512 



TALMA TALMUD, 



of the season, the leaves turn bright u-d, mil : s 

 the capsules fall off, leaving the pure white seeds 

 suspended to filaments, the tree presents a very 

 beautiful appearance. From a remote period, this 

 tree has furnished the Chinese with the material 

 out of which they make their candles. The cap- 

 sules and seeds are crushed together, and boiled ; 

 the fatty matter is skimmed as it rises, and con. 

 denses on cooling. The candles made of this sub- 

 stance are very white ; and red ones are also 

 manufactured by the addition of vermilion. Some- 

 times, three pounds of linseed oil and a little wax 

 are mixed with ten of this substance, to give con- 

 sistence. The tallow-tree is cultivated in the 

 vicinity of Charleston and Savannah, and, indeed, 

 is almost naturalized in the maritime parts of 

 Carolina. 



TALMA, FRANCOIS JOSEPH, the greatest tragic 

 actor of France in our day, was born at Paris in 

 1763, but passed his youth in England, where his 

 father practised as a dentist. He was sent to Paris 

 to complete his studies ; and his taste for the 

 theatre was awakened by the dramatic masterpieces 

 and the performances of distinguished actors which 

 he here witnessed. The susceptibility of his tern- j 

 perament showed itself early. \Vhile at school, he { 

 and some ot'+is companions performed a tragedy, 

 in which he had to describe the last moments of a ', 

 friend condemned to death by his father: the \ 

 situation affected him so powerfully that he burst 

 into a flood of tears, which continued to flow for 

 some hours after the conclusion of the piece. 

 After his return to London, Talma associated him- 

 self with some other young men, for the purpose of 

 representing French plays, and displayed such bril- 

 liant powers as to attract the notice of distinguished 

 individuals, who urged him to appear on the London 

 boards. But circumstances led him to Paris, where 

 he entered the royal school for declamation, and 

 soon after (1787) made his debut at the Theatre 

 Francai* in the character of Seide in Voltaire's 

 Mahomet. He was received with applause, and 

 from this moment devoted himself with zeal and 

 perseverance to the study of his art. He 

 sought the society of distinguished literati and 

 artists, studied history for the purpose of becoming 

 acquainted with the manners and customs of 

 nations, and the characters of remarkable indivi- 

 duals, and made himself master of the attitudes, 

 costumes, expression, and drapery of the ancient 

 statues. Talma rendered an important service to 

 the French stage by introducing a reform in the 

 costume. The revolution, which now broke out 

 under his eyes, with all its scenes of violence and 

 passion, its displays of exalted virtue, and its 

 excesses of cruelty, contributed to develope his 

 peculiar talent. Chenier's tragedy of Charles IX., 

 or St Bartholomew's, was brought forward at this 

 time, and Talma studied the character of Charles 

 in history, and his person in medals and portraits, 

 and exhibited them with such truth and life, that 

 his reputation as the first French tragedian was 

 established beyond dispute. The principal parts 

 which he created, or carried to the highest perfec- 

 tion, were Seide, Othello, Hamlet (those of Ducis), 

 Sylla (or rather Napoleon, of Jouy), Regulus, the 

 grand master of the templars, Charles IX., Charles 

 VI. (of Delaville), Manlius, and Orestes. He died 

 at Paris in 1826 See Moreau's Memoires sur 

 Talma (3d ed., 1827). Talma was the author of 

 Reflexions sur Lekain et sur I' Art thedtral (1825). 

 " Talma," says madame de Stael, " may be cited as 



a model of power, anil of dis-civtit'ii in the use of it, 

 of simplicity and true grandeur. He possesses ;ill 

 the secrets of the various arts: his attitudes recall 

 to mind the fine statues of antiquity, and the ex- 

 pression of his face, and every look, ought to be 

 the -tudy of our best painters. There is in t In- 

 voice of this man a magic which I cannot describe ; 

 which, from the moment when its first accent is 

 heard, awakens all the sympathies of the heart ; all 

 the charms of music, of painting, of sculpture, and 

 of poetry ; but, above all, the language of the soul: 

 these are the means which he uses to excite in him 

 who listens, all the effect of the generous or the 

 terrible passions. What a knowledge of tin: human 

 mind he displays in the manner of conceiving his 

 parts! He is the author himself, come aguin to 

 realize, by his looks, his accents, and his manner, 

 the person he means to present to your imagination." 

 His person is described as regular, but not striking, 

 his voice full and agreeable, his countenance ap- 

 proaching the antique, ai.d full of expression. 

 These physical advantages were combined with a 

 penetrating mind, a warm imagination, deep feel- 

 ing, and great sensibility. It is well known that 

 he was a great favourite of the emperor Napoleon, 

 who treated him with much distinction, and loved 

 to converse with him. Talma was buried, accord- 

 ing to his own directions, without any religious 

 ceremonies; and he likewise left orders that his 

 children should be educated in the Protestant faith ; 

 unwilling that they should belong to a church 

 which condemned his profession. His wife, previ- 

 ously known as Mile. Vanhove, was a distinguished 

 actress. She retired from the stage in 1810. 



TALMUD (from the Hebrew lamad, he has 

 learned) ; doctrine. It signifies, among the modern 

 Jews, an enormous collection of traditions, illustra- 

 tive of their laws and usages, forming twelve folio 

 volumes. It consists of two parts, the Mishna and 

 the Gemara. The Mishna is a collection of rab- 

 binical rules and precepts, made in the second cen- 

 tury of the Christian era. The whole civil consti- 

 tution and mode of thinking, as well as language of 

 the Jews, had gradually undergone a complete re- 

 volution, and were entirely different, in the time 

 of our Saviour, from what they had been in the 

 early periods of the Hebrew commonwealth. (See 

 Hebrews, and Jews.) The Mosaic books contained 

 rules no longer adapted to the situation of the na- 

 tion ; and its new political relations, connected with 

 the change which had taken place in the religious 

 views of the people, led to many difficult questions, 

 for which no satisfactory solution could be found in 

 their law. The rabbins undertook to supply this 

 defect, partly by commentaries on the Mosaic pre- 

 cepts, and partly by the composition of new rules, 

 which were looked upon as almost equally binding 

 with the former. These comments and additions 

 were called the oral traditions, in contradistinction 

 to the old law or written code. The rabbi Juda, 

 surnamed the holy, was particularly active in mak- 

 ing this collection (150 B. C.), which received the 

 name of Mishna (q. v.) or second law. The later 

 rabbis busied themselves in a similar manner in the 

 composition of commentaries and explanations of 

 the Mishna. Among these works, that of the rabbi 

 Jochanan (composed about 230 A. D.) acquired the 

 most celebrity, under the name of Gemara (Chald- 

 aic for completion or doctrine). This Mishna and 

 Gemara together formed the Jerusalem Talmud, 

 relating chiefly to the Jews of Palestine. But after 

 the Jews had mostly removed to Babylon, and the 



