# The Nuttall Encyclopædia/H

H
Haafiz. See Häfiz.
Haarlem (58), a handsome town in the province of N. Holland on the Spaarne, 4 m. from the sea, and 12 m. W. of Amsterdam; has a fine 15th-century church with a famous organ (8000 pipes), linen and other factories, &c., and is noted for its tulip-gardens and trade in flower-bulbs; it is intersected by several canals as well as the rivers; there existed at one time a lagoon of the Zuyder Zee called Haarlem Lake, which stretched southward as far as Leyden, between Amsterdam and Haarlem; but destructive inundations, caused by the tidal advance in 1836, compelled the Government to set about draining it, and this difficult engineering operation was successfully carried through by an English company during 1839-52.
Habakkuk, a book of the Old Testament by a Levite, whose name it bears, and who appears to have flourished in the 7th century B.C., containing a prophecy which belongs, both in substance and form, to the classic period of Hebrew literature, and is written in a style which has been described as being “for grandeur and sublimity of conception, for gorgeousness of imagery, and for melody of language, among the foremost productions of that literature.” The spirit of it is one: faith, namely, in the righteous ways of the Lord; but the burden is twofold; to denounce the judgment of God on the land for the violence and wrong that prevailed in it, as about to be executed on it by a power still more violent and unjust in its ways; and to comfort the generation of the righteous with the assurance of a time when this very rod of God's wrath shall in the pride of its power be broken in pieces, and the Lord be revealed as seated in His Holy Temple.
Habberton, John, author of “Helen's Babies,” born in Brooklyn, New York; was first a clerk and then a journalist; his other works include “Other People's Children,” “The Worst Boy in Town,” &c.; b. 1842.
Habeas Corpus, an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Charles II. to ensure the protection of one accused of a crime prior to conviction in an open court of justice.
Habington, Thomas, a Worcester gentleman of fortune, involved at one time in a conspiracy to release Mary, Queen of Scots, from prison, and convicted at another of concealing some of the agents in the Gunpowder Plot (1560-1647).
Habington, William, poet and historian, son of the preceding; a devoted Catholic, “who did not run with the times”; author of “Castara,” a collection of exquisite lyrics in homage to his wife, and in celebration of her charms and virtues (1605-1654).
Hachette, Jean, French mathematician; one of the founders of the École Polytechnique (1769-1834).
Hachette, Jeanne, a French heroine, born in Beauvais, who took part in the defence of her native town when besieged in 1472 by Charles the Bold.
Hackländer, German novelist and dramatist, born near Aix-la-Chapelle; his writings, which show a genial humour, have been compared to those of Dickens (1816-1877).
Hackney (230), an important parish and borough of Middlesex, a suburb of London, 3 m. NE. of St. Paul's; returns three members of Parliament.
Haco V., king of Norway from 1223 to 1263; was defeated by Alexander III. of Scotland at Largs, and died at the Orkneys on his way home.
Haddington (3), the county town, on the Tyne, 17 m. E. of Edinburgh; has interesting ruins of an abbey church, called the “Lamp of Lothian,” a cruciform pile with a central tower, a corn exchange, &c.; was the birthplace of John Knox, Samuel Smiles, and Jane Welsh Carlyle.
Haddingtonshire or East Lothian (37), a maritime county of Scotland, on the E. fronting the Firth of Forth and the North Sea, N. of Berwickshire; on the southern border lie the Lammermuir Hills; the Tyne is the only river; considerable quantities of coal and limestone are wrought, but agriculture is the chief industry, 64 per cent, of the land being under cultivation.
Haden, Sir Francis Seymour, an etcher and writer on etching, born in London; was bred to medicine, and in 1857 became F.R.C.S.; in 1843 he took up etching as a pastime and has since pursued it with enthusiasm and conspicuous success; he has won medals in France, America, and England for the excellency of his workmanship, while his various writings have largely contributed to revive interest in the art; he is President of the Society of Painters, and in 1894 a knighthood was conferred upon him; b. 1818.
Hades (lit. the Unseen), the dark abode of the shades of the dead in the nether world, the entrance into which, on the confines of the Western Ocean, is unvisited by a single ray of the sun; originally the god of the nether world, and a synonym of Pluto (q. v.).
Hadith, the Mohammedan Talmud, being a traditional account of Mahomet's sayings and doings.
Hadji, a Mohammedan who has made his Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and kissed the Black Stone of the Caaba (q. v.); the term is also applied to pilgrims to Jerusalem.
Hadleigh (3), an interesting old market-town of Suffolk, on the Bret, 9½ m. W. of Ipswich; its cloth trade dates back to 1331; Guthrum, the Danish king, died here in 889, and Dr. Rowland Taylor suffered martyrdom in 1555. Also a small parish of Essex, near the N. shore of the Thames estuary, 37 m. E. of London, where in 1892 the Salvation Army planted their farm-colony.
Hadley, James, an American Greek scholar, and one of the American committee on the revision of the New Testament (1821-1872).
Hadley, John, natural philosopher; invented a 5 ft. reflecting telescope, and a quadrant which bears his name, though the honour of the invention has been assigned to others, Newton included (1682-1744).
Hadramaut (150), a dry and healthy plateau in Arabia, extending along the coast from Aden to Cape Ras-al-Hadd, nominally a dependency of Turkey.
Hadrian, Roman emperor, born in Rome; distinguished himself under Trajan, his kinsman; was governor of Syria, and was proclaimed emperor by the army on Trajan's death in A.D. 117; had troubles both at home and abroad on his accession, but these settled, he devoted the last 18 years of his reign chiefly to the administration of affairs throughout the empire; visited Gaul in 120, whence he passed over to Britain, where he built the great wall from the Tyne to the Solway; he was a Greek scholar, had a knowledge of Greek literature, encouraged industry, literature, and the arts, as well as reformed the laws (76-138).
Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich, an eminent German biologist, born at Potsdam; carried through his medical studies at Berlin and Vienna; early evinced an enthusiasm for zoology, and, after working for some time at Naples and Messina, in 1865 became professor of Zoology at Jena; here he spent a life of unceasing industry, varied only by expeditions to Arabia, India, Ceylon, and different parts of Europe in the prosecution of his scientific theories; he was the first among German scientists to embrace and apply the evolutionary theories of Darwin, and along these lines he has produced several works of first-rate importance in biology; his great works on calcareous sponges, on jelly-fishes, and corals are enriched by elaborate plates of outstanding value; he made important contributions to the Challenger reports, and was among the first to outline the genealogical tree of animal life; his name is associated with far-reaching speculations on heredity, sexual selection, and various problems of embryology; “The Natural History of Creation,” “Treatise on Morphology,” “The Evolution of Man,” are amongst his more popular works; b. 1834.
Häfiz, his real name Shems-Eddin-Mohammed, the great lyric poet of Persia, born in Shiraz, where he spent his life; he has been called the Anacreon of Persia; his poetry is of a sensuous character, though the images he employs are Interpreted by some in a supersensuous or mystical sense; Goethe composed a series of lyrics in imitation; the name Häfiz denotes a Mohammedan who knows the Korân and the Hadith by heart (1320-1391).
Hagar, Sarah's maid, of Egyptian birth, who became by Abraham the mother of Ishmael and of the Ishmaelites.
Hagedorn, a German poet, born at Hamburg; was secretary to the English factory there; wrote fables, tales, and moral poems (1708-1754).
Hagen, king of Burgundy; the murderer of Siegfried in the “Nibelungen Lied,” who is in turn killed by Chriemhild, Siegfried's wife, with Siegfried's sword.
Hagenau (15), a town of Alsace-Lorraine, situated in the Hagenau Forest, on the Moder, 21 m. NE. of Strasburg; has two quaint old churches of the 12th and the 13th century respectively; hops and wine are the chief articles of commerce; was ceded to Germany in 1871.
Hagenbach, Karl, a German theologian, born at Basel, and professor there; was a disciple of Schleiermacher; wrote a church history; is best known by his “Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte,” or “History of Dogmas” (1801-1874).
Haggadah, a system of professedly traditional, mostly fanciful, amplifications of the historical and didactic, as distinct from the legal, portions of Jewish scripture; is a reconstructing and remodelling of both history and dogma; for the Jews seem to have thought, though they were bound to the letter of the Law, that any amount of licence was allowed them in the treatment of history and dogma.
Haggai, one of the Hebrew prophets of the Restoration (of Jerusalem and the Temple) after the Captivity, and who, it would seem, had returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua. Signs of the divine displeasure having appeared on account of the laggard spirit in which the Restoration was prosecuted by the people, this prophet was inspired to lift up his protest and rouse their patriotism, with the result that his appeal took instant effect, for in four years the work was finished and the Temple dedicated to the worship of Jehovah, as of old, in 516 B.C.; his book is a record of the prophecies he delivered in that connection, and the style, though prosaic, is pure and clear.
Haggard, Rider, novelist, born in Norfolk; after service in a civic capacity in Natal, and in partly civil and partly military service in the Transvaal, adopted the profession of literature; first rose into popularity as author in 1885 by the publication of “King Solomon's Mines,” the promise of which was sustained in a measure by a series of subsequent novels beginning with “She” in 1887; b. 1856.
Haggis, a Scotch dish, “great chieftain o' the puddin' race,” composed of the chopped lungs, heart, and liver of a sheep, mixed with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with onions, pepper, salt, &c., and boiled in a sheep's stomach.
Hagiographa, the third division of the Jewish canon of scripture, which included the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Hague, The (166), the capital of the Netherlands, seat of the Court and of the Government, 15 m. NW. of Rotterdam and 2 m. from the North Sea; is handsomely laid out, in spacious squares and broad streets, with stately buildings, statues, and winding canals, beautifully fringed with lindens and spanned by many bridges; has a fine picture-gallery, a royal library (200,000 vols.), archives rich in historical documents of rare value, an ancient castle, palace, and a Gothic church of the 14th century; industries embrace cannon-foundries, copper and lead smelting, printing, &c.; it is connected by tramway with Scheveningen, a fashionable watering-place on the coast.
Hahn-Hahn, Ida, a German authoress of aristocratic birth and prejudice, who, on the dissolution of an unhappy marriage, sought consolation in travel, and literature of a rather sickly kind (1805-1880).
Hahnemann, Samuel, a German physician, the founder of Homoeopathy (q. v.), born at Meissen; established himself in practice in Dresden on orthodox lines and enjoyed a high reputation, but retired to revise the whole system of medicine in vogue, of which he had begun to entertain misgivings, and by various researches and experiments came to the conclusion that the true principle of the healing art was similia similibus curantur, “like things are cured by like,” which he announced as such to the medical world in 1796, and on which he proceeded to practise first in Leipzig and finally in Paris, where he died (1755-1843).
Haidee, a beautiful Greek girl in “Don Juan,” who, falling in love with the hero and losing him, came to a tragic end.
Haiduk or Hajduk (i. e. cowherd), a name bestowed on a body of irregular infantry in Hungary who kept up a guerilla warfare in the 16th century against the Turks; in 1605 a stretch of territory on the left bank of the Theiss was conferred upon them, together with a measure of local government and certain other privileges; but in 1876 their territory was incorporated in the county of Hajdu; the name was in later times applied to the Hungarian infantry and to noblemen's retainers.
Hailes, Lord, Sir David Dalrymple, Scottish judge and antiquary, born at Edinburgh; was called to the Scotch bar in 1748, and raised to the bench in 1768; ten years later he became a justiciary lord; he devoted his vacations to literary pursuits, and a series of valuable historical works came from his pen, which include “Annals of Scotland from Malcolm III. to Robert I.” and “Annals of Scotland from Robert I. to the Accession of the House of Stuart,” “A Discourse on the Gowrie Conspiracy,” &c. (1726-1792).
Haileybury College, lies 2 m. SE. of Hertford; was founded in 1809 by the East India Company as a training institution for their cadets, and was in use till 1858, when the company ceased to exist; in 1862 it was converted into a public school.
Hainan (2,500), an island of China, in the extreme S., between the Gulf of Tongking and the China Sea, 15 m. S. of the mainland; agriculture is the staple industry; the mountainous and wooded interior is occupied by the aboriginal Les.
Hainault (1,082), a southern province of Belgium bordering on France, between W. Flanders and Namur; the N. and W. is occupied by fertile plains; the Forest of Ardennes extends into the S., where also are the richest coal-fields of Belgium; iron and lead are wrought also; the chief rivers are the Scheldt, Sambre, Dender, and Haine; textiles, porcelain, and iron goods are manufactured; Mons is the capital.
Hakim or Hakem, a Mohammedan name for a ruler, a physician, or a wise man.
Hakim Ben Allah or Ben Hashem, surnamed Mokanna (i. e. the Veiled or the One-Eyed); the founder of a religious sect in Khorassan, Persia, in the 8th century; he pretended to be God incarnate, and wore over his face a veil to shroud, as his followers believed, the dazzling radiance of his countenance, but in reality to hide the loss of an eye, incurred in earlier years when he had served as a common soldier; the sect was after fierce fighting suppressed by the Caliph, and Hakim is said to have flung himself into a vessel of powerfully corrosive acid in the hope that, his body being destroyed, a belief in his translation to heaven might spread among his followers; the story of Hakim is told in Moore's “Lalla Rookh.”
Hakluyt, Richard, English author; was educated at Oxford, and became chaplain to the English embassy in Paris; wrote on historical subjects; his principal work, published in 1589, “Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation by Land and Sea,” a work which, detailing as it does the great deeds of Englishmen, particularly on the sea, has borne very considerable fruit in English life and literature since (1552-1616).
Hakodate (66), one of the open ports of Yezo in Japan, with a large harbour and large export trade.
Hal (9), a town of Belgium, 9 m. SW. from Brussels; noted for its 14th-century church, which contains a black wooden image of the Virgin credited with miraculous powers, and resorted to by pilgrims.
Halacha, the Jewish law as developed into validity by the decisions of the Scribes, on the basis of inferential reasoning or established custom; it was of higher authority than the law as written, though not held valid till sanctioned by a majority of the doctors.
Halberstadt (37), an interesting old town in Prussian Saxony, 30 m. SW. of Magdeburg; the 13th-century cathedral is a fine specimen of Pointed Gothic, and the Church of Our Lady, a 12th-century structure, is in the Byzantine style; its industries embrace gloves, cigars, machines, sugar, &c.
Halcyon Days, days of peace, happiness, and prosperity, properly the seven days before and the seven after the winter Solstice, days of quiet, during which the halcyon, or kingfisher, is fabled to be breeding.
Haldane, Robert, born in London, and James, born in Dundee, brothers; entered the English navy, and after distinguishing themselves in it, left the service, and devoted their time and their wealth to evangelistic labours and the building of “tabernacles,” as they were called, for religious worship in connection eventually with the Baptist body; they both contributed to theological literature in the Calvinistic interest; Robert died in 1842, being born in 1764, and James in 1851, being born in 1766.
Hale, Sir Matthew, Lord Chief-Justice of England, born at Alderley, Gloucestershire: in 1629 he entered Lincoln's Inn after some years of roving and dissipation, and eight years later was called to the bar; as he held aloof from the strife between king and commons, his service as advocate were in requisition by both parties, and in 1653 he was raised to the bench by Cromwell; on the death of the Protector he declined to receive his commission anew from Richard Cromwell, and favoured the return of Charles; after the Restoration he was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer and knighted; in 1671 he was created Lord Chief-Justice; charges of “trimming” have been made against him, but his integrity as a lawyer has never been impugned (1609-1676).
Hales, Alexander of, a scholastic philosopher, surnamed “Doctor Irrefragabilis,” who flourished in the 15th century; author of “Summa Theologiæ.”
Hales, John, the “Ever-memorable,” canon of Windsor; a most scholarly man, liberal-minded and highly cultured; was professor of Greek at Oxford; suffered great hardships under the Puritan supremacy (1584-1656).
Hales, Stephen, scientist, born at Beckesbourn, Kent; became a Fellow of Cambridge in 1702; took holy orders, and in 1710 settled down in the curacy of Teddington, Middlesex; science was his ruling passion, and his “Vegetable Staticks” is the first work to broach a true morphology of plants; his papers on Ventilation led to a wide-spread reform in prison ventilation, and his method of collecting gases greatly furthered the work of subsequent chemists (1677-1761).
Halévy, Jacques François Elias, a French operatic composer, born at Paris; became a professor at the Conservatoire; wrote a large number of operas, of which “La Juive” and “L'Éclair” were the best, and enjoyed a European reputation (1799-1862).
Halévy, Joseph, French Orientalist and traveller, born at Adrianople; his most notable work was done in Yemen, which he crossed during 1869-70 in search of Sabæan inscriptions, no European having traversed that land since A.D. 24; the result was a most valuable collection of 800 inscriptions, &c.; his works are numerous, and deal with various branches of Oriental study; b. 1827.
Haliburton, Thomas Chandler, Nova Scotian judge and author, born at Windsor, Nova Scotia; was called to the bar in 1820, and soon after was elected a member of the House of Assembly; in 1840 he became Judge of the Supreme Court, and two years later retired to England, where, in 1869, he entered Parliament; he wrote several books bearing on Nova Scotia and aspects of colonial life, but is best known as the author of “Sam Slick,” Yankee clockmaker, peripatetic philosopher, wit, and dispenser of “soft sawder” (1796-1865).
Halicarnassus, a Greek city, and the chief of Caria, in Asia Minor, on the sea-coast opposite the island of Cos, the birthplace of Herodotus; celebrated for the tomb of Mausolus, called the Mausoleum (q. v.).
Halidon Hill, an eminence in Northumberland, on the Tweed, 2 m. from Berwick, the scene of a bloody battle in 1333 between the English and Scots, to the defeat of the latter.
Halifax, 1, a prosperous manufacturing town (90), in the West Riding of Yorkshire, situated amid surrounding hills on the Hebble, 43 m. SW. of York; the staple industries are carpet and worsted manufacturing, the carpet works being the largest in the world; cotton, merinos, and damasks are also woven and dyed. 2, capital (39), of Nova Scotia; the naval and military head-quarters of the British in North America, and the chief port in East Canada; is situated near the head of Chebucto Bay, which forms a magnificent harbour; a citadel and masked batteries defend the town; it is an important railway and shipping terminus and coaling station; its gravingdock is the largest in America; it is the seat of Dalhousie University.
Halifax, Charles Montague, Earl of, a celebrated Whig statesman, born at Horton, Northamptonshire; a clever skit on Dryden's “Hind and Panther,” entitled “The Town and Country Mouse,” written in collaboration with Prior after he had left Cambridge, brought him some reputation as a wit; in 1688 he entered the Convention Parliament, and attached himself to William's party, when his remarkable financial ability soon brought him to the front; in 1692 he brought forward his scheme for a National Debt, and two years later founded the Bank of England in accordance with the scheme of William Paterson; in the same year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1697 Prime Minister; in conjunction with Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, he carried through a re-coinage, and was the first to introduce Exchequer Bills; in 1699 he was created a Baron, and subsequently was made the victim of a prolonged and embittered but unsuccessful impeachment; with the accession of George I. he came back to power as Prime Minister, and received an earldom (1661-1715).
Halifax, George Saville, Marquis of, a noted statesman who played a prominent part in the changing politics of Charles II.'s and James II.'s reigns, and whose apparently vacillating conduct won him the epithet of “Trimmer”; he was an orator of brilliant powers and imbued with patriotic motives, and through his various changes may be seen a real desire to serve the cause of civil and religious liberty, but he was never a reliable party man; on the abdication of James II. he, as President of the Convention Parliament, proffered the crown to William of Orange; he rose through successive titles to be a marquis in 1682; his writings, chief of which is “Character of a Trimmer” (practically a defence of his own life), are marked by a pungent wit and graceful persuasiveness (about 1630-1695).
Hall, Basil, explorer and miscellaneous writer, born in Edinburgh, son of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, a noted chemist and geologist; rose to be a post-captain in the navy, and in 1816 made a voyage of discovery on the coast of the Corea and the Great Loo Choo Islands, his account of which forms a fascinating and highly popular book of travel; during 1820-22 he commanded the Conway on the W. coast of South America, and his published journals covering that period of Spain's struggle with her colonies are of considerable historical value; “Travels in North America in 1827-28” is an entertaining record of travel; was also author of some tales, &c.; he died insane (1788-1844).
Hall, Charles Francis, Arctic explorer, born at Rochester, New Hampshire; the mystery surrounding Franklin's fate awakened his interest in Arctic exploration, and during 1860-62 he headed a search party, and again in 1864-69; during the latter time he lived amongst the Eskimo, and returned with many interesting relics of Franklin's ill-fated expedition; in 1871 he made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole, and died at Thank God Harbour in Greenland; he published accounts of his expeditions (1821-1871).
Hall or Halle, Edward, English lawyer and historian, born in London; studied law at Gray's Inn; in 1540 he became one of the judges of the Sheriff's Court; his fame rests on his history “The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and Yorke,” a work which sheds a flood of light on contemporary events, and is, moreover, a noble specimen of English prose (1499-1547).
Hall, Joseph, bishop first of Exeter and then of Norwich, born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch; was accused of favouring Puritanism, and incurred the enmity of Laud; was sent to the Tower for joining 12 prelates who had protested against certain laws passed in Parliament during their enforced absence from the House; being released on bail, be returned to Norwich, and was persecuted by the Puritans, who plundered his house and spoiled the cathedral; was the author of a set of political satires and of “Meditations,” early instances in English literature of an interest in biography (1574-1656).
