that had been mentioned by Bede. Sent at eighteen to London for a year to the house of a relative, to receive a mercantile training, he devoted himself more to antiquarian wanderings and researches than to business. From London he was despatched to Holland to learn Dutch and French, with a view to trade; but he studied Dutch with a philological rather than a commercial aim, and became afterwards a fair Anglo-Saxon scholar. In 1679 his father died, when he returned to Leeds, where he ever afterwards resided. He was not successful in business, from which he retired with a very moderate income in 1704. Meanwhile the museum which he had collected of antiquities, natural history, books, &c., had begun to attract attention and draw visitors to Leeds to inspect it. In 1715 he published his chief work, the "Ducatus Leodiensis, or the topography of the town and parish of Leeds," to which he affixed a descriptive catalogue of his museum. In 1724 appeared his "Vicaria Leodiensis, or history of the church of Leeds," containing a good deal of biographical matter. He died of paralysis in 1725. Thoresby was a pious, quiet, diligent man, of whose character a very favourable notion is given in the "Diary of Ralph Thoresby, now first published from the original manuscripts, by the Rev. Joseph Hunter," 2 vols., 1830, and extending from 1677 to 1724. Its appearance was followed by that of "Letters of eminent men addressed to Ralph Thoresby, now first published from the originals," his correspondents including Evelyn, Stukeley, Strype, Sir Hans Sloane, and Bishops Gibson and Nicholson. Among his antiquarian contributions to the works of others was the whole of the additional matter respecting the West Riding in Gibson's Camden. After his death his museum was gradually dispersed. In 1816 an edition of the "Ducatus" with additions, corrections, and a memoir of the author, was published by Whitaker the historian of Whalley.—F. E.
THORILD, Thomas, who has been called, not altogether inappropriately, the Swedish Carlyle, was born in Bohuslän on 18th April, 1759. He studied at Lund and Upsala, publicly disputing for a degree at the latter university in 1788 before Gustavus III. and his court, on the following theme—"A Critique on Montesquieu." The same year he came to England, where he remained until 1790, and then returned to Sweden. In 1792 he was brought to trial for a passage, considered revolutionary, in the preface to his "Essay on the Freedom of the Public Mind," and sentenced to four years' banishment. Removed to Greifswald, he subsequently became librarian and professor in the university there, and died on 1st October, 1808. This "djupsinniga ande" (profoundly speculative spirit), as Lénström justly styles him in his History of Swedish Literature, was at once poet, philosopher, critic, and political economist. His works are characterized alike by eccentricity and power. They appeared in a collected form, 1819-24, in 3 vols., under the editorship of Geijer.—J. J.
THORKELIN, Grim Jonsson, was a native of Iceland, and born on the 8th of October, 1752. In 1770 he was sent to receive his education at Copenhagen, where he mainly devoted himself to the study of antiquities. He edited several Icelandic works, and was appointed to various literary posts in the Danish capital. In 1786 he was sent by the king of Denmark to England, on an antiquarian tour of some years' duration. One of the most interesting things connected with Thorkelin's visit to this country, is his taking a copy of the famous Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, which had long lain unregarded in the Cottonian library. He published it at Copenhagen in 1815, and thus called attention to that remarkable literary relic. Thorkelin returned to Denmark in 1791, and continued to labour in the field which from the first he had so sedulously cultivated. He died at Copenhagen on the 4th of March, 1829.—J. J.
THORLAKSSON, Jon, was born at Selardal in Iceland on the 13th of December, 1744. He was the son of a clergyman, and himself priest of Grunnarik; but being accused of some act of immorality he was deprived of his living. A printing-office, however, having been about the same time established in Iceland, he was enabled to gain subsistence as a corrector of the press. Ultimately, in 1780, he was restored on certain conditions to the priesthood, and received a small living in the northern part of his native island. There he died on the 21st October, 1819, at the age of seventy-four. Although Thorlaksson wrote much poetry, his renown mainly rests on his Icelandic translation of the Paradise Lost. The great merits of this work are undeniable. It is composed in the "fornyrda-lag" measure, the oldest kind of Norse poetry, and very different from the blank verse of the original. Thorlaksson also translated Klopstock's Messiah, but with less success.—J. J.
