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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 - "Hearing" to "Helmond"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 - "Hearing" to "Helmond"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE HEAT: "This line of reasoning does not appear quite
satisfactory, because it is tacitly assumed, in the reasoning by
which Carnot's principle was established, ..." 'tacitly' amended
from 'tactitly'.
ARTICLE HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE: "Clement himself, taking it for
granted that an epistle to Hebrews must have been written in
Hebrew, supposes that Luke translated it for the Greeks." 'been'
amended from 'beeen'.
ARTICLE HEBRIDES, THE: "The United Free Church has a strong hold on
the people, but in a few of the islands the Roman Catholics have a
great following." 'people' amended feom 'poeple'.
ARTICLE HEBRIDES, THE: "A new system of management and high rents
was imposed, in consequence of which numbers of the tacksmen, or
large tenants, emigrated to North America." 'was' amended from
'were'.
ARTICLE HEBRON: "It is an enclosure measuring 112 ft. east and west
by 198 north and south, surrounded with high rampart walls of
masonry similar in size and dressing to that of the Jerusalem Haram
walls." 'similar' amended from 'similiar'.
ARTICLE HEINE, HEINRICH: "... the beginning of a new era in German
journalism and a healthy revolt against the unwieldy prose of the
Romantic period." 'unwieldy' amended from 'unwieldly'.
ARTICLE HELIOMETER: "The reader is referred to that paper for an
exhaustive history and discussion of the instrument." 'instrument'
amended from 'intrument'.
ARTICLE HELIUM: "M. Travers, G. Senter and A. Jacquerod (Phil.
Trans. A. 1903, 200, p. 105) carefully examined the behaviour of a
constant volume gas thermometer filled with helium." 'behaviour'
amended from 'behavour'.
ARTICLE HELLENISM: "It has even been thought that some developments
of the Egyptian religion are due to Hellenistic influence, ..."
'Egyptian' amended from 'Egyptain'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XIII, SLICE II
HEARING to HELMOND
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
HEARING HEIDEGGER, JOHANN HEINRICH
HEARN, LAFCADIO HEIDELBERG (town of Germany)
HEARNE, SAMUEL HEIDELBERG (town of Transvaal)
HEARNE, THOMAS HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, THE
HEARSE HEIDELOFF, KARL ALEXANDER VON
HEART HEIDENHEIM
HEART-BURIAL HEIFER
HEARTH HEIGEL, KARL AUGUST VON
HEARTS HEIJERMANS, HERMANN
HEAT HEILBRONN
HEATH, BENJAMIN HEILIGENSTADT
HEATH, NICHOLAS HEILSBERG
HEATH, WILLIAM HEILSBRONN
HEATH HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN
HEATHCOAT, JOHN HEIM, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH
HEATHCOTE, SIR GILBERT HEIMDAL
HEATHEN HEINE, HEINRICH
HEATHFIELD, GEORGE ELIOTT HEINECCIUS, JOHANN GOTTLIEB
HEATING HEINECKEN, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH
HEAVEN HEINICKE, SAMUEL
HEBBEL, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH HEINSE, JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM
HEBBURN HEINSIUS, DANIEL
HEBDEN BRIDGE HEINSIUS, NIKOLAES
HEBE HEIR
HEBEL, JOHANN PETER HEIRLOOM
HEBER, REGINALD HEJAZ
HEBER, RICHARD HEJIRA
HEBERDEN, WILLIAM HEL
HÉBERT, EDMOND HELDENBUCH, DAS
HÉBERT, JACQUES RENÉ HELDER
HEBREW LANGUAGE HELEN
HEBREW LITERATURE HELENA, ST
HEBREW RELIGION HELENA (Arkansas, U.S.A.)
HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE HELENA (Montana, U.S.A.)
HEBRIDES, THE HELENSBURGH
HEBRON HELENUS
HECATAEUS OF ABDERA HELGAUD
HECATAEUS OF MILETUS HELGESEN, POVL
HECATE HELIACAL
HECATOMB HELIAND
HECATO OF RHODES HELICON (mountain range)
HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL HELICON (contrabass tuba)
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS HELIGOLAND
HECKMONDWIKE HELIOCENTRIC
HECTOR HELIODORUS
HECUBA HELIOGABALUS (ELAGABALUS)
HEDA, WILLEM CLAASZ HELIOGRAPH
HEDDLE, MATTHEW FORSTER HELIOMETER
HEDGEHOG HELIOPOLIS
HEDGES AND FENCES HELIOSTAT
HEDON HELIOTROPE
HEDONISM HELIOZOA
HEEL HELIUM
HEEM, JAN DAVIDSZ VAN HELIX
HEEMSKERK, JOHAN VAN HELL
HEEMSKERK, MARTIN JACOBSZ HELLANICUS
HEER, OSWALD HELLEBORE
HEEREN, ARNOLD HERMANN LUDWIG HELLENISM
HEFELE, KARL JOSEF VON HELLER, STEPHEN
HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HELLESPONT
HEGEMON OF THASOS HELLEVOETSLUIS
HEGEMONY HELLÍN
HEGESIAS OF MAGNESIA HELLO, ERNEST
HEGESIPPUS (Athenian orator) HELMERS, JAN FREDERIK
HEGESIPPUS (early Christian writer) HELMERSEN, GREGOR VON
HEGESIPPUS (author of Jewish War) HELMET
HEGIUS [VON HEEK], ALEXANDER HELMHOLTZ, HERMANN LUDWIG VON
HEIBERG, JOHAN LUDVIG HELMOLD (historian)
HEIDE HELMOND (town in Holland)
HEARING (formed from the verb "to hear," O. Eng. _hyran_, _heran_, &c.,
a common Teutonic verb; cf. Ger. _hören_, Dutch _hooren_, &c.; the O.
Teut. form is seen in Goth. _hausjan_; the initial _h_ makes any
connexion with "ear," Lat. _audire_, or Gr. [Greek: akouein] very
doubtful), in physiology, the function of the ear (q.v.), and the
general term for the sense or special sensation, the cause of which is
an excitation of the auditory nerves by the vibrations of sonorous
bodies. The anatomy of the ear is described in the separate article on
that organ. A description of sonorous vibrations is given in the article
SOUND; here we shall consider the transmission of such vibrations from
the external ear to the auditory nerve, and the physiological characters
of auditory sensation.
1. _Transmission in External Ear._--The external ear consists of the
_pinna_, or auricle, and the _external auditory meatus_, or canal, at
the bottom of which we find the _membrana tympani_, or drum head. In
many animals the auricle is trumpet-shaped, and, being freely movable by
muscles, serves to collect sonorous waves coming from various
directions. The auricle of the human ear presents many irregularities of
surface. If these irregularities are abolished by filling them up with a
soft material such as wax or oil, leaving the entrance to the canal
free, experiment shows that the intensity of sounds is weakened, and
that there is more difficulty in judging of their direction. When waves
of sound strike the auricle, they are partly reflected outwards, while
the remainder, impinging at various angles, undergo a number of
reflections so as to be directed into the auditory canal. Vibrations are
transmitted along the auditory canal, partly by the air it contains and
partly by its walls, to the membrana tympani. The absence of the
auricle, as the result of accident or injury, does not cause diminution
of hearing. In the auditory canal waves of sound are reflected from side
to side until they reach the membrana tympani. From the obliquity in
position and peculiar curvature of this membrane, most of the waves
strike it nearly perpendicularly, and in the most advantageous
direction.
2. _Transmission in Middle Ear._--The middle ear is a small cavity, the
walls of which are rigid with the exception of the portions consisting
of the membrana tympani, and the membrane of the round window and of the
apparatus filling the oval window. This cavity communicates with the
pharynx by the _Eustachian tube_, which forms an air-tube between the
pharynx and the tympanum for the purpose of regulating pressure on the
membrana tympani. During rest the tube is open, but it is closed during
the act of deglutition. As this action is frequently taking place, not
only when food or drink is introduced, but when saliva is swallowed, it
is evident that the pressure of the air in the tympanum will be kept in
a state of equilibrium with that of the external air on the outer
surface of the membrana tympani, and that thus the membrana tympani will
be rendered independent of variations of atmospheric pressure such as
occur when we descend in a diving bell or ascend in a balloon. By a
forcible expiration, the oral and nasal cavities being closed, air may
be driven into the tympanum, while a forcible inspiration (Valsalva's
experiment) will draw air from that cavity. In the first case, the
membrana tympani will bulge outwards, in the second case inwards, and in
both, from excessive stretching of the membrane, there will be partial
deafness, especially for sounds of high pitch. Permanent occlusion of
the tube is one of the most common causes of deafness.
The membrana tympani is capable of being set into vibration by a sound
of any pitch included in the range of perceptible sounds. It responds
exactly as to number of vibrations (pitch), intensity of vibrations
(intensity), and complexity of vibration (quality or timbre).
Consequently we can hear a sound of any given pitch, of a certain
intensity, and in its own specific timbre or quality. Generally
speaking, very high tones are heard more easily than low tones of the
same intensity. As the membrana tympani is not only fixed by its margin
to a ring or tube of bone, but is also adherent to the handle of the
malleus, which follows its movements, its vibrations meet with
considerable resistance. This diminishes the intensity of its
vibrations, and prevents also the continued vibration of the membrane
after an external pressure has ceased, so that a sound is not heard much
longer than its physical cause lasts. The tension of the membrane may be
affected (1) by differences of pressure on the two surfaces of the
membrana tympani, as may occur during forcible expiration or
inspiration, and (2) by muscular action, due to contraction of the
_tensor tympani_ muscle. This small muscle arises from the apex of the
petrous temporal and the cartilage of the Eustachian tube, enters the
tympanum at its anterior wall, and is inserted into the malleus near its
root. The handle of the malleus is inserted between the layers of the
membrana tympani, and, as the malleus and incus move round an axis
passing through the neck of the malleus from before backwards, the
action of the muscle is to pull the membrana tympani inwards towards the
tympanic cavity in the form of a cone, the meridians of which are not
straight but curved, with convexity outwards. When the muscle contracts,
the handle of the malleus is drawn still farther inwards, and thus a
greater tension of the tympanic membrane is produced. On relaxation of
the muscle, the membrane returns to its position of equilibrium by its
elasticity and by the elasticity of the chain of bones. This power of
varying the tension of the membrane is an accommodating mechanism for
receiving and transmitting sounds of different pitch. With different
degrees of tension it will respond more readily to sounds of different
pitch. Thus, when the membrane is tense, it will readily respond to high
sounds, while relaxation will be the condition most adapted for low
tones. In addition, increased tension of the membrane, by increasing the
resistance, will diminish the intensity of vibrations. This is
especially the case for sounds of low pitch.
The vibrations of the membrana tympani are transmitted to the internal
ear partly by the air which the middle ear or tympanum contains, and
partly by the chain of bones, consisting of the malleus, incus and
stapes. Of these, transmission by the chain of bones is by far the most
important. In birds and in the amphibia, this chain is represented by a
single rod-like ossicle, the _columella_, but in man the two
membranes--the membrana tympani and the membrane filling the fenestra
ovalis--are connected by a compound lever consisting of three bones,
namely, the _malleus_, or hammer, inserted into the membrana tympani,
the _incus_, or anvil, and the _stapes_, or stirrup, the base of which
is attached to a membrane covering the oval window. It must also be
noted that in the transmission of vibrations of the membrana tympani to
the fluid in the labyrinth or internal ear, through the oval window, the
chain of ossicles vibrates as a whole and acts efficiently, although its
length may be only a fraction of the wave-length of the sound
transmitted. The chain is a lever in which the handle of the malleus
forms the long arm, the fulcrum is where the short process of the incus
abuts against the wall of the tympanum, while the long process of the
incus, carrying the stapes, forms the short arm. The mechanism is a
lever of the second order. Measurements show that the ratio of the
lengths of the two arms is as 1.5 : 1; the ratio of the resulting force
at the stapes is therefore as 1 : 1.5; while the amplitudes of the
movements at the tip of the handle of the malleus and the stapes is as
1.5 : 1. Hence, while there is a diminution in amplitude there is a gain
in power, and thus the pressures are conveyed with great efficiency from
the membrana tympani to the labyrinth, while the amplitude of the
oscillation is diminished so as to be adapted to the small capacity of
the labyrinth. As the drum-head is nearly twenty times greater in area
than the membrane covering the oval window, with which the base of the
stapes is connected, the energy of the movements of the membrana tympani
is concentrated on an area twenty times smaller; hence the pressure is
increased thirtyfold (1.5 × 20) when it acts at the base of the stapes.
Experiments on the human ear have shown that the movement of greatest
amplitude was at the tip of the handle of the malleus, 0.76 mm.; the
movement of the tip of the long arm process of the incus was 0.21 mm.;
while the greatest amplitude at the base of the stapes was only .0714
mm. Other observations have shown the movements at the stapes to have a
still smaller amplitude, varying from 0.001 to 0.032 mm. With tones of
feeble intensity the movements must be almost infinitesimal. There may
also be very minute transverse movements at the base of the stapes.
3. _Transmission in the Internal Ear._--The internal ear is composed of
the labyrinth, formed of the vestibule or central part, the semicircular
canals, and the cochlea, each of which consists of an osseous and a
membranous portion. The osseous labyrinth may be regarded as an osseous
mould in the petrous portion of the temporal bone, lined by tesselated
endothelium, and containing a small quantity of fluid called the
_perilymph_. In this mould, partially surrounded by, and to some extent
floating in, this fluid, there is the membranous labyrinth, in certain
parts of which we find the terminal apparatus in connexion with the
auditory nerve, immersed in another fluid called the _endolymph_. The
membranous labyrinth consists of a vestibular portion formed by two
small sac-like dilatations, called the _saccule_ and the _utricle_, the
latter of which communicates with the semicircular canals by five
openings. Each canal consists of a tube, bulging out at each extremity
so as to form the so-called _ampulla_, in which, on a projecting ridge,
called the _crista acustica_, there are cells bearing long _auditory
hairs_, which are the peripheral end-organs of the vestibular branches
of the auditory nerve. The cochlear division of the membranous labyrinth
consists of the _ductus cochlearis_, a tube of triangular form fitting
in between the two cavities in the cochlea, called the _scala
vestibuli_, because it commences in the vestibule, and the _scala
tympani_, because it ends in the tympanum, at the round window. These
two scalae communicate at the apex of the cochlea. The roof of the
ductus cochlearis is formed by a thin membrane called the _membrane of
Reissner_, while its floor consists of the _basilar membrane_, on which
we find the remarkable _organ of Corti_, which constitutes the terminal
organ of the cochlear division of the auditory nerve. It is sufficient
to state here that this organ consists essentially of an arrangement of
epithelial cells bearing hairs which are in communication with the
terminal filaments of this portion of the auditory nerve, and that
groups of these hairs pass through holes in a closely investing
membrane, _membrana reticularis_, which may act as a damping apparatus,
so as quickly to stop their movements. The ductus cochlearis and the two
scalae are filled with fluid. Sonorous vibrations may reach the fluid in
the labyrinth by three different ways--(1) by the osseous walls of the
labyrinth, (2) by the air in the tympanum and the round window, and (3)
by the base of the stapes inserted into the oval window.
When the head is plunged into water, or brought into direct contact with
any vibrating body, vibrations must be transmitted directly. Vibrations
of the air in the mouth and in the nasal passages are also communicated
directly to the walls of the cranium, and thus pass to the labyrinth. In
like manner, we may experience auditive sensations, such as blowing,
rubbing and hissing sounds, due to muscular contraction or to the
passage of blood in vessels close to the auditory organ. It is doubtful
whether any vibrations are communicated to the fluid in the labyrinth by
the round window. Vibrations which cause hearing are communicated by the
chain of bones. When the base of the stirrup is pushed into the oval
window, the pressure in the labyrinth increases, and, as the only mobile
part of the wall of the labyrinth is the membrane covering the round
window, this membrane is forced outwards; when the base of the stirrup
moves outwards a reverse action takes place. Thus the fluid of the
labyrinth receives a series of pulses isochronous with the movements of
the base of the stirrup, and these pulses affect the terminal apparatus
in connexion with the auditory nerve.
The sacs of the internal ear, known as the utricle and saccule, receive
the impulses of the base of the stapes. They are organs connected with
the perception of sounds as sounds, without reference to pitch or
quality. For the _analysis_ of tone a cochlea is necessary. Even in
mammals all the parts of the ear may be destroyed or affected by
disease, except these sacs, without causing complete deafness.
It has been suggested by Lee (_Amer. Jour. of Physiol._ vol. i. No. 1,
p. 128) that in fishes the sac has nothing to do with hearing, but
serves for the perception of movements, such as those of rotation and
translation through space, movements much coarser than those that form
the physical basis of sound. He considers, also, that as fishes, with
few exceptions, are dumb, they are also deaf. In the fish there are
peculiar organs along the lateral line which are known to be connected
with the perception of movements of the body as a whole, and Beard
(_Zool. Anz. Leipzig_, 1884, Bd. vii. S. 140) has attempted to trace a
phylogenetic connexion between the sacs of the internal ear and the
organs in the lateral line. According to this view, when animals became
air-breathers, a part of the ear (the _papilla acustica basilaris_) was
gradually evolved for the perception of delicate vibrations of sound.
(See EQUILIBRIUM.)
It is by means of the cochlea that we discriminate pitch, hear beats,
and are affected by quality of tone.
Since the size of the membranous labyrinth is so small, measuring, in
man, not more than ½ in. in length by 1/8 in. in diameter at its widest
part, and since it is a chamber consisting partly of conduits of very
irregular form, it is impossible to state accurately the course of
vibrations transmitted to it by impulses communicated from the base of
the stirrup. In the cochlea vibrations must pass from the saccule along
the scala vestibuli to the apex, thus affecting the membrane of
Reissner, which forms its roof; then, passing through the opening at the
apex (the _helicotrema_), they must descend by the scala tympani to the
round window, and affect in their passage the membrana basilaris, on
which the organ of Corti is situated. From the round window impulses
must be reflected backwards, but how they affect the advancing impulses
is not known. But the problem is even more complex when we take into
account the fact that impulses are transmitted simultaneously to the
utricle and to the semicircular canals communicating with it by five
openings. The mode of action of these vibrations or impulses upon the
nervous terminations is still unknown; but to appreciate critically the
hypothesis which has been advanced to explain it, it is necessary, in
the first place, to refer to some of the general characters of auditory
sensation.
4. _General Characters of Auditory Sensations._--Certain conditions are
necessary for excitation of the auditory nerve sufficient to produce a
sensation. In the first place, the vibrations must have a certain
_amplitude_ and _energy_; if too feeble, no impression will be produced.
Various physicists have attempted to measure the sensitiveness of the
ear by estimating the amplitude of the molecular movements necessary to
call forth the feeblest audible sound. Thus A. Töpler and L. Boltzmann,
on data founded on experiments with organ pipes, state that the ear is
affected by vibrations of molecules of the air not more in amplitude
than .0004 mm. at the ear, or 0.1 of the wave-length of green light, and
that the energy of such a vibration on the drum-head is not more than
1/543 billionth kilog., or 1/17th of that produced upon an equal surface
of the retina by a single candle at the same distance (_Ann. d. Phys. u.
Chem._, Leipzig. 1870, Bd. cxli. S. 321). Lord Rayleigh, by two other
methods, arrived at the conclusion "that the streams of energy required
to influence the eye and ear are of the same order of magnitude." He
estimated the amplitude of the movement of the aërial particles, with a
sound just audible, as less than the ten-millionth of a centimetre, and
the energy emitted when the sound was first becoming audible, at 42.1
ergs per second. He also states that in considering the amplitude or
condensation in progressive aërial waves, at a distance of 27.4 metres
from a tuning-fork, the maximum condensation was = 6.0 × 10^-9 cm., a
result showing "that the ear is able to recognize the addition or
subtraction of densities far less than those to be found in our highest
vacua" (_Proc. Roy. Soc._, 1877, vol. xxvi. p. 248; _Lond. Edin. and
Dub. Phil. Mag._, 1894, vol. xxxviii. p. 366).
In the next place, vibrations must have a certain _duration_ to be
perceived; and lastly, to excite a sensation of a continuous musical
sound, a certain _number_ of impulses must occur in a given interval of
time. The lower limit is about 30, and the upper about 30,000 vibrations
per second. Below 30, the individual impulses may be observed, and above
30,000 few ears can detect any sound at all. The extreme upper limit is
not more than 35,000 vibrations per second. Auditory sensations are of
two kinds--noises and musical sounds. _Noises_ are caused by impulses
which are not regular in intensity or duration, or are not periodic, or
they may be caused by a series of musical sounds occurring
instantaneously so as to produce discords, as when we place our hand at
random on the keyboard of a piano. _Musical tones_ are produced by
periodic and regular vibrations. In musical sounds three characters are
prominent--intensity, pitch and quality. _Intensity_ depends on the
amplitude of the vibration, and a greater or lesser amplitude of the
vibration will cause a corresponding movement of the transmitting
apparatus, and a corresponding intensity of excitation of the terminal
apparatus. _Pitch_, as a sensation, depends on the length of time in
which a single vibration is executed, or, in other words, the number of
vibrations in a given interval of time. The ear is capable of
appreciating the relative pitch or height of a sound as compared with
another, although it may not ascertain precisely the absolute pitch of a
sound. What we call an acute or high tone is produced by a large number
of vibrations, while a grave or low tone is caused by few. The musical
tones which can be used with advantage range between 40 and 4000
vibrations per second, extending thus from 6 to 7 octaves. According to
E. H. Weber, practised musicians can perceive a difference of pitch
amounting to only the 1/64th of a semitone, but this is far beyond
average attainment. In a few individuals, and especially in early life,
there may be an appreciation of absolute pitch. _Quality_ or _timbre_
(or _Klang_) is that peculiar characteristic of a musical sound by which
we may identify it as proceeding from a particular instrument or from a
particular human voice. It depends on the fact that many waves of sound
that reach the ear are compound wave systems, built up of constituent
waves, each of which is capable of exciting a sensation of a simple tone
if it be singled out and reinforced by a resonator (see SOUND), and
which may sometimes be heard without a resonator, after special practice
and tuition. Thus it appears that the ear must have some arrangement by
which it resolves every wave system, however complex, into simple
pendular vibrations. When we listen to a sound of any quality we
recognize that it is of a certain pitch. This depends on the number of
vibrations of one tone, predominant in intensity over the others, called
the fundamental or ground tone, or first partial tone. The quality, or
timbre, depends on the number and intensity of other tones added to it.
These are termed _harmonic_ or _partial tones_, and they are related to
the first partial or fundamental tone in a very simple manner, being
multiples of the fundamental tone: thus--
Fundamental Upper Partials or Harmonics.
Tone
Notes do^1 do^2 sol^2 do^3 mi^3 sol^3 si[flat]^3 do^4 re^4 mi^4
Partial tones 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of
vibrations 33 66 99 132 165 198 231 264 297 330
When a simple tone, or one free from partials, is heard, it gives rise
to a simple, soft, somewhat insipid sensation, as may be obtained by
blowing across the mouth of an open bottle or by a tuning-fork. The
lower partials added to the fundamental tone give softness combined with
richness; while the higher, especially if they be very high, produce a
brilliant and thrilling effect, as is caused by the brass instruments of
an orchestra. Such being the facts, how may they be explained
physiologically?
Little is yet known regarding the mode of action of the vibrations of
the fluid in the labyrinth upon the terminal apparatus connected with
the auditory nerve. There can be no doubt that it is a mechanical
action, a communication of impulses to delicate hair-like processes, by
the movements of which the nervous filaments are irritated. In the human
ear it has been estimated that there are about 3000 small arches formed
by the _rods of Corti._ Each arch rests on the basilar membrane, and
supports rows of cells having minute hair-like processes. It would
appear also that the filaments of the auditory nerve terminate in the
basilar membrane, and possibly they may be connected with the
hair-cells. At one time it was supposed by Helmholtz that these fibres
of Corti were elastic and that they were tuned for particular sounds, so
as to form a regular series corresponding to all the tones audible to
the human ear. Thus 2800 fibres distributed over the tones of seven
octaves would give 400 fibres for each octave, or nearly 33 for a
semitone. Helmholtz put forward the hypothesis that, when a pendular
vibration reaches the ear, it excites by sympathetic vibration the fibre
of Corti which is tuned for its proper number of vibrations. If, then,
different fibres are tuned to tones of different pitch, it is evident
that we have here a mechanism which, by exciting different nerve fibres,
will give rise to sensations of pitch. When the vibration is not simple
but compound, in consequence of the blending of vibrations corresponding
to various harmonics or partial tones, the ear has the power of
resolving this compound vibration into its elements. It can only do so
by different fibres responding to the constituent vibrations of the
sound--one for the fundamental tone being stronger, and giving the
sensation of a particular pitch to the sound, and the others,
corresponding to the upper partial tones, being weaker, and causing
undefined sensations, which are so blended together in consciousness as
to terminate in a complex sensation of a tone of a certain quality or
timbre. It would appear at first sight that 33 fibres of Corti for a
semitone are not sufficient to enable us to detect all the gradations of
pitch in that interval, since, as has been stated above, trained
musicians may distinguish a difference of 1/64th of a semitone. To meet
this difficulty, Helmholtz stated that if a sound is produced, the pitch
of which may be supposed to come between two adjacent fibres of Corti,
both of these will be set into sympathetic vibration, but the one which
comes nearest to the pitch of the sound will vibrate with greater
intensity than the other, and that consequently the pitch of that sound
would be thus appreciated. These theoretical views of Helmholtz have
derived much support from experiments of V. Hensen, who observed that
certain hairs on the antennae of _Mysis_, a Crustacean, when seen with a
low microscopic power, vibrated with certain tones produced by a keyed
horn. It was seen that certain tones of the horn set some hairs into
strong vibration, and other tones other hairs. Each hair responded also
to several tones of the horn. Thus one hair responded strongly to
d[sharp] and d´[sharp], more weakly to g, and very weakly to G. It was
probably tuned to some pitch between d´´ and d´´[sharp]. (_Studien über
das Gehörorgan der Decapoden_, Leipzig, 1863.)
Histological researches have led to a modification of this hypothesis.
It has been found that the rods or arches of Corti are stiff structures,
not adapted for vibrating, but apparently constituting a support for the
hair-cells. It is also known that there are no rods of Corti in the
cochlea of birds, which are capable nevertheless of appreciating pitch.
Hensen and Helmholtz suggested the view that not only may the segments
of the membrana basilaris be stretched more in the radial than in the
longitudinal direction, but different segments may be stretched radially
with different degrees of tension so as to resemble a series of tense
strings of gradually increasing length. Each string would then respond
to a vibration of a particular pitch communicated to it by the
hair-cells. The exact mechanism of the hair-cells and of the membrana
reticularis, which looks like a damping apparatus, is unknown.
5. _Physiological Characters of Auditory Sensation._--Under ordinary
circumstances auditory sensations are referred to the outer world. When
we hear a sound, we associate it with some external cause, and it
appears to originate in a particular place or to come in a particular
direction. This feeling of _exteriority_ of sound seems to require
transmission through the membrana tympani. Sounds which are sent through
the walls of the cranium, as when the head is immersed in, and the
external auditory canals are filled with, water, appear to originate in
the body itself.
An auditory sensation lasts a short time after the cessation of the
exciting cause, so that a number of separate vibrations, each capable of
exciting a distinct sensation if heard alone, may succeed each other so
rapidly that they are fused into a single sensation. If we listen to the
puffs of a syren, or to vibrating tongues of low pitch, the single
sensation is usually produced by about 30 or 35 vibrations per second;
but when we listen to beats of considerable intensity, produced by two
adjacent tones of sufficiently high pitch, the ear may follow as many as
132 intermissions per second.
The sensibility of the ear for sounds of different pitch is not the
same. It is more sensitive for acute than for grave sounds, and it is
probable that the maximum degree of acuteness is for sounds produced by
about 3000 vibrations per second, that is near fa^5[sharp]. Sensibility
as to pitch varies much with the individual. Thus some musicians may
detect a difference of 1/1000th of the total number of vibrations, while
other persons may have difficulty in appreciating a semitone.
6. _Analytical Power of the Ear._--When we listen to a compound tone,
we have the power of picking out these partials from the general mass
of sound. It is known that the frequencies of the partials as compared
with that of the fundamental tone are simple multiples of the
frequency of the fundamental, and also that physically the waves of
the partials so blend with each other as to produce waves of very
complicated forms. Yet the ear, or the ear and the brain together, can
resolve this complicated wave-form into its constituents, and this is
done more easily if we listen to the sound with resonators, the pitch
of which corresponds, or nearly corresponds, to the frequencies of the
partials. Much discussion has taken place as to how the ear
accomplishes this analysis. All are agreed that there is a complicated
apparatus in the cochlea which may serve this purpose; but while some
are of opinion that this structure is sufficient, others hold that the
analysis takes place in the brain. When a complicated wave falls on
the drum-head, it must move out and in in a way corresponding to the
variations of pressure, and these variations will, in a single
vibration, depend on the greater or less degree of complexity of the
wave. Thus a single tone will cause a movement like that of a
pendulum, a simple pendular vibration, while a complex tone, although
occurring in the same duration of time, will cause the drum-head to
move out and in in a much more complicated manner. The complex
movement will be conveyed to the base of the stapes, thence to the
vestibule, and thence to the cochlea, in which we find the ductus
cochlearis containing the organ of Corti. It is to be noted also that
the parts in the cochlea are so small as to constitute only a fraction
of the wave-length of most tones audible to the human ear. Now it is
evident that the cochlea must act either as a whole, all the nerve
fibres being affected by any variations of pressure, or the nerve
fibres may have a selective action, each fibre being excited by a wave
of a definite period, or there may exist small vibratile bodies
between the nerve filaments and the pressures sent into the organ. The
last hypothesis gives the most rational explanation of the phenomena,
and on it is founded a theory generally accepted and associated with
the names of Thomas Young and Hermann Helmholtz. It may be shortly
stated as follows:--
"(1) In the cochlea there are vibrators, tuned to frequencies within
the limits of hearing, say from 30 to 40,000 or 50,000 vibs. per
second. (2) Each vibrator is capable of exciting its appropriate nerve
filament or filaments, so that a nervous impulse, corresponding to the
frequency of the vibrator, is transmitted to the brain--not
corresponding necessarily, as regards the number of nervous impulses,
but in such a way that when the impulses along a particular nerve
filament reach the brain, a state of consciousness is aroused which
does correspond with the number of the physical stimuli and with the
period of the auditory vibrator. (3) The mass of each vibrator is such
that it will be easily set in motion, and after the stimulus has
ceased it will readily come to rest. (4) Damping arrangements exist in
the ear, so as quickly to extinguish movements of the vibrators. (5)
If a simple tone falls on the ear, there is a pendular movement of the
base of the stapes, which will affect all the parts, causing them to
move; but any part whose natural period is nearly the same as that of
the sound will respond on the principle of sympathetic resonance, a
particular nerve filament or nerve filaments will be affected, and a
sensation of a tone of definite pitch will be experienced, thus
accounting for discrimination in pitch. (6) Intensity or loudness will
depend on the amplitude of movement of the vibrating body, and
consequently on the intensity of nerve stimulation. (7) If a compound
wave of pressure be communicated by the base of the stapes, it will be
resolved into its constituents by the vibrators corresponding to tones
existing in it, each picking out its appropriate portion of the wave,
and thus irritating corresponding nerve filaments, so that nervous
impulses are transmitted to the brain, where they are fused in such a
way as to give rise to a sensation of a particular quality or
character, but still so imperfectly fused that each constituent, by a
strong effort of attention, may be specially recognized" (article
"Ear," by M'Kendrick, Schäfer's _Text-Book_, _loc. cit._).
The structure of the ductus cochlearis meets the demands of this
theory, it is highly differentiated, and it can be shown that in it
there are a sufficient number of elements to account for the delicate
appreciation of pitch possessed by the human ear, and on the basis
that the highly trained ear of a violinist can detect a difference of
1/64th of a semitone (M'Kendrick, _Trans. Roy. Soc. Ed._, 1896, vol.
xxxviii. p. 780; also Schäfer's _Text-Book_, loc. cit.). Measurements
of the cochlea have also shown such differentiation as to make it
difficult to imagine that it can act as a whole. A much less complex
organ might have served this purpose (M'Kendrick, _op. cit._). The
following table, given by Retzius (_Das Gehörorgan der Wirbelthiere_,
Bd. ii. S. 356), shows differentiations in the cochlea of man, the cat
and the rabbit, all of which no doubt hear tones, although in all
probability they have very different powers of discrimination:--
Man. Cat. Rabbit.
Ear-teeth 2,490 2,430 1,550
Holes in habenula for nerves 3,985 2,780 1,650
Inner rods of Corti's organ 5,590 4,700 2,800
Outer rods of Corti's organ 3,848 3,300 1,900
Inner hair-cells (one row) 3,487 2,600 1,600
Outer hair-cells (several rows) 11,750 9,900 6,100
Fibres in basilar membrane 23,750 15,700 10,500
7. _Dissonance._--The theory can also be used to explain dissonance.
When two tones sufficiently near in pitch are simultaneously sounded,
beats are produced. If the beats are few in number they can be
counted, because they give rise to separate and distinct sensations;
but if they are numerous they blend so as to give roughness or
dissonance to the interval. The roughness or dissonance is most
disagreeable with about 33 beats falling on the ear per second. When
two compound tones are sounded, say a minor third on a harmonium in
the lower part of the keyboard, then we have beats not only between
the primaries, but also between the upper partials of each of the
primaries. The beating distance may, for tones of medium pitch, be
fixed at about a minor third, but this interval will expand for
intervals on low tones and contract for intervals on high ones. This
explains why the same interval in the lower part of the scale may give
slow beats that are not disagreeable, while in the higher part it may
cause harsh and unpleasant dissonance. The partials up to the seventh
are beyond beating distance, but above this they come close together.
Consequently instruments (such as tongues, or reeds) that abound in
upper partials cause an intolerable dissonance if one of the primaries
is slightly out of tune. Some intervals are pleasant and satisfying
when produced on instruments having few partials in their tones. These
are concords. Others are less so, and they may give rise to an
uncomfortable sensation. These are discords. In this way unison, 1/1,
minor third 6/5, major third 5/4, fourth 4/3, fifth 3/2, minor sixth
8/5, major sixth 5/3 and octave 2/1, are all concords; while a second
9/8, minor seventh 16/9 and major seventh 15/8, are discords.
Helmholtz compares the sensation of dissonance to that of a flickering
light on the eye. "Something similar I have found to be produced by
simultaneously stimulating the skin, or margin of the lips, by
bristles attached to tuning-forks giving forth beats. If the frequency
of the forks is great, the sensation is that of a most disagreeable
tickling. It may be that the instinctive effort at analysis of tones
close in pitch causes the disagreeable sensation" (Schäfer's
_Text-Book_, _op. cit._ p. 1187).
8. _Other Theories._--In 1865 Rennie objected to the analysis theory,
and urged that the cochlea acted as a whole (_Ztschr. f. rat. Med._,
Dritte Reihe, Bd. xxiv. Heft 1, S. 12-64). This view was revived by
Voltolini (Virchow's _Archiv_, Bd. c. S. 27) some years later, and in
1886 it was urged by E. Rutherford (_Rep. Brit. Assoc. Ad. Sc._,
1886), who compared the action of the cochlea to that of a telephone
plate. According to this theory, all the hairs of the auditory cells
vibrate to every note, and the hair-cells transform sound vibrations
into nerve vibrations or impulses, similar in frequency, amplitude and
character to the sound vibrations. There is no analysis in the
peripheral organ. A. D. Waller, in 1891 (_Proc. Physiol. Soc._, Jan.
20, 1891) suggested that the basilar membrane as a whole vibrates to
every note, thus repeating the vibrations of the membrana tympani; and
since the hair-cells move with the basilar membrane, they produce what
may be called pressure patterns against the tectorial membranes, and
filaments of the auditory nerve are stimulated by these pressures.
Waller admits a certain degree of peripheral analysis, but he
relegates ultimate analysis to the brain. These theories, dispensing
with peripheral analysis, leave out of account the highly complex
structure of the cochlea, or, in other words, they assign to that
structure a comparatively simple function which could be performed by
a simple membrane capable of vibrating. We find that the cochlea
becomes more elaborate as we ascend the scale of animals, until in
man, who possesses greater powers of analysis than any other being,
the number of hair-cells, fibres of the basilar membrane and arches of
Corti are all much increased in number (see Retzius's table, _supra_).
The principle of sympathetic resonance appears, therefore, to offer
the most likely solution of the problem. Hurst's view is that with
each movement of the stapes a wave is generated which travels up the
scala vestibuli, through the helicotrema into the scala tympani and
down the latter to the fenestra rotunda. The wave, however, is not
merely a movement of the basilar membrane, but an actual movement of
fluid or a transmission of pressure. As the one wave ascends while the
other descends, a pressure of the basilar membrane occurs at the point
where they meet; this causes the basilar membrane to move towards the
tectorial membrane, forcing this membrane suddenly against the apices
of the hair-cells, thus irritating the nerves. The point at which the
waves meet will depend on the time interval between the waves (Hurst,
"A New Theory of Hearing," _Trans. Biol. Soc. Liverpool_, 1895, vol.
ix. p. 321). More recently Max Mayer has advanced a theory somewhat
similar. He supposes that with each movement of the stapes
corresponding to a vibration, a wave travels up the scala vestibuli,
pressing the basilar membrane downwards. As it meets with resistance
in passing upwards, its amplitude therefore diminishes, and in this
way the distance up the scala through which the wave progresses will
be determined by its amplitude. The wave in its progress irritates a
certain number of nerve terminations, consequently feeble tones will
irritate only those nerve fibres that are near the fenestra ovalis,
while stronger tones will pass farther up and irritate a larger number
of nerve fibres the same number of times per unit of time. Pitch,
according to this view, depends on the number of stimuli per second,
while loudness depends on the number of nerve fibres irritated. Mayer
also applies the theory to the explanation of the powers of the
cochlea as an analyser, by supposing that with a compound tone these
are at maxima and minima of stimulation. As the compound wave travels
up the scala, portions of the wave corresponding to maxima and minima
die away in consecutive series, until only a maximum and minimum are
left; and, finally, as the wave travels farther, these also disappear.
With each maximum and minimum different parts of the basilar membrane
are affected, and affected a different number of times per second,
according to the frequencies of the partials existing in the compound
tone. Thus with a fifth, 2 : 3, there are three maxima and three
minima; but the compound tone is resolved into three tones having
vibration frequencies in the ratio of 3 : 2 : 1. According to Mayer,
we actually hear when a fifth is sounded tones of the relationship of
3 : 2 : 1, the last (1) being the differential tone. He holds, also,
that combinational tones are entirely subjective (Max Mayer, _Ztschr.
f. Psych. und Phys. d. Sinnesorgane_, Leipzig, Bd. xvi. and xvii.;
also _Verhandl. d. physiolog. Gesellsch. zu Berlin_, Feb. 18, 1898, S.
49). Two fatal objections can be urged to these theories, namely,
first, it is impossible to conceive of minute waves following each
other in rapid succession in the minute tubes forming the scalae--the
length of the scala being only a very small part of the wave-length of
the sound; and, secondly, neither theory takes into account the
differentiation of structure found in the epithelium of the organ of
Corti. Each push in and out of the base of the stapes must cause a
movement of the fluid, or a pressure, in the scalae as a whole.
There are difficulties in the way of applying the resonance theory to
the perception of noises. Noises have pitch, and also each noise has a
special character; if so, if the noise is analysed into its
constituents, why is it that it seems impossible to analyse a noise,
or to perceive any musical element in it? Helmholtz assumed that a
sound is noisy when the wave is irregular in rhythm, and he suggested
that the crista and macula acustica, structures that exist not in the
cochlea but in the vestibule, have to do with the perception of noise.
These structures, however, are concerned rather in the sense of the
perception of equilibrium than of sound (see EQUILIBRIUM).
9. Hitherto we have considered only the audition of a single sound,
but it is possible also to have simultaneous auditive sensations, as
in musical harmony. It is difficult to ascertain what is the limit
beyond which distinct auditory sensations may be perceived. We have in
listening to an orchestra a multiplicity of sensations which produces
a total effect, while, at the same time, we can with ease single out
and notice attentively the tones of one or two special instruments.
Thus the pleasure of music may arise partly from listening to
simultaneous, and partly from the effect of contrast or suggestion in
passing through successive, auditory sensations.
The principles of harmony belong to the subject of music (see
HARMONY), but it is necessary here briefly to refer to these from the
physiological point of view. If two musical sounds reach the ear at
the same moment, an agreeable or disagreeable sensation is
experienced, which may be termed a _concord_ or a _discord_, and it
can be shown by experiment with the syren that this depends upon the
vibrational numbers of the two tones. The octave (1 : 2), the twelfth
(1 : 3) and double octave (1 : 4) are absolutely consonant sounds; the
fifth (2 : 3) is said to be perfectly consonant; then follow, in the
direction of dissonance, the fourth (3 : 4), major sixth (3 : 5),
major third (4 : 5), minor sixth (5 : 8) and the minor third (5 : 6).
Helmholtz has attempted to account for this by the application of his
theory of _beats_.
Beats are observed when two sounds of nearly the same pitch are
produced together, and the number of beats per second is equal to the
difference of the number of vibrations of the two sounds. Beats give
rise to a peculiarly disagreeable intermittent sensation. The maximum
roughness of beats is attained by 33 per second; beyond 132 per
second, the individual impulses are blended into one uniform auditory
sensation. When two notes are sounded, say on a piano, not only may
the first, fundamental or prime tones beat, but partial tones of each
of the primaries may beat also, and as the difference of pitch of two
simultaneous sounds augments, the number of beats, both of prime tones
and of harmonics, augments also. The physiological effect of beats,
though these may not be individually distinguishable, is to give
roughness to the ear. If harmonics or partial tones of prime tones
coincide, there are no beats; if they do not coincide, the beats
produced will give a character of roughness to the interval. Thus in
the octave and twelfth, all the partial tones of the acute sound
coincide with the partial tones of the grave sound; in the fourth,
major sixth and major third, only two pairs of the partial tones
coincide, while in the minor sixth, minor third and minor seventh only
one pair of the harmonics coincide.
It is possible by means of beats to measure the sensitiveness of the
ear by determining the smallest difference in pitch that may give rise
to a beat. In no part of the scale can a difference smaller than 0.2
vibration per second be distinguished. The sensitiveness varies with
pitch. Thus at 120 vibs. per second 0.4 vib. per second, at 500 about
0.3 vib. per second, and at 1000, 0.5 vib. per second can be
distinguished. This is a remarkable illustration of the sensitiveness
of the ear. When tones of low pitch are produced that do not rapidly
die away, as by sounding heavy tuning-forks, not only may the beats be
perceived corresponding to the difference between the frequencies of
the forks, but also other sets of beats. Thus, if the two tones have
frequencies of 40 and 74, a two-order beat may be heard, one having a
frequency of 34 and the other of 6, as 74 ÷ 40 = 1 + a positive
remainder of 34, and 74 ÷ 40 = 2 - 6, or 80 - 74, a negative remainder
of 6. The lower beat is heard most distinctly when the number is less
than half the frequency of the lower primary, and the upper when the
number is greater. The beats we have been considering are produced
when two notes are sounded slightly differing in frequency, or at all
events their frequencies are not so great as those of two notes
separated by a musical interval, such as an octave or a fifth. But
Lord Kelvin has shown that beats may also be produced on slightly
inharmonious musical intervals (_Proc. Roy. Soc. Ed._ 1878, vol. ix.
p. 602). Thus, take two tuning-forks, ut2 = 256 and ut3 = 512;
slightly flatten ut3 so as to make its frequency 510, and we hear, not
a roughness corresponding to 254 beats, but a slow beat of 2 per
second. The sensation also passes through a cycle, the beats now
sounding loudly and fading away in intensity, again sounding loudly,
and so on. One might suppose that the beat occurred between 510 (the
frequency of ut3 flattened) and 512, the first partial of ut2, namely
ut3, but this is not so, as the beat is most audible when ut2 is
sounded feebly. In a similar way, beats may be produced on the
approximate harmonies 2 : 3, 3 : 4, 4 : 5, 5 : 6, 6 : 7, 7 : 8, 1 : 3,
3 : 5, and beats may even be produced on the major chord 4 : 5 : 6 by
sounding ut3, mi3, sol3, with sol3 or mi3 slightly flattened, "when a
peculiar beat will be heard as if a wheel were being turned against a
surface, one small part of which was rougher than the rest." These
beats on imperfect harmonies appear to indicate that the ear does
distinguish between an increase of pressure on the drum-head and a
diminution, or between a push and a pull, or, in other words, that it
is affected by phase. This was denied by Helmholtz.
10. _Beat Tones._--Considerable difference of opinion exists as to
whether beats can blend so as to give a sensation of tone; but R.
König, by using pure tones of high pitch, has settled the question.
These tones were produced by large tuning-forks. Thus ut6 = 2048 and
re6 = 2304. Then the beat tone is ut3 = 256 (2304-2048). If we strike
the two forks, ut3 sounds as a grave or lower beat tone. Again, ut6 =
2048 and si6 = 3840. Then (2048)2 - 3840 = 256, a negative remainder,
ut3, as before, and when both forks are sounded ut3 will be heard.
Again, ut6 = 2048 and sol6 = 3072, and 3072 - 2048 = 1024, or ut6,
which will be distinctly heard when ut6 and sol6 are sounded (König,
_Quelques expériences d'acoustique_, Paris, 1882, p. 87).
11. _Combination Tones._--Frequently, when two tones are sounded, not
only do we hear the compound sound, from which we can pick out the
constituent tones, but we may hear other tones, one of which is lower
in pitch than the lowest primary, and the other is higher in pitch
than the higher primary. These, known as combination tones, are of two
classes: _differential_ tones, in which the frequency is the
difference of the frequencies of the generating tones, and
_summational_ tones, having a frequency which is the sum of the
frequencies of the tones producing them. Differential tones, first
noticed by Sorge about 1740, are easily heard. Thus an interval of a
fifth, 2 : 3, gives a differential tone 1, that is, an octave below 2;
a fourth, 3 : 4, gives 1, a twelfth below 3; a major third, 4 : 5,
gives 1, two octaves below 4; a minor third, 5 : 6, gives 1, two
octaves and a major third below 5; a major sixth, 3 : 5, gives 2, that
is, a fifth below 3; and a minor sixth, 5 : 8, gives 3, that is, a
major sixth below 5. Summational tones, first noticed by Helmholtz,
are so difficult to hear that much controversy has taken place as to
their very existence. Some have contended that they are produced by
beats. It appears to be proved physically that they may exist in the
air outside of the ear. Further differential tones may be generated in
the middle ear. Helmholtz also demonstrated their independent
existence, and he states that "whenever the vibrations of the air or
of other elastic bodies, which are set in motion at the same time by
two generating simple tones, are so powerful that they can no longer
be considered infinitely small, mathematical theory shows that
vibrations of the air must arise which have the same vibrational
numbers as the combination tones" (Helmholtz, _Sensations of Tone_, p.
235). The importance of these combinational tones in the theory of
hearing is obvious. If the ear can only analyse compound waves into
simple pendular vibrations of a certain order (simple multiples of the
prime tone), how can it detect combinational tones, which do not
belong to that order? Again, if such tones are purely subjective and
only exist in the mind of the listener, the fact would be fatal to the
resonance theory. There can be no doubt, however, that the ear, in
dealing with them, vibrates in some part of its mechanism with each
generator, while it also is affected by the combinational tone itself,
according to its frequency.
12. Hearing with two ears does not appear materially to influence
auditive sensation, but probably the two organs are enabled, not only
to correct each other's errors, but also to aid us in determining the
locality in which a sound originates. It is asserted by G. T. Fechner
that one ear may perceive the same tone at a slightly higher pitch
than the other, but this may probably be due to some slight
pathological condition in one ear. If two tones, produced by two
tuning-forks, of equal pitch, are produced one near each ear, there is
a uniform single sensation; if one of the tuning-forks be made to
revolve round its axis in such a way that its tone increases and
diminishes in intensity, neither fork is heard continuously, but both
sound alternately, the fixed one being only audible when the revolving
one is not. It is difficult to decide whether excitations of
corresponding elements in the two ears can be distinguished from each
other. It is probable that the resulting sensations may be
distinguished, provided one of the generating tones differs from the
other in intensity or quality, although it may be the same in pitch.
Our judgment as to the direction of sounds is formed mainly from the
different degrees of intensity with which they are heard by two ears.
Lord Rayleigh states that diffraction of the sound-waves will occur as
they pass round the head to the ear farthest from the source of sound;
thus partial tones will reach the two ears with different intensities,
and thus quality of tone may be affected (_Trans. Music. Soc._,
London, 1876). Silvanus P. Thompson advocates a similar view, and he
shows that the direction of a complex tone can be more accurately
determined than the direction of a simple tone, especially if it be of
low pitch (_Phil. Mag._, 1882). (J. G. M.)
HEARN, LAFCADIO (1850-1904), author of books about Japan, was born on
the 27th of June 1850 in Leucadia (pronounced Lefcadia, whence his name,
which was one adopted by himself), one of the Greek Ionian Islands. He
was the son of Surgeon-major Charles Hearn, of King's County, Ireland,
who, during the English occupation of the Ionian Islands, was stationed
there, and who married a Greek wife. Artistic and rather bohemian tastes
were in Lafcadio Hearn's blood. His father's brother Richard was at one
time a well-known member of the Barbizon set of artists, though he made
no mark as a painter through his lack of energy. Young Hearn had rather
a casual education, but was for a time (1865) at Ushaw Roman Catholic
College, Durham. The religious faith in which he was brought up was,
however, soon lost; and at nineteen, being thrown on his own resources,
he went to America and at first picked up a living in the lower grades
of newspaper work. The details are obscure, but he continued to occupy
himself with journalism and with out-of-the-way observation and reading,
and meanwhile his erratic, romantic and rather morbid idiosyncrasies
developed. He was for some time in New Orleans, writing for the _Times
Democrat_, and was sent by that paper for two years as correspondent to
the West Indies, where he gathered material for his _Two Years in the
French West Indies_ (1890). At last, in 1891, he went to Japan with a
commission as a newspaper correspondent, which was quickly broken off.
But here he found his true sphere. The list of his books on Japanese
subjects tells its own tale: _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_ (1894); _Out
of the East_ (1895); _Kokoro_ (1896); _Gleanings in Buddha Fields_
(1897); _Exotics and Retrospections_ (1898); _In Ghostly Japan_ (1899);
_Shadowings_ (1900); _A Japanese Miscellany_ (1901); _Kotto_ (1902);
_Japanese Fairy Tales_ and _Kwaidan_ (1903), and (published just after
his death) _Japan, an Attempt at Interpretation_ (1904), a study full of
knowledge and insight. He became a teacher of English at the University
of Tokyo, and soon fell completely under the spell of Japanese ideas. He
married a Japanese wife, became a naturalized Japanese under the name of
Yakumo Koizumi, and adopted the Buddhist religion. For the last two
years of his life (he died on the 26th of September 1904) his health was
failing, and he was deprived of his lecturersbip at the University. But
he had gradually become known to the world at large by the originality,
power and literary charm of his writings. This wayward bohemian genius,
who had seen life in so many climes, and turned from Roman Catholic to
atheist and then to Buddhist, was curiously qualified, among all those
who were "interpreting" the new and the old Japan to the Western world,
to see it with unfettered understanding, and to express its life and
thought with most intimate and most artistic sincerity. Lafcadio Hearn's
books were indeed unique for their day in the literature about Japan, in
their combination of real knowledge with a literary art which is often
exquisite.
See Elizabeth Bisland, _The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn_ (2
vols., 1906); G. M. Gould, _Concerning Lafcadio Hearn_ (1908).
HEARNE, SAMUEL (1745-1792), English explorer, was born in London. In
1756 he entered the navy, and was some time with Lord Hood; at the end
of the Seven Years' War (1763) he took service with the Hudson's Bay
Company. In 1768 he examined portions of the Hudson's Bay coasts with a
view to improving the cod fishery, and in 1769-1772 he was employed in
north-western discovery, searching especially for certain copper mines
described by Indians. His first attempt (from the 6th of November 1769)
failed through the desertion of his Indians; his second (from the 23rd
of February 1770) through the breaking of his quadrant; but in his third
(December 1770 to June 1772) he was successful, not only discovering the
copper of the Coppermine river basin, but tracing this river to the
Arctic Ocean. He reappeared at Fort Prince of Wales on the 30th of June
1772. Becoming governor of this fort in 1775, he was taken prisoner by
the French under La Pérouse in 1782. He returned to England in 1787 and
died there in 1792.
See his posthumous _Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson's Bay
to the Northern Ocean_ (London, 1795).
HEARNE, THOMAS (1678-1735), English antiquary, was born in July 1678 at
Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire. Having
received his early education from his father, George Hearne, the parish
clerk, he showed such taste for study that a wealthy neighbour, Francis
Cherry of Shottesbrooke (c. 1665-1713), a celebrated nonjuror,
interested himself in the boy, and sent him to the school at Bray "on
purpose to learn the Latin tongue." Soon Cherry took him into his own
house, and his education was continued at Bray until Easter 1696, when
he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. At the university he
attracted the attention of Dr John Mill (1645-1707), the principal of St
Edmund Hall, who employed him to compare manuscripts and in other ways.
Having taken the degree of B.A. in 1699 he was made assistant keeper of
the Bodleian Library, where he worked on the catalogue of books, and in
1712 he was appointed second keeper. In 1715 Hearne was elected
architypographus and esquire bedell in civil law in the university, but
objection having been made to his holding this office together with that
of second librarian, he resigned it in the same year. As a nonjuror he
refused to take the oaths of allegiance to King George I., and early in
1716 he was deprived of his librarianship. However he continued to
reside in Oxford, and occupied himself in editing the English
chroniclers. Having refused several important academical positions,
including the librarianship of the Bodleian and the Camden professorship
of ancient history, rather than take the oaths, he died on the 10th of
June 1735.
Hearne's most important work was done as editor of many of the English
chroniclers, and until the appearance of the "Rolls" series his
editions were in many cases the only ones extant. Very carefully
prepared, they were, and indeed are still, of the greatest value to
historical students. Perhaps the most important of a long list are:
Benedict of Peterborough's (Benedictus Abbas) _De vita et gestis
Henrici II. et Ricardi I._ (1735); John of Fordun's _Scotichronicon_
(1722); the monk of Evesham's _Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II._
(1729); Robert Mannyng's translation of Peter Langtoft's _Chronicle_
(1725); the work of Thomas Otterbourne and John Whethamstede as _Duo
rerum Anglicarum scriptores veteres_ (1732); Robert of Gloucester's
_Chronicle_ (1724); J. Sprott's _Chronica_ (1719); the _Vita et gesta
Henrici V._, wrongly attributed to Thomas Elmham (1727); Titus Livy's
_Vita Henrici V._ (1716); Walter of Hemingburgh's _Chronicon_ (1731);
and William of Newburgh's _Historia rerum Anglicarum_ (1719). He also
edited John Leland's _Itinerary_ (1710-1712) and the same author's
_Collectanea_ (1715); W. Camden's _Annales rerum Anglicarum et
Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha_ (1717); Sir John Spelman's _Life of
Alfred_ (1709); and W. Roper's _Life of Sir Thomas More_ (1716). He
brought out an edition of Livy (1708); one of Pliny's _Epistolae et
panegyricus_ (1703); and one of the Acts of the Apostles (1715). Among
his other compilations may be mentioned: _Ductor historicus, a Short
System of Universal History_ (1704, 1705, 1714, 1724); _A Collection
of Curious Discourses by Eminent Antiquaries_ (1720); and _Reliquiae
Bodleianae_ (1703).
Hearne left his manuscripts to William Bedford, who sold them to Dr
Richard Rawlinson, who in his turn bequeathed them to the Bodleian.
Two volumes of extracts from his voluminous diary were published by
Philip Bliss (Oxford, 1857), and afterwards an enlarged edition in
three volumes appeared (London, 1869). A large part of his diary
entitled _Remarks and Collections, 1705-1714_, edited by C. E. Doble
and D. W. Rannie, has been published by the Oxford Historical Society
(1885-1898). _Bibliotheca Hearniana_, excerpts from the catalogue of
Hearne's library, has been edited by B. Botfield (1848).
See _Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearne by
several hands_ (1736); and W. D. Macray, _Annals of the Bodleian
Library_ (1890). Hearne's autobiography is published in W.
Huddesford's _Lives of Leland, Hearne and Wood_ (Oxford, 1772). T.
Ouvry's _Letters addressed to Thomas Hearne_ has been privately
printed (London, 1874).
HEARSE (an adaptation of Fr. _herse_, a harrow, from Lat. _hirpex_,
_hirpicem_, rake or harrow, Greek [Greek: arpae], a vehicle for the
conveyance of a dead body at a funeral. The most usual shape is a
four-wheeled car, with a roofed and enclosed body, sometimes with glass
panels, which contains the coffin. This is the only current use of the
word. In its earlier forms it is usually found as "herse," and meant, as
the French word did, a harrow (q.v.). It was then applied to other
objects resembling a harrow, following the French. It was then used of a
portcullis, and thus becomes a heraldic term, the "herse" being
frequently borne as a "charge," as in the arms of the City of
Westminster. The chief application of the word is, however, to various
objects used in funeral ceremonies. A "herse" or "hearse" seems first to
have been a barrow-shaped framework of wood, to hold lighted tapers and
decorations placed on a bier or coffin; this later developed into an
elaborate pagoda-shaped erection of woodwork or metal for the funerals
of royal or other distinguished persons. This held banners, candles,
armorial bearings and other heraldic devices. Complimentary verses or
epitaphs were often attached to the "hearse." An elaborate "hearse" was
designed by Inigo Jones for the funeral of James I. The "hearse" is also
found as a permanent erection over tombs. It is generally made of iron
or other metal, and was used, not only to carry lighted candles, but
also for the support of a pall during the funeral ceremony. There is a
brass "hearse" in the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick Castle, and one over
the tomb of Robert Marmion and his wife at Tanfield Church near Ripon.
HEART, in anatomy.--The heart[1] is a four-chambered muscular bag, which
lies in the cavity of the thorax between the two lungs. It is surrounded
by another bag, the pericardium, for protective and lubricating purposes
(see COELOM AND SEROUS MEMBRANES). Externally the heart is somewhat
conical, its base being directed upward, backward and to the right, its
apex downward, forward and to the left. In transverse section the cone
is flattened, so that there is an anterior and a posterior surface and a
superior and inferior border. The superior border, running obliquely
downward and to the left, is very thick, and so gains the name of _margo
obtusus_, while the inferior border is horizontal and sharp and is
called _margo acutus_ (see fig. 1). The divisions between the four
chambers of the heart (namely, the two auricles and two ventricles) are
indicated on the surface by grooves, and when these are followed it will
be seen that the right auricle and ventricle lie on the front and right
side, while the left auricle and ventricle are behind and on the left.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. The Thoracic Viscera.--In this diagram the lungs
are turned to the side, and the pericardium removed to display the
heart, a, upper, a´, lower lobe of left lung; b, upper, b´, middle, b´´,
lower lobe of right lung; c, trachea; d, arch of aorta; e, superior vena
cava; f, pulmonary artery; g, left, and h, right auricle; k, right, and
l, left ventricle; m, inferior vena cava; n, descending aorta; 1,
innominate artery; 2, right, and 4, left common carotid artery; 3,
right, and 5, left subclavian artery; 6, 6, right and left innominate
vein; 7 and 9, left and right internal jugular veins; 8 and 10, left and
right subclavian veins; 11, 12, 13, left pulmonary artery, bronchus and
vein; 14, 15, 16, right pulmonary bronchus, artery and vein; 17 and 18,
left and right coronary arteries.]
The _right auricle_ is situated at the base of the heart, and its
outline is seen on looking at the organ from in front. Into the
posterior part of it open the two venae cavae (see fig. 2), the superior
(a) above and the inferior (b) below. In front and to the left of the
superior vena cava is the right auricular appendage (e) which overlaps
the front of the root of the aorta, while running obliquely from the
front of one vena cava to the other is a shallow groove called the
_sulcus terminalis_, which indicates the original separation between the
true auricle in front and the sinus venosus behind. When the auricle is
opened by turning the front wall to the right as a flap the following
structures are exposed:
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Cavities of the Right Side of the Heart.--a,
superior, and b, inferior vena cava; c, arch of aorta; d, pulmonary
artery; e, right, and f, left auricular appendage; g, fossa ovalis; h,
Eustachian valve; k, mouth of coronary vein; l, m, n, cusps of the
tricuspid valve; o, o, papillary muscles; p, semilunar valve; q, corpus
Arantii; r, lunula.]
1. A muscular ridge, called the _crista terminalis_, corresponding to
the sulcus terminalis on the exterior.
2. A series of ridges on the anterior wall and in the appendage, running
downward from the last and at right angles to it, like the teeth of a
comb; these are known as _Musculi pectinati_.
3. The orifice of the superior vena cava (fig. 2, a) at the upper and
back part of the chamber.
4. The orifice of the inferior vena cava (fig. 2, b) at the lower and
back part.
5. Attached to the right and lower margins of this opening are the
remains of the _Eustachian valve_ (fig. 2, h), which in the foetus
directs the blood from the inferior vena cava, through the _foramen
ovale_, into the left auricle.
6. Below and to the left of this is the opening of the _coronary sinus_
(fig. 2, k), which collects most of the veins returning blood from the
substance of the heart.
7. Guarding this opening is the _coronary valve_ or _valve of
Thebesius_.
8. On the posterior or septal wall, between the two auricles, is an oval
depression, called the _fossa ovalis_ (fig. 2, g), the remains of the
original communication between the two auricles. In about a quarter of
all normal hearts there is a small valvular communication between the
two auricles in the left margin of this depression (see "7th Report of
the Committee of Collective Investigation," _J. Anat. and Phys._ vol.
xxxii. p. 164).
9. The _annulus ovalis_ is the raised margin surrounding this
depression.
10. On the left side, opening into the right ventricle, is the _right
auriculo-ventricular opening_.
11. On the right wall, between the two caval openings, may occasionally
be seen a slight eminence, the _tubercle of Lower_, which is supposed to
separate the two streams of blood in the embryo.
12. Scattered all over the auricular wall are minute depressions, the
_foramina Thebesii_, some of which receive small veins from the
substance of the heart.
The _right ventricle_ is a triangular cavity (see fig. 2) the base of
which is largely formed by the auriculo-ventricular orifice. To the left
of this it is continued up into the root of the pulmonary artery, and
this part is known as the _infundibulum_. Its anterior wall forms part
of the anterior surface of the heart, while its posterior wall is
chiefly formed by the septum ventriculorum, between it and the left
ventricle. Its lower border is the margo acutus already mentioned. In
transverse section it is crescentic, since the septal wall bulges into
its cavity. In its interior the following structures are seen:
1. The _tricuspid valve_ (fig. 2, l, m, n) guarding against reflux of
blood into the right auricle. This consists of a short cylindrical
curtain of fibrous tissue, which projects into the ventricle from the
margin of the auriculo-ventricular aperture, while from its free edge
three triangular flaps hang down, the bases of which touch one another.
These cusps are spoken of as septal, marginal and infundibular, from
their position.
2. The _chordae tendineae_ are fine fibrous cords which fasten the cusps
to the musculi papillares and ventricular wall, and prevent the valve
being turned inside out when the ventricle contracts.
3. The _columnae carneae_ are fleshy columns, and are of three kinds.
The first are attached to the wall of the ventricle in their whole
length and are merely sculptured in relief, as it were; the second are
attached by both ends and are free in the middle; while the third are
known as the _musculi papillares_ and are attached by one end to the
ventricular wall, the other end giving attachment to the chordae
tendineae. These musculi papillares are grouped into three bundles (fig.
2, o).
4. The _moderator band_ is really one of the second kind of columnae
carneae which stretches from the septal to the anterior wall of the
ventricle.
5. The _pulmonary valve_ (fig. 2, p) at the opening of the pulmonary
artery has three crescentic, pocket-like cusps, which, when the
ventricle is filling, completely close the aperture, but during the
contraction of the ventricle fit into three small niches known as the
_sinuses of Valsalva_, and so are quite out of the way of the escaping
blood. In the middle of the free margin of each is a small knob called
the _corpus Arantii_ (fig. 2, q), and on each side of this a thin
crescent-shaped flap, the _lunula_ (fig. 2, r), which is only made of
two layers of endocardium, whereas in the rest of the cusp there is a
fibrous backing between these two layers.
The _left auricle_ is situated at the back of the base of the heart,
behind and to the left of the right auricle. Running down behind it are
the oesophagus and the thoracic aorta. When it is opened it is seen to
have a much lighter colour than the other cavities, owing to the greater
thickness of its endocardium obscuring the red muscle beneath. There are
no musculi pectinati except in the auricular appendage. The openings of
the four pulmonary veins are placed two on each side of the posterior
wall, but sometimes there may be three on the right side, and only one
on the left. On the septal wall is a small depression like the mark of a
finger-nail, which corresponds to the anterior part of the fossa ovalis
and often forms a valvular communication with the right auricle. The
auriculo-ventricular orifice is large and oval, and is directed downward
and to the left. Foramina Thebesii and venae minimae cordis are found in
this auricle, as in the right, although the chamber is one for arterial
or oxidized blood.
At the lower part of the posterior surface of the unopened auricle,
lying in the left auriculo-ventricular furrow, is the coronary sinus,
which receives most of the veins returning the blood from the heart
substance; these are the right and left coronary veins at each extremity
and the posterior and left cardiac veins from below. One small vein,
called the oblique vein of Marshall, runs down into it across the
posterior surface of the auricle, from below the left lower pulmonary
vein, and is of morphological interest.
The _left ventricle_ is conical, the base being above, behind and to the
right, while the apex corresponds to the apex of the heart and lies
opposite the fifth intercostal space, 3½ in. from the mid line. The
following structures are seen inside it:--
1. The _mitral valve_ guarding the auriculo-ventricular opening has the
same arrangement as the tricuspid, already described, save that there
are only two cusps, named marginal and aortic, the latter of which is
the larger.
2. The chordae tendineae and columnae carneae resemble those of the
right ventricle, though there are only two bundles of musculi papillares
instead of three. These are very large. A moderator band has been found
as an abnormality (see _J. Anat. and Phys._ vol. xxx. p. 568).
3. The _aortic valve_ has the same structure as the pulmonary, though
the cusps are more massive. From the anterior and left posterior sinuses
of Valsalva the coronary arteries arise. That part of the ventricle just
below the aortic valve, corresponding to the infundibulum on the right,
is known as the aortic vestibule.
The walls of the left ventricle are three times as thick as those of the
right, except at the apex, where they are thinner. The septum
ventriculorum is concave towards the left ventricle, so that a
transverse section of that cavity is nearly circular. The greater part
of it has nearly the same thickness as the rest of the left ventricular
wall and is muscular, but a small portion of the upper part is
membranous and thin, and is called the _pars membranacea septi_; it lies
between the aortic and pulmonary orifices.
_Structure of the Heart._--The arrangement of the muscular fibres of the
heart is very complicated and only imperfectly known. For details one of
the larger manuals, such as Cunningham's _Anatomy_ (London, 1910), or
Gray's _Anatomy_ (London, 1909), should be consulted. The general scheme
is that there are superficial fibres common to the two auricles and two
ventricles and deeper fibres for each cavity. Until recently no fibres
had been traced from the auricles to the ventricles, though Gaskell
predicted that these would be found, and the credit for first
demonstrating them is due to Stanley Kent, their details having
subsequently been worked out by W. His, Junr., and S. Tawara. The fibres
of this _auriculo-ventricular bundle_ begin, in the right auricle, below
the opening of the coronary sinus, and run forward on the right side of
the auricular septum, below the fossa ovalis, and close to the
auriculo-ventricular septum. Above the septal flap of the tricuspid
valve they thicken and divide into two main branches, one on either side
of the ventricular septum, which run down to the bases of the anterior
and posterior papillary muscles, and so reach the walls of the
ventricle, where their secondary branches form the _fibres of Purkinje_.
The bundle is best seen in the hearts of young Ruminants, and it is
presumably through it that the wave of contraction passes from the
auricles to the ventricles (see article by A. Keith and M. Flack,
_Lancet_, 11th of August 1906, p. 359).
The _central fibrous body_ is a triangular mass of fibro-cartilage,
situated between the two auriculo-ventricular and the aortic orifices.
The upper part of the septum ventriculorum blends with it. The
_endocardium_ is a delicate layer of endothelial cells backed by a very
thin layer of fibro-elastic tissue; it is continuous with the
endothelium of the great vessels and lines the whole of the cavities of
the heart.
The heart is roughly about the size of the closed fist and weighs from 8
to 12 oz.; it continues to increase in size up to about fifty years of
age, but the increase is more marked in the male than in the female.
Each ventricle holds about 4 f. oz. of blood, and each auricle rather
less. The nerves of the heart are derived from the vagus, spinal
accessory and sympathetic, through the superficial and deep cardiac
plexuses.
_Embryology._
In the article on the arteries (q.v.) the formation and coalescence of
the two _primitive ventral aortae_ to form the heart are noticed, so
that we may here start with a straight median tube lying ventral to the
pharynx and being prolonged cephalad into the ventral aortae and caudad
into the vitelline veins. This soon shows four dilatations, which, from
the tail towards the head end, are called the sinus venosus, the
auricle, the ventricle and the truncus[2] arteriosus. As the tubular
heart grows more rapidly than the pericardium which contains it, it
becomes bent into the form of an S laid on its side ([rotated S]), the
ventral convexity being the ventricle and the dorsal the auricle. The
passage from the auricle to the ventricle is known as the _auricular
canal_, and in the dorsal and ventral parts of this appear two
thickenings known as _endocardial cushions_, which approach one another
and leave a transverse slit between them (fig. 3, E.C.). Eventually
these two cushions fuse in the middle line, obliterating the central
part of the slit, while the lateral parts remain as the two
auriculo-ventricular orifices; this fusion is known as the _septum
intermedium_. From the bottom (ventral convexity) of the ventricle an
antero-posterior median septum grows up, which is the _septum inferius_
or _septum ventriculorum_ (fig. 3, V). Posteriorly (caudally) this
septum fuses with the septum intermedium, but anteriorly it is free at
the lower part of the truncus arteriosus. On referring to the
development of the arteries (see ARTERIES) it will be seen that another
septum starts between the last two pairs of aortic arches and grows
downward (caudad) until it reaches and joins with the septum inferius
just mentioned. This _septum aorticum_ (formed by two ingrowths from the
wall of the vessel which fuse later) becomes twisted in such a way that
the right ventricle is continuous with the last pair of aortic arches
(pulmonary artery), while the left ventricle communicates with the other
arches (the permanent ventral aorta and its branches); it joins the
septum ventriculorum in the upper part of the ventricular cavity and so
forms the _pars membranacea septi_ (fig. 3, T. Ar).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Formation of Septa. Diagram of the formation of
some of the septa of the heart (viewed from the right side).
S.V. Sinus venosus.
Au. Auricle.
E.C. Endocardial cushions forming septum intermedium.
V. Septum ventriculorum.
T. Ar. Septum aorticum intruncus arteriosus.
V.A. Ventral aorta.]
The fate of the sinus venosus and auricle must now be followed. Into the
former, at first, only the two vitelline veins open, but later, as they
develop, the _ducts of Cuvier_ and the _umbilical veins_ join in (see
VEINS). As the ducts of Cuvier come from each side the sinus spreads out
to meet them and becomes transversely elongated. The slight
constriction, which at first is the only separation between the sinus
and the auricle, becomes more marked, and later the opening is into the
right part of the auricle, and is guarded by two valvular folds of
endocardium (the _venous valves_) which project into that cavity, and
are continuous above with a temporary downgrowth from the roof, known as
the _septum spurium_. Later the right side of the sinus enlarges, and so
does the right part of the aperture, until the back part of the right
side of the auricle and the right part of the sinus venosus are thrown
into one, and the only remnants of the partition are the crista
terminalis and the Eustachian and Thebesian Valves. The left part of the
sinus venosus, which does not enlarge at the same rate as the right
part, remains as the coronary sinus. It will now be seen why, in the
adult heart, all the veins which open into the right auricle open into
its posterior part, behind the crista terminalis. The septum spurium has
been referred to as a temporary structure; the real division between the
two auricles occurs at a later date than that between the ventricles and
to the left of the septum spurium. It is formed by two partitions, the
first of which, called the _septum primum_, grows down from the
auricular roof. At first it does not quite reach the endocardial
cushions in the auricular canal, already mentioned, but leaves a gap,
called the _ostium primum_, between. This has nothing to do with the
_foramen ovale_, which occurs as an independent perforation higher up,
and at first is known as the _ostium secundum_. When it is established
the septum primum grows down and meets the endocardial cushions, and so
the ostium primum is obliterated. The _septum secundum_ grows down on
the right of the septum primum and is never complete; it grows round and
largely overlaps the foramen ovale and its edges form the annulus
ovalis, so that, in the later months of foetal life, the foramen ovale
is a valvular opening, the floor of which is formed by the septum primum
and the margins by the septum secundum. The closure of the foramen is
brought about by adhesion of the two septa.
The pulmonary veins of the two sides at first join one another, dorsal
to the left auricle, and open into that cavity by a single median trunk,
but, as the auricle grows, this trunk and part of the right and left
veins are absorbed into its cavity.
The mitral and tricuspid valves are formed by the shortening of the
auricular canal which becomes telescoped into the ventricle, and the
cusps are the remnants of this telescoping process.
The columnae carneae and chordae tendineae are the remains of a spongy
network which originally filled the cavity of the primary ventricle.
The aortic and pulmonary valves are laid down in the ventral aorta,
before it is divided into aorta and pulmonary artery, as four
endocardial cushions; anterior, posterior and two lateral. The septum
aorticum cuts the latter two into two, so that each artery has the
rudiments of three cusps.
Abnormalities of the heart are very numerous, and can usually be
explained by a knowledge of its development. They often cause grave
clinical symptoms. A clear and well-illustrated review of the most
important of them will be found in the chapter on congenital disease of
the heart in _Clinical Applied Anatomy_, by C. R. Box and W. McAdam
Eccles, London, 1906.
For further details of the embryology of the heart see Oscar Hertwig's
_Entwicklungslehre der Wirbeltiere_ (Jena, 1902); G. Born,
"Entwicklung des Säugetierherzens," _Archiv f. mik. Anat._ Bd. 33
(1889); W. His, _Anatomie menschlicher Embryonen_ (Leipzig,
1881-1885); Quain's _Anatomy_, vol. i. (1908); C. S. Minot, _Human
Embryology_ (New York, 1892); and A. Keith, _Human Embryology and
Morphology_ (London, 1905).
_Comparative Anatomy._
In the Acrania (e.g. lancelet) there is no heart, though the vessels are
specially contractile in the ventral part of the pharynx.
In the Cyclostomata (lamprey and hag), and Fishes, the heart has the same
arrangement which has been noticed in the human embryo. There is a smooth,
thin-walled sinus venosus, a thin reticulate-walled auricle, produced
laterally into two appendages, a thick-walled ventricle, and a _conus
arteriosus_ containing valves. In addition to these the beginning of the
ventral aorta is often thickened and expanded to form a _bulbus
arteriosus_, which is non-contractile, and, strictly speaking, should
rather be described with the arteries than with the heart. In relation to
human embryology the smooth sinus venosus and reticulated auricle are
interesting. Between the auricle and ventricle is the auriculo-ventricular
valve, which primarily consists of two cusps, comparable to the two
endocardial cushions of the human embryo, though in some forms they may be
subdivided. In the interior of the ventricle is a network of muscular
trabeculae. The conus arteriosus in the Elasmobranchs (sharks and rays)
and Ganoids (sturgeon) is large and provided with several rows of
semilunar valves, but in the Cyclostomes (lamprey) and Teleosts (bony
fishes) the conus is reduced and only the anterior (cephalic) row of
valves retained. With the reduction of the conus the bulbus arteriosus is
enlarged. So far the heart is a single tubular organ expanded into various
cavities and having the characteristic [rotated S]-shaped form seen in the
human embryo; it contains only venous blood which is forced through the
gills to be oxidized on its way to the tissues. In the Dipnoi (mud fish),
in which rudimentary lungs, as well as gills, are developed, the auricle
is divided into two, and the sinus venosus opens into the right auricle.
The conus arteriosus too begins to be divided into two chambers, and in
Protopterus this division is complete. This division of the heart is one
instance in which mammalian ontogeny does not repeat the processes of
phylogeny, because, in the human embryo, it has been shown that the
ventricular septum appears before the auricular. This want of harmony is
sometimes spoken of as the "falsification of the embryological record."
In the Amphibia there are also two auricles and one ventricle, though in
the Urodela (tailed amphibians) the auricular septum is often
fenestrated. The sinus venosus is still a separate chamber, and the
conus arteriosus, which may contain many or few valves, is usually
divided into two by a spiral fold. Structurally the amphibian heart
closely resembles the dipnoan, though the increased size of the left
auricle is an advance. In the Anura (frogs and toads) the whole
ventricle is filled with a spongy network which prevents the arterial
and venous blood from the two auricles mixing to any great extent. (For
the anatomy and physiology of the frog's heart, see _The Frog_, by
Milnes Marshall.)
In the Reptiles the ventricular septum begins to appear; this in the
lizards is quite incomplete, but in the crocodiles, which are usually
regarded as the highest order of living reptiles, the partition has
nearly reached the top of the ventricle, and the condition resembles
that of the human embryo before the pars membranacea septi is formed.
The conus arteriosus becomes included in the ventricular cavity, but the
sinus venosus still remains distinct, and its opening into the right
ventricle is guarded by two valves which closely resemble the two venous
valves in the auricle of the human embryo already referred to.
In the Birds the auricular and ventricular septa are complete; the right
ventricle is thin-walled and crescentic in section, as in Man, and the
musculi papillares are developed. The left auriculo-ventricular valve
has three membranous cusps with chordae tendineae attached to them, but
the right auriculo-ventricular valve has a large fleshy cusp without
chordae tendineae. The sinus venosus is largely included in the right
auricle, but remains of the two venous valves are seen on each side of
the orifice of the inferior vena cava.
In the Mammals the structure of the heart corresponds closely with the
description of that of Man already given. In the Ornithorynchus, among
the Monotremes, the right auriculo-ventricular valve has two fleshy and
two membranous cusps, thus showing a resemblance to that of the bird. In
the Echidna, the other member of the order, however, both
auriculo-ventricular valves are membranous. In the Edentates the remains
of the venous valves at the opening of the inferior vena cava are better
marked than in other orders. In the Ungulates the moderator band in the
right ventricle is especially well developed, and the central fibrous
body at the base of the heart is often ossified, forming the os cordis
so well known in the heart of the ox.
The position of the heart in the lower mammals is not so oblique as it
is in Man.
For further details, see C. Rose, _Beitr. z. vergl. Anal. des Herzens
der Wirbelthiere Morph. Jahrb._, Bd. xvi. (1890); R. Wiedersheim,
_Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere_ (Jena, 1902) (for
literature); also Parker and Haswell's _Zoology_ (London, 1897).
(F. G. P.)
HEART DISEASE.--In the early ages of medicine, the absence of correct
anatomical, physiological and pathological knowledge prevented diseases
of the heart from being recognized with any certainty during life, and
almost entirely precluded them from becoming the object of medical
treatment. But no sooner did Harvey (1628) publish his discovery of the
circulation of the blood, and its dependence on the heart as its central
organ, than derangements of the circulation began to be recognized as
signs of disease of that central organ. (See also under VASCULAR
SYSTEM.)
Among the earliest to profit by this discovery and to make important
contributions to the literature of diseases of the heart and circulation
were, R. Lower (1631-1691), R. Vieussens (1641-1716). H. Boerhave
(1668-1738) and the great pathologists at the beginning of the 18th
century, G. M. Lancisi (1654-1720), G. B. Morgagni (1682-1771) and J. B.
Senac (1693-1770). The works of these writers form very interesting
reading, and it is remarkable how careful were the observations made,
and how sound the conclusions drawn, by these pioneers of scientific
medicine. J. N. Corvisart (1755-1821) was one of the earliest to make
practical use of R. T. Auenbrugger's (1722-1809) invention of percussion
to determine the size of the heart. R. T. H. Laennec (1781-1826) was the
first to make a scientific application of mediate auscultation to the
diagnosis of disease of the chest, by the invention of the stethoscope.
J. Bouillaud (1796-1881) extended its use to the diagnosis of disease of
the heart. To James Hope (1801-1841) we owe much of the precision we
have now attained in diagnosis of valvular disease from abnormalities in
the sounds produced during cardiac movements. This short list by no
means exhausts the earlier literature on the subject, but each of these
names marks an era in the progress of the diagnosis of cardiac disease.
In later years the literature on this subject has become very copious.
The heart and great vessels occupy a position immediately to the left of
the centre of the thoracic cavity. The anterior surface of the heart is
projected against the chest wall and is surrounded on either side by the
lungs, which are resonant organs, so that any increase in the size of
the heart, "dilatation," can be detected by percussion. By placing the
hand on the chest, palpation, the impulse of the left ventricle, or apex
beat, can normally be felt just below and internal to the nipple.
Deviations from the normal in the position or force of the apex beat
will afford important information as to the nature of the pathological
changes in the heart. Thus, displacement downwards and outwards of the
apex beat, with a forcible thrusting impulse, will indicate hypertrophy,
or increase of the muscular wall and increased driving power of the left
ventricle, whereas a similar displacement with a feeble diffuse impulse
will indicate dilatation, or over-distension of its cavity from
stretching of the walls.
By auscultation, or listening with a suitable instrument named a
stethoscope over appropriate areas, we can detect any abnormality in the
sounds of the heart, and the presence of murmurs indicative of disease
of one or other of the valves of the heart.
The pericardium is a fibro-serous sac which loosely envelops the heart
and the origin of the great vessels. Inflammation of this sac, or
_pericarditis_, is apt to occur as a result of rheumatism, more
especially in children. It may also occur as a complication of
pneumonia. It is a serious affection associated with pain over the
heart, fever, shortness of breath, rapid pulse and dilatation of the
heart. As a result of the inflammation, fluid may accumulate in the
pericardial sac, or the walls of the sac may become adherent to the
heart and tend to embarrass its action. In favourable cases, however,
recovery may take place without any untoward sequelae.
Diseases of the heart may be classified in two main groups, (1) Disease
of the valves, and (2) Disease of the walls of the heart.
1. _Valvular Disease._--Inflammation of the valves of the heart, or
_endocarditis_, is one of the most common complications of rheumatism in
children and young adults. More severe types, which are apt to prove
fatal from a form of blood poisoning, may result when the valves of the
heart are attacked by certain micro-organisms, such as the pneumococcus,
which is responsible for pneumonia, the streptococcus and the
staphylococcus pyogenes, the gonococcus and the influenza bacillus.
As a result of endocarditis, one or more of the valves may be seriously
damaged, so that it leaks or becomes incompetent. The valves of the left
side of the heart, the aortic and mitral valves, are affected far more
commonly than those of the right side. It is indeed comparatively rarely
that the latter are attacked. In the process of healing of a damaged
valve, scar tissue is formed which has a tendency to contract, so that
in some cases the orifice of the valve becomes narrowed, and the
resulting stenosis or narrowing gives rise to obstruction of the blood
stream. We may thus have incompetence or stenosis of a valve or both
combined.
Valvular lesions are detected on auscultation over appropriate areas by
the blowing sounds or murmurs to which they give rise, which modify or
replace the normal heart sounds. Thus, lesions of the mitral valve give
rise to murmurs which are heard at the apex beat of the heart, and
lesions of the aortic valves to murmurs which are heard over the aortic
area, in the second right intercostal space. Accurate timing of the
murmurs in relation to the heart sounds enables us to judge whether the
murmur is due to stenosis or incompetence of the valve affected.
If the valvular lesion is severe, it is essential for the proper
maintenance of the circulation that certain changes should take place in
the heart to compensate for or neutralize the effects of the
regurgitation or obstruction, as the case may be. In affections of the
aortic valve, the extra work falls on the left ventricle, which enlarges
proportionately and undergoes hypertrophy. In affections of the mitral
valve the effect is felt primarily by the left auricle, which is a thin
walled structure incapable of undergoing the requisite increase in power
to resist the backward flow through the mitral orifice in case of
leakage, or to overcome the effects of obstruction in case of stenosis.
The back pressure is therefore transmitted to the pulmonary circulation,
and as the right ventricle is responsible for maintaining the flow of
blood through the lungs, the strain and extra work fall on the right
ventricle, which in turn enlarges and undergoes hypertrophy. The degree
of hypertrophy of the left or right ventricle is thus, up to a certain
point, a measure of the extent of the lesion of the aortic or mitral
valve respectively. When the effects of the valvular lesion are so
neutralized by these structural changes in the heart that the
circulation is equably maintained, "compensation" is said to be
efficient.
When the heart gives way under the strain, compensation is said to break
down, and dropsy, shortness of breath, cough and cyanosis, are among the
distressing symptoms which may set in. The mere existence of a valvular
lesion does not call for any special treatment so long as compensation
is efficient, and a large number of people with slight valvular lesions
are living lives indistinguishable from those of their neighbours. It
will, however, be readily understood that in the case of the more
serious lesions certain precautions should be observed in regard to
over-exertion, excitement, over-indulgence in tobacco or alcohol, &c.,
as the balance is more readily upset and any undue strain on the heart
may cause a breakdown of compensation. When this occurs treatment is
required. A period of rest in bed is often sufficient to enable the
heart to recover, and this may be supplemented as required by the
administration of mercurial and saline purgatives to relieve the
embarrassed circulation, and of suitable cardiac tonics, such as
digitalis and strychnin, to reinforce and strengthen the heart's action.
2. _Affections of the Muscular Wall of the Heart._--Dilatation of the
heart, or stretching of the walls of the heart, is an incident, as has
already been stated, in pericarditis and in the earlier stages of
valvular disease antecedent to hypertrophy. Temporary over-distension or
dilatation of the cavities of the heart occurs in violent and protracted
exertion, but rapidly subsides and is in no wise harmful to the sound
and vigorous heart of the young. It is otherwise if the heart is weak
and flabby from a too sedentary life or degenerative changes in its
walls or during convalescence from a severe illness, when the same
circumstances which will not injure a healthy heart, may give rise to
serious dilatation from which recovery may be very protracted.
Influenza is a common cause of cardiac dilatation, and is liable to be a
source of trouble after the acute illness has subsided, if the patient
goes about and resumes his ordinary avocations too soon.
Fatty or fibroid degeneration of the heart wall may occur in later life
from impaired nutrition of the muscle, due to partial obstruction of the
blood-vessels supplying it, when they are the seat of the degenerative
changes known as arteriosclerosis or atheroma. The affection known as
_angina pectoris_ (q.v.) may be a further consequence of this defective
blood-supply.
The treatment will vary according to the nature of the case. In serious
cases of dilatation, rest in bed, purgatives and cardiac tonics may be
required.
In commencing degenerative change the Oertel treatment, consisting of
graduated exercise up a gentle slope, limitation of fluids and a special
diet, may be indicated.
In cases of slight dilatation after influenza or recent illness, the
Schott treatment by baths and exercises as carried out at Nauheim may be
sometimes beneficial. The change of air and scene, the enforced rest,
the placid life, together with freedom from excitement and worry, are
among the most important factors which contribute to success in this
class of case.
_Disorders of Rhythm of the Heart's Action._--Under this heading may be
grouped a number of conditions to which the name "functional affections
of the heart" has sometimes been applied, inasmuch as the disturbances
in question cannot usually be attributed to definite organic disease of
the heart. We must, of course, exclude from this category the
irregularity in the force and frequency of the pulse, which is commonly
associated with incompetence of the mitral valve.
The heart is a muscular organ possessing certain properties,
rhythmicity, excitability, contractility, conductivity and tonicity, as
pointed out by Gaskell, in virtue of which it is able to maintain a
regular automatic beat independently of nerve stimulation. It is,
however, intimately connected with the brain, blood-vessels and the
abdominal and thoracic viscera, by innumerable nerves, through which
impulses or messages are being constantly sent to and received from
these various portions of the body. Such messages may give rise to
disturbances of rhythm with which we are all familiar. For instance,
sudden fright or emotion may cause a momentary arrest of the heart's
action, and excitement or apprehension may set up a rapid action of the
heart or _palpitation_. Palpitation, again, is often the result of
digestive disorders, the message in this case being received from the
stomach, instead of the brain as in emotional disturbances. It may also
result from over-indulgence in tobacco and alcohol.
_Tachycardia_ is the name applied to a more or less permanent increase
in the rate of the heart-beat. It is usually a prominent feature in the
affection known as Graves' disease or exophthalmic goitre. It may also
result from chronic alcoholism. In the condition known as paroxysmal
tachycardia there appears to be no adequate explanation for its onset.
_Bradycardia_ or abnormal slowness of the heart-beat, is the converse of
tachycardia. An abnormally slow pulse is met with in melancholia,
cerebral tumour, jaundice and certain toxic conditions, or may follow an
attack of influenza. There is, however, a peculiar affection
characterized by abnormal slowness of pulse (often ranging as low as
30), and the onset, from time to time, of epileptiform or syncopal
attacks. To this the name "Stokes-Adams disease" has been applied, as it
was first called attention to by Adams in 1827, and subsequently fully
described by Stokes in 1836. It is usually associated with senile
degenerative change of the heart and vascular system, and is held to be
due to impairment of conductivity in the muscular fibres (bundle of His)
which transmit the wave of contraction from the auricle to the
ventricle. It is of serious significance in view of the symptoms
associated with it.
_Intermittency of the Pulse._--By this is understood a pulse in which a
beat is dropped from time to time. The dropping of a beat may occur at
regular intervals every two, four or six beats, &c., or occasionally at
irregular intervals after a series of normal beats. On examining the
heart, it is found, as a rule, that the cause of the intermission at the
wrist is not actual omission of a heart-beat, but the occurrence of a
hurried imperfect cardiac contraction which does not transmit a
pulse-wave to the wrist. It is not characteristic of any special form of
heart affection, and is rarely of serious import. It may be due to
reflex digestive disturbances, or be associated with conditions of
nervous breakdown and irritability, or with an atonic and relaxed
condition of the heart muscle. The treatment of these disorders of
rhythm of the heart will vary greatly according to the cause and is
often a matter of considerable difficulty. (J. F. H. B.)
_Surgery of Heart and Pericardium._--As the result of acute or chronic
inflammation of the lining membrane of the fibrous sac which surrounds
the heart and the neighbouring parts of the large blood-vessels, a
dropsical or a purulent collection may form in it, or the sac may be
quietly distended by a thin watery fluid. In either case, but especially
in the latter, the heart may be so embarrassed in its work that death
seems imminent. The condition is generally due to the cultivation in the
pericardium of the germs of rheumatism, influenza or gonorrhoea, or of
those of ordinary suppuration. Respiration as well as circulation is
embarrassed, and there is a marked fulness and dulness of the front wall
of the chest to the left of the breast-bone. In that region also pain
and tenderness are complained of. By using the slender, hollow needle of
an aspirator great relief may be afforded, but the tapping may have to
be repeated from time to time. If the fluid drawn off is found to be
purulent, it may be necessary to make a trap-door opening into the chest
by cutting across the 4th and 5th ribs, incising and evacuating the
pericardium and providing for drainage. In short, an abscess in the
pericardium must be treated like an abscess in the pleura.
Wounds of the heart are apt to be quickly fatal. If the probability is
that the enfeebled action of the heart is due to pressure from blood
which is leaking into, and is locked up in the pericardium, the proper
treatment will be to open the pericardium, as described above, and, if
possible, to close the opening in the auricle, ventricle or large
vessel, by sutures. (E. O.*)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In O. Eng. _heorte_; this is a common Teut. word, cf. Dut.
_hart_, Ger. _Herz_, Goth. _hairto_; related by root are Lat. _cor_
and Gr. [Greek: kardia]: the ultimate root is _kard_-, to quiver,
shake.
[2] This is often called bulbus arteriosus, but it will be seen that
the term is used rather differently in comparative anatomy.
HEART-BURIAL, the burial of the heart apart from the body. This is a
very ancient practice, the special reverence shown towards the heart
being doubtless due to its early association with the soul of man, his
affections, courage and conscience. In medieval Europe heart-burial was
fairly common. Some of the more notable cases are those of Richard I.,
whose heart, preserved in a casket, was placed in Rouen cathedral; Henry
III., buried in Normandy; Eleanor, queen of Edward I., at Lincoln;
Edward I., at Jerusalem; Louis IX., Philip III., Louis XIII. and Louis
XIV., in Paris. Since the 17th century the hearts of deceased members of
the house of Habsburg have been buried apart from the body in the
Loretto chapel in the Augustiner Kirche, Vienna. The most romantic story
of heart-burial is that of Robert Bruce. He wished his heart to rest at
Jerusalem in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and on his deathbed
entrusted the fulfilment of his wish to Douglas. The latter broke his
journey to join the Spaniards in their war with the Moorish king of
Granada, and was killed in battle, the heart of Bruce enclosed in a
silver casket hanging round his neck. Subsequently the heart was buried
at Melrose Abbey. The heart of James, marquess of Montrose, executed by
the Scottish Covenanters in 1650, was recovered from his body, which had
been buried by the roadside outside Edinburgh, and, enclosed in a steel
box, was sent to the duke of Montrose, then in exile. It was lost on its
journey, and years afterwards was discovered in a curiosity shop in
Flanders. Taken by a member of the Montrose family to India, it was
stolen as an amulet by a native chief, was once more regained, and
finally lost in France during the Revolution. Of notable 17th-century
cases there is that of James II., whose heart was buried in the church
of the convent of the Visitation at Chaillot near Paris, and that of Sir
William Temple, at Moor Park, Farnham. The last ceremonial burial of a
heart in England was that of Paul Whitehead, secretary to the Monks of
Medmenham club, in 1775, the interment taking place in the Le Despenser
mausoleum at High Wycombe, Bucks. Of later cases the most notable are
those of Daniel O'Connell, whose heart is at Rome, Shelley at
Bournemouth, Louis XVII. at Venice, Kosciusko at the Polish museum at
Rapperschwyll, Lake Zürich, and the marquess of Bute, taken by his widow
to Jerusalem for burial in 1900. Sometimes other parts of the body,
removed in the process of embalming, are given separate and solemn
burial. Thus the viscera of the popes from Sixtus V. (1590) onward have
been preserved in the parish church of the Quirinal. The custom of
heart-burial was forbidden by Pope Boniface VIII. (1294-1303), but
Benedict XI. withdrew the prohibition.
See Pettigrew, _Chronicles of the Tombs_ (1857).
HEARTH (a word which appears in various forms in several Teutonic
languages, cf. Dutch _haard_, German _Herd_, in the sense of "floor"),
the part of a room where a fire is made, usually constructed of stone,
bricks, tiles or earth, beaten hard and having a chimney above; the fire
being lighted either on the hearth itself, or in a receptacle placed
there for the purpose. Like the Latin _focus_, especially in the phrase
for "hearth and home" answering to _pro aris et focis_, the word is used
as equivalent to the home or household. The word is also applied to the
fire and cooking apparatus on board ship; the floor of a smith's forge;
the floor of a reverberatory furnace on which the ore is exposed to the
flame; the lower part of a blast furnace through which the metal goes
down into the crucible; in soldering, a portable brazier or chafing
dish, and an iron box sunk in the middle of a flat iron plate or table.
An "open-hearth furnace" is a regenerative furnace of the reverberatory
type used in making steel, hence "open-hearth steel" (see IRON AND
STEEL).
Hearth-money, hearth tax or chimney-money, was a tax imposed in England
on all houses except cottages at a rate of two shillings for every
hearth. It was first levied in 1662, but owing to its unpopularity,
chiefly caused by the domiciliary visits of the collectors, it was
repealed in 1689, although it was producing £170,000 a year. The
principle of the tax was not new in the history of taxation, for in
Anglo-Saxon times the king derived a part of his revenue from a _fumage_
or tax of smoke farthings levied on all hearths except those of the
poor. It appears also in the hearth-penny or tax of a penny on every
hearth, which as early as the 10th century was paid annually to the pope
(see PETER'S PENCE).
HEARTS, a game of cards of recent origin, though founded upon the same
principle as many old games, such as _Slobberhannes_, _Four Jacks_ and
_Enflé_, namely, that of losing instead of winning as many tricks as
possible. Hearts is played with a full pack, ace counting highest and
deuce lowest. In the four-handed game, which is usually played, the
entire pack is dealt out as at whist (but without turning up the last
card, since there are no trumps), and the player at the dealer's left
begins by leading any card he chooses, the trick being taken by the
highest card of the suit led. Each player must follow suit if he can; if
he has no cards of the suit led he is privileged to throw away any card
he likes, thus having an opportunity of getting rid of his hearts, which
is the object of the game. When all thirteen tricks have been played
each player counts the hearts he has taken in and pays into the pool a
certain number of counters for them, according to an arrangement made
before beginning play. In the four-handed, or sweepstake, game the
method of settling called "Howell's," from the name of the inventor, has
been generally adopted, according to which each player begins with an
equal number of chips, say 100, and, after the hand has been played,
pays into the pool as many chips for each heart he had taken as there
are players besides himself. Then each player takes out of the pool one
chip for every heart he did not win. The pool is thus exhausted with
every deal. Hearts may be played by two, three, four or even more
players, each playing for himself.
_Spot Hearts._--In this variation the hearts count according to the
number of spots on the cards, excepting that the ace counts 14, the
king 13, queen 12 and knave 11, the combined score of the thirteen
hearts being thus 104.
_Auction Hearts._--In this the eldest hand examines his hand and bids
a certain number of counters for the privilege of naming the suit to
be got rid of, but without naming the suit. The other players in
succession have the privilege of outbidding him, and whoever bids most
declares the suit and pays the amount of his bid into the pool, the
winner taking it.
_Joker Hearts._--Here the deuce of hearts is discarded, and an extra
card, called the joker, takes its place, ranking in value between ten
and knave. It cannot be thrown away, excepting when hearts are led and
an ace or court card is played, though if an opponent discards the ace
or a court card of hearts, then the holder of the joker may discard
it. The joker is usually considered worth five chips, which are either
paid into the pool or to the player who succeeds in discarding the
joker.
_Heartsette._--In this variation the deuce of spades is deleted and
the three cards left after dealing twelve cards to each player are
called the _widow_ (or _kitty_), and are left face downward on the
table. The winner of the first trick must take the widow without
showing it to his opponents.
_Slobberhannes._--The object of this older form of Hearts is to avoid
taking either the first or last trick or a trick containing the queen
of clubs. A euchre pack (thirty two-cards, lacking all below the 7) is
used, and each player is given 10 counters, one being forfeited to the
pool if a player takes the first or last trick, or that containing the
club queen. If he takes all three he forfeits four points.
