TAT 



TAT 



night on their demefne lands, for the improvement of the 

 ground. 



Tath, in jigriculture, a term applied by llock-farmers, 

 in feme fituations, to all fuch grafles as are particularly rank 

 and luxuriant, and which have a tendency to induce the rot 

 in fheep. 



They commonly diftinguifli two kinds of it ; namely, the 

 •water-tath, which arifes and proceeds from an cxcefs of 

 raoifture ; and the nolt-tath, which is the produce of dung. 

 The latter, it is faid, is darker coloured than the former ; but 

 that their foftnefs, luxuriancy, and tendency to produce the 

 rot in the animals, are nearly the fame. The water-tath is 

 noticed to be the produce of either lands naturally too moid, 

 of wet feafons, of accidental or artificial floodings of them, 

 or of fome other fuch caufes. Nothing is fo apt, it is fup- 

 pofed, to produce the rot in thefe animals, as the grafs which 

 grows in low marfliy grounds, in what is called aicald lands, 

 and that around the heads of fprings, efpecially on the north 

 fide of hills, infomuch fo, indeed, that fuch paftures were 

 formerly confidered as naturally rotten, and of courfe re- 

 jefted by all intelhgent (heep-farmers. 



In fhort, wherever a very foft and tender tath fuddenly 

 rufhes up in Iheep-pafture lands, there is always much danger 

 of its effefts ; and as dung greatly promotes the growth of 

 very rank tath, the pernicious confequences of uich nolt- 

 tath are to be remedied, by not allowing horfes or neat cattle 

 to pafture among the (heep. 



TATHAA, in Geography, a river of Africa, which runs 

 into the Indian fea, S. lat. 28° 20'. 



TATHILBA, in Ancient Geography, a town of India, 

 on this fide of the Ganges, which belonged to the Bidam^i. 

 Ptolemy. 



TATIAMBETTY, in Geography, a town of Hindoo- 

 ftan, in Myfore ; 5 miles N. of Wombinellore. 



TATIAN, in Biography, a native of Aflyria, from which 

 circumftance he is fometimes called " the Aflyrian," and an 

 ecclefiaftical writer, who, according to Cave, flourifhed about 

 the year 172. He was originally a heathen, and by pro- 

 feffion a fophift, and teacher of rhetoric. His reading ap- 

 pears to have been extenfive, and he is allowed to have been 

 well acquainted with Grecian literature and philofophy. 

 After his converfion to Chriftianity, he became a difciple of 

 Juftin Martyr, to whom he was attached, and of whom he 

 fpeaks with great refpe£l. He accompanied this father to 

 Rome, and travelled through different countries with a view 

 to his improvement. But fome time after Juftin's death, 

 which happened about the year 1 65, he adopted a number of 

 abfurd opinions. Accordingly he is charged, and probably 

 not without reafon, with being the founder of the feft of the 

 Encratites ; he condemned the ufe of wine, and denied the law- 

 fulnefs of marriage, the reality of Chrift's fufferings, and the 

 falvation of Adam. He alfo embraced the jEons of Valen- 

 tinus, and afferted with Marcion, that there are two gods. 