Hall, Robert, an eminent Baptist minister and pulpit orator, born near Leicester; began his ministry in Bristol, and ended it there after a pastorate in Cambridge; was an intimate friend of Sir James Mackintosh (1764-1831).
Hall, Samuel Carter, founder and editor of the Art Journal, born at Geneva Barracks, co. Waterford; was for a time a gallery reporter; succeeded Campbell, the poet, as editor of the New Monthly Magazine, and after other journalistic work started in 1839 the well-known periodical the Art Journal, which he continued to edit for upwards of 40 years; in 1880 he received a civil-list pension (1800-1889); his wife, Anna Maria Fielding, was in her day a popular and voluminous writer of novels and short tales (1800-1881).
Hallam, Arthur Henry, eldest son of the succeeding, the early friend of Tennyson, who died suddenly at Vienna to the bitter grief of his father and of his friend, whose “In Memoriam” is a long elegy over his loss (1811-1838).
Hallam, Henry, English historian, born at Windsor, of which his father was a canon; bred for the bar; was one of the first contributors to the Edinburgh Review; was the author of three great works, “The State of Europe during the Middle Ages,” published in 1818; “The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II.,” published in 1827; and the “Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries,” published in 1838; “was the first,” says Stopford Brooke, “to write history in this country without prejudice” (1777-1859).
Halle (101), a flourishing city in Prussian Saxony, on the Saale, 20 m. NW. of Leipzig; has a splendid university attended by upwards of 1500 students, and a library of 220,000 vols.; some fine old Gothic churches, medical institutes, hospitals, &c.; it is is an important railway centre, and is famed for its salt-works.
Hallé, Sir Charles, an eminent pianist, born at Hagen, in Westphalia; in 1848 he came to England, with a reputation already gained at Paris, and settled down in Manchester; his fine orchestra, which from year to year visited the important cities of the kingdom, did a great work in popularising classical music, and educating the public taste in its regard; in 1888 he was knighted (1819-1895). His wife, née Wilhelmine Néruda, a violinist of rare talent, born at Brünn, in Moravia, appeared first in Vienna when only seven years old; in 1864 she married Normann, a Swedish composer, and in 1885 became the wife of Sir Charles; b. 1839.
Halleck, Henry Wager, an American general; distinguished himself on the side of the North in the Civil War, and was promoted to be commander-in-chief; was author of “Elements of Military Art and Science” (1815-1873).
Hallel, name given to Psalms cxiii.-cxviii. chanted by the Jews at their great annual festivals.
Haller, Albert von, a celebrated anatomist, physiologist, botanist, physician, and poet, born at Bern; professor of Medicine at Göttingen; author of works in all these departments; took a keen interest in all the movements and questions of the day, literary and political, as well as scientific; was a voluminous author and writer (1708-1777).
Halley, Edmund, astronomer and mathematician, born near London; determined the rotation of the sun from the spots on its surface, and the position of 350 stars; discovered in 1680 the great comet called after his name, which appeared again in 1825; was entrusted with the publication of his “Principia” by Sir Isaac Newton; made researches on the orbits of comets, and was appointed in 1719 astronomer-royal (1656-1742).
Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard, a celebrated Shakespearian scholar and antiquary, born at Chelsea; studied at Cambridge; his love for literary antiquities manifested itself at an early age, and his research in ballad literature and folk-lore, &c., had gained him election as Fellow to the Royal and Antiquarian Societies at the early age of 19; devoting himself more particularly to Shakespeare, he in 1848 published his famous “Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,” which has grown in fulness of detail with successive editions, and remains the most authoritative account of Shakespeare's life we have; his “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words” is also a work of wide scholarship; having succeeded in 1872 to the property of his father-in-law, Thomas Phillipps, he added Phillipps to his own surname (1820-1889).
Hall-mark, an official mark or attestation of the genuineness of gold and silver articles.
Hallowed Fire, an expression of Carlyle's in definition of Christianity “at its rise and spread” as sacred, and kindling what was sacred and divine in man's soul, and burning up all that was not.
Hallowe'en, the eve of All Saints' Day, 31st October, which it was customary, in Scotland particularly, to observe with ceremonies of a superstitious character, presumed to have the power of eliciting certain interesting secrets of fate from wizard spirits of the earth and air, allowed, as believed, in that brief space, to rove about and be accessible to the influence of the charms employed.
Halogens (i. e., salt producers), name given to the elementary bodies, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine as in composition with metals forming compounds similar to sea-salt.
Hals, Frans, an eminent Dutch portrait-painter, born at Antwerp; is considered to be the founder of the Dutch school of genre-painting; his portraits are full of life and vigour; Vandyck alone among his contemporaries was considered his superior (1581-1666).
Halsbury, Hardinge Stanley Gifford, Lord, Lord Chancellor of England, born in London; was called to the bar in 1850; he was Solicitor-General in the last Disraeli Government; entered Parliament in 1877, and in 1885 was raised to the peerage and made Lord-Chancellor, a position he has held in successive Conservative Governments; b. 1825.
Halyburton, Thomas, Scottish divine, known as “Holy Halyburton,” born at Dupplin, near Perth; was minister of Ceres, in Fife, and from 1710 professor of Divinity in St. Andrews; was the author of several widely-read religious works (1674-1712).
Ham, a son of Noah, and the Biblical ancestor of the southern dark races of the world as known to the ancients.
Ham, a town in the dep. of Somme, France, 70 m. NE. of Paris, with a fortress, used in recent times as a State prison, in which Louis Napoleon was confined from 1840 to 1846.
Hamadan (30), an ancient Persian town, at the foot of Mount Elwend, 160 m. SW. of Teheran, is an important entrepôt of Persian trade, and has flourishing tanneries; it is believed to stand on the site of Ecbatana (q. v.).
Hamadryad, a wood-nymph identified with a particular tree that was born with it and that died with it.
Hamah (45), the Hamath of the Bible, an ancient city of Syria, on the Orontes, 110 m. NE. of Damascus; manufactures silk, cotton, and woollen fabrics; is one of the oldest cities of the world; has some trade with the Bedouins in woollen stuffs; during the Macedonian dynasty it was known as Epiphania; in 1812 Burckhardt discovered stones in it with Hittite inscriptions.
Haman, an enemy of the Jews in Persia, who persuaded the king to decree the destruction of them against a particular day, but whose purpose was defeated by the reversal of the sentence of doom.
Hamann, Johann Georg, a German thinker, born at Königsberg; a man of genius, whose ideas were appreciated by such a man as Goethe, and whose writings deeply influenced the views of Herder (1730-1788).
Hamburg, a small German State (623) which includes the free city of Hamburg (323; suburbs, 245), Bergedorf, and Cuxhaven; the city, the chief emporium of German commerce, is situated on the Elbe, 75 m. E. of the North Sea and 177 NW. of Berlin; was founded by Charlemagne in 808, and is to-day the fifth commercial city of the world; the old town is intersected by canals, while the new portion, built since 1842, is spaciously laid out; the town library, a fine building, contains 400,000 volumes; its principal manufactures embrace cigar-making, distilling, brewing, sugar-refining, &c.
Hameln (14), a quaint old Prussian town and fortress in the province of Hanover, situated at the junction of the Hamel with the Weser, 25 m. SW. of Hanover city; associated with the legend of the Pied Piper; a fine chain bridge spans the Weser; there are prosperous iron, paper, and leather works, breweries, &c.
Hämerkin or Hämmerlein, the paternal name of Thomas à Kempis (q. v.).
Hamerling, Robert, Austrian poet, born at Kirchberg in the Forest, Lower Austria; his health gave way while teaching at Trieste, and while for upwards of 30 years an invalid in bed, he devoted himself to poetical composition; his fame rests chiefly on his satirical epics and lyric compositions, among the former “The King of Iron,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” and “Cupid and Psyche,” and among the latter “Venus in Exile” (1830-1889).
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, English critic, particularly of art; edited the Portfolio, an art magazine; author of a story of life in France entitled “Marmorne,” and of a volume of essays entitled “The Intellectual Life” (1834-1894).
Hamilcar Barca, a Carthaginian general and one of the greatest, the father of Hannibal, commanded in Sicily, and held his ground there against the Romans for six years; concluded a peace with them and ended the First Punic War; invaded Spain with a view to invade Italy by the Alps, and after gaining a footing there fell in battle; had his son with him, a boy of nine, and made him swear upon the altar before he died eternal enmity to Rome; d. 229 B.C.
Hamilton (25), a town of Lanarkshire, on the Clyde, 10 m. SE. of Glasgow; mining is the chief industry. Also a city (49) of Canada, on Burlington Bay, at the west end of Lake Ontario, 40 m. SW. of Toronto; is an important railway centre, and has manufactories of iron, cotton, and woollen goods, &c.
Hamilton, Alexander, American soldier and statesman, born in West Indies; entered the American army, fought in the War of Independence, became commander-in-chief, represented New York State in Congress, contributed by his essays to the favourable reception of the federal constitution, and under it did good service on behalf of his country; was mortally wounded in a duel (1757-1804).
Hamilton, Elizabeth, novelist and essayist, born, of Scottish parentage, in Belfast; is remembered for her early advocacy of the higher education of women and for her faithful pictures of lowly Scottish life; “Letters of a Hindoo Rajah” and “Modern Philosophers” were clever skits on the prevailing scepticism and republicanism of the time; “The Cottagers of Glenburnie” is her best novel (1758-1816).
Hamilton, Emma, Lady, née Amy Lyon or “Hart,” born at Ness, Cheshire, a labourer's daughter; appeared as the Lady in the charlatan Graham's “Temple of Health,” London; became the mother of two illegitimate children, and subsequently was the “geliebte” of the Hon. Charles Greville and of his uncle Sir Wm. Hamilton, whose wife she became in 1791; her notorious and lawless intimacy with Lord Nelson began in 1793, and in 1801 their daughter Horatia was born; although left a widow with a goodly fortune, she fell into debt and died in poverty (1763-1815).
Hamilton, Patrick, a Scottish martyr, born at the close of the 15th century, probably in Glasgow; returning from his continental studies at Paris and Louvain he came to St. Andrews University, where his Lutheran sympathies involved him in trouble; he escaped to the Continent, visited Wittenberg, the home of Luther, and then settled in Marburg, but returned to Scotland at the close of the same year (1527) and married; the following year he was burned at the stake in St. Andrews for heresy; his eager and winning nature and love of knowledge, together with his early martyrdom, have served to invest him with a special interest.
Hamilton, William, a minor Scottish poet, born near Uphall, Linlithgowshire; was a contributor to Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany; became involved in the second Jacobite rising and fled to France; subsequently he was permitted to return and take possession of his father's estate of Bangour, near Uphall; his collected poems include the beautiful and pathetic ballad, “The Braes of Yarrow” (1704-1754).
Hamilton, Sir William, distinguished philosopher of the Scotch school, born in Glasgow; studied there and in Oxford with distinction; bred for the bar, but hardly ever practised; contributed to the Edinburgh Review, having previously published “Discussions in Philosophy”; in 1836 he became professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh University, in which capacity he exercised a great influence in the domain of philosophic speculation; his lectures were published after his death; his system was attacked by John Stuart Mill, and criticised in part by Dr. Hutchison Stirling, who, while deducting materially from his repute as an original thinker, describes his “writings as always brilliant, forcible, clear, and, where information is concerned, both entertaining and instructive”; was “almost the only earnest man,” Carlyle testifies, he found in Edinburgh on his visit from Craigenputtock to the city in 1833 (1788-1856).
Hamilton, Sir William Rowan, an eminent mathematician, born in Dublin; such was his precocity that at 13 he was versed in thirteen languages, and by 17 was an acknowledged master in mathematical science; while yet an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, he was appointed in 1827 professor of Astronomy in Dublin University, and Astronomer-Royal of Ireland; his mathematical works and treatises, of the most original and a far-reaching character, brought him a European reputation, and embraced his “Theory of Systems of Rays,” “A General Method in Dynamics,” and the invention of “Quaternions”; he was knighted in 1835 (1805-1865).
Hamiltonian System, a system of teaching languages by interlinear translation.
Hammer, German Orientalist and historian, born at Grätz; author of a “History of the Ottoman Empire” (1774-1856).
Hammerfest (2), the most northerly town in Europe; is situated on the barren island of Kvalö, and is the port of the Norwegian province of Finmark; fishing is the staple industry; during two months in summer the sun never sets.
Hammersmith (97), a parliamentary borough of Middlesex, on the N. side of the Thames, forms a part of W. London.
Hammond, Henry, English divine, born at Chertsey; suffered as an adherent of the royal cause, being chaplain to Charles I.; author of “Paraphrase and Annotations of the New Testament” (1605-1660).
Hampden, John, a famous English statesman and patriot, cousin to Oliver Cromwell, born in London; passed through Oxford and studied law at the Inner Temple; subsequently he settled down on his father's estate, and in 1621 entered Parliament, joining the opposition; he came first into conflict with the king by refusing to contribute to a general loan levied by Charles, and subsequently became famous by his resistance to the ship-money tax; he was a member of the Short Parliament, and played a prominent part in the more eventful transactions of the Long Parliament; an attempt on Charles's part to seize Hampden and four other members precipitated the Civil War; he took an active part in organising the Parliamentary forces, and proved himself a brave and skilful general in the field; he fell mortally wounded while opposing Prince Rupert in a skirmish at Chalgrove Field; historians unite in extolling his nobility of character, statesmanship, and single-minded patriotism (1594-1643).
Hampden, Renn Dickson, theologian and bishop, born in Barbadoes; became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1832 delivered his celebrated Bampton lectures on the “Scholastic Philosophy considered in its Relation to Christian Theology,” which drew upon him the charge of heresy and produced an embittered controversy in the Church of England; he was successively Principal, professor of Moral Philosophy, and of Divinity at St. Mary's Hall, and became bishop of Hereford in 1847 (1793-1868).
Hampole, Richard Rolle, “the Hermit of Hampole,” born at Thornton, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and at the age of 19 turned hermit; was the author of “The Pricke of Conscience,” a lengthy poem of a religious character (1290-1349).
Hampshire, Hants (690), a maritime county of S. England, fronting the English Channel between Dorset on the W. and Sussex on the E.; in the NE. are the “rolling Downs,” affording excellent sheep pasturage, while the SW. is largely occupied by the New Forest; the Test, Itchen, and Avon are principal rivers flowing to the S.; besides the usual cereals, hops are raised, while Hampshire bacon and honey are celebrated; Southampton, Portsmouth, and Gosport are the chief trading and manufacturing towns.
Hampstead (68), a Parliamentary borough of Middlesex, has a hilly and bright situation, 4 m. NW. of London; is a popular place of resort with Londoners, and contains many fine suburban residences; beyond the village is the celebrated Heath; many literary associations are connected with the place; the famous Kit-Cat Club of Steele and Addison's time is now a private house on the Heath; here lived Keats, Leigh Hunt, Coleridge, Hazlitt, &c.
Hampton (4), a village of Middlesex, on the Thames, 15 m. SW. of London; in the vicinity is Hampton Court Palace, a royal residence down to George II.'s time, and which was built originally by Wolsey, who presented it to Henry VIII.; in William III.'s time considerable alterations were made under the guidance of Wren; there is a fine picture-gallery and gardens; it is now occupied by persons of good family in reduced circumstances; the Hampton Court Conference to settle ecclesiastical differences took place here in 1604 under the presidency of James I., and the decisions at which proved unsatisfactory to the Puritan members of it; it was here at the suggestion of Dr. Reynolds the authorised version of the Bible was undertaken.
Hanau (25), a Prussian town in Hesse-Nassau, at the junction of the Kinzig and the Main, 11 m. NE. of Frankfurt; is celebrated for its jewellery and gold and silver work, and is otherwise a busy manufacturing town; it is the birthplace of the brothers Grimm.
Hancock, Winfield Scott, a noted American general, born near Philadelphia; he had already graduated and served with distinction in the Mexican War, when, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he received a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers; he led a heroic charge at Fredericksburg, and in 1864 his gallant conduct in many a hard-fought battle was rewarded by promotion to a major-generalship in the regular army; subsequently he held important commands in the departments of Missouri, Dakota, &c., and in 1880 unsuccessfully opposed Garfield for the Presidency (1824-1886).
Händel, musical composer, born at Halle; distinguished for his musical ability from his earliest years; was sent to Berlin to study when he was 14; began his musical career as a performer at Hamburg in 1703; produced his first opera in 1704; spent six years in Italy, devoting himself to his profession the while; came, on invitation, to England in 1710, where, being well received, he resolved to remain, and where, year after year—as many as nearly fifty of them—he added to his fame by his diligence as a composer; he produced a number of operas and oratorios; among the latter may be noted his “Saul,” his “Samson,” and “Judas Maccabæus,” and pre-eminently the “Messiah,” his masterpiece, and which fascinates with a charm that appeals to and is appreciated by initiated and uninitiated alike (1684-1759).
Hang-chow (800), a Chinese town, a treaty-port since the recent war with Japan; is at the mouth of the Tsien-tang at the entrance of the Imperial Canal, 110 m. SW. of Shanghai; it is an important literary, religious, and commercial centre; has flourishing silk factories, and is noted for its gold and silver ware.
Hanging Gardens, The, of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the world, had an area of four acres, formed a square, were a series of terraces supported by pillars sloping upwards like a pyramid and seeming to hang in air; they are ascribed to Semiramis.
Hanif, name given to a Mohammedan or an Arab of rigidly monotheistic belief.
Hankow (750), a Chinese river-port, at the confluence of the Han and Yangtsze Rivers; it is properly an extension of the large towns Wu-chang and Han-yang; there is a considerable amount of shipping; tea is the principal article of export, and a large trade is carried on with the inland provinces.
Hanley (85), a busy manufacturing town in the “Potteries,” 18 m. N. of Stafford; coal and iron are wrought in the neighbourhood.
Hanmer, Sir Thomas, Speaker of the House of Commons; elected in 1713, discharged the duties of the office with conspicuous impartiality; published an edition of Shakespeare (1677-1746).
Hannay, James, a novelist and critic, born in Dumfries; spent his boyhood in the navy, on quitting which he settled in London and took to letters; was for a time editor of the Edinburgh Courant, a Tory paper, and subsequently consul at Barcelona, where he died; he knew English literature and wrote English well (1827-1873).
Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, son of Hamilcar (q. v.); learned the art of war under his father in Spain; subjugated all Spain south of the Ebro by the capture of the Roman allied city of Saguntum, which led to the outbreak of the Second Punic War and his leading his army through hostile territory over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy; defeated the Romans in succession at the Ticinus, the Trebia, and Lake Trasimenus, to the extirpation of the army sent against him; passed the Apennines and descended into Apulia, where, after being harassed by the tantalising policy of Fabius Maximus, he met the Romans at Cannæ in 216 B.C. and inflicted on them a crushing defeat, retiring after this into winter quarters at Capua, where his soldiers became demoralised; he next season began to experience a succession of reverses, which ended in the evacuation of Italy and the transfer of the seat of war to Africa, where Hannibal was met by Scipio on the field of Zama in 201 B.C. and defeated; he afterwards joined Antiochus, king of Syria, who was at war with Rome, to his defeat there also, upon which he fled to Prusias, king of Bithynia, where, when his surrender was demanded, he ended his life by poisoning himself (247-183 B.C.).
Hannington, James, first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, born at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex; was ordained in 1873 after passing through Oxford, and in 1882 undertook missionary work in Uganda, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society; his health breaking down when he had gone as far as Victoria Nyanza, he returned home; but two years later as bishop he entered upon his duties at Frere Town, near Mombasa; in the following year he was killed by natives when making his way to the mission station at Rubaga, in Uganda (1847-1885).
Hanno, the name of several eminent Carthaginians, one of whom, surnamed the Great, was a persistent opponent of the Barcine faction, headed by Hamilcar; and another was a navigator who made a voyage round the western coast of Africa, of which he left an account in his “Periplus” or “Circumnavigating Voyage.”
Hanover (2,278), a Prussian province since 1866, formerly an independent kingdom; stretches N. from Westphalia to the German Ocean, between Holland on the W. and Saxony on the E.; the district is well watered by the Elbe, Weser, and Ems; in the S. are the Harz Mountains; for the rest the land is flat, and much of it is occupied by uncultivated moors; agriculture and cattle-rearing are, however, the chief industries, while the minerals of the Harz are extensively wrought; in 1714 George Ludwig, second Elector of Hanover, succeeded Anne on the English throne as her nearest Protestant kinsman, and till 1837 the dual rule was maintained, Hanover meanwhile in 1814 having been made a kingdom; in 1837 the Hanoverian crown passed to the Duke of Cumberland, Queen Victoria, as a woman, being ineligible; in 1866 the kingdom was conquered and annexed by Prussia.
Hanover (164), the capital, is situated on the Leine, 78 m. SE. of Bremen; it consists of an old and a new portion; presents a handsome appearance, and its many fine buildings include the royal library (170,000 vols.), the Kestner Museum, several palaces and art-galleries, &c.; it is the centre of the North German railway system, and its many industries embrace iron-works, the manufacture of pianos, tobacco, linen, &c.