_Four Jacks (Polignac or Quatre-Valets)_ is usually played with a
piquet pack, the cards ranking in France as at écarté, but in Great
Britain and America as at piquet. There is no trump suit. Counters are
used, and the object of the game is to avoid taking any trick
containing a knave, especially the knave of spades, called _Polignac_.
The player taking such a trick forfeits one counter to the pool.
_Enflé_ (or _Schwellen_) is usually played by four persons with a
piquet pack and for a pool. The cards rank as at Hearts, and there is
no trump suit. A player must follow suit if he can, but if he cannot
he may not discard, but must take up all tricks already won and add
them to his hand. Play is continued until one player gets rid of all
his cards and thus wins.
HEAT (O. E. _haétu_, which like "hot," Old Eng. _hát_, is from the
Teutonic type _haita, hit_, to be hot; cf. Ger. _hitze, heiss_; Dutch,
_hitte, heet_, &c.), a general term applied to that branch of physical
science which deals with the effects produced by heat on material
bodies, with the laws of transference of heat, and with the
transformations of heat into other kinds of energy. The object of the
present article is to give a brief sketch of the historical development
of the science of heat, and to indicate the relation of the different
branches of the subject, which are discussed in greater detail with
reference to the latest progress in separate articles.
1. _Meanings of the Term Heat._--The term heat is employed in ordinary
language in a number of different senses. This makes it a convenient
term to employ for the general title of the science, but the different
meanings must be carefully distinguished in scientific reasoning. For
the present purpose, omitting metaphorical significations, we may
distinguish four principal uses of the term: (a) Sensation of heat; (b)
Temperature, or degree of hotness; (c) Quantity of thermal energy; (d)
Radiant heat, or energy of radiation.
(a) From the sense of heat, aided in the case of very hot bodies by
the sense of sight, we obtain our first rough notions of heat as a
physical entity, which alters the state of a body and its condition in
respect of warmth, and is capable of passing from one body to another.
By touching a body we can tell whether it is warmer or colder than the
hand, and, by touching two similar bodies in succession, we can form a
rough estimate, by the acuteness of the sensation experienced, of
their difference in hotness or coldness over a limited range. If a hot
iron is placed on a cold iron plate, we may observe that the plate is
heated and the iron cooled until both attain appreciably the same
degree of warmth; and we infer from similar cases that something which
we call "heat" tends to pass from hot to cold bodies, and to attain
finally a state of equable diffusion when all the bodies concerned are
equally warm or cold. Ideas such as these derived entirely from the
sense of heat, are, so to speak, embedded in the language of every
nation from the earliest times.
(b) From the sense of heat, again, we naturally derive the idea of a
continuous scale or order, expressed by such terms as summer heat,
blood heat, fever heat, red heat, white heat, in which all bodies may
be placed with regard to their degrees of hotness, and we speak of the
_temperature_ of a body as denoting its place in the scale, in
contradistinction to the quantity of heat it may contain.
(c) The quantity of heat contained in a body obviously depends on the
size of the body considered. Thus a large kettleful of boiling water
will evidently contain more heat than a teacupful, though both may be
at the same temperature. The temperature does not depend on the size
of the body, but on the degree of concentration of the heat in it,
i.e. on the quantity of heat per unit mass, other things being equal.
We may regard it as axiomatic that a given body (say a pound of water)
in a given state (say boiling under a given pressure) must always
contain the same quantity of heat, and conversely that, if it contains
a given quantity of heat, and if it is under conditions in other
respects, it must be at a definite temperature, which will always be
the same for the same given conditions.
(d) It is a matter of common observation that rays of the sun or of a
fire falling on a body warm it, and it was in the first instance
natural to suppose that heat itself somehow travelled across the
intervening space from the sun or fire to the body warmed, in much the
same way as heat may be carried by a current of hot air or water. But
we now know that energy of radiation is not the same thing as heat,
though it is converted into heat when the rays strike an absorbing
substance. The term "radiant heat," however, is generally retained,
because radiation is commonly measured in terms of the heat it
produces, and because the transference of energy by radiation and
absorption is the most important agency in the diffusion of heat.
2. _Evolution of the Thermometer._--The first step in the development of
the science of heat was necessarily the invention of a thermometer, an
instrument for indicating temperature and measuring its changes. The
first requisite in the case of such an instrument is that it should
always give, at least approximately the same indication at the same
temperature. The air-thermoscope of Galileo, illustrated in fig. 1,
which consisted of a glass bulb containing air, connected to a glass
tube of small bore dipping into a coloured liquid, though very sensitive
to variations of temperature, was not satisfactory as a measuring
instrument, because it was also affected by variations of atmospheric
pressure. The invention of the type of thermometer familiar at the
present day, containing a liquid hermetically sealed in a glass bulb
with a fine tube attached, is also generally attributed to Galileo at a
slightly later date, about 1612. Alcohol was the liquid first employed,
and the degrees, intended to represent thousandths of the volume of the
bulb, were marked with small beads of enamel fused on the stem, as shown
in fig. 2. In order to render the readings of such instruments
comparable with each other, it was necessary to select a fixed point or
standard temperature as the zero or starting-point of the graduations.
Instead of making each degree a given fraction of the volume of the
bulb, which would be difficult in practice, and would give different
values for the degree with different liquids, it was soon found to be
preferable to take _two fixed points_, and to divide the interval
between them into the same number of degrees. It was natural in the
first instance to take the temperature of the human body as one of the
fixed points. In 1701 Sir Isaac Newton proposed a scale in which the
freezing-point of water was taken as zero, and the temperature of the
human body as 12°. About the same date (1714) Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit
proposed to take as zero the lowest temperature obtainable with a
freezing mixture of ice and salt, and to divide the interval between
this temperature and that of the human body into 12°. To obtain finer
graduations the number was subsequently increased to 96°. The
freezing-point of water was at that time supposed to be somewhat
variable, because as a matter of fact it is possible to cool water
several degrees below its freezing-point in the absence of ice.
Fahrenheit showed, however, that as soon as ice began to form the
temperature always rose to the same point, and that a mixture of ice or
snow with pure water always gave the same temperature. At a later period
he also showed that the temperature of boiling water varied with the
barometric pressure, but that it was always the same at the same
pressure, and might therefore be used as the second fixed point (as
Edmund Halley and others had suggested) provided that a definite
pressure, such as the average atmospheric pressure, were specified. The
freezing and boiling-points on one of his thermometers, graduated as
already explained, with the temperature of the body as 96°, came out in
the neighbourhood of 32° and 212° respectively, giving an interval of
180° between these points. Shortly after Fahrenheit's death (1736) the
freezing and boiling-points of water were generally recognized as the
most convenient fixed points to adopt, but different systems of
subdivision were employed. Fahrenheit's scale, with its small degrees
and its zero below the freezing-point, possesses undoubted advantages
for meteorological work, and is still retained in most English-speaking
countries. But for general scientific purposes, the centigrade system,
in which the freezing-point is marked 0° and the boiling-point 100°, is
now almost universally employed, on account of its greater simplicity
from an arithmetical point of view. For work of precision the fixed
points have been more exactly defined (see THERMOMETRY), but no change
has been made in the fundamental principle of graduation.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]
3. _Comparison of Scales based on Expansion._--Thermometers constructed
in the manner already described will give strictly comparable readings,
provided that the tubes be of uniform bore, and that the same liquid and
glass be employed in their construction. But they possess one obvious
defect from a theoretical point of view, namely, that the subdivision of
the temperature scale depends on the expansion of the particular liquid
selected as the standard. A liquid such as water, which, when
continuously heated at a uniform rate from its freezing-point, first
contracts and then expands, at a rapidly increasing rate, would
obviously be unsuitable. But there is no a priori reason why other
liquids should not behave to some extent in a similar way. As a matter
of fact, it was soon observed that thermometers carefully constructed
with different liquids, such as alcohol, oil and mercury, did not agree
precisely in their indications at points of the scale intermediate
between the fixed points, and diverged even more widely outside these
limits. Another possible method, proposed in 1694 by Carlo Renaldeni
(1615-1698), professor of mathematics and philosophy at Pisa, would be
to determine the intermediate points of the scale by observing the
temperatures of mixtures of ice-cold and boiling water in varying
proportions. On this method, the temperature of 50° C. would be defined
as that obtained by mixing equal weights of water at 0° C. and 100° C.;
20° C., that obtained by mixing 80 parts of water at 0° C. with 20 parts
of water at 100° C. and so on. Each degree rise of temperature in a mass
of water would then represent the addition of the same quantity of heat.
The scale thus obtained would, as a matter of fact, agree very closely
with that of a mercury thermometer, but the method would be very
difficult to put in practice, and would still have the disadvantage of
depending on the properties of a particular liquid, namely, water, which
is known to behave in an anomalous manner in other respects. At a later
date, the researches of Gay-Lussac (1802) and Regnault (1847) showed
that the laws of the expansion of gases are much simpler than those of
liquids. Whereas the expansion of alcohol between 0° C. and 100° C. is
nearly seven times as great as that of mercury, all gases (excluding
easily condensible vapours) expand equally, or so nearly equally that
the differences between them cannot be detected without the most refined
observations. This equality of expansion affords a strong a priori
argument for selecting the scale given by the expansion of a gas as the
standard scale of temperature, but there are still stronger theoretical
grounds for this choice, which will be indicated in discussing the
absolute scale (§ 21). Among liquids mercury is found to agree most
nearly with the gas scale, and is generally employed in thermometers for
scientific purposes on account of its high boiling-point and for other
reasons. The differences of the mercurial scale from the gas scale
having been carefully determined, the mercury thermometer can be used as
a secondary standard to replace the gas thermometer within certain
limits, as the gas thermometer would be very troublesome to employ
directly in ordinary investigations. For certain purposes, and
especially at temperatures beyond the range of mercury thermometers,
electrical thermometers, also standardized by reference to the gas
thermometer, have been very generally employed in recent years, while
for still higher temperatures beyond the range of the gas thermometer,
thermometers based on the recently established laws of radiation are the
only instruments available. For a further discussion of the theory and
practice of the measurement of temperature, the reader is referred to
the article THERMOMETRY.
_4. Change of State._--Among the most important effects of heat is that
of changing the state of a substance from solid to liquid, or from
liquid to vapour. With very few exceptions, all substances, whether
simple or compound, are known to be capable of existing in each of the
three states under suitable conditions of temperature and pressure. The
transition of any substance, from the state of liquid to that of solid
or vapour under the ordinary atmospheric pressure, takes place at fixed
temperatures, the freezing and boiling-points, which are very sharply
defined for pure crystalline substances, and serve in fact as fixed
points of the thermometric scale. A change of state cannot, however, be
effected in any case without the addition or subtraction of a certain
definite quantity of heat. If a piece of ice below the freezing-point is
gradually heated at a uniform rate, its temperature may be observed to
rise regularly till the freezing-point is reached. At this point it
begins to melt, and its temperature ceases to rise. The melting takes a
considerable time, during the whole of which heat is being continuously
supplied without producing any rise of temperature, although if the same
quantity of heat were supplied to an equal mass of water, the
temperature of the water would be raised nearly 80° C. Heat thus
absorbed in producing a change of state without rise of temperature is
called "Latent Heat," a term introduced by Joseph Black, who was one of
the first to study the subject of change of state from the point of view
of heat absorbed, and who in many cases actually adopted the
comparatively rough method described above of estimating quantities of
heat by observing the time required to produce a given change when the
substance was receiving heat at a steady rate from its surroundings. For
every change of state a definite quantity of heat is required, without
which the change cannot take place. Heat must be added to melt a solid,
or to vaporize a solid or a liquid, and conversely, heat must be
subtracted to reverse the change, i.e. to condense a vapour or freeze a
liquid. The quantity required for any given change depends on the nature
of the substance and the change considered, and varies to some extent
with the conditions (as to pressure, &c.) under which the change is
made, but is always the same for the same change under the same
conditions. A rough measurement of the latent heat of steam was made as
early as 1764 by James Watt, who found that steam at 212° F., when
passed from a kettle into a jar of cold water, was capable of raising
nearly six times its weight of water to the boiling point. He gives the
volume of the steam as about 1800 times that of an equal weight of
water.
The phenomena which accompany change of state, and the physical laws
by which such changes are governed, are discussed in a series of
special articles dealing with particular cases. The articles on FUSION
and ALLOYS deal with the change from the solid to the liquid state,
and the analogous case of solution is discussed in the article on
SOLUTION. The articles on CONDENSATION OF GASES, LIQUID GASES and
VAPORIZATION deal with the theory of the change of state from liquid
to vapour, and with the important applications of liquid gases to
other researches. The methods of measuring the latent heat of fusion
or vaporization are described in the article CALORIMETRY, and need not
be further discussed here except as an introduction to the history of
the evolution of knowledge with regard to the nature of heat.
5. _Calorimetry by Latent Heat._--In principle, the simplest and most
direct method of measuring quantities of heat consists in observing the
effects produced in melting a solid or vaporizing a liquid. It was, in
fact, by the fusion of ice that quantities of heat were first measured.
If a hot body is placed in a cavity in a block of ice at 0° C., and is
covered by a closely fitting slab of ice, the quantity of ice melted
will be directly proportional to the quantity of heat lost by the body
in cooling to 0° C. None of the heat can possibly escape through the
ice, and conversely no heat can possibly get in from outside. The body
must cool exactly to 0° C., and every fraction of the heat it loses must
melt an equivalent quantity of ice. Apart from heat lost in transferring
the heated body to the ice block, the method is theoretically perfect.
The only difficulty consists in the practical measurement of the
quantity of ice melted. Black estimated this quantity by mopping out the
cavity with a sponge before and after the operation. But there is a
variable film of water adhering to the walls of the cavity, which gives
trouble in accurate work. In 1780 Laplace and Lavoisier used a
double-walled metallic vessel containing broken ice, which was in many
respects more convenient than the block, but aggravated the difficulty
of the film of water adhering to the ice. In spite of this practical
difficulty, the quantity of heat required to melt unit weight of ice was
for a long time taken as the unit of heat. This unit possesses the great
advantage that it is independent of the scale of temperature adopted. At
a much later date R. Bunsen (_Phil. Mag._, 1871), adopting a suggestion
of Sir John Herschel's, devised an ice-calorimeter suitable for
measuring small quantities of heat, in which the difficulty of the water
film was overcome by measuring the change in volume due to the melting
of the ice. The volume of unit mass of ice is approximately 1.0920 times
that of unit mass of water, so that the diminution of volume is 0.092 a
cubic centimetre for each gramme of ice melted. The method requires
careful attention to details of manipulation, which are more fully
discussed in the article on CALORIMETRY.
For measuring large quantities of heat, such as those produced by the
combustion of fuel in a boiler, the most convenient method is the
evaporation of water, which is commonly employed by engineers for the
purpose. The natural unit in this case is the quantity of heat required
to evaporate unit mass of water at the boiling point under atmospheric
pressure. In boilers working at a higher pressure, or supplied with
water at a lower temperature, appropriate corrections are applied to
deduce the quantity evaporated in terms of this unit.
For laboratory work on a small scale the converse method of condensation
has been successfully applied by John Joly, in whose steam-calorimeter
the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a body from
the atmospheric temperature to that of steam condensing at atmospheric
pressure is observed by weighing the mass of steam condensed on it. (See
CALORIMETRY.)
6. _Thermometric Calorimetry._--For the majority of purposes the most
convenient and the most readily applicable method of measuring
quantities of heat, is to observe the rise of temperature produced in a
known mass of water contained in a suitable vessel or calorimeter. This
method was employed from a very early date by Count Rumford and other
investigators, and was brought to a high pitch of perfection by Regnault
in his extensive calorimetric researches (_Mémoires de l'Institut de
Paris_, 1847); but it is only within comparatively recent years that it
has really been placed on a satisfactory basis by the accurate
definition of the units involved. The theoretical objections to the
method, as compared with latent heat calorimetry, are that some heat is
necessarily lost by the calorimeter when its temperature is raised above
that of the surroundings, and that some heat is used in heating the
vessel containing the water. These are small corrections, which can be
estimated with considerable accuracy in practice. A more serious
difficulty, which has impaired the value of much careful work by this
method, is that the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature
of a given mass of water 1° C. depends on the temperature at which the
water is taken, and also on the scale of the thermometer employed. It is
for this reason, in many cases, impossible to say, at the present time,
what was the precise value, within ½ or even 1% of the heat unit, in
terms of which many of the older results, such as those of Regnault,
were expressed. For many purposes this would not be a serious matter,
but for work of scientific precision such a limitation of accuracy would
constitute a very serious bar to progress. The unit generally adopted
for scientific purposes is the quantity of heat required to raise 1 gram
(or kilogram) of water 1° C., and is called the calorie (or
kilo-calorie). English engineers usually state results in terms of the
British Thermal Unit (B.Th.U.), which is the quantity of heat required
to raise 1 lb. of water 1° F.
7. _Watt's Indicator Diagram; Work of Expansion._--The rapid development
of the steam-engine (q.v.) in England during the latter part of the 18th
century had a marked effect on the progress of the science of heat. In
the first steam-engines the working cylinder served both as boiler and
condenser, a very wasteful method, as most of the heat was transferred
directly from the fire to the condensing water without useful effect.
The first improvement (about 1700) was to use a separate boiler, but the
greater part of the steam supplied was still wasted in reheating the
cylinder, which had been cooled by the injection of cold water to
condense the steam after the previous stroke. In 1769 James Watt showed
how to avoid this waste by using a separate condenser and keeping the
cylinder as hot as possible. In his earlier engines the steam at full
boiler pressure was allowed to raise the piston through nearly the whole
of its stroke. Connexion with the boiler was then cut off, and the steam
at full pressure was discharged into the condenser. Here again there was
unnecessary waste, as the steam was still capable of doing useful work.
He subsequently introduced "expansive working," which effected still
further economy. The connexion with the boiler was cut off when a
fraction only, say ¼, of the stroke had been completed, the remainder of
the stroke being effected by the expansion of the steam already in the
cylinder with continually diminishing pressure. By the end of the
stroke, when connexion was made to the condenser, the pressure was so
reduced that there was comparatively little waste from this cause. Watt
also devised an instrument called an _indicator_ (see STEAM ENGINE), in
which a pencil, moved up and down vertically by the steam pressure,
recorded the pressure in the cylinder at every point of the stroke on a
sheet of paper moving horizontally in time with the stroke of the
piston. The diagram thus obtained made it possible to study what was
happening inside the cylinder, and to deduce the work done by the steam
in each stroke. The method of the indicator diagram has since proved of
great utility in physics in studying the properties of gases and
vapours. The work done, or the useful effect obtained from an engine or
any kind of machine, is measured by the product of the resistance
overcome and the distance through which it is overcome. The result is
generally expressed in terms of the equivalent weight raised through a
certain height against the force of gravity.[1] If, for instance, the
pressure on a piston is 50 lb. per sq. in., and the area of the piston
is 100 sq. in., the force on the piston is 5000 lb. weight. If the
stroke of the piston is 1 ft., the work done per stroke is capable of
raising a weight of 5000 lb. through a height of 1 ft., or 50 lb.
through a height of 100 ft. and so on.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Watt's Indicator Diagram. Patent of 1782.]
Fig. 3 represents an imaginary indicator diagram for a steam-engine,
taken from one of Watt's patents. Steam is admitted to the cylinder
when the piston is at the beginning of its stroke, at S. ST represents
the length of the stroke or the limit of horizontal movement of the
paper on which the diagram is drawn. The indicating pencil rises to
the point A, representing the absolute pressure of 60 lb. per sq. in.
As the piston moves outwards the pencil traces the horizontal line AB,
the pressure remaining constant till the point B is reached, at which
connexion to the boiler is cut off. The work done so far is
represented by the area of the rectangle ABSF, namely AS × SF,
multiplied by the area of the piston in sq. in. The result is in
foot-pounds if the fraction of the stroke SF is taken in feet. After
cut-off at B the steam expands under diminishing pressure, and the
pencil falls gradually from B to C, following the steam pressure until
the exhaust valve opens at the end of the stroke. The pressure then
falls rapidly to that of the condenser, which for an ideal case may be
taken as zero, following Watt. The work done during expansion is found
by dividing the remainder of the stroke FT into a number of equal
parts (say 8, Watt takes 20) and measuring the pressure at the points
1, 2, 3, 4, &c., corresponding to the middle of each. We thus obtain a
number of small rectangles, the sum of which is evidently very nearly
equal to the whole area BCTF under the expansion curve, or to the
remainder of the stroke FT multiplied by the average or mean value of
the pressure. The whole work done in the forward stroke is represented
by the area ABCTSA, or by the average value of the pressure P over the
whole stroke multiplied by the stroke L. This area must be multiplied
by the area of the piston A in sq. in. as before, to get the work done
per stroke in foot-pounds, which is PLA. If the engine repeats this
cycle N times per minute, the work done per minute is PLAN
foot-pounds, which is reduced to horse-power by dividing by 33,000. If
the steam is ejected by the piston at atmospheric pressure (15 lb. per
sq. in.) instead of being condensed at zero pressure, the area CDST
under the atmospheric line CD, representing work done against
back-pressure on the return stroke must be subtracted. If the engine
repeats the same cycle or series of operations continuously, the
indicator diagram will be a closed curve, and the nett work done per
cycle will be represented by the included area, whatever the form of
the curve.
8. _Thermal Efficiency._--The thermal efficiency of an engine is the
ratio of the work done by the engine to the heat supplied to it.
According to Watt's observations, confirmed later by Clément and
Désormes, the total heat required to produce 1 lb. of saturated steam at
any temperature from water at 0° C. was approximately 650 times the
quantity of heat required to raise 1 lb. of water 1° C. Since 1 lb. of
steam represented on this assumption a certain quantity of heat, the
efficiency could be measured naturally in foot-pounds of work obtainable
per lb. of steam, or conversely in pounds of steam consumed per
horse-power-hour.
In his patent of 1782 Watt gives the following example of the
improvement in thermal efficiency obtained by expansive working. Taking
the diagram already given, if the quantity of steam represented by AB,
or 300 cub. in. at 60 lb. pressure, were employed without expansion, the
work realized, represented by the area ABSF, would be 6000/4 = 1500
foot-pounds. With expansion to 4 times its original volume, as shown in
the diagram by the whole area ABCTSA, the mean pressure (as calculated
by Watt, assuming Boyle's law) would be 0.58 of the original pressure,
and the work done would be 6000 × 0.58 = 3480 foot-pounds for the same
quantity of steam, or the thermal efficiency would be 2.32 times
greater. The advantage actually obtained would not be so great as this,
on account of losses by condensation, back-pressure, &c., which are
neglected in Watt's calculation, but the margin would still be very
considerable. Three hundred cub. in. of steam at 60 lb. pressure would
represent about .0245 of 1 lb. of steam, or 28.7 B.Th.U., so that,
neglecting all losses, the possible thermal efficiency attainable with
steam at this pressure and four expansions (¼ cut-off) would be
3480/28.7, or 121 foot-pounds per B.Th.U. At a later date, about 1820,
it was usual to include the efficiency of the boiler with that of the
engine, and to reckon the efficiency or "duty" in foot-pounds per bushel
or cwt. of coal. The best Cornish pumping-engines of that date achieved
about 70 million foot-pounds per cwt., or consumed about 3.2 lb. per
horse-power-hour, which is roughly equivalent to 43 foot-pounds per
B.Th.U. The efficiency gradually increased as higher pressures were
used, with more complete expansion, but the conditions upon which the
efficiency depended were not fully worked out till a much later date.
Much additional knowledge with regard to the nature of heat, and the
properties of gases and vapours, was required before the problem could
be attacked theoretically.
9. _Of the Nature of Heat._--In the early days of the science it was
natural to ascribe the manifestations of heat to the action of a subtle
imponderable fluid called "caloric," with the power of penetrating,
expanding and dissolving bodies, or dissipating them in vapour. The
fluid was imponderable, because the most careful experiments failed to
show that heat produced any increase in weight. The opposite property of
levitation was often ascribed to heat, but it was shown by more cautious
investigators that the apparent loss of weight due to heating was to be
attributed to evaporation or to upward air currents. The fundamental
idea of an imaginary fluid to represent heat was useful as helping the
mind to a conception of something remaining invariable in quantity
through many transformations, but in some respects the analogy was
misleading, and tended greatly to retard the progress of science. The
caloric theory was very simple in its application to the majority of
calorimetric experiments, and gave a fair account of the elementary
phenomena of change of state, but it encountered serious difficulties in
explaining the production of heat by friction, or the changes of
temperature accompanying the compression or expansion of a gas. The
explanation which the calorists offered of the production of heat by
friction or compression was that some of the latent caloric was squeezed
or ground out of the bodies concerned and became "sensible." In the case
of heat developed by friction, they supposed that the abraded portions
of the material were capable of holding a smaller quantity of heat, or
had less "capacity for heat," than the original material. From a logical
point of view, this was a perfectly tenable hypothesis, and one
difficult to refute. It was easy to account in this way for the heat
produced in boring cannon and similar operations, where the amount of
abraded material was large. To refute this explanation, Rumford (_Phil.
Trans._, 1798) made his celebrated experiments with a blunt borer, in
one of which he succeeded in boiling by friction 26.5 lb. of cold water
in 2½ hours, with the production of only 4145 grains of metallic powder.
He then showed by experiment that the metallic powder required the same
amount of heat to raise its temperature 1°, as an equal weight of the
original metal, or that its "capacity for heat" (in this sense) was
unaltered by reducing it to powder; and he argued that "in any case so
small a quantity of powder could not possibly account for all the heat
generated, that the supply of heat appeared to be inexhaustible, and
that heat could not be a material substance, but must be something of
the nature of motion." Unfortunately Rumford's argument was not quite
conclusive. The supporters of the caloric theory appear, whether
consciously or unconsciously, to have used the phrase "capacity for
heat" in two entirely distinct senses without any clear definition of
the difference. The phrase "capacity for heat" might very naturally
denote the total quantity of heat contained in a body, which we have no
means of measuring, but it was generally used to signify the quantity of
heat required to raise the temperature of a body one degree, which is
quite a different thing, and has no necessary relation to the total
heat. In proving that the powder and the solid metal required the same
quantity of heat to raise the temperature of equal masses of either one
degree, Rumford did not prove that they contained equal quantities of
heat, which was the real point at issue in this instance. The metal tin
actually changes into powder below a certain temperature, and in so
doing evolves a measurable quantity of heat. A mixture of the gases
oxygen and hydrogen, in the proportions in which they combine to form
water, evolves when burnt sufficient heat to raise more than thirty
times its weight of water from the freezing to the boiling point; and
the mixture of gases may, in this sense, be said to contain so much more
heat than the water, although its capacity for heat in the ordinary
sense is only about half that of the water produced. To complete the
refutation of the calorists' explanation of the heat produced by
friction, it would have been necessary for Rumford to show that the
powder when reconverted into the same state as the solid metal did not
absorb a quantity of heat equivalent to that evolved in the grinding; in
other words that the heat produced by friction was not simply that due
to the change of state of the metal from solid to powder.
Shortly afterwards, in 1799, Davy[2] described an experiment in which he
melted ice by rubbing two blocks together. This experiment afforded a
very direct refutation of the calorists' view, because it was a
well-known fact that ice required to have a quantity of heat added to it
to convert it into water, so that the water produced by the friction
contained more heat than the ice. In stating as the conclusion to be
drawn from this experiment that "friction consequently does not diminish
the capacity of bodies for heat," Davy apparently uses the phrase
capacity for heat in the sense of total heat contained in a body,
because in a later section of the same essay he definitely gives the
phrase this meaning, and uses the term "capability of temperature" to
denote what we now term capacity for heat.
The delay in the overthrow of the caloric theory, and in the acceptance of
the view that heat is a mode of motion, was no doubt partly due to some
fundamental confusion of ideas in the use of the term "capacity for heat"
and similar phrases. A still greater obstacle lay in the comparative
vagueness of the motion or vibration theory. Davy speaks of heat as being
"repulsive motion," and distinguishes it from light, which is "projective
motion"; though heat is certainly not a substance--according to Davy in
the essay under discussion--and may not even be treated as an imponderable
fluid, light as certainly is a material substance, and is capable of
forming chemical compounds with ordinary matter, such as oxygen gas, which
is not a simple substance, but a compound, termed phosoxygen, of light and
oxygen. Accepting the conclusions of Davy and Rumford that heat is not a
material substance but a mode of motion, there still remains the question,
what definite conception is to be attached to a quantity of heat? What do
we mean by a quantity of vibratory motion, how is the quantity of motion
to be estimated, and why should it remain invariable in many
transformations? The idea that heat was a "mode of motion" was applicable
as a qualitative explanation of many of the effects of heat, but it lacked
the quantitative precision of a scientific statement, and could not be
applied to the calculation and prediction of definite results. The state
of science at the time of Rumford's and Davy's experiments did not admit
of a more exact generalization. The way was paved in the first instance by
a more complete study of the laws of gases, to which Laplace, Dalton,
Gay-Lussac, Dulong and many others contributed both on the experimental
and theoretical side. Although the development proceeded simultaneously
along many parallel lines, it is interesting and instructive to take the
investigation of the properties of gases, and to endeavour to trace the
steps by which the true theory was finally attained.
10. _Thermal Properties of Gases._--The most characteristic property of
a gaseous or elastic fluid, namely, the elasticity, or resistance to
compression, was first investigated scientifically by Robert Boyle
(1662), who showed that the pressure p of a given mass of gas varied
inversely as the volume v, provided that the temperature remained
constant. This is generally expressed by the formula pv = C, where C is
a constant for any given temperature, and v is taken to represent the
specific volume, or the volume of unit mass, of the gas at the given
pressure and temperature. Boyle was well aware of the effect of heat in
expanding a gas, but he was unable to investigate this properly as no
thermometric scale had been defined at that date. According to Boyle's
law, when a mass of gas is compressed by a small amount at constant
temperature, the percentage increase of pressure is equal to the
percentage diminution of volume (if the compression is v/100, the
increase of pressure is very nearly p/100). Adopting this law, Newton
showed, by a most ingenious piece of reasoning (_Principia_, ii., sect.
8), that the velocity of sound in air should be equal to the velocity
acquired by a body falling under gravity through a distance equal to
half the height of the atmosphere, considered as being of uniform
density equal to that at the surface of the earth. This gave the result
918 ft. per sec. (280 metres per sec.) for the velocity at the freezing
point. Newton was aware that the actual velocity of sound was somewhat
greater than this, but supposed that the difference might be due in some
way to the size of the air particles, of which no account could be taken
in the calculation. The first accurate measurement of the velocity of
sound by the French Académie des Sciences in 1738 gave the value 332
metres per sec. as the velocity at 0° C. The true explanation of the
discrepancy was not discovered till nearly 100 years later.
The law of expansion of gases with change of temperature was
investigated by Dalton and Gay-Lussac (1802), who found that the volume
of a gas under constant pressure increased by 1/267th part of its volume
at 0° C. for each 1° C. rise in temperature. This value was generally
assumed in all calculations for nearly 50 years. More exact researches,
especially those of Regnault, at a later date, showed that the law was
very nearly correct for all permanent gases, but that the value of the
coefficient should be 1/273rd. According to this law the volume of a gas
at any temperature t° C. should be proportional to 273 + t, i.e. to the
temperature reckoned from a zero 273° below that of the Centigrade
scale, which was called the absolute zero of the gas thermometer. If T =
273 + t, denotes the temperature measured from this zero, the law of
expansion of a gas may be combined with Boyle's law in the simple
formula
pv = RT (1)
which is generally taken as the expression of the gaseous laws. If equal
volumes of different gases are taken at the same temperature and
pressure, it follows that the constant R is the same for all gases. If
equal masses are taken, the value of the constant R for different gases
varies inversely as the molecular weight or as the density relative to
hydrogen.
Dalton also investigated the laws of vapours, and of mixtures of gases
and vapours. He found that condensible vapours approximately followed
Boyle's law when compressed, until the condensation pressure was
reached, at which the vapour liquefied without further increase of
pressure. He found that when a liquid was introduced into a closed
space, and allowed to evaporate until the space was saturated with the
vapour and evaporation ceased, the increase of pressure in the space was
equal to the condensation pressure of the vapour, and did not depend on
the volume of the space or the presence of any other gas or vapour
provided that there was no solution or chemical action. He showed that
the condensation or saturation-pressure of a vapour depended only on the
temperature, and increased by nearly the same fraction of itself per
degree rise of temperature, and that the pressures of different vapours
were nearly the same at equal distances from their boiling points. The
increase of pressure per degree C. at the boiling point was about 1/28th
of 760 mm. or 27.2 mm., but increased in geometrical progression with
rise of temperature. These results of Dalton's were confirmed, and in
part corrected, as regards increase of vapour-pressure, by Gay-Lussac,
Dulong, Regnault and other investigators, but were found to be as close
an approximation to the truth as could be obtained with such simple
expressions. More accurate empirical expressions for the increase of
vapour-pressure of a liquid with temperature were soon obtained by
Thomas Young, J. P. L. A. Roche and others, but the explanation of the
relation was not arrived at until a much later date (see VAPORIZATION).
11. _Specific Heats of Gases._--In order to estimate the quantities of
heat concerned in experiments with gases, it was necessary in the first
instance to measure their specific heats, which presented formidable
difficulties. The earlier attempts by Lavoisier and others, employing
the ordinary methods of calorimetry, gave very uncertain and discordant
results, which were not regarded with any confidence even by the
experimentalists themselves. Gay-Lussac (_Mémoires d'Arcueil_, 1807)
devised an ingenious experiment, which, though misinterpreted at the
time, is very interesting and instructive. With the object of comparing
the specific heats of different gases, he took two equal globes A and B
connected by a tube with a stop-cock. The globe B was exhausted, the
other A being filled with gas. On opening the tap between the vessels,
the gas flowed from A to B and the pressure was rapidly equalized. He
observed that the fall of temperature in A was nearly equal to the rise
of temperature in B, and that for the same initial pressure the change
of temperature was very nearly the same for all the gases he tried,
except hydrogen, which showed greater changes of temperature than other
gases. He concluded from this experiment that equal volumes of gases had
the same capacity for heat, except hydrogen, which he supposed to have a
larger capacity, because it showed a greater effect. The method does not
in reality afford any direct information with regard to the specific
heats, and the conclusion with regard to hydrogen is evidently wrong. At
a later date (_Ann. de Chim._, 1812, 81, p. 98) Gay-Lussac adopted A.
Crawford's method of mixture, allowing two equal streams of different
gases, one heated and the other cooled about 20° C., to mix in a tube
containing a thermometer. The resulting temperature was in all cases
nearly the mean of the two, from which he concluded that equal volumes
of all the gases tried, namely, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, air, oxygen
and nitrogen, had the same thermal capacity. This was correct, except as
regards carbon dioxide, but did not give any information as to the
actual specific heats referred to water or any known substance. About
the same time, F. Delaroche and J. E. Bérard (_Ann. de chim._, 1813, 85,
p. 72) made direct determinations of the specific heats of air, oxygen,
hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and ethylene,
by passing a stream of gas heated to nearly 100° C. through a spiral
tube in a calorimeter containing water. Their work was a great advance
on previous attempts, and gave the first trustworthy results. With the
exception of hydrogen, which presents peculiar difficulties, they found
that equal volumes of the permanent gases, air, oxygen and carbon
monoxide, had nearly the same thermal capacity, but that the compound
condensible gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and ethylene, had
larger thermal capacities in the order given. They were unable to state
whether the specific heats of the gases increased or diminished with
temperature, but from experiments on air at pressures of 740 mm. and
1000 mm., they found the specific heats to be .269 and .245
respectively, and concluded that the specific heat diminished with
increase of pressure. The difference they observed was really due to
errors of experiment, but they regarded it as proving beyond doubt the
truth of the calorists' contention that the heat disengaged on the
compression of a gas was due to the diminution of its thermal capacity.
Dalton and others had endeavoured to measure directly the rise of
temperature produced by the compression of a gas. Dalton had observed a
rise of 50° F. in a gas when suddenly compressed to half its volume, but
no thermometers at that time were sufficiently sensitive to indicate
more than a fraction of the change of temperature. Laplace was the first
to see in this phenomenon the probable explanation of the discrepancy
between Newton's calculation of the velocity of sound and the observed
value. The increase of pressure due to a sudden compression, in which no
heat was allowed to escape, or as we now call it an "adiabatic"
compression, would necessarily be greater than the increase of pressure
in a slow isothermal compression, on account of the rise of temperature.
As the rapid compressions and rarefactions occurring in the propagation
of a sound wave were perfectly adiabatic, it was necessary to take
account of the rise of temperature due to compression in calculating the
velocity. To reconcile the observed and calculated values of the
velocity, the increase of pressure in adiabatic compression must be
1.410 times greater than in isothermal compression. This is the ratio of
the adiabatic elasticity of air to the isothermal elasticity. It was a
long time, however, before Laplace saw his way to any direct
experimental verification of the value of this ratio. At a later date
(_Ann. de chim._, 1816, 3, p. 238) he stated that he had succeeded in
proving that the ratio in question must be the same as the ratio of the
specific heat of air at constant pressure to the specific heat at
constant volume.
In the method of measuring the specific heat adopted by Delaroche and
Bérard, the gas under experiment, while passing through a tube at
practically constant pressure, contracts in cooling, as it gives up
its heat to the calorimeter. Part of the heat surrendered to the
calorimeter is due to the contraction of volume. If a gramme of gas at
pressure p, volume v and temperature T abs. is heated 1° C. at
constant pressure p, it absorbs a quantity of heat S = .238 calorie
(according to Regnault) the specific heat at constant pressure. At the
same time the gas expands by a fraction 1/T of v, which is the same as
1/273 of its volume at 0° C. If now the air is suddenly compressed by
an amount v/T, it will be restored to its original volume, and its
temperature will be raised by the liberation of a quantity of heat R´,
the latent heat of expansion for an increase of volume v/T. If no heat
has been allowed to escape, the air will now be in the same state as
if a quantity of heat S had been communicated to it at its original
volume v without expansion. The rise of temperature above the original
temperature T will be S/s degrees, where s is the specific heat at
constant volume, which is obviously equal to S - R´. Since p/T is the
increase of pressure for 1° C. rise of temperature at constant volume,
the increase of pressure for a rise of S/s degrees will be [gamma]p/T,
where [gamma] is the ratio S/s. But this is the rise of pressure
produced by a sudden compression v/T, and is seen to be [gamma] times
the rise of pressure p/T produced by the same compression at constant
temperature. The ratio of the adiabatic to the isothermal elasticity,
required for calculating the velocity of sound, is therefore the same
as the ratio of the specific heat at constant pressure to that at
constant volume.
12. _Experimental Verification of the Ratio of Specific Heats._--This
was a most interesting and important theoretical relation to discover,
but unfortunately it did not help much in the determination of the
ratio required, because it was not practically possible at that time
to measure the specific heat of air at constant volume in a closed
vessel. Attempts had been made to do this, but they had signally
failed, on account of the small heat capacity of the gas as compared
with the containing vessel. Laplace endeavoured to extract some
confirmation of his views from the values given by Delaroche and
Bérard for the specific heat of air at 1000 and 740 mm. pressure. On
the assumption that the quantities of heat contained in a given mass
of air increased in direct proportion to its volume when heated at
constant pressure, he deduced, by some rather obscure reasoning, that
the ratio of the specific heats S and s should be about 1.5 to 1,
which he regarded as a fairly satisfactory agreement with the value
[gamma] = 1.41 deduced from the velocity of sound.
The ratio of the specific heats could not be directly measured, but a
few years later, Clément and Désormes (_Journ. de Phys._, Nov. 1819)
succeeded in making a direct measurement of the ratio of the
elasticities in a very simple manner. They took a large globe
containing air at atmospheric pressure and temperature, and removed a
small quantity of air. They then observed the defect of pressure p0
when the air had regained its original temperature. By suddenly
opening the globe, and immediately closing it, the pressure was
restored almost instantaneously to the atmospheric, the rise of
pressure p0 corresponding to the sudden compression produced. The air,
having been heated by the compression, was allowed to regain its
original temperature, the tap remaining closed, and the final defect
of pressure p^1 was noted. The change of pressure for the same
compression performed isothermally is then p0 - p^1. The ratio p0/(p0
- p^1) is the ratio of the adiabatic and isothermal elasticities,
provided that p0 is small compared with the whole atmospheric
pressure. In this way they found the ratio 1.354, which is not much
smaller than the value 1.410 required to reconcile the observed and
calculated values of the velocity of sound. Gay-Lussac and J. J.
Welter (_Ann. de chim._, 1822) repeated the experiment with slight
improvements, using expansion instead of compression, and found the
ratio 1.375. The experiment has often been repeated since that time,
and there is no doubt that the value of the ratio deduced from the
velocity of sound is correct, the defect of the value obtained by
direct experiment being due to the fact that the compression or
expansion is not perfectly adiabatic. Gay-Lussac and Welter found the
ratio practically constant for a range of pressure 144 to 1460 mm.,
and for a range of temperature from -20° to +40° C. The velocity of
sound at Quito, at a pressure of 544 mm. was found to be the same as
at Paris at 760 mm. at the same temperature. Assuming on this evidence
the constancy of the ratio of the specific heats of air, Laplace
(_Mécanique céleste_, v. 143) showed that, if the specific heat at
constant pressure was independent of the temperature, the specific
heat per unit volume at a pressure p must vary as p^(1/[gamma]),
according to the caloric theory. The specific heat per unit mass must
then vary as p^(1/[gamma]-1) which he found agreed precisely with the
experiment of Delaroche and Bérard already cited. This was undoubtedly
a strong confirmation of the caloric theory. Poisson by the same
assumptions (_Ann. de chim._, 1823, 23, p. 337) obtained the same
results, and also showed that the relation between the pressure and
the volume of a gas in adiabatic compression or expansion must be of
the form pv^[gamma] = constant.
P. L. Dulong (_Ann. de chim._, 1829, 41, p. 156), adopting a method
due to E. F. F. Chladni, compared the velocities of sound in different
gases by observing the pitch of the note given by the same tube when
filled with the gases in question. He thus obtained the values of the
ratios of the elasticities or of the specific heats for the gases
employed. For oxygen, hydrogen and carbonic oxide, these ratios were
the same as for air. But for carbonic acid, nitrous oxide and olefiant
gas, the values were much smaller, showing that these gases
experienced a smaller change of temperature in compression. On
comparing his results with the values of the specific heats for the
same gases found by Delaroche and Bérard, Dulong observed that the
changes of temperature for the same compression were in the inverse
ratio of the specific heats at constant volume, and deduced the
important conclusion that "_Equal volumes of all gases under the same
conditions evolve on compression the same quantity of heat_." This is
equivalent to the statement that the difference of the specific heats,
or the latent heat of expansion R´ per 1°, is the same for all gases
if equal volumes are taken. Assuming the ratio [gamma] = 1.410, and
taking Delaroche and Bérard's value for the specific heat of air at
constant pressure S = .267, we have s = S/1.41 = .189, and the
difference of the specific heats per unit mass of air S - s = R´ =
.078. Adopting Regnault's value of the specific heat of air, namely, S
= .238, we should have S - s = .069. This quantity represents the heat
absorbed by unit mass of air in expanding at constant temperature T by
a fraction 1/T of its volume v, or by 1/273rd of its volume 0° C.
If, instead of taking unit mass, we take a volume v0 = 22.30 litres at
0° C. and 760 mm. being the volume of the molecular weight of the gas
in grammes, the quantity of heat evolved by a compression equal to v/T
will be approximately 2 calories, and is the same for all gases. The
work done in this compression is pv/T = R, and is also the same for
all gases, namely, 8.3 joules. Dulong's experimental result,
therefore, shows that the heat evolved in the compression of a gas is
proportional to the work done. This result had previously been deduced
theoretically by Carnot (1824). At a later date it was assumed by
Mayer, Clausius and others, on the evidence of these experiments, that
the heat evolved was not merely proportional to the work done, but was
equivalent to it. The further experimental evidence required to
justify this assumption was first supplied by Joule.
Latent heat of expansion R´ = .069 calorie per gramme of air, per 1° C.
= 2.0 calories per gramme-molecule of any
gas.
Work done in expansion R = .287 joule per gramme of air per 1° C.
= 8.3 joules per gramme-molecule of any
gas.
13. _Carnot: On the Motive Power of Heat._--A practical and theoretical
question of the greatest importance was first answered by Sadi Carnot
about this time in his _Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat_ (1824).
How much motive power (defined by Carnot as weight lifted through a
certain height) can be obtained from heat alone by means of an engine
repeating a regular succession or "cycle" of operations continuously? Is
the efficiency limited, and, if so, how is it limited? Are other agents
preferable to steam for developing motive power from heat? In discussing
this problem, we cannot do better than follow Carnot's reasoning which,
in its main features could hardly be improved at the present day.
Carnot points out that in order to obtain an answer to this question, it
is necessary to consider the essential conditions of the process, apart
from the mechanism of the engine and the working substance or agent
employed. Work cannot be said to be produced _from heat alone_ unless
nothing but heat is supplied, and the working substance and all parts of
the engine are at the end of the process in precisely the same state as
at the beginning.[3]
_Carnot's Axiom._--Carnot here, and throughout his reasoning, makes a
fundamental assumption, which he states as follows: "When a body has
undergone any changes and after a certain number of transformations is
brought back identically to its original state, considered relatively to
density, temperature and mode of aggregation, it must contain the same
quantity of heat as it contained originally."[4]
Heat, according to Carnot, in the type of engine we are considering, can
evidently be a cause of motive power only by virtue of changes of volume
or form produced by alternate heating and cooling. This involves the
existence of cold and hot bodies to act as boiler and condenser, or
source and sink of heat, respectively. Wherever there exists a
difference of temperature, it is possible to have the production of
motive power from heat; and conversely, production of motive power, from
heat alone, is impossible without difference of temperature. In other
words the production of motive power from heat is not merely a question
of the consumption of heat, but always requires transference of heat
from hot to cold. What then are the conditions which enable the
difference of temperature to be most advantageously employed in the
production of motive power, and how much motive power can be obtained
with a given difference of temperature from a given quantity of heat?
_Carnot's Rule for Maximum Effect._--In order to realize the maximum
effect, it is necessary that, in the process employed, there should not
be any direct interchange of heat between bodies at different
temperatures. Direct transference of heat by conduction or radiation
between bodies at different temperatures is equivalent to wasting a
difference of temperature which might have been utilized to produce
motive power. The working substance must throughout every stage of the
process be in equilibrium with itself (i.e. at uniform temperature and
pressure) and also with external bodies, such as the boiler and
condenser, at such times as it is put in communication with them. In the
actual engine there is always some interchange of heat between the steam
and the cylinder, and some loss of heat to external bodies. There may
also be some difference of temperature between the boiler steam and the
cylinder on admission, or between the waste steam and the condenser at
release. These differences represent losses of efficiency which may be
reduced indefinitely, at least in imagination, by suitable means, and
designers had even at that date been very successful in reducing them.
All such losses are supposed to be absent in deducing the ideal limit of
efficiency, beyond which it would be impossible to go.
14. _Carnot's Description of his Ideal Cycle._--Carnot first gives a
rough illustration of an incomplete cycle, using steam much in the same
way as it is employed in an ordinary steam-engine. After expansion down
to condenser pressure the steam is completely condensed to water, and is
then returned as cold water to the hot boiler. He points out that the
last step does not conform exactly to the condition he laid down,
because although the water is restored to its initial state, there is
direct passage of heat from a hot body to a cold body in the last
process. He points out that this difficulty might be overcome by
supposing the difference of temperature small, and by employing a series
of engines, each working through a small range, to cover a finite
interval of temperature. Having established the general notions of a
perfect cycle, he proceeds to give a more exact illustration, employing
a gas as the working substance. He takes as the basis of his
demonstration the well-established experimental fact that a gas is
heated by rapid compression and cooled by rapid expansion, and that if
compressed or expanded slowly in contact with conducting bodies, the gas
will give out heat in compression or absorb heat in expansion while its
temperature remains constant. He then goes on to say:--
"This preliminary notion being settled, let us imagine an elastic
fluid, atmospheric air for example, enclosed in a cylinder _abcd_,
fig. 4, fitted with a movable diaphragm or piston cd. Let there also
be two bodies A, B, each maintained at a constant temperature, that of
A being more elevated than that of B. Let us now suppose the following
series of operations to be performed:
[Illustration: FIG 4. Carnot's Cylinder.]
"1. Contact of the body A with the air contained in the space _abcd_,
or with the bottom of the cylinder, which we will suppose to transmit
heat easily. The air is now at the temperature of the body A, and _cd_
is the actual position of the piston.
"2. The piston is gradually raised, and takes the position _ef_. The
air remains in contact with the body A, and is thereby maintained at a
constant temperature during the expansion. The body A furnishes the
heat necessary to maintain the constancy of temperature.
"3. The body A is removed, and the air no longer being in contact with
any body capable of giving it heat, the piston continues nevertheless
to rise, and passes from the position _ef_ to _gh_. The air expands
without receiving heat and its temperature falls. Let us imagine that
it falls until it is just equal to that of the body B. At this moment
the piston is stopped and occupies the position _gh_.
"4. The air is placed in contact with the body B; it is compressed by
the return of the piston, which is brought from the position _gh_ to
the position _cd_. The air remains meanwhile at a constant
temperature, because of its contact with the body B to which it gives
up its heat.
"5. The body B is removed, and the compression of the air is
continued. The air being now isolated, rises in temperature. The
compression is continued until the air has acquired the temperature of
the body A. The piston passes meanwhile from the position _cd_ to the
position _ik_.
"6. The air is replaced in contact with the body A, and the piston
returns from the position _ik_ to the position _ef_, the temperature
remaining invariable.
"7. The period described under (3) is repeated, then successively the
periods (4), (5), (6); (3), (4), (5), (6); (3), (4), (5), (6); and so
on.
"During these operations the air enclosed in the cylinder exerts an
effort more or less great on the piston. The pressure of the air
varies both on account of changes of volume and on account of changes
of temperature; but it should be observed that for equal volumes, that
is to say, for like positions of the piston, the temperature is higher
during the dilatation than during the compression. Since the pressure
is greater during the expansion, the quantity of motive power produced
by the dilatation is greater than that consumed by the compression. We
shall thus obtain a balance of motive power, which may be employed for
any purpose. The air has served as working substance in a heat-engine;
it has also been employed in the most advantageous manner possible,
since no useless re-establishment of the equilibrium of heat has been
allowed to occur.
"All the operations above described may be executed in the reverse
order and direction. Let us imagine that after the sixth period, that
is to say, when the piston has reached the position _ef_, we make it
return to the position _ik_, and that at the same time we keep the air
in contact with the hot body A; the heat furnished by this body during
the sixth period will return to its source, that is, to the body A,
and everything will be as it was at the end of the fifth period. If
now we remove the body A, and if we make the piston move from _ik_ to
_cd_, the temperature of the air will decrease by just as many degrees
as it increased during the fifth period, and will become that of the
body B. We can evidently continue in this way a series of operations
the exact reverse of those which were previously described; it
suffices to place oneself in the same circumstances and to execute for
each period a movement of expansion in place of a movement of
compression, and vice versa.
"The result of the first series of operations was the production of a
certain quantity of motive power, and the transport of heat from the
body A to the body B; the result of the reverse operations is the
consumption of the motive power produced in the first case, and the
return of heat from the body B to the body A, in such sort that these
two series of operations annul and neutralize each other.
"The impossibility of producing by the agency of heat alone a quantity
of motive power greater than that which we have obtained in our first
series of operations is now easy to prove. It is demonstrated by
reasoning exactly similar to that which we have already given. The
reasoning will have in this case a greater degree of exactitude; the
air of which we made use to develop the motive power is brought back
at the end of each cycle of operations precisely to its initial state,
whereas this was not quite exactly the case for the vapour of water,
as we have already remarked."
15. _Proof of Carnot's Principle._--Carnot considered the proof too
obvious to be worth repeating, but, unfortunately, his previous
demonstration, referring to an incomplete cycle, is not so exactly
worded that exception cannot be taken to it. We will therefore repeat
his proof in a slightly more definite and exact form. Suppose that a
reversible engine R, working in the cycle above described, takes a
quantity of heat H from the source in each cycle, and performs a
quantity of useful work W_r. If it were possible for any other engine S,
working with the same two bodies A and B as source and refrigerator, to
perform a greater amount of useful work W_s per cycle for the same
quantity of heat H taken from the source, it would suffice to take a
portion W_r of this motive power (since W_s is by hypothesis greater
than W_r) to drive the engine R backwards, and return a quantity of heat
H to the source in each cycle. The process might be repeated
indefinitely, and we should obtain at each repetition a balance of
useful work W_s - W_r, _without taking any heat from the source_, which
is contrary to experience. Whether the quantity of heat taken from the
condenser by R is equal to that given to the condenser by S is
immaterial. The hot body A might be a comparatively small boiler, since
no heat is taken from it. The cold body B might be the ocean, or the
whole earth. We might thus obtain without any consumption of fuel a
practically unlimited supply of motive power. Which is absurd.
_Carnot's Statement of his Principle._[5]--If the above reasoning be
admitted, we must conclude with Carnot that _the motive power obtainable
from heat is independent of the agents employed to realize it_. _The
efficiency is fixed solely by the temperatures of the bodies between
which, in the last resort, the transfer of heat is effected._ "We must
understand here that each of the methods of developing motive power
attains the perfection of which it is susceptible. This condition is
fulfilled if, according to our rule, there is produced in the body no
change of temperature that is not due to change of volume, or in other
words, if there is no direct interchange of heat between bodies of
sensibly different temperatures."
It is characteristic of a state of frictionless mechanical equilibrium
that an indefinitely small difference of pressure suffices to upset the
equilibrium and reverse the motion. Similarly in thermal equilibrium
between bodies at the same temperature, an indefinitely small difference
of temperature suffices to reverse the transfer of heat. Carnot's rule
is therefore the criterion of the reversibility of a cycle of operations
as regards transfer of heat. It is assumed that the ideal engine is
mechanically reversible, that there is not, for instance, any
communication between reservoirs of gas or vapour at sensibly different
pressures, and that there is no waste of power in friction. If there is
equilibrium both mechanical and thermal at every stage of the cycle, the
ideal engine will be perfectly reversible. That is to say, all its
operations will be exactly reversed as regards transfer of heat and
work, when the operations are performed in the reverse order and
direction. On this understanding Carnot's principle may be put in a
different way, which is often adopted, but is really only the same thing
put in different words: _The efficiency of a perfectly reversible engine
is the maximum possible, and is a function solely of the limits of
temperature between which it works_. This result depends essentially on
the existence of a state of thermal equilibrium defined by equality of
temperature, and independent, in the majority of cases, of the state of
a body in other respects. In order to apply the principle to the
calculation and prediction of results, it is sufficient to determine the
manner in which the efficiency depends on the temperature for one
particular case, since the efficiency must be the same for all
reversible engines.
16. _Experimental Verification of Carnot's Principle._--Carnot
endeavoured to test his result by the following simple calculations.
Suppose that we have a cylinder fitted with a frictionless piston,
containing 1 gram of water at 100° C., and that the pressure of the
steam, namely 760 mm., is in equilibrium with the external pressure on
the piston at this temperature. Place the cylinder in connexion with a
boiler or hot body at 101° C. The water will then acquire the
temperature of 101° C., and will absorb 1 gram-calorie of heat. Some
waste of motive power occurs here because heat is allowed to pass from
one body to another at a different temperature, but the waste in this
case is so small as to be immaterial. Keep the cylinder in contact
with the hot body at 101° C. and allow the piston to rise. It may be
made to perform useful work as the pressure is now 27.7 mm. (or 37.7
grams per sq. cm.) in excess of the external pressure. Continue the
process till all the water is converted into steam. The heat absorbed
from the hot body will be nearly 540 gram-calories, the latent heat of
steam at this temperature. The increase of volume will be
approximately 1620 c.c., the volume of 1 gram of steam at this
pressure and temperature. The work done by the excess pressure will be
37.7 × 1620 = 61,000 gram-centimetres or 0.61 of a kilogrammetre.
Remove the hot body, and allow the steam to expand further till its
pressure is 760 mm. and its temperature has fallen to 100° C. The work
which might be done in this expansion is less than 1/1000th part of a
kilogrammetre, and may be neglected for the present purpose. Place the
cylinder in contact with the cold body at 100° C., and allow the steam
to condense at this temperature. No work is done on the piston,
because there is equilibrium of pressure, but a quantity of heat equal
to the latent heat of steam at 100° C. is given to the cold body. The
water is now in its initial condition, and the result of the process
has been to gain 0.61 of a kilogrammetre of work by allowing 540
gram-calories of heat to pass from a body at 101° C. to a body at 100°
C. by means of an ideally simple steam-engine. The work obtainable in
this way from 1000 gram-calories of heat, or 1 kilo-calorie, would
evidently be 1.13 kilogrammetre (= 0.61 × 1000/540).
Taking the same range of temperature, namely 101° to 100° C., we may
perform a similar series of operations with air in the cylinder,
instead of water and steam. Suppose the cylinder to contain 1 gramme
of air at 100° C. and 760 mm. pressure instead of water. Compress it
without loss of heat (adiabatically), so as to raise its temperature
to 101° C. Place it in contact with the hot body at 101° C., and allow
it to expand at this temperature, absorbing heat from the hot body,
until its volume is increased by 1/374th part (the expansion per
degree at constant pressure). The quantity of heat absorbed in this
expansion, as explained in § 14, will be the difference of the
specific heats or the latent heat of expansion R´ = .069 calorie.
Remove the hot body, and allow the gas to expand further without gain
of heat till its temperature falls to 100° C. Compress it at 100° C.
to its original volume, abstracting the heat of compression by contact
with the cold body at 100° C. The air is now in its original state,
and the process has been carried out in strict accordance with
Carnot's rule. The quantity of external work done in the cycle is
easily obtained by the aid of the indicator diagram ABCD (fig. 5),
which is approximately a parallelogram in this instance. The area of
the diagram is equal to that of the rectangle BEHG, being the product
of the vertical height BE, namely, the increase of pressure per 1° at
constant volume, by the increase of volume BG, which is 1/273rd of the
volume at 0° C. and 760 mm., or 2.83 c.c. The increase of pressure BE
is 760/373, or 2.03 mm., which is equivalent to 2.76 gm. per sq. cm.
The work done in the cycle is 2.76 × 2.83 = 7.82 gm. cm., or .0782
gram-metre. The heat absorbed at 101° C. was .069 gram-calorie, so
that the work obtained is .0782/.069 or 1.13 gram-metre per
gram-calorie, or 1.13 kilogrammetre per kilogram-calorie. This result
is precisely the same as that obtained by using steam with the same
range of temperature, but a very different kind of cycle. Carnot in
making the same calculation did not obtain quite so good an agreement,
because the experimental data at that time available were not so
accurate. He used the value 1/267 for the coefficient of expansion,
and .267 for the specific heat of air. Moreover, he did not feel
justified in assuming, as above, that the difference of the specific
heats was the same at 100° C. as at the ordinary temperature of 15° to
20° C., at which it had been experimentally determined. He made
similar calculations for the vapour of alcohol, which differed
slightly from the vapour of water. But the agreement he found was
close enough to satisfy him that his theoretical deductions were
correct, and that the resulting ratio of work to heat should be the
same for all substances at the same temperature.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Elementary Carnot Cycle for Gas.]
17. _Carnot's Function. Variation of Efficiency with Temperature._--By
means of calculations, similar to those given above, Carnot
endeavoured to find the amount of motive power obtainable from one
unit of heat per degree fall at various temperatures with various
substances. The value found above, namely 1.13 kilogrammetre per
kilo-calorie per 1° fall, is the value of the efficiency per 1° fall
at 100° C. He was able to show that the efficiency per degree fall
probably diminished with rise of temperature, but the experimental
data at that time were too inconsistent to suggest the true relation.
He took as the analytical expression of his principle that the
efficiency W/H of a perfect engine taking in heat H at a temperature
t° C., and rejecting heat at the temperature 0° C., must be some
function Ft of the temperature t, which would be the same for all
substances. The efficiency per degree fall at a temperature t he
represented by F´t, the derived function of Ft. The function F´t would
be the same for all substances at the same temperature, but would have
different values at different temperatures. In terms of this function,
which is generally known as Carnot's function, the results obtained in
the previous section might be expressed as follows:--
"The increase of volume of a mixture of liquid and vapour per
unit-mass vaporized at any temperature, multiplied by the increase of
vapour-pressure per degree, is equal to the product of the function
F´t by the latent heat of vaporization.
"The difference of the specific heats, or the latent heat of expansion
for any substance multiplied by the function F´t, is equal to the
product of the expansion per degree at constant pressure by the
increase of pressure per degree at constant volume."
Since the last two coefficients are the same for all gases if equal
volumes are taken, Carnot concluded that: "The difference of the
specific heats at constant pressure and volume is the same for equal
volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure."
Taking the expression W = RT log _e r for the whole work done by a gas
obeying the gaseous laws pv = RT in expanding at a temperature T from
a volume 1 (unity) to a volume r, or for a ratio of expansion r, and
putting W´ = R log _e r for the work done in a cycle of range 1°,
Carnot obtained the expression for the heat absorbed by a gas in
isothermal expansion
H = R log_e r/F´t. (2)
He gives several important deductions which follow from this formula,
which is the analytical expression of the experimental result already
quoted as having been discovered subsequently by Dulong. Employing the
above expression for the latent heat of expansion, Carnot deduced a
general expression for the specific heat of a gas at constant volume
on the basis of the caloric theory. He showed that if the specific
heat was independent of the temperature (the hypothesis already
adopted by Laplace and Poisson) the function F´t must be of the form
F´t = R/C(t + t0) (3)
where C and t0 are unknown constants. A similar result follows from
his expression for the difference of the specific heats. If this is
assumed to be constant and equal to C, the expression for F´t becomes
R/CT, which is the same as the above if t0 = 273. Assuming the
specific heat to be also independent of the volume, he shows that the
function F´t should be constant. But this assumption is inconsistent
with the caloric theory of latent heat of expansion, which requires
the specific heat to be a function of the volume. It appears in fact
impossible to reconcile Carnot's principle with the caloric theory on
any simple assumptions. As Carnot remarks: "The main principles on
which the theory of heat rests require most careful examination. Many
experimental facts appear almost inexplicable in the present state of
this theory."
Carnot's work was subsequently put in a more complete analytical form by
B. P. E. Clapeyron (_Journ. de l'Éc. polytechn._, Paris, 1832, 14, p.
153), who also made use of Watt's indicator diagram for the first time
in discussing physical problems. Clapeyron gave the general expressions
for the latent heat of a vapour, and for the latent heat of isothermal
expansion of any substance, in terms of Carnot's function, employing the
notation of the calculus. The expressions he gave are the same in form
as those in use at the present day. He also gave the general expression
for Carnot's function, and endeavoured to find its variation with
temperature; but having no better data, he succeeded no better than
Carnot. Unfortunately, in describing Carnot's cycle, he assumed the
caloric theory of heat, and made some unnecessary mistakes, which Carnot
(who, we now know, was a believer in the mechanical theory) had been
very careful to avoid. Clapeyron directs one to compress the gas at the
lower temperature in contact with the body B _until the heat disengaged
is equal to that which has been absorbed at the higher temperature_.[6]
He assumes that the gas at this point contains the same quantity of heat
as it contained in its original state at the higher temperature, and
that, when the body B is removed, the gas will be restored to its
original temperature, when compressed to its initial volume. This
mistake is still attributed to Carnot, and regarded as a fatal objection
to his reasoning by nearly all writers at the present day.
18. _Mechanical Theory of Heat._--According to the caloric theory, the
heat absorbed in the expansion of a gas became latent, like the latent
heat of vaporization of a liquid, but remained in the gas and was again
evolved on compressing the gas. This theory gave no explanation of the
source of the motive power produced by expansion. The mechanical theory
had explained the production of heat by friction as being due to
transformation of visible motion into a brisk agitation of the ultimate
molecules, but it had not so far given any definite explanation of the
converse production of motive power at the expense of heat. The theory
could not be regarded as complete until it had been shown that in the
production of work from heat, a certain quantity of heat disappeared,
and ceased to exist as heat; and that this quantity was the same as that
which could be generated by the expenditure of the work produced. The
earliest complete statement of the mechanical theory from this point of
view is contained in some notes written by Carnot, about 1830, but
published by his brother (_Life of Sadi Carnot_, Paris, 1878). Taking
the difference of the specific heats to be .078, he estimated the
mechanical equivalent at 370 kilogrammetres. But he fully recognized
that there were no experimental data at that time available for a
quantitative test of the theory, although it appeared to afford a good
qualitative explanation of the phenomena. He therefore planned a number
of crucial experiments such as the "porous plug" experiment, to test the
equivalence of heat and motive power. His early death in 1836 put a stop
to these experiments, but many of them have since been independently
carried out by other observers.
The most obvious case of the production of work from heat is in the
expansion of a gas or vapour, which served in the first instance as a
means of calculating the ratio of equivalence, on the assumption that
all the heat which disappeared had been transformed into work and had
not merely become latent. Marc Séguin, in his _De l'influence des
chemins de fer_ (Paris, 1839), made a rough estimate in this manner of
the mechanical equivalent of heat, assuming that the loss of heat
represented by the fall of temperature of steam on expanding was
equivalent to the mechanical effect produced by the expansion. He also
remarks (_loc. cit._ p. 382) that it was absurd to suppose that "a
finite quantity of heat could produce an indefinite quantity of
mechanical action, and that it was more natural to assume that a certain
quantity of heat disappeared in the very act of producing motive power."
J. R. Mayer (_Liebig's Annalen_, 1842, 42, p. 233) stated the
equivalence of heat and work more definitely, deducing it from the old
principle, _causa aequat effectum_. Assuming that the sinking of a
mercury column by which a gas was compressed was equivalent to the heat
set free by the compression, he deduced that the warming of a kilogramme
of water 1° C. would correspond to the fall of a weight of one
kilogramme from a height of about 365 metres. But Mayer did not adduce
any fresh experimental evidence, and made no attempt to apply his theory
to the fundamental equations of thermodynamics. It has since been urged
that the experiment of Gay-Lussac (1807), on the expansion of gas from
one globe to another (see above, § 11), was sufficient justification for
the assumption tacitly involved in Mayer's calculation. But Joule was
the first to supply the correct interpretation of this experiment, and
to repeat it on an adequate scale with suitable precautions. Joule was
also the first to measure directly the amount of heat liberated by the
compression of a gas, and to prove that heat was not merely rendered
latent, but disappeared altogether as heat, when a gas did work in
expansion.
19. _Joule's Determinations of the Mechanical Equivalent._--The honour
of placing the mechanical theory of heat on a sound _experimental_ basis
belongs almost exclusively to J. P. Joule, who showed by direct
experiment that in all the most important cases in which heat was
generated by the expenditure of mechanical work, or mechanical work was
produced at the expense of heat, there was a constant ratio of
equivalence between the heat generated and the work expended and vice
versa. His first experiments were on the relation of the chemical and
electric energy expended to the heat produced in metallic conductors and
voltaic and electrolytic cells; these experiments were described in a
series of papers published in the _Phil. Mag._, 1840-1843. He first
proved the relation, known as Joule's law, that the heat produced in a
conductor of resistance R by a current C is proportional to C²R per
second. He went on to show that the total heat produced in any voltaic
circuit was proportional to the electromotive force E of the battery and
to the number of equivalents electrolysed in it. Faraday had shown that
electromotive force depends on chemical affinity. Joule measured the
corresponding heats of combustion, and showed that the electromotive
force corresponding to a chemical reaction is proportional to the heat
of combustion of the electrochemical equivalent. He also measured the
E.M.F. required to decompose water, and showed that when part of the
electric energy EC is thus expended in a voltameter, the heat generated
is less than the heat of combustion corresponding to EC by a quantity
representing the heat of combustion of the decomposed gases. His papers
so far had been concerned with the relations between electrical energy,
chemical energy and heat which he showed to be mutually equivalent. The
first paper in which he discussed the relation of heat to mechanical
power was entitled "On the Calorific Effects of Magneto-Electricity, and
on the Mechanical Value of Heat" (_Brit. Assoc._, 1843; _Phil. Mag._,
23, p. 263). In this paper he showed that the heat produced by currents
generated by magneto-electric induction followed the same law as voltaic
currents. By a simple and ingenious arrangement he succeeded in
measuring the mechanical power expended in producing the currents, and
deduced the mechanical equivalent of heat and of electrical energy. The
amount of mechanical work required to raise 1 lb. of water 1° F. (1
B.Th.U.), as found by this method, was 838 foot-pounds. In a note added
to the paper he states that he found the value 770 foot-pounds by the
more direct method of forcing water through fine tubes. In a paper "On
the Changes of Temperature produced by the Rarefaction and Condensation
of Air" (_Phil. Mag._, May 1845), he made the first direct measurements
of the quantity of heat disengaged by compressing air, and also of the
heat absorbed when the air was allowed to expand against atmospheric
pressure; as the result he deduced the value 798 foot-pounds for the
mechanical equivalent of 1 B.Th.U. He also showed that there was no
appreciable absorption of heat when air was allowed to expand in such a
manner as not to develop mechanical power, and he pointed out that the
mechanical equivalent of heat could not be satisfactorily deduced from
the relations of the specific heats, because the knowledge of the
specific heats of gases at that time was of so uncertain a character. He
attributed most weight to his later determinations of the mechanical
equivalent made by the direct method of friction of liquids. He showed
that the results obtained with different liquids, water, mercury and
sperm oil, were the same, namely, 782 foot-pounds; and finally repeating
the method with water, using all the precautions and improvements which
his experience had suggested, he obtained the value 772 foot-pounds,
which was accepted universally for many years, and has only recently
required alteration on account of the more exact definition of the heat
unit, and the standard scale of temperature (see CALORIMETRY). The great
value of Joule's work for the general establishment of the principle of
the conservation of energy lay in the variety and completeness of the
experimental evidence he adduced. It was not sufficient to find the
relation between heat and mechanical work or other forms of energy in
one particular case. It was necessary to show that the same relation
held in all cases which could be examined experimentally, and that the
ratio of equivalence of the different forms of energy, measured in
different ways, was independent of the manner in which the conversion
was effected and of the material or working substance employed.
As the result of Joule's experiments, we are justified in concluding
that heat is a form of energy, and that all its transformations are
subject to the general principle of the conservation of energy. As
applied to heat, the principle is called the first law of
thermodynamics, and may be stated as follows: _When heat is transformed
into any other kind of energy, or vice versa, the total quantity of
energy remains invariable; that is to say, the quantity of heat which
disappears is equivalent to the quantity of the other kind of energy
produced and vice versa._
The number of units of mechanical work equivalent to one unit of heat is
generally called the mechanical equivalent of heat, or Joule's
equivalent, and is denoted by the letter J. Its numerical value depends
on the units employed for heat and mechanical energy respectively. The
values of the equivalent in terms of the units most commonly employed at
the present time are as follows:--
777 foot-pounds (Lat. 45°) are equivalent to 1 B.Th.U. (lb. deg. Fahr.)
1399 foot-pounds " " " 1 lb. deg. C.
426.3 kilogrammetres " " 1 kilogram-deg. C. or
kilo-calorie.
426.3 grammetres " " 1 gram-deg. C. or calorie.
4.180 joules " " 1 gram-deg. C. or calorie.
The water for the heat units is supposed to be taken at 20° C. or 68°
F., and the degree of temperature is supposed to be measured by the
hydrogen thermometer. The acceleration of gravity in latitude 45° is
taken as 980.7 C.G.S. For details of more recent and accurate methods of
determination, the reader should refer to the article CALORIMETRY, where
tables of the variation of the specific heat of water with temperature
are also given.
The second law of thermodynamics is a title often used to denote
Carnot's principle or some equivalent mathematical expression. In some
cases this title is not conferred on Carnot's principle itself, but on
some axiom from which the principle may be indirectly deduced. These
axioms, however, cannot as a rule be directly applied, so that it would
appear preferable to take Carnot's principle itself as the second law.
It may be observed that, as a matter of history, Carnot's principle was
established and generally admitted before the principle of the
conservation of energy as applied to heat, and that from this point of
view the titles, first and second laws, are not particularly
appropriate.
20. _Combination of Carnot's Principle with the Mechanical Theory._--A
very instructive paper, as showing the state of the science of heat
about this time, is that of C. H. A. Holtzmann, "On the Heat and
Elasticity of Gases and Vapours" (Mannheim, 1845; Taylor's _Scientific
Memoirs_, iv. 189). He points out that the theory of Laplace and Poisson
does not agree with facts when applied to vapours, and that Clapeyron's
formulae, though probably correct, contain an undetermined function
(Carnot's F´t, Clapeyron's 1/C) of the temperature. He determines the
value of this function to be J/T by assuming, with Séguin and Mayer,
that the work done in the isothermal expansion of a gas is a measure of
the heat absorbed. From the then accepted value .078 of the difference
of the specific heats of air, he finds the numerical value of J to be
374 kilogrammetres per kilo-calorie. _Assuming the heat equivalent of
the work to remain in the gas_, he obtains expressions similar to
Clapeyron's for the total heat and the specific heats. In consequence of
this assumption, the formulae he obtained for adiabatic expansion were
necessarily wrong, but no data existed at that time for testing them. In
applying his formulae to vapours, he obtained an expression for the
saturation-pressure of steam, which agreed with the empirical formula of
Roche, and satisfied other experimental data on the supposition that the
coefficient of expansion of steam was .00423, and its specific heat
1.69--values which are now known to be impossible, but which appeared at
the time to give a very satisfactory explanation of the phenomena.
The essay of Hermann Helmholtz, _On the Conservation of Force_ (Berlin,
1847), discusses all the known cases of the transformation of energy,
and is justly regarded as one of the chief landmarks in the
establishment of the energy-principle. Helmholtz gives an admirable
statement of the fundamental principle as applied to heat, but makes no
attempt to formulate the correct equations of thermodynamics on the
mechanical theory. He points out the fallacy of Holtzmann's (and
Mayer's) calculation of the equivalent, but admits that it is supported
by Joule's experiments, though he does not seem to appreciate the true
value of Joule's work. He considers that Holtzmann's formulae are well
supported by experiment, and are much preferable to Clapeyron's, because
the value of the undetermined function F´t is found. But he fails to
notice that Holtzmann's equations are fundamentally inconsistent with
the conservation of energy, because the heat equivalent of the external
work done is supposed to remain in the gas.
That a quantity of heat equivalent to the work performed actually
disappears when a gas does work in expansion, was first shown by Joule
in the paper on condensation and rarefaction of air (1845) already
referred to. At the conclusion of this paper he felt justified by direct
experimental evidence in reasserting definitely the hypothesis of Séguin
(_loc. cit._ p. 383) that "the steam while expanding in the cylinder
loses heat in quantity exactly proportional to the mechanical force
developed, and that on the condensation of the steam the heat thus
converted into power is not given back." He did not see his way to
reconcile this conclusion with Clapeyron's description of Carnot's
cycle. At a later date, in a letter to Professor W. Thomson (Lord
Kelvin) (1848), he pointed out that, since, according to his own
experiments, the work done in the expansion of a gas at constant
temperature is equivalent to the heat absorbed, by equating Carnot's
expressions (given in § 17) for the work done and the heat absorbed, the
value of Carnot's function F´t must be equal to J/T, in order to
reconcile his principle with the mechanical theory.
Professor W. Thomson gave an account of Carnot's theory (_Trans. Roy.
Soc. Edin._, Jan. 1849), in which he recognized the discrepancy between
Clapeyron's statement and Joule's experiments, but did not see his way
out of the difficulty. He therefore adopted Carnot's principle
provisionally, and proceeded to calculate a table of values of Carnot's
function F´t, from the values of the total-heat and vapour-pressure of
steam-then recently determined by Regnault (_Mémoires de l'Institut de
Paris_, 1847). In making the calculation, he assumed that the specific
volume v of saturated steam at any temperature T and pressure p is that
given by the gaseous laws, pv = RT. The results are otherwise correct so
far as Regnault's data are accurate, because the values of the
efficiency per degree F´t are not affected by any assumption with regard
to the nature of heat. He obtained the values of the efficiency F´t over
a finite range from t to 0° C., by adding up the values of F´t for the
separate degrees. This latter proceeding is inconsistent with the
mechanical theory, but is the correct method on the assumption that the
heat given up to the condenser is equal to that taken from the source.
The values he obtained for F´t agreed very well with those previously
given by Carnot and Clapeyron, and showed that this function diminishes
with rise of temperature roughly in the inverse ratio of T, as suggested
by Joule.
R. J. E. Clausius (_Pogg. Ann._, 1850, 79, p. 369) and W. J. M. Rankine
(_Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._, 1850) were the first to develop the correct
equations of thermodynamics on the mechanical theory. When heat was
supplied to a body to change its temperature or state, part remained in
the body as intrinsic heat energy E, but part was converted into
external work of expansion W and ceased to exist as heat. The part
remaining in the body was always the same for the same change of state,
however performed, as required by Carnot's fundamental axiom, but the
part corresponding to the external work was necessarily different for
different values of the work done. Thus in any cycle in which the body
was exactly restored to its initial state, the heat remaining in the
body would always be the same, or as Carnot puts it, the quantities of
heat absorbed and given out in its diverse transformations are exactly
"compensated," so far as the body is concerned. But the quantities of
heat absorbed and given out are not necessarily equal. On the contrary,
they differ by the equivalent of the external work done in the cycle.
Applying this principle to the case of steam, Clausius deduced a fact
previously unknown, that the specific heat of steam maintained in a
state of saturation is negative, which was also deduced by Rankine (loc.
cit.) about the same time. In applying the principle to gases Clausius
assumes (with Mayer and Holtzmann) that the heat absorbed by a gas in
isothermal expansion is equivalent to the work done, but he does not
appear to be acquainted with Joule's experiment, and the reasons he
adduces in support of this assumption are not conclusive. This being
admitted, he deduces from the energy principle alone the propositions
already given by Carnot with reference to gases, and shows in addition
that the specific heat of a perfect gas must be independent of the
density. In the second part of his paper he introduces Carnot's
principle, which he quotes as follows: "The performance of work is
equivalent to a transference of heat from a hot to a cold body without
the quantity of heat being thereby diminished." This is not Carnot's way
of stating his principle (see § 15), but has the effect of exaggerating
the importance of Clapeyron's unnecessary assumption. By equating the
expressions given by Carnot for the work done and the heat absorbed in
the expansion of a gas, he deduces (following Holtzmann) the value J/T
for Carnot's function F´t (which Clapeyron denotes by 1/C). He shows
that this assumption gives values of Carnot's function which agree
fairly well with those calculated by Clapeyron and Thomson, and that it
leads to values of the mechanical equivalent not differing greatly from
those of Joule. Substituting the value J/T for C in the analytical
expressions given by Clapeyron for the latent heat of expansion and
vaporization, these relations are immediately reduced to their modern
form (see THERMODYNAMICS, § 4). Being unacquainted with Carnot's
original work, but recognizing the invalidity of Clapeyron's description
of Carnot's cycle, Clausius substituted a proof consistent with the
mechanical theory, which he based on the axiom that "heat cannot of
itself pass from cold to hot." The proof on this basis involves the
application of the energy principle, which does not appear to be
necessary, and the axiom to which final appeal is made does not appear
more convincing than Carnot's. Strange to say, Clausius did not in this
paper give the expression for the efficiency in a Carnot cycle of finite
range (Carnot's Ft) which follows immediately from the value J/T assumed
for the efficiency F´t of a cycle of infinitesimal range at the
temperature t C or T Abs.
Rankine did not make the same assumption as Clausius explicitly, but
applied the mechanical theory of heat to the development of his
hypothesis of molecular vortices, and deduced from it a number of
results similar to those obtained by Clausius. Unfortunately the paper
(loc. cit.) was not published till some time later, but in a summary
given in the _Phil. Mag._ (July 1851) the principal results were
detailed. Assuming the value of Joule's equivalent, Rankine deduced the
value 0.2404 for the specific heat of air at constant pressure, in place
of 0.267 as found by Delaroche and Bérard. The subsequent verification
of this value by Regnault (_Comptes rendus_, 1853) afforded strong
confirmation of the accuracy of Joule's work. In a note appended to the
abstract in the _Phil. Mag._ Rankine states that he has succeeded in
proving that the maximum efficiency of an engine working in a Carnot
cycle of finite range t1 to t0 is of the form (t1 - t0)/(t1 - k), where
k is a constant, the same for all substances. This is correct if t
represents temperature Centigrade, and k = -273.
Professor W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) in a paper "On the Dynamical Theory
of Heat" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._, 1851, first published in the _Phil.
Mag._, 1852) gave a very clear statement of the position of the theory
at that time. He showed that the value F´t = J/T, assumed for Carnot's
function by Clausius without any experimental justification, rested
solely on the evidence of Joule's experiment, and might possibly not be
true at all temperatures. Assuming the value J/T with this reservation,
he gave as the expression for the efficiency over a finite range t1 to
t0 C., or T1 to T0 Abs., the result,
W/H = (t1 - t0)/(t1 + 273) = (T1 - T0)/T1 (4)
which, he observed, agrees in form with that found by Rankine.
21. _The Absolute Scale of Temperature._--Since Carnot's function is the
same for all substances at the same temperature, and is a function of
the temperature only, it supplies a means of measuring temperature
independently of the properties of any particular substance. This
proposal was first made by Lord Kelvin (_Phil. Mag._, 1848), who
suggested that the degree of temperature should be chosen so that the
efficiency of a perfect engine at any point of the scale should be the
same, or that Carnot's function F´t should be constant. This would give
the simplest expression for the efficiency on the caloric theory, but
the scale so obtained, when the values of Carnot's function were
calculated from Regnault's observations on steam, was found to differ
considerably from the scale of the mercury or air-thermometer. At a
later date, when it became clear that the value of Carnot's function was
very nearly proportional to the reciprocal of the temperature T measured
from the absolute zero of the gas thermometer, he proposed a simpler
method (_Phil. Trans._, 1854), namely, to define absolute temperature
[theta] as proportional to the reciprocal of Carnot's function. On this
definition of absolute temperature, the expression ([theta]1 -
[theta]0)/[theta]1 for the efficiency of a Carnot cycle with limits
[theta]1 and [theta]0 would be exact, and it became a most important
problem to determine how far the temperature T by gas thermometer
differed from the absolute temperature [theta]. With this object he
devised a very delicate method, known as the "porous plug experiment"
(see THERMODYNAMICS) of testing the deviation of the gas thermometer
from the absolute scale. The experiments were carried out in conjunction
with Joule, and finally resulted in showing (_Phil. Trans._, 1862, "On
the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion") that the deviations of the air
thermometer from the absolute scale as above defined are almost
negligible, and that in the case of the gas hydrogen the deviations are
so small that a thermometer containing this gas may be taken for all
practical purposes as agreeing exactly with the absolute scale at all
ordinary temperatures. For this reason the hydrogen thermometer has
since been generally adopted as the standard.
22. _Availability of Heat of Combustion._--Taking the value 1.13
kilogrammetres per kilo-calorie for 1° C. fall of temperature at 100°
C., Carnot attempted to estimate the possible performance of a
steam-engine receiving heat at 160° C. and rejecting it at 40° C.
Assuming the performance to be simply proportional to the temperature
fall, the work done for 120° fall would be 134 kilogrammetres per
kilo-calorie. To make an accurate calculation required a knowledge of
the variation of the function F´t with temperature. Taking the accurate
formula of § 20, the work obtainable is 118 kilogrammetres per
kilo-calorie, which is 28% of 426, the mechanical equivalent of the
kilo-calorie in kilogrammetres. Carnot pointed out that the fall of 120°
C. utilized in the steam-engine was only a small fraction of the whole
temperature fall obtainable by combustion, and made an estimate of the
total power available if the whole fall could be utilized, allowing for
the probable diminution of the function F´t with rise of temperature.
His estimate was 3.9 million kilogrammetres per kilogramme of coal. This
was certainly an over-estimate, but was surprisingly close, considering
the scanty data at his disposal.
In reality the fraction of the heat of combustion available, even in an
ideal engine and apart from practical limitations, is much less than
might be inferred from the efficiency formula of the Carnot cycle. In
applying this formula to estimate the availability of the heat it is
usual to take the temperature obtainable by the combustion of the fuel
as the upper limit of temperature in the formula. For carbon burnt _in
air_ at constant pressure without any loss of heat, the products of
combustion might be raised 2300° C. in temperature, assuming that the
specific heats of the products were constant and that there was no
dissociation. If all the heat could be supplied to the working fluid at
this temperature, that of the condenser being 40° C., the possible
efficiency by the formula of § 20 would be 89%. But the combustion
obviously cannot maintain so high a temperature if heat is being
continuously abstracted by a boiler. Suppose that [theta]´ is the
maximum temperature of combustion as above estimated, [theta]" the
temperature of the boiler, and [theta]^0 that of the condenser. Of the
whole heat supplied by combustion represented by the rise of temperature
[theta]´ - [theta]^0, the fraction ([theta]´ - [theta]´´)/([theta]´ -
[theta]^0) is the maximum that could be supplied to the boiler, the
fraction ([theta]´´ - [theta]^0)/([theta]´ - [theta]^0) being carried
away with the waste gases. Of the heat supplied to the boiler, the
fraction ([theta]´ - [theta]^0)/[theta]´´ might theoretically be
converted into work. The problem in the case of an engine using a
separate working fluid, like a steam-engine, is to find what must be the
temperature [theta]´´ of the boiler in order to obtain the largest
possible fraction of the heat of combustion in the form of work. It is
easy to show that [theta]´´ must be the geometric mean of [theta]´ and
[theta]^0, or [theta]´´ = [root]([theta]´[theta]^0). Taking [theta]´ -
[theta]^0 = 2300° C., and [theta]^0 = 313° Abs. as before, we find
[theta]´´ = 903° Abs. or 630° C. The heat supplied to the boiler is then
74.4% of the heat of combustion, and of this 65.3% is converted into
work, giving a maximum possible efficiency of 49% in place of 89%. With
the boiler at 160° C., the possible efficiency, calculated in a similar
manner, would be 26.3%, which shows that the possible increase of
efficiency by increasing the temperature range is not so great as is
usually supposed. If the temperature of the boiler were raised to 300°
C., corresponding to a pressure of 1260 lb. per sq. in., which is
occasionally surpassed in modern flash-boilers, the possible efficiency
would be 40%. The waste heat from the boiler, supposed perfectly
efficient, would be in this case 11%, of which less than a quarter could
be utilized in the form of work. Carnot foresaw that in order to utilize
a larger percentage of the heat of combustion it would be necessary to
employ a series of working fluids, the waste heat from one boiler and
condenser serving to supply the next in the series. This has actually
been effected in a few cases, e.g. steam and SO2, when special
circumstances exist to compensate for the extra complication.
Improvements in the steam-engine since Carnot's time have been mainly in
the direction of reducing waste due to condensation and leakage by
multiple expansion, superheating, &c. The gain by increased temperature
range has been comparatively small owing to limitations of pressure, and
the best modern steam-engines do not utilize more than 20% of the heat
of combustion. This is in reality a very respectable fraction of the
ideal limit of 40% above calculated on the assumption of 1260 lb.
initial pressure, with a perfectly efficient boiler and complete
expansion, and with an ideal engine which does not waste available
motive power by complete condensation of the steam before it is returned
to the boiler.
23. _Advantages of Internal Combustion._--As Carnot pointed out, the
chief advantage of using atmospheric air as a working fluid in a
heat-engine lies in the possibility of imparting heat to it directly by
internal combustion. This avoids the limitation imposed by the use of a
separate boiler, which as we have seen reduces the possible efficiency
at least 50%. Even with internal combustion, however, the full range of
temperature is not available, because the heat cannot conveniently in
practice be communicated to the working fluid at constant temperature,
owing to the large range of expansion at constant temperature required
for the absorption of a sufficient quantity of heat. Air-engines of this
type, such as Stirling's or Ericsson's, taking in heat at constant
temperature, though theoretically the most perfect, are bulky and
mechanically inefficient. In practical engines the heat is generated by
the combustion of an explosive mixture at constant volume or at constant
pressure. The heat is not all communicated at the highest temperature,
but over a range of temperature from that of the mixture at the
beginning of combustion to the maximum temperature. The earliest
instance of this type of engine is the lycopodium engine of M. M.
Niepce, discussed by Carnot, in which a combustible mixture of air and
lycopodium powder at atmospheric pressure was ignited in a cylinder, and
did work on a piston. The early gas-engines of E. Lenoir (1860) and N.
Otto and E. Langen (1866), operated in a similar manner with
illuminating gas in place of lycopodium. Combustion in this case is
effected practically at constant volume, and the maximum efficiency
theoretically obtainable is 1 - log_e r/(r - 1), where r is the ratio of
the maximum temperature [theta]´ to the initial temperature [theta]^0.
In order to obtain this efficiency it would be necessary to follow
Carnot's rule, and expand the gas after ignition without loss or gain of
heat from [theta]´ down to [theta]^0, and then to compress it at
[theta]^0 to its initial volume. If the rise of temperature in
combustion were 2300° C., and the initial temperature were 0° C. or 273°
Abs., the theoretical efficiency would be 73.3%, which is much greater
than that obtainable with a boiler. But in order to reach this value, it
would be necessary to expand the mixture to about 270 times its initial
volume, which is obviously impracticable. Owing to incomplete expansion
and rapid cooling of the heated gases by the large surface exposed, the
actual efficiency of the Lenoir engine was less than 5%, and of the Otto
and Langen, with more rapid expansion, about 10%. Carnot foresaw that in
order to render an engine of this type practically efficient, it would
be necessary to compress the mixture before ignition. Compression is
beneficial in three ways: (1) it permits a greater range of expansion
after ignition; (2) it raises the mean effective pressure, and thus
improves the mechanical efficiency and the power in proportion to size
and weight; (3) it reduces the loss of heat during ignition by reducing
the surface exposed to the hot gases. In the modern gas or petrol motor,
compression is employed as in Carnot's cycle, but the efficiency
attainable is limited not so much by considerations of temperature as by
limitations of volume. It is impracticable before combustion at constant
volume to compress a rich mixture to much less than 1/5th of its initial
volume, and, for mechanical simplicity, the range of expansion is made
equal to that of compression. The cycle employed was patented in 1862 by
Beau de Rochas (d. 1892), but was first successfully carried out by Otto
(1876). It differs from the Carnot cycle in employing reception and
rejection of heat at constant volume instead of at constant temperature.
This cycle is not so efficient as the Carnot cycle for given limits of
temperature, but, _for the given limits of volume imposed_, it gives a
much higher efficiency than the Carnot cycle. The efficiency depends
only on the range of temperature in expansion and compression, and is
given by the formula ([theta]´ - [theta]´´)/[theta]´, where [theta]´ is
the maximum temperature, and [theta]´´ the temperature at the end of
expansion. The formula is the same as that for the Carnot cycle with the
same range of temperature in expansion. The ratio [theta]´/[theta]´´ is
r^([gamma] - 1), where r is the given ratio of expansion or compression,
and [gamma] is the ratio of the specific heats of the working fluid.
Assuming the working fluid to be a perfect gas with the same properties
as air, we should have [gamma] = 1.41. Taking r = 5, the formula gives
48% for the maximum possible efficiency. The actual products of
combustion vary with the nature of the fuel employed, and have different
properties from air, but the efficiency is found to vary with
compression in the same manner as for air. For this reason a committee
of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1905 recommended the adoption
of the air-standard for estimating the effects of varying the
compression ratio, and defined the relative efficiency of an internal
combustion engine as the ratio of its observed efficiency to that of a
perfect air-engine with the same compression.
24. _Effect of Dissociation, and Increase of Specific Heat._--One of the
most important effects of heat is the decomposition or dissociation of
compound molecules. Just as the molecules of a vapour combine with
evolution of heat to form the more complicated molecules of the liquid,
and as the liquid molecules require the addition of heat to effect their
separation into molecules of vapour; so in the case of molecules of
different kinds which combine with evolution of heat, the reversal of
the process can be effected either by the agency of heat, or indirectly
by supplying the requisite amount of energy by electrical or other
methods. Just as the latent heat of vaporization diminishes with rise of
temperature, and the pressure of the dissociated vapour molecules
increases, so in the case of compound molecules in general the heat of
combination diminishes with rise of temperature, and the pressure of the
products of dissociation increases. There is evidence that the compound
carbon dioxide, CO2, is partly dissociated into carbon monoxide and
oxygen at high temperatures, and that the proportion dissociated
increases with rise of temperature. There is a very close analogy
between these phenomena and the vaporization of a liquid. The laws which
govern dissociation are the same fundamental laws of thermodynamics, but
the relations involved are necessarily more complex on account of the
presence of different kinds of molecules, and present special
difficulties for accurate investigation in the case where dissociation
does not begin to be appreciable until a high temperature is reached. It
is easy, however, to see that the general effect of dissociation must be
to diminish the available temperature of combustion, and all experiments
go to show that in ordinary combustible mixtures the rise of temperature
actually attained is much less than that calculated as in § 22, on the
assumption that the whole heat of combustion is developed and
communicated to products of constant specific heat. The defect of
temperature observed can be represented by supposing that the specific
heat of the products of combustion increases with rise of temperature.
This is the case for CO2 even at ordinary temperatures, according to
Regnault, and probably also for air and steam at higher temperatures.
Increase of specific heat is a necessary accompaniment of dissociation,
and from some points of view may be regarded as merely another way of
stating the facts. It is the most convenient method to adopt in the case
of products of combustion consisting of a mixture of CO2 and steam with
a large excess of inert gases, because the relations of equilibrium of
dissociated molecules of so many different kinds would be too complex to
permit of any other method of expression. It appears from the researches
of Dugald Clerk, H. le Chatelier and others that the apparent specific
heat of the products of combustion in a gas-engine may be taken as
approximately .34 to .33 in place of .24 at working temperatures between
1000° C. and 1700° C., and that the ratio of the specific heats is about
1.29 in place of 1.41. This limits the availability of the heat of
combustion by reducing the rise of temperature actually obtainable in
combustion at constant volume by 30 or 40%, and also by reducing the
range of temperature [theta]´/[theta]´´ for a given ratio of expansions
r from r^(.41) to r^(.29). The formula given in § 21 is no longer quite
exact, because the ratio of the specific heats of the mixture during
compression is not the same as that of the products of combustion during
expansion. But since the work done depends principally on the expansion
curve, the ratio of the range of temperature in expansion ([theta]´ -
[theta]´´) to the maximum temperature [theta]´ will still give a very
good approximation to the possible efficiency. Taking r = 5, as before,
for the compression ratio, the possible efficiency is reduced from 48%
to 38%, if [gamma] = 1.29 instead of 1.41. A large gas-engine of the
present day with r = 5 may actually realize as much as 34% indicated
efficiency, which is 90% of the maximum possible, showing how perfectly
all avoidable heat losses have been minimized.
It is often urged that the gas-engine is relatively less efficient than
the steam-engine, because, although it has a much higher absolute
efficiency, it does not utilize so large a fraction of its temperature
range, reckoning that of the steam-engine from the temperature of the
boiler to that of the condenser, and that of the gas-engine from the
maximum temperature of combustion to that of the air. This is not quite
fair, and has given rise to the mistaken notion that "there is an
immense margin for improvement in the gas-engine," which is not the case
if the practical limitations of volume are rightly considered. If
expansion could be carried out in accordance with Carnot's principle of
maximum efficiency, down to the lower limit of temperature [theta]0,
with rejection of heat at [theta]0 during compression to the original
volume V0, it would no doubt be possible to obtain an ideal efficiency
of nearly 80%. But this would be quite impracticable, as it would
require expansion to about 100 times v0, or 500 times the compression
volume. Some advantage no doubt might be obtained by carrying the
expansion beyond the original volume. This has been done, but is not
found to be worth the extra complication. A more practical method, which
has been applied by Diesel for liquid fuel, is to introduce the fuel at
the end of compression, and adjust the supply in such a manner as to
give combustion at nearly constant pressure. This makes it possible to
employ higher compression, with a corresponding increase in the ratio of
expansion and the theoretical efficiency. With a compression ratio of
14, an indicated efficiency of 40% has been obtained In this way, but
owing to additional complications the brake efficiency was only 31%,
which is hardly any improvement on the brake efficiency of 30% obtained
with the ordinary type of gas-engine. Although Carnot's principle makes
it possible to calculate in every case what the limiting possible
efficiency would be for any kind of cycle if all heat losses were
abolished, it is very necessary, in applying the principle to practical
cases, to take account of the possibility of avoiding the heat losses
which are supposed to be absent, and of other practical limitations in
the working of the actual engine. An immense amount of time and
ingenuity has been wasted in striving to realize impossible margins of
ideal efficiency, which a close study of the practical conditions would
have shown to be illusory. As Carnot remarks at the conclusion of his
essay: "Economy of fuel is only one of the conditions a heat-engine must
satisfy; in many cases it is only secondary, and must often give way to
considerations of safety, strength and wearing qualities of the machine,
of smallness of space occupied, or of expense in erecting. To know how
to appreciate justly in each case the considerations of convenience and
economy, to be able to distinguish the essential from the accessory, to
balance all fairly, and finally to arrive at the best result by the
simplest means, such must be the principal talent of the man called on
to direct and co-ordinate the work of his fellows for the attainment of
a useful object of any kind."
TRANSFERENCE OF HEAT
25. _Modes of Transference._--There are three principal modes of
transference of heat, namely (1) convection, (2) conduction, and (3)
radiation.
(1) In convection, heat is carried or conveyed by the motion of heated
masses of matter. The most familiar illustrations of this method of
transference are the heating of buildings by the circulation of steam or
hot water, or the equalization of temperature of a mass of unequally
heated liquid or gas by convection currents, produced by natural changes
of density or by artificial stirring. (2) In conduction, heat is
transferred by contact between contiguous particles of matter and is
passed on from one particle to the next without visible relative motion
of the parts of the body. A familiar illustration of conduction is the
passage of heat through the metal plates of a boiler from the fire to
the water inside, or the transference of heat from a soldering bolt to
the solder and the metal with which it is placed in contact. (3) In
radiation, the heated body gives rise to a motion of vibration in the
aether, which is propagated equally in all directions, and is
reconverted into heat when it encounters any obstacle capable of
absorbing it. Thus radiation differs from conduction and convection in
taking place most perfectly in the absence of matter, whereas conduction
and convection require material communication between the bodies
concerned.
In the majority of cases of transference of heat all three modes of
transference are simultaneously operative in a greater or less degree,
and the combined effect is generally of great complexity. The different
modes of transference are subject to widely different laws, and the
difficulty of disentangling their effects and subjecting them to
calculation is often one of the most serious obstacles in the
experimental investigation of heat. In space void of matter, we should
have pure radiation, but it is difficult to obtain so perfect a vacuum
that the effects of the residual gas in transferring heat by conduction
or convection are inappreciable. In the interior of an opaque solid we
should have pure conduction, but if the solid is sensibly transparent in
thin layers there must also be an internal radiation, while in a liquid
or a gas it is very difficult to eliminate the effects of convection.