 Eufebius dates his herefy about the twelfth year of the em- 

 peror Marcus Antoninus, or the year 172. But however 

 erroneous were his principles in the latter part of his life, his 

 works afford us fatisfaftoy evidence of the antiquity and high 

 efteem of the gofpels in his time. After propagating his doc- 

 trines for fome time at Rome, he opened a fchool in Mefopo- 

 tamia, about the year 172 : and he is faid to have preached 

 at Antioch, and in fome other places. The place and time 

 of his death are not known. He appears to have written a 

 conliderable niunber of books, one of which, ftiU extant in 

 Greek, and entitled " Oratio ad Grscos," or Oration againft 

 the Gentiles, was either an apology for Chriftianity, or an 

 attack on Heathenifm. Tliis was firfl printed at Zurich in 

 J 546, with the Latin verfion of Conrad Gefner, It is an- 



nexed to the edition of Juftin Martyr's worki, and thofe 

 of other 'fathers : but the beft edition is tiiat of Worth, 

 Greek and Latin, Oxon. 1700, 8vo. His defign in this 

 work, which difplays great learning, was to prove that the 

 Greeks were not the inventors of any of the fciences, but 

 that they were indebted for their acquaintance with them to 

 tliofe whom nevertheleis they denominated Barbarians. Thit 

 work, according to Brucker, every where breathes the fpirit 

 of the Oriental philofophy, the leading tenets of which he 

 details ; and he feems to have adopted feveral of the opinions 

 of Plato, and of the Alexandrian Platonifts, concerning the 

 creation of the world by tlic Logos, and its animation by a 

 fubordinate fpirit ; concerning the exiftence of demons in 

 material vehicles, who occupy the aerial regions, and that of 

 a;ons, who refide above the liars. He alfo held with Plato 

 the imperfeflion of matter as the caufe of evil, and thence he 

 inferred the meritorioufnefs of rifing above corporeal appe- 

 tites and palTions. Another work of Tatian, cited by 

 St. Clement, was entitled " Pcrfeftion according to the Sa- 

 viour," in which he argued againft marriage. Eufebius cites 

 another work compofed by Tatian, which was a " Book of 

 difficult qucilions, for the explication of feveral obfcure 

 places of Scripture." We have alfo in Latin a work 

 afcribed to Tatian, called " Harmony" or " Dia-Teffaron" 

 of the Four. But fome approved writers have doubted whe- 

 ther we have one copy of Tatian's Harmony now extant. 

 Dr. Lardner hasinveftigated this fubjeft with his ufual judg» 

 ment and impartiahty : and he inclines to the opinion, that 

 we are in pofTefTion of this work : and he thinks that the 

 commentaries written upon it by Ephrem, the Syrian, afford 

 reafon for concluding that it was not fo contemptible or fo 

 heretical as fome have thought. This Harmony is (horter 

 than that attributed to Ammonius, and contains a compen- 

 dious hiftory of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Clirift, taken 

 out of the four Gofpels. It confifts of four parts ; the firft 

 is a kind of introduftion, containing the hiftory of our Lord's 

 nativity, and tlie former part of his hfe ; the other three parts 

 are the three years of our Lord's miniftry. Brucker by 

 Enfield. Lardner's Works, vol. ii. 



TATIANITES, Tatianit^e, in Ecchfwjllcal Hiftory, a 

 feft of ancient heretics ; thus called from Tatian, a difciple 

 of Juftin Martyr. 



This Tatian, who has the charafter of one of the mofl 

 learned men of all antiquity, was pcrfeftly orthodox during 

 the hfe of his mailer. He was, hkc him, a Samaritan, by 

 nation, not by religion, as Epiphanius feems to infinuate. 

 They both belonged to the Greek colonies which were 

 fpread throughout the country of the Samaritans. 



Juftin being dead, Tatian is faid by fome to have inchned 

 to many of the errors of the Valentinians ; but Mofheim fays, 

 that his doftrine approached nearer to that of the oriental 

 philofophy concerning the two principles. He adds, that 

 it appears from the teilimony of credible writers, that Tatian 

 looked upon matter as tlie foundation of all evil, and there- 

 fore recommended, in a particular manner, the mortification 

 of the body ; that lie diftinguiflicd the creator of the world 

 from the Supreme Being : denied the reality of Chrift's body ; 

 and corrupted the Clirillian religion witli feveral other tenets 

 of the oriental pliilofopliy. ( See the preceding article. ) He 

 had a great numbL-r of followers, who were, after him, called 

 TatianiJL ; but were neverthclefs more frequeitly diftinguifhed 

 from other fefts, by names relative to the auft;Tity of their 

 manners. For as they rejeftcd, with a fort of horror, all the 

 comforts and convenieiicies of life, and abftaincd from wine with 

 fuch a rigorous obttinacy, as to ufe nothing but water, even 

 at the celebration of the Lord's flipper ; as they macerated 

 their bodies by continual fafting, and lived a feverc life of 

 T 2 celibacy 



