Chapter XLI: Part 41
HENRY VII., king of England from 1485 to 1509, son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, first of the Tudor monarchs, born at Pembroke Castle; after defeating and slaying Richard III. on Bosworth Field he assumed the crown, and by his marriage with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., united the claims of the rival roses; his firm and prudent rule established quiet and order in the country; the pretensions of the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck were promptly crushed; a peaceful relationship was established with France, and the Scotch were conciliated by the marriage of his daughter Margaret to their king, James IV.; increased prosperity followed, maritime enterprise was encouraged, but the kingly power grew at the expense of the constitutional authority of Parliament; resort was had to benevolences and other unconstitutional methods of raising funds, and in his latter years the king's exactions became tyrannical; Henry was not a man of fine kingly qualities, but he accomplished much for his country, and is best described in Gardiner's words, "his contemporaries needed a chief-constable to keep order, and he gave them what they needed" (1456-1509).
HENRY VIII., king of England from 1509 to 1547, son of preceding, born at Greenwich; was welcomed to the throne with great enthusiasm, and still further established himself in public favour by his gallant exploits at the Battle of Spurs and at the sieges of Tournay and Terouenne in the war of the Holy Alliance against France; in his absence an invasion of James IV. of Scotland was repulsed and the Scottish army crushed at Flodden (1513); during the first half of the reign public affairs were mainly conducted by the king's favourite minister, Wolsey, whose policy it was to hold the balance of power between Spain and France; but he fell into public disfavour by the heavy burden of taxation which he little by little laid upon the people; Henry, who in 1521 had been named "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope for his published defence of the sacraments against the attacks of Luther, was now moving for a divorce from his first wife Catherine of Arragon; a breach with the Pope ensued, Wolsey was deposed for his double-dealing in the matter, and Henry, having defiantly married Anne Boleyn, put an end to the papal jurisdiction in England to secure himself against appeals to the Papal Court, and got himself acknowledged Supreme Head of the Church of England; the suppression of the monasteries soon followed, and their estates were confiscated (1536-1540); in 1536 the movement of the Reformation was continued by the drawing up of _Ten Articles_ and by an authorised translation of the Bible; but the passing of the _Six Articles_ three years later, declaring in favour of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, clerical celibacy, private masses, auricular confession, &c., was an attempt to stay the rapid spread of Protestant doctrines; in 1541 Henry was declared King of Ireland, and in the two following years successful wars were waged with Scotland and France; the importance of the reign lies in the coincidence of it with the rise and culmination of the Reformation, a movement brought about in the first instance by no higher motive than the king's desire for a divorce as well as for absolute power; but for which a favourable reception had been prepared beforehand by the spread of the new learning and that free spirit of inquiry that was beginning to take possession of men's minds; historians for the greater part agree in representing Henry as a man of versatile powers, considerable intellectual force, but headstrong, selfish, and cruel in the gratification of his desires; he was six times married; Catherine and Anne of Clèves were divorced, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard executed, Jane Seymour died in childbirth, and Catherine Parr survived him; he left behind to succeed him on the throne Mary, daughter of Catherine, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, and Edward, son of Jane Seymour (1491-1547).
HENRY III., an illustrious Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, son of Conrad II.; in 1026 he became king of the Germans, succeeded to the dukedoms of Bavaria and Suabia, and in 1039 assumed the imperial crown; under his strong and wise government, dissensions, papal and otherwise, were put down, the territory of the empire extended, and many churches and monastic schools established (1017-1056).
HENRY IV., Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, son of preceding; his reign is memorable as witnessing the first open claim on the part of the Papal power to have dominion over the crowned heads of Europe; Henry's attempt to depose Gregory VII. was boldly met by a declaration of excommunication; Henry was forced to do penance and to receive his crown afresh from the Pope; but the struggle broke out anew; Clement III. was put up in opposition, and the contest raged with varying success till the deposition of Henry by his ungrateful son (1050-1106).
HENRY IV., king of France from 1594 till 1610, surnamed "The Great" and "The Good"; during his reign the great struggle between the Huguenots and the Catholics continued with unabated fury; Henry saved his life in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day by renouncing his early Calvinism, but was imprisoned; four years later he was again at the head of the Huguenot army and defeating the Bourbon claimant for the throne, was crowned king, but not before waiving his Protestant principles to conciliate the people; in 1598 he issued the famous Edict of Nantes, giving freedom of worship to the Huguenots; during his administration the nation was consolidated, new roads and a growing trade knit the towns together; financial reforms of great importance were carried out by his celebrated minister, DUC DE SULLY (q. v.); Henry was assassinated by instigation of the Jesuits (1553-1610).
HENRY OF HUNTINGDON, a noted English chronicler of the 12th century, who became archdeacon of Huntingdon, and wrote a Latin history of England down to the death of Stephen in 1154.
HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, son of John I., king of Portugal, born at Oporto; an able, enterprising man, animated with a zeal for maritime discovery, and who at his own expense sent out voyagers who discovered the Madeira Islands and explored the coast of Africa as far as Cape Blanco; is said to have been the first to employ the compass for purposes of navigation; his mother was daughter of John of Gaunt (1391-1460).
HENRY, MATTHEW, a Nonconformist divine; was minister at Hackney, London; was the author of a commentary long in repute among pious evangelical people, and to some extent still, as a practical and devotional guide in the study of the Scriptures (1662-1714).
HENRY, PATRICK, American statesman and orator, born in Virginia; having been in business he took to law, and rose into fame by his eloquent pleadings in the cause of the people; played a conspicuous part in the agitation for independence, especially by his oratory, which was of a quality to move large audiences; he was a member of the first Congress in 1774 (1736-1799).
HENRYSON, ROBERT, an early Scottish poet, flourished in the 15th century; most of his life was spent as a schoolmaster in Dunfermline; his chief works, which are full of pathos, humour, and a fine descriptive power, include "Testament of Cresseid," a continuation of Chaucer's tale, "Robene and Makyne," the earliest Scottish pastoral, a metrical version of some of "Æsop's Fables," and the story of "Orpheus and Eurydice."
