (2) Eastern Turkestan (600), formerly called Chinese Tartary; unproductive in many parts, and but sparsely populated; produces some gold, and a considerable quantity of silk, besides linens and cottons.
Turkey or the Ottoman Empire, a great Mohammedan State embracing wide areas in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, besides the province of Tripoli in North Africa, and the tributary States Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (under Austria), Cyprus (under Britain), Samos and Egypt (practically controlled by Britain). European Turkey (4,786), which during the last 200 years has been gradually losing territory, now comprises a narrow strip of land between the Adriatic (W.) and the Black Sea (E.), about twice the size of England; is traversed by the Dinaric Alps and Pindus Mountains, which strike southwards into Greece, while offshoots from the Balkans (q. v.) diversify the E.; climate is very variable, and is marked by high winds and extremes of cold and heat; the soil is remarkably fertile and well adapted for the cultivation of cereals, but agricultural enterprise is hampered by excessive taxation; there is abundance of the useful metals; is the only non-Christian State in Europe. Asiatic Turkey (16,000) is bounded N. by the Black Sea, S. by the Arabian Desert and the Mediterranean, E. by Persia and Transcaucasia, and W. by the Archipelago; has an area more than ten times that of Turkey in Europe, is still more mountainous, being traversed by the Taurus, Anti-Taurus, and the Lebanon ranges; is ill watered, and even the valleys of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Jordan are subject to great drought in the summer; embraces Asia Minor (q. v.), Syria (q. v.), Palestine (q. v.), and the coast strips of Arabia along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; chief exports are fruits, silk, cotton, wool, opium, &c. The population of the Ottoman Empire is of a most heterogeneous character, embracing Turks, Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, Armenians, Syrians, Arabs, Tartars, &c. The government is a pure despotism, and the Sultan is regarded as the Caliph or head of Islam; military service is compulsory, and the army on a war footing numbers not less than 750,000, but the navy is small; since 1847 there has been considerable improvement in education; the finances have long been mismanaged, and an annual deficit of two millions sterling is now a usual feature of the national budget; the foreign debt is upwards of 160 millions. From the 17th century onwards the once wide empire of the Turks has been gradually dwindling away. The Turks are essentially a warlike race, and commerce and art have not flourished with them. Their literature is generally lacking in virility, and is mostly imitative and devoid of national character.
Turner, Charles Tennyson, an elder brother of Alfred Tennyson; a man of fine nature and delicate susceptibility as a poet, whose friendship and “heart union” with his greater brother is revealed in “Poems by Two Brothers” (1808-1879).
Turner, Joseph Mallord William, great English landscape painter, born probably in London, the son of a hairdresser; had little education, and grew up illiterate, as he remained all his days; took to art from his earliest boyhood; soon became acquainted with the artist class, and came under the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds; began to exhibit at 15; was elected Associate of the Royal Academy at 24, and made an Academician at 28; he took interest in nothing but art, and led the life of a recluse; was never married, and was wedded solely to his work; travelled much in England and on the Continent, sketching all day long; produced in water-colour and oil scene after scene, and object after object, as they impressed him, and represented them as he saw them; being a man of moderate desires he lived economically, and he died rich, leaving his means to found an asylum for distressed artists; of his works there is no space to take note here; yet these are all we know of the man, and they stamp him as a son of genius, who saw visions and dreamed dreams; he early fascinated the young Ruskin; Ruskin's literary career began with the publication of volume after volume in his praise, and in his enthusiasm he characterised him as the “greatest painter of all time” (1775-1851). See Perugino.
Turner, Sharon, historian, born in London, where he led a busy life as an attorney; devoted his leisure to historical studies, the first of which were “History of Anglo-Saxons” and “History of England from the Norman Conquest to the Death of Elizabeth,” essays, &c. (1768-1847).
Turpin, Dick, a felon executed at York for horse-stealing; celebrated for his ride to York in Ainsworth's “Rookwood.”
Tuscany (2,274), a department of Italy, formerly a grand-duchy, lies S. and W. of the Apennines, fronting the Tyrrhenian Sea on the W.; mountainous in the N. and E., but otherwise consisting of fertile dale and plain, in which the vine, olive, and fruits abound; silk is an important manufacture, and the marble quarries of Siena are noted; formed a portion of ancient Etruria (q. v.); was annexed to Sardinia in 1859, and in 1861 was incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. Capital, Florence.
Tusculum, a ruined Roman city, 15 m. SE. of Rome; at one time a favourite country resort of wealthy Romans; Brutus, Cæsar, Cicero, and others had villas here; was stormed to ruins in 1191; has many interesting remains.
Tussaud, Madame, foundress of the famous waxwork show in London, born at Berne, and trained in her art in Paris; patronised by the sister of Louis XVI.; was imprisoned during the Revolution, and in 1802 came to London (1760-1850).
Tweed, a famous river of Scotland, rises in the S. of Peeblesshire, and flows for 97 m. in a generally north-eastward direction; enters the German Ocean at Berwick; is a noted salmon river, and inseparably associated with the glories of Scottish literature and history.
Twickenham (16), a town of Middlesex, on the Thames, 11½ m. SW. of London; a fashionable resort in the 18th century; the dwelling-place of Pope, Horace Walpole, Turner, and others.
Twiss, Sir Travers, jurist and economist, born in Westminster; professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and subsequently of Civil Law; drew up in 1884 a constitution for the Congo Free State; his writings include “View of the Progress of Political Economy since the Sixteenth Century,” “International Law,” “The Law of Nations,” all of which rank as standard and authoritative works (1809-1897).
Twist, Oliver, hero of Dickens's novel of the name.
