592 



THEOPHRASTUS THERESA. 



the soul ; their doctrine vna pure deism, chiefly de- 

 rived from the Scriptures, and containing a practi- 

 cal morality, which differed from that of Chris- 

 tianity chiefly from leaning to eudsemonism. (q. v.) 

 Their liturgy was imple and touching : the pardon 

 of tins was implored of God ; but Jesus Christ was 

 considered only as a man of extraordinary wisdom, 

 and not as a saviour. The writings of the Theophi- 

 lanthropists, which proceeded chiefly from Chemin, 

 dwelt principally upon the moral duties. The fes- 

 tivals of nature, of love of country, of conjugal 

 fidelity, &c. (see Festivals), were scrupulously ob- 

 served. Instead of baptism, a sort of consecration 

 or initiation by exhortations to the parents and god- 

 parents was solemnized ; for confirmation was sub- 

 stituted a reception into the society with vows, and 

 in place of marriage, a symbolical union with rings 

 and bands, wound round the hands of the wedded 

 couple ; these were the only ceremonies. Distinct 

 schools were established for the instruction of youth 

 in theophilanthropism. The expenses of public 

 worship were paid by means of collections and the 

 contributions of the members, and the directory also 

 granted small sums. The example of the Paris 

 Theophilanthropists was followed in many of their 

 provincial cities of France, and some attempts were 

 made to introduce their principles into other coun- 

 tries, but without success. The revival of the Ca- 

 tholic religion, and particularly the concordate with 

 Pius VII., hastened the decline of the society, which 

 had already lost many of its members, when the 

 consuls, in 1802, prohibited them from holding their 

 meetings in the churches; and from this time, they 

 no longer appear as a body. See Revelliere-Lepaux 

 end of vol. x. 



THEOPHRASTUS, a native of Eresus, in the 

 island of Lesbos, was the son of a fuller, and be- 

 came famous as a naturalist and philosopher. He 

 was born 371 B. C., and studied at Athens, in the 

 school of Plato, and afterwards under his rival 

 Aristotle, of whom he was the favourite pupil and 

 successor. His original name was Tyrtamus, which 

 his master, in admiration of his genius and eloquence 

 exchanged for that of Euphrastus, or the fine speaker, 

 and afterwards for that of Theophrastus, or the di- 

 vine orator, by which he is familiarly known. On 

 the departure of Aristotle from Athens, after the 

 judicial murder of Socrates, he became the head of 

 the Peripatetic school of philosophy, where two 

 thousand students are said to have attended his lec- 

 tures. His fame extended to foreign countries: 

 kings and princes solicited his friendship; and he 

 was treated with particular attention by Cassander, 

 the sovereign of Macedon, and Ptolemy Lagas, the 

 king of Egypt. Theophrastus composed a multi- 

 tude of books dialectic, moral, metaphysical and 

 physical the titles of 200 being specified by Dio- 

 genes Laertius. About twenty of these have es- 

 caped the ravages of time, among which are his 

 Natural History of Stones, of Plants, of the Winds, 

 Stc. ; and his Characters, or Ethic Portraits, by far 

 the most celebrated of all his productions, and the 

 model of numerous imitators, including the moral 

 satirist La Bruyere. Some of his moral sentences 

 are striking : e. g. " Respect yourself, and you will 

 have no occasion to blush before others." He died 

 about 286 B. C., and consequently, if the preceding 

 date of his birth be correct, he must have been but 

 eighty-five at the time of his decease, though some 

 state him to have survived to the age of a hundred 

 and seven. To his care we are indebted for the 

 preservation of the writings of Aristotle, who, when 



dying, entrusted them to the keeping of his favour- 

 ite disciple. The works of Theophrastus were 

 published collectively by Dan. Heinous (Leyden, 

 1613, folio), and by Schneider (Leipsic, 1818 

 1821, 5 vols., with a Latin translation) ; and among 

 the numerous editions of his Characters may be 

 noticed those of Needham (Cambridge, 1712, 8vo.) 

 of Fischer (Coburg, 1763, 8vo.), and the recent 

 English translations, with notes, and the Greek 

 text, by Mr F. Howell. 



THEOPHRASTUS PARACELSUS. SeePa- 

 racelsus. 



THEORBO (tiorba) ; an instrument, no longer 

 in use, similar to the lute, at least in regard to the 

 body and the neck, which is, however, longer. It 

 has fourteen to sixteen strings, of which the eight 

 large ones in the base are twice as long and thick 

 as those of the lute. It was principally used for ac- 

 companiment. The system of the theorbo has five 

 lines with proper notes : that of the lute has six 

 lines with letters. 



THEORY (from the Greek S. e /a, contempla- 

 tion) originally signified the investigation and 

 knowledge of supernatural subjects by means of 

 contemplation. The most common significations 

 of the word at present are, 1. speculation ; a 

 doctrine which terminates in speculation or con- 

 templation without a view to practice. Here it is 

 taken in an unfavourable sense, as implying some- 

 thing visionary. 2. An exposition of the general 

 principles of any science, as the theory of music. 

 3. The science distinguished from the art ; e. g. 

 the theory of medicine as distinguished from the 

 practice. 4. The philosophical explanation of phe- 

 nomena, either physical or moral, as Lavoisier's 

 theory of combustion, Smith's theory of moral sen- 

 timents. TJieorrj is distinguished from hypothesis 

 thus: A theory is founded on inferences drawn 

 from principles which have been established on in- 

 dependent evidence ; a hypothesis is a proposition 

 assumed to account for certain phenomena, and has 

 no other evidence of truth than that it affords a 

 satisfactory explanation of those phenomena. 



THEOSOPHY (from &u,, God, and *-.?,*, wis- 

 dom) ; according to its etymology, the science of 

 divine things. But the name of theosophists has 

 generally been applied to persons who, in their in- 

 quiries respecting God, have run into mysticism, as 

 Jacob Bohme, Swedenborg, St Martin, and others. 



THERAMENES ; an Athenian philosopher and 

 general in the age of Alcibiades. He was one of 

 the thirty tyrants at Athens, but had no share in 

 the cruelties and oppression which disgraced their 

 administration. He was accused by Critias, one of 

 his colleagues, because he opposed their views, and 

 was condemned to drink hemlock, though innocent, 

 and defended by Socrates. He drank the poison 

 with great composure, and poured some of it on the 

 ground, with the sarcastical exclamation of " This 

 is to the health of Critias," about 403 B. C. 



THERAPEUT^E. See Essenes. 



THERAPEUTICS (from Sif, to attend to 

 the sick) is that part of medicine which teaches the 

 way of curing diseases. It treats of the symptoms 

 of disease, and the conclusions to be drawn from 

 them, of the power of nature, and how far it may be 

 relied on, of the mode of cure to be adopted, and 

 the different systems which have acquired reputa- 

 tion. 



THERESA, ST. ; a religious enthusiast, bom at 

 Avila in Spain, in 1515. At an early age, the pe- 

 rusal of the Lives of the Saints inspired her with 



