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 (Nov. 9, 1609). The third part (up to 1574), and the fourth (up to 1584), which appeared in 1607 and 1608, caused a similar outcry, in spite of de Thou’s efforts to remain just and impartial. He carried his scruples to the point of forbidding any translation of his book into French, because in the process there might, to use his own words, “be committed great faults and errors against the intention of the author”; this, however, did not prevent the Jesuit Father Machault from accusing him of being “a false Catholic, and worse than an open heretic” (1614); de Thou, we may say, was a member of the third order of St Francis. As an answer to his detractors, he wrote his Mémoires, which are a useful complement to the History of his own Times. After the death of Henry IV., de Thou met with another disappointment; the queen-regent refused him the position of first president of the parlement, appointing him instead as a member of the Conseil des finances intended to take the place of Sully. This was to him a distinct downfall; he continued, however, to serve under Marie de Medicis, and took part in the negotiations of the treaties concluded at Ste Menehould (1614) and Loudun (1616). He died at Paris on the 7th of May 1617.

THOUARS, a town of western France, in the department of Deux-Sévres, on the right bank of the Thouet, 24 m. S. by W. of Saumur on the railway to Bordeaux. Pop. (1906), 5321. A massive stronghold built in the first half of the 17th century by the La Tremoille family, and now used as a prison, stands on a rocky eminence overlooking the river, towards which it has a frontage of nearly 400 ft. The adjoining Sainte-Chapelle dating from the early years of the 16th century is in the Gothic style with Renaissance details, and was built by Gabrielle de Bourbon, wife of Louis II. of La Tremoille. The church of St Medard, rebuilt in the 15th century, preserves a doorway of a previous Romanesque building. That of St Laon (12th and 15th centuries) was formerly attached to an abbey, the buildings (17th century) of which serve as town-hall. It has a fine square tower in the Romanesque style and contains the sculptured tomb of the abbot Nicholas. Remains of the ramparts of the town dating from the 13th century and flanked by huge towers are still to be seen, and a bridge of the same period crosses the Thouet. The manufacture of furniture and wooden shoes, and the preparation of veterinary medicine and lime, are carried on. Wine, livestock and agricultural produce are the chief articles of trade.

Thouars, which probably existed in the Gallo-Roman period, became in the 9th century the seat of powerful viscounts, who in later times were zealous supporters of the English. In 1372 the latter were expelled from the town by Bertrand du Guesclin. In 1563 Charles IX. created Louis III., the head of the family of La Tremoille, duke of Thouars. In 1793 the Vendeans took the town by assault.

THOURET, JACQUES GUILLAUME (1746–1794), French revolutionist, was born at Pont l’Eveque. He was the son of a notary, and became an avocat at the parlement of Rouen. In 1789 he Was elected deputy to the states-general by the third estate of Rouen, and in the Constituent Assembly his eloquence gained him great influence. Like so many lawyers of his time, he was violently opposed to the clergy, and strongly supported the secularization of church property. He also obtained the suppression of the religious orders and of all ecclesiastical privileges, and actively contributed to the change of the judiciary and administrative system. He was one of the promoters of the decree of 1790 by which France was divided into departments, and was four times president of the Constituent Assembly. After its dissolution he became president of the court of cassation. He was included in the proscription of the Girondists, whose political opinions he shared, and was executed in Paris. Besides his speeches and reports he wrote an Abrégé des révolutions de l’ancien gouvernement français and Tableau chronologique de l'histoire ancienne et moderne.

His brother, (1748–1810), a physician, was a keen opponent of the ideas of Mesmer and a promoter of vaccination in France.

THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. The Thousand and One Nights, commonly known in English as The Arabian-Nights’ Entertainments, is a collection of tales written in Arabic, which first became generally known in Europe in the early part of the 18th century through the French translation by Antoine Galland, and rapidly attained universal popularity. In the Journal asiatique for 1827, p. 253, von Hammer (J. von Hammer-Purgstall) drew attention to a passage in the Golden Meadows of Mas'udi (ed. Barbier de Meynard, iv. 89 seq.), written in 943, in which certain stories current among the old Arabs are compared with “the books which have reached us in translations from Persian, Indian and Greek, such as the book of Hezār Afsāne, a title which, translated from Persian into Arabic, means ‘the thousand tales.’ This book is popularly called The Thousand and One Nights, and contains the story of the king and his vizier and of his daughter Shirazad and her slave girl Dinazad. Other books of the same kind are the book of Ferza and Sīmās, containing stories of Indian kings and viziers, the book of Sindibad, &c.” Von Hammer concluded that the Thousand and One Nights were of Persian or Indian origin. Against this conclusion Silvestre De Sacy protested in a memoir (Mem. de l’acad. des inscr., 1833, x. 30 seq.), demonstrating that the character of the book we know is genuinely Arabian, and that it must have been written in Egypt at a comparatively recent date. Von Hammer in reply adduced, in ''Journ. as.'' (1839), ii. 175 seq., a passage in the Fihrist ( 987), which is to the following effect:—

“The ancient Persians were the first to invent tales and make books of them, and some of their tales were put in the mouths of animals. The Ashghanians, or third dynasty of Persian kings, and after them the Sasanians, had a special part in the development of this literature, which found Arabic translators, and was taken up by accomplished Arabic literati, who edited it and imitated it. The earliest book of the kind was the Hezār afsāne or Thousand Tales, which had the following origin. A certain Persian king was