T H A 



«' it is too fooii," and at a more advanced period " "t '^to" 

 late." In order more entirely to difeiigage himfelf from 

 every avocation that would divert his mind from his fa- 

 vourite purfuits, he commiited tiie care of his eftate to his 

 filler's fon, whom he adopted. In fearch of wifdom, he 

 travcUcd to Crete, and afterwards to Egypt. From the 

 pricfts at Memphis in the latter country, he is faid by feveral 

 writers to have gained his knowledge of philofophy and ma- 

 thematics. But it is more probable that he was more in- 

 debted to his own talents and afQduity in the exercife of 

 them, than, to any communication from them ; and accord- 

 ingly it has been affirmed, that he taught them how to mea- 

 fure the height of their pyramids. Upon his return to 

 Miletus, he was univcrfally refpeiSled for his extraordinar)- 

 wifdora and learning; and his acquaintance was eagerly 

 courted by all who widied to improve in knowledge or to 

 be ranked among philofophers. He was not prevented, 

 however, by tliefe engagements from profccuting his mathe- 

 matical, philofophical, and mctaphylical ftudies. In this 

 courfc of improvement and«fefulnefs, and of imparting, as 

 well as of acquiring knowledge, he protrafted his life to 

 the great age of ninety years, and died, through mere in- 

 firmity, whilil he was attending the Olympic games. 

 Thale's was ranked among the feven wife men of Greece, 

 and might juftly be reckoned one of this number, whether we 

 confidcr his fcientific attainments, or the moral maxims and 

 aphorifms which are afcnbed to him. Of thefe maxims, we 

 fhall feleft the following: " Neither the crimes, nor the 

 tlioughts, of bad men are coneealed from the gods. Health 

 of body, competent fortune, and a cultivated mind, are 

 the chief fources of happinefs. What is the moft difficult 

 thing ? To know one's felf. What the eafieft ? To give 

 advice to others. How fhall we bell attain to virtue ? By 

 abftaining from all that we blame in others. Parents may ex- 

 peA from their children that obedience which they paid to 

 their own parents. Take more pains to correft the blemifhes 

 of the mind, than thofe of the face. Stop the mouth of flan- 

 der by prudence. Be careful not to do that yourfelf, which 

 you blame in another. Friends fhould be remembered when 

 abfent, as well as when prefent." Laertius. Brucker by 

 Enfield, vol. i. For an account of his philofophical doc- 

 trines and other particulars, we refer to the article Ionic 

 SeS. 



THALETAS of Crete, a famous lyric poet, celebrated 

 by all ?.ntiquity as a medical mufician, is faid to have delivered 

 the Lacedaemonians from the peflilence by the fweetnefs of 

 liis lyre ; but credulity in the powers of mufic muft be very 

 llrong indeed, in thofe who could believe it poflible for mu- 

 fic to drive away the peftilenre. Thaletas, however, was 

 univerfally believed to have poirefTed this power ; but it is 

 irapoffible to render the fact credible, without qualifying it 

 by feveral circumftances omitted in the relation. In the firft 

 place, it is certain that this poet was received among the La- 

 cedjemonians during the plague, by command of an oracle ; 

 that by virtue of this miflion, all the poetry of the hymns 

 which he fung, mufl have confifled of prayers and fupplica- 

 tions, in order to avert the anger of the gods againil the 

 people, whom he exhorted to facrifices, expiations, purifica- 

 tions, and many other afts of devotion ; which, however 

 fuperflitious, could not fail to agitate the minds of the m.ul- 

 titude, and to produce nearly the fame effefts as public faflrs, 

 and, in Cathohe countries, proceffions, at prefent, in times 

 of danger, by exaltiiig tne courage, and by animating hope. 

