1019 



THESPIS. 



THEVENOT, MELCHISEDEC. 



1020 



most effective of his parliamentary speeches was that which he de- 

 livered on the Chinese war soon after entering St. Stephen's. His 

 success as an advocate ia thought to have depended less on his deep 

 acquaintance with the principles of jurisprudence than on his singu- 

 larly persuasive eloquence, joined with great earnestness oa behalf of 

 his client. 



THESPIS, a native of Icaria in Attica, who lived in the time of 

 Solon and Pisistratus, about 535 B.C. The ancient traditions unani- 

 mously represent him as the inventor of tragedy. The manner in 

 which this invention is said to have originated is stated differently. 

 According to one account, which ia also adopted by Horace, it arose 

 from Thespis travelling during the festival of Dionysus through 

 Attica upon a waggon, on which he performed comic plays. This 

 tradition however is based upon a confusion of tragedy with comedy, 

 the invention of which is not ascribed to Thespis by any ancient 

 authority. The invention of Tbespis consisted in nothing else than in 

 introducing a person who at the Dionysiac festivals in the city of 

 Athens entered into conversation with the chorus, or related a story to 

 it. The designation of this actor was Hypocrites (vTroKpiT-rjs), that is, 

 the ' answerer,' because what he said or acted answered or corresponded 

 with the songs of the chorus. By means of masks, the invention of 

 which was likewise ascribed to Thespis, he was enabled to act different 

 characters one after another. Some writers who considered the 

 ehorus itself as a second actor, speak of two actors in the time of 

 Thespis, and .consequently state that ./Eschylus introduced a third 

 actor. (Themistius, 'Orat.,' xxvi., p. 382, edit. Dindorf.) Whether 

 Thespis wrote his plays is not quite certain, although Donatus (' De 

 Comced. et Tragced.,' in Gronovius' 'Thesaurus,' viii. ; p. 1387) ex- 

 pressly says so, but the tragedies bearing the name of Thespis in the 

 time of the Alexandrines cannot be considered as genuine. It is an 

 historical fact that Heraclides Ponticus forged tragedies under the 

 name of Thespis ; and the few fragments of Thespis quoted by ancient 

 writers are unquestionably . passages of such supposititious works. 

 The tragedies of Thespis must have fallen into oblivion and have 

 perished at the time when the Attic drama reached its perfection : 

 some of his choral songs however appear to have been known as late 

 as the time of Aristophanes, as we may infer from the concluding 

 scene of the ' Wasps.' We know the titles of four of his tragedies : 

 ' Pentheus,' ' The Funeral Games of Pelias or Phorbas,' ' The Priests,' 

 and ' The Youths ;' but of their construction nothing is known, 

 except that each seems to have commenced with a prologue. (Themist., 

 ' Orat.,' p. 382.) 



Respecting the history of Thespis very little is known. Solon was 

 present at the performance of one of Thespis's plays, and highly dis- 

 approved of dramatic performances, as tending to lead men to false- 

 hood and hjpocrisy. Towards the end of the career of Thespis tragic 

 contests were introduced at Athens, and Thespis probably contended 

 for the prize with Choerilus and Phrynichus, who is called his disciple. 

 Thespis is also said to have distinguished himself in orchestic, or the 

 art of dancing (Athenseus, i., p. 22), which however can only refer to 

 his skill in instructing the chorus. 



(Bode, Oeschichte der Dramat. Dicliikunst der Hellenen, i., pp. 40-57 ; 

 Miiller, Hist, of the Lit. of Greece, i., p. 292, &c.) 



THE'SSALUS, an ancient Greek physician, son of the celebrated 

 Hippocrates, appears to have lived at the court of Archelaus, king of 

 Macedonia, about 360 years before Christ. He was one of the founders 

 of the sect of the Dogmatici, who also took tho name of the ' Hippo- 

 cratic ' school, because they professed to follow the doctrines of that 

 great man. However, both he and his brother Dracon, and his brother- 

 in-law Polybu?, are accused by Galen in several passages of not only 

 mixing up with the opinions of Hippocrates the principles of later 

 philosophers, but also of altering and interpolating his writings. 

 Several of the works that go under the name of Hippocrates are by 

 many critics supposed to have been written by Thessalus, viz. ' De 

 Mor bis,' the second, fifth, sixth, and seventh books ' De Morbis Vul- 

 garibus,' and the second book of the ' Prsedictiones,' or ' Prorrhetica ;' 

 but this conjecture is uncertain. 



(Le Clerc, Hist, de la Med.; Fabricius, Biblioth. Orcuca; Haller, 

 .Biblioth Medic. Pract. ; Sprengel, Hist, de la Med. ; Ackermann, Hist. 

 Literar. Hippocr.; Choulant, Handbuch der SucherJcunde fur die 

 jEttere Medecin.) 



THE'SSALUS, one of the founders of the ancient medical sect of 

 the Methodici, was born at Tralles in Lydia, and lived in the reign of 

 the emperor Nero, in the first century after Christ. He was the son 

 of a weaver, and followed the same trade himself during his youth, by 

 which means he lost the opportunity of receiving a good education, 

 and was never afterwards able to overcome this disadvantage. He 

 appears however to have soon given up this employment, and applied 

 himself to the study of medicine, by which he acquired a great repu- 

 tation, and amassed a large fortune. His whole character however, 

 both intellectual and moral, is everywhere represented by Galen in a 

 very unfavourable light; but it must be confessed that Galen himself 

 appears to very little advantage in these passages, and goes beyond all 

 bounds in his abuse of him. 