Hansard, record of the proceedings and debates in the British Parliament, published by the printers Hansard, the founder of the firm being Luke Hansard, a printer of Norwich, who came to London in 1770 as a compositor, and succeeded as proprietor of the business in which he was a workman; d. 1828.
Hanseatic League, a combination of towns in North-western Germany for the mutual protection of their commerce against the pirates of the Baltic and the mutual defence of their liberties against the encroachments of neighbouring princes; it dates from 1241, and flourished for several centuries, to the extension of their commerce far and wide; numbered at one time 64 towns, and possessed fleets and armies, an exchequer, and a government of their own; the League dwindled down during the Thirty Years' War to six cities, and finally to three, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen.
Hansteen, Christoph, a Norwegian astronomer and mathematician, born in Christiania, where he became professor of Mathematics; is famous for his researches and discoveries in connection with the magnetism of the earth, and the impetus he gave to the study of it; he prosecuted his magnetic researches as far as the E. of Siberia, and published the results (1784-1873).
Hanswurst (i. e. Jack Pudding), a pantomimic character in comic performances on the German stage; a great favourite at one time with the vulgar; distinguished for his awkwardness, his gluttonous appetite, and his rotundity.
Hanuman, the monkey-god of the Hindus, a friend of Râma, for whose benefit he reared a causeway across seas to Ceylon.
Hanway, Jonas, a traveller and philanthropist, born in Portsmouth; travelled through Russia and Persia, and settled in London as one of the navy commissariat; devoted himself to the reclaiming and befriending of unfortunates of all kinds; was a man of very eccentric ways (1712-1786).
Hapsburg or Habsburg, House of, a famous royal house which has played a leading part in the history of Continental Europe from its foundation in the 12th century by Albert, Count of Hapsburg, and which is represented to-day by the Imperial family of Austria. Representatives of this family wore the Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries. It takes its name from the castle of Habsburg or Habichtaburg, on the Aar, built by Werner, bishop of Strasburg, in the 11th century, a castle, however, which has long since ceased to be in the possession of the family.
Harbour Grace (7), a seaport and the second town of Newfoundland, lies on the W. side of Conception Bay, 84 m. NW. of St. John's; its commodious harbour is somewhat exposed; it is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has a cathedral and convent.
Harburg (35), a prospering Prussian seaport in Lüneburg, on the Elbe, 5 m. S. of Hamburg; its industries embrace gutta-percha goods, oil, chemicals, &c.; is a favourite watering-place.
Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, statesman, born, a clergyman's son, at Nuneham Park, Oxfordshire; was highly distinguished at Cambridge, and in 1854 was called to the bar; was a Q.C. in 1866, and professor of International Law at Cambridge (1869-87); he won considerable repute by his articles in the Saturday Review and his “Historicus” letters to the Times, and in 1868 entered Parliament, representing Oxford in the Liberal interest; in 1873 he became Solicitor-General, and received a knighthood; he was a vigorous opponent of the Disraeli Government, and on the return of the Liberals to power in 1880 became Home Secretary; under Mr. Gladstone in 1886, and again in 1892, he held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer; he staunchly supported Mr. Gladstone in his Home Rule policy; became leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons on Mr. Gladstone's retirement, a post which for party reasons he resigned in 1899; b. 1827.
Hardenberg, Friedrich von. See Novalis.
Hardenberg Prince von, a Prussian statesman, born in Hanover; after service in Hanover and Brunswick entered that of Prussia under William II., and became Chancellor of State under William III.; distinguished himself by the reforms he introduced in military and civic matters to the benefit of the country, though he was restrained a good deal by the reactionary proclivities of the king (1750-1822).
Hardicanute, king of England and Denmark, the son of Canute and his successor on the Danish throne; was king of England only in part till the death of his brother Harold, whom he survived only two years, but long enough to alienate his subjects by the re-imposition of the Danegelt; d. 1642.
Harding, John, or Hardyng, an English rhyming chronicler in the reign of Edward IV.; had been a soldier, and fought at Agincourt (1378-1465).
Harding, Stephen, a Benedictine monk, born in Devonshire, of noble descent, a born ascetic, who set himself to restore his order to its primitive austerity; retired with a few others into a dismal secluded place at Citeaux, and became abbot; was joined there by the great St. Bernard, his kindred, and followers, to the great aggrandisement of the order; d. 1134.
Hardinge, Henry, Viscount, a distinguished soldier and Governor-General of India, born at Wrotham, Kent; joined the army in 1798, and served through the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, but wounded at Ligny he was unable to take part in the final struggle with Napoleon; he now turned his attention to politics; was Secretary of War under Wellington, and subsequently twice Chief Secretary for Ireland; in 1844 he was appointed Governor-General of India, and later distinguished himself under Gough in the first Sikh War; a viscountship and pension followed in 1845, and seven years later he succeeded Wellington as Commander-in-Chief of the British army (1785-1856).
Hardouin, Jean, a French classical scholar, born at Quimper, Brittany; early entered the Jesuit order; was from 1683 librarian of the College of Louis le Grand in Paris; he is chiefly remembered for his wild assertion that the bulk of classical literature was spurious, and the work of 13th-century monks; Virgil's “Æneid” he declared to be an allegorical account of St. Peter's journey to Rome, and the original language of the New Testament to be Latin; his edition of Pliny, however, evinces real scholarship (1646-1729).
Hardwár, a town on the Ganges, 39 m. NE. of Saharunpur, North-West Provinces; famous for its large annual influx of pilgrims seeking ablution in the sacred river; a sacred festival held every twelfth year attracts some 300,000 persons.
Hardy, Thomas, novelist, born in Dorsetshire, with whose scenery he has made his readers familiar; bred an architect; first earned popularity in 1874 by his “Far from the Madding Crowd,” which was followed by, among others, “The Return of the Native,” “The Woodlanders,” and “Tess of the D'Urbervilles,” the last in 1892, books which require to be read in order to appreciate the genius of the author; b. 1840.
Hardy, Sir Thomas Duffus, an eminent palæographer, born in Jamaica; he acquired his skill in MS. deciphering as a clerk in the Record Office in the Tower; in 1861 he was elected deputy-keeper of the Public Records, and nine years later received a knighthood; his great learning is displayed in his editions of various “Rolls” for the Record Commission, in his “Descriptive Catalogue of MSS.,” &c. (1804-1878).
Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman, Bart., a brave naval officer, whose name is associated with the closing scene of Nelson's life, born at Portisham, in Dorsetshire; as a commander in the battle of the Nile he greatly distinguished himself, and gained his post-commission to Nelson's flagship, the Vanguard; at Trafalgar he commanded the Victory, and subsequently brought Nelson's body to England; he received a baronetcy, and saw further service, eventually attaining to the rank of vice-admiral (1769-1839).
Hare, Julius Charles, archdeacon of Lewes, born at Vicenza; took orders in the Church, and in 1832 became, in succession to his uncle, rector of Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex, the advowson of which was in his family, in which rectory he laboured till his death; he was of the school of Maurice; wrote “The Mission of the Comforter,” and with his brother Augustus “Guesses at Truth”; had John Sterling as his curate for a short time, and edited his remains as well as wrote his Life, the latter in so exclusively ecclesiastical a reference as to dissatisfy Carlyle, his joint-trustee, and provoke him, as in duty bound, to write another which should exhibit their common friend in the more interesting light of a man earnestly struggling with the great burning problems of the time, calling for some wise solution by all of us, church and no church (1795-1855).
Harem, the apartment or suite of apartments in a Mohammedan's house for the female inmates and their attendants, and the name given to the collective body of them.
Harfleur, a village in France with a strong fortress, 4 m. S. of Havre, taken by Henry V. in 1415, and retaken afterwards by both French and English, becoming finally French in 1450.
Hargraves, Edmund, discoverer of the gold-field in Australia, born at Gosport, Devon; had been to California, concluded that as the geological formation was the same in Australia where he had come from, he would find gold there too and found it in New South Wales in 1851, for which the Government gave him £10,000 (1818-1890).
Hargreaves, James, inventor of the spinning-jenny, born at Standhill, near Blackburn; was a poor and illiterate weaver when in 1760 he, in conjunction with Robert Peel, brought out a carding-machine; in 1766 he invented the spinning-jenny, a machine which has since revolutionised the cotton-weaving industry, but which at the time evoked the angry resentment of the hand-weaver; he was driven from his native town and settled in Nottingham, where he started a spinning-mill; he failed to get his machine patented, and died in comparative poverty (1745-1778).
Hari-Kari, called also a “happy despatch,” a form of suicide, now obsolete, permitted to offenders of high rank to escape the indignity of a public execution; the nature of it may be gathered from the name, “a gash in the belly.”
Häring, Wilhelm, German novelist, born at Breslau; bred for law, but abandoned it for literature; wrote two romances, “Walladmor” and “Schloss Avalon,” under the pseudonym of “Walter Scott,” which imposed upon some; he afterwards assumed the name of Wilibald Alexis, a name by which he was long honourably known (1797-1871).
Harington, Sir John, courtier and miscellaneous writer, translated by desire of Queen Elizabeth Ariosto's “Orlando Furioso” (1561-1612).
Hariri, Arabic philologist and poet of the 11th century, born at Bassorah; celebrated far and wide as the author of “Makameat,” a collection of tales in verse, the central figure in which is one Abu Seid, a clever and amusing production, and evincing a unique mastery of Arabic.
Harlaw, Battle of, a battle fought at Harlaw, 18 m. NW. of Aberdeen, on 24th July 1411, which decided the supremacy of the Lowland Scots over the Highland.
Harlech, an old Welsh town in Merionethshire, facing the sea, 10 m. N. of Barmouth; its grim old castle by the shore was a Lancastrian fortress during the Wars of the Roses, and its capture by the Yorkists in 1468 was the occasion of the well-known song, “The March of the Men of Harlech.”
Harlequin, a character in a Christmas pantomime, in love with Columbine, presumed to be invisible, and deft at tricks to frustrate those of the clown, who is his rival lover.
Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford, a celebrated English politician, born of good family; entered Parliament shortly after the Revolution (1688) as a Whig, but after a period of vacillation threw in his lot with Tories and in 1701 became Speaker of the House; in 1704 he was associated with St. John (Bolingbroke) in the Cabinet as Secretary of State, and set about undermining the influence of Godolphin and Marlborough; he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and head of the Government; was created Earl of Oxford and Lord High Treasurer; from this point his power began to wane; was displaced by Bolingbroke at last in 1715; was impeached for intriguing with the Jacobites and sent to the Tower; two years later he was released, and the remainder of his life was spent in the pursuit of letters and in the building up of his famous collection of MSS., now deposited in the British Museum (1661-1724).
Harmattan, a hot withering wind blowing over the coast of Guinea to the Atlantic from the interior of Africa, more or less from December to February.
Harmodius, an Athenian who in 514 B.C. conspired with Aristogeiton, his friend, against Hipparchus and his brother Hippias, the tyrant, but being betrayed were put to death; they figured in the traditions of Athens as political martyrs, and as such were honoured with statues.
Harnack, Adolf, a German theologian, born at Dorpat; professor successively at Giessen, Marburg, and Berlin; has written on the history of dogma in the Christian Church, on Gnosticism, early Christian literature, and the Apostles' Creed, on the latter offensively to the orthodox; b. 1851.
Harold I., king of England from 1035 to 1040, younger son of Cnut; the kingdom was practically divided between him and his brother Harthacnut; but the latter remaining in Denmark to protect his possessions there, England passed into Harold's hands.
Harold II., the last of the Saxon kings of England, held the crown for a few months in 1066, was the second son of the great Earl Godwin (q. v.); in 1053 he succeeded his father in the earldom of the West Saxons, and during the later years of Edward's feeble rule was virtual administrator of the kingdom; on his accession to the throne his title was immediately challenged by his brother Tostig, and William, Duke of Normandy; having crushed his brother's invasion at Stamford Bridge, he immediately hurried S. to meet the forces of William at Hastings. Norman strategy won the day, and Harold fell in the battle pierced through the eye by an arrow; historians unite in ascribing to him every kingly quality—a noble presence, sagacity, and a brave yet gentle nature.
Harold I. of Norway, surnamed Haarfager (fair-haired), by him the petty kingdoms of Norway were all conquered and knit into one compact realm; the story goes that he undertook this work to win the hand of his lady-love, and that he swore an oath neither to cut nor comb his hair till his task was done; d. 930.
Haroun-al-Raschid (“Aaron the Orthodox or Just”), the most renowned of the Abbaside caliphs; succeeded to the caliphate in 786 on the death of his elder brother, El Hádi, and had for grand-vizier the Barmacide Yâhyá, to whom with his four sons he committed the administration of affairs, he the while making his court a centre of attraction to wise men, scholars, and artists, so that under him Bagdad became the capital of the civilised world; his glory was tarnished by one foul blot towards the end of his reign, and that was the massacre out of jealousy of the Barmacide family, members of which had contributed so much to his fame, an act which he had soon occasion to repent, for it was followed by an insurrection which cost him his life; the halo that invests his memory otherwise was, however, more fabulous than real, and history shows him at his best to have been avaricious, resentful, and cruel.
Harpies, fabulous ravenous creatures, living in filth and defiling everything they touch, with the head and breast of a woman, the wings and claws of a bird, and a face pale with hunger, the personification of whirlwinds and storms, conceived of as merely ravening, wasting powers.
Harrington, James, political writer; author of a political romance entitled “The Commonwealth of Oceana,” in which he argued that all secure government must be based on property, and for a democracy on this basis (1611-1677).
Harris, Howel, a noted Welsh Methodist, born at Trevecca, Brecon; embracing Calvinism, he at the age of 21 became an itinerant preacher, confining himself chiefly to Wales; in 1752 he took up his abode at Trevecca, where he erected a large house to accommodate those who sought his ministrations (1714-1773).
Harris, Joel Chandler, American writer, born in Georgia, U.S.; author of “Uncle Remus,” his chief work a study of negro folk-lore, followed by interesting sketches and stories; b. 1848.
Harris, Luke, founder of the “Brotherhood of the New Life,” born in Buckinghamshire, a spiritualistic Socialist; his system founded on Swedenborgianism (q. v.) on the one hand and a form of communism on the other, with a scriptural Christianity spiritualised as backbone; the destiny of man he regards as angelhood, or a state of existence like that of God, in which the unity of sex, or fatherhood and motherhood, meet in one; the late Laurence Oliphant and the late John Pulsford were among his disciples; b. 1823.
Harrisburg (50), capital of Pennsylvania, is beautifully situated on the Susquehanna, 106 m. NW. of Philadelphia; the industries include extensive iron and steel works and a flourishing lumber trade.
Harrison, Benjamin. President of the United States and grandson of William Henry Harrison, a former President, born at North Bend, Ohio; started as a lawyer in Indianapolis, became an important functionary in the court of Indiana, and subsequently proved himself a brave and efficient commander during the Civil War; engaging actively in politics, he in 1880 became a United States Senator; as the nominee of the Protectionist and Republican party he won the Presidency against Cleveland, but at the election of 1892 the positions were reversed; in 1893 he became a professor in San Francisco; b. 1833.
Harrison, Frederic, barrister, born in London, professor of Jurisprudence in the Inns of Court; author of articles contributed to Reviews and Essays, and of Lectures on a variety of current questions, historical, social, and religious, from the standpoint of the positivism of Auguste Comte, with his somewhat vague “Religion of Humanity” is the author of “Order and Progress,” the “Choice of Books,” &c.; b. 1831.
Harrison, John, a celebrated mechanician, born at Foulby, Yorkshire; was the first to invent a chronometer which, by its ingenious apparatus for compensating the disturbing effects caused by variations of climate, enabled mariners to determine longitude to within a distance of 18 m.; by this invention he won a prize of £20,000 offered by Government; amongst other things he invented the compensating gridiron pendulum, still in use (1693-1776).
Harrison, William, a noted historical writer, born in London; graduated at Cambridge, and after serving as chaplain to Lord Cobham, received the rectorship of Radwinter, in Essex; subsequently he became canon of Windsor; his fame rests on two celebrated historical works, “Description of England,” an invaluable picture of social life and institutions in Elizabethan times, and “Description of Britain,” written for Holinshed's “Chronicle” (1534-1593).
Harrogate or Harrowgate (14), a popular watering-place, prettily situated amid forest and moorland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 20 m. NW. of York; it enjoys a wide repute for its sulphurous, saline, and chalybeate springs.
Harrow (6), a town of Middlesex, built on an eminence 200 ft. high, 12 m. from St. Paul's, London; its church, St. Mary's, founded by Lanfranc, is a Gothic structure of great architectural interest. Harrow School, a celebrated public school, was founded in 1571 for the free education of 30 poor boys of the parish, but subsequently opened its doors to “foreigners,” and now numbers upwards of 500 pupils.
Harry, Blind, a famous Scottish minstrel who flourished in the 15th century; the few particulars of his life which have come down to us represent him as a blind and vagrant poet, living by reciting poems “before princes and peers”; to him is attributed the celebrated poem, “The Life of that Noble Champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace, Knight,” completed about 1488, a spirited, if partly apocryphal, account of Wallace, running to 11,861 lines in length.
Hart, Solomon Alexander, born at Plymouth; served as an engraver's apprentice in London; studied at the Royal Academy, and excelled in miniature painting; he became celebrated as a painter of historical scenes and characters, and in 1854 was appointed professor of Painting in the Royal Academy, and subsequently librarian; his works include “Henry I. receiving intelligence of the Death of his Son,” “Milton visiting Galileo in Prison,” “Wolsey and Buckingham,” “Lady Jane Grey in the Tower,” &c. (1806-1881).
Harte, Bret, American humourist, born at Albany, New York; went to California at 15; tried various occupations, mining, school-mastering, printing, and literary sketching, when he got on the staff of a newspaper, and became eventually first editor of the Overland Monthly, in the columns of which he established his reputation as a humourist by the publication of the “Heathen Chinee” and other humorous productions, such as “The Luck of Roaring Camp”; he wields a prolific pen, and all he writes is of his own original coinage; b. 1839.
Hartford (80), the capital of Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut, 50 m. from its mouth and 112 m. NE. of New York; is handsomely laid out, and contains an imposing white marble capitol, Episcopalian and Congregational colleges, hospitals, libraries, &c.; is an important depôt for the manufacture of firearms, iron-ware, tobacco, &c., and is an important banking and insurance centre.
Hartlepool (65), a seaport of Durham, situated on a tongue of land which forms the Bay of Hartlepool, 4 m. N. of the Tees estuary; the chief industries are shipbuilding, cement works, and a shipping trade, chiefly in coal and iron. West Hartlepool (43), lies on the opposite and south side of the bay, 1 m. distant, but practically forming one town with Hartlepool, and carries on a similar trade, but on a somewhat larger scale; the extensive docks, stretching between the two towns, cover an area of 300 acres.
Hartley, David, an English philosopher and physician; wrote “Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations”; ascribed sensation to vibration in the nerves, and applied the doctrine of the association of ideas to mental phenomena (1705-1757).
Hartmann, a German philosopher, born at Berlin; established his fame by a work entitled the “Philosophy of the Unconscious,” which rapidly passed through nine editions; he has since written on pessimism, the moral and the religious consciousness, the philosophy of the beautiful, and spiritualism; he is the founder of a new school of philosophy, which professes to be a synthesis of that of Hegel and that of Schopenhauer, and to aim at the reconciliation of philosophic results with scientific; b. 1842.
Hartmann, Moritz, a German poet; had a keen sympathy with the liberal political ideas that prevailed in 1848, and which his poems contributed to foster, and on account of which he got into trouble (1821-1872).
Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio, Spanish dramatist, born at Madrid, of German extraction; was educated under the Jesuits, but abandoned his intention of joining the Church, took to literature, and was given a post in the National Library at Madrid; his dramas are fresh and vigorous, and enjoy a wide popularity; he rose to be Director of the National Library, and in 1852 was President of the Theatrical Council (1806-1880).
Harus`pices, among the Romans, soothsayers who affected to foretell future events by the inspection of the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice, as well as by study of abnormal phenomena.
Harvard University, the oldest and premier educational institution in the United States, is located at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 3 m. W. of Boston; it is named after the Rev. John Harvard, a graduate of Cambridge, who by the bequest of his library and small fortune helped to launch the institution in 1638; it was originally intended for the training of youths for the Puritan ministry, but it has during the present century been extended into a university of the first rank, under emancipation from all sectarian control; it has a student roll of about 3000, is splendidly equipped, and now richly endowed.
Harvest-Moon, the full moon which in our latitude, at the autumnal equinox, rises for an evening or two about the same time.
Harvey, Sir George, a Scotch artist, born at St. Ninians, Stirling; was one of the original associates of the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he at length became president; among his paintings are the “Covenanters' Preaching,” “The Curlers,” and “John Bunyan in Jail” (1805-1880).
Harvey, William, a celebrated English physician, born at Folkestone, in Kent; graduated at Cambridge, and in 1602 received his medical diploma at Padua; settling in London, he in a few years became physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and subsequently lecturer at the College of Physicians; in 1628 he announced in a published treatise his discovery of the circulation of the blood; for many years he was Court physician, and attended Charles I. at the battle of Edgehill (1578-1657).
Harwich (8), a seaport and market town of Essex; is situated on a headland on the S. side of the conjoined estuaries of the Stour and the Orwell, 5 m. N. of the Naze and 65 m. NE. of London; it is an important packet station for Holland, has a good harbour and docks, with an increasing commerce.