These difficulties are well illustrated in the historical development of
the subject by the experimental investigations which have been made to
determine the laws of heat-transference, such as the laws of cooling, of
radiation and of conduction.
26. _Newton's Law of Cooling._--There is one essential condition common
to all three modes of heat-transference, namely, that they depend on
difference of temperature, that the direction of the transfer of heat is
always from hot to cold, and that the rate of transference is, for small
differences, directly proportional to the difference of temperature.
Without difference of temperature there is no transfer of heat. When two
bodies have been brought to the same temperature by conduction, they are
also in equilibrium as regards radiation, and vice versa. If this were
not the case, there could be no equilibrium of heat defined by equality
of temperature. A hot body placed in an enclosure of lower temperature,
e.g. a calorimeter in its containing vessel, generally loses heat by all
three modes simultaneously in different degrees. The loss by each mode
will depend in different ways on the form, extent and nature of its
surface and on that of the enclosure, on the manner in which it is
supported, on its relative position and distance from the enclosure, and
on the nature of the intervening medium. But provided that the
difference of temperature is small, the rate of loss of heat by all
modes will be approximately proportional to the difference of
temperature, the other conditions remaining constant. The rate of
cooling or the rate of fall of temperature will also be nearly
proportional to the rate of loss of heat, if the specific heat of the
cooling body is constant, or the rate of cooling at any moment will be
proportional to the difference of temperature. This simple relation is
commonly known as Newton's law of cooling, but is limited in its
application to comparatively simple cases such as the foregoing. Newton
himself applied it to estimate the temperature of a red-hot iron ball,
by observing the time which it took to cool from a red heat to a known
temperature, and comparing this with the time taken to cool through a
known range at ordinary temperatures. According to this law if the
excess of temperature of the body above its surroundings is observed at
equal intervals of time, the observed values will form a geometrical
progression with a common ratio. Supposing, for instance, that the
surrounding temperature were 0° C., that the red-hot ball took 25
minutes to cool from its original temperature to 20° C., and 5 minutes
to cool from 20° C. to 10° C., the original temperature is easily
calculated on the assumption that the excess of temperature above 0° C.
falls to half its value in each interval of 5 minutes. Doubling the
value 20° at 25 minutes five times, we arrive at 640° C. as the original
temperature. No other method of estimation of such temperatures was
available in the time of Newton, but, as we now know, the simple law of
proportionality to the temperature difference is inapplicable over such
large ranges of temperature. The rate of loss of heat by radiation, and
also by convection and conduction to the surrounding air, increases much
more rapidly than in simple proportion to the temperature difference,
and the rate of increase of each follows a different law. At a later
date Sir John Herschel measured the intensity of the solar radiation at
the surface of the earth, and endeavoured to form an estimate of the
temperature of the sun by comparison with terrestrial sources on the
assumption that the intensity of radiation was simply proportional to
the temperature difference. He thus arrived at an estimate of several
million degrees, which we now know would be about a thousand times too
great. The application of Newton's law necessarily leads to absurd
results when the difference of temperature is very large, but the error
will not in general exceed 2 to 3% if the temperature difference does
not exceed 10° C., and the percentage error is proportionately much
smaller for smaller differences.
27. _Dulong and Petit's Empirical Laws of Cooling._--One of the most
elaborate experimental investigations of the law of cooling was that of
Dulong and Petit (_Ann. Chim. Phys._, 1817, 7, pp. 225 and 337), who
observed the rate of cooling of a mercury thermometer from 300° C. in a
water-jacketed enclosure at various temperatures from 0° C. to 80° C. In
order to obtain the rate of cooling by radiation alone, they exhausted
the enclosure as perfectly as possible after the introduction of the
thermometer, but with the imperfect appliances available at that time
they were not able to obtain a vacuum better than about 3 or 4 mm. of
mercury. They found that the velocity of cooling V in a vacuum could be
represented by a formula of the type
V = A(a^t - a^t0) (5)
in which t is the temperature of the thermometer, and t0 that of the
enclosure, a is a constant having the value 1.0075, and the coefficient
A depends on the form of the bulb and the nature of its surface. For the
ranges of temperature they employed, this formula gives much better
results than Newton's, but it must be remembered that the temperatures
were expressed on the arbitrary scale of the mercury thermometer, and
were not corrected for the large and uncertain errors of stem-exposure
(see THERMOMETRY). Moreover, although the effects of cooling by
convection currents are practically eliminated by exhausting to 3 or 4
mm. (since the density of the gas is reduced to 1/200th while its
viscosity is not appreciably affected), the rate of cooling by
conduction is not materially diminished, since the conductivity, like
the viscosity, is nearly independent of pressure. It has since been
shown by Sir William Crookes (_Proc. Roy. Soc._, 1881, 21, p. 239) that
the rate of cooling of a mercury thermometer in a vacuum suffers a very
great diminution when the pressure is reduced from 1 mm. to .001 mm., at
which pressure the effect of conduction by the residual gas has
practically disappeared.
Dulong and Petit also observed the rate of cooling under the same
conditions with the enclosure filled with various gases. They found that
the cooling effect of the gas could be represented by adding to the term
already given as representing radiation, an expression of the form
V´ = Bp^c (t - t0)^(1.233). (6)
They found that the cooling effect of convection, unlike that of
radiation, was independent of the nature of the surface of the
thermometer, whether silvered or blackened, that it varied as some power
c of the pressure p, and that it was independent of the absolute
temperature of the enclosure, but varied as the excess temperature (t -
t0) raised to the power 1.233. This highly artificial result undoubtedly
contains some elements of truth, but could only be applied to
experiments similar to those from which it was derived. F. Hervé de la
Provostaye and P. Q. Desains (_Ann. Chim. Phys._, 1846, 16, p. 337), in
repeating these experiments under various conditions, found that the
coefficients A and B were to some extent dependent on the temperature,
and that the manner in which the cooling effect varied with the pressure
depended on the form and size of the enclosure. It is evident that this
should be the case, since the cooling effect of the gas depends partly
on convective currents. which are necessarily greatly modified by the
form of the enclosure in a manner which it would appear hopeless to
attempt to represent by any general formula.
28. _Surface Emissivity._--The same remark applies to many attempts
which have since been made to determine the general value of the
constant termed by Fourier and early writers the "exterior
conductibility," but now called the surface emissivity. This coefficient
represents the rate of loss of heat from a body per unit area of surface
per degree excess of temperature, and includes the effects of radiation,
convection and conduction. As already pointed out, the combined effect
will be nearly proportional to the excess of temperature in any given
case provided that the excess is small, but it is not necessarily
proportional to the extent of surface exposed except in the case of pure
radiation. The rate of loss by convection and conduction varies greatly
with the form of the surface, and, unless the enclosure is very large
compared with the cooling body, the effect depends also on the size and
form of the enclosure. Heat is necessarily communicated from the cooling
body to the layer of gas in contact with it by conduction. If the linear
dimensions of the body are small, as in the case of a fine wire, or if
it is separated from the enclosure by a thin layer of gas, the rate of
loss depends chiefly on conduction. For very fine metallic wires heated
by an electric current, W. E. Ayrton and H. Kilgour (_Phil. Trans._,
1892) showed that the rate of loss is nearly independent of the surface,
instead of being directly proportional to it. This should be the case,
as Porter has shown (_Phil. Mag._, March 1895), since the effect depends
mainly on conduction. The effects of conduction and radiation may be
approximately estimated if the conductivity of the gas and the nature
and forms of the surfaces of the body and enclosure are known, but the
effect of convection in any case can be determined only by experiment.
It has been found that the rate of cooling by a current of air is
approximately proportional to the velocity of the current, other things
being equal. It is obvious that this should be the case, but the result
cannot generally be applied to convection currents. Values which are
commonly given for the surface emissivity must therefore be accepted
with great reserve. They can be regarded only as approximate, and as
applicable only to cases precisely similar to those for which they were
experimentally obtained. There cannot be said to be any general law of
convection. The loss of heat is not necessarily proportional to the area
of the surface, and no general value of the coefficient can be given to
suit all cases. The laws of conduction and radiation admit of being more
precisely formulated, and their effects predicted, except in so far as
they are complicated by convection.
29. _Conduction of Heat._--The laws of transference of heat in the
interior of a solid body formed one of the earliest subjects of
mathematical and experimental treatment in the theory of heat. The law
assumed by Fourier was of the simplest possible type, but the
mathematical application, except in the simplest cases, was so difficult
as to require the development of a new mathematical method. Fourier
succeeded in showing how, by his method of analysis, the solution of any
given problem with regard to the flow of heat by conduction in any
material could be obtained in terms of a physical constant, the thermal
conductivity of the material, and that the results obtained by
experiment agreed in a qualitative manner with those predicted by his
theory. But the experimental determination of the actual values of these
constants presented formidable difficulties which were not surmounted
till a later date. The experimental methods and difficulties are
discussed in a special article on CONDUCTION OF HEAT. It will suffice
here to give a brief historical sketch, including a few of the more
important results by way of illustration.
30. _Comparison of Conducting Powers._--That the power of transmitting
heat by conduction varied widely in different materials was probably
known in a general way from prehistoric times. Empirical knowledge of
this kind is shown in the construction of many articles for heating,
cooking, &c., such as the copper soldering bolt, or the Norwegian
cooking-stove. One of the earliest experiments for making an actual
comparison of conducting powers was that suggested by Franklin, but
carried out by Jan Ingenhousz (_Journ. de phys._, 1789, 34, pp. 68 and
380). Exactly similar bars of different materials, glass, wood, metal,
&c., thinly coated with wax, were fixed in the side of a trough of
boiling water so as to project for equal distances through the side of
the trough into the external air. The wax coating was observed to melt
as the heat travelled along the bars, the distance from the trough to
which the wax was melted along each affording an approximate indication
of the distribution of temperature. When the temperature of each bar had
become stationary the heat which it gained by conduction from the trough
must be equal to the heat lost to the surrounding air, and must
therefore be approximately proportional to the distance to which the wax
had melted along the bar. But the temperature fall per unit length, or
the temperature-gradient, in each bar at the point where it emerged from
the trough would be inversely proportional to the same distance. For
equal temperature-gradients the quantities of heat conducted (or the
relative conducting powers of the bars) would therefore be proportional
to the squares of the distances to which the wax finally melted on each
bar. This was shown by Fourier and Despretz (_Ann. chim. phys._, 1822,
19, p. 97).
31. _Diffusion of Temperature._--It was shown in connexion with this
experiment by Sir H. Davy, and the experiment was later popularized by
John Tyndall, that the rate at which wax melted along the bar, or the
rate of propagation of a given temperature, during the first moments of
heating, as distinguished from the melting-distance finally attained,
depended on the specific heat as well as the conductivity. Short prisms
of iron and bismuth coated with wax were placed on a hot metal plate.
The wax was observed to melt first on the bismuth, although its
conductivity is less than that of iron. The reason is that its specific
heat is less than that of iron in the proportion of 3 to 11. The
densities of iron and bismuth being 7.8 and 9.8, the thermal capacities
of equal prisms will be in the ratio .86 for iron to .29 for bismuth. If
the prisms receive heat at equal rates, the bismuth will reach the
temperature of melting wax nearly three times as quickly as the iron. It
is often stated on the strength of this experiment that the rate of
propagation of a temperature wave, which depends on the ratio of the
conductivity to the specific heat per unit volume, is greater in bismuth
than in iron (e.g. Preston, _Heat_, p. 628). This is quite incorrect,
because the conductivity of iron is about six times that of bismuth, and
the rate of propagation of a temperature wave is therefore twice as
great in iron as in bismuth. The experiment in reality is misleading
because the rates of reception of heat by the prisms are limited by the
very imperfect contact with the hot metal plate, and are not
proportional to the respective conductivities. If the iron and bismuth
bars are properly faced and soldered to the top of a copper box (in
order to ensure good metallic contact, and exclude a non-conducting film
of air), and the box is then heated by steam, the rates of reception of
heat will be nearly proportional to the conductivities, and the wax will
melt nearly twice as fast along the iron as along the bismuth. A bar of
lead similarly treated will show a faster rate of propagation than iron,
because, although its conductivity is only half that of iron, its
specific heat per unit volume is 2.5 times smaller.
32. _Bad Conductors. Liquids and Gases._--Count Rumford (1792) compared
the conducting powers of substances used in clothing, such as wool and
cotton, fur and down, by observing the time which a thermometer took to
cool when embedded in a globe filled successively with the different
materials. The times of cooling observed for a given range varied from
1300 to 900 seconds for different materials. The low conducting power of
such materials is principally due to the presence of air in the
interstices, which is prevented from forming convection currents by the
presence of the fibrous material. Finely powdered silica is a very bad
conductor, but in the compact form of rock crystal it is as good a
conductor as some of the metals. According to the kinetic theory of
gases, the conductivity of a gas depends on molecular diffusion. Maxwell
estimated the conductivity of air at ordinary temperatures at about
20,000 times less than that of copper. This has been verified
experimentally by Kundt and Warburg, Stefan and Winkelmann, by taking
special precautions to eliminate the effects of convection currents and
radiation. It was for some time doubted whether a gas possessed any true
conductivity for heat. The experiment of T. Andrews, repeated by Grove,
and Magnus, showing that a wire heated by an electric current was raised
to a higher temperature in air than in hydrogen, was explained by
Tyndall as being due to the greater mobility of hydrogen which gave rise
to stronger convection currents. In reality the effect is due chiefly to
the greater velocity of motion of the ultimate molecules of hydrogen,
and is most marked if molar (as opposed to molecular) convection is
eliminated. Molecular convection or diffusion, which cannot be
distinguished experimentally from conduction, as it follows the same
law, is also the main cause of conduction of heat in liquids. Both in
liquids and gases the effects of convection currents are so much greater
than those of diffusion or conduction that the latter are very difficult
to measure, and, except in special cases, comparatively unimportant as
affecting the transference of heat. Owing to the difficulty of
eliminating the effects of radiation and convection, the results
obtained for the conductivities of liquids are somewhat discordant, and
there is in most cases great uncertainty whether the conductivity
increases or diminishes with rise of temperature. It would appear,
however, that liquids, such as water and glycerin, differ remarkably
little in conductivity in spite of enormous differences of viscosity.
The viscosity of a liquid diminishes very rapidly with rise of
temperature, without any marked change in the conductivity, whereas the
viscosity of a gas increases with rise of temperature, and is always
nearly proportional to the conductivity.
33. _Difficulty of Quantitative Estimation of Heat Transmitted._--The
conducting powers of different metals were compared by C. M. Despretz,
and later by G. H. Wiedemann and R. Franz, employing an extension of the
method of Jan Ingenhousz, in which the temperatures at different points
along a bar heated at one end were measured by thermometers or
thermocouples let into small holes in the bars, instead of being
measured at one point only by means of melting wax. These experiments
undoubtedly gave fairly accurate relative values, but did not permit the
calculation of the absolute amounts of heat transmitted. This was first
obtained by J. D. Forbes (_Brit. Assoc. Rep._, 1852; _Trans. Roy. Soc.
Ed._, 1862, 23, p. 133) by deducing the amount of heat lost to the
surrounding air from a separate experiment in which the rate of cooling
of the bar was observed (see CONDUCTION OF HEAT). Clément (_Ann. chim.
phys._, 1841) had previously attempted to determine the conductivities
of metals by observing the amount of heat transmitted by a plate with
one side exposed to steam at 100° C., and the other side cooled by water
at 28° C. Employing a copper plate 3 mm. thick, and assuming that the
two surfaces of the plate were at the same temperatures as the water and
the steam to which they were exposed, or that the temperature-gradient
in the metal was 72° in 3 mm., he had thus obtained a value which we now
know to be nearly 200 times too small. The actual temperature difference
in the metal itself was really about 0.36° C. The remainder of the 72°
drop was in the badly conducting films of water and steam close to the
metal surface. Similarly in a boiler plate in contact with flame at
1500° C. on one side and water at, say, 150° C. on the other, the actual
difference of temperature in the metal, even if it is an inch thick, is
only a few degrees. The metal, unless badly furred with incrustation, is
but little hotter than the water. It is immaterial so far as the
transmission of heat is concerned, whether the plates are iron or
copper. The greater part of the resistance to the passage of heat
resides in a comparatively quiescent film of gas close to the surface,
through which film the heat has to pass mainly by conduction. If a
Bunsen flame, preferably coloured with sodium, is observed impinging on
a cold metal plate, it will be seen to be separated from the plate by a
dark space of a millimetre or less, throughout which the temperature of
the gas is lowered by its own conductivity below the temperature of
incandescence. There is no abrupt change of temperature in passing from
the gas to the metal, but a continuous temperature-gradient from the
temperature of the metal to that of the flame. It is true that this
gradient may be upwards of 1000° C. per mm., but there is no
discontinuity.
34. _Resistance of a Gas Film to the Passage of Heat._--It is possible
to make a rough estimate of the resistance of such a film to the passage
of heat through it. Taking the average conductivity of the gas in the
film as 10,000 times less than that of copper (about double the
conductivity of air at ordinary temperatures) a millimetre film would be
equivalent to a thickness of 10 metres of copper, or about 1.2 metres of
iron. Taking the temperature-gradient as 1000° C. per mm. such a film
would transmit 1 gramme-calorie per sq. cm. per sec., or 36,000
kilo-calories per sq. metre per hour. With an area of 100 sq. cms. the
heat transmitted at this rate would raise a litre of water from 20° C.
to 100° C. in 800 secs. By experiment with a strong Bunsen flame it
takes from 8 to 10 minutes to do this, which would indicate that on the
above assumptions the equivalent thickness of quiescent film should be
rather less than 1 mm. in this case. The thickness of the film
diminishes with the velocity of the burning gases impinging on the
surface. This accounts for the rapidity of heating by a blowpipe flame,
which is not due to any great increase in temperature of the flame as
compared with a Bunsen. Similarly the efficiency of a boiler is but
slightly reduced if half the tubes are stopped up, because the increase
of draught through the remainder compensates partly for the diminished
heating surface. Some resistance to the passage of heat into a boiler is
also due to the water film on the inside. But this is of less account,
because the conductivity of water is much greater than that of air, and
because the film is continually broken up by the formation of steam,
which abstracts heat very rapidly.
35. _Heating by Condensation of Steam._--It is often stated that the
rate at which steam will condense on a metal surface at a temperature
below that corresponding to the saturation pressure of the steam is
practically infinite (e.g. Osborne Reynolds, _Proc. Roy. Soc. Ed._,
1873, p. 275), and conversely that the rate at which water will abstract
heat from a metal surface by the formation of steam (if the metal is
above the temperature of saturation of the steam) is limited only by the
rate at which the metal can supply heat by conduction to its surface
layer. The rate at which heat can be supplied by condensation of steam
appears to be much greater than that at which heat can be supplied by a
flame under ordinary conditions, but there is no reason to suppose that
it is infinite, or that any discontinuity exists. Experiments by H. L.
Callendar and J. T. Nicolson by three independent methods (_Proc. Inst.
Civ. Eng._, 1898, 131, p. 147; _Brit. Assoc. Rep._ p. 418) appear to
show that the rate of abstraction of heat by evaporation, or that of
communication of heat by condensation, depends chiefly on the difference
of temperature between the metal surface and the saturated steam, and is
nearly proportional to the temperature difference (not to the pressure
difference, as suggested by Reynolds) for such ranges of pressure as are
common in practice. The rate of heat transmission they observed was
equivalent to about 8 calories per sq. cm. per sec., for a difference of
20° C. between the temperature of the metal surface and the saturation
temperature of the steam. This would correspond to a condensation of 530
kilogrammes of steam at 100° C. per sq. metre per hour, or 109 lb. per
sq. ft. per hour for the same difference of temperature, values which
are many times greater than those actually obtained in ordinary surface
condensers. The reason for this is that there is generally some air
mixed with the steam in a surface condenser, which greatly retards the
condensation. It is also difficult to keep the temperature of the metal
as much as 20° C. below the temperature of the steam unless a very free
and copious circulation of cold water is available. For the same
difference of temperature, steam can supply heat by condensation about a
thousand times faster than hot air. This rate is not often approached in
practice, but the facility of generation and transmission of steam,
combined with its high latent heat and the accuracy of control and
regulation of temperature afforded, render it one of the most convenient
agents for the distribution of large quantities of heat in all kinds of
manufacturing processes.
36. _Spheroidal State._--An interesting contrast to the extreme rapidity
with which heat is abstracted by the evaporation of a liquid in contact
with a metal plate, is the so-called spheroidal state. A small drop of
liquid thrown on a red-hot metal plate assumes a spheroidal form, and
continues swimming about for some time, while it slowly evaporates at a
temperature somewhat below its boiling-point. The explanation is simply
that the liquid itself cannot come in actual contact with the metal
plate (especially if the latter is above the critical temperature), but
is separated from it by a badly conducting film of vapour, through
which, as we have seen, the heat is comparatively slowly transmitted
even if the difference of temperature is several hundred degrees. If the
metal plate is allowed to cool gradually, the drop remains suspended on
its cushion of vapour, until, in the case of water, a temperature of
about 200° C. is reached, at which the liquid comes in contact with the
plate and boils explosively, reducing the temperature of the plate, if
thin, almost instantaneously to 100° C. The temperature of the metal is
readily observed by a thermo-electric method, employing a platinum dish
with a platinum-rhodium wire soldered with gold to its under side. The
absence of contact between the liquid and the dish in the spheroidal
state may also be shown by connecting one terminal of a galvanometer to
the drop and the other through a battery to the dish, and observing that
no current passes until the drop boils.
37. _Early Theories of Radiation._--It was at one time supposed that
there were three distinct kinds of radiation--thermal, luminous and
actinic, combined in the radiation from a luminous source such as the
sun or a flame. The first gave rise to heat, the second to light and the
third to chemical action. The three kinds were partially separated by a
prism, the actinic rays being generally more refracted, and the thermal
rays less refracted than the luminous. This conception arose very
naturally from the observation that the feebly luminous blue and violet
rays produced the greatest photographic effects, which also showed the
existence of dark rays beyond the violet, whereas the brilliant yellow
and red were practically without action on the photographic plate. A
thermometer placed in the blue or violet showed no appreciable rise of
temperature, and even in the yellow the effect was hardly discernible.
The effect increased rapidly as the light faded towards the extreme red,
and reached a maximum beyond the extreme limits of the spectrum
(Herschel), showing that the greater part of the thermal radiation was
altogether non-luminous. It is now a commonplace that chemical action,
colour sensation and heat are merely different effects of one and the
same kind of radiation, the particular effect produced in each case
depending on the frequency and intensity of the vibration, and on the
nature of the substance on which it falls. When radiation is completely
absorbed by a black substance, it is converted into heat, the quantity
of heat produced being equivalent to the total energy of the radiation
absorbed, irrespective of the colour or frequency of the different rays.
The actinic or chemical effects, on the other hand, depend essentially
on some relation between the period of the vibration and the properties
of the substance acted on. The rays producing such effects are generally
those which are most strongly absorbed. The spectrum of chlorophyll, the
green colouring matter of plants, shows two very strong absorption bands
in the red. The red rays of corresponding period are found to be the
most active in promoting the growth of the plant. The chemically active
rays are not necessarily the shortest. Even photographic plates may be
made to respond to the red rays by staining them with pinachrome or some
other suitable dye.
The action of light rays on the retina is closely analogous to the
action on a photographic plate. The retina, like the plate, is sensitive
only to rays within certain restricted limits of frequency. The limits
of sensitiveness of each colour sensation are not exactly defined, but
vary slightly from one individual to another, especially in cases of
partial colour-blindness, and are modified by conditions of fatigue. We
are not here concerned with these important physiological and chemical
effects of radiation, but rather with the question of the conversion of
energy of radiation into heat, and with the laws of emission and
absorption of radiation in relation to temperature. We may here also
assume the identity of visible and invisible radiations from a heated
body in all their physical properties. It has been abundantly proved
that the invisible rays, like the visible, (1) are propagated in
straight lines in homogeneous media; (2) are reflected and diffused from
the surface of bodies according to the same law; (3) travel with the
same velocity in free space, but with slightly different velocities in
denser media, being subject to the same law of refraction; (4) exhibit
all the phenomena of diffraction and interference which are
characteristic of wave-motion in general; (5) are capable of
polarization and double refraction; (6) exhibit similar effects of
selective absorption. These properties are more easily demonstrated in
the case of visible rays on account of the great sensitiveness of the
eye. But with the aid of the thermopile or other sensitive radiometer,
they may be shown to belong equally to all the radiations from a heated
body, even such as are thirty to fifty times slower in frequency than
the longest visible rays. The same physical properties have also been
shown to belong to electromagnetic waves excited by an electric
discharge, whatever the frequency, thus including all kinds of aetherial
radiation in the same category as light.
38. _Theory of Exchanges._--The apparent concentration of cold by a
concave mirror, observed by G. B. Porta and rediscovered by M. A.
Pictet, led to the enunciation of the theory of exchanges by Pierre
Prevost in 1791. Prevost's leading idea was that all bodies, whether
cold or hot, are constantly radiating heat. Heat equilibrium, he says,
consists in an equality of exchange. When equilibrium is interfered
with, it is re-established by inequalities of exchange. If into a
locality at uniform temperature a refracting or reflecting body is
introduced, it has no effect in the way of changing the temperature at
any point of that locality. A reflecting body, heated or cooled in the
interior of such an enclosure, will acquire the surrounding temperature
more slowly than would a non-reflector, and will less affect another
body placed at a little distance, but will not affect the final equality
of temperature. Apparent radiation of cold, as from a block of ice to a
thermometer placed near it, is due to the fact that the thermometer
being at a higher temperature sends more heat to the ice than it
received back from it. Although Prevost does not make the statement in
so many words, it is clear that he regards the radiation from a body as
depending only on its own nature and temperature, and as independent of
the nature and presence of any adjacent body. Heat equilibrium in an
enclosure of constant temperature such as is here postulated by Prevost,
has often been regarded as a consequence of Carnot's principle. Since
difference of temperature is required for transforming heat into work,
no work could be obtained from heat in such a system, and no spontaneous
changes of temperature can take place, as any such changes might be
utilized for the production of work. This line of reasoning does not
appear quite satisfactory, because it is tacitly assumed, in the
reasoning by which Carnot's principle was established, as a result of
universal experience, that a number of bodies within the same impervious
enclosure, which contains no source of heat, will ultimately acquire the
same temperature, and that difference of temperature is required to
produce flow of heat. Thus although we may regard the equilibrium in
such an enclosure as being due to equal exchanges of heat in all
directions, the equal and opposite streams of radiation annul and
neutralize each other in such a way that no actual transfer of energy in
any direction takes place. The state of the medium is everywhere the
same in such an enclosure, but its energy of agitation per unit volume
is a function of the temperature, and is such that it would not be in
equilibrium with any body at a different temperature.
39. _"Full" and Selective Radiation. Correspondence of Emission and
Absorption._--The most obvious difficulties in the way of this theory
arise from the fact that nearly all radiation is more or less selective
in character, as regards the quality and frequency of the rays emitted
and absorbed. It was shown by J. Leslie, M. Melloni and other
experimentalists that many substances such as glass and water, which are
very transparent to visible rays, are extremely opaque to much of the
invisible radiation of lower frequency; and that polished metals, which
are perfect reflectors, are very feeble radiators as compared with dull
or black bodies at the same temperature. If two bodies emit rays of
different periods in different proportions, it is not at first sight
easy to see how their radiations can balance each other at the same
temperature. The key to all such difficulties lies in the fundamental
conception, so strongly insisted on by Balfour Stewart, of the absolute
uniformity (qualitative as well as quantitative) of the full or complete
radiation stream inside an impervious enclosure of uniform temperature.
It follows from this conception that the proportion of the full
radiation stream absorbed by any body in such an enclosure must be
exactly compensated in quality as well as quantity by the proportion
emitted, or that the emissive and absorptive powers of any body at a
given temperature must be precisely equal. A good reflector, like a
polished metal, must also be a feeble radiator and absorber. Of the
incident radiation it absorbs a small fraction and reflects the
remainder, which together with the radiation emitted (being precisely
equal to that absorbed) makes up the full radiation stream. A partly
transparent material, like glass, absorbs part of the full radiation and
transmits part. But it emits rays precisely equal in quality and
intensity to those which it absorbs, which together with the transmitted
portion make up the full stream. The ideal black body or perfect
radiator is a body which absorbs all the radiation incident on it. The
rays emitted from such a body at any temperature must be equal to the
full radiation stream in an isothermal enclosure at the same
temperature. Lampblack, which may absorb between 98 to 99% of the
incident radiation, is generally taken as the type of a black body. But
a closer approximation to full radiation may be obtained by employing a
hollow vessel the internal walls of which are blackened and maintained
at a uniform temperature by a steam jacket or other suitable means. If a
relatively small hole is made in the side of such a vessel, the
radiation proceeding through the aperture will be the full radiation
corresponding to the temperature. Such a vessel is also a perfect
absorber. Of radiation entering through the aperture an infinitesimal
fraction only could possibly emerge by successive reflection even if the
sides were of polished metal internally. A thin platinum tube heated by
an electric current appears feebly luminous as compared with a blackened
tube at the same temperature. But if a small hole is made in the side of
the polished tube, the light proceeding through the hole appears
brighter than the blackened tube, as though the inside of the tube were
much hotter than the outside, which is not the case to any appreciable
extent if the tube is thin. The radiation proceeding through the hole is
nearly that of a perfectly black body if the hole is small. If there
were no hole the internal stream of radiation would be exactly that of a
black body at the same temperature however perfect the reflecting power,
or however low the emissive power of the walls, because the defect in
emissive power would be exactly compensated by the internal reflection.
Balfour Stewart gave a number of striking illustrations of the
qualitative identity of emission and absorption of a substance. Pieces
of coloured glass placed in a fire appear to lose their colour when at
the same temperature as the coals behind them, because they compensate
exactly for their selective absorption by radiating chiefly those
colours which they absorb. Rocksalt is remarkably transparent to thermal
radiation of nearly all kinds, but it is extremely opaque to radiation
from a heated plate of rocksalt, because it emits when heated precisely
those rays which it absorbs. A plate of tourmaline cut parallel to the
axis absorbs almost completely light polarized in a plane parallel to
the axis, but transmits freely light polarized in a perpendicular plane.
When heated its radiation is polarized in the same plane as the
radiation which it absorbs. In the case of incandescent vapours, the
exact correspondence of emission and absorption as regards wave-length
of frequency of the light emitted and absorbed forms the foundation of
the science of spectrum analysis. Fraunhofer had noticed the coincidence
of a pair of bright yellow lines seen in the spectrum of a candle flame
with the dark D lines in the solar spectrum, a coincidence which was
afterwards more exactly verified by W. A. Miller. Foucault found that
the flame of the electric arc showed the same lines bright in its
spectrum, and proved that they appeared as dark lines in the otherwise
continuous spectrum when the light from the carbon poles was transmitted
through the arc. Stokes gave a dynamical explanation of the phenomenon
and illustrated it by the analogous case of resonance in sound.
Kirchhoff completed the explanation (_Phil. Mag._, 1860) of the dark
lines in the solar spectrum by showing that the reversal of the spectral
lines depended on the fact that the body of the sun giving the
continuous spectrum was at a higher temperature than the absorbing layer
of gases surrounding it. Whatever be the nature of the selective
radiation from a body, the radiation of light of any particular
wave-length cannot be greater than a certain fraction E of the radiation
R of the same wave-length from a black body at the same temperature. The
fraction E measures the emissive power of the body for that particular
wave-length, and cannot be greater than unity. The same fraction, by the
principle of equality of emissive and absorptive powers, will measure
the proportion absorbed of incident radiation R´. If the black body
emitting the radiation R´ is at the same temperature as the absorbing
layer, R = R´, the emission balances the absorption, and the line will
appear neither bright nor dark. If the source and the absorbing layer
are at different temperatures, the radiation absorbed will be ER´, and
that transmitted will be R´ - ER´. To this must be added the radiation
emitted by the absorbing layer, namely ER, giving R´ - E(R´ - R). The
lines will appear darker than the background R´ if R´ is greater than R,
but bright if the reverse is the case. The D lines are dark in the sun
because the photosphere is much hotter than the reversing layer. They
appear bright in the candle-flame because the outside mantle of the
flame, in which the sodium burns and combustion is complete, is hotter
than the inner reducing flame containing the incandescent particles of
carbon which give rise to the continuous spectrum. This qualitative
identity of emission and absorption as regards wave-length can be most
exactly and easily verified for luminous rays, and we are justified in
assuming that the relation holds with the same exactitude for
non-luminous rays, although in many cases the experimental proof is less
complete and exact.
40. _Diathermancy._--A great array of data with regard to the
transmissive power or diathermancy of transparent substances for the
heat radiated from various sources at different temperatures were
collected by Melloni, Tyndall, Magnus and other experimentalists. The
measurements were chiefly of a qualitative character, and were made by
interposing between the source and a thermopile a layer or plate of the
substance to be examined. This method lacked quantitative precision, but
led to a number of striking and interesting results, which are admirably
set forth in Tyndall's _Heat_. It also gave rise to many curious
discrepancies, some of which were recognized as being due to selective
absorption, while others are probably to be explained by imperfections
in the methods of experiment adopted. The general result of such
researches was to show that substances, like water, alum and glass,
which are practically opaque to radiation from a source at low
temperature, such as a vessel filled with boiling water, transmit an
increasing percentage of the radiation when the temperature of the
source is increased. This is what would be expected, as these substances
are very transparent to visible rays. That the proportion transmitted is
not merely a question of the temperature of the source, but also of the
quality of the radiation, was shown by a number of experiments. For
instance, K. H. Knoblauch (_Pogg. Ann._, 1847) found that a plate of
glass interposed between a spirit lamp and a thermopile intercepts a
larger proportion of the radiation from the flame itself than of the
radiation from a platinum spiral heated in the flame, although the
spiral is undoubtedly at a lower temperature than the flame. The
explanation is that the spiral is a fairly good radiator of the visible
rays to which the glass is transparent, but a bad radiator of the
invisible rays absorbed by the glass which constitute the greater
portion of the heat-radiation from the feebly luminous flame.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Tyndall's Apparatus for observing absorption of
heat by gas and vapours.]
Assuming that the radiation from the source under investigation is
qualitatively determinate, like that of a black body at a given
temperature, the proportion transmitted by plates of various substances
may easily be measured and tabulated for given plates and sources. But
owing to the highly selective character of the radiation and absorption,
it is impossible to give any general relation between the thickness of
the absorbing plate or layer and the proportion of the total energy
absorbed. For these reasons the relative diathermancies of different
materials do not admit of any simple numerical statement as physical
constants, though many of the qualitative results obtained are very
striking. Among the most interesting experiments were those of Tyndall,
on the absorptive powers of gases and vapours, which led to a good deal
of controversy at the time, owing to the difficulty of the experiments,
and the contradictory results obtained by other observers. The
arrangement employed by Tyndall for these measurements is shown in Fig.
6. A brass tube AB, polished inside, and closed with plates of highly
diathermanous rocksalt at either end, was fitted with stopcocks C and D
for exhausting and admitting air or other gases or vapours. The source
of heat S was usually a plate of copper heated by a Bunsen burner, or a
Leslie cube containing boiling water as shown at E. To obtain greater
sensitiveness for differential measurements, the radiation through the
tube AB incident on one face of the pile P was balanced against the
radiation from a Leslie cube on the other face of the pile by means of
an adjustable screen H. The radiation on the two faces of the pile being
thus balanced with the tube exhausted, Tyndall found that the admission
of dry air into the tube produced practically no absorption of the
radiation, whereas compound gases such as carbonic acid, ethylene or
ammonia absorbed 20 to 90%, and a trace of aqueous vapour in the air
increased its absorption 50 to 100 times. H. G. Magnus, on the other
hand, employing a thermopile and a source of heat, both of which were
enclosed in the same exhausted receiver, in order to avoid interposing
any rocksalt or other plates between the source and the pile, found an
absorption of 11% on admitting dry air, but could not detect any
difference whether the air were dry or moist. Tyndall suggested that the
apparent absorption observed by Magnus may have been due to the cooling
of his radiating surface by convection, which is a very probable source
of error in this method of experiment. Magnus considered that the
remarkable effect of aqueous vapour observed by Tyndall might have been
caused by condensation on the polished internal walls of his
experimental tube, or on the rocksalt plates at either end.[7] The
question of the relative diathermancy of air and aqueous vapour for
radiation from the sun to the earth and from the earth into space is one
of great interest and importance in meteorology. Assuming with Magnus
that at least 10% of the heat from a source at 100° C. is absorbed in
passing through a single foot of air, a very moderate thickness of
atmosphere should suffice to absorb practically all the heat radiated
from the earth into space. This could not be reconciled with well-known
facts in regard to terrestrial radiation, and it was generally
recognized that the result found by Magnus must be erroneous. Tyndall's
experiment on the great diathermancy of dry air agreed much better with
meteorological phenomena, but he appears to have exaggerated the effect
of aqueous vapour. He concluded from his experiments that the water
vapour present in the air absorbs at least 10% of the heat radiated from
the earth within 10 ft. of its surface, and that the absorptive power of
the vapour is about 17,000 times that of air at the same pressure. If
the absorption of aqueous vapour were really of this order of magnitude,
it would exert a far greater effect in modifying climate than is
actually observed to be the case. Radiation is observed to take place
freely through the atmosphere at times when the proportion of aqueous
vapour is such as would practically stop all radiation if Tyndall's
results were correct. The very careful experiments of E. Lecher and J.
Pernter (_Phil. Mag._, Jan. 1881) confirmed Tyndall's observations on
the absorptive powers of gases and vapours satisfactorily in nearly all
cases with the single exception of aqueous vapour. They found that there
was no appreciable absorption of heat from a source at 100° C. in
passing through 1 ft. of air (whether dry or moist), but that CO and CO2
at atmospheric pressure absorbed about 8%, and ethylene (olefiant gas)
about 50% in the same distance; the vapours of alcohol and ether showed
absorptive powers of the same order as that of ethylene. They confirmed
Tyndall's important result that the absorption does not diminish in
proportion to the pressure, being much greater in proportion for smaller
pressures in consequence of the selective character of the effect. They
also supported his conclusion that absorptive power increases with the
complexity of the molecule. But they could not detect any absorption by
water vapour at a pressure of 7 mm., though alcohol at the same pressure
absorbed 3% and acetic acid 10%. Later researches, especially those of
S. P. Langley with the spectro-bolometer on the infra-red spectrum of
sunlight, demonstrated the existence of marked absorption bands, some of
which are due to water vapour. From the character of these bands and the
manner in which they vary with the state of the air and the thickness
traversed, it may be inferred that absorption by water vapour plays an
important part in meteorology, but that it is too small to be readily
detected by laboratory experiments in a 4 ft. tube, without the aid of
spectrum analysis.
41. _Relation between Radiation and Temperature._--Assuming, in
accordance with the reasoning of Balfour Stewart and Kirchhoff, that the
radiation stream inside an impervious enclosure at a uniform temperature
is independent of the nature of the walls of the enclosure, and is the
same for all substances at the same temperature, it follows that the
full stream of radiation in such an enclosure, or the radiation emitted
by an ideal black body or full radiator, is a function of the
temperature only. The form of this function may be determined
experimentally by observing the radiation between two black bodies at
different temperatures, which will be proportional to the difference of
the full radiation streams corresponding to their several temperatures.
The law now generally accepted was first proposed by Stefan as an
empirical relation. Tyndall had found that the radiation from a white
hot platinum wire at 1200° C. was 11.7 times its radiation when dull red
at 525° C. Stefan (_Wien. Akad. Ber._, 1879, 79, p. 421) noticed that
the ratio 11.7 is nearly that of the fourth power of the absolute
temperatures as estimated by Tyndall. On making the somewhat different
assumption that the radiation between two bodies varied as the
difference of the fourth powers of their absolute temperatures, he found
that it satisfied approximately the experiments of Dulong and Petit and
other observers. According to this law the radiation between a black
body at a temperature [theta] and a black enclosure or a black
radiometer at a temperature [theta]0 should be proportional to
([theta]^4 - [theta]0^4). The law was very simple and convenient in
form, but it rested so far on very insecure foundations. The
temperatures given by Tyndall were merely estimated from the colour of
the light emitted, and might have been some hundred degrees in error. We
now know that the radiation from polished platinum is of a highly
selective character, and varies more nearly as the fifth power of the
absolute temperature. The agreement of the fourth power law with
Tyndall's experiment appears therefore to be due to a purely accidental
error in estimating the temperatures of the wire. Stefan also found a
very fair agreement with Draper's observations of the intensity of
radiation from a platinum wire, in which the temperature of the wire was
deduced from the expansion. Here again the apparent agreement was
largely due to errors in estimating the temperature, arising from the
fact that the coefficient of expansion of platinum increases
considerably with rise of temperature. So far as the experimental
results available at that time were concerned, Stefan's law could be
regarded only as an empirical expression of doubtful significance. But
it received a much greater importance from theoretical investigations
which were even then in progress. James Clerk Maxwell (_Electricity and
Magnetism_, 1873) had shown that a directed beam of electromagnetic
radiation or light incident normally on an absorbing surface should
produce a mechanical pressure equal to the energy of the radiation per
unit volume. A. G. Bartoli (1875) took up this idea and made it the
basis of a thermodynamic treatment of radiation. P. N. Lebedew in 1900,
and E. F. Nichols and G. F. Hull in 1901, proved the existence of this
pressure by direct experiments. L. Boltzmann (1884) employing radiation
as the working substance in a Carnot cycle, showed that the energy of
full radiation at any temperature per unit volume should be proportional
to the fourth power of the absolute temperature. This law was first
verified in a satisfactory manner by Heinrich Schneebeli (_Wied. Ann._,
1884, 22, p. 30). He observed the radiation from the bulb of an air
thermometer heated to known temperatures through a small aperture in the
walls of the furnace. With this arrangement the radiation was very
nearly that of a black body. Measurements by J. T. Bottomley, August
Schleiermacher, L. C. H. F. Paschen and others of the radiation from
electrically heated platinum, failed to give concordant results on
account of differences in the quality of the radiation, the importance
of which was not fully realized at first. Later researches by Paschen
with improved methods verified the law, and greatly extended our
knowledge of radiation in other directions. One of the most complete
series of experiments on the relation between full radiation and
temperature is that of O. R. Lummer and Ernst Pringsheim (_Ann. Phys._,
1897, 63, p. 395). They employed an aperture in the side of an enclosure
at uniform temperature as the source of radiation, and compared the
intensities at different temperatures by means of a bolometer. The
fourth power law was well satisfied throughout the whole range of their
experiments from -190° C. to 2300° C. According to this law, the rate of
loss of heat by radiation R from a body of emissive power E and surface
S at a temperature [theta] in an enclosure at [theta]0 is given by the
formula
R = [sigma]ES([theta]^4 - [theta]0^4),
where [sigma] is the radiation constant. The absolute value of [sigma]
was determined by F. Kurlbaum using an electric compensation method
(_Wied. Ann._, 1898, 65, p. 746), in which the radiation received by a
bolometer from a black body at a known temperature was measured by
finding the electric current required to produce the same rise of
temperature in the bolometer. K. Ångstrom employed a similar method for
solar radiation. Kurlbaum gives the value [sigma] = 5.32 × 10^(-5) ergs
per sq. cm. per sec. C. Christiansen (_Wied. Ann._, 1883, 19, p. 267)
had previously found a value about 5% smaller, by observing the rate of
cooling of a copper plate of known thermal capacity, which is probably a
less accurate method.
42. _Theoretical Proof of the Fourth Power Law._--The proof given by
Boltzmann may be somewhat simplified if we observe that full radiation
in an enclosure at constant temperature behaves exactly like a
saturated vapour, and must therefore obey Carnot's or Clapeyron's
equation given in section 17. The energy of radiation per unit volume,
and the radiation-pressure at any temperature, are functions of the
temperature only, like the pressure of a saturated vapour. If the
volume of the enclosure is increased by any finite amount, the
temperature remaining the same, radiation is given off from the walls
so as to fill the space to the same pressure as before. The heat
absorbed when the volume is increased corresponds with the latent heat
of vaporization. In the case of radiation, as in the case of a vapour,
the latent heat consists partly of internal energy of formation and
partly of external work of expansion at constant pressure. Since in
the case of full or undirected radiation the pressure is one-third of
the energy per unit volume, the external work for any expansion is
one-third of the internal energy added. The latent heat absorbed is,
therefore, four times the external work of expansion. Since the
external work is the product of the pressure P and the increase of
volume V, the latent heat per unit increase of volume is four times
the pressure. But by Carnot's equation the latent heat of a saturated
vapour per unit increase of volume is equal to the rate of increase of
saturation-pressure per degree divided by Carnot's function or
multiplied by the absolute temperature. Expressed in symbols we have,
[theta](dP/d[theta]) = L/V = 4P,
where (dP/d[theta]) represents the rate of increase of pressure. This
equation shows that the percentage rate of increase of pressure is
four times the percentage rate of increase of temperature, or that if
the temperature is increased by 1%, the pressure is increased by 4%.
This is equivalent to the statement that the pressure varies as the
fourth power of the temperature, a result which is mathematically
deduced by integrating the equation.
43. _Wien's Displacement Law._--Assuming that the fourth power law gives
the quantity of full radiation at any temperature, it remains to
determine how the quality of the radiation varies with the temperature,
since as we have seen both quantity and quality are determinate. This
question may be regarded as consisting of two parts. (1) How is the
wave-length or frequency of any given kind of radiation changed when its
temperature is altered? (2) What is the form of the curve expressing the
distribution of energy between the various wave-lengths in the spectrum
of full radiation, or what is the distribution of heat in the spectrum?
The researches of Tyndall, Draper, Langley and other investigators had
shown that while the energy of radiation of each frequency increased
with rise of temperature, the maximum of intensity was shifted or
displaced along the spectrum in the direction of shorter wave-lengths or
higher frequencies. W. Wien (_Ann. Phys._, 1898, 58, p. 662), applying
Doppler's principle to the adiabatic compression of radiation in a
perfectly reflecting enclosure, deduced that the wave-length of each
constituent of the radiation should be shortened in proportion to the
rise of temperature produced by the compression, in such a manner that
the product [lambda][theta] of wave-length and the absolute temperature
should remain constant. According to this relation, which is known as
Wien's Displacement Law, the frequency corresponding to the maximum
ordinate of the energy curve of the normal spectrum of full radiation
should vary directly (or the wave-length inversely) as the absolute
temperature, a result previously obtained by H. F. Weber (1888).
Paschen, and Lummer and Pringsheim verified this relation by observing
with a bolometer the intensity at different points in the spectrum
produced by a fluorite prism. The intensities were corrected and reduced
to a wave-length scale with the aid of Paschen's results on the
dispersion formula of fluorite (_Wied. Ann._, 1894, 53, p. 301). The
curves in fig. 7 illustrate results obtained by Lummer and Pringsheim
(_Ber. deut. phys. Ges._, 1899, 1, p. 34) at three different
temperatures, namely 1377°, 1087° and 836° absolute, plotted on a
wave-length base with a scale of microns ([mu]) or millionths of a
metre. The wave-lengths Oa, Ob, Oc, corresponding to the maximum
ordinates of each curve, vary inversely as the absolute temperatures
given. The constant value of the product [lambda][theta] at the maximum
point is found to be 2920. Thus for a temperature of 1000° Abs. the
maximum is at wave-length 2.92 [mu]; at 2000° the maximum is at 1.46
[mu].
44. _Form of the Curve representing the Distribution of Energy in the
Spectrum._--Assuming Wien's displacement law, it follows that the form
of the curve representing the distribution of energy in the spectrum of
full radiation should be the same for different temperatures with the
maximum displaced in proportion to the absolute temperature, and with
the total area increased in proportion to the fourth power of the
absolute temperature. Observations taken with a bolometer along the
length of a normal or wave-length spectrum, would give the form of the
curve plotted on a wave-length base. The height of the ordinate at each
point would represent the energy included between given limits of
wave-length, depending on the width of the bolometer strip and the slit.
Supposing that the bolometer strip had a width corresponding to .01
[mu], and were placed at 1.0 [mu] in the spectrum of radiation at 2000°
Abs., it would receive the energy corresponding to wave-lengths between
1.00 and 1.01 [mu]. At a temperature of 1000° Abs. the corresponding
part of the energy, by Wien's displacement law, would lie between the
limits 2.00 and 2.02 [mu], and the total energy between these limits
would be 16 times smaller. But the bolometer strip placed at 2.0 [mu]
would now receive only half of the energy, or the energy in a band .01
[mu] wide, and the deflection would be 32 times less. Corresponding
ordinates of the curves at different temperatures will therefore vary as
the fifth power of the temperature, when the curves are plotted on a
wave-length base. The maximum ordinates in the curves already given are
found to vary as the fifth powers of the corresponding temperatures. The
equation representing the distribution of energy on a wave-length base
must be of the form
E = C[lambda]^(-5) F([lambda][theta]) =
C[theta]^5 ([lambda][theta])^(-5) F([lambda][theta])
where F([lambda][theta]) represents some function of the product of the
wave-length and temperature, which remains constant for corresponding
wave-lengths when [theta] is changed. If the curves were plotted on a
frequency base, owing to the change of scale, the maximum ordinates
would vary as the cube of the temperature instead of the fifth power,
but the form of the function F would remain unaltered. Reasoning on the
analogy of the distribution of velocities among the particles of a gas
on the kinetic theory, which is a very similar problem, Wien was led to
assume that the function F should be of the form e^(-c/[lambda][theta]),
where e is the base of Napierian logarithms, and c is a constant having
the value 14,600 if the wave-length is measured in microns [mu]. This
expression was found by Paschen to give a very good approximation to the
form of the curve obtained experimentally for those portions of the
visible and infra-red spectrum where observations could be most
accurately made. The formula was tested in two ways: (1) by plotting the
curves of distribution of energy in the spectrum for constant
temperatures as illustrated in fig. 7; (2) by plotting the energy
corresponding to a given wave-length as a function of the temperature.
Both methods gave very good agreement with Wien's formula for values of
the product [lambda][theta] not much exceeding 3000. A method of
isolating rays of great wave-length by successive reflection was devised
by H. Rubens and E. F. Nichols (_Wied. Ann._, 1897, 60, p. 418). They
found that quartz and fluorite possessed the property of selective
reflection for rays of wave-length 8.8 [mu] and 24 [mu] to 32 [mu]
respectively, so that after four to six reflections these rays could be
isolated from a source at any temperature in a state of considerable
purity. The residual impurity at any stage could be estimated by
interposing a thin plate of quartz or fluorite which completely
reflected or absorbed the residual rays, but allowed the impurity to
pass. H. Beckmann, under the direction of Rubens, investigated the
variation with temperature of the residual rays reflected from fluorite
employing sources from -80° to 600° C., and found the results could not
be represented by Wien's formula unless the constant c were taken as
26,000 in place of 14,600. In their first series of observations
extending to 6 [mu] O. R. Lummer and E. Pringsheim (_Deut. phys. Ges._,
1899, 1, p. 34) found systematic deviations indicating an increase in
the value of the constant c for long waves and high temperatures. In a
theoretical discussion of the subject, Lord Rayleigh (_Phil. Mag._,
1900, 49, p. 539) pointed out that Wien's law would lead to a limiting
value C[lambda]^(-5), of the radiation corresponding to any particular
wave-length when the temperature increased to infinity, whereas
according to his view the radiation of great wave-length should
ultimately increase in direct proportion to the temperature. Lummer and
Pringsheim (_Deut. phys. Ges._, 1900, 2, p. 163) extended the range of
their observations to 18 [mu] by employing a prism of sylvine in place
of fluorite. They found deviations from Wien's formula increasing to
nearly 50% at 18 [mu], where, however, the observations were very
difficult on account of the smallness of the energy to be measured.
Rubens and F. Kurlbaum (_Ann. Phys._, 1901, 4, p. 649) extended the
residual reflection method to a temperature range from -190° to 1500°
C., and employed the rays reflected from quartz 8.8 [mu], and rocksalt
51 [mu], in addition to those from fluorite. It appeared from these
researches that the rays of great wave-length from a source at a high
temperature tended to vary in the limit directly as the absolute
temperature of the source, as suggested by Lord Rayleigh, and could not
be represented by Wien's formula with any value of the constant c. The
simplest type of formula satisfying the required conditions is that
proposed by Max Planck (_Ann. Phys._, 1901, 4, p. 553) namely,
E = C[lambda]^(-5) (e^c/[lambda][theta] - 1)^(-1),
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Distribution of energy in the spectrum of a
black body.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Distribution of energy in the spectrum of full
radiation at 2000° Abs. according to formulae of Planck & Wien.]
which agrees with Wien's formula when [theta] is small, where Wien's
formula is known to be satisfactory, but approaches the limiting form E
= C[lambda]^(-4)[theta]/c, when [theta] is large, thus satisfying the
condition proposed by Lord Rayleigh. The theoretical interpretation of
this formula remains to some extent a matter of future investigation,
but it appears to satisfy experiment within the limits of observational
error. In order to compare Planck's formula graphically with Wien's, the
distribution curves corresponding to both formulae are plotted in fig. 8
for a temperature of 2000° abs., taking the value of the constant c =
14,600 with a scale of wave-length in microns [mu]. The curves in fig. 9
illustrate the difference between the two formulae for the variation of
the intensity of radiation corresponding to a fixed wave-length 30 [mu].
Assuming Wien's displacement law, the curves may be applied to find the
energy for any other wave-length or temperature, by simply altering the
wave-length scale in inverse ratio to the temperature, or vice versa.
Thus to find the distribution curve for 1000° abs., it is only necessary
to multiply all the numbers in the wave-length scale of fig. 8 by 2; or
to find the variation curve for wave-length 60 [mu], the numbers on the
temperature scale of fig. 9 should be divided by 2. The ordinate scales
must be increased in proportion to the fifth power of the temperature,
or inversely as the fifth power of the wave-length respectively in figs.
8 and 9 if comparative results are required for different temperatures
or wave-lengths. The results hitherto obtained for cases other than full
radiation are not sufficiently simple and definite to admit of
profitable discussion in the present article.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Variation of energy of radiation corresponding
to wave-length 30 [mu], with temperature of source.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--It would not be possible, within the limits of an
article like the present, to give tables of the specific thermal
properties of different substances so far as they have been
ascertained by experiment. To be of any use, such tables require to be
extremely detailed, with very full references and explanations with
regard to the value of the experimental evidence, and the limits
within which the results may be relied on. The quantity of material
available is so enormous and its value so varied, that the most
elaborate tables still require reference to the original authorities.
Much information will be found collected in Landolt and Bornstein's
_Physical and Chemical Tables_ (Berlin, 1905). Shorter tables, such as
Everett's _Units and Physical Constants_, are useful as illustrations
of a system, but are not sufficiently complete for use in scientific
investigations. Some of the larger works of reference, such as A. A.
Winkelmann's _Handbuch der Physik_, contain fairly complete tables of
specific properties, but these tables occupy so much space, and are so
misleading if incomplete, that they are generally omitted in
theoretical textbooks.
Among older textbooks on heat, Tyndall's _Heat_ may be recommended for
its vivid popular interest, and Balfour Stewart's _Heat_ for early
theories of radiation. Maxwell's _Theory of Heat_ and Tait's _Heat_
give a broad and philosophical survey of the subject. Among modern
textbooks, Preston's _Theory of Heat_ and Poynting and Thomson's
_Heat_ are the best known, and have been brought well up to date.
Sections on heat are included in all the general textbooks of Physics,
such as those of Deschanel (translated by Everett), Ganot (translated
by Atkinson), Daniell, Watson, &c. Of the original investigations on
the subject, the most important have already been cited. Others will
be found in the collected papers of Joule, Kelvin and Maxwell.
Treatises on special branches of the subject, such as Fourier's
_Conduction of Heat_, are referred to in the separate articles in this
encyclopaedia dealing with recent progress, of which the following is
a list: CALORIMETRY, CONDENSATION OF GASES, CONDUCTION OF HEAT,
DIFFUSION, ENERGETICS, FUSION, LIQUID GASES, RADIATION, RADIOMETER,
SOLUTION, THERMODYNAMICS, THERMOELECTRICITY, THERMOMETRY,
VAPORIZATION. For the practical aspects of heating see HEATING.
(H. L. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Units of Work, Energy and Power._--In English-speaking countries
work is generally measured in _foot-pounds_. Elsewhere it is
generally measured in _kilogrammetres_, or in terms of the work done
in raising 1 kilogramme weight through the height of 1 metre. In the
middle of the 19th century the terms "force" and "motive power" were
commonly employed in the sense of "power of doing work." The term
"energy" is now employed in this sense. A quantity of energy is
measured by the work it is capable of performing. A body may possess
energy in virtue of its state (gas or steam under pressure), or in
virtue of its position (a raised weight), or in various other ways,
when at rest. In these cases it is said to possess _potential
energy_. It may also possess energy in virtue of its motion or
rotation (as a fly-wheel or a cannon-ball). In this case it is said
to possess _kinetic energy_, or energy of motion. In many cases the
energy (as in the case of a vibrating body, like a pendulum) is
partly kinetic and partly potential, and changes continually from one
to the other throughout the motion. For instance, the energy of a
pendulum is wholly potential when it is momentarily at rest at the
top of its swing, but is wholly kinetic when the pendulum is moving
with its maximum velocity at the lowest point of its swing. The whole
energy at any moment is the sum of the potential and kinetic energy,
and this sum remains constant so long as the amplitude of the
vibration remains the same. The potential energy of a weight W lb.
raised to a height h ft. above the earth, is Wh foot-pounds. If
allowed to fall freely, without doing work, its kinetic energy on
reaching the earth would be Wh foot-pounds, and its velocity of
motion would be such that if projected upwards with the same velocity
it would rise to the height h from which it fell. We have here a
simple and familiar case of the conversion of one kind of energy into
a different kind. But the two kinds of energy are mechanically
equivalent, and they can both be measured in terms of the same units.
The units already considered, namely foot-pounds or kilogrammetres,
are gravitational units, depending on the force of gravity. This is
the most obvious and natural method of measuring the potential energy
of a raised weight, but it has the disadvantage of varying with the
force of gravity at different places. The natural measure of the
kinetic energy of a moving body is the product of its mass by half
the square of its velocity, which gives a measure in kinetic or
absolute units independent of the force of gravity. Kinetic and
gravitational units are merely different ways of measuring the same
thing. Just as foot-pounds may be reduced to kilogrammetres by
dividing by the number of foot-pounds in one kilogrammetre, so
kinetic may be reduced to gravitational units by dividing by the
kinetic measure of the intensity of gravity, namely, the work in
kinetic units done by the weight of unit mass acting through unit
distance. For scientific purposes, it is necessary to take account of
the variation of gravity. The scientific unit of energy is called the
_erg_. The erg is the kinetic energy of a mass of 2 gm. moving with a
velocity of 1 cm. per sec. The work in ergs done by a force acting
through a distance of 1 cm. is the absolute measure of the force. A
force equal to the weight of 1 gm. (in England) acting through a
distance of 1 cm. does 981 ergs of work. A force equal to the weight
of 1000 gm. (1 kilogramme) acting through a distance of 1 metre (100
cm.) does 98.1 million ergs of work. As the erg is a very small unit,
for many purposes, a unit equal to 10 million ergs, called a _joule_,
is employed. In England, where the weight of 1 gm. is 981 ergs per
cm., a foot-pound is equal to 1.356 joules, and a kilogrammetre is
equal to 9.81 joules.
The term _power_ is now generally restricted to mean "rate of
working." Watt estimated that an average horse was capable of raising
550 lb. 1 ft. in each second, or doing work at the rate of 550
foot-pounds per second, or 33,000 foot-pounds per minute. This
conventional horse-power is the unit commonly employed for estimating
the power of engines. The _horse-power-hour_, or the work done by one
horse-power in one hour, is nearly 2 million foot-pounds. For
electrical and scientific purposes the unit of power employed is
called the _watt_. The watt is the work per second done by an
electromotive force of 1 volt in driving a current of 1 ampere, and
is equal to 10 million ergs or 1 joule per second. One horse-power is
746 watts or nearly ¾ of a kilowatt. The _kilowatt-hour_, which is
the unit by which electrical energy is sold, is 3.6 million joules or
2.65 million foot-pounds, or 366,000 kilogrammetres, and is capable
of raising nearly 19 lb. of water from the freezing to the boiling
point.
[2] In an essay on "Heat, Light, and Combinations of Light,"
republished in Sir H. Davy's _Collected Works_, ii. (London, 1836).
[3] For instance a mass of compressed air, if allowed to expand in a
cylinder at the ordinary temperature, will do work, and will at the
same time absorb a quantity of heat which, as we now know, is the
thermal equivalent of the work done. But this work cannot be said to
have been produced solely from the heat absorbed in the process,
because the air at the end of the process is in a changed condition,
and could not be restored to its original state at the same
temperature without having work done upon it precisely equal to that
obtained by its expansion. The process could not be repeated
indefinitely without a continual supply of compressed air. The source
of the work in this case is work previously done in compressing the
air, and no part of the work is really generated at the expense of
heat alone, unless the compression is effected at a lower temperature
than the expansion.
[4] Clausius (_Pogg. Ann._ 79, p. 369) and others have misinterpreted
this assumption, and have taken it to mean that the quantity of heat
required to produce any given change of state is independent of the
manner in which the change is effected, which Carnot does not here
assume.
[5] Carnot's description of his cycle and statement of his principle
have been given as nearly as possible in his own words, because some
injustice has been done him by erroneous descriptions and statements.
[6] It was for this reason that Professor W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
stated (_Phil. Mag._, 1852, 4) that "Carnot's original demonstration
utterly fails," and that he introduced the "corrections" attributed
to James Thomson and Clerk Maxwell respectively. In reality Carnot's
original demonstration requires no correction.
[7] In reference to this objection, Tyndall remarks (_Phil. Mag._,
1862, p. 422; _Heat_, p. 385); "In the first place the plate of salt
nearest the source of heat is never moistened, unless the experiments
are of the roughest character. Its proximity to the source enables
the heat to chase away every trace of humidity from its surface." He
therefore took precautions to dry only the circumferential portions
of the plate nearest the pile, assuming that the flux of heat through
the central portions would suffice to keep them dry. This reasoning
is not at all satisfactory, because rocksalt is very hygroscopic and
becomes wet, even in unsaturated air, if the vapour pressure is
greater than that of a saturated solution of salt at the temperature
of the plate. Assuming that the vapour pressure of the saturated salt
solution is only half that of pure water, it would require an
elevation of temperature of 10° C. to dry the rocksalt plates in
saturated air at 15° C. It is only fair to say that the laws of the
vapour pressures of solutions were unknown in Tyndall's time, and
that it was usual to assume that the plates would not become wetted
until the dew-point was reached. The writer has repeated Tyndall's
experiments with a facsimile of one of Tyndall's tubes in the
possession of the Royal College of Science, fitted with plates of
rocksalt cut from the same block as Tyndall's, and therefore of the
same hygroscopic quality. Employing a reflecting galvanometer in
conjunction with a differential bolometer, which is quicker in its
action than Tyndall's pile, there appears to be hardly any difference
between dry and moist air, provided that the latter is not more than
half saturated. Using saturated air with a Leslie cube as source of
heat, both rocksalt plates invariably become wet in a minute or two
and the absorption rises to 10 or 20% according to the thickness of
the film of deposited moisture. Employing the open tube method as
described by Tyndall, without the rocksalt plates, the absorption is
certainly less than 1% in 3 ft. of air saturated at 20° C., unless
condensation is induced on the walls of the tube. It is possible that
the walls of Tyndall's tube may have become covered with a very
hygroscopic film from the powder of the calcium chloride which he was
in the habit of introducing near one end. Such a film would be
exceedingly difficult to remove, and would account for the excessive
precautions which he found necessary in drying the air in order to
obtain the same transmitting power as a vacuum. It is probable that
Tyndall's experiments on aqueous vapour were effected by experimental
errors of this character.
HEATH, BENJAMIN (1704-1766), English classical scholar and bibliophile,
was born at Exeter on the 20th of April 1704. He was the son of a
wealthy merchant, and was thus able to devote himself mainly to travel
and book-collecting. He became town clerk of his native city in 1752,
and held the office till his death on the 13th of September 1766. In
1763 he had published a pamphlet advocating the repeal of the cider tax
in Devonshire, and his endeavours led to success three years later. As a
classical scholar he made his reputation by his critical and metrical
notes on the Greek tragedians, which procured him an honorary D.C.L.
from Oxford (31st of March 1752). He also left MS. notes on Burmann's
and Martyn's editions of Virgil, on Euripides, Catullus, Tibullus, and
the greater part of Hesiod. In some of these he adopts the whimsical
name Dexiades Ericius. His _Revisal of Shakespear's Text_ (1765) was an
answer to the "insolent dogmatism" of Bishop Warburton. _The Essay
towards a Demonstrative Proof of the Divine Existence, Unity and
Attributes_ (1740) was intended to combat the opinions of Voltaire,
Rousseau and Hume. Two of his sons (among a family of thirteen) were
Benjamin, headmaster of Harrow (1771-1785), and George, headmaster of
Eton (1796). His collection of rare classical works formed the nucleus
of his son Benjamin's famous library (Bibliotheca Heathiana).
An account of the Heath family will be found in Sir W. R. Drake's
_Heathiana_ (1882).
HEATH, NICHOLAS (c. 1501-1578), archbishop of York and lord chancellor,
was born in London about 1501 and graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1519. He
then migrated to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in
1520, M.A. in 1522, and was elected fellow in 1524. After holding minor
preferments he was appointed archdeacon of Stafford in 1534 and
graduated D.D. in 1535. He then accompanied Edward Fox (q.v.), bishop of
Hereford, on his mission to promote a theological and political
understanding with the Lutheran princes of Germany. His selection for
this duty implies a readiness on Heath's part to proceed some distance
along the path of reform; but his dealings with the Lutherans did not
confirm this tendency, and Heath's subsequent career was closely
associated with the cause of reaction. In 1539, the year of the Six
Articles, he was made bishop of Rochester, and in 1543 he succeeded
Latimer at Worcester. His Catholicism, however, was of a less rigid type
than Gardiner's and Bonner's; he felt something of the force of the
national antipathy to foreign influence, whether ecclesiastical or
secular, and was always impressed by the necessity of national unity, so
far as was possible, in matters of faith. Apparently he made no
difficulty about carrying out the earlier reforms of Edward VI., and he
accepted the first book of common prayer after it had been modified by
the House of Lords in a Catholic direction.
His definite breach with the Reformation occurred on the grounds, on
which four centuries later Leo XIII. denied the Catholicity of the
reformed English Church, namely, on the question of the Ordinal drawn up
in February 1550. Heath refused to accept it, was imprisoned, and in
1551 deprived of his bishopric. On Mary's accession he was released and
restored, and made president of the council of the Marches and Wales. In
1555 he was promoted to the archbishopric of York, which he did much to
enrich after the Protestant spoliation; he built York House in the
Strand. After Gardiner's death he was appointed lord chancellor,
probably on Pole's recommendation; for Heath, like Pole himself,
disliked the Spanish party in England. Unlike Pole, however, he seems to
have been averse from the excessive persecution of Mary's reign, and no
Protestants were burnt in his diocese. He exercised, however, little
influence on Mary's secular or ecclesiastical policy.
On Mary's death Heath as chancellor at once proclaimed Elizabeth. Like
Sir Thomas More he held that it was entirely within the competence of
the national state, represented by parliament, to determine questions of
the succession to the throne; and although Elizabeth did not renew his
commission as lord chancellor, he continued to sit in the privy council
for two months until the government had determined to complete the
breach with the Roman Catholic Church; and as late as April 1559 he
assisted the government by helping to arrange the Westminster
Conference, and reproving his more truculent co-religionists. He refused
to crown Elizabeth because she would not have the coronation service
accompanied with the elevation of the Host; and ecclesiastical
ceremonies and doctrine could not, in Heath's view, be altered or
abrogated by any mere national authority. Hence he steadily resisted
Elizabeth's acts of supremacy and uniformity, although he had acquiesced
in the acts of 1534 and 1549. Like others of Henry's bishops, he had
been convinced by the events of Edward VI.'s reign that Sir Thomas More
was right and Henry VIII. was wrong in their attitude towards the claims
of the papacy and the Catholic Church. He was therefore necessarily
deprived of his archbishopric in 1559, but he remained loyal to
Elizabeth; and after a temporary confinement he was suffered to pass the
remaining nineteen years of his life in peace and quiet, never attending
public worship and sometimes hearing mass in private. The queen visited
him more than once at his house at Chobham, Surrey; he died and was
buried there at the end of 1578.
AUTHORITIES.--Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; Acts of the Privy
Council; Cal. State Papers, Domestic, Addenda, Spanish and Venetian;
Kemp's Loseley MSS.; Froude's _History_; Burnet, Collier, Dixon and
Frere's _Church Histories_; Strype's _Works_ (General Index); Parker
Soc. Publications (Gough's Index); Birt's _Elizabethan Settlement_.
(A. F. P.)
HEATH, WILLIAM (1737-1814), American soldier, was born in Roxbury,
Massachusetts, on the 2nd of March 1737 (old style). He was brought up
as a farmer and had a passion for military exercises. In 1765 he entered
the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company of Boston, of which he
became commander in 1770. In the same year he wrote to the _Boston
Gazette_ letters signed "A Military Countryman," urging the necessity of
military training. He was a member of the Massachusetts General Court
from 1770 to 1774, of the provincial committee of safety, and in
1774-1775 of the provincial congress. He was commissioned a provincial
brig.-general in December 1774, directed the pursuit of the British from
Concord (April 19, 1775), was promoted to be provincial major-general on
the 20th of June 1775, and two days later was commissioned fourth
brig.-general in the Continental Army. He became major-general on the
9th of August 1776, and was in active service around New York until
early the next year. In January 1777 he attempted to take Fort
Independence, near Spuyten Duyvil, then garrisoned by about 2000
Hessians, but at the first sally of the garrison his troops became
panic-stricken and a few days later he withdrew. Washington reprimanded
him and never again entrusted to him any important operation in the
field. Throughout the war, however, Heath was very efficient in muster
service and in the barracks. From March 1777 to October 1778 he was in
command of the Eastern Department with headquarters at Boston, and had
charge (Nov. 1777-Oct. 1778) of the prisoners of war from Burgoyne's
army held at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In May 1779 he was appointed a
commissioner of the Board of War. He was placed in command of the troops
on the E. side of the Hudson in June 1779, and of other troops and posts
on the Hudson in November of the same year. In July 1780 he met the
French allies under Rochambeau on their arrival in Rhode Island; in
October of the same year he succeeded Arnold in command of West Point
and its dependencies; and in August 1781, when Washington went south to
meet Cornwallis, Heath was left in command of the Army of the Hudson to
watch Clinton. After the war he retired to his farm at Roxbury, was a
member of the state House of Representatives in 1788, of the
Massachusetts convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in the
same year, and of the governor's council in 1789-1790, was a state
senator (1791-1793), and in 1806 was elected lieutenant-governor of
Massachusetts but declined to serve. He died at Roxbury on the 24th of
January 1814, the last of the major-generals of the War of American
Independence.
See _Memoirs of Major-General Heath, containing Anecdotes, Details of
Skirmishes, Battles and other Military Events during the American War,
written by Himself_ (Boston, 1798; frequently reprinted, perhaps the
best edition being that published in New York in 1901 by William
Abbatt), particularly valuable for the descriptions of Lexington and
Bunker Hill, of the fighting around New York, of the controversies
with Burgoyne and his officers during their stay in Boston, and of
relations with Rochambeau; and his correspondence, _The Heath Papers_,
vols. iv.-v., seventh series, _Massachusetts Historical Society
Collections_ (Boston, 1904-1905).
HEATH, the English form of a name given in most Teutonic dialects to the
common ling or heather (_Calluna vulgaris_), but now applied to all
species of _Erica_, an extensive genus of monopetalous plants, belonging
to the order Ericaceae. The heaths are evergreen shrubs, with small
narrow leaves, in whorls usually set rather thickly on the shoots; the
persistent flowers have 4 sepals, and a 4-cleft campanulate or tubular
corolla, in many species more or less ventricose or inflated; the dry
capsule is 4-celled, and opens, in the true Ericae, in 4 segments, to
the middle of which the partitions adhere, though in the ling the valves
separate at the dissepiments. The plants are mostly of low growth, but
several African kinds reach the size of large bushes, and a common South
European species, _E. arborea_, occasionally attains almost the aspect
and dimensions of a tree.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. _Calluna vulgaris._]
One of the best known and most interesting of the family is the common
heath, heather or ling, _Calluna vulgaris_ (fig. 1), placed by most
botanists in a separate genus on account of the peculiar dehiscence of
the fruit, and from the coloured calyx, which extends beyond the
corolla, having a whorl of sepal-like bracts beneath. This shrub derives
some economic importance from its forming the chief vegetation on many
of those extensive wastes that occupy so large a portion of the more
sterile lands of northern and western Europe, the usually desolate
appearance of which is enlivened in the latter part of summer by its
abundant pink blossoms. When growing erect to the height of 3 ft. or
more, as it often does in sheltered places, its purple stems,
close-leaved green shoots and feathery spikes of bell-shaped flowers
render it one of the handsomest of the heaths; but on the bleaker
elevations and more arid slopes it frequently rises only a few inches
above the ground. In all moorland countries the ling is applied to many
rural purposes; the larger stems are made into brooms, the shorter tied
up into bundles that serve as brushes, while the long trailing shoots
are woven into baskets. Pared up with the peat about its roots it forms
a good fuel, often the only one obtainable on the drier moors. The
shielings of the Scottish Highlanders were formerly constructed of heath
stems, cemented together with peat-mud, worked into a kind of mortar
with dry grass or straw; hovels and sheds for temporary purposes are
still sometimes built in a similar way, and roofed in with ling. Laid on
the ground, with the flowers above, it forms a soft springy bed, the
luxurious couch of the ancient Gael, still gladly resorted to at times
by the hill shepherd or hardy deer-stalker. The young shoots were in
former days employed as a substitute for hops in brewing, while their
astringency rendered them valuable as a tanning material in Ireland and
the Western Isles. They are said also to have been used by the
Highlanders for dyeing woollen yarn yellow, and other colours are
asserted to have been obtained from them, but some writers appear to
confuse the dyer's-weed, _Genista tinctoria_, with the heather. The
young juicy shoots and the seeds, which remain long in the capsules,
furnish the red grouse of Scotland with the larger portion of its
sustenance; the ripe seeds are eaten by many birds. The tops of the ling
afford a considerable part of the winter fodder of the hill flocks, and
are popularly supposed to communicate the fine flavour to Welsh and
Highland mutton, but sheep seldom crop heather while the mountain
grasses and rushes are sweet and accessible. Ling has been suggested as
a material for paper, but the stems are hardly sufficiently fibrous for
that purpose. The purple or fine-leaved heath, _E. cinerea_ (fig. 2),
one of the most beautiful of the genus, abounds on the lower moors and
commons of Great Britain and western Europe, in such situations being
sometimes more prevalent than the ling. The flowers of both these
species yield much honey, furnishing a plentiful supply to the bees in
moorland districts; from this heath honey the Picts probably brewed the
mead said by Boetius to have been made from the flowers themselves.
The genus contains about 420 known species, by far the greater part
being indigenous to the western districts of South Africa, but it is
also a characteristic genus of the Mediterranean region, while several
species extend into northern Europe. No species is native in America,
but ling occurs as an introduced plant on the Atlantic side from
Newfoundland to New Jersey. Five species occur in Britain: _E. cinerea_,
_E. tetralix_ (cross-leaved heath), both abundant on heaths and commons,
_E. vagans_, Cornish heath, found only in West Cornwall, _E. ciliaris_
in the west of England and Ireland and _E. mediterranea_ in Ireland. The
three last are south-west European species which reach the northern
limit of their distribution in the west of England and Ireland. _E.
scoparia_ is a common heath in the centre of France and elsewhere in the
Mediterranean region, forming a spreading bush several feet high. It is
known as _bruyère_, and its stout underground rootstocks yield the
briar-wood used for pipes.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. _Erica cinerea._]
The Cape heaths have long been favourite objects of horticulture. In the
warmer parts of Britain several will bear exposure to the cold of
ordinary winters in a sheltered border, but most need the protection of
the conservatory. They are sometimes raised from seed, but are chiefly
multiplied by cuttings "struck" in sand, and afterwards transferred to
pots filled with a mixture of black peat and sand; the peat should be
dry and free from sourness. Much attention is requisite in watering
heaths, as they seldom recover if once allowed to droop, while they will
not bear much water about their roots: the heath-house should be light
and well ventilated, the plants requiring sun, and soon perishing in a
close or permanently damp atmosphere; in England little or no heat is
needed in ordinary seasons. The European heaths succeed well in English
gardens, only requiring a peaty soil and sunny situation to thrive as
well as in their native localities: _E. carnea_, _mediterranea_,
_ciliaris_, _vagans_, and the pretty cross-leaved heath of boggy moors,
_E. Tetralix_, are among those most worthy of cultivation. The beautiful
large-flowered St Dabeoc's heath, belonging to the closely allied genus
_Dabeocia_, is likewise often seen in gardens. It is found in boggy
heaths in Connemara and Mayo, and is also native in West France, Spain
and the Azores.
A beautiful work on heaths is that by H. C. Andrews, containing
coloured engravings of nearly 300 species and varieties, with
descriptions in English and Latin (4 vols., 1802-1805).
HEATHCOAT, JOHN (1783-1861), English inventor, was born at Duffield near
Derby on the 7th of August 1783. During his apprenticeship to a
framesmith near Loughborough, he made an improvement in the construction
of the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance by
means of it. He began business on his own account at Nottingham, but
finding himself subjected to the intrusion of competing inventors he
removed to Hathern. There in 1808 he constructed a machine capable of
producing an exact imitation of real pillow-lace. This was by far the
most expensive and complex textile apparatus till then existing; and in
describing the process of his invention Heathcoat said in 1836, "The
single difficulty of getting the diagonal threads to twist in the
allotted space was so great that, if now to be done, I should probably
not attempt its accomplishment." Some time before perfecting his
invention, which he patented in 1809, he removed to Loughborough, where
he entered into partnership with Charles Lacy, a Nottingham
manufacturer; but in 1816 their factory was attacked by the Luddites and
their 55 lace frames destroyed. The damages were assessed in the King's
Bench at £10,000; but as Heathcoat declined to expend the money in the
county of Leicester he never received any part of it. Undaunted by his
loss, he began at once to construct new and greatly improved machines in
an unoccupied factory at Tiverton, Devon, propelling them by water-power
and afterwards by steam. His claim to the invention of the twisting and
traversing lace machine was disputed, and a patent was taken out by a
clever workman for a similar machine, which was decided at a trial in
1816 to be an infringement of Heathcoat's patent. He followed his great
invention by others of much ability, as, for instance, contrivances for
ornamenting net while in course of manufacture and for making ribbons
and platted and twisted net upon his machines, improved yarn
spinning-frames, and methods for winding raw silk from cocoons. He also
patented an improved process for extracting and purifying salt. An offer
of £10,000 was made to him in 1833 for the use of his processes in
dressing and finishing silk nets, but he allowed the highly profitable
secret to remain undivulged. In 1832 he patented a steam plough.
Heathcoat was elected member of parliament for Tiverton in 1832. Though
he seldom spoke in the House he was constantly engaged on committees,
where his thorough knowledge of business and sound judgment were highly
valued. He retained his seat until 1859, and after two years of
declining health he died on the 18th of January 1861 at Bolham House,
near Tiverton.
HEATHCOTE, SIR GILBERT (c. 1651-1733), lord mayor of London, belonged to
an old Derbyshire family and was educated at Christ's College,
Cambridge, afterwards becoming a merchant in London. His trading
ventures were very successful; he was one of the promoters of the new
East India company and he emerged victorious from a contest between
himself and the old East India company in 1693; he was also one of the
founders and first directors of the bank of England. In 1702 he became
an alderman of the city of London and was knighted; he served as lord
mayor in 1711, being the last lord mayor to ride on horseback in his
procession. In 1700 Heathcote was sent to parliament as member for the
city of London, but he was soon expelled for his share in the
circulation of some exchequer bills; however, he was again elected for
the city later in the same year, and he retained his seat until 1710. In
1714 he was member for Helston, in 1722 for New Lymington, and in 1727
for St Germans. He was a consistent Whig, and was made a baronet eight
days before his death. Although extremely rich, Heathcote's meanness is
referred to by Pope; and it was this trait that accounts largely for his
unpopularity with the lower classes. He died in London on the 25th of
January 1733 and was buried at Normanton, Rutland, a residence which he
had purchased from the Mackworths.
A descendant, Sir Gilbert John Heathcote, Bart. (1795-1867), was created
Baron Aveland in 1856; and his son Gilbert Henry, who in 1888 inherited
from his mother the barony of Willoughby de Eresby, became 1st earl of
Ancaster in 1892.
HEATHEN, a term originally applied to all persons or races who did not
hold the Jewish or Christian belief, thus including Mahommedans. It is
now more usually given to polytheistic races, thus excluding
Mahommedans. The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is
common to all Germanic languages; cf. German _Heide_, Dutch _heiden_. It
is usually ascribed to a Gothic _haiþi_, heath. In Ulfilas' Gothic
version of the Bible, the earliest extant literary monument of the
Germanic languages, the Syrophoenician woman (Mark vii. 26) is called
_haiþno_, where the Vulgate has _gentilis_. "Heathen," i.e. the people
of the heath or open country, would thus be a translation of the Latin
_paganus_, pagan, i.e. the people of the _pagus_ or village, applied to
the dwellers in the country where the worship of the old gods still
lingered, when the people of the towns were Christians (but see PAGAN
for a more tenable explanation of that term). On the other hand it has
been suggested (Prof. S. Bugge, _Indo-German. Forschungen_, v. 178,
quoted in the _New English Dictionary_) that Ulfilas may have adopted
the word from the Armenian _hetanos_, i.e. Greek [Greek: ethnê], tribes,
races, the word used for the "Gentiles" in the New Testament. _Gentilis_
in Latin, properly meaning "tribesman," came to be used of foreigners
and non-Roman peoples, and was adopted in ecclesiastical usage for the
non-Christian nations and in the Old Testament for non-Jewish races.
HEATHFIELD, GEORGE AUGUSTUS ELIOTT, BARON (1717-1790), British general,
a younger son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, Bart., of Stobs, Roxburghshire, was
born on the 25th of December 1717, and educated abroad for the military
profession. As a volunteer he fought with the Prussian army in 1735 and
1736, and then entered the Grenadier Guards. He went through the war of
the Austrian Succession, and was wounded at Dettingen, rising to be
lieutenant-colonel in 1754. In 1759 he became colonel of a new regiment
of light horse (afterwards the 15th Hussars) and became well known for
the efficiency which it displayed in the subsequent campaigns. He became
lieutenant-general in 1765. In 1775 he was selected to be governor of
Gibraltar (q.v.), and it is in connexion with his magnificent defence in
the great siege of 1779 that his name is famous. His portrait by Sir
Joshua Reynolds is in the National Gallery. In 1787 he was created Baron
Heathfield of Gibraltar, but died on the 6th of July 1790. He had
married in 1748 the heiress of the Drake family, to which Sir Francis
Drake belonged. His son, the 2nd baron, died in 1813 and the peerage
became extinct, but the estates went to the family of Eliott-Drake
(baronetcy of 1821) through his sister.
HEATING. In temperate latitudes the climate is generally such as to
necessitate in dwellings during a great portion of the year a
temperature warmer than that out of doors. The object of the art of
heating is to secure this required warmth with the greatest economy and
efficiency. For reasons of health it may be assumed that no system of
heating is advisable which does not provide for a constant renewal of
the air in the locality warmed, and on this account there is a
difficulty in treating as separate matters the subjects of heating and
ventilation, which in practical schemes should be considered conjointly.
(See VENTILATION).
The object of all heating apparatus is the transference of heat from the
fire to the various parts of the building it is intended to warm, and
this transfer may be effected by radiation, by conduction or by
convection. An open fire acts by radiation; it warms the air in a room
by first warming the walls, floor, ceiling and articles in the room, and
these in turn warm the air. Therefore in a room with an open fire the
air is, as a rule, less heated than the walls. In many forms of
fireplaces fresh air is brought in and passed around the back and sides
of the stove before being admitted into the room. A closed stove acts
mainly by convection; though when heated to a high temperature it gives
out radiant heat. Windows have a chilling effect on a room, and in
calculations extra allowance should be made for window areas.
There are a number of methods available for adoption in the heating of
buildings, but it is a matter of considerable difficulty to suit the
method of warming to the class of building to be warmed. Heating may be
effected by one of the following systems, or installations may be so
arranged as to combine the advantages of more than one method: open
fires, closed stoves, hot-air apparatus, hot water circulating in pipes
at low or at high pressure, or steam at high or low pressure.
Open fires.
The open grate still holds favour in England, though in America and on
the continent of Europe it has been superseded by the closed stove. The
old form of open fire is certainly wasteful of fuel, and the loss of
heat up the chimney and by conduction into the brickwork backing of the
stove is considerable. Great improvements, however, have been effected
in the design of open fireplaces, and many ingenious contrivances of
this nature are now in the market which combine efficiency of heating
with economy of fuel. Unless suitable fresh air inlets are provided,
this form of stove will cause the room to be draughty, the strong
current of warm air up the flue drawing cold air in through the crevices
in the doors and windows. The best form of open fireplace is the
ventilating stove, in which fresh air is passed around the back and
sides of the stove before being admitted through convenient openings
into the room. This has immense advantages over the ordinary type of
fireplace. The illustrations show two forms of ventilating fireplace,
one (fig. 1) similar in appearance to the ordinary domestic grate, the
other (fig. 2) with descending smoke flue suitable for hospitals and
public rooms, where it might be fixed in the middle of the apartment.
The fixing of stoves of this kind entails the laying of pipes or ducts
from the open to convey fresh air to the back of the stove.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
Closed stoves.
With closed stoves much less heat is wasted, and consequently less fuel
is burned, than with open grates, but they often cause an unpleasant
sensation of dryness in the air, and the products of combustion also
escape to some extent, rendering this method of heating not only
unpleasant but sometimes even dangerous. The method in Great Britain is
almost entirely confined to places of public assembly, but in America
and on the continent of Europe it is much used for domestic heating. If
the flue pipe be carried up a considerable distance inside the apartment
to be warmed before being turned into the external air, practically the
whole of the heat generated will be utilized. Charcoal, coke or
anthracite coal are the fuels generally used in slow combustion heating
stoves.
Gas fires.
Gas fires, as a substitute for the open coal fire, have many points in
their favour, for they are conducive to cleanliness, they need but
little attention, and the heat is easily controlled. On the other hand,
they may give off unhealthy fumes and produce unpleasant odours. They
usually take the form of cast iron open stoves fitted with a number of
Bunsen burners which heat perforated lumps of asbestos. The best form of
stove is that with which perfect combustion is most nearly attained, and
to which a pan of water is affixed to supply a desirable humidity to the
air, the gas having the effect of drying the atmosphere. With another
form of gas stove coke is used in place of the perforated asbestos; the
fire is started with the gas, which, when the coke is well alight, may
be dispensed with, and the fire kept up with coke in the usual way.
Electrical heating.
Electrical heating appliances have only recently passed the experimental
stage; there is, however, undoubtedly a great future for electric
heating, and the perfecting of the stove, together with the cheapening
of the electric current, may be expected to result in many of the other
stoves and convectors being superseded. Hitherto the large bill for
electric energy has debarred the general use of electrical heating, in
spite of its numerous advantages.
Oil stoves.
Oils are powerful fuels, but the high price of refined petroleum, the
oil generally preferred, precludes its widespread use for many purposes
for which it is suitable. In small stoves for warming and for cooking,
petroleum presents some advantages over other fuels, in that there is no
chimney to sweep, and if well managed no unpleasant fumes, and the
stoves are easily portable. On the other hand, these stoves need a
considerable amount of attention in filling, trimming and cleaning, and
there is some risk of explosion and damage by accidental leaking and
smoking. Crude or unrefined petroleum needs a special air-spray pressure
burner for its use, and this suffers from the disadvantage of being
noisy. Gas and oil radiators would be more properly termed "convectors,"
since they warm mainly by converted currents. They are similar in
appearance to a hot-water or steam radiator, and, indeed, some are
designed to be filled with water and used as such. They should always be
fitted with a pan of water to supply the necessary humidity to the
warmed air, and a flue to carry off any disagreeable fumes.
Warm air.
Heating by warmed air, one of the oldest methods in use, has been much
improved by attention to the construction of the apparatus, and if
properly installed will give as good effects as it is possible to
obtain. The system is especially suitable for churches, assembly halls
and large rooms. A stove of special design is placed in a chamber in the
basement or cellar, and cold fresh air is passed through it, and led by
means of flues to the various apartments for distribution by means of
easily regulated inlet valves. To prevent the atmosphere from becoming
unduly dry a pan of water is fitted to the stove; this serves to moisten
the air before it passes into the distributing flues. If each
distributing flue is connected by means of a mixing valve with a
cold-air flue, the warmth of the incoming air can be regulated to a
nicety (see VENTILATION).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
Low pressure hot water.
There are many different systems of heating by hot water circulating in
pipes. The oldest and best known is the "two pipe" system, others being
the "one pipe" or "simple circuit," and the "drop" or "overhead." The
high pressure system is of later invention, having been first put to
practical use by A. M. Perkins in 1845. All these methods warm chiefly
by means of convected heat, the amount of true radiation from the pipes
being small. The manner in which the circulation of hot water takes
place in the tubes is as follows. Fire heats the water in a boiler from
the top of which a "flow" pipe communicates with the rooms to be warmed
(fig. 3). As the water is heated it becomes lighter, rises to the top of
the boiler, and passes along the flow pipe. It is followed by more and
more hot water, and so travels along the flow pipe, which is rising all
the time, to the farthest point of the circuit, by which time it has in
all probability cooled considerably. From this point the "return" pipe
drops, usually at the same rate as the flow pipe rises; and in due
course the water reaches its starting point, the boiler, and is again
heated and again circulated through the system. The connexion of the
return pipe is made with the lower part of the boiler. Branches may be
made from the main pipes by means of smaller pipes arranged in the same
manner as the mains, the branch flow pipe being connected with the main
flow pipe and returning into the main return. To obtain a larger heating
surface than a pipe affords, radiators are connected with the pipes
where desired, and the water passing through them warms the surrounding
air.
The "one pipe" system (fig. 4) acts on precisely the same principle, but
in place of two pipes being placed in adjacent positions one large main
makes a complete circuit of the area to be warmed, starting from and
returning to the boiler, and from this main flow and return branches are
taken and connected with radiators and other heating appliances.
In the "drop" or "overhead" system (fig. 5) a rising main is taken
directly from the boiler to the topmost floor of the building, and from
this branches are dropped to the lower floors, and connected by means of
smaller branches to radiators or coils. The vertical branches descend to
the basement and generally merge in a single return pipe which is
connected to the lower part of the boiler.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
The rate of circulation in the ordinary low pressure hot-water system
may be considerably accelerated by means of steam injections. The water
after being heated passes into a circulating tank into which steam is
introduced; this, mixing with the hot water, gives it additional motive
power, resulting in a faster circulation. This steam condensing adds to
the water in the pipe and naturally causes an overflow, which is led
back to the boiler and re-used. In districts where the water is hard,
this arrangement considerably lengthens the life of the boiler, as the
same water is used over and over again, and no fresh deposit of fur
occurs. Owing to the very rapid movement and the consequent increased
rate of transmission of heat, the pipes and radiators may be reduced in
size, in many circumstances a very desirable thing to achieve. With this
system the temperature can be quickly raised and easily controlled. If
the weather is mild, a moderate heat may be obtained by using the
apparatus as an ordinary hot water system, and shutting off the steam
injectors.
The cold-water supply and expansion tank (fig. 3) are often combined in
one tank placed at a point above the level of circulation. The tank
should be of a size to hold not less than a twentieth part of the total
amount of water held in the system. The automatic inlet of cold water to
the hot water system from the main house tank or other source is
controlled by a ball valve, which is so fixed as to allow the water to
rise no more than an inch above the bottom of the tank, thus leaving the
remainder of the space clear for expansion. An overflow is provided,
discharging into the open air to allow the water to escape should the
ball valve become defective.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
High pressure hot water.
The "Perkins" or "small bore high pressure" system (fig. 6) has many
advantages, for it is safe, the boiler is small and is easily managed,
the temperature is well under control and may be regulated to suit the
changing weather, and the small pipes present a neat appearance in a
room. The whole system is constructed of wrought iron pipe of small
diameter, strong enough to resist a testing pressure of 2000 to 2500 lb.
per sq. in. The boiler consists of similar pipe coiled up to form a
fire-box, inside which the furnace is lighted. The coil is encased with
firebricks and brickwork, and the smoke from the fire is carried off by
a flue in the ordinary way. The flow pipe of similar section (usually
having an internal diameter of about 1 in., the metal being nearly ¼ in.
thick) continues from the top of the coil, and after travelling round
the various apartments returns to, and is connected with, the lowest
part of the boiler coil. The joints take a special form to enable them
to withstand the great strain to which they are subjected (fig. 7). One
end of a pipe is finished flat, the end of the other pipe being brought
to a conical edge. On one end also a right-handed, and on the other a
left-handed, screw-thread is turned. A coupling collar, tapped in the
same manner, is screwed on, and causes the conical edge to impress
itself tightly on the flat end, giving a sound and lasting joint. The
system is hermetically sealed after being pumped full of water, an
expansion chamber in the shape of a pipe of larger dimensions being
provided at the top of the system above the highest point of
circulation. Upon the application of heat to the fire-box coil the water
naturally expands and forces its way up into the expansion chamber; but
there it encounters the pressure of the confined air, and ebullition is
consequently prevented. Thus at no time can steam form in the system.
This system is trustworthy and safe in working. The smallness of the
pipes renders it liable to damage by frost, but this accident may be
prevented by always keeping in frosty weather a small fire in the
furnace. If this course is inconvenient, some liquid of low
freezing-point, such as glycerine, may be mixed with the water.
Steam heating.
For large public buildings, factories, &c., heating by steam is
generally adopted on account of the rapidity with which heat is
available, and the great distance from the boiler at which warming is
effected. In the case of factories the exhaust steam from the engines
used for driving the working machinery is made use of and forms the most
economical method of heating possible. There are several different
systems of heating by steam--low pressure, high pressure and minus
pressure.
In the low pressure two pipe system the flow pipe is carried to a
sufficient height directly above the boiler to allow of its gradual fall
to a little beyond the most distant point at which connexion is to be
made with the return pipe, which thence slopes towards the boiler.
Branches are taken off the flow pipe, and after circulating through
coils or radiators are connected with the return pipe. In a
well-proportioned system the pressure need not exceed 2 or 3 lb. per sq.
in. for excellent results to be obtained. The one-pipe system is similar
in principle, the pipe rising to its greatest height above the boiler
and being then carried around as a single pipe falling all the while. It
resembles in many points the one-pipe low pressure hot-water system.
Radiators are fed directly from the main. Where, as in factories or
workshops, there are already installed engines working at a high steam
pressure, say 120 to 180 lb. per sq. in., a portion of the steam
generated in the boilers may be utilized for heating by the aid of a
reducing valve. The steam is passed through the valve and emerges at the
pressure required generally from 3 lb. upwards. It is then used for one
of the systems described above.
High-pressure steam-heating, compared with the heating by low pressure,
is little used. The principles are the same as those applied to
low-pressure work, but all fittings and appliances must, of course, be
made to stand the higher strain to which they are subjected.
The "minus pressure" steam system, sometimes termed "atmospheric" or
"vacuum," is of more recent introduction than those just described. It
is certainly the most scientific method of steam-heating, and heat can
be made to travel a greater distance by its aid than by any other means.
The heat of the pipes is great, but can be easily regulated. The system
is economical in fuel, but needs skilled attendance to keep the
appliances and fittings in order. The steam is introduced into the pipes
at about the pressure of the atmosphere, and is sucked through the
system by means of a vacuum pump, which at the same operation frees the
pipes from air and from condensation water. This pumping action results
in an extremely rapid circulation of the heating agent, enabling long
distances to be traversed without much loss of heat.
Compared with heating by hot water, steam-heating requires less piping,
which, further, may be of much smaller diameter to attain a similar
result, because of the higher temperature of the heat yielding surface.
A drawback to the use of steam is the fact that the high temperature of
the pipes and radiators attracts and spreads a great deal of dust. There
is also a risk that woodwork near the pipes may warp and split. The
apparatus needs constant attention, since neglect in stoking would
result in stopping the generation of steam, and the whole system would
almost immediately cool. To regulate the heat it is necessary either to
instal a number of small radiators or to divide the radiators into
sections, each section controlled by distinct valves; steam may then be
admitted to all the sections of the radiator or to any less number of
sections as desired. In a hot-water system the heat is given off at a
lower temperature and is consequently more agreeable than that yielded
by a steam-heating apparatus. The joint most commonly used for hot-water
pipes is termed the "rust" joint, which is cheap to make, but
unfortunately is inefficient. The materials required are iron borings,
sal-ammoniac and sulphur; these are mixed together, moistened with
water, and rammed into the socket, which is previously half filled with
yarn, well caulked. The materials mixed with the iron borings cause them
to rust into a solid mass, and in doing so a slight expansion takes
place. On this account it is necessary to exercise some skill in forming
the joint, or the socket of the pipe will be split; numbers of pipes are
undoubtedly spoilt in this way. Suitable proportions of materials to
form a rust joint are 90 parts by weight of iron borings well mixed with
2 parts of flowers of sulphur, and 1 part of powdered sal-ammoniac.
Another joint, less rigid but sound and durable, is made with yarn and
white and red lead. The white and red lead are mixed together to form a
putty, and are filled into the socket alternately with layers of
well-caulked yarn, starting with yarn and finishing off with the lead
mixture.
Joints for pipes.
Iron expands when heated to the temperature of boiling water (212° F.)
about 1 part in 900, that is to say, a pipe 100 ft. long would expand or
increase in length when heated to this temperature about 1½ in., an
amount which seems small but which would be quite sufficient to destroy
one or more of the joints if provision were not made to prevent damage.
The amount of expansion increases as the temperature is raised; at 340°
F. it is 2½ in. in 100 ft. With wrought iron pipes bends may be
arranged, as shown in fig. 8, to take up this expansion. With cast iron
pipe this cannot be done, and no length of piping over 40 ft. should be
without a proper expansion joint. The pipes are best supported on
rollers which allow of movement without straining the joints.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.]
