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and, as he himself calls it, a treasure for posterity. He first introduced dialogues into historical narratives, with a view of exhibiting the principles and motives of the leading agents. He made historical writing an art, for he not only skilfully united the different threads of the action, but investigated truth with a very critical spirit. Superior to selfishness and national prejudice, he dispenses praise and blame, reproves vices and praises virtue, with impartiality; and, as he spent a great part of his fortune in the collection of materials for his history, his accounts have great value on the score of credibility. As to his style, it justly deserves the praise which has been bestowed on it by all intelligent judges. It has the greatest dignity; every word has a meaning; and it possesses all the qualities upon which the perfection of writing depends. His pictures attract as well by the variety of the coloring as by the power and individuality of the figures. However, at times he is obscure. But the present text of Thucydides is full of the faults occasioned by ignorant transcribers. Among the editions, that of Duker (Amsterdam, 1731, folio) is the most complete. Next to this is the Bipont (1788, 1789, in 6 vols.), valuable on account of the Latin version. Thucydides has been translated into English by Smith.

which contain an abundance of observations and descriptions, sometimes characterized by deep and grave reflection, sometimes by the most unbridled humor. French ease and German feeling are beautifully united in this work. He also wrote some poems. A collection of his works appeared in 1821.

THUNBERG, Charles Peter, professor of botany in the university of Upsal, member of more than sixty societies, was born, Nov. 11, 1743, at Jönköping, the capital of Smaland, and studied at Upsal. Linnæus, his great countryman, was his instructer in natural history, and said of him, "Never has any botanist afforded me more satisfaction and pleasure." In 1772, he went as a physician in the service of the Dutch East India company to the cape of Good Hope, where, during three years, he made journeys into the interior. In 1775, he went to Batavia, and afterwards to Japan, as physician to the embassy of the East India company to the emperor of Japan. Thunberg and Kämpfer are the only persons who have given us much authentic information respecting that country. In 1777, he visited Ceylon, and, in 1778, went again to the cape of Good Hope, in order to return to his own country. He subsequently presented his rich collections to the university of Upsal, having been appointed professor of botany in Upsal immediately on his return. In 1784, after the death of the younger Linnæus, he THULE. This name the ancients gave was made professor ordinarius. The royal to the most northern country with which academy chose him their president. At his they were acquainted. Probably the word request, Gustavus III gave the ancient did not always denote the same country royal garden, as a botanical garden, to the or island: many, in fact, may not have university. The rich museum Thunbergiattached to it the idea of any precise anum is preserved there—the most costly country. Hence the many contradictory collection of natural history ever presentopinions of scholars respecting it. Ac-ed to a European university. The most cording to Pythias, it is an island, six days' journey to the north of Britannia. Some have imagined it to be one of the Scotch islands, but most the coast of Norway. Mannert and others believe it was Iceland.

THUILLERIES. (See Tuileries.)
THUISCON. (See Tuiscon.)

important works of this indefatigable inquirer are, 1. his Travels, in four vols. (it has been translated into English, German, Dutch, French, &c.); 2. Flora Japonica; 3. Flora Capensis; 4. Icones Plantarum Japonicarum; 5. Description of Swedish Mammalia; 6. Museum naturalium Academiæ Upsaliensis; 7. Dissertationes Academica; and a numerous collection of treatises, mostly in the Transactions of the academies of sciences at Stockholm and Petersburg, and those of the scientific society at Upsal. Peculiarly valuable are his Kampferus illustratus, and the notes respecting Japanese coins and language. He died, Aug. 8, 1828, near Upsal.

THÜMMEL, Maurice Augustus von, a distinguished German author, was born, in 1738, near Leipsic, where he studied. He subsequently entered the service of the duke of Saxe-Cobourg, whose privy counsellor and minister he became in 1768. From 1775 to 1777, he travelled in France and Italy. He died in 1817, near Cobourg. His chief work is called Travels in the Southern Provinces of France. It is a novel, interspersed with reminiscences of his travels. Ten volumes of it appeared from 1791 to 1805, lines of the Science of Heat and Electricity.