Harz Mountains, a mountain range of N. Germany, stretching for 57 m. between the Weser and the Elbe to the S. of Brunswick; it forms a picturesque and diversified highland, is a favourite resort of tourists, and rises to its greatest elevation in the far-famed Brocken (q. v.); the scene of the Walpurgisnacht in “Faust”; silver, iron, and other metals are found in considerable quantities, and, with the extensive forests, give rise to a prosperous mining and timber industry.
Hasdrubal, the name of several distinguished Carthaginian generals, of whom the most noted were (1), the son of Hamilcar Barca (q. v.) and brother of Hannibal (q. v.); he played a prominent part in the Second Punic War, conquered Cn. Scipio in Spain (212 B.C.), and subsequently commanded the Carthaginian army in Italy; he fell at the battle of the Metaurus in 207 B.C.: (2) the brother-in-law of Hamilcar Barca, whom he succeeded in 228 B.C. as administrator of the new empire in the Iberian peninsula; he pushed the western frontiers back to the Tagus, and by his strong yet conciliatory government firmly established the Carthaginian power; he was assassinated in 221 B.C.
Hase, Karl August, an eminent German theologian, born at Steinbach, Saxony, professor at Jena; author of a “Text-book of Evangelical Dogma,” a “Life of Christ,” a “Church History,” &c., was equally opposed to orthodoxy and rationalism, and sought to reconcile the creed of the Church with the conclusions of science (1800-1890).
Hashish, an intoxicant made from Indian hemp, having different effects on different individuals according to the dose and to the constitution of the individual.
Haslingden (18), a busy market-town of Lancashire, 19 m. NW. of Manchester; has flourishing cotton, silk, and woollen factories, and in the vicinity are coal-mines, iron-works, &c.
Hassan Pasha, a Turkish grand-vizier of African birth; twice reduced the beys of Egypt; commanded, at the age of 85, the Turkish forces against Russia in 1788, but being defeated, was dismissed and put to death in 1790.
Hasselt (13); a Belgian town, capital of the province of Limburg, 47 m. NE. of Brussels; distilling, and the manufacture of lace, linen, and tobacco are the staple industries.
Hastings (61), a popular holiday and health resort in Sussex; occupies a fine situation on the coast, with lofty cliffs behind, 33 m. E. of Brighton; has a splendid esplanade 3 m. long, parks, public gardens, &c., and ruins of a castle.
Hastings, Battle Of, fought on 14th October 1066, on Senlac Hill, 6 m. NW. of Hastings (where now stands the little town of Battle), between William, Duke of Normandy and Harold II., King of England; victory rested with the Normans, and Harold was slain on the field.
Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquis of, Governor-General of India; entering the army in 1771, he saw active service in the American War and in Holland; succeeded his father in the earldom of Moira; was in 1813 appointed to the Governor-Generalship of India; he was instrumental in extending the Company's territories, and pacifying the warlike Goorkhas, for which, in 1816, he was created Marquis of Hastings; latterly he held the Governorship of Malta (1754-1826).
Hastings, Warren, first Governor-General of India, born at Churchill, Oxfordshire; early left an orphan, he was maintained at Westminster School by his uncle, and at 17 received a clerkship in the East India Company; for 14 years his life was occupied in mercantile and political work, at the close of which time he returned to England; in 1769 he was back in India as a member of the Madras Council; married the divorced wife of Baron Imhoff, and in 1772 was appointed President of the Council in Bengal; under the new arrangement for the governing of the provinces, Hastings was raised to the position of Governor-General in 1773; despite jealousies and misrepresentations both among his colleagues in India and the home authorities, he steadily, and with untiring energy, extended and brought into orderly government the British dominions; in 1785 he voluntarily resigned, and on his return he was impeached before the House of Lords for oppression of the natives, and for conniving at the plunder of the Begums or dowager-princesses of Oudh; the trial brought forth the greatest orators of the day, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan leading the impeachment, which, after dragging on for nearly eight years, resulted in the acquittal of Hastings on all the charges; his fortune having been consumed by the enormous expenses of the trial, he was awarded a handsome pension by the Company, and thereafter lived in honoured retirement (1732-1818).
Hatch, Edwin, theologian, born at Derby; graduated at Oxford, and was for some years professor of Classics in Trinity College, Toronto; in 1867 was appointed Vice-Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford; Rector of Purleigh, Essex, in 1883; reader in Ecclesiastical History at Oxford; he held the Grinfield, Bampton, and Hibbert lectureships at different times, and established a reputation, both abroad and at home, for wide and accurate scholarship; Harnack (q. v.) translated his learned lectures on “The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches”; and “The Growth of Church Institutions” displayed his rare gift of combining profound scholarship with popular presentation (1835-1889).
Hatfield, or Bishop's Hatfield (4), a market-town of Hertfordshire, 18 m. NW. of London; its parish church dates from the 13th century, and in the vicinity stands Hatfield House, a noble architectural pile of James I.'s time, the seat of the Marquis of Salisbury.
Hatherley, Baron, barrister, elected to represent Oxford in Parliament; in 1847 was Solicitor-General, in 1853 raised to the bench, and in 1868 made Lord Chancellor; retired in 1872 from failing sight (1801-1881).
Hathras (39), an important commercial town in the NW. Provinces, India, 97 m. SE. of Delhi; exports large quantities of sugar, grain, cotton, &c., and is famed for its beautiful carved stone-and-wood-work.
Hats and Caps, the name of two political factions in Sweden in the middle of the 18th century, the former favouring France and the latter Russia.
Hatteras, Cape, a low sandy headland of a small island separated from the mainland of N. Carolina, U.S., by Pimlico Sound; it is a storm-swept and treacherous point, and is marked by a powerful light, 190 ft. high.
Hatti-Sheriff, a name given to an edict of the Sultan which is irrevocable, though many a one of them has proved a dead letter.
Hatto, archbishop of Mainz, of whom tradition alleges that he was assailed in his palace by an army of mice, to escape whose ravages he retired to a tower on the Rhine, whither the mice followed him and ate him up, a judgment due, as is alleged, to his having, during a great famine in 970, gathered the poor into a barn and burnt them to death, as “like mice, good only for devouring corn,” he said.
Hauberk, a coat or tunic of mail made of interwoven steel rings and extending below the knees.
Hauch, Hans Carsten, Danish poet and novelist, born at Frederikshald, in Norway; in 1846 he became professor of Northern Literature at Kiel, and four years later of Æsthetics at Copenhagen; his historical tragedies, lyrics, tales, and romances are instinct with true poetic feeling, and are widely popular in Denmark (1790-1872).
Hauff, Wilhelm, a German prose writer, born in Stuttgart, who died young; wrote “Memoirs of Satan” and “The Man in the Moon,” and a number of charmingly told “Tales,” which have made his name famous among ourselves (1802-1827).
Haug, a German Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Poona, and afterwards at Münich; devoted himself to the exposition of the Zendavesta (1827-1876).
Hauser, Kaspar, a young man of about 16 who mysteriously appeared in Nürnberg one day in 1828, was found to be as helpless and ignorant as a baby, and held a letter in his hand giving an account of his history. The mystery of his case interested Lord Stanhope, who charged himself with the care of him, but he was enticed out of the house he was boarded in one day, returned mortally wounded, and died soon after.
Haussa or Houssa, a subject people of Central Soudan, whose language has become the common speech of some 15 millions of people between the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea. The language is allied to the Hamitic tongues, and is written in modified Arabic characters.
Haussman, George Eugène, a celebrated Préfect of the Seine, who, while holding that position (1853-70), carried through extensive architectural improvements in Paris, which transformed it into one of the handsomest cities of Europe; the enormous cost entailed brought about his dismissal, but not before he had received many distinctions, and been ennobled by Napoleon III.; in 1881 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (1809-1891).
Haüy, René Just, known as the Abbé Haüy, a French mineralogist, born at St. Just; propounded the theory of crystallisation founded on geometrical principles; absorbed in study, was caught napping during the Revolution; got consequently into trouble, but was extricated out of it by his friend and pupil, Geoffrey St.-Hilaire; was appointed professor of Mineralogy by Napoleon (1743-1823).
Havana (200), fortified capital of the island of Cuba, in the West Indies; has a spacious and securely sheltered harbour, an old Spanish cathedral, a university, botanical garden, and several fine theatres; the town is ill laid out, badly drained, and subject to yellow fever; the staple industries are the raising of tobacco and sugar, and the manufacture of cigars.
Havel, an important tributary of the Lower Elbe, which it joins a few miles from Wittenberg; it rises in Mecklenburg, and takes a circuitous course past Potsdam of 180 m.
Havelock, Sir Henry, British general, born at Bishop Wearmouth; entered the army in 1815, and embarked in the service for India in 1823; served in the Afghan and Sikh Wars, as also in Persia; on the outbreak of the Mutiny he was in 1857 sent to the relief of Cawnpore and Lucknow, the latter of which places he entered on 25th Sept., where, being beleagured, he entrenched himself in the Residency, and held his own until November, when Sir Colin Campbell came to his relief, but his health had been undermined from his anxieties, and he died on the 22nd of that month; for his services on this occasion a baronetcy and a pension of £1000 was conferred on him, but it was too late, and the honour with the pension was transferred to his son; he was a Christian soldier, and a commander of the Puritan type (1795-1857).
Haverfordwest (6), seaport and capital of Pembroke, Wales, prettily situated on the Cleddan, 10 m. NE. of Milford; has a 14th-century castle and a ruined priory; the chief industry is paper-making.
Havergal, Frances Ridley, a hymn-writer, born at Astley, where her father, known as a musical composer, was rector; was authoress of “Ministry of Song,” and collections which have been highly popular (1830-1879).
Haversian Canals, canals in the bones to convey the vessels that nourish them.
Havre, Le (116), the second commercial port in France, on the N. side of the Seine estuary, 143 m. NW. of Paris, in the dep. of Seine-Inférieure; has a fine harbour, docks, &c., but shipping is incommoded by the shifting sandbanks of the estuary, and railway facilities are poor; it is an important centre of emigration, and its industries embrace shipbuilding, iron-works, flour-mills, &c.
Hawaiian Islands (named by Cook the Sandwich Islands) (90), a group of volcanic islands, 12 in number, situated in the North Pacific; total area somewhat larger than Yorkshire. Of the five inhabited islands Hawaii is the largest; it contains the famous volcano, Kilauea, whose crater is one of the world's wonders, being 9 m. in circumference, and filled with a glowing lake of molten lava which ebbs and flows like an ocean tide. The island of Maui has the largest crater on the earth. The climate of the group is excellent, and vegetation (including forests) is abundant; sugar and rice are the chief crops. Honolulu (on Oahu), with a splendid harbour, is the capital. The islands are now under the jurisdiction of the United States.
Hawarden, a town 7 m. W. of Chester, near which is Hawarden Castle, where Mr. Gladstone resided and died.
Haweis, Hugh Reginald, English churchman, born at Egham, Surrey, incumbent of St. James's, Marylebone; was present in Italy during the revolution there, and at several of the battles; is popular as a preacher and lecturer, and has written a number of works on the times, on music, Christ and Christianity, &c.; b. 1840.
Hawes, Stephen, an English poet; held a post In the household of Henry VII.; author of an allegorical poem on the right education of a knight, entitled “The Pastime of Pleasure”; d. d. 1503.
Hawick (19), a prosperous and ancient town of Roxburghshire, at the confluence of the Teviot and Slitrig, 52 m. SE. of Edinburgh; is a flourishing centre of the tweed, yarn, and hosiery trade, and has besides dye-works, tanneries, &c.
Hawk-eye State, Iowa, U.S., so called from the name of an Indian chief once a terror in those parts.
Hawke, Lord, an English admiral, born in London; entered the navy at an early age in 1747; defeated a French fleet off Finisterre and captured six ships of the line in 1759; defeated Admiral Conflans off Belleisle; was made a peer in 1776; d. 1781.
Hawker, Robert Stephen, a Cornish clergyman and poet; was vicar for 40 years of Morwenstow, a parish on the N. Cornwall coast; author of “Cornish Ballads”; was a humane man, of eccentric ways, and passionately fond of animals; was the author of several works besides his ballads, in particular “Echoes from Old Cornwall” and “Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall” (1805-1875).
Hawkesworth, John, a miscellaneous writer; wrote a book of “Voyages,” an account of the first voyage of Captain Cook; was a friend of Johnson's, and associated with him in literary work (1715-1773).
Hawkins, Sir John, an English navigator and admiral, born at Plymouth; was rear-admiral of the fleet sent against the Armada and contributed to its defeat; has the unenviable distinction of having been the first Englishman to traffic in slaves, which he carried off from Africa and imported into the West Indies (1530-1595).
Hawkins, Sir John, retired attorney, born in London; wrote a “History of Music,” and edited Walton's “Complete Angler” with notes (1719-1789).
Hawkwood, Sir John, an English captain, born in Essex; embracing the profession of arms, served with distinction at Crécy and Poitiers, and was in consequence knighted by Edward III.; afterwards fought as free-lance with his White Company in the wars of Italy, and finally in the service of Florence, where he spent his last days and died in 1393. For an account of his character, military ability, and manner of warfare, see Ruskin's “Fors Clavigera.”
Haworth (3), a village of Yorkshire, situated on a rising moorland in the W. Biding, 2 m. SW. of Keighley, memorable as the lifelong home of the Brontës, and their final resting-place.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, American novelist, born at Salem, Massachusetts; his early ambition was to be a literary man, and “Twice-told Tales” was the first production by which he won distinction, after the publication of which he spent some months at Brook Farm (q. v.), leaving which he married and took up house at Concord; from 1848 to 1850 he held a State appointment, and in his leisure hours wrote his “Scarlet Letter,” which appeared in the latter year, and established his fame as a master of literature; this was followed by “The House of the Seven Gables,” “The Snow Image,” “The Blithedale Romance,” and by-and-by “The Marble Faun,” and “Our Old Home” (1804-1864).
Haydn, Joseph, German composer, born at Rohrau, in Austria, of poor parents; early evinced a musical talent, and became at the age of eight a cathedral chorister; came into notice first as a street musician; soon became a popular music-master in Vienna, and, under the patronage of the Esterhazys, kapellmeister to Prince Nicolaus, a passionate lover of music; he produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, &c.; he is at his best in quartettes and symphonies, and in “The Creation” and “The Seasons”; he was a man of a happy disposition, and his character appears in his music; he was known at length as Father Haydn (1732-1809).
Haydon, Benjamin Robert, an English historical painter, born at Plymouth; studied at the Royal Academy, and in 1807 exhibited “Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to Egypt”; two years later occurred his memorable split with the Royal Academy over a supposed slight to his picture, “Dentatus”; “Christ's Entry into Jerusalem” brought him £1700 by exhibition, and his “Judgment of Solomon,” considered his finest work, sold for 700 guineas; despite large sums obtained for “The Mock Election,” “The Reform Banquet,” &c., he was continually in debt, and his high-strung, sensitive temperament, smarting under imaginary slights and weary of unrealised ambitions, led him to commit suicide by shooting himself in his studio; he was an artist of great but unequal genius; he was fascinated with the Elgin Marbles, and the admiration he expressed for them contributed to persuade the Government to purchase them (1786-1846).
Hayes, Isaac Israel, Arctic explorer, born in Pennsylvania; after graduating in medicine, joined the Kane expedition in search of Franklin in 1853, and subsequently made two other voyages to the Arctic regions, accounts of which are given in his “An Arctic Boat-journey,” “The Land of Desolation,” &c.; subsequently he served as a surgeon during the Civil War, and sat in the New York Assembly (1832-1881).
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, President of the United States, born at Delaware, Ohio; graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio; studied law at Harvard, and started practice at Cincinnati; he served with distinction through the Civil War, entered Congress in 1865, and was thrice governor of Ohio; in 1876 he was elected President in the Republican interest after a protracted and bitterly disputed election; he did much to pacify the South, reform the civil service, advance education, and to bring about resumption of specie payments, measures which greatly restored the prosperity of the country (1822-1893).
Hay-Fever, a sort of catarrh, accompanied with paroxysms of sneezing, irritation in the eyes, pains in the head, &c., most frequent in early summer.
Hayley, William, poet, the friend and biographer of Cowper; wrote “Triumphs of Temper,” a poem (1745-1820).
Haym, Rudolf, professor of Philosophy at Halle; wrote biographies of Hegel, W. von Humboldt, and Schopenhauer; b. 1821.
Haynau, Julius Jakob, Baron von, a notorious Austrian general, born at Cassel, Germany; entered the army in 1801, and while holding a command during the Italian campaigns of 1848-49, crushed the revolt at Brescia with such brutal ferocity as to gain him the name of the “Hyæna of Brescia”; he was for a time dictator of Hungary, but his murderous cruelty towards the subjugate people became a European scandal and led to his removal; in London he was mobbed and narrowly escaped with his life (1786-1853).
Hayti (Hispaniola or Santo Domingo), next to Cuba the largest of the W. Indian Islands, in the group of the Greater Antilles, lies midway between Cuba on the W. and Porto Rico on the E.; its area, somewhat larger than Scotland, is apportioned between the negro Republic of Hayti in the E. and the mulatto Dominican Republic in the W.; the island is mountainous, and forests of valuable timber abound; a warm, moist climate favours rice, cotton, &c., and minerals are plentiful; but during this century, under native government, the island has been retrogressive; agriculture and mining are practically at a standstill, while the natives seem incapable of self-government; the language spoken is a corrupt French; Port-au-Prince and San Domingo are the chief towns; discovered in 1492 by Columbus, the island was soon denuded of its aboriginals, then peopled by imported negroes, joined latterly by French buccaneers; in 1697 the island was ceded to France, but in 1791, under Toussaint l'Ouverture (q. v.), the blacks, after a bloody revolution, swept the island clear of Europeans; population of island somewhat over a million.
Hayward, Abraham, English essayist; bred to law, but took to literature; executed a prose translation of “Faust,” Pt. I. (1802-1884).
Hazlitt, William, critic and essayist, born in Maidstone, of Irish descent; began life as an artist, but abandoned art for letters, and contributed to the reviews; wrote on the English poets and dramatists, the “Characters of Shakespeare's Plays,” “The Spirit of the Age,” a “Life of Napoleon,” &c.; criticism was his forte, and he ranks among the foremost devoted to that art; his life was not well regulated, his health gave way, and he died in poverty (1778-1830).
Head, Sir Edmund Walker, Bart., writer on art, born near Maidstone, Kent, succeeded to the baronetcy in 1838; became lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick in 1847, and governor-general of Canada in 1854; wrote “Handbook of Spanish Painting,” also “French Art,” and some poems (1805-1868).
Head, Sir Francis Bond, soldier and author; governor of Upper Canada; suppressed an insurrection; wrote a “Life of Bruce the African Traveller,” “Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau,” “A Faggot of French Sticks,” &c. (1793-1875).
Head-Hunters, name given to the Dyaks of Borneo, from their habit of preserving in the way of trophy the heads of those whom they slay in battle, as the Red Indians did the scalps.
Headrigg, Cuddie (i. e. Cuthbert), a ploughman in “Old Mortality.”
Healy, Timothy Michael, Irish Nationalist, born at Bantry, Cork; came into prominence during the Land League agitation in 1880, and in the same year was returned to Parliament; was called to the Irish bar in 1884, and has since been active in promoting the interests of the Home Rule movement; in 1890 he was one of the leaders in the revolt against Parnell; b. 1855.
Hearne, Thomas, a noted English antiquary, born in White Waltham, Berks; graduated at Oxford in 1699, and subsequently became second keeper of the Bodleian Library; his compilations and editions of old English texts, e. g. Camden's “Annals,” Robert of Gloucester's “Chronicle,” display wide and ingenious scholarship; he figures in Pope's “Dunciad” (1678-1735).
Heart of Midlothian, the old Tolbooth or jail of Edinburgh, the capital of Midlothian, which gives name to one of Scott's best novels.
Heathenism, as defined by Carlyle, “plurality of gods, mere sensuous representation of the Mystery of Life, and for chief recognised element therein Physical Force, as contrasted with Christianism, or Faith in an Invisible, not as real only, but as the only reality; Time, through every meanest moment of it, resting on Eternity; Pagan empire of Force displaced by a nobler supremacy, that of Holiness.”
Heathfield, George Augustus Eliott, Lord, a gallant general, the defender of Gibraltar, son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, born at Stobs, in Roxburghshire; saw service first in the war of the Austrian Succession, fighting at Dettingen and Fontenoy; as a colonel he fought with English troops in alliance with Frederick the Great against Austria; for his heroic defence of Gibraltar (1779-1783) against the combined forces of France and Spain he was raised to the peerage as Baron of Gibraltar (1717-1790).
Heaven, in Christian theology the place of the immediate Divine presence, where God manifests Himself without veil, and His saints enjoy that presence and know as they are known. In Scripture it denotes, (1) the atmosphere, (2) the starry region, (3) a state of bliss, (4) as defined, the divine presence, and (5) God Himself.
Heave-Offering, among the Jews, an offering for the support of divine service, so called as, when offered, lifted up in presence of the people.
