T H O 



T H O 



for ftnall veffels. It is 59 milce S.S.W. from Dublin, and 

 I5i N. from Watcrford. 



Thomastown, a poft-town of the United States, in the 

 diftrift of Maine, and couuty of Lincoln, containing 2100 

 inhabitants. 



THOMISM, or Thomaism, thedoftrineof St. Thomas 

 Aquinas, and his followers theThomills, chiefly with regard 

 to predeftinatioii and grace. See his biographical article. 



There is fome doubt what the true, genuine Thomifm is ; 

 the Dominicans pretend to hold pure Thomifm ; but there 

 are other autliors who dillinguifli the Thomifm of St. Thomas 

 from that of the Dominicans. 



Others, again, make Thomifm no other than a kind of 

 Janfenifm difguifed ; but Janfenifm, we know, has been 

 condemned by the popes, which pure Thomifm never was. 



In effeft, the writings of Alvarez and Lemos, who were 

 appointed, by their order, to lay down and defend before the 

 ho^y fee, the dogmata of their fchool, have fince been reputed 

 the rule of pure Thomifm. 



Thofe two authors diftinguirti four claffes of Thomifts : 

 the firft, which they rejeft, deftroys or takes away liberty ; 

 the fecond and third do not differ from MoUna. The laft, 

 which Alvarez embraces, admits a phyfical premotion, or 

 predetermination, wliich is a complement of the aftive power, 

 by which it pafles from the firft aft to the fecond ; that is, 

 from complete and next power to aftion. 



This premotion, they hold, is offered in fufiicient grace : 

 fufficient grace is given to aE men ; and that they have a com- 

 plete, independent, next power not to aft, and even to rejeft 

 the moft efficacious grace. 



THOMISTS, a feft of fchool divines, who maintain 

 Thomifm. 



The avowed antagonifts of the Thomiils are the Scotifts. 

 THOMITES. See Thom.eans. 



THOMMDAMM, in Geography, a town of the duchy 

 of Saxe Lauenburg, on the Elbe ; 25 miles S.E.of Lauen- 

 burg. 



THOMPSON, Sir Benjamin, Count of Rumford, in 

 Biography, diftinguiihed by his afTiduity and zeal in the pro- 

 motion of fcience, and in devifing and executing fchemes of 

 public utility, was born at the village of Rumford, in New 

 England, in the year 1752 ; and with the afliftance afforded 

 him by a profefTor of natural philofophy in the American 

 univerfity of Cambridge, acquired in eai'ly life fuch a degree 

 of knowledge as enabled him to give inftruftion to others. 

 By an advantageous marriage, while he was young, his ad- 

 vancement was accelerated, fo that he obtained the rank of 

 a major in the militia of his native dillrift. When the war 

 broke out between the mother-country and her colonies, he 

 took part with the former, and by means of his local know- 

 ledge, he rendered himfelf ufeful to the Britifh generals in 

 America. In procefs of time he repaired to England, and 

 recommending himfelf to lord George Germaine, the chief 

 minifter in the American department, he obtained a place in 

 his office. Towards the clofe of the war, the fame noble- 

 man, with a view of fecuring for him a permanent provifion, 

 fent him to New York, where he raifed a regiment of dra- 

 goons, and by being appointed heutenant-colonel, became 

 entitled to half-pay. Upon his return to England, his ma- 

 jefly, in 1784, conferred upon him the honour of knight- 

 Hood ; and for fome time he occupied the poll of one of the 

 under-fecretaries of flate. Soon after he made a tour to the 

 continent, and being warmly recommended by the prince of 

 Deux-Ponts, afterward king of Bavaria, to his relation the 

 reigning eleftor-palatine, and duke of Bavaria, he was ad- 

 mitted into his fervicc, and occupied an eminent Ration. He 

 had thus an opportunity of efFefting many important and 



ufeful reforms in the departments of the flate, both civil 

 and mihtary. His attention was at tliis time particularly di- 

 refted to the fupijreffion of mendicity, whicli prevailed not 

 only at Munich, the capital, but through the whole coun. 

 try, to an extent that rendered the rcllraint and abolition of 

 it a very difficult and hazardous undertaking. With this 

 view he formed a plan for employing all mendicants ; and 

 having provided a building for their reception, and materials 

 for their labour, he fallied forth into the flrcets of the city 

 on the ift of .lanuary 1790 (New-year's day being fet apart 

 for giving alms in Bavaria), accompanied by the field-officers 

 of the garrifon and the magiflrates of the city ; and arrefting 

 with his own hand the firft beggar that came in his way, his 

 attendants followed his example, fo that before night not a 

 fingle beggar was to be feen in the whole metropolis. Thofe 

 that were arrefted were condufted to the town-hall, where 

 their names were infcribed, and then ordered to repair to the 

 work-houfe, where they would find employment, and a fuffi- 

 ciency of wholefome food. In confequence of thefe prompt 

 and vigorous meafures, the evil was redreffed, and the men- 

 dicants were led by habit to prefer induftry to idlenefs, and 

 decency to the filth, rags, and fquahd wretchednefs attendant 

 on beggary. He alfo introduced into Bavaria the culture 

 and ufe of potatoes. For all thefe fervices fir Benjamin was 

 decorated by the Bavarian fovereign with feveral orders, pro- 

 moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and created a count 

 by the title of his native place, Rumford. During his 

 abode at Munich, he commenced his experiments upon the 

 improvement of fire-places, with refpeft to the economy of 

 fuel, and the convenience of cooking ; and alfo his plans for 

 a cheaper and more nutritive mode of feeding the poor, which 

 gave him peculiar celebrity. Having quitted Bavaria in 

 1799, he refided for fome time in this country, purfuing a 

 variety of experiments on the nature and application of 

 heat, and the conltruftion of chimneys, grates, and fire- 

 places. He alfo promoted fcience both by his own refearches 

 and experiments, and by hberally exciting emulation in others, 

 upon a more enlarged plan. For the latter purpole, he trans- 

 ferred, on an occafional vifit to this country in 1796, to the 

 Royal Society of London, of which he was a member, 1 000/. 

 3 per cent, flock, the intereft of which was to be applied every 

 fecond year as a premium to the author of the moil important 

 difcovery on the fubjefts of heat and hght in any part of 

 Europe during the two preceding years ; the preference to be 

 always given to fuch difcoveries as, in the opinion of the pre- 

 fident and council, tend mofl to the benefit of mankind ; 

 which indeed was the leading objeft of all his refearches. 

 He alfo fuggeiled the plan, and affifted in the formation of 

 the Royal Inititution, which has produced feveral other efta- 

 bllhments of a fimilar nature. 



In the year 1802 he left England for Paris, which be- 

 came his fixed refidence, and where he married the widow 

 of the celebrated chemifl, Lavoifier; but this conneftion 

 proving unhappy, it was foon terminated by a feparation. 

 The count afterwards retired to a country-houfe at Au- 

 teuil, about four miles from Paris, which he rendered a de- 

 lightful habitation. Befides the improvement of his grounds, 

 in wliich he took great pleafure, he purfued a variety of 

 pliilofophical and mechanical ref.arches. With his fuperior 

 talents he combined certain peculiarities, and a tenacioufnefs, 

 not to call it obftinacy, of temper, which prevented his en- 

 joying the pleafures of focial intercourfe. Although he dif- 

 approved both the charafter and politics of the French, 

 he preferred their climate to every other ; and he obtained 

 permiffion from the king of Bavaria to continue in France, 

 and to enjoy his penfion of iiocl. a-year. He lived in a 

 flate of retirement, and alfo in a courfe of .ibflcmioufnefs, 

 4 which 



