THOMSON
THOEILD
contributed to the National Reformer. He
wrote over the initials "B. V.," or "Bysshe
Vanolis " (a combination of the names of
Shelley and Novalis). He was then a
militant Secularist. D. G. Eossetti drew
attention to the quality of his poetry ; but
he unfortunately lacked self-control in
respect to drink. Except that he acted
as mining agent in Colorado in 1872, and
as war correspondent in Spain in 1873, he
lived in poverty and obscurity in London
after 1866. His famous City of Dreadful
Night appeared in the National Reformer
from March to May, 1874, and was
reissued, with other poems, by Dobell in
1880. He quarrelled with Bradlaugh, and
for a time wrote scathing Eationalist articles
(collected in his Satires and Profanities,
1884) in the Secularist. He issued several
other volumes of essays and verse, but his
unhappy weakness enfeebled his power
and ruined his life. D. June 3, 1882.
THOMSON, Charles Otto, Swedish writer and lecturer. B. Jan. 3, 1833. Thomson went to sea in his youth, and became a captain. He afterwards engaged in business at Eskilstuna, where he founded, and was president of, a Utilitarian Society in 1888. He was an associate editor and business manager of the Eationalist Fritan- karen, for which he translated many articles by British and American Freethinkers. He lectured also, and gave energetic support to the work of V. Lennstrand. When Lenn- strand was in prison, he got up a petition, with ten thousand signatures, to protest against the brutal treatment of the Swedish leader. Very generous all his life, he was in the end deserted by his children on account of his Eationalist propaganda, and died in a poor-house at Stockholm in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
THOREAU, Henry David, American writer. B. July 12, 1817. Ed. Harvard University. Thoreau was not brilliant in academic work, but from a very early age he was a keen lover and student of nature. At the age of twelve he made a collection 795
for Agassiz. He took to teaching after
leaving Harvard, but presently abandoned
the school for writing and. lecturing. By
that time he had become a Transcendentalist
of the Concord school, and a great friend of
Emerson. He lived a life of great sim
plicity, and supported himself chiefly by
surveying and farm-work. In 1845 he
retired to live for two years in a hut he
had built at Walden, a very solitary place,
and from his experiences he wrote his
beautiful Walden, or Life in the Woods
(1854). He left Walden in 1847, and
supported himself by making lead-pencils.
His other principal work is his Excursions
(1863). Thoreau was more artistic than
philosophical, but there was very little
mysticism about him. C. J. Woodbury
best describes his opinions in his Talks
with Emerson (pp. 93-94). Thoreau used
to quote the line of Ennius : "I say there
are gods, but they care not what men do."
When Parker Pillsbury wished to discuss
religion with him in the last year of his
life, he said : " One world at a time." D.
May 6, 1862.
THORILD, Professor Thomas, Swedish poet. B. Apr. 18, 1759. Ed. Lund. In 1779 Thorild settled at Stockholm and engaged in literature. A great admirer of Ossian and of Klopstock, he opposed the French fashion, and popularized German and English literature. From 1788 to 1790 he was in England, and some of his verse was written in English. After his return to Sweden he was banished on account of the advanced ideas expressed in his Arligheten. He was as keen a critic of theology as of political reaction, and was a warm advocate of the emancipation of women. His views are best given in his Maximum, sive Archimetria (1799), and in various parts of his Samlade Skriften (2 vols., 1873-74). In 1795 he was appointed professor of Swedish literature at Greifswald, where he remained until his death. Thorild did much by his critical writings for the development of a native poetry in Sweden. D. Oct. 1, 1808.
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