adopted by the king towards his protestant subjects; and he contributed essentially to the publication of the celebrated edict of Nantes in 1598. He was no less zealous for the liberties of the Gallican church, and gave his strong opposition, at the conference of Fontainebleau in 1600, to the publication in France of the edicts of the council of Trent. After the death of Henry IV., he still continued in the ministry of the regency, but with diminished influence and favour. He was made one of three successors of Sully in the charge of the finances, an office which was entirely uncongenial to his tastes and wishes; and he was disappointed of the post of first president of the parliament of Paris, which, though promised him by Henry IV., and vacated by his brother-in-law, Achille de Harlay, in his favour, was bestowed upon another. These disappointments and disgusts affected him deeply, and without abandoning public life altogether, which for some time he contemplated, he sought solace in the more vigorous prosecution of his literary labours, which he had never, even in the busiest periods of his official career, entirely discontinued. It was in 1591 that, after collecting a vast mass of materials for the "History of his own Time," he first put his hand to the composition of that celebrated work. In 1601 he published the first eighteen books, preceded by an admirable epistle to Henry IV., in which he expounded the design of the work, and frankly expressed his views both of religion and politics. The work, as it appeared in successive parts, gave great and growing offence to the court of Rome, and was at last put into the Index Expurgatorius in 1609. He was loudly accused of leanings towards the new religion, because he had narrated with calm and impartial justice the crimes of its catholic persecutors. The publication of the "History," which extended to one hundred and thirty-eight books, was not completed at his death, and there were many suppressions of passages of his manuscript even in those parts of it which had then appeared; and it was not till 1733 that the whole was given to the world without any such omissions. This was an edition brought out in London in seven magnificent folios, by Thomas Carte, an Englishman, who had carefully examined and collated the manuscript copies of the work preserved in the Royal library of Paris, and other collections, and who was enabled to give the world the benefit of his labours, by the munificent aid of Dr. Richard Meade. From this complete edition of the Latin original was made the best French translation, in 16 vols., quarto, published in 1734. This immense work has long been esteemed the most perfect history of its kind which modern times have produced. It was formed upon the model of the classic historians of Greece and Rome, and has been exalted to a place of almost equal honour. "God," said the illustrious author, "who inspired me with the design, and has given me strength to execute it, is my witness that I have written it with the utmost exactness, and without partiality, and that I have only had in view his glory and the public good." De Thou appealed from the angry censures of his contemporaries to the judgment of posterity, and never was such an appeal more fully responded to. Even Bossuet invokes continually the authority "of the great author"—of "the faithful historian." Naturally the work is less entirely accurate in its treatment of foreign than of domestic affairs, and its French critics refer as an example of this to De Thou's account of the reign of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. He is thought to have pressed too hard upon the character of that princess, and to have relied too much upon the authority of George Buchanan. But De Thou could not be shaken in his conviction of the accuracy of that account by all the arguments of Camden, whom James I. employed to bring him to a more favourable opinion of his mother's conduct. The historian left "Memoirs of his Life," which came down to the year 1600, but it has been doubted whether these memoirs were throughout the work of his own hand. He was also the author of several poetical pieces, including a paraphrase of the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and several of the prophets. He died in Paris, 7th May, 1617, at the age of sixty-four, and was buried in the family chapel in the church of St. André-des-Arcs.—P. L.
THOUARS, Louis Marie Aubert du Petit, a distinguished French botanist, was born in Anjou in 1756, and died at Paris in May, 1831. He belonged to a noble family, and entered the army. At the same time he devoted attention to botany. At the time of the loss of La Perouse and his companions, he and his brother Aristide du Petit Thouars proposed to go in search of him. They accordingly sold their patrimony, and collected subscriptions with this view. By an unfortunate accident his brother sailed without him. In these circumstances he proceeded to the Isle of France in the hope of meeting his brother, but on arriving there he was disappointed. He took up his residence in the island, and by the aid derived from rich planters he was enabled to prosecute his botanical researches. He made large collections in the island, as well as in Madagascar, and acquired an extensive knowledge of vegetable structure and physiology. In 1802 he returned to Paris, and soon after published his "Histoire des Vegetaux des lies de France, de Bourbon et de Madagascar." He subsequently published other works on the flora of the South African islands; one of them is entitled "Genera nova Madagascarensia;" and another, "Histoire des Plantes orchidées des lies Australes d'Afrique." He devoted much attention to vegetable physiology, and he propounded peculiar views in regard to the formation of buds, the development of roots, the motion of the sap, and the origin of wood. These views are given in his "Essay on the Organization and the Vegetation of Plants," as well as in a record of his voyages and travels which he published at Paris. He wrote for the Biographic Universelle. A genus Thouarsia has been named after him, as well as a genus Aubertia.—J. H. B.
THOURET, Michael Augustin, a brother of Jacques Guillaume Thouret, was born at Pont-l'Eveque in 1748. He was educated as a physician, and obtained the degree of M.D. at Caen. In 1774 he came to Paris, and obtained by concours a gratuitous fellowship in the Faculty of Medicine. He was one of the first members of the Societé Royale de Médecine, and published several memoirs in their Transactions. In one of these he opposed the doctrines of Mesmer, at that time gaining some ascendancy. Thouret took a principal part in the exhumation of the bodies at the cemetery of the Holy Innocents, at that time the chief burying-place in Paris, and which had become, from the vast numbers buried there, a source of disease and offence to the surrounding population. The exhumation was effected in 1785; it took six months to accomplish, and Thouret made it the subject of a report. He received the appointments of inspector general of civil hospitals, member of the council of health of military hospitals, and physician to the department of police. His offices were suppressed in 1792, but his merits were recognized by subsequent governments. After the fall of Robespierre he was named professor and director in the École de Santé, and member of the council of health. He was president of the committee appointed to test the effects of vaccination. He died in June, 1810.—F. C. W.
THRASEA PÆTUS, Publius, was born of a noble and wealthy family at Patavium, or Padua, about a.d. 16. He embraced the tenets of the Stoics, and was remarkable for the integrity and purity of his life, as well as for his attachment to the ancient institutions of the Roman state. By venturing to oppose in the senate some of the most flagitious of Nero's measures, he made that tyrant his mortal enemy. The conspiracy of Piso afforded a favourable pretext for his destruction, and he was condemned to death, along with his friend Barea Soranus, in 66. on a false charge of being implicated in the conspiracy. His wife, Arria, killed herself at the same time, being resolved not to survive her husband.—G.
THRASYBULUS, an eminent Athenian commander, was the son of Lycus, and flourished about four hundred years before Christ. He was a zealous supporter of the Athenian democracy, and took an active part in opposing the oligarchical revolution in 411 b.c. He succeeded in overthrowing the partisans of the Four hundred in the camp at Samos, and obtained the recal of Alcibiades, who was then in exile at Magnesia. From this time he took a prominent part in the conduct of the war, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Arginusæ. On the re-establishment of the Thirty tyrants at Athens, Thrasybulus was driven into exile, and took refuge at Thebes. Having obtained a supply of arms and money from the Thebans, he put himself at the head of a small band of exiles, and seized the fortress of Phylê, 402 b.c. He soon after surprised and defeated a body of the enemy; and, encouraged by this success, he marched upon the Piræus, which fell into his hands; and after a war which lasted several months he expelled the tyrants, and restored the democracy at Athens. He afterwards commanded the Athenian fleet in the Ægean, and gained several victories; but he was slain by the inhabitants of Aspendus, 390 b.c. He was one of the wisest, most moderate, and generous citizens of Athens.—J. T.
