035 



THEDEN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN. 



THELWALL, JOHN. 



.at; 



that admits of no solution the real nature of the universe. He is 

 considered by modern writers as the originator of the dynamic, as 

 opposed to the mechanical philosophy. Aristotle (' Motaph.,' i. 3) has 

 explained in a short passage the general doctrine of Thales. " There 

 must be," observes Aristotle, " some Nature (tyvffis) either one, or more 

 than one, to which all other things owe their origin, this one still sub- 

 sisting. The number however and the character of such a first prin- 

 ciple are not conceived by all in the same way. Thales, the founder 

 of this philosophy, says it is water, and accordingly he taught that 

 even the earth reposes on water, founding this notion probably on the 

 observation that the nourishment of all things ia moist, and that heat 

 itself proceeds from water, and that animals live by it; but that from 

 which things come is the origin of all things. He was thus led to this 

 notion, and also by observing that the seeds of all things have a moist 

 nature, and that water is the origiu of their nature to all moist things." 

 Thus the universe contained an active principle by the power of which 

 all tilings were developed. He considered that the magnet had life, 

 because it attracted iron. The universe then was pervaded by life, or 

 as Thales expressed it, " full of gods " (wdv-ra tr\i\pi) QtGiv). 



The doctrine of Thales beai's some resemblance to systems that have 

 been promulgated in modern times, which have been viewed as 

 atheistical. The assumption of au active power, such as gravitation 

 for instance (though it is not here meant to affirm that gravitation has 

 ever been viewed as a power sufficient for the production and conserva- 

 tion of all things), which is sufficient to maintain all things in a per- 

 manent condition (changes such as we observe in limited portions of 

 time and space being only continued developments), may be viewed as 

 an hypothesis made for the pui-pose of getting rid of the necessity of 

 admitting the existence of God. Those who propound such an 

 hypothesis, without further explanation, certainly do not take much 

 pains to avoid the imputation of atheism. It does not appear however 

 that the doctrine of Thales was anything more than a pure physical 

 theory : and the traditions recorded of him by Diogeues make him a 

 believer in a Deity. " The most antient of things existing is God, for 

 he is uncreated ; the most beautiful thing is the universe, for it is 

 God's creation." It was one of the maxims of Thales that death did 

 not differ from life. " Why don't you die then ? " said an objector, more 

 witty than wise. "Because there is no difference," was the reply. 



(Diogenes Laertius, i., 'Thales;' Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophic, 

 vol. i.) 



THEDEN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN ANTON, a celebrated German 

 surgeon, was born September 13, 1714, at Steinbeck, a small village 

 not far from Wismar, in the duchy of Mecklenburg. His family had 

 been ruined by the disasters of war, and his father died when he was 

 young, which two melancholy events had an unfavourable influence 

 upon his education and his first entrance into life. He had hardly 

 received the bare elements of education, when, at the age of thirteen, 

 he was reduced to the necessity of hiring himself out as a servant ; 

 but this occupation was so revolting to his feelings, that he deter- 

 mined to learn a trade. Accordingly his elder brother, who was a 

 tailor, received him as an apprentice ; but Theden did not find this 

 employment more suited to his taste and talents than his former one, 

 and, as he got nothing but reproofs from his brother, he finally deter- 

 mined to devote himself to the study of medicine. He was first 

 placed by his friends with a surgeon at Butzow, where he spent four 

 years in a barber's shop without any real advantage : and as soon 

 as his apprenticeship was finished, he went to Rostock, Hamburg, 

 Liibeck, and Danzig. In this last city he at length succeeded in 

 obtaining some employment in the army of the king of Prussia, and 

 was attached as surgeon to a squadron of cuirassiers. The zeal and 

 punctuality with which he performed all his duties in this post soon 

 gained him the esteem and friendship of his superior officers : the 

 jealousy however of the chief surgeon prevented his profiting by the 

 good-will shown him by king Frederick William I. at a review at 

 Riesenburg, and the death of this prince put au end to all the hopes 

 of promotion which he had at first entertained. In 1742 he went to 

 Berlin, where the celebrated Schaarschmidt, who j ustly appreciated 

 his talents, honoured him with his friendship, and procured for him 

 the post of chief surgeon during the second war in Silesia. At the 

 end of three years he retui-ned to Berlin, and devoted himself with 

 unremitting attention to the study of anatomy and surgery. The 

 Seven Years' War afterwards furnished him with numerous opportu- 

 nities of displaying the skill which he had acquired, and also the 

 excellent qualities of his heart. Frederick the Great raised him 

 gradually from one post to another, till he became at last his chief 

 military surgeon. Theden, in this eminent position, improved all the 

 branches of the service, and displayed an activity which contributed 

 still more to gain him the good opinion of hia sovereign. The suc- 

 cessor of Frederick honoured him equally with his confidence, and 

 Theden continued to enjoy to the end of his life the esteem and respect 

 which his merit and eminent services had well earned. He died, 

 October 21, 1797, at the age of eighty-three. The continual fatigue 

 and agitation of war did not prevent his drawing up and putting in 

 order the observations which an immense field of action had given 

 him an opportunity of collecting. His works are not numerous, but 

 they bear the stamp of experience, and one recognises in them the 

 firm and bold touch of a man who did not venture to take up his 

 pen till after thirty years of most extensive practice. From this 



eulogiura we must however except all the theoretical part* of his 

 writings, which unfortunately, hold a prominent place in them, and 

 which are only based upon the foundation of the antiquated principles 

 of the humoral theory. The following is the list of his works given 

 by M. Jourdan in the ' Biographic Mcdicale,' from which work the 

 preceding account has been taken : ' Neue Bemerkuugen und Krfah- 

 rungen zur Bereicherung der Wundarzneykunut und Medicin,' Berlin 

 and Stettin, 1771-1795, 8vo. ; Untorricht fiir die Unterwundarzte bey 

 Armeen,' Berlin, 8vo, 1774, andSvo, 1782 ; ' Sendschreiben anRichter, 

 die neu erfundenen Catheter aus der Resina elaatica betreffend,' 

 Berlin, 8vo, 1777. 



