Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/432

 THIERS

THOMAS

Councillor, and in 1803 Count and Prefect of the Gironde. He was banished by the reactionaries in 1815, and founded a busi ness at Prague. The Revolution of 1830 permitted him to return to France, but he took no further part in public affairs. Napoleon III raised him to the Senate in 1852. Thibaudeau s historical writings (chiefly Memoires, 12 vols. ; Histoire generale de Napoleon Bonaparte, 5 vols., 1827-28 ; Histoire des Etats Generaux, 2 vols., 1843 ; and Ma biographic, 1875) are important for the study of his period. D. Mar. 8, 1854.

THIERS, Adolphe, French statesman and historian. B. Apr. 15, 1797. Ed. Mai*seilles and Aix. He studied law at Aix, and went to practise at the Paris Bar. His articles in the Constitutionel and his Histoire de la Revolution Francaise (1823-27) gave him a high place among the Liberal opposition, and in those early years Thiers did fine work in chastizing the reactionaries. He was elected to the Chambre in 1830, and became secretary to the Ministry of Finance. From 1832 to 1836 he acted as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Commerce and Public Works, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1836 he was President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he returned to those positions in 1840. Thiers, how ever, became more conservative as the democratic movement developed, and in 1840 he quitted public life for letters and study. The first result was his masterly Histoire du consulat et de I Empire (1845-62). He was still Liberal enough to incur banishment in 1851, but was permitted to return in 1852. In 1863 he was elected to the Corps Legislatif, where he strongly opposed all Imperialist adven tures and the impending war with Prussia. In 1871 so general was the belief that he was the strong man needed to save France that he was returned by twenty constitu encies. He was head of the Provisional Government and first President of the Republic. When he accepted the Republic, the clericals and royalists defeated him in 791

1873 ; but he returned to the Chambre in 1876 and defended the Republic to the end. He was admitted to the Academy in 1834. Thiers was one of the greatest French statesmen of the nineteenth cen tury, and his work for the Republic after 1871 was herculean. His memory is disliked by many French Freethinkers on account of his stern attitude to more advanced political bodies ; but in his Rationalist faith he never wavered. He was an Agnostic to the end. D. Sep. 3, 1877.

THILL Y, Professor Frank, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., American philosopher. B. Aug. 18, 1865. Ed. Berlin and Heidelberg Universities. In 1891-92 he was instructor in logic and the history of philosophy at Cornell University ; from 1893 to 1904 he was professor of philosophy at Missouri University ; from 1904 to 1906 professor of psychology at Princeton ; and since 1906 he has been professor of philosophy at Cornell. He has been Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 1915. Professor Thilly edited the University of Missouri Studies (1901-1904), and was associate editor of the International Journal of Ethics from 1909 to 1914. He has translated various works from the German, and written An Introduction to Ethics (1900) and a History of Philosophy (1914). He j is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Western Philosophical i Association, the American Philosophical fessors (President in 1917).
 * Association (President in 1912), and the
 * American Association of University Pro

THOMAS, Antoine Leonard, French writer. B. Oct. 1, 1732. Ed. College de Plessis. Thomas adopted teaching as his profession in order that he might have leisure for writing. He was still religious, and in 1756 he published a criticism of Voltaire (Reflexions philosophiques et lit- teraires sur le poeme de la Religion Naturelle de Voltaire). In 1762 he became a secre tary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 792