THORLASKEN, Gudbrand, a learned prelate, was born in the district of Holum in Iceland in 1642. He studied at Copenhagen, and became bishop of Holum in 1670. He erected a printing-press, and printed some of his own works. He laboured zealously to foster literature in Iceland. He also executed a map of the island, afterwards engraved and published. His death occurred in 1729.—J. J.
THORNDIKE, Herbert, a learned divine and controversialist, and one of the ablest of the defenders of the Church of England. He was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. In 1642 Thorndike obtained the living of Barley in Hertfordshire, and in the following year was chosen master of Sidney college, Cambridge. He was a sufferer from the convulsions of the times, having been ejected from his rectory on the setting up of the Commonwealth. At the Restoration, however, he became again rector of Barley, and continued to hold that living till his appointment as a prebendary of Westminster, when he resigned it. Thorndike was a very accomplished orientalist, and gave great assistance to Dr. Walton in his celebrated edition of the Polyglott bible, particularly in marking the variations in the Syriac version of the Old Testament. But his principal literary labours were in defence of the Church of England. No man of his day watched more carefully, or with a steadier eye, the turnings and windings of the numerous ecclesiastical controversies which at that time occupied the English mind. The involved and interminable discussions which would have perplexed a weaker intellect, served only to keep his attention awake. His whole life was in a manner devoted to the study, and to the exposition and settlement, of the rights and duties that relate to the christian church; and it is his peculiar honour that in an age when party spirit and theological bitterness seem to have reached their height, he ever preserved a certain judicial calmness and moderation of mind. His works exercised an immense influence at the time of their publication, and indeed for many years after; but they have, strange enough, fallen latterly into neglect. Few now read them or even know of their existence, and yet there are scarcely any works of their kind that better deserve a careful and repeated perusal. It is not too much to say that they are well worthy of being ranked with the masterpieces of Hooker, Field, and Sanderson. We believe the chief reason why they are so little known lies in the peculiarity of Thorndike's style. There are few writings so difficult to read. His sentences are long, involved, and intricate. He is besides greatly given to digression—no knotty question that arises from the main subject being ever suffered to pass without a thorough discussing. It is thus that he would soon fatigue and disgust an ordinary reader. Yet is his argument ever perfectly clear and consecutive to any one who has strength and persistency enough to follow him. For though he has neither the eloquence of Hooker, nor the perspicuity of style that distinguishes the works of Field and Sanderson, yet is he in no degree inferior to any of these great writers in penetration, judgment, learning, and logical ability. Thorndike wrote "A Discourse concerning the Primitive Form of the Government of Churches;" "A Discourse of Religious Assemblies and the Public Service of God;" "A Discourse of the Rights of the Church in a Christian State, with a Review by way of Appendix" (this, which is one of the best and most interesting of Thorndike's works, was till lately a remarkably rare book. The Rev. Henry Christmas tells us when he was publishing his collection of tracts and treatises, entitled the Doctrine of the Anglican Church, as exhibited in the Writings of the Anglican Fathers, that he knew of the existence of only three copies. It was, however, republished in a neat octavo volume by Cleaver, London, in 1841); "Just Weights and Measures, that is, the present state of Religion weighed in the Balance, and measured by the Standard of the Sanctuary;" "A Discourse of the Penalties which a due Reformation requires;" "Origines Ecclesiæ, seu de ratione ac jure finiendi controversias ecclesiæ;" and "An Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England, in three books." This is also among the libri rarissime of modern times, and is, perhaps, Thorndike's principal work. The first book treats of the principles of christian truth, the second of the covenant of grace, and the third of the laws of the church. Thorndike took part in the discussion at the Savoy conference, well known as
