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THEOSOPHY 345 THERIDIID^ the effects of the past. Thus a trouble generated by past ac- tion is inevitable; it is in our Karma. But met badly, it sets up fresh cause for bad Karma in the future; or met well it generates good Karma. We made our present destiny in our past, and we are making our future destiny in our present. Reincarnation crushes out all differences of race, sex, class; Karma so interweaves human lives that each can only find hap- piness and perfection as all find it. It is claimed by theosophy that these facts in nature jdeld a scientific basis for ethics, and make the pi'actical recognition of hu- man brotherhood a necessary condition of accelerated evolution. The chief agent in founding the Theo- sophical Society was Madame H. P. Blavatsky, who, with Col. H. S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge, and others, established it in New York in 1875. In 1879 the head- quarters were transferred to Madras. In 1887 Madame Blavatskv visited London, from which epoch dates the great liter- ary activity that has recently character- ized it. There are now over 300 branches in Europe, India, American, and the colonies, and a large literature. The society has three declared objects, viz.: (1) To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without dis- tinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. (2) To encourage the study of compara- tive religion, philosophy, and science. (3) To investigate unexplained laws of na- ture and the powers latent in man. The society is unsectarian. No articles of faith need be subscribed to by an ad- herent, the only condition of membership being an assent to the first object. No dogmas are forced on members, as is the case with religions, and the teach- ings which are promulgated are merely propositions which can be verified by the student in the course of his progress in the study of occultism. Any individual member has a right to make any declara- tion of personal belief he pleases, on the understanding that the Society is not implicated. THERA, an island in the Grecian archipelago, the most S. of the Cyclades; 41 sq. m. It possesses extraordinary geological interest on account of the vol- canic transformations of which it has been the theater. The whole island is simply one side of a vast crater, the other side of which has sunk into the sea. From the site of the ancient center of volcanic energy small islands have at different times been raised, the last in 1866. Many volcanic convulsions have been witnessed and recorded in Thera during historic time; e. g., 198 B. C, A. D. 1573, A. D. 1710, besides the occurrences of 1866, when two small islands emerged. The soil is exceedingly fertile. THEBAPEUT^, an ascetic sect, sup- posed to live on Lake Mareotis, near Alexandria. Their discipline resembled that of the Essenes, but was more severe in food and in the preference for the solitary life to the common fellowship. Throughout the week each lived in his lonely dwelling, but on the Sabbath they assembled for worship. The sole author- ity for their existence, "The Contempla- tive Life," is not now attributed to Philo but to an early Christian writing about 300 A, D. THERAPEUTICS, the science which treats of the healing of diseases. It deals with the form, manner, and time in which drugs should be administered, if needful to administer them at all; it instxnicts how to avoid incompatible com- binations, and classifies remedial agents. Therapeutics also investigates the laws of health, and how it can be preserved. Another branch of it is dietetics. THERAPON, in ichthyology, a genus of Percidae, with about 20 species, some of which are more or less mai'ine, spread over the Indo-Pacific. Body oblong, compressed, with scales of moderate size; teeth villiform; branchiostegals six. They are all of small size, and may be readily recognized by the blackish longi- tudinal bands with which the body ia ornamented. THERIACA, originally a compound prepared by Andromachus of Crete, physician to the Emperor Nero, which continued in high repute till recent times. In Venice, Holland, France, and other places it had to be prepared with certain solemnities in the presence of the magis- trates. It received its name from the belief that it was an antidote to the poison of venomous creatures. The word treacle is a corruption of theriaca, and was first applied to a syrup, medicine, or electuary, and then, from similarity of appearance, to the uncrystallized residue obtained in the preparation of sugar, and known as molasses. THERIDIID^, in zoology, a very ex- tensive family of Dipneumoneee. Small or moderate-sized spiders, with the ab- domen generally large, as compared with the cephalothorax, and broadly ovate. Fore legs usually the longest; eyes in two transverse rows. These spiders- are found among foliage, and sometimes con- struct irregular webs. The species are most numerous in temperate climates.