There are several joints in general use for the best class of work which
are formed with the aid of india-rubber rings or collars, any expansion
being divided amongst the whole number of joints. In the rubber ring
joint an india-rubber ring is used; slightly less in diameter than the
pipe. The rubber is circular in section, and about ½ in. thick, and is
stretched on the extreme end of a pipe which is then forced into the
next socket. This joint is durable, secure and easily made; it allows
for expansion and by its use the risk of pipe sockets being cracked is
avoided. It is much used for greenhouse heating works. Richardson's
patent joint (fig. 9) is a good form of this class of joint. The pipes
have specially shaped ends between which a rubber collar is placed, the
joint being held together by clips. The result is very satisfactory and
will stand heavy water pressure. Messenger's joint (fig. 10) is designed
to allow more freedom of expansion and at the same time to withstand
considerable pressure; one loose cast iron collar is used, and another
is formed as a socket on the end of the pipe itself. One end of each
pipe is plain, so that it may be cut to any desired length; pipes with
shaped ends obviously must be obtained in the exact lengths required.
Jones's expansion joint (fig. 11) is somewhat similar to Messenger's but
it is not capable of withstanding so great a pressure. In this case both
collars of cast iron are loose.
Radiators.
Radiators (really convectors) were in their primitive design coils of
pipe, used to give a larger heating area than the single pipe would
afford. They are now usually of special design, and may be divided into
three classes--indirect radiators, direct radiators and direct
ventilating radiators. Indirect radiators are placed beneath the floor
of the apartment to be heated and give off heat through a grating. This
method is frequently adopted in combined schemes of heating and
ventilating; the fresh air is warmed by being passed over their surfaces
previously to being admitted through the gratings into the room. Direct
radiators are a development of the early coil of pipe; they are made in
various types and designs and are usually of cast iron. Ventilating
radiators are similar, but have an inlet arrangement at the base to
allow external air to pass over the heating surface before passing out
through the perforations. Radiators should not be fixed directly on to
the main heating pipe, but always on branches of smaller diameter
leading from the flow pipe to one end of the radiator and back to the
main return pipe from the other end; they may then be easily controlled
by a valve placed on the branch from the flow pipe. To each radiator
should be fitted an air tap, which when opened will permit the escape of
any air that has accumulated in the coil; otherwise free circulation is
impossible, and the full benefit of the heat is not obtained.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
Hot-water supply.
A plentiful supply of hot water is a necessity in every house for
domestic and hygienic purposes. In small houses all requirements may be
satisfied with a boiler heated by the kitchen fire. For large buildings
where large quantities of hot water are used an independent boiler of
suitable size should be installed. Every installation is made up of a
boiler or other water heater, a tank or cylinder to contain the water
when heated, and a cistern of cold water, the supply from which to the
system is regulated automatically by a ball valve. These containers,
proportioned to the required supply of hot water, are connected with
each other by means of pipes, a "flow" and a "return" connecting the
boiler with the cylinder or tank (fig. 12). The flow pipe starts from
the top of the boiler and is connected near the top of the cylinder, the
return pipe joining the lower portions of the cylinder and boiler. The
supply from the cold water cistern enters the bottom of the cylinder,
and thence travels by way of the return pipe to the boiler, where it is
heated, and back through the flow pipe to the cylinder, which is thus
soon filled with hot water. A flow pipe which serves also for expansion
is taken from the top of the cylinder to a point above the cold-water
supply and turned down to prevent the ingress of dirt. From this pipe at
various points are taken the supply pipes to baths, lavatories, sinks
and other appliances. It will be observed that in fig. 12 the cylinder
is placed in proximity to the boiler; this is the usual and most
effective method, but it may be placed some distance away if desired.
The tank system is of much earlier date than this cylinder system, and
although the two resemble each other in many respects, the tank system
is in practice the less effective. The tank is placed above the level of
the topmost draw off, and often in a cupboard which it will warm
sufficiently to permit of its being used as a linen airing closet. An
expansion pipe is taken from the top of the tank to a point above the
roof. All draw off services are taken off from the flow pipe which
connects the boiler with the tank. This method differs from that adopted
in the cylinder system, where all services are led from the top of the
cylinder. A suitable proportion between the size of the tank or cylinder
and that of the boiler is 8 or 10 to 1. Water may also be heated by
placing a coil of steam or high-pressure hot-water pipes in a water tank
(fig. 6), the water heated in this way circulating in the manner already
described. An alternative plan is to pass the water through pipes placed
in a steam chest.
Cylinders, tanks and independent boilers should be encased in a
non-conducting material such as silicate cotton, thick felt or asbestos
composition. The two first mentioned are affixed by means of bands or
straps or stitched on; the asbestos is laid on in the form of a plaster
from 2 to 6 in. thick.
Taps to baths and lavatories should be connected to the main services by
a flow and return pipe so that hot water is constantly flowing past the
tap, thus enabling hot water to be obtained immediately. Frequently a
single pipe is led to the tap, but the water in this branch cools and
must therefore be drawn off before hot water can be obtained.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
Boilers.
Two classes of boilers are chiefly used in hot-water heating
installations, viz. those heated by the fire of the kitchen range, and
those heated separately or independently. Of the first class there are
two varieties in common use--a form of "saddle" boiler (fig. 13) and the
"boot" boiler (fig. 14). Independent boilers are made in every
conceivable size and form of construction, and many of them are capable
of doing excellent work. In the choice of a boiler of this description
it should be remembered that rapid heating, economical combustion of
fuel, and facilities for cleaning, are requisites, the absence of any of
which considerably lowers the efficiency of the apparatus. Boilers set
in brickwork are sometimes used in domestic work, although they are more
favoured for horticultural heating. The shape mostly used is the
"saddle" boiler, or some variation upon this very old pattern. The
coiled pipe fire-box of the high-pressure hot-water system previously
described may be also classed with boilers.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
A notable feature of modern boiler construction is the mode of building
the apparatus of cast iron in either horizontal or vertical sections.
Both the types intended to be set in brickwork and those working
independently are formed on the sectional principle, which has many good
points. The parts are easy of transport and can be handled without
difficulty through narrow doorways and in confined situations. The size
of the boiler may be increased or diminished by the addition or
subtraction of one or more sections; these, being simple in design, are
easily fitted together, and should a section become defective it is a
simple matter to insert a new one in its place. Should a defect occur
with a wrought iron boiler it is usually necessary for the purpose of
repair to disconnect and remove the whole apparatus, the heating system
of which it forms a part being in the meantime useless. In a type built
with vertical sections each division is complete in itself, and is not
directly connected with the next section, but communicates with flow and
return drums. A defective section may thus be left in position and
stopped off by means of plugs from the drums until it is convenient to
fit a new one in its place. A boiler with horizontal sections is shown
in fig. 15; it will be seen that each of the upper sections has a number
of cross waterways which form a series of gratings over the fire-box and
intercept most of the heat generated, effecting great economy of fuel.
Safety valves.
In the ordinary working of a hot-water apparatus the expansion pipe
already referred to will prevent any overdue pressure occurring in the
boiler; should, however, the pipes become blocked in any way while the
apparatus is in use, or the water in them become frozen, the lighting of
the fire would cause the water to expand, and having no outlet it would
in all probability burst the boiler. To prevent this a safety valve
should be fitted on the top of the boiler, or be connected thereto with
a large pipe so as to be visible. The valve may be of the dead weight
(fig. 16), lever weight, spring (fig. 17) or diaphragm variety. The
three first named are largely used. In the diaphragm valve a thin piece
of metal is fixed to an outlet from the boiler, and when a moderate
pressure is exceeded this gives way, allowing the water and steam to
escape.
Fusible plugs are little used; they consist of pieces of softer metal
inserted on the side of the boiler, which melt should the heat of the
water rise above a certain temperature.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
Geysers.
A "Geyser" is a very convenient form of apparatus for heating a quantity
of water in a short time. A water pipe of copper or wrought iron is
passed through a cylinder in which gas or oil heating burners are
placed. The piping takes a winding or zigzag course, and by the time the
outlet is reached, the water it contains has reached a high temperature.
By this means a continuous stream of hot water is obtained, greater or
smaller in proportion to the size and power of the apparatus. The
improved types of gas geysers are provided with a single control to both
gas and water supplies, with a small "pilot" burner to ignite the gas. A
flue should in all cases be provided to carry off the fumes of the fuel.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.]
Incrustation.
In districts where the water is of a "hard nature," that is, contains
bicarbonate of lime in solution, the interior of the boiler, cylinders,
tanks and pipes of a hot water system will become incrusted with a
deposit of lime which is gradually precipitated as the water is heated
to boiling point. With "very hard" water this deposit may require
removal every three months; in London it is usual to clean out the
boiler every six months and the cylinders and tanks at longer intervals.
For this purpose manlids must be provided (figs. 13 and 14), and pipes
should be fitted with removable caps at the bends to allow for
periodical cleaning. The lime deposit or "fur" is a poor conductor of
heat, and it is therefore most detrimental to the efficiency of the
system to allow the interior of the boiler or any other portion to
become furred up. Further, if not removed, the fur will in a short time
bring about a fracture in the boiler. The use of soft water entails a
disadvantage of another character--that of corroding iron and lead work,
soft water exercising a very vigorous chemical action upon these metals.
In districts supplied with soft water, copper should be employed to as
large an extent as possible.
The table given below will be useful in calculating the size of the
radiating surface necessary to raise the temperature to the extent
required when the external air is at freezing point (32° Fahr.):--
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| | | Cubic Feet of Air heated by |
| | | 1 sq. ft. of Radiator or |
| Description of Building |Temperature| Pipe Surface. |
| to be heated. | required. +-----------------------------+
| | | Low Pressure | Low Pressure |
| | | Water. | Steam. |
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Dwelling rooms | 55°-60° | 85-90 | 115-125 |
| Schools | 60° | 90-100 | 120-130 |
| Churches and chapels | 55°-60° | 100-120 | 135-160 |
| Offices and shops | 55°-60° | 120-125 | 160-170 |
| Public halls, workshops,| | | |
| waiting-rooms | 55° | 130-150 | 175-200 |
| Warehouses, stores | 50°-55° | 140-160 | 190-220 |
+-------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
Steam supply at Lockport.
In closing this account of heating and the practical methods of
application of heat, an example may be mentioned to show the great
capabilities of a carefully planned system. At the city of Lockport in
New York state, America, an interesting example of the direct
application of steam-heating on a large scale has been carried out under
the direction of Mr Birdsill Holly of that city. Houses within a radius
of 3 m. from the boiler house are supplied with superheated steam at a
pressure of 35 lb. to the in. The mains, the largest of which are 4 in.
in diameter, and the smallest 2 in., are wrapped in asbestos, felt and
other non-conducting materials, and are placed in wooden tubes laid
under ground like water and gas pipes. The house branches pipes are 1½
in. in diameter, and ¾-in. pipes are used inside the houses. The steam
is employed for warming apartments by means of pipe radiators, for
heating water by steam injections, and for all cooking purposes. The
steam mains to the houses are laid by the supply company; the internal
pipes and fittings are paid for or rented by the occupier, costing for
an installation from £30 for an ordinary eight-roomed house to £100 or
more for larger buildings. With the success of this undertaking in view
it is a matter of wonder that the example set in this instance has not
been adopted to a much greater extent elsewhere.
The principal publications on heating are: Hood, _Practical Treatise
on Warming Buildings by Hot Water_; Baldwin, _Hot Water Heating and
Fittings_; Baldwin, _Steam Heating for Buildings_; Billings,
_Ventilation and Heating_; Carpenter, _Heating and Ventilating
Buildings_; Jones, _Heating by Hot Water_, _Ventilation and Hot Water
Supply_; Dye, _Hot Water Supply_. (J. Bt.)
HEAVEN (O. Eng. _hefen_, _heofon_, _heofone_; this word appears in O.S.
_hevan_; the High. Ger. word appears in Ger. _Himmel_, Dutch _hemel_;
there does not seem to be any connexion between the two words, and the
ultimate derivation of the word is unknown; the suggestion that it is
connected with "to heave," in the sense of something "lifted up," is
erroneous), properly the expanse, taking the appearance of a domed vault
above the earth, in which the sun, moon, planets and stars seem to be
placed, the firmament; hence also used, generally in the plural, of the
space immediately above the earth, the atmospheric region of winds,
rain, clouds, and of the birds of the air. The heaven and the earth
together, therefore, to the ancient cosmographers, and still in poetical
language, make up the universe. In the cosmogonies of many ancient
peoples there was a plurality of heavens, probably among the earlier
Hebrews, the idea being elaborated in rabbinical literature, among the
Babylonians and in Zoroastrianism. The number of these heavens, the
higher transcending the lower in glory, varied from three to seven.
Heaven, as in the Hebrew _shamayim_, the Greek [Greek: ouranos], the
Latin _caelum_, is the abode of God, and as such in Christian
eschatology is the place of the blessed in the next world (see
ESCHATOLOGY and PARADISE).
HEBBEL, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1813-1863), German poet and dramatist, was
born at Wesselburen in Ditmarschen, Holstein, on the 18th of March 1813.
Though only the son of a poor bricklayer, he early showed a talent for
poetry, which was first displayed to the world by the publication, in
the Hamburg _Modezeitung_, of verses which he had sent to Amalie Schoppe
(1791-1858), a then popular journalist and author of nursery tales.
Through the kindness of this lady, who interested several of her friends
on his behalf, he was enabled to go to Hamburg and there prepare himself
for the university. A year later he went to Heidelberg to study law, but
finding this uncongenial he passed on to the university of Munich, where
he devoted himself to philosophy, history and literature. In 1839 Hebbel
left Munich and wandered back to Hamburg on foot, where he resumed his
relations with Elsie Lensing, whose self-sacrificing assistance had
helped him over the darkest days in Munich. In the same year he wrote
his first tragedy _Judith_ (published 1841), which in the following year
was performed in Hamburg and Berlin and made his name known throughout
Germany. In 1840 he wrote the tragedy _Genoveva_, and the following year
finished a comedy, _Der Diamant_, which he had begun at Munich. In 1842
he visited Copenhagen, where he obtained from the king of Denmark a
small travelling studentship, which enabled him to spend some time in
Paris and two years (1844-1846) in Italy. In Paris he wrote his fine
"tragedy of common life," _Maria Magdalene_ (1844). On his return from
Italy Hebbel met at Vienna two Polish noblemen, the brothers Zerboni di
Sposetti, who in their enthusiasm for his genius urged him to remain,
and supplied him with the means to mingle in the best intellectual
society of the Austrian capital. The unwonted life of ease had its
effect. The old precarious existence became a horror to him, he made a
deliberate breach with it by marrying (in 1846) the beautiful and
wealthy actress Christine Enghaus, ruthlessly sacrificing the girl who
had given up all for him and who remained faithful till her death, on
the ground that "a man's first duty is to the most powerful force within
him, that which alone can give him happiness and be of service to the
world": in his case the poetical faculty, which would have perished "in
the miserable struggle for existence." This "deadly sin," which, "if
peace of conscience be the test of action," was, he considered, the best
act of his life, established his fortunes. Elise, however, still
provided useful inspiration for his art. As late as 1855, shortly after
her death, he wrote the little epic _Mutter und Kind_, intended to show
that the relation of parent and child is the essential factor which
makes the quality of happiness among all classes and under all
conditions equal. Long before this Hebbel had become famous. German
sovereigns bestowed decorations upon him; and in foreign capitals he was
fêted as the greatest of living German dramatists. From the grand-duke
of Saxe-Weimar he received a flattering invitation to take up his
residence at Weimar, where several of his plays were first performed. He
remained, however, at Vienna until his death on the 13th of December
1863.
Besides the works already mentioned, Hebbel's principal tragedies are
_Herodes und Mariamne_ (1850); _Julia_ (1851); _Michel Angelo_ (1851);
_Agnes Bernauer_ (1855); _Gyges und sein Ring_ (1856), and the
magnificently conceived trilogy _Die Nibelungen_ (1862), his last work
(consisting of a prologue, _Der gehörnte Siegfried_, and the tragedies,
_Siegfrieds Tod_ and _Kriemhilds Rache_), which won for the author the
Schiller prize. Of his comedies _Der Diamant_ (1847), _Der Rubin_
(1850), and the tragi-comedy _Ein Trauerspiel in Sizilien_ (1845), are
the more important, but they are heavy and hardly rise above mediocrity.
All his dramatic productions, however, exhibit skill in
characterization, great glow of passion, and a true feeling for dramatic
situation; but their poetic effect is frequently marred by extravagances
which border on the grotesque, and by the introduction of incidents the
unpleasant character of which is not sufficiently relieved. In many of
his lyric poems, and especially in _Mutter und Kind_, published in 1859,
Hebbel showed that his poetic gifts were not restricted to the drama.
His collected works were first published by E. Kuh (12 vols., Hamburg,
1866-1868); revised by H. Krumm (12 vols., Hamburg, 1892). The best
critical edition is that by R. M. Werner (12 vols., 1901-1903), to
which have been added Hebbel's Diaries (4 vols.) and Correspondence (6
vols.). Hebbel's _Briefwechsel mit Freunden und berühmten
Zeitgenossen_ was issued by F. Bamberg (1890-1892). The chief
biographies of Hebbel are those by E. Kuh (1877) and R. M. Werner
(1905). See also L. A. Frankl, _Zur Biographie F. Hebbels_ (1884); T.
Poppe, _F. Hebbel und sein Drama_ (1900); A. Scheunert, _Der
Pantragismus als System der Weltanschauung und Ästhetik Hebbels_
(1903); E. A. Georgy, _Die Tragödie F. Hebbels nach ihrem Ideengehalt_
(1904).
HEBBURN, an urban district in the Jarrow parliamentary division of
Durham, England, on the right bank of the Tyne, 4½ m. below Newcastle,
and on a branch of the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1881), 11,802;
(1901), 20,901. It has extensive shipbuilding and engineering works,
rope and sail factories, chemical, colour and cement works, and
collieries.
HEBDEN BRIDGE, an urban district in the Sowerby parliamentary division
of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the Calder and Hebden
rivers, 7 m. W. by N. of Halifax by the Lancashire and Yorkshire
railway. Pop. (1901), 7536. The town has cotton factories, dye-works,
foundries and manufactories of shuttles. The upper Calder valley,
between Halifax and Todmorden, is walled with bold hills, the summits of
which consist of wild moorland. The vale itself is densely populated,
but its beauty is not destroyed, and the contrast with its desolate
surroundings is remarkable.
HEBE, in Greek mythology, daughter of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of
youth. In the Homeric poems she is the female counterpart of Ganymede,
and acts as cupbearer to the gods (_Iliad_, iv. 2). She was the special
attendant of her mother, whose horses she harnessed (_Iliad_, v. 722).
When Heracles was received amongst the gods, Hebe was bestowed upon him
in marriage (_Odyssey_, xi. 603). When the custom of the heroic age,
which permitted female cupbearers, fell into disuse, Hebe was replaced
by Ganymede in the popular mythology. To account for her retirement from
her office, it was said that she fell down in the presence of the gods
while handing the wine, and was so ashamed that she refused to appear
before them again. Hebe exhibits many striking points of resemblance
with the pure Greek goddess Aphrodite. She is the daughter of Zeus and
Hera, Aphrodite of Zeus and Dione; but Dione and Hera are often
identified. Hebe is called Dia, a regular epithet of Aphrodite; at
Phlius, a festival called [Greek: Kissotomoi] (the days of ivy-cutting)
was annually celebrated in her honour (Pausanias, ii. 13); and ivy was
sacred also to Aphrodite. The apotheosis of Heracles and his marriage
with Hebe became a favourite subject with poets and painters, and many
instances occur on vases. In later art she is often represented, like
Ganymede, caressing the eagle.
See R. Kekulé, _Hebe_ (1867), mainly dealing with the representations
of Hebe in art; and P. Decharme in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquités_.
The meaning of the word Hebe tended to transform the goddess into a mere
personification of the eternal youth that belongs to the gods, and this
conception is frequently met with. Then she becomes identical with the
Roman Juventas, who is simply an abstraction of an attribute of Jupiter
Juventus, the god of increase and blessing and youth. To Juventas, as
personifying the eternal youth of the Roman state, a chapel was
dedicated in very early times in the _cella_ of Minerva in the temple of
Jupiter Capitolinus. With this temple is connected the legend of
Juventas and Terminus, who alone of all the gods refused to give way
when it was being built--an indication of the eternal solidity and youth
of Rome. The cult of Juventas did not, however, become firmly
established until the time of the second Punic war. In 218 the Sibylline
books ordered a lectisternium in honour of Juventas and a supplicatio in
honour of Hercules, and in 191 a temple was dedicated in her honour in
the Circus Maximus. In later times Juventas became the personification,
not of the Roman youth, but of the emperor, who assumed the attributes
of a god (Livy v. 54, xxi. 62, xxxvi. 36; Dion. Halic. iii. 69; G.
Wissowa in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_).
HEBEL, JOHANN PETER (1760-1826), German poet and popular writer, was
born at Basel on the 10th of May 1760. The father dying when the child
was little over a year old, he was brought up amidst poverty-stricken
conditions in the village of Hausen in the Wiesental, where he received
his earliest education. Being of brilliant promise, he found friends who
enabled him to complete his school education and to study theology
(1778-1780) at Erlangen. At the end of his university course he was for
a time a private tutor, then became teacher at the Gymnasium in
Karlsruhe, and in 1808 was appointed director of the school. He was
subsequently appointed member of the Consistory and "evangelical
prelate." He died at Schwetzingen, near Heidelberg, on the 22nd of
September 1826. Hebel is one of the most widely read of all German
popular poets and writers. His poetical narratives and lyric poems,
written in the "Alemanic" dialect, are "popular" in the best sense. His
_Allemannische Gedichte_ (1803) "bucolicize," in the words of Goethe,
"the whole world in the most attractive manner" (_verbauert das ganze
Universum auf die anmutigste Weise_). Indeed, few modern German poets
surpass him in fidelity, _naïveté_, humour, and in the freshness and
vigour of his descriptions. His poem, _Die Wiese_, has been described by
Johannes Scherr as the "pearl of German idyllic poetry"; while his prose
writings, especially the narratives and essays contained in the
_Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes_ (Tübingen, 1811; new
edition, Stuttg. 1869, 1888), belong to the best class of German
stories, and according to August Friedrich Christian Vilmar (1800-1868)
in his _Geschichte der deutschen Literatur_ are "worth more than a
cartload of novels" (_wiegen ein ganzes Fuder Romane auf_). Memorials
have been erected to him at Karlsruhe, Basel and Schwetzingen.
A complete edition of Hebel's works--_Sämtliche Werke_--was first
published at Stuttgart in 8 vols. (1832-1834); subsequent editions
appeared in 1847 (3 vols.), 1868 (2 vols.), 1873 (edited by G. Wendt,
2 vols.), 1883-1885 (edited by O. Behaghel, 2 vols.) and 1905 (edited
by E. Keller, 5 vols.), as well as innumerable reprints. Hebel's
correspondence has been edited by O. Behaghel (1883). See G. Längin,
_J. P. Hebel, ein Lebensbild_ (1894), and the introduction to
Behaghel's edition.
HEBER, REGINALD (1783-1826), English bishop and hymn-writer, was born at
Malpas in Cheshire on the 21st of April 1783. His father, who belonged
to an old Yorkshire family, held a moiety of the living of Malpas.
Reginald Heber early showed remarkable promise, and was entered in
November 1800 at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he proved a
distinguished student, carrying off prizes for a Latin poem entitled
_Carmen seculare_, an English poem on _Palestine_, and a prose essay on
_The Sense of Honour_. In November 1804 he was elected a fellow of All
Souls College; and, after finishing his distinguished university career,
he made a long tour in Europe. He was admitted to holy orders in 1807,
and was then presented to the family living of Hodnet in Shropshire. In
1809 Heber married Amelia, daughter of Dr Shipley, dean of St Asaph. He
was made prebendary of St Asaph in 1812, appointed Bampton lecturer for
1815, preacher at Lincoln's Inn in 1822, and bishop of Calcutta in
January 1823. Before sailing for India he received the degree of D.D.
from the university of Oxford. In India Bishop Heber laboured
indefatigably, not only for the good of his own diocese, but for the
spread of Christianity throughout the East. He undertook numerous tours
in India, consecrating churches, founding schools and discharging other
Christian duties. His devotion to his work in a trying climate told
severely on his health. At Trichinopoly he was seized with an apoplectic
fit when in his bath, and died on the 3rd of April 1826. A statue of
him, by Chantrey, was erected at Calcutta.
Heber was a pious man of profound learning, literary taste and great
practical energy. His fame rests mainly on his hymns, which rank among
the best in the English language. The following may be instanced: "Lord
of mercy and of might"; "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning";
"By cool Siloam's shady rill"; "God, that madest earth and heaven"; "The
Lord of might from Sinai's brow"; "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty";
"From Greenland's icy mountains"; "The Lord will come, the earth shall
quake"; "The Son of God goes forth to war." Heber's hymns and other
poems are distinguished by finish of style, pathos and soaring
aspiration; but they lack originality, and are rather rhetorical than
poetical in the strict sense.
Among Heber's works are: _Palestine: a Poem, to which is added the
Passage of the Red Sea_ (1809); _Europe: Lines on the Present War_
(1809); a volume of poems in 1812; _The Personality and Office of the
Christian Comforter asserted and explained_ (being the Bampton
Lectures for 1815); _The Whole Works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, with a
Life of the Author, and a Critical Examination of his Writings_
(1822); _Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the
Year, principally by Bishop Heber_ (1827); _A Journey through India_
(1828); _Sermons preached in England_, and _Sermons preached in India_
(1829); _Sermons on the Lessons, the Gospel, or the Epistle for every
Sunday in the Year_ (1837). _The Poetical Works of Reginald Heber_
were collected in 1841.
See the _Life of Reginald Heber, D.D. ..._, by his widow, Amelia Heber
(1830), which also contains a number of Heber's miscellaneous
writings; _The Last Days of Bishop Heber_, by Thomas Robinson, A.M.,
archdeacon of Madras (1830); T. S. Smyth, The Character and Religious
Doctrine of Bishop Heber (1831), and _Memorials of a Quiet Life_, by
Augustus J. C. Hare (1874).
HEBER, RICHARD (1773-1833), English book-collector, the half-brother of
Reginald Heber, was born in London on the 5th of January 1773. As an
undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford, he began to collect a purely
classical library, but his taste broadening, he became interested in
early English drama and literature, and began his wonderful collection
of rare books in these departments. He attended continental book-sales,
purchasing sometimes single volumes, sometimes whole libraries. Sir
Walter Scott, whose intimate friend he was, and who dedicated to him the
sixth canto of _Marmion_, classed Heber's library as "superior to all
others in the world"; Campbell described him as "the fiercest and
strongest of all the bibliomaniacs." He did not confine himself to the
purchase of a single copy of a work which took his fancy. "No
gentleman," he remarked, "can be without three copies of a book, one for
show, one for use, and one for borrowers." To such a size did his
library grow that it over-ran eight houses, some in England, some on the
Continent. It is estimated to have cost over £100,000, and after his
death the sale of that part of his collection stored in England realized
more than £56,000. He is known to have owned 150,000 volumes, and
probably many more. He possessed extensive landed property in Shropshire
and Yorkshire, and was sheriff of the former county in 1821, was member
of Parliament for Oxford University from 1821-1826, and in 1822 was made
a D.C.L. of that University. He was one of the founders of the Athenaeum
Club, London. He died in London on the 4th of October 1833.
HEBERDEN, WILLIAM (1710-1801), English physician, was born in London in
1710. In the end of 1724 he was sent to St John's College, Cambridge,
where he obtained a fellowship about 1730, became master of arts in
1732, and took the degree of M.D. in 1739. He remained at Cambridge
nearly ten years longer practising medicine, and gave an annual course
of lectures on materia medica. In 1746 he became a fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians in London; and two years later he settled in
London, where he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1749, and
enjoyed an extensive medical practice for more than thirty years. At the
age of seventy-two he partially retired, spending his summers at a house
which he had taken at Windsor, but he continued to practise in London
during the winter for some years longer. In 1778 he was made an honorary
member of the Paris Royal Society of Medicine. He died in London on the
17th of May 1801. Heberden, who was a good classical scholar, published
several papers in the Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society, and among his
noteworthy contributions to the _Medical Transactions_ (issued, largely
at his suggestion, by the College of Physicians) were papers on
chicken-pox (1767) and angina pectoris (1768). His _Commentarii de
morborum historia et curatione_, the result of careful notes made in his
pocket-book at the bedside of his patients, were published in 1802; in
the following year an English translation appeared, believed to be from
the pen of his son, William Heberden (1767-1845), also a distinguished
scholar and physician, who attended King George III. in his last
illness.
HÉBERT, EDMOND (1812-1890), French geologist, was born at Villefargau,
Yonne, on the 12th of June 1812. He was educated at the Collège de
Meaux, Auxerre, and at the École Normale in Paris. In 1836 he became
professor at Meaux, in 1838 demonstrator in chemistry and physics at the
École Normale, and in 1841 sub-director of studies at that school and
lecturer on geology. In 1857 the degree of D. ès Sc. was conferred upon
him, and he was appointed professor of geology at the Sorbonne. There he
was eminently successful as a teacher, and worked with great zeal in the
field, adding much to the knowledge of the Jurassic and older strata. He
devoted, however, special attention to the subdivisions of the
Cretaceous and Tertiary formations in France, and to their correlation
with the strata in England and in southern Europe. To him we owe the
first definite arrangement of the Chalk into palaeontological zones (see
Table in _Geol. Mag._, 1869, p. 200). During his later years he was
regarded as the leading geologist in France. He was elected a member of
the Institute in 1877, Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1885, and he
was three times president of the Geological Society of France. He died
in Paris on the 4th of April 1890.
HÉBERT, JACQUES RENÉ (1757-1794), French Revolutionist, called "Père
Duchesne," from the newspaper he edited, was born at Alençon, on the
15th of November 1757, where his father, who kept a goldsmith's shop,
had held some municipal office. His family was ruined, however, by a
lawsuit while he was still young, and Hébert came to Paris, where in his
struggle against poverty he endured great hardships; the accusations of
theft directed against him later by Camille Desmoulins were, however,
without foundation. In 1790 he attracted attention by some pamphlets,
and became a prominent member of the club of the Cordeliers in 1791. On
the 10th of August 1792 he was a member of the revolutionary Commune of
Paris, and became second substitute of the _procureur_ of the Commune on
the 2nd of December 1792. His violent attacks on the Girondists led to
his arrest on the 24th of May 1793, but he was released owing to the
threatening attitude of the mob. Henceforth very popular, Hébert
organized with P. G. Chaumette (q.v.) the "worship of Reason," in
opposition to the theistic cult inaugurated by Robespierre, against whom
he tried to excite a popular movement. The failure of this brought about
the arrest of the Hébertists, or _enragés_, as his partisans were
called. Hébert was guillotined on the 24th of March 1794. His wife, who
had been a nun, was executed twenty days later. Hébert's influence was
mainly due to his articles in his journal _Le Père Duchesne_,[1] which
appeared from 1790 to 1794. These articles, while not lacking in a
certain cleverness, were violent and abusive, and purposely couched in
foul language in order to appeal to the mob.
See Louis Duval, "Hébert chez lui," in _La Révolution Française, revue
d'histoire moderne et contemporaine_, t. xii. and t. xiii.; D. Mater,
_J. R. Hébert, l'auteur du Père Duchesne avant la journée du 10 août
1792_ (Bourges, Comm. Hist. du Cher, 1888); F. A. Aulard, _Le Culte de
la raison et de l'être suprême_ (Paris, 1892).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] There were several journals of this name, the best known of the
others being that edited by Lemaire.
HEBREW LANGUAGE. The name "Hebrew" is derived, through the Greek [Greek:
Hebraios], from _'ibhray_, the Aramaic equivalent of the Old Testament
word _'ibhri_, denoting the people who commonly spoke of themselves as
Israel or Children of Israel from the name of their common ancestor (see
JEWS). The later derivative _Yisra'eli_, Israelite, from Yisra'el, is
not found in the Old Testament.[1] Other names used for the language of
Israel are _speech of Canaan_ (Isa. xix. 18) and _Yehudhith_, Jewish, (2
Kings xviii. 26). In later times it was called the _holy tongue_. The
real meaning of the word _'ibhri_ must ultimately be sought in the root
_'abhar_, to pass across, to go beyond, from which is derived the noun
_'ebher_, meaning the "farther bank" of a river. The usual explanation
of the term is that of Jewish tradition that _'ibhri_ means the man
"from the other side," i.e. either of the Euphrates or the Jordan. Hence
the Septuagint in Gen. xiv. 13 render Abram _ha-'ibhri_ by [Greek: ho
peratês], the "crosser," and Aquila, following the same tradition, has
[Greek: ho peraitês], the man "from beyond." This view of course implies
that the term was originally applied to Abram or his descendants by a
people living on the west of the Euphrates or of the Jordan. It has been
suggested that the root _'abhar_ is to be taken in the sense of
"travelling," and that Abram the wandering Aramaean (Deut. xxvi. 5) was
called _ha-'ibhri_ because he travelled about for trading purposes, his
language, _'ibhri_, being the _lingua franca_ of Eastern trade. The use
of the term [Greek: hebraisti] for biblical Hebrew is first found in the
Greek prologue to Ecclesiasticus (c. 130 B.C.). In the New Testament it
denotes the native language of Palestine (Aramaic and Hebrew being
popularly confused) as opposed to Greek. In modern usage the name Hebrew
is applied to that branch of the northern part of the Semitic family of
languages which was used by the Israelites during most of the time of
their national existence in Palestine, and in which nearly all their
sacred writings are composed. As to its characteristics and relation to
other languages of the same stock, see SEMITIC LANGUAGES. It also
includes the later forms of the same language as used by Jewish writers
after the close of the Canon throughout the middle ages (Rabbinical
Hebrew) and to the present day (New Hebrew).
Before the rise of comparative philology it was a popular opinion that
Hebrew was the original speech of mankind, from which all others were
descended. This belief, derived from the Jews (cf. Pal. Targ. Gen. xi.
1), was supported by the etymologies and other data supplied by the
early chapters of Genesis. But though Hebrew possesses a very old
literature, it is not, as we know it, structurally as early as, e.g.
Arabic, or, in other words, it does not come so near to that primitive
Semitic speech which may be pre-supposed as the common parent of all the
Semitic languages. Owing to the imperfection of the Hebrew alphabet,
which, like that of most Semitic languages, has no means of expressing
vowel-sounds, it is only partly possible to trace the development of the
language. In its earliest form it was no doubt most closely allied to
the Canaanite or Phoenician stock, to the language of Moab, as revealed
by the stele of Mesha (c. 850 B.C.), and to Edomite. The vocalization of
Canaanite, as far as it is known to us, e.g. from glosses in the
Tell-el-Amarna tablets (15th century B.C.)[2] and much later from the
Punic passages in the _Poenulus_ of Plautus, differs in many respects
from that of the Hebrew of the Old Testament, as also does the
Septuagint transcription of proper names. The uniformity, however, of
the Old Testament text is due to the labours of successive schools of
grammarians who elaborated the Massorah (see HEBREW LITERATURE), thereby
obliterating local or dialectic differences, which undoubtedly existed,
and establishing the pronunciation current in the synagogues about the
7th century A.D. The only mention of such differences in the Old
Testament is in Judges xii. 6, where it is stated that the Ephraimites
pronounced [Hebrew: sh] (sh) as [Hebrew: s] or [Hebrew: s] (s). In Neh.
xiii. 24, the "speech of Ashdod" is more probably a distinct
(Philistine) language. Certain peculiarities in the language of the
Pentateuch ([Hebrew: hu] for [Hebrew: hi], [Hebrew: naar] for [Hebrew:
naara]), which used to be regarded as archaisms, are to be explained as
purely orthographical.[3] In a series of writings, however, extending
over so long a period as those of the Old Testament, some variation or
development in language is to be expected apart from the natural
differences between the poetic (or prophetic) and prose styles. The
consonantal text sometimes betrays these in spite of the Massorah. In
general, the later books of the Old Testament show, roughly speaking, a
greater simplicity and uniformity of style, as well as a tendency to
Aramaisms. For some centuries after the Exile, the people of Palestine
must have been bilingual, speaking Aramaic for ordinary purposes, but
still at least understanding Hebrew. Not that they forgot their own
tongue in the Captivity and learnt Aramaic in Babylon, as used to be
supposed. In the western provinces of the Persian empire Aramaic was the
official language, spoken not only in Palestine but in all the
surrounding countries, even in Egypt and among Arab tribes such as the
Nabateans. It is natural, therefore, that it should influence and
finally supplant Hebrew in popular use, so that translations even of the
Old Testament eventually appear in it (TARGUMS). Meanwhile Hebrew did
not become a dead language--indeed it can hardly be said ever to have
died, since it has continued in use till the present day for the
purposes of ordinary life among educated Jews in all parts of the world.
It gradually became a literary rather than a popular tongue, as appears
from the style of the later books of the Old Testament (Chron., Dan.,
Eccles.), and from the Hebrew text of Ecclesiasticus (c. 170 B.C.).
During the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. we have no direct
evidence of its characteristics. After that period there is a great
development in the language of the Mishna. It was still living Hebrew,
although mainly confined to the schools, with very clear differences
from the biblical language. In the Old Testament the range of subjects
was limited. In the Mishna it was very much extended. Matters relating
to daily life had to be discussed, and words and phrases were adopted
from what was no doubt the popular language of an earlier period. A
great many foreign words were also introduced. The language being no
longer familiar in the same sense as formerly, greater definiteness of
expression became necessary in the written style. In order to avoid the
uncertainty arising from the lack of vowels to distinguish forms
consisting of the same consonants (for the vowel-points were not yet
invented), the aramaising use of the reflexive conjugations (Hithpa'el,
Nithpa'el) for the internal passives (Pu'al, Hoph'al) became common;
particles were used to express the genitive and other relations, and in
general there was an endeavour to avoid the obscurities of a purely
consonantal writing. What is practically Mishnic Hebrew continued to be
used in Midrash for some centuries. The language of both Talmuds, which,
roughly speaking, were growing contemporaneously with Midrash, is a
mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic (Eastern Aram. in the Babylonian, Western
in the Jerusalem Talmud), as was also that of the earlier commentators.
As the popular use of Aramaic was gradually restricted by the spread of
Arabic as the vernacular (from the 7th century onwards), while the
dispersion of the Jews became wider, biblical Hebrew again came to be
the natural standard both of East and West. The cultivation of it is
shown and was no doubt promoted by the many philological works
(grammars, lexicons and masorah) which are extant from the 10th century
onward. In Spain, under Moorish dominion, most of the important works of
that period were composed in Arabic, and the influence of Arabic writers
both on language and method may be seen in contemporaneous Hebrew
compositions. No other vernacular (except, of course, Aramaic) ever had
the same influence upon Hebrew, largely because no other bears so close
a relation to it. At the present day in the East, and among learned Jews
elsewhere, Hebrew is still cultivated conversationally, and it is widely
used for literary purposes. Numerous works on all kinds of subjects are
produced in various countries, periodicals flourish, and Hebrew is the
vehicle of correspondence between Jews in all parts of the world.
Naturally its quality varies with the ability and education of the
writer. In the modern _pronunciation_ the principal differences are
between the Ashkenazim (German and Polish Jews) and the Sephardim
(Spanish and Portuguese Jews), and concern not only the vowels but also
certain consonants, and in some cases probably go back to early times.
As regards _writing_, it is most likely that the oldest Hebrew records
were preserved in some form of cuneiform script. The alphabet (see
WRITING) subsequently adopted is seen in its earliest form on the stele
of Mesha, and has been retained, with modifications, by the Samaritans.
According to Jewish tradition Ezra introduced the Assyrian character
([Hebrew: ktav ashuri]), a much-debated statement which no doubt means
that the Aramaic hand in use in Babylonia was adopted by the Jews about
the 5th century B.C. Another form of the same hand, allowing for
differences of material, is found in Egyptian Aramaic papyri of the 5th
and 4th centuries B.C. From this were developed (a) the _square_
character used in MSS. of the Bible or important texts, and in most
printed books, (b) the _Rabbinic_ (or Rashi) character, used in
commentaries and treatises of all kinds, both in MS. and in printed
books, (c) the _Cursive_ character, used in letters and for informal
purposes, not as a rule printed. In the present state of Hebrew
palaeography it is not possible to determine accurately the date of a
MS., but it is easy to recognize the country in which it was written.
The most clearly marked distinctions are between Spanish, French,
German, Italian, Maghrebi, Greek, Syrian (including Egyptian), Yemenite,
Persian and Qaraite hands. It is in the Rabbinic and Cursive characters
that the differences are most noticeable. The Hebrew alphabet is also
used, generally with the addition of some diacritical marks, by Jews to
write other languages, chiefly Arabic, Spanish, Persian, Greek, Tatar
(by Qaraites) and in later times German.
The philological study of Hebrew among the Jews is described below,
under Hebrew Literature, of which it formed an integral part. Among
Christian scholars there was no independent school of Hebraists before
the revival of learning. In the Greek and Latin Church the few fathers
who, like Origen and Jerome, knew something of the language, were wholly
dependent on their Jewish teachers, and their chief value for us is as
depositaries of Jewish tradition. Similarly in the East, the Syriac
version of the Old Testament is largely under the influence of the
synagogue, and the homilies of Aphraates are a mine of Rabbinic lore. In
the middle ages some knowledge of Hebrew was preserved in the Church by
converted Jews and even by non-Jewish scholars, of whom the most notable
were the Dominican controversialist Raymundus Martini (in his _Pugio
fidei_) and the Franciscan Nicolaus of Lyra, on whom Luther drew largely
in his interpretation of Scripture. But there was no tradition of Hebrew
study apart from the Jews, and in the 15th century when an interest in
the subject was awakened, only the most ardent zeal could conquer the
obstacles that lay in the way. Orthodox Jews refused to teach those who
were not of their faith, and on the other hand many churchmen
conscientiously believed in the duty of entirely suppressing Jewish
learning. Even books were to be had only with the greatest difficulty,
at least north of the Alps. In Italy things were somewhat better. Jews
expelled from Spain received favour from the popes. Study was
facilitated by the use of the printing-press, and some of the earliest
books printed were in Hebrew. The father of Hebrew study among
Christians was the humanist Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), the author of
the _Rudimenta Hebraica_ (Pforzheim, 1506), whose contest with the
converted Jew Pfefferkorn and the Cologne obscurantists, established the
claim of the new study to recognition by the Church. Interest in the
subject spread rapidly. Among Reuchlin's own pupils were Melanchthon,
Oecolampadius and Cellarius, while Sebastian Münster in Heidelberg
(afterwards professor at Basel), and Büchlein (Fagius) at Isny,
Strasburg and Cambridge, were pupils of the liberal Jewish scholar Elias
Levita. France drew teachers from Italy. Santes Pagninus of Lucca was at
Lyons; and the trilingual college of Francis I. at Paris, with Vatablus
and le Mercier, attracted, among other foreigners, Giustiniani, bishop
of Nebbio, the editor of the Genoa psalter of 1516. In Rome the
converted Jew Felix Pratensis taught under the patronage of Leo X., and
did useful work in connexion with the great Bomberg Bibles. In Spain
Hebrew learning was promoted by Cardinal Ximenes, the patron of the
Complutensian Polyglot. The printers, as J. Froben at Basel and Etienne
at Paris, also produced Hebrew books. For a time Christian scholars
still leaned mainly on the Rabbis. But a more independent spirit soon
arose, of which le Mercier in the 16th, and Drusius early in the 17th
century, may be taken as representatives. In the 17th century too the
cognate languages were studied by J. Selden, E. Castell (Heptaglott
lexicon) and E. Pococke (Arabic) in England, Ludovicus de Dieu in
Holland, S. Bochart in France, J. Ludolf (Ethiopic) and J. H. Hottinger
(Syriac) in Germany, with advantage to the Hebrew grammar and lexicon.
Rabbinic learning moreover was cultivated at Basel by the elder Buxtorf
who was the author of grammatical works and a lexicon. With the rise of
criticism Hebrew philology soon became a necessary department of
theology. Cappellus (d. 1658) followed Levita in maintaining, against
Buxtorf, the late introduction of the vowel-points, a controversy in
which the authority of the massoretic text was concerned. He was
supported by J. Morin and R. Simon in France. In the 18th century in
Holland A. Schultens and N. W. Schroeder used the comparative method,
with great success, relying mainly on Arabic. In Germany there was the
meritorious J. D. Michaelis and in France the brilliant S. de Sacy. In
the 19th century the greatest name among Hebraists is that of Gesenius,
at Halle, whose shorter grammar (of Biblical Hebrew) first published in
1813, is still the standard work, thanks to the ability with which his
pupil E. Rödiger and recently E. Kautzsch have revised and enlarged it.
Important work was also done by G. H. A. Ewald, J. Olshausen and P. A.
de Lagarde, not to mention later scholars who have utilized the valuable
results of Assyriological research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Among the numerous works dealing with the study of
Hebrew, the following are some of the most practically useful.
Grammars, Introductory.--Davidson, _Introductory Hebrew Grammar_ (9th
ed., Edinburgh, 1888); and _Syntax_ (Edinburgh, 1894). Advanced:
Gesenius's _Hebräische Grammatik_, ed. Kautzsch (28th ed., Leipzig,
1909; Eng. trans., Oxford, 1910); also Driver, _Treatise on the Use of
the Tenses in Hebrew_ (3rd ed., Oxford, 1892). For post-biblical
Hebrew, Strack and Siegfried, _Lehrbuch d. neuhebräischen Sprache_
(Leipzig, 1884).
Comparative Grammar.--Wright, _Lectures on the Comp. Grammar of the
Sem. Lang._ (Cambridge, 1890); Brockelmann, _Grundriss der
vergleichenden Grammatik_ (Berlin, 1907, &c.).
Lexicons.--Gesenius's _Thesaurus philologicus_ (Leipzig, 1829-1858),
and his _Hebräisches Handwörterbuch_ (15th ed. by Zimmern and Buhl,
Leipzig, 1910); Brown, Briggs and Driver, _Hebrew and Eng. Lexicon_
(Oxford, 1892-1906). For later Hebrew: Levy, _Neuhebräisches
Wörterbuch_ (Leipzig, 1876-1889); Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumi,
&c. (New York, 1886, &c.); Dalman, _Aramaisches neuhebräisches
Wörterbuch_ (Frankfort a. M., 1897); Kohut, _Aruch completum_ (Vienna,
1878-1890) (in Hebrew) is valuable for the language of the Talmud.
(A. Cy.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In 2 Sam. xvii. 25 _Israelite_ should be _Ishmaelite_, as in the
parallel passage 1 Chron. ii. 17.
[2] See Zimmern, in _Ztsch. für Assyriol._ (1891), p. 154.
[3] See Gesenius-Kautzsch, _Hebr. Gram._ § 17 c.
HEBREW LITERATURE. Properly speaking, "Hebrew Literature" denotes all
works written in the Hebrew language. In catalogues and bibliographies,
however, the expression is now generally used, conveniently if
incorrectly, as synonymous with Jewish literature, including all works
written by Jews in Hebrew characters, whether the language be Aramaic,
Arabic or even some vernacular not related to Hebrew.
Old Testament-Scriptures.
The literature begins with, as it is almost entirely based upon, the Old
Testament. There were no doubt in the earliest times popular songs
orally transmitted and perhaps books of annals and laws, but except in
so far as remnants of them are embedded in the biblical books, they have
entirely disappeared. Thus the Book of the Wars of the Lord is mentioned
in Num. xxi. 14; the Book of Jashar in Josh. x. 13, 2. Sam. i. 18; the
Song of the Well is quoted in Num. xxi. 17, 18, and the song of Sihon
and Moab, ib. 27-30; of Lamech, Gen. iv. 23, 24; of Moses, Exod. xv. As
in other literatures, these popular elements form the foundation on
which greater works are gradually built, and it is one function of
literary criticism to show the way in which the component parts were
welded into a uniform whole. The traditional view that Moses was the
author of the Pentateuch in its present form, would make this the
earliest monument of Hebrew literature. Modern inquiry, however, has
arrived at other conclusions (see BIBLE, _Old Testament_), which may be
briefly summarized as follows: the Pentateuch is compiled from various
documents, the earliest of which is denoted by J (beginning at Gen. ii.
4) from the fact that its author regularly uses the divine name Jehovah
(Yahweh). Its date is now usually given as about 800 B.C.[1] In the next
century the document E was composed, so called from its using Elohim
(God) instead of Yahweh. Both these documents are considered to have
originated in the Northern kingdom, Israel, where also in the 8th
century appeared the prophets Amos and Hosea. To the same period belong
the book of Micah, the earlier parts of the books of Samuel, of Isaiah
and of Proverbs, and perhaps some Psalms. In 722 B.C. Samaria was taken
and the Northern kingdom ceased to exist. Judah suffered also, and it is
not until a century later that any important literary activity is again
manifested. The main part of the book of Deuteronomy was "found" shortly
before 621 B.C. and about the same time appeared the prophets Jeremiah
and Zephaniah, and perhaps the book of Ruth. A few years later (about
600) the two Pentateuchal documents J and E were woven together, the
books of Kings were compiled, the book of Habakkuk and parts of the
Proverbs were written. Early in the next century Jerusalem was taken by
Nebuchadrezzar, and the prophet Ezekiel was among the exiles with
Jehoiachin. Somewhat later (c. 550) the combined document JE was edited
by a writer under the influence of Deuteronomy, the later parts of the
books of Samuel were written, parts of Isaiah, the books of Obadiah,
Haggai, Zechariah and perhaps the later Proverbs. In the exile, but
probably after 500 B.C., an important section of the Hexateuch, usually
called the Priest's Code (P), was drawn up. At various times in the same
century are to be placed the book of Job, the post-exilic parts of
Isaiah, the books of Joel, Jonah, Malachi and the Song of Songs. The
Pentateuch (or Hexateuch) was finally completed in its present form at
some time before 400 B.C. The latest parts of the Old Testament are the
books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah (c. 330 B.C.), Ecclesiastes and
Esther (3rd century) and Daniel, composed either in the 3rd century or
according to some views as late as the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (c.
168 B.C.). With regard to the date of the Psalms, internal evidence,
from the nature of the case, leads to few results which are convincing.
The most reasonable view seems to be that the collection was formed
gradually and that the process was going on during most of the period
sketched above.
Apocryphal literature.
Targum.
It is not to be supposed that all the contents of the Old Testament were
immediately accepted as sacred, or that they were ever all regarded as
being on the same level. The Torah, the Law delivered to Moses, held
among the Jews of the 4th century B.C. as it holds now, a pre-eminent
position. The inclusion of other books in the Canon was gradual, and was
effected only after centuries of debate. The Jews have always been,
however, an intensely literary people, and the books ultimately accepted
as canonical were only a selection from the literature in existence at
the beginning of the Christian era. The rejected books receiving little
attention have mostly either been altogether lost or have survived only
in translations, as in the case of the Apocrypha. Hence from the
composition of the latest canonical books to the redaction of the Mishna
(see below) in the 2nd century A.D., the remains of Hebrew literature
are very scanty. Of books of this period which are known to have existed
in Hebrew or Aramaic up to the time of Jerome (and even later) we now
possess most of the original Hebrew text of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) in
a somewhat corrupt form, and fragments of an Aramaic text of a recension
of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, both discovered within
recent years. Besides definite works of this kind, there was also being
formed during this period a large body of exegetical and legal material,
for the most part orally transmitted, which only received its literary
form much later. As Hebrew became less familiar to the people, a system
of translating the text of the Law into the Aramaic vernacular verse by
verse, was adopted in the synagogue. The beginnings of it are supposed
to be indicated in Neh. viii. 8. The translation was no doubt originally
extemporary, and varied with the individual translators, but its form
gradually became fixed and was ultimately written down. It was called
_Targum_, from the Aramaic _targem_, to translate. The earliest to be
thus edited was the Targum of Onkelos (Onqelos), the proselyte, on the
Law. It received its final form in Babylonia probably in the 3rd century
A.D. The Samaritan Targum, of about the same date, clearly rests on the
same tradition. Parallel to Onkelos was another Targum on the Law,
generally called pseudo-Jonathan, which was edited in the 7th century in
Palestine, and is based on the same system of interpretation but is
fuller and closer to the original tradition. There is also a fragmentary
Targum (Palestinian) the relation of which to the others is obscure. It
may be only a series of disconnected glosses on Onkelos. For the other
books, the recognized Targum on the Prophets is that ascribed to
Jonathan ben Uzziel (4th century?), which originated in Palestine, but
was edited in Babylonia, so that it has the same history and linguistic
character as Onkelos. Just as there is a Palestinian Targum on the Law
parallel to the Babylonian Onkelos, so there is a Palestinian Targum
(called _Yerushalmi_) on the Prophets parallel to that of Ben Uzziel,
but of later date and incomplete. The Law and the Prophets being alone
used in the services of the synagogue, there was no authorized version
of the rest of the Canon. There are, however, Targumim on the Psalms and
Job, composed in the 5th century, on Proverbs, resembling the Peshitta
version, on the five Meghilloth, paraphrastic and agadic (see below) in
character, and on Chronicles--all Palestinian. There is also a second
Targum on Esther. There is none on Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah.
Halakhah.
We must now return to the 2nd century. During the period which followed
the later canonical books, not only was translation, and therefore
exegesis, cultivated, but even more the amplification of the Law.
According to Jewish teaching (e.g. Abhoth i. 1) Moses received on Mount
Sinai not only the written Law as set down in the Pentateuch, but also
the Oral Law, which he communicated personally to the 70 elders and
through them by a "chain of tradition" to succeeding ages. The
application of this oral law is called _Halakhah_, the rules by which a
man's daily "walk" is regulated. The halakhah was by no means inferior
in prestige to the written Law. Indeed some teachers even went so far as
to ascribe a higher value to it, since it comes into closer relation
with the details of everyday life. It was not independent of the written
Law, still less could it be in opposition to it. Rather it was
implicitly contained in the Torah, and the duty of the teacher was to
show this. It was therefore of the first importance that the chain of
tradition should be continuous and trustworthy. The line is traced
through biblical teachers to Ezra, the first of the Sopherim or scribes,
who handed on the charge to the "men of the Great Synagogue," a
much-discussed term for a body or succession of teachers inaugurated by
Ezra. The last member of it, Simon the Just (either Simon I., who died
about 300 B.C., or Simon II., who died about 200 B.C.), was the first of
the next series, called Elders, represented in the tradition by _pairs_
of teachers, ending with Hillel and Shammai about the beginning of the
Christian era. Their pupils form the starting-point of the next series,
the Tannaim (from Aram. _tena_ to teach), who occupy the first two
centuries A.D.
Mishnah.
By this time the collection of halakhic material had become very large
and various, and after several attempts had been made to reduce it to
uniformity, a code of oral tradition was finally drawn up in the 2nd
century by Judah ha-Nasi, called Rabbi _par excellence_. This was the
Mishnah. Its name is derived from the Hebrew _shanah_, corresponding to
the Aramaic _tena_, and therefore a suitable name for a tannaitic work,
meaning the _repetition_ or _teaching_ of the oral law. It is written in
the Hebrew of the schools (_leshon hakhamim_) which differs in many
respects from that of the Old Testament (see HEBREW LANGUAGE). It is
divided into six "orders," according to subject, and each order is
subdivided into chapters. In making his selection of halakhoth, Rabbi
used the earlier compilations, which are quoted as "words of Rabbi
'Aqiba" or of R. Me'ir, but rejected much which was afterwards collected
under the title of Tosefta (_addition_) and Baraita (_outside_ the
Mishnah).
Midrash.
Traditional teaching was, however, not confined to halakhah. As observed
above, it was the duty of the teachers to show the connexion of
practical rules with the written Law, the more so since the Sadducees
rejected the authority of the oral law as such. Hence arises Midrash,
_exposition_, from _darash_ to "investigate" a scriptural passage. Of
this halakhic Midrash we possess that on Exodus, called Mekhilta, that
on Leviticus, called Sifra, and that on Numbers and Deuteronomy, called
Sifre. All of these were drawn up in the period of the Amoraim, the
order of teachers who succeeded the Tannaim, from the close of the
Mishnah to about A.D. 500. The term Midrash, however, more commonly
implies _agada_, i.e. the homiletical exposition of the text, with
illustrations designed to make it more attractive to the readers or
hearers. Picturesque teaching of this kind was always popular, and
specimens of it are familiar in the Gospel discourses. It began, as a
method, with the Sopherim (though there are traces in the Old Testament
itself), and was most developed among the Tannaim and Amoraim, rivalling
even the study of halakhah. As the existing halakhoth were collected and
edited in the Mishnah, so the much larger agadic material was gathered
together and arranged in the Midrashim. Apart from the agadic parts of
the earlier Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre, the most important of these
collections (which are anonymous) form a sort of continuous commentary
on various books of the Bible. They were called _Rabboth_ (_great_
Midrashim) to distinguish them from preceding smaller collections.
_Bereshith Rabba_, on Genesis, and _Ekhah Rabbati_, on Lamentations,
were probably edited in the 7th century. Of the same character and of
about the same date are the _Pesiqta_, on the lessons for Sabbaths and
feast-days, and _Wayyiqra R._ on Leviticus. A century perhaps later is
the _Tanhuma_, on the sections of the Pentateuch, and later still the
_Pesiqta Rabbati_, _Shemoth R._ (on Exodus), _Bemidhbar R._ (on
Numbers), _Debharim R._ (on Deuteronomy). There are also Midrashim on
the Canticle, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther and the Psalms, belonging to
this later period, the _Pirqe R. Eliezer_, of the 8th or 9th century, a
sort of history of creation and of the patriarchs, and the _Tanna debe
Eliyahu_ (an ethical work of the 10th century but containing much that
is old), besides a large number of minor compositions.[2] In general,
these performed very much the same function as the lives of saints in
the early and medieval church. Very important for the study of Midrashic
literature are the _Yalqut (gleaning) Shim'oni_, on the whole Bible, the
_Yalqut Mekhiri_, on the Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs and Job, and the
_Midrash ha-gadhol_,[3] all of which are of uncertain but late date and
preserve earlier material. The last, which is preserved in MSS. from
Yemen, is especially valuable as representing an independent tradition.
Talmud.
Meanwhile, if agadic exegesis was popular in the centuries following the
redaction of the Mishna, the study of halakhah was by no means
neglected. As the discussion of the Law led up to the compilation of the
Mishnah, so the Mishnah itself became in turn the subject of further
discussion. The material thus accumulated, both halakhic and agadic,
forming a commentary on and amplification of the Mishnah, was eventually
written down under the name of _Gemara_ (from _gemar_, to learn
completely), the two together forming the _Talmud_ (properly
"_instruction_"). The tradition, as in the case of the Targums, was
again twofold; that which had grown up in the Palestinian Schools and
that of Babylonia. The foundation, however, the Mishnah, was the same in
both. Both works were due to the Amoraim and were completed by about
A.D. 500, though the date at which they were actually committed to
writing is very uncertain. It is probable that notes or selections were
from time to time written down to help in teaching and learning the
immense mass of material, in spite of the fact that even in Sherira's
time (11th century) such aids to memory were not officially recognized.
Both Talmuds are arranged according to the six orders of the Mishnah,
but the discussion of the Mishnic text often wanders off into widely
different topics. Neither is altogether complete. In the Palestinian
Talmud (_Yerushalmi_) the gemara of the 5th order (_Qodashim_) and of
nearly all the 6th (_Tohoroth_) is missing, besides smaller parts. In
the Babylonian Talmud (_Babhli_) there is no gemara to the smaller
tractates of Order 1, and to parts of ii., iv., v., vi. The language of
both gemaras is in the main the Aramaic vernacular (western Aramaic in
Yerushalmi, eastern in Babhli), but early halakhic traditions (e.g. of
Tannaitic origin) are given in their original form, and the discussion
of them is usually also in Hebrew. Babhli is not only greater in bulk
than Yerushalmi, but has also received far greater attention, so that
the name Talmud alone is often used for it. As being a constant object
of study numerous commentaries have been written on the Talmud from the
earliest times till the present. The most important of them for the
understanding of the gemara (Babhli) is that of Rashi[4] (Solomon ben
Isaac, d. 1104) with the Tosafoth (_additions_, not to be confused with
the Tosefta) chiefly by the French school of rabbis following Rashi.
These are always printed in the editions on the same page as the Mishnah
and Gemara, the whole, with various other matter, filling generally
about 12 folio volumes. Since the introduction of printing, the Talmud
is always cited by the number of the leaf in the first edition (Venice,
1520, &c.), to which all subsequent editions conform. In order to
facilitate the practical study of the Talmud, it was natural that
abridgements of it should be made. Two of these may be mentioned which
are usually found in the larger editions: that by Isaac Alfasi (i.e. of
Fez) in the 11th century, often cited in the Jewish manner as _Rif_; and
that by Asher ben Yehiel (d. 1328) of Toledo, usually cited as _Rabbenu
Asher_. The object of both was to collect all halakhoth having a
practical importance, omitting all those which owing to circumstances no
longer possess more than an academic interest, and excluding the
discussions on them and all agada. Both add notes and explanations of
their own, and both have in turn formed the text of commentaries.
Masorah.
With the Talmud, the anonymous period of Hebrew literature may be
considered to end. Henceforward important works are produced not by
schools but by particular teachers, who, however, no doubt often
represent the opinions of a school. There are two branches of work which
partake of both characters, the Masorah and the Liturgy. The name
Masorah (Massorah) is usually derived from _masar_, to hand on, and
explained as "tradition." According to others[5] it is the word found in
Ezek. xx. 37, meaning a "fetter." Its object was to fix the biblical
text unalterably. It is generally divided into the Great and the Small
Masorah, forming together an _apparatus criticus_ which grew up
gradually in the course of centuries and now accompanies the text in
most MSS. and printed editions to a greater or less extent. There are
also separate masoretic treatises. Some system of the kind was necessary
to guard against corruptions of copyists, while the care bestowed upon
it no doubt reacted so as to enhance the sanctity ascribed to the text.
Many apparent puerilities, such as the counting of letters and the
marking of the middle point of books, had a practical use in enabling
copyists of MSS. to determine the amount of work done. The registration
of anomalies, such as the suspended letters, inverted _nuns_ and larger
letters, enabled any one to test the accuracy of a copy. But the work of
the Masoretes was much greater than this. Their long lists of the
occurrences of words and forms fixed with accuracy the present
(Masoretic) text, which they had produced, and were invaluable to
subsequent lexicographers, while their system of vowel-points and
accents not only gives us the pronunciation and manner of reading
traditional about the 7th century A.D., but frequently serves also the
purpose of an explanatory commentary. (See further under BIBLE.) Most of
the Masorah is anonymous, including the _Massekheth Soferim_ (of various
dates from perhaps the 6th to the 9th century) and the _Okhlah
we-Okhlah_, but when the period of anonymous literature ceases, there
appear (in the 10th century) Ben Asher of Tiberias, the greatest
authority on the subject, and his opponent Ben Naphthali. Later on,
Jacob ben Hayyim arranged the Masorah for the great Bomberg Bible of
1524. Elias Levita's _Massoreth ha-Massoreth_ (1538) and Buxtorf's
_Tiberias_ (1620) are also important.
Liturgy.
We must now turn back to a most difficult subject--the growth of the
Liturgy. We are not concerned here with indications of the ritual used
in the Temple. Of the prayer-book as it is at present, the earliest
parts are the Shema' (Deut. vi. 4, &c.) and the anonymous blessings
commonly called Shemoneh 'Esreh (the Eighteen), together with certain
Psalms. (Readings from the Law and the Prophets [Haphtarah] also formed
part of the service.) To this framework were fitted, from time to time,
various prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns. The
earliest existing codification of the prayer-book is the _Siddur_
(_order_) drawn up by Amram Gaon of Sura about 850. Half a century later
the famous Gaon Seadiah, also of Sura, issued his _Siddur_, in which the
rubrical matter is in Arabic. Besides the _Siddur_, or order for
Sabbaths and general use, there is the _Mahzor_ (_cycle_) for festivals
and fasts. In both there are ritual differences according to the
Sephardic (Spanish), Ashkenazic (German-Polish), Roman (Greek and South
Italian) and some minor uses, in the later additions to the Liturgy. The
Mahzor of each rite is also distinguished by hymns (_piyyutim_) composed
by authors (_payyetanim_) of the district. The most important writers
are Yoseh ben Yoseh, probably in the 6th century, chiefly known for his
compositions for the day of Atonement, Eleazar Qalir, the founder of the
payyetanic style, perhaps in the 7th century, Seadiah, and the Spanish
school consisting of Joseph ibn Abitur (died in 970), Ibn Gabirol, Isaac
Gayyath, Moses ben Ezra, Abraham ben Ezra and Judah ha-levi, who will be
mentioned below; later, Moses ben Nahman and Isaac Luria the
Kabbalist.[6]
The Geonim.
The order of the Amoraim, which ended with the close of the Talmud (A.D.
500), was succeeded by that of the Saboraim, who merely continued and
explained the work of their predecessors, and these again were followed
by the Geonim, the heads of the schools of Sura and Pumbeditha in
Babylonia. The office of Gaon lasted for something over 400 years,
beginning about A.D. 600, and varied in importance according to the
ability of the holders of it. Individual Geonim produced valuable works
(of which later), but what is perhaps most important from the point of
view of the development of Judaism is the literature of their Responsa
or answers to questions, chiefly on halakhic matters, addressed to them
from various countries. Some of these were actual decisions of
particular Geonim; others were an official summary of the discussion of
the subject by the members of the School. They begin with Mar Rab
Sheshna (7th century) and continue to Hai Gaon, who died in 1038, and
are full of historical and literary interest.[7] The She'iltoth
(_questions_) of Rab Ahai (8th century) also belong probably to the
school of Pumbeditha, though their author was not Gaon. Besides the
Responsa, but closely related to them, we have the lesser Halakhoth of
Yehudai Gaon of Sura (8th century) and the great Halakhoth of Simeon
Qayyara of Sura (not Gaon) in the 9th century. In a different department
there is the first Talmud lexicon (_'Arukh_) now lost, by Zemah ben
Paltoi, Gaon of Pumbeditha in the 9th century. The _Siddur_ of Amram ben
Sheshna has been already mentioned. All these writers, however, are
entirely eclipsed by the commanding personality of the most famous of
the Geonim, SEADIAH ben Joseph (q.v.) of Sura, often called al-Fayyumi
(of the Fayum in Egypt), one of the greatest representatives of Jewish
learning of all times, who died in 942. The last three holders of the
office were also distinguished. Sherira of Pumbeditha (d. 998) was the
author of the famous "Letter" (in the form of a Responsum to a question
addressed to him by residents in Kairawan), an historical document of
the highest value and the foundation of our knowledge of the history of
tradition. His son Hai, last Gaon of Pumbeditha (d. 1038), a man of wide
learning, wrote (partly in Arabic) not only numerous Responsa, but also
treatises on law, commentaries on the Mishnah and the Bible, a lexicon
called in Arabic _al-Hawi_, and poems such as the _Musar Haskel_, but
most of them are now lost or known only from translations or quotations.
Though his teaching was largely directed against superstition, he seems
to have been inclined to mysticism, and perhaps for this reason various
kabbalistic works were ascribed to him in later times. His father-in-law
Samuel ben Hophni, last Gaon of Sura (d. 1034), was a voluminous writer
on law, translated the Pentateuch into Arabic, commented on much of the
Bible, and composed an Arabic introduction to the Talmud, of which the
existing Hebrew introduction (by Samuel the Nagid) is perhaps a
translation. Most of his works are now lost.
The Karaites.
In the Geonic period there came into prominence the sect of the Karaites
(_Bene miqra_), "followers of the Scripture", the protestants of
Judaism, who rejected rabbinical authority, basing their doctrine and
practice exclusively on the Bible. The sect was founded by 'Anan in the
8th century, and, after many vicissitudes, still exists. Their
literature, with which alone we are here concerned, is largely polemical
and to a great extent deals with grammar and exegesis. Of their first
important authors, Benjamin al-Nehawendi and Daniel al-Qumisi (both in
the 9th century), little is preserved. In the 10th century Jacob
al-Qirqisani wrote his _Kitab al-anwar_, on law, Solomon ben Yeruham
(against Seadiah) and Yefet ben 'Ali wrote exegetical works; in the 11th
century Abu'l-faraj Furqan, exegesis, and Yusuf al-Basir against Samuel
ben Hophni. Most of these wrote in Arabic. In the 12th century and in S.
Europe, Judah Hadassi composed his _Eshkol ha-Kopher_, a great
theological compendium in the form of a commentary on the Decalogue.
Other writers are Aaron (the elder) ben Joseph, 13th century, who wrote
the commentary _Sepher ha-mibhhar_; Aaron (the younger) of Nicomedia
(14th century), author of _'Ez Hayyim_, on philosophy, _Gan 'Eden_, on
law, and the commentary _Kether Torah_; in the 15th century Elijah
Bashyazi, on law (_Addereth Eliyahu_), and Caleb Efendipoulo, poet and
theologian; in the 16th century Moses Bashyazi, theologian. From the
12th century onward the sect gradually declined, being ultimately
restricted mainly to the Crimea and Lithuania, learning disappeared and
their literature became merely popular and of little interest. Much of
it in later times was written in a curious Tatar dialect. Mention need
only be made further of Isaac of Troki, whose anti-Christian polemic
_Hizzuq Emunah_ (1593) was translated into English by Moses Mocatta
under the title of _Faith Strengthened_ (1851); Solomon of Troki, whose
_Appiryon_, an account of Karaism, was written at the request of
Pufendorf (about 1700); and Abraham Firkovich, who, in spite of his
impostures, did much for the literature of his people about the middle
of the 19th century. (See also QARAITES.)
Medieval scholarship.
To return to the period of the Geonim. While the schools of Babylonia
were flourishing as the religious head of Judaism, the West, and
especially Spain under Moorish rule, was becoming the home of Jewish
scholarship. On the breaking up of the schools many of the fugitives
fled to the West and helped to promote rabbinical learning there. The
communities of Fez, Kairawan and N. Africa were in close relation with
those of Spain, and as early as the beginning of the 9th century Judah
ben Quraish of Tahort had composed his _Risalah_ (_letter_) to the Jews
of Fez on grammatical subjects from a comparative point of view, and a
dictionary now lost. His work was used in the 10th century by Menahem
ben Saruq, of Cordova, in his _Mahbereth_ (dictionary). Menahem's system
of bi-literal and uni-literal roots was violently attacked by Dunash ibn
Labrat, and as violently defended by the author's pupils. Among these
was Judah Hayyuj of Cordova, the father of modern Hebrew grammar, who
first established the principle of tri-literal roots. His treatises on
the verbs, written in Arabic, were translated into Hebrew by Moses
Giqatilla (11th century), himself a considerable grammarian and
commentator, and by Ibn Ezra. His system was adopted by Abu'l-walid ibn
Jannah, of Saragossa (died early in the 11th century), in his lexicon
(_Kitab al-usul_, in Arabic) and other works. In Italy appeared the
invaluable Talmud-lexicon (_'Arukh_) by Nathan b. Yehiel, of Rome (d.
1106), who was indirectly indebted to Babylonian teaching. He does not
strictly follow the system of Hayyuj. Other works of a different kind
also originated in Italy about this time: the very popular history of
the Jews, called _Josippon_ (probably of the 10th or even 9th century),
ascribed to Joseph ben Gorion (Gorionides)[8]; the medical treatises of
Shabbethai Donnolo (10th century) and his commentary on the _Sepher
Yezirah_, the anonymous and earliest Hebrew kabbalistic work ascribed to
the patriarch Abraham. In North Africa, probably in the 9th century,
appeared the book known under the name of _Eldad ha-Dani_, giving an
account of the ten tribes, from which much medieval legend was
derived;[9] and in Kairawan the medical and philosophical treatises of
Isaac Israeli, who died in 932.
Exegesis.
The aim of the grammatical studies of the Spanish school was ultimately
exegesis. This had already been cultivated in the East. In the 9th
century Hivi of Balkh wrote a rationalistic treatise[10] on difficulties
in the Bible, which was refuted by Seadiah. The commentaries of the
Geonim have been mentioned above. The impulse to similar work in the
West came also from Babylonia. In the 10th century Hushiel, one of four
prisoners, perhaps from Babylonia, though that is doubtful, was ransomed
and settled at Kairawan, where he acquired great reputation as a
Talmudist. His son Hananeel (d. 1050) wrote a commentary on (probably
all) the Talmud, and one now lost on the Pentateuch. Hananeel's
contemporary Nissim ben Jacob, of Kairawan, who corresponded with Hai
Gaon of Pumbeditha as well as with Samuel the Nagid in Spain, likewise
wrote on the Talmud, and is probably the author of a collection of
_Ma'asiyyoth_ or edifying stories, besides works now lost. The activity
in North Africa reacted on Spain. There the most prominent figure was
that of Samuel ibn Nagdela (or Nagrela), generally known as Samuel the
Nagid or head of the Jewish settlement, who died in 1055. As vizier to
the Moorish king at Granada, he was not only a patron of learning, but
himself a man of wide knowledge and a considerable author. Some of his
poems are extant, and an Introduction to the Talmud mentioned above. In
grammar he followed Hayyuj, whose pupil he was. Among others he was the
patron of Solomon ibn Gabirol (q.v.), the poet and philosopher. To this
period belong Hafz al-Quti (the Goth?) who made a version of the Psalms
in Arabic rhyme, and Bahya (more correctly Behai) ibn Paquda, dayyan at
Saragossa, whose Arabic ethical treatise has always had great popularity
among the Jews in its Hebrew translation, _Hobhoth ha-lebhabhoth_. He
also composed liturgical poems. At the end of the 11th century Judah ibn
Bal'am wrote grammatical works and commentaries (on the Pentateuch,
Isaiah, &c.) in Arabic; the liturgist Isaac Gayyath (d. in 1089 at
Cordova) wrote on ritual. Moses Giqatilla has been already mentioned.
Rashi.
The French school of the 11th century was hardly less important. Gershom
ben Judah, the "Light of the Exile" (d. in 1040 at Mainz), a famous
Talmudist and commentator, his pupil Jacob ben Yaqar, and Moses of
Narbonne, called ha-Darshan, the "Exegete," were the forerunners of the
greatest of all Jewish commentators, Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), who died
at Troyes in 1105. Rashi was a pupil of Jacob ben Yaqar, and studied at
Worms and Mainz. Unlike his contemporaries in Spain, he seems to have
confined himself wholly to Jewish learning, and to have known nothing of
Arabic or other languages except his native French. Yet no commentator
is more valuable or indeed more voluminous, and for the study of the
Talmud he is even now indispensable. He commented on all the Bible and
on nearly all the Talmud, has been himself the text of several
super-commentaries, and has exercised great influence on Christian
exegesis. The biblical commentary was translated into Latin by
Breithaupt (Gotha, 1710-1714), that on the Pentateuch rather freely into
German by L. Dukes (Prag, 1838, in Hebrew-German characters, with the
text), and parts by others. Closely connected with Rashi, or of his
school, are Joseph Qara, of Troyes (d. about 1130), the commentator, and
his teacher Menahem ben Helbo, Jacob ben Me'ir, called Rabbenu Tam (d.
1171), the most important of the Tosaphists (_v. sup._), and later in
the 12th century the liberal and rationalizing Joseph Bekhor Shor, and
Samuel ben Me'ir (d. about 1174) of Ramerupt, commentator and Talmudist.
In the 12th and 13th centuries literature maintained a high level in
Spain. Abraham bar Hiyya, known to Christian scholars as Abraham Judaeus
(d. about 1136), was a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher much
studied in the middle ages. Moses ben Ezra, of Granada (d. about 1140),
wrote in Arabic a philosophical work based on Greek and Arabic as well
as Jewish authorities, known by the name of the Hebrew translation as
_'Arugath ha-bosem_, and the _Kitab al-Mahadarah_, of great value for
literary history. He is even better known as a poet, for his _Diwan_ and
the _'Anaq_, and as a hymn-writer. His relative Abraham ben Ezra,
generally called simply Ibn Ezra,[11] was still more distinguished. He
was born at Toledo, spent most of his life in travel, wandering even to
England and to the East, and died in 1167. Yet he contrived to write his
great commentary on the Pentateuch and other books of the Bible,
treatises on philosophy (as the _Yesodh mora_), astronomy, mathematics,
grammar (translation of Hayyuj), besides a Diwan. The man, however, who
shares with Ibn Gabirol the first place in Jewish poetry is Judah
Ha-levi, of Toledo, who died in Jerusalem about 1140. His poems, both
secular and religious, contained in his Diwan and scattered in the
liturgy, are all in Hebrew, though he employed Arabic metres. In Arabic
he wrote his philosophical work, called in the Hebrew translation
_Sepher ha-Kuzari_, a defence of revelation as against non-Jewish
philosophy and Qaraite doctrine. It shows considerable knowledge of
Greek and Arabic thought (Avicenna). Joseph ibn Migash (d. 1141 at
Lucena), a friend of Judah Ha-levi and of Moses ben Ezra, wrote Responsa
and Hiddushin (_annotations_) on parts of the Talmud. In another sphere
mention must be made of the travellers Benjamin of Tudela (d. after
1173), whose Massa'oth are of great value for the history and geography
of his time, and (though not belonging to Spain) Pethahiah, of
Regensburg (d. about 1190), who wrote short notes of his journeys.
Abraham ben David, of Toledo (d. about 1180), in philosophy an
Aristotelian (through Avicenna) and the precursor of Maimonides, is
chiefly known for his _Sepher ha-qabbalah_, written as a polemic against
Karaism, but valuable for the history of tradition.
Maimonides.
Maimonists and anti-Maimonists.
The greatest of all medieval Jewish scholars was Moses ben Maimon
(Rambam), called _Maimonides_ by Christians. He was born at Cordova in
1135, fled with his parents from persecution in 1148, settled at Fez in
1160, passing there for a Moslem, fled again to Jerusalem in 1165, and
finally went to Cairo where he died in 1204. He was distinguished in his
profession as a physician, and wrote a number of medical works in Arabic
(including a commentary on the aphorisms of Hippocrates), all of which
were translated into Hebrew, and most of them into Latin, becoming the
textbooks of Europe in the succeeding centuries. But his fame rests
mainly on his theological works. Passing over the less important, these
are the _Moreh Nebhukhim_ (so the Hebrew translation of the Arabic
original), an endeavour to show philosophically the reasonableness of
the faith, parts of which, translated into Latin, were studied by the
Christian schoolmen, and the _Mishneh Torah_, also called _Yad
hahazaqah_ ([Hebrew: id] = 14, the number of the parts), a classified
compendium of the Law, written in Hebrew and early translated into
Arabic. The latter of these, though generally accepted in the East, was
much opposed in the West, especially at the time by the Talmudist
Abraham ben David of Posquières (d. 1198). Maimonides also wrote an
Arabic commentary on the Mishnah, soon afterwards translated into
Hebrew, commentaries on parts of the Talmud (now lost), and a treatise
on Logic. His breadth of view and his Aristotelianism were a
stumbling-block to the orthodox, and subsequent teachers may be mostly
classified as Maimonists or anti-Maimonists. Even his friend Joseph ibn
'Aqnin (d. 1226), author of a philosophical treatise in Arabic and of a
commentary on the Song of Solomon, found so much difficulty in the new
views that the _Moreh Nebhukhim_ was written in order to convince him.
Maimonides' son Abraham (d. 1234), also a great Talmudist, wrote in
Arabic _Ma'aseh Yerushalmi_, on oaths, and _Kitab al-Kifayah_, theology.
His grandson David was also an author. A very different person was Moses
ben Nahman (Ramban) or Nahmanides, who was born at Gerona in 1194 and
died in Palestine about 1270. His whole tendency was as conservative as
that of Maimonides was liberal, and like all conservatives he may be
said to represent a lost though not necessarily a less desirable cause.
Much of his life was spent in controversy, not only with Christians (in
1293 before the king of Aragon), but also with his own people and on the
views of the time. His greatest work is the commentary on the Pentateuch
in opposition to Maimonides and Ibn Ezra. He had a strong inclination to
mysticism, but whether certain kabbalistic works are rightly attributed
to him is doubtful. It is, however, not a mere coincidence that the two
great kabbalistic textbooks, the _Bahir_ and the _Zohar_ (both meaning
"brightness"), appear first in the 13th century. If not due to his
teaching they are at least in sympathy with it. The _Bahir_, a sort of
outline of the _Zohar_, and traditionally ascribed to Nehunya (1st
century), is believed by some to be the work of Isaac the Blind ben
Abraham of Posquières (d. early in the 13th century), the founder of the
modern Kabbalah and the author of the names for the 10 Sephiroth. The
_Zohar_, supposed to be by Simeon ben Yohai (2nd century), is now
generally attributed to Moses of Leon (d. 1305), who, however, drew his
material in part from earlier written or traditional sources, such as
the Sepher Yezirah. At any rate the work was immediately accepted by the
kabbalists, and has formed the basis of all subsequent study of the
subject. Though put into the form of a commentary on the Pentateuch, it
is really an exposition of the kabbalistic view of the universe, and
incidentally shows considerable acquaintance with the natural science of
the time. A pupil, though not a follower of Nahmanides, was Solomon
Adreth (not Addereth), of Barcelona (d. 1310), a prolific writer of
Talmudic and polemical works (against the Kabbalists and Mahommedans) as
well as of responsa. He was opposed by Abraham Abulafia (d. about 1291)
and his pupil Joseph Giqatilla (d. about 1305), the author of numerous
kabbalistic works. Solomon's pupil Bahya ben Asher, of Saragossa (d.
1340) was the author of a very popular commentary on the Pentateuch and
of religious discourses entitled _Kad ha-qemah_, in both of which,
unlike his teacher, he made large use of the Kabbalah. Other studies,
however, were not neglected. In the first half of the 13th century,
Abraham ibn Hasdai, a vigorous supporter of Maimonides, translated (or
adapted) a large number of philosophical works from Arabic, among them
being the _Sepher ha-tappuah_, based on Aristotle's _de Anima_, and the
_Mozene Zedeq_ of Ghazzali on moral philosophy, of both of which the
originals are lost. Another Maimonist was Shem Tobh ben Joseph Falaquera
(d. after 1290), philosopher (following Averroes), poet and author of a
commentary on the Moreh. A curious mixture of mysticism and
Aristotelianism is seen in Isaac Aboab (about 1300), whose _Menorath
ha-Ma'or_, a collection of agadoth, attained great popularity and has
been frequently printed and translated. Somewhat earlier in the 13th
century lived Judah al-Harizi, who belongs in spirit to the time of Ibn
Gabirol and Judah ha-levi. He wrote numerous translations, of Galen,
Aristotle, Hariri, Hunain ben Isaac and Maimonides, as well as several
original works, a _Sepher 'Anaq_ in imitation of Moses ben Ezra, and
treatises on grammar and medicine (_Rephuath geviyyah_), but he is best
known for his _Tahkemoni_, a diwan in the style of Hariri's _Maqamat_.
Meanwhile the literary activity of the Jews in Spain had its effect on
those of France. The fact that many of the most important works were
written in Arabic, the vernacular of the Spanish Jews under the Moors,
which was not understood in France, gave rise to a number of
translations into Hebrew, chiefly by the family of Ibn Tibbon (or
Tabbon). The first of them, Judah ibn Tibbon, translated works of Bahya
ibn Paqudah, Judah ha-levi, Seadiah, Abu'lwalid and Ibn Gabirol, besides
writing works of his own. He was a native of Granada, but migrated to
Lunel, where he probably died about 1190. His son Samuel, who died at
Marseilles about 1230, was equally prolific. He translated the _Moreh
Nebhukhim_ during the life of the author, and with some help from him,
so that this may be regarded as the authorized version; Maimonides'
commentary on the Mishnah tractate _Pirqe Abhoth_, and some minor works;
treatises of Averroes and other Arabic authors. His original works are
mostly biblical commentaries and some additional matter on the Moreh.
His son Moses, who died about the end of the 13th century, translated
the rest of Maimonides, much of Averroes, the lesser Canon of Avicenna,
Euclid's _Elements_ (from the Arabic version), Ibn al-Jazzar's
_Viaticum_, medical works of Hunain ben Isaac (Johannitius) and Razi
(Rhazes), besides works of less-known Arabic authors. His original works
are commentaries and perhaps a treatise on immortality. His nephew Jacob
ben Makhir, of Montpellier (d. about 1304), translated Arabic scientific
works, such as parts of Averroes and Ghazzali, Arabic versions from the
Greek, as Euclid's _Data_, Autolycus, Menelaus (Hebrew: Milium) and
Theodosius on the Sphere, and Ptolemy's _Almagest_. He also compiled
astronomical tables and a treatise on the quadrant. The great importance
of these translations is that many of them were afterwards rendered into
Latin,[12] thus making Arabic and, through it, Greek learning accessible
to medieval Europe. Another important family about this time is that of
Qimhi (or Qamhi). It also originated in Spain, where Joseph ben Isaac
Qimhi was born, who migrated to S. France, probably for the same reason
which caused the flight of Maimonides, and died there about 1170. He
wrote on grammar (_Sepher ha-galui_ and _Sepher Zikkaron_), commentaries
on Proverbs and the Song of Solomon, an apologetic work, _Sepher
ha-berith_, and a translation of Bahya's _Hobhoth ha-lebhabhoth_. His
son Moses (d. about 1190) also wrote on grammar and some commentaries,
wrongly attributed to Ibn Ezra. A younger son, David (Radaq) of Narbonne
(d. 1235) is the most famous of the name. His great work, the _Mikhlol_,
consists of a grammar and lexicon; his commentaries on various parts of
the Bible are admirably luminous, and, in spite of his anti-Christian
remarks, have been widely used by Christian theologians and largely
influenced the English authorized version of the Bible. A friend of
Joseph Qimhi, Jacob ben Me'ir, known as Rabbenu Tam of Ramerupt (d.
1171), the grandson of Rashi, wrote the _Sepher ha-yashar_ (hiddushin
and responsa) and was one of the chief Tosaphists. Of the same school
were Menahem ben Simeon of Posquières, a commentator, who died about the
end of the 12th century, and Moses ben Jacob of Coucy (13th century),
author of the _Semag_ (book of precepts, positive and negative) a very
popular and valuable halakhic work. A younger contemporary of David
Qimhi was Abraham ben Isaac Bedersi (i.e. of Béziers), the poet, and
some time in the 13th century lived Joseph Ezobhi of Perpignan, whose
ethical poem, _Qe'arath Yoseph_, was translated by Reuchlin and later by
others. Berachiah,[13] the compiler of the "Fox Fables" (which have much
in common with the "Ysopet" of Marie de France), is generally thought to
have lived in Provence in the 13th century, but according to others in
England in the 12th century. In Germany, Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (d.
1238), besides being a Talmudist, was an earnest promoter of kabbalistic
studies. Isaac ben Moses (d. about 1270), who had studied in France,
wrote the famous _Or Zarua'_ (from which he is often called), an
halakhic work somewhat resembling Maimonides' _Mishneh Torah_, but more
diffuse. In the course of his wanderings he settled for a time at
Würzburg, where he had as a pupil Me'ir of Rothenburg (d. 1293). The
latter was a prolific writer of great influence, chiefly known for his
Responsa, but also for his halakhic treatises, hiddushin and tosaphoth.
He also composed a number of piyyutim. Me'ir's pupil, Mordecai ben
Hillel of Nürnberg (d. 1298), had an even greater influence through his
halakhic work, usually known as the _Mordekhai_. This is a codification
of halakhoth, based on all the authorities then known, some of them now
lost. Owing to the fact that the material collected by Mordecai was left
to his pupils to arrange, the work was current in two recensions, an
Eastern (in Austria) and a Western (in Germany, France, &c.). In the
East, Tanhum ben Joseph of Jerusalem was the author of commentaries (not
to be confounded with the _Midrash Tanhuma_) on many books of the Bible,
and of an extensive lexicon (_Kitab al-Murshid_) to the Mishnah, all in
Arabic.
With the 13th century Hebrew literature may be said to have reached the
limit of its development. Later writers to a large extent used over
again the materials of their predecessors, while secular works tend to
be influenced by the surrounding civilization, or even are composed in
the vernacular languages. From the 14th century onward only the most
notable names can be mentioned. In Italy Immanuel ben Solomon, of Rome
(d. about 1330), perhaps the friend and certainly the imitator of Dante,
wrote his diwan, of which the last part, "Topheth ve-'Eden," is
suggested by the _Divina Commedia_. In Spain Israel Israeli, of Toledo
(d. 1326), was a translator and the author of an Arabic work on ritual
and a commentary on _Pirqe Abhoth_. About the same time Isaac Israeli
wrote his _Yesodh 'Olam_ and other astronomical works which were much
studied. Asher ben Jehiel, a pupil of Me'ir of Rothenburg, was the
author of the popular Talmudic compendium, generally quoted as _Rabbenu
Asher_, on the lines of Alfasi, besides other halakhic works. He
migrated from Germany and settled at Toledo, where he died in 1328. His
son Jacob, of Toledo (d. 1340), was the author of the _Tur_ (or the four
Turim), a most important manual of Jewish law, serving as an abridgement
of the _Mishneh Torah_ brought up to date. His pupil David Abudrahim, of
Seville (d. after 1340), wrote a commentary on the liturgy. Both the
14th and 15th centuries in Spain were largely taken up with controversy,
as by Isaac ibn Pulgar (about 1350), and Shem Tobh ibn Shaprut (about
1380), who translated St Matthew's gospel into Hebrew. In France Jedaiah
Bedersi, i.e. of Béziers (d. about 1340), wrote poems (_Behinath
ha-'olam_), commentaries on agada and a defence of Maimonides against
Solomon Adreth. Levi ben Gershom (d. 1344), called Ralbag, the great
commentator on the Bible and Talmud, in philosophy a follower of
Aristotle and Averroes, known to Christians as Leo Hebraeus, wrote also
many works on halakhah, mathematics and astronomy. Joseph Kaspi, i.e. of
Largentière (d. 1340), wrote a large number of treatises on grammar and
philosophy (mystical), besides commentaries and piyyutim. In the first
half of the 14th century lived the two translators Qalonymos ben David
and Qalonymos ben Qalonymos, the latter of whom translated many works of
Galen and Averroes, and various scientific treatises, besides writing
original works, e.g. one against Kaspi, and an ethical work entitled
_Eben Bohan_. At the end of the century Isaac ben Moses, called Profiat
Duran (Efodi), is chiefly known as an anti-Christian controversialist
(letter to Me'ir Alguadez), but also wrote on grammar (_Ma'aseh Efod_)
and a commentary on the Moreh. In philosophy he was an Aristotelian.
About the same time in Spain controversy was very active. Hasdai Crescas
(d. 1410) wrote against Christianity and in his _Or Adonai_ against the
Aristotelianism of the Maimonists. His pupil Joseph Albo in his
_'Iqqarim_ had the same two objects. On the side of the Maimonists was
Simeon Duran (d. at Algiers 1444) in his _Magen Abhoth_ and in his
numerous commentaries. Shem Tobh ibn Shem Tobh, the kabbalist, was a
strong anti-Maimonist, as was his son Joseph of Castile (d. 1480), a
commentator with kabbalistic tendencies but versed in Aristotle,
Averroes and Christian doctrine. Joseph's son Shem Tobh was, on the
contrary, a follower of Maimonides and the Aristotelians. In other
subjects, Saadyah ibn Danan, of Granada (d. at Oran after 1473), is
chiefly important for his grammar and lexicon, in Arabic; Judah ibn
Verga, of Seville (d. after 1480), was a mathematician and astronomer;
Solomon ibn Verga, somewhat later, wrote _Shebet Yehudah_, of doubtful
value historically; Abraham Zakkuth or Zakkuto, of Salamanca (d. after
1510), astronomer, wrote the _Sepher Yuhasin_, an historical work of
importance. In Italy, Obadiah Bertinoro (d. about 1500) compiled his
very useful commentary on the Mishnah, based on those of Rashi and
Maimonides. His account of his travels and his letters are also of great
interest. Isaac Abravanel (d. 1508) wrote commentaries (not of the first
rank) on the Pentateuch and Prophets and on the Moreh, philosophical
treatises and apologetics, such as the _Yeshu'oth Meshiho_, all of which
had considerable influence. Elijah Delmedigo, of Crete (d. 1497), a
strong opponent of Kabbalah, was the author of the philosophical
treatise _Behinath ha-dath_, but most of his work (on Averroes) was in
Latin.
Later writers.
The introduction of printing (first dated Hebrew printed book, Rashi,
Reggio, 1475) gave occasion for a number of scholarly compositors and
proof-readers, some of whom were also authors, such as Jacob ben Hayyim
of Tunis (d. about 1530), proof-reader to Bomberg, chiefly known for his
masoretic work in connexion with the Rabbinic Bible and his introduction
to it; Elias Levita, of Venice (d. 1549), also proof-reader to Bomberg,
author of the _Massoreth ha-Massoreth_ and other works on grammar and
lexicography; and Cornelius Adelkind, who however was not an author. In
the East, Joseph Karo (Qaro) wrote his _Beth Yoseph_ (Venice, 1550), a
commentary on the _Tur_, and his _Shulhan 'Arukh_ (Venice, 1564) an
halakhic work like the _Tur_, which is still a standard authority. The
influence of non-Jewish methods is seen in the more modern tendency of
Azariah dei Rossi, who was opposed by Joseph Karo. In his _Me'or
'Enayim_ (Mantua, 1573) Del Rossi endeavoured to investigate Jewish
history in a scientific spirit, with the aid of non-Jewish authorities,
and even criticizes Talmudic and traditional statements. Another
historian living also in Italy was Joseph ben Joshua, whose _Dibhre
ha-yamim_ (Venice, 1534) is a sort of history of the world, and his
_'Emeq ha-bakhah_ an account of Jewish troubles to the year 1575. In
Germany David Gans wrote on astronomy, and also the historical work
_Zemah David_ (Prag, 1592). The study of Kabbalah was promoted and the
practical Kabbalah founded by Isaac Luria in Palestine (d. 1572).
Numerous works, representing the extreme of mysticism, were published by
his pupils as the result of his teaching. Foremost among these was
Hayyim Vital, author of the _'Ez hayyim_, and his son Samuel, who wrote
an introduction to the Kabbalah, called _Shemoneh She'arim_. To the same
school belonged Moses Zakkuto, of Mantua (d. 1697), poet and kabbalist.
Contemporary with Luria and also living at Safed, was Moses Cordovero
(d. 1570), the kabbalist, whose chief work was the _Pardes Rimmonim_
(Cracow, 1591). In the 17th century Leon of Modena (d. 1648) wrote his
_Beth Yehudah_, and probably _Qol Sakhal_, against traditionalism,
besides many controversial works and commentaries. Joseph Delmedigo, of
Prag (d. 1655), wrote almost entirely on scientific subjects. Also
connected with Prag was Yom Tobh Lipmann Heller, a voluminous author,
best known for the _Tosaphoth Yom Tobh_ on the Mishna (Prag, 1614;
Cracow, 1643). Another important Talmudist, Shabbethai ben Me'ir, of
Wilna (d. 1662), commented on the _Shulhan 'Arukh_. In the East, David
Conforte (d. about 1685) wrote the historical work _Qore ha-doroth_
(Venice, 1746), using Jewish and other sources; Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah,
kabbalist and student of Luria, wrote _Qol be-ramah_, a commentary on
the _Zohar_ and on the liturgy; Abraham Hayekini, kabbalist, chiefly
remembered as a supporter of the would-be Messiah, Shabbethai Zebhi,
wrote _Hod Malkuth_ (Constantinople, 1655) and sermons. In the 18th
century the study of the kabbalah was cultivated by Moses Hayyim
Luzzatto (d. 1747) and by Elijah ben Solomon, called Gaon, of Wilna (d.
1797), who commented on the whole Bible and on many Talmudic and
kabbalistic works. In spite of his own leaning towards mysticism he was
a strong opponent of the Hasidim, a mystical sect founded by Israel
Ba'al Shem Tobh (Besht) and promoted by Baer of Meseritz. Elijah's son
Abraham (d. 1808), the commentator, is valuable for his work on Midrash.
An historical work which makes an attempt to be scientific, is the
_Seder ha-doroth_ of Yehiel Heilprin (d. 1746). These, however, belong
in spirit to the previous century.
Modernizing tendencies.
The characteristic of the 18th and 19th centuries is the endeavour,
connected with the name of Moses Mendelssohn, to bring Judaism more into
relation with external learning, and in using the Hebrew language to
purify and develop it in accordance with the biblical standard. The
result, while linguistically more uniform and pleasing, often lacks the
spontaneity of medieval literature. It was Moses Mendelssohn's German
translation of the Pentateuch (1780-1793) which marked the new spirit,
while the views of his opponents belong to a bygone age. In fact the
controversy of which he was the centre may fitly be compared with the
earlier battles between the Maimonists and anti-Maimonists. One of the
most remarkable writers of the new Hebrew was Mendelssohn's friend N. H.
Wessely, of Hamburg (d. 1805), author of _Shire Tiphe'reth_, a long poem
on the Exodus, _Dibhre Shalom_, a plea for liberalism, _Sepher
ha-middoth_, on ethics, besides philological works and commentaries. A
curious combination of new and old was Hayyim Azulai (d. 1807), a
kabbalist, but also the author of _Shem ha-gedholim_, a valuable
contribution to literary history.
In the 19th century the modernizing tendency continued to grow, though
always side by side with a strong conservative opposition, and the most
prominent names on both sides are those of scholars rather than literary
men. Among them may be mentioned, Akiba ('Aqibha) Eger (d. 1837),
Talmudist of the orthodox, conservative school; W. Heidenheim (d. 1832),
a liberal, and editor of the Pentateuch and Mahzor; N. Krochmal, of
Galicia (d. 1840), author of _Moreh Nebhukhe ha-zeman_, on Jewish
history and literature; his son Abraham (d. 1895), conservative
commentator and philosopher. One consequence of the Mendelssohn movement
was that many writers used their vernacular language besides or instead
of Hebrew, or translated from one to the other. Thus Isaac Samuel Reggio
(d. 1855), a strong liberal, wrote both in Hebrew and Italian; Joseph
Almanzi, of Padua (d. 1860), a poet, translated Italian poems into
Hebrew; S. D. Luzzatto, of Padua (d. 1865), a distinguished scholar and
opponent of the philosophy of Maimonides, wrote much in Italian; M. H.
Letteris, of Vienna (d. 1871), translated German poems into Hebrew; S.
Bacher, of Hungary (d. 1891), was a poet and moderate liberal; L. Gordon
(d. 1892), poet and prose-writer in Hebrew and Russian, of liberal
views; A. Jellinek, of Vienna (d. 1893), preacher and scholar; Jacob
Reifmann (d. 1895), scholar, wrote only in Hebrew. The endeavour to
bring Judaism into relation with the modern world and to change the
current impressions about Jews by making their teaching accessible to
the rest of the world, is connected chiefly with the names of Z. Frankel
(d. 1875), the first Jewish scholar to study the Septuagint; Abraham
Geiger (d. 1874), critic of the first rank; L. Zunz (d. 1884) and L.
