t>83 



THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE. 



THALES. 



931 



account of las residence for a time, with other young Englishmen, at 

 Weimar, and of his reminiscences of Gothe, with some of the members 

 of whose family ho was on terms of intimacy. Recollections of his young 

 artist-life are also to be fouiul interwoven into his fictions ; but, with 

 the exception of the admirable illustrations executed by his own 

 pencil for many of his writings, he has not given the world the means 

 of judging what success he might have attained had he continued his 

 devotion to art as a profession. It seems to have been between his 

 twenty-fifth and thirtieth years that he abandoned the idea of becoming 

 an artist and adopted the life of a man of letters. Although from the 

 very first he exhibited those peculiar faculties as a writer which have 

 latterly secured him his extraordinary reputation and influence, his 

 progress towards popularity, or even towards general recognition, was 

 slow. He is said to have written for the ' Times' during the editor- 

 ship of Barnes ; and it is certain that he was connected with other 

 London journals at different periods. It was in 'Eraser's Magazine' 

 however, that he worked his way into the esteem of those who were 

 capable of discerning an original talent in brief magazine papers, and 

 of inferring what it could accomplish when exercised on a large scale. 

 Under the characteristic pseudonym of Michael Angelo Titmarsb, he 

 wrote, for a series of years, tales, essays, and sketches for this maga- 

 zine, all distinguished by shrewd observation, exquisite style, and the 

 play of keen wit and delicate irony over a hard and subtle philosophic 

 meaning. His first separate publications, also under the name of 

 Michael Angelo Titmarsh, were ' The Paris Sketch-Book,' in 2 vols., in 

 1840, and ' The Second Funeral of Napoleon, in Three Letters to Miss 

 Smith of London,' and ' The Chronicle of the Drum,' published toge- 

 ther, in 1841. Neither these nor the 'Irish Sketch-Book,' in 2 vols., 

 1843, had any success with the public. Here and there however, 

 individuals of deeper insight were noting the appearance of the new 

 author as one who was sure at last to be recognised as one of the 

 higher English humorists; and among these critics was the late 

 John Sterling, who, as early as 1841, in speaking of Mr. Thackeray's 

 story called 'The Great Hoggarty Diamond,' then being published in 

 ' Fraser,' did justice to the author's genius and predicted his being 

 better known (see Carlyle's ' Life of Sterling'). What perhaps accel- 

 erated Mr. Thackeray's progress towards recognition was his becoming 

 a contributor to ' Punch.' His first papers there were those bearing 

 the signature of The Fat Contributor ; and these were followed 

 by others, characterised by wit and satire of the finest and purest 

 vein, and some of which such as 'Jeames's Diary 'and 'The Snob 

 Papers' attained an independent reputation and greatly enhanced 

 the character of the periodical in which they appeared. Not a few of 

 his contributions to 'Punch' were in verse. Meanwhile, Mr. Thackeray 

 was publishing also, in a separate form, both new works and reprints. 

 In 1846 appeared his 'Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand 

 Cairo by way of Lisbon, Athens, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, by 

 M. A. Titmarsh ' (these ' notes ' being the result of an actual journey 

 undertaken for the benefit of his health); in 1847, he published a 

 short Christmas- Book, called ' Mrs. Perkins's Ball ; ' and at the same 

 time (1846-48) he was writing and publishing in monthly numbers, 

 after the fashion of which Dickens had set the example, his celebrated 

 'Vanity Fair : a Novel without a Hero: with illustrations on steel and 

 wood by the author.' At the time when the first few numbers of this 

 novel were appearing, Mr. Thackeray's name was still scarcely known 

 to the general public; but before the novel was finished, it was widely 

 diffused, and then began that association of the names of Thackeray 

 and Dickens as the two rival novelists of the day, and that discussion 

 in literary circles of the relative merits of their respective styles and 

 methods, which has continued ever since. Mr. Thackeray however 

 had still much to do to make up his leeway in respect of quantity, as com- 

 pared with his distinguished contemporary whose career of fame had 

 begun so much earlier in life. 'Our Street,' a little volume of the Christ- 

 mas kind, appeared in 1848, and ' Doctor Birch and his Young Friends,' 

 a volume of the same kind, in 1849 ; in which latter year appeared a 

 reprint of ' The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty 

 Diamond." In this year also was begun ' The History of Pendennis ; 

 his fortunes and misfortunes, his friends and his greatest enemy, with 

 illustrations by the author.' This, the second of Mr. Thackeray's 

 serial fictions, was concluded in 1850; and in the same year was 

 published the Christmas book entitled ' Rebecca and Rowena, a 

 Romance upon Romance,' being a mock continuation in the Thackeray 

 spirit of Scott's novel of Ivanhoe. Next year appeared ' The Kickle- 

 burys on the Rhine,' on the publication of which a critic in the 'Times' 

 took the opportunity of repeating against Mr. Thackeray the charges 

 already common in the critical world, that he delighted in representing 

 the ugly side of human nature and seemed sceptical of the existence 

 of amiability ot* real virtue in the world. This drew forth from Mr 

 Thackeray a very pungent reply in the form of an ' Essay on Thundei 

 and Small Beer,' prefixed to the second edition of the sketch in 

 question. Perhaps a more efficient answer to the charges above 

 indicated was furnished by Mr. Thackeray in his ' History of Henri 

 Esmond, Esq., written by himself published, not serially, but entire 

 in three volumes, in 1852. This beautiful and very peculiar novel 

 though deficient in some of the elements of popular interest, gave a 

 new idea of the author's powers of conception and style. The scene 

 being laid in the time of Queen Anne, and Addison, Steele, and other wit 

 of the time being introduced aa characters, the author had been obliged 



n preparing the novel, to make the social manners and the conspicuous 

 nen of Queen Anne's reign a subject of historical study; and out of 

 hese researches arose his 'Lectures on the English Humorists of the 

 Eighteenth Century,' which were first delivered in Willis's Rooms, in 

 jondon, before a very brilliant audience in the summer of 1851, after- 

 wards in the provinces, and finally in America, where the author 

 pent some months for the purpose, and was very heartily received. 

