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THENARD 337 THEODOLITE for several years was coeditor of the "Annals of Chemistry" and "Annals of Physics and Chemistry." He died in Paris June 21, 1857. THEOBALD, LEWIS, an English writer; born in Sittingboume, England, about 1690; was brought up to the pro- fession of the law, but early turned his attention to literature. Pope was meanly jealous of him, and ridiculed him in his "Dunciad." Theobald, however, had his revenge, his edition of Shakespeare (1733) completely supplanting Pope's. He did great service to literature by this painstaking work, many of his emenda- tions having been adopted by subsequent editors. He died in September, 1744. THEOCRACY, that government of which the chief is, or is believed to be, God himself, the priests being the pro- mulgators and expounders of the divine commands. The most notable theocratic government of all times is that estab- lished by Moses among the Israelites. THEOCRITUS, a Greek poet; a native of Syracuse and son of Praxagoras and Philina. Suidas, however, says that some made him the son of Simichus or Si- machidas, and that he was a native of Cos and only a metoikos at Sjrracuse. This statement vanishes on investigation. Theocritus seems to have been intimately associated with the poet Aratus, author of the "Phasnomena." The court of the Ptolemies was the mart of intellect then; and it is known that Theocritus at least once in his life visited that great center of poetry and philosophy. More than one of his idylls may have been written there. His 10th "Idyll" was unquestion- ably written at Syracuse, after the ac- cession of Hiero (270 B. c). The infer- ence from all that can be gleaned from the poet himself as to his period, is that he flourished 284-262 B. C. It is at least certain that Theocritus was in Syracuse during the reign of Hiero II., and it is extremely probable that his 16th "Idyll" was written after that monarch's alli- ance with the Romans, 263 B. C. How he spent his later years is wholly unknown. The genuineness of some of the idylls is disputed. This could hardly be otherwise. But the chief glory of Theocritus lies in his being the founder of a fresh and fertile school of poetry. Bion and Moschus, a little later, achieved distinction in the same walk. Vergil drawing from the same sweet well en- riched Roman literature with poems of marvelous beauty, however inferior to those of his prototype. His idylls might have been written yesterday. In charac- ter they are mimetic and dramatic. In- nocence, simplicity, fidelity — ^the charac- teristics of the early Sicilian race — con- stitute his objective theme. The "Adon- iazusae," a masterpiece of depiction of female character, is characterized throughout by genuine dramatic force and spirit. M ^ THEOCRITUS It may be mentioned that the pieces, the genuineness of which is disputed, are the 12th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 26th, 27th, 29th, 30th. For full information on the integrity of the poems, the reader is referred to the works of Eichstadt (1794); E. Rheinhold (1819), and A. Wissova (1828), with the prefaces of Wharton, Meineke and Wiistemann, in their editions of Theocritus. The editio princeps of the idylls without place or date is supposed to have been printed at Venice in 1481. The next is the Aldine (1495). More recent editions are those of Wharton (1770); Brunck (1772); Gaisford (1816, 1820-1823); Meineke (1825); Wustermann (1830); Words- worth (1844), and Paley (1863). One of the best versions in verse is C. S. Cal- verly's (1869), Andrew Lang's prose ver- sion (1889) may be commended. THEODICY, a philosophy, a vindica- tion of the Deity in respect of the organi- zation of the world and the freedom of the human will. The term is specially applied to a defense of theism against atheism, which Leibnitz undertook by publishing in 1710, his "Essay on The- odicy," respecting the goodness of God, the liberty of man, and the origin of the Bible. THEODOLITE, a most important in- strument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles, but particularly adapted for accurately measuring the former. Its principle is identical with that of the altitude and azimuth instrument; the