Hebbel, Friedrich, lyrist and dramatist, born at Weselburen, Ditmarsh; settled in Vienna in 1846; “Die Nibelungen” is his best play, others are “Judith,” “Maria Magdalena,” &c.; his dramas are vigorous and original, but ill-proportioned, and in the passions they depict abnormal; his works are collected in 12 vols. (1813-1863).
Hebe, goddess of eternal youth, daughter of Zeus and Hera; was the cup-bearer of the gods; was superseded by Ganymedes, and became the wife of Hercules after his admission among the immortals.
Heber, Reginald, bishop of Calcutta, born in Cheshire, author of a prize poem entitled “Palestine” and a volume of “Hymns,” several of them famous; died at his post in Trichinopoly; left a narrative of a “Journey through India” (1783-1826).
Hébert, Jacques René, commonly called Per Duchesne as editor of a journal of that name, a violent revolutionary organ; took part in the September Massacres; brutally insulted the queen at her trial, to the disgust of Robespierre; was arrested by his colleagues, whom he dared to oppose, and guillotined, his widow found weeping, following him to his doom (1756-1794).
Hebrew, a Semitic language, the ancient language of the Jews, and that in which the Old Testament is written, the words of which, as indeed of others of the same stock, are derived from triliteral roots, and the verb in which has no present tense, only a past and a future, convertible, moreover, into one another.
Hebrew Poetry is of two kinds, either lyric or gnomic, i. e. subjectively emotional or sententiously didactic, the former belonging to the active or stirring, and the latter to the reflective or quiet, periods of Hebrew history, and whether expressed in lyric or gnome rises in the conscience and terminates in action; for Hebrew thought needs to go no higher, since therein it finds and affirms God; and it seeks to go no farther, for therein it compasses all being, and requires no epic and no drama to work out its destiny. However individualistic in feature, as working through the conscience, it yet relates itself to the whole moral world, and however it may express itself, it beats in accord with the pulse of eternity. The lyric expression of the Hebrew temper we find in the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the gnomic in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, while the book of Job, which is only dramatic in form, is partly lyric and partly dramatic.
Hebrew Prophecy had throughout regard for the Jews as a nation and to see that it fulfilled its destiny as such in the world. This purpose we see carried out by five steps or stages. It taught, first, by the Nebiim (q. v.), that the nation must regard itself as one nation; secondly, by Elijah, that it must have Jehovah alone for its God; thirdly, by Amos, that as a nation it was not necessarily God's chosen; fourthly, by Isaiah, that it existed for the preservation of a holy seed; and finally, that it ceased to exist when it was felt that religion primarily concerned the individual and was wholly an affair of the conscience. Thus does Hebrew prophecy terminate when it leads up to Christianity, the first requirement of which is a regeneration of the heart (John iii. 3), and the great promise of which is the outpouring of a spirit that “will guide into all truth” (John xvi. 13).
Hebrews, Epistle to the, an epistle of the New Testament of uncertain authorship addressed to Christians of Jewish descent, who were strongly tempted, by the persecution they were subjected to at the hands of their Jewish brethren, to renounce the cross of Christ, which it was feared they would too readily do, and so to their own ruin crucify the Son of God afresh, there being only this alternative for them, either crucifixion with Christ or crucifixion of Christ, and death of all their hopes founded on Him.
Hebrides, or Western Islands, a general name for the islands on the west coast of Scotland (save the islands of the Firth of Clyde), about 500 in number, of which 100 are inhabited; they belong to the counties of Ross, Inverness, and Argyll, and are divided by the Little Minch and the Minch into the Outer Hebrides, of which the chief are Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Benbecula, &c.; and the Inner Hebrides, including Skye, Rum, Mull, Iona, Staffa, &c.; they have wild and rocky coasts, but are picturesque and verdurous, and are much frequented by tourists; the climate is mild and moist; cattle and sheep rearing and fishing are the chief industries.
Hebron, an ancient town and city of refuge, originally called Kirjath-arba, i. e. four cities, only 20 m. S. of Jerusalem; it is a poor place now, but still abounds in orchards and vineyards.
Hecatæus of Miletus, styled the “logographer,” who flourished about 500 B.C.; visited many countries, and wrote two books, “The Tour of the World” and “Genealogies or Histories,” the former containing descriptions of the places he visited, and the latter an account of the poetical fables and traditions of the Greeks.
Hecate, in the Greek mythology a mysterious divinity of the Titan brood and held in honour by all the gods, identified with Phoebe in heaven, Artemis on earth, and Persephone in Hades, as being invested with authority in all three regions; came to be regarded exclusively as an infernal deity, having under her command and at her beck all manner of demons and phantom spirits.
Hecker, Friedrich Karl Franz, a German revolutionary, born at Eichtersheim, Baden; practised as an advocate in Mannheim, and in 1842 became an active democrat and Socialist; frustrated in an attempt during the '48 Revolution to create a republican assembly, he headed a revolutionary attack upon Baden, was defeated, and subsequently settled in the United States, where he took to farming; took part in the Civil War at the head of a regiment of Germans, and became a commander of a brigade (1811-1881).
Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl, author of a great work on the “Epidemics of the Middle Ages”; was a professor of Medicine at Berlin (1795-1850).
Heckmondwike (10), a market-town in Yorkshire, 8 m. NE. of Huddersfield; is the principal seat of the carpet and blanket manufactures in the West Riding.
Hecla or Hekla, the loftiest of 20 active volcanoes in Iceland (5102 ft.); is an isolated peak with five craters, 68 m. E. of Reykjavik; its most violent outbreak in recent times continued from 1845 to 1846; its last eruption was in March 1878.
Hectic Fever, a fever connected with consumption, and showing itself by a bright pink flush on the cheeks.
Hector, the chief hero of Troy in the war with the Greeks, the son of Priam and Hecuba; fought with the bravest of the enemy and finally slew Patroclus, the friend of Achilles (q. v.), which roused the latter from his long lethargy to challenge him to fight; Achilles chased him three times round the city, pierced him with his spear, and dragged his dead body after his chariot round Ilium; his body was at the command of Zeus delivered up to Priam and buried with great pomp within the city walls.
Hecuba, the wife of Priam, king of Troy; distinguished both as a wife and a mother; on the fall of the city she fell into the hands of the Greeks, and, according to one tradition, was made a slave, and, according to another, threw herself in despair into the sea.
Hedonism, the doctrine of the Cyrenaics that pleasure is the end of life, and the measure of virtue, or the summum bonum.
Heem, Jan Davidsz van, a famous Dutch painter, born at Utrecht; had a prosperous and uneventful career in Antwerp, where in 1635 he became a member of the Guild of Painters; he is considered the greatest of the “still life” painters; his pictures, masterpieces of colouring and chiaroscuro, have a great monetary value, and are to be found in the famous galleries of Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, &c. (1606-1684).
Heeren, Ludwig, a German historian; professor of History at Göttingen; wrote on ancient and modern history, specially the ancient and its antiquities; eminent in both (1760-1842).
Hefele, Karl Joseph von, a Catholic Church historian, born at Unterkochen, in Würtemberg; in 1840 became professor of Church History and Christian Archæology in the Catholic Theological Faculty in Tübingen University, and in 1869 Bishop of Rottenburg; was for some time zealously opposed to the doctrine of the Papal infallibility, but subsequently acquiesced, putting, however, his own construction on it; his best-known works are the “History of the Christian Councils” and “Contributions to Church History” (1809-1893).
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, German philosopher, the greatest of all, born in Stuttgart; studied first at Tübingen, with a view to theology; as a student attracted no particular attention, was outstript by Schelling; did domestic tutoring for a time; qualified at Jena for an academic career; adhered to and collaborated with Schelling in philosophy; first announced himself in 1807 by his work, “Phenomenology of the Spirit”; became rector of the Academy at Nürnberg, where in 1812-16 he composed his “Logic”; was in 1816 appointed professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg, whence he was removed to Berlin in 1818, where, his philosophy being now matured, he began to apply it with intense earnestness to every subject of human interest; he was the last of a line of thinkers beginning with Kant, with whom, however, he affiliated directly, and in his idealism philosophy first reached the goal which it was till then with hesitating steps only stretching forward to; his works fill 22 goodly sized volumes, and his system may be grouped under three heads, the “Science of Logic,” the “Philosophy of Nature,” and the “Philosophy of Spirit” (1770-1831).
Hegelianism, the philosophy of Hegel, which resolves being into thought, and thought into the unity of the logical moments of simple apprehension, judgment, and reason, all purely spiritual acts, whereby being in itself, or seyn, becomes other than itself, or daseyn, and returns into itself, or für sich seyn, the universal being first by separating from itself particularised, and then by return into itself individualised, the whole being what Hegel characterises as Der Process des Geistes, “The Process of the Spirit.” Something like this is what Dr. Stirling calls “The Secret of Hegel,” and an open secret it is, for he finds it pervading the whole system; “open where you will in Hegel,” he says, “you find him always engaged in saying pretty well the same thing”; always identity by otherness passing into selfness, or making that for itself which is at first in itself;—a philosophy which is anticipated by the doctrine of St. Paul, which represents God as the One from whom are all things as Father, and through whom are all things as Son, and to whom are all things as Spirit, the One who is thus All; it is also involved in the doctrine of Christ when He says God is Spirit, or the Living One who lives, and manifests Himself in life, for Himself, from Himself, and through Himself, who, so to say, thus concretes Himself throughout the universe.
Hege`sias, a Cyrenaic philosopher, who held that life was full of evils, that it was in vain to seek after pleasure, and that all a wise man could do was to fortify himself as best he could against pain.
Hegesippus, a Church historian of the 2nd century, a convert from Judaism; only fragments of his “Memoirs of Ecclesiastical Affairs” remain.
Heidelberg (35), a celebrated German city, in Baden, situated amid beautiful surroundings, on the Neckar, 13 m. SE. of Mannheim; has many interesting buildings, including ruins of a splendid 13th-century castle, but is chiefly celebrated for its flourishing university (student roll, 800; professors, 100; library, 500,000), whose professoriate has included many of the most distinguished German scholars; it was long the centre of Calvinism; its chief trade is in books, tobacco, wine, and beer.
Heijn, or Heyn, Peter Petersen, a famous Dutch admiral, born at Delftshaven; from being a cabin-boy rose to be commander of the Dutch fleet; off the east coast of S. America he twice defeated the Spanish fleet, securing an immense booty, and in 1628 captured a flotilla of Spanish galleons with silver and jewels equal to 16,000,000 Dutch guilders; fell in an action off Dunkirk (1577-1629).
Heilbronn (30), a quaint old town of Würtemberg, on the Neckar, 23 m. N. of Stuttgart; has a fine 11th-century Gothic church, and the Thief's Tower (Diebsthurm); is associated with the captivity of Goetz von Berlichingen (q. v.); it is now a busy commercial centre, and manufactures silverware, paper, beet-sugar, chemicals, &c.
Heilsbronn, a Bavarian market-town, 16 m. SW. of Nüremberg; is celebrated for its Cistercian monastery, now suppressed, but whose church still contains monuments and art relics of great historic interest.
Heine, Heinrich, a German lyric poet, born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents; was bred to law, but devoted himself to literature, and mingled with literary people, and associated in particular with the Varnhagen von Ense circle; first became notable by the publication of his “Reisebilder” and his “Buch der Lieder,” the appearance of which created a wide-spread enthusiasm in Germany in 1825 he abandoned the Jewish faith and professed the Christian, but the creed he adopted was that of a sceptic, and he indulged in a cynicism that outraged all propriety, and even common decency; in 1830 he quitted Germany and settled in Paris, and there a few years afterwards married a rich lady, who alleviated the sufferings of his last years; an attack of paralysis in 1847 left him only one eye, and in the following year he lost the other, but under these privations and much bodily pain he bore up with a singular fortitude, and continued his literary labours to the last; in his songs he was at his best, and by these alone it is believed he will be chiefly remembered (1797-1856).
Heineccius, Johann Gottlieb, a celebrated German jurist, born at Eisenberg; was successively professor of Philosophy and subsequently of Law at several universities of Germany; he wrote several learned works in law treated from a philosophical standpoint; mention may be made of his “Historia Juris Civilis Romani” and “Elementa Juris Naturæ Gentium” (1681-1741).
Heinsius, Anthony, a noted Dutch statesman, born at Delft; became Grand Pensionary of Holland; was the intimate friend and correspondent of William III. of England, who left the guidance of Dutch affairs largely in his hands (1641-1720).
Heir Apparent, one whose right of succession is sure if he survive the present holder.
Heir Presumptive, one whose right of succession is sure if not barred by the birth of one nearer.
Hejaz, El, the holy land of the Moslems, a district of Arabia Felix, and so called by containing the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina.
Hejira or Hejra (Arabic, “going away”), a word applied to Mahomet's flight from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622; Calif Omar, 17 years later, adopted this date as the starting-point of a new Mohammedan calendar.
Hel or Hela, in Scandinavian mythology an inexorable divinity, the death-goddess who presides over the icy realm of the dead; her maw was insatiable and her heart pitiless.
Heldenbuch, a collection of German heroic poems relating heroic deeds and events connected with the inroads of the barbarians on the empire.
Helder, The (25), a strongly fortified and flourishing seaport in North Holland, on the Marsdiep, at the N. end of the North Holland Canal, 51 m. NW. of Amsterdam; is an important naval centre, and has an excellent harbour.
Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; the most beautiful of women, who was carried off to Troy by Paris, to revenge whose abduction the princes of Greece, who had pledged themselves to protect her, made war on Troy, a war which lasted ten years.
Helena, St., the mother of Constantine the Great; is said to have visited Jerusalem and discovered the Holy Sepulchre and the cross on which Christ was crucified; d. 328, at the age of 80. Festival, Aug. 18. There are several other saints of the same name.
Helensburgh (8), a pleasantly situated watering-place in Dumbarton, on the Firth of Clyde, at the entrance of the Gareloch, 4 m. N. of Greenock.
Helenus, a son of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for his prophetic foresight; is said to have deserted his countrymen and joined the Greeks.
Heliand, an old Saxon poem of the 9th century, of great philological value, but of no great literary merit; deals with the life and work of Christ; of the two extant MSS. one is in the British Museum.
Helicon, a mountain in Boeotia, Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses; famous for the fountains on its slopes dedicated to the latter.
Heligoland (2, but rising to 14 in summer), an islet of the North Sea, 35 m. from the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser; German since 1890; consists of the Oberland, a plateau, with some 400 houses, and the Unterland on the shore, 206 ft. beneath, with a group of 70 dwellings. In the summer it is crowded with visitors, bathing being the chief attraction; fishing is the staple industry of the native Frisians.
Heliodorus, the most noted and earliest of the Greek romancists, born at Emesa, Syria; flourished in the second half of the 3rd century A.D.; his romance “Æthiopica” is a love tale of great beauty and told with naïve simplicity; has had considerable influence over subsequent romance writers, e. g. Tasso.
Helioga`balus, a Roman emperor; invested, while yet a youth, with the Imperial purple by the army in 218; ruled with a show of moderation at first, but soon gave way to every manner of excess; was after four years put to death by the Prætorian Guard, and his body thrown into the Tiber.
Heliography, a method of signalling from distant points by means of the sun's rays flashed from mirrors; messages can in this manner be transmitted a distance of 190 m.; it has been found of great practical value in military operations.
Heliopolis (i. e. City of the Sun), in Egyptian On, one of the oldest and most sacred cities of Egypt; was situated about 10 m. N. of Cairo, on the eastmost branch of the Nile; it was the centre of Egyptian learning; Solon and Plato are said to have studied there, and Potiphar was one of its chief priests; the famous obelisk Pharaoh's Needle stands near; and Cleopatra's Needle, now on the Thames Embankment, was originally of this city. Also the name of Baalbec.
Helios, the god of the sun, mistakenly identified with Apollo, but of an older dynasty, was the brother of Selene (q. v.) and Eos (q. v.); a god of the brood of the Titans (q. v.), and the source of light to both gods and men; he rises from the bosom of Okeanos (q. v.) in the morning, and loses himself in his dark abyss every evening.
Heliotrope or Bloodstone, a variety of quartz (chalcedony or jasper) of a deep green colour, with bright red spots. The finest specimens, which come from South Asia, are of fairly translucent chalcedony; those of jasper are opaque; they are used as seals, ring-stones, &c.
Hell Fire, the infinite terror to a true man, the infinite misery which he never fails to realise must befall him if he come short in his loyalty to truth and duty.
Hell Gate or Hurl Gate, a narrow pass in the East River, between the city of New York and Long Island; at one time its hidden shoals and swift narrow current were dangerous to ships, but extensive blasting operations, completed in 1885, have greatly widened and cleared the pass.
Hellas, the name of the abode of the ancient Greeks, and of greater extent than Greece proper.
Helle, a maiden who, with her brother Phrixus, fled on the golden-fleeced ram to escape from the cruelty of her step-dame Ino, and fell into the strait called the Hellespont after her, in which she was drowned. See Golden Fleece.
Hellenists, originally Jews who would fain have seen Jewish thought and life more or less transformed in spirit as well as fashion after a Greek pattern; eventually those who by contact with Greek civilisation became Grecianised, and were open to learn as much from the civilisation of the Greeks as was consistent with the maintenance in their integrity of the principles of their own religion.
Heller, Stephen, a distinguished pianist and composer, born at Pesth; made his début at nine, and by 17 had won a reputation throughout the great cities of Europe; in 1838 he settled in Paris, and gave himself to teaching and composition; he ranks beside Chopin as a master of technique; his works are almost entirely pianoforte pieces (1814-1888).
Helmholtz, Hermann von, an eminent German scientist, born at Potsdam, Brandenburg; was first an army doctor, and in 1849 became professor of Physiology in Königsberg, and subsequently in Bonn and Heidelberg; in 1871 he became professor of Physics in Berlin; was ennobled, and in 1887 nominated head of the Charlottenburg Institute; to physiology he made contributions of great value on the various sense-organs, and to physics on the conservation of energy; but his most original work was done in connection with acoustics in its relation to optics; his published works include “Theory of Sound Sensations'” and “Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music” (1821-1894).
Helmont, Jean Baptist van, a celebrated German chemist, the father of chemistry, born at Brussels; his early years were divided between the study of medicine and the practice of a religious mysticism; the works of Paracelsus stimulated his interest in chemistry and physics, and having married a noble Brabant lady, he settled down on the family estate near Vilvorde, where he devoted himself to scientific research; mixed up a good deal of mysticism and alchemy with his scientific discoveries, and made a special study of gases; he was the first to prove the indestructibility of matter in chemical changes by utilising the balance in analysis; he invented the word gas, first used the melting-point of ice and the boiling-point of water as limits of a thermometric scale, and his physiological speculations led him to regard the stomach as the seat of the soul! (1577-1644).
Heloïse, niece of Canon Fulbert, born at Paris; celebrated for her amour with Abelard (q. v.); became prioress of the convent of Argenteuil and abbess of the Paraclete, where she founded a new convent and lived a pious life (1101-1164).
Heloïse, Nouvelle, a romance by Rousseau.
Helots, slaves who formed the lowest grade of the population of Sparta, were descendants of the original inhabitants of Laconia, or prisoners of war; they were slaves belonging to the State, from the State alone could they receive manumission; they were employed as tillers of the ground, waited at meals, filled various menial offices for private individuals, and were treated with the utmost harshness; were whipped annually to remind them of their servile position; slaughtered when their numbers increased too much, and were forced to exhibit themselves under intoxication as a warning to the Spartan youth.
Helps, Sir Arthur, essayist and historian, born in Surrey; for a time held official posts in connection with the government of the day, and finally that of Clerk to the Privy Council, in which capacity he was brought into connection with the Queen, which led to his being appointed editor of the “Principal Speeches and Addresses of the late Prince Consort” and Her Majesty's “Leaves from a Journal of our Life in the Highlands”; he is the author of “Friends in Council,” published one series in 1847 and a second in 1859, which dealt with a variety of subjects, and was, along with “Companions of my Solitude,” very popular; he did also plays and romances as well as historical sketches (1817-1875).
Helsingfors (77), a strongly fortified seaport and capital of Finland, is in a commanding position placed on a rocky peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, 191 m. W. of St. Petersburg; the numerous islands and islets at the entrance of the harbour are strongly fortified; the town is handsomely laid out, and has a flourishing university (student roll, 1703), and does a good Baltic trade.
Helst, Bartholomæus van der, one of the greatest of the Dutch portrait-painters, born at Haarlem, but spent his life in Amsterdam; he enjoyed a great reputation in his day, and many of his pictures are to be found in European galleries; his “Muster of the Burgher Guard” was considered by Sir Joshua Reynolds to be “the first picture of portraits in the world” (1613-1670).
Helvellyn, one of the Cumberland mountains, 3118 ft. high, rises at the side of Ulleswater, midway between Keswick and Ambleside.
Helvetii, a Celtic people mentioned by Cæsar as occupying territory in Central Europe now embraced in Switzerland; they suffered tremendous slaughter at the hands of Cæsar when endeavouring to make their way to a wider territory in Southern Gaul.
Helvétius, a French philosophe, born in Paris, of Swiss origin; author of a book entitled “De l'Esprit,” which was condemned by the Parlement of Paris for views advocated in it that were considered derogatory to the dignity of man, and which exposed him to much bitter hostility, especially at the hands of the priests; man he reduced to a mere animal, made self-love the only motive of his actions, and the satisfaction of our sensuous desires the principle of morals, notwithstanding which he was a man of estimable character and of kindly disposition (1715-1771).
