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THA

used for a certain paffage of fcripture, chofen by a preacher Texture to be the subject of his fermon.

[ 40 TEX Teutonic The Teutonic language is fuppofed to have been the lanof the ancient Germans, and hence is reckoned aguage mongst the mother-tongues. See PHILOLOGY, n° 219. TEUTONIC Order, an order of military knights, established towards the clofe of the twelfth century, on the following occafion. When the emperor Barbaroffa engaged in a crufade for the recovery of the Holy Land out of the hands of Saladin, he was followed by great numbers of German volunteers, who from various motives enlifted under his banAfter the death of Barbaroffa, the Germans, who had fignalized themselves before Acre or Ptolemais, refolved to choose another leader; and at last fixed their choice upon Frederic duke of Suabia, fecond fon to the emperor, and Henry duke of Brabant. Under thefe generals they be haved with fo much bravery, that Henry king of Jerufalem, the patriarch, and feveral other princes, determined to reward their valour by inftituting an order of knighthood in their favour. This was accordingly done; and our new knights had at firft the title of the knights of St George; afterwards it was thought proper to put them under the tutelage of the Virgin Mary, to whom there was already an hofpital dedicated on Mount Zion, for the relief of German pilgrims. From this time they were called Equites Mariani, or knights of St Mary. Laws, regulations, and ftatutes, were drawn up for them by the Chriftian kings in Syria and the patriarch; and among other obligations it was required, that every perfon admitted to the privileges of the order fhould be of noble parentage; that the order fhould defend the Chriftian religion and the Holy Land; that they fhould exercife hofpitality towards the Chriftians in general, but particularly thofe of their own country; and that they should with all their power endeavour to propagate and extend the Chriftian faith and the religion of JESUS. In the year 1190, having become rich by donations from the fuperftitious, they elected their first grandmafter, Henry Walpot, a German, who had diftinguished himself by his zeal and valour; and their choice was confirmed by the emperor. The following year, pope Celeftine III. confirmed their privileges already granted, giving them the title of the Teutonic knights of the hofpital of St Mary the Virgin. By the conditions of this bull, they vowed perpetual continence, obedience, and poverty, obligations which it may well be imagined were not very strictly kept. See POLAND, no 59, 61, 67—69. and PRUSSIA, n ́3, 4. TEWKESBURY, a town in Gloucefterfhire, formerly noted for its monaftery. It is now a large handfome corporation, containing about 500 houfes, with a magnificent church. It is feated at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Avon, has a cotton manufactory, and fends two members to parliament. W. Long. 2. 11. N. Lat. 52. o. TEXEL, a town of the United Provinces, in north Holland, feated at the mouth of the Zuyder-Zee, with a It is feated in a fruitful good harbour, and a strong fort. inland, known all over the world by the great number of fhips that pass this way every day from all parts; it is about fix miles long, and five broad, lying a little northward to the continent of Holland, between which and the island is one of the principal paffages out of the Zuyder-Zee into the ocean. It is defended from the fea by fand hills and ftrong banks. Moft of the foil is applied to feed fheep, of which they have great flocks; and the cheefe made of their milk is faid to vie with the Parmefan. This ifland contains feveral fair villages, and a town on the eaft fide, called Burch, ftrongly fortified and garrifoned, and inhabited chiefly by fishermen. N. Lat. 53. 8. E. Long. 4.51.

Nugent's Grand Tour, vol. i.

TEXT, a relative term, contradiftinguished to glofs or commentary, and fignifying an original difcourfe exclufive of any note or interpretation. This word is particularly VOL. XVIII. Part II.

TEXTURE, properly denotes the arrangement and cohefion of several slender bodies or threads interwoven or entangled among each other, as in the webs of fpiders, or in the cloths, ftuffs, &c.

Texture is alfo ufed in fpeaking of any union or confti-
tuent particles of a concrete body, whether by weaving,
hooking, knitting, tying, chaining, indenting, intruding,
compreffing, attracting, or any other way. In which fenfe
we fay, a clofe compact texture, a lax porous texture, a
regular or irregular texture, &c.

TEWIT, in ornithology. See TRINGA.
THABOR. See TABOR.

Some

THALES, a celebrated Greek philofopher, and the first of the feven wife men of Greece, was born at Miletus about 640 B. C. In order to improve himself in the knowledge of the fciences, he travelled into Egypt, where he difcourfed with the priests and other learned men. fay that he married; but others obferve, that he eluded the folicitations of his mother on this head, by telling her, when he was young, that it was too foon; and afterwards, that it was two late. Thales acquired great reputation by his wifdom and learning: he was the first among the Greeks who foretold eclipfes of the fun, and made extraordinary difcoveries in aftronomy. Thales was the author of the Tonian fect of philofophers, who were thus called from his being born at Miletus, a city of Ionia. He maintained that water was the principle of which all the bodies in the universe are compofed; that the world was the work of He faid, "That the most difficult thing in God; and that God fees the most fecret thoughts in the heart of man. the world is to know ourselves; the most easy to advise others; and the moft fweet to accomplish our defires. "That, in order to live well, we ought to abftain from what we find fault with in others. That the bodily felicity confifts in health, and that of the mind in knowledge. That the moft ancient of beings is God, because he is uncreated: that nothing is more beautiful than the world, because it is the work of God; nothing more extenfive than space, quicker than fpirit, ftronger than neceffity, wifer than time.' It was alfo one of his fentences, "That we ought never to fay that to any one that may be turned to our prejudice; and that we fhould live with our triends as with perfons that may become our enemies." He thanked God for three things; that he was born of the human, not of the brute fpecies; a man, and not a woman; a Greek, and not a barbarian. None of the ancient philofophers ever applied themselves more earneftly to the ftudy of aftronomy than Diogenes Laertius reports, that leaving his lodThales. ging with an old woman to contemplate the stars, he fell into a ditch; on which the good woman cried, "How canft thou know what is doing in the heavens, when thou canft not perceive what is at thy feet?" He went to fee Crefus, who was marching with a powerful army into Cap. Thales died foon after, at about 90 padocia, and enabled him to pafs the river Halys without He compofed feveral treatises in verfe, on making a bridge. years meteors, the equinoxes, &c. but they are all loft. THALIA, in Pagan mythology, one of the nine mufes. She prefided over Comedy; and is reprefented crowned with a garland of ivy, holding a mafk in her hand, and wearing bufkins on her feet.

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THALIA, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the clafs of monandria, and order of monogynia; and in the natural fyftem ranging under the 8th order, Scitaminca. The 3 E corolla is pentapetalous and undulated; and the drupe has a

bilu

Thalia.

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