Tyche, the Greek name of the Latin goddess Fortuna, represented with various attributes to symbolise her fickleness, her influence, her generosity, &c.
Tyler, Edward Burnet, a distinguished anthropologist, born at Camberwell; in 1856 he travelled through Mexico in company with Henry Christy, the ethnologist; five years later published “Anahuac; or, Mexico and the Mexicans”; in 1883 became keeper of the Oxford University Museum and reader in Anthropology; in 1888 was appointed Gifford Lecturer at Aberdeen, and in 1891 president of the Anthropological Society; his great works are “Researches into the Early History of Mankind” and “Primitive Culture”; b. 1832.
Tyler, John, president of the United States, born in Charles City County, Virginia; became a barrister; elected vice-president of the United States in 1840, and on the death of Harrison succeeded to the presidential office; showed much independence and strength of mind, exercising his veto on several occasions; the Ashburton (q. v.) Treaty and the annexation of Texas were the principal events of his presidency; made strenuous endeavours to secure peace in 1861, but failing sided with the South, and was a member of the Confederate Congress (1790-1862).
Tyler, Wat, a tiler in Dartford, Kent, who roused into rebellion the long-discontented and over-taxed peasantry of England by striking dead in 1381 a tax-gatherer who had offered insult to his young daughter; under Tyler and Jack Straw a peasant army was mustered in Kent and Essex, and a descent made on London; the revolters were disconcerted by the tact of the young king Richard II. (q. v.), and in a scuffle Tyler was killed by Walworth, Mayor of London.
Tyndal, John, physicist, born in co. Carlow, Ireland; succeeded Faraday at the Royal Institution; wrote on electricity, sound, light, and heat, as well as on the “Structure and Motion of the Glaciers,” in opposition to Forbes, whose theory was defended in strong terms by Ruskin; wrote also “Lectures on Science for Unscientific People,” much praised by Huxley (1820-1893).
Tyne, river of North England, formed by the confluence near Hexham of the N. Tyne from the Cheviots, and the S. Tyne, which rises on Cross Fell, in E. Cumberland; forms the boundary between Durham and Northumberland, and after a course of 32 m. enters the sea between Tynemouth and South Shields.
Tynemouth (28 township, 46 borough), a popular watering-place of Northumberland, at the mouth of the Tyne, 9 m. E. of Newcastle; has a fine sweep of promenaded shore, an aquarium, pier, lighthouse, baths, &c.; North Shields and several villages lie within the borough boundaries.
Typhon, in the Greek mythology a fire-breathing giant, struck by a thunderbolt of Jupiter, and buried under Etna.
Tyrants, in ancient Greece men who usurped or acquired supreme authority in a State at some political crisis, who were despotic in their policy, but not necessarily cruel, often the reverse.
Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, Earl of, a Catholic politician and soldier, whose career during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. is a record of infamous plotting and treachery in support of the Catholic Stuarts; was created an earl and lord-deputy of Ireland by James II.; fled to France after the battle of the Boyne (1625-1691).
Tyre, a famous city of ancient Phoenicia (q. v.), about 30 m. N. of Acre; comprised two towns, one on the mainland, the other on an island opposite; besieged and captured in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, who connected the towns by a causeway, which, by silting sands, has grown into the present isthmus; its history goes back to the 10th century B.C., when it was held by Hiram, the friend of Solomon, and sustained sieges by Nebuchadnezzar and others; was reduced by Cæsar Augustus, but again rose to be one of the most flourishing cities of the East in the 4th century A.D.; fell into ruins under the Turks, and is now reduced to some 5000 of a population.
Tyrol (929), a crownland of Austria; lies between Bavaria (N.) and Italy (S. and W.); traversed by three ranges of the Alps and by the rivers Inn and Adige; it is famed for the beauty of its scenery; inhabited by Catholic Germans and Italians; sheep-farming, mining, and forest, fruit, and wine cultivation are the chief industries; capital Innsbruck (q. v.).
Tyrone (171), a central county of Ulster, Ireland; is hilly, picturesque, and fertile in the lower districts; a considerable portion is taken up by barren mountain slopes and bogland, and agriculture is backward; coal and marble are wrought; Omagh is the capital, and Strabane and Dungannon are prosperous towns.
Tyrone, Hugh O'Neil, Earl of, a notable Irish rebel; assumed the title of “The O'Neil,” and offered open rebellion to Queen Elizabeth's authority, but, despite assistance from Spain, was subdued by Essex and Mountjoy; was permitted to retain his earldom, but in James I.'s reign was again discovered intriguing with Spain; fled the country, and had his lands confiscated; d. 1616.
Tyrrhenian Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, stretching between Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily on the W., and Italy on the E.
Tyrtæus, a lyric poet of ancient Greece, of the 7th century B.C., and whose war-songs greatly heartened the Spartans in their struggle with the Messenians.
Tyrwhitt, Thomas, English scholar, the son of an English Church canon, born in London; was a Fellow of Merton in 1755, and in 1762 became clerk to the House of Commons, a post, however, which proved too arduous for him, and in 1768 he resigned; the remainder of his life was given to literary pursuits; produced the first adequate edition of Chaucer (1775), besides an edition of Aristotle's “Poetics,” and books on Chatterton's “Rowley Poems,” &c. (1730-1786).
Tytler, Patrick Fraser, historian, son of Alexander Fraser Tytler, a lord of Session under the title of Lord Woodhouselee, author of the “Elements of History” (1747-1813), born in Edinburgh; abandoned the bar for literature, and established his fame by his scholarly “History of Scotland”; wrote biographies of Wycliffe, Raleigh, Henry VIII., &c.; received a Government pension from Sir Robert Peel (1791-1849).