TERENCE 



5760 



TERMITES 



tion did not require consent from the Senate, 

 that body had not interfered in behalf of dis- 

 missed officials, even when its consent had been 

 necessary to the appointment. Shortly after 

 Johnson's inauguration, however, Congress be- 

 gan to indicate its disapproval of the Presi- 

 dent's policy, and there was soon open discord 

 between them on the questions of reconstruc- 

 tion. Lest Johnson should exercise his powers 

 of removal and thus perhaps interfere with the 

 Congressional plan of reconstruction, Congress 

 passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required 

 the Senate's consent to the dismissal of any 

 official, including members of the Cabinet, 

 whose appointment required its consent. 



The law was a startling innovation in the 

 American government, and Johnson not un- 

 reasonably felt that it was a mistake and per- 

 haps unconstitutional. His disregard of it when 

 he removed Edwin M. Stanton from the office 

 of Secretary of War was one of the causes of his 

 impeachment. The law, however, was quickly 

 understood to be an unjustified emergency 

 measure, and during Grant's administration it 

 was modified. Finally, in 1887, the act as a 

 whole was repealed after a struggle between 

 President Cleveland and Congress. W.F.Z. 



TERENCE, ter'ens (Publius Terentius Afer) 

 (about 185-about 159 B.C.), a Latin play- 

 wright, born at Carthage. The date and the 

 place of his birth have been the subject of 

 much dispute, but he is said to have been car- 

 ried to Rome as a slave and educated there by 

 a Roman senator. His first play was Andria, 

 an immediate success which gained for him ad- 

 mission into the best Roman society. He went 

 to Greece to study the comedies of Menander 

 and Apollodorus, which he freely translated and 

 adapted. From this voyage he never returned ; 

 accounts vary greatly as to the manner of his 

 death. 



During his brief life he succeeded in winning 

 a permanent reputation, and that, too, though 

 he was in no way an original writer. His ideal 

 was artistic perfection, and the chief merit of 

 his work is the perfect picture he has given of 

 Greek life in the third century B.C., for his 

 writings reflect nothing of the spirit of his own 

 age and country. Plautus excels him in comic 

 power, but not in tenderness and wit and char- 

 acter drawing. His six extant comedies, pos- 

 sibly representing all he ever wrote, are Andria, 

 Hecyra, Heauton-timoroumenos, Eunuchus, 

 Phormio and Adelphi. Advanced Latin stu- 

 dents in college courses read at least one of 

 Terence's works. 



TERHUNE, terhune' , MARY VIRGINIA (1831- 

 ), an American novelist and writer on 

 domestic science, better known as MARION 

 HARLAND. She was born in Amelia County, 

 Va., received a careful education at private 

 schools and from tutors, and began very early 

 to write for publication. Her first novel, Alone, 

 appeared when she was but eighteen. This 

 proved very successful, and her popularity grew 

 with the appearance of her later novels, The 

 Hidden Path, Nemesis, Judith and A Gallant 

 Fight. She also wrote Common Sense in the 

 Household and many articles for magazines and 

 newspapers, largely on cookery and domestic 

 economy. Her fiction has no great literary 

 merit, but is interesting and of high moral tone. 

 It is for her syndicated domestic science series 

 of articles, extending over a period of many 

 years, that she will long be remembered. 



TERMITES, tur' mites, a family of insects 

 commonly known as white ants, for they live 

 in communities and have somewhat the ap- 

 pearance of ants. These two insect groups, 



TERMITES' NEST IN THE TROPICS 



however, belong to entirely different orders, for 

 they are not related structurally (see INSECT, 

 page 3000, for classification). Termites are 

 found most abundantly in warm regions. They 

 build huge mounds of mud, which are some- 

 times fifteen feet in height. The dome-shaped 

 interior is divided into numerous chambers and 

 galleries, and in the center is a closed-in cell 

 where the king and queen are kept as prison- 

 ers. This royal pair constitute the perfect male 

 and female of each colony. When they first 



