604 



THOMASIUS THOMSONITE. 



THOMASIUS, OR THOMASEN, CHRISTIAN, 

 a distinguished German philosopher and critic, \\;i< 

 born at Leipsic, in 1655, studied at Frankfort on 

 the Oder, and, returning to Leipsic in 1679, de- 

 livered philosophical and law lectures there. But 

 lii-i innovations on established usages (to the gene- 

 ral astonishment, he wrote the program of his lec- 

 tures in 1688 in the vernacular tongue), and his 

 freedom of thinking, raised him many enemies, and 

 lu- \vas finally obliged to leave the country. In 

 1690, he went to Halle, where he took an active 

 j>art in establishing the university, in which he he- 

 came professor of law, and, afterwards, head of the 

 university, and remained there till his death, in 

 17-8. Thomasius was the first to use the German 

 language in university lectures ; and he exerted his 

 influence to procure the abolition of torture, of 

 trials for witch-craft, and of restraints upon freedom 

 of thought. He contributed to introduce a more 

 rational and philosophical criticism ; and his ser- 

 vices, in shaking the doctrines of the Aristotelian 

 scholastics, were of the highest importance. Among 

 his works, the principal are Free Thoughts, or 

 Monthly Dialogues ; History of Wisdom and Folly ; 

 and Rational and Christian Thoughts on Various 

 Subjects of Philosophy and Jurisprudence, which 

 involved him in numerous controversies with men 

 of narrow and bigoted minds. Luden has written 

 a life of Thomasius (Berlin, 1805). 



THOMISTS. See Aquinas, and Scholastics. 



THOMPSON, BENJAMIN. See Rumford. 



THOMPSON, CHARLES, secretary of the Ame- 

 rican revolutionary congress, was born in Ireland, 

 in November, 1729, and was about eleven years of 

 age when he arrived in America. He left his na- 

 tive country with his father and three elder bro- 

 thers: the former died on the passage, and the 

 youths were turned ashore by the captain, at New 

 Castle, with but very slender means of providing 

 for themselves in a strange land. Charles, how- 

 ever, was furnished by one of his brothers with 

 money enough to enter a school in Maryland. At 

 this seminary, he obtained a knowledge of the 

 Greek and Latin languages, mathematics, and other 

 branches of study, which enabled him, whilst a very 

 young man, to keep the Friends' academy in Phil- 

 adelphia. He afterwards married, and went into 

 business in that city. His principles were early of 

 a most republican cast ; and it is even asserted, that 

 he began the opposition to the stamp act in Penn- 

 sylvania. Immediately after the first congress 

 had assembled in Philadelphia, he was chosen their 

 secretary. The duties of this office he continued 

 to discharge with great reputation to himself and 

 advantage to the cause, until the close of the war. 

 His well-known integrity procured implicit credit 

 for every thing published with his name. After 

 the adoption of the new constitution, he assisted 

 at the organization of the new government, and 

 was the person deputed to inform Washington of 

 his nomination to the presidency. Washington 

 wished much to retain him in its service, but, in 

 his own words, " the suitable hour for his retire- 

 ment was now come." During that retirement, 

 he published a translation of the Bible, and a synop- 

 sis of the New Testament. His death occurred 

 in 1824. His disposition was remarkably good and 

 cheerful. He possessed a great share of natural 

 sagacity. He was a zealous republican of the old 

 school, and strictly moral and religious. The In- 

 dians, into one of whose tribes he was adopted, gave 

 nim a name signifying " the man of truth." 



THOMSON, JAMKS, a distin^iished British 

 poet, was born in 1700, ut Edniun, near Kelso, in 

 Scotland, being one of the nine children of the mi- 

 nister of that place. He was sent to the school of 

 Jedburgh, where he early discovered a propensity 

 to poetry, which drew the attention of the neigh- 

 bouring gentry. He was removed to the univciMty 

 of Edinburgh, and induced by the wishes of his 

 friends to study divinity ; but he soon gave up the- 

 ological studies, and paid an exclusive attention to 

 literature. After acting sometime as a private 

 tutor to Lord Binning, he quitted the university, 

 and went to London, where his Winter was pur- 

 chased by Millar for a very trifling consideration, 

 and published in 1726 with a dedication to Sir 

 Spencer Compton. Its merits, however, were not 

 discovered until it accidentally caught the eye of 

 .Mr Whately, who brought it into general notice. It 

 led to the author's introduction to Pope. In 1727, 

 he published his Summer, which he addressed to 

 Bubb Doddington, his Poem to the Memory of Sir 

 Isaac Newton, his Britannia, and, in 1728, his 

 Spring, and in 1730, his Autumn. He had previ- 

 ously brought on the stage his tragedy of Sopho- 

 nisba ; and not long after, he was selected as the 

 travelling associate of Mr Talbot, with whom he 

 visited the continent. On his return he was re- 

 warded with the post of secretary of briefs by the 

 lord chancellor Talbot, which was nearly a sinecure. 

 About this time he published his poem of Liberty, 

 with the cool reception of which he was much dis- 

 appointed. Soon after, the death of lord chancel- 

 lor Talbot vacated Thomson's office, and lord 

 Hardwick, who succeeded to the seals, gave it to 

 another. An introduction to Frederic, Prince of 

 Wales, produced him a pension from that prince of 

 100 per annum. In 1738, he produced a second 

 tragedy, entitled Agamemnon, which was coldly 

 received, and a third, entitled Edward and Eleanora. 

 In 1740, he composed the masque of Alfred, in con- 

 junction with Mallet; but which of them wrote the 

 song, since become national, of Rule Britannia, has 

 not been ascertained. In 1745, his most successful 

 tragedy, entitled Tancred and Sigismunda, was 

 brought out and warmly applauded. The following 

 year produced his Castle of Indolence. He now 

 obtained the place of surveyor-general of the Lee- 

 ward islands, but soon after (1748) died of a cold 

 caught on the Thames, in the forty-eighth year of 

 his age. He was buried at Richmond, and a monu- 

 ment was erected to him in Westminster Abbey in 

 1762, with the profits of an edition of his works. 

 He left a tragedy entitled Coriolanus, which was 

 acted for the benefit of his relatives ; to whom, dur- 

 ing the course of his life, he had given substantial 

 proofs of a steady attachment. Thomson was large 

 and ungainly in person, and somewhat heavy in de- 

 portment, except among intimate friends, by whom 

 he was much beloved for the kindness of his heart. 

 His Seasons abounds in sensibility and beauty of 

 natural description. His diction, although occa- 

 sionally cumbrous and laboured, is always energetic 

 and expressive. His Castle of Indolence is the most 

 spirited and beautiful of all the imitations of Spen- 

 ser, both for moral, poetical, and descriptive power. 

 His tragedies possess little dramatic interest. 



THOMSONITE; a mineral, which, until lately, 

 was regarded as a variety of mesotype, from which, 

 however, it differs essentially in respect to cleavage, 

 the form of its crystals, and its chemical composi- 

 tion. It occurs generally in masses of a radiating 

 structure, in the cavities of which, rrytaln are oc- 



