THIERRY, JACQUES NICOLAS AUGUSTIN, French historian, born at Blois; came early under the influence of Saint-Simon, and during 1814-17 lived with him as secretary, assimilating his socialistic ideas and ventilating them in various compositions; Comte became his master next, and history his chief study, an outlet for his views on which he found in the Censeur Europeen, and the COURRIER FRANCAIS, to which he contributed his “Letters on French History” (1820); five years later appeared his masterpiece, the “Conquest of England,” to be followed by “Letters on History” and “Dix Ans d’Etudes” (1835), in which same year he was appointed librarian at the Palais Royal; in 1853 appeared his “Tiers Etat,” the last of his works; has been called the “father of romantic history,” and was above all a historical artist, giving life and colour to his pictures of bygone ages, but not infrequently at the cost of historic accuracy (1795-1856).

THIERS, LOUIS ADOLPHE, French statesman and historian, born at Marseilles, of parents in poor circumstances; studied law at Aix, became acquainted with Mignet the historian; went with him to Paris, and took to journalism; published in 1827 his “History of the French Revolution,” which established his rank as a writer; contributed to the July revolution; supported Louis Philippe, and was in 1832 elected a deputy for Aix; obtained a post in the ministry, and eventually head; was swept out of office at the revolution of 1848; voted for the presidency of Louis Napoleon, but opposed the coup d’etat; withdrew from public life for a time; published in 1860 the “History of the Consulate and the Empire” a labour of years; entered public life again, but soon retired; at the close of the Franco-German War raised the war indemnity, and saw the Germans off the soil; became head of the Provisional Government, and President of the Republic from 1871 to 1873; his histories are very one-sided, and often inaccurate besides; Carlyle’s criticism of his “French Revolution” is well known, “Dig where you will, you come to water” (1795-1877).

THING, name for a legislative or judicial assembly among the Scandinavians.

THINKER, THE, defined to be “one who, with fresh and powerful glance, reads a new lesson in the universe, sees deeper into the secret of things, and carries up the interpretation of nature to higher levels; one who, unperturbed by passions and undistracted by petty detail, can see deeper than others behind the veil of circumstance, and catch glimpses into the permanent reality.”

THIRLMERE, one of the lakes in the English Lake District, in Cumberland, 5 m.  SE. of Keswick; since 1885 its waters have been impounded for the use of Manchester, the surface raised 50 ft. by embankments, and the area more than doubled.