of Cinqmars. When that imprudent person therefore was detected in a secret correspondence with Spain, De Thou was apprehended on the charge of not revealing it, and, notwithstanding an able and eloquent defence, was condemned, and sentenced to lose his head. Resolved upon a signal sacrifice, the unrelenting minister resisted all entreaties in his favor, and his execution was irrevocably determined upon. Cinqmars, who was the cause of his ruin, humbled himself before him drowned in tears; but De Thou raised and embraced him, saying, "There is now nothing to be thought of but how to die well." He was beheaded at Lyons in 1642, at the age of thirty-five, universally lamented.

THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. Arabian Nights.)

(See

THOUSAND LEGS. (See Centiped.) THOYRAS. (See Rapin de Thoyras.) THRACE. At a remote period of history, Thrace, among the Greeks, signified all the northern region beyond Macedonia, whose boundaries were not distinctly known, and which was usually conceived of as being a wild, mountainous land. In a narrower sense, Thrace signified the tract of country lying north of Macedonia, bounded east by the Black sea, south by the Ægean and the Propontis, and extending northwards to Mosia and the Hamus. The land was originally, before it was cultivated, in part wild, and inhabited by a fierce and warlike people, among whom were the Geta: it was, therefore represented as the residence of Boreas, and considered sacred to Mars. The Greeks early settled colonies there, and the country was not destitute of rich meadows and corn-lands: it abounded in mines, and the Thracian horses and riders rivalled those of Thessaly. The principal mountains of Thrace were the Hæmus (Balkan), Rhodope and Pangæus. Among the rivers, the largest and most celebrated was the Hebrus (now Maritza). The remarkable places were Abdera, notorious for the stupidity of its inhabitants, which, however, gave birth to Democritus and Protagoras; Sestos, on the Hellespont, celebrated in the story of Hero and Leander; and Byzantium, on the peninsula on which Constantinople now stands. The whole country is now included in the Turkish ejalet, or province, Rumelia, or Romania. (q. v.) It was formerly governed by several princes, then subject to Macedonia, and finally formed a Roman province. The tradition of the old Thracian bard, Orpheus (q. v.), shows that

music early flourished in Thrace; and, if, as some writers suppose, the Greeks borrowed many of their religious ceremonies and notions from the Thracians, we must conclude that the early inhabitants of the country were not altogether so rude as the ancients often represent them.

THRALE. (See Piozzi.)

THRASIMENE, or TRASIMENUS (now Perugia); a lake of Italy, near Perusium, celebrated for a battle fought there between Hannibal and the Romans under Flaminius, in which the latter were defeated with great loss, B. C. 217. (See Hannibal.) "Such was the mutual animosity of the combatants," says Livy (xxii, 12), "that the earthquake, which overthrew many cities of Italy, turned the course of rapid rivers, and tore down mountains, was not heeded by them." (See an interesting note (35) on the site of the battle, in Childe Harold, c. iv. st. 63.)

THRASYBULUS; a noble Athenian, who rendered great service to his country, not only as a general in the Peloponnesian war, during which he repeatedly defeated the Spartans, but more particularly by delivering it from the dominion of the thirty tyrants, who, after the close of the war, had been imposed upon the city (B. C. 404) by the victorious Spartans. (See Attica.) Thrasybulus, with thirty of his fellow citizens, who, like him, were lovers of liberty, left the city, but did not remain an inactive spectator of the misfortunes of his country. Determined to seize the first opportunity to deliver Athens from the yoke, he occupied a strong place on the borders of Attica, and assembled a small body of forces, with which he bade defiance to the attacks of the tyrants, and even succeeded in capturing the Piræus. Encouraged by this success, the Athenians finally rose, after eight months of slavery, and chased their oppressors from the city. Thrasybulus then restored the old democratical constitution, and with it tranquillity. After having reduced Lesbos, and recovered Byzantium and Chalcis, he lost his life on an expedition against Rhodes, during an insurrection of the inhabitants of Aspendus. He was distinguished above all his countrymen by his ardent love of liberty, his pure patriotism, and his noble disinterestedness.

