[Texas] (2,236, including 493 coloured), the largest of the United States of America, in the extreme SW., fronts the Gulf of Mexico for 400 m. between Mexico (W.) and Louisiana (E.); has an area more than twice that of the British Isles, exhibiting a great variety of soil from rich alluvial valleys and pastoral prairies to arid deserts of sand in the S. Climate in the S. is semi-tropical, in the N. colder and drier. The useful metals are found in abundance, but agriculture and stock-raising are the chief occupations, Texas being the leading cattle-raising and cotton State in the Union; seceded from the republic of Mexico in 1835, and was an independent State till 1845, when it was annexed to the American Union. Austin is the capital and Galveston the principal port.
[Texel] (7), an island of North Holland, situated at the entrance to the Zuider Zee and separated from the mainland by a narrow strait called the Marsdiep, the scene of several memorable naval engagements between the Dutch and English; staple industries are sheep and dairy farming.
[Tezcuco] (15), a city of Mexico which, under the name Acolhuacan, was once a centre of Aztec culture, of which there are interesting remains still extant; is situated on a salt lake bearing the same name, 25 m. NE. of Mexico City.
[Thackeray, William Makepeace], novelist, born in Calcutta, educated at the Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge; after leaving college, which he did without taking a degree, travelled on the Continent, making long stays at Rome and Paris, and "the dear little Saxon town (Weimar) where Goethe lived"; his ambition was to be an artist, but failing in that and pecuniary resources, he turned to literature; in straitened circumstances at first wrote for the journals of the day and contributed to Punch, in which the well-known "Snob Papers" and "Jeames's Diary" originally appeared; in 1840 he produced the "Paris Sketch-Book," his first published work, but it was not till 1847 the first of his novels, "Vanity Fair," was issued in parts, which was followed in 1848 by "Pendennis," in 1852 by "Esmond," in 1853 by "The Newcomes," in 1857 by "The Virginians," in 1862 by "Philip," and in 1863 by "Denis Duval"; in 1852 he lectured in the United States on "The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," and in 1855 on "The Four Georges," while in 1860 he was appointed first editor of Cornhill. When "Vanity Fair" was issuing, Mrs. Carlyle wrote her husband: "Very good indeed; beats Dickens out of the world"; but his greatest effort was "Esmond," which accordingly is accounted "the most perfect, artistically, of his fictions." Of Thackeray, in comparison with Dickens, M. Taine says, he was "more self-contained, better instructed and stronger, a lover of moral dissertations, a counsellor of the public, a sort of lay preacher, less bent on defending the poor, more bent on censuring man; brought to the aid of satire a sustained common-sense, great knowledge of the heart, consummate cleverness, powerful reasoning, a store of meditated hatred, and persecuted vice with all the weapons of reflection... His novels are a war against the upper classes of his country" (1811-1863).
[Thaïs], an Athenian courtezan who accompanied Alexander the Great on his expedition into Asia; had children after his death to Ptolemy Lagi.
[Thalberg, Sigismund], a celebrated pianist, born at Geneva; early displayed a talent for music and languages; was intended and trained for a diplomatic career, but, overcoming his father's scruples, followed his bent for music, and soon took rank as one of the most brilliant pianists of the age; "Thalberg," said Liszt, "is the only pianist who can play the violin on the key-board"; composed a large number of pianoforte pieces, chiefly fantasias and variations (1812-1871).
[Thales], philosopher of Greece, and one of her seven sages; was a philosopher of the physical school, and the father of philosophy in general, as the first to seek and find within Nature an explanation of Nature; "the principle of all things is water," he says; "all comes from water, and to water all returns"; flourished about the close of the 7th century B.C.
[Thalia], one of the [three Graces] (q. v.), as also of the [nine Muses] (q. v.).
[Thallium], a rare metallic element similar to lead, but heavier, discovered in 1861 by the green in the spectrum in the flame as it was being volatilised.
[Thames], the most important river of Great Britain, formed by the junction at Lechdale of four head-streams—the Isis, Churn, Coln, and Leach—which spring from the SE. slope of the Cotswold Hills; winds across the southern midlands eastwards till in a wide estuary it enters the North Sea; forms the boundary-line between several counties, and passes Oxford, Windsor, Eton, Richmond, London, Woolwich, and Gravesend; navigable for barges to Lechdale, and for ocean steamers to Tilbury Docks; tide is felt as far as Teddington, 80 m.; length estimated at 250 m.