cation and melody of diction, and embodies his thoughts in the most musical, condensed, and enduring forms. He has at the same time the art to conceal art. Few English poets have given to their verse so much of that charm which seems independent of the thought, and to lie in the grace and appropriateness of the structure. At Farringford in the Isle of Wight, Tennyson has resided for many years, amid green undulating woodland, thick with apple-trees, and fringed with silver sand and rocks, on which the lightgreen summer sea and the black waves of winter flow with the changeful music of the seasons. Here in his quiet home he sees little society except that of a few chosen friends. From the May Queen, p. 53. Charge of Light Brigade, p. 458. Independence on Fortune, p. 484. THACKERAY, WM. MAKEPEACE, novelist and essayist, was the son of a clergyman, and born in Calcutta in 1811. He studied at the university of Cambridge, in England, but left without taking a degree. His novel of "Vanity Fair," published in 1846, was the first work by which he rose to any great distinction, though he had previously written a number of satirical works for the Magazines. In 1855 he visited the United States, and delivered in the principal cities a series of lectures on the English humorists. One of his best novels, "The Newcomes," appeared in 1855, after his return to England. During his editorship of the London " Cornhill Magazine he wrote a series of articles under the title of "Roundabout Papers," which were deservedly popular. Thackeray had, during his life, his full share of abuse; but he manfully lived, or rather wrote it down. He died quite suddenly, in 1863. A Plea for Dunces, p. 74. Irving and Macaulay, p. 351. THEATRE or THEATER. THEREFORE (ther fore or thare' fore; the former is the preferred mode). THOMSON, JAMES, author of "The Seasons," a poem, was born in 1700, at Ednam, in Roxburgshire, England, where his father was a clergy man. James studied for several years at the University of Edinburgh, removed to London in 1726, and in 1730 published the whole of his celebrated poem, parts of which had previously appeared. It was remarkably successful. The style is in some parts pompous and inflated, but the closeness with which he has observed external nature has seldom been surpassed; and the poetic intuition with which he apprehends the features of a landscape, and the moral associations which clothe it with the finest part of its beauty, is keen and unerring. Thomson wrote tragedies, but they are now forgotten. His "Castle of Indolence," however, is a noble specimen of poetic art. It is Thomson's greatest poem, and on it he lavished the wealth of his ripened genius. Living in a cottage at Kew, the poet caught cold in sailing up the Thames, and died of fever in 1748. He was a friendly, shy, and indolent man. Hymn of the Seasons, p. 331. THRALLDOM or THRALDOM. TI'ARA (ti-air'a). TIN'CHEL, a circle of sportsmen, who, by surrounding a great space, and gradually narrowing, brought immense quantities of deer together. TINY (ti'ny or tin'y). To (generally pronounced too, the oo rather short). TOBIN, JOHN, an English dramatist, born at Salisbury, England, 1770, died 1804. He wrote the " HoneyMoon," from which see an extract, p. 73. TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE (tokʼvil), a distinguished French statesman and writer, author of "Democracy in America," was born at Verneuil in France, July 29, 1805, died 1859. See an eloquent account of his life by his friend Beaumont, p. 132. Quotations from De Tocqueville, pp. 337, 338. Democracy adverse to Socialism, p. 299. An American Wilderness, p. 358. TORTOISE (tor'tiz or tor'tis). TOWARD or TOWARDS, prep. (to'urd or to'urdz). TOWARD, adj. (to'wurd). TOULMAIN, DR., an English scientific writer; quoted, p. 469. TRANSVERSE, adj. (trans-vers'), running or passing in a cross direction. TRANSITION (tran-sizh'un). TRAVELER or TRAVELLER. TULLY, the Anglicized name of Tul- This word is from the Latin unio, oneness, which is from unus, one. UPPER BENJAMIN, the obsolete name VANE, SIR HENRY, was born in Had- VERRES (věr'rēz). See Cicero's VINCENT, CHARLES, a French song- VISOR (viz'or). WALLACE, SIR WILLIAM, the national hero of Scotland, is supposed to have been born about the year 1270. He gained several battles over the English,but was inhumanly executed in London, in 1305. See WAN (won, not wăn). fable runs that the Jew, racked with WARE, HENRY, an American clergy- Counsels of Washington, p. 87. He removed to Boston in 1816, was | sent to Congress from that city in 1822, and from that time up to the period of his death was in public life, distinguishing himself by many remarkable efforts of eloquence, which place him in the front rank of great orators, with Demosthenes, Chatham, Mirabeau, Grattan, and Patrick Henry. Webster's style is distinguished at once for elegance, simplicity, and strength; rising at fitting times into the highest region of eloquence and beauty. Singularly clear and impressive as he is in argument, his sparing use of rhetorical embellishments render them all the more effective whenever they are introduced into his diction. Appealing generally to the reason only, he can also rouse the passions as by a thunder-peal when he would rise to the height of a great occasion, by enlisting