Theasalus adopted the principles of the Methodici, but modified and 

 developed them so much that he attributed to himself the invention 

 of them. In fact on all occasions he appears to have tried to exalt 

 himself at the expense of his predecessors ; lavishing upon the ancients 



the most insulting epithets; calling himself by the title ia 

 (conqueror of physicians), because he thought that he himself sur- 

 passed all his predecessors as much as medicine is superior to all 

 other sciences ; boasting that he could teach the art of healing in six 

 months; and telling the emperor Nero, in the dedication of one of 

 his works, that none of those who had been before him had contri- 

 buted anything to the advancement of medical science. By his 

 boasting he attracted a great number of pupils, whom he took with 

 him for six months to visit his patients ; but most of them are said to 

 have been common artisans and persons of very low extraction. 

 Galen accuses him of knowing nothing of the action of drugs, though 

 he had written on the subject. He did not care for inquiring into the 

 causes of diseases, and was satisfied with certain problematical 

 analogies ; nor did he admit the value of prognostic signs. A further 

 account of his opinions may be found in Le Clerc, ' Hist, de la Mdd. ; 

 Haller, ' Biblioth. Medic. Pract. ; ' Sprengel, ' Hist, de la Me"d.' 



THE'VENOT, MELCHISEDEC, is said by all his biographers to 

 have died at the age of seventy-one ; and as his death happened in 

 1692, this places his birth in the year 1621. An entry in the printed 

 catalogue of Thevenot's library informs us that he was uncle of the 

 traveller Jean The"venot, but beyond this we know nothing of his 

 family or his circumstances. It is probable however, from the 

 respectable missions to which he was appointed at an early age, from 

 the large library he collected, and from his being able to devote him- 

 self to literary pursuits while apparently in the receipt of no pension, 

 that his family was wealthy and well-connected. 



It is stated that in his youth he visited several countries of Europe, 

 but the earliest incidents of bis life concerning which we have positive 

 and authentic accounts are those mentioned in the brief autobio- 

 graphical sketch prefixed to the printed catalogue of his library. He 

 tells us that on his retqrn from travelling in 1647, he was nominated 

 resident at Genoa, but that the troubles of the Fronde interfering to 

 prevent his taking possession of the post, he continued to follow the 

 court till 1652. He was then sent to Rome, where he continued 

 nearly three years ; and being there at the commencement of the con- 

 clave which elected Alexander VII., the royal instructions respecting 

 the part France intended to take on that occasion were addressed to 

 him till the time of M. de Lionne's arrival. TheVenot alludes in 

 mysterious phrase to a delicate and dangerous commission with which 

 he was entrusted after the termination of the conclave, which he 

 says he discharged to the perfect satisfaction of Mazarin and the 

 other ministers. He attended Mazarin during the campaign in 

 Flanders, 1655. 



On his return to Paris, TheVenot devoted himself entirely to study. 

 Frenicle, a mathematician, and Stenon, a naturalist, resided with him ; 

 and in the house adjoining his own he entertained a person to con- 

 duct chemical experiments. The meetings of scientific men which 

 had been held in the houses of Pere Mersenne and Montmort were 

 transferred to Thevenot's mansion. The expenses thus incurred 

 proved too heavy for his means, and he proposed to Colbert the 

 establishment of a public and permanent association of scientific men 

 under the patronage of the king. The suggestion accorded with the 

 minister's inclinations, and a grand academy was projected, intended 

 to embrace every branch of knowledge. The king's library was to be 

 the place of meeting : the historians were to assemble there on the 

 Mondays and Thursdays of every week ; the amateurs of the belles- 

 lettres on the Tuesdays and Fridays; the mathematicians and 

 natural philosophers on the Wednesdays and Saturdays ; and general 

 assemblies of all the three classes were to be held on the first 

 Thursday of every month. The historical class was allowed to drop, 

 it being feared that its inquiries might occasion dangerous discussions; 

 the Acade"mie Franchise, instituted by Richelieu, remonstrated against 

 the foundation of another literary academy; and the only part of 

 Colbert's plan that was realised was the 'Acade'mie des Sciences,' 

 which commenced operations in the month of June 1666. TheVenot 

 did not become a member of the Academy till 1685. 



He had in the mean time however been diligently prosecuting his 

 favourite studies. " Each of our company,' he says, " had his task 

 and occupation : mine was to collect and publish in French whatever 

 useful arts were practised among other nations. About this time I 

 invented an air-level, of which I caused the description to be printed, 

 and it is now acknowledged to be the most accurate that has yet been 

 tried. To render geography more perfect, I collected and published 

 three large volumes of a collection of voyages, upon which I had beeu 

 working for some time. I had the honour to present them to the 

 king, who examined them for nearly half an hour, and, after asking 

 several questions, commanded me to continue the work. M. Colbert 

 informed me that he had his majesty's orders to furnish me with every- 

 thing necessary to carry out the design." This distribution of tasks 

 took place about 1659, before the Academy had received its definitive 

 constitution. The first volume of The'venot's Voyages was published 

 at Paris, in 1662. The author's preface announces a translation of the 

 Voyages and Travels published by Hakluyt and Purchas, with the 

 addition of some translations from the Oriental languages. The 

 second volume appeared in 1664 : the preface intimates that for 

 the use of the numerous trading companies that have of late been 

 formed in the kingdom, he has added an account of the present 

 state of the Indies, noting tho principal commercial establishments 