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.* It has *This article is from doctor Thomson's Out

been demonstrated, by the sagacity of doctor Franklin, that thunder and lightning is merely a case of electrical discharges from one portion of the atmosphere to another, or from one cloud to another. Air, and all gases, are non-conductors; but vapor and clouds, which are composed of it, are conductors. Clouds consist of small hollow bladders of vapor, charged each with the same kind of electricity. It is this electric charge which prevents the vesicles from uniting together, and falling down in the form of rain. Even the vesicular form which the vapor assumes is probably owing to the particles being charged with electricity. The mutual repulsion of the electric particles may be considered as sufficient (since they are prevented from leaving the vesicle by the action of the surrounding air, and of the surrounding vesicles) to give the vapor the vesicular form. In what way these clouds come to be charged with electricity, it is not easy to say. But, as electricity is evolved during the act of evaporation, the probability is, that clouds are always charged with electricity, and that they owe their existence, or at least their form, to that fluid. It is very probable that when two currents of dry air are moving different ways, the friction of the two surfaces may evolve electricity. Should these currents be of different temperatures, a portion of the vapor which they always contain will be deposited; the electricity evolved will be taken up by that vapor, and will cause it to assume the vesicular state constituting a cloud. Thus we can see, in general, how clouds come to be formed, and how they contain electricity. This electricity may be either vitreous or resinous, according to circumstances. And it is conceivable, that by long-continued opposite currents of air, the charge accumulated in a cloud may be considerable. Now, when two clouds, charged, the one with vitreous and the other with resinous electricity, happen to approach within a certain distance, the

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*M. Pouillet has lately published a set of experiments which seem to overturn Volta's theory of the evolution of electricity by evaporation. He has shown that no electricity is evolved by evaporation, unless some chemical combination takes place at the same time. But it follows from his experiments, that electricity is evolved abundantly during combustion; the burning body giving out resinous, and the oxygen vitreous electricity. In like manner, the cabronic acid enitted by vegetables is charged with resinous electricity, and the oxygen probably charged with vitreous electricity. These two sources are sufficiently abundant to account for the vast quantity of electricity so often accumulated in the clouds.

thickness of the coa.ing of electricity increases on the two sides of the clouds which are nearest each other. This accumulation of thickness soon becomes so great as to overcome the pressure of the atmosphere, and a discharge takes place, which occasions the flash of lightning. The noise accompanying the discharge constitutes the thunder-clap, the long continuance of which partly depends on the reverberations from neighboring objects. It is, therefore, loudest and largest, and most tremendous, in hilly countries. These electrical discharges obviously dissipate the electricity; the cloud condenses into water, and occasions the sudden and heavy rain which always terminates a thunder-storm. The previous motions of the clouds, which act like electrometers, indicate the electrical state of different parts of the atmosphere. Thunder, then, only takes place when the different strata of air are in different electrical states. The clouds interposed between these strata are also electrical, and owe their vesicular nature to that electricity. They are also conductors. Hence they interpose themselves between strata in different states, and arrange themselves in such a manner as to occasion the mutual discharge of the strata in opposite states. The equilibrium is restored; the clouds, deprived of their electricity, collapse into rain; and the thunder terminates. In thunderstorms, the discharges usually take place between two strata of air, very seldom between the air and the earth. But that they are sometimes also between clouds and the earth cannot be doubted. These discharges sometimes take place without any noise. In that case, the flashes are very bright; but they are single flashes, passing visibly from one cloud to another, and confined usually to a single quarter of the heavens. When they are accompanied by the noise which we call thunder, a number of simultaneous flashes of different colors, and constituting an interrupted zigzag line, may generally be observed stretching to an extent of several miles. These seem to be occasioned by a number of successive, or almost simultaneous discharges from one cloud to another, these intermediate clouds serving as intermediate conductors, or stepping-stones, for the electrical fluid. It is these simultaneous discharges which occasion the rattling noise which we call thunder. Though they are all made at the same time, yet, as their distances are different, they only reach our ear in succession, and thus occasion the lengthened