THREE. (Se Triad.)

THREE KINGS, THE, or THE Three WISE MEN OF THE EAST. The magi spoken of in the New Testament, as guided by the star of Jesus to Bethlehem, and offering him gold, frankincense and myrrh, are call

ed by the Catholic church kings; and the festival of Epiphany (q. v.) is called the feast of the three holy kings. Bede even gives their names-Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Cologne boasts of possessing their bodies in the cathedral of St. Peter's, where their monument is shown in a chapel built by the elector Maximilian, whence they are called the three kings of Cologne. The legend relates that they were baptized after their return to their own country; that, 300 years afterwards, their bodies were transferred to Constantinople by the empress Helena, thence by Eustathius to Milan, and at last to Cologne by Renatus.

THREE RIVERS. (See Trois Rivières.) THRENODY (from Convos, grief, and we song); a song of lamentation, which, unlike the narrative, and therefore calmer elegy (q. v.), may be the lyrical expression of the most violent grief or despair, without any soothing mixture.

THRUSH. The birds of this genus are hardly distinguishable from the warblers, except by their superior size. They are, however, more frugivorous, living on berries, insects and worms. The bill is strong, compressed at the sides, and the upper mandible is slightly notched near the point. Their colors, in general, are not brilliant, and many of them have spots on the breast. Several are distinguished for their powers of song, or for the delicacy of their flesh. We have seven species in the U. States-the mocking-bird, cat-bird, American robin, and the brown, wood, hermit, and tawny thrushes.

THUANUS. (See Thou, De.)

THUCYDIDES, the greatest of all the Greek historians, was born at Athens, B. C. 470. His father's name was Olorus; his mother's Hegesipyle. By the father's side he was connected with Miltiades, and by his mother's was descended from the stock of the kings of Thrace. He received his education at a time when Athens, having conquered her enemies, and acquired distinguished power, was occupied with zeal on the highest objects of human effort. The philosopher Anaxagoras, and the orator Antiphon, early imparted to his mind that manly tone which gives so high a value to his historical works. He was excited to devote himself to historical studies by the applause which the Greek people bestow-, ed upon Herodotus, when he read his delightful narratives at Olympia. When the Peloponnesian war broke out, he was commissioned to raise soldiers for the service of his country. He lived, at that

time, upon his estate on the borders of Thrace, and had the superintendence of the gold mines in the island of Thasos. The flame of war reached these lands, and the Spartan commander, Brasidas, besieged the city of Amphipolis, which was under the protection of the Athenians. When the Athenian commander saw that he could not hold out without assistance, he demanded aid of Thucydides, who, unfortunately, did not arrive till the night after the city was surrendered. The Athenians punished him by banishment. Thus the active mind of Thucydides obtained the leisure necessary for his historical masterpiece, which he wrote at Scaptesyla, in Thrace, the birthplace of his wife. While in exile, he dared to enter into connexion with the Spartans; not, however, to the injury of his country, but for the advantage of his historical work; for he maintained in their army certain persons, who gave him full and authentic information of all the events of the Peloponnesian war. Thus he was placed in a situation to compare reports, and, by a careful examination, to determine the truth. He was afterwards recalled to Athens, but returned again to Thrace, and died there, in his seventieth or eightieth year. According to Pausanias, he was assassinated in Athens. This, at least, seems to be certain, that a cenotaph was erected to him in Athens. The work which has made his name immortal bears the title Account of the War of the Peloponnesians and Athenians. It consists of eight books, of which only seven are finished: the eighth is to be considered only as a rough draught, which wants the last touches. These eight books, however, embrace only twenty-one years of this memorable war: the last six are wanting. This work is the production of a deep-searching, clearsighted man, fully acquainted with the nature of history. As a work of art, it stands far higher than the agreeable narratives of Herodotus. While Herodotus gives more interesting accounts, he neither penetrates into the character of the persons of the action, nor seeks out the causes of events springing from the relations of the various states. Thucydides considers history in a higher point of view, treats the particular events as the result of necessity or choice, and by this means makes history a teacher, not merely of what has been, but of what will be. As politics attracted him particularly, his history has a limited character, but, as the political history of a state, is a model,