HEPHÆSTOS, called Vulcan by the Romans, the Greek god of fire, or of labour in the element of fire, the son of Zeus and Hera, represented as ill-shapen, lame, and ungainly, so much so as to be an object of ridicule to the rest of the pantheon, but he was indispensable to the dynasty, and to none more than his father and mother, who were often unkind to him; he had his smithy in Olympus in the vicinity of the gods, and the marvellous creations of his art were shaped on an anvil, the hammer of which was plied by 20 bellows that worked at his bidding; in later traditions he had his workshop elsewhere, and the Cyclops for his servants, employed in manufacturing thunderbolts for Zeus; he was wedded to Aphrodité, whom he caught playing false with Ares, and whom he trapped along with him in a net a spectacle to all the upper deities.
HEPTAD, a term in chemistry to denote an atom that is the equivalent of seven atoms of hydrogen, from _hepta_, seven.
HEPTARCHY, ANGLO-SAXON, the seven kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumberland, East Anglia, and Mercia, the chief of those established by the Saxons during the 6th century in Great Britain.
HEPTATEUCH, a name given to the first seven books of the Bible.
HERA, called Juno by the Romans, daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and sister and wife of Zeus; was the queen of heaven, and treated with the same reverence as her husband, but being inferior in power was bound to obey him equally with the rest, or suffer if she did not; she was jealous of Zeus in his amours with mortals, and persecuted all his children by mortal mothers, Hercules among the chief.
HERACLES, i. e. the chosen of Hera, to be tried by her. See HERCULES.
HERACLI`DÆ, Spartans, presumed descendants of Hercules, who at one time invaded and took possession of the Peloponnesus.
HERACLITUS, a Greek philosopher, born at Ephesus, who flourished about the year 480 B.C.; was the first to note how everything throughout the universe is in constant flux, and nothing permanent but in transition from being to nothing and from nothing to being, from life to death and from death to life, that nothing is, that everything becomes, that the truth of being is becoming, that no one, nothing, is exempt from this law, the law symbolised by the fable of the PHOENIX IN THE FIRE (q. v.).
HERACLIUS, Emperor of the East from 610 to 642, born in Cappadocia; raised to the throne of the East on account of the services he rendered the citizens of Constantinople in getting rid of a tyrant; waged war against the hostile Persians, defeated Chosroës, and compelled a peace, but was unable to withstand the arms of the Moslem invaders.
HERAT (50), the chief town of the province of Herat, in W. Afghanistan, on the Hari-Rud, 300 m. W. of Cabul; its central position has given it a great commercial and military importance; it has manufactures of leather and wool, and as a place of great strategical value, since the advance of Russia in Asia is strongly fortified by a British citadel and garrison.
HÉRAULT (462), a maritime dep. of S. France fronting the Gulf of Lyons; in the N. are the Cévennes Mountains, but wide plains fringed on the sea border with large lagoons occupy the S.; the climate, except on the marshy coast, is dry and healthy; its former importance as a wine-growing district has greatly diminished, but olives and almonds are cultivated, sheep and silkworms bred; coal is the most important mineral; salt is obtained in large quantities from the salt marshes, and fishing is an important industry.
HERBART, German philosopher, born at Oldenburg; Kant's successor at Königsberg, professor also at Göttingen twice over; founded his philosophy like Kant on the criticism of subjective experience, but arrived at different results, and arrayed itself against the whole post-Kantian philosophy of Germany; it is described by SCHWEGLER "as an extension of the monadology of Leibnitz, full of ingenuity but devoid of inward fertility, or any germ of movement"; he failed to see, as Dr. Stirling points out, that "Philosophy is possible only on the supposition of a single principle that possesses within itself the capability of transition into all existent variety and varieties" (1776-1841).
HERBERT, EDWARD, LORD, of Cherbury, diplomatist, soldier, and scholar, born at Montgomery Castle, in Wales; served as a soldier under Maurice of Orange; was twice ambassador in France, but chiefly devoted to philosophical speculation; was the first of the deistical writers of England, though his deism was dogmatic not critical, positive not sceptical, as that of the subsequent English deists is (1581-1648).
HERBERT, GEORGE, poet, brother of the preceding, born in Montgomery Castle; failing in preferment at Court, took holy orders and became rector of Bemerton, Wiltshire, a post he lived only two years to hold; was the author of a Christian poem entitled "The Temple"; held in high regard by people of the devout and reverently contemplative spirit of the author; his memory is embalmed in a Life of him by Izaak Walton (1593-1632).
HERBERT, SIDNEY (Lord Herbert of Lea), politician, born at Richmond; entered the House of Commons in 1832 as a Tory, and was in turn Secretary to the Admiralty and War Secretary under Peel; during the Aberdeen ministry he, as War Secretary, incurred much popular disfavour for the mismanagement of the Crimean War, but under Palmerston he effected many beneficial reforms while at the head of the War Office; he was elevated to the House of Lords in 1860 (1810-1861).
HERCULANEUM, a city of ancient Italy, overwhelmed in A.D. 79 along with Pompeii and Stabiæ by an eruption of Vesuvius, at the north-western base of which it was situated, 5 m. E. of Naples; so completely was it buried by the ashes and lava that its site was completely obliterated, and in time two villages sprang up on the new surface, 40 to 100 ft. below which lay the buried city; relics were discovered while deepening a well in 1706, and since then a considerable portion of the town has been excavated, pictures, statues, &c., of the greatest value having been brought to light.