rumbling noise, so different from the snap which accompanies the discharge of a Leyden jar. If the electricity were confined to the clouds, a single discharge, or a single flash of lightning, would restore the equilibrium. The cloud would collapse, and discharge itself in rain, and the serenity of the heavens would be restored; but this is seldom the case. I have witnessed the most vivid discharges of lightning from one cloud to another, which enlightened the whole horizon, continue for several hours, and amounting to a very considerable number, not fewer certainly than fifty, and terminating at last in a violent thunder-storm. We see that these discharges, though the quantity of electricity must have been immense, did not restore the equilibrium. It is obvious from this, that not only the clouds, but the strata of air themselves, must have been strongly charged with electricity. The clouds, being conductors, served the purpose of discharging the electricity with which they were loaded, when they came within the striking distance. But the electric stratum of air, with which the cloud was in contact, being a non-conductor, would not lose its electricity by the discharge of the cloud. It would immediately supply the cloud, with which it was in contact, with a new charge. And this repeated charging and discharging process would continue to go on till the different strata of excited air were brought to their natural state. From the atmospherical electric journal, kept by Mr. Reed, at Knightsbridge, during two whole years, from May 9, 1789, to May 9, 1791, it appears that clouds, and rain, and hail, and snow, are always charged with electricity; sometimes with negative, but more frequently with positive electricity. When the sky is serene and cloudless, the strata of air are generally charged with positive electricity. In such cases, the thunder rod is charged by induction; the highest end acquiring the opposite state of electricity from the air, and the lowest end the same kind of electricity, while a portion of the rod towards the middle is neutral. During the first year, there occurred only seven days in which no electricity could be perceived; and during the second year, when the apparatus was much more complete, not a single day occurred which did not give indications of electricity in the atmosphere. During the first year, the electricity was vitreous or positive 241 times, and, during the second year, 423 times. This difference was chiefly owing to the apparatus. During the first year, there occurred seventy-three days

It

in which the signs of electricity were so weak that the kind could not be determined. In the second year, it was found that on days when the electricity is weak, it is always vitreous or positive. During the first year, the electricity was observed resinous or negative 156 times, and, during the second year, 157 times. During the first year, sparks could be drawn from the apparatus during ninety-eight days, and, in the second year, during one hundred and six days. From these facts, the probability is, that the electrical state of the atmosphere did not differ much during each of the two years, during which the observations were kept. would tend greatly to promote the progress of meteorology, which is obviously very much connected with electricity, if a register were kept in the torrid zone of the state of the electricity of the atmos phere during a whole year. The weather in these countries is so regular, and the transition from dry weather to rain so marked, that we have reason to expect corresponding changes in the state of the electricity of the atmosphere. The heaviness of the rain, and the large size of the drops in these countries, indicate that the clouds from which the rain comes are situated at a great height above the surface of the earth. If the accumulation of electricity should be at a corresponding height, this would render a greater height necessary for the rod, by means of which the electrical indications are determined.

THUNDERBOLT; a shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of the electric fluid passing from one part of the heavens, and particularly from the clouds to the earth. (See the preceding article.)

THUNDERING LEGION. (See Legio Fulminatrix.)

THURGAU, OF THURGOVIA, a canton of Switzerland, bounded north and north-east by lake Constance, south-east and south by St. Gall, and south-west by Zurich and Schaffhausen. The chief town is Frauenfeld. It is divided into eight districts, and has a democratic constitution. The rivers are the Thur and Sitter. It is partly level, and partly hilly; but the elevations do not exceed 2500 feet above lake Constance. It is fertile and well cultivated, producing wheat, barley, oats, rye, flax, hemp, and vines, and has also good pasture. Cotton and silk are manufactured, but the staple article is linen. (See Switzerland.)