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, née Browne, poetess, born in Liverpool; her marriage was an unhappy one, and after the birth of five children ended in permanent separation; she was the authoress of a number of works, a complete edition of which occupies 7 vols., the best of her productions being lyrics; and she enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth, Scott, and other literary celebrities of the time (1791-1835).
Hénault, French historian, born in Paris, president of the Parlement of Paris; was author of “Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire de France” (1685-1770).
Hemel Hempstead (10), a busy market-town in Herts, 23 m. NW. of London; noted for its straw-plaiting, and has paper-mills, foundries, &c.
Hems or Homs (35), a noted Syrian city known to the Romans as Emesa, on the Orontes, 63 m. NE. of Tripoli; here stood in ancient times a famous temple of the Sun, one of whose priests, Heliogabalus (q. v.), became Roman emperor (218); the Crusaders captured it from the Saracens in 1098; it does a good trade in oil, cotton, silk, &c.
Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist, born at Gröningen; was professor of Greek at Leyden; one of the greatest Grecians of his day; had for pupils Ruhnken and Valckenaer, and edited a number of classical works (1685-1766).
Henderson, Alexander, a celebrated Scotch divine; became professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy in St. Andrews, and subsequently held the living of Leuchars, in Fife; he actively espoused the cause of the Covenanters, and became a prominent leader in negotiations with the king; in 1643 he drafted the “Solemn League and Covenant” which passed into force, and he was one of Scotland's representatives to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster (1583-1646).
Henderson, Thomas, astronomer, born at Dundee, astronomer first at the Cape and then Astronomer-royal for Scotland, calculated the distance of the nearest fixed star α Centauri and found it nearly 19 billions of miles from the sun.
Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon brothers who came over to assist Vortigern against the Picts, and were rewarded by a gift of Thanet, though they were afterwards defeated by Vortigern and the latter slain.
Hengstenberg, a German theologian, born in Westphalia; was editor of the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, and the valiant unwearied assailant of Rationalism in its treatment of the Scriptures and the old orthodox faith; his principal works bear on Old Testament literature, such as its Christology and the Psalms, as well as on the New, such as St. John's Gospel and the Apocalypse (1802-1869).
Henley, William Ernest, poet and critic, author of a “Book of Verses” and “Song of the Sword,” in which he reveals superior powers as a poet, and of a volume entitled “Views and Reviews,” in which he evinces discriminative criticism of the highest order; he has edited, along with T. F. Henderson, in a workmanlike style, the “Centenary Edition of the Poetry of Burns,” accompanied it with a “Life of the Poet,” and a characterisation somewhat damping to the prevailing enthusiasm in connection with the poet; b. 1849.
Henley-on-Thames (5), a borough of Oxfordshire, on the Thames, near the Chiltern Hills, 36 m. W. of London; the river is spanned here by a fine five-arch bridge, and the annual amateur regatta is a noted social event; malting and brewing are the chief industries.
Henotheism, a polytheism which assigns to one god of the pantheon superiority over the rest.
Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., born at the Louvre; daughter of Henry IV. of France and of Marie de Medicis; a beautiful and able woman, much beloved, and deservedly so, by her husband, but from her bigotry as a Roman Catholic disliked and distrusted by the nation, not without good reason; by her imprudent conduct she embroiled matters more seriously than they were; menaced with impeachment by the Commons, had to flee the country; returned, indeed, with a supply of money and ammunition “purchased by crown jewels,” but in 1644 was obliged to seek refuge again in France; revisited the country for a short time after the Restoration, and died near Paris at her retreat there (1609-1669).
Henrietta Maria, daughter of Charles I., and wife of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., born at Exeter; she had an itch for political intrigue like her mother, and was successful in persuading her brother, Charles II., into league with France by signing the treaty of Dover; on her return to France she died suddenly, by poison it is believed (1644-1670).
Henriot, a French revolutionary, born at Nanterre; was generalissimo of the National Guard of Paris during the Reign of Terror; marched with his sansculotte following into the Convention one day and escorted 29 of the Girondists to the guillotine; became the satellite of Robespierre, whom he defended at the last, but could not deliver; arrested himself in a state of intoxication, was dragged out of a drain, and despatched by the guillotine (1761-1794).
Henry I., king of England from 1100 to 1135, youngest son of William the Conqueror, born at Selby, in Yorkshire; usurped the crown from his elder but irresolute brother Robert, an act which was confirmed by the Church and the mass of the people, Robert, after a weak resistance, being pensioned off; the epithets Beauclerc and the Lion of Justice, which were bestowed on him, so far accurately describe him as he appeared to his people; his attainments were scholarly for his times, and his reign was distinguished by the strong and organised administration of justice, although morally his life was a depraved one; after seizing Normandy from his brother Robert, whom he imprisoned for life, he governed his kingdom with a firm hand; the turbulent Norman nobles were subdued, while the administration of the law was greatly improved by the institution of the Curia Regis (the King's Court) and of itinerant judges; trade took a start, and the religious life of the nation was deepened through the advent of the Cistercian monks and the influence of Anselm; he was married to Eadgyth (changed to Matilda), daughter of Malcolm of Scotland (1068-1135).
Henry II., king of England from 1154 to 1189, first of the Plantagenet line; was the son of Matilda, daughter of Henry I., and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, born at Le Mans; when he came to the throne as Stephen's successor he was already in possession, mainly through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII., of more than half of France; he set himself with all the vigour of his energetic nature to reform the abuses which had become rampant under Stephen, and Thomas à Becket was his zealous Chancellor; the Great Council was frequently summoned to deliberate on national affairs; the Curia Regis was strengthened, the itinerant judgeships revived, while the oppression and immorality of the nobles was sternly suppressed by the demolition of the “adulterine castles”; a blow was aimed at the privileges and licentiousness of the clergy by the Constitutions of Clarendon, but their enactment brought about a rupture between the king and Becket, now Archbishop of Canterbury, which subsequently ended in the murder of Becket; in 1171 Ireland was invaded and annexed, and three years later William the Lion of Scotland was forced to declare his kingdom a fief to the English throne; some time previously the Welsh princes had done him homage; the last years of his reign were embittered by quarrels and strife with his ungrateful sons; he was a man of many kingly qualities, perhaps the best, taken all in all, that England ever had, and his reign marks an epoch in the development of constitutional law and liberty (1133-1189).
Henry III., king of England from 1216 to 1272, eldest son of King John; succeeded to the throne at the age of nine; during his minority the kingdom was wisely and faithfully served by the Earl of Pembroke and Hubert de Burgh; when he came to years he proved himself a weak ruler, and, according to Stubbs, his administration was “one long series of impolitic and unprincipled acts”; with the elevation of Peter des Roches, a native of Anjou, to the post of chief adviser, French interlopers soon became predominant at the Court, and the recipients of large estates and pensions, an injustice further stimulated by the king's marriage with Eleanor of Provence; justice was prostituted, England humiliated under a feeble foreign policy, and the country finally roused by infamous exactions; Simon de Montfort, the king's own brother-in-law, became the leader of the people and the champion of constitutional rights; by the Provisions of Oxford, forced upon the king by Parliament assembled at Oxford (1258), a wider and more frequent Parliamentary representation was given to the people, and the king's power limited by a permanent council of 15; as an issue of the Barons' War, which resulted in the defeat and capture of the king at Lewes (1264), these provisions were still further strengthened by the Mise of Lewes, and from this time may be dated the birth of representative government in England as it now exists; in 1265 was summoned the first Parliament as at present constituted, of peers temporal and spiritual, and representatives from counties, cities, and boroughs; internal dissensions ceased with the victory of Prince Edward over the barons at Eastham (1265), the popular leader De Montfort perished on the field (1206-1272).
Henry IV., king of England from 1399 to 1418, first of the Lancastrian kings, son of John of Gaunt, and grandchild of Edward III., born at Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire; Richard II.'s misrule and despotism had damped the loyalty of his people, and when Henry came to England to maintain his ducal rights he had little difficulty in deposing Richard, and, with the consent of Parliament, in assuming the crown; this act of usurpation—for Richard's true heir was Roger Mortimer, a descendant of an older branch of the family—had two important results; it made Henry more obsequious to the Parliamentary power which had placed him on the throne, and it was the occasion of the bloody Wars of the Roses that were to devastate the kingdom during the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV.; Henry's own reign was a troubled one; wars were successfully undertaken against the Welsh under Owen Glendower and against the Scotch; while rebellion was raised by the Percies in unsuccessful attempts to win the crown for Mortimer; the only law of importance passed was the statute for burning heretics, the first passed in England for the suppression of religious opinion (1366-1413).
Henry V., king of England from 1413 to 1422, son of preceding, born at Monmouth; during the wars of his father's reign he gave evidence of his abilities as a soldier, distinguishing himself specially by his conquest of Wales; on his accession to the throne he renewed the claims put forward by Edward III. to the French crown, and with the support of his people embarked on his great struggle to win the kingdom of France; in 1415 he gained the glorious victory of Agincourt, strengthened his position by confirmed military successes, and by marrying Catherine, daughter of the French king, and by the treaty of Troyes got himself appointed regent of France and successor to the throne; he was idolised by his people as the perfect pattern of a warrior king, but he had neither the gifts of statesmanship nor the foresight of Edward I., to whom he is compared, and the English dominion which he established in France was too unsubstantial to endure (1388-1422).
Henry VI., king of England from 1422 to 1461, son of preceding, born at Windsor; was a child of nine months when his father died, and in the same year was acknowledged king over the N. and E. of France; the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester became regents respectively over the English and French kingdoms; war was resumed with France, and for thirty years the weary struggle continued, by the end of which time England, despite some early successes, had been stripped of her French possessions, mainly owing to the enthusiasm awakened by the heroic and ill-fated Jeanne d'Arc (q. v.); the growing discontent of the people is indicated by Jack Cade's rebellion (1540), and five years later began the famous Wars of the Roses; six battles were fought between the rival houses, and four times victory rested with the Yorkists; after the final victory of the Yorkists at Towton (1461), Henry fled to Scotland and Edward was proclaimed king; Henry was a man of weak intellect, gentle, and of studious nature, and was ill mated in his ambitious and warlike queen, Margaret of Anjou; a futile struggle was made to win his kingdom back, but the hopes of the Lancastrians perished at Tewkesbury; the king was captured and confined in the Tower, where, there is little doubt, he was murdered (1421-1471).
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).
Hoffmann, August Heinrich, poet and philologist, born at Fallersleben; studied literature and philology under the influence of the Grimms, and in 1835 was appointed professor of the German Language at Breslau, a post he forfeited seven years later by publishing “Lays” of somewhat radical tendencies; he led an unsettled life till 1860, when he became librarian to the Duke of Ratibor; his writings include “German Social Songs of the 16th and 17th Centuries,” “German Philology,” an “Autobiography” in six vols., lyrics, &c. (1798-1874).
Hoffmann, Ernst Theodore Wilhelm, a celebrated German writer, whose versatility displayed itself in numerous tales, sketches, art-criticisms, &c., all bearing the impress of a strong, if wayward, intellect; born at Königsberg, was trained to the law, and entered the State service; his position at Warsaw was lost to him on the entry of the French troops in 1806, and for some years he supported himself by musical criticism in Leipzig, and as Director of a Dresden Opera Company; in 1816 he was again in government service at Berlin, where he continued till his death; his writings are strongly characteristic of the romanticism of his time, while he himself was a witty, restless leader of Bohemian life (1776-1822).
Hogarth, William, a famous English painter, caricaturist, and engraver, born in London; served his time as a silversmith's apprentice; studied painting, and began to support himself by engraving and etching; unsuccessful in his attempts at portrait-painting, he at length found his true vocation in depicting the follies and vices of his age; “A Harlot's Progress,” a series of six pictures engraved by himself, appeared in 1731, and was soon followed by others of a like nature, including “A Rake's Progress,” “Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn,” “Marriage à la Mode,” “Idleness and Industry”; he also produced some indifferent historical paintings; in 1757 he was appointed sergeant-painter to the king; in his own department Hogarth has never been equalled, and in the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, never will be; the deep moral purpose of his best pictures, made known throughout the country by abundant prints, must have helped not a little to reform the manners of his time (1697-1764).
Hogg, James, a Scottish poet, born in Ettrick; had little or no schooling; was bred a shepherd; took to rhyming; fell in with Sir Walter Scott, whom he assisted with his “Border Minstrelsy”; rented a farm, and first came into notice by the publication of his poem, the “Queen's Wake”; he wrote in prose as well as poetry, with humour as well as no little graphic power; “was,” says Carlyle, “a little red-skinned stiff sack of a body, with two little blue or grey eyes that sparkled, if not with thought, yet with animation; was a real product of nature” (1782-1835).
Hohenlinden, a village in Upper Bavaria, 20 m. E. of Münich; celebrated as the scene of a victory by the French under Moreau over the Austrians under Archduke John on 3rd December 1800.
Hohenstauffens, The, the third dynasty of the Romish kaisers, which held the imperial throne from 1138 to 1254, commencing with Frederick I., or Barbarossa, and ending with Conrad IV., five in all; derived their name from a castle on the Hohenstauffen Berg, by the left bank of the Danube, 30 m. below Stuttgart.
Hohenzollerns, The, the family which in 1415 became Electors of Brandenburg, kings of Prussia, and are now at length emperors of Germany; derived their name from an old castle so called near the springs of the Danube, a little way north from Constance and its lake.
Holbach, Baron von, a French philosophe born in Heidelsheim, in the Palatinate, of wealthy parents; lived from youth all his days in Paris, kept a good table, and entertained all the “Encyclopédie” notabilities at his board; wrote “Système de la Nature,” and was a materialist in philosophy and an atheist in religion, but a kind-hearted man (1723-1789).
Holbein, Hans, a German painter, born at Augsburg, trained by his father; attracted the attention of Erasmus, who took a great interest in him, and persuaded him to go to England, and introduced him to Sir Thomas More, who in turn introduced him to Henry VIII.; here under Henry's patronage he remained, executing numerous portraits of his courtiers, till his death of the plague; his “Last Supper” and “Dance of Death” are well known (1497-1554).
Holberg, Ludwig, Baron, an eminent Danish author, born at Bergen, in Norway; graduated at Copenhagen, where, after travel, he became professor of Metaphysics; subsequently he held in turn the chairs of Eloquence and of History; he was an author of great versatility, excelling as a writer of satires, comedies, and as historian of Church and State; his autobiography is an interesting work, and many of his plays and other works are among the accepted classics of Danish literature (1684-1754).
Holcroft, Thomas, journalist and political novelist, born in London; began life as an actor; wrote “Road to Ruin”; was charged with treason, but acquitted; left “Memoirs” (1744-1809).
Holden, Sir Isaac, inventor, born at Hurlet, Renfrewshire; worked in a cotton-mill in Paisley, but betook himself to teaching, and in 1829, while a teacher of chemistry in Reading, discovered the principle of the lucifer match; turning to wool-combing as a means of livelihood, he became established near Paris, where he carried out elaborate experiments, which resulted in improvements in wool-combing machinery that brought him fame and fortune; in 1859 he transferred his works to the vicinity of Bradford; entered Parliament in 1865, and was created a baronet in 1893 (1807-1897).
Holinshed, Raphael, English chronicler of the Elizabethan age; his “Chronicle,” published in two vols. in 1577, supplied Shakespeare with materials for some of his historical plays; d. 1580.
Holl, Frank, artist, born in Kentish Town; was highly distinguished as an art student, and at 23 won the travelling studentship of the Academy; came into notice first as a genre-painter, exhibiting pictures of a pathetic nature, such as “Want—the Pawnbroker's Shop,” “Newgate—Committed for Trial,” “Ordered to the Front,” &c.; subsequently he won a wide celebrity as a portrait-painter, producing portraits of the Prince of Wales, Mr. Gladstone, and other distinguished personages (1845-1888).
Holland (4,795), officially known as the Netherlands, a small maritime country of Western Europe, bordered on its N. and W. by the German Ocean, and having Prussia on its E. and Belgium to the S.; its area, somewhat less than one-fourth the size of England and Wales, comprises, besides the mainland, two island groups, one in the N. and one in the S.; its flat surface in great part lies below the level of the sea, and where there are no natural sandhills is protected from inundation by enormous dykes, 365 ft. thick, forming excellent carriage-ways along the coast; much of the soil has been reclaimed by draining lakes and by pushing back the sea walls, the size of the country having been increased by one-half since 1833; canals traverse the country in all directions, and form with the shallow lakes and the great rivers a complete system of waterways. The climate is for the most part similar to that of England, but greater extremes of heat and cold are experienced. Farming is the staple industry, although a considerable portion of the land is still unfit for cultivation; butter and cheese are the most valuable products, and are largely exported; the fisheries, coast and deep sea, are also of much importance; manufactures are retarded by the want of coal, but the wind is made to supply the motive power, by means of windmills, to flourishing textile factories (cotton, woollen, and silk), gin distilleries, pottery works, margarine and cocoa factories, &c. Holland no longer is the premier shipping country of Europe, a position it held in the 17th century, but it still maintains a busy carrying trade with all parts of the world, especially with its many rich colonies in the East and West Indies, which comprise an area 64 times larger than Holland itself. The government is a limited monarchy; the executive power is vested in the crown and the legislation in the States-General, an assembly consisting of two chambers, the one elected (for four years) by direct suffrage, the other (for nine years) by provincial councils. Primary education is free, but not compulsory. Religion is not established, but about two-thirds of the people are Protestants, the remainder Roman Catholics. The birth of Holland as an independent European power took place in the 16th century, when, after an heroic and protracted struggle, it freed itself from the yoke of Spain, then the most powerful nation in the world.
Holland, Henry Richard Fox Vassall-Holland, Baron, statesman, born in Wilts; succeeded to the title in 1774; entered on a public career as a Whig under the patronage of his uncle Charles James Fox; held office under Grenville, Grey, and Melbourne; was imbued with a fine humanitarian spirit, and fought ably against the slave-trade and the corn-laws; his cultured literary taste is revealed in his writings, which embrace Spanish translations, lives of Guillen de Castro and Lope de Vega, Memoirs, &c. (1773-1840).
Holland, Sir Henry, physician and author, born at Knutsford, Cheshire; graduated at Edinburgh in 1811; spent some years in Eastern Europe, and finally settled in London; he rose to be physician-in-ordinary to the Prince Consort and the Queen, and in 1853 was created a baronet; wrote various essays on various branches of medicine, physiology, psychology, besides “Recollections of Past Life” (1758-1873).
Holland, North (819), one of the eleven provinces of Holland; comprises the peninsula lying between the Zuider Zee and the German Ocean. South Holland, also a province, faces the German Ocean between Zealand and North Holland. These provinces form the most important part of the Netherlands, raise the best farm produce and cattle, and in their great ports Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, the bulk of the trade of Holland is carried on.
Holles, Denzil, statesman, and one of the “five members,” the son of the Earl of Clare, born at Houghton, Northamptonshire; entering Parliament in 1624, he joined the opposition against the king, and actively resisted the imposition of tonnage and poundage, for which he was heavily fined and imprisoned; subsequently he was one of the five members whom Charles attempted to arrest in 1642 on a charge of high-treason; his opposition to the maintenance of a standing Puritan army involved him in trouble, and he fled the country; after Cromwell's death he returned, was prominent in promoting the Restoration, received a peerage, and for some years was engaged in public duties, still remaining a staunch upholder of the rights of Parliament (1559-1680).
Holloway (48), a northern district of London, in Islington parish.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, a celebrated American author, born the son of a Congregational minister, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated in arts and medicine at Harvard; became professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Dartmouth College, but resigned and settled in Boston as a general practitioner; in 1847 he was elected to the chair of Anatomy in Harvard, a position he held till his resignation in 1882; a successful professor, it is as an essayist, novelist, and poet that he is remembered; the appearance of “The Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table,” with its quaint humour, fresh thought, and charming egotism took literary America by storm; the “Professor” and the “Poet at the Breakfast-Table” followed in after years, and remain his most widely popular works; “Elsie Venner,” a novel dealing with the problem of heredity, “The Guardian Angel,” “Songs of Many Seasons,” “Memoirs of Motley and of Emerson,” are some of his many works, all of which have the impress of his bright, engaging personality (1809-1894).
Holofernes, the Assyrian general whom the Jewish Judith, entering his camp as it invested her native place, slew with her own hand, and bore his head as a trophy back to the town.
Holstein (560), which with Sleswick forms the Prussian province of Sleswick-Holstein (q. v.), was till 1866 a duchy of Denmark, but in that year was annexed by Prussia.
Holt, Frank, artist, born in London; was distinguished as an artist from his early youth; produced a succession of works of eminent merit, and attained the highest excellence as a painter of portraits, to which department he devoted the last years of his life (1815-1888).
Holt, Sir John, English lawyer, born at Thame, Oxfordshire; called to the bar in 1663; was a prominent counsel in the State trials of his age, and rose to be Lord Chief-Justice of the King's Bench under William III., an office whose duties he discharged with unflinching integrity and fairness (1642-1710).
Holtzmann, Adolf, an eminent German philologist, born at Carlsruhe; gave himself to the study of theology and then of philology at various universities, and in 1852 became professor of the German Language and Literature at Heidelberg; author of various learned treatises on philology and kindred subjects (1810-1870).
