The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 430

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to genuine Shakespearian scholars.h.i.+p by his edition, in 1733, of the dramatist's works, an edition which completely superseded Pope's (1688-1744).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 s.e.x 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 t.i.tle 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 partic.i.p.ated 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 G.o.d, 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, G.o.d has become man, and man G.o.d, 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 s.e.x; (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 princ.i.p.al 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.

THERAPEUTae, a Jewish ascetic sect in Egypt, who lived a life of celibacy and meditation in separate hermitages, and a.s.sembled for wors.h.i.+p 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.

THERMOPYLae (i. e. "the hot gates"), a famous pa.s.s 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 aegeus, 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; a.s.sisted at the Argonautic expedition, and is famed for his friends.h.i.+p 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, ANDRe, 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 Gerard," "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 G.o.d 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, a.s.similating 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 Europeen_, and the COURRIER FRANcAIS, 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'etudes" (1835), in which same year he was appointed librarian at the Palais Royal; in 1853 appeared his "Tiers etat," 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 Ma.r.s.eilles, of parents in poor circ.u.mstances; 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'etat_; 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 a.s.sembly 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 pa.s.sions and undistracted by petty detail, can see deeper than others behind the veil of circ.u.mstance, and catch glimpses into the permanent reality."