THURINGIA (in German, Thüringen), the former name of an extensive tract, in the central part of Germany, in Saxony, having Franconia on the west, and Meis

sen on the east. In the latter part of the fifth century, it was inhabited by the Thuringians, who are then first mentioned in history, and whom some consider as a Visigothic tribe, while others maintain that they are the same as the Hermunduri. The kingdom of Thuringia was conquered by the Frankish kings, in 530, who governed it by dukes. In the thirteenth century, it was annexed to Meissen, or Misnia. It was styled a landgraviate, and gave the title of landgrave to the elector of Saxony; but it was subdivided among many petty princes. The circle of Thuringia comprised the northern part. The name of Thuringia became gradually disused after the incorporation of the territory with other states. It is still, however, preserved, in a limited sense, in the Thuringian forest. The greatest part of the old Thuringia now belongs to Prussia.-See Hersog's Geschichte des Thüringischen Volkes (Hamburg, 1827), or Galletti's Geschichte Thuringens (1781-1785, 6 vols.).

THURINGIA, FOREST OF; a hilly and woody tract, in the interior of Germany, comprising a part of the ancient Hercynian forest, and included within the territories of Prussia, Gotha, Weimar, Meiningen, Hildburghausen, and Coburg. It is about seventy miles long, and from eight to sixteen broad; population, about 188,000; square miles, about 1200. It is covered with wood; thinly peopled, containing only small villages; but rich in mines, particularly of iron. The highest summit, Schneekopf (q. v.), is about 3000 feet high. Inselsberg, another summit, is nearly as high.

THURLOW, Edward, baron Thurlow, lord high chancellor of Great Britain, was the son of the rector of Ashfield, in Suffolk, where he was born in 1732. He was educated at Caius college, Cambridge; and after having been a student of the Middle Temple, he was, in 1758, called to the bar. He rose to eminence through the display of his abilities in the famous Douglas cause; and he soon after obtained a silk gown. In 1770, he was appointed solicitor-general, in the room of Dunning (lord Ashburton), and the following year he succeeded lord Walsingham as attorney-general. He was now chosen member of parliament for the borough of Tamworth, and became a warm and powerful supporter of the ministry in the house of commons. He retired from office in 1783, but resumed it again on the dissolution of the coalition ministry, and continued to hold the seals

under the premiership of Mr. Pitt till 1792. His death took place in September, 1806. He was succeeded in the peerage by his nephew. He was never married, but left three illegitimate daughters.

THURN AND TAXIS (De la Tour, or Della Torre); a family of princes and counts in Germany, which originated in Milan. The first of this family, it is said, received the name Della Torre from St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan (from 374 to 397), on account of his defence of the new gate against the Arian rebels. In 1313, Lamurald de la Tour took the surname of Tuszis, now Taxis. His great grandson Roger I, count of Thurn and Taxis and Valsassina, went to Germany, where he established the first posts (q. v.) in Tyrol. The post establishment in the German empire became, at a subsequent period, a fief of the family, which, in Germany, as well as in several other countries, enjoyed great privileges, so that they became rich and powerful. Many important privileges have been continued to this family since the new organization of the German confederacy. The present head of the family has an income of about 800,000 guilders a year, and possesses about 260 square miles, in various German countries, with 30,746 inhabitants. Besides the princely line, there are four lines of counts.

THURSDAY (in Latin, dies Jovis, whence the French Jeudi); the fifth day of the week, so called from the old Teutonic god of thunder, Thor, the northern Jupiter. (See Thor.) The German name for Thursday is Donnerstag (Thunderday), thunder being the chief attribute of Thor. (See Maunday-Thursday.) Ascension day (q. v.) is also called Holy Thursday.

THUSNELDA; wife of Arminius. (q. v.) THYADES; the same as Manades. (q. v.) THYESTES; Son of Pelops and Hippodamia. Having seduced the wife of his brother Atreus (q. v.), the latter, in revenge, served up to him the body of his own son at a feast. Thyestes, discovering the fact, fled to Sicyon with his daughter Pelopia, by whom he had a son, Ægisthus. An oracle had declared that the son and grandson of Thyestes should revenge the crime of Atreus; and when Ægisthus was grown up, he accordingly murdered his uncle, at the instigation of his father. Thyestes then ascended the vacant throne, but was afterwards expelled by Agamemnon and Menelaus, the sons of Atreus, and died in banishment on the island of Cythera. The tragedies of Sophocles

and Euripides, on this subject, are lost; that of Seneca is yet extant.