been demonstrated, by the sagacity of doctor Franklin, that thunder and lightning is merely a case of electrical discharges from one portion of the atmosphere to another, or from one cloud to another. Air, and all gases, are non-conductors; but vapor and clouds, which are composed of it, are conductors. Clouds consist of small hollow bladders of vapor, charged each with the same kind of electricity. It is this electric charge which prevents the vesicles from uniting together, and falling down in the form of rain. Even the vesicular form which the vapor assumes is probably owing to the particles being charged with electricity. The mutual repulsion of the electric particles may be considered as sufficient (since they are prevented from leaving the vesicle by the action of the surrounding air, and of the surrounding vesicles) to give the vapor the vesicular form. In what way these clouds come to be charged with electricity, it is not easy to say. But, as electricity is evolved during the act of evaporation, the probability is, that clouds are always charged with electricity, and that they owe their existence, or at least their form, to that fluid. It is very probable that when two currents of dry air are moving different ways, the friction of the two surfaces may evolve electricity. Should these currents be of different temperatures, a portion of the vapor which they always contain will be deposited; the electricity evolved will be taken up by that vapor, and will cause it to assume the vesicular state constituting a cloud. Thus we can see, in general, how clouds come to be formed, and how they contain electricity. This electricity may be either vitreous or resinous, according to circumstances. And it is conceivable, that by long-continued opposite currents of air, the charge accumulated in a cloud may be considerable. Now, when two clouds, charged, the one with vitreous and the other with resinous electricity, happen to approach within a certain distance, the

*M. Pouillet has lately published a set of experiments which seem to overturn Volta's theory of the evolution of electricity by evaporation. He has shown that no electricity is evolved by evaporation, unless some chemical combination takes place at the same time. But it follows from his experiments, that electricity is evolved abundantly during combustion; the burning body giving out resinous, and the oxygen vitreous elec. tricity. In like manner, the cabronic acid emitted by vegetables is charged with resinous electricity, and the oxygen probably charged with vitreous electricity. These two sources are sufficiently abundant to account for the vast quantity of electricity so often accumulated in the clouds.

thickness of the coating of electricity increases on the two sides of the clouds which are nearest each other. This accumulation of thickness soon becomes so great as to overcome the pressure of the atmosphere, and a discharge takes place, which occasions the flash of lightning. The noise accompanying the discharge constitutes the thunder-clap, the long continuance of which partly depends on the reverberations from neighboring objects. It is, therefore, loudest and largest, and most tremendous, in hilly countries. These electrical discharges obviously dissipate the electricity; the cloud condenses into water, and occasions the sudden and heavy rain which always terminates a thunder-storm. The previous motions of the clouds, which act like electrometers, indicate the electrical state of different parts of the atmosphere. Thunder, then, only takes place when the different strata of air are in different electrical states. The clouds interposed between these strata are also electrical, and owe their vesicular nature to that electricity. They are also conductors. Hence they interpose themselves between strata in different states, and arrange themselves in such a manner as to occasion the mutual discharge of the strata in opposite states. The equilibrium is restored; the clouds, deprived of their electricity, collapse into rain; and the thunder terminates. In thunderstorms, the discharges usually take place between two strata of air, very seldom between the air and the earth. But that they are sometires also between clouds and the earth cannot be doubted. These discharges sometimes take place without any noise. In that case, the flashes are very bright; but they are single flashes, passing visibly from one cloud to another, and confined usually to a single quarter of the heavens. When they are accompanied by the noise which we call thunder, a number of simultaneous flashes of different colors, and constituting an interrupted zigzag line, may generally be observed stretching to an extent of several miles. These seem to be occasioned by a number of successive, or almost simultaneous discharges from one cloud to another, these intermediate clouds serving as intermediate conductors, or stepping-stones, for the electrical fluid. It is these simultaneous discharges which occasion the rattling noise which we call thunder. Though they are all made at the same time, yet, as their distances are different, they only reach our ear in succession, and thus occasion the lengthened

