to encourage the study of comparative philosophy,
religion, and science; and (3) to investigate the occult secrets of
nature and the latent possibilities of man. The principal books in
exposition of it are, "The Secret Doctrine," "Isis Unveiled," "The Key to
Theosophy," by Mme. Blavatsky; "Esoteric Buddhism," "The Occult World,"
&c., by Sinnett; "The Ancient Wisdom," "The Birth and Evolution of the
Soul," &c., by Annie Besant.

THERAPEUTAE, a Jewish ascetic sect in Egypt, who lived a life of
celibacy and meditation in separate hermitages, and assembled for worship
on Sabbath.

THERMO-DYNAMICS, name given to the modern science of the relation
between heat and work, which has established two fundamental principles,
that when heat is employed to do work, the work done is the exact
equivalent of the heat expended, and when the work is employed to produce
heat, the heat produced is exactly equivalent to the work done.

THERMOPYLAE (i. e. "the hot gates"), a famous pass in N. Greece,
the only traversable one leading southward into Thessaly, lies 25 m. N.
of Delphi, and is flanked on one side by Mount Oeta, and on the other by
the Maliac Gulf (now the Gulf of Zeitouni); for ever memorable as the
scene of Leonidas' heroic attempt with his 300 Spartans to stem the
advancing Persian hordes under Xerxes (480 B.C.); also of Greece's
futile struggles against Brennus and the Gauls (279 B.C.), and Philip
the Macedonian (207 B.C.)

THERSITES, a deformed Greek present at the siege of Troy,
distinguished for his insolent raillery at his betters, and who was slain
by Achilles for deriding his lamentation over the death of
PENTHESILEA (q. v.).

THESEUS, legendary hero of Attica, and son of AEgeus, king of Athens;
ranks second to Hercules, captured the Marathonian bull, and slew the
MINOTAUR (q. v.) by the help of ARIADNE (q. v.); waged war against the
Amazons, and carried off the queen; assisted at the Argonautic
expedition, and is famed for his friendship for Perithous, whom he aided
against the Centaurs.

THESPIS, the father of Greek tragedy, hence Thespian art for the
drama.

THESSALONIANS, EPISTLE TO THE, epistles of St. Paul to the Church at
Thessalonica; of which there are two; the first written from Corinth
about A.D. 53 to exhort them to beware of lapsing, and comforting them
with the hope of the return of the Lord to judgment; the second, within a
few months after the first, to correct a false impression pr