Page:LA2-NSRW-4-0447.jpg

THACKERAY Thack′eray, William Makepeace, a great novelist of England, was born at Calcutta, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY India, in 1811. His father was in the civil service of the East India Company, and dying young left his son a fortune of $100,000. When William was seven, he was sent to England and placed in the noted Charterhouse School, often mentioned in his books. He next went to Cambridge, and in 1831 was at Weimar, where he saw Goethe. His ambition was to become an artist, and he traveled over most of Europe, studying at Paris and at Rome. His drawings were quaint, picturesque and truthful; his art may be seen in the illustrations of his novels, which, as he expressed it, were “illuminated by the author's own candles.” But his success in this line did not satisfy him and he tried his hand at writing, much to the delight of readers then and now. He first wrote for Fraser's Magazine, in which appeared The Great Hoggarty Diamond and Barry Lyndon. Most of his capital had been spent in foreign travel and losing investments; he now adopted literature as a profession. His Snob Papers and Jeames's Diary in Punch made him known, but his reputation as one of the greatest of English novelists was made by Vanity Fair (1846-8), which disputes the first place among English stories with such books as Ivanhoe, Adam Bede, Tom Jones and David Copperfield. In 1849 he published Pendennis, one of the best of his books, which tells his own story. His lectures on English Humorists and on The Four Georges were delivered in America as well as in England. In 1852-5 appeared Henry Esmond and The Newcomes, his finest works. He also wrote The Virginians, a sequel to Henry Esmond, in which Washington figures. In 1859 he became the first editor of Cornhill Magazine. Thackeray was tall and powerfully built, witn massive head, and, as he aged, silvery white hair. He died at London, Dec. 24, 1863. See Life by Trollope.  Thales . Greek sage and philosopher, was born at Miletus, Asia Minor, about 640 B. C. and died about 546. One of the Seven Wise Men () of Greece, he was noted especially as an astronomer and geometer and was the earliest of the Ionian natural philosophers, regarding water as the principle of all things. A remarkable fact concerning Thales is his predicting, so early in the history of astronomical

science, an eclipse of the sun, which is alleged to have occurred on May 28, 585 B. C., though doubted on the ground that in Thales' era certain astronomical facts necessary to predict an eclipse with any chance of success were not then known. Some modern astronomers have, however, stated that the prediction of Thales did come true on the date given, and the date agrees with that given by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History.  Thallium, a metal discovered in London in 1861 by the use of the spectrum. It is found in certain iron and copper pyrites, of which it forms about a four-thousandth part, and some in mica. It is generally obtained from the fine dust of pyrites burners. It resembles lead in appearance, is very soft, can be hammered into leaves, tarnishes quickly, gives a green color to a flame, and forms many compounds.  Thallophytes, the lowest of the four great divisions of the plant kingdom. The name means thallus-plants, the thallus being the characteristic plant-body, which is usually prostrate and has no differentiation of nutritive organs, as the roots, stems and leaves of higher plants. All parts of this body are practically alike. There are two great general divisions of the group: (1) Algæ, which contain chlorophyll and hence can manufacture their own food and live independent of any other organisms; and (2) Fungi, which do not contain chlorophyll and hence are dependent upon other organisms for their food. Besides the ordinary algæ and fungi the thallophytes contain many forms which are not classified easily, as slime-moulds, bacteria, diatoms etc. The group is an immense one, and contains the minutest of living forms, as well as some which are very bulky, as some of the seaweeds. Thallophytes are of special interest as representing the beginnings of the plant-kingdom, the group from which all the higher forms have been derived.  Thal′lus, the characteristic plant-body of the thallophytes. The thallus-body is also characteristic of the liverworts and of the gametophyte of ferns.  Thames, a river of England rising in Cotswold Hills and flowing to the North Sea. It is about 220 miles long, and as far as London, 60 miles from its mouth, is navigable for large vessels. It is 18 miles wide at its mouth, and the tide flows up for 72 miles. The largest river of England, it also is the most important, having as large a traffic, probably, as any river in the world. Its bridges and tunnels at London, its great docks and embankments, are a part of the sights of the city. Canals connect it with the Avon and the Severn, the Sussex coast and the canal system of central England.  Thanks′giving Day, a religious festival peculiar to the United States, resembling the Hebrew feast of ingathering. The