The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 247

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 Maecenas, who took him into his friends.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sages (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; pa.s.sed through Cambridge, took orders, and received the curacy of Hoole, Lancas.h.i.+re; 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 Suss.e.x, 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.

HOs.h.i.+ARPUR (22), a town in the Punjab, at the base of the Siwalik Hills, 90 m. E. of Lah.o.r.e; 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 t.i.tle 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 wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 Inst.i.tute, Paris, and in 1805 became professor at the ecole des Beaux-Arts; he was unrivalled in portraiture, and executed statues of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Mirabeau, Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Middles.e.x, 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, Yorks.h.i.+re; 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 Cleves; 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, Middles.e.x; was left in easy circ.u.mstances at his father's death; a bitter experience as a French prisoner of war and observations made whilst acting as sheriff of Bedfords.h.i.+re 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 ma.s.s 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Ma.s.sarene 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 G.o.d" 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, Carmarthens.h.i.+re; 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) (_nee_ Botham), did much to popularise the rural life of England, born, a Quaker's son, at Heanor, Derbys.h.i.+re; 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 flouris.h.i.+ng 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.