HERCULES, the typical hero of the Greeks, son of Zeus and Alkmene, and the tried therefore of Hera, who persecuted him from his cradle, sending two serpents to devour him as he lay there, but which he strangled with his arms; grown into manhood, and distinguished for his stature and strength, was doomed by the artifice of Hera to a series of perilous adventures before he could claim his rights as a son of his father; these are known as the "Twelve Labours of Hercules": the first the throttling of the Nemean lion; the second, the killing of the Lernean hydra; the third, the hunt and capture of the hind of Diana, with its hoofs of brass; the fourth, the taking alive of the boar of Erymanthus; the fifth, the cleansing of the stables of Augeas; the sixth, the destruction of the Stymphalian birds; the seventh, the capture of the Cretan bull; the eighth, the capture of the mares of Diomedes of Thrace; the ninth, the seizure of the girdle of the queen of the Amazons; the tenth, the killing of Geryon and capture of his oxen; the eleventh, fetching of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides; the twelfth, dragging Cerberus to the light of day. These were the twelve, but in addition, he strangled the giant Antæus, slew the robber Cacus, delivered Hesione, unchained Prometheus from the rocks of Caucasus, and smote the centaur Nessus, the last proving the cause of his death. See NESSUS.
HERCULES, THE CHOICE OF, the choice of a life of virtue offered to him by Athene, in preference to a life of pleasure offered by Aphrodité, in his youth.
HERCULES, THE PILLARS OF, two mountains on the opposite sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, originally one, but fabled to have been separated by Hercules, Calpë on the Spanish coast and Abyla on the African.
HERCYNIAN FOREST, a forest of Central Germany, extending at one time from the Rhine to the Carpathian Mountains, described by Cæsar as nine days journey in breadth and sixty in length, is now the district of the Harz Mountains.
HERDER, an eminent German thinker, born at Mohrungen, in East Prussia; studied philosophy under Kant, but gave himself up chiefly to literature; became acquainted at Strasburg with Goethe, who was five years his junior, and exercised a great influence over him in his youth; in after years was invited by him to Weimar, where he became court preacher and consistorial councillor, and where he died; wrote the "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," "Ideas towards a Philosophy of the History of Humanity," and "Poems" (1744-1803).
HEREFORD (20), the county town of Herefordshire, on the Wye, 144 m. NW. of London; has some fine old buildings, including a noble cathedral begun in 1079, ruins of a castle, &c.; it was made the seat of a bishopric in 676; it is noted for its roses and agricultural produce.
HEREFORDSHIRE (116), an inland county of West England, lying on the Welsh border between Shropshire and Monmouthshire; it is a pretty agricultural county, through the centre of which runs the Wye; in the E. are the Malvern Hills and in the SW. the Black Mountains (2631 ft); the rich red soil produces fine wheat, hops, and apples; there is some trade in timber, some stone and marble quarrying, and the cattle are noted; its history is associated with many stirring historical events, and in various parts are antiquities of considerable interest.
HERENNIUS, a Samnite general, who defeated the Romans at the Caudine Forks, and made them pass under the yoke, 321 B.C.
HEREWARD THE WAKE, a Saxon hero, a yeoman, who made a gallant effort to rally his countrymen against the Norman Conqueror; he made his final stand on the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire (1070-71), cut his way through the besieging army, and escaped to the Fens; subsequently it is supposed he became reconciled to William and held estates.
HERFORD (16), a Prussian town in Westphalia, 59 m. SW. of Hanover; manufactures textiles, sugar, &c.
HERGEST, THE RED BOOK OF, an important volume of Welsh writings in MS., preserved at Oxford; it dates from the 14th century; was compiled at Hergest Court, and is the most valuable Welsh MS. extant.
HERIOT, GEORGE, founder of Heriot's Hospital, a splendid educational establishment in his native city, Edinburgh; was a prosperous goldsmith there; did work for Anne of Denmark, consort of James VI. of Scotland; in 1603 removed with the court to London and combining banking with his other business, he amassed a great fortune, and, dying childless, left his property to found and endow the educational institution referred to, and which still bears his name; in 1837 the accumulated surplus funds were utilised in establishing 10 free schools in Edinburgh, which, however, were closed in 1885, and the original Hospital reconstructed as a secondary and technical school, while a portion of the funds was used in subsidising the Heriot-Watt College and in founding bursaries (1563-1624).
HÉRISTAL (12), a town of Belgium, on the Meuse, practically a NE. suburb of Liège; the inhabitants are largely employed in coal-mining and in flourishing iron-works; the ruins of a castle, the birthplace of Pépin d'Héristal, still remains.
HERKOMER, HUBERT, artist, born at Waal, Bavaria; his father removing to England in 1857, young Hubert became a distinguished student of the Southampton School of Art; he has been a prolific artist, and many of his portraits have become celebrated; the "Last Muster" (1875) is reckoned his finest work; he has been twice Slade professor at Oxford, and in 1890 was elected R.A.; the School of Art at Bushey was founded by him, and he has displayed his versatility of talent in carving, engraving, and writing, as well as in painting; _b_. 1849.
HERMANDAD, SANTA (i. e. Holy Brotherhood), an association of the principal cities of Spain leagued together at first against the pillagings and robberies of the nobles, and eventually against all forms of violence and lawlessness in the State.
HERMANN AND DOROTHEA, the title of an idyll by Goethe.
HERMANNSTADT (22), an old historic town of Hungary, formerly capital of Transylvania; overlooks the Zibin; 60 m. SE. of Klausenburg; is the seat of a Greek archbishop and of a "Saxon" university. Amongst its notable buildings is the Bruckenthal Palace, with valuable art, library, and antiquarian collections; has various manufactures.
HERMAS, one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church; wrote a work in Greek called the "Shepherd of Hermas," extant in Latin, and treating of Christian duties.
HERMES, the Mercury of the Romans; in the Greek mythology the herald of the gods and the god of eloquence and of all kinds of cunning and dexterity in word and action; invented the lyre, the alphabet, numbers, astronomy, music, the cultivation of the olive, &c.; was the son of Zeus and Maia; wore on embassy a winged cap, winged sandals, and carried a herald's wand as symbol of his office.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, or the Thrice-greatest, an Egyptian or Egyptian god to whose teachings or inspirations the Neo-Platonists ascribed the great body of their peculiar doctrines, and whom they regarded as an incarnation or impersonation of the _Logos_.
HERMI`ONE, the beautiful daughter of Menelaus and Helen; married to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, but carried off by Orestes, her first love.
HERMODEUS, a son of Odin and messenger of the Norse gods.
HERNIA, the name given to the protrusion of an internal organ, specially a part of the intestines.
