Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/21

TALCAHUANO. ivliieh the town has raihvaj' connection, is export- ed. Popidation, in 1900, 15,376. Talcahuano was fouiuled as a military post in 1780 and was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1835.

TALENT (Lat. talcntum, from Gk. ToXavrov, tiihiiilun. talent, weight, balance; connected with rXrivai, ilCntii, to bear, Lat. fullere, to lift, Skt. ttihl. balance). The maximum unit of weight and yalue among the Greeks; the equiyalent of 60 niiuff or 0000 drachnue. In the Homeric poems the word is used in a diti'erent sense to signify a small weight of gold, apparently of no great value, since two talents are wortli less than a handsome bronze caldron. While the name is Greek, the weight came from Babylonia and Pha^nicia. Here a s_ystem of 60 shekels to a niina and 00 minse to a talent was employed in early times, and in two forms, a 'common' and a 'royal,' the latter being about one-twentieth heavier than the common. Furthermore, botli forms had a 'hea^'y' and a 'light' system, of which the hitter was one-half the former. More- over, in weighing gold, 50 shekels were reckoned to a niina, or 3000 instead of 3600 to a talent. For silver, again, a new standard was introduced, so arranged that while the ratio in value of silver to gold was 1 to 13%, the ratio of weight should be 1 to 10 (Babylonian) or 1 to 15 (Phoenician). The 'royal' forms seem also to have varied at dif- ferent times. The Greeks, in borrowing these sys- tems, naturally varied them somewhat, and we therefore find considerable variety among the dif- ferent Greek States. It is obvious that a very slight variation in the weight of the shekel, or drachma, would make a large dilTerence in the talent. Of the chief Greek systems the -Eginetan is not exactly identical with any of these Eastern standards, but is perhaps connected with a Babj'lonian 'royal' form, and at any rate seems to have been adapted to their trade with Asia Minor. This tal- ent weighed about 37.8 kilograms. The other common standard was the Euboic-Attic with a talent of about 26 kilograms, which has been usually connected with the common light Phosni- cian standard, though recent writers prefer to connect it with the Bahj-lonian. In Athens this was used in reckoning money, while in the mar- ket a talent of about 37 kilograms was em- ployed. The yalue of the Attic silver talent, which was not a coin, but a sum of money, was about $1080. Consult Hill, Eandbook of (Jreek and lloiiiun Coins (London, 1899).

TALE OF A TUB. (1) A comedy by Ben Jonson, licensed in May, 1033, and printed in folio in llUO. The first performance has been conjectured to have been given either in 1601 or in the winter of 1003-04. A revised version was produced in 1634. (2) A religious satire by Jonathan Swift, published anon.ymously in 1704. It deals with the various alterations which three brothers make in the coat which their father has bequeathed to them. Peter stands for the Roman Catholic Church, Martin for the Luther- ans, and Jack ( from John Calvin ) for the ex- treme Protestants.

TALE OF TWO CITIES, A. An historical novel by Charles Dickens, first published in All the Year h'oiind. April 30 to Xovember 26, 1859, and immediately after in book form. Its scene is laid partly in London and partly in Paris during the French Revolution, of which it Dre- sents striking pictures. It is regarded as the most perfect in point of plot-construction of the author's works. See Defarge, Tiierisse.

TALESMEN (from Lat. tales, nom. pi. of talis, such, from the initial word in the summons of the original Latin phrase tales de circiimstan- tibus, such of the bystanders -f- Eng. men). Men called to supply a deficiency in the num- ber of jurors in a panel. In some jurisdic- tions a list of competent men is kept by the proper officials for this purpose, and in many States, in an emergency, the court may call upon bystanders to fill the panel. Jurors thus sum- moned are called talesmen. See Jiry.

TALES OF A GRANDFATHER. A col- lection of historical pictures by Sir Walter Scott, the first two series ( 1828-29)" dealing with Eng- land, the third (1830) with Scotland, and the fourth (1830) with France. They are put in ex- tremely simple and popular form, and were in- tended by the author for children.

TALES OF A TRAVELER. A series of sketches and stories by Washington Irving (London and New York, 1824), the scenes of which are laid in England and France. A large part of the Tales is taken up by the autobiogra- phy of an imaginary personage, Buckthorne, and an account of his friends and their adventures.

TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN. A collection of poetical narratives by Henr}' Wadsworth Longfellow, the first of which is entitled The Challenge of Thor, and was written in 1849; the last is entitled 7'he Ilhyme of Sir Christopher, and was written in 1873. The series was pub- lished in three parts, at Boston, in 1863, 1872, and 1873. The 'Wayside Inn' was an old tavern, the Howe Tavern, still standing in Sudbury, Mass.

TALES OF MY LANDLORD. The name given by Sir Walter Scott to four different sets of his novels. Their publication was begun in 1816 under the fictitious editorship of Jedediah Cleishbotham (q.v. ). The first set contained The Black Diiarf and Old Mortality ; the second (1818), The Heart of Midlothian; the third (1819), The Bride of Lammermoor and The Legend of Montrose: and the fourth (1832), Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous:

TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. The name given by Sir Walter Scott to The Betrothed and The Talisman (1825).

TALES OF THE GENII. A series of Oriental .stories, modeled on the Arabian Nights, by James Ridley, published in London in 1764.

TALFOURD, t.al'ferd. Sir Thomas Noon (1795-1854). An English lawyer and author, born at Reading, in Berkshire. He studied law with .Joseph Chitty (q.v.), and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple ( 1821 ). He was eventual- ly elected to the bench in the Court of Common Pleas (1849). His famous case was a defense of Edward Moxon, who was prosecuted for pub- lishing Shelley's Queen Mab. Entering Par- liament in 1835, he won great honor for his speech in favor of the copyright bill (1837), which he himself had introduced. In recognition of his service, Pickirick was dedicated to him. With Lamb his name is especially associated by Letters of Charles Lamb icith a Sketch of His Life (1837) and Final Memorials of Charles Lamb (1848). In 1875 these two books were