 ?ho ' Lectures ' were published in 1853. Mr. Thackeray's subsequent 

 mblications have been his third serial work of fiction, ' The New- 

 omes,' and ' The Rose and the Ring, or the History of Prince Giglio 

 and Prince Bulbo,'- 1855. Within the laat two years, also, a republica- 

 ion of his ' Miscellanies,' from 'Punch,' 'Eraser's Magazine,' &c., has 

 >een in progress ; and now that his fame as an author is fixed, these 

 >apers are read with avidity. Mr. Thackeray's last literary appearance 

 las been in his lectures on ' The Four Georges,' delivered first in 

 America, to which he paid a second visit for the purpose in 1855-56, 

 ind, since his return, in Edinburgh, London, and other cities and towns 

 a England and Scotland. Altogether, whether in respect of past 

 .chievement or of still unfailing power, which promises much to come, 

 tfr. Thackeray stands conspicuous among those who are the admitted 

 chiefs of British literature at the present day; and the question, still 

 debated, as between him and Dickens i?, in the main, a question as 

 >etween two styles or theories of the art of prose fiction. In person, 

 VL\\ Thackeray is a somewhat large and tall man ; with a fine head, the 

 lair of which is prematurely white. Having nominally studied for the 

 Bar at the time when his literary reputation was just being formed, he 

 was entered at the Middle Temple, and called to the bar on the 26th 

 of May 1848, though with no intention of practising. In July 1857 

 ic became a candidate for the representation in Parliament of the 

 ity of Oxford, rendered vacant by the unseating of Mr. Neate. ; his 

 opponent being Mr. Card well. In his address to the electors Mr. 

 Thackeray declared himself an advocate for the ballot, and for all 

 iberal measures generally, and, in particular, for the diminution of 

 icreditary aristocratic influence in the government of the country. 

 The election took place on July 21, and Mr. Thackeray was rejected by 

 a majority of 1085 against 1018. 



THALES was a native of Miletus, one of the chief cities of Ionia, 

 and descended from a Phoenician family. Apollodorus, as quote! by 

 Diogenes Laertius, fixes the year of his birth in the first year of the 

 35th Olympiad, or B.C. 640. Herodotus (i. 74) says that Thales the 

 Milesian predicted the year of the great eclipse which took place while 

 the armies of Cyaxares and Alyattes king of Lydia were engaged in 

 battle. Alyattes became king of Lydia in B.C. 617. Herodotus also 

 says (i. 75) that Thales was in the army of Crcesus at the time of 

 the battle of Pterie between Croesus and Cyrus in B.C. 547 or 546, at 

 which time he would be ninety-four years old, if the date of his birth 

 is correctly given by Apollodorus. There was a general tradition that 

 he lived to a great age ; and Lucian states that Solon, Thales, and 

 Pittacus all lived to be a hundred years old. 



In the Life of Thales by Diogenes we find numerous traditions 

 attached to his name, the value of which it is somewhat difficult to 

 estimate. Thales is enumerated among the Seven Wise Men, whose 

 wisdom was not the theoretical wisdom of philosophers, but the wisdom 

 of actual life. [BIAS.] Accordingly we find that Thales took an active 

 part in the political affairs of his native country. Before Ionia fell 

 under the Persian yoke, he advised the lonians to have one common 

 council, and to establish it at Teos, for T.eos was in the centre of 

 Ionia ; and he further suggested that all the other Ionian states should 

 be reduced to the condition of parts dependent on the government at 

 Teos. Such a scheme, if carried into effect, might have checked the 

 progress of the Persian arms. (Herod., i. 170.) Later writers say that 

 he visited Egypt and Crete in order to improve his knowledge, and 

 that he derived from Egypt his acquaintance with mathematics. There 

 seems no reason for thinking that Thales left any writings. Aristotle 

 at least was not acquainted with any philosophical writings by Thales. 

 Various sayings of Thales are recorded : they are of that sententious 

 character which belongs to the proverb, and they embody truths such 

 as the general experience of mankind recognises ; and for this reason 

 they cannot safely be considered as the product of any one mind. 

 Thales is generally considered the founder of the Ionian school ; but it 

 is perhaps hardly proper to consider him in any sense as the founder 

 of a school His traditional reputation rested on his physical disco- 

 veries and his philosophical speculations. He is said to have been the 

 first astronomer (among the Greeks) who predicted eclipses ; and to 

 have discovered the passage (irapotios) from tropic to tropic, or, in other 

 words, to have laid down the sun's orbit, and to have fixed the length 

 of the year at 365 days. He determined the magnitude of the sun to 

 be 720 times that of the moon ; which is apparently the true version 

 of the corrupt passage in Diogenes. His knowledge of geometry was 

 said to be derived from Egypt, and Pamphila attributes to him the 

 discovery of the right-angled triangle of the circle (irplarov Karaypdif/ai 

 KVK\OV rb Tplytavov bpOoyuviov), which probably means the demonstra- 

 tion that the angle in a semicircle is a right angle a discovery attri- 

 buted also to Pythagoras. Hieronymus says that he measured the 

 height of the pyramids of Egypt by observing the shadow which an 

 object cast when it was of the same length as the height of the object. 

 The philosophical speculations of Thales, like the earliest efforts of 

 philosophers in all countries, were an attempt to solve the problem 