HERO, a priestess of Venus at Sestos, in Thrace, beloved by Leander of Abydos, on the opposite shore, who swam the Hellespont every night to visit her, but was drowned one stormy evening, whereupon at sight of his dead body on the beach she threw herself into the sea.
HERO, a mathematician, born at Alexandria in the first half of the 2nd century; celebrated for his experiments on condensed air, and his anticipation of the pressure of steam.
HERO, a name given by the Greeks to human beings of such superhuman faculties as to be regarded the offspring of some god, and applied in modern times to men of an intellect and force of character of such transcendent nature as to inspire ordinary mortals with something like religious regard.
HEROD, the name of a family of Idumæan origin but Jewish creed, who rose into power in Judea shortly prior to the dissolution of the Jewish nationality; the chief members of which were HEROD THE GREAT, king of the Jews by favour of the Romans, who made away with all his rivals, caused his own children to be strangled on suspicion of their conspiring against him, and died a painful death; who massacred the Innocents about Bethlehem, and whose death took place 4 B.C., the true date of the Nativity of Christ: and HEROD ANTIPAS, his son, tetrarch of Galilee, who beheaded John the Baptist, and to whom Christ was remitted by Pilate for examination, and who died in exile at Lyons.
HERODIANS, a party in Judea who from motives of self-interest supported the dynasty of the Herods.
HERODOTUS, the oldest historian of Greece, and the "Father of History," born at Halicarnassus, in Caria, between 490 and 480 B.C.; travelled over Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria as far as Babylon, and in his old age recorded with due fidelity the fruits of his observations and inquiries, the main object of his work being to relate the successive stages of the strife between the free civilisation of Greece and the despotic barbarism of Persia for the sovereignty of the world, an interest in which Alexander the Great drew sword in the century following (484-408 B.C.).
HEROPHILUS, a celebrated Greek physician who lived into the 3rd century B.C., born at Chalcedon, and settled at Alexandria, where he devoted himself specially to anatomy and helped to found the medical school in that city; his zeal is said to have led him to dissect criminals alive; some of his writings are yet extant.
HERRERA, ANTONIO, Spanish historian, born at Cuellar; under Philip II. he became historiographer of the Indies and Castile; he was a voluminous writer, and his "Description of the Indies," "History of the World in the Reign of Philip II.," from their fairness and accuracy are reckoned authoritative works on Spanish history (1549-1625).
HERRERA, FERNANDO DE, Spanish poet, born at Seville, and took orders; in his lifetime his lyrics enjoyed a wide popularity, and won for him the epithet "divine"; his "Battle of Lepanto" is a spirited ode, and many of his other works, including a prose history of the "War in Cyprus," are still read (1534-1597).
HERRERA, FRANCISCO, a distinguished Spanish painter, founder of the Seville school, born at Seville; his finest paintings include "The Last Judgment" and a "Holy Family," both in churches at Seville; others are in the Louvre, Paris; they exhibit boldness of execution with faultless technique (1576-1656). He is known as _El viejo_, "the elder," to distinguish him from FRANCISCO HERRERA, his son, also a noted painter (1622-1685).
HERRICK, ROBERT, a Caroline poet, born in London, of good family; was incumbent of Dean Prior in Devonshire; author of the "Hesperides," published in 1648, a collection of "gay and charming" pieces, "in which," says Stopford Brooke, "Horace and Tibullus seem to mingle their peculiar art, which never misses its aim nor fails in exquisite execution" (1591-1674).
HERRNHUT, a small Saxon town, 50 m. E. of Dresden; gave name to a colony of Moravian Brethren who took refuge there in 1792, and were protected by Count Zinzendorf.
HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN, astronomer, only son of Sir William; prosecuted with great diligence and success the same researches as his father; spent four years at the Cape, and added much to our knowledge of the stars and meteorology; contributed a "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy" to Lardner's "Cyclopædia," and an excellent "Treatise on Astronomy," afterwards extended (1790-1871).
HERSCHEL, LUCRETIA, sister of the succeeding; was his assistant, and made important observations of her own, which were published; retired after her brother's death to Hanover, where she died (1750-1848).
HERSCHEL, SIR WILLIAM, a distinguished astronomer, born at Hanover; son of a musician, and bred to the profession; came to England at the end of the Seven Years' War, and obtained sundry appointments as an organist; gave his leisure time to the study of astronomy and survey of the heavens; discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, which he called _Georgium sidus_ in honour of George III., discovered also the two innermost belts of Saturn, as well as drew up a catalogue of 5000 heavenly bodies or clusters of them (1738-1822).
HERTFORD (7), the county town of Hertfordshire, on the Lea, 26 m. N. of London; some few remains of its famous 10th-century castle still exist, and there are several charity schools, a castle built in James I.'s time, and a branch of Christ's Hospital (London); the chief trade is in corn, malt, and flour; in the vicinity is HAILEYBURY COLLEGE (q. v.).
HERTFORDSHIRE or HERTS (220), an inland county of England, occupying a central position between Buckingham and Bedford on the W. and Essex on the E.; the surface is undulating and much covered with wood; the Lea and the Colne are the chief rivers; large crops of barley, wheat, and hay are raised; straw-plaiting and the manufacture of paper, silk, and chemicals are carried on extensively, while Ware is the centre of the English malting trade; ST. ALBANS (q. v.) is the largest town.
HERTHA, the Scandinavian Cybele, and worshipped with kindred ceremonies.
HERTZ, HENRIK, Danish poet, born in Copenhagen of Jewish parents; graduated in law at Copenhagen, and produced his first work, a comedy, in 1827; "Letters of a Ghost," a satire, followed three years later, and had a wide vogue; his best-known work is "King René's Daughter," which has been translated into English for the fourth time by Sir Theodore Martin; he is considered one of the greatest of modern Danish lyrists and dramatists (1798-1870).
HERVEY, JAMES, clergyman and poet, born at Hardingstone, near Northampton; graduated at Oxford; became curate and subsequently the zealous incumbent of two livings near Northampton; was the author of "Meditations among the Tombs"; was held in great popular favour during his lifetime (1714-1758).
