TENNANT, Smithson, a distinguished English chemist, was born at Selby in Yorkshire on the 30th of November, 1761. He studied first at Edinburgh under Dr. Black, and afterwards at Cambridge, where he took the degrees of M.B. and M.D., but he never practised. He undertook several journeys on the continent in order to make the acquaintance of Scheele, Lavoisier, and other eminent chemists. After residing for several years partly in the Temple at London, and partly at Cheddar in Somersetshire, he was elected in 1813 professor of chemistry at Cambridge. This office he held but a very short time, for on February 22, 1815, he was killed by falling from his horse in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. His chemical researches would have been more numerous and important, had it not been for the extreme delicacy of his health. He discovered the metals osmium and iridium. He analyzed carbonic acid, and confirmed the views of Lavoisier on the nature of the diamond. He showed the chemical identity of emery and sapphire, explained the reason of the injurious effects of magnesian limestone in agriculture, and excelled in the use of the blow-pipe, to which his attention had first been directed by Gahn of Fahlun.—J. W. S.
TENNANT, William, LL.D., an accomplished scholar and poet, was a native of Anstruther in Fife—the birthplace of Dr. Chalmers—and was born in 1784. He had the misfortune, in childhood, to lose the use of his feet, and was obliged through life to move on crutches. He was, in consequence, educated for the profession of a teacher. He attended the United college, St. Andrews, during two sessions, and made rapid progress in his classical studies; but his straitened circumstances prevented him from completing his curriculum. In 1803-4 he acted as clerk to his brother, a corn factor, whose failure in business, however, left William to prosecute without interruption the study of Hebrew, and of various other languages, which he mastered with astonishing rapidity. In 1811 he published his best known poem "Anster Fair," which fortunately attracted the notice of Lord Woodhouselee, the accomplished scholar and critic, and obtained a favourable criticism in the Edinburgh Review. In 1813 Tennant was appointed schoolmaster of Denino parish, situated half way between Anstruther and St. Andrews, and here, with no other teacher than books, he made himself master of the Syriac, Persian, and Arabic languages. In 1816 he was promoted to the office of schoolmaster of Lasswade; three years later he obtained the situation of teacher of the classical and oriental languages in the academy of Dollar; and finally in 1834 he was nominated by the crown, professor of oriental languages in St. Mary's college, St. Andrews. In the discharge of the congenial duties of this office the amiable and learned poet passed the remainder of his peaceful life. He died in 1848 in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Besides "Anster Fair," Professor Tennant was the author of "Papistry Storm'd;" the "Thane of Fife," an epic poem; "Cardinal Beaton," a tragedy in four acts; "John Baliol;" and "Hebrew Dramas;" but none of these productions equal in merit his first poem, and most of them must be regarded as failures.—J. T.
TENNEMANN, Wilhelm Gottlieb, a celebrated German philosopher, was born at Brembrach, near Erfurt, 7th December, 1761. Sickness and improper methods of instruction adopted by his father, prevented his mental progress in early life. In 1778 he went to the school of Erfurt, and in 1779 to the university of the same place, where he devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of philosophy. In 1781 he repaired to the university of Jena, where the study of Kant's works led him to become a warm disciple of that philosopher. In 1798 he was appointed professor extraordinary of philosophy there. In 1804 he was called to Marburg as ordinary professor of philosophy, where he continued till his death, 30th September, 1819. From 1816 he was second university librarian. The merits of Tennemann lie in his important contributions to the history of philosophy. He collected materials with great industry and talent. Whoever wishes to study the various systems of philosophy which have been promulgated, will be materially assisted by Tennemann. He is deficient, however, in logical analysis and dialectic acuteness. Hence he is liable to confuse, rather than to enlighten, those who do not make sufficient allowance for his own standpoint of criticism. He could not penetrate independently into the depths of the systems, or even of the most important ideas lying at their basis. He wrote—"Lehren und Meinungen der Sokratiker ueber Unsterblichkeit der Seele," 1791; "System der Platonischen Philosophie," 4 vols., 1792-94; "Geschichte der Philosophie," 11 vols., 1798-1819. This is his principal and best work, but it is incomplete. A compendium of it appeared with the title "Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie," 1812; fifth edition by Wendt, 1828. Tennemann translated Hume (Untersuchung ueber den menschlichen Verstand), 1793; Locke (Versuch ueber den menschlichen Verstand), 3 vols., 1795-97; Degerando's Vergleichender Geschichte der Systeme der Philosophie, 2 vols., 1806-7. He also wrote articles and papers in periodicals.—S. D.