 The difeafe having, probably, reached its higheft pitch 

 of malignity when the mufician arrived, mufl afterwards 

 have become lefs contagious by degrees ; till, at length, 

 ceafing of itfelf, by the air wafting away the feeds of infec- 



10 



T H A 



tion, and recovering its former purity, the extirpation of 

 the difeafe was attributed by the people to the mufic of 

 Thaletas, who had been thought the lole mediator, to whom 

 they owed their happy deliverance. 



This is probably what Plutarch means, who tells the 

 ftory ; and what Homer meant, in attributing the ceffation 

 of the plague among the Greeks, at the fiege of Troy, to 

 mufic. 



" With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends. 

 The Paeans lengthen'd till the fun defccnds : 

 The Greeks reflor'd, the grateful notes prolong ; 

 Apollo liftens, and approves the fong." 



Pope's Homer's Ihad, book i. 



For the poet, in this paflage, feems only to fay, that Apollo 

 was rendered favourable, and had delivered the Greeks from 

 the fcourge with which they were attacked, in confequence 

 of Chryfeis having been reflored to her father, and of facri- 

 fices and offerings. 



This poet-mufician has been confounded by fome writers 

 with Thales the celebrated Milefian philofopher ; but ac- 

 cordingto Plutarch (in Lyciu-g.) he was cotemporary with 

 Lycurgus the Spartan legiQator, and lived about three hun- 

 dred years after the Trojan war. Plutarch alfo informs us, 

 that though Thaletas was only flyled a lyric poet and mu- 

 fician, he was likewife a grert philofopher and politician ; 

 infomuch that Lycurgus brought him from Crete, when he 

 returned from his travels, to Sparta, in order to have af- 

 fiflance from him, in ellabhfhing his new form of govern- 

 ment. His odes, continues Plutarch, were fo many exhort- 

 ations to obedience and concord, which he enforced by the 

 fweetnefs of his voice and melody. Plato, likewife, defcribes 

 his captivating manner of fmging ; and Plutarch, in his 

 Dialogue on Mufic, afcribes to Thaletas many mufical com- 

 pofitions and inventions : fuch as Paeans, and new meafures 

 in verfe, as well as rhythms in mufic, which he had acquired 

 fVom the flute-playing of Olympus, whom he at firfl had 

 imitated. Porphyry, in his Life of Pythagoras, fays that 

 this philofopher ufed to amufe himfelf with finging the old 

 Paeans of Thaletas ; and Athensus likewife tells us, that 

 the Spartans long continued to fing his airs ; and, accord- 

 ing to the fcholiaft on Pindar, this poet-mufician was the firfl 

 who compofed the Hyporchemes for the armed, or military 

 dance. 



There was another poet and mufician of the name of 

 Thaletas, who was likewife a Cretan, but who flourifhed 

 much later than the cotemporary and friend of Lycurgus. 



TH ALFANG, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Sarre ; ii miles S.S.W. of Traarbach. 



THALHEIM, a citadel of Bavaria, in the territory of 

 Nuremberg ; 6 miles S.E. of Herfbruck. 



THALIA, in Botany, was fo named by Linnaeus, in 

 memory of John Thalius, a phyfician at Nordhaufen, in 

 Germany, who wrote Sylva Hercynia, a catalogue of the 

 plants of the Hercynian foreft towards Saxony, which ac- 

 companies the Hortvs Medicus of Joachim Camerarius, both 

 having been printed together at Francfort on the Maine in 

 1588 ; and they are both illuflrated by excellent wooden 

 cuts. Thalius died in 1587, of a fraAured thigh, in con- 

 fequence of a fall from his carriage. His work abounds 

 with original defcriptions and remarks ; but as Haller ob- 

 ferves, it is not eafy to afcertain all the numerous fpecies or 

 varieties of which he treats. The genus before us was ori- 

 ginally called CoRTUSA by Plumier ; but that name remains 

 with a very different plant, as the reader will find its pro- 

 per place. — Linn. Gen. 4. Schreb. 6. Wilk PL 

 V. I. 15. Ait. Hort. Kew. v, i. 3. Rofcoe T- 



^ K ooC. 