HERWARTH VON BITTENFELD, KARL EBERHARD, a Prussian general; came to the front during the war of liberation, and in 1864 as general captured the Isle of Alsen, and two years later operated with great success at the head of the army in Saxony and Bohemia; during the Franco-German War he became governor of the Rhine provinces and a field-marshal (1796-1884).
HERZ, HENRI, pianist and composer, born in Vienna, the son of a Jew; his compositions attained a wide popularity in Europe, and as a pianist he was received with great favour in England and America; he was decorated with the Legion of Honour, and from 1842 to 1874 was professor at the Paris Conservatoire; _b_. 1806.
HERZEN, ALEXANDER, a Russian political writer and revolutionary, born at Moscow; expelled from Russia in 1842; settled in England, and published works forbidden in Russia (1812-1870).
HESIOD, one of the earliest Greek poets, born in Boeotia, lived in the 8th century B.C., chiefly at Orchomenos, probably of humble birth; of the works ascribed to him the principal were the "Works and Days" the "Theogony," and the "Shield of Hercules"; his poems treat of the quiet pursuits of ordinary life, the origin of the world, the gods and heroes, while those of Homer are occupied with the restless and active enterprises of the heroic age.
HESPERIDES, maidens of high degree appointed to guard the golden apples presented to Hera by Gaia on her marriage with Zeus, assisted in their office by the dragon Ladon; the apples were stolen by Hercules, but were afterwards restored by Athene.
HESPERUS, the personification of the evening star and an object of worship.
HESSE or HESSE-DARMSTADT (993), a grand-duchy of the German empire, lies partly in, and partly on the border of, SW. Prussia; consists of two large portions, divided by a strip of Hesse-Nassau, and 11 enclaves; half the land is under cultivation, and the greater part of what remains is covered with forest; its many rivers belong mostly to the Rhine system; corn is raised in large quantities, iron and manganese are found, and there are flourishing manufactures of leather, upholstery, tobacco, &c.; the legislative power is vested in two chambers; Mainz is the largest town, and Darmstadt the capital.
HESSE-CASSEL (745), a government district in HESSE-NASSAU (q. v.); as an electorate it sided with Austria in 1866, which brought about its incorporation with Prussia.
HESSE-NASSAU (1,664), a province in the SW. of Germany, between the Rhine on the W. and Bavaria and Saxony on the E.; was formed in 1868 out of the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, duchy of Nassau, &c.; the country is hilly, abounds in minerals, which are extensively worked, but agriculture and cattle-rearing are the chief industries; the medicinal springs of Homburg, Wiesbaden, &c., are celebrated; Cassel is noted for its gold and silver ware; damasks and other textiles are produced at Fulda, and at Hanau are flourishing iron-works; Marburg has a fine university.
HESTIA, called Vesta by the Romans, the Greek goddess of the hearth, or rather the fire that burns in it, the guardian of domestic life, conceived of as a most sacred charge.
HESYCHASTS, a religious sect of the 14th century belonging to the Greek Church; consisted chiefly of a community of monks who dwelt at Mount Athos; they professed a kind of QUIETISM (q. v.), and were noted for their practice of sitting for hours daily with their eyes fixed upon the navel (regarding the stomach as the seat of the soul); in this position they professed to see a divine light beaming out upon them, and to enjoy therein a specially intimate communion with God. See ATHOS, MOUNT.
HESYCHIUS, a Greek grammarian of the 5th century, born at Alexandria; produced a Greek lexicon of great philological value.
HEUSCHRECKE, HOFRATH (i. e. State-Councillor Grasshopper), a loose, zigzag figure in "Sartor," a mend and blind admirer of Teufelsdröckh's, an incarnation of distraction distracted, and all the counsellor the "editor" had to advise him and encourage him in his work; a victim to "timidity" and preyed on by an uncomfortable sense of mere "physical cold," such as the majority of the State counsellors of the day were.
HEXATEUCH, the name given to the first six books of the Bible.
HEXHAM (6), an interesting old town in Northumberland, prettily situated on the Tyne, 24 m. W. of Newcastle; has a fine cruciform abbey church, portions of which belong to the 12th century, and beautiful remains of a 7th-century monastery; the staple industries are glove and hat making; the river is spanned by a stone bridge of nine arches.
HEYLIN, PETER, English divine, born at Burford; graduated at Oxford, and in 1629 became chaplain-in-ordinary to Charles I.; was a zealous champion of the Church of England; forfeited his livings and property during the Puritan ascendency, but was reinstated at the Restoration; he wrote a "Defence of the Church of England," "Life of Bishop Laud," &c. (1600-1662).
HEYNE, CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB, a German classical scholar, born at Chemnitz, son of a poor weaver, and reared all along almost on the verge of destitution; became eminent by his heroic devotion to scholarship, both as a translator and editor of classical works, his edition of "Virgil" the chief in the latter department; Carlyle almost ranks him among his heroes, and ascribes superlative merit to his book on Virgil (1729-1812).
HEYSE, PAUL JOHANN, German poet and novelist, born at Berlin; in 1854 he settled at Münich, where he enjoyed the patronage of King Max of Bavaria; he has been a voluminous writer of popular novelettes, novels, dramas, and narrative poems, besides which he has executed translations of Leopardi, Giusti, and other Italian authors; _b_. 1830.
HEYWOOD (23), a town of Lancashire, 9 m. N. of Manchester; owes its rapid growth to the neighbouring coal-fields and the development of the cotton industry; has also flourishing iron and brass foundries, woollen factories, &c.
HEYWOOD, JOHN, a dramatic poet, a favourite with Henry VIII. and his court; wrote farces, the characters of which were drawn from real life, presumably not hard to identify at the time (1479-1565).
HEZEKIAH, a king of Judah; reigned from 725 to 697 B.C.; distinguished for his zeal in the celebration of the worship of Jehovah and for his weakness in making a parade of his wealth; reigned in the golden age of Hebrew prophecy, Isaiah and Micah being his contemporaries.
