TER 
wood yet plain in them, are common in many places among 
sea-shells, and other marine remains at great depths, and 
have evidently been brought thither in very distant times, 
and before those changes were made in the surface of the 
earth, of which we have no acconnts in our earliest his¬ 
tories. 
2. Teredo utriculus.—Shell solid, cylindric and undu¬ 
lated. 
3. Teredo clava.—Shell clavated at one end, the other 
curved, narrower, obtuse, and perforated in the middle. Sellii 
Hist. Natur. Teredinis. 
TEREK, a considerable river of Asiatic Russia, in the go¬ 
vernment of Caucasus. It rises amid snow-covered moun¬ 
tains, in the loftiest part of the Caucasian chain, on the fron¬ 
tier of Circassia and Georgia. After passing Kizlar, it divides 
into three branches, and falls into the Caspian. 
TEREMENDO, a settlement of Mexico, in the intendancy 
of Valladolid, inhabited by 90 families of Indians. 
TERENCE (Publius Terentius), a Latin writer of come- 
dies, was born, as it is supposed, at Carthage about the year 
of Rome 560 (B. C. 194.) Being brought to Rome as a 
slave, when young, he was in the service of a person named 
Terentius, a senator, from whom he derived his name. The 
purity and politeness of his language evince his having en¬ 
joyed the benefit of a good Roman education. After his 
emancipation, he was honoured with the friendship of several 
Romans of rank, such as Scipio Africanus the younger, and 
the younger Lelius. His comedies were founded upon the 
Greek model, and translated, either wholly or in part, from 
the Greek. The first comedy which he is said to have brought 
upon the stage, was the “ Andrio,” represented in the year 
before Christ 166. But though this was the first of his come¬ 
dies that was acted, it appears that it was not the first which 
he had written. The six comedies of Terence that are still 
extant were exhibited at Rome from the year before Christ 
166 to 160. They were heard with great applause; the 
“ Eunuchus” was repeated twice in the same day, and he is said 
to have received for it 8000 sesterces (about 64/.) Scipio and 
Lelius, as tradition reports, had a great part in the composi¬ 
tion of Terence’s comedies. Terence himself in a prologue 
seems tacitly to acknowledge the fact. But modern writers 
and critics, who have reasoned on this fact, think it very im¬ 
probable. Generals and statesmen were not persons likely 
to possess the habit of dramatic composition, whatever pre¬ 
vious hints or subsequent corrections they might furnish; and 
besides it is observed, that no writings more strongly indicate 
by their style and manner that they are the production of a 
single hand than those of Terence. After he had presented 
these comedies to the public he departed for Greece, and 
never returned to Rome. Some have accounted for this 
circumstance, by supposing that he perished by shipwreck; 
others affirm that he died in Greece, from the grief he 
experienced on account of the loss of his baggage and some 
new comedies, which he had [composed, by an accident 
at sea. 
The judgment of critics on the performances of Terence, 
has been very different, though their real merit is said not to 
be of difficult estimation. It is generally allowed that he is 
defective in invention and originality of observation. This 
sufficiently appears from his having Greek manners and 
characters in all his plays. He was likewise a plagiarist, 
with regard to the sentiments, as well as to the plots and 
incidents of his pieces; but a very competent judge observes, 
“ that he is justly entitled to the praise of judicious selection, 
happy disposition, and purity and neatness of language; 
and that, as a Latin writer, in a style of elegance, of which 
there are so few examples, he was highly prized in his own 
times, and is invaluable in ours. Cicero, who speaks of 
him as a translator of Menander, applauds him as the only 
one who had expressed in the Latin language, all the_ polite¬ 
ness and amenity of the original; and Caesar, in some well- 
known lines, calls him ‘ the lover of pure dictionand 
also by the epithet of the Halved Meander ; and his regret 
that Terence did not possess the vis comica, as well as the 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1616. 
TER 901 
other excellencies of his model, points out his deficiencies.” 
