Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/395

THA distinguished Thaarup peculiarly as a poet, was neither depth of sentiment nor opulence of imagination, but a certain tone of impassioned patriotic fervour, which yet renders his memory dear to the Danish people. His operas, "Höstgildet" and "Peters Bryllup" (the Harvest Home and Peter's Wedding), breathe a charming idyllic simplicity; and their artless airs and ballads are still generally known and much appreciated.—J. J.  THABET,, a celebrated physician, philosopher, and geometrician, was born at Harran in Mesopotamia, 835-36. He was one of the astrologers of Mo'tadhed Billah, the sixteenth of the Abbaside khalifs. His works are very numerous. He died in 901.—D. W. R.  THABET,, grandson of the preceding, was also eminent for his knowledge of physic, philosophy, and mathematics. His principal work is the history of his own times, from 903 to the year of his death, 973-74.—D. W. R.  THACKERAY,, one of the most prominent English writers of the age, was the son of a former civil servant of the East India Company, and was born at Calcutta in 1811. He was sent at an early age to England, and received his later education at Cambridge, which he quitted without taking a degree. His early inclinations were towards the life of an amateur artist, a career which his circumstances then favoured; and his experiences while attempting to carry out this design have contributed many incidents and characters to his fictions. At the age of twenty, or so, as he has recorded in a letter published by the English biographer of Göthe, he was one of "a score of young English lads who visited at Weimar for study, or sport, or society." He even talked with the great master, and bought Schiller's sword; but his favourite employment, according to his own avowal, was to "make caricatures for children." From the pleasant life of an art student he was summoned by altered circumstances to the arena of enforced toil, and for some time he wavered between or combined the industries of pen and pencil. At last the pen carried the day, although all through his literary career his pencil was now and then brought into play to illustrate his own writings. He began by journalism, contributing to the Times, and acting as Paris correspondent of a London newspaper edited by his step-father. His first marked appearance in literature, however, was in the pages of Fraser's Magazine, where he wrote tales, sketches, criticisms—employing chiefly the nom de plume of Michael Angelo Titmarsh—always original, often full of keen irony and humour, sometimes wild and daring in their mockery. It was long before his peculiar genius was relished and appreciated, yet there were not wanting early observers who rightly estimated him. Speaking of his story, "The Great Hoggarty Diamond," the late John Sterling thus wrote in 1841 to his mother—"What is there better in Fielding or Goldsmith ? The man is a true genius, and with quiet and comfort might produce masterpieces that would last as long as any we have, and delight millions of unborn readers." The curiosity of the general public was first roused by Mr. Thackeray's papers in Punch. Two books of his, brimful of keen observation, occasionally of higher things than the mere superficial aspects of society—his "Paris Sketch Book," 1841, and his "Irish Sketch Book," 1843—had produced little effect; but "Jeames' Diary," the "Snob Papers," the "Prize Novelists," in Punch, announced to all the world that a great and peculiar humorist was among us. After publishing some minor works, he appeared with his own name, in 1846-48, as the author of a fiction published in monthly numbers—"Vanity Fair, a novel without a hero"—perhaps the greatest and sincerest, though not the most pleasing of all his fictions—a work without one dull page, and from the publication of which dates his genuine and enduring fame. It was followed, mention of intermediate minor works being omitted, by a second serial fiction, "Pendennis," 1849-50—a novel in some respects perhaps autobiographical, and illustrating, among other phases of English society, contemporary literary life in London. In 1851 Mr. Thackeray, now a prominent man, delivered before fashionable and cultivated audiences in London his lectures on the English humorists of the eighteenth century, from Swift to Sterne and Goldsmith. They were repeated not only in the provinces, but in the United States—which the lecturer visited for the purpose—and published in 1853. They form one of the most pleasant and genial of Mr. Thackeray's books. The year before had witnessed the publication of the most serene and polished of his fictions, the period of which was removed from our own time—"The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.," a tale of the age of Queen Anne, of which it bespoke a close study. Of his later works, his most important are the serial fictions "The Newcomes" and "The Virginians," with the lectures on the "Four Georges," first delivered in the United States, and then, on the lecturer's return, repeated in most quarters of the United Kingdom. In 1860 Mr. Thackeray became editor of the newly-founded Cornhill Magazine, his most elaborate contribution to which was "The Adventures of Philip on his way through the world." He resigned the post in 1861. Mr. Thackeray was a member of the Middle temple, by which he was "called" in 1848, without any intention of practising as a barrister. He died suddenly 24th December, 1863. Admired as a writer, his kindly and generous disposition endeared him to all who knew him.—F. E.  * THALBERG,, the celebrated pianist, was born at Geneva on the 7th of January, 1812. He was entered a pupil in the polytechnic school at Vienna; and when about nine years old he became a pupil of M. Mittag, a professor at the conservatorio, and commenced the study of the pianoforte. At the age of thirteen he left Vienna and commenced his travels. He received lessons from Pixis at Paris; from thence he went to London, and during a month's sojourn in the metropolis placed himself under Moscheles. On his return to Vienna he sought the assistance of the celebrated Sechter, the organist to the court. Whilst with this worthy and learned contrapuntist, he became initiated in the rules of composition, and rendered himself familiar with all the varieties of the severe school. Devoting himself entirely to the pianoforte, Thalberg has become the great master, which he is acknowledged to be all over the civilized world. Either by the natural conformation of his hands, or by the most felicitous practice, he has acquired an equality of touch and amazing division of his fingers, which enables him to dispose a harmony in a manner as extended and effective as the modern orchestra. By means of the elasticity and control which he displays in his touch, the prodigious power of his wrists, the exquisite brilliancy of his tone, and the rapidity and certainty with which he passes from one distant interval to another, he so separates the different features of his accompaniment, that his performance has truly the effect of four hands, rather than the usual allotment given to an ordinary being.—E. F. R.  THALES, the father of the Greek philosophy, was born at Miletus, a city of Asia Minor, about 635. The earliest efforts of speculation were put forth, not in the mother country, but in the Greek colonies; and the Ionian philosophers, with Thales at their head, took the lead. He supposed water to be the principle of all things, the ultimately real, the groundwork and origin of the universe. Aristotle says (Metaph. b. i. ch. 3) that he was probably led to this opinion "from observing that all nourishment is moist, that heat is generated from moisture, and that life is sustained by heat." Take away moisture and the universe would be dust and ashes; add moisture, and the desert blossoms like the rose. Such crude cosmogonies as those of Thales and the other early Greek speculators are important not on their own account, but on account of the incipient philosophical tendency which they attest. They show that the spirit of generalization, which searches for a principle of unity in all things, was beginning to declare itself. They stand opposed to the mythological fancies which had heretofore prevailed. They show that the authority of the senses, as the criterion of truth, was beginning to be displaced by the authority of a higher criterion—that of reason. They evince a disposition to find out not merely relative truth, that is, truth as it presents itself to man, but absolute truth, that is, truth as it exists in itself and for all intelligence. This aim, however, is not consciously proposed, still less is it successfully realized. These early systems, and among them the philosophy of Thales, afford evidence merely of speculative promise, and in no degree of speculative performance. The name of Thales is usually placed at the head of the list of the seven sages or wise men of Greece. These men were rather practical politicians than philosophers. They lived at a time when the old Greek tyrannies were tending to become republics; and they exerted all their sagacity and influence to bring about the change. In political wisdom and in pithy sayings Thales was inferior to none of his compeers. Being asked what was the rarest of sights?—"A tyrant," said he, "well stricken in years;" ominous words, which indicated that the reign of purely arbitrary government was drawing to a close. At this time the Ionian cities were isolated and independent of each 