HIAWATHA, the subject of a poem of Longfellow's; a personage reverenced by the North American Indians as the founder among them of the arts of peace, as well as the clearer of the forests.
HIBBERT LECTURES, unsectarian lectures instituted by the trustees of Robert Hibbert, a West India merchant, devoted to the discussion of unsolved problems in theology.
HIBERNIA, the classical name for Ireland, which to the ancient world was in the main a _terra incognita_.
HICKS, ELIAS, an American preacher of the Quaker connection, who adopted Unitarian views and caused a split in the body (1748-1830).
HICKS-BEACH, SIR MICHAEL EDWARD, Conservative politician, born in London; educated at Eton and Oxford, and in 1864 entered Parliament; took office as Under-Secretary for Home Affairs under Disraeli, and in 1874 became Secretary for Ireland; four years later he was Lord Carnarvon's successor at the Colonial Office, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons in 1885, Secretary for Ireland in 1886, President of the Board of Trade in 1888, and in 1895, on the formation of a Coalition Ministry, again became Chancellor of the Exchequer; _b_. 1837.
HIERAPOLIS, 1, an ancient city of Syria Cyrrhestica, now in ruins, situated between Antioch and Mesopotamia, 14 m. W. of the Euphrates; had considerable commercial importance, and was famous for its great temple of Astarte. 2, A city of ancient Phrygia, 5 m. N. of Laodicea; the birthplace of Epictetus, and where Paul founded a church; was celebrated for its hot springs.
HIERO I., tyrant of Syracuse; broke the naval power of Etruria by victory over the Etruscan fleet near Cannæ, 474 B.C.; was an enlightened patron of men of letters, many of whom he entertained at his court, Æschylus, Pindar, and Simonides among the number; _d_. 467 B.C.
HIERO II., king of Syracuse, for near half a century the steadfast friend and ally of the Romans; unlike his namesake he was averse to display, and was accustomed to appear in public in the garb of a common citizen; he ruled his country well; _d_. 216 B.C. at the age of 92.
HIERONYMUS. See JEROME.
HIGDEN, RALPH, author of the "Polychronicon"; was a Benedictine monk, who spent his long life in St. Werburgh's monastery, Chester; the work with which his name is associated is an account of the world down to the end of Edward III.'s reign, but the chronicle of the last 50 years is supposed to have been written by other hands; Caxton published a translation made by John Trevisa; _d_. about 1307.
HIGGINS, MATTHEW JAMES, essayist, wrote under the _nom de plume_ of "Jacob Omnium," born at Benown, Ireland; was educated at Eton and Oxford, and spent many years in European travel; his numerous papers, which appeared in the leading magazines and newspapers, were principally directed against social abuses, and are characterised by a humour and pungent irony not unlike his friend Thackeray's (1810-1868).
HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH, an American author and abolitionist, born at Cambridge, Massachusetts; graduated at Harvard, and took orders, but resigned in 1858 to devote himself to politics in the anti-slavery interest; during the Civil War he commanded the first regiment of freed slaves; subsequently he resumed literary work, and in 1880 became a member of the Massachusetts Legislature; he wrote a "History of the United States," "Army Life in a Black Regiment," &c.; _b_. 1823.
HIGH CHURCH, that section of the Episcopal Church in England who attach supreme importance to the administration of word and sacrament by clergy duly ordained, and regarded by them as such, the sole divinely appointed media of divine grace.
HIGH PLACES, elevated spots on which altars were erected for worship in the rude belief that, as they were nearer heaven than the plains and valleys, they were more favourable places for prayer. The practice of worship on these spots, though from the first forbidden, became frequent among the Jews, and was with difficulty abolished, though denounced time after time by the prophets as an affront to Jehovah.
HIGH SEAS, as understood in international law means the entire sea or ocean area which lies beyond a three-mile belt of coast water. This coastal strip is called the _mare clausum_, and the rights of fishing, &c., in it are reserved to the country upon which it borders.
HIGHGATE, a noted suburb of London, 5 m. N. of the General Post-Office; the burial-place of Coleridge, George Eliot, and Faraday. Dick Whittington's Stone is at the foot of Highgate Hill.
HILARION, ST., founder of monachism in Palestine; was a convert of St. Anthony, and of great repute for sanctity (291-372). Festival, Oct. 21.
HILARY, ST., bishop of Poitiers, of which he was a native; distinguished himself by his zeal against the Arians; his writings valuable in connection with that controversy; _d_. 367. Festival, Jan. 13.
HILDEBRAND. See GREGORY VII.
HILDESHEIM (33), a town in Hanover, Prussia, on the Innerste, 24 m. SE. of Hanover; is a quaint old town, and has several ancient churches, notably a noble cathedral of the 11th century, with famous bronze gates; trades in corn, linen, &c.
HILL, REV. ROWLAND, a popular but eccentric preacher, born in Hawkeston, the son of a baronet, came under the influence of Whitfield and the Methodist movement, and while yet an undergraduate became an itinerant preacher; he took orders in 1774; but continued his open-air preaching till 1783, when he established himself in London, starting an unlicensed place of worship, although still remaining a communicant of the Church of England; he originated the first Sunday School in London, and was the author of several religious works, including a volume of hymns (1744-1833).
HILL, SIR ROWLAND, originator of the penny postage, born at Kidderminster; commenced life as a teacher and educationist; interested himself in the colonisation of South Australia, and held a post in connection with it; published in 1837 his pamphlet, "Post-Office Reforms," and saw his scheme of uniform postage rate adopted three years after, though not till 1354 did he become secretary to the Postmaster-General or have full power and opportunity to carry his views out (1795-1879).
HILL, VISCOUNT, British general, born in Shropshire; entered the army at fifteen, served under Sir John Moore, and under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, where he commanded a division; succeeded Wellington in 1828 as commander-in-chief (1772-1842).
HILLEL, an eminent and influential Jewish Rabbi, born in Babylon about 112 B.C.; devoted his life to the study of the Jewish law, formed a digest of it, and founded a school; was a good and wise man and teacher; died at a great age, 120 years old it is said.
