lent to 3000 shekels of the sanctuary (Schmidt, Bihl. Mathem. p. 183; Biickh, Metrol. Unters. p. 55). See Shekel. As the mina (q. v.) consisted of 50 sacred shekels, it follows that the talent was equal to 60 mi- HfB, just as the Attic talent had 60 mlnaj. — Winer. See Metrology.
TALENT figuratively signifies any gift or opportunity God gives to men for the promotion of his glory. " Ev- erything almost," says Mr. Scott, " that we are, or pos- sess, or meet with, maj- be considered as a talent ; (or a good or a bad use may be made of every natural en- dowment, or providential appointment, or they may re- main unoccupied through inactivity and selfishness. Time, health, vigor of body, and the power of exertion and enduring fatigue — the natural and acquired abili- ties of the mind, skill in any lawful art or science, and the capacity for close mental application — the gift of speech, and that of speaking with tluency and propri- ety, and in a convincing, attractive, or persuasive man- ner— wealth, influence, or authoril^y — a man's situation in the Church, the community, or relative life — antl the various occurrences which make way for him to attempt anything of a beneficial tendency ; these, and many oth- ers that can scarcely be enumerated, are talents which the consistent Christian will improve to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind. Nay, this improve- ment procures an increase of talents, and gives a man an accession of influence and an accumulating power of doing good; because it tends to establish his repu- tation for prudence, piety, integrity, sincerity, and dis- interested benevolence : it gradually forms him to an habitual readiness to engage in beneficent designs, and to conduct them in a gentle, unobtrusive, and unas- suming manner: it disposes others to regard him with increasing confidence and affection, and to approach him with satisfaction; and it procures for him the counte- nance of many persons whose assistance he can employ in accomplishing his own salutary purposes."- — Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v.
Talionis, Lex {law of retaliation). This was a Roman law to the effect " That if any one called an- other man's credit, or fortune, or life, or blood into ques- tion in judgment, and could not make out the crime al- leged against him, he should suffer the same penalty that he intended to bring upon the other." Although the ecclesiastical law ct)uld not inflict the punishment of retaliation for false witness against any man's life, yet such false testimony was early reputed by the Church as the highest species both of calumny and murder, and consecpiently brought such witnesses under all the ecclesiastical penalties due to those crimes. — Bingham, Christ. Antiq. bk. xvi, ch. x, § 9.
Talitll. See Fringe.
Tal'itha Cu'mi {TaXtba kovj-u; Aram. Xnibc) '''Q^p, telilhd kumi), two Sj'riac words (Mark v, 41 ) signifying " Damsel, arise." The word Nn"^p;3 occurs in the Chald. paraphrase of Prov. ix, 3, where it signi- fies a girl; and Lightfoot {Hnrce Heb. Mark v, 41) gives an instance of its use in the same sense bj' a rabbinical writer. Gesenius {I'hesaur. p. 550) derives it from the Hebrew nsu, a lamb. The word "^Tjip is both He- brew and Syriac (2 p. fem. imperative, Kal, and Peal), signifying stand, arise. As might be expected, the last clause of this verse, after Cumi, is not found in the Syr- iac version. Jerome {I'Jp. Ivii ad Pammachium, 0pp. i, 308 [ed. Vallars]) records that Mark was blamed for a false translation on account of the insertion of the words "I say unto thee;" but Jerome points to this as an in- stance of the superiority of a free over a literal transla- tion, inasmuch as the words inserted serve to show the emphasis of our Lord's manner in giving this command on his own personal authority. — Smith.
Tallents, Francis, an eminent Nonconformist di- vine, was born at Paisley, near Chesterfield, England, November, 1019, and was educated at the public-schools
TALLEYRAND
166
TALMUD
of Mansfield ami Newark. He entered Peterhouse, Cam- bridge, but being chosen subtutor to the sons ofthe earl of Suffolk, removed to Magdalen ("ollege, of which he afterwards became fellow, senior fellow, and president. In 1()48 he was ordained at London in the Presbj'terian form, and in U)o2 became minister of St. Mary's, Shrews- bury. At the Restoration, not wishing to be re-ordain- ed, he was ejected, and in 1G73 returned to Shrewsbury, and became pastor of a Dissenting congregation there. He died April 11, 1708. and was buried in St. Mary's, Shrewsbury. He published, ]'ino oj' Universul llutory to 1700 ( Lond. 1700, fol. ) ■.Short History of Schism (1705, 8vo) : — Considerations on S. Garscome^s Answer. See Clialmers, Biop. Diet. s. v.; AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mcr. A ut/tors, s. v.
Talleyrand (de Perigokd), Alexandre An- geliqiie, a noted P'rench prelate, was born in Paris, •Jot. It). 173G, and after a course of education at the Col- lege de la Fleche, the Seminary of St. Sulpice, and un- der the direction of abbe Bourlier, became one of the almoners ofthe king, later vicar-general of Yerdun,and (in 1762) abbot of Gard (diocese of Amiens). Having been chosen coadjutor of the archbishop of Rheims, he was consecrated at Rome, Sept. 26, 1766, under the title of archbishop of Troyanople in partihus. He succeeded to the archbishopric of Rheims Oct. 27, 1777, and was very active in improving his diocese, as well as in pub- lic and ecclesiastical functions, sharing the varied fort- unes of the Church and State during the stormy period ofthe French Revolution. After having been a refugee at Aix-la-Chapelle, Brussels, and other places, he was recalled in 1803, and on July 28 was made cardinal, and on Aug. 8 following bishop of Paris, where he died, Oct. 20, 1821. See Hoefer, Xouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.