Ot the numerous editions of Terence, the most esteemed 
are the following; viz., the “ Variorum,” Amsf. and 
Lugd. Batav. 1686; “ Bentleii,” Cantab. 4to. 1726; 
“ Westerhovii,” Hag. C. 4to. 1726; “ Zeunii,” Lips. 8vo. 
1774 ; “ Brunckii,” Basil, 4to. 1779. Voss. Poet. Lat. 
Gen. Biog. 
TERESA, a small town in the east of Spain, in Valencia, 
with 2200 inhabitants ; 10 miles west-by-north of Semrbe. 
TERESA, St., a town of New Granada, at the conflux 
of the Meta and Orinoco; 300 miles east of Santa Fe de 
Bogota. 
TERESA, St., a town of New Mexico, in the province of 
Cinaloa ; 95 miles north-east of Cinaloa. 
TERESA, St., a fort of the province of Buenos Ayres, si¬ 
tuate near the sea coast, about 80 miles north-east of Maldo¬ 
nado. Lat. 33. 58. S. long. 53. 34. W. 
TERESPOL, a small town in the east of Poland ; 3 miles 
south-south-west ofBrzesc, and 103east-by south of Warsaw, 
inhabited by the descendants of German settlers. 
TE'RET, adj. [teres, teretis, Lat.] Round. Not in 
use.— To the stars Nature hath given no such instruments, 
but made them round and teret like a globe. Fotherby. 
TERFOWI, a watering place in the desert of Nubia; 150 
miles south of Syene. 
TERGE'MINOUS, ad}, [tergeminus, Lat.] Threefold. 
To TERGIVE'RSATE, u. u. [tergum, the back, and 
verto, (versus,) to turn, Lat.] To boggle ; to shift; to use 
evasive expressions. Bailey. 
TERGIVERSATION, s. [tergiversation, Fr. Cotgrave- 
tergim and verto, Lat.] Shift; subterfuge; evasion.— 
Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being- 
freer from passions and tergiversations. Brarnhall.— 
Change; fickleness.—The colonel, after all his tergivei'sa- 
tions, lost his life in the king’s service. Clarendon. 
TERGLOU, one of the highest mountains of Germany, 
situated among the Julian Alps, in the north-west of Carniola. 
It is 10,855 feet above the sea, and is covered with continual 
snow on the north side, where there are immense glaciers. 
TERGOVISTA, or Tirgowischt, a town of European 
Turkey, in Wallachia, in the district called Zarade Suss, si¬ 
tuated in a pleasant track on the river Jalomiza; 64 miles 
south-east of Hermanstadt, and 180 east-north-east of Bel¬ 
grade. Lat. 45. 3. N. long. 25. 29. E. 
TERHALTEN, a small island near the coast of Terra del 
Fuego. Lat. 55. 20. S. 
TERHEYDEN, a small inland town of the Netherlands, 
in the province of north Brabant. Population 1900 ; 3 miles 
north of Breda. 
TERKAT, a village of Asia Minor, in the government of 
Sivas; 20 miles north-west of Tocat. 
TERKI, a fortress built by Russia, at the mouth of the Tu- 
menka, which forms one of the branches by which the Terek 
falls into the sea. 
TERKUL, a river of Asiatic Russia, which falls into the 
Oural at Ouralsk. 
TERLING, a parish of England, in Essex; 3k miles west 
of Witham. Population 766. 
TERLIZZI, a considerable town of Italy, in the south-east 
of the kingdom of Naples. Terlizzi stands 20 miles south of 
the site of Cannae, and 60 north-west of Tarentum. 
TERM, i. [terminus, Lat.] Limit; boundary.—Corrup¬ 
tion is a reciprocal to generation ; and they two are as nature’s 
two terms or boundaries and the guides to life and death. 
Bacon.—[Terme, Fr.] [The word by which a thing is 
expressed. A word of art.—To apply notions philosophical 
to plebeian terms, or to say where the notions cannot 
fitly be reconciled, that there wanteth a term or nomen¬ 
clature for it, be but shifts of ignorance. Bacon. _Words • 
language. 
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrakes groan, 
I would invent as bitter searching terms. 
As curst, as harsh, as horrible to hear. Shahspcarc. 
JO U Condition; 
