Texas (Division of the North American)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

Division of the North American Union; a State in the South Central bounded by Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas in Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico; admitted to the Union Dec. 29, 1845; capital, Austin; number of counties, 253; area, 265,780 square miles; pop. (1890) 2,235,527; (1900) 3,048,710 ; (1910) 3,896,542; (1920) 4,663,228. Topography The surface in the N.W. is covered with mountains, which, in proceeding S. E., subside into hills and undulating plateaus, succeeded on approaching the Gulf of Mexico, by. low alluvial plains. These extend inland from 20 to 80 miles, are furrowed with deep ravines, and consist for the most part of rich prairie or forest land. The hilly region behind this is formed chiefly of sandstone and limestone ridges, separated by valleys of considerable fertility. In the mountainous region many of the summits are lofty, and covered with snow several months of the year. The general slope of the country gives all the rivers a more or less southerly direction. The Rio Grande, rising in Colorado, forms the W. and S. W. boundary of the state, from the 32d parallel to the sea. The Red river, which has its source in the Staked Plain, forms the greater part of the N. boundary. The other important rivers are the Colorado, the Brazos, the Jacinto and Trinity, and the Sabine, San which, during the greater part of its course, is the boundary between Texas and Louisiana. A long chain of lagoons stretches along the Gulf of Mexico. Geology-The Alluvial, Tertiary, Cretaceous, and Carboniferous periods are the Montanist sect. According ome, this was owing to " the insults of the clergy of Church, " but the chief doubtless the uncompromising of his natural disposition, pugnance to the laxity of clergy in their reception of and very probably the favor the Patripassian heresy by bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus. He died between 220 and 240, "in decrepit old age" (Jerome). Augustine says that he at last withdrew from the M and "propagated conventicles of his own, which is rendered less likely by the fact that the Montanist sect survived in Africa till the 5th century, under the name of "Tertullianists." Tertullian was a man "of an eager and vehement disposition" (Jerome), who threw all his great gifts of learning, imagination, eloquence, and wit into the religious controversies of his time for 30 years (190-220). Along with the Roman love for substantiality and strength, he had the "bitter, stern, and harsh temper" which Plutarch ascribes to the Carthaginians. He wanted the sweet reasonableness and calmness, the feeling for harmonious form, and the instinct for speculative thought that distinguish the greatest Greek fathers of the Church. He had the heart of a Christian with the adroit intellect of an aim is always to make his appear ridiculous and contemptible pours unsparingly on stream of strong argument and satire, mixed with the sophisms, insinuations, and hyporboles of a special pleader. His style is most vivid, vigorous, and concise, abounding in harsh and obscure expressions, abrupt turns, and impetuous transitions, with here and there bursts of glowing eloquence, reminding the reader at one time of Ca Carlyle, at another of Lamennais. What appear to be African provincialisms Niebuhr contends are only words and expressions taken from the ancient Latin writers. He was the first to give such words as persona, liberum arbitrium, trinitas, satisfacio, sacramentum, substantia, etc., etc the place they hold in Christian theology. Many sentences of Tertullian's, as, for example, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"; "Christ is truth, not custom"; "It is absolutely credible because absurd-it is certain because impossible"; "the human race has always deserved ill of God"; "the unity of heretics is schism"; "it is contrary to religion to compel religion"; "how wise an arguer does ignorance seem to herself to be" have become proverbial. "Who In 1901 Tesla discovered that the capacconductor is variable, marcom ity of the electrical for there. In 1906 he was forced thus opening up a his into litigation concerning some of his case. patents, but won