Dukes (d. 1891), both scholarly investigators of Jewish literary
history. Their most important works are in German. The question of the
use of the vernacular or of Hebrew is bound up with the differences
between the orthodox and the liberal or reform parties, complicated by
the many problems involved. Patriotic efforts are made to encourage the
use of Hebrew both for writing and speaking, but the continued existence
of it as a literary language depends on the direction in which the
future history of the Jews will develop.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Only the more comprehensive works are mentioned here,
omitting those relating to particular authors, and those already
cited.
Introductory: Abrahams, _Short History of Jewish Literature_ (London,
1906); Steinschneider, _Jewish Literature_ (London, 1857); Winter and
Wünsche, _Die jüdische Literatur_ (Leipzig, 1893-1895) (containing
selections translated into German).
For further study: Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_ (Leipzig, 1853, &c.)
(the volumes are in various editions), with special reference to the
notes; English translation by B. Löwy (London, 1891-1892) (without the
notes); Zunz, _Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden_ (new ed.,
Frankfort-on-Main, 1892); _Zur Geschichte und Literatur_ (Berlin,
1845). The _Synagogale Poesie_ has been mentioned above.
Steinschneider, _Arabische Literatur der Juden_ (Frankfort-on-Main,
1902); _Hebräische Übersetzungen des Mittelalters_ (Berlin, 1893).
On particular authors and subjects there are many excellent monographs
in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_ (New York, 1901-6), to which the present
article is much indebted.
Bibliographies of printed books: Steinschneider, _Catalogus libr.
Hebr. in Bibl. Bodleiana_ (Berlin, 1852-1860) (more than a catalogue);
Zedner, _Catalogue of the Hebr. Books in the British Museum_ (London,
1867; continued by van Straalen, London, 1894). Of manuscripts:
Neubauer, _Catal. of the Hebrew MSS. in the Bodleian Library_ (Oxford,
1886), vol. ii. by Neubauer and Cowley (Oxford, 1906); G. Margoliouth,
_Catal. of the Hebr. ... MSS. in the British Museum_ (London, 1899,
&c.). Of both: Benjacob, _Ozar ha-sepharim_ (Wilna, 1880) (in Hebrew;
arranged by titles).
Periodicals: _Jewish Quarterly Review_; _Revue des études juives_;
_Hebräische Bibliographie_. (A. Cy.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The dating of these documents is extremely difficult, since it is
based entirely on internal evidence. Various scholars, while agreeing
on the actual divisions of the text, differ on the question of
priority. The dates here given are those which seem to be most
generally accepted at the present time. They are not put forward as
the result of an independent review of the evidence.
[2] See especially A. Jellinek's _Bet-ha-Midrasch_ (Leipzig, 1853),
for these lesser midrashim.
[3] That on Genesis was edited for the first time by Schechter
(Cambridge, 1902).
[4] In Hebrew [Hebrew: rashi], from the initial letters of Rabbi
Shelomoh Yiz[h.]aqi, a convenient method used by Jewish writers in
referring to well-known authors. The name Jarchi, formerly used for
Rashi, rests on a misunderstanding.
[5] So Bacher in _J.Q.R._ iii. 785 sqq.
[6] For the history of the very extensive literature of this class,
Zunz, _Literaturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie_ (Berlin, 1865), is
indispensable.
[7] See the edition of them in Harkavy, _Studien_, iv. (Berlin,
1885).
[8] Two different texts of it exist: (1) in the ed. pr. (Mantua,
1476); (2) ed. by Seb. Münster (Basel, 1541). There is also an early
Arabic recension, but its relation to the Hebrew and to the Arabic 2
Maccabees is still obscure. See _J. Q. R._, xi. 355 sqq. The Hebrew
text was edited with a Latin translation by Breithaupt (Gotha, 1707).
[9] On the various recensions of the text see D. H. Müller in the
_Denkschriften_ of the Vienna Academy (_Phil.-hist. Cl._, xli. 1, p.
41) and Epstein's ed. (Pressburg, 1891).
[10] A fragment of such a work, probably emanating from the school of
Hivi was found by Schechter and published in _J.Q.R._, xiii. 345 sqq.
[11] See M. Friedländer in _Publications of the Society of Hebrew
Lit._, 1st ser. vol. i., and 2nd ser. vol. iv.
[12] The fullest account of them is to be found in Steinschneider's
_Hebräische Übersetzungen des Mittelalters_ (Berlin, 1893).
[13] See H. Gollancz, _The Ethical Treatises of Berachya_ (London,
1902).
HEBREW RELIGION (1) _Introductory._--To trace the history of the
religion of the Hebrews is a complex task, because the literary sources
from which our knowledge of that history is derived are themselves
complex and replete with problems as to age and authorship, some of
which have been solved according to the consensus of nearly all the best
scholars, but some of which still await solution or are matters of
dispute. Even if the analysis of the literature into component documents
were complete, we should still possess a most imperfect record, since
the documents themselves have passed through many redactions, and these
redactions have proceeded from varying standpoints of religious
tradition, successively eliminating or modifying certain elements deemed
inconsistent with the canons of religious usage or propriety which
prevailed in the age when the redaction took place. Lastly it should be
recollected that the entire body of the fragments of tradition and
literature belonging to _northern_ Israel has come down to us through
the channel of _Judaean_ recensions.
The influence of the Deuteronomic tradition in redaction is seen in such
passages as Genesis xxxiii. 20 (cf. xxxi. 45 fol.); Josh. iv. 9-20,
xxiv. 26 fol.; 1 Sam. vii. 12, where the _massebhah_ or stone symbol of
deity (forbidden in Deut. xii. 3, xvi. 22) is in some way got rid of (in
Gen. xxxiii. 20 the word "altar" in Hebrew is substituted). Similarly in
Gen. xiii. 18, xiv. 13, xviii. 1, the Septuagint shows that the singular
form "terebinth" stood in the original text. But the Massoretes altered
this to the plural as this form was less suggestive of tree-worship (see
Smend, _A. Tliche Religionsgesch_. i. p. 134, footnote 1; Nowack, _Heb.
Archäol._ p. 12, footnote 1). Many other examples might be cited, as the
"suspended _nun_" which transforms the pronunciation of the original
Mosheh (Moses) into Menashsheh (Manasseh) owing to the irregular
practices of his descendant, Jonathan ben Gershom (Jud. xviii. 30). It
is not improbable that in 2 Kings iii. 27 the words "from Kemosh" stood
after "great wrath" in the original document, as the phraseology seems
bald without them, and the motives for their suppression are obvious.
So far as concerns the critical problems which stand at the threshold of
our task, it must suffice to say that the main conclusions reached by
the school of Kuenen and Wellhausen as to the literary problems of the
Old Testament are assumed throughout this sketch of the evolution of
Hebrew religion. The documents underlying the Pentateuch and book of
Joshua, represented by the ciphers J, E, D and P, are assumed to have
been drawn up in the chronological order in which those ciphers are here
set down, and the period of their composition extends from the 9th
century B.C., in which the earlier portions of J were written, to the
5th century B.C., in which P finally took shape. The view of Professor
Dillmann, who placed P before D in the regal period (though he admitted
exilic and post-exilic additions in Exod., Levit. and Numb.), a view
which he maintained in his commentary on Genesis (edition of 1892), has
now been abandoned by nearly all scholars of repute. In the following
pages we shall not attempt to do more than to sketch in very succinct
outline the general results of investigation into the origins and growth
of Hebrew religion.
2. _Pre-Mosaic Religion._--Can any clear indications be found to guide
us as to the religion of the Hebrew clans before the time of Moses? That
Moses united the scattered tribes, probably consisting at first mainly
of the Josephite, under the common worship of Yahweh, and that upon the
religion of Yahweh a distinctly ethical character was impressed, is
generally recognized. The tradition of the earliest document J ascribes
the worship of Yahweh to much earlier times, in fact to the dawn of
human life. A close survey of the facts, however, would lead us to
regard it as probable that some at least of the Hebrew clans had
patron-deities of their own.
(a) Both Moab and Ammon as well as Edom had their separate tribal
deities, viz. Chemosh (Moab) and Milk (Milcom), the god of Ammon, and in
the case of Edom a deity known from the inscriptions as Kos (in Assyrian
Kaus).[1] From the patriarchal narratives and genealogies in Genesis we
infer that these races were closely allied to Israel. That in early
pre-Mosaic times parallel cults existed among the various Hebrew tribes
is by no means improbable. It would be reasonable to assume that Moab,
Ammon, Edom and kindred tribes of Israel in the 15th and preceding
centuries were included in the generic term Habiri (or Hebrews)
mentioned in the Tell el-Amarna inscriptions as forming predatory bands
that disturbed the security of the Canaanite dwellers west of the
Jordan. Lastly pre-Mosaic polytheism seems to be implied in the Mosaic
prohibition Ex. xx. 3, xxii. 20.
(b) The tribal names Gad and Asher are suggestive of the worship of a
deity of fortune (Gad) and of the male counterpart of the goddess,
Asherah. Under the name Shaddai (which Nöldeke suggests[2] was
originally Shedi "my demon") it is possible to discern the name of a
deity who in later times came to be identified with Yahweh. On the other
hand, the connexion of the name Samson with sun-worship throws light on
the period of the Hebrew settlement in Canaan and not on pre-Mosaic
times. Nor is it possible to agree with Baudissin (_Studien zur semit.
Religionsgesch._ i. 55) that Elohim as a plural form for the name of the
Hebrew deity "can hardly be understood otherwise than as a comprehensive
expression for the multitude of gods embraced in the One God of Old
Testament religion," in other words that it presupposes an original
polytheism. For (1) Elohim is also applied in Judges xi. 24 to the
Moabite Chemosh (Kemosh); in 1 Sam. v. 7 to Dagon; in 1 Kings xi. 5 to
Ashtoreth; in 2 Kings i. 2, iii. 6, 16 to Ba'al Zebul of Ekron. (2) It
is merely a plural of dignity (_pluralis majestatis_) parallel to
_adonim_ (applied to a king in 1 Kings xviii. 8, whereas in the previous
verse the _singular_ form _adoni_ is applied to the prophet Elijah). (3)
The Tell el-Amarna inscriptions indicate that the term _Elohim_ might
even be applied in abject homage to an Egyptian monarch as the use of
the term _ilani_ in this connexion obviously implies.[3]
The religion of the Arabian tribes in the days of Mahomet, of which a
picture is presented to us by Wellhausen in his _Remains of Arabic
Heathendom_, furnishes some suggestive indications of the religion that
prevailed in nomadic Israel before as well as during the lifetime of
Moses. It is true that Arabian polytheism in the time of Mahomet was in
a state of decay. Nevertheless the life of the desert changes but
slowly. We may therefore infer that ancient Israel during the period
when they inhabited the _negebh_ (S. of Canaan) stood in awe of the
demons (Jinn) of the desert, just as the Arabs at the present day
described in Doughty's _Arabia deserta_. We know that diseases were
attributed by the Israelites to malignant demons which they, like the
Arabs, identified with serpents. The counterspell took the form of a
bronze image of the serpent-demon; see Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 426;
and I Sam. v. 6, vi. 4, 5 (LXX. and Heb.) as well as Buchanan Gray's
instructive note in _Numbers_, p. 276. The slaughter of a lamb at the
Passover or Easter season, whose blood was smeared on the door-post, as
described in Ex. xii. 21-23, probably points back to an immemorial
custom. In this case the counterspell assumed a different form.
Westermarck has shown from his observations in Morocco that the blood of
the victim was considered to visit a curse upon the object to whom the
sacrifice is offered and thereby the latter is made amenable to the
sacrificer.[4] It is hardly possible to doubt that in the original form
of the rite described in Exodus the blood offering was made to the
plague demon ("the destroyer") and possessed over him a magic power of
arrest.
It is therefore certain that belief in demons and magic spells prevailed
in pre-Mosaic times[5] among the Israelite clans. And it is also
probable that certain persons combined in their own individuality the
functions of magician and sacrificer as well as soothsayer. For we know
that in Arabic the _Kahin_, or soothsayer, is the same participial form
that we meet with in the Hebrew _Kohen_, or priest, and in the early
period of Hebrew history (e.g. in the days of Saul and David) it was the
priest with the ephod or image of Yahweh who gave answers to those who
consulted him. How far _totemism_, or belief in deified animal
ancestors, existed in prehistoric Israel, as evidenced by the tribal
names Simeon (hyena, wolf), Caleb (dog), Hamor (ass), Rahel (ewe) and
Leah (wild cow), &c.,[6] as well as by the laws respecting clean and
unclean animals, is too intricate and speculative a problem to be
discussed here. That the food-taboo against eating the flesh of a
particular animal would prevail in the clan of which that animal was the
deified totem-ancestor is obvious, and it would be a plausible theory to
hold that the laws in question arose when the Israelite tribes were to
be consolidated into a national unity (i.e. in the time of David and
Solomon), but the application of this theory to the list of unclean
foods in Deut. xiv. (Lev. xi.) seems to present insuperable
difficulties. In fact, while Robertson Smith (in _Kinship and Marriage
in Early Arabia_, as well as his _Religion of the Semites_, followed by
Stade and Benzinger) strongly advocated the view that clear traces of
totemism can be found in early Israel, later writers, such as Marti,
_Gesch. der israelit. Religion_, 4th ed., p. 24, Kautzsch in his
_Religion of Israel_ already cited, p. 613, and recently Addis in his
_Hebrew Religion_, p. 33 foll., have abandoned the theory as applied to
Israel.[7] On the other hand, the evidence for the existence of
ancestor-worship in primitive Israel cannot be so easily disposed of as
Kautzsch (_ibid._ p. 615) appears to think. We have examples (1 Sam.
xxviii. 13) in which _Elohim_ is the term which is applied to departed
spirits. Oracles were received from them (Isa. viii. 19, xxviii. 15, 18;
Deut. xviii. 10 foll.). At the graves of national heroes or ancestors
worship was paid. In Gen. xxxv. 20 we read that a _massebah_ or sacred
pillar was erected at Rahel's tomb. That the Teraphim, which we know to
have resembled the human form (1 Sam. xix. 13, 16), were ancestral
images is a reasonable theory. That they were employed in divination is
consonant with the facts already noted. Lastly, the rite of circumcision
(q.v.), which the Hebrews practised in common with their Semitic
neighbours as well as the Egyptians, belonged to ages long anterior to
the time of Moses. This is a fact which has long been recognized: cf.
Gen. xvii. 10 foll., Herod. ii. 104, and Barton, _Semitic Origins_, pp.
98-100. Probably the custom was of African origin, and came from eastern
Africa along with the Semitic race. Respecting Arabia, see Doughty,
_Arabia deserta_, i. 340 foll.
It is necessary here to advert to a subject much debated during recent
years, viz. the effects of Babylonian culture in western Asia on Israel
and Israel's religion in early times even preceding the advent of Moses.
The great influence exercised by Babylonian culture over Palestine
between 2000 and 1400 B.C. (_circa_), which has been clearly revealed to
us since 1887 by the discovery of the Tell el Amarna tablets, is now
universally acknowledged. The subsequent discovery of a document written
in Babylonian cuneiform at Lachish (Tell el Hesy), and more recently
still of another in the excavations at Ta'annek, have established the
fact beyond all dispute. The last discovery had tended to confirm the
views of Fried. Delitzsch, Jeremias (_Monotheistische Strömungen_) and
Baentsch, that monotheistic tendencies are to be found in the midst of
Babylonian polytheism. Page Renouf, in his Hibbert lectures, _Origin and
Growth of Religion as illustrated by that of Ancient Egypt_ (1879), p.
89 foll., pointed out this monotheistic tendency in Egyptian religion,
as did de Rougé before him. Baentsch draws attention to this feature in
his monograph _Altorientalischer u. israelitischer Monotheismus_ (1906).
This tendency, however, he, unlike the earlier conservative writers,
rightly considers to have emerged out of polytheism. He ventures into a
more disputable region when he penetrates into the obscure realm of the
Abrahamic migration and finds in the Abrahamic traditions of Genesis the
higher Canaanite monotheistic tendencies evolved out of Babylonian
astral religion, and reflected in the name El 'Elyon (Gen. xiv. 18, 22).
Further discoveries like Sellin's find at Ta'annek may elucidate the
problem. See Baudissin in _Theolog. lit. Zeitung_ (27th October 1906).
3. _The Era of Moses._--We are now on safer ground though still obscure.
Moses was the first historic individuality who can be said to have
welded the Israelite clans into a whole. This could never have been
accomplished without unity of worship. The object of this worship was
Yahweh. As we have already indicated, the document J assumes that Yahweh
was worshipped by the Hebrew race from the first. On the other hand,
according to P (Ex. vi. 2), God spake to Moses and said to him: "I am
Yahweh. But I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai and by
my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them." According to this
later tradition Yahweh was unknown till the days of Moses, and under the
aegis of His power the Hebrew tribes were delivered from Egyptian
thraldom. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two sharply
contrasted traditions. So much is clear. Yahweh now becomes the supreme
deity of the Hebrew people, and an ark analogous to the Egyptian and
Babylonian arks portrayed on the monuments[8] was constructed as
embodiment of the _numen_ of Yahweh and was borne in front of the Hebrew
army when it marched to war. It was the signal victory won by Moses at
the exodus against the Egyptians and in the subsequent battle at
Rephidim against 'Amalek (Ex. xvii.) that consolidated the prestige of
Yahweh, Israel's war-god. Indications in the Old Testament itself
clearly point to the celestial or atmospheric character of the Yahweh of
the Hebrews. The supposition that the name originally contained the
notion of permanent or eternal being, and was derived from the verbal
root signifying "to be," involves too abstract a conception to be
probable, though it is based on Ex. iii. 15 (E) representing a tradition
which may have prevailed in the 8th century B.C. Kautzsch, however,
supports it (Hastings's _D.B._, extra vol. "Rel. of Isr." p. 625 foll.)
against the other derivations proposed by recent scholars (see JEHOVAH).
That the name also prevailed as that of a god among other Semitic races
(or even non-Semitic) is rendered certain by the proper names
Jau-bi'-di (= Ilu-bi'di) of Hamath in Sargon's inscriptions, Ahi-jawi
(mi) in Sellin's discovered tablet at Ta'annek, to say nothing of those
which have been found in the documents of Khammurabi's reign. It has
generally been held that Stade's supposition has much to recommend it,
that it was derived by Moses from the Kenites, and should be connected
with the Sinai-Horeb region. The name Sinai suggests moon-worship and
the moon-god Sin; and it also suggests Babylonian influence (cf. also
Mount Nebo, which was a place-name both in Moab and in Judah, and
naturally connects itself with the name of the Babylonian deity).
Several indications favour the view of the connexion in the age of Moses
between the Yahweh-cult at Sinai and the moon-worship of Babylonian
origin to which the name Sinai points (Sin being the Babylonian
moon-god). We note (a) that in the worship of Yahweh the sacred seasons
of new moon and Sabbath are obviously _lunar_. Recent investigations
have even been held to disclose the fact that the Sabbath coincided
originally, i.e. in early pre-exilian days, with the full moon.[9] (b)
It also accords with the name bestowed on Yahweh as "Lord of Hosts"
(_sebaoth_) or stars, which were regarded as personified beings (Job
xxxviii. 7) and attendants on the celestial Yahweh, constituting His
retinue (1 Kings xxii. 19) which fought on high while the earthly armies
of Israel, His people, contended below (Judges v. 20).
The atmospheric and celestial character which belonged from the first to
the Hebrew conception of Yahweh explains to us the ease with which the
idea of His universal sovereignty arose, which the Yahwistic creation
account (belonging to the earlier stratum of J, Gen. ii. 4b foll.)
presupposes. How this came to be overlaid by narrow local limitations of
His power and province will be shown later. It is probable that Moses
held the larger rather than the narrower conception of Yahweh's sphere
of influence. While the ark carried with Israel's host symbolized His
presence in their midst, He was also known to be present in the cloud
which hovered before the host and in the lightning ('_esh Yahweh_ or
"fire of Yahweh") and the thunder (_kol Yahweh_ or "voice of Yahweh")
which played around Mount Sinai. Moreover, it is hardly probable that a
great leader like Moses remained unaffected by the higher conceptions
tending towards monotheism which prevailed in the great empires on the
Nile and on the Euphrates. In Egypt we know that Amenophis IV. came
under this monotheistic movement, and attempted to suppress all other
cults except that of the sun-deity, of which he was a devoted
worshipper. We also know that between 2000 and 1400 B.C. the Babylonian
language as well as Babylonian civilization and ideas spread over
Palestine (as the Tell el Amarna tables clearly testify). The ancient
Babylonian psalms clearly reveal that the highest minds were moving out
of polytheism to a monotheistic identification of various deities as
diverse phases of one underlying essence. A remarkable Babylonian tablet
discovered by Dr Pinches represents Marduk, the god of light, as
identified in his person with all the chief deities of Babylonia, who
are evidently regarded as his varying manifestations.[10]
Through the influence of Mosaic teaching and law a definitely ethical
character was ascribed to Yahweh. It was His "finger" that wrote the
brief code which has come down to us in the decalogue. At first, as
Erdmanns suggests, it may have consisted of only seven commands. So also
Kautzsch, _ibid._ p. 634. The most strongly distinguishing feature of
the code is the rigid exclusion of the worship of other gods than
Yahweh. Moreover, the definitely ethical character of the religion of
Yahweh established by Moses is exhibited in the strict exclusion of all
sexual impurity in His worship. Unlike the Canaanite Baal, Yahweh has no
female consort, and this remained throughout a distinguishing trait of
the original and unadulterated Hebrew religion (see Bäthgen, _Beiträge_,
p. 265). Indeed, Hebrew, unlike Assyrian or Phoenician, has no
distinctive form for "goddess." From first to last the true religion of
Yahweh was pure of sexual taint. The kedeshim and kedeshoth, the male
and female priest attendants in the Baal and 'Ashtoreth shrines (cf. the
_kadishtu_ of the temples of the Babylonian Ishtar) were foreign
Canaanite elements which became imported into Hebrew worship during the
period of the Hebrew settlement in Canaan.
Lastly, the earliest codes of Hebrew legislation (Ex. xxi.-xxiii.) bear
the distinct impress of the high ethical character of Yahweh's
requirements originally set forth by Moses. Of this tradition the Naboth
incident in the time of Ahab furnishes a clear example which brings to
light the contrast between the Tyrian Baal-cult, which was scarcely
ethical, and of which Jezebel and Ahab were devotees, and the moral
requirements of the religion of Yahweh of which Elijah was the prophet
and impassioned exponent. It was this definite basis of ethical Mosaic
religion to which the prophets of the 8th century appealed, and apart
from which their denunciations become meaningless. To this early
standard of life and practice Ephraim was faithless in the days of the
prophet Hosea (see his oracles _passim_--especially chaps. i.-iv. and
xiv.), and Judah in the time of Isaiah turned a deaf ear (Isa. i. 2-4,
21).
4. _Influence of Canaan._--The entrance of Israel into Canaan marks the
beginning of a new epoch in the development of Israel's religious life.
For it involved a transition from the simple nomadic relations to those
of the agricultural and more highly civilized Canaanite life. This
subject has been recently treated with admirable clearness by Marti in
his useful treatise _Die Religion des A.T._ (1906), pp. 25-41.
It is in the festivals of the annual calendar that this agricultural
impress is most fully manifested. To the original nomadic _Pesah_
(Passover)--sacrifice of a lamb--there was attached a distinct and
agricultural festival of unleavened cakes (_massoth_) which marks the
beginning of the corn harvest in the middle of the month _Abib_ (the
name of which points to its Canaanite and agricultural origin). The
close of the corn-harvest was marked by the festival _Shabhuoth_ (weeks)
or _Kasir_ (harvest) held seven weeks after massoth. The last and most
characteristic festival of Canaanite life was that of _Asiph_ or
"ingathering" which after the Deuteronomic reformation (621 B.C.) had
made a single sanctuary and therefore a considerable journey with a
longer stay necessary, came to be called _Succoth_ or booths. This was
the autumn festival held at the close of September or beginning of
October. It marked the close of the year's agricultural operations when
the olives and grapes had been gathered [Ex. xxiii. 14-17 (E), xxxiv.
18, 22, 23 (J)]; see FEASTS, PASSOVER, PENTECOST and TABERNACLES.
Another special characteristic of Israel's religion in Canaan was the
considerable increase of sacrificial offerings. Animal sacrifices became
much more frequent, and included not only the bloody sacrifice (Zebah)
but also burnt offerings (_kalil_, _'olah_) whereby the whole animal was
consumed (see SACRIFICE). But we have in addition to the animal
sacrifices, vegetable offerings of meal, oil and cakes (_massoth_,
_ashishah_ and _kawwan_, which last is specially connected with the
'Ashtoreth cult: Jer. vii. 18, xliv. 19), as well as the "bread of the
Presence" (_lehem happanim_), 1 Sam. xxi. 6. Whether the primitive rite
of _water-offerings_ (1 Sam. vii. 6; 2 Sam. xxiii. 16) belonged to early
nomadic Israel (as seems probable) it is not possible to determine with
any certainty.
Again, the conception of Yahweh suffered modification. In the desert he
was worshipped as an atmospheric deity, who manifested himself in
thunder and lightning, whose abode was in the sky, whose sanctuary was
on the mountain summit of Horeb-Sinai, and whose movable palladium was
the ark of the covenant. But when the nomadic clans of Israel came to
occupy the settled abodes of the agricultural Canaanites who had a stake
in the soil which they cultivated, these conditions evidently reacted on
their religion. Now the local Baal was the divine owner of the fertile
spot where his sanctuary (_qodesh_) was marked by the upright stone
pillar, the symbol of his presence, on which the blood of the
slaughtered victim was smeared. To this Baal the productiveness of the
soil was due. Consequently it was needful to secure his favour, and in
order to gain this, gifts were made to him by the local resident
population who depended on the produce of the land (see BAAL, especially
_ad init._). Now when the Hebrews succeeded to these agricultural
conditions and acquired possession of the Canaanite abodes, they
naturally fell into the same cycle of religious ideas and tradition.
Yahweh ceased to be exclusively regarded as god of the atmosphere,
worshipped in a distant mountain, Horeb-Sinai, situated in the south
country (_negebh_), and moving in the clouds of heaven before the
Israelites in the desert, but he came to be associated with Israel's
life in Canaan. He manifested His presence either by a signal victory
over Israel's foes (Josh. x. 10, 11; 1 Sam. vii. 10-12) or by a
thunderstorm (1 Sam. xii. 18) or through a dream (Gen. xxviii. 16 foll.;
cf. 1 Kings iii. 5 foll.) at a sacred spot like Bethel. Accordingly,
whenever His presence and power were displayed in places where the
Canaanite Baal had been worshipped, they came to be attached to these
spots. He had "put his name," i.e. power and presence (_numen_) there,
and the same festivals and sacrifices which had previously been devoted
to the cult of the Canaanite Baal were now annexed to the service of
Yahweh, the war-god of the conquering race. The process of transference
was facilitated by two potent causes: (a) Both Canaanite and Hebrew
spoke a common language; (b) the name Baal is not in reality an
individual proper name like Kemosh (Chemosh), Ramman or Hadad, but is,
like El (Ilu) "god," an appellative meaning "lord," "owner" or
"husband." The name Baal might therefore be used for any deity such as
Milk (Milcom) or Shemesh ("sun") who was the divine owner of the spot.
It was simply a covering epithet, and like the word "god" could be
transferred from one deity to another. In this way Yahweh came to be
called the Baal or "lord" of any sacred place where the armies of Israel
by their victories attested "his mighty hand and outstretched arm." (See
Kautzsch in Hastings's _D.B._, extra vol., p. 645 foll.)
Such was the path of syncretism, and it was fraught with peril to the
older and purer faith. For when Yahweh gradually became Israel's local
Baal he became worshipped like the old Canaanite deity, and all the
sensuous accompaniments of Kedeshoth,[11] as well as the presence of the
_asherah_ or sacred pole, became attached to his cult. But the symbol
carried with it the _numen_ of the goddess symbolized, and there can be
little doubt that Asherah came to be regarded as Yahweh's consort. In
the days of Manasseh syncretism went on unchecked even in the Jerusalem
temple and its precincts, and it was not till the year of Jesiah's
reformation (621 B.C.) that the Kedeshim and Kedeshoth as well as the
Asherah were banished for ever from Yahweh's sanctuary (2 Kings xxi. 7,
xxiii. 7), which their presence had profaned.
Now local worship means the differentiation of the personality
worshipped in the varied local shrines, in other words Ba'alim or Baals.
Just as we have in Assyria an Ishtar of Arbela and an Ishtar of Nineveh
(treated in Assur-bani-pal's (Rassam) cylinder[12] like two distinct
deities), as we have local Madonnas in Roman Catholic countries, so must
it have been with the cults of Yahweh in the regal period carried on in
the numerous high places, Bethel, Shechem, Shiloh (till its destruction
in the days of Eli) and Jerusalem. Each in turn claimed that Yahweh had
placed his name (i.e. personal presence and power or numen) _there_.
Each had a Yahweh of its own.
On the other hand, old deities still lurked in old spots which had been
for centuries their abode. It was no easy task to establish Yahweh in
permanent possession of the new lands conquered by the Hebrew settlers.
The old gods were not to be at once discrowned of might. Of this we have
a vivid example in the episode 2 Kings xviii. 24-28. The inhabitants of
Babylonia and other regions whom the Assyrian kings had settled in
Ephraim after 721 B.C. (cf. Ezra iv. 10) are described as suffering from
the depredations of lions, and a priest from the deported Ephraimites is
sent to them to teach them the worship of Yahweh, the god of the land.
Similarly in the earlier pre-exilian period of Israel's occupation of
Canaanite territory the Hebrews were always subject to this tendency to
worship the _old_ Baal or 'Ashtoreth (the goddess who made the cattle
and flocks prolific).[13] A few years of drought or of bad seasons would
make a Hebrew settler betake himself to the old Canaanite gods. Even in
the days of Hosea the rivalry between Yahweh and the old Canaanite Baal
still continued. The prophet reproaches his Ephraimite countrymen for
going after their "lovers," the old local Baals who were supposed to
have bestowed on them the bread, water, wool, flax and oil, and for not
knowing that "it is I (Yahweh) who have bestowed on her (i.e. Israel)
the corn, the new wine and the oil, and have bestowed on her silver and
gold in abundance which they have wrought into a Baal image" (Hos. ii.
10).
External danger from a foreign foe, such as Midian or the Philistines,
at once brought into prominence the claim and power of Yahweh, Israel's
national war-god since the great days of the exodus. The religion of
Yahweh (as Wellhausen said) meant patriotism, and in war-time tended to
weld the participating tribes into a national unity. The book of Judges
with its "monotonous tempo--religious declension, oppression,
repentance, peace," to which Wellhausen[14] refers as its ever-recurring
cycle, makes us familiar with these alternating phases of action and
reaction. Times of peace meant national disintegration and the lapse of
Israel into the Canaanite local cults, which is interpreted by the
redactor as the prophets of the 8th century would have interpreted it,
viz. as defection from Yahweh. On the other hand, times of war against a
foreign foe meant on the religious side the unification, partial or
complete, of the Israelite tribes by the rallying cry "the sword of
Yahweh" (Judges vii. 20). In this way 'Ophrah became the centre of the
coalition under Gideon in the tribe of Manasseh. Its importance is
attested by Judges viii. 22-28, and we may disregard the "snare" which
the Deuteronomic writer condemns in accordance with the later canons of
orthodoxy. What 'Ophrah became on a small scale in the days of Gideon,
Jerusalem became on a larger scale in the days of David and his
successors. It was the religious expression of the unity of Israel which
the life and death struggle with the Philistines had gradually wrought
out.
Despite the capture of the ark after the disastrous battle of Shiloh,
Yahweh had in the end shown himself through a destructive plague
superior in might to the Philistine Dagon. There are indeed abundant
indications that prove that in the prevalent popular religion of the
regal period monotheistic conceptions had no place. Yahweh was god only
of Israel and of Israel's land. An invasion of foreign territory would
bring Israel under the power of its patron-deity. The wrath with which
the Israelite armies believed themselves to be visited (probably an
outbreak of pestilence) when the king of Moab was reduced to his last
extremity, was obviously the wrath of Chemosh the god of Moab, which the
king's sacrifice of his only son had awakened against the invading army
(2 Kings iii. 27). In other words, the ordinary Israelite worshipper of
Yahweh was at this time far removed from monotheism, and still remained
in the preliminary stage of henotheism, which regarded Yahweh as sole
god of Israel and Israel's land, but at the same time recognized the
existence and power of the deities of other lands and peoples. Of this
we have recurring examples in pre-exilian Hebrew history. See 1 Sam.
xxvi. 19; Judges xi. 23, 24; Ruth i. 16.
Material objects.
5. _Characteristics and Constituent Elements._--It is only possible here
to refer in briefest enumeration to the material and external objects
and forms of popular Hebrew religion. These were of the simplest
character. The upright stone (or _massebah_) was the material symbol of
deity on which the blood of sacrifice was smeared, and in which the
_numen_ of the god resided. It is probable that in some primitive
sanctuaries no real distinction was made between this stone-pillar and
the altar or place where the animal was slaughtered. In ordinary
pre-exilian high places the custom described in the primitive compend of
laws (Ex. xx. 24) would be observed. A mound of earth was raised which
would serve as a platform on which the victim would be slaughtered in
the presence of the concourse of spectators. In the more important
shrines, as at Jerusalem or Samaria, there would be an altar of stone or
of bronze. Another accompaniment of the sanctuary would be the sacred
tree--most frequently a terebinth (cf. Judges ix. 37 "terebinth of
soothsayers"), or it might be a palm tree (cf. "palm tree of Deborah" in
Judges iv. 5), or a tamarisk (_'eshel_), or pomegranate (_rimmon_), as
at the high place in Gibeah where Saul abode. Moreover, we have frequent
references to sacred springs, as that of _Beer-sheba_, _'Enharod_
(_'eyn-harod_) (Judges vii. 1; cf. also Judges 19, _'En-hakkore_
[_'eyn-haqqore'_]). (On this subject of holy trees, holy waters and holy
stones, consult article TREE-WORSHIP, and Robertson Smith's _Religion of
the Semites_, 2nd ed., pp. 165-197.)
The wide prevalence of magic and soothsaying may be illustrated from the
historical books of the Old Testament as well as from the pre-exilian
prophets. The latter indeed tolerated the _qosem_ (soothsayer) as they
did the seer (ro'eh). The rhabdomancy denounced by Hosea (iv. 12) was
associated with idolatry at the high places. But the arts of the
necromancer were always and without exception treated as foreign to the
religion of Yahweh. The necromancer of _ba'al 'obh'_ was held to be
possessed of the spirit who spoke through him with a hollow voice.
Indeed both necromancer and the spirit that possessed him were sometimes
identified, and the former was simply called _obh_. It is probable that
necromancy, like the worship of Asherah and 'Ashtoreth, as well as the
cult of graven images, was a Canaanite importation into Israel's
religious practices. (See Marti, _Religion des A.T._, p. 32.)
Priesthood.
The history of the rise of the priesthood in Israel is exceedingly
obscure. In the nomadic period and during the earlier years of the
settlement of Israel in Canaan the head of every family could offer
sacrifices. In the primitive codes, Ex. xx. 22-xxiii. 19 (E), xxxiv.
10-28 (J), we have no allusion to any separate order of men who were
qualified to offer sacrifices. In Ex. xxiv. 5 (E) we read that Moses
simply commissioned young men to offer sacrifices. On the other hand the
_addendum_ to the book of Judges, chaps. xvii., xviii. (which Budde,
Moore and other critics consider to belong to the two sources of the
narratives in Judges, viz. J[15] as well as E), makes reference to a
Levite of Bethlehem-Judah, expressly stated in xvii. 7 as belonging to a
clan of Judah. This man Micah took into his household as priest. This
narrative has all the marks of primitive simplicity. There can be no
reasonable doubt that the Levite here was member of a priestly tribe or
order, and this view is confirmed by the discovery of what is really the
same word in south Arabian inscriptions.[16] The narrative is of some
value as it shows that while it was possible to appoint any one as a
priest, since Micah, like David, appointed one of his own sons (xvii.
5), yet a special priest-tribe or order also existed, and Micah
considered that the acquisition of one of its members was for his
household a very exceptional advantage: "Now I know that Yahweh will
befriend me because I have the _Levite_ as priest."[17] In other words a
priest who was a Levite possessed a superior professional qualification.
He is paid ten shekels per annum, together with his food and clothing,
and is dignified by the appellation "father" (cf. the like epithet of
"mother" applied to the prophetess Deborah, Judges v. 7; see also 2
Kings ii. 12, vi. 21, xiii. 14). This same narrative dwells upon the
graven images, ephod and teraphim, as forming the apparatus of religious
ceremonial in Micah's household. Now the ephod and teraphim are
constantly mentioned together (cf. Hos. iii. 4) and were used in
divination. The former was the plated image of Yahweh (cf. Judges viii.
26, 27) and the latter were ancestral images (see Marti, _op. cit._ pp.
27, 29; Harper, _Int. Comm._ "Amos and Hosea," p. 222). In other words
the function of the priest was not merely sacrificial (a duty which
Kautzsch unnecessarily detaches from the services which he originally
rendered), nor did he merely bear the ark of the covenant and take
charge of God's house; but he was also and mainly (as the Arabic name
_kahin_ shows) the _soothsayer_ who consulted the ephod and gave the
answers required on the field of battle (see 1 Sam. and 2 Sam. _passim_)
and on other occasions. This is clearly shown in the "blessing of Moses"
(Deut. xxxiii. 8), where the Levite is specially associated with another
apparatus of inquiry, viz. the sacred lots, _Urim_ and _Thummim_. The
true character of _Urim_ (as expressing "aye") and _Thummim_ (as
expressing "nay") is shown by the reconstructed text of 1 Sam. xiv. 41
on the basis of the Septuagint. See Driver _ad loc._
Geniality of Worship.
The chief and most salient characteristic of the worship of the high
places was geniality. The sacrifice was a feast of social communion
between the deity and his worshippers, and knit both deity and
clan-members together in the bonds of a close fellowship. This genial
aspect of Hebrew worship is nowhere depicted more graphically than in
the old narrative (a J section = Budde's G) 1 Sam. ix. 19-24, where a
day of sacrifice in the high place is described. Saul and his attendant
are invited by the seer-priest Samuel into the banqueting chamber
(_lishkah_) where thirty persons partake of the sacrificial meal. It was
the _'asiph_ or festival of ingathering, when the agricultural
operations were brought to a close, which exhibited these genial
features of Canaanite-Hebrew life most vividly. References to them
abound in pre-exilian literature: Judges xxi. 21 (cf. ix. 27); Amos
viii. 1 foll.; Hos. ix. 1 foll., Jer. xxxi. 4; Isa. xvi. 10 (Jer.
xlviii. 33). These festivals formed the veins and arteries of ancient
Hebrew clan and tribal life.[18] Wellhausen's characterization of the
Arabian _hajj_[19] applies with equal force to the Hebrew _hagg_
(festival): "They formed the rendezvous of ancient life. Here came under
the protection of the peace of God the tribes and clans which otherwise
lived apart from one another and only knew peace and security within
their own frontiers." 1 Sam. xx. 28 foll. indicates the strong claims on
personal attendance exercised on each individual member by the local
clan festival at Bethlehem-Judah.
It is easy to discern from varied allusions in the Old Testament that
the Canaanite impress of sensuous life clung to the autumnal vintage
festivals. They became orgiastic in character and scenes of drunkenness,
cf. Judges ix. 27; 1 Sam. 14-16; Isa. xxviii. 7, 8. Against this
tendency the _Nazirite_ order and tradition was a protest. Cf. Amos ii.
11 foll.; Judges xiii. 7, 14. As certain sanctuaries, Shiloh, Shechem,
Bethel, &c., grew in importance, the priesthoods that officiated at them
would acquire special prestige. Eli, the head priest at Shiloh in the
early youth of Samuel, held an important position in what was then the
chief religious and political centre of Ephraim; and the office passed
by inheritance to the sons in ordinary cases. In the regal period the
royal residence gave the priesthood of that place an exceptional
position. Thus Zadok, who obtained the priestly office at Jerusalem in
the reign of Solomon and was succeeded by his sons, was regarded in
later days as the founder of the true and legitimate succession of the
priesthood descended from Levi (Ezek. xl. 46, xliii. 19, xliv. 15; cf. 1
Kings ii. 27, 35). His descent, however, from Eleazar, the elder brother
of Aaron, can only be regarded as the later artificial construction of
the post-exilian chronicler (1 Chron. vi. 4-15, 50-53, xxiv. 1 foll.),
who was controlled by the traditions which prevailed in the 4th century
B.C. and after.
6. _The Prophets._--The rise of the order of prophets, who gradually
emerged out of and became distinct from the old Hebrew "seer" or augur
(1 Sam. ix. 9),[20] marks a new epoch in the religious development of
the Hebrews. Over the successive stages of this growth we pass lightly
(see PROPHET). The life-and-death struggle between Israel and the
Philistines in the reign of Saul called forth under Samuel's leadership
a new order of "men of God," who were called "prophets" or divinely
inspired speakers.[21] These men were distributed in various
settlements, and their exercises were usually of an ecstatic character.
The closest modern analogy would be the orders of dervishes in Islam.
Probably there was little externally to distinguish the prophet of
Yahweh in the days of Samuel from the Canaanite-Phoenician prophets of
Baal and Asherah (1 Kings xviii. 19, 26, 28), for the practices of both
were ecstatic and orgiastic (cf. 1 Sam. x. 5 foll., xviii. 10, xix. 23
foll.). The special quality which distinguished these prophetic gilds or
companies was an intense patriotism combined with enthusiastic devotion
to the cause of Yahweh. This necessarily involved in that primitive age
an extreme jealousy of foreign importations or innovations in ritual. It
is obvious from numerous passages that these prophetic gilds recognized
the superior position and leadership of Samuel, or of any other
distinguished prophet such as Elijah or Elisha. Thus 1 Sam. xix. 20, 23
et seq. show that Samuel was regarded as head of the prophetic
settlement at Naioth. With reference to Elijah and Elisha, see 2 Kings
ii. 3, 5, 15, iv. 1, 38 et seq., vi. 1 et seq. There cannot be any doubt
that such enthusiastic devotees of Yahweh, in days when religion meant
patriotism, did much to keep alive the flame of Israel's hope and
courage in the dark period of national disaster. It is significant that
Saul in his last unavailing struggle against the overwhelming forces of
the Philistines sought through the medium of a sorceress for an
interview with the deceased prophet Samuel. It was the advice of Elisha
that rescued the armies of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat in their war against
Moab when they were involved in the waterless wastes that surrounded
them (2 Kings iii. 14 foll.). We again find Elisha intervening with
effect on behalf of Israel in the wars against Syria, so that his fame
spread to Syria itself (2 Kings v.-viii. 7 foll.). Lastly it was the
fiery counsels of the dying prophet, accompanied by the acted magic of
the arrow shot through the open window, and also of the thrice smitten
floor, that gave nerve and courage to Joash, king of Israel, when the
armies of Syria pressed heavily on the northern kingdom (2 Kings xiii.
14-19).
We see that the prophet had now definitely emerged from the old position
of "seer." Prophetic personality now moved in a larger sphere than that
of divination, important though that function be in the social life of
the ancient state[22] as instrumental in declaring the will of the deity
when any enterprise was on foot. For the prophet's function became in an
increasing degree a function of _mind_, and not merely of traditional
routine or mechanical technique, like that of the diviner with his
arrows or his lots which he cast in the presence of the ephod or plated
Yahweh image. The new name _nabhi'_ became necessary to express this
function of more exalted significance, in which human personality played
its larger rôle. Even as early as the time of David it would seem that
Nathan assumed this more developed function as interpreter of Yahweh's
righteous will to David. But both in 2 Sam. xii. 1-15 as well as in 2
Sam. vii. we have sections which are evidently coloured by the
conceptions of a later time. We stand on safer ground when we come to
Elijah's bold intervention on behalf of righteousness when he declared
in the name of Yahweh the divine judgment on Ahab and his house for the
judicial murder of Naboth. We here observe a great advance in the
vocation of the prophet. He becomes the interpreter and vindicator of
divine justice, the vocal exponent of a nation's conscience. For Elijah
was in this case obviously no originator or innovator. He represents the
old ethical Mosaism, which had not disappeared from the national
consciousness, but still remained as the moral pre-supposition on which
the prophets of the following century based their appeals and
denunciations. It is highly significant that Elijah, when driven from
the northern kingdom by the threats of the Tyrian Jezebel, retreats to
the old sanctuary at Horeb, whence Moses derived his inspiration and his
Torah.
We have hitherto dealt with isolated examples of prophetism and its rare
and distinguished personalities. The ordinary Hebrew _nabhi'_ still
remained not the reflective visionary, stirred at times by music into
strange raptures (2 Kings iii. 15), but the ecstatic and orgiastic
dervish who was _meshuggah_ or "frenzied," a term which was constantly
applied to him from the days of Elisha to those of Jeremiah (2 Kings ix.
11; in Hos. ix. 7 and Jer. xxix. 26 it is regarded as a term of
reproach). It is only in rare instances that some exalted personality is
raised to a higher level. Of this we have an interesting example in the
vivid episode that preceded the battle of Ramoth-Gilead described in 1
Kings xxii., when Micaiah appears as the true prophet of Yahweh, who in
his rare independence stands in sharp contrast with the conventional
court prophets, who prophesied then, as their descendants prophesied
more than two centuries later, smooth things.
It is not, however, till the 8th century that prophecy attained its
highest level as the interpreter of God's ways to men. This is due to
the fact that it for the first time unfolded the true character of
Yahweh, implicit in the old Mosaic religion and submerged in the
subsequent centuries of Israel's life in Canaan, but now at length made
clear and explicit to the mind of the nation. It became now detached
from the limitations of nationalism and local association with which it
had been hitherto circumscribed.
Even Elisha, the greatest prophet of the 9th century, had remained
within these national limitations which characterized the popular
conceptions of Yahweh. Yahweh was Israel's war-god. His power was
asserted in and from Canaanite soil. If Naaman was to be healed, it
could only be in a Palestinian river, and two mules' load of earth would
be the only permanent guarantee of Yahweh's effective blessing on the
Syrian general in his Syrian home.
That larger conceptions prevailed in some of the loftier minds of
Israel, and may be held to have existed even as far back as the age of
Moses, is a fact which the Yahwistic cosmogony in Gen. ii. 4b-9 (which
may have been composed in the 9th century B.C.) clearly suggests, and it
is strongly sustained by the overwhelming evidence of the powerful
influence of Babylonian culture in the Palestinian region during the
centuries 2000-1400 B.C.[23] Probably in our modern construction of
ancient Hebrew history sufficient consideration has not been given to
the inevitable coexistence of different types and planes of thought,
each evolved from earlier and more primordial forms. In other words we
have to deal not with _one_ evolution but with evolutions.
The existence of the purer and larger conception of Yahweh's character
and power before the advent of Amos indicates that the transition from
the past was not so sudden as Wellhausen's graphic portrayal in the 9th
edition of this _Encyclopaedia_ (art. ISRAEL) would have led us to
suppose. There were pre-existent ideas upon which that prophet's
epoch-making message was based. Yet this consideration should in no way
obscure the fact that the prophet lived and worked in the all-pervading
atmosphere of the popular syncretic Yahweh religion, intensely national
and local in its character. In Wellhausen's words, each petty state
"revolved on its own axis" of social-religious life till the armies of
Tiglath-Pileser III. broke up the security within the Canaanite borders.
According to the dominating popular conception, the destruction of the
national power by a foreign army meant the overthrow of the prestige of
the national deity by the foreign nation's god. If Assyria finally
overthrew Israel and carried off Yahweh's shrine, Assur (Asur), the
tutelary deity of Assyria, was mightier than Yahweh. This was precisely
what was happening among the northern states, and Amos foresaw that this
might eventually be Israel's doom. Rabshakeh's appeal to the besieged
inhabitants of Jerusalem was based on these same considerations. He
argued from past history that Yahweh would be powerless in the presence
of Ashur (2 Kings xviii. 33-35).
This problem of religion was solved by Amos and by the prophets who
succeeded him through a more exalted conception of Yahweh and His sphere
of working, which tended to detach Him from His limited realm as a
national deity. Amos exhibited Him to his countrymen as lord of the
universe, who made the seven stars and Orion and turns the deep midnight
darkness into morning. He calls to the waters of the sea and pours them
on the earth's surface (chap. v. 8). Such a universal God of the world
would hardly make Israel His exclusive concern. Thus He not only brought
the Israelites out of Egypt, but also the Philistines from Caphtor and
the Syrians from Kir (ix. 7). But Amos went beyond this. Yahweh was not
only the lord of the universe and possessed of sovereign power. The
prophet also emphasized with passionate earnestness that Yahweh was a
God whose character was righteous, and God's demand upon His people
Israel was not for sacrifices but for _righteous conduct_. Sacrifice, as
this prophet, like his successor Jeremiah, insisted (Amos v. 25; cf.
Jer. vii. 22) played no part in Mosaic religion. In words which
evidently impressed his younger contemporary Isaiah (cf. esp. Is. chap.
i. 11-17), Amos denounced the non-ethical ceremonial formalism of his
countrymen which then prevailed (chap. v. 21 foll.):--
"I hate, I contemn your festivals and in your feasts I delight not;
for when you offer me your burnt-offerings and gifts, I do not regard
them with favour and your fatted peace-offerings I will not look at.
Take away from me the clamour of your songs; and the music of your
viols I will not hear. But let judgment roll down like waters and
justice like a perennial brook."
In the younger contemporary prophet of Ephraim, Hosea, the stress is
laid on the relation of love (_hesed_) between Yahweh, the divine
husband, and Israel, the faithless spouse. Israel's faithlessness is
shown in idolatry and the prevailing corruption of the high places in
which the old Canaanite Baal was worshipped instead of Yahweh. It is
shown, moreover, in foreign alliances. Compacts with a powerful foreign
state, under whose aegis Israel was glad to shelter, involved covenants
sealed by sacrificial rites in which the deity or deities of the foreign
state were involved as well as Yahweh, the god of the weaker
vassal-state. And so Yahweh's honour was compromised. While these
aspects of Israel's relation to Yahweh are emphasized by the Ephraimite
prophet, the larger conceptions of Yahweh's character as universal Lord
and the God of righteousness, whose government of the world is ethical,
emphasized by the prophet of Tekoah, are scarcely presented.
In Isaiah both aspects--divine universal sovereignty and justice, taught
by Amos, and divine loving-kindness to Israel and God's claims on His
people's allegiance, taught by Hosea--are fully expressed. Yahweh's
relation of love to Israel is exhibited under the purer symbol of
fatherhood (Isa. i. 2-4), a conception which was as ancient and familiar
as that of husband, though perhaps the latter recurs more frequently in
prophecy (Isa. i. 21; Ezek. xvi. &c.). Even more insistently does Isaiah
present the great truth of God's universal sovereignty. As with his
elder contemporary, the foreign peoples--(but in Isaiah's oracles
Assyria and Egypt as well as the Palestinian races)--come within his
survey. The "fullness of the earth" is Yahweh's glory (vi. 3) and the
nations of the earth are the instruments of His irresistible and
righteous will. Assyria is the "bee" and Egypt the "fly" for which
Yahweh hisses. Assyria is the "hired razor" (Isa. vii. 18, 19), or the
"rod of His wrath," for the chastisement of Israel (x. 5). But the
instrument unduly exalts itself, and Assyria itself shall suffer
humiliation at the hands of the world's divine sovereign (x. 7-15).
And so the old limitations of Israel's popular religion,--the same
limitations that encumbered also the religions of all the neighbouring
races that succumbed in turn to Assyria's invincible progress,--now
began to disappear. Therefore, while every other religion which was
purely national was extinguished in the nation's overthrow, the religion
of Israel survived even amid exile and dispersion. For Amos and Isaiah
were able to single out those loftier spiritual and ethical elements
which lay implicit in Mosaism and to lift them into their due place of
prominence. National _sacra_ and the ceremonial requirements were made
to assume a secondary rôle or were even ignored.[24] The centre of
gravity in Hebrew religion was shifted from ceremonial observance and
local sacra to righteous conduct. Religion and righteousness were
henceforth welded into an indissoluble whole. The religion of Yahweh was
no longer to rest upon the narrow perishable basis of locality and
national sacra, but on the broad adamantine foundations of a universal
divine sovereignty over all mankind and of righteousness as the
essential element in the character of Yahweh and in his claims on man.
This was the "corner-stone of precious solid foundation": "I will make
judgment the measuring-line and righteousness the plummet" (Isa. xxviii.
16, 17). The religion of the Hebrew race--properly the Jews--now enters
on a new stage, for it should be observed that it was Amos, Isaiah and
Micah--prophets of Judah--who laid the actual foundations. The latter
half of the 8th century, which witnessed a rapid succession of reigns in
the northern kingdom accompanied by dismemberment of its territory and
final overthrow, witnessed also the humiliating vassalage and religious
decline of the kingdom of Judah. Unlike Amos and Micah, Isaiah was not
only the prophet of denunciation but also the prophet of hope. Though
Yahweh's chastisements on Ephraim and Judah would continue to fall till
scarcely a remnant was left (Isa. vi. 13, LXX.), yet all was not to be
lost. A remnant of the people was to return, i.e. be converted to
Yahweh. The name given to an infant child--Immanuel--was to become the
mystic symbol of a growing hope. God's presence was to abide in
Jerusalem, and, as the century drew near its close, "Immanuel" became
the watchword and talisman of a strong faith that God would never permit
Jerusalem to be captured by the Assyrians. In fact it is not improbable
that the words of consolation uttered by the prophet (Isa. viii. 9-10)
in the dark days of Ahaz (735-734 B.C.) were among the oracles which God
commanded Isaiah "to seal up among his disciples" (verse 16), and that
they were quoted once more with effect as the armies of Sennacherib
closed around Jerusalem. The talismanic name Immanuel became the nucleus
out of which the later _Messianic_ prophecies of Isaiah grew. To this
age alone can we probably assign Isa. ix. 1-7, xi. 1-9, xxxii. 1-3. The
hopes expressed in the word Immanuel, "God with us," were to become
embodied in a personality of the royal seed of David, an ideal righteous
ruler who was to bring peace to the war-distraught realm. Thus Isaiah
became in that troubled age the true founder of _Messianic_ prophecy.
The strange contrast between the succession of dynasties and kings cut
off by assassination in the northern kingdom, ending in the tragic
overthrow of 721 B.C., and the persistent succession through three
centuries of the seed of David on the throne of Jerusalem, as well as
the marvellous escape of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. from the fate of Samaria,
must have invested the seed of David in the eyes of all thoughtful
observers with a mysterious and divine significance. The Messianic
prophecies of Isaiah, the prophet of faith and deliverance, were
destined to reverberate through all subsequent centuries. We hear the
echoes in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and lastly in Haggai in ever feebler
tones, and they were destined to reawaken in the Psalter (Pss. ii. and
lxxii.), in the psalms of Solomon and in the days of Christ. See MESSIAH
(and also the article "Messiah" in Hastings's _Dict. of Christ and the
Gospels_).
The next notable contribution to the permanent growth of Hebrew
prophetic religion was made about a century after the lifetime of Isaiah
by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The reaction into idolatry and Babylonian star
worship in the long reign of Manasseh synchronized and was connected
with vassalage to Assyria, while the reformation in the reign of Josiah
(621 B.C.) is conversely associated with the decay of Assyrian power
after the death of Assur-bani-pal. That reformation failed to effect its
purifying mission. The hurt of the daughter of God's people was but
lightly healed (Jer. vi. 14, 15; cf. viii. 11, 12). No possibility of
recovery now remained to the diseased Hebrew state. The outlook appeared
indeed far darker to Jeremiah than it seemed more than a century before
to Isaiah in the evil days of Jotham and Ahaz, "when the whole head was
sick and the whole heart faint" (Isa. i. 5). Jeremiah foresaw that there
was now no possibility of recovery. The Hebrew state was doomed and even
its temple was to be destroyed. This involved an entire reconstruction
of theological ideas which went beyond even the reconstructions of Amos
and Isaiah. In the old religion the race or clan was the unit of
religion as well as of social life. Properly speaking, the individual
was related to God only through the externalities of the clan or tribal
life, its common temple and its common _sacra_. But now that these
external bases of the old religion were to be swept away, a
reconstruction of religious ideas became necessary. For the external
supports which had vanished Jeremiah substituted a basis which was
_internal, personal and spiritual_ (i.e. _ethical_). In place of the old
covenant based on external observance, which had been violated, there
was to be a _new covenant_ which was to consist not in outward
prescription, but in the law which God would place _in the heart_ (Jer.
xxxi. 30-33). This was to take place by an act of divine grace (Jer.
xxiv. 5 foll.): "I will give them an heart to know me that I am the
Lord" (verse 7). Ezekiel, who borrowed both Jeremiah's language and
ideas, expresses the same thought in the well-known words that Yahweh
would give the people instead of a heart of stone a heart of flesh
(Ezek. xi. 19, 20, xx. 40 foll., xxxvi. 25-27), and would shame them by
his loving-kindness into repentance, and there "shall ye remember your
ways and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight" (xx. 43).
_Personal religion_ now became an important element in Hebrew piety and
upon this there logically followed the idea of _personal
responsibility_. The solidarity of race or family was expressed in the
old tradition reflected in Deut. v. 9, 10, that God would visit the sins
of the fathers upon the children, and it lived on in later Judaism under
exaggerated forms. The hopes of the individual Jew were based on the
piety of holy ancestors. "We have Abraham as our father." But _Ezekiel_
expressed the strong reaction which had set in against this belief in
its older forms. He denies that the individual ever dies for the sins of
the father. "The soul that sinneth, it (the pronoun emphasized in the
original) shall die" (Ezek. xviii. 4). Neither Noah, Daniel nor Job
could have rescued by his righteousness any but his own soul (xiv. 14).
And as a further consequence _individual freedom_ is strongly asserted.
It is possible for every sinner to turn to God and escape punishment,
and conversely for a righteous man to backslide and fall. In the
presence of these awful truths which Ezekiel preached of individual
freedom and of impending judgment, the prophet is weighted with a heavy
responsibility. It is his duty to warn every individual, for no sinner
is to be punished without warning (Ezek. iii. 16 foll. xxxiii.).
The closing years of the Judaean kingdom and the final destruction of
the temple (586 B.C.) shattered the Messianic ideals cherished in the
evening of Isaiah's lifetime and again in the opening years of the reign
of Josiah. The untimely death of that monarch upon the battlefield of
Megiddo (608 B.C.), followed by the inglorious reigns of the kings who
succeeded him, who became puppets in turn of Egypt or of Babylonia,
silenced for a while the Messianic hopes for a future king or line of
kings of Davidic lineage who would rule a renovated kingdom in
righteousness and peace. Even in the darkness of the exile period hopes
did not die. Yet they no longer remained the same. In the Deutero-Isaiah
(chaps. xl.-lv.) we have no longer a Jewish but a _foreign_ messiah. The
onward progress of the Persian Cyrus and his anticipated conquest of
Babylonia marked him out as Yahweh's anointed instrument for effecting
the deliverance of exiled Israel and their restoration to their old home
and city (Isa. xli. 2, xliv. 24, xlv.). This was, however, but a
subsidiary issue and possesses no permanent spiritual significance. Of
far more vital importance is the conception of Israel as God's
_suffering servant_. This is not the place to enter into the prolonged
controversy as to the real significance of this term, whether it
signifies the nation Israel or the righteous community only, or finally
an idealized prophetic individual who, like the prophet Jeremiah, was
destined to suffer for the well-being of his people. Duhm, in his
epoch-making commentary, distinguishes on the grounds of metre and
contents _the four servant-passages_, in the last of which (lii.
13-liii. 12) the ideal suffering servant of Yahweh is portrayed most
definitely as an individual. In the "servant-passages" he is innocent,
while in the rest of the Deutero-Isaiah he appears as by no means
faultless, and the personal traits are not prominent. These views of
Duhm, in which a severe distinction is thus drawn between the
representation of Yahweh's servant in the servant-passages, and that
which meets us in the rest of the Deutero-Isaiah, have been challenged
by a succession of critics.[25] It is only necessary for us to take note
of the ideal in its general features. It probably arose from the fact
that the calamities from which Israel had suffered both before and
during the exile had drawn the reflective minds of the race to the
contemplation of the problem of suffering. The "servant of Yahweh"
presents one aspect of the problem and its attempted solution, the book
of Job another, while in the Psalms, e.g. Pss. xxii., xlii.-xliii.,
lxxiii., lxxvii., other phases of the problem are presented. In the
Deutero-Isaiah the meaning of Israel's sufferings is exhibited as
vicarious. Israel is suffering for a great end. He suffers, is despised,
rejected, chastened and afflicted that others may be blessed and be at
peace through his chastisement. This noble conception of Israel's great
destiny is conveyed in Isa. xlix. 6, in words which may be regarded as
perhaps the noblest utterance in Hebrew prophecy: "To establish the
tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel is less important
than being my servant. Yea, I will make you a light to the _Gentiles_
that my salvation may be unto the end of the earth."[26] This passage,
which belongs to the second of the brief "servant-songs," sets the
mission of Israel in its true relation to the world. It is the necessary
corollary to the teaching of Amos, that God is the righteous lord of all
the world. If Jerusalem has been chosen as His sanctuary and Israel as
His own people, it is only that Israel may diffuse God's blessings in
the world even at the cost of Israel's own humiliation, exile and
dispersion.
The Deutero-Isaiah closes a great prophetic succession, which begins
with Amos, continues in Isaiah in even greater splendour with the added
elements of hope and Messianic expectation, and receives further
accession in Jeremiah with his special teaching on inward spiritual and
personal religion which constituted the new covenant of divine grace.
Finally the Deutero-Isaiah conveyed to captive Israel the message of
Yahweh's unceasing love and care, and the certainty of their return to
Judaea and the restoration of the national prosperity which Ezekiel had
already announced in the earlier period of the exile. To this is united
the noble ideal of the suffering servant, which serves both as a
contribution to the great problem of suffering as purifying and
vicarious and as the interpretation to the mind of the nation itself of
that nation's true function in the future, a lesson which the actual
future showed that Israel was slow to receive. Nowhere in the Old
Testament does the doctrine taught by Amos of Yahweh's universal power
and sovereignty receive ampler and more splendid exposition than in the
great lyrical passages of chap. xl. It marks the highest point to which
the Hebrew race attained in its progress from henotheism to monotheism.
Here again we see the wholesome influences of the exile. The Jew had
passed from the narrow confines of his homeland into a wider world, and
this larger vision of human life reacted on the prophet's theology. This
closes the evolution of Hebrew prophetism. What immediately follows is
on a descending slope with some striking exceptions, e.g. the book of
Job and the book of Jonah.
7. _Deuteronomic Legalism._--The book of Deuteronomy was the product of
prophetic teaching operating on traditional custom, which was
represented in its essential features by the two codes of legislation
contained in Ex. xx. 24-xxiii. 19 (E) and Ex. xxxiv. 10-26 (J), but had
also become tainted and corrupted by centuries of Canaanite influence
and practice which especially infected the cult of the _high places_.
The existence of "high places" is pre-supposed in those two ancient
codes and is also presumed in the narratives of the documents E and J
which contain them. But the prevalence of the worship of "other gods"
and of graven images in these "high places," and the moral debasement of
life which accompanied these cults, made it clear that the "high places"
were sources of grave injury to Israel's social life. In all probability
the reformation instituted in the reign of Hezekiah, to which 2 Kings
xviii. 4 (cf. verse 22) refers, was only partial. It is hardly possible
that all the high places were suppressed. The idolatrous reaction in the
reign of Manasseh appears to have restored all the evils of the past and
added to them. Another and more drastic reform than that which had been
previously initiated (probably at the instigation of Isaiah and Micah)
now became necessary to save the state. It is universally held by
critics that our present book of Deuteronomy (certainly chaps.
xii.-xxvi.) is closely connected with the reformation in the reign of
Josiah. It is quite clear that many provisions in the old codes of J and
E expanded lie at the basis of the book of Deuteronomy. But new features
were added. We note for the first time definite regulations respecting
Passover and the close union of that celebration with _Massoth_ or
"unleavened bread." We note the laws respecting the clean and unclean
animals (certainly based on ancient custom). Moreover, the prohibitions
are strengthened and multiplied. In addition to the bare interdict of
the sorceress (Ex. xxii. 18), of stone pillars to the Canaanite Baal, of
the Asherah-pole, molten images and the worship of other gods than
Yahweh (Ex. xxxiv. 13-17), we now have the strict prohibition of _any
employment whatever_ of the stone-symbol (_Massebhah_), and of all forms
of sorcery, soothsaying and necromancy (Deut. xviii. 10, 11. Respecting
the stone-pillar see xvi. 22). But of much more far-reaching importance
was the _law of the central sanctuary_ which constantly meets us in
Deuteronomy in the reference to "the place (i.e. Jerusalem) which Yahweh
your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there"
(xii. 5, xvi. 5, 11, 16, xxvi. 2). There alone all offerings of any kind
were to be presented (xii. 6, 7, xvi. 7). By this positive enactment all
the high places outside the one sanctuary in Jerusalem became
illegitimate. A further consequence directly followed from the
limitation as to sanctuary, viz. limitation as to the officiating
ministers of the sanctuary. In the "book of the covenant" (Ex. xx.
22-xxii. 19), as we have already seen, and in the general practice of
the regal period, there was no limitation as to the priesthood, but a
definite order of priesthood, viz. Levites, existed, to whom a higher
professional prestige belonged. As it was impossible to find a place for
the officiating priests of the high places, non-levitical as well as
levitical, in the single sanctuary, it became necessary to restrict the
functions of sacrifice to the Levites only as well as to the existing
official priesthood of the Jerusalem temple (see PRIEST). Doubtless such
a reform met with strong resistance from the disestablished and vested
interests, but it was firmly supported by royal influence and by the
Jerusalem priesthood as well as by the true prophets of Yahweh who had
protested against the idolatrous usages and corruptions of the high
places.
The strong impress of Hebrew prophecy is to be found in the deeply
marked ethical spirit of the Deuteronomic legislation. Love to God and
love to man is stamped on a large number of its provisions. Love to God
is emphasized in Deut. vi. 5, while love to man meets us in the constant
reference to the fatherless and the widow (cf. especially Deut. xvi.).
This note of philanthropy is frequently found as a mitigating element
(e.g. in the laws respecting slavery and war)[27] that subdues or even
removes the harshness of earlier laws or usages. It should be noted,
however, that the spirit of brotherly love was confined within national
barriers. It did not operate as a rule beyond the limits of race.
The book of Deuteronomy, in conjunction with the reformation of Josiah's
reign (which synchronizes with the rapid decline of Assyria and the
reviving prestige of Yahweh), appeared to mark the triumph of the great
prophetic movement. It became at once a codified standard of purer
religious life and ultimately served as a beacon of light for the
future. But there was shadow as well as light. We note (a) that though
the book of Deuteronomy bears the prophetic impress, the priestly
impress is perhaps more marked. The writer "evinces a warm regard for
the priestly tribe; he guards its privileges (xviii. 1-8), demands
obedience for its decisions (xxiv. 8; cf. xvii. 10-12) and earnestly
commends its members to the Israelites' benevolence (xii. 18-19, xiv.
27-29, &c.)."[28] (b) In many passages Jewish particularism is painfully
manifest. Yahweh's care for other peoples does not appear. The flesh of
a dead (unslaughtered) beast is not to be eaten, but it may be given to
the "stranger within the gates"! (Deut. xiv. 21).[29] (c) Prophetic
religion was a religion of the spirit which came to the messenger (Isa.
lxi. 1) and expressed itself as a word of instruction of Yahweh
(_torah_); see Isa. 1. 10. Now when the Hebrew religion was reduced to
written form it began to be a book-religion, and since the book
consisted of fixed rules and enactments, religion began to acquire a
stereotyped character. It will be seen in the sequel that this was
destined to be the growing tendency of Jewish religious life--to conform
itself to prescribed rules, in other words, it became _legalism_. (d)
Lastly, the old genial life of the high places, in which the "new moon"
or Sabbath or the annual festival was a sacrificial feast of communion,
in which the members of the local community or clan enjoyed fellowship
with one another--all this picturesque life ceased to be. And though
there was positive gain in the removal of idolatrous and corrupt modes
of worship, there was also positive loss in the disappearance of this
old genial phase of Hebrew social life and worship. It involved a vast
difference to many a Judaean village when the festival pilgrimage was no
longer made to the familiar local sanctuary with its hoary associations
of ancient heroic or patriarchal story, but to a distant and
comparatively unfamiliar city with its stately shrine and priesthood.
8. _Ezekiel's System._--Ezekiel was the successor of Jeremiah and
inherited his conceptions. But though the younger prophet adopted the
ideas respecting personal religion and individual responsibility from
the elder, the characters of the two men were very different. Jeremiah,
when he foretold the destruction of the external state and temple
ritual, found no resource save in a reconstruction that was internal and
spiritual. In this he was true to his prophetic impulse and genius. But
Ezekiel was, as Wellhausen well describes him, "a priest in prophet's
mantle." While Jeremiah's tendency was spiritual and ideal, Ezekiel's
was constructive and practical. He was the first to foretell with
clearness the return of his people from captivity foreshadowed by
Jeremiah, and he set himself the task even in the midnight darkness of
Israel's exile to prepare for the nation's renewed life. The external
bases of Israel's religion had been swept away, and in exchange for
these Jeremiah had led his countrymen to the more permanent internal
grounds of a spiritual renewal. But a religion could not permanently
subsist in this world of space and time without some external concrete
embodiment. It was the task of Ezekiel to take up once more the broken
threads of Israel's religious traditions, and weave them anew into
statelier forms of ritual and national polity. The priest-prophet's keen
eye for detail, manifested in the elaborate vision of the wheels and
living creatures (Ezek. i.) and in his lamentation on Tyre (chap.
xxvii.), is also exhibited in the visions contained in chaps.
xl.-xlviii., which describe the ideal reconstructed temple and theocracy
of the restored Israel. The foreground is filled by the temple and its
precincts. The officiating priests are now the descendants of the line
of Zadok belonging to the tribe of Levi. Thus the priesthood is still
further restricted as compared with the restriction already noted in the
Deuteronomic legislation. It is the sons of Zadok only that have any
right to offer sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering (xliii. 19,
xliv. 15 foll.). The Levites, who formerly ministered in the high
places, now discharge the subordinate offices of gate-keepers and
slaughterers of the sacrificial victims.
Another element in this ideal scheme which comes into prominence is the
sharp distinction between _holy_ and _profane_. The word _holiness_
(_qodesh_) in primitive Hebrew usage partook of the nature of taboo, and
came to be applied to whatever, whether thing or person, stood in close
relation to deity and belonged to him, and could not, therefore, be used
or treated like other objects not so related, and so was separated or
stood apart. The idea underlying the word, which to _us_ is invested
with deep ethical meaning, had only this non-ethical, ritual
significance in Ezekiel. Unlike the old temple and city, the ideal
temple of Ezekiel is entirely separate from the city of Jerusalem. In
the immediate surroundings of the temple there is an open space. Then
come two concentric forecourts of the temple. The temple stands in the
midst of what is called the _gizrah_ or space severed off. The outer
court lies higher than the open space, the inner court higher still, and
the temple-building in the centre highest of all. No heathen may tread
the outer court, no layman the inner court, while the holiest of all may
not be trodden even by the priest Ezekiel but only by the angel who
accompanies him. "The temple-house has a graduated series of
compartments increasing in sanctity inwards" (Davidson). In the
innermost the presence of Yahweh abides.
We are here moving in a realm of ideas prevailing in ancient Israel
respecting _holiness_, _uncleanness_ and _sin_, which are ceremonial and
not ethical; see especially Robertson Smith's _Religion of the Semites_,
2nd ed., p. 446 foll. (additional note B.) on holiness, uncleanness and
taboo. It is, of course, true that the ethical conception of sin as
violation of righteousness and an act of rebellion against the divine
righteous will had been developed since the days of Amos and Isaiah;
but, as we have already observed, cultus and prophetic teaching were
separated by an immense gulf, and in spite of the reformation of 621
B.C. still remain separated. In the sacrificial system of sin-offerings
(_hattath_ and _'asham_) we have to do with sin as ceremonial violation
and neglect (frequently involuntary), or violation of holiness in the
old sense of the term or as personal uncleanness (touching a corpse,
eating unclean food, sexual impurity, &c.). In the historical evolution
of Hebrew sacrifice it is remarkable how long this non-ethical and
primitive survival of old custom still survived, even far into
post-exilian times. (See SACRIFICE; also Moore's art. "Sacrifice" in
_Ency. Bibl._)
One conspicuous feature of Ezekiel's system is the predominance of
piacular sacrifice. It undoubtedly existed in pre-exilian Israel,
especially in times of crisis or calamity, for the appeasement of an
offended deity (2 Sam. xxiv. 18 foll.), and in Deut. xxi. 1-9, we have
details of the purificatory rite which was necessary when human blood
was shed; but now and in the future propitiatory sacrifice and ideas of
propitiation began to overshadow all the other forms of sacrifice and
their ideas. Ezekiel prescribes a half-yearly ritual of sin-offering
whereby atonement was to be made (xlv. 18-20). We shall see subsequently
to what great institution this led the way.
Ezekiel's system constituted an _ecclesiastical_ in place of a political
organization, a _church-state_ in place of a nation. We clearly discern
how this reacted on his Messianic conceptions. In his earlier oracles
(xxxiv. 23 foll.) we find one shepherd ruling over united Israel, viz.
Yahweh's servant David, whereas in the ideal scheme detailed in chap.
xl. et seq. the rôle of the prince as a ruler is a very shadowy one. The
prince, it is true, has a central domain, but his functions are
ecclesiastical and subordinate and his powers strictly limited (xlvi.
3-8, 12, 16-18).
Thus the exile period marks the parting of the ways in the development
of Hebrew religion. In the Deutero-Isaiah we reach the highest point in
the evolution of prophetism. It is true that we have some noble
resounding echoes in the lyrical passages lx.-lxii. In the Trito-Isaiah
during the post-exilian period, and in such psalm literature as Pss.
xxii., xxxvii., l., lxii., cvii., cxlv. 9-12 and others; and also in
Isa. xxxv., which is obviously a lyrical reproduction of earlier
literature. But it cannot be said that we possess in later literature
any fresh contribution to the conception of God or any presentation of a
higher ideal of human life[30] or national destiny than that which meets
us in chap. xl. or in the servant-passages of the Deutero-Isaiah. It may
with truth be said that _after Jeremiah we discern the parting of the
ways_. The _first_ is represented by the Deutero-Isaiah, who constitutes
the climax and close of Hebrew prophetism, which is henceforth (with the
possible exception of the Trito-Isaiah, Malachi and Jonah, who reproduce
some features of the earlier prophecy) a virtually arrested development.
The _second path_ is that which is traced out by the priest-prophet
Ezekiel, and is that of _legalism_, which was destined to secure a
permanent place in the life and literature of the Jewish people. It is
essentially the path which may be summed up in the word _Judaism_,
though, as will be shown in the sequel, Judaism came to include many
other factors. The statement, however, remains virtually true, since
Judaism is mainly constituted by the body of legal precepts called the
Torah, and, moreover, by the post-exilian Torah.
9. _Post-exilian Law--The Priestercodex._[31]--The oracles of Malachi
clearly reveal the continued influence of the book of Deuteronomy in his
day. But the new conditions created by the return of the exiles and the
germinating influence of Ezekiel's ideas developed a process of new
legislative construction. The code of holiness (Lev. xvii.-xxvi.) is the
most obvious product of that influence. The ideas of expiation and
atonement so prevalent in Ezekiel's scheme, which there find expression
in the half-yearly sacrificial celebrations, are expressed in Lev. xvi.
in the single _annual great fast of atonement_. It is impossible to
enter here into the numerous details of that impressive ceremonial. Two
special features, however, which characterize the celebration should
here be noted: (a) The person of the _high priest_, who is throughout
the entire drama the chief and indeed the sole actor. This supreme
official, who was destined ultimately to take the place of the king in
the church-nation of post-exilian Judaism, is mentioned for the first
time in Zech. iii. 1[32] (in the person of Joshua). In the Priestercodex
he stands at the head of the priests, who are, in the post-exilian
system, the _sons of Aaron_ and possessed the sole right to offer the
temple sacrifices. On the great day of atonement the high priest appears
in a vicarious and representative capacity, and offers on behalf of the
whole nation which he was considered to embody in his sacred person. (b)
The rite of the _goat devoted to Azazel_. There can be little doubt
that _Azazel_ was an evil demon (like an Arabic Jinn) of the desert. The
goat set apart for Azazel was in the concluding part of the ceremonial
brought before the high priest, who laid both his hands upon it and
confessed over it the sins of the people. It was then carried off by an
appointed person to a lonely spot and there set free.
In later post-exilian times this great day of atonement became to an
increasing degree a day of humiliation for sin and penitent sorrow,
accompanied by confession; and the sins confessed were not only of a
purely ceremonial character, whether voluntary or inadvertent, but also
sins against righteousness and the duties which we owe to God and man.
This element of public confession for sin became more prominent in the
days when synagogal worship developed, and prayer took the place of the
sacrificial offerings which could only be offered in the Jerusalem
temple. The development of the priestly code of legislation
(Priestercodex) was a gradual process, and probably occupied a
considerable part of the 5th century B.C. The Hebrew race now definitely
entered upon the new path of organized Jewish legalism which had been
originally marked out for it by Ezekiel in the preceding century. It
became a holy people on holy ground. Circumcision and Sabbath,
separation from marriage with a foreigner, which rendered a Jew unclean,
as well as strict conformity to the precepts of the Torah, constituted
henceforth an adamantine bond which was to preserve the Jewish
communities from disintegration.
10. _The later Post-exilian Developments in Jewish Religion._--These may
be briefly referred to under the following aspects:
(a) _Codified law_ and the written record of the patriarchal history, as
well as the life and work of the lawgiver Moses (to whom the entire body
of law came to be ascribed), assumed an ever greater importance. The
reverence felt for the canonized _Torah_ or law (the Pentateuch or
so-called five books of Moses) grew even into worship. Of this spirit we
find clear expression in some of the later psalms, e.g. the elaborate
alphabetic Ps. cxix. and the latter portion of Ps. xix. There were
various causes which combined to enhance the importance of the written
_Torah_ (the "instruction" _par excellence_ communicated by God through
Moses). Chief among these were (1) _The conception of God as
transcendent_. We have taken due note of Amos, who unfolded the
character of Yahweh as universal righteous sovereign; and also the
sublime portrayal of His exalted nature in Isa. xl. (verse 15; cf.
22-26, and Job xxxvi. 22-xlii. 6). The intellectual influence of Greece,
manifested in Alexandrian philosophy, tended to remove God still further
from the human world of phenomena into that of an inaccessible
transcendental abstraction. Little, therefore, was possible for the Jew
save strict performance of the requirements of the Torah, once for all
given to Moses on Sinai, and, in his approach to the awful and unknown
mystery, to rely on ceremonial and ascetic performances (see Wendt's
_Teaching of Jesus_, i. 55 foll.). The same tendency led the pious
worshippers to avoid His awful name and to substitute _Adonai_ in their
scriptures or to use in the Mishna the term "name" (_shem_) or "heaven."
(2) The _Maccabean conflict_ (165 B.C.) tended to accentuate the
national sentiment of antagonism to Hellenic influence. The Hasidim or
pious devotees, who arose at that time, were the originators of the
Pharisaic movement which was conservative as well as national, and laid
stress on the strict performance of the law.
(b) _Eschatology_ in the Judaism of the Greek period began to assume a
new form. The pre-exilian prophets (especially Isaiah) spoke of the
forthcoming crisis in the world's history as a "day of the Lord." These
were usually regarded as visitations of chastisement for national sins
and vindications of divine righteousness or judgments, i.e. assertions
of God's power as judge (_shophet_). By the older prophets this judgment
of God or "day of Yahweh" was never held to be far removed from the
horizon of the present or the world in which they lived. But now as we
enter the Greek period (320 B.C. and onwards) there is a gradual change
from prophecy to _apocalyptic_. "It may be asserted in general terms
that whereas prophecy foretells a definite future which has its
foundation in the present, apocalyptic directs its anticipations solely
and simply to the future, to a new world-period which stands sharply
contrasted with the present. The classical model for all apocalyptic is
to be found in Dan. vii. It is only after a great war of destruction, a
day of Yahweh's great judgment, that the dominion of God will begin"
(Bousset). Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix. clearly bear the apocalyptic
character; so also Isa. xxxiv. and notably Isa. xxiv.-xxvii.
Apocalyptic, as Baldensperger has shown, formed a counterpoise to the
normal current of conformity to law. It arose from a spiritual movement
in answer to the yearning of the heart: "O that Thou mightest rend the
heavens and come down and the mountains quake at Thy presence!" (Isa.
lxiv. 1 [Heb. lxiii. 19]); and it was intended to meet the craving of
souls sick with waiting and disappointment. The present outlook was
hopeless, but in the enlarged horizon of time as well as space the
thoughts of some of the most spiritual minds in Judaism were directed to
the transcendent and ultimate. The present world was corrupt and subject
to Satan and the powers of darkness. This they called "the present
_aeon_" (age). Their hopes were therefore directed to "the coming aeon."
Between the two aeons there would take place the _advent of the
Messiah_, who would lead the struggle with evil powers which was called
"the agonies of the Messiah." This terrible intermezzo was no longer
terrestrial, but was a cosmic and universal crisis in which the Messiah
would emerge victorious from the final conflict with the heathen and
demonic powers. This victory inaugurates the entrance of the "aeon to
come," in which the faithful Jews would enter their inheritance. In this
way we perceive the transformation of the old Messianic doctrine through
apocalyptic. Of apocalyptic literature we have numerous examples
extending from the 2nd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. (See
especially Charles's _Book of Enoch_.)
The doctrine of the _resurrection of the righteous_ to life in the
heavenly world became engrafted on to the old doctrine of Sheol, or the
dark shadowy underworld (Hades), where life was joyless and feeble, and
from which the soul might be for a brief space summoned forth by the
arts of the necromancer. The most vivid portraiture of Sheol is to be
found in the exilian passage Isa. xiv. 9-20 (cf. Job x. 21-22). With
this also compare the Babylonian _Descent of Ishtar to Hades_. The added
conception of the resurrection of the righteous does not appear in the
world of Jewish thought till the early Greek period in Isa. xxvi. 19. R.
H. Charles thinks that in this passage the idea of resurrection is of
purely Jewish and not of Mazdaan (or Zoroastrian) origin, but it is
otherwise with Dan. xii. 2; see his _Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish and
Christian_. Corresponding to heaven, the abode of the righteous, we have
_Ge-henna_ (originally _Ge-Hinnom_, the scene of the Moloch rites of
human sacrifice), the place of punishment after death for apostate Jews.
(c) _Doctrine of Angels and of Hypostases._--In the writings of the
pre-exilian period we have frequent references to supernatural
personalities good and bad. It is only necessary to refer to them by
name. _Sebaoth_, or "hosts," attached to the name of Yahweh, denoted the
heavenly retinue of stars. The _seraphim_ were burning serpentine forms
who hovered above the enthroned Yahweh and chanted the Trisagion in
Isaiah's consecration vision (Isa. vi.). We have also constant
references to "angels" (_malachim_) of God, divine messengers who
represent Him and may be regarded as the manifestation of His power and
presence. This especially applies to the "angel of Yahweh" or angel of
His Presence [Ex. xxiii. 20, 23 (E). Note in Ex. xxxiii. 14 (J) he is
called "my face" or "presence"[33] (cf. Isa. lxiii. 9)]. We also know
that from earliest times Israel believed in the evil as well as good
spirits. Like the Arabs they held that demons became incorporate in
serpents, as in Gen. iii. The _nephilim_ were a monstrous brood begotten
of the intercourse of the supernatural beings called "sons of God" with
the women of earth. We also read of the "evil spirit" that came upon
Saul. Contact with Babylonia tended to stimulate the angelology and
demonology of Israel. The Hebrew word _shed_ or "demon" is no more than
a Babylonian loan word, and came to designate the deities of foreign
peoples degraded into the position of demons.[34] _Lilith_, the
blood-sucking night-hag of the post-exilian Isa. xxxiv. 14, is the
Babylonian _Lilatu_. Whether the _se'irim_ or shaggy satyrs (Isa. xiii.
31; Lev. xvii. 7) and _Azazel_ were of Babylonian origin it is difficult
to determine. The emergence of _Satan_ as a definite supernatural
personality, the head or prince of the world of evil spirits, is
entirely a phenomenon of post-exilian Judaism. He is portrayed as the
arch-adversary and accuser of man. It is impossible to deny Persian
influence in the development of this conception, and that the Persian
Ahriman (Angromainyu), the evil personality opposed to the good, Ahura
Mazda, moulded the Jewish counterpart, Satan. But in Judaism
monotheistic conceptions reigned supreme, and the Satan of Jewish belief
as opposed to God stops short of the dualism of Persian religion. Of
this we see evidence in the multiplication of Satans in the Book of
Enoch. In the Book of Jubilees he is called _mastema_. In later Judaism
_Sammael_ is the equivalent of Satan. Persian influence is also
responsible for the _vast multiplication of good spirits or angels_,
Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, &c., who play their part in apocalyptic
works, such as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Enoch.
Probably the transcendent nature of the deity in the Judaism of this
later period made the interposition of mediating spirits an intellectual
necessity (cf. Ps. civ. 4). It also stimulated the creation of _divine
hypostases_. First among these may be mentioned _Wisdom_. The roots of
this conception belong to pre-exilian times, in which the "word" of
divine denunciation was regarded as a quasi-material thing. (It is
hurled against offending Israel, Isa. ix. 8.). In the post-exilian
cosmogony it is the divine word or fiat that creates the world (Gen. i.;
cf. Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9). Out of these earlier conceptions the idea of the
divine wisdom (Heb. _hokhmah_) gradually arose during the Persian
period. The expression "wisdom," as it is employed in the _locus
classicus_, Prov. viii., connotes the contents of the Divine reason--His
conscious life, out of which created things emerge. This wisdom is
personified. It dwelt with God (Prov. viii. 22 foll.) before the world
was made. It is the companion of His throne, and by it He made the world
(Prov. iii. 19, viii. 27; cf. Ps. civ. 24). It, moreover, enters into
the life of the world and especially man (Prov. viii. 31). This
conception of wisdom became still further hypostatized. It becomes
redemptive of man. In the Wisdom of Solomon it is the sharer of God's
throne ([Greek: paredros]), the effulgence of the eternal light and the
outflow of His glory (Wisd. vii. 25, viii. 3 foll., ix. 4, 9); "Them
that love her the Lord doth love" (Ecclesiasticus iv. 14). This group of
ideas culminated in the Logos of Philo, expressing the world of divine
ideas which God first of all creates and which becomes the mediating and
formative power between the absolute and transcendent deity and passive
formless matter, transmuted thereby into a rational, ordered universe.
In later Jewish literature we meet with further examples of similar
hypostases in the form of _Memra_, _Metatron_, _Shechinah_, _Holy
Spirit_ and _Bath kol_.
(d) The doctrine of _pre-existence_ is another product of the
speculative tendency of the Jewish mind. The Messiah's pre-existent
state before the creation of the world is asserted in the Book of Enoch
(xlviii. 6, 7). Pre-existence is also asserted of Moses and of sacred
institutions such as the New Jerusalem, the Temple, Paradise, the Torah,
&c. (Apocal. of Baruch iv. 3-lix. 4; Assumptio Mosis i. 14, 17);
Edersheim's _Life and Times of the Messiah_, i. 175 and footnote 1.
11. _Christ resumes the Broken Tradition of Prophetism._--The Psalms of
Solomon and the synoptic Gospels (70 B.C.-A.D. 100) clearly reveal the
powerful revival of Messianic hopes of a national deliverer of the seed
of David. This Messianic expectation had been a fermenting leaven since
the great days of Judas Maccabaeus. The conceptions of Jesus of
Nazareth, however, were not the Messianic conceptions of his
fellow-countrymen, but of the spiritual "son of man" destined to found
a kingdom of God which was righteousness and peace. The Torah of Jesus
was essentially prophetic and in no sense priestly or legal. The
arrested prophetic movement of Jeremiah and Deutero-Isaiah reappears in
John the Baptist and Jesus after an interval of more than five
centuries. The new covenant of redeeming grace--the righteousness which
is in the heart and not in externalities of legal observance or
ceremonial--are once more proclaimed, and the exalted ideals of the
suffering servant of Isa. xlix. 6 and Isa. liii. (nearly suppressed in
the Targum of Jonathan) are reasserted and vindicated by the words and
life of Jesus. Like Jeremiah He foretold the destruction of the temple
and suffered the extreme penalties of anti-patriotism. And thus Israel's
old prophetic Torah was at length to achieve its victory, for after
Jesus came St Paul. "Many shall come from the east and the west and sit
down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.
viii. 11, 12). The fetters of nationalism were to be broken, and the
Hebrew religion in its essential spiritual elements was to become the
heritage of all humanity.
AUTHORITIES.--1. On Semitic religion generally: Wellhausen's _Reste
des arabischen Heidentums_ (2nd ed.) and Robertson Smith's _Religion
of the Semites_ (2nd ed.) are chiefly to be recommended. Barton's
_Semitic Origins_ is extremely able, but his doctrine of the
derivation of male from original female deities is pushed to an
extreme. Bäthgen's _Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_
(1888) is most useful, and contains valuable epigraphic material.
Baudissin's _Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_ (1876) is
still valuable. See also Kuenen's _National Religions and Universal
Religions_ (Hibbert lectures) and Lagrange's _Études sur les religions
sémitiques_ (2nd ed.).
2. On Hebrew religion in particular: specially full and helpful is
Kautzsch's article "Religion of Israel" in Hastings's D.B., extra
vol.; Marti's recent _Religion des A.T._ (1906) and his _Geschichte
der israelitischen Religion_, are clear, compact and most serviceable,
and the former work presents the subject in fresh and suggestive
aspects. Wellhausen's _Prolegomena_ and _Jüdische Geschichte_ should
be read both for criticism and Hebrew history generally. Duhm's
_Theologie der Propheten_ and Robertson Smith's _Prophets of Israel_
should also be consulted. Strongly to be recommended are Smend,
_Lehrbuch der alttestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte_; Bennett,
_Theology of the Old Testament_ and _Religion of the Post-Exilic
Prophets_; A. B. Davidson, _The Theology of the Old Testament_, as
well as the sections devoted to "Sacralaltertümer" in the _Hebräische
Archäologie_ both of Benzinger and also of Nowack. Budde's _Die
Religion des Volkes Israel bis zur Verbannung_, as well as Addis's
recent _Hebrew Religion_ (1906), is a most careful and scholarly
compendium. Harper's Introd. to his _Commentary on Amos and Hosea_ (I.
and T. Clark) contains a useful survey of the history of Hebrew
religion before the 8th century. Buchanan Gray's _Divine Discipline of
Israel_, and A. S. Peake's _Problem of Suffering in the O.T._, are
suggestive. See also S. A. Cook, _Religion of Ancient Palestine_.
3. On the history of Judaism till the time of Christ, Schürer's
_Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Christi_ (3rd ed.), vol.
ii. and in part vol. iii., are indispensable. Bousset's _Religion des
Judentums_ (2nd ed.), and Volz, _Die jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel
bis Akiba_, are highly to be commended. Weber's _Jüdische Theologie_
is a useful compendium of the theology of later Judaism.
4. On the special department of eschatology the standard works are R.
H. Charles, _Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish and Christian_, and Schwally,
_Das Leben nach dem Tode_, as well as Gressmann's suggestive work _Der
Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie_, which contains,
however, much that is speculative. On apocalyptic generally the
introductions to Charles's Book of Enoch, Apocalypse of Baruch,
Ascension of Isaiah and Book of Jubilees, should be carefully noted.
See also ESCHATOLOGY.
5. On the religion of Babylonia, Jastrow's work is the standard one.
Zimmern's Heft ii. in _K.A.T._ (3rd ed.) is specially important to the
Old Testament student. See also W. Schrank, _Babylonische Sühnriten_.
(O. C. W.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Bäthgen, _Beiträge zur semit. Religionsgesch._ p. 11 (Edom);
and cf. Schrader, C.O.T. i. 137; K.A.T. (3rd ed.), p. 472 foll. See
also _Beiträge_, pp. 13-15; K.A.T. (3rd ed.), pp. 469-472.
[2] _Z.D.M.G._ (1886). It is impossible to discuss the other theories
of the origin of this name. See Driver, _Commentary on Genesis_,
excursus i. pp. 404-406.
[3] The Tell el-Amarna despatches are crowded with evidences of
Canaanite forms and idioms impressed on the Babylonian language of
these cuneiform documents. _Ilani_ here simply corresponds to the
Canaanite _Elohim_. See opening of the letters of Abimelech of Tyre,
Bezold's _Oriental Diplomacy_, Nos. 28, 29, 30.
[4] "Magic and Social Relations" in _Sociological Papers_, ii. 160.
[5] See Kautzsch, "Religion of Israel," in Hastings's _Dict. of the
Bible_, extra vol., p. 614.
[6] See Benzinger, _Hebräische Archäologie_, pp. 152, 297 foll. (1st
ed.).
[7] The theory was opposed by Nöldeke, 1886 (_Z.D.M.G._ p. 157
foll.), as well as Wellhausen, and since then by Jacobs and Zapletal.
(_Der Totemismus u. die Religion Israels_). See Stanley A. Cook,
"Israel and Totemism," in _J.Q.R._ (April, 1902).
[8] These sacred arks were carried in procession accompanied by
symbolic figures. We note in this connexion the form of a sacred bark
represented in Meyer's _Hist. of Egypt_ (Oncken series), p. 257, viz.
the procession carrying the sacred ark and the bark of the god Amon
belonging to the reign of Rameses II. (Lepsius, _Denkmäler_, iii.
189b). See also Birch, _Egypt_ (S.P.C.K.), p. 151 (ark of Khonsu);
cf. Jeremias, _Das A.T. im Lichte des alten Orients_ (2nd ed.), pp.
436-441.
[9] Cf. Zimmern in _Z.D.M.G._ (1904), pp. 199 foll., 458 foll. This
view is based on Dr Pinches's discovered list in which _Sapatti_ is
called the 15th day (_Proc. of the Soc. of Biblical Arch._, p. 51
foll.). See A. Jeremias, _Das A. T. im Lichte des alten Orients_ (2nd
ed.), pp. 182-187. Marti, in his stimulating work _Religion des
A.T._, pp. 5, 72, advocates the exclusive reference of the word
Sabbath to the full moon until the time of Ezekiel on the basis of
Meinhold's arguments in _Sabbat u. Woche im A.T._ The latter regards
Ezekiel as the organizer of the Jewish community and the originator
of the sanctity of the Sabbath as a seventh day (Ezek. xlvi. 1; cf.
Ezek. xx. 12, 13, 16, 20, 24, xxii. 8, 26, xxiii. 38, in which the
reproaches for the profanation or neglect of the Sabbath in no way
sustain Meinhold's view). In opposition to Meinhold, see Lotz in
_P.R.E._ (3rd ed., art. "Sabbath," vol. xvii. pp. 286-289). To this
Meinhold replies in _Z.A.T.W._ (1909), p. 81 f. Cf. also Hehn,
_Siebenzahl und Sabbat_. While admitting that a special significance
may have been attached in pre-exilian times to the full-moon Sabbath,
and that the latter may have been specially intended in the
combination "new moon and Sabbath" in the 8th-century prophets (Hos.
ii. 13; Amos viii. 5; Isa. i. 13), we are not prepared to deny that
the institution of a seventh-day Sabbath was an ancient pre-exilian
tradition. The sacredness of the number seven is based on the seven
planetary deities to whom each day of the week was respectively
dedicated, i.e. was astral in origin. Cf. _C.O.T._ i. 18 foll., and
Winckler, _Religionsgeschichtlicher u. geschichtlicher Orient_, p.
39. See also _K.A.T._ (3rd ed.), pp. 620-626. In the Old Testament
the sanctity of the number seven is clearly fundamental (e.g. in the
Nif'al form _nisba'_, "to swear," in the derivative subst. for
"oath," in Beer-sheba', &c.). The seventh day of rest was parallel to
the seventh year of release and of the fallow field. It is,
therefore, impossible to detach Ex. xxiii. 12 from Ex. xxi. 2. xxiii.
10 foll.; cf. Ex. xxxiv. 21. We therefore hold that the law of the
seventh-day Sabbath goes back to the Mosaic age. The general
coincidence of the Sabbath or seventh day with the easily recognized
first quarter and full moon established its sacred character as
_lunar_ as well as planetary.
[10] The tablet is neo-Babylonian and published by Dr Pinches in the
_Transactions of the Victoria Institute_, and is cited by Professor
Fried. Delitzsch in the notes appended to his first lecture _Babel u.
Bibel_ (5th German ed., p. 81 ad fin. and p. 82). On this subject of
Babylonian influence over Israel see Jeremias, _Monotheistische
Strömungen innerhalb der babylonischen Religion_, and E. Baentsch,
_Altorientalischer u. israelitischer Monotheismus_. The text and
rendering of the passage are doubtful in the cuneiform letter
discovered by Sellin in Ta'annek (biblical Ta'anach, near Megiddo)
addressed by Ahi-jawi (? Ahijah) to Ishtar-wasur, in which the
following remarkable phrases are read: "May the Lord of the gods
protect thy life.... Above thy head is one who is above the towns.
See now whether he will show thee good. When he reveals his face,
then will they be put to shame and the victory will be complete." The
letter appears to belong to about 1400 B.C. See A. Jeremias, _Das
A.T. im Lichte des alten Orients_ (2nd ed.), pp. 315, 316, 323.
Sellin, _Ertrag der Ausgrabungen im Orient_.
[11] The allusion in Amos ii. 7; Hos. iv. 13, 14 is sufficiently
explicit; cf. Jer. ii. 20-23, iii. 6-11, v. 7, 8. The practice is
prohibited in Deut. xxiii. 17.
[12] Column i. 15, 16, 42, 43, ii. 128, iii. 30, 31, iv. 47, 48, &c.
Probably we should regard them as differentiated _hypostases_.
[13] Hence the 'Ashtaroth or offspring of flocks in Deut. vii. 13,
xxviii. 18. A like function belonged to the Babylonian Ishtar. See
"Descent of Ishtar to Hades," Rev. lines 6-10, where universal
non-intercourse of sexes follows Ishtar's departure from earth to
Hades.
[14] _Proleg. Gesch. Israels_ (2nd ed.), p. 240 foll., cf. p. 258.
[15] _Internat. Crit. Commentary, Judges_, Introd. p. xxx., also p.
367 foll.
