here and there his Christianity as Old as the Creation; or, the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature (London, 1730, 2nd ed., 1731; 3rd, 1732; 4th, 1733), which was regarded as the “Bible” of deism. It was really only the first part of the whole work, and the second, though written and entrusted in manu- script to a friend, never saw the light. The work evoked many replies, of which the ablest were by James Foster (1730), John Conybeare (1732), John Leland (1733) and Bishop Butler (1736). It was translated into German by J. Lorenz Schmidt (1741), and from it dates the influence of English deism on German theology. Tindal had probably adopted the principles it expounds before he wrote his essay of 1697. He claimed the name of “Christian deist,” holding that true Christianity is identical with the eternal religion of nature. He died at Oxford on the 16th of August 1733.
The religious system expounded in Christianity as Old as the Creation, unlike the earlier system of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was based on the empirical principles of Locke. It assumed the traditional deistic antitheses of external and internal, positive and natural, revelations and religions, and perpetuated at the same time the prevalent misconceptions as to the nature of religion and revelation. The system was worked out by the a priori method, with an all but total disregard of the facts of religious history. It starts from the assumptions that true religion must, from the nature of God and things, be eternal, universal, simple and perfect; that this religion can consist of nothing but the simple and universal duties towards God and man, the first consisting in the fulfilment of the second—in other words, the practice of morality. The author's moral system, somewhat confused and inconsistent, is essentially utilitarian. True revealed religion is simply a republication of the religion of nature or reason, and Christianity, if it is the perfect religion, can only be that republication, and must be as old as creation. The special mission of Christianity, therefore, is simply to deliver men from the superstition which had perverted the religion of nature. True Christianity must be a perfectly “reasonable service,” reason must be supreme, and the Scriptures as well as all religious doctrines must submit; only those writings can be regarded as divine Scripture which tend to the honour of God and the good of man. The strength of Tindal's position was the conviction of the essential harmony between man’s religious and rational nature. Its weakness from the standpoint of modern theology was that, like the whole religious philosophy of the time, it was founded on a misconception of religion and revelation, and on a disregard of the course of man's religious development.
See works quoted under Deism.
TINDER (O. Eng. tyndre, from tindan, tendan, to kindle, cf. Dan. tonder, Ger. anzunden), a term applied to any dry substance that will readily take light from a spark and so be used for kindling a fire. Before the invention of matches (see Match) fire or light was procured by the ignition of tinder through sparks obtained by the striking of flint against steel, the whole apparatus of tinder, flint and steel being contained in a metal box, which was an essential utensil of all households and was also carried on the person of everyone who might require a light in an emergency. The usual material of "tinder" was a mass of charred linen, but the term was also applied to "touchwood," or wood converted into an easily ignitible consistency by the action of certain fungi. Another form of "tinder" was "touchpaper," paper dipped in nitre and used as a slow-match for igniting gunpowder. In both these words " touch " stands for an earlier tach, tache or tasshe, tinder, of which the origin is unknown. It may be related to Du. tak, bough, twig, and would thus mean dried twigs used as tinder.
TINEO, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo;
on a small tributary of the river Narcea, among the northern
outliers of the Cantabrian Mountains, and on the high road from
Cangas de Tineo to the Biscayan port of Cudillero. Pop. (1900),
21,865. Mining, agriculture and stock-rearing are the principal
industries.
TINKER, an itinerant mender of kettles, pots, pans, &c.
The name means simply one who makes a tinkling sound as he
mends the vessels, and the word is found as "tinkler" in the
16th century. From early times "tinkers" were looked on as
vagabonds, and were so classed in the act of Elizabeth against
vagrancy.