the moral and emotional nature in sympathy with his cause. Of his political course it has been truly said, that the key to it is "the belief that when the Union is dissolved, the internal peace, the vigorous growth and prosperity of the States, and the welfare of their inhabitants, are blighted forever, and that, while the Union endures, all else of trial and calamity which can befall a nation may be remedied or borne." Declaration of Independence,p.96. Washington and Union, p. 197. The Constitution, p. 342. WELLINGTON, ARTHUR WELLESLEY, duke of Wellington, was born in Ireland, May 1, 1769, died 1852. He is regarded as the greatest of English generals. In 1815 he won the battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. After retiring from active military service, he exercised great political influence in the cabinet. WILLFUL or WILFUL. WIRT, Wм., an eminent American Burr and Blennerhassett, p. 321. WILSON, JOHN, a poet and magazine writer, was born in Paisley, Scotland, 1785. Educated at Oxford, he put forth, in 1812, the "Isle of Palms," and soon afterward the City of the Plague," and "Unimore," the principal contributions of his fanciful and capricious muse. There is a soft, liquid flow of musical expression in these poems, with a vague, dreamy wildness and pathos, in combination with an exuberant fancy. It is as a prosewriter, however, that Wilson takes rank among the literary Titans of his native land. In 1820 he became connected with Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, where he wrote, under the name of Christopher North, a series of political and literary papers which attracted great attention. He died 1854. Address to a Wild Deer, p. 162. WILSON, HENRY, Senator of the United States, was born in Farmington, N. H., 1812, of poor parents. He was elected to the U. S. Senate from Massachusetts, as successor of Edward Everett, in 1855. WILSON, ALEXANDER, the celebrated His In 1797 he had conceived a plan for the regeneration of English poetry. In 1798 he published, in conjunction with Coleridge, a collection of "Lyrical Ballads." Most of these were from his own pen; but the book, so far from making converts to his way of thinking, was very generally abused and ridiculed by the critics. Still, many of his readers sympathized with his views, and through their encouragement, he was induced to publish, in 1807, two other volumes of poetry. In 1814 was published his great work, "The Excursion." On its appearance, Jeffrey, the great Edinburgh critic, wrote of it, "This will never do." And yet it has been doing ever since, more and more every year. Coleridge describes it as being characterized by "an austere purity of language, both graminatically and logically." In 1813 Wordsworth removed to Rydal Mount, among the lakes of Cumberland, which was his home for the rest of his life. From him and his companions, Southey and Coleridge, who resided near him for a time, the Lake School of poetry derived its name. Originally applied in contempt, it gradually grew to be the recognized title of Wordsworth and his disciples. Choosing the simplest forms of speech as the vehicle of their thoughts, the poets of this school took their subjects often from among the commonest things. really the greatest English poet of his time, but was regarded with a reverence due to him as one of the purest and most blameless of the poets who have enriched and enlarged the domain of English literature. In his poetry the soul of man is made to animate nature, as, in the Platonic philosophy, the Deity was the innate spirit of the universe. Nature inhabits him, and he inhabits nature, with a reciprocity of life-giving influence. He has widened the glance of faith, and hope, and charity, and has given to thehumblest daisy on the mountain-side " a voice "to bid the doubting sons of men be still." In 1843, on the death of Southey, Wordsworth became poet-laureate. He died on the 23d of April, 1850, a few days after the completion of his 80th year. From the Ode to Immortality, pp. 61, 62, 77. The Sonnet, p. 122. The Happy Warrior, p. 170. WOUND (woond or wownd). The chief remaining works of this great writer are "The White Doe of Rylstone"; "Ode on Immortali-YEARN (yern). ty"; "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent"; "Yarrow Revisited, and other Poems"; and "The Prelude," a fragment of autobiography, describing the growth of a poet's mind, and which was not published till the author was dead. In the composition of sonnets, a poetic form of which he was remarkably fond, he has not been excelled by the finest of the old masters. Before his death, Wordsworth, who on his appearance as a poet had been laughed at and abused by the leading critics, was not only acknowledged, and justly, to be His YOUNG, EDWARD, a poet and clergyman, was born near Winchester, England, in 1684; died 1765. poem of the "Night Thoughts," by which he is now chiefly known, was not completed till 1746, when he was 62 years old. It has many beauties and many defects. In its epigrammatic style, its frequent antitheses, and its perpetual ingenuity of strained analogies, it often invites criticism; but no one can dispute the compressed power of the language, and the appropriateness and elevation of much of the thought. Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. |