T H I 



THINGAU, ill C.'3^ni/-/>. Sl-cTingau. 



THINGVALLA, a place of Iceland, about 26 miles 

 didant from Rcikiavik, and 24 miles from Skalholt ; m 

 which ii a fniall, mean, and dirty church. The fcenery 

 about it is romantic : but the want of wood, and the cflcas 

 of fubtcrraneous heat, combine to give it a dreary afpca. 

 TiiL- adjoining lake of the fame name is a fine fliect of water, 

 reckoned to be about ten miks long and from thi-ee to feven 

 ill breadth. In I>he lakes are two pretty large idamls, called 

 Sanday and Nefey, comuofed entirely of volcanic matter. 

 The depth of the lake is faid to be very great ; a line of 

 100 fathoms having been funk without reaching the bottom. 

 It receives the waters of the furrounding bogs, and near it 

 in different places vapours are feen to afccnd from hot 

 fpriiigs. It abounds with trout. At the S. end the moun- 

 tains arc very pifturcfque, and the afcending vapours contri- 

 bute to tlie folemnity of the wl-.ole fcene, as they arife from 

 fpiings that have been produced by the moft dreadful com- 

 jiiotions, and the deftruCtion of a country that may once have 

 been beautiful and fertile. Near Thingvalla is a building, 

 where the courts of jufticc were formerly held ; but as 

 Rcikiavik is now the feat of government, the courts are held 

 there. It docs not appear why this place was originally fe- 

 IcAed for the feat of jullice ; but a town being once efta- 

 bliflied, and trade carried on freely, and to a greater extent 

 than in former times, ready recourfe to the law became ne- 

 ceffary. Although not more than rifteen years have elapfed 

 (1817) fince the judicial courts were transferred to Rcikia- 

 vik, few remains are left to mark a fpot fo famous in the 

 liiftory of Iceland. The only building is a fmall wooden 

 houfe, in which the confultations were held and fentence pro- 

 nounced by the lliftantment or governor. The magiilrates 

 and people affembled on the occafion lived in tents. The 

 culprits who were condemned to die were beheaded on a 

 fmaU idand in the river Oxeran, which here flows into the 

 lake. The females wei-e drowned in a deep pool below the 

 lava, a little farther up the valley. An ecclefiaftical court 

 ufed to be held at Thingvalla by the biiliop of Skalholt, at- 

 tended by the provofts and two miniftcrs from each Syflel. 

 It is fuggefted, that Tingwall in Shetland, and Dingwall in 

 Rofsfliire, are evidently the fame names as Thingvalla ; and 

 were probably, in ancient times, places where juilice was ad- 

 miniHered. Towards the N. arc feveral ranges of moun- 

 tains, which, from the account received, and the appearances 

 obferved, are volcanic. Among thefe, the principal feems to 

 be Skalbreidc, a lofty Jokul, of which defcription of moun- 

 tains others were feen at a diftance. Although the trans- 

 ference of the fuperior court from Thingvalla to Reikiavik 

 has, probably, been attended with advantage, the Icelanders, 

 as a people, have fome reafons for regarding this change 

 with regret. The annual meeting at Thingvalla was not 

 merely that of a tribunal of juftice, but an afle.nibly of the 

 nation ; and though the importance of this affembly was di- 

 miniflied, and its dignity degraded, by the fubjeAion of the 

 iDand to a foreign power, yet on the fpot where the greatell 

 among his ancellors fo often Hood, the mind of the Icelander 

 lauft ever have been awake to enthi;fiafm and patriotic pride. 

 " Hie facra, hie genus, hie majorum multa veiligia !" Mac- 

 kenzie's Iceland. 



THINKING, Cogitation, a general name for any a&. 

 or operation of the mind. 



Chauvin, with the Cartefians, will have thinking to con- 

 fift in a certain native, inherent motion or agitation of the 



human mind, of which itfelf is confcious Nailve and in- 



lunnt, fince he conceives it no other than the very effence of 

 the mind itfelf, or, at leaft, its principal .ind fundamental 

 property : an agitation, fincc there is a new modification or 



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change made in the mind, which we fcarcely know how to 

 conceive without motion ; add, that the origin and etymo- 

 logy of the word cogitation, according to Varro and Feitus, 

 implies as much ; cogito being ufed for coagito. 



When the mind turns its view inwards, upon itfelf, the 

 firft idea that offers, fays Mr. Locke, is thinking ; in whiclb 

 it obferves a great variety of modifications, and of them, 

 frames to itfelf dillinfl ideas : thus the perception annexed 

 to any impreflion on the body, made by an external objeft, 

 is called y^n/a/io?;. 



When an idea recurs without the prefence of the objeft, 

 it is called remembrance. 



When fought after by the mind, and brought again into 

 view, it is called recolhlfion. 



When held there long under attentive confideration, it is 

 called contemplation. 



When ideas float in the mind without regard or reflexion, 

 it is called a re-very ; when tliey are taken exprefs notice of, 

 and, as it were, regiftered in the memory, it is attention; 

 and when the mind fixes its view on any one idea, and con- 

 fiders it on aU fides, it isjludy and attention. 



Thefe are the mofl obvious modes of thinking ; but there 

 are feveral others which we know of ; and, doubtlefs, the 

 mind is capable of infinite others, of which we have no 

 notion at. all. 



The fchool-philofophers ufuaUy divide thinking, with re- 

 gard to the objeft it is employed about, into underftanding, 

 intelledio ; and willing, volitio. 



And hence, thofe are faid to be the two powers or facul- 

 ties of the human mind. 



IntdltHual thinking is farther fnbdivided into divers kinds ; 

 the firfl, when the mind merely apprehends or takes notice 

 of a thing, called perception ; the fecond, when it affirms or 

 denies a thing, caned juclgmcnt ; the third, when it gathers 

 or infers a thing from others given, called reafoning ; the 

 fourth, when the mind difpoles its own thoughts or ideas in 

 order, called method. 



VoUlive thinking, or volition, admits of infinite different 

 modifications, or new determinations. 



Some authors extend the idea of thinking farther ; and 

 confider it in God, angels, brutes, &c. whence refults a 

 new diviiion of thinking, into divine, angelical, human, and 

 animal or fenfitive. 



But the two firfl we know little or nothing of: the third 

 is that of which we have already been treating. — As to the 

 laft, ii/'z. animal or fenfitive thought, it is defined to be, an 

 action of the foul attending to an external objeft, afFcfted 

 by means of the animal fpirits duly agitated in the brain, to 

 excite an idea. 



The C;u-tefians maintain, that thinking is efiential to the 

 human foul ; and, confequently, that there is no time when 

 the foul does not think : but this doftrine has been very vi- 

 gorouily attacked by Mr. Locke ; wlio labours to fhew, 

 that in fleep, without dreaming, there is an entire cefTation 

 of the modes of thinking. 



/ think, cogito, according to Des Cartes, is the firfl, and 

 mofl certain, of all truths ; from which, alone, we draw 

 this coniequence, therefore I am, or exiit, firm. — One might 

 alfo fay, cogito, ergo Deits cjl ; I think, therefore there is a God. 

 — Logic is defined, the art of thinking methodically. 



THINNING of Plantations and Woods, m Agriculture. 

 The practice of thinning plantations of trees and woods, fo 

 as to let the plants of them have more room as they advance 

 in growth, is moftly an operation of confiderable importance ; 

 as upon it, perhaps, more than upon any other point of the 

 after-management in fuch cafes, depends the nature, quan- 

 tity, 