TENNENT, Sir James Emerson, Knight, LL.D., author and official, was born in 1804 in Belfast, where his father, William Emerson, Esq., was a merchant. He was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and assisted the Greeks in their struggle for independence, serving their cause as a combatant both by sea and land. This connection with Greece produced his personal narrative, one of three, contributed to "A Picture of Greece in 1825," published in 1826; his "Letters from the Ægean," 1829; and his "History of Modern Greece from its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time," 1830. In 1831 he married the only daughter and heiress of the late William Tennent, Esq., banker in Belfast; and on the death of his father-in-law in 1832, he assumed the name of Tennent. Called to the bar at Lincoln's inn in 1831, he was elected in 1832 and 1835 M.P. for Belfast, and again represented his native place from 1842 till 1845. In September, 1840, on the formation of Sir Robert Peel's second ministry, he was appointed secretary to the India board, and retained that office until the fall of Sir Robert Peel in July, 1845. From July, 1845, to December, 1850, he was secretary to the colonial government of Ceylon, where he acquired the knowledge turned to successful account in his works, afterwards mentioned, on that island. Soon after his return home he was appointed secretary to the poor-law board, holding that office during Lord Derby's first administration from the February to the November of 1852, when he became one of the secretaries to the board of trade. He had published a work on Belgium in 1841, and in the same year, a "Treatise on the Copyright of Designs for Printed Fabrics." The questions treated of in the latter work received from him a parliamentary solution by the act 5 and 6 Vict., cap. 100, which he succeeded in carrying, and which, among other improvements of the previous legislation on the subject, considerably extended the periods of copyright in designs. For his exertions in procuring the passing of this act he received a testimonial in 1843. Knighted in 1845, Sir James Emerson Tennent published in 1855, "Wine, its Uses and Taxation; an inquiry into the operation of the wine duties on consumption and revenue," a treatise in which he expressed a doubt, among others, whether the production of wine on the continent could be increased so as to meet, at a cheap rate, the demand anticipated for it in this country by the advocates of the reduction of the wine duties to a minimum. In 1859 appeared his instructive and exhaustive work, the result of personal experience and explanation, "Ceylon, an Account of the Island, physical, historical, and topographical," which reached in 1860 a fifth edition. It had been preceded in 1850 by his "Christianity in Ceylon, with a historical sketch of the Brahminical and Budhist superstitions," and was followed in 1861 by "Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon." Sir James died on 6th March, 1869.—F. E.
* TENNYSON, Alfred, the poet-laureate, was born at Somerby in Lincolnshire, of which place his father was incumbent. He took his degree at Cambridge, and obtained the university prize for English verse. His first volume of poems, containing many of the pieces now familiar to every one, was published in 1830. A second volume appeared a few years later; but the entire collection known as "Tennyson's Poems" did not appear till 1842. It is to be regretted that some of the most beautiful compositions included in the earlier volumes have not been reprinted in the later editions. Among these we may particularize the charming poem entitled "Hero to Leander." Mr. Tennyson's principal subsequent publications are "The Princess," a medley, 1846; "In Memoriam," 1850; "Maud," 1854; "The Idylls of the King," 1858; and "Enoch Arden,"—a simple story, but containing many fine passages—1864. His sketch of the character of the late Prince Consort in the last edition of the "Idylls," is noticed in the article Albert, Prince. On the death of Wordsworth he was appointed poet-laureate, in 1851. Mr. Tennyson is married, and has a large family. His earlier poems did not at first obtain great general popularity, but their reputation slowly increased, as the judgment of the discerning few gradually influenced the public taste. As in the case of
