The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 429

TETHYS, in the Greek mythology a daughter of Ura.n.u.s and Gaia, wife of OCEa.n.u.s (q. v.), and mother of the river-G.o.ds.

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).

TEUFELSDRoCK, 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, G.o.d-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 emanc.i.p.ation; 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 princ.i.p.al 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 circ.u.mstances at first wrote for the journals of the day and contributed to _Punch_, in which the well-known "Sn.o.b 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 d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens, 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 cla.s.ses of his country" (1811-1863).

THAS, 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 pa.s.ses 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 t.i.tle 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 n.o.bility of service as distinguished from a n.o.bility of blood; these obtained grants of land, and had thegns under them; in this way the cla.s.s 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 sh.o.r.es, 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 aegean Sea, near the Macedonian coast; is mountainous and richly wooded; inhabited almost entirely by Greeks.

THAUMUZ. See TAUMUZ.

THeaTRE FRANcAIS, theatre in the Palais Royal, Paris, where the French cla.s.sic plays are produced and rendered by first-cla.s.s artistes.

THEBADE, 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 G.o.d a.s.sociated 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 G.o.ddess 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, G.o.ds and men.