Holy Alliance, an alliance of the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia on the fall of Napoleon, professedly for conservative ends, but really for the suppression of political liberty and the maintenance of absolute power.
Holy Coat of Trèves, a seamless coat alleged to have been deposited there by the Empress Helena, and to have been the one worn by Christ.
Holy Fair, a rural celebration of the Communion once common in Scotland, attended not only by the people of the parish, but by large numbers of strangers from far and near; described by Burns.
Holy Island or Lindisfarne, an islet of Northumberland, 9½ m. SE. of Berwick; is separated from the mainland by a stretch of sand bare at low water, and some 3 m. broad; has interesting ruins of a Benedictine priory church where St. Cuthbert (q. v.) once ministered; there is a small village and fine old castle.
Holy Office, name given to the Inquisition (q. v.).
Holy Wars, name given to the Crusades (q. v.).
Holy Week, the week before Easter, so called as consecrated to the commemoration of the Passion of Christ in view of His death on the Cross.
Holyhead (9), an important little seaport of Anglesey, North Wales, on the N. side of an island of the same name, 25 m. W. of Bangor; is the chief mail-packet station for Ireland, and has excellent harbourage, &c.
Holyhead Island (9), a rocky islet forming a part of Anglesey, from which it is separated by a narrow strait, dry at low water, and crossed by an arched causeway.
Holyoake, George Jacob, an active propagandist of advanced social theories, born at Birmingham; has lived a busy life as an agitator, lecturing and writing; he espoused the cause of Garibaldi, edited the Reasoner; was the last man to be imprisoned in England on a charge of atheism (1841); was a zealous supporter of co-operation and all movements making for the betterment of the social condition of the working-classes; his numerous works embrace a valuable “History of Co-operation in England,” “The Limits of Atheism,” “Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life,” &c.; b. 1817.
Holyoke (45), a city of Massachusetts, 8 m. N. of Springfield, on the Connecticut, whose rapid current supplies the water-power for the many large paper-mills, cotton and woollen factories.
Holyrood, an abbey founded at Edinburgh in 1128 by David I., and dedicated in honour of the Holy Cross, a casket of gold shaped like a cross brought to the country by St. Margaret in 1070; a palace was afterwards attached, which became the chief seat of the Scottish sovereigns of the Stuart dynasty; the parks around were at one time a sanctuary for debtors.
Holywell (3), a market-town of Flintshire, has an elevated situation, 15 m. NW. of Chester; the principal industry is the smelting of lead, iron, copper, and zinc ores obtained from the surrounding mines; the famous well of St. Winifred (whence the name of the town) is over-built by a fine Perpendicular chapel.
Homburg (9), a fashionable watering-place in Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, beautifully situated at the base of the Taunus Mountains, 8 m. NW. of Frankfort-on-the-Main; has fine chalybeate and saline springs.
Home, defined by Ruskin as “the place of Peace; the shelter not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home; so far as the anxieties of the outer world penetrate into it, and the inconsistently-minded, unknown, unloved, or hostile society, the outer world, is allowed by either husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home; it is then only a part of the outer world which you have roofed over and lighted a fire in.”
Home, Daniel Dunglas, a noted spiritualist, born near Edinburgh; became widely known as a “medium,” was presented at Courts and to the Pope; was expelled from the Catholic Church for spiritualistic practices, and latterly became involved in a lawsuit with a Mrs. Lyon, who had bestowed upon him £60,000 and forced him to return it; he is supposed to have suggested to Browning his well-known poem “Sludge—the Medium”; wrote several books (1833-1886).
Home, John, Scotch divine and dramatist, born at Leith; graduated at Edinburgh, and entered the Church in 1745; became minister at Athelstaneford, near Haddington, where he wrote the tragedies “Agis” and “Douglas”; the latter established his fame, but brought him into disgrace with the Presbytery, and he withdrew to England, becoming secretary to the Earl of Bute; his plays were produced by Garrick, and displaced the stiff and artificial tragedies of Addison, Johnson, &c.; besides his dramatic works and poems he published a “History of the Rebellion of 1745” (1722-1808).
Home Rule, a form of local self-government, a name applied to an administration of the kind projected by Mr. Gladstone for Ireland.
Homer, the great epic poet of Greece, and the greatest of all time; author of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey,” and for the honour of being the place of whose birth seven Greek cities contended; is said, when old and blind, to have wandered from city to city rehearsing his verses, and to have lived 900 years before Christ, some time after the reign of Solomon; it is only modern criticism that has called in question his existence, and has ventured to argue that the poems ascribed to him are a mere congeries of compositions of the early fabulous age of Greece, but the unity of the plan and the simplicity of the style of the poems go to condemn this theory in the regard of most Homeric scholars.
Homildon Hill, in Northumberland, 1 m. NE. of Wooler; the scene of Hotspur's famous victory over the Scots under Earl Douglas, December 14, 1402.
Homoeopathy, a method of treating diseases advocated by Hahnemann (q. v.) which professes to cure a disease by administering in small quantities medicines that would produce it in a healthy person.
Homoiousia, name given to the Semi-Arian doctrine that the Son is of like substance with the Father, in opposition to the orthodox doctrine called Homoousia that He is of the same substance.
Homologoumena, name given to the books of the New Testament accepted as canonical.
Honduras (435), a maritime republic of Central America, whose northern seaboard fronts the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, between Nicaragua on the S. and SE. and Guatemala on the W., less than four-fifths the size of England; the coast lands are low and swampy, but the interior consists chiefly of elevated tableland diversified by broad rich valleys; the Cordilleras traverse the country in a NW. direction, and form the watershed of many streams; fever prevails along the low, hot coast, but the highlands are cool and healthful; large numbers of cattle are raised, and fruits, india-rubber, indigo, &c., are exported, but agriculture is backward; its mineral wealth is very great; silver ore is abundant, and other minerals, such as gold, iron, copper, but the enterprise is wanting to the carrying out of mining on a proper scale; Honduras broke away from Spain in 1821, and became an independent State in 1839; the Government is vested in a President and six ministers, and the legislative power in a Congress of 37 members; the population is, with the exception of a few thousands, composed of blacks; Tegucigalpa (12) is the capital.
Hone, William, miscellaneous writer and political satirist, born at Bath; threw up his position as a law clerk in London and started a print and book shop; became a busy contributor to newspapers, and involved himself in serious trouble by the freedom of his political parodies and satires; of his many squibs, satires, &c., mention maybe made of “The Political House that Jack Built,” “The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder,” “The Political Showman,” all illustrated by G. Cruikshank (q. v.) (1780-1842).
Honeycomb, Will, a jaunty member of the “Spectator Club.”
Honfleur (9), a seaport of France, situated on the estuary of the Seine, opposite Havre; has a good harbour; exports dairy produce, cattle, &c.; has sugar refineries, tanworks, &c.
Hong-Kong (222), an island lying off the mouth of the Canton River, South China; was ceded to Britain in 1842; is hilly and unproductive, but is well watered and tolerably healthy; it owes its great importance as a commercial centre to its favourable position, its magnificent harbour, and to its having been made a free port and the head-quarters of the European banks; opium is the chief import, silk and tea the principal exports; Victoria, a handsome city on the N. side, is the capital, seat of the British governor, &c.
Honiton (3), an ancient market-town of Devonshire, close to the Otter, 17 m. NE. of Exeter; is famed for its pillow-lace, an industry introduced by some Flemish refugees in the 16th century.
Honolulu (20), capital of the Hawaiian Islands (q. v.), situated on an arid strip of land on the S. side of Oahu; is nicely laid out after the manner of a European town; and has the only good harbour in the archipelago.
Honorius, the name of four Popes: H. I., the most famous, Pope from 626 to 638; H. II., Pope from 1124 to 1130; H. III., Pope from 1216 to 1227; and H. IV., Pope from 1286 to 1287.
Honorius, Flavius, emperor of the West, born at Constantinople, son of Theodosius the Great, a weak ruler, and only able to resist the invasion of the Goths so long as Stilicho, his minister, lived, for after the murder of the latter by treachery matters with him went from bad to worse, and he saw some of his finest provinces snatched from his grasp (384-423).
Hontheim, a German Catholic theologian, born at Trèves; distinguished for his bold assertion and subsequent retractation of a doctrine called Febronianism, from the nom de plume Febronius which he assumed, tending to the disparagement of the Papal authority in the Church (1701-1790).
Honthorst, Gerard van, a Flemish painter, born at Utrecht, painted night and torchlight scenes; “Christ before Pilate” his best-known work (1592-1666).
Honved`, name given in Hungary to the landwehr, or originally to any distinguished national patriot or party.
Hood, Samuel, Viscount, a distinguished admiral, born at Thorncombe; entered the navy in 1740, and rising rapidly in his profession evinced high qualities as a leader; in 1782 he brilliantly outmanoeuvred De Grasse in the West Indies, and under Rodney played a conspicuous part in the destruction of the French fleet at the battle of Dominica, for which he was rewarded with an Irish peerage; he defeated Fox in the celebrated Westminster election, became a Lord of the Admiralty, and as commander of the Mediterranean fleet during the revolutionary wars, captured the French fleet at Toulon and reduced Corsica; in 1796 he was created a viscount (1724-1816).
Hood, Thomas, poet and humourist, born in London; gave up business and engraving, to which he first applied himself, for letters, and commencing as a journalist, immortalised himself by the “Song of the Shirt” and his “Dream of Eugene Aram”; edited the “Comic Annual,” and wrote “Whims and Oddities,” in all of which he displayed both wit and pathos (1798-1845).
Hooghly or Hûgli, 1, the most important and most westerly of the several branches into which the Ganges divides on approaching the sea, breaks away from the main channel near Santipur, and flowing in a southerly direction past Calcutta, reaches the Bay of Bengal after a course of 145 m.; navigation is rendered hazardous by the accumulating and shifting silt; the “bore” rushes up with great rapidity, and attains a height of 7 ft. 2, A city (33) on the western bank of the river, 25 m. N. of Calcutta; is capital of a district, and has a college for English and Asiatic literature.
Hook, Theodore, comic dramatist, born in London; wrote a number of farces sparkling with wit and highly popular; appointed to be Accountant-General of the Mauritius, came to grief for peculation by a subordinate under his administration; solaced and supported himself after his acquittal by writing novels (1788-1841).
Hooke, Robert, natural philosopher, born at Freshwater, Isle of Wight; was associated with Boyle in the construction of the air-pump, and in 1665 became professor of Geometry in Gresham College, London; was a man of remarkable inventiveness, and quick to deduce natural laws from meagre premises; thus he in some important points anticipated Newton's theory of gravitation, and foresaw the application of steam to machinery; he discovered amongst other things the balance-spring of watches, the anchor-escapement of clocks, the simplest theory of the arch, and made important improvements on the telescope, microscope, and quadrant (1635-1703).
Hooker, Richard, English Church theologian and ecclesiastical writer, born in Exeter; famous as the author of “Ecclesiastical Polity,” in defence of the Church against the Puritans, characterised by Stopford Brooke as “a stately work, and the first monument of splendid literary prose that we possess”; of this work Pope Clement VIII. said, “There are such seeds of eternity in it as will continue till the last fire shall devour all learning”; the author is distinguished by the surname of “The Judicious” for his calm wisdom; he was not judicious, it would seem, in the choice of a wife, who was a shrew and a scold (1554-1600).
Hooker, Sir William, botanist, born at Norwich; was professor of Botany in Glasgow from 1820 to 1841, after which he held the post of Director of Kew Gardens; his writings in botany are numerous (1785-1865).
Hoolee, in India, the name of a saturnalian festival in honour of Krishna (q. v.).
Hooper, John, bred for the Church; was converted to Protestantism, and had to leave the country; returned on the accession of Edward VI. and was made Bishop of Gloucester; was committed to prison in the reign of Mary, condemned as a heretic, and burned at the stake in Gloucester (1495-1555).
Hoosac Mountain, in the Green Mountain Range in Massachusetts, is noted for its railway tunnel, nearly 5 m. in length, and the longest in America.
Hope, Antony, nom de plume of A. H. Hawkins, novelist, born in London, educated at Oxford; called to the bar; author of “Men of Mark,” “Prisoner of Zenda,” &c.; b. 1863.
Hope, Thomas, traveller and virtuoso, author of “Anastasius, or the Memoirs of a Modern Greek,” which Byron was proud to have fathered on him, and of a posthumous essay on the “Origin and Prospects of Man,” was famous as having suggested to Carlyle one of the most significant things he ever wrote, while he pronounced it perhaps the absurdest book written in our century by a thinking man. See Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essay “Characteristics.”
Hôpital, Michel de l', Chancellor of France; stoutly resisted the persecution of the Protestants, and secured for them a measure of toleration, but his enemies were too strong for him; he was driven from power in 1568, and went into retirement; was spared during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, but it broke his heart, and he survived it only a few days (1505-1572).
Hopkins, Samuel, an American divine, born at Waterbury, Connecticut; was pastor at Newport; was a Calvinist in theology, but of a special type, as he denied imputation and insisted on disinterested benevolence as the mark of a Christian; gave name to a party, Hopkinsians, as they were called, who held the same views (1721-1803).
Horatii. See Curiatii
Horatius Flaccus or Horace, Roman poet, born at Venusium, in Apulia; was educated at Rome and in Athens, and when there in his twenty-first year joined Marcus Brutus, became a military tribune, and fought at Philippi, after which he submitted to the conqueror and returned to Rome to find his estate forfeited; for a time afterwards he had to be content with a frugal life, but by-and-by he attracted the notice of Virgil, and he introduced him to Mæcenas, who took him into his friendship and bestowed on him a small farm, to which he retired and on which he lived in comfort for the rest of his life; his works, all in verse, consist of odes, satires, and epistles, and reveal an easy-going man of the world, of great practical sagacity and wise remark; they abound in happy phrases and quotable passages (65-8 B.C.).
Horn, Cape, the most southern point of America, is a lofty, precipitous, and barren promontory of Hermit Island, in the Fuegian Archipelago.
Horn Gate, the gate of dreams which come true, as distinct from the Ivory Gate, through which the visions seen are shadowy and unreal.
Hornbook, was a sheet of vellum or paper used in early times for teaching the rudiments of education, on which were inscribed the alphabet in black or Roman letters, some monosyllables, the Lord's Prayer, and the Roman numerals; this sheet was covered with a slice of transparent horn, and was still in use in George II.'s reign.
Horrocks, Jeremiah, a celebrated astronomer, born at Toxteth, near Liverpool; passed through Cambridge, took orders, and received the curacy of Hoole, Lancashire; was devoted to astronomy, and was the first to observe the transit of Venus, of which he gave an account in his treatise “Venus in Sole Visa” (1619-1641).
Horse-power, the unit of work of a steam-engine, being the power to raise 33,000 lbs. one foot in one minute.
Horsham (9), a market-town of Sussex, 26 m. NW. of Brighton; has a fine specimen of an Early English church, and does a thriving trade in brewing, tanning, iron-founding, &c.
Horsley, Samuel, English prelate, born in London; celebrated as the champion of orthodoxy against the attacks of Priestley (q. v.), in which he showed great learning but much bitterness, which, however, brought him church preferment; was in succession bishop of St. Davids, Rochester, and St. Asaph (1733-1806).
Hosea, a Hebrew prophet, a native of the northern kingdom of Israel, and a contemporary of Isaiah, the burden of whose prophecy is, Israel has by her idolatries and immoralities forsaken the Lord, and the Lord has forsaken Israel, in whom alone her salvation is to be found.
Hoshangabad (17), capital of a district of the same name in the Central Provinces, India, situated on the Nerbudda River, 40 m. SE. of Bhopal; is a military station, and has a considerable trade in cotton, grain, &c.
Hoshiarpur (22), a town in the Punjab, at the base of the Siwalik Hills, 90 m. E. of Lahore; is capital of a district, and is the seat of an American mission.
Hospitallers, the name given to several religious brotherhoods or orders of knights under vow to provide and care for the sick and wounded, originally in connection with pilgrimages and expeditions to Jerusalem.
Hospodar, a title once borne by the kings of Poland and the governors of Moldavia and Wallachia.
Hostilius, Tullus, the third king of Rome from 670 to 638 B.C.; showed more zeal for conquest than for the worship of the gods, who in the end smote him and his whole house with fire.
Hottentots, a name somewhat indiscriminately applied to the first known inhabitants of Cape Colony, who, however, comprised two main tribes, the Khoikhoi and the Bushmen, in many respects dissimilar, but speaking languages characterised alike by harsh and clicking sounds, a circumstance which induced the early Dutch settlers to call them Hottentots, which means practically “jabberers”; the great majority are semi-civilised now, and servile imitators of their conquerors.
Houdon, Jean-Antoine, an eminent French sculptor, born of humble parentage at Versailles; at 20 he won the prix de Rome, and for 10 years studied with enthusiasm the early masters at Rome, where he produced his great statue of St. Bruno; he was elected in turn a member of the Academy and of the Institute, Paris, and in 1805 became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts; he was unrivalled in portraiture, and executed statues of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Mirabeau, Washington, Napoleon, and others (1741-1828).
Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord, poet and patron of letters, born of good family at Fryston Hall, Pontefract; graduated at Cambridge; entered Parliament as a Conservative, but subsequently went over to the other side, and in 1863 was raised to the peerage by Palmerston; was a man of varied interests, a traveller, leader of society, philanthropist, and above all the friend and patron of authors; his works include various volumes of poetry, “Life of Keats,” “Monographs, Personal and Social,” &c. (1809-1885).
Hounslow (13), a town of Middlesex, 10 m. SW. of London; railways have done away with its importance as a posting town; in the vicinity are gunpowder mills, barracks, and the famous Hounslow Heath.
Houri, a beautiful maiden who, according to the Mohammedan faith, awaits the advent of a pious Moslem in Paradise.
Houston, Samuel, President of the Texan Republic, born in Virginia; was adopted by a Cherokee Indian, and rose from the rank of a common soldier to be governor of Tennessee in 1827; as commander-in-chief in Texas he crushed the Mexicans, won the independence of Texas, and became the first President of the new republic in 1836; subsequently represented Texas in the United States Senate; was elected governor and deposed in 1861 for opposing secession (1793-1863).
Houyhn`hnms, an imaginary race of horses in “Gulliver's Travels” endowed with reason.
Hoveden, Roger of, chronicler, born at Howden, Yorkshire; held an appointment in Henry II.'s household; was engaged in various missions to the monastic houses, and in 1189 became an itinerant justice; his well-known Chronicle begins where Bede's ends, 732, and continues down to 1201.
Howard, Catherine, fifth wife of Henry VIII., granddaughter of the Duke of Norfolk; was married to Henry in 1540 after his divorce from Anne of Clèves; two years later she was found guilty of immoral conduct prior to her marriage, and was executed (1520-1542).
Howard, John, a noted philanthropist, born at Hackney, Middlesex; was left in easy circumstances at his father's death; a bitter experience as a French prisoner of war and observations made whilst acting as sheriff of Bedfordshire roused him to attempt some reform of the abuses and misery of prison life; he made a tour of the county jails of England, and the mass of information which he laid before the House of Commons in 1774 brought about the first prison reforms; he continued his visitations from year to year to every part of the United Kingdom and to every quarter of the Continent; during 1785-87 he made a tour of inspection through the principal lazarettos of Europe, visited plague-smitten cities, and voluntarily underwent the rigours of the quarantine system; he died at the Crimea whilst on a journey to the East; he published at various times accounts of his Journeys; his deep piety, cool sense, and single-hearted devotedness to his one great object won him universal respect throughout Europe (1727-1790).
Howe, John, a Puritan divine, born at Loughborough; was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, took orders, and became the outspoken and universally respected chaplain to Cromwell; after the Restoration he was ejected from the Church by the Act of Uniformity; subsequently he was in turn domestic chaplain to Lord Massarene in Ireland, and pastor of a Dissenting congregation in London; for some years he settled in Utrecht, but in 1687 returned to England after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, and became a leader of the Dissenters; he published a number of works which display a powerful, philosophic, and earnest mind; his “The Good Man the Living Temple of God” remains a masterpiece of Puritan theology; he was a man of exceptional strength of character, and it was said that he could awe Cromwell into silence and Tillotson into tears (1630-1706).
Howe, Richard, Earl, admiral, born in London, son of an Irish viscount; first saw service under Anson against the Spaniards; distinguished himself during the Seven Years' War; in 1783 became First Lord of the Admiralty, and was created an earl; during the French War in 1793 he commanded the Channel Fleet, and gained “the glorious first of June” victory off Ushant (1726-1799).
Howell, James, an English writer, whose “Familiar Letters” have won a permanent place in English literature, born in Abernant, Carmarthenshire; travelled for many years on the Continent in a business capacity; entered Parliament in 1627; was for some years a Royalist spy, and suffered imprisonment at the Fleet; at the Restoration he was created Historiographer-Royal; his works are numerous, but his fame rests upon his entertaining “Instructions for Foreigne Travell” and his graceful and witty “Familiar Letters” (1593-1666).
