The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 240

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 "aesop's Fables," and the story of "Orpheus and Eurydice."

HEPHaeSTOS, called Vulcan by the Romans, the Greek G.o.d 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 G.o.ds, 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 Aphrodite, 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, Suss.e.x, Wess.e.x, Ess.e.x, 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'Dae, Spartans, presumed descendants of Hercules, who at one time invaded and took possession of the Peloponnesus.

HERAc.l.i.tUS, 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 Chosroes, 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.

HeRAULT (462), a maritime dep. of S. France fronting the Gulf of Lyons; in the N. are the Cevennes 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 quant.i.ties from the salt marshes, and fis.h.i.+ng is an important industry.

HERBART, German philosopher, born at Oldenburg; Kant's successor at Konigsberg, professor also at Gottingen 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 amba.s.sador 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, Wilts.h.i.+re, a post he lived only two years to hold; was the author of a Christian poem ent.i.tled "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 Stabiae 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 bra.s.s; 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 Antaeus, 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 Aphrodite, 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, Calpe 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 Caesar 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 Herefords.h.i.+re, on the Wye, 144 m.

NW. of London; has some fine old buildings, including a n.o.ble 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.

HEREFORDs.h.i.+RE (116), an inland county of West England, lying on the Welsh border between Shrops.h.i.+re and Monmouths.h.i.+re; 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 a.s.sociated 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 pa.s.s 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, Cambridges.h.i.+re (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 ama.s.sed a great fortune, and, dying childless, left his property to found and endow the educational inst.i.tution referred to, and which still bears his name; in 1837 the acc.u.mulated surplus funds were utilised in establis.h.i.+ng 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).

HeRISTAL (12), a town of Belgium, on the Meuse, practically a NE.

suburb of Liege; the inhabitants are largely employed in coal-mining and in flouris.h.i.+ng iron-works; the ruins of a castle, the birthplace of Pepin d'Heristal, 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.