TINNÉ, ALEXANDRINE PETRONELLA FRANCINA (1830–1869), Dutch traveller in Africa, born at the Hague on the 17th
of October 1839, was the daughter of Philip F. Tinné, a Dutch
merchant who settled in England during the Napoleonic wars,
but afterwards returned to his native land, and of his wife,
Baroness Van Steengracht-Capellan. Her father died when she
was five years old, leaving her the richest heiress in the Netherlands. After travelling in Norway, Italy and the East, and visiting Egypt, when she ascended the Nile to near Gondokoro,
Miss Tinn6 left Europe again in 1861 for the Nile regions. Ac-
companied by her mother and her aunt, she set out from Cairo
on the 9th of January 1862. After a short stay at Khartum the
party ascended the White Nile to a point above Gondokoro, and
explored a part of the Sobat, returning to Khartum in November.
Baron Theodor von Heuglin (q.v.) and Dr H. Steudner having
meantime joined the ladies at Khartum, the whole party set
out in February 1863 for the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The intention
was to explore that region and ascertain how far westward the
Nile basin extended; also to investigate the reports of a vast lake
in Central Africa eastwards of those already known — reports
referring in all probability to the lake-like expanses of the
middle Congo.
Ascending the Bahr-el-Ghazal the limit of navigation was reached on the 10th of March. From Meshra-er-Rek a journey was made overland, across the Bahr Jur and south-west by the Bahr Kosango, to Jebel Kosango, on the borders of the Niam-Niam country. During the journey all the travellers suffered severely from fever. Steudner died in April and Madame Tinné in June, and after many fatigues and dangers the remainder of the party reached Khartum in July 1864, where Miss Tinné’s aunt died. Miss Tinne returned to Cairo by Berber and Suakin. The geographical and scientific results of the expedition were highly important, as will be seen in Heuglin's Die Tinnesche Expedition im westlichen Nilgebiet (1863–1864 (Gotha, 1865), and Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nils Leipzig, 1869). A description, by T. Kotschy and J. Peyritsch, of some of the plants discovered by the expedition was published at Vienna in 1867 under the title of Plantes Tinnéennes. At Cairo Miss Tinné lived in Oriental style during the next four years, visiting Algeria, Tunisia and other parts of the Mediterranean. In January 1869 she started from Tripoli with a caravan, intending to proceed to Lake Chad, and thence by Wadai, Darfur and Kordofan to the upper Nile. On the 1st of August, however, on the route from Murzuk to Ghat, she was murdered, together with two Dutch sailors, by Tuareg in league with her escort, who believed that her iron water tanks were filled with gold.
See John A. Tinné's Geographical Notes of an Expedition in Central Africa by three Dutch Ladies (Liverpool, 1864), and Sir H. H. Johnston, The Nile Quest, ch. xvi. (London, 1903).
TINNEVELLY, a town and district of British India, in the
Madras presidency. The town is on the left bank of the Tambraparni river, on the other side of which is Palamcottah, the administrative headquarters of the district. Pop. (1901),
40,469. It is the terminus of a branch of the South Indian
railway, 444 m. S.W. of Madras. Its most noteworthy building
is a beautifully sculptured temple of Siva.
The District of Tinnevelly has an area of 5389 sq. m. It is for the most part a plain with an average elevation of 200 ft., sloping to the east with sh'ght undulations. It is watered by numerous short streams, the principal being the Tambraparni with a length of 80 m. The chief irrigation work is the Srivaikuntam anicut or dam on this river. In the north the scenery is unattractive and the soil poor; in the south red sandy soil prevails in which little save the Palmyra palm will grow. This palm yields toddy as well as a coarse sugar. Along the banks of the rivers are rice-fields and a variety of trees and crops; and coffee is grown on the slopes of the Travancore hills. The district contains many ancient and magnificent buildings. But the most interesting antiquities are the large sepulchral earthen urns of prehistoric races, which have been found at several places, especially along the course of the Tambraparni; they contain bones, pottery, beads and bronze ornaments, iron weapons, implements, &c. The South Indian railway has its maritime terminus at Tuticorin, the chief seaport. The
