or THOMAS, CHRISTIAN, the son of a professor of philosophy at Leipzig, was born there on the 12th of January 1655. After going through his curriculum of study at the university, he early displayed a disrelish for the pompous and pedantic teaching which was then current in the German universities. In 1675 he began his career as a university reformer at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Not meeting with much encouragement there, he left in 1679, with the degree of Doctor of Laws, and returned to Leipzig. Here he continued to lecture for the next five or six years, till his father's death, in 1684, removed the only barrier between him and the violent dislike of all the older professors. These men had lectured and talked officially all their days in Latin, and they were resolved to adhere to the glorious language of Caesar and of Cicero to their latest breath. Thomasius, again, was equally keen in behalf of his native German, as in all respects as fit a language, if not quite so refined as Latin, in which to educate the youth of the country. The philosophers attacked him; the lawyers jeered him; the philologists hated him; and the theologians unmasked all their subtle malice against him, and caused some of his publications to be burned in the market-place by the hands of the common hangman. He fled to Berlin, and was ultimately permitted to settle in Halle by the orders of Frederick I. In 1694 the king created the University of Halle, of which the students collected there to hear the lectures of Thomasius formed the nucleus. This ardent reformer was made professor, and subsequently dean of the faculty of jurisprudence; he was besides made a privy counsellor, and was, before his death, which occurred on the 23rd September 1728, elected rector of the University of Halle, of which he was properly the founder.

As a philosopher, Thomasius does not stand high. He sympathised with the views of Grotius and of Puffendorf regarding natural right, and applied practical sagacity to the criticism of Aristotle. The Stagyrite offered hard material for his blade; and any success which his easy eloquence gave him in this field, was gained entirely at the expense of what should have been his better judgment. As a reformer of the teaching of the German universities, his name must always rank high. His intellect, though not profound or searching, was keen and sagacious. The elocution which he wielded was generally easy, and sometimes graceful. He sent home his arguments on the wings of wit and satire, from the effects of which few of his opponents altogether escaped. His works, which are now very little read, are tolerably numerous. A complete list of them will be found in Luden's Life of Thomasius, Berlin, 1805, or in Jördens Lexicon.