[16] [Hebrew: leva] "priest," [Hebrew: levat] "priestess"; see
Hommel, _Süd-arabische Chrestomathie_, p. 127; _Ancient Hebrew
Tradition_, p. 278 foll.
[17] Moore regards this verse as belonging to the J or older
document, _op. cit._ p. 367.
[18] Similarly in ancient Greece. See the instructive passage in
Aristotle, _Nic. Eth._ viii. 9 (4, 5), on the relation of Greek
sacrifices and festivals to [Greek: koinôniai] and politics: [Greek:
ai gar archaiai thusiai kai sunodoi phainontai gignesthai met a tas
tôn karpôn sugkomidàs oion aparchai]; cf. Grote on Pan-Hellenic
festivals, _History of Greece_, vol. iii., ch. 28.
[19] Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 89.
[20] Though this be an interpolated gloss (Thenius, Budde), it states
a significant truth as Kautzsch clearly shows, _op. cit._ p. 672. In
Micah iii. 7 the _hozeh_ is mentioned in a sense analogous to the
_ro'eh_ or "seer," and coupled with the _qosem_ or "soothsayer," viz.
as spurious; cf. Deut. xviii. 10.
[21] No better derivation is forthcoming of the word _nabhi'_,
"prophet," than that it is a Katil form of the root _naba_ = Assyr.
_nabu_, "speak."
[22] In Isa. iii. 2 the soothsayer is placed on a level with the
judge, prophet and elder.
[23] Kautzsch, in his profoundly learned article on the "Religion of
Israel," to which frequent reference has been made, exhibits (pp.
669-671) an excess of scepticism, in our opinion, towards the views
propounded by Gunkel in 1895 (_Schöpfung und Chaos_) respecting the
intimate connexion between the early Hebrew cosmogonic ideas and
those of Babylonia. Stade indeed (_Z.A.T.W._, 1903, pp. 176-178)
maintained that the conception of Yahweh as creator of the world
could not have arisen till after the middle of the 8th century as the
result of prophetic teaching, and that it was not till the time of
Ezekiel that Babylonian conceptions entered the world of Hebrew
thought in any fulness. Such a theory appears to ignore the
remarkable results of archaeology since 1887. At that time Stade's
position might have appeared reasonable. It was the conclusion to
which Wellhausen's brilliant literary analysis, when not supplemented
by the discoveries at Tell el-Amarna and Tell el-Hesi, appeared to
many scholars (by no means all) inevitably to conduct us. But the
years 1887 to 1891 opened many eyes to the fact that the Hebrews
lived their life on the great highways of intercourse between Egypt
on the one hand, and Babylonia, Assyria and the N. Palestinian states
on the other, and that they could scarcely have escaped the
all-pervading Babylonian influences of 2000-1400 B.C. It is now
becoming clearer every day, especially since the discovery of the
laws of Khammurabi, that, if we are to think sanely about Hebrew
history _before_ as well as after the exile, we can only think of
Israel as part of the great complex of Semitic and especially
Canaanite humanity that lived its life in western Asia between 2000
and 600 B.C.; and that while the Hebrew race maintained by the aid of
prophetism its own individual and exalted place, it was not less
susceptible _then_, than it has been since, to the moulding
influences of great adjacent civilizations and ideas. Cf. C. H. W.
Johns in _Interpreter_, pp. 300-304 (in April 1906), on prophetism in
Babylonia.
[24] There is some danger in too strictly construing the language of
the prophets and also the psalmists. It is not to be supposed that
either Amos or Isaiah would have countenanced the total suppression
of all sacrificial observance. It was the existing ceremonial
observance _divorced from the ethical piety_ that they denounced. The
speech of prophecy is poetical and rhetorical, not strictly defined
and logical like that of a modern essayist. See Moore in _Encyc.
Bibl._, "Sacrifice," col. 4222.
[25] Viz. Budde in _Die so-genannten Ebed-Jahweh Lieder u. die
Bedeutung des Knechtes Jahwehs in Jes. xl.-lv._ (Giessen, 1900); Karl
Marti in his well-known commentary on Isaiah, and F. Giesebrecht,
_Der Knecht Jahwes des Deuterojesaja_. The special servant-songs
which Duhm asserts can be readily detached from the texture of the
Deutero-Isaiah without disturbance to its integrity are Isa. xlii.
1-4, xlix. 1-6, l. 4-9, lii. 13-liii. 12.
[26] We have here followed Dillmann's construction of a difficult
passage which Duhm attempts to simplify by omission of the
complicating clause without altering the general sense.
[27] Thus in comparison with the "book of the covenant," Deuteronomy
adds the stipulation in reference to the release of the slave; that
his master was to provide him liberally from his flocks, his corn and
his wine (Deut. xv. 13, 14). See Hastings's _D.B._, arts. "Servant,"
"Slave," p. 464, where other examples may be found. In war
fruit-trees are to be spared (Deut. xx. 19 foll.), whereas the old
universal practice is the barbarous custom Elisha commended (2 Kings
iii. 19) of ruthlessly destroying them.
[28] Driver, _Internat. Commentary on Deuteronomy_, Introd. p. xxx.
[29] It should be noted that in P (Code of Holiness) Lev. xvii. 15
foll. the resident alien (_ger_) is placed on an equality with the
Jew.
[30] We shall have to note the emergence of the doctrine of the
_resurrection of the righteous_ in later Judaism, which is obviously
a fresh contribution of permanent value to Hebrew doctrine. On the
other hand, the doctrine of _pre-existence_ is speculative rather
than religious, and applies to institutions rather than persons.
[31] The legislative portions are mainly comprised in Ex. xxxv.-end,
Leviticus entire and Num. i.-x.
[32] But this term (literally the _chief_ priest) was already in use
during the regal period to designate the head priest of an important
sanctuary such as Jerusalem (2 Kings xii. 11).
[33] Cf. the Phoenician parallel of "Face of Baal," worshipped as
Tanit, "queen of Heaven" (Bäthgen, _Beiträge zur Semit.
Religionsgeschichte_, p. 55 foll.); also the place Penuel (face of
God).
[34] Deut. xxxii. 17; Ps. cvi. 37. Baal Zebub of the Philistine Ekron
became the Beelzebub who was equivalent to Satan.
HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE, one of the books of the New Testament. In the
oldest MSS. it bears no other title than "To Hebrews." This brief
heading embraces all that on which Christian tradition from the end of
the 2nd century was unanimous; and it says no more than that the readers
addressed were Christians of Jewish extraction. This would be no
sufficient address for an epistolary writing (xiii. 22) directed to a
definite circle of readers, to whose history repeated reference is made,
and with whom the author had personal relations (xiii. 19, 23).
Probably, then, the original and limited address, or rather salutation,
was never copied when this treatise in letter form, like the epistle to
the Romans, passed into the wider circulation which its contents
merited. In any case the Roman Church, where the first traces of the
epistle occur, about A.D. 96 (1 Clement), had nothing to contribute to
the question of authorship except the negative opinion that it was not
by Paul (Euseb. _Eccl. Hist._ iii. 3): yet this central church was in
constant connexion with provincial churches.
The earliest positive traditions belong to Alexandria and N. Africa. The
Alexandrine tradition can be traced back as far as a teacher of Clement,
presumably Pantaenus (Euseb. _Eccl. Hist._ vi. 14), who sought to
explain why Paul did not name himself as usual at the head of the
epistle. Clement himself, taking it for granted that an epistle to
Hebrews must have been written in Hebrew, supposes that Luke translated
it for the Greeks. Origen implies that "the men of old" regarded it as
Paul's, and that some churches at least in his own day shared this
opinion. But he feels that the language is un-Pauline, though the
"admirable" thoughts are not second to those of Paul's unquestioned
writings. Thus he is led to the view that the ideas were orally set
forth by Paul, but that the language and composition were due to some
one giving from memory a sort of free interpretation of his teacher's
mind. According to some this disciple was Clement of Rome; others name
Luke; but the truth, says Origen, is known to God alone (Euseb. vi. 25,
cf. iii. 38). Still from the time of Origen the opinion that Paul wrote
the epistle became prevalent in the East. The earliest African
tradition, on the other hand, preserved by Tertullian[1] (_De
pudicitia_, c. 20), but certainly not invented by him, ascribed the
epistle to Barnabas. Yet it was perhaps, like those named by Origen,
only an inference from the epistle itself, as if a "word of exhortation"
(xiii. 22) by the Son of Exhortation (Acts iv. 36; see BARNABAS). On the
whole, then, the earliest traditions in East and West alike agree in
effect, viz. that our epistle was not by Paul, but by one of his
associates.
This is also the twofold result reached by modern scholarship with
growing clearness. The vacillation of tradition and the dissimilarity of
the epistle from those of Paul were brought out with great force by
Erasmus. Luther (who suggests Apollos) and Calvin (who thinks of Luke or
Clement) followed with the decisive argument that Paul, who lays such
stress on the fact that his gospel was not taught him by man (Gal. i.),
could not have written Heb. ii. 3. Yet the wave of reaction which soon
overwhelmed the freer tendencies of the first reformers, brought back
the old view until the revival of biblical criticism more than a century
ago. Since then the current of opinion has set irrevocably against any
form of Pauline authorship. Its type of thought is quite unique. The
Jewish Law is viewed not as a code of ethics or "works of
righteousness," as by Paul, but as a system of religious rites (vii. 11)
shadowing forth the way of access to God in worship, of which the Gospel
reveals the archetypal realities (ix. 1, 11, 15, 23 f., x. 1 ff., 19
ff.). The Old and the New Covenants are related to one another as
imperfect (earthly) and perfect (heavenly) forms of the same method of
salvation, each with its own type of sacrifice and priesthood. Thus the
conception of Christ as High Priest emerges, for the first time, as a
central point in the author's conception of Christianity. The Old
Testament is cited after the Alexandrian version more exclusively than
by Paul, even where the Hebrew is divergent. Nor is this accidental.
There is every appearance that the author was a Hellenist who lacked
knowledge of the Hebrew text, and derived his metaphysic and his
allegorical method from the Alexandrian rather than the Palestinian
schools. Yet the epistle has manifest Pauline affinities, and can hardly
have originated beyond the Pauline circle, to which it is referred not
only by the author's friendship with Timothy (xiii. 23), but by many
echoes of the Pauline theology and even, it seems, of passages in Paul's
epistles (see Holtzmann, _Einleitung in das N. T._, 1892, p. 298). These
features early suggested Paul as the author of a book which stood in
MSS. immediately after the epistles of that apostle, and contained
nothing in its title to distinguish it from the preceding books with
like headings, "To the Romans," "To the Corinthians," and the like. A
similar history attaches to the so-called Second Epistle of Clement (see
CLEMENTINE LITERATURE).
Everything turns, then, on internal criticism of the epistle, working on
the distinctive features already noticed, together with such personal
allusions as it affords. As to its first readers, with whom the author
stood in close relations (xiii. 19, 23, cf. vi. 10, x. 32-34), it used
generally to be agreed that they were "Hebrews" or Christians of Jewish
birth. But, for a generation or so, it has been denied that this can be
inferred simply from the fact that the epistle approaches all Christian
truth through Old Testament forms. This, it is said, was the common
method of proof, since the Jewish scriptures were the Word of God to all
Christians alike. Still it remains true that the exclusive use of the
argument from Mosaism, as itself implying the Gospel of Jesus the Christ
as final cause ([Greek: telos]), does favour the view that the readers
were of Jewish origin. Further there is no allusion to the incorporation
of "strangers and foreigners" (Eph. ii. 19) with the people of God. Yet
the readers are not to be sought in Jerusalem (see e.g. ii. 3), nor
anywhere in Judaea proper. The whole Hellenistic culture of the epistle
(let alone its language), and the personal references in it, notably
that to Timothy in xiii. 23, are against any such view: while the doubly
emphatic "all" in xiii. 24 suggests that those addressed were but part
of a community composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Caesarea, indeed, as
a city of mixed population and lying just outside Judaea proper--a
place, moreover, where Timothy might have become known during Paul's two
years' detention there--would satisfy many conditions of the problem.
Yet these very conditions are no more than might exist among intensely
Jewish members of the Dispersion, like "the Jews of Asia" (cf. Sir W. M.
Ramsay, _The Letters to the Seven Churches_, 155 f.), whose zeal for the
Temple and the Mosaic ritual customs led to Paul's arrest in Jerusalem
(Acts xix. 27 f., cf. 20 f.), in keeping both with his former
experiences at their hands and with his forebodings resulting therefrom
(xx. 19, 22-24). Our "Hebrews" had obviously high regard for the
ordinances of Temple worship. But this was the case with the dispersed
Jews generally, who kept in touch with the Temple, and its intercessory
worship for all Israel, in every possible way; in token of this they
sent with great care their annual contribution to its services, the
Temple tribute. This bond was doubtless preserved by Christian
Hellenists, and must have tended to continue their reliance on the
Temple services for the forgiveness of their recurring "sins of
ignorance"--subsequent to the great initial Messianic forgiveness coming
with faith in Jesus. Accordingly many of them, while placing their hope
for the future upon Messiah and His eagerly expected return in power,
might seek assurance of present forgiveness of daily offences and
cleansing of conscience in the old mediatorial system. In particular the
annual Day of Atonement would be relied on, and that in proportion as
the expected Parousia tarried, and the first enthusiasm of a faith that
was largely eschatological died away, while ever-present temptation
pressed the harder as disappointment and perplexity increased.
Such was the general situation of the readers of this epistle, men who
rested partly on the Gospel and partly on Judaism. For lack of a true
theory as to the relation between the two, they were now drifting away
(ii. 1) from effective faith in the Gospel, as being mainly future in
its application, while Judaism was a very present, concrete, and
impressive system of religious aids--to which also their sacred
scriptures gave constant witness. The points at which it chiefly touched
them may be inferred from the author's counter-argument, with its
emphasis in the spiritual ineffectiveness of the whole Temple-system,
its high-priesthood and its supreme sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
With passionate earnestness he sets over against these his constructive
theory as to the efficacy, the heavenly yet unseen reality, of the
definitive "purification of sins" (i. 3) and perfected access to God's
inmost presence, secured for Christians as such by Jesus the Son of God
(x. 9-22), and traces their moral feebleness and slackened zeal to want
of progressive insight into the essential nature of the Gospel as a
"new covenant," moving on a totally different plane of religious reality
from the now antiquated covenant given by Moses (viii. 13).
The following plan of the epistle may help to make apparent the writer's
theory of Christianity as distinct from Judaism, which is related to it
as "shadow" to reality:
_Thesis_: The finality of the form of religion mediated in God's Son,
i. 1-4.
i. The supreme excellence of the Son's Person (i. 5-iii. 6), as
compared with (a) angels, (b) Moses.
Practical exhortation, iii. 7-iv. 13, leading up to:
ii. The corresponding efficacy of the Son's High-priesthood (iv.
14-ix.).
(1) The Son has the qualifications of all priesthood, especially
sympathy.
Exhortation, raising the reader's thought to the height of the topic
reached (v. 11-vi. 20).
(2) The Son as absolute high priest, in an order transcending the
Aaronic (vii.) and relative to a Tabernacle of ministry and a Covenant
higher than the Mosaic in point of reality and finality (viii., ix.).
(3) His Sacrifice, then, is definitive in its effects ([Greek:
teteleiôke]), and supersedes all others (x. 1-18).
iii. Appropriation of the benefits of the Son's high-priesthood, by
steadfast faith, the paramount duty (x. 19-xii.). More personal
epilogue (xiii.).
As lack of insight lay at the root of their troubles, it was not enough
simply to enjoin the moral fidelity to conviction which is three parts
of faith to the writer, who has but little sense of the mystical side of
faith, so marked in Paul. There was need of a positive theory based on
real insight, in order to inspire faith for more strenuous conflict with
the influences tending to produce the apostasy from Christ, and so from
"the living God," which already threatened some of them (iii. 12). Such
"apostasy" was not a formal abjuring of Jesus as Messiah, but the
subtler lapse involved in ceasing to rely on relation to Him for daily
moral and religious needs, summed up in purity of conscience and peace
before God (x. 19-23, xiii. 20 f.). This "falling aside" (vi. 5, cf.
xii. 12 f.), rather than conscious "turning back," is what is implied in
the repeated exhortations which show the intensely practical spirit of
the whole argument. These exhortations are directed chiefly against the
dullness of spirit which hinders progressive moral insight into the
genius of the New Covenant (v. 11-vi. 8), and which, in its blindness to
the full work of Jesus, amounts to counting His blood as devoid of
divine efficacy to consecrate the life (x. 26, 29), and so to a personal
"crucifying anew" of the Son of God (vi. 6). The antidote to such
"profane" negligence (ii. 1, 3, xii. 12 f., 15-17) is an earnestness
animated by a fully-assured hope, and sustained by a "faith" marked by
patient waiting ([Greek: makrothymia]) for the inheritance guaranteed by
divine promise (x. ii f.). The outward expression of such a spirit is
"bold confession," a glorying in that Hope, and mutual encouragement
therein (iii. 6, 12 f.); while the sign of its decay is neglect to
assemble together for mutual stimulus, as if it were not worth the odium
and opposition from fellow Jews called forth by a marked Christian
confession (x. 23-25, xii. 3)--a very different estimate of the new bond
from that shown by readiness in days gone by to suffer for it (x. 32
ff.). Their special danger, then, the sin which deceived (iii. 13) the
more easily that it represented the line of least resistance (perhaps
the best paraphrase of [Greek: euperistatos hamartia] in xii. i), was
the exact opposite of "faith" as the author uses it, especially in the
chapter devoted to its illustration by Old Testament examples. His
readers needed most the moral heroism of fidelity to the Unseen, which
made men "despise shame" due to aught that sinners in their unbelief
might do to them (xii. 2-11, xiii. 5 f.)--and of which Jesus Himself was
at once the example and the inspiration. To quicken this by awakening
deeper insight into the real objects of "faith," as these bore on their
actual life, he develops his high argument on the lines already
indicated.
Their situation was so dangerous just because it combined inward
debility and outward pressure, both tending to the same result, viz.
practical disuse of the distinctively Christian means of grace, as
compared with those recognized by Judaism, and such conformity to the
latter as would make the reproach of the Cross to cease (xiii. 13, cf.
xi. 26). This might, indeed, relieve the external strain of the contest
([Greek: agôn] xii. 1), which had become well-nigh intolerable to them.
But the practical surrender of what was distinctive in their new faith
meant a theoretic surrender of the value once placed on that element,
when it was matter of a living religious experience far in advance of
what Judaism had given them (vi. 4 [ff]., x. 26-29). This twofold
infidelity, in thought and deed, God, the "living" God of progress from
the "shadow" to the substance, would require at their hands (x. 30 f.,
xii. 22-29). For it meant turning away from an appeal that had been
known as "heavenly," for something inferior and earthly (xii. 25); from
a call sanctioned by the incomparable authority of Him in whom it had
reached men, a greater than Moses and all media of the Old Covenant,
even the Son of God. Thus the key of the whole exhortation is struck in
the opening words, which contrast the piecemeal revelation "to the
fathers" in the past, with the complete and final revelation to
themselves in the last stage of the existing order of the world's
history, in a Son of transcendent dignity (i. 1 ff., cf. ii. 1 ff., x.
28 f., xii. 18 ff.). This goes to the root of their difficulty,
ambiguity as to the relation of the old and the new elements in
Judaeo-Christian piety, so that there was constant danger of the old
overshadowing the new, since national Judaism remained hostile. At a
stroke the author separates the new from the old, as belonging to a new
"covenant" or order of God's revealed will. It is a confusion, resulting
in loss, not in gain, as regards spiritual power, to try to combine the
two types of piety, as his readers were more and more apt to do. There
is _no use_, religiously, in falling back upon the old forms, in order
to avoid the social penalties of a sectarian position within Judaism,
when the secret of religious "perfection" or maturity (vi. 1, cf. the
frequent use of the kindred verb) lies elsewhere. Hence the moral of his
whole argument as to the two covenants, though it is formulated only
incidentally amid final detailed counsels (xiii. 13 f.) is to leave
Judaism, and adopt a frankly Christian standing, on the same footing
with their non-Jewish brethren in the local church. For this the time
was now ripe; and in it lay the true path of safety--eternal safety as
before God, whatever man might say or do (xiii. 5 f.).
The obscure section, xiii. 9 f., is to be taken as "only a symptom of
the general retrogression of religious energy" (Jülicher), and not as
bearing directly on the main danger of these "Hebrews." The "foods" in
question probably refer neither to temple sacrifices nor to the
Levitical laws of clean and unclean foods, nor yet to ascetic scruples
(as in Rom. xiv., Col. ii. 20 ff.), but rather to some form of the idea,
found also among the Essenes, that food might so be partaken of as to
have the value of a sacrifice (see verse 15 foll.) and thus ensure
divine favour. Over against this view, which might well grow up among
the Jews of the Dispersion as a sort of substitute for the possibility
of offering sacrifices in the Temple--but which would be a lame addition
to the Christianity of their own former leaders (xiii. 7 f.)--the author
first points his readers to its refutation from experience, and then to
the fact that the Christian's "altar" or sacrifice (i.e. the supreme
sin-offering) is of the kind which the Law itself forbids to be
associated with "eating." If Christians wish to offer any special
sacrifice to God, let it be that of grateful praise or deeds of
beneficence (15 f.).
In trying further to define the readers addressed in the epistle, one
must note the stress laid on suffering as part of the divinely appointed
discipline of sonship (ii. 10, v. 8, xii. 7 f.), and the way in which
the analogy in this respect between Jesus, as Messianic Son, and those
united to Him by faith, is set in relief. He is not only the inspiring
example for heroic faith in the face of opposition due to unbelievers
(xii. 3 ff.), but also the mediator qualified by his very experience of
suffering to sympathize with His tried followers, and so to afford them
moral aid (ii. 17 f., v. 8 f., cf. iv. 15). This means that suffering
for Christianity, at least in respect of possessions (xiii. 5 f., cf. x.
34) and social standing, was imminent for those addressed: and it seems
as if they were mostly men of wealth and position (xiii. 1-6, vi. 10
f., x. 34), who would feel this sort of trial acutely (cf. Jas. i. 10).
Such men would also possess a superior mental culture (cf. v. 11 f.),
capable of appreciating the form of an epistle "far too learned for the
average Christian" (Jülicher), yet for which its author apologizes to
them as inadequate (xiii. 22). It was now long since they themselves had
suffered seriously for their faith (x. 32 f.); but others had recently
been harassed even to the point of imprisonment (xiii. 3); and the
writer's very impatience to hurry to their side implies that the crisis
was both sudden and urgent. The finished form of the epistle's argument
is sometimes urged to prove that it was not originally an epistle at
all, written more or less on the spur of the moment, but a literary
composition, half treatise and half homily, to which its author--as an
afterthought--gave the suggestion of being a Pauline epistle by adding
the personal matter in ch. xiii. (so W. Wrede, _Das literarische Rätsel
des Hebräerbriefs_, 1906, pp. 70-73). The latter part of this theory
fails to explain why the Pauline origin was not made more obvious, e.g.
in an opening address. But even the first part of it overlooks the
probability that our author was here only fusing into a fresh form
materials often used before in his oral ministry of Christian
instruction.
Many attempts have been made to identify the home of the Hellenistic
Christians addressed in this epistle. For Alexandria little can be urged
save a certain strain of "Alexandrine" idealism and allegorism, mingling
with the more Palestinian realism which marks the references to Christ's
sufferings, as well as the eschatology, and recalling many a passage in
Philo. But Alexandrinism was a mode of thought diffused throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean, and the divergences from Philo's spirit are as
notable as the affinities (cf. Milligan, _ut infra_, 203 ff.). For Rome
there is more to be said, in view of the references to Timothy and to
"them of Italy" (xiii. 23 f.); and the theory has found many supporters.
It usually contemplates a special Jewish-Christian house-church (so
Zahn), like those which Paul salutes at the end of Romans, e.g. that
meeting in the house of Prisca and Aquila (xvi. 5); and Harnack has gone
so far as to suggest that they, and especially Prisca, actually wrote
our epistle. There is, however, really little that points to Rome in
particular, and a good deal that points away from it. The words in xii.
4, "Not yet unto blood have ye resisted," would ill suit Rome after the
Neronian "bath of blood" in A.D. 64 (as is usually held), save at a date
too late to suit the reference to Timothy. Nor does early currency in
Rome prove that the epistle was written to Rome, any more than do the
words "they of Italy salute you." This clause must in fact be read in
the light of the reference to Timothy, which suggests that he had been
in prison in Rome and was about to return, possibly in the writer's
company, to the region which was apparently the headquarters of both.
Now this in Timothy's case, as far as we can trace his steps, was
Ephesus; and it is natural to ask whether it will not suit all the
conditions of the problem. It suits those of the readers,[2] as analysed
above; and it has the merit of suggesting to us as author the very
person of all those described in the New Testament who seems most
capable of the task, Apollos, the learned Alexandrian (Acts xviii. 24
ff.), connected with Ephesus and with Paul and his circle (cf. 1 Cor.
xvi. 12), yet having his own distinctive manner of presenting the Gospel
(1 Cor. iv. 6). That Apollos visited Italy at any rate once during
Paul's imprisonment in Rome is a reasonable inference from Titus iii. 13
(see Paul); and if so, it is quite natural that he should be there again
about the time of Paul's martyrdom. With that event it is again natural
to connect Timothy's imprisonment, his release from which our author
records in closing; while the news of Jewish success in Paul's case
would enhance any tendency among Asian Jewish Christians to shirk
"boldness" of confession (x. 23, 35, 38 f.), in fear of further
aggression from their compatriots. On the chronology adopted in the
article Paul, this would yield as probable date for the epistle A.D.
61-62. The place of writing would be some spot in Italy ("they of Italy
salute you") outside Rome, probably a port of embarkation for Asia, such
as Brundisium.
Be this as it may, the epistle is of great historical importance, as
reflecting a crisis inevitable in the development of the
Jewish-Christian consciousness, when a definite choice between the old
and the new form of Israel's religion had to be made, both for internal
and external reasons. It seems to follow directly on the situation
implied by the appeal of James to Israel in dispersion, in view of
Messiah's winnowing-fan in their midst (i. 1-4, ii. 1-7, v. 1-6, and
especially v. 7-11). It may well be the immediate antecedent of that
revealed in 1 Peter, an epistle which perhaps shows traces of its
influence (e.g. in i. 2, "sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," cf.
Heb. ix. 13 f., x. 22, xii. 24). It is also of high interest
theologically, as exhibiting, along with affinities to several types of
New Testament teaching (see Stephen), a type all its own, and one which
has had much influence on later Christian thought (cf. Milligan, _ut
infra_, ch. ix.). Indeed, it shares with Romans the right to be styled
"the first treatise of Christian theology."
_Literature._--The older literature may be seen in the great work of
F. Bleek, _Der Brief an die Hebräer_ (1828-1840), still a valuable
storehouse of material, while Bleek's later views are to be found in a
posthumous work (Elberfeld, 1868); also in Franz Delitzsch's
_Commentary_ (Edinburgh, 1868). The more recent literature is given in
G. Milligan, _The Theology of the Epistle of the Hebrews_ (1899), a
useful summary of all bearing on the epistle, and in the large New
Testament Introductions and Biblical Theologies. See also Hastings's
_Dict. of the Bible_, the _Encycl. Biblica_ and T. Zahn's article in
Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_. (J. V. B.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Also in Codex Claromontanus, the _Tractatus de libris_ (x.),
Philastrius of Brescia (c. A.D. 380), and a prologue to the Catholic
Epistles (_Revue bénédictine_, xxiii. 82 ff.). It is defended in a
monograph by H. H. B. Ayles (Cambridge, 1899).
[2] i.e. a house-church of upper-class Jewish Christians, not fully
in touch with the attitude even of their own past and present
"leaders" (xiii. 7, 17), as distinct from the local church generally
(xiii. 24). The Gospel had reached them, as also the writer himself
(cf. Acts xviii. 25), through certain hearers of the Lord (ii. 3),
not necessarily apostles.
HEBRIDES, THE, or WESTERN ISLES, a group of islands off the west coast
of Scotland. They are situated between 55° 35´ and 58° 30´ N. and 5° 26´
and 8° 40´ W. Formerly the term was held to embrace not only all the
islands off the Scottish western coast, including the islands in the
Firth of Clyde, but also the peninsula of Kintyre, the Isle of Man and
the Isle of Rathlin, off the coast of Antrim. They have been broadly
classified into the Outer Hebrides and the Inner Hebrides, the Minch and
Little Minch dividing the one group from the other. Geologically, they
have also been differentiated as the Gneiss Islands and the Trap
Islands. The Outer Hebrides being almost entirely composed of gneiss the
epithet suitably serves them, but, strictly speaking, only the more
northerly of the Inner Hebrides may be distinguished as Trap Islands.
The chief islands of the Outer Hebrides are Lewis-with-Harris (or Long
Island), North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Barra, the Shiants, St Kilda
and the Flannan Isles, or Seven Hunters, an uninhabited group, about 20
m. N.W. of Gallon Head in Lewis. Of these the Lewis portion of Long
Island, the Shiants and the Flannan belong to the county of Ross and
Cromarty, and the remainder to Inverness-shire. The total length of this
group, from Barra Head to the Butt of Lewis, is 130 m., the breadth
varying from less than 1 m. to 30 m. The Inner Hebrides are much more
scattered and principally include Skye, Small Isles (Canna, Sanday, Rum,
Eigg and Muck), Coll, Tyree, Lismore, Mull, Ulva, Staffa, Iona, Kerrera,
the Slate Islands (Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsay), Colonsay,
Oronsay, Scarba, Jura, Islay and Gigha. Of these Skye and Small Isles
belong to Inverness-shire, and the rest to Argyllshire. The Hebridean
islands exceed 500 in number, of which one-fifth are inhabited. Of the
inhabited islands 11 belong to Ross and Cromarty, 47 to Inverness-shire,
and 44 to Argyllshire, but of this total of 102 islands, one-third have
a population of only 10 souls, or fewer, each. The population of the
Hebrides in 1901 numbered 78,947 (or 28 to the sq. m.), of whom 41,031
were females, who thus exceeded the males by 10%, and 22,733 spoke
Gaelic only and 47,666 Gaelic and English. The most populous island is
Lewis-with-Harris (32,160), and next to it are Skye (13,883), Islay
(6857) and Mull (4334).
Of the total area of 1,800,000 acres, or 2812 sq. m., only one-ninth is
cultivated, most of the surface being moorland and mountain. The annual
rainfall, particularly in the Inner Hebrides, is heavy (42.6 in. at
Stornoway) but the temperature is high, averaging for the year 47° F.
Potatoes and turnips are the only root crops that succeed, and barley
and oats are grown in some of the islands. Sheep-farming and
cattle-raising are carried on very generally, and, with the fisheries,
provide the main occupation of the inhabitants, though they profit not a
little from the tourists who flock to many of the islands throughout the
summer. The principal industries include distilling, slate-quarrying and
the manufacture of tweeds, tartans and other woollens. There are
extensive deer forests in Lewis-with-Harris, Skye, Mull and Jura. On
many of the islands there are prehistoric remains and antiquities within
the Christian period. The more populous islands are in regular
communication with certain points of the mainland by means of steamers
from Glasgow, Oban and Mallaig. The United Free Church has a strong hold
on the people, but in a few of the islands the Roman Catholics have a
great following. In the larger inhabited islands board schools have been
established. The islands unite with the counties to which they belong in
returning members to parliament (one for each shire).
_History._--The Hebrides are mentioned by Ptolemy under the name of
[Greek: Eboudai] and by Pliny under that of _Hebudes_, the modern
spelling having, it is said, originated in a misprint. By the Norwegians
they were called _Sudreyjar_ or Southern Islands. The Latinized form was
_Sodorenses_, preserved to modern times in the title of the bishop of
Sodor and Man. The original inhabitants seem to have been of the same
Celtic race as those settled on the mainland. In the 6th century
Scandinavian hordes poured in with their northern idolatry and lust of
plunder, but in time they adopted the language and faith of the
islanders. Mention is made of incursions of the vikings as early as 793,
but the principal immigration took place towards the end of the 9th
century in the early part of the reign of Harald Fairhair, king of
Norway, and consisted of persons driven to the Hebrides, as well as to
Orkney and Shetland, to escape from his tyrannous rule. Soon afterwards
they began to make incursions against their mother-country, and on this
account Harald fitted out an expedition against them, and placed Orkney,
Shetland, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man under Norwegian government.
The chief seat of the Norwegian sovereignty was Colonsay. About the year
1095 Godred Crovan, king of Dublin, Man and the Hebrides, died in Islay.
His third son, Olaf, succeeded to the government about 1103, and the
daughter of Olaf was married to Somerled, who became the founder of the
dynasty known as Lords of the Isles. Many efforts were made by the
Scottish monarchs to displace the Norwegians. Alexander II. led a fleet
and army to the shores of Argyllshire in 1249, but he died on the island
of Kerrera. On the other hand, Haakon IV., king of Norway, at once to
restrain the independence of his jarls and to keep in check the ambition
of the Scottish kings, set sail in 1263 on a great expedition, which,
however, ended disastrously at Largs. Magnus, son of Haakon, concluded
in 1266 a peace with the Scots, renouncing all claim to the Hebrides and
other islands except Orkney and Shetland, and Alexander III. agreed to
give him a sum of 4000 merks in four yearly payments. It was also
stipulated that Margaret, daughter of Alexander, should be betrothed to
Eric, the son of Magnus, whom she married in 1281. She died two years
later, leaving an only daughter afterwards known as the Maid of Norway.
The race of Somerled continued to rule the islands, and from a younger
son of the same potentate sprang the lords of Lorne, who took the
patronymic of Macdougall. John Macdonald of Islay, who died about 1386,
was the first to adopt the title of Lord of the Isles. He was one of the
most potent of the island princes, and was married to a daughter of the
earl of Strathearn, afterwards Robert II. His son, Donald of the Isles,
was memorable for his rebellion in support of his claim to the earldom
of Ross, in which, however, he was unsuccessful. Alexander, son of
Donald, resumed the hereditary warfare against the Scottish crown; and
in 1462 a treaty was concluded between Alexander's son and successor
John and Edward IV. of England, by which John, his son John, and his
cousin Donald Balloch, became bound to assist King Edward and James,
earl of Douglas, in subduing the kingdom of Scotland. The alliance seems
to have led to no active operations. In the reign of James V. another
John of Islay resumed the title of Lord of the Isles, but was compelled
to surrender the dignity. The glory of the lordship of the isles--the
insular sovereignty--had departed. From the time of Bruce the Campbells
had been gaining the ascendancy in Argyll. The Macleans, Macnaughtons,
Maclachlans, Lamonts, and other ancient races had sunk before this
favoured family. The lordship of Lorne was wrested from the Macdougalls
by Robert Bruce, and their extensive possessions, with Dunstaffnage
Castle, bestowed on the king's relative, Stewart, and his descendants,
afterwards lords of Lorne. The Macdonalds of Sleat, the direct
representatives of Somerled, though driven from Islay and deprived of
supreme power by James V., still kept a sort of insular state in Skye.
There were also the Macdonalds of Clanranald and Glengarry (descendants
of Somerled), with the powerful houses of Macleod of Dunvegan and
Macleod of Harris, M'Neill of Barra and Maclean of Mull. Sanguinary
feuds continued throughout the 16th and 17th centuries among these rival
clans and their dependent tribes, and the turbulent spirit was not
subdued till a comparatively recent period. James VI. made an abortive
endeavour to colonize Lewis. William III. and Queen Anne attempted to
subsidize the chiefs in order to preserve tranquillity, but the wars of
Montrose and Dundee, and the Jacobite insurrections of 1715 and 1745,
showed how futile were all such efforts. It was not till 1748, when a
decisive blow was struck at the power of the chiefs by the abolition of
heritable jurisdictions, and the appointment of sheriffs in the
different districts, that the arts of peace and social improvement made
way in these remote regions. The change was great, and at first not
unmixed with evil. A new system of management and high rents was
imposed, in consequence of which numbers of the tacksmen, or large
tenants, emigrated to North America. The exodus continued for many
years. Sheep-farming on a large scale was next introduced, and the
crofters were thrust into villages or barren corners of the land. The
result was that, despite the numbers who entered the army or emigrated
to Canada, the standard of civilization sank lower, and the population
multiplied in the islands. The people came to subsist almost entirely on
potatoes and herrings; and in 1846, when the potato blight began its
ravages, nearly universal destitution ensued--embracing, over the
islands generally, 70% of the inhabitants. Temporary relief was
administered in the shape of employment on roads and other works; and an
emigration fund being raised, from 4000 to 5000 of the people in the
most crowded districts were removed to Australia. Matters, however, were
not really mended, and in 1884 a royal commission reported upon the
condition of the crofters of the islands and mainland. As a result of
their inquiry the Crofters' Holdings Act was passed in 1886, and in the
course of a few years some improvement was evident and has since been
sustained.
AUTHORITIES.--Martin Martin's _Description of the Western Islands of
Scotland_ (1703); T. Pennant's _Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the
Hebrides_ (1774); James Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel
Johnson, LL.D._ (1898); John Macculloch's _Geological Account of the
Hebrides_ (1819); Hugh Miller's _Cruise of the "Betsy"_ (1858); W. A.
Smith's _Lewisiana, or Life in the Outer Hebrides_ (1874); Alexander
Smith, _A Summer in Skye_ (1865); Robert Buchanan, _The Hebrid Isles_
(1883); C. F. Gordon-Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (1883); _Report of the
Crofters' Commission_ (1884); A. Goodrich-Freer, _Outer Isles_ (1902);
and W. C. Mackenzie, _History of the Outer Hebrides_ (1903). Their
history under Norwegian rule is given in the _Chronica regum Manniae
et insularum_, edited, with learned notes, from the MS. in the British
Museum by Professor P. A. Münch of Christiania (1860).
HEBRON (mod. _Khulil er-Rahman_, i.e. "the friend of the Merciful
One"--an allusion to Abraham), a city of Palestine some 20 m. S. by S.W.
of Jerusalem. The city, which lies 3040 ft. above the sea, is of extreme
antiquity (see Num. xiii. 22, and Josephus, _War_, iv. 9, 7) and until
taken by the Calebites (Josh. xv. 13) bore the name Kirjath-Arba.
Biblical traditions connect it closely with the patriarch Abraham and
make it a "city of refuge." The town figures prominently under David as
the headquarters of his early rule, the scene of Abner's murder and the
centre of Absalom's rebellion. In later days the Edomites held it for a
time, but Judas Maccabaeus recovered it. It was destroyed in the great
war under Vespasian. In A.D. 1167 Hebron became the see of a Latin
bishop, and it was taken in 1187 by Saladin. In 1834 it joined the
rebellion against Ibrahim Pasha, who took the town and pillaged it.
Modern Hebron rises on the east slope of a shallow valley--a long narrow
town of stone houses, the flat roofs having small stone domes. The main
quarter is about 700 yds. long, and two smaller groups of houses exist
north and south of this. The hill behind is terraced, and luxuriant
vineyards and fruit plantations surround the place, which is well
watered on the north by three principal springs, including the Well
Sirah, now 'Ain Sara (2 Sam. iii. 26). Three conspicuous minarets rise,
two from the _Haram_, the other in the north quarter. The population
(10,000) includes Moslems and about 500 Jews. The Bedouins bring wool
and camel's hair to the market; and glass bracelets, lamps and leather
water-skins are manufactured in the town. The most conspicuous building
is the _Haram_ built over the supposed site of the cave of Machpelah. It
is an enclosure measuring 112 ft. east and west by 198 north and south,
surrounded with high rampart walls of masonry similar in size and
dressing to that of the Jerusalem Haram walls. These ramparts are
ascribed by architectural authorities to the Herodian period. The
interior area is partly occupied by a 12th-century Gothic church, and
contains six modern cenotaphs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca
and Leah. The cave beneath the platform has probably not been entered
for at least 600 years. The numerous traditional sites now shown round
Hebron are traceable generally to medieval legendary topography; they
include the Oak of Mamre (Gen. xiii. 18 R.V.) which has at various times
been shown in different positions from ¾ to 2 m. from the town.
There are a British medical mission, a German Protestant mission with
church and schools, and, near Abraham's Oak, a Russian mission. Since
1880 several notices of the Haram, within which are the tombs of the
Patriarchs, have appeared.
See C. R. Conder, Pal. Exp. Fund, _Memoirs_, iii. 333, &c.; Riant,
_Archives de l'orient latin_, ii. 411, &c.; Dalton and Chaplin,
_P.E.F. Quarterly Statement_ (1897); Goldziher, "Das Patriarchengrab
in Hebron," in _Zeitschrift d. Dn. Pal. Vereins_, xvii.
(R. A. S. M.)
HECATAEUS OF ABDERA (or of Teos), Greek historian and Sceptic
philosopher, flourished in the 4th century B.C. He accompanied Ptolemy
I. Soter in an expedition to Syria, and sailed up the Nile with him as
far as Thebes (Diogenes Laërtius ix. 61). The result of his travels was
set down by him in two works--[Greek: Aiguptiaka] and [Greek: Peri
Uperboreôn], which were used by Diodorus Siculus. According to Suidas,
he also wrote a treatise on the poetry of Hesiod and Homer. Regarding
his authorship of a work on the Jews (utilized by Josephus in _Contra
Apionem_), it is conjectured that portions of the [Greek: Aiguptiaka]
were revised by a Hellenistic Jew from his point of view and published
as a special work.
Fragments in C. W. Müller's _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_.
HECATAEUS OF MILETUS (6th-5th century B.C.), Greek historian, son of
Hegesander, flourished during the time of the Persian invasion. After
having travelled extensively, he settled in his native city, where he
occupied a high position, and devoted his time to the composition of
geographical and historical works. When Aristagoras held a council of
the leading Ionians at Miletus, to organize a revolt against the Persian
rule, Hecataeus in vain tried to dissuade his countrymen from the
undertaking (Herodotus v. 36, 125). In 494, when the defeated Ionians
were obliged to sue for terms, he was one of the ambassadors to the
Persian satrap Artaphernes, whom he persuaded to restore the
constitution of the Ionic cities (Diod. Sic. x. 25). He is by some
credited with a work entitled [Greek: Gês periodos] ("Travels round the
Earth"), in two books, one on Europe, the other on Asia, in which were
described the countries and inhabitants of the known world, the account
of Egypt being especially comprehensive; the descriptive matter was
accompanied by a map, based upon Anaximander's map of the earth, which
he corrected and enlarged. The authenticity of the work is, however,
strongly attacked by J. Wells in the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_,
xxix. pt. i. 1909. The only certainly genuine work of Hecataeus was the
[Greek: Geneêlogiai] or [Greek: Historiai], a systematic account of the
traditions and mythology of the Greeks. He was probably the first to
attempt a serious prose history and to employ critical method to
distinguish myth from historical fact, though he accepts Homer and the
other poets as trustworthy authority. Herodotus, though he once at least
controverts his statements, is indebted to Hecataeus not only for facts,
but also in regard of method and general scheme, but the extent of the
debt depends on the genuineness of the [Greek: Gês periodos].
See fragments in C. W. Müller, _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, i.;
H. Berger, _Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen_
(1903); E. H. Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography_, i.; W. Mure,
_History of Greek Literature_, iv.; especially J. V. Prasek,
_Hekataios als Herodots Quelle zur Geschichte Vorderasiens. Beiträge
zur alten Geschichte (Klio)_, iv. 193 seq. (1904), and J. Wells in
_Journ. Hell. Stud._, as above.
HECATE (Gr. [Greek: Hekatê], "she who works from afar"[1]), a goddess in
Greek mythology. According to the generally accepted view, she is of
Hellenic origin, but Farnell regards her as a foreign importation from
Thrace, the home of Bendis, with whom Hecate has many points in common.
She is not mentioned in the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_, but in Hesiod
(_Theogony_, 409) she is the daughter of the Titan Perses and Asterie,
in a passage which may be a later interpolation by the Orphists (for
other genealogies see Steuding in Roscher's _Lexikon_). She is there
represented as a mighty goddess, having power over heaven, earth and
sea; hence she is the bestower of wealth and all the blessings of daily
life. The range of her influence is most varied, extending to war,
athletic games, the tending of cattle, hunting, the assembly of the
people and the law-courts. Hecate is frequently identified with Artemis,
an identification usually justified by the assumption that both were
moon-goddesses. Farnell, who regards Artemis as originally an
earth-goddess, while recognizing a "genuine lunar element" in Hecate
from the 5th century, considers her a chthonian rather than a lunar
divinity (see also Warr in _Classical Review_, ix. 390). He is of
opinion that neither borrowed much from, nor exercised much influence
on, the cult and character of the other.
Hecate is the chief goddess who presides over magic arts and spells, and
in this connexion she is the mother of the sorceresses Circe and Medea.
She is constantly invoked, in the well-known idyll (ii.) of Theocritus,
in the incantation to bring back a woman's faithless lover. As a
chthonian power, she is worshipped at the Samothracian mysteries, and is
closely connected with Demeter. Alone of the gods besides Helios, she
witnessed the abduction of Persephone, and, torch in hand (a natural
symbol for the moon's light, but see Farnell), assisted Demeter in her
search for her daughter. On moonlight nights she is seen at the
cross-roads (hence her name [Greek: trioditis], Lat. _Trivia_)
accompanied by the dogs of the Styx and crowds of the dead. Here, on the
last day of the month, eggs and fish were offered to her. Black puppies
and she-lambs (black victims being offered to chthonian deities) were
also sacrificed (Schol. on Theocritus ii. 12). Pillars like the Hermae,
called Hecataea, stood, especially in Athens, at cross-roads and
doorways, perhaps to keep away the spirits of evil. Like Artemis, Hecate
is also a goddess of fertility, presiding especially over the birth and
the youth of wild animals, and over human birth and marriage. She also
attends when the soul leaves the body at death, and is found near
graves, and on the hearth, where the master of the house was formerly
buried. It is to be noted that Hecate plays little or no part in
mythological legend. Her worship seems to have flourished especially in
the wilder parts of Greece, such as Samothrace and Thessaly, in Caria
and on the coasts of Asia Minor. In Greece proper it prevailed on the
east coast and especially in Aegina, where her aid was invoked against
madness.
In older times Hecate is represented as single-formed, clad in a long
robe, holding burning torches; later she becomes _triformis_,
"triple-formed," with three bodies standing back to back--corresponding,
according to those who regard her as a moon-goddess, to the new, the
full and the waning moon. In her six hands are torches, sometimes a
snake, a key (as wardress of the lower world), a whip or a dagger; her
favourite animal was the dog, which was sacrificed to her--an indication
of her non-Hellenic origin, since this animal very rarely fills this
part in genuine Greek ritual.
See H. Steuding in Roscher's _Lexikon_, where the functions of Hecate
are systematically derived from the conception of her as a
moon-goddess; L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, ii., where
this view is examined; P. Paris in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquités_; O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_,
ii. (1906) p. 1288.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] J. B. Bury, in _Classical Review_, iii. p. 416, suggests that the
name means "dog," against which see J. H. Vince, ib. iv. p. 47. G. C.
Warr, ib. ix. 390, takes the Hesiodic Hecate to be a moon-goddess,
daughter of the sun-god Perseus.
HECATOMB (Gr. [Greek: hekatombê] from [Greek: hekaton], a hundred, and
[Greek: bous], an ox), originally the sacrifice of a hundred oxen in the
religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans; later a large number of
any kind of animals devoted for sacrifice. Figuratively, "hecatomb" is
used to describe the sacrifice or destruction by fire, tempest, disease
or the sword of any large number of persons or animals; and also of the
wholesale destruction of inanimate objects, and even of mental and moral
attributes.
HECATO OF RHODES, Greek Stoic philosopher and disciple of Panaetius
(Cicero, _De officiis_, iii. 15). Nothing else is known of his life, but
it is clear that he was eminent amongst the Stoics of the period. He was
a voluminous writer, but nothing remains. A list is preserved by
Diogenes, who mentions works on _Duty_, _Good_, _Virtues_, _Ends_. The
first, dedicated to Tubero, is eulogized by Cicero in the _De officiis_,
and Seneca refers to him frequently in the _De beneficiis_. According to
Diogenes Laërtius, he divided the virtues into two kinds, those founded
on scientific intellectual principles (i.e. wisdom and justice), and
those which have no such basis (e.g. temperance and the resultant health
and vigour). Cicero shows that he was much interested in casuistical
questions, as, for example, whether a good man who had received a coin
which he knew to be bad was justified in passing it on to another. On
the whole, his moral attitude is cynical, and he is inclined to regard
self-interest as the best criterion. This he modifies by explaining that
self-interest is based on the relationships of life; a man needs money
for the sake of his children, his friends and the state whose general
prosperity depends on the wealth of its citizens. Like the earlier
Stoics, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, he held that virtue may be taught.
(See STOICS and PANAETIUS.)
HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL (1811-1881), German revolutionist, was born
at Eichtersheim in the Palatinate on the 28th of September 1811, his
father being a revenue official. He studied law with the intention of
becoming an advocate, but soon became absorbed in politics. On entering
the Second Chamber of Baden in 1842, he at once began to take part in
the opposition against the government, which assumed a more and more
openly Radical character, and in the course of which his talents as an
agitator and his personal charm won him wide popularity and influence. A
speech, denouncing the projected incorporation of Schleswig and Holstein
with Denmark, delivered in the Chamber of Baden on the 6th of February
1845, spread his fame beyond the limits of his own state, and his
popularity was increased by his expulsion from Prussia on the occasion
of a journey to Stettin. After the death of his more moderate-minded
friend Adolf Sander (March 9th, 1845), Hecker's tone towards the
government became more and more bitter. In spite of the shallowness and
his culture and his extremely weak character, he enjoyed an
ever-increasing popularity. Even before the outbreak of the revolution
he included Socialistic claims in his programme. In 1847 he was
temporarily occupied with ideas of emigration, and with this object made
a journey to Algiers, but returned to Baden and resumed his former
position as the Radical champion of popular rights, later becoming
president of the _Volksverein_, where he was destined to fall still
further under the influence of the agitator Gustav von Struve. In
conjunction with Struve he drew up the Radical programme carried at the
great Liberal meeting held at Offenburg on the 12th of September 1847
(entitled "Thirteen Claims put forward by the People of Baden"). In
addition to the Offenburg programme, the _Sturmpetition_ of the 1st of
March 1848 attempted to extort from the government the most far-reaching
concessions. But it was in vain that on becoming a deputy Hecker
endeavoured to carry out its impracticable provisions. He had to yield
to the more moderate majority, but on this account was driven still
further towards the Left. The proof lies in the new Offenburg demands of
the 19th of March, and in the resolution moved by Hecker in the
preliminary parliament of Frankfort that Germany should be declared a
republic. But neither in Baden nor Frankfort did he at any time gain his
point.
This double failure, combined with various energetic measures of the
government, which were indirectly aimed at him (e.g. the arrest of the
editor of the _Constanzer Seeblatt_, a friend of Hecker's, in Karlsruhe
station on the 8th of April), inspired Hecker with the idea of an armed
rising under pretext of the foundation of the German republic. The 9th
to the 11th of April was secretly spent in preliminaries. On the 12th of
April Hecker and Struve sent a proclamation to the inhabitants of the
_Seekreis_ and of the Black Forest "to summon the people who can bear
arms to Donaueschingen at mid-day on the 14th, with arms, ammunition and
provisions for six days." They expected 70,000 men, but only a few
thousand appeared. The grand-ducal government of the _Seekreis_ was
dissolved, and Hecker gradually gained reinforcements. But friendly
advisers also joined him, pointing out the risks of his undertaking.
Hecker, however, was not at all ready to listen to them; on the
contrary, he added to violence an absurd defiance, and offered an
amnesty to the German princes on condition of their retiring within
fourteen days into private life. The troops of Baden and Hesse marched
against him, under the command of General Friedrich von Gagern, and on
the 20th of April they met near Kandern, where Gagern was killed, it is
true, but Hecker was completely defeated.
Like many of the revolutionaries of that period, Hecker retired to
Switzerland. He was, it is true, again elected to the Chamber of Baden
by the circle of Thiengen, but the government, no longer willing to
respect his immunity as a deputy, refused its ratification. On this
account Hecker resolved in September 1848 to emigrate to North America,
and obtained possession of a farm near Belleville in the state of
Illinois.
During the second rising in Baden in the spring of 1849 he again made
efforts to obtain a footing in his own state, but without success. He
only came as far as Strassburg, but had to retreat before the victories
of the Prussian troops over the Baden insurgents.
On his return to America he won some distinction during the Civil War as
colonel of a regiment which he had himself got together on the Federal
side in 1861 and 1864. It was with great joy that he heard of the union
of Germany brought about by the victory over France in 1870-71. It was
then that he made his famous festival speech at St Louis, in which he
gave an animated expression to the enthusiasm of the German Americans
for their newly-united fatherland. He received a less favourable
impression during a journey he made in Germany in 1873. He died at St
Louis on the 24th of March 1881.
Hecker was always very much beloved of all the German democrats. The
song and the hat named after him (the latter a broad slouch hat with a
feather) became famous as the symbols of the middle-classes in revolt.
In America, too, he had won great esteem, not only on political grounds
but also for his personal qualities.
See F. Hecker, _Die Erhebung des Volkes in Baden für die deutsche
Republik_ (Baden, 1848); F. Hecker, _Reden und Vorlesungen_ (Neerstadt
a. d. H., 1872); F. v. Weech, _Badische Biographien_, iv. (1891); L.
Mathy, _Aus dem Nachlasse von K. Matty, Briefe aus den Jahren
1846-1848_ (Leipzig, 1898). (J. Hn.)
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS (1819-1888), American Roman Catholic priest, the
founder of the "Paulist Fathers," was born in New York City, of German
immigrant parents, on the 18th of December 1819. When barely twelve
years of age, he had to go to work, and pushed a baker's cart for his
elder brothers, who had a bakery in Rutgers Street. But he studied at
every possible opportunity, becoming immersed in Kant's _Critique of
Pure Reason_, and while still a lad took part in certain politico-social
movements which aimed at the elevation of the working man. It was at
this juncture that he met Orestes Brownson, who exercised a marked
influence over him. Isaac was deeply religious, a characteristic for
which he gave much credit to his prayerful mother, and remained so amid
all the reading and agitating in which he engaged. Having grown into
young manhood, he joined the Brook Farm movement, and in that colony he
tarried some six months. Shortly after leaving it (in 1844) he was
baptized into the Roman Catholic Church by Bishop McCloskey of New York.
One year later he was entered in the novitiate of the Redemptorists in
Belgium, and there he cultivated to a high degree the spirit of lofty
mystical piety which marked him through life.
Ordained a priest in London by Wiseman in 1849, he returned to America,
and worked until 1857 as a Redemptorist missionary. With all his
mysticism, Isaac Hecker had the wide-awake mind of the typical American,
and he perceived that the missionary activity of the Catholic Church in
the United States must remain to a large extent ineffective unless it
adopted methods suited to the country and the age. In this he had the
sympathy of four fellow Redemptorists, who like himself were of American
birth and converts from Protestantism. Acting as their agent, and with
the consent of his local superiors, Hecker went to Rome to beg of the
Rector Major of his Order that a Redemptorist novitiate might be opened
in the United States, in order thus to attract American youths to the
missionary life. In furtherance of this request, he took with him the
strong approval of some members of the American hierarchy. The Rector
Major, instead of listening to Father Hecker, expelled him from the
Order for having made the journey to Rome without sufficient
authorization. The outcome of the trouble was that Hecker and the other
four American Redemptorists were permitted by Pius IX. in 1858 to form
the separate religious community of the Paulists. Hecker trained and
governed this community in spiritual exercises and mission-preaching
until his death in New York City, after seventeen years of suffering, on
the 22nd of December 1888. He founded and was the director of the
Catholic Publication Society, was the founder, and from 1865 until his
death the editor, of the _Catholic World_, and wrote _Questions of the
Soul_ (1855), _Aspirations of Nature_ (1857), _Catholicity in the United
States_ (1879) and _The Church and the Age_ (1888).
The name of Hecker is closely associated with that of "Americanism."
To understand this movement it is necessary to comprehend the tendency
of events in Catholic Europe rather than in America itself. The steady
decline in the power and influence of French Catholicism since shortly
after 1870 is the most remarkable feature of the history of the Third
Republic. Not only did the French State pass laws bearing more and
more stringently on the Church, under each succeeding ministry, but
the bulk of the people acquiesced in the policy of its legislators.
The clergy, if not Catholicism, was rapidly losing its hold over the
once Catholic nation. Observing this fact, and encouraged by the
action of Leo XIII., who, in 1892 called on French Catholics loyally
to accept the Republic, a body of vigorous young French priests set
themselves to check the disaster. They studied the causes which
produced it. These causes, they considered to be, first, the clergy's
predominant sympathy with the monarchists, and in its undisguised
hostility to the Republic; secondly, the Church's aloofness from
modern men, methods and thought. The progressive party believed that
there was too little cultivation of individual, independent character,
while too much stress was laid upon what might be called the
mechanical or routine side of religion. The party perceived, too, that
Catholicism was making scarcely any use of modern aggressive modes of
propaganda; that, for example, the Church took but an insignificant
part in social movements, in the organization of clubs for social
study, in the establishing of settlements and similar philanthropic
endeavour. Lack of adaptability to modern needs expresses in short the
deficiencies in Catholicism which these men endeavoured to correct.
They began a domestic apostolate which had for one of its rallying
cries, "_Allons au peuple_,"--"Let us go to the people." They agitated
for the inauguration of social works, for a more intimate mingling of
priests with the people, and for general cultivation of personal
initiative, both in clergy and in laity.
Not unnaturally, they looked for inspiration to America. There they
saw a vigorous Church among a free people, with priests publicly
respected, and with a note of aggressive zeal in every project of
Catholic enterprise. From the American priesthood, Father Hecker stood
out conspicuous for sturdy courage, deep interior piety, an assertive
self-initiative and immense love of modern times and modern liberty.
So they took Father Hecker for a kind of patron saint. His biography
(New York, 1891), written in English by the Paulist Father Elliott,
was translated into French (1897), and speedily became the book of the
hour. Under the inspiration of Father Hecker's life and character, the
more spirited section of the French clergy undertook the task of
persuading their fellow-priests loyally to accept the actual political
establishment, and then, breaking out of their isolation, to put
themselves in touch with the intellectual life of the country, and
take an active part in the work of social amelioration.
In 1897 the movement received an impetus--and a warning--when Mgr
O'Connell, former Rector of the American College in Rome, spoke on
behalf of Father Hecker's ideas at the Catholic Congress in Friburg.
The conservatives took alarm at what they considered to be symptoms of
pernicious modernism or "Liberalism." Did not the watchword "_Allons
au peuple_" savour of heresy? Did it not tend toward breaking down the
divinely established distinction between the priest and the layman,
and conceding something to the laity in the management of the Church?
The insistence upon individual initiative was judged to be
incompatible with the fundamental principle of Catholicism, obedience
to authority. Moreover, the conservatives were, almost to a man,
anti-republicans who distrusted and disliked the democratic abbés.
Complaints were sent to Rome. A violent polemic against the new
movement was launched in Abbé Maignan's _Le père Hecker, est-il un
saint?_ (1898). Repugnance to American tendencies and influences had a
strong representation in the Curia and in powerful circles in Rome.
Leo XIII. was extremely reluctant to pronounce any strictures upon
American Catholics, of whose loyalty to the Roman See, and to their
faith, he had often spoken in terms of high approbation. But he
yielded, in a measure, to the pressure brought to bear upon him, and,
early in February 1899, addressed to Cardinal Gibbons the Brief
_Testem Benevolentiae_. This document contained a condemnation of the
following doctrines or tendencies: (a) undue insistence on interior
initiative in the spiritual life, as leading to disobedience; (b)
attacks on religious vows, and disparagement of the value in the
present age, of religious orders; (c) minimizing Catholic doctrine;
(d) minimizing the importance of spiritual direction. The brief did
not assert that any unsound doctrine on the above points had been held
by Hecker or existed among Americans. Its tenour was, that if such
opinions did exist, the Pope called upon the hierarchy to eradicate
the evil. Cardinal Gibbons and many other prelates replied to Rome.
With all but unanimity, they declared that the incriminated opinions
had no existence among American Catholics. It was well known that
Hecker never had countenanced the slightest departure from Catholic
principles in their fullest and most strict application. The
disturbance caused by the condemnation was slight; almost the entire
laity, and a considerable part of the clergy, never understood what
the noise was about. The affair was soon forgotten, but the result was
to strengthen the hands of the conservatives in France. (J. J. F.)
HECKMONDWIKE, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary
division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 8 m. S.S.E. of
Bradford, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern, and London &
North-Western railways. Pop. (1901), 9459. Like the town of Dewsbury, on
the south-east, it is an important centre of the blanket and carpet
manufactures, and there are also machine works, dye works and iron
foundries. Coal is extensively wrought in the vicinity.
HECTOR, in Greek mythology, son of Priam and Hecuba, the husband of
Andromache. Like Paris and other Trojans, he had an Oriental name,
Darius. In Homer he is represented as an ideal warrior, the champion of
the Trojans and the mainstay of the city. His character, is drawn in
most favourable colours as a good son, a loving husband and father, and
a trusty friend. His leave-taking of Andromache in the sixth book of the
_Iliad_, and his departure to meet Achilles for the last time, are most
touchingly described. He is an especial favourite of Apollo; and later
poets even describe him as son of that god. His chief exploits during
the war were his defence of the wounded Sarpedon, his fight with Ajax,
son of Telamon (his particular enemy), and the storming of the Greek
ramparts. When Achilles, enraged with Agamemnon, deserted the Greeks,
Hector drove them back to their ships, which he almost succeeded in
burning. Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, who came to the help of the
Greeks, was slain by Hector with the help of Apollo. Then Achilles, to
revenge his friend's death, returned to the war, slew Hector, dragged
his body behind his chariot to the camp, and afterwards round the tomb
of Patroclus. Aphrodite and Apollo preserved it from corruption and
mutilation. Priam, guarded by Hermes, went to Achilles and prevailed on
him to give back the body, which was buried with great honour. Hector
was afterwards worshipped in the Troad by the Boeotian tribe Gephyraei,
who offered sacrifices at his grave.
HECUBA (Gr. [Greek: Hekabê]), wife of Priam, daughter of the Phrygian
king Dymas (or of Cisseus, or of the river-god Sangarius). According to
Homer she was the mother of nineteen of Priam's fifty sons. When Troy
was captured and Priam slain, she was made prisoner by the Greeks. Her
fate is told in various ways, most of which connect her with the
promontory Cynossema, on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont. According
to Euripides (in the _Hecuba_), her youngest son Polydorus had been
placed during the siege of Troy under the care of Polymestor, king of
Thrace. When the Greeks reached the Thracian Chersonese on their way
home Hecuba discovered that her son had been murdered, and in revenge
put out the eyes of Polymestor and murdered his two sons. She was
acquitted by Agamemnon; but, as Polymestor foretold, she was turned into
a dog, and her grave became a mark for ships (Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.
399-575; Juvenal x. 271 and Mayor's note). According to another story,
she fell to the lot of Odysseus, as a slave, and in despair threw
herself into the Hellespont; or, she used such insulting language
towards her captors that they put her to death (Dictys Cretensis v. 13.
16). It is obvious from the tales of Hecuba's transformation and death
that she is a form of some goddess to whom dogs were sacred; and the
analogy with Scylla is striking.
HEDA, WILLEM CLAASZ (c. 1504-c. 1670), Dutch painter, born at Haarlem,
was one of the earliest Dutchmen who devoted himself exclusively to the
painting of still life. He was the contemporary and comrade of Dirk
Hals, with whom he had in common pictorial touch and technical
execution. But Heda was more careful and finished than Hals, and showed
considerable skill and not a little taste in arranging and colouring
chased cups and beakers and tankards of precious and inferior metals.
Nothing is so appetizing as his "luncheon," with rare comestibles set
out upon rich plate, oysters--seldom without the cut lemon--bread,
champagne, olives and pastry. Even the commoner "refection" is also not
without charm, as it comprises a cut ham, bread, walnuts and beer. One
of Heda's early masterpieces, dated 1623, in the Munich Pinakothek is as
homely as a later one of 1651 in the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna. A
more luxurious repast is a "Luncheon in the Augsburg Gallery," dated
1644. Most of Heda's pictures are on the European continent, notably in
the galleries of Paris, Parma, Ghent, Darmstadt, Gotha, Munich and
Vienna. He was a man of repute in his native city, and filled all the
offices of dignity and trust in the gild of Haarlem. He seems to have
had considerable influence in forming the younger Frans Hals.
HEDDLE, MATTHEW FORSTER (1828-1897), Scottish mineralogist, was born at
Hoy in Orkney on the 28th of April 1828. After receiving his early
education at the Edinburgh academy, he entered as a medical student at
the university in that city, and subsequently studied chemistry and
mineralogy at Klausthal and Freiburg. In 1851 he took his degree of M.D.
at Edinburgh, and for about five years practised there. Medical work,
however, possessed for him little attraction; he became assistant to
Prof. Connell, who held the chair of chemistry at St Andrews, and in
1862 succeeded him as professor. This post he held until in 1880 he was
invited to report on some gold mines in South Africa. On his return he
devoted himself with great assiduity to mineralogy, and formed one of
the finest collections by means of personal exploration in almost every
part of Scotland. His specimens are now in the Royal Scottish Museum at
Edinburgh. It had been his intention to publish a comprehensive work on
the mineralogy of Scotland. This he did not live to complete, but the
MSS. fell into able hands, and _The Mineralogy of Scotland_, in 2 vols.,
edited by J. G. Goodchild, was issued in 1901. Heddle was one of the
founders of the Mineralogical Society, and he contributed many articles
on Scottish minerals, and on the geology of the northern parts of
Scotland, to the _Mineralogical Magazine_, as well as to the
_Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_. He died on the 19th of
November 1897.
See _Dr Heddle and his Geological Work_ (with portrait), by J. G.
Goodchild, _Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc._ (1898) vii. 317.
HEDGEHOG, or URCHIN, a member of the mammalian order Insectivora,
remarkable for its dentition, its armature of spines and its short tail.
The upper jaw is longer than the lower, the snout is long and flexible,
with the nostrils narrow, and the claws are long but weak. The animal is
about 10 in. long, its eyes are small, and the lower surface covered
with hairs of the ordinary character. The brain is remarkable for its
low development, the cerebral hemispheres being small, and marked with
but one groove, and that a shallow one, on each side. The hedgehog has
the power of rolling itself up into a ball, from which the spines stand
out in every direction. The spines are sharp, hard and elastic, and form
so efficient a defence that there are few animals able to effect a
successful attack on this creature. The moment it is touched, or even
hears the report of a gun, it rolls itself up by the action of the
muscles beneath the skin, while this contraction effects the erection of
the spines. The most important muscle is the _orbicularis panniculi_,
which extends over the anterior region of the skull, as far down the
body as the ventral hairy region, and on to the tail, but three other
muscles aid in the contraction.
[Illustration: The Hedgehog (_Erinaceus europaeus_).]
Though insectivorous, the hedgehog is reported to have a liking for
mice, while frogs and toads, as well as plants and fruits, all seem to
be acceptable. It will also eat snakes, and its fondness for eggs has
caused it to meet with the enmity of game-preservers; and there is no
doubt it occasionally attacks leverets and game-chicks. In a state of
nature it does not emerge from its retreat during daylight, unless urged
by hunger or by the necessities of its young. During winter it passes
into a state of hibernation, when its temperature falls considerably;
having provided itself with a nest of dry leaves, it is well protected
from the influences of the rain, and rolling itself up, remains
undisturbed till warmer weather returns. In July or August the female
brings forth four to eight young, or, according to others, two to four
at a somewhat earlier period; at birth the spines, which in the adult
are black in the middle, are white and soft, but soon harden, though
they do not attain their full size until the succeeding spring.
The hedgehog, which is known scientifically as _Erinaceus europaeus_,
and is the type of the family _Erinaceidae_, is found in woods and
gardens, and extends over nearly the whole of Europe; and has been found
at 6000 to 8000 ft. above the level of the sea. The adult is provided
with thirty-six teeth; in the upper jaw are 6 incisors, 2 canines and 12
cheek-teeth, and in the lower jaw 4 incisors, 2 canines and 10
cheek-teeth. The genus is represented by about a score of species,
ranging over Europe, Asia, except the Malay countries, and Africa.
(R. L.*)
HEDGES AND FENCES. The object of the hedge[1] or fence (abbreviation of
"defence") is to mark a boundary or to enclose an area of land on which
stock is kept. The hedge, i.e. a row of bushes or small trees, forms a
characteristic feature of the scenery of England, especially in the
midlands and south; it is more rarely found in other countries. Its
disadvantages as a fence are that it is not portable, that it requires
cutting and training while young, that it harbours weeds and vermin and
that it occupies together with the ditch which usually borders it a
considerable space of ground, the margins of which cannot be cultivated.
For these reasons it is to some extent superseded by the fence proper,
especially where shelter for cattle is not required. In Great Britain
the hawthorn (q.v.) is by far the most important of hedge plants. Holly
resembles the hawthorn in its amenability to pruning and in its prickly
nature and closeness of growth, which make it an effective barrier to,
and shelter for, stock, but it is less hardy and more slow-growing than
the hawthorn. Hornbeam, beech, myrobalan or cherry plum and blackthorn
also have their advantages, hornbeam being proof against great exposure,
blackthorn thriving on poor land and possessing great impenetrability
and so on. Box, yew, privet and many other plants are used for
ornamental hedging; in the United States the osage orange and honey
locust are favourite hedge plants. As fences, wooden posts and rails and
stone walls may be conveniently used in districts where the requisite
materials are plentiful. But the most modern form of fence is formed of
wire strands either smooth or barbed (see BARBED WIRE), strained between
iron standards or wooden or concrete posts. The wire may be interwoven
with vertical strands or, if necessary, may be kept apart by iron
droppers between the standards. Fences of a lighter description are
machine-made with pickets of split chestnut or other wood closely set,
woven with a few strands of wire; they are braced by posts at intervals.
From the fact that tramps and vagabonds frequently sleep under hedges
the word has come to be used as a term of contempt, as in
"hedge-priest," an inferior and illiterate kind of parson at one time
existing in England and Ireland, and in "hedge-school," a low class
school held in the open air, formerly very common in Ireland. From the
sense of "hedge" as an enclosure or barrier the verb "to hedge" means to
enclose, to form a barrier or defence, to bound or limit. As a sporting
term the word is used in betting to mean protection from loss, by
betting on both sides, by "laying off" on one side, after laying odds on
another or vice versa. The word was early used figuratively in the sense
of to avoid committing oneself.
See articles in the _Cyclopaedia of American Agriculture_, vol. i.,
ed. by L. H. Bailey (New York, 1907); in the _Standard Cyclopaedia of
Modern Agriculture_, ed. by R. P. Wright (London, 1908-1909); and in
the _Encyclopaedia of Agriculture_, vol. ii., ed. by C. E. Green and
D. Young (Edinburgh, 1908).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Hedge is a Teutonic word, cf. Dutch _heg_, Ger. _Hecke_; the root
appears in other English words, e.g. "haw," as in "hawthorn."
HEDON, a municipal borough in the Holderness parliamentary division of
the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, 8 m. E. of Hull by a branch of
the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1901), 1010. It stands in a low-lying,
flat district bordering the Humber. It is 2 m. from the river, but was
formerly reached by a navigable inlet, now dry, and was a considerable
port. There is a small harbour, but the prosperity of the port has
passed to Hull. The church of St Augustine is a splendid cruciform
building with central tower. It is Early English, Decorated and
Perpendicular, the tower being of the last period. The west front is
particularly fine, and the church, with its noble proportions and lofty
clerestories, resembles a cathedral in miniature. There are a
manufacture of bricks and an agricultural trade. The corporation
consists of a mayor, 3 aldermen and 9 councillors; and possesses a
remarkable ancient mace, of 15th-century workmanship. Area, 321 acres.
According to tradition the men of Hedon received a charter of liberties
from King Æthelstan, but there is no evidence to prove this or indeed to
prove any settlement in the town until after the Conquest. The manor is
not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but formed part of the lordship of
Holderness which William the Conqueror granted to Odo, count of
Albemarle. A charter of Henry II., which is undated, contains the first
certain evidence of settlement. By it the king granted to William,
count of Albemarle, free borough rights in Hedon so that his burgesses
there might hold of him as freely and quietly as the burgesses of York
or Lincoln held of the king. An earlier charter granted to the
inhabitants of York shows that these rights included a trade gild and
freedom from many dues not only in England but also in France. King John
in 1200 granted a confirmation of these liberties to Baldwin, count of
Albemarle, and Hawisia his wife and for this second charter the
burgesses themselves paid 70 marks. In 1272 Henry III. granted to
Edmund, earl of Lancaster, and Avelina his wife, then lord and lady of
the manor, the right of holding a fair at Hedon on the eve, day, and
morrow of the feast of St Augustine and for five following days. After
the countess's death the manor came to the hands of Edward I. In 1280 it
was found by an inquisition that the men of Hedon "were few and poor"
and that if the town were demised at a fee-farm rent the town might
improve. The grant, however, does not appear to have been made until
1346. Besides this charter Edward III. also granted the burgesses the
privilege of electing a mayor and bailiffs every year. At that time
Hedon was one of the chief ports in the Humber, but its place was
gradually taken by Hull after that town came into the hands of the king.
Hedon was incorporated by Charles II. in 1661, and James II. in 1680
gave the burgesses another charter granting among other privileges that
of holding two extra fairs, but of this they never appear to have taken
advantage. The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1295, and
from 1547 to 1832 when the borough was disfranchised.
See _Victoria County History, Yorkshire_; J. R. Boyle, _The Early
History of the Town and Port of Hedon_ (Hull and York, 1895); G. H.
Park, _History of the Ancient Borough of Hedon_ (Hull, 1895).
HEDONISM (Gr. [Greek: hêdonê], pleasure, from [Greek: hêdys], sweet,
pleasant), in ethics, a general term for all theories of conduct in
which the criterion is pleasure of one kind or another. Hedonistic
theories of conduct have been held from the earliest times, though they
have been by no means of the same character. Moreover, hedonism has,
especially by its critics, been very much misrepresented owing mainly to
two simple misconceptions. In the first place hedonism may confine
itself to the view that, as a matter of observed fact, all men do in
practice make pleasure the criterion of action, or it may go further and
assert that men ought to seek pleasure as the sole human good. The
former statement takes no view as to whether or not there is any
absolute good: if merely denies that men aim at anything more than
pleasure. The latter statement admits an ideal, _summum bonum_--namely,
pleasure. The second confusion is the tacit assumption that the pleasure
of the hedonist is necessarily or characteristically of a purely
physical kind; this assumption is in the case of some hedonistic
theories a pure perversion of the facts. Practically all hedonists have
argued that what are known as the "lower" pleasures are not only
ephemeral in themselves but also productive of so great an amount of
consequent pain that the wise man cannot regard them as truly
pleasurable; the sane hedonist will, therefore, seek those so-called
"higher" pleasures which are at once more lasting and less likely to be
discounted by consequent pain. It should be observed, however, that this
choice of pleasures by a hedonist is conditioned not by "moral"
(absolute) but by prudential (relative) considerations.
The earliest and the most extreme type of hedonism is that of the
Cyrenaic School as stated by Aristippus, who argued that the only good
for man is the sentient pleasure of the moment. Since (following
Protagoras) knowledge is solely of momentary sensations, it is useless
to try, as Socrates recommended, to make calculations as to future
pleasures, and to balance present enjoyment with disagreeable
consequences. The true art of life is to crowd as much enjoyment as
possible into every moment. This extreme or "pure" hedonism regarded as
a definite philosophic theory practically died with the Cyrenaics,
though the same spirit has frequently found expression in ancient and
modern, especially poetical, literature.
The confusion already alluded to between "pure" and "rational" hedonism
is nowhere more clearly exemplified than in the misconceptions which
have arisen as to the doctrine of the Epicureans. To identify
Epicureanism with Cyrenaicism is a complete misunderstanding. It is true
that pleasure is the _summum bonum_ of Epicurus, but his conception of
that pleasure is profoundly modified by the Socratic doctrine of
prudence and the eudaemonism of Aristotle. The true hedonist will aim at
a life of enduring rational happiness; pleasure is the end of life, but
true pleasure can be obtained only under the guidance of reason.
Self-control in the choice of pleasures with a view to reducing pain to
a minimum is indispensable. "Of all this, the beginning, and the
greatest good, is prudence." The negative side of Epicurean hedonism was
developed to such an extent by some members of the school (see HEGESIAS)
that the ideal life is held to be rather indifference to pain than
positive enjoyment. This pessimistic attitude is far removed from the
positive hedonism of Aristippus.
Between the hedonism of the ancients and that of modern philosophers
there lies a great gulf. Practically speaking ancient hedonism advocated
the happiness of the individual: the modern hedonism of Hume, Bentham
and Mill is based on a wider conception of life. The only real happiness
is the happiness of the community, or at least of the majority: the
criterion is society, not the individual. Thus we pass from Egoistic to
Universalistic hedonism, Utilitarianism, Social Ethics, more especially
in relation to the still broader theories of evolution. These theories
are confronted by the problem of reconciling and adjusting the claims of
the individual with those of society. One of the most important
contributions to the discussion is that of Sir Leslie Stephen (_Science
of Ethics_), who elaborated a theory of the "social organism" in
relation to the individual. The end of the evolution process is the
production of a "social tissue" which will be "vitally efficient."
Instead, therefore, of the criterion of "the greatest happiness of the
greatest number," Stephen has that of the "health of the organism." Life
is not "a series of detached acts, in each of which a man can calculate
the sum of happiness or misery attainable by different courses." Each
action must be regarded as directly bearing upon the structure of
society.
A criticism of the various hedonistic theories will be found in the
article ETHICS (_ad fin._). See also, beside works quoted under
CYRENAICS, EPICURUS, &c., and the general histories of philosophy, J.
S. Mackenzie, _Manual of Ethics_ (3rd ed., 1897); J. H. Muirhead,
_Elements of Ethics_ (1892); J. Watson, _Hedonistic Theories_ (1895);
J. Martineau, _Types of Ethical Theory_ (2nd ed., 1886); F. H.
Bradley, _Ethical Studies_ (1876); H. Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_
(6th ed., 1901); Jas. Seth, _Ethical Principles_ (3rd ed., 1898);
other works quoted under ETHICS.
HEEL. (1) (O. Eng. _héla_, cf. Dutch _hiel_; a derivative of O. Eng.
hóh, hough, hock), that part of the foot in man which is situated below
and behind the ankle; by analogy, the calcaneal part of the tarsus in
other vertebrates. The heel proper in digitigrades and ungulates is
raised off the ground and is commonly known as the "knee" or "hock,"
while the term "heel" is applied to the hind hoofs. (2) (A variant of
the earlier _hield_; cf. Dutch _hellen_, for _helden_), to turn over to
one side, especially of a ship. It is this word probably, in the sense
of "tip-up," used particularly of the tilting or tipping of a cask or
barrel of liquor, that explains the origin of the expression "no
heel-taps," a direction to the drinkers of a toast to drain their
glasses and leave no dregs remaining. "Tap" is a common word for liquor,
and a cask is said to be "heeled" when it is tipped and only dregs or
muddy liquor are left. This suits the actual sense of the phrase better
than the explanations which connect it with tapping the "heel" or bottom
of the glass (see _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, vols. xi.-xii., and
5th series, vol. i.).
HEEM, JAN DAVIDSZ VAN (or JOHANNES DE), (c.1600-c.1683), Dutch painter.
He was, if not the first, certainly the greatest painter of still life
in Holland; no artist of his class combined more successfully perfect
reality of form and colour with brilliancy and harmony of tints. No
object of stone or silver, no flower humble or gorgeous, no fruit of
Europe or the tropics, no twig or leaf, with which he was not familiar.
Sometimes he merely represented a festoon or a nosegay. More frequently
he worked with a purpose to point a moral or illustrate a motto. Here
the snake lies coiled under the grass, there a skull rests on blooming
plants. Gold and silver tankards or cups suggest the vanity of earthly
possessions; salvation is allegorized in a chalice amidst blossoms,
death as a crucifix inside a wreath. Sometimes de Heem painted alone,
sometimes in company with men of his school, Madonnas or portraits
surrounded by festoons of fruit or flowers. At one time he signed with
initials, at others with Johannes, at others again with the name of his
father joined to his own. At rare intervals he condescended to a date,
and when he did the work was certainly of the best. De Heem entered the
gild of Antwerp in 1635-1636, and became a burgher of that city in 1637.
He steadily maintained his residence till 1667, when he moved to
Utrecht, where traces of his presence are preserved in records of 1668,
1669 and 1670. It is not known when he finally returned to Antwerp, but
his death is recorded in the gild books of that place. A very early
picture, dated 1628, in the gallery of Gotha, bearing the signature of
Johannes in full, shows that de Heem at that time was familiar with the
technical habits of execution peculiar to the youth of Albert Cuyp. In
later years he completely shook off dependence, and appears in all the
vigour of his own originality.
Out of 100 pictures or more to be met with in European galleries
scarcely eighteen are dated. The earliest after that of Gotha is a
chased tankard, with a bottle, a silver cup, and a lemon on a marble
table, dated 1640, in the museum of Amsterdam. A similar work of 1645,
with the addition of fruit and flowers and a distant landscape, is in
Lord Radnor's collection at Longford. A chalice in a wreath, with the
radiant host amidst wheatsheaves, grapes and flowers, is a masterpiece
of 1648 in the Belvedere of Vienna. A wreath round a Madonna of life
size, dated 1650, in the museum of Berlin, shows that de Heem could
paint brightly and harmoniously on a large scale. In the Pinakothek at
Munich is the celebrated composition of 1653, in which creepers,
beautifully commingled with gourds and blackberries, twigs of orange,
myrtle and peach, are enlivened by butterflies, moths and beetles. A
landscape with a blooming rose tree, a jug of strawberries, a selection
of fruit, and a marble bust of Pan, dated 1655, is in the Hermitage at
St Petersburg; an allegory of abundance in a medallion wreathed with
fruit and flowers, in the gallery of Brussels, is inscribed with de
Heem's monogram, the date of 1668, and the name of an obscure artist
called Lambrechts. All these pieces exhibit the master in full
possession of his artistic faculties.
CORNELIUS DE HEEM, the son of Johannes, was in practice as a flower
painter at Utrecht in 1658, and was still active in his profession in
1671 at the Hague. His pictures are not equal to those of his father,
but they are all well authenticated, and most of them in the galleries
of the Hague, Dresden, Cassel, Vienna and Berlin. In the Staedel at
Frankfort is a fruit piece, with pot-herbs and a porcelain jug, dated
1658; another, dated 1671, is in the museum of Brussels. DAVID DE HEEM,
another member of the family, entered the gild of Utrecht in 1668 and
that of Antwerp in 1693. The best piece assigned to him is a table with
a lobster, fruit and glasses, in the gallery of Amsterdam; others bear
his signature in the museums of Florence, St Petersburg and Brunswick.
It is well to guard against the fallacy that David de Heem above
mentioned is the father of Jan de Heem. We should also be careful not to
make two persons of the first artist, who sometimes signs Johannes,
sometimes Jan Davidsz or J. D. Heem.
HEEMSKERK, JOHAN VAN (1597-1656), Dutch poet, was born at Amsterdam in
1597. He was educated as a child at Bayonne, and entered the university
of Leiden in 1617. In 1621 he went abroad on the grand tour, leaving
behind him his first volume of poems, _Minnekunst_ (The Art of Love),
which appeared in 1622. He was absent from Holland four years. He was
made master of arts at Bourges in 1623, and in 1624 visited Hugo Grotius
in Paris. On his return in 1625 he published _Minnepligt_ (The Duty of
Love), and began to practise as an advocate in the Hague. In 1628 he was
sent to England in his legal capacity by the Dutch East India Company,
to settle the dispute respecting Amboyna. In the same year he published
the poem entitled _Minnekunde_, or the Science of Love. He proceeded to
Amsterdam in 1640, where he married Alida, sister of the statesman Van
Beuningen. In 1641 he published a Dutch version of Corneille's _The
Cid_, a tragi-comedy, and in 1647 his most famous work, the pastoral
romance of _Batavische Arcadia_, which he had written ten years before.
During the last twelve years of his life Heemskerk sat in the upper
chamber of the states-general. He died at Amsterdam on the 27th of
February 1656.
The poetry of Heemskerk, which fell into oblivion during the 18th
century, is once more read and valued. His famous pastoral, the
_Batavische Arcadia_, which was founded on the _Astrée_ of Honoré
d'Urfé, enjoyed a great popularity for more than a century, and passed
through twelve editions. It provoked a host of more or less able
imitations, of which the most distinguished were the _Dordrechtsche
Arcadia_ (1663) of Lambert van den Bos (1610-1698), the _Saanlandsche
Arcadia_ (1658) of Hendrik Sooteboom (1616-1678) and the
_Rotterdamsche Arcadia_ (1703) of Willem den Elger (d. 1703). But the
original work of Heemskerk, in which a party of nymphs and shepherds
go out from the Hague to Katwijk, and there indulge in polite and
pastoral discourse, surpasses all these in brightness and versatility.
HEEMSKERK, MARTIN JACOBSZ (1498-1574), Dutch painter, sometimes called
Van Veen, was born at Heemskerk in Holland in 1498, and apprenticed by
his father, a small farmer, to Cornelisz Willemsz, a painter at Haarlem.
Recalled after a time to the paternal homestead and put to the plough or
the milking of cows, young Heemskerk took the first opportunity that
offered to run away, and demonstrated his wish to leave home for ever by
walking in a single day the 50 miles which separate his native hamlet
from the town of Delft. There he studied under a local master whom he
soon deserted for John Schoreel of Haarlem. At Haarlem he formed what is
known as his first manner, which is but a quaint and _gauche_ imitation
of the florid style brought from Italy by Mabuse and others. He then
started on a wandering tour, during which he visited the whole of
northern and central Italy, stopping at Rome, where he had letters for a
cardinal. It is evidence of the facility with which he acquired the
rapid execution of a scene-painter that he was selected to co-operate
with Antonio da San Gallo, Battista Franco and Francesco Salviati to
decorate the triumphal arches erected at Rome in April 1536 in honour of
Charles V. Vasari, who saw the battle-pieces which Heemskerk then
produced, says they were well composed and boldly executed. On his
return to the Netherlands he settled at Haarlem, where he soon (1540)
became president of his gild, married twice, and secured a large and
lucrative practice. In 1572 he left Haarlem for Amsterdam, to avoid the
siege which the Spaniards laid to the place, and there he made a will
which has been preserved, and shows that he had lived long enough and
prosperously enough to make a fortune. At his death, which took place on
the 1st of October 1574, he left money and land in trust to the
orphanage of Haarlem, with interest to be paid yearly to any couple who
should be willing to perform the marriage ceremony on the slab of his
tomb in the cathedral of Haarlem. It was a superstition which still
exists in Catholic Holland that a marriage so celebrated would secure
the peace of the dead within the tomb.
The works of Heemskerk are still very numerous. "Adam and Eve," and "St
Luke painting the Likeness of the Virgin and Child" in presence of a
poet crowned with ivy leaves, and a parrot in a cage--an altar-piece in
the gallery of Haarlem, and the "Ecce Homo" in the museum of Ghent, are
characteristic works of the period preceding Heemskerk's visit to Italy.
An altar-piece executed for St Laurence of Alkmaar in 1538-1541, and
composed of at least a dozen large panels, would, if preserved, have
given us a clue to his style after his return from the south. In its
absence we have a "Crucifixion" executed for the Riches Claires at Ghent
(now in the Ghent Museum) in 1543, and the altar-piece of the Drapers
Company at Haarlem, now in the gallery of the Hague, and finished in
1546. In these we observe that Heemskerk studied and repeated the forms
which he had seen at Rome in the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, and
in Lombardy in the frescoes of Mantegna and Giulio Romano. But he never
forgot the while his Dutch origin or the models first presented to him
by Schoreel and Mabuse. As late as 1551 his memory still served him to
produce a copy from Raphael's "Madonna di Loretto" (gallery of Haarlem).
A "Judgment of Momus," dated 1561, in the Berlin Museum, proves him to
have been well acquainted with anatomy, but incapable of selection and
insensible of grace, bold of hand and prone to daring though tawdry
contrasts of colour, and fond of florid architecture. Two altar-pieces
which he finished for churches at Delft in 1551 and 1559, one complete,
the other a fragment, in the museum of Haarlem, a third of 1551 in the
Brussels Museum, representing "Golgotha," the "Crucifixion," the "Flight
into Egypt," "Christ on the Mount," and scenes from the lives of St
Bernard and St Benedict, are all fairly representative of his style.
Besides these we have the "Crucifixion" in the Hermitage of St
Petersburg, and two "Triumphs of Silenus" in the gallery of Vienna, in
which the same relation to Giulio Romano may be noted as we mark in the
canvases of Rinaldo of Mantua. Other pieces of varying importance are in
the galleries of Rotterdam, Munich, Cassel, Brunswick, Karlsruhe, Mainz
and Copenhagen. In England the master is best known by his drawings. A
comparatively feeble picture by him is the "Last Judgment" in the palace
of Hampton Court.
HEER, OSWALD (1809-1883), Swiss geologist and naturalist, was born at
Nieder-Utzwyl in Canton St Gallen on the 31st of August 1809. He was
educated as a clergyman and took holy orders, and he also graduated as
doctor of philosophy and medicine. Early in life his interest was
aroused in entomology, on which subject he acquired special knowledge,
and later he took up the study of plants and became one of the pioneers
in palaeo-botany, distinguished for his researches on the Miocene flora.
In 1851 he became professor of botany in the university of Zürich, and
he directed his attention to the Tertiary plants and insects of
Switzerland. For some time he was director of the botanic garden at
Zürich. In 1863 (with W. Pengelly, _Phil. Trans._, 1862) he investigated
the plant-remains from the lignite-deposits of Bovey Tracey in
Devonshire, regarding them as of Miocene age; but they are now classed
as Eocene. Heer also reported on the Miocene flora of Arctic regions, on
the plants of the Pleistocene lignites of Dürnten on lake Zürich, and on
the cereals of some of the lake-dwellings (_Die Pflanzen der
Pfahlbauten_, 1866). During a great part of his career he was hampered
by slender means and ill-health, but his services to science were
acknowledged in 1873 when the Geological Society of London awarded to
him the Wollaston medal. Dr Heer died at Lausanne on the 27th of
September 1883. He published _Flora Tertiaria Helvetiae_ (3 vols.,
1855-1859); _Die Urwelt der Schweiz_ (1865), and _Flora fossilis
Arctica_ (1868-1883).
HEEREN, ARNOLD HERMANN LUDWIG (1760-1842), German historian, was born on
the 25th of October 1760 at Arbergen, near Bremen. He studied
philosophy, theology and history at Göttingen, and thereafter travelled
in France, Italy and the Netherlands. In 1787 he was appointed one of
the professors of philosophy, and then of history at Göttingen, and he
afterwards was chosen aulic councillor, privy councillor, &c., the usual
rewards of successful German scholars. He died at Göttingen on the 6th
of March 1842. Heeren's great merit as an historian was that he regarded
the states of antiquity from an altogether fresh point of view. Instead
of limiting himself to a narration of their political events, he
examined their economic relations, their constitutions, their financial
systems, and thus was enabled to throw a new light on the development of
the old world. He possessed vast and varied learning, perfect calmness
and impartiality, and great power of historical insight, and is now
looked back to as the pioneer in the movement for the economic
interpretation of history.
Heeren's chief works are: _Ideen über Politik, den Verkehr, und den
Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt_ (2 vols., Göttingen,
1793-1796; 4th ed., 6 vols., 1824-1826; Eng. trans., Oxford, 1833);
_Geschichte des Studiums der klassischen Litteratur seit dem
Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften_ (2 vols., Göttingen, 1797-1802; new
ed., 1822); _Geschichte der Staaten des Altertums_ (Göttingen, 1799;
Eng. trans., Oxford, 1840); _Geschichte des europäischen
Staatensystems_ (Göttingen, 1800; 5th ed., 1830; Eng. trans., 1834);
_Versuch einer Entwicklung der Folgen der Kreuzzüge_ (Göttingen, 1808;
French trans., Paris, 1808), a prize essay of the Institute of
France. Besides these, Heeren wrote brief biographical sketches of
Johann von Müller (Leipzig, 1809); Ludwig Spittler (Berlin, 1812); and
Christian Heyne (Göttingen, 1813). With Friedrich August Ukert
(1780-1851) he founded the famous historical collection, _Geschichte
der europäischen Staaten_ (Gotha, 1819 seq.), and contributed many
papers to learned periodicals.
A collection of his historical works, with autobiographical notice,
was published in 15 volumes (Göttingen, 1821-1830).
HEFELE, KARL JOSEF VON (1809-1893), German theologian, was born at
Unterkochen in Württemberg on the 15th of March 1809, and was educated
at Tübingen, where in 1839 he became professor-ordinary of Church
history and patristics in the Roman Catholic faculty of theology. From
1842 to 1845 he sat in the National Assembly of Württemberg. In December
1869 he was enthroned bishop of Rottenburg. His literary activity, which
had been considerable, was in no way diminished by his elevation to the
episcopate. Among his numerous theological works may be mentioned his
well-known edition of the _Apostolic Fathers_, issued in 1839; his _Life
of Cardinal Ximenes_, published in 1844 (Eng. trans., 1860); and his
still more celebrated _History of the Councils of the Church_, in seven
volumes, which appeared between 1855 and 1874 (Eng. trans., 1871, 1882).
Hefele's theological opinions inclined towards the more liberal school
in the Roman Catholic Church, but he nevertheless received considerable
signs of favour from its authorities, and was a member of the commission
that made preparations for the Vatican Council of 1870. On the eve of
that council he published at Naples his _Causa Honorii Papae_, which
aimed at demonstrating the moral and historical impossibility of papal
infallibility. About the same time he brought out a work in German on
the same subject. He took rather a prominent part in the discussions at
the council, associating himself with Félix Dupanloup and with Georges
Darboy, archbishop of Paris, in his opposition to the doctrine of
Infallibility, and supporting their arguments from his vast knowledge of
ecclesiastical history. In the preliminary discussions he voted against
the promulgation of the dogma. He was absent from the important sitting
of the 18th of June 1870, and did not send in his submission to the
decrees until 1871, when he explained in a pastoral letter that the
dogma "referred only to doctrine given forth _ex cathedra_, and therein
to the definitions proper only, but not to its proofs or explanations."
In 1872 he took part in the congress summoned by the Ultramontanes at
Fulda, and by his judicious use of minimizing tactics he kept his
diocese free from any participation in the Old Catholic schism. The last
four volumes of the second edition of his _History of the Councils_ have
been described as skilfully adapted to the new situation created by the
Vatican decrees. During the later years of his life he undertook no
further literary efforts on behalf of his church, but retired into
comparative privacy. He died on the 6th of June 1893.
See Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_, vii. 525.
HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH (1770-1831), German philosopher, was born
at Stuttgart on the 27th of August 1770. His father, an official in the
fiscal service of Württemberg, is not otherwise known to fame; and of
his mother we hear only that she had scholarship enough to teach him the
elements of Latin. He had one sister, Christiana, who died unmarried,
and a brother Ludwig, who served in the campaigns of Napoleon. At the
grammar school of Stuttgart, where Hegel was educated between the ages
of seven and eighteen, he was not remarkable. His main productions were
a diary kept at intervals during eighteen months (1785-1787), and
translations of the _Antigone_, the _Manual_ of Epictetus, &c. But the
characteristic feature of his studies was the copious extracts which
from this time onward he unremittingly made and preserved. This
collection, alphabetically arranged, comprised annotations on classical
authors, passages from newspapers, treatises on morals and mathematics
from the standard works of the period. In this way he absorbed in their
integrity the raw materials for elaboration. Yet as evidence that he was
not merely receptive we have essays already breathing that admiration of
the classical world which he never lost. His chief amusement was cards,
and he began the habit of taking snuff.
In the autumn of 1788 he entered at Tübingen as a student of theology;
but he showed no interest in theology: his sermons were a failure, and
he found more congenial reading in the classics, on the advantages of
studying which his first essay was written. After two years he took the
degree of Ph.D., and in the autumn of 1793 received his theological
certificate, stating him to be of good abilities, but of middling
industry and knowledge, and especially deficient in philosophy.
As a student, his elderly appearance gained him the title "Old man," but
he took part in the walks, beer-drinking and love-making of his fellows.
He gained most from intellectual intercourse with his contemporaries,
the two best known of whom were J. C. F. Hölderlin and Schelling. With
Hölderlin Hegel learned to feel for the old Greeks a love which grew
stronger as the semi-Kantianized theology of his teachers more and more
failed to interest him. With Schelling like sympathies bound him. They
both protested against the political and ecclesiastical inertia of their
native state, and adopted the doctrines of freedom and reason. The story
which tells how the two went out one morning to dance round a tree of
liberty in a meadow is an anachronism, though in keeping with their
opinions.
On leaving college, he became a private tutor at Bern and lived in
intellectual isolation. He was, however, far from inactive. He compiled
a systematic account of the fiscal system of the canton Bern, but the
main factor in his mental growth came from his study of Christianity.
Under the impulse given by Lessing and Kant he turned to the original
records of Christianity, and attempted to construe for himself the real
significance of Christ. He wrote a life of Jesus, in which Jesus was
simply the son of Joseph and Mary. He did not stop to criticize as a
philologist, and ignored the miraculous. He asked for the secret
contained in the conduct and sayings of this man which made him the hope
of the human race. Jesus appeared as revealing the unity with God in
which the Greeks in their best days unwittingly rejoiced, and as lifting
the eyes of the Jews from a lawgiver who metes out punishment on the
transgressor, to the destiny which in the Greek conception falls on the
just no less than on the unjust.
The interest of these ideas is twofold. In Jesus Hegel finds the
expression for something higher than mere morality: he finds a noble
spirit which rises above the contrasts of virtue and vice into the
concrete life, seeing the infinite always embracing our finitude, and
proclaiming the divine which is in man and cannot be overcome by error
and evil, unless the man close his eyes and ears to the godlike presence
within him. In religious life, in short, he finds the principle which
reconciles the opposition of the temporal mind. But, secondly, the
general source of the doctrine that life is higher than all its
incidents is of interest. He does not free himself from the current
theology either by rational moralizing like Kant, or by bold speculative
synthesis like Fichte and Schelling. He finds his panacea in the
concrete life of humanity. But although he goes to the Scriptures, and
tastes the mystical spirit of the medieval saints, the Christ of his
conception has traits that seem borrowed from Socrates and from the
heroes of Attic tragedy, who suffer much and yet smile gently on a
destiny to which they were reconciled. Instead of the Hebraic doctrine
of a Jesus punished for our sins, we have the Hellenic idea of a man who
is calmly tranquil in the consciousness of his unity with God.