HIMALAYAS ("the abode of snow"), a stupendous mountain chain stretching 1500 m. along the northern frontier of India, and dividing that country from Thibet; forty-five of its peaks attain a greater height than those of any other mountain system in the world; Mount Everest, the loftiest, reaches 29,002 ft.; the best-known pass is the _Karakoram Pass_ (18,550 ft.), leading into Eastern Turkestan; there are few lakes, but amid the snowy heights rise the rivers Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, &c.; gold, iron, copper, and lead are wrought.
HINCKLEY (10), a nicely built town of Leicestershire, 13 m. W. of Leicester; has an interesting old parish church of Edward III.'s time; does a good trade in hosiery, baskets, boots, &c.
HINC`MAR, a famous Frankish churchman; was appointed archbishop of Rheims, in which capacity he maintained an independent attitude towards the Papal See, and distinguished himself as a champion of ecclesiastical liberty (806-882).
HIND, JOHN RUSSELL, an eminent astronomer, born at Nottingham; at 17 he obtained a post in the Greenwich Observatory; subsequently became observer in Mr. Bishop's private observatory, Regent's Park, where his untiring assiduity was rewarded by the discovery of several new movable stars and 10 minor planets; he received various honours from societies; was President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1852 was pensioned by Government; his works include "The Comets," "The Solar System," &c. (1823-1895).
HINDLEY (19), a busy manufacturing town in Lancashire, 3 m. SE. of Wigan; the staple industry is the manufacture of cotton; in the vicinity are large coal-mines.
HINDU KUSH, a lofty mountain range stretching 365 m. from the western extremity of the Himalayas, from which it is cut off by the valley of the Indus into Afghanistan, which it divides from Turkestan; it attains an elevation of 23,000 ft.; is crossed by several passes, and is rich in minerals, especially iron; the tribes that inhabit it are chiefly Shins and Dards.
HINDUISM, the name given to certain forms of religion among the Hindus, the characteristics of which are the worship of divinities exalted above the rest, and the highly concrete and intensely personal conception of these, which comes out in sundry accounts respecting them of a biographical nature which divinities are identified either with Çiva or Vishnu, and their religions called Çivaite or Vishnuite, while their respective followers are styled Çaivas or Vishnavas.
HINDUSTAN, a name sometimes loosely applied to the entire Indian peninsula, but which, strictly speaking, embraces only the country of the upper valley of the Ganges, divided into NW. Provinces, Oude, and Behar; the language spoken is Hindi, a pure Sanskritic tongue, on which Hindustani is based, but with large Persian and Arabic admixtures.
HINDUSTANI, the official and common language of India.
HINTON, JAMES, aurist and metaphysician, born at Reading; after taking his degree was for some time at sea and in Jamaica, but in 1850 established himself in London; specialising in ear-diseases he rose to the top of his profession, becoming lecturer at Guy's Hospital; his leisure was earnestly devoted to philosophy, and gave fruit in "Man and his Dwelling-Place," "The Mystery of Pain," "Philosophy and Religion," &c. (1822-1875).
HIOUEN-THSANG, a Chinese Buddhist, who in the 7th century traversed India collecting books bearing upon the creed and law of Buddhism, and spent his time after his return in translating them.
HIPPARCHUS, ancient astronomer, born at Nicæa; flourished in the 2nd century B.C.; discovered among other things the precession of the equinoxes, determined the place of the equinox, and catalogued 1000 fixed stars.
HIPPIAS, tyrant of Athens, son of Pisistratus; expelled from Athens, applied to the Persians to reinstate him, and kindled the first Persian War with Greece; fell at Marathon, 490 B.C.
HIPPOCRATES, the father of medicine, born at Cos, 460 B.C.; was a contemporary of Socrates and Plato; was of wide-spread renown as a physician; settled in Thessaly and died at Larissa advanced in years; no fewer than 60 writings are ascribed to him, but only a few are genuine.
HIPPOCRENE (lit. the fountain of the horse), a fountain on Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, sacred to the Muses, and said to have been caused by PEGASUS (q. v.) striking the spot with his hoof.
HIPPODAMI`A, in the legendary lore of Greece, was the beautiful daughter of Oenomaus, king of Pisa, in Elis, and the pleiad Sterope; the oracle had foretold death to Oenomaus on the occasion of his daughter's marriage, to prevent which the king had made it a condition that each suitor should run a chariot race with him, and that, if defeated, should be put to death; many had perished in the attempt to beat the king, till Pelops, by bribing Oenomaus's charioteer, won the race; the king in a frenzy killed himself, and the kingdom and the fair Hippodamia passed to Pelops.
HIPPOLYTË, queen of the Amazons, slain by Hercules in order to obtain and carry off her magic girdle.
HIPPOLYTUS, ST., bishop of Portus, near Rome; lived in the 3rd century B.C.; a lost work of his, "A Refutation of all the Heresies," was discovered at Mount Athos in 1842, his authorship of which Bunsen vindicated in "Hippolytus and his Age."
HISPANIA, the ancient name of Spain and Portugal among the Latins.
HISSAR, 1, a district (776) in the Punjab, India; for the most part sandy, yet in rainy years produces good crops of rice, barley, &c., and is noted for its white cattle; the capital (14), bearing the same name, is situated on the Western Jumna Canal, 102 m. W. of Delhi. 2, Also a district in Central Asia, a dependency of the Khan of Bokhara lying N. of the Oxus River, and separated from Bokhara by a branch of the Thian Shan Mountains; has a fertile soil, and exports corn, sheep, &c., to Bokhara.
HISTOLOGY, the science of tissues, vegetable and animal.
HITCHCOCK, EDWARD, American geologist, born in Massachusetts; reported on the geology of his native State, and on the agricultural schools of Europe; wrote "Elementary Geology" and the "Religion of Geology" (1793-1864).
HITCHIN (9), a very old and still prosperous town of Hertfordshire, on the Hiz, 14 m. NW. of Hertford; does a flourishing trade in corn, malt, and flour; brewing and straw-plaiting are important industries, and it has long been noted for its lavender and lavender water.