THYME (thymus vulgaris); a small labiate plant, a native of the south of Europe, and frequently cultivated in gardens. The stems are branching, eight inches or a foot in height; the leaves simple and opposite; and the flowers disposed in whorls near the summits of the branches. All parts of the plant have a strong and penetrating odor, as is usual in this family. Its essential oil is extremely acrid and pungent, and is used for culinary purposes, but less so now than before the Oriental spices were common. Bees are very fond of this, as well as of other labiate plants, and the honey obtained is of superior quality. The thyme of mount Hymettus is celebrated. We have no native species of thyme in America, but T serpyllum is naturalized in many parts of the U. States. This plant has the same sensible qualities as the garden thyme, but the flavor is milder and rather more grateful, and the essential oil less abundant and not so powerful.

THYRSUS (Greek Ovpros); one of the most ancient and common attributes of Bacchus and his followers. It consisted of a lance, the iron part of which was hidden in a cone of pine, in memory of the stratagem which the followers of Bacchus employed against the Indians, when they went to combat them with pikes, the iron of which was concealed by ivy leaves. It was used at all the festivals held in honor of the god of wine, and often enveloped with wreaths of ivy or bay, or with little fillets of other kinds. (See Bacchus.)

TIARA; originally, and with Herodotus, the cap of the Persian kings. The tiara of the pope is a high cap, surrounded by three crowns rising one above the other. These crowns are covered with precious stones, and ornamented with an orb, on which stands a cross, and on two sides of it a chain of precious stones. Originally, the popes wore a common bishop's mitre. (See Infula.) It has been said, but not proved, that Clovis, the Frankish king, in the fifth century, or Constantine the Great, in the beginning of the third century, presented the pope with a gold crown, which the latter united with the infula. According to Henke (Ecclesiastical History, in German, vol. ii.), the popes first wore the simple crown in the ninth century; Cicognara (Storia della Scultura, &c.), however, is of opinion, that only Alexander III, in the twelfth century, surrounded the mitre with a crown, as a

sign of sovereignty. Boniface VIII (who died in 1303) is said to have added the second, as a sign of power over spiritual and temporal things, and Urban V (who died in 1370) the third, in order, as is believed, to indicate the power of the pope in the church, suffering, militant and triumphant (or in heaven, on earth and in hell.) Perhaps the three crowns were to indicate the three parts of the globe at that time known. At the consecration or coronation of the pope, the following words are pronounced: Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et scias te esse patrem, principem ac regem, rectorem orbis in terra, vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi. As the mitre is placed over the coat of arms of bishops, and the cardinal's hat over that of the cardinals, so the tiara, with the two keys, is placed over the family coat of arms of the pope. On coins, &c., the tiara and two keys are often found alone.

TIBER; a river in Italy, which rises in the Apennine mountains, and, in its course of about 160 miles, receives several small rivers, as the Teverone, the Chiana, Puglia, Nera, &c., runs through Rome, and empties, at Ostia, into the Tuscan sea. It owes its fame to the Roman poets. In itself it is insignificant, and always muddy. The fishes in it are not healthy, and are bad tasted. It is navigable only for small craft. Its water is yellow and thick. It has been long believed that this river contains many antiquities—an opinion founded on its frequent inundations in former times; nay, it has been even said, that Gregory the Great, in his religious zeal, ordered the statues and monuments of heathen antiquity to be thrown into the Tiber. Fea, in his work Novelle del Tevere (Rome, 1819), maintains, on the contrary, that little would be gained by exploring the mud of the river; and the most recent undertaking of this kind (see Excavations) confirms his opinion. That part of Rome which is situated to the west of the Tiber, or on its left bank, is called Trastevere, and contains the Vatican, with several other important buildings. The inhabitants of this quarter are distinguished by many peculiarities from the other Romans, and are called Trasteverini. (See Rome.)—An insignificant creek in Washington has been dignified with the name of Tiber.

TIBERIAS. (See Genesareth.)

TIBERIUS, Claudius Nero, a Roman emperor, born B. C. 42, was the son of a father of the same name, of the ancient Claudian family, and of Livia Drusilla,

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