During these years Hegel kept up a slack correspondence with Schelling
and Hölderlin. Schelling, already on the way to fame, kept Hegel abreast
with German speculation. Both of them were intent on forcing the
theologians into the daylight, and grudged them any aid they might
expect from Kant's postulation of God and immortality to crown the
edifice of ethics. Meanwhile, Hölderlin in Jena had been following
Fichte's career with an enthusiasm with which he infected Hegel.
It is pleasing to turn from these vehement struggles of thought to a
tour which Hegel in company with three other tutors made through the
Bernese Oberland in July and August 1796. Of this tour he left a minute
diary. He was delighted with the varied play of the waterfalls, but no
glamour blinded him to the squalor of Swiss peasant life. The glaciers
and the rocks called forth no raptures. "The spectacle of these
eternally dead masses gave me nothing but the monotonous and at last
tedious idea, 'Es ist so.'"
Towards the close of his engagement at Bern, Hegel had received hopes
from Schelling of a post at Jena. Fortunately his friend Hölderlin, now
tutor in Frankfort, secured a similar situation there for Hegel in the
family of Herr Gogol, a merchant (January 1797). The new post gave him
more leisure and the society he needed.
About this time he turned to questions of economics and government. He
had studied Gibbon, Hume and Montesquieu in Switzerland. We now find him
making extracts from the English newspapers on the Poor-Law Bill of
1796; criticising the Prussian land laws, promulgated about the same
time; and writing a commentary on Sir James Steuart's _Inquiry into the
Principles of Political Economy_. Here, as in contemporaneous criticisms
of Kant's ethical writings, Hegel aims at correcting the abstract
discussion of a topic by treating it in its systematic interconnexions.
Church and state, law and morality, commerce and art are reduced to
factors in the totality of human life, from which the specialists had
isolated them.
But the best evidence of Hegel's attention to contemporary politics is
two unpublished essays--one of them written in 1798, "On the Internal
Condition of Württemberg in Recent Times, particularly on the Defects in
the Magistracy," the other a criticism on the constitution of Germany,
written, probably, not long after the peace of Lunéville (1801). Both
essays are critical rather than constructive. In the first Hegel showed
how the supineness of the committee of estates in Württemberg had
favoured the usurpations of the superior officials in whom the court had
found compliant servants. And though he perceived the advantages of
change in the constitution of the estates, he still doubted if an
improved system could work in the actual conditions of his native
province. The main feature in the pamphlet is the recognition that a
spirit of reform is abroad. If Württemberg suffered from a bureaucracy
tempered by despotism, the Fatherland in general suffered no less.
"Germany," so begins the second of these unpublished papers, "is no
longer a state." Referring the collapse of the empire to the retention
of feudal forms and to the action of religious animosities, Hegel looked
forward to reorganization by a central power (Austria) wielding the
imperial army, and by a representative body elected by the geographical
districts of the empire. But such an issue, he saw well, could only be
the outcome of violence--of "blood and iron." The philosopher did not
pose as a practical statesman. He described the German empire in its
nullity as a conception without existence in fact. In such a state of
things it was the business of the philosopher to set forth the outlines
of the coming epoch, as they were already moulding themselves into
shape, amidst what the ordinary eye saw only as the disintegration of
the old forms of social life.
His old interest in the religious question reappears, but in a more
philosophical form. Starting with the contrast between a natural and a
positive religion, he regards a positive religion as one imposed upon
the mind from without, not a natural growth crowning the round of human
life. A natural religion, on the other hand, was not, he thought, the
one universal religion of every clime and age, but rather the
spontaneous development of the national conscience varying in varying
circumstances. A people's religion completes and consecrates their whole
activity: in it the people rises above its finite life in limited
spheres to an infinite life where it feels itself all at one. Even
philosophy with Hegel at this epoch was subordinate to religion; for
philosophy must never abandon the finite in the search for the infinite.
Soon, however, Hegel adopted a view according to which philosophy is a
higher mode of apprehending the infinite than even religion.
At Frankfort, meanwhile, the philosophic ideas of Hegel first assumed
the proper philosophic form. In a MS. of 102 quarto sheets, of which the
first three and the seventh are wanting, there is preserved the original
sketch of the Hegelian system, so far as the logic and metaphysics and
part of the philosophy of nature are concerned. The third part of the
system--the ethical theory--seems to have been composed afterwards; it
is contained in its first draft in another MS. of 30 sheets. Even these
had been preceded by earlier Pythagorean constructions envisaging the
divine life in divine triangles.
Circumstances soon put Hegel in the way to complete these outlines. His
father died in January 1799; and the slender sum which Hegel received as
his inheritance, 3154 gulden (about £260), enabled him to think once
more of a studious life. At the close of 1800 we find him asking
Schelling for letters of introduction to Bamberg, where with cheap
living and good beer he hoped to prepare himself for the intellectual
excitement of Jena. The upshot was that Hegel arrived at Jena in January
1801. An end had already come to the brilliant epoch at Jena, when the
romantic poets, Tieck, Novalis and the Schlegels made it the
headquarters of their fantastic mysticism, and Fichte turned the results
of Kant into the banner of revolutionary ideas. Schelling was the main
philosophical lion of the time; and in some quarters Hegel was spoken of
as a new champion summoned to help him in his struggle with the more
prosaic continuators of Kant. Hegel's first performance seemed to
justify the rumour. It was an essay on the difference between the
philosophic systems of Fichte and Schelling, tending in the main to
support the latter. Still more striking was the agreement shown in the
_Critical Journal of Philosophy_, which Schelling and Hegel wrote
conjointly during the years 1802-1803. So latent was the difference
between them at this epoch that in one or two cases it is not possible
to determine by whom the essay was written. Even at a later period
foreign critics like Cousin saw much that was alike in the two
doctrines, and did not hesitate to regard Hegel as a disciple of
Schelling. The dissertation by which Hegel qualified for the position of
_Privatdozent_ (_De orbitis planetarum_) was probably chosen under the
influence of Schelling's philosophy of nature. It was an unfortunate
subject. For while Hegel, depending on a numerical proportion suggested
by Plato, hinted in a single sentence that it might be a mistake to look
for a planet between Mars and Jupiter, Giuseppe Piazzi (q.v.) had
already discovered the first of the asteroids (Ceres) on the 1st of
January 1801. Apparently in August, when Hegel qualified, the news of
the discovery had not yet reached him, but critics have made this
luckless suggestion the ground of attack on a priori philosophy.
Hegel's lectures, in the winter of 1801-1802, on logic and metaphysics
were attended by about eleven students. Later, in 1804, we find him with
a class of about thirty, lecturing on his whole system; but his average
attendance was rather less. Besides philosophy, he once at least
lectured on mathematics. As he taught, he was led to modify his original
system, and notice after notice of his lectures promised a text-book of
philosophy--which, however, failed to appear. Meanwhile, after the
departure of Schelling from Jena in the middle of 1803, Hegel was left
to work out his own views. Besides philosophical studies, where he now
added Aristotle to Plato, he read Homer and the Greek tragedians, made
extracts from books, attended lectures on physiology, and dabbled in
other sciences. On his own representation at Weimar, he was in February
1805 made a professor extraordinarius, and in July 1806 drew his first
and only stipend--100 thalers. At Jena, though some of his hearers
became attached to him, Hegel was not a popular lecturer any more than
K. C. F. Krause (q.v.). The ordinary student found J. F. Fries (q.v.)
more intelligible.
Of the lectures of that period there still remain considerable notes.
The language often had a theological tinge (never entirely absent), as
when the "idea" was spoken of, or "the night of the divine mystery," or
the dialectic of the absolute called the "course of the divine life."
Still his view was growing clearer, and his difference from Schelling
more palpable. Both Schelling and Hegel stand in a relation to art, but
while the aesthetic model of Schelling was found in the contemporary
world, where art was a special sphere and the artist a separate
profession in no intimate connexion with the age and nation, the model
of Hegel was found rather in those works of national art in which art
is not a part but an aspect of the common life, and the artist is not a
mere individual but a concentration of the passion and power of beauty
in the whole community. "Such art," says Hegel, "is the common good and
the work of all. Each generation hands it on beautified to the next;
each has done something to give utterance to the universal thought.
Those who are said to have genius have acquired some special aptitude by
which they render the general shapes of the nation their own work, one
in one point, another in another. What they produce is not their
invention, but the invention of the whole nation; or rather, what they
find is that the whole nation has found its true nature. Each, as it
were, piles up his stone. So too does the artist. Somehow he has the
good fortune to come last, and when he places his stone the arch stands
self-supported." Hegel, as we have already seen, was fully aware of the
change that was coming over the world. "A new epoch," he says, "has
arisen. It seems as if the world-spirit had now succeeded in freeing
itself from all foreign objective existence, and finally apprehending
itself as absolute mind." These words come from lectures on the history
of philosophy, which laid the foundation for his _Phänomenologie des
Geistes_ (Bamberg, 1807).
On the 14th of October 1806 Napoleon was at Jena. Hegel, like Goethe,
felt no patriotic shudder at the national disaster, and in Prussia he
saw only a corrupt and conceited bureaucracy. Writing to his friend F.
J. Niethammer (1766-1848) on the day before the battle, he speaks with
admiration of the "world-soul," the emperor, and with satisfaction of
the probable overthrow of the Prussians. The scholar's wish was to see
the clouds of war pass away, and leave thinkers to their peaceful work.
His manuscripts were his main care; and doubtful of the safety of his
last despatch to Bamberg, and disturbed by the French soldiers in his
lodgings, he hurried off, with the last pages of the _Phänomenologie_,
to take refuge in the pro-rector's house. Hegel's fortunes were now at
the lowest ebb. Without means, and obliged to borrow from Niethammer, he
had no further hopes from the impoverished university. He had already
tried to get away from Jena. In 1805, when several lecturers left in
consequence of diminished classes, he had written to Johann Heinrich
Voss (q.v.), suggesting that his philosophy might find more congenial
soil in Heidelberg; but the application bore no fruit. He was,
therefore, glad to become editor of the _Bamberger Zeitung_ (1807-1808).
Of his editorial work there is little to tell; no leading articles
appeared in his columns. It was not a suitable vocation, and he gladly
accepted the rectorship of the Aegidien-gymnasium in Nuremberg, a post
which he held from December 1808 to August 1816. Bavaria at this time
was modernizing her institutions. The school system was reorganized by
new regulations, in accordance with which Hegel wrote a series of
lessons in the outlines of philosophy--ethical, logical and
psychological. They were published in 1840 by Rosenkranz from Hegel's
papers.
As a teacher and master Hegel inspired confidence in his pupils, and
maintained discipline without pedantic interference in their
associations and sports. On prize-days his addresses summing up the
history of the school year discussed some topic of general interest.
Five of these addresses are preserved. The first is an exposition of the
advantages of a classical training, when it is not confined to mere
grammar. "The perfection and grandeur of the master-works of Greek and
Roman literature must be the intellectual bath, the secular baptism,
which gives the first and unfading tone and tincture of taste and
science." In another address, speaking of the introduction of military
exercises at school, he says: "These exercises, while not intended to
withdraw the students from their more immediate duty, so far as they
have any calling to it, still remind them of the possibility that every
one, whatever rank in society he may belong to, may one day have to
defend his country and his king, or help to that end. This duty, which
is natural to all, was formerly recognized by every citizen, though
whole ranks in the state have become strangers to the very idea of it."
On the 16th of September 1811 Hegel married Marie von Tucher
(twenty-two years his junior) of Nuremberg. She brought her husband no
fortune, but the marriage was entirely happy. The husband kept a careful
record of income and expenditure. His income amounted at Nuremberg to
1500 gulden (£130) and a house; at Heidelberg, as professor, he received
about the same sum; at Berlin about 3000 thalers (£300). Two sons were
born to them; the elder, Karl, became eminent as a historian. The
younger, Immanuel, was born on the 24th of September 1816. Hegel's
letters to his wife, written during his solitary holiday tours to
Vienna, the Netherlands and Paris, breathe of kindly and happy
affection. Hegel the tourist--recalling happy days spent together;
confessing that, were it not because of his sense of duty as a
traveller, he would rather be at home, dividing his time between his
books and his wife; commenting on the shop windows at Vienna; describing
the straw hats of the Parisian ladies--is a contrast to the professor of
a profound philosophical system. But it shows that the enthusiasm which
in his days of courtship moved him to verse had blossomed into a later
age of domestic bliss.
In 1812 appeared the first two volumes of his _Wissenschaft der Logik_,
and the work was completed by a third in 1816. This work, in which his
system was for the first time presented in what, with a few minor
alterations, was its ultimate shape, found some audience in the world.
Towards the close of his eighth session three professorships were almost
simultaneously put within his reach--at Erlangen, Berlin and Heidelberg.
The Prussian offer expressed a doubt that his long absence from
university teaching might have made him rusty, so he accepted the post
at Heidelberg, whence Fries had just gone to Jena (October 1816). Only
four hearers turned up for one of his courses. Others, however, on the
encyclopaedia of philosophy and the history of philosophy drew classes
of twenty to thirty. While he was there Cousin first made his
acquaintance, but a more intimate relation dates from Berlin. Among his
pupils was Hermann F. W. Hinrichs (q.v.), to whose _Religion in its
Inward Relation to Science_ (1822) Hegel contributed an important
preface. The strangest of his hearers was an Esthonian baron, Boris
d'Yrkull, who after serving in the Russian army came to Heidelberg to
hear the wisdom of Hegel. But his books and his lectures were alike
obscure to the baron, who betook himself by Hegel's advice to simpler
studies before he returned to the Hegelian system.
At Heidelberg Hegel was active in a literary way also. In 1817 he
brought out the _Enzyklopädie d. philos. Wissenschaften im Grundrisse_
(4th ed., Berlin, 1817; new ed., 1870) for use at his lectures. It is
the only exposition of the Hegelian system as a whole which we have
direct from Hegel's own hand. Besides this work he wrote two reviews for
the Heidelberg _Jahrbücher_--the first on F. H. Jacobi, the other a
political pamphlet which called forth violent criticism. It was entitled
a _Criticism on the Transactions of the Estates of Württemberg in
1815-1816_. On the 15th of March 1815 King Frederick of Württemberg, at
a meeting of the estates of his kingdom, laid before them the draft of a
new constitution, in accordance with the resolutions of the congress of
Vienna. Though an improvement on the old constitution, it was
unacceptable to the estates, jealous of their old privileges and
suspicious of the king's intentions. A decided majority demanded the
restitution of their old laws, though the kingdom now included a large
population to which the old rights were strange. Hegel in his essay,
which was republished at Stuttgart, supported the royal proposals, and
animadverted on the backwardness of the bureaucracy and the landed
interests. In the main he was right; but he forgot too much the
provocation they had received, the usurpations and selfishness of the
governing family, and the unpatriotic character of the king.
In 1818 Hegel accepted the renewed offer of the chair of philosophy at
Berlin, vacant since the death of Fichte. The hopes which this offer
raised of a position less precarious than that of a university teacher
of philosophy were in one sense disappointed; for more than a professor
Hegel never became. But his influence upon his pupils, and his
solidarity with the Prussian government, gave him a position such as
few professors have held.
In 1821 Hegel published the _Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts_
(2nd ed., 1840; ed. G. J. B. Bolland, 1901; Eng. trans., _Philosophy of
Right_, by S. W. Dyde, 1896). It is a combined system of moral and
political philosophy, or a sociology dominated by the idea of the state.
It turns away contemptuously and fiercely from the sentimental
aspirations of reformers possessed by the democratic doctrine of the
rights of the omnipotent nation. Fries is stigmatized as one of the
"ringleaders of shallowness" who were bent on substituting a fancied tie
of enthusiasm and friendship for the established order of the state. The
disciplined philosopher, who had devoted himself to the task of
comprehending the organism of the state, had no patience with feebler or
more mercurial minds who recklessly laid hands on established
ordinances, and set them aside where they contravened humanitarian
sentiments. With the principle that whatever is real is rational, and
whatever is rational is real, Hegel fancied that he had stopped the
mouths of political critics and constitution-mongers. His theory was not
a mere formulation of the Prussian state. Much that he construed as
necessary to a state was wanting in Prussia; and some of the reforms
already introduced did not find their place in his system. Yet, on the
whole, he had taken his side with the government. Altenstein even
expressed his satisfaction with the book. In his disgust at the crude
conceptions of the enthusiasts, who had hoped that the war of liberation
might end in a realm of internal liberty, Hegel had forgotten his own
youthful vows recorded in verse to Hölderlin, "never, never to live in
peace with the ordinance which regulates feeling and opinion." And yet
if we look deeper we see that this is no worship of existing powers. It
is rather due to an overpowering sense of the value of organization--a
sense that liberty can never be dissevered from order, that a vital
interconnexion between all the parts of the body politic is the source
of all good, so that while he can find nothing but brute weight in an
organized public, he can compare the royal person in his ideal form of
constitutional monarchy to the dot upon the letter i. A keen sense of
how much is at stake in any alteration breeds suspicion of every reform.
During his thirteen years at Berlin Hegel's whole soul seems to have
been in his lectures. Between 1823 and 1827 his activity reached its
maximum. His notes were subjected to perpetual revisions and additions.
We can form an idea of them from the shape in which they appear in his
published writings. Those on _Aesthetics_, on the _Philosophy of
Religion_, on the _Philosophy of History_ and on the _History of
Philosophy_, have been published by his editors, mainly from the notes
of his students, under their separate heads; while those on logic,
psychology and the philosophy of nature are appended in the form of
illustrative and explanatory notes to the sections of his
_Encyklopädie_. During these years hundreds of hearers from all parts of
Germany, and beyond, came under his influence. His fame was carried
abroad by eager or intelligent disciples. At Berlin Henning served to
prepare the intending disciple for fuller initiation by the master
himself. Edward Gans (q.v.) and Heinrich Gustav Hotho (q.v.) carried the
method into special spheres of inquiry. At Halle Hinrichs maintained the
standard of Hegelianism amid the opposition or indifference of his
colleagues.
Three courses of lectures are especially the product of his Berlin
period: those on aesthetics, the philosophy of religion and the
philosophy of history. In the years preceding the revolution of 1830,
public interest, excluded from political life, turned to theatres,
concert-rooms and picture-galleries. At these Hegel became a frequent
and appreciative visitor and made extracts from the art-notes in the
newspapers. In his holiday excursions, the interest in the fine arts
more than once took him out of his way to see some old painting. At
Vienna in 1824 he spent every moment at the Italian opera, the ballet
and the picture-galleries. In Paris, in 1827, he saw Charles Kemble and
an English company play Shakespeare. This familiarity with the facts of
art, though neither deep nor historical, gave a freshness to his
lectures on aesthetics, which, as put together from the notes of 1820,
1823, 1826, are in many ways the most successful of his efforts.
The lectures on the philosophy of religion are another application of
his method. Shortly before his death he had prepared for the press a
course of lectures on the proofs for the existence of God. In his
lectures on religion he dealt with Christianity, as in his philosophy of
morals he had regarded the state. On the one hand he turned his weapons
against the rationalistic school, who reduced religion to the modicum
compatible with an ordinary worldly mind. On the other hand he
criticized the school of Schleiermacher, who elevated feeling to a place
in religion above systematic theology. His middle way attempts to show
that the dogmatic creed is the rational development of what was implicit
in religious feeling. To do so, of course, philosophy becomes the
interpreter and the superior. To the new school of E. W. Hengstenberg,
which regarded Revelation itself as supreme, such interpretation was an
abomination.
A Hegelian school began to gather. The flock included intelligent
pupils, empty-headed imitators, and romantic natures who turned
philosophy into lyric measures. Opposition and criticism only served to
define more precisely the adherents of the new doctrine. Hegel himself
grew more and more into a belief in his own doctrine as the one truth
for the world. He was in harmony with the government, and his followers
were on the winning side. Though he had soon resigned all direct
official connexion with the schools of Brandenburg, his real influence
in Prussia was considerable, and as usual was largely exaggerated in
popular estimate. In the narrower circle of his friends his birthdays
were the signal for congratulatory verses. In 1826 a formal festival was
got up by some of his admirers, one of whom, Herder, spoke of his
categories as new gods; and he was presented with much poetry and a
silver mug. In 1830 the students struck a medal in his honour, and in
1831 he was decorated by an order from Frederick William III. In 1830 he
was rector of the university; and in his speech at the tricentenary of
the Augsburg Confession in that year he charged the Catholic Church with
regarding the virtues of the pagan world as brilliant vices, and giving
the crown of perfection to poverty, continence and obedience.
One of the last literary undertakings in which he took part was the
establishment of the Berlin _Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik_,
in which he assisted Edward Gans and Varnhagen von Ense. The aim of this
review was to give a critical account, certified by the names of the
contributors, of the literary and philosophical productions of the time,
in relation to the general progress of knowledge. The journal was not
solely in the Hegelian interest; and more than once, when Hegel
attempted to domineer over the other editors, he was met by vehement and
vigorous opposition.
The revolution of 1830 was a great blow to him, and the prospect of
democratic advances almost made him ill. His last literary work, the
first part of which appeared in the _Preussische Staatszeitung_, was an
essay on the English Reform Bill of 1831. It contains primarily a
consideration of its probable effects on the character of the new
members of parliament, and the measures which they may introduce. In the
latter connexion he enlarged on several points in which England had done
less than many continental states for the abolition of monopolies and
abuses. Surveying the questions connected with landed property, with the
game laws, the poor, the Established Church, especially in Ireland, he
expressed grave doubt on the legislative capacity of the English
parliament as compared with the power of renovation manifested in other
states of western Europe.
In 1831 cholera first entered Europe. Hegel and his family retired for
the summer to the suburbs, and there he finished the revision of the
first part of his _Science of Logic_. On the beginning of the winter
session, however, he returned to his house in the Kupfergraben. On this
occasion an altercation occurred between him and his friend Gans, who in
his notice of lectures on jurisprudence had recommended Hegel's
_Philosophy of Right_. Hegel, indignant at what he deemed patronage,
demanded that the note should be withdrawn. On the 14th of November,
after one day's illness, he died of cholera and was buried, as he had
wished, between Fichte and Solger.
Hegel in his class-room was neither imposing nor fascinating. You saw a
plain, old-fashioned face, without life or lustre--a figure which had
never looked young, and was now prematurely aged; the furrowed face bore
witness to concentrated thought. Sitting with his snuff-box before him,
and his head bent down, he looked ill at ease, and kept turning the
folios of his notes. His utterance was interrupted by frequent coughing;
every sentence came out with a struggle. The style was no less
irregular. Sometimes in plain narrative the lecturer would be specially
awkward, while in abstruse passages he seemed specially at home, rose
into a natural eloquence, and carried away the hearer by the grandeur of
his diction.
_Philosophy._--Hegelianism is confessedly one of the most difficult of
all philosophies. Every one has heard the legend which makes Hegel
say, "One man has understood me, and even he has not." He abruptly
hurls us into a world where old habits of thought fail us. In three
places, indeed, he has attempted to exhibit the transition to his own
system from other levels of thought; but in none with much success. In
the introductory lectures on the philosophy of religion he gives a
rationale of the difference between the modes of consciousness in
religion and philosophy (between _Vorstellung_ and _Begriff_). In the
beginning of the _Encyklopädie_ he discusses the defects of dogmatism,
empiricism, the philosophies of Kant and Jacobi. In the first case he
treats the formal or psychological aspect of the difference; in the
latter he presents his doctrine less in its essential character than
in special relations to the prominent systems of his time. The
_Phenomenology of Spirit_, regarded as an introduction, suffers from a
different fault. It is not an introduction--for the philosophy which
it was to introduce was not then fully elaborated. Even to the last
Hegel had not so externalized his system as to treat it as something
to be led up to by gradual steps. His philosophy was not one aspect of
his intellectual life, to be contemplated from others; it was the ripe
fruit of concentrated reflection, and had become the one all-embracing
form and principle of his thinking. More than most thinkers he had
quietly laid himself open to the influences of his time and the
lessons of history.
The Phenomenology.
The _Phenomenology_ is the picture of the Hegelian philosophy in the
making--at the stage before the scaffolding has been removed from the
building. For this reason the book is at once the most brilliant and
the most difficult of Hegel's works--the most brilliant because it is
to some degree an autobiography of Hegel's mind--not the abstract
record of a logical evolution, but the real history of an intellectual
growth; the most difficult because, instead of treating the rise of
intelligence (from its first appearance in contrast with the real
world to its final recognition of its presence in, and rule over, all
things) as a purely subjective process, it exhibits this rise as
wrought out in historical epochs, national characteristics, forms of
culture and faith, and philosophical systems. The theme is identical
with the introduction to the _Encyklopädie_; but it is treated in a
very different style. From all periods of the world--from medieval
piety and stoical pride, Kant and Sophocles, science and art, religion
and philosophy--with disdain of mere chronology, Hegel gathers in the
vineyards of the human spirit the grapes from which he crushes the
wine of thought. The mind coming through a thousand phases of mistake
and disappointment to a sense and realization of its true position in
the universe--such is the drama which is consciously Hegel's own
history, but is represented objectively as the process of spiritual
history which the philosopher reproduces in himself. The
_Phenomenology_ stands to the _Encyklopädie_ somewhat as the dialogues
of Plato stand to the Aristotelian treatises. It contains almost all
his philosophy--but irregularly and without due proportion. The
personal element gives an undue prominence to recent phenomena of the
philosophic atmosphere. It is the account given by an inventor of his
own discovery, not the explanation of an outsider. It therefore to
some extent assumes from the first the position which it proposes
ultimately to reach, and gives not a proof of that position, but an
account of the experience (_Erfahrung_) by which consciousness is
forced from one position to another till it finds rest in _Absolutes
Wissen_.
The _Phenomenology_ is neither mere psychology, nor logic, nor moral
philosophy, nor history, but is all of these and a great deal more. It
needs not distillation, but expansion and illustration from
contemporary and antecedent thought and literature. It treats of the
attitudes of consciousness towards reality under the six heads of
consciousness, self-consciousness, reason (_Vernunft_), spirit
(_Geist_), religion and absolute knowledge. The native attitude of
consciousness towards existence is reliance on the evidence of the
senses; but a little reflection is sufficient to show that the reality
attributed to the external world is as much due to intellectual
conceptions as to the senses, and that these conceptions elude us when
we try to fix them. If consciousness cannot detect a permanent object
outside it, so self-consciousness cannot find a permanent subject in
itself. It may, like the Stoic, assert freedom by holding aloof from
the entanglements of real life, or like the sceptic regard the world
as a delusion, or finally, as the "unhappy consciousness"
(_Unglückliches Bewusstseyn_), may be a recurrent falling short of a
perfection which it has placed above it in the heavens. But in this
isolation from the world, self-consciousness has closed its gates
against the stream of life. The perception of this is reason. Reason
convinced that the world and the soul are alike rational observes the
external world, mental phenomena, and specially the nervous organism,
as the meeting ground of body and mind. But reason finds much in the
world recognizing no kindred with her, and so turning to practical
activity seeks in the world the realization of her own aims. Either in
a crude way she pursues her own pleasure, and finds that necessity
counteracts her cravings; or she endeavours to find the world in
harmony with the heart, and yet is unwilling to see fine aspirations
crystallized by the act of realizing them. Finally, unable to impose
upon the world either selfish or humanitarian ends, she folds her arms
in pharisaic virtue, with the hope that some hidden power will give
the victory to righteousness. But the world goes on in its life,
heedless of the demands of virtue. The principle of nature is to live
and let live. Reason abandons her efforts to mould the world, and is
content to let the aims of individuals work out their results
independently, only stepping in to lay down precepts for the cases
where individual actions conflict, and to test these precepts by the
rules of formal logic.
So far we have seen consciousness on one hand and the real world on
the other. The stage of _Geist_ reveals the consciousness no longer as
critical and antagonistic but as the indwelling spirit of a community,
as no longer isolated from its surroundings but the union of the
single and real consciousness with the vital feeling that animates the
community. This is the lowest stage of concrete consciousness--life,
and not knowledge; the spirit inspires, but does not reflect. It is
the age of unconscious morality, when the individual's life is lost in
the society of which he is an organic member. But increasing culture
presents new ideals, and the mind, absorbing the ethical spirit of its
environment, gradually emancipates itself from conventions and
superstitions. This _Aufklärung_ prepares the way for the rule of
conscience, for the moral view of the world as subject of a moral law.
From the moral world the next step is religion; the moral law gives
place to God; but the idea of Godhead, too, as it first appears, is
imperfect, and has to pass through the forms of nature-worship and of
art before it reaches a full utterance in Christianity. Religion in
this shape is the nearest step to the stage of absolute knowledge; and
this absolute knowledge--"the spirit knowing itself as spirit"--is not
something which leaves these other forms behind but the full
comprehension of them as the organic constituents of its empire; "they
are the memory and the sepulchre of its history, and at the same time
the actuality, truth and certainty of its throne." Here, according to
Hegel, is the field of philosophy.
The preface to the _Phenomenology_ signalled the separation from
Schelling--the adieu to romantic. It declared that a genuine
philosophy has no kindred with the mere aspirations of artistic minds,
but must earn its bread by the sweat of its brow. It sets its face
against the idealism which either thundered against the world for its
deficiencies, or sought something finer than reality. Philosophy is to
be the science of the actual world--it is the spirit comprehending
itself in its own externalizations and manifestations. The philosophy
of Hegel is idealism, but it is an idealism in which every idealistic
unification has its other face in the multiplicity of existence. It is
realism as well as idealism, and never quits its hold on facts.
Compared with Fichte and Schelling, Hegel has a sober, hard, realistic
character. At a later date, with the call of Schelling to Berlin in
1841, it became fashionable to speak of Hegelianism as a negative
philosophy requiring to be complemented by a "positive" philosophy
which would give reality and not mere ideas. The cry was the same as
that of Krug (q.v.), asking the philosophers who expounded the
absolute to construe his pen. It was the cry of the Evangelical school
for a personal Christ and not a dialectical Logos. The claims of the
individual, the real, material and historical fact, it was said, had
been sacrificed by Hegel to the universal, the ideal, the spiritual
and the logical.
There was a truth in these criticisms. It was the very aim of
Hegelianism to render fluid the fixed phases of reality--to show
existence not to be an immovable rock limiting the efforts of thought,
but to have thought implicit in it, waiting for release from its
petrifaction. Nature was no longer, as with Fichte, to be a mere
spring-board to evoke the latent powers of the spirit. Nor was it, as
in Schelling's earlier system, to be a collateral progeny with mind
from the same womb of indifference and identity. Nature and mind in
the Hegelian system--the external and the spiritual world--have the
same origin, but are not co-equal branches. The natural world proceeds
from the "idea," the spiritual from the idea and nature. It is
impossible, beginning with the natural world, to explain the mind by
any process of distillation or development, unless consciousness or
its potentiality has been there from the first. Reality, independent
of the individual consciousness, there must be; reality, independent
of all mind, is an impossibility. At the basis of all reality, whether
material or mental, there is thought. But the thought thus regarded as
the basis of all existence is not consciousness with its distinction
of ego and non-ego. It is rather the stuff of which both mind and
nature are made, neither extended as in the natural world, nor
self-centred as in mind. Thought in its primary form is, as it were,
thoroughly transparent and absolutely fluid, free and mutually
interpenetrable in every part--the spirit in its seraphic scientific
life, before creation had produced a natural world, and thought had
risen to independent existence in the social organism. Thought in this
primary form, when in all its parts completed, is what Hegel calls the
"idea." But the idea, though fundamental, is in another sense final,
in the process of the world. It only appears in consciousness as the
crowning development of the mind. Only with philosophy does thought
become fully conscious of itself in its origin and development.
Accordingly the history of philosophy is the pre-supposition of logic,
or the three branches of philosophy form a circle.
Logic.
The exposition or constitution of the "idea" is the work of the Logic.
As the total system falls into three parts, so every part of the
system follows the triadic law. Every truth, every reality, has three
aspects or stages; it is the unification of two contradictory
elements, of two partial aspects of truth which are not merely
contrary, like black and white, but contradictory, like same and
different. The first step is a preliminary affirmation and
unification, the second a negation and differentiation, the third a
final synthesis. For example, the seed of the plant is an initial
unity of life, which when placed in its proper soil suffers
disintegration into its constitutents, and yet in virtue of its vital
unity keeps these divergent elements together, and reappears as the
plant with its members in organic union. Or again, the process of
scientific induction is a threefold chain; the original hypothesis
(the first unification of the fact) seems to melt away when confronted
with opposite facts, and yet no scientific progress is possible unless
the stimulus of the original unification is strong enough to clasp the
discordant facts and establish a reunification. Thesis, antithesis and
synthesis, a Fichtean formula, is generalized by Hegel into the
perpetual law of thought.
In what we may call their psychological aspect these three stages are
known as the abstract stage, or that of understanding (_Verstand_),
the dialectical stage, or that of negative reason, and the speculative
stage, or that of positive reason (_Vernunft_). The first of these
attitudes taken alone is dogmatism; the second, when similarly
isolated, is scepticism; the third, when unexplained by its elements,
is mysticism. Thus Hegelianism reduces dogmatism, scepticism and
mysticism to factors in philosophy. The abstract or dogmatic thinker
believes his object to be one, simple and stationary, and intelligible
apart from its surrounding. He speaks, e.g., as if species and genera
were fixed and unchangeable; and fixing his eye on the ideal forms in
their purity and self-sameness, he scorns the phenomenal world, whence
this identity and persistence are absent. The dialectic of negative
reason rudely dispels these theories. Appealing to reality it shows
that the identity and permanence of forms are contradicted by history;
instead of unity it exhibits multiplicity, instead of identity
difference, instead of a whole, only parts. Dialectic is, therefore, a
dislocating power; it shakes the solid structures of material thought,
and exhibits the instability latent in such conceptions of the world.
It is the spirit of progress and change, the enemy of convention and
conservatism; it is absolute and universal unrest. In the realm of
abstract thought these transitions take place lightly. In the worlds
of nature and mind they are more palpable and violent. So far as this
Hegel seems on the side of revolution. But reason is not negative
only; while it disintegrates the mass or unconscious unity, it builds
up a new unity with higher organization. But this third stage is the
place of effort, requiring neither the surrender of the original unity
nor the ignoring of the diversity afterwards suggested. The stimulus
of contradiction is no doubt a strong one; but the easiest way of
escaping it is to shut our eyes to one side of the antithesis. What is
required, therefore, is to readjust our original thesis in such a way
as to include and give expression to both the elements in the process.
The universe, then, is a process or development, to the eye of
philosophy. It is the process of the absolute--in religious language,
the manifestation of God. In the background of all the absolute is
eternally present; the rhythmic movement of thought is the
self-unfolding of the absolute. God reveals Himself in the logical
idea, in nature and in mind; but mind is not alike conscious of its
absoluteness in every stage of development. Philosophy alone sees God
revealing Himself in the ideal organism of thought as it were a
possible deity prior to the world and to any relation between God and
actuality; in the natural world, as a series of materialized forces
and forms of life; and in the spiritual world as the human soul, the
legal and moral order of society, and the creations of art, religion
and philosophy.
This introduction of the absolute became a stumbling-block to
Feuerbach and other members of the "Left." They rejected as an
illegitimate interpolation the eternal subject of development, and,
instead of one continuing God as the subject of all the predicates by
which in the logic the absolute is defined, assumed only a series of
ideas, products of philosophic activity. They denied the theological
value of the logical forms--the development of these forms being in
their opinion due to the human thinker, not to a self-revealing
absolute. Thus they made man the creator of the absolute. But with
this modification on the system another necessarily followed; a mere
logical series could not create nature. And thus the material universe
became the real starting-point. Thought became only the result of
organic conditions--subjective and human; and the system of Hegel was
no longer an idealization of religion, but a naturalistic theory with
a prominent and peculiar logic.
The logic of Hegel is the only rival to the logic of Aristotle. What
Aristotle did for the theory of demonstrative reasoning, Hegel
attempted to do for the whole of human knowledge. His logic is an
enumeration of the forms or categories by which our experience exists.
It carried out Kant's doctrine of the categories as a priori synthetic
principles, but removed the limitation by which Kant denied them any
constitutive value except in alliance with experience. According to
Hegel the terms in which thought exhibits itself are a system of their
own, with laws and relations which reappear in a less obvious shape in
the theories of nature and mind. Nor are they restricted to the small
number which Kant obtained by manipulating the current subdivision of
judgments. But all forms by which thought holds sensations in unity
(the formative or synthetic elements of language) had their place
assigned in a system where one leads up to and passes over into
another.
The fact which ordinary thought ignores, and of which ordinary logic
therefore provides no account, is the presence of gradation and
continuity in the world. The general terms of language simplify the
universe by reducing its variety of individuals to a few forms, none
of which exists simply and perfectly. The method of the understanding
is to divide and then to give a separate reality to what it has thus
distinguished. It is part of Hegel's plan to remedy this one-sided
character of thought, by laying bare the gradations of ideas. He lays
special stress on the point that abstract ideas when held in their
abstraction are almost interchangeable with their opposites--that
extremes meet, and that in every true and concrete idea there is a
coincidence of opposites.
The beginning of the logic is an illustration of this. The logical
idea is treated under the three heads of being (_Seyn_), essence
(_Wesen_) and notion (_Begriff_). The simplest term of thought is
being; we cannot think less about anything than when we merely say
that it is. Being--the abstract "is"--is _nothing_ definite, and
nothing at least is. Being and not being are thus declared
identical--a proposition which in this unqualified shape was to most
people a stumbling-block at the very door of the system. Instead of
the mere "is" which is as yet nothing, we should rather say "becomes,"
and as "becomes" always implies "something," we have determinate
being--"a being" which in the next stage of definiteness becomes
"one." And in this way we pass on to the quantitative aspects of
being.
The terms treated under the first head, in addition to those already
mentioned, are the abstract principles of quantity and number, and
their application in measure to determine the limits of being. Under
the title of essence are discussed those pairs of correlative terms
which are habitually employed in the explanation of the world--such as
law and phenomenon, cause and effect, reason and consequence,
substance and attribute. Under the head of notion are considered,
firstly, the subjective forms of conception, judgment and syllogism;
secondly, their realization in objects as mechanically, chemically or
teleologically constituted; and thirdly, the idea first of life, and
next of science, as the complete interpenetration of thought and
objectivity. The third part of logic evidently is what contains the
topics usually treated in logic-books, though even here the province
of logic in the ordinary sense is exceeded. The first two
divisions--the "objective logic"--are what is usually called
metaphysics.
The characteristic of the system is the gradual way in which idea is
linked to idea so as to make the division into chapters only an
arrangement of convenience. The judgment is completed in the
syllogism; the syllogistic form as the perfection of subjective
thought passes into objectivity, where it first appears embodied in a
mechanical system; and the teleological object, in which the members
are as means and end, leads up to the idea of life, where the end is
means and means end indissolubly till death. In some cases these
transitions may be unsatisfactory and forced; it is apparent that the
linear development from "being" to the "idea" is got by transforming
into a logical order the sequence that has roughly prevailed in
philosophy from the Eleatics; cases might be quoted where the
reasoning seems a play upon words; and it may often be doubted whether
certain ideas do not involve extra-logical considerations. The order
of the categories is in the main outlines fixed; but in the minor
details much depends upon the philosopher, who has to fill in the gaps
between ideas, with little guidance from the data of experience, and
to assign to the stages of development names which occasionally deal
hardly with language. The merit of Hegel is to have indicated and to a
large extent displayed the filiation and mutual limitation of our
forms of thought; to have arranged them in the order of their
comparative capacity to give a satisfactory expression to truth in the
totality of its relations; and to have broken down the partition which
in Kant separated the formal logic from the transcendental analytic,
as well as the general disruption between logic and metaphysic. It
must at the same time be admitted that much of the work of weaving the
terms of thought, the categories, into a system has a hypothetical and
tentative character, and that Hegel has rather pointed out the path
which logic must follow, viz. a criticism of the terms of scientific
and ordinary thought in their filiation and interdependence, than
himself in every case kept to the right way. The day for a fuller
investigation of this problem will partly depend upon the progress of
the study of language in the direction marked out by W. von Humboldt.
Philosophy of nature.
The Philosophy of Nature starts with the result of the logical
development, with the full scientific "idea." But the relations of
pure thought, losing their inwardness, appear as relations of space
and time; the abstract development of thought appears as matter and
movement. Instead of thought, we have perception; instead of
dialectic, gravitation; instead of causation, sequence in time. The
whole falls under the three heads of mechanics, physics and
"organic"--the content under each varying somewhat in the three
editions of the _Encyklopädie_. The first treats of space, time,
matter, movement; and in the solar system we have the representation
of the idea in its general and abstract material form. Under the head
of physics we have the theory of the elements, of sound, heat and
cohesion, and finally of chemical affinity--presenting the phenomena
of material change and interchange in a series of special forces which
generate the variety of the life of nature. Lastly, under the head of
"organic," come geology, botany and animal physiology--presenting the
concrete results of these processes in the three kingdoms of nature.
The charges of superficial analogies, so freely urged against the
"Natur-philosophie" by critics who forget the impulse it gave to
physical research by the identification of forces then believed to be
radically distinct, do not particularly affect Hegel. But in general
it may be said that he looked down upon the mere natural world. The
meanest of the fancies of the mind and the most casual of its whims he
regarded as a better warrant for the being of God than any single
object of nature. Those who supposed astronomy to inspire religious
awe were horrified to hear the stars compared to eruptive spots on the
face of the sky. Even in the animal world, the highest stage of
nature, he saw a failure to reach an independent and rational system
of organization; and its feelings under the continuous violence and
menaces of the environment he described as insecure, anxious and
unhappy.
His point of view was essentially opposed to the current views of
science. To metamorphosis he only allowed a logical value, as
explaining the natural classification; the only real, existent
metamorphosis he saw in the development of the individual from its
embryonic stage. Still more distinctly did he contravene the general
tendency of scientific explanation. "It is held the triumph of science
to recognize in the general process of the earth the same categories
as are exhibited in the processes of isolated bodies. This is,
however, an application of categories from a field where the
conditions are finite to a sphere in which the circumstances are
infinite." In astronomy he depreciates the merits of Newton and
elevates Kepler, accusing Newton particularly, à propos of the
distinction of centrifugal and centripetal forces, of leading to a
confusion between what is mathematically to be distinguished and what
is physically separate. The principles which explain the fall of an
apple will not do for the planets. As to colour, he follows Goethe,
and uses strong language against Newton's theory, for the barbarism of
the conception that light is a compound, the incorrectness of his
observations, &c. In chemistry, again, he objects to the way in which
all the chemical elements are treated as on the same level.
Philosophy of mind. 1. Psychology.
The third part of the system is the Philosophy of Mind. Its three
divisions are the "subjective mind" (psychology), the "objective mind"
(philosophic jurisprudence, moral and political philosophy) and the
"absolute mind" (the philosophy of art, religion and philosophy). The
subjects of the second and third divisions have been treated by Hegel
with great detail. The "objective mind" is the topic of the
_Rechts-Philosophie_, and of the lectures on the Philosophy of
History; while on the "absolute mind" we have the lectures on
Aesthetic, on the Philosophy of Religion and on the History of
Philosophy--in short, more than one-third of his works.
The purely psychological branch of the subject takes up half of the
space allotted to _Geist_ in the _Encyklopädie_. It falls under the
three heads of anthropology, phenomenology and psychology proper.
Anthropology treats of the mind in union with the body--of the natural
soul--and discusses the relations of the soul with the planets, the
races of mankind, the differences of age, dreams, animal magnetism,
insanity and phrenology. In this obscure region it is rich in
suggestions and rapprochements; but the ingenuity of these
speculations attracts curiosity more than it satisfies scientific
inquiry. In the Phenomenology consciousness, self-consciousness and
reason are dealt with. The title of the section and the contents
recall, though with some important variations, the earlier half of his
first work; only that here the historical background on which the
stages in the development of the ego were represented has disappeared.
Psychology, in the stricter sense, deals with the various forms of
theoretical and practical intellect, such as attention, memory, desire
and will. In this account of the development of an independent, active
and intelligent being from the stage where man like the Dryad is a
portion of the natural life around him, Hegel has combined what may be
termed a physiology and pathology of the mind--a subject far wider
than that of ordinary psychologies, and one of vast intrinsic
importance. It is, of course, easy to set aside these questions as
unanswerable, and to find artificiality in the arrangement. Still it
remains a great point to have even attempted some system in the dark
anomalies which lie under the normal consciousness, and to have traced
the genesis of the intellectual faculties from animal sensitivity.
2. Law and history.
The theory of the mind as objectified in the institutions of law, the
family and the state is discussed in the "Philosophy of Right."
Beginning with the antithesis of a legal system and morality, Hegel,
carrying out the work of Kant, presents the synthesis of these
elements in the ethical life (_Sittlichkeit_) of the family and the
state. Treating the family as an instinctive realization of the moral
life, and not as the result of contract, he shows how by the means of
wider associations due to private interests the state issues as the
full home of the moral spirit, where intimacy of interdependence is
combined with freedom of independent growth. The state is the
consummation of man as finite; it is the necessary starting-point
whence the spirit rises to an absolute existence in the spheres of
art, religion and philosophy. In the finite world or temporal state,
religion, as the finite organization of a church, is, like other
societies, subordinate to the state. But on another side, as absolute
spirit, religion, like art and philosophy, is not subject to the
state, but belongs to a higher region.
The political state is always an individual, and the relations of
these states with each other and the "world-spirit" of which they are
the manifestations constitute the material of history. The _Lectures
on the Philosophy of History_, edited by Gans and subsequently by Karl
Hegel, is the most popular of Hegel's works. The history of the world
is a scene of judgment where one people and one alone holds for awhile
the sceptre, as the unconscious instrument of the universal spirit,
till another rises in its place, with a fuller measure of liberty--a
larger superiority to the bonds of natural and artificial
circumstance. Three main periods--the Oriental, the Classical and the
Germanic--in which respectively the single despot, the dominant order,
and the man as man possess freedom--constitute the history of the
world. Inaccuracy in detail and artifice in the arrangement of
isolated peoples are inevitable in such a scheme. A graver mistake,
according to some critics, is that Hegel, far from giving a law of
progress, seems to suggest that the history of the world is nearing an
end, and has merely reduced the past to a logical formula. The answer
to this charge is partly that such a law seems unattainable, and
partly that the idealistic content of the present which philosophy
extracts is always an advance upon actual fact, and so does throw a
light into the future. And at any rate the method is greater than
Hegel's employment of it.
3. Art, religion and philosophy.
But as with Aristotle so with Hegel--beyond the ethical and political
sphere rises the world of absolute spirit in art, religion and
philosophy. The psychological distinction between the three forms is
that sensuous perception (_Anschauung_) is the organon of the first,
presentative conception (_Vorstellung_) of the second and free thought
of the third. The work of art, the first embodiment of absolute mind,
shows a sensuous conformity between the idea and the reality in which
it is expressed. The so-called beauty of nature is for Hegel an
adventitious beauty. The beauty of art is a beauty born in the spirit
of the artist and born again in the spectator; it is not like the
beauty of natural things, an incident of their existence, but is
"essentially a question, an address to a responding breast, a call to
the heart and spirit." The perfection of art depends on the degree of
intimacy in which idea and form appear worked into each other. From
the different proportion between the idea and the shape in which it is
realized arise three different forms of art. When the idea, itself
indefinite, gets no further than a struggle and endeavour for its
appropriate expression, we have the symbolic, which is the Oriental,
form of art, which seeks to compensate its imperfect expression by
colossal and enigmatic structures. In the second or classical form of
art the idea of humanity finds an adequate sensuous representation.
But this form disappears with the decease of Greek national life, and
on its collapse follows the romantic, the third form of art; where the
harmony of form and content again grows defective, because the object
of Christian art--the infinite spirit--is a theme too high for art.
Corresponding to this division is the classification of the single
arts. First comes architecture--in the main, symbolic art; then
sculpture, the classical art _par excellence_; they are found,
however, in all three forms. Painting and music are the specially
romantic arts. Lastly, as a union of painting and music comes poetry,
where the sensuous element is more than ever subordinate to the
spirit.
The lectures on the Philosophy of Art stray largely into the next
sphere and dwell with zest on the close connexion of art and religion;
and the discussion of the decadence and rise of religions, of the
aesthetic qualities of Christian legend, of the age of chivalry, &c.,
make the _Ästhetik_ a book of varied interest.
The lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, though unequal in their
composition and belonging to different dates, serve to exhibit the
vital connexion of the system with Christianity. Religion, like art,
is inferior to philosophy as an exponent of the harmony between man
and the absolute. In it the absolute exists as the poetry and music of
the heart, in the inwardness of feeling. Hegel after expounding the
nature of religion passes on to discuss its historical phases, but in
the immature state of religious science falls into several mistakes.
At the bottom of the scale of nature-worships he places the religion
of sorcery. The gradations which follow are apportioned with some
uncertainty amongst the religions of the East. With the Persian
religion of light and the Egyptian of enigmas we pass to those faiths
where Godhead takes the form of a spiritual individuality, i.e. to the
Hebrew religion (of sublimity), the Greek (of beauty) and the Roman
(of adaptation). Last comes absolute religion, in which the mystery of
the reconciliation between God and man is an open doctrine. This is
Christianity, in which God is a Trinity, because He is a spirit. The
revelation of this truth is the subject of the Christian Scriptures.
For the Son of God, in the immediate aspect, is the finite world of
nature and man, which far from being at one with its Father is
originally in an attitude of estrangement. The history of Christ is
the visible reconciliation between man and the eternal. With the death
of Christ this union, ceasing to be a mere fact, becomes a vital
idea--the Spirit of God which dwells in the Christian community.
The lectures on the History of Philosophy deal disproportionately with
the various epochs, and in some parts date from the beginning of
Hegel's career. In trying to subject history to the order of logic
they sometimes misconceive the filiation of ideas. But they created
the history of philosophy as a scientific study. They showed that a
philosophical theory is not an accident or whim, but an exponent of
its age determined by its antecedents and environments, and handing on
its results to the future. (W. W.; X.)
_Hegelianism in England._--On the continent of Europe the direct
influence of Hegelianism was comparatively short-lived. This was due
among other causes to the direction of attention to the rising science
of psychology, partly to the reaction against the speculative method.
In England and Scotland it had another fate. Both in theory and
practice it here seemed to supply precisely the counter-active to
prevailing tendencies towards empiricism and individualism that was
required. In this respect it stood to philosophy in somewhat the same
relation that the influence of Goethe stood to literature. This
explains the hold which it had obtained upon both English and Scottish
thought soon after the middle of the 19th century. The first impulse
came from J. F. Ferrier and J. H. Stirling in Edinburgh, and B. Jowett
in Oxford. Already in the seventies there was a powerful school of
English thinkers under the lead of Edward Caird and T. H. Green
devoted to the study and exposition of the Hegelian system. With the
general acceptance of its main principle that the real is the
rational, there came in the eighties a more critical examination of
the precise meaning to be attached to it and its bearing on the
problems of religion. The earlier Hegelians had interpreted it in the
sense that the world in its ultimate essence was not only spiritual
but self-conscious intelligence whose nature was reflected
inadequately but truly in the finite mind. They thus seemed to come
forward in the character of exponents rather than critics of the
Western belief in God, freedom and immortality. As time went on it
became obvious that without departure from the spirit of idealism
Hegel's principle was susceptible of a different interpretation.
Granted that rationality taken in the sense of inner coherence and
self-consistency is the ultimate standard of truth and reality, does
self-consciousness itself answer to the demands of this criterion? If
not, are we not forced to deny ultimate reality to personality whether
human or divine? The question was definitely raised in F. H. Bradley's
_Appearance and Reality_ (1893; 2nd ed., 1897) and answered in the
negative. The completeness and self-consistency which our ideal
requires can be realized only in a form of being in which subject and
object, will and desire, no longer stand as exclusive opposites, from
which it seemed at once to follow that the finite self could not be a
reality nor the infinite reality a self. On this basis Bradley
developed a theory of the Absolute which, while not denying that it
must be conceived of spiritually, insisted that its spirituality is of
a kind that finds no analogy in our self-conscious experience. More
recently J. M. E. McTaggart's _Studies in Hegelian Dialectic_ (1896),
_Studies in Hegelian Cosmology_ (1901) and _Some Dogmas of Religion_
(1906) have opened a new chapter in the interpretation of Hegelianism.
Truly perceiving that the ultimate metaphysical problem is, here as
ever, the relation of the One and the Many, McTaggart starts with a
definition of the ideal in which our thought upon it can come to rest.
He finds it where (a) the unity is for each individual, (b) the whole
nature of the individual is to be _for_ the unity. It follows from
such a conception of the relation that the whole cannot itself be an
individual apart from the individuals in whom it is realized, in other
words, the Absolute cannot be a Person. But for the same reason--viz.
that in it first and in it alone this condition is realized--the
individual soul must be held to be an ultimate reality reflecting in
its inmost nature, like the monad of Leibniz, the complete fulness and
harmony of the whole. In reply to Bradley's argument for the unreality
of the self, Hegel is interpreted as meaning that the opposition
between self and not-self on which it is founded is one that is
self-made and in being made is transcended. The fuller our knowledge
of reality the more does the object stand out as an invulnerable
system of ordered parts, but the process by which it is thus set in
opposition to the subject is also the process by which we understand
and transform it into the substance of our own thought. From this
position further consequences followed. Seeing that the individual
soul must thus be taken to stand in respect to its inmost essence in
complete harmony with the whole, it must eternally be at one with
itself: all change must be appearance. Seeing, moreover, that it is,
and is maintained in being, by a fixed relation to the Absolute, it
cannot fail of immortality. No pantheistic theory of an eternal
substance continuously expressing itself in different individuals who
fall back into its being like drops into the ocean will here be
sufficient. The ocean is the drops. "The Absolute requires each self
not to make up a sum or to maintain an average but in respect of the
self's special and unique nature." Finally as it cannot cease, neither
can the individual soul have had a beginning. Pre-existence is as
necessary and certain as a future life. If memory is lacking as a link
between the different lives, this only shows that memory is not of the
substance of the soul.
In view of these differences (amounting almost to an antinomy of
paradoxes) in interpretation, it is not surprising to find that recent
years have witnessed a violent reaction in some quarters against
Hegelian influence. This has taken the direction on the one hand of a
revival of realism (see METAPHYSICS), on the other of a new form of
subjective idealism (see PRAGMATISM). As yet neither of these
movements has shown sufficient coherence or stability to establish
itself as a rival to the main current of philosophy in England. But
they have both been urged with sufficient ability to arrest its
progress and to call for a reconsideration and restatement of the
fundamental principle of idealist philosophy and its relation to the
fundamental problems of religion. This will probably be the main work
of the next generation of thinkers in England (see IDEALISM).
Among Italian Hegelians are A. Vera, Raffaele Mariano and B. Spaventa
(1817-1883); see V. de Lucia, _L'Hegel in Italia_ (1891). In Sweden,
J. J. Borelius of Lund; in Norway, G. V. Lyng (d. 1884), M. J. Monrad
(1816-1897) and G. Kent (d. 1892) have adopted Hegelianism; in France,
P. Leroux and P. Prévost.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Shortly after Hegel's death his collected works were
published by a number of his friends, who combined for the purpose.
They appeared in eighteen volumes in 1832, and a second edition came
out about twelve years later. Volumes i.-viii. contain the works
published by himself; the remainder is made up of his lectures on the
Philosophy of History, Aesthetic, the Philosophy of Religion and the
History of Philosophy, besides some essays and reviews, with a few of
his letters, and the Philosophical Propaedeutic.
For his life see K. Rosenkranz, _Leben Hegels_ (Berlin, 1844); R. R.
Haym, _Hegel und seine Zeit_ (Berlin, 1857); K. Köstlin, _Hegel in
philosophischer, politischer und nationaler Beziehung_ (Tübingen,
1870); Rosenkranz, _Hegel als deutscher National-Philosoph_ (Berlin,
1870), and his _Neue Studien_, vol. iv. (Berlin, 1878); Kuno Fischer,
_Hegels Leben und Werke_.
For the philosophy see A. Ruge's _Aus früherer Zeit_, vol. iv.
(Berlin, 1867); Haym (as above); F. A. Trendelenburg (in _Logische
Untersuchungen_); A. L. Kym (_Metaphysische Untersuchungen_) and C.
Hermann (_Hegel und die logische Frage_ and other works) are
noticeable as modern critics. Georges Noël, _La Logique de Hegel_
(Paris, 1897); Aloys Schmid, _Die Entwickelungsgeschichte der
Hegelschen Logik_ (Regensburg, 1858). Vera has translated the
_Encyklopädie_ into French, with notes; C. Bénard, the _Ästhetik_. In
English J. Hutcheson Stirling's _Secret of Hegel_ (2 vols., London,
1865) contains a translation of the beginning of the _Wissenschaft der
Logik_; the "Logic" from the _Encyklopädie_ has been translated, with
Prolegomena, by W. Wallace (Oxford, 1874). W. Wallace also translated
the third part of the _Encyklopädie in Hegel's Philosophy of Mind_
(1894); R. B. Haldane the _History of Philosophy_ (1896); E. B.
Speirs, lectures on the _Philosophy of Religion_ (1895); J. Sibree,
lectures on _The Philosophy of History_ (1852); B. Bosanquet,
_Philosophy of Fine Art_, Introduction (1886); W. Hastie, _The
Philosophy of Art_ (1886); S. W. Dyde, _The Philosophy of Right_
(1896). Other recent expositions and criticisms in addition to those
mentioned above are W. T. Harris, _Hegel's Logic_ (1890); J. B.
Baillie, _Origin and Significance of Hegel's Logic_ (1901), and
_Outline of the Idealistic Construction of Experience_ (1906); P.
Barth, _Die Geschichtsphilosophie Hegels_ (1890); J. A. Marrast, _La
Philosophie du droit de Hegel_ (1869); L. Miraglia, _I Principii
fondamentali e la dottrina eticogiuridica di Hegel_ (1873); _Hegel's
Philosophy of the State and History_ (Germ. Phil. Classics, 1887); G.
Bolland, _Philosophie des Rechts_ (1902), and _Hegels Philosophie der
Religion_ (1901); E. Ott, _Die Religionsphilosophie Hegels_ (1904); J.
M. Sterrett, _Studies in Hegel's Philosophy of Religion_ (1891); M.
Ehrenhauss, _Hegels Gottesbegriff_ (1880); E. Caird, Hegel (1880); A.
Seth Pringle-Pattison, _Hegelianism and Personality_ (1893); Millicent
Mackenzie, _Hegel's Educational Theory and Practice_ (1909), with
biographical sketch; J. M. E. McTaggart, _Commentary on Hegel's Logic_
(1910). (J. H. Mu.)
HEGEMON OF THASOS, Greek writer of the old comedy, nicknamed [Greek:
Phakê] from his fondness for lentils. Hardly anything is known of him,
except that he flourished during the Peloponnesian War. According to
Aristotle (_Poetics_, ii. 5) he was the inventor of a kind of parody; by
slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the
sublime into the ridiculous. When the news of the disaster in Sicily
reached Athens, his parody of the _Gigantomachia_ was being performed;
it is said that the audience were so amused by it that, instead of
leaving to show their grief, they remained in their seats. He was also
the author of a comedy called _Philinne_ (_Philine_), written in the
manner of Eupolis and Cratinus, in which he attacked a well-known
courtesan. Athenaeus (p. 698), who preserves some parodic hexameters of
his, relates other anecdotes concerning him (pp. 5, 108, 407).
Fragments in T. Kock, _Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta_, i. (1880); B.
J. Peltzer, _De parodica Graecorum poesi_ (1855).
HEGEMONY (Gr. [Greek: hêgemonia], leadership, from [Greek: hêgeisthai],
to lead), the leadership especially of one particular state in a group
of federated or loosely united states. The term was first applied in
Greek history to the position claimed by different individual
city-states, e.g. by Athens and Sparta, at different times to a position
of predominance (_primus inter pares_) among other equal states, coupled
with individual autonomy. The reversion of this position was claimed by
Macedon (see GREECE: _Ancient History_, and DELIAN LEAGUE).
HEGESIAS OF MAGNESIA (in Lydia), Greek rhetorician and historian,
flourished about 300 B.C. Strabo (xiv. 648), speaks of him as the
founder of the florid style of composition known as "Asiatic" (cf.
TIMAEUS). Agatharchides, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero all speak
of him in disparaging terms, although Varro seems to have approved of
his work. He professed to imitate the simple style of Lysias, avoiding
long periods, and expressing himself in short, jerky sentences, without
modulation or finish. His vulgar affectation and bombast made his
writings a mere caricature of the old Attic. Dionysius describes his
composition as tinselled, ignoble and effeminate. It is generally
supposed, from the fragment quoted as a specimen by Dionysius, that
Hegesias is to be classed among the writers of lives of Alexander the
Great. This fragment describes the treatment of Gaza and its inhabitants
by Alexander after its conquest, but it is possible that it is only part
of an epideictic or show-speech, not of an historical work. This view is
supported by a remark of Agatharchides in Photius (_cod._ 250) that the
only aim of Hegesias was to exhibit his skill in describing sensational
events.
See Cicero, _Brutus_ 83, _Orator_ 67, 69, with J. E. Sandys's note,
_ad Att._ xii. 6; Dion. Halic. _De verborum comp._ iv.; Aulus Gellius
ix. 4; Plutarch, _Alexander_, 3; C. W. Müller, _Scriptores rerum
Alexandri Magni_, p. 138 (appendix to Didot ed. of Arrian, 1846);
Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_ (1898); J. B. Bury, _Ancient Greek
Historians_ (1909), pp. 169-172, on origin and development of
"Asiatic" style, with example from Hegesias.
HEGESIPPUS, Athenian orator and statesman, nicknamed [Greek: Krôbylos]
("knot"), probably from the way in which he wore his hair. He lived in
the time of Demosthenes, of whose anti-Macedonian policy he was an
enthusiastic supporter. In 343 B.C. he was one of the ambassadors sent
to Macedonia to discuss, amongst other matters, the restoration of the
island of Halonnesus, which had been seized by Philip. The mission was
unsuccessful, but soon afterwards Philip wrote to Athens, offering to
resign possession of the island or to submit to arbitration the question
of ownership. In reply to this letter the oration De _Halonneso_ was
delivered, which, although included among the speeches of Demosthenes,
is generally considered to be by Hegesippus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
and Plutarch, however, favour the authorship of Demosthenes.
See Demosthenes, _De falsa legatione_ 364, 447, _De corona_ 250,
_Philippica_ iii. 129; Plutarch, _Demosthenes_ 17, _Apophthegmata_,
187D; Dionysius Halic. _ad Ammaeum_, i.; Grote, _History of Greece_,
ch. 90.
HEGESIPPUS (fl. A.D. 150-180), early Christian writer, was of
Palestinian origin, and lived under the Emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus
Aurelius and Commodus. Like Aristo of Pella he belonged to that group of
Judaistic Christians which, while keeping the law themselves, did not
attempt to impose on others the requirements of circumcision and Sabbath
observance. He was the author of a treatise ([Greek: hypomnêmata]) in
five books dealing with such subjects as Christian literature, the unity
of church doctrine, paganism, heresy and Jewish Christianity, fragments
of which are found in Eusebius, who obtained much of his information
concerning early Palestinian church history and chronology from this
source. Hegesippus was also a great traveller, and like many other
leaders of his time came to Rome (having visited Corinth on the way)
about the middle of the 2nd century. His journeyings impressed him with
the idea that the continuity of the church in the cities he visited was
a guarantee of its fidelity to apostolic orthodoxy: "in each succession
and in every city, the doctrine is in accordance with that which the Law
and the Prophets and the Lord [i.e. the Old Testament and the
evangelical tradition] proclaim." To illustrate this opinion he drew up
a list of the Roman bishops. Hegesippus is thus a significant figure
both for the type of Christianity taught in the circle to which he
belonged, and as accentuating the point of view which the church began
to assume in the presence of a developing gnosticism.
HEGESIPPUS, the supposed author of a free Latin adaptation of the
_Jewish War_ of Josephus under the title _De bello Judaico et excidio
urbis Hierosolymitanae_. The seven books of Josephus are compressed into
five, but much has been added from the Antiquities and from the works of
Roman historians, while several entirely new speeches are introduced to
suit the occasion. Internal evidence shows that the work could not have
been written before the 4th century A.D. The author, who is undoubtedly
a Christian, describes it in his preface as a kind of revised edition of
Josephus. Some authorities attribute it to Ambrose, bishop of Milan
(340-397), but there is nothing to settle the authorship definitely. The
name Hegesippus itself appears to be a corruption of Josephus, through
the stages [Greek: Iôsêpos], Iosippus, Egesippus, Hegesippus, unless it
was purposely adopted as reminiscent of Hegesippus, the father of
ecclesiastical history (2nd century).
Best edition by C. F. Weber and J. Caesar (1864); authorities in E.
Schürer, _History of the Jewish People_ (Eng. trans.), i. 99 seq.; F.
Vogel, _De Hegesippo, qui dicitur, Josephi interprete_ (Erlangen,
1881).
HEGIUS [VON HEEK], ALEXANDER (c. 1433-1498), German humanist, so called
from his birthplace Heek in Westphalia. In his youth he was a pupil of
Thomas à Kempis, at that time canon of the convent of St Agnes at
Zwolle. In 1474 he settled down at Deventer in Holland, where he either
founded or succeeded to the headship of a school, which became famous
for the number of its distinguished alumni. First and foremost of these
was Erasmus; others were Hermann von dem Busche, the missionary of
humanism, Conrad Goclenius (Gockelen), Conrad Mutianus (Muth von Mudt)
and pope Adrian VI. Hegius died at Deventer on the 7th of December 1498.
His writings, consisting of short poems, philosophical essays,
grammatical notes and letters, were published after his death by his
pupil Jacob Faber. They display considerable knowledge of Latin, but
less of Greek, on the value of which he strongly insisted. Hegius's
chief claim to be remembered rests not upon his published works, but
upon his services in the cause of humanism. He succeeded in abolishing
the old-fashioned medieval textbooks and methods of instruction, and led
his pupils to the study of the classical authors themselves. His
generosity in assisting poor students exhausted a considerable fortune,
and at his death he left nothing but his books and clothes.
See D. Reichling, "Beiträge zur Charakteristik des Alex. Hegius," in
the _Monatsschrift für Westdeutschland_ (1877); H. Hamelmann, _Opera
genealogico-historica_ (1711); H. A. Erhard, _Geschichte des
Wiederaufblühens wissenschaftlicher Bildung_ (1826); C. Krafft and W.
Crecelius, "Alexander Hegius und seine Schüler," from the works of
Johannes Butzbach, one of Hegius's pupils, in _Zeitschrift des
bergischen Geschichtsvereins_, vii. (Bonn, 1871).
HEIBERG, JOHAN LUDVIG (1791-1860), Danish poet and critic, son of the
political writer Peter Andreas Heiberg (1758-1841), and of the famous
novelist, afterwards the Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, was born at
Copenhagen on the 14th of December 1791. In 1800 his father was exiled
and settled in Paris, where he was employed in the French foreign
office, retiring in 1817 with a pension. His political and satirical
writings continued to exercise great influence over his
fellow-countrymen. Johan Ludvig Heiberg was taken by K. L. Rahbek and
his wife into their house at Bakkehuset. He was educated at the
university of Copenhagen, and his first publication, entitled _The
Theatre for Marionettes_ (1814), included two romantic dramas. This was
followed by _Christmas Jokes and New Year's Tricks_ (1816), _The
Initiation of Psyche_ (1817), and _The Prophecy of Tycho Brahé_, a
satire on the eccentricities of the Romantic writers, especially on the
sentimentality of Ingemann. These works attracted attention at a time
when Baggesen, Öhlenschläger and Ingemann possessed the popular ear, and
were understood at once to be the opening of a great career. In 1817
Heiberg took his degree, and in 1819 went abroad with a grant from
government. He proceeded to Paris, and spent the next three years there
with his father. In 1822 he published his drama of _Nina_, and was made
professor of the Danish language at the university of Kiel, where he
delivered a course of lectures, comparing the Scandinavian mythology as
found in the _Edda_ with the poems of Öhlenschläger. These lectures were
published in German in 1827.
In 1825 Heiberg came back to Copenhagen for the purpose of introducing
the vaudeville on the Danish stage. He composed a great number of these
vaudevilles, of which the best known are _King Solomon and George the
Hatmaker_ (1825); _April Fools_ (1826); _A Story in Rosenborg Garden_
(1827); _Kjöge Huskors_ (1831); _The Danes in Paris_ (1833); _No_
(1836); and _Yes_ (1839). He took his models from the French theatre,
but showed extraordinary skill in blending the words and the music; but
the subjects and the humour were essentially Danish and even topical.
Meanwhile he was producing dramatic work of a more serious kind; in 1828
he brought out the national drama of _Elverhöi_; in 1830 _The
Inseparables_; in 1835 the fairy comedy of _The Elves_, a dramatic
version of Tieck's _Elfin_; and in 1838 _Fata Morgana_. In 1841 Heiberg
published a volume of _New Poems_ containing "A Soul after Death," a
comedy which is perhaps his masterpiece, "The Newly Wedded Pair," and
other pieces. He edited from 1827 to 1830 the famous weekly, the
_Flyvende Post_ (The Flying Post), and subsequently the _Interimsblade_
(1834-1837) and the _Intelligensblade_ (1842-1843). In his journalism he
carried on his warfare against the excessive pretensions of the
Romanticists, and produced much valuable and penetrating criticism of
art and literature. In 1831 he married the actress Johanne Louise
Paetges (1812-1890), herself the author of some popular vaudevilles.
Heiberg's scathing satires, however, made him very unpopular; and this
antagonism reached its height when, in 1845, he published his malicious
little drama of _The Nut Crackers_. Nevertheless he became in 1847
director of the national theatre. He filled the post for seven years,
working with great zeal and conscientiousness, but was forced by
intrigues from without to resign it in 1854. Heiberg died at Bonderup,
near Ringsted, on the 25th of August 1860. His influence upon taste and
critical opinion was greater than that of any writer of his time, and
can only be compared with that of Holberg in the 18th century. Most of
the poets of the Romantic movement in Denmark were very grave and
serious; Heiberg added the element of humour, elegance and irony. He had
the genius of good taste, and his witty and delicate productions stand
almost unique in the literature of his country.
The poetical works of Heiberg were collected, in 11 vols., in
1861-1862, and his prose writings (11 vols.) in the same year. The
last volume of his prose works contains some fragments of
autobiography. See also G. Brandes, _Essays_ (1889). For the elder
Heiberg see monographs by Thaarup (1883) and by Schwanenflügel (1891).
HEIDE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Schleswig-Holstein, on a small plateau which stands between the marshes
and moors bordering the North Sea, 35 m. N.N.W. of Glückstadt, at the
junction of the railways Elmshorn-Hvidding and Neumünster-Tönning. Pop.
(1905), 8758. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a
high-grade school, and tobacco and cigar manufactories and breweries.
Heide in 1447 became the capital of the Ditmarsh peasant republic, but
on the 13th of June 1559 it was the scene of the complete defeat of the
peasant forces by the Danes.
HEIDEGGER, JOHANN HEINRICH (1633-1698), Swiss theologian, was born at
Bärentschweil, in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, on the 1st of July
1633. He studied at Marburg and at Heidelberg, where he became the
friend of J. L. Fabricius (1632-1696), and was appointed _professor
extraordinarius_ of Hebrew and later of philosophy. In 1659 he was
called to Steinfurt to fill the chair of dogmatics and ecclesiastical
history, and in the same year he became doctor of theology of
Heidelberg. In 1660 he revisited Switzerland; and, after marrying, he
travelled in the following year to Holland, where he made the
acquaintance of Johannes Cocceius. He returned in 1665 to Zürich, where
he was elected professor of moral philosophy. Two years later he
succeeded J. H. Hottinger (1620-1667) in the chair of theology, which he
occupied till his death on the 18th of January 1698, having declined an
invitation in 1669 to succeed J. Cocceius at Leiden, as well as a call
to Groningen. Heidegger was the principal author of the _Formula
Consensus Helvetica_ in 1675, which was designed to unite the Swiss
Reformed churches, but had an opposite effect. W. Gass describes him as
the most notable of the Swiss theologians of the time.
His writings are largely controversial, though without being bitter, and
are in great part levelled against the Roman Catholic Church. The chief
are _De historia sacra patriarcharum exercitationes selectae_
(1667-1671); _Dissertatio de Peregrinationibus religiosis_ (1670); _De
ratione studiorum, opuscula aurea_, &c. (1670); _Historia papatus_
(1684; under the name Nicander von Hohenegg); _Manuductio in viam
concordiae Protestantium ecclesiasticae_ (1686); _Tumulus concilii
Tridentini_ (1690); _Exercitationes biblicae_ (1700), with a life of the
author prefixed; _Corpus theologiae Christianae_ (1700, edited by J. H.
Schweizer); _Ethicae Christianae elementa_ (1711); and lives of J. H.
Hottinger (1667) and J. L. Fabricius (1698). His autobiography appeared
in 1698, under the title _Historia vitae J. H. Heideggeri_.
See the articles in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_ and the
_Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_; and cf. W. Gass, _Geschichte der
protestantischen Dogmatik_, ii. 353 ff.
HEIDELBERG, a town of Germany, on the south bank of the Neckar, 12 m.
above its confluence with the Rhine, 13 m. S.E. from Mannheim and 54 m.
from Frankfort-on-Main by rail. The situation of the town, lying between
lofty hills covered with vineyards and forests, at the spot where the
rapid Neckar leaves the gorge and enters the plain of the Rhine, is one
of great natural beauty. The town itself consists practically of one
long, narrow street--the Hauptstrasse--running parallel to the river,
from the railway station on the west to the Karlstor on the east (where
there is also a local station) for a distance of 2 m. To the south of
this is the Anlage, a pleasant promenade flanked by handsome villas and
gardens, leading directly to the centre of the place. A number of
smaller streets intersect the Hauptstrasse at right angles and run down
to the river, which is crossed by two fine bridges. Of these, the old
bridge on the east, built in 1788, has a fine gateway and is adorned
with statues of Minerva and the elector Charles Theodore of the
Palatinate; the other, the lower bridge, on the west, built in 1877,
connects Heidelberg with the important suburbs of Neuenheim and
Handschuchsheim. Of recent years the town has grown largely towards the
west on both sides of the river; but the additions have been almost
entirely of the better class of residences. Heidelberg is an important
railway centre, and is connected by trunk lines with Frankfort,
Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Spires and Würzburg. Electric trams provide for
local traffic, and there are also several light railways joining it with
the neighbouring villages. Of the churches the chief are the Protestant
Peterskirche dating from the 15th century and restored in 1873, to the
door of which Jerome of Prague in 1460 nailed his theses; the Heilige
Geist Kirche (Church of the Holy Ghost), an imposing Gothic edifice of
the 15th century; the Jesuitenkirche (Roman Catholic), with a
sumptuously decorated interior, and the new Evangelical Christuskirche.
The town hall and the university buildings, dating from 1712 and
restored in 1886, are commonplace erections; but to the south of the
Ludwigsplatz, upon which most of the academical buildings lie, stands
the new university library, a handsome structure of pink sandstone in
German Renaissance style. In addition to the Ludwigsplatz with its
equestrian statue of the emperor William I. there are other squares in
the town, among them being the Bismarckplatz with a statue of Bismarck,
and the Jubiläumsplatz.
The chief attraction of Heidelberg is the castle, which overhangs the
east part of the town. It stands on the Jettenbühl, a spur of the
Königsstuhl (1800 ft.), at a height of 330 ft. above the Neckar. Though
now a ruin, yet its extent, its magnificence, its beautiful situation
and its interesting history render it by far the most noteworthy, as it
certainly is the grandest and largest, of the old castles of Germany.
The building was begun early in the 13th century. The elector palatine
and German king Rupert III. (d. 1410) greatly improved it, and built the
wing, Ruprechtsbau or Rupert's building, that bears his name. Succeeding
electors further extended and embellished it (see ARCHITECTURE, Plate
VII., figs. 78-80); notably Otto Henry "the Magnanimous" (d. 1559), who
built the beautiful early Renaissance wing known as the
Otto-Heinrichsbau (1556-1559); Frederick IV., for whom the fine late
Renaissance wing called the Friedrichsbau was built (1601-1607); and
Frederick V., the unfortunate "winter king" of Bohemia, who on the west
side added the Elisabethenbau or Englischebau (1618), named after his
wife, the daughter of James I. of Great Britain and ancestress of the
present English reigning family. In 1648, at the peace of Westphalia,
Heidelberg was given back to Frederick V.'s son, Charles Louis, who
restored the castle to its former splendour. In 1688, during Louis
XIV.'s invasion of the Palatinate, the castle was taken, after a long
siege, by the French, who blew part of it up when they found they could
not hope to hold it (March 2, 1689). In 1693 it was again captured by
them and still further wrecked. Finally, in 1764, it was struck by
lightning and reduced to its present ruinous condition.
[Illustration: Map of Heidelberg.]
Apart from the outworks, the castle forms an irregular square with round
towers at the angles, the principal buildings being grouped round a
central courtyard, the entrance to which is from the south through a
series of gateways. In this courtyard, besides the buildings already
mentioned, are the oldest parts of the castle, the so-called Alte Bau
(old building) and the Bandhaus. The Friedrichsbau, which is decorated
with statues of the rulers of the Palatinate, was elaborately restored
and rendered habitable between 1897 and 1903. Other noteworthy objects
in the castle are the fountain in the courtyard, decorated with four
granite columns from Charlemagne's palace at Ingelheim; the
Elisabethentor, a beautiful gateway named after the English princess;
the beautiful octagonal bell-tower at the N.E. angle; the ruins of the
Krautturm, now known as the Gesprengte Turm, or blown-up tower, and the
castle chapel and the museum of antiquities in the Friedrichsbau. In a
cellar entered from the courtyard is the famous Great Tun of Heidelberg.
This vast vat was built in 1751, but has only been used on one or two
occasions. Its capacity is 49,000 gallons, and it is 20 ft. high and 31
ft. long. Behind the Friedrichsbau is the Altan (1610), or castle
balcony, from which is obtained a view of great beauty, extending from
the town beneath to the heights across the Neckar and over the broad
luxuriant plain of the Rhine to Mannheim and the dim contours of the
Hardt Mountains behind. On the terrace of the beautiful grounds is a
statue of Victor von Scheffel, the poet of Heidelberg.
The university of Heidelberg was founded by the elector Rupert I., in
1385, the bull of foundation being issued by Pope Urban VI. in that
year. It was constructed after the type of Paris, had four faculties,
and possessed numerous privileges. Marselius von Inghen was its first
rector. The electors Frederick I., the Victorious, Philip the Upright
and Louis V. respectively cherished it. Otto Henry gave it a new
organization, further endowed it and founded the library. At the
Reformation it became a stronghold of Protestant learning, the
Heidelberg catechism being drawn up by its theologians. Then the tide
turned. Damaged by the Thirty Years' War, it led a struggling existence
for a century and a half. A large portion of its remaining endowments
was cut off by the peace of Lunéville (1801). In 1803, however, Charles
Frederick, grand-duke of Baden, raised it anew and reconstituted it
under the name of "Ruperto-Carola." The number of professors and
teachers is at present about 150 and of students 1700. The library was
first kept in the choir of the Heilige Geist Kirche, and then consisted
of 3500 MSS. In 1623 it was sent to Rome by Maximilian I., duke of
Bavaria, and stored as the Bibliotheca Palatina in the Vatican. It was
afterwards taken to Paris, and in 1815 was restored to Heidelberg. It
has more than 500,000 volumes, besides 4000 MSS. Among the other
university institutions are the academic hospital, the maternity
hospital, the physiological institution, the chemical laboratory, the
zoological museum, the botanical garden and the observatory on the
Königsstuhl.
The other educational foundations are a gymnasium, a modern and a
technical school. There is a small theatre, an art and several other
scientific societies. The manufactures of Heidelberg include cigars,
leather, cement, surgical instruments and beer, but the inhabitants
chiefly support themselves by supplying the wants of a large and
increasing body of foreign permanent residents, of the considerable
number of tourists who during the summer pass through the town, and of
the university students. A funicular railway runs from the Korn-Markt up
to the level of the castle and thence to the Molkenkur (700 ft. above
the town). The town is well lighted and is supplied with excellent water
from the Wolfsbrunnen. Pop. (1885), 29,304; (1905), 49,527.
At an early period Heidelberg was a fief of the bishop of Worms, who
entrusted it about 1225 to the count palatine of the Rhine, Louis I. It
soon became a town and the chief residence of the counts palatine.
Heidelberg was one of the great centres of the reformed teaching and was
the headquarters of the Calvinists. On this account it suffered much
during the Thirty Years' War, being captured and plundered by Count
Tilly in 1622, by the Swedes in 1633 and again by the imperialists in
1635. By the peace of Westphalia it was restored to the elector Charles
Louis. In 1688 and again in 1693 Heidelberg was sacked by the French. On
the latter occasion the work of destruction was carried out so
thoroughly that only one house escaped; this being a quaintly decorated
erection in the Marktplatz, which is now the Hôtel zum Ritter. In 1720
the elector Charles II. removed his court to Mannheim, and in 1803 the
town became part of the grand-duchy of Baden. On the 5th of March 1848
the Heidelberg assembly was held here, and at this meeting the steps
were taken which led to the revolution in Germany in that year.
See Oncken, _Stadt, Schloss und Hochschule Heidelberg; Bilder aus
ihrer Vergangenheit_ (Heidelberg, 1885); Öchelhäuser, _Das
Heidelberger Schloss, bau- und kunstgeschichtlicher Führer_
(Heidelberg, 1902); Pfaff, _Heidelberg und Umgebung_ (Heidelberg,
1902); Lorentzen, _Heidelberg und Umgebung_ (Stuttgart, 1902); Durm,
_Das Heidelberger Schloss, eine Studie_ (Berlin, 1884); Koch and
Seitz, _Das Heidelberger Schloss_ (Darmstadt, 1887-1891); J. F. Hautz,
_Geschickte der Universität Heidelberg_ (1863-1864); A. Thorbecke,
_Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg_ (Stuttgart, 1886); the
_Urkundenbuch der Universität Heidelberg_, edited by Winkelmann
(Heidelberg, 1886); Bähr, _Die Entführung der Heidelberger Bibliothek
nach Rom_ (Leipzig, 1845); and G. Weber, _Heidelberger Erinnerungen_
(Stuttgart, 1886).
HEIDELBERG, a town and district of the Transvaal. The district is
bounded S. by the Vaal river and includes the south-eastern part of the
Witwatersrand gold-fields. The town of Heidelberg is 42 m. S.E. of
Johannesburg and 441 m. N.W. of Durban by rail. Pop. (1904), 3220, of
whom 1837 were white. It was founded in 1865, is built on the slopes of
the Rand at an elevation of 5029 ft., and is reputed the best sanatorium
in the colony. It is the centre of the eastern Rand goldmines.
HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, THE, the most attractive of all the catechisms of
the Reformation, was drawn up at the bidding of Frederick III., elector
of the Palatinate, and published on Tuesday the 19th of January 1563.
The new religion in the Palatinate had been largely under the guidance
of Philip Melanchthon, who had revived the old university of Heidelberg
and staffed it with sympathetic teachers. One of these, Tillemann,
Heshusius, who became general superintendent in 1558, held extreme
Lutheran views on the Real Presence, and in his desire to force the
community into his own position excommunicated his colleague Klebitz,
who held Zwinglian views. When the breach was widening Frederick, "der
fromme Kurfürst," came to the succession, dismissed the two chief
combatants and referred the trouble to Melanchthon, whose guarded
verdict was distinctly Swiss rather than Lutheran. In a decree of August
1560 the elector declared for Calvin and Zwingli, and soon after he
resolved to issue a new and unambiguous catechism of the evangelical
faith. He entrusted the task to two young men who have won deserved
remembrance by their learning and their character alike. Zacharias
Ursinus was born at Breslau in July 1534 and attained high honour in the
university of Wittenberg. In 1558 he was made rector of the gymnasium in
his native town, but the incessant strife with the extreme Lutherans
drove him to Zürich, whence Frederick, on the advice of Peter Martyr,
summoned him to be professor of theology at Heidelberg and
superintendent of the _Sapientiae Collegium_. He was a man of modest and
gentle spirit, not endowed with great preaching gifts, but unwearied in
study and consummately able to impart his learning to others. Deposed
from his chair by the elector Louis in 1576, he lived with John Casimir
at Neustadt and found a congenial sphere in the new seminary there,
dying in his 49th year, in March 1583.
Caspar Olevianus was born at Treves in 1536. He gave up law for
theology, studied under Calvin in Geneva, Peter Martyr in Zürich, and
Beza in Lausanne. Urged by William Farel he preached the new faith in
his native city, and when banished therefrom found a home with Frederick
of Heidelberg, where he gained high renown as preacher and
administrator. His ardour and enthusiasm made him the happy complement
of Ursinus. When the reaction came under Louis he was befriended by
Ludwig von Sain, prince of Wittgenstein, and John, count of Nassau, in
whose city of Herborn he did notable work at the high school until his
death on the 15th of March 1587. The elector could have chosen no better
men, young as they were, for the task in hand. As a first step each drew
up a catechism of his own composition, that of Ursinus being naturally
of a more grave and academic turn than the freer production of
Olevianus, while each made full use of the earlier catechisms already in
use. But when the union was effected it was found that the spirits of
the two authors were most happily and harmoniously wedded, the exactness
and erudition of the one being blended with the fervency and grace of
the other. Thus the Heidelberg Catechism, which was completed within a
year of its inception, has an individuality that marks it out from all
its predecessors and successors. The Heidelberg synod unanimously
approved of it, it was published in January 1563, and in the same year
officially turned into Latin by Jos. Lagus and Lambert Pithopoeus.
The ultra-Lutherans attacked the catechism with great bitterness, the
assault being led by Heshusius and Flacius Illyricus. Maximilian II.
remonstrated against it as an infringement of the peace of Augsburg. A
conference was held at Maulbronn in April 1564, and a personal attack
was made on the elector at the diet of Augsburg in 1566, but the defence
was well sustained, and the Heidelberg book rapidly passed beyond the
bounds of the Palatinate (where indeed it suffered eclipse from 1576 to
1583, during the electorate of Louis), and gained an abundant success
not only in Germany (Hesse, Anhalt, Brandenburg and Bremen) but also in
the Netherlands (1588), and in the Reformed churches of Hungary,
Transylvania and Poland. It was officially recognized by the synod of
Dort in 1619, passed into France, Britain and America, and probably
shares with the _De imitatione Christi_ and _The Pilgrim's Progress_ the
honour of coming next to the Bible in the number of tongues into which
it has been translated.
This wide acceptance and high esteem are due largely to an avoidance of
polemical and controversial subjects, and even more to an absence of the
controversial spirit. There is no mistake about its Protestantism, even
when we omit the unhappy addition made to answer 80 by Frederick himself
(in indignant reply to the ban pronounced by the Council of Trent), in
which the Mass is described as "nothing else than a denial of the one
sacrifice and passion of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry"--an
addition which is the one blot on the [Greek: èpieíkeia] of the
catechism. The work is the product of the best qualities of head and
heart, and its prose is frequently marked by all the beauty of a lyric.
It follows the plan of the epistle to the Romans (excepting chapters
ix.-xi.) and falls into three parts: Sin, Redemption and the New Life.
This arrangement alone would mark it out from the normal reformation
catechism, which runs along the stereotyped lines of Decalogue, Creed,
Lord's Prayer, Church and Sacraments. These themes are included, but are
shown as organically related. The Commandments, e.g. "belong to the
first part so far as they are a mirror of our sin and misery, but also
to the third part, as being the rule of our new obedience and Christian
life." The Creed--a panorama of the sublime facts of redemption--and the
sacraments find their place in the second part; the Lord's Prayer (with
the Decalogue) in the third.
See _The Heidelberg Catechism_, the _German Text, with a Revised
Translation and Introduction_, edited by A. Smellie (London, 1900).
HEIDELOFF, KARL ALEXANDER VON (1788-1865), German architect, the son of
Victor Peter Heideloff, a painter, was born at Stuttgart. He studied at
the art academy of his native town, and after following the profession
of an architect for some time at Coburg was in 1818 appointed city
architect at Nuremberg. In 1822 he became professor at the polytechnic
school, holding his post until 1854, and some years later he was chosen
conservator of the monuments of art. Heideloff devoted his chief
attention to the Gothic style of architecture, and the buildings
restored and erected by him at Nuremberg and in its neighbourhood attest
both his original skill and his purity of taste. He also achieved some
success as a painter in watercolour. He died at Hassfurt on the 28th of
September 1865. Among his architectural works should be mentioned the
castle of Reinhardsbrunn, the Hall of the Knights in the fortress at
Coburg, the castle of Landsberg, the mortuary chapel in Meiningen, the
little castle of Rosenburg near Bonn, the chapel of the castle of
Rheinstein near Bingen, and the Catholic church in Leipzig. His powers
in restoration are shown in the castle of Lichtenstein, the cathedral of
Bamberg, and the Knights' Chapel (_Ritter Kapelle_) at Hassfurt.
Among his writings on architecture are _Die Lehre von den
Säulenordnungen_ (1827); _Der Kleine Vignola_ (1832); _Nürnbergs
Baudenkmäler der Vorzeit_ (1838-1843, complete edition 1854); and _Die
Ornamentik des Mittelalters_ (1838-1842).
HEIDENHEIM, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg, 31 m. by
rail north by east of Ulm. Pop. (1905), 12,173. It has an Evangelical
and a Roman Catholic church, and several schools. Its industrial
establishments include cotton, woollen, tobacco, machinery and chemical
factories, bleach-works, dye-works and breweries, and corn and cattle
markets. The town, which received municipal privileges in 1356, is
overlooked by the ruins of the castle of Hellenstein, standing on a hill
1985 ft. high. Heidenheim is also the name of a small place in Bavaria
famous on account of the Benedictine abbey which formerly stood therein.
Founded in 748 by Wilibald, bishop of Eichstätt, this was plundered by
the peasantry in 1525 and was closed in 1537.
HEIFER, a young cow that has not calved. The O. Eng. _heahfore_ or
_heafru_, from which the word is derived, is of obscure origin. It is
found in Bede's _History_ (A.D. 900) as _heahfore_, and has passed
through many forms. It is possibly derived from _heah_, high, and
_faren_ (fare), to go, meaning "high-stepper." It has also been
suggested that the derivation is from _hea_, a stall, and _fore_, a cow.
HEIGEL, KARL AUGUST VON (1835-1905), German novelist, was born, the son
of a _régisseur_ or stage-manager of the court theatre, on the 25th of
March 1835 at Munich. In this city he received his early schooling and
studied (1854-1858) philosophy at the university. He was then appointed
librarian to Prince Heinrich zu Carolath-Beuthen in Lower Silesia, and
accompanied the nephew of the prince on travels. In 1863 he settled in
Berlin, where from 1865 to 1875 he was engaged in journalism. He next
resided at Munich, employed in literary work for the king, Ludwig II.,
who in 1881 conferred upon him a title of nobility. On the death of the
king in 1886 he removed to Riva on the Lago di Garda, where he died on
the 6th of September 1905. Karl von Heigel attained some popularity with
his novels: _Wohin?_ (1873), _Die Dame ohne Herz_ (1873), _Das Geheimnis
des Königs_ (1891), _Der Roman einer Stadt_ (1898), _Der Maharadschah_
(1900), _Die nervöse Frau_ (1900), _Die neuen Heiligen_ (1901), and
_Brömels Glück und Ende_ (1902). He also wrote some plays, notably
_Josephine Bonaparte_ (1892) and _Die Zarin_ (1883); and several
collections of short stories, _Neue Erzählungen_ (1876), _Neueste
Novellen_ (1878), and _Heitere Erzählungen_ (1893).
HEIJERMANS, HERMANN (1864- ), Dutch writer, of Jewish origin, was born
on the 3rd of December 1864 at Rotterdam. In the Amsterdam _Handelsblad_
he published a series of sketches of Jewish family life under the
pseudonym of "Samuel Falkland," which were collected in volume form. His
novels and tales include _Trinette_ (1892), _Fles_ (1893),
_Kamertjeszonde_ (2 vols., 1896), _Intérieurs_ (1897), _Diamantstadt_ (2
vols., 1903). He created great interest by his play _Op Hoop van Zegen_
(1900), represented at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris, and in English by
the Stage Society as _The Good Hope_. His other plays are: _Dora Kremer_
(1893), _Ghetto_ (1898), _Het zevende Gebot_ (1899), _Het Pantser_
(1901), _Ora et labora_ (1901), and numerous one-act pieces. _A Case of
Arson_, an English version of the one-act play _Brand in de Jonge Jan_,
was notable for the impersonation (1904 and 1905) by Henri de Vries of
all the seven witnesses who appear as characters.
HEILBRONN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg, situated in
a pleasant and fruitful valley on the Neckar, 33 m. by rail N. of
Stuttgart, and at the junction of lines to Jagdsfeld, Crailsheim and
Eppingen. Pop. (1905), 40,026. In the older part of the town the streets
are narrow, and contain a number of high turreted houses with quaintly
adorned gables. The old fortifications have now been demolished, and
their site is occupied by promenades, outside of which are the more
modern parts of the town with wide streets and many handsome buildings.
The principal public buildings are the church of St Kilian (restored
1886-1895) in the Gothic and Renaissance styles, begun about 1019 and
completed in 1529, with an elegant tower 210 ft. high, a beautiful
choir, and a finely carved altar; the town hall (Rathaus), founded in
1540, and possessing a curious clock made in 1580, and a collection of
interesting letters and other documents; the house of the Teutonic
knights (Deutsches Haus), now used as a court of law; the Roman Catholic
church of St Joseph, formerly the church of the Teutonic Order; the
tower (Diebsturm or Götzens Turm) on the Neckar, in which Götz von
Berlichingen was confined in 1519; a fine synagogue; an historical
museum and several monuments, among them those to the emperors William
I. and Frederick I., to Bismarck, to Schiller and to Robert von Mayer
(1814-1878), a native of the town, famous for his discoveries concerning
heat. The educational establishments include a gymnasium, a commercial
school and an agricultural academy. The town in a commercial point of
view is the most important in Württemberg, and possesses an immense
variety of manufactures, of which the principal are gold, silver, steel
and iron wares, machines, sugar of lead, white lead, vinegar, beer,
sugar, tobacco, soap, oil, cement, chemicals, artificial manure, glue,
soda, tapestry, paper and cloth. Grapes, fruit, vegetables and flowering
shrubs are largely grown in the neighbourhood, and there are large
quarries for sandstone and gypsum and extensive salt-works. By means of
the Neckar a considerable trade is carried on in wood, bark, leather,
agricultural produce, fruit and cattle.
Heilbronn occupies the site of an old Roman settlement; it is first
mentioned in 741, and the Carolingian princes had a palace here. It owes
its name--originally Heiligbronn, or holy spring--to a spring of water
which until 1857 was to be seen issuing from under the high altar of the
church of St Kilian. Heilbronn obtained privileges from Henry IV. and
from Rudolph I. and became a free imperial city in 1360. It was
frequently besieged during the middle ages, and it suffered greatly
during the Peasants' War, the Thirty Years' War, and the various wars
with France. In April 1633 a convention was entered into here between
Oxenstierna, the Swabian and Frankish estates and the French, English
and Dutch ambassadors, as a result of which the Heilbronn treaty, for
the prosecution of the Thirty Years' War, was concluded. In 1802
Heilbronn was annexed by Württemberg.
See Jäger, _Geschichte von Heilbronn_ (Heilbronn, 1828); Kuttler,
_Heilbronn, seine Umgebungen und seine Geschichte_ (Heilbronn, 1859);
Dürr, _Heilbronner Chronik_ (Halle, 1896); Schliz, _Die Entstehung der
Stadtgemeinde Heilbronn_ (Leipzig, 1903); and A. Küsel, _Der
Heilbrunner Konvent_ (Halle, 1878).
HEILIGENSTADT, a town of Germany, in Prussian Saxony, on the Leine, 32
m. E.N.E. of Cassel, on the railway to Halle. Pop. (1905), 7955. It
possesses an old castle, formerly belonging to the electors of Mainz,
one Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, several educational
establishments, and an infirmary. The principal manufactures are cotton
goods, cigars, paper, cement and needles. Heiligenstadt is said to have
been built by the Frankish king Dagobert and was formerly the capital of
the principality of Eichsfeld. In 1022 it was acquired by the archbishop
of Mainz, and in 1103 it came into the possession of Henry the Proud,
duke of Saxony, but when his son Henry the Lion was placed under the ban
of the Empire, it again came to Mainz. It was destroyed by fire in 1333,
and was captured in 1525 by Duke Henry of Brunswick. In 1803 it came
into possession of Prussia. The Jesuits had a celebrated college here
from 1581 to 1773.
HEILSBERG, a town of Germany, in the province of East Prussia, at the
junction of the Simser and Alle, 38 m. S. of Königsberg. Pop. (1905),
6042. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and an old
castle formerly the seat of the prince-bishops of Ermeland, but now used
as an infirmary. The principal industries are tanning, dyeing and
brewing, and there is considerable trade in grain. The castle founded at
Heilsberg by the Teutonic order in 1240 became in 1306 the seat of the
bishops of Ermeland, an honour which it retained for 500 years. On the
10th of June 1807 a battle took place at Heilsberg between the French
under Soult and Murat, and the Russians and Prussians under Bennigsen.
HEILSBRONN (or KLOSTER-HEILSBRONN), a village of Germany, in the
Bavarian province of Middle Franconia, with a station on the railway
between Nuremberg and Ansbach, has 1200 inhabitants. In the middle ages
it was the seat of one of the great monasteries of Germany. This
foundation, which belonged to the Cistercian order, owed its origin to
Bishop Otto of Bamberg in 1132, and continued to exist till 1555. Its
sepulchral monuments, many of which are figured by Hocker,
_Heilsbronnischer Antiquitätenschatz_ (Ansbach, 1731-1740), are of
exceptionally high artistic interest. It was the hereditary burial-place
of the Hohenzollern family and ten burgraves of Nuremberg, five
margraves and three electors of Brandenburg, and many other persons of
note are buried within its walls. The buildings of the monastery have
mostly disappeared, with the exception of the fine church, a Romanesque
basilica, restored between 1851 and 1866, and possessing paintings by
Albert Dürer. The "Monk of Heilsbronn" is the ordinary appellation of a
didactic poet of the 14th century, whose _Sieben Graden_, _Tochter Syon_
and _Leben des heiligen Alexius_ were published by J. F. L. T. Merzdorf
at Berlin in 1870.
See Rehm, _Ein Gang durch und um die Münster-Kirche zu
Kloster-Heilsbronn_ (Ansbach, 1875); Stillfried, _Kloster-Heilsbronn,
ein Beitrag zu den Hohenzollernschen Forschungen_ (Berlin, 1877);
Muck, _Geschichte von Kloster-Heilsbronn_ (Nördlingen, 1879-1880); J.
