ivliieh the town has raihvaj' connection, is export- ed. Popidation, in 1900, 15,376. Talcahuano was fouiuled as a military post in 1780 and was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1835.
TALENT (Lat. talcntum, from Gk. ToXavrov,
tiihiiilun. talent, weight, balance; connected with
rXrivai, ilCntii, to bear, Lat. fullere, to lift, Skt.
ttihl. balance). The maximum unit of weight
and yalue among the Greeks; the equiyalent of
60 niiuff or 0000 drachnue. In the Homeric poems
the word is used in a diti'erent sense to signify
a small weight of gold, apparently of no great
value, since two talents are wortli less than a
handsome bronze caldron. While the name is
Greek, the weight came from Babylonia and
Pha^nicia. Here a s_ystem of 60 shekels to a
niina and 00 minse to a talent was employed in
early times, and in two forms, a 'common' and
a 'royal,' the latter being about one-twentieth
heavier than the common. Furthermore, botli
forms had a 'hea^'y' and a 'light' system, of
which the hitter was one-half the former. More-
over, in weighing gold, 50 shekels were reckoned
to a niina, or 3000 instead of 3600 to a talent.
For silver, again, a new standard was introduced,
so arranged that while the ratio in value of silver
to gold was 1 to 13%, the ratio of weight should
be 1 to 10 (Babylonian) or 1 to 15 (Phoenician).
The 'royal' forms seem also to have varied at dif-
ferent times. The Greeks, in borrowing these sys-
tems, naturally varied them somewhat, and we
therefore find considerable variety among the dif-
ferent Greek States. It is obvious that a very slight
variation in the weight of the shekel, or drachma,
would make a large dilTerence in the talent. Of the
chief Greek systems the -Eginetan is not exactly
identical with any of these Eastern standards,
but is perhaps connected with a Babj'lonian
'royal' form, and at any rate seems to have been
adapted to their trade with Asia Minor. This tal-
ent weighed about 37.8 kilograms. The other
common standard was the Euboic-Attic with a
talent of about 26 kilograms, which has been
usually connected with the common light Phosni-
cian standard, though recent writers prefer to
connect it with the Bahj-lonian. In Athens this
was used in reckoning money, while in the mar-
ket a talent of about 37 kilograms was em-
ployed. The yalue of the Attic silver talent,
which was not a coin, but a sum of money, was
about $1080. Consult Hill, Eandbook of (Jreek
and lloiiiun Coins (London, 1899).
TALE OF A TUB. (1) A comedy by Ben
Jonson, licensed in May, 1033, and printed in
folio in llUO. The first performance has been
conjectured to have been given either in 1601 or
in the winter of 1003-04. A revised version was
produced in 1634. (2) A religious satire by
Jonathan Swift, published anon.ymously in 1704.
It deals with the various alterations which three
brothers make in the coat which their father
has bequeathed to them. Peter stands for the
Roman Catholic Church, Martin for the Luther-
ans, and Jack ( from John Calvin ) for the ex-
treme Protestants.
TALE OF TWO CITIES, A. An historical
novel by Charles Dickens, first published in All
the Year h'oiind. April 30 to Xovember 26, 1859,
and immediately after in book form. Its
scene is laid partly in London and partly in Paris
during the French Revolution, of which it Dre-
sents striking pictures. It is regarded as the
most perfect in point of plot-construction of the
author's works. See Defarge, Tiierisse.
TALESMEN (from Lat. tales, nom. pi. of
talis, such, from the initial word in the summons
of the original Latin phrase tales de circiimstan-
tibus, such of the bystanders -f- Eng. men).
Men called to supply a deficiency in the num-
ber of jurors in a panel. In some jurisdic-
tions a list of competent men is kept by the
proper officials for this purpose, and in many
States, in an emergency, the court may call upon
bystanders to fill the panel. Jurors thus sum-
moned are called talesmen. See Jiry.
TALES OF A GRANDFATHER. A col-
lection of historical pictures by Sir Walter Scott,
the first two series ( 1828-29)" dealing with Eng-
land, the third (1830) with Scotland, and the
fourth (1830) with France. They are put in ex-
tremely simple and popular form, and were in-
tended by the author for children.
TALES OF A TRAVELER. A series of
sketches and stories by Washington Irving
(London and New York, 1824), the scenes of
which are laid in England and France. A large
part of the Tales is taken up by the autobiogra-
phy of an imaginary personage, Buckthorne, and
an account of his friends and their adventures.
TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN. A collection of poetical narratives by Henr}' Wadsworth
Longfellow, the first of which is entitled The Challenge of Thor, and was written in 1849; the
last is entitled 7'he Ilhyme of Sir Christopher, and was written in 1873. The series was pub-
lished in three parts, at Boston, in 1863, 1872, and 1873. The 'Wayside Inn' was an old tavern, the
Howe Tavern, still standing in Sudbury, Mass.
TALES OF MY LANDLORD. The name
given by Sir Walter Scott to four different sets
of his novels. Their publication was begun in
1816 under the fictitious editorship of Jedediah
Cleishbotham (q.v. ). The first set contained
The Black Diiarf and Old Mortality ; the second
(1818), The Heart of Midlothian; the third
(1819), The Bride of Lammermoor and The
Legend of Montrose: and the fourth (1832),
Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous:
TALES OF THE CRUSADERS. The name
given by Sir Walter Scott to The Betrothed and
The Talisman (1825).
TALES OF THE GENII. A series of
Oriental .stories, modeled on the Arabian Nights,
by James Ridley, published in London in 1764.
TALFOURD, t.al'ferd. Sir Thomas Noon
(1795-1854). An English lawyer and author,
born at Reading, in Berkshire. He studied law
with .Joseph Chitty (q.v.), and was called to the
bar at the Middle Temple ( 1821 ) . He was eventual-
ly elected to the bench in the Court of Common
Pleas (1849). His famous case was a defense of
Edward Moxon, who was prosecuted for pub-
lishing Shelley's Queen Mab. Entering Par-
liament in 1835, he won great honor for his
speech in favor of the copyright bill (1837),
which he himself had introduced. In recognition
of his service, Pickirick was dedicated to him.
With Lamb his name is especially associated by
Letters of Charles Lamb icith a Sketch of His
Life (1837) and Final Memorials of Charles
Lamb (1848). In 1875 these two books were