Howells, William Dean, a popular American novelist, the son of a Swedenborgian journalist, born at Martin's Ferry, Ohio; adopted journalism as a profession, produced a popular Life of Lincoln, and from 1861 to 1865 was Consul at Venice; resuming journalism he became a contributor to the best American papers and magazines, and was for a number of years editor of the Atlantic Monthly; an excellent journalist, poet, and critic, it is yet as a novelist—witty, graceful, and acute—that he is best known; “A Chance Acquaintance,” “A Foregone Conclusion,” “A Modern Instance,” “An Indian Summer” are among his more popular works; b. 1837.
Howitt, William, a miscellaneous writer, who, with his equally talented wife, Mary Howitt (1799-1888) (née Botham), did much to popularise the rural life of England, born, a Quaker's son, at Heanor, Derbyshire; served his time as a carpenter, but soon drifted into literature, married in 1821, and made many tours in England and other lands for literary purposes; was a voluminous writer, pouring out histories, accounts of travel, tales, and poems; amongst these are “Rural Life in England,” “Visits to Remarkable Places,” “Homes and Haunts of the Poets,” &c. (1792-1879). His wife, besides collaborating with him in such works as “Stories of English Life,” “Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain,” wrote poems, tales, &c., and was the first to translate the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen.
Howrah or Haura (130), a flourishing manufacturing town on the Hooghly, opposite Calcutta, with which it is connected by a floating bridge.
Hoy, a steep, rocky islet in the Orkney group, about 1 m. SW. of Mainland or Pomona, remarkable for its huge cliffs.
Hoylake (3), a rising watering-place in Cheshire, at the seaward end of Wirral Peninsula, 8 m. W. of Birkenhead; noted for its golf-links.
Hoyle, Edmond, the inventor of whist, lived in London; wrote on games and taught whist; his “Short Treatise on Whist” appeared in 1742 (1672-1769).
Hrolf, Rollo, Duke of Normandy (q. v.)
Huancaveli`ca (104), a dep. of Peru, lies within the region of the Cordilleras, has rich silver and quicksilver mines; the capital (4), bearing the same name, is a mining town 150 m. SE. of Lima.
Hub of the Universe, a name humorously given by Wendell Holmes to Boston, or rather the State House of the city.
Huber, Francis, naturalist, born at Geneva; made a special study of the habits of bees, and recorded the results in his “Observations sur les Abeilles” (1750-1831).
Hubert, St., bishop of Liège and Maestricht, the patron-saint of huntsmen; was converted when hunting on Good Friday by a milk-white stag appearing in the forest of Ardennes with a crucifix between its horns; generally represented in art as a hunter kneeling to a crucifix borne by a stag (656-728).
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, chief justiciary of England under King John and Henry III.; had charge of Prince Arthur, but refused to put him to death; was present at Runnymede at the signing of Magna Charta; d. 1234.
Huc, a French missionary, born at Toulouse; visited China and Thibet, and wrote an account of his experiences on his return (1813-1860).
Huddersfield (96), a busy manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is favourably situated in a coal district on the Colne, 26 m. NE. of Manchester; is substantially built, and is the northern centre of the “fancy trade” and woollen goods; cotton, silk, and machine factories and iron-founding are also carried on on a large scale.
Hudibras, a satire by Samuel Butler on the Puritans, published in 1663, born of the reaction that set in after the Restoration.
Hudson, in New York State, one of the most picturesque of North American rivers, rises amid the Adirondack Mountains, and from Glen's Fall flows S. to New York Bay, having a course of 350 m.; is navigable for steamboats as far as Albany, 145 m. from its mouth. It has valuable fisheries.
Hudson, George, the Railway King, originally a linen-draper in York, the great speculator in the construction and extension of railways, in connection with which he made a huge fortune; acquired civic honours, and was nearly having a statue raised to his honour, but certain frauds being exposed he fell into disgrace and embarrassment, and died in London; he was elected thrice over Lord Mayor of York, and represented Sunderland in Parliament from 1845 to 1859 (1800-1871).
Hudson, Henry, English navigator; made three unsuccessful efforts to discover a north-east passage, then turned his course north-westward, and discovered in 1610 the river, strait, and bay which bear his name; his sailors in his last expedition in 1611 mutinying, set him and eight others adrift in an open boat, and though an expedition was sent in quest of him, he was nowhere to be found.
Hudson Bay, an inland sea in North America, 400 m. long and 100 m. wide, communicating with the Atlantic; discovered by Hudson in 1610.
Hudson Bay Company, a joint-stock company founded in 1760 to obtain furs and skins from North America, under charter granted by Charles II., the possessions of which were in 1869 incorporated in the Dominion of Canada.
Hué (30), capital of the French protectorate Annam, on the Hué, 10 m. above its mouth, is strongly fortified with walls and a citadel.
Huelva (19), a thriving seaport in Spain, 68 m. SW. of Seville, between the mouths of the Odiel and Tinto; fisheries and the exportation of copper, manganese, quicksilver, and wine are the chief industries.
Huerta, Garcia de la, a Spanish poet, was royal librarian in Madrid; wrote tragedy of “Raguel,” thought of very highly (1729-1797).
Huesca (13), an interesting old Spanish town, 58 m. NE. of Saragossa; has picturesque old churches, a university, and a palace; manufactures linen and leather.
Huet, Pierre Daniel, a learned French prelate, born at Caen; a pupil of Descartes; associated with Bossuet as scholar, and editor of Origen (1630-1721).
Hug, Leonhard, a Catholic theologian and biblical scholar, author of an “Introduction to the New Testament” (1765-1846).
Hugh Capet, the first of the Capetian dynasty of France, son of Hugh Capet, Count of Paris; proclaimed king in 987; his reign was a troubled one by the revolt of the very party that had raised him to the throne, and who refused to own his supremacy; Adelbert, a count of Périgueux, had usurped the titles of Count of Poitiers and of Tours, and the king, sending a messenger to ask “Who made you count?” got for answer the counter-challenge “Who made you king?” (946-996).
Hughenden, a parish in Buckinghamshire, in the Chiltern district, 2 m. N. of High Wycombe; is interesting as the seat of Hughenden Manor, for many years the residence of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield.
Hughes, Thomas, author of “Tom Brown's School-days,” born at Uffington, Berks; was at Rugby in Dr. Arnold's time, graduated at Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1848; his famous story of Rugby school life, “Tom Brown's School-days,” was published in 1856, and was followed by “Tom Brown at Oxford” and other stories and biographies; he entered Parliament in 1865, and in 1882 became a County Court Judge; throughout his life he was keenly interested in social questions and the betterment of the working-classes (1832-1896).
Hugo, Victor-Marie, a famous French poet and novelist, born at Besançon; as a boy he accompanied his father, a general in Joseph Bonaparte's army, through the campaigns in Italy and Spain; at 14 he produced a tragedy, and six years later appeared his “Odes et Ballades”; in 1827 was published his famous tragedy “Cromwell,” which placed him at the head of the Romanticists, and in “Hernani” (1830) the departure from the old classic novels was more emphatically asserted; his superabundant genius continued to pour forth a quick succession of dramas, novels, essays, and poems, in which he revealed himself one of the most potent masters of the French language; he was admitted to the French Academy, and in 1845 was created a peer; he engaged in politics first as a Royalist and next as a Democrat, fled to Brussels after the coup d'état; subsequently he established himself in Jersey and then in Guernsey, where he wrote his great novels “Les Misérables,” “Les Travailleurs de la Mer,” etc.; he returned to France in 1870, engaged in politics again, became a senator, and continued to produce works with undiminished energy; his writings were in the first instance a protest against the self-restraint and coldness of the old classic models, but were as truly a faithful expression of his own intense and assertive egoism, and are characteristic of his school in their exaggerated sentiment and pervading self-consciousness (1802-1885).
Huguenots, a name formerly given to the Protestants of France, presumed to be a corruption of the German word eingenossen, i. e. sworn confederates, the history of whom and their struggles and persecutions fills a large chapter in the history of France, a cause which was espoused at the first by many of the nobles and the best families in the country, but all along in disfavour at Court.
Hull, or Kingston-Upon-Hull (260), a flourishing river-port in the E. Riding of Yorkshire, at the junction of the Hull with the Humber, 42 m. SE. of York; is an old town, and has many interesting churches, statues, and public buildings; is the third port of the kingdom; has immense docks, is the principal outlet for the woollen and cotton goods of the Midlands, and does a great trade with the Baltic and Germany; has flourishing shipbuilding yards, rope and canvas factories, sugar refineries, oil-mills, etc., and is an important centre of the east coast fisheries.
Hullah, John, professor of music, born in Worcester; did much to popularise music in England (1812-1884).
Hulsean Lectures, fruits of a lectureship tenable for one year, founded by Rev. John Hulse, of St. John's College, in 1789; delivered annually to the number of four, bearing on revealed religion.
Humanist, one who at the Revival of Letters upheld the claims of classical learning in opposition to the supporters of the scholastic philosophy.
Humanitarians, a name given to those who maintain the simple humanity of Christ to the denial of his divinity; also to those who view human nature as sufficient for itself apart from all supernatural guidance and aid.
Humbert I., king of Italy, son of Victor Emmanuel, whom he succeeded in 1878; took while crown prince an active part in the movement for Italian unity, and distinguished himself by his bravery; b. 1844.
Humboldt, Friedrich Heinrich Alex., Baron von, great traveller and naturalist, born in Berlin; devoted all his life to the study of nature in all its departments, travelling all over the Continent, and in 1800, with Aimé Bonpland (q. v.) for companion, visiting S. America, traversing the Orinoco, and surveying and mapping out in the course of five years Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico, the results of which he published in his “Travels”; his chief work is the “Kosmos,” or an account of the visible universe, in 4 vols., originally delivered as lectures in Paris in the winter of 1827-28; he was a friend of Goethe, who held him in the highest esteem (1769-1859).
Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm von, an eminent statesman and philologist, born at Potsdam, elder brother of the preceding; represented Prussia at Rome and Vienna, but devoted himself chiefly to literary and scientific pursuits; wrote on politics and æsthetics as well as philology, and corresponded with nearly all the literary grandees of Germany (1767-1835).
Hume, David, philosopher and historian, born in Edinburgh, the younger son of a Berwickshire laird; after trial of law and mercantile life gave himself up to study and speculation; spent much of his life in France, and fraternised with the sceptical philosophers and encyclopedists there; his chief works, “Treatise on Human Nature” (1739), “Essays” (1741-42), “Principles of Morals” (1751), and “History of England” (1754-61); his philosophy was sceptical to the last degree, but from the excess of it provoked a reaction in Germany, headed by Kant, which has yielded positive results; he found in life no connecting principle, no purpose, and had come to regard it as a restless aimless, heaving up and down, swaying to and fro on a waste ocean of blind sensations, without rational plot or counterplot, God or devil, and had arrived at an absolutely non-possumus stage, which, however, as hinted, was followed by a speedy and steady rebound, in speculation at all events; Hume's history has been characterised by Stopford Brooke as clear in narrative and pure in style, but cold and out of sympathy with his subject, as well as inaccurate; personally, he was a guileless and kindly man (1711-1776).
Hume, Joseph, a politician, born in Montrose; studied medicine, and served as a surgeon under the East India Company in India, made his fortune, and came home; adopted the political principles of Bentham and entered Parliament, of which he continued a prominent member till his death; he was an ardent reformer, and lived to see many of the measures he advocated crowned with success (1777-1855).
Humour, distinct from wit, and defined as “a warm, tender, fellow-feeling with all that exists,” as “the sport of sensibility and, as it were, the playful, teasing fondness of a mother for a child” ... as “a sort of inverse sublimity exalting into our affections what is below us,... warm and all-embracing as the sun.”
Hundred Days, the name given to the period between Napoleon's return from Elba and his abdication, from Mar. 10 to June 28, 1815, after Waterloo.
Hundyades John Corvinus, a Hungarian captain of the 14th century, a formidable foe of the Turks.
Hungary (18,556), the eastern part of Austro-Hungary, including Hungary proper, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia, and, except in military and diplomatic matters and customs dues, with a considerable amount of self-government independent of Austria, differing from it, as it does, in race, language, and many other respects, to such a degree as gives rise to much dissension, and every now and then threatens disruption.
Huns, The, a horde of barbarians of Mongolian origin who invaded Europe from the shores of the Caspian Sea in two wars, the first in the 4th century, which at length subsided, and the second in the 5th century, ultimately under Atilla, which, in the main body of them at all events, was driven back and even dispersed; they have been described as a race with broad shoulders, flat noses, small black eyes buried in the head, and without beards.
Hunt, Holman, painter, born in London; became a pupil of Rossetti, and “his greatest disciple,” and joined the Pre-Raphaelite movement; he began with “worldly subjects,” but soon quitted these “virtually for ever” under Rossetti's influence, and “rose into the spiritual passion which first expressed itself in his 'Light of the World,'” with this difference, as Ruskin points out, between him and his “forerunner,” that whereas Rossetti treated the story of the New Testament as a mere thing of beauty, with Hunt, “when once his mind entirely fastened on it, it became ... not merely a Reality, not merely the greatest of Realities, but the only Reality”; in this religious realistic spirit, as Ruskin further remarks, all Hunt's great work is done, and he notices how in all subjects which fall short of the religious element, “his power also is shortened, and he does those things worst which are easiest to other men”; his principal works in this spirit are “The Scape-Goat,” “The Finding of Christ in the Temple,” “The Shadow of Death,” and the “Triumph of the Innocents,” to which we may add “The Strayed Sheep,” remarkable as well for its vivid sunshine, “producing,” says Ruskin, “the same impressions on the mind as are caused by the light itself”; b. 1827.
Hunt, Leigh, essayist and poet; was of the Cockney school, a friend of Keats and Shelley; edited the Examiner, a Radical organ; was a busy man but a thriftless, and always in financial embarrassment, though latterly he had a fair pension; lived near Carlyle, who at one time saw a good deal of him, his household, and its disorderliness, an eyesore to Carlyle, a “poetical tinkerdom” he called it, in which, however, he received his visitors “in the spirit of a king, apologising for nothing”; Carlyle soon tired of him, though he was always ready to help him when in need (1784-1859).
Hunter, John, anatomist and surgeon, born near East Kilbride, Lanarkshire; started practice as a surgeon in London, became surgeon to St. George's Hospital, and at length surgeon to the king; is distinguished for his operations in the cure of aneurism; he built a museum, in which he collected an immense number of specimens illustrative of subjects of medical study, which, after his death, was purchased by Government (1728-1793).
Hunter, Sir William, Indian statistician, in the Indian Civil Service, and at the head of the Statistical Department; has written several statistical accounts, the “Gazetteer of India,” and other elaborate works on India; with Lives of the Earl of Mayo and the Marquis of Dalhousie; b. 1862.
Huntingdon (4), the county town of Huntingdonshire, stands on the left bank of the Ouse 59 m. N. of London; has breweries, brick-works, and nurseries, and was the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell.
Huntingdon, Countess of, a leader among the Whitfield Methodists, and foundress of a college for the “Connexion” at Cheshunt (1707-1791).
Huntingdonshire (57), an undulating county NE. of the Fen district, laid out for most part in pasture and dairy land; many Roman remains are to be found scattered about in it.
Hurd, Richard, English bishop in succession of Lichfield and Worcester; was both a religious writer and a critic; was the author of “Letters on Chivalry and Romance,” “Dissertations on Poetry,” and “Commentaries on Horace's Ars Poetica,” the last much admired by Gibbon (1720-1808).
Huron, a lake in N. America, 263 m. long and 70 m. broad, the second largest on the average of the five on the Lawrence basin, interspersed with numerous islands.
Hurons, The, a tribe of Red Indians of the Iroquois family.
Huskisson, William, an English statesman and financier; distinguished for his services when in office in the relaxation of restrictions on trade (1770-1830).
Huss, John, a Bohemian church reformer; was a disciple of Wyclif, and did much to propagate his teaching, in consequence of which he was summoned in 1414 to answer for himself before the Council of Constance; went under safe-conduct from the emperor; “they laid him instantly in a stone dungeon, three feet wide, six feet high, seven feet long; burnt the true voice of him out of this world; choked it in smoke and fire” (1373-1415).
Hutcheson, Francis, moral philosopher, born in Ulster, son of a Presbyterian minister; educated in Glasgow; became professor in the university there and founder of the Scotch school of philosophy, who, according to Dr. Stirling, has not received the honour in that regard which is his due (1094-1747).
Hutchinson, Anne, a religious fanatic, born in England, settled in New England, U.S.; expelled from the colony for Antinomian heresy, took refuge in Rhode Island, and was with her family butchered by the Indians (1590-1643).
Hutchinson, Colonel, one of the Puritan leaders, and a prominent actor in the Puritan revolt, to the extent of signing the death-warrant of the king, but broke partnership as a republican with Cromwell when he assumed sovereign power, and sullenly refused to be reconciled to the Protector, though he begged him towards his end beseechingly as his old comrade in arms (1616-1664).
Hutchinson, John, a theological faddist, born in Yorkshire; in his “Thoughts concerning Religion,” derived all religion and philosophy from the Bible, but directly, as he insisted, from the original Hebrew, in which view he had a following of a few intelligent people (1674-1737).
Hutten, Ulrich von, a zealous humanist and reformer, born in the castle of Steckelberg, in Hesse, of an ancient and noble family; allied himself as a scholar with Erasmus, and then with Luther as a man; entered heart and soul into the Reformation of the latter to a rupture with the former, and by his writings, which included invectives against the clergy and appeals to the nation, did much, amid many perils, to advance the cause of German emancipation from the thraldom of the Church (1488-1523).
Hutton, Charles, a mathematician, born in Newcastle; became professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; wrote on mathematics and physics (1737-1825).
Hutton, James, celebrated geologist, born in Edinburgh; bred to medicine, but devoted himself to agriculture and chemistry, which led on to geology; was the author of the Plutonic theory of the earth, which ascribes the inequalities and other phenomena in the crust of it to the agency of the heat at the centre (1726-1797).
Huxley, Thomas Henry, eminent scientist in the department of natural history, born at Ealing, Middlesex; was professor of Natural History in the Royal School of Mines; distinguished by his studies and discoveries in different sections of the animal kingdom, in morphology and palæontology; was a zealous advocate of evolution, in particular the views of Darwin, and a champion of science against the orthodoxy of the Church; he was a man of eminent literary ability as well as scientific, and of the greatest in that regard among scientific men (1825-1895).
Huygens, Christian, a Dutch geometrician, physicist, and astronomer, born at The Hague; published the first scientific work on the calculation of probabilities, improved the telescope, broached the undulatory theory of light, discovered the fourth satellite of Saturn, invented the pendulum clock, and stands as a physicist midway between Galileo and Newton (1629-1093).
Hydaspes, the ancient name of the Jhelum, the northernmost tributary of the Indus.
Hyder Ali, a Mohammedan ruler of Mysore; raised himself to be commander-in-chief of the army; organised it on the French model; unseated the rajah; conquered Calicut, Bednor, and Kananur; waged war successfully against the English and the Mahrattas, and left his kingdom to his son Tippoo Saib (q. v.) (1728-1782).
Hyderabad (370), the capital of the Nizam's dominions in the Deccan, is 6 m. in circumference, strongly protected all round by a belt of rocky desert, and a centre of Mohammedanism in India. Also the capital of Sind (58), near the apex of the delta of the Indus; manufactures silks, pottery, and lacquered ware, and is strongly fortified.
Hydra, The Lernean, a monstrous reptile inhabiting a marsh, with a number of heads, that grew on again as often as they were chopped off, and the destruction of which was one of the twelve labours of Hercules, an act which symbolises the toil expended in draining the fens of the world for man's habitation.
Hygeia, in the Greek mythology the Goddess of Health, and daughter of Æsculapius; is represented as a virgin in a long robe, with a cup in her hand and a serpent drinking out of it.
Hymen, in the Greek mythology the God of Marriage, son of Apollo, and one of the Muses, represented as a boy with wings; originally a nuptial song sung at the departure of the bride from her parental home.
Hymer, a frost Jötun, whose cows are icebergs; splits rocks with the glance of his eye.
Hymettus, a mountain in Attica, famous for its honey and marble.
Hypatia, a far-famed lady teacher of Greek philosophy in Alexandria, distinguished for her beauty and purity of life, who, one day in 415, on her return home from her lecture-room, was massacred in the streets of the city, at the instance, of both Jews and Christians, as a propagator of paganism.
Hyperboreans, a people blooming in youth and health, fabled by the Greeks to dwell in the extreme northern parts of the world under favour of Apollo.
Hypermnestra, the only one of the Danaides (q. v.) who spared the life of her husband in spite of her father's orders.
Hypnotism, the process of inducing sleep by wearying out the optic nerve of the eyes, by making the patient fix them upon a certain spot for a time, generally situated where it is a little wearisome for the eyes to find it. The fatigue thus induced spreads from the ocular muscles to the system, causing deep sleep.
Hyrcania, an ancient province of Persia, on the E. and SE. of the Caspian Sea, celebrated for the savage animals that inhabited its forests, as well as the savagery of its inhabitants.
Hyrcanus, John, the son of Simon Maccabeus, king of Judea, as well as High-Priest of the Jews from 135 to 105 B.C.; achieved the independence of his country from the Syrian yoke, extended the borders of it, and compelled the Edomites to accept the Jewish faith at the point of the sword; in the strife then rampant between the Sadducees (q. v.) and the Pharisees (q. v.) he sided with the former.