THELWALL, JOHN, son of Joseph Thelwall, a bilk-mercer, was 

 born on the 27th July, 1764, in Chandos-street, Covent Garden, 

 London. He was the youngest of three children, two sons and a 

 daughter. At an early age he manifested so much talent for draw- 

 ing, that he was intended for an artist, but his father's decease 

 changed his prospects before he had completed his ninth year. He 

 received the ordinary education of a tradesman's son, but aa he was 

 rather slow in acquiring knowledge and was removed from school 

 at thirteen years of age, his attainments must necessarily have been 

 limited. 



The widow continued to carry on her deceased husband's business, 

 and placed her sou John in the shop, where he remained three years, 

 but spent his time chiefly in reading, which was of a miscellaneous 

 character, consisting of poetry, history, the drama, moral philosophy, 

 metaphysics, and divinity. A distaste for the business, joined to 

 family discord, induced him to leave it, and although he earnestly 

 desired to be an artist or an actor he yielded to his mother, who 

 apprenticed him to a tailor, with whom however he remained only a 

 short time. At the suggestion of Mr. Holt of the Chancery bar, who 

 had married his sister, he turned his attention to the law, but after 

 several years' study he abandoned it in consequence of doubts arising 

 in his mind on the morality of a hired advocate pleading to support a 

 cause rather than to discover the truth ; and now, in his twenty- 

 second year, he embraced literature as a profession. 



In 1787 he published by subscription poems on several subjects, in 

 2 vols., which introduced him to some valuable friendships and to the 

 editorship of a magazine. He was now a rising and prosperous man, 

 and on the 27th July, 1791, he married Miss Susan Vellum, of Rut- 

 landshire, who was then seventeen years of age. He took a house 

 near the Borough hospitals, and ardently studied anatomy, physiology, 

 and chemistry, under Mr. Cline, Dr. Haighton, and Dr. Babington. 

 He began his career as an orator, before he was twenty years of age, 

 at the Society of Free Debate held at Coachmaker's Hall. He had 

 been educated a churchman in religion and a tory in politics, but on 

 both subjects his opinions were changing, and he now joined in the 

 political struggles of the period by becoming a member of the Cor- 

 responding Society, where his boldness and fluency of speech attracted 

 the notice of the leading men of the day. With Thomas Hardy and 

 John Home Tooke [HORNE TOOKE] he was tried for high treason and 

 acquitted. Thelwall's trial lasted five days. On his acquittal he 

 lectured on politics and political histoiy for several years, when, after 

 a retirement of two years in Wales, made in order to disconnect 

 himself from public affairs and to escape from extra-judicial perse- 

 cution, he began his career in 1801 as a lecturer and tutor in elocution, 

 and in the application of elocutionary science to the cure of stam- 

 mering and other impediments to speech. His knowledge of anatomy 

 and physiology, his habits of recitation, his practice of public speaking, 

 and his accuracy of observation, eminently qualified him for his new 

 profession, and his success was great. He communicated papers to 

 the ' Medical and Physical Journal,' on defective and difficult 

 utterance, and to the ' Monthly Magazine,' on elocution and its 

 kindred sciences. Ia 1816 Mrs. Thelwall died, leaving a family of 

 four children. Mr. Thelwall afterwards married Miss Cecil Boyle, by 

 whom he left one son. He died at Bath after a few hours' illness, 

 of disease of the heart, to which he had been long subject, on the 

 17th February, 1834, in his seventieth year. 



The researches of Steele, Herries,and Walker, on human speech, 

 had left little room for new and brilliant discovery, although much 

 accurate observation was yet necessary to give exactness and fulness 

 to their knowledge. Thelwall, unaware of Steele's researches, found 

 himself anticipated on rhythnius. Steele had given the enquiry a 

 musical direction, which Thelwall ardently followed out, and the 

 extent and precision of his observations may be estimated by the 

 fact that he anticipated nearly all that is new and valuable in Dr. 

 Rush's ' Philosophy of the Human Voice.' Mr. Thelwall's immature 

 ideas were first sketched out in the syllabus of his lectures on 

 elocution. 



Thelwall was of a mild and amiable disposition, of domestic habits, 

 open-hearted and generous, of high moral feeling, and of inflexible 

 integrity. His sentiments were exalted by poetic feeling, and he was 

 buoyed up by hope. 



Besides magazine contributions and pamphlets, he wrote poems on 

 several subjects, in 2 vols. already mentioned ; ' Poems written in the 

 Tower and in Newgate,' 1 vol. ; ' The Tribune,' 3 vols., and ' Political 

 Miscellanies,' 1 vol. ; ' A Letter to Mr. Cline, on Stammering,' 1 vol. ; 

 'The Peripatetic,' 3 vols.; and a novel entitled 'The Daughter of 

 Adoption.' 



