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 "AEthiopica" is a love tale of great beauty and told with naive 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 Praetorian 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 debut 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 Koenigsberg, 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).

HELOISE, 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).

HELOISE, 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, BARTHOLOMAEUS 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 Caesar as occupying territory in Central Europe now embraced in Switzerland; they suffered tremendous slaughter at the hands of Caesar when endeavouring to make their way to a wider territory in Southern Gaul.

HELVETIUS, 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, nee 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).

HENAULT, French historian, born in Paris, president of the Parlement of Paris; was author of "Abrege 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 Groeningen; 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 [Greek: alpha] 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 a 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 Cleves 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 "AEsop's Fables," and the story of "Orpheus and Eurydice."

HEPHAESTOS, 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 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, 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'DAE, 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 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 quantities from the salt marshes, and fishing is an important industry.

HERBART, German philosopher, born at Oldenburg; Kant's successor at Koenigsberg, professor also at Goettingen 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 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 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 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 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).

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 flourishing 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.

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 Idumaean 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 "Cyclopaedia," 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 Rene'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 Teufelsdroeckh'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 Muenich, 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 Cannae, 474 B.C.; was an enlightened patron of men of letters, many of whom he entertained at his court, AEschylus, 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 Civa or Vishnu, and their religions called Civaite or Vishnuite, while their respective followers are styled Caivas 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 Nicaea; 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.

HIPPOLYTE, 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 Vendee; 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 Koenigsberg, 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 a 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 Muenich; 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 "Encyclopedie" notabilities at his board; wrote "Systeme 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 TREVES, 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, 91/2 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 L60,000 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.