Meyer, _Die Hohenzollerndenkmale in Heilsbronn_ (Ansbach, 1891); and
A. Wagner, _Über den Mönch von Heilsbronn_ (Strassburg, 1876).
HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN (1849- ), Swiss geologist, was born at
Zürich on the 12th of April 1849. He was educated at Zürich and Berlin
universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical
features of the Alps, and at the age of sixteen he made a model of the
Tödi group. This came under the notice of Arnold Escher von der Linth,
to whom Heim was indebted for much encouragement and geological
instruction in the field. In 1873 he became professor of geology in the
polytechnic school at Zürich, and in 1875 professor of geology in the
university. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Geological Survey
of Switzerland, and in 1884 the hon. degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon
him at Berne. He is especially distinguished for his researches on the
structure of the Alps and for the light thereby thrown on the structure
of mountain masses in general. He traced the plications from minor to
major stages, and illustrated the remarkable foldings and overthrust
faultings in numerous sections and with the aid of pictorial drawings.
His magnificent work, _Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung_ (1878), is now
regarded as a classic, and it served to inspire Professor C. Lapworth in
his brilliant researches on the Scottish Highlands (see _Geol. Mag._
1883). Heim also devoted considerable attention to the glacial phenomena
of the Alpine regions. The Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1904 by
the Geological Society of London.
HEIM, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH (1787-1865), French painter, was born at Belfort
on the 16th of December 1787. He early distinguished himself at the
École Centrale of Strassburg, and in 1803 entered the studio of Vincent
at Paris. In 1807 he obtained the first prize, and in 1812 his picture
of "The Return of Jacob" (Musée de Bordeaux) won for him a gold medal of
the first class, which he again obtained in 1817, when he exhibited,
together with other works, a St John--bought by Vivant Denon. In 1819
the "Resurrection of Lazarus" (Cathédral Autun), the "Martyrdom of St
Cyr" (St Gervais), and two scenes from the life of Vespasian (ordered by
the king) attracted attention. In 1823 the "Re-erection of the Royal
Tombs at St Denis," the "Martyrdom of St Laurence" (Notre Dame) and
several full-length portraits increased the painter's popularity; and in
1824, when he exhibited his great canvas, the "Massacre of the Jews"
(Louvre), Heim was rewarded with the legion of honour. In 1827 appeared
the "King giving away Prizes at the Salon of 1824" (Louvre--engraved by
Jazet)--the picture by which Heim is best known--and "Saint Hyacinthe."
Heim was now commissioned to decorate the Gallery Charles X. (Louvre).
Though ridiculed by the romantists, Heim succeeded Regnault at the
Institute in 1834, shortly after which he commenced a series of drawings
of the celebrities of his day, which are of much interest. His
decorations of the Conference room of the Chamber of Deputies were
completed in 1844; and in 1847 his works at the Salon--"Champ de Mai"
and "Reading a Play at the Théâtre Français"--were the signal for
violent criticisms. Yet something like a turn of opinion in his favour
took place at the exhibition of 1851; his powers as a draughtsman and
the occasional merits of his composition were recognized, and toleration
extended even to his colour. Heim was awarded the great gold medal, and
in 1855--having sent to the Salon no less than sixteen portraits,
amongst which may be cited those of "Cuvier," "Geoffroy de St Hilaire,"
and "Madame Hersent"--he was made officer of the legion of honour. In
1859 he again exhibited a curious collection of portraits, sixty-four
members of the Institute arranged in groups of four. He died on the 29th
of September 1865. Besides the paintings already mentioned, there is to
be seen in Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris) a work executed on the spot;
and the museum of Strassburg contains an excellent example of his easel
pictures, the subject of which is a "Shepherd Drinking from a Spring."
HEIMDAL, or _Heimdall_, in Scandinavian mythology, the keeper of the
gates of Heaven and the guardian of the rainbow bridge Bifrost. He is
the son of Odin by nine virgins, all sisters. He is called "the god with
the golden teeth." He lives in the stronghold of Himinsbiorg at the end
of Bifrost. His chief attribute is a vigilance which nothing can escape.
He sleeps less than a bird; sees at night and even in his sleep; can
hear the grass, and even the wool on a lamb's back grow. He is armed
with Gjallar, the magic horn, with which he will summon the gods on the
day of judgment.
HEINE, HEINRICH, (1797-1856), German poet and journalist, was born at
Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents, on the 13th of December 1797. His father,
after various vicissitudes in business, had finally settled in
Düsseldorf, and his mother, who possessed much energy of character, was
the daughter of a physician of the same place. Heinrich (or, more
exactly, Harry) was the eldest of four children, and received his
education, first in private schools, then in the Lyceum of his native
town; although not an especially apt or diligent pupil, he acquired a
knowledge of French and English, as well as some tincture of the
classics and Hebrew. His early years coincided with the most brilliant
period of Napoleon's career, and the boundless veneration which he is
never tired of expressing for the emperor throughout his writings shows
that his true schoolmasters were rather the drummers and troopers of a
victorious army than the masters of the Lyceum. By freeing the Jews from
many of the political disabilities under which they had hitherto
suffered, Napoleon became, it may be noted, the object of particular
enthusiasm in the circles amidst which Heine grew up. When he left
school in 1815, an attempt was made to engage him in business in
Frankfort, but without success. In the following year his uncle, Solomon
Heine, a wealthy banker in Hamburg, took him into his office. A passion
for his cousin Amalie Heine seems to have made the young man more
contented with his lot in Hamburg, and his success was such that his
uncle decided to set him up in business for himself. This, however,
proved too bold a step; in a very few months the firm of "Harry Heine &
Co." was insolvent. His uncle now generously provided him with money to
enable him to study at a university, with the view to entering the legal
profession, and in the spring of 1819 Heine became a student of the
university of Bonn. During his stay there he devoted himself rather to
the study of literature and history than to that of law; amongst his
teachers A. W. von Schlegel, who took a kindly interest in Heine's
poetic essays, exerted the most lasting influence on him. In the autumn
of 1820 Heine left Bonn for Göttingen, where he proposed to devote
himself more assiduously to professional studies, but in February of the
following year he challenged to a pistol duel a fellow-student who had
insulted him, and was, in consequence, rusticated for six months. The
pedantic atmosphere of the university of Göttingen was, however, little
to his taste; the news of his cousin's marriage unsettled him still
more; and he was glad of the opportunity to seek distraction in Berlin.
In the Prussian capital a new world opened up to him; a very different
life from that of Göttingen was stirring in the new university there,
and Heine, like all his contemporaries, sat at the feet of Hegel and
imbibed from him, doubtless, those views which in later years made the
poet the apostle of an outlook upon life more modern than that of his
romantic predecessors. Heine was also fortunate in having access to the
chief literary circles of the capital; he was on terms of intimacy with
Varnhagen von Ense and his wife, the celebrated Rahel, at whose house he
frequently met such men as the Humboldts, Hegel himself and
Schleiermacher; he made the acquaintance of leading men of letters like
Fouqué and Chamisso, and was on a still more familiar footing with the
most distinguished of his co-religionists in Berlin. Under such
favourable circumstances his own gifts were soon displayed. He
contributed poems to the _Berliner Gesellschafter_, many of which were
subsequently incorporated in the _Buch der Lieder_, and in December 1821
a little volume came from the press entitled _Gedichte_, his first
avowed act of authorship. He was also employed at this time as
correspondent of a Rhenish newspaper, as well as in completing his
tragedies _Almansor_ and _William Ratcliff_, which were published in
1823 with small success. In that same year Heine, not in the most
hopeful spirits, returned to his family, who had meanwhile moved to
Lüneburg. He had plans of settling in Paris, but as he was still
dependent on his uncle, the latter's consent had to be obtained. As was
to be expected, Solomon Heine did not favour the new plan, but promised
to continue his support on the condition that Harry completed his course
of legal study. He sent the young student for a six weeks' holiday at
Cuxhaven, which opened the poet's eyes to the wonders of the sea; and
three weeks spent subsequently at his uncle's county seat near Hamburg
were sufficient to awaken a new passion in Heine's breast--this time for
Amalie's sister, Therese. In January 1824 Heine returned to Göttingen,
where, with the exception of a visit to Berlin and the excursion to the
Hartz mountains in the autumn of 1824, which is immortalized in the
first volume of the _Reisebilder_, he remained until his graduation in
the summer of the following year. It was on the latter of these journeys
that he had the interview with Goethe which was so amusingly described
by him in later years. A few weeks before obtaining his degree, he took
a step which he had long meditated; he formally embraced Christianity.
This "act of apostasy," which has been dwelt upon at unnecessary length
both by Heine's enemies and admirers, was actuated wholly by practical
considerations, and did not arise from any wish on the poet's part to
deny his race. The summer months which followed his examination Heine
spent by his beloved sea in the island of Norderney, his uncle having
again generously supplied the means for this purpose. The question of
his future now became pressing, and for a time he seriously considered
the plan of settling as a solicitor in Hamburg, a plan which was
associated in his mind with the hope of marrying his cousin Therese.
Meanwhile he had made arrangements for the publication of the
_Reisebilder_, the first volume of which, _Die Harzreise_, appeared in
May 1826. The success of the book was instantaneous. Its lyric outbursts
and flashes of wit; its rapid changes from grave to gay; its flexibility
of thought and style, came as a revelation to a generation which had
grown weary of the lumbering literary methods of the later Romanticists.
In the spring of the following year Heine paid a long planned visit to
England, where he was deeply impressed by the free and vigorous public
life, by the size and bustle of London; above all, he was filled with
admiration for Canning, whose policy had realized many a dream of the
young German idealists of that age. But the picture had also its
reverse; the sordidly commercial spirit of English life, and brutal
egotism of the ordinary Englishman, grated on Heine's sensitive nature;
he missed the finer literary and artistic tastes of the continent and
was repelled by the austerity of English religious sentiment and
observance. Unfortunately the latter aspects of English life left a
deeper mark on his memory than the bright side. In October Baron Cotta,
the well-known publisher, offered Heine--the second volume of whose
_Reisebilder_ and the _Buch der Lieder_ had meanwhile appeared and won
him fresh laurels--the joint-editorship of the _Neue allgemeine
politische Annalen_. He gladly accepted the offer and betook himself to
Munich. Heine did his best to adapt himself and his political opinions
to the new surroundings, in the hope of coming in for a share of the
good things which Ludwig I. of Bavaria was so generously distributing
among artists and men of letters. But the stings of the _Reisebilder_
were not so easily forgotten; the clerical party in particular did not
leave him long in peace. In July 1828, the professorship on which he had
set his hopes being still not forthcoming, he left Munich for Italy,
where he remained until the following November, a holiday which provided
material for the third and part of the fourth volumes of the
_Reisebilder_. A blow more serious than the Bavarian king's refusal to
establish him in Munich awaited him on his return to Germany--the death
of his father. In the beginning of 1829 Heine took up his abode in
Berlin, where he resumed old acquaintanceships; in summer he was again
at the sea, and in autumn he returned to the city he now loathed above
all others, Hamburg, where he virtually remained until May 1831. These
years were not a happy period of the poet's life; his efforts to obtain
a position, apart from that which he owed to his literary work, met with
rebuffs on every side; his relations with his uncle were unsatisfactory
and disturbed by constant friction, and for a time he was even seriously
ill. His only consolation in these months of discontent was the
completion and publication of the _Reisebilder_. When in 1830 the news
of the July Revolution in the streets of Paris reached him, Heine hailed
it as the beginning of a new era of freedom, and his thoughts reverted
once more to his early plan of settling in Paris. All through the
following winter the plan ripened, and in May 1831 he finally said
farewell to his native land.
Heine's first impressions of the "New Jerusalem of Liberalism" were
jubilantly favourable; Paris, he proclaimed, was the capital of the
civilized world, to be a citizen of Paris the highest of honours. He was
soon on friendly terms with many of the notabilities of the capital, and
there was every prospect of a congenial and lucrative journalistic
activity as correspondent for German newspapers. Two series of his
articles were subsequently collected and published under the titles
_Französische Zustände_ (1832) and _Lutezia_ (written 1840-1843,
published in the _Vermischte Schriften_, 1854). In December 1835,
however, the German Bund, incited by W. Menzel's attacks on "Young
Germany," issued its notorious decree, forbidding the publication of any
writings by the members of that coterie; the name of Heine, who had been
stigmatized as the leader of the movement headed the list. This was the
beginning of a series of literary feuds in which Heine was, from now on,
involved; but a more serious and immediate effect of the decree was to
curtail considerably his sources of income. His uncle, it is true, had
allowed him 4000 francs a year when he settled in Paris, but at this
moment he was not on the best of terms with his Hamburg relatives. Under
these circumstances he was induced to take a step which his
fellow-countrymen have found it hard to forgive; he applied to the
French government for support from a secret fund formed for the benefit
of "political refugees" who were willing to place themselves at the
service of France. From 1836 or 1837 until the Revolution of 1848 Heine
was in receipt of 4800 francs annually from this source.
In October 1834 Heine made the acquaintance of a young Frenchwoman,
Eugénie Mirat, a saleswoman in a boot-shop in Paris, and before long had
fallen passionately in love with her. Although ill-educated, vain and
extravagant, she inspired the poet with a deep and lasting affection,
and in 1841, on the eve of a duel in which he had become involved, he
made her his wife. "Mathilde," as Heine called her, was not the comrade
to help the poet in days of adversity, or to raise him to better things,
but, in spite of passing storms, he seems to have been happy with her,
and she nursed him faithfully in his last illness. Her death occurred in
1883. His relations with Mathilde undoubtedly helped to weaken his ties
with Germany; and notwithstanding the affection he professed to cherish
for his native land, he only revisited it twice, in the autumn of 1843
and the summer of 1847. In 1845 appeared the first unmistakable signs of
the terrible spinal disease, which, for eight years, from the spring of
1848 till his death, condemned him to a "mattress grave." These years of
suffering--suffering which left his intellect as clear and vivacious as
ever--seem to have effected what might be called a spiritual
purification in Heine's nature, and to have brought out all the good
sides of his character, whereas adversity in earlier years only
intensified his cynicism. The lyrics of the _Romanzero_ (1851) and the
collection of _Neueste Gedichte_ (1853-1854) surpass in imaginative
depth and sincerity of purpose the poetry of the _Buch der Lieder_. Most
wonderful of all are the poems inspired by Heine's strange mystic
passion for the lady he called _Die Mouche_, a countrywoman of his
own--her real name was Elise von Krienitz, but she had written in French
under the _nom de plume_ of Camille Selden--who helped to brighten the
last months of the poet's life. He died on the 17th of February 1856,
and lies buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.
Besides the purely journalistic work of Heine's Paris years, to which
reference has already been made, he published a collection of more
serious prose writings under the title _Der Salon_ (1833-1839). In this
collection will be found, besides papers on French art and the French
stage, the essays "Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in
Deutschland," which he had written for the _Revue des deux mondes_.
Here, too, are the more characteristic productions of Heine's genius,
_Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski_, _Der Rabbi von
Bacherach_ and _Florentinische Nächte_. _Die romantische Schule_ (1836),
with its unpardonable personal attack on the elder Schlegel, is a less
creditable essay in literary criticism. In 1839 appeared _Shakespeares
Mädchen und Frauen_, which, however, was merely the text to a series of
illustrations; and in 1840, the witty and trenchant satire on a writer,
who, in spite of many personal disagreements, had been Heine's
fellow-fighter in the liberal cause, Ludwig Börne. Of Heine's poetical
work in these years, his most important publications were, besides the
_Romanzero_, the two admirable satires, _Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen_
(1844), the result of his visit to Germany, and _Atta Troll, ein
Sommernachtstraum_ (1876), an attack on the political _Tendenzliteratur_
of the 'forties.
In the case of no other of the greater German poets is it so hard to
arrive at a final judgment as in that of Heinrich Heine. In his _Buch
der Lieder_ he unquestionably struck a new lyric note, not merely for
Germany but for Europe. No singer before him had been so daring in the
use of nature-symbolism as he, none had given such concrete and plastic
expression to the spiritual forces of heart and soul; in this respect
Heine was clearly the descendant of the Hebrew poets of the Old
Testament. At times, it is true, his imagery is exaggerated to the
degree of absurdity, but it exercised, none the less, a fascination over
his generation. Heine combined with a spiritual delicacy, a fineness of
perception, that firm hold on reality which is so essential to the
satirist. His lyric appealed with particular force to foreign peoples,
who had little understanding for the intangible, undefinable
spirituality which the German people regard as an indispensable element
in their national lyric poetry. Thus his fame has always stood higher in
England and France than in Germany itself, where his lyric method, his
self-consciousness, his cynicism in season and out of season, were
little in harmony with the literary traditions. As far, indeed, as the
development of the German lyric is concerned, Heine's influence has been
of questionable value. But he introduced at least one new and refreshing
element into German poetry with his lyrics of the North Sea; no other
German poet has felt and expressed so well as Heine the charm of sea and
coast.
As a prose writer, Heine's merits were very great. His work was, in the
main, journalism, but it was journalism of a high order, and, after all,
the best literature of the "Young German" school to which he belonged
was of this character. Heine's light fancy, his agile intellect, his
straightforward, clear style stood him here in excellent stead. The
prose writings of his French period mark, together with Börne's _Briefe
aus Paris_, the beginning of a new era in German journalism and a
healthy revolt against the unwieldy prose of the Romantic period. Above
all things, Heine was great as a wit and a satirist. His lyric may not
be able to assert itself beside that of the very greatest German
singers, but as a satirist he had powers of the highest order. He
combined the holy zeal and passionate earnestness of the "soldier of
humanity" with the withering scorn and ineradicable sense of justice
common to the leaders of the Jewish race. It was Heine's real mission to
be a reformer, to restore with instruments of war rather than of peace
"the interrupted order of the world." The more's the pity that his
magnificent Aristophanic genius should have had so little room for its
exercise, and have been frittered away in the petty squabbles of an
exiled journalist.
The first collected edition of Heine's works was edited by A.
Strodtmann in 21 vols. (1861-1866), the best critical edition is the
_Sämtliche Werke_, edited by E. Elster (7 vols., 1887-1890). Heine has
been more translated into other tongues than any other German writer
of his time. Mention may here be made of the French translation of his
_Oeuvres complètes_ (14 vols., 1852-1868), and the English translation
(by C. G. Leland and others) recently completed, _The Works of
Heinrich Heine_ (13 vols., 1892-1905). For biography and criticism see
the following works: A. Strodtmann, _Heines Leben und Werke_ (3rd ed.,
1884); H. Hueffer, _Aus dem Leben H. Heines_ (1878); and by the same
author, _H. Heine: Gesammelte Aufsätze_ (1906); G. Karpeles, _H. Heine
und seine Zeitgenossen_ (1888), and by the same author, _H. Heine: aus
seinem Leben und aus seiner Zeit_ (1900); W. Bölsche, _H. Heine:
Versuch einer ästhetischkritischen Analyse seiner Werke und seiner
Weltanschauung_ (1888); G. Brandes, _Det unge Tyskland_ (1890; Eng.
trans., 1905). An English biography by W. Stigand, _Life, Works and
Opinions of Heinrich Heine_, appeared in 1875, but it has little
value; there is also a short life by W. Sharp (1888). The essays on
Heine by George Eliot and Matthew Arnold are well known. The best
French contributions to Heine criticism are J. Legras, _H. Heine,
poète_ (1897), and H. Lichtenberger, _H. Heine, penseur_ (1905). See
also L.P. Betz, _Heine in Frankreich_ (1895). (J. W. F.; J. G. R.)
HEINECCIUS, JOHANN GOTTLIEB (1681-1741), German jurist, was born on the
11th of September 1681 at Eisenberg, Altenburg. He studied theology at
Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed
in 1713 professor of philosophy, and in 1718 professor of jurisprudence.
He subsequently filled legal chairs at Franeker in Holland and at
Frankfort, but finally returned to Halle in 1733 as professor of
philosophy and jurisprudence. He died there on the 31st of August 1741.
Heineccius belonged to the school of philosophical jurists. He
endeavoured to treat law as a rational science, and not merely as an
empirical art whose rules had no deeper source than expediency. Thus he
continually refers to first principles, and he develops his legal
doctrines as a system of philosophy.
His chief works were _Antiquitatum Romanarum jurisprudentiam
illustrantium syntagma_ (1718), _Historia juris civilis Romani ac
Germanici_ (1733), _Elementa juris Germanici_ (1735), _Elementa juris
naturae et gentium_ (1737; Eng. trans. by Turnbull, 2 vols., London,
1763). Besides these works he wrote on purely philosophical subjects,
and edited the works of several of the classical jurists. His _Opera
omnia_ (9 vols., Geneva, 1771, &c.) were edited by his son Johann
Christian Gottlieb Heineccius (1718-1791).
Heineccius's brother, JOHANN MICHAEL HEINECCIUS (1674-1722), was a
well-known preacher and theologian, but is remembered more from the fact
that he was the first to make a systematic study of seals, concerning
which he left a book, _De veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum
sigillis_ (Leipzig, 1710; 2nd ed., 1719).
HEINECKEN, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH (1721-1725), a child remarkable for
precocity of intellect, was born on the 6th of February 1721 at Lübeck,
where his father was a painter. Able to speak at the age of ten months,
by the time he was one year old he knew by heart the principal incidents
in the Pentateuch. At two years of age he had mastered sacred history;
at three he was intimately acquainted with history and geography,
ancient and modern, sacred and profane, besides being able to speak
French and Latin; and in his fourth year he devoted himself to the study
of religion and church history. This wonderful precocity was no mere
feat of memory, for the youthful savant could reason on and discuss the
knowledge he had acquired. Crowds of people flocked to Lübeck to see the
wonderful child; and in 1724 he was taken to Copenhagen at the desire of
the king of Denmark. On his return to Lübeck he began to learn writing,
but his sickly constitution gave way, and he died on the 22nd of June
1725.
_The Life, Deeds, Travels and Death of the Child of Lübeck_ were
published in the following year by his tutor Schöneich. See also
_Teutsche Bibliothek_, xvii., and _Mémoires de Trévoux_ (Jan. 1731).
HEINICKE, SAMUEL (1727-1790), the originator in Germany of systematic
education for the deaf and dumb, was born on the 10th of April 1727, at
Nautschütz, Germany. Entering the electoral bodyguard at Dresden, he
subsequently supported himself by teaching. About 1754 his first deaf
and dumb pupil was brought him. His success in teaching this pupil was
so great that he determined to devote himself entirely to this work. The
outbreak of the Seven Years' War upset his plans for a time. Taken
prisoner at Pirna, he was brought to Dresden, but soon made his escape.
In 1768, when living in Hamburg, he successfully taught a deaf and dumb
boy to talk, following the methods prescribed by Amman in his book
_Surdus loquens_, but improving on them. Recalled to his own country by
the elector of Saxony, he opened in Leipzig, in 1778, the first deaf and
dumb institution in Germany. This school he directed till his death,
which took place on the 30th of April 1790. He was the author of a
variety of books on the instruction of the deaf and dumb.
HEINSE, JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM (1749-1803), German author, was born at
Langewiesen near Ilmenau in Thuringia on the 16th of February 1749.
After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and
Erfurt. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland and through him with
"Father" Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at
Quedlinburg. In 1774 he went to Düsseldorf, where he assisted the poet
J. G. Jacobi to edit the periodical _Iris_. Here the famous picture
gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he
devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him
with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years
(1780-1783), He returned to Düsseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was
appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of
Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where
he died on the 22nd of June 1803.
The work upon which Heinse's fame mainly rests is _Ardinghello und die
glückseligen Inseln_ (1787), a novel which forms the framework for the
exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the
Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels _Laidion, oder die
eleusinischen Geheimnisse_ (1774) and _Hildegard von Hohenthal_ (1796)
combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the
"Sturm und Drang." Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had
considerable influence on the romantic school.
Heinse's complete works (_Sämtliche Schriften_) were published by H.
Laube in 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1838). A new edition by C. Schüddekopf is
in course of publication (Leipzig, 1901 sqq.). See H. Pröhle,
_Lessing, Wieland, Heinse_ (Berlin, 1877), and J. Schober, _Johann
Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben und seine Werke_ (Leipzig, 1882);
also K. D. Jessen, _Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst_ (Berlin,
1903).
HEINSIUS (or HEINS) DANIEL (1580-1655), one of the most famous scholars
of the Dutch Renaissance, was born at Ghent on the 9th of June 1580. The
troubles of the Spanish war drove his parents to settle first at Veere
in Zeeland, then in England, next at Ryswick and lastly at Flushing. In
1594, being already remarkable for his attainments, he was sent to the
university of Franeker to perfect himself in Greek under Henricus
Schotanus. He stayed at Franeker half a year, and then settled at Leiden
for the remaining sixty years of his life. There he studied under Joseph
Scaliger, and there he found Marnix de St Aldegonde, Janus Douza, Paulus
Merula and others, and was soon taken into the society of these
celebrated men as their equal. His proficiency in the classic languages
won the praise of all the best scholars of Europe, and offers were made
to him, but in vain, to accept honourable positions outside Holland. He
soon rose in dignity at the university of Leiden. In 1602 he was made
professor of Latin, in 1605 professor of Greek, and at the death of
Merula in 1607 he succeeded that illustrious scholar as librarian to
the university. The remainder of his life is recorded in a list of his
productions. He died at the Hague on the 25th of February 1655. The
Dutch poetry of Heinsius is of the school of Roemer Visscher, but
attains no very high excellence. It was, however, greatly admired by
Martin Opitz, who was the pupil of Heinsius, and who, in translating the
poetry of the latter, introduced the German public to the use of the
rhyming alexandrine.
He published his original Latin poems in three volumes--_Iambi_
(1602), _Elegiae_ (1603) and _Poëmata_ (1605); his _Emblemata
amatoria_, poems in Dutch and Latin, were first printed in 1604. In
the same year he edited Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, having edited
Hesiod in 1603. In 1609 he printed his Latin _Orations_. In 1610 he
edited Horace, and in 1611 Aristotle and Seneca. In 1613 appeared in
Dutch his tragedy of _The Massacre of the Innocents_; and in 1614 his
treatise _De politico sapientia_. In 1616 he collected his original
Dutch poems into a volume. He edited Terence in 1618, Livy in 1620,
published his oration _De contemptu mortis_ in 1621, and brought out
the _Epistles_ of Joseph Scaliger in 1627.
HEINSIUS, NIKOLAES (1620-1681), Dutch scholar, son of Daniel Heinsius,
was born at Leiden on the 20th of July 1620. His boyish Latin poem of
_Breda expugnata_ was printed in 1637, and attracted much attention. In
1642 he began his wanderings with a visit to England in search of MSS.
of the classics; but he met with little courtesy from the English
scholars. In 1644 he was sent to Spa to drink the waters; his health
restored, he set out once more in search of codices, passing through
Louvain, Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp and so back to Leiden, everywhere
collating MSS. and taking philological and textual notes. Almost
immediately he set out again, and arriving in Paris was welcomed with
open arms by the French savants. After investigating all the classical
texts he could lay hands on, he proceeded southwards, and visited on the
same quest Lyons, Marseilles, Pisa, Florence (where he paused to issue a
new edition of Ovid) and Rome. Next year, 1647, found him in Naples,
from which he fled during the reign of Masaniello; he pursued his
labours in Leghorn, Bologna, Venice and Padua, at which latter city he
published in 1648 his volume of original Latin verse entitled _Italica_.
He proceeded to Milan, and worked for a considerable time in the
Ambrosian library; he was preparing to explore Switzerland in the same
patient manner, when the news of his father's illness recalled him
hurriedly to Leiden. He was soon called away to Stockholm at the
invitation of Queen Christina, at whose court he waged war with
Salmasius, who accused him of having supplied Milton with facts from the
life of that great but irritable scholar. Heinsius paid a flying visit
to Leiden in 1650, but immediately returned to Stockholm. In 1651 he
once more visited Italy; the remainder of his life was divided between
Upsala and Holland. He collected his Latin poems into a volume in 1653.
His latest labours were the editing of Velleius Paterculus in 1678, and
of Valerius Flaccus in 1680. He died at the Hague on the 7th of October
1681. Nikolaes Heinsius was one of the purest and most elegant of
Latinists, and if his scholarship was not quite so perfect as that of
his father, he displayed higher gifts as an original writer.
His illegitimate son, NIKOLAES HEINSIUS (b. 1655), was the author of
_The Delightful Adventures and Wonderful Life of Mirandor_ (1675), the
single Dutch romance of the 17th century. He had to flee the country in
1677 for committing a murder in the streets of the Hague, and died in
obscurity.
HEIR (Lat. _heres_, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in _herus_ or
_erus_, master of a house, Gr. [Greek: cheir], hand, Sans, _harana_,
hand), in law, technically one who succeeds, by descent, to an estate of
inheritance, in contradistinction to one who succeeds to personal
property, i.e. next of kin. The word is now used generally to denote the
person who is entitled by law to inherit property, titles, &c., of
another. The rules regulating the descent of property to an heir will be
found in the articles INHERITANCE, SUCCESSION, &c.
An _heir apparent_ (Lat. _apparens_, manifest) is he whose right of
inheritance is indefeasible, provided he outlives the ancestor, e.g. an
eldest or only son.
_Heir by custom_, or customary heir, he who inherits by a particular and
local custom, as in borough-English, whereby the youngest son inherits,
or in gavelkind, whereby all the sons inherit as parceners, and made but
one heir.
_Heir general_, or heir at law, he who after the death of his ancestor
has, by law, the right to the inheritance.
_Heir presumptive_, one who is next in succession, but whose right is
defeasible by the birth of a nearer heir, e.g. a brother or nephew,
whose presumptive right may be destroyed by the birth of a child, or a
daughter, whose right may be defeated by the birth of a son.
_Special heir_, one not heir at law (i.e. at common law), but by special
custom.
_Ultimate heir_, he to whom lands come by escheat on failure of proper
heirs. In Scots law the technical use of the word "heir" is not confined
to the succession to real property, but includes succession to personal
property as well.
HEIRLOOM, strictly so called in English law, a chattel ("loom" meaning
originally a tool) which by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by
inheritance to a family estate. Any owner of such heirloom may dispose
of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from
the estate. If he dies intestate it goes to his heir-at-law, and if he
devises the estate it goes to the devisee. At the present time such
heirlooms are almost unknown, and the word has acquired a secondary and
popular meaning and is applied to furniture, pictures, &c., vested in
trustees to hold on trust for the person for the time being entitled to
the possession of a settled house. Such things are more properly called
settled chattels. An heirloom in the strict sense is made by family
custom, not by settlement. A settled chattel may, under the Settled Land
Act 1882, be sold under the direction of the court, and the money
arising under such sale is capital money. The court will only sanction
such a sale if it be shown that it is to the benefit of all parties
concerned; and if the article proposed to be sold is of unique or
historical character, it will have regard to the intention of the
settlor and the wishes of the remainder men (Re _Hope_, _De Cetto_ v.
_Hope_, 1899, 2 ch. 679).
HEJAZ (HIJAZ), a Turkish vilayet and a province of Western Arabia,
extending along the Red Sea coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba in
29° 30´ N. to the south of Taif in 20° N. It is bounded N. by Syria, E.
by the Nafud desert and by Nejd and S. by Asir. Its length is about 750
m. and its greatest breadth from the Harra east of Khaibar to the coast
is 200 m. The name Hejaz, which signifies "separating," is sometimes
limited to the region extending from Medina in the north to Taif in the
south, which separates the island province Nejd from the Tehama (Tihama)
or coastal district, but most authorities, both Arab and European,
define it in the wider sense. Though physically the most desolate and
uninviting province in Arabia, it has a special interest and importance
as containing the two sacred cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina (q.v.),
respectively the birthplace and burial-place of Mahomet, which are
visited yearly by large numbers of Moslem pilgrims from all parts of the
world.
Hejaz is divided longitudinally by the Tehama range of mountains into
two zones, a narrow littoral and a broader upland. This range attains
its greatest height in Jebel Shar, the Mount Seir of scripture,
overlooking the Midian coast, which probably reaches 7000 ft., and Jebel
Radhwa a little N.E. of Yambu rising to 6000 ft. It is broken through by
several valleys which carry off the drainage of the inland zone; the
principal of these is the Wadi Hamd, the main source of which is on the
Harra east of Khaibar. Its northern tributary the Wadi Jizil drains the
Harrat el Awerid and a southern branch comes from the neighbourhood of
Medina. Farther south the Wadi es Safra cuts through the mountains and
affords the principal access to the valley of Medina from Yambu or
Jidda. None of the Hejaz Wadis has a perennial stream, but they are
liable to heavy floods after the winter rains, and thick groves of
date-palms and occasional settlements are met with along their courses
wherever permanent springs are found. The northern part of Hejaz
contains but few inhabited sites. Muwela, Damgha and El Wijh are small
ports used by coasting craft. The last named was formerly an important
station on the Egyptian pilgrim route, and in ancient days was a Roman
settlement, and the port of the Nabataean towns of el Hajr 150 m. to the
east. Inland the sandstone desert of El Hisma reaches from the Syrian
border at Ma'an to Jebel Awerid, where the volcanic tracts known as
_harra_ begin, and extend southwards along the western borders of the
Nejd plateau as far as the latitude of Mecca. East of Jebel Awerid lies
the oasis of Tema, identified with the Biblical Teman, which belongs to
the Shammar tribe; its fertility depends on the famous well, known as
Bir el Hudaj. Farther south and on the main pilgrim route is El 'Ala,
the principal settlement of El Hajr, the Egra of Ptolemy, to whom it was
known as an oasis town on the gold and frankincense road. Higher up the
same valley are the rock-cut tombs of Medina Salih, similar to those at
Petra and shown by the Nabataean coins and inscriptions discovered there
by Doughty and Huber to date from the beginning of the Christian era. To
the south-east again is the oasis of Khaibar, with some 2500
inhabitants, chiefly negroes, the remnants of an earlier slave
population. The citadel, known as the Kasr el Yahudi, preserves the
tradition of its former Jewish ownership. With these exceptions there
are no settled villages between Ma'an and Medina, the stations on the
pilgrim road being merely small fortified posts with reservoirs, at
intervals of 30 or 40 m., which are kept up by the Turkish government
for the protection of the yearly caravan.
The southern part of the province is more favoured by nature. Medina is
a city of 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, situated in a broad plain
between the coast range and the low hills across which lies the road to
Nejd. Its altitude above the sea is about 2500 ft. It is well supplied
with water and is surrounded by gardens and plantations; barley and
wheat are grown, but the staple produce, as in all the cultivated
districts of Hejaz, is dates, of which 100 different sorts are said to
grow. Yambu' has a certain importance as the port for Medina. The route
follows for part of the way along the Wadi es Safra, which contains
several small settlements with abundant date groves; from Badr Hunen,
the last of these, the route usually taken from Medina to Mecca runs
near the coast, passing villages with some cultivation at each stage.
The eastern route though more direct is less used; it passes through a
barren country described by Burton as a succession of low plains and
basins surrounded by rolling hills and intersected by torrent beds; the
predominant formation is basalt. Suwerikiya and Es Safina are the only
villages of importance on this route.
Mecca and the holy places in its vicinity are described in a separate
article; it is about 48 m. from the port of Jidda, the most important
trade centre of the Hejaz province. The great majority of pilgrims for
Mecca arrive by sea at Jidda. Their transport and the supply of their
wants is therefore the chief business of the place; in 1904 the number
was 66,500, and the imports amounted in value to £1,400,000.
From the hot lowland in which Mecca is situated the country rises
steeply up to the Taif plateau, some 6000 ft. above sea-level, a
district resembling in climate and physical character the highlands of
Asir and Yemen. Jebel el Kura at the northern edge of the plateau is a
fertile well-watered district, producing wheat and barley and fruit.
Taif, a day's journey farther south, lies in a sandy plain, surrounded
by low mountains. The houses, though small, are well built of stone; the
gardens for which it is celebrated lie at a distance of a mile or more
to the S.W. at the foot of the mountains.
Hejaz, together with the other provinces of Arabia which on the
overthrow of the Bagdad Caliphate in 1258 had fallen under Egyptian
domination, became by the conquest of Egypt in 1517 a dependency of the
Ottoman empire. Beyond assuming the title of Caliph, neither Salim I.
nor his successors interfered much in the government, which remained in
the hands of the sharifs of Mecca until the religious upheaval which
culminated at the beginning of the 19th century in the pillage of the
holy cities by the Wahhabi fanatics. Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, was
entrusted by the sultan with the task of establishing order, and after
several arduous campaigns the Wahhabis were routed and their capital
Deraiya in Nejd taken by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817. Hejaz remained in
Egyptian occupation until 1845, when its administration was taken over
directly by Constantinople, and it was constituted a vilayet under a
vali or governor-general. The population is estimated at 300,000, about
half of which are inhabitants of the towns and the remainder Bedouin,
leading a nomad or pastoral life. The principal tribes are the Sherarat,
Beni Atiya and Huwetat in the north; the Juhena between Yambu' and
Medina, and the various sections of the Harb throughout the centre and
south; the Ateba also touch the Mecca border on the south-east. All
these tribes receive surra or money payments of large amount from the
Turkish government to ensure the safe conduct of the annual pilgrimage,
otherwise they are practically independent of the Turkish
administration, which is limited to the large towns and garrisons. The
troops occupying these latter belong to the 16th (Hejaz) division of the
Turkish army.
The Hejaz railway.
The difficulties of communication with his Arabian provinces, and of
relieving or reinforcing the garrisons there, induced the sultan Abdul
Hamid in 1900 to undertake the construction of a railway directly
connecting the Hejaz cities with Damascus without the necessity of
leaving Turkish territory at any point, as hitherto required by the Suez
Canal. Actual construction was begun in May 1901 and on the 1st of
September 1904 the section Damascus-Ma'an (285 m.) was officially
opened. The line has a narrow gauge of 1.05 metre = 41 in., the same
gauge as that of the Damascus-Beirut line; it has a ruling gradient of 1
in 50 and follows generally the pilgrim track, through a desert country
presenting no serious engineering difficulties. The graver difficulties
due to the scarcity of water, and the lack of fuel, supplies and labour
were successfully overcome; in 1906 the line was completed to El Akhdar,
470 m. from Damascus and 350 from Medina, In time to be used by the
pilgrim caravan of that year; and the section to Medina was opened in
1908. Its military value was shown in the previous year, when it
conveyed 28 battalions from Damascus to Ma'an, from which station the
troops marched to Akaba for embarkation _en route_ to Hodeda. The length
of the line from Damascus to Medina is approximately 820 m., and from
Medina to Mecca 280 m.; the highest level attained is about 4000 ft. at
Dar el Hamra in the section Ma'an-Medina.
AUTHORITIES.--J. L. Burckhardt, _Travels in Arabia_ (London, 1829);
'Ali Bey, _Travels_ (London, 1816); R. F. Burton, _Pilgrimage to
Medinah and Mecca_ (1893); _Land of Midian_ (London, 1879); J. S.
Hurgronje, _Mekka_ (Hague, 1888); C. M. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_
(Cambridge, 1888); Auler Pasha, _Die Hedschasbahn_ (Gotha, 1906).
(R. A. W.)
HEJIRA,[1] or HEGIRA (Arab. _hijra_, flight, departure from one's
country, from _hajara_, to go away), the name of the Mahommedan era. It
dates from 622, the year in which Mahomet "fled" from Mecca to Medina to
escape the persecution of his kinsmen of the Koreish tribe. The years of
this era are distinguished by the initials "A.H." (_anno hegirae_). The
Mahommedan year is a lunar one, about 11 days shorter than the
Christian; allowance must be made for this in translating _Hegira_ dates
into Christian dates; thus A.H. 1321 corresponds roughly to A.D. 1903.
The actual date of the "flight" is fixed as 8 Rabia I., i.e. 20th of
September 622, by the tradition that Mahomet arrived at Kufa on the
Hebrew Day of Atonement. Although Mahomet himself appears to have dated
events by his flight, it was not till seventeen years later that the
actual era was systematized by Omar, the second caliph (see CALIPHATE),
as beginning from the 1st day of Muharram (the first lunar month of the
year) which in that year (639) corresponded to July 16. The term
_hejira_ is also applied in its more general sense to other
"emigrations" of the faithful, e.g. to that to Abyssinia (see MAHOMET),
and to that of Mahomet's followers to Medina before the capture of
Mecca. These latter are known as _Muhajirun_.
For the problems of Moslem chronology and comparative tables of dates
see (beside the articles CALENDAR, CHRONOLOGY and MAHOMET),
Wüstenfeld, _Vergleichungstabellen der muhammedanischen und
christlichen Zeitrechnung_ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1903); Mas Latrie,
_Trésor de chronologie_ (Paris, 1889); Durbaneh, _Universal Calendar_
(Cairo, 1896); Winckler, _Altorientalische Forschungen_, ii. 326-350;
D. Nielson, _Die altarabische Mondreligion_ (Strassburg, 1904);
Hughes, _Dictionary of Islam_, s.v. "Hijrah."
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The _i_ in the second syllable is short.
HEL, or _Hela_, in Scandinavian mythology, the goddess of the dead. She
was a child of Loki and the giantess Angurboda, and dwelt beneath the
roots of the sacred ash, Yggdrasil. She was given dominion over the nine
worlds of Helheim. In early myth all the dead went to her: in later
legend only those who died of old age or sickness, and she then became
synonymous with suffering and horror. Her dwelling was _Elvidnir_ (dark
clouds), her dish _Hungr_ (hunger), her knife _Sullt_ (starvation), her
servants _Ganglate_ (tardy feet), her bed _Kör_ (sickness), and her
bed-curtains _Blikiandabol_ (splendid misery).
HELDENBUCH, DAS, the title under which a large body of German epic
poetry of the 13th century has come down to us. The subjects of the
individual poems are taken from national German sagas which originated
in the epoch of the Migrations (_Völkerwanderung_), although doubtless
here, as in all purely popular sagas, motives borrowed from the forces
and phenomena of nature were, in course of time, woven into events
originally historical. While the saga of the Nibelungs crystallized in
the 13th century into the _Nibelungenlied_ (q.v.), and the Low German
Hilde-saga into the epic of _Gudrun_ (q.v.) the poems of the
_Heldenbuch_, in the more restricted use of that term, belong almost
exclusively to two cycles, (1) the Ostrogothic saga of Ermanrich,
Dietrich von Bern (i.e. Dietrich of Verona, Theodorich the Great) and
Etzel (Attila), and (2) the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and
Ortnit, which like the _Nibelungen_ saga, was probably of Franconian
origin. The romances of the _Heldenbuch_ are of varying poetic value;
only occasionally do they rise to the height of the two chief epics, the
_Nibelungenlied_ and _Gudrun_. Dietrich von Bern, the central figure of
the first and more important group, was the ideal type of German
medieval hero, and, under more favourable literary conditions, he might
have become the centre of an epic more nationally German than even the
_Nibelungenlied_ itself. Of the romances of this group, the chief are
_Biterolf und Dietlieb_, evidently the work of an Austrian poet, who
introduced many elements from the court epic of chivalry into a milieu
and amongst characters familiar to us from the _Nibelungenlied_. _Der
Rosengarten_ tells of the conflicts which took place round Kriemhild's
"rose garden" in Worms--conflicts from which Dietrich always emerges
victor, even when he is confronted by Siegfried himself. In _Laurin und
der kleine Rosengarten_, the Heldensage is mingled with elements of
popular fairy-lore; it deals with the adventures of Dietrich and his
henchman Witege with the wily dwarf Laurin, who watches over another
rose garden, that of the Tyrol. Similar in character are the adventures
of Dietrich with the giants Ecke (_Eckenlied_) and Sigenot, with the
dwarf Goldemar, and the deeds of chivalry he performs for queen Virginal
(_Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt_)--all of these romances being written in the
fresh and popular tone characteristic of the wandering singers or
_Spielleute_. Other elements of the Dietrich saga are represented by the
poems _Alpharts Tod_, _Dietrichs Flucht_ and _Die Rabenschlacht_
("Battle of Ravenna"). Of these, the first is much the finest poem of
the entire cycle and worthy of a place beside the best popular poetry of
the Middle High German epoch. Alphart, a young hero in Dietrich's army,
goes out to fight single-handed with Witege and Heime, who had deserted
to Ermanrich, and he falls, not in fair battle, but by the treachery of
Witege whose life he had spared. The other two Dietrich epics belong to
a later period, the end of the 13th century--the author being an
Austrian, Heinrich der Vogler--and show only too plainly the decay that
had by this time set in in Middle High German poetry.
The second cycle of sagas is represented by several long romances, all
of them unmistakably "popular" in tone--conflicts with dragons,
supernatural adventures, the wonderland of the East providing the chief
features of interest. The epics of this group are _Ortnit_,
_Hugdietrich_, _Wolfdietrich_, the latter with its pathetic episode of
the unswerving loyalty of Wolfdietrich's vassal Duke Berchtung and his
ten sons. Although many of the incidents and motives of this cycle are
drawn from the best traditions of the _Heldensage_, its literary value
is not very high.
This collection of popular romances was one of the first German books
to be printed. The date of the first edition is unknown, but the
second edition appeared in the year 1491 and was followed by later
reprints in 1509, 1545, 1560 and 1590. The last of these forms the
basis of the text edited by A. von Keller for the Stuttgart
_Literarische Verein_ in 1867. In 1472 the _Heldenbuch_ was adapted to
the popular tastes of the time by being remodelled in rough
_Knittelvers_ or doggerel; the author, or at least copyist, of the MS.
was a certain Kaspar von dor Roen, of Münnerstadt in Franconia. This
version was printed by F. von der Hagen and S. Primisser in their
_Heldenbuch_ (1820-1825). _Das Heldenbuch_, which F. von der Hagen
published in 2 vols, in 1855, was the first attempt to reproduce the
original text by collating the MSS. A critical edition, based not
merely on the oldest printed text--the only one which has any value
for this purpose, as the others are all copies of it--but also on the
MSS., was published in 5 vols. by O. Jänicke, E. Martin, A. Amelung
and J. Zupitza at Berlin (1866-1873). A selection, edited by E.
Henrici, will be found in Kürschner's _Deutsche Nationalliteratur_,
vol. 7 (1887). Recent editions have appeared of _Der Rosengarten_ and
_Laurin_, by G. Holz (1893 and 1897). All the poems have been
translated into modern German by K. Simrock and others. See F. E.
Sandbach, _The Heroic Saga-Cycle of Dietrich of Bern_ (1906). The
literature of the _Heldensage_ is very extensive. See especially W.
Grimm, _Die deutsche Heldensage_ (3rd ed., 1889); L. Uhland,
"Geschichte der deutschen Poesie im Mittelalter," _Schriften_, vol. i.
(1866); O. L. Jiriczek, _Deutsche Heldensage_, vol. i. (1898); and
especially B. Symons, "Germanische Heldensage," in Paul's _Grundriss
der germanischen Philologie_ (2nd ed., 1898).
HELDER, a seaport town at the northern extremity of the province of
North Holland, in the kingdom of Holland, 51 m. by rail N.N.W. of
Amsterdam. Pop. (1900) 25,842. It is situated on the Marsdiep, the
channel separating the island of Texel from the mainland, and the main
entrance to the Zuider Zee, and besides being the terminus of the North
Holland canal from Amsterdam, it is an important naval and military
station. On the east side of the town, called the Nieuwe Diep, is
situated the fine harbour, which formerly served, as Ymuiden now does,
as the outer port of Amsterdam. In this neighbourhood are the naval
wharves and magazines, wet and dry docks, and the naval cadet school of
Holland, the name Willemsoord being given to the whole naval
establishment. From Nieuwe Diep to Fort Erfprins on the west side of the
town, a distance of about 5 m., stretches the great sea-dike which here
takes the place of the dunes. This dike descends at an angle of 40° for
a distance of 200 ft. into the sea, and is composed of Norwegian granite
and Belgian limestone, strengthened at intervals by projecting jetties
of piles and fascines. A circle of forts and batteries defends the town
and coast, and there is a permanent garrison of 7000 to 9000 men, while
30,000 men can be accommodated within the lines, and the province
flooded from this point. Besides several churches and a synagogue, there
are a town hall (1836), a hospital, an orphan asylum, the "palace" of
the board of marine, a meteorological observatory, a zoological station
and a lighthouse. The industries of the town are sustained by the
garrison and marine establishments.
HELEN, or HELENA (Gr. [Greek: Elenê]),in Greek mythology, daughter of
Zeus by Leda (wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta), sister of Castor,
Pollux and Clytaemnestra, and wife of Menelaus. Other accounts make her
the daughter of Zeus and Nemesis, or of Oceanus and Tethys. She was the
most beautiful woman in Greece, and indirectly the cause of the Trojan
war. When a child she was carried off from Sparta by Theseus to Attica,
but was recovered and taken back by her brothers. When she grew up, the
most famous of the princes of Greece sought her hand in marriage, and
her father's choice fell upon Menelaus. During her husband's absence she
was induced by Paris, son of Priam, with the connivance of Aphrodite, to
flee with him to Troy. After the death of Paris she married his brother
Deïphobus, whom she is said to have betrayed into the hands of Menelaus
at the capture of the city (_Aeneid_, vi. 517 ff.). Menelaus thereupon
took her back, and they returned together to Sparta, where they lived
happily till their death, and were buried at Therapnae in Laconia.
According to another story, Helen survived her husband, and was driven
out by her stepsons. She fled to Rhodes, where she was hanged on a tree
by her former friend Polyxo, to avenge the loss of her husband
Tlepolemus in the Trojan War (Pausanias iii. 19). After death, Helen was
said to have married Achilles in his home in the island of Leuke. In
another version, Paris, on his voyage to Troy with Helen, was driven
ashore on the coast of Egypt, where King Proteus, upon learning the
facts of the case, detained the real Helen in Egypt, while a phantom
Helen was carried off to Troy. Menelaus on his way home was also driven
by stress of winds to Egypt, where he found his wife and took her home
(Herodotus ii. 112-120; Euripides, _Helena_). Helen was worshipped as
the goddess of beauty at Therapnae in Laconia, where a festival was held
in her honour. At Rhodes she was worshipped under the name of Dendritis
(the tree goddess), where the inhabitants built a temple in her honour
to expiate the crime of Polyxo. The Rhodian story probably contains a
reference to the worship connected with her name (cf. Theocritus xviii.
48 [Greek: sebou m', Helenas phyton eimi]). She was the subject of a
tragedy by Euripides and an epic by Colluthus. Originally, Helen was
perhaps a goddess of light, a moon-goddess, who was gradually
transformed into the beautiful heroine round whom the action of the
_Iliad_ revolves. Like her brothers, the Dioscuri, she was a patron
deity of sailors.
See E. Oswald, _The Legend of Fair Helen_ (1905); J. A. Symonds,
_Studies of the Greek Poets_, i. (1893); F. Decker, _Die griechische
Helena in Mythos und Epos_ (1894); Andrew Lang, _Helen of Troy_
(1883); P. Paris in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des
antiquités_; the exhaustive article by R. Engelmann in Roscher's
_Lexikon der Mythologie_; and O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, i.
163, according to whom Helen originally represented, in the
Helenephoria (a mystic festival of Artemis, Iphigeneia or Tauropolos),
the sacred basket ([Greek: helenê]) in which the holy objects were
carried; and hence, as the personification of the initiation ceremony,
she was connected with or identified with the moon, the first
appearance of which probably marked the beginning of the festivity.
HELENA, ST (c. 247-c. 327) the wife of the emperor Constantius I.
Chlorus, and mother of Constantine the Great. She was a woman of humble
origin, born probably at Drepanum, a town on the Gulf of Nicomedia,
which Constantine named Helenopolis in her honour. Very little is known
of her history. It is certain that, at an advanced age, she undertook a
pilgrimage to Palestine, visited the holy places, and founded several
churches. She was still living at the time of the murder of Crispus
(326). Constantine had coins struck with the effigy of his mother. The
name of Helena is intimately connected with the commonly received story
of the discovery of the Cross. But the accounts which connect her with
the discovery are much later than the date of the event. The Pilgrim of
Bordeaux (333), Eusebius and Cyril of Jerusalem were unaware of this
important episode in the life of the empress. It was only at the end of
the 4th century and in the West that the legend appeared. The principal
centre of the cult of St Helena in the West seems to be the abbey of
Hautvilliers, near Reims, where since the 9th century they have claimed
to be in possession of her body. In England legends arose representing
her as the daughter of a prince of Britain. Following these Geoffrey of
Monmouth makes her the daughter of Coel, the king who is supposed to
have given his name to the town of Colchester. These legends have
doubtless not been without influence on the cult of the saint in
England, where a great number of churches are dedicated either to St
Helena alone, or to St Cross and St Helena. Her festival is celebrated
in the Latin Church on the 18th of August. The Greeks make no
distinction between her festival and that of Constantine, the 21st of
May.
See _Acta sanctorum_, Augusti iii. 548-580; Tixeront, _Les Origines de
l'église d'Édesse_ (Paris, 1888); F. Arnold-Forster, _Studies in
Church Dedications or England's Patron Saints_, i. 181-189, iii. 16,
365-366 (1899). (H. De.)
HELENA, a city and the county-seat of Phillips county, Arkansas, U.S.A.,
situated on and at the foot of Crowly's Ridge, about 150 ft. above
sea-level, in the alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi river, about 65 m.
by rail S.W. of Memphis, Tennessee. Pop. (1890) 5189, (1900) 5550, of
whom 3400 were negroes; (1910) 8772. It is served by the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley (Illinois Central), the St Louis, Iron Mountain &
Southern (Missouri Pacific), the Arkansas Midland, and the Missouri &
North Arkansas railways. Built in part upon "made land," well protected
by levees, and lying within the richest cotton-producing region of the
south, the rich timber country of the St Francis river, and the
Mississippi "bottom lands," Helena concentrates its economic interests
in cotton-compressing and shipping, the manufacture of cotton-seed
products, lumbering and wood-working. The city was founded about 1821,
but so late as 1860 the population was only 800. During the Civil War
the place was of considerable strategic importance. It was occupied in
July 1862 by the Union forces, who strongly fortified it to guard their
communications with the lower Mississippi; on the 4th of July 1863, when
occupied by General Benjamin M. Prentiss (1819-1901) with 4500 men, it
was attacked by a force of 9000 Confederates under General Theophilus H.
Holmes (1804-1880), who hoped to raise the siege of Vicksburg or close
the river to the Union forces. The attack was repulsed, with a loss to
the Confederates of one-fifth their numbers, the Union loss being
slight.
HELENA, a city and the county-seat of Lewis and Clark county, Montana,
U.S.A., and the capital of the state, at the E. base of the main range
of the Rocky Mountains, 80 m. N.E. of Butte, at an altitude of about
4000 ft. Pop. (1880) 3624; (1890) 13,834; (1900) 10,770, of whom 2793
were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,515. It is served by the Great
Northern and the Northern Pacific railways. Helena is delightfully
situated with Mt Helena as a background in the hollow of the Prickly
Pear valley, a rich agricultural region surrounded by rolling hills and
lofty mountains, and contains many fine buildings, including the state
capitol, county court house, the Montana club house, high school, the
cathedral of St Helena, a federal building, and the United States assay
office. It is the seat of the Montana Wesleyan University (Methodist
Episcopal), founded in 1890; St Aloysius College and St Vincent's
Academy (Roman Catholic); and has a public library with about 35,000
volumes, the Montana state library with about 40,000 volumes, and the
state law library with about 24,000 volumes. The city is the commercial
and financial centre of the state (Butte being the mining centre), and
is one of the richest cities in the United States in proportion to its
population. It has large railway car-shops, extensive smelters and
quartz crushers (at East Helena), and various manufacturing
establishments; the value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,309,746,
an increase of 68.7% over that of 1900. The surrounding country abounds
in gold- and silver-bearing quartz deposits, and it is estimated that
from the famous Last Chance Gulch alone, which runs across the city,
more than $40,000,000 in gold has been taken. The street railway and the
lighting system of the city are run by power generated at a plant and 40
ft. dam at Canyon Ferry, on the Missouri river, 18 m. E. of Helena.
There is another great power plant at Hauser Plant, 20 m. N. of Helena.
Three miles W. of the city is the Broadwater Natatorium with swimming
pool, 300 ft. long and 100 ft. wide, the water for which is furnished by
hot springs with a temperature at the source of 160°. Fort Harrison, a
United States army post, is situated 3 m. W. of the city. Helena was
established as a placer mining camp in 1864 upon the discovery of gold
in Last Chance Gulch. The town was laid out in the same year, and after
the organization of Montana Territory it was designated as the capital.
Helena was burned down in 1869 and in 1874. It was chartered as a city
in 1881.
HELENSBURGH, a municipal and police burgh and watering-place of
Dumbartonshire, Scotland, on the N. shore of the Firth of Clyde,
opposite Greenock, 24 m. N.W. of Glasgow by the North British railway.
Pop. (1901) 8554. There is a station at Upper Helensburgh on the West
Highland railway, and from the railway pier at Craigendoran there is
steamer communication with Garelochhead, Dunoon and other pleasure
resorts on the western coast. In 1776 the site began to be built upon,
and in 1802 the town, named after Lady Helen, wife of Sir James
Colquhoun of Luss, the ground landlord, was erected into a burgh of
barony, under a provost and council. The public buildings include the
burgh hall, municipal buildings, Hermitage schools and two hospitals. On
the esplanade stands an obelisk to Henry Bell, the pioneer of steam
navigation, who died at Helensburgh in 1830.
HELENUS, in Greek legend, son of Priam and Hecuba, and twin-brother of
Cassandra. He is said to have been originally called Scamandrius, and to
have received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer who
instructed him in the prophetic art. In the _Iliad_ he is described as
the prince of augurs and a brave warrior; in the _Odyssey_ he is not
mentioned at all. Various details concerning him are added by later
writers. It is related that he and his sister fell asleep in the temple
of Apollo Thymbraeus and that snakes came and cleansed their ears,
whereby they obtained the gift of prophecy and were able to understand
the language of birds. After the death of Paris, Helenus and his brother
Deïphobus became rivals for the hand of Helen. Deïphobus was preferred,
and Helenus withdrew in indignation to Mount Ida, where he was captured
by the Greeks, whom he advised to build the wooden horse and carry off
the Palladium. According to other accounts, having been made prisoner by
a stratagem of Odysseus, he declared that Philoctetes must be fetched
from Lemnos before Troy could be taken; or he surrendered to Diomedes
and Odysseus in the temple of Apollo, whither he had fled in disgust at
the sacrilegious murder of Achilles by Paris in the sanctuary. After the
capture of Troy, he and his sister-in-law Andromache accompanied
Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) as captives to Epirus, where Helenus persuaded him
to settle. After the death of Neoptolemus, Helenus married Andromache
and became ruler of the country. He was the reputed founder of Buthrotum
and Chaonia, named after a brother or companion whom he had accidentally
slain while hunting. He was said to have been buried at Argos, where his
tomb was shown. When Aeneas, in the course of his wanderings, reached
Epirus, he was hospitably received by Helenus, who predicted his future
destiny.
Homer, _Iliad_, vi. 76, vii. 44, xii. 94, xiii. 576; Sophocles,
_Philoctetes_, 604, who probably follows the _Little Iliad_ of
Lesches; Pausanias i. 11, ii. 23; Conon, _Narrationes_, 34; Dictys
Cretensis iv. 18; Virgil, _Aeneid_, iii. 294-490; Servius on _Aeneid_,
ii. 166, iii. 334.
HELGAUD, or HELGALDUS (d. c. 1048), French chronicler, was a monk of the
Benedictine abbey of Fleury. Little else is known about him save that he
was chaplain to the French king, Robert II. the Pious, whose life he
wrote. This _Epitoma vitae Roberti regis_, which is probably part of a
history of the abbey of Fleury, deals rather with the private than with
the public life of the king, and its value is not great either from the
literary or from the historical point of view. The only existing
manuscript is in the Vatican, and the _Epitoma_ has been printed by J.
P. Migne in the _Patrologia Latina_, tome cxli. (Paris, 1844); and by M.
Bouquet in the _Recueil des historiens des Gaules_, tome x. (Paris,
1760).
See _Histoire littéraire de la France_, tome vii. (Paris, 1865-1869);
and A. Molinier, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France_, tome ii.
(Paris, 1902).
HELGESEN, POVL,[1] Danish humanist, was born at Varberg in Halland about
1480, of a Danish father and a Swedish mother. Helgesen was educated
first at the Carmelite monastery of his native place and afterwards at
another monastery at Elsinore, where he devoted himself to humanistic
studies and adopted Erasmus as his model. None had a keener eye for the
abuses of the Church; long before the appearance of Luther, he denounced
the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, and, as lector at the
university of Copenhagen, gathered round him a band of young
enthusiasts, the future leaders of the Danish Reformation. But Helgesen
desired an orderly, methodical, rational reformation, and denounced
Luther, whose ablest opponent in Denmark he subsequently became, as a
hot-headed revolutionist. Christian II. was also an object of Helgesen's
detestation, and so boldly did he oppose that monarch's measures that,
to save his life, he had to flee to Jutland. Under Frederick I.
(1523-1533) he returned to Copenhagen and resumed his chair at the
university, becoming soon afterwards provincial of the Carmelite Order
for Scandinavia. But like all moderate men in a time of crisis, Helgesen
could gain the confidence of neither party, and was frequently attacked
as bitterly by the Catholics as by the Protestants. From 1530 to 1533 he
and the Protestant champion Hans Tausen exhausted the whole vocabulary
of vituperation in their fruitless polemics. In October 1534, however,
Helgesen issued an eirenicon in which he attempted to reconcile the two
contending confessions. After that every trace of him is lost. For a
long time he was unjustly regarded as a turn-coat, but he was too
superior to the prejudices of his age to be understood by his
contemporaries. His ideal was a moral internal reformation of the Church
on a rational basis, conducted not by ill-informed fanatics, but by an
enlightened and well-educated clergy; and from this standpoint he never
diverged. Helgesen was indisputably the greatest master of style of his
age in Denmark, and as a historian he also occupies a prominent
position. He always endeavours to probe down to the very soul of things,
though his passionate nature made it very difficult for him to be
impartial. His chief works are _Danmark's Kongers Historie_ and _Skibby
Kröniken_.
See Ludwig Schmitt, _Der Karmeliter Paulus Heliä_ (Freiburg, 1893);
_Danmarks Riges Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1897-1905), vol. iii.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] He wrote his name Heliae or Eliae.
HELIACAL, relating to the sun ([Greek: hêlios]), a term applied in the
ancient astronomy to the first rising of a star which could be seen
after it emerged from the rays of the sun, or the last setting that
could be seen before it was lost from sight by proximity to the sun.
HELIAND. The 9th-century poem on the Gospel history, to which its first
editor, J. A. Schmeller, gave the appropriate name of _Heliand_ (the
word used in the text for "Saviour," answering to the O. Eng. _hælend_
and the Ger. _Heiland_), is, with the fragments of a version of the
story of Genesis believed to be by the same author, all that remains of
the poetical literature of the old Saxons, i.e. the Saxons who continued
in their original home. It contained when entire about 6000 lines, and
portions of it are preserved in four MSS. The Cotton MS. in the British
Museum, written probably late in the 10th century, is nearly complete,
ending in the middle of the story of the journey to Emmaus. The Munich
MS., formerly at Bamberg, begins at line 85, and has many lacunae, but
continues the history down to the last verse of St Luke's Gospel,
ending, however, in the middle of a sentence. A MS. discovered at Prague
in 1881 contains lines 958-1106, and another, in the Vatican library,
discovered by K. Zangemeister in 1894, contains lines 1279-1358. The
poem is based, not directly on the New Testament, but on the
pseudo-Tatian's harmony of the Gospels, and it shows acquaintance with
the commentaries of Alcuin, Bæda and Hrabanus Maurus.
The questions relating to the _Heliand_ cannot be adequately discussed
without considering also the poem on the history of Genesis, which, on
the grounds of similarity in style and vocabulary, and for other reasons
afterwards to be mentioned, may with some confidence be referred to the
same author. A part of this poem, as is mentioned in the article CÆDMON,
is extant only in an Old English translation. The portions that have
been preserved in the original language are contained in the same
Vatican MS. that includes the fragment of the _Heliand_ referred to
above. In the one language or the other, there are in existence the
following three fragments: (1) The passage which appears as lines
235-851 in the so-called "Cædmon's _Genesis_," on the revolt of the
angels and the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve. Of this the part
corresponding to lines 790-820 exists also in the original Old Saxon.
(2) The story of Cain and Abel, in 124 lines. (3) The account of the
destruction of Sodom, in 187 lines. The main source of the _Genesis_ is
the Bible, but Professor E. Sievers has shown that considerable use was
made of the two Latin poems by Alcimus Avitus, _De initio mundi_ and _De
peccato originali_.
The two poems give evidence of genius and trained skill, though the
poet was no doubt hampered by the necessity of not deviating too widely
from the sacred originals. Within the limits imposed by the nature of
his task, his treatment of his sources is remarkably free, the details
unsuited for poetic handling being passed over, or, in some instances,
boldly altered. In many passages his work gives the impression of being
not so much an imitation of the ancient Germanic epic, as a genuine
example of it, though concerned with the deeds of other heroes than
those of Germanic tradition. In the _Heliand_ the Saviour and His
Apostles are conceived as a king and his faithful warriors, and the use
of the traditional epic phrases appears to be not, as with Cynewulf or
the author of _Andreas_, a mere following of accepted models, but the
spontaneous mode of expression of one accustomed to sing of heroic
themes. The _Genesis_ fragments have less of the heroic tone, except in
the splendid passage describing the rebellion of Satan and his host. It
is noteworthy that the poet, like Milton, sees in Satan no mere
personification of evil, but the fallen archangel, whose awful guilt
could not obliterate all traces of his native majesty. Somewhat
curiously, but very naturally, Enoch the son of Cain is confused with
the Enoch who was translated to heaven--an error which the author of the
Old English _Genesis_ avoids, though (according to the existing text) he
confounds the names of Enoch and Enos.
Such external evidence as exists bearing on the origin of the _Heliand_
and the companion poem is contained in a Latin document printed by
Flacius Illyricus in 1562. This is in two parts; the one in prose,
entitled (perhaps only by Flacius himself) "_Praefatio ad librum
antiquum in lingua Saxonica conscriptum_"; the other in verse, headed
"_Versus de poëta et Interpreta hujus codicis_." The Praefatio begins by
stating that the emperor Ludwig the Pious, desirous that his subjects
should possess the word of God in their own tongue, commanded a certain
Saxon, who was esteemed among his countrymen as an eminent poet, to
translate poetically into the German language the Old and New
Testaments. The poet willingly obeyed, all the more because he had
previously received a divine command to undertake the task. He rendered
into verse all the most important parts of the Bible with admirable
skill, dividing his work into _vitteas_, a term which, the writer says,
may be rendered by "_lectiones_" or "_sententias_." The Praefatio goes
on to say that it was reported that the poet, till then knowing nothing
of the art of poetry, had been admonished in a dream to turn into verse
the precepts of the divine law, which he did with so much skill that his
work surpasses in beauty all other German poetry (_ut cuncta Theudisca
poëmata suo vincat decore_). The _Versus_ practically reproduce in
outline Bæda's account of Cædmon's dream, without mentioning the dream,
but describing the poet as a herdsman, and adding that his poems,
beginning with the creation, relate the history of the five ages of the
world down to the coming of Christ.
The suspicion of some earlier scholars that the _Praefatio_ and the
_Versus_ might be a modern forgery is refuted by the occurrence of the
word _vitteas_, which is the Old Saxon _fittea_, corresponding to the
Old English _fitt_, which means a "canto" of a poem. It is impossible
that a scholar of the 16th century could have been acquainted with this
word, and internal evidence shows clearly that both the prose and the
verse are of early origin. The _Versus_, considered in themselves, might
very well be supposed to relate to Cædmon; but the mention of the five
ages of the world in the concluding lines is obviously due to
recollection of the opening of the _Heliand_ (lines 46-47). It is
therefore certain that the _Versus_, as well as the _Praefatio_,
attribute to the author of the _Heliand_ a poetic rendering of the Old
Testament. Their testimony, if accepted, confirms the ascription to him
of the Genesis fragments, which is further supported by the fact that
they occur in the same MS. with a portion of the _Heliand_. As the
_Praefatio_ speaks of the emperor Ludwig in the present tense, the
former part of it at least was probably written in his reign, i.e. not
later than A.D. 840. The general opinion of scholars is that the latter
part, which represents the poet as having received his vocation in a
dream, is by a later hand, and that the sentences in the earlier part
which refer to the dream are interpolations by this second author. The
date of these additions, and of the _Versus_, is of no importance, as
their statements are incredible. That the author of the _Heliand_ was,
so to speak, another Cædmon--an unlearned man who turned into poetry
what was read to him from the sacred writings--is impossible, because in
many passages the text of the sources is so closely followed that it is
clear that the poet wrote with the Latin books before him. On the other
hand, there is no reason for rejecting the almost contemporary testimony
of the first part of the _Praefatio_ that the author of the _Heliand_
had won renown as a poet before he undertook his great task at the
emperor's command. It is certainly not impossible that a Christian
Saxon, sufficiently educated to read Latin easily, may have chosen to
follow the calling of a _scop_ or minstrel[1] instead of entering the
priesthood or the cloister; and if such a person existed, it would be
natural that he should be selected by the emperor to execute his design.
As has been said above, the tone of many portions of the _Heliand_ is
that of a man who was no mere imitator of the ancient epic, but who had
himself been accustomed to sing of heroic themes.
The commentary on the gospel of Matthew by Hrabanus Maurus was finished
about 821, which is therefore the superior limit of date for the
composition of the _Heliand_. It is usually maintained that this work
was written before the Old Testament poems. The arguments for this view
are that the _Heliand_ contains no allusion to any foregoing poetical
treatment of the antecedent history, and that the Genesis fragments
exhibit a higher degree of poetic skill. This reasoning does not appear
conclusive, and if it be set aside, the limit of date for the beginning
of the work is carried back to A.D. 814, the year of the accession of
Ludwig.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The first complete edition of the _Heliand_ was
published by J. A. Schmeller in 1830; the second volume, containing
the glossary and grammar, appeared in 1840. The standard edition is
that of E. Sievers (1877), in which the texts of the Cotton and Munich
MSS. are printed side by side. It is not provided with a glossary, but
contains an elaborate and most valuable analysis of the diction,
synonymy and syntactical features of the poem. Other useful editions
are those of M. Heyne (3rd ed., 1903), O. Behaghel (1882) and P. Piper
(1897, containing also the Genesis fragments). The fragments of the
_Heliand_ and the _Genesis_ contained in the Vatican MS. were edited
in 1894 by K. Zangemeister and W. Braune under the title _Bruchstücke
der altsächsischen Bibeldichtung_. Among the works treating of the
authorship, sources and place of origin of the poems, the most
important are the following: E. Windisch, _Der Heliand und seine
Quellen_ (1868); E. Sievers, _Der Heliand und die angelsächsische
Genesis_ (1875); R. Kögel, _Deutsche Literaturgeschichte_, Bd. i.
(1894) and _Die altsächsische Genesis_ (1895); R. Kögel and W.
Bruckner, "Althoch- und altniederdeutsche Literatur," in Paul's
_Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, Bd. ii. (2nd ed., 1901),
which contains references to many other works; Hermann Collitz, _Zum
Dialekte des Heliand_ (1901). (H. Br.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The term _Volkssänger_, commonly used in German discussions of
this question, is misleading; the audience for heroic poetry was not
"the people" in the modern sense, but the nobles.
HELICON, a mountain range, of Boeotia in ancient Greece, celebrated in
classical literature as the favourite haunt of the Muses, is situated
between Lake Copaïs and the Gulf of Corinth. On the fertile eastern
slopes stood a temple and grove sacred to the Muses, and adorned with
beautiful statues, which, taken by Constantine the Great to beautify his
new city, were consumed there by a fire in A.D. 404. Hard by were the
famous fountains, Aganippe and Hippocrene, the latter fabled to have
gushed from the earth at the tread of the winged horse Pegasus, whose
favourite browsing place was there. At the neighbouring Ascra dwelt the
poet Hesiod, a fact which probably enhanced the poetic fame of the
region. Pausanias, who describes Helicon in his ninth book, asserts that
it was the most fertile mountain in Greece, and that neither poisonous
plant nor serpent was to be found on it, while many of its herbs
possessed a miraculous healing virtue. The highest summit, the present
Palaeovouni (old hill), rises to the height of about 5000 ft. Modern
travellers, aided by ancient remains and inscriptions, and guided by the
local descriptions of Pausanias, have succeeded in identifying many of
the ancient classical spots, and the French excavators have discovered
the temple of the Muses and a theatre.
See also Clarke, _Travels in Various Countries_ (vol. vii., 1818);
Dodwell, _Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece_ (1818); W.
M. Leake, _Travels in Northern Greece_ (vol. ii., 1835); J. G.
Frazer's edition of _Pausanias_, v. 150.
HELICON (Fr. _hélicon, bombardon circulaire_; Ger. _Helikon_), the
circular form of the B[flat] contrabass tuba used in military bands,
worn round the body, with the enormous bell resting on the left shoulder
and towering above the head of the performer. The pitch of the helicon
is an octave below that of the euphonium. The idea of winding the long
tube of the contrabass tuba and of wearing it round the shoulders was
suggested by the ancient Roman buccina and cornu, represented in mosaics
and on the sculptured reliefs surrounding Trajan's Column. The buccina
and cornu[1] differed in the diameter of their respective bores, the
former having the narrow, almost cylindrical bore and harmonic series of
the trumpet and trombone, whereas the cornu, having a bore in the form
of a wide cone, was the prototype of the bugle and tubas.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For illustrations of the cornu see the altar of Julius Victor ex
Collegio, reproduced in Bartoli, Pict. Ant. p. 76; Bellori, _Pict.
antiq. crypt. rom._ p. 76, pl. viii.; in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict.
des antiq. grecques et romaines_, under "Cornu," the buccina and
cornu have not been distinguished.
HELIGOLAND (Ger. _Helgoland_), an island of Germany, in the North Sea,
lying off the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, 28 m. from the nearest
point in the mainland. Pop. (1900) 2307. From 1807 to 1890 a British
possession, it was ceded in 1890 to Germany, and since 1892 has formed
part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. It consists of two
islets, the smaller, the Dünen-Insel, a quarter of a mile E. of the
main, or Rock Island, connected until 1720, when it was severed by a
violent irruption of the sea, with the other by a neck of land, and the
main, or Rock Island. The latter is nearly triangular in shape and is
surrounded by steep red cliffs, the only beach being the sandy spit near
the south-east point, where the landing-stage is situated. The rocks
composing the cliffs are worn into caves, and around the island are many
fantastic arches and columns. The impression made by the red cliffs,
fringed by a white beach and supporting the green Oberland, is commonly
believed to have suggested the national colours, red, white and green,
or, as the old Frisian rhyme goes:--
"Grön is dat Land,
Rood is de Kant,
Witt is de Sand,
Dat is de Flagg vun't hillige Land."
The lower town of Unterland, on the spit, and the upper town, or
Oberland, situated on the cliff above, are connected by a wooden stair
and a lift. There is a powerful lighthouse, and since its cession by
Great Britain to Germany, the main island has been strongly fortified,
the old English batteries being replaced by armoured turrets mounting
guns of heavy calibre. Inside the Dünen-Insel the largest ships can ride
safely at anchor, and take in coal and other supplies. The greatest
length of the main island, which slopes somewhat from west to east, is
just a mile, and the greatest breadth less than a third of a mile, its
average height 198 ft., and the highest point, crowned by the church,
with a conspicuous spire, 216 ft. The Dünen-Insel is a sand-bank
protected by groines. It is only about 200 ft. above the sea at its
highest point, but the drifting sands make the height rather variable.
The sea-bathing establishment is situated here; a shelving beach of
white sand presenting excellent facilities for bathing. Most of the
houses are built of brick, but some are of wood. There are a theatre, a
Kurhaus, and a number of hotels and restaurants. In 1892 a biological
institute, with a marine museum and aquarium (1900) attached, was
opened.
During the summer some 20,000 people visit the island for sea-bathing.
German is the official language, though among themselves the natives
speak a dialect of Frisian, barely intelligible to the other islands of
the group. There is regular communication with Bremen and Hamburg.
The winters are stormy. May and the early part of June are wet and
foggy, so that few visitors arrive before the middle of the latter
month.
The generally accepted derivation of Heligoland (or Helgoland) from
_Heiligeland_, i.e. "Holy Land," seems doubtful. According to northern
mythology, Forseti, a son of Balder and Nanna, the god of justice, had a
temple on the island, which was subsequently destroyed by St Ludger.
This legend may have given rise to the derivation "Holy Land." The more
probable etymology, however, is that of Hallaglun, or Halligland, i.e.
"land of banks, which cover and uncover." Here Hertha, according to
tradition, had her great temple, and hither came from the mainland the
Angles to worship at her shrine. Here also lived King Radbod, a pagan,
and on this isle St Willibrord in the 7th century first preached
Christianity; and for its ownership, before and after that date, many
sea-rovers have fought. Finally it became a fief of the dukes of
Schleswig-Holstein, though often hypothecated for loans advanced to
these princes by the free city of Hamburg. The island was a Danish
possession in 1807, when the English seized and held it until it was
formally ceded to them in 1814. In the picturesque old church there are
still traces of a painted Dannebrog.
In 1890 the island was ceded to Germany, and in 1892 it was incorporated
with Prussia, when it was provided that natives born before the year
1880 should be allowed to elect either for British or German
nationality, and until 1901 no additional import duties were imposed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Von der Decken, _Philosophisch-historisch-geographische
Untersuchungen über die Insel Helgoland, oder Heiligeland, und ihre
Bewohner_ (Hanover, 1826); Wiebel, _Die Insel Helgoland,
Untersuchungen über deren Grösse in Vorzeit und Gegenwart vom
Standpunkte der Geschichte und Geologie_ (Hamburg, 1848); J. M.
Lappenberg, _Über den ehemaligen Umfang und die alte Geschichte
Helgolands_ (Hamburg, 1831); F. Otker, _Helgoland. Schilderungen und
Erörterungen_ (Berlin, 1855); E. Hallier, _Helgoland, Nordseestudien_
(Hamburg, 1893); A. W. F. Möller, _Rechtsgeschichte der Insel
Helgoland_ (Weimar, 1904); W. G. Black, _Heligoland and the Islands of
the North Sea_ (Glasgow, 1888); E. Lindermann, _Die Nordseeinsel
Helgoland in topographischer, geschichtlicher, sanitärer Beziehung_
(Berlin, 1889); and Tittel, _Die natürlichen Veränderungen Helgolands_
(Leipzig, 1894).
HELIOCENTRIC, i.e. referred to the centre of the sun ([Greek: hêlios])
as an origin, a term designating especially co-ordinates or heavenly
bodies referred to that origin.
HELIODORUS, of Emesa in Syria, Greek writer of romance. According to his
own statement his father's name was Theodosius, and he belonged to a
family of priests of the sun. He was the author of the _Aethiopica_, the
oldest and best of the Greek romances that have come down to us. It was
first brought to light in modern times in a MS. from the library of
Matthias Corvinus, found at the sack of Buda (Ofen) in 1526, and printed
at Basel in 1534. Other codices have since been discovered. The title is
taken from the fact that the action of the beginning and end of the
story takes place in Aethiopia. The daughter of Persine, wife of
Hydaspes, king of Aethiopia, was born white through the effect of the
sight of a marble statue upon the queen during pregnancy. Fearing an
accusation of adultery, the mother gives the babe to the care of
Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, who carries her to Egypt and places her in
charge of Charicles, a Pythian priest. The child is taken to Delphi, and
made a priestess of Apollo under the name of Chariclea. Theagenes, a
noble Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love with each
other. He carries off the priestess with the help of Calasiris, an
Egyptian, employed by Persine to seek for her daughter. Then follow many
perils from sea-rovers and others, but the chief personages ultimately
meet at Meroë at the very moment when Chariclea is about to be
sacrificed to the gods by her own father. Her birth is made known, and
the lovers are happily married. The rapid succession of events, the
variety of the characters, the graphic descriptions of manners and of
natural scenery, the simplicity and elegance of the style, give the
_Aethiopica_ great charm. As a whole it offends less against good taste
and morality than others of the same class. Homer and Euripides were the
favourite authors of Heliodorus, who in his turn was imitated by French,
Italian and Spanish writers. The early life of Clorinda in Tasso's
_Jerusalem Delivered_ (canto xii. 21 sqq.) is almost identical with that
of Chariclea; Racine meditated a drama on the same subject; and it
formed the model of the _Persiles y Sigismunda_ of Cervantes. According
to the ecclesiastical historian Socrates (_Hist. eccles._ v. 22), the
author of the _Aethiopica_ was a certain Heliodorus, bishop of Tricca in
Thessaly. It is supposed that the work was written in his early years
before he became a Christian, and that, when confronted with the
alternative of disowning it or resigning his bishopric, he preferred
resignation. But it is now generally agreed that the real author was a
sophist of the 3rd century A.D.
The best editions are: A. Coraës (1804), G. A. Hirschig (1856); see
also M. Oeftering, _H. und seine Bedeutung für die Literatur_, with
full bibliographies (1901); J. C. Dunlop, _History of Prose Fiction_
(1888); and especially E. Rohde, _Der griechische Roman_ (1900). There
are translations in almost all European languages: in English, in
Bohn's _Classical Library_ and the "Tudor" series (v., 1895,
containing the old translation by T. Underdowne, 1587, with
introduction by C. Whibley); in French by Amyot and Zevort.
HELIOGABALUS (ELAGABALUS), Roman emperor (A.D. 218-222), was born at
Emesa about 205. His real name was Varius Avitus. On the murder of
Caracalla (217), Julia Maesa, Varius's grandmother and Caracalla's aunt,
left Rome and retired to Emesa, accompanied by her grandsons (Varius and
Alexander Severus). Varius, though still only a boy, was appointed high
priest of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, one of the chief seats of whose
worship was Emesa (Homs). His beauty, and the splendid ceremonials at
which he presided, made him a great favourite with the troops stationed
in that part of Syria, and Maesa increased his popularity by spreading
reports that he was in reality the illegitimate son of Caracalla.
Macrinus, the successor and instigator of the murder of Caracalla, was
very unpopular with the army; an insurrection was easily set on foot,
and on the 16th of May 218 Varius was proclaimed emperor as Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus. The troops sent to quell the revolt went over to
him, and Macrinus was defeated near Antioch on the 8th of June.
Heliogabalus was at once recognized by the senate as emperor. After
spending the winter in Nicomedia, he proceeded in 219 to Rome, where he
made it his business to exalt the deity whose priest he was and whose
name he assumed. The Syrian god was proclaimed the chief deity in Rome,
and all other gods his servants; splendid ceremonies in his honour were
celebrated, at which Heliogabalus danced in public, and it was believed
that secret rites accompanied by human sacrifice were performed in his
honour. In addition to these affronts upon the state religion, he
insulted the intelligence of the community by horseplay of the wildest
description and by childish practical joking. The shameless profligacy
of the emperor's life was such as to shock even a Roman public. His
popularity with the army declined, and Maesa, perceiving that the
soldiers were in favour of Alexander Severus, persuaded Heliogabalus to
raise his cousin to the dignity of Caesar (221), a step of which he soon
repented. An attempt to murder Alexander was frustrated by the watchful
Maesa. Another attempt in 222 produced a mutiny among the praetorians,
in which Heliogabalus and his mother Soemias (Soaemias) were slain
(probably in the first half of March).
AUTHORITIES.--Life by Aelius Lampridius in _Scriptores historiae
Augustae_; Herodian v. 3-8; Dio Cassius lxxviii. 30 sqq., lxxix. 1-21;
monograph by G. Duviquet, _Héliogabale_ (1903), containing a
translation of the various accounts of Heliogabalus in Greek and Latin
authors, notes, bibliography and illustrations; O. F. Butler, _Studies
in the Life of Heliogabalus_ (New York, 1908); Gibbon, _Decline and
Fall_, ch. 6; H. Schiller, _Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit_, i.
pt. ii. (1883), p. 759 ff. On the Syrian god see F. Cumont in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_, v. pt. ii. (1905).
HELIOGRAPH (from Gr. [Greek: êlios], sun, and [Greek: gráphein] to
write), an instrument for reflecting the rays of the sun (or the light
obtained from any other source) over a considerable distance. Its main
application is in military signalling (see SIGNAL). A similar instrument
is the heliotrope, used principally for defining distant points in
geodetic surveys, such as in the triangulation of India, and in the
verification of the African arc of the meridian. It is necessary to
distinguish the method of signalling termed heliography from the
photographic process of the same name (see PHOTOGRAPHY).
HELIOMETER (from Gr. [Greek: hêlios], sun, and [Greek: metron], a
measure), an instrument originally designed for measuring the variation
of the sun's diameter at different seasons of the year, but applied now
to the modern form of the instrument which is capable of much wider use.
The present article also deals with other forms of double-image
micrometer.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
The discovery of the method of making measures by double images is
stated to have been first suggested by O. Roemer about 1768. But no
such suggestion occurs in the _Basis Astronomiae_ of Peter Horrebow
(Copenhagen, 1735), which contains the only works of Roemer that
remain to us. It would appear that to Servington Savary is due the
first invention of a micrometer for measurement by double image. His
heliometer (described in a paper communicated to the Royal Society in
1743, and printed, along with a letter from James Short, in _Phil.
Trans._, 1753, p. 156) was constructed by cutting from a complete lens
abcd the equal portions aghc and acfe (fig. 1). The segments gbh and
efd so formed were then attached to the end of a tube having an
internal diameter represented by the dotted circle (fig. 2). The width
of each of the portions aghc and acfe cut away from the lens was made
slightly greater than the focal length of lens × tangent of sun's
greatest diameter. Thus at the focus two images of the sun were formed
nearly in contact as in fig. 3. The small interval between the
adjacent limbs was then measured with a wire micrometer.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
Savary also describes another form of heliometer, on the same
principle, in which the segments aghc and acfe are utilized by
cementing their edges gh and ef together (fig. 4), and covering all
except the portion indicated by the unshaded circle. Savary expresses
preference for this second plan, and makes the pertinent remark that
in both these models "the rays of red light in the two solar images
will be next to each other, which will render the sun's disk more easy
to be observed than the violet ones." This he mentions "because the
glasses in these two sorts are somewhat prismatical, but mostly those
of the first model, which could therefore bear no great charge
(magnifying power)."
[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
A third model proposed by Savary consists of two complete lenses of
equal focal length, mounted in cylinders side by side, and attached to
a strong brass plate (fig. 5). Here, in order to fulfil the purposes
of the previous models, the distance of the centres of the lenses from
each other should only slightly exceed the tangent of sun's diameter ×
focal length of lenses. Savary dwells on the difficulty both of
procuring lenses sufficiently equal in focus and of accurately
adjusting and centring them.
In the _Mém. Acad. de Paris_ (1748), Pierre Bouguer describes an
instrument which he calls a heliometer. Lalande in his _Astronomie_
(vol. ii. p. 639) mentions such a heliometer which had been in his
possession from the year 1753, and of which he gives a representation
on Plate XXVIII., fig. 186, of the same volume. Bouguer's heliometer
was in fact similar to that of Savary's third model, with the
important difference that, instead of both object-glasses being fixed,
one of them is movable by a screw provided with a divided head. No
auxiliary filar micrometer was required, as in Savary's heliometer, to
measure the interval between the limbs of two adjacent images of the
sun, it being only necessary to turn the screw with the divided head
to change the distance between the object-glasses till the two images
of the sun are in contact as in fig. 6. The differences of the
readings of the screw, when converted into arc, afford the means of
measuring the variations of the sun's apparent diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
On the 4th of April 1754 John Dollond communicated a paper to the
Royal Society of London (_Phil. Trans._, vol. xlviii. p. 551) in which
he shows that a micrometer can be much more easily constructed by
dividing a single object-glass through its axis than by the employment
of two object-glasses. He points out--(1) that a telescope with an
object-glass so divided still produces a single image of any object to
which it may be directed, provided that the optical centres of the
segments are in coincidence (i.e. provided the segments retain the
same relative positions to each other as before the glass was cut);
(2) that if the segments are separated in any direction two images of
the object viewed will be produced; (3) that the most convenient
direction of separation for micrometric purposes is to slide these
straight edges one along the other as the figure on the margin (fig.
7) represents them: "for thus they may be moved without suffering any
false light to come in between them; and by this way of removing them
the distance between their centres may be very conveniently measured,
viz. by having a vernier's division fixed to the brass work that holds
one segment, so as to slide along a scale on the plate to which the
other part of the glass is fitted."
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
Dollond then points out three different types in which a glass so
divided and mounted may be used as a micrometer:--
"1. It may be fixed at the end of a tube, of a suitable length to its
focal distance, as an object-glass,--the other end of the tube having
an eye-glass fitted as usual in astronomical telescopes.
"2. It may be applied to the end of a tube much shorter than its focal
distance, by having another convex glass within the tube, to shorten
the focal distance of that which is cut in two.
"3. It may be applied to the open end of a reflecting telescope,
either of the Newtonian or the Cassegrain construction."
Dollond adds his opinion that the third type is "much the best and
most convenient of the three"; yet it is the first type that has
survived the test of time and experience, and which is in fact the
modern heliometer. It must be remembered, however, that when Dollond
expressed preference for this third type he had not then invented the
achromatic object-glass.
Some excellent instruments of the second type were subsequently made
by Dollond's eldest son Peter, in which for the "convex glass within
the tube" was substituted an achromatic object-glass, and outside that
a divided negative achromatic combination of long focus. In the fine
example of this instrument at the Cape Observatory the movable
negative lenses consist of segments of the shape gach and acfe (fig.
1) cut from a complete negative achromatic combination of 8¼ in.
aperture and about 41 ft. focal length, composed of a double concave
flint lens and a double convex crown. This was applied to an excellent
achromatic telescope of 3¼ in. aperture and 42 in. focal length. In
this instrument a considerable linear relative movement of the divided
lens corresponds with a comparatively small separation of the double
image, so that simple verniers reading to 1/1000 in. are sufficient
for measurement.
With one of these instruments of somewhat smaller dimensions
(telescope 2½ in. aperture and 3½ ft. focus), Franz von Paula
Triesnecker made a series of measurements at the observatory of Vienna
which has been reduced by Dr Wilhelm Schur of Strasburg (_Nova Acta
der Ksl. Leop.-Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Natursforscher_, 1882,
xlv. No. 3). The angle between the stars [zeta] and g Ursae maj.
(708´´.55) was measured on four nights; the probable error of a
measure on one night was ±0´´.44. Jupiter was measured on eleven
nights in the months of June and July 1794; from these measures Schur
derives the values 35´´.39 and 37´´.94 for the polar and equatorial
diameter respectively, at mean distance, corresponding with a
compression 1/14.44. These agree satisfactorily with the corresponding
values 35´´.21, 37´´.60, 1/15.59 afterwards obtained by F. W. Bessel
(_Königsberger Beobachtungen_, xix. 102). From a series of measures of
the angle between Jupiter's satellites and the planet, made in June
and July 1794 and in August and September 1795, Schur finds the mass
of Jupiter = 1/1048.55 ± 1.45, a result which accords well within the
limits of its probable error with the received value of the mass
derived from modern researches. The probable errors for the measures
of one night are ±0´´.577, ±0´´.889, ±0´´.542, ±1´´.096, for
Satellites I., II., III. and IV. respectively.
Considering the accuracy of these measures (an accuracy far surpassing
that of any other contemporary observations), it is somewhat
surprising that this form of micrometer was never systematically used
in any sustained or important astronomical researches, although a
number of instruments of the kind were made by Dollond. Probably the
last example of its employment is an observation of the transit of
Mercury (November 4, 1868) by Mann, at the Royal Observatory, Cape of
Good Hope (_Monthly Notices R.A.S._ vol. xxix. p. 197-209). The most
important part, however, which this type of instrument seems to have
played in the history of astronomy arises from the fact that one of
them was in the possession of Bessel at Königsberg during the time
when his new observatory there was being built. In 1812 Bessel
measured with it the angle between the components of the double star
61 Cygni and observed the great comet of 1811. He also observed the
eclipse of the sun on May 4, 1818. In the discussion of these
observations (_Königsberger Beobacht_, Abt. 5, p. iv.) he found that
the index error of the scale changed systematically in different
position angles by quantities which were independent of the direction
of gravity relative to the position angle under measurement, but which
depended solely on the direction of the measured position angle
relative to a fixed radius of the object-glass. Bessel attributed this
to non-homogeneity in the object-glass, and determined with great care
the necessary corrections. But he was so delighted with the general
performance of the instrument, with the sharpness of the images and
the possibilities which a kindred construction offered for the
measurement of considerable angles with micrometric accuracy, that he
resolved, when he should have the choice of a new telescope for the
observatory, to secure some form of heliometer.
Nor is it difficult to imagine the probable course of reasoning which
led Bessel to select the model of his new heliometer. Why, he might
ask, should he not select the simple form of Dollond's first type?
Given the achromatic object-glass, why should not it be divided? This
construction would give all the advantage of the younger Dollond's
object-glass micrometer, and more than its sharpness of definition,
without liability to the systematic errors which may be due to want of
homogeneity of the object-glass; for the lenses will not be turned
with respect to each other, but, in measurement, will always have the
same relation in position angle to the line joining the objects under
observation. It is true that the scale will require to be capable of
being read with much greater accuracy than 1/1000th of an inch--for
that, even in a telescope of 10 ft. focus, would correspond with 2´´
of arc. But, after all, this is no practical difficulty, for screws
can be used to separate the lenses, and, by these screws, as in a
Gascoigne micrometer, the separation of the lenses can be measured; or
we can have scales for this purpose, read by microscopes, like the
Troughton[1] circles of Piazzi or Pond, or those of the Carey circle,
with almost any required accuracy.
Whether Bessel communicated such a course of reasoning to Fraunhofer,
or whether that great artist arrived independently at like
conclusions, we have been unable to ascertain with certainty. The fact
remains that before 1820[2] Fraunhofer had completed one or more of
the five heliometers (3 in. aperture and 39 in. focus) which have
since become historical instruments. In 1824 the great Königsberg
heliometer was commenced, and it was completed in 1829.
To sum up briefly the history of the development of the heliometer.
The first application of the divided object-glass and the employment
of double images in astronomical measures is due to Savary in 1743. To
Bouguer in 1748 is due the true conception of measurement by double
image without the auxiliary aid of a filar micrometer, viz. by
changing the distance between two object-glasses of equal focus. To
Dollond in 1754 we owe the combination of Savary's idea of the divided
object-glass with Bouguer's method of measurement, and the
construction of the first really practical heliometers. To Fraunhofer,
some time not long previous to 1820, is due, so far as we can
ascertain, the construction of the first heliometer with an achromatic
divided object-glass, i.e. the first heliometer of the modern type.
_The Modern Heliometer._
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
The Königsberg heliometer is represented in fig. 8. No part of the
equatorial mounting is shown in the figure, as it resembles in every
respect the usual Fraunhofer mounting. An adapter h is fixed on a
telescope-tube, made of wood, in Fraunhofer's usual fashion. To this
adapter is attached a flat circular flange h. The slides carrying the
segments of the divided object-glass are mounted on a plate, which is
fitted and ground to rotate smoothly on the flange h. Rotation is
communicated by a pinion, turned by the handle c (concealed in the
figure), which works in teeth cut on the edge of the flange h. The
counterpoise w balances the head about its axis of rotation. The
slides are moved by the screws a and b, the divided heads of which
serve to measure the separation of the segments. These screws are
turned from the eye-end by bevelled wheels and pinions, the latter
connected with the handles a´, b´. The reading micrometers e, f also
serve to measure, independently, the separation of the segments, by
scales attached to the slides; such measurements can be employed as a
check on those made by the screws. The measurement of position angles
is provided for by a graduated circle attached to the head. There is
also a position circle, attached at m to the eye-end, provided with a
slide to move the eye-piece radially from the axis of the telescope,
and with a micrometer to measure the distance of an object from that
axis. The ring c, which carries the supports of the handles a´, b´, is
capable of a certain amount of rotation on the tube. The weight of the
handles and their supports is balanced by the counterpoise z. This
ring is necessary in order to allow the rods to follow the micrometer
heads when the position angle is changed. Complete rotation of the
head is obviously impossible because of the interference of the
declination axis with the rods, and therefore, in some angles, objects
cannot be measured in two positions of the circle. The object-glass
has an aperture of 6½ in. and 102 in. focal length.
There are three methods in which this heliometer can be used.
_First Method._--One of the segments is fixed in the axis of the
telescope, and the eye-piece is also placed in the axis. Measures are
made with the moving segment displaced alternately on opposite sides
of the fixed segment.
_Second Method._--One segment is fixed, and the measures are made as
in the first method, excepting that the eye-piece is placed
symmetrically with respect to the images under measurement. For this
purpose the position angle of the eye-piece micrometer is set to that
of the head, and the eye-piece is displaced from the axis of the tube
(in the direction of the movable segment) by an amount equal to half
the angle under measurement.
_Third Method._--The eye-piece is fixed in the axis, and the segments
are symmetrically displaced from the axis each by an amount equal to
half the angle measured.
Of these methods Bessel generally employed the first because of its
simplicity, notwithstanding that it involved a resetting of the right
ascension and declination of the axis of the tube with each reversal
of the segments. The chief objections to the method are that, as one
star is in the axis of the telescope and the other displaced from it,
the images are not both in focus of the eye-piece,[3] and the rays
from the two stars do not make the same angle with the optical axis of
each segment. Thus the two images under measurement are not defined
with equal sharpness and symmetry. The second method is free from the
objection of non-coincidence in focus of the images, but is more
troublesome in practice from the necessity for frequent readjustment
of the position of the eye-piece. The third method is the most
symmetrical of all, both in observation and reduction; but it was not
employed by Bessel, on the ground that it involved the determination
of the errors of two screws instead of one. On the other hand it is
not necessary to reset the telescope after each reversal of the
segments.[4]
When Bessel ordered the Königsberg heliometer, he was anxious to have
the segments made to move in cylindrical slides, of which the radius
should be equal to the focal length of the object-glass. Fraunhofer,
however, did not execute this wish, on the ground that the mechanical
difficulties were too great.
M. L. G. Wichmann states (_Königsb. Beobach._ xxx. 4) that Bessel had
indicated, by notes in his handbooks, the following points which
should be kept in mind in the construction of future heliometers: (1)
The segments should move in cylindrical slides;[5] (2) the screw
should be protected from dust;[6] (3) the zero of the position circle
should not be so liable to change;[7] (4) the distance of the optical
centres of the segments should not change in different position angles
or otherwise;[8] (5) the points of the micrometer screws should rest
on ivory plates;[9] (6) there should be an apparatus for changing the
screen.[10]
Wilhelm Struve, in describing the Pulkowa heliometer,[11] made by
Merz in 1839 on the model of Bessel's heliometer, submits the
following suggestions for its improvement:[12] (1) to give
automatically to the two segments simultaneous equal and opposite
movement;[13] and (2) to make the tube of metal instead