HITOPADESA (i. e. good instruction), a celebrated Sanskrit collection of fables, which in the substance of them have passed into all the civilised literatures of the world.
HITTITES, one of the original tribes of Canaan, and one of the most powerful, whose dominion extended at one time as far as the border of Egypt on the one hand, and Mesopotamia on the other, and northward beyond the Taurus Mountains, traces of which have been discovered over all Asia Minor, while they were strong enough to engage in war with the Egyptians; they had two capitals, Kadesh on the Orontes, and Carchemish on the Euphrates.
HITZIG, FERDINAND, a German Orientalist and biblical scholar, born in Baden; devoted himself to Old Testament studies; was professor of Theology first at Zurich and then at Heidelberg; his principal works bore on Old Testament exegesis (1807-1875).
HOADLY, BENJAMIN, an English prelate, born in Kent; was a keen controversialist; argued stoutly in defence of civil and religious liberty, and was an opponent of the pretensions of the High Church party (1676-1761).
HOANG-HO ("Yellow River"), one of the chief rivers of China, rises in the plain of Odontala, south of the Kuen-lun Mountains, and sweeps with impetuous current in a more or less north-easterly direction, discharging into the Gulf of Pechili after a course of 3000 m.; it is for the most part quite unnavigable, and its frequent floods are a constant menace to the districts through which it flows.
HOBART (25), capital of Tasmania, is situated on the estuary of the Derwent, at the base of Mount Wellington; is handsomely laid out in the form of a square; is the seat of government, and has many fine public buildings; has a splendid natural harbour; the manufacture of flour, jam, leather, besides brewing, shipbuilding, and iron-founding, are its chief industries; it has extensive suburbs, and is a favourite health resort.
HOBART PASHA, Turkish admiral; was a son of the Duke of Buckingham; distinguished himself in the British navy before he entered the Turkish service; had during the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 to withdraw from the service of the Queen, and shortly afterwards died (1822-1886).
HOB`BEMA, MEINDERT, a famous Dutch landscape painter, born at Amsterdam; lived chiefly in his native town, and died in poverty; his fine, subdued pictures of woodland life and scenery are ranked amongst the masterpieces of Dutch landscape painting, and are the valued possessions of the National Galleries in London, Berlin, Vienna, &c. (1638-1709).
HOBBES, THOMAS, an English philosopher, psychologist, and moralist, born at Malmesbury; was educated at Oxford; connected all his days with the Cavendish family, with members of which he travelled on the Continent, and was on friendly terms with Charles II., Bacon, Descartes, &c.; translated Thucydides, wrote a number of works, "De Cive" among others, and the "Leviathan," all more or less leading up to the doctrine that the absolute sovereign power in all matters of right and wrong is vested in the State as the achieved fact of the emancipation of the race from savagery (1588-1679).
HOBHOUSE, JOHN CAM, English politician, a friend of Byron; represented Nottingham and Norwich in Parliament in the Liberal interest, and held several ministerial appointments (1780-1869).
HO`BOKEN (59), a city of New Jersey, on the Hudson River, adjoining Jersey City and opposite New York; is an important railway terminus and shipping-port; does a large trade in coal, lead-pencils, iron-casting, &c.
HOBSON, a Cambridge stabler who let out horses on hire, the choice always limited to the one next the door, the one that had been longest in, hence Hobson's Choice.
HOCCLEVE or OCCLEVE, THOMAS, an early English poet; had an appointment in the Exchequer Office in Henry V.'s time; his chief work is the "Government of Princes," but his poems have more linguistic than poetic interest; has left us an interesting portrait of his contemporary, Chaucer (1368-1448).
HOCHE, LA, French general, born near Versailles; rose from the ranks to the command of the army of the Moselle; drove the Austrians out of Alsace, and suppressed the rising in and pacified La Vendée; while yet a sergeant bore a hand conspicuously at the overturn of the Bastille (17681797).
HOCHKIRCH, a village in Saxony where Frederick the Great was defeated by the Austrian Marshal Daun in 1758.
HODGE. CHARLES, an American theologian, born at Philadelphia; graduated at Princeton, and in 1822 became professor in the Theological Seminary in Princeton, a post he held till the close of his life; besides founding and editing the Princeton Review, was the author of various commentaries, but is best known by his "Systematic Theology," which is still a standard text-book (1797-1878).
HODGKINSON, EATON, a distinguished engineer, born at Anderton, near Norwich; was professor of Engineering in University College, London; became a leading authority on bridge construction, and carried through elaborate experiments testing the strength of iron girders; co-operated in planning the Britannia Tubular Bridge (1789-1861).
HODGSON, BRIAN HOUGHTON, Orientalist, born near Macclesfield; served in the East India Company, and was Resident in Nepal for more than 20 years; was a voluminous writer on Eastern ethnology, languages, and zoology, and his valuable collection of MSS. remains the chief source of our knowledge of northern Buddhism (1800-1895).
HODSON, MAJOR WILLIAM, a noted leader during the Indian Mutiny; joined the Indian Army in 1845, fought through the first Sikh War, and subsequently held a civil post in the Punjab; on the outbreak of the Mutiny he became head of the Intelligence Department, and won celebrity as the daring but wild leader of an irregular cavalry regiment known as Hodson's Horse; he took part in the sieges of Delhi, and at Lucknow captured the Mogul Emperor; shot down with his own hand the young princes, and a few months later fell himself while storming a palace in the city (1821-1858).
HOF (25), a town of Bavaria, on the Saale, 40 m. NE. of Baireuth; has flourishing textile factories, breweries, and iron-works; is associated with the early struggles of Jean Paul Richter.
HOFER, ANDREAS, Tyrolese patriot; was leader of the Tyrolese against the Bavarians and the French, and the emancipator thrice over of his country, but was eventually betrayed by his enemies into the hands of the French, condemned by court-martial at Mantua, and shot; his family were indemnified afterwards by the Emperor of Austria, and his son ennobled (1767-1810).
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The Nuttall encyclopædiaChapter XLI: Part 41
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