rumbling noise, so different from the snap which accompanies the discharge of a Leyden jar. If the electricity were confined to the clouds, a single discharge, or a single flash of lightning, would restore the equilibrium. The cloud would collapse, and discharge itself in rain, and the serenity of the heavens would be restored; but this is seldom the case. I have witnessed the most vivid discharges of lightning from one cloud to another, which enlightened the whole horizon, continue for several hours, and amounting to a very considerable number, not fewer certainly than fifty, and terminating at last in a violent thunder-storm, We see that these discharges, though the quantity of electricity must have been immense, did not restore the equilibrium. It is obvious from this, that not only the clouds, but the strata of air themselves, must have been strongly charged with electricity. The clouds, being conductors, served the purpose of discharging the electricity with which they were loaded, when they came within the striking distance. But the electric stratum of air, with which the cloud was in contact, being a non-conductor, would not lose its electricity by the discharge of the cloud. It would immediately supply the cloud, with which it was in contact, with a new charge. And this repeated charging and discharging process would continue to go on till the different strata of excited air were brought to their natural state. From the atmospherical electric journal, kept by Mr. Reed, at Knightsbridge, during two whole years, from May 9, 1789, to May 9, 1791, it appears that clouds, and rain, and hail, and snow, are always charged with electricity; sometimes with negative, but more frequently with positive electricity. When the sky is serene and cloudless, the strata of air are generally charged with positive electricity. In such cases, the thunder rod is charged by induction; the highest end acquiring the opposite state of electricity from the air, and the lowest end the same kind of electricity, while a portion of the rod towards the middle is neutral. During the first year, there occurred only seven days in which no electricity could be perceived; and during the second year, when the apparatus was much more complete, not a single day occurred which did not give indications of electricity in the atmosphere. During the first year, the electricity was vitreous or positive 241 times, and, during the second year, 423 times. This difference was chiefly owing to the apparatus. During the first year, there occurred seventy-three days

in which the signs of electricity were so weak that the kind could not be determaned. In the second year, it was found that on days when the electricity is weak, it is always vitreous or positive. During the first year, the electricity was observed resinous or negative 156 times, and, during the second year, 157 times. During the first year, sparks could be drawn from the apparatus during ninety-eight days, and, in the second year, during one hundred and six days. From these facts, the probability is, that the electrical state of the atmosphere did not differ much during each of the two years, during which the observations were kept. It would tend greatly to promote the progress of meteorology, which is obviously very much connected with electricity, if a register were kept in the torrid zone of the state of the electricity of the atmosphere during a whole year. The weather in these countries is so regular, and the transition from dry weather to rain so marked, that we have reason to expect corresponding changes in the state of the electricity of the atmosphere. The beaviness of the rain, and the large size of the drops in these countries, indicate that the clouds from which the rain comes are situated at a great height above the surface of the earth. If the accumulation of electricity should be at a corresponding height, this would render a greater height necessary for the rod, by means of which the electrical indications are determined.

THUNDERBOLT; a shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of the electric fluid passing from one part of the heavens, and particularly from the clouds to the earth. (See the preceding article.)

THUNDERING LEGION. (See Legio Fulminatrix.)

THURGAU, Or THURGOVIA; a canton of Switzerland, bounded north and north-east by lake Constance, south-east and south by St. Gall, and south-west by Zurich and Schaffhausen. The chief town is Frauenfeld. It is divided into eight districts, and has a democratic constitution. The rivers are the Thur and Sitter. It is partly level, and partly hilly; but the elevations do not exceed 2500 feet above lake Constance. It is fertile and well cultivated, producing wheat, barley, oats, rye, flax, hemp, and vines, and has also good pasture. Cotton and silk are manufactured, but the staple article is linen. (See Switzerland.)

THURINGIA (in German, Thüringen); the former name of an extensive tract, in the central part of Germany, in Saxony, having Franconia on the west, and Meis