HEBER, the son of Salah, and father of Peleg, from whom the Hebrews derived their name, according to Josephus, Eusebius, Jerome, Bede, and most of the interpreters of the sacred writings; but Huet, bishop of Avranches, in his Evangelical Demonstration, has attempted to prove that the Hebrews took their name from the word heber, which signifies beyond, because they came from beyond the Euphrates. Heber is supposed to have been born 2281 B. c. and to have lived 464 years.

Heber, Reginald, a poet, and dignitary of the church of England, was born at Malpas, in the county of Chester, on the 21st of April 1783. His youth was distinguished by a precocity of talent, docility of temper, a love of reading, and a veneration for religion. After acquiring the elementary parts of education atNeasdon, in the neighbourhood of London, he was entered of Brazen-nose College, Oxford, in the year 1800. In his first year he gained the university prize for Latin verse by his Carmen Seculare, a poem on the commencement of the new century; and in 1803 he wrote his poem of Palestine, which was crowned with the same success, and received with remarkable applause. His academical career was brilliant from its commencement to its close. After taking his degree, and gaining the university’s bachelors’ prize for the best English prose essay, he in 1805 set out on a continental tour, of which he kept a regular journal, which was afterwards published. Mr Heber returned to England in the following year, and in 1807 took orders, and was instituted by his brother to the family living of Hodnet in Shropshire, soon after which he returned to Oxford to take his degree as master of arts. In 1809 he married and settled in his rectory, and there discharged the duties which a large parish devolved upon him with exemplary assiduity. Soon after his marriage he published a series of hymns “appropriate to the Sundays and principal holidays of the year,” the greater number of which were composed for music already used in the church. In 1812, he commenced a Dictionary of the Bible, and published a volume of poems, which contained, besides those previously published, translations from Pindar, and a few other pieces. In the same year he commenced a poem entitled Mori d’Arthur, which was never completed. The fragment was published after his death by his widow, in the volumes which contain his biography. In 1817 he was appointed . to the prebendary of St Asaph, and in 1822 he obtained the preachership of Lincoln’s Inn. During the same year the bishopric of Calcutta became vacant by the death of Dr Middleton, and the offer of it having been made to Mr Heber, he accepted of it after much hesitation. About this period he published a life of Jeremy Taylor, with a review of his writings. In 1823 he took his degree of doctor of divinity, and embarked for India, where he arrived in safety. Bishop Heber was peculiarly well qualified to fill the high and responsible situation which he had attained, with honour to himself and advantage to the church, as well by his amiable and conciliatory temper, as by his talents, and zeal in the cause of Christianity. Soon after his arrival in India, he was appointed one of the vice-presidents of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. He also assumed the office of president of the Diocesan Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, established in Calcutta. The native schools and the various branches of the society’s labours in that city, in common with other institutions of the same description, engrossed much of his time and attention. On Ascension-day in the year 1824, Bishop Heber held his first visitation in the cathedral of Calcutta; and subsequently, he made progresses through his diocese, which was very extensive, consecrating churches, and facilitating the adoption of measures for the extension of Christian knowledge amongst the Hindus. In one of his journeys to the southern provinces, he was cut off by an apoplectic fit, with which he was seized whilst bathing, at Trichinopoly, on the 3d of April 1826. After the death of this eminent prelate, there was published a Narrative [7:11:199]of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, in 2 vols. 4to, and afterwards in 3 vols. 8vo. A biography of this good prelate, with numerous letters, and a History of the Cossacks, has been published by his widow, in 2 vols. 4to. Besides the works of Bishop Heber already mentioned, he was the author of several dramatic poems, and a considerable contributor to the Quarterly Review. As a poet he is elegant and pleasing, without being either very vigorous or original. His poem of Palestine is perhaps the best which has ever been written upon the subject; and many of his hymns, whilst they possess all the simplicity and true Christian feeling which should characterise such compositions, have more elevation and poetic fervour than is usually met with in writings of this kind. His prose works are written in an easy, flowing style, and are characterised by acuteness and sound judgment. His Indian Narrative is graphic and pleasing in the highest degree. As a minister of the gospel, Bishop Heber combined rational piety with zealous industry in the discharge of his duties, and he was beloved and venerated in the highest degree by those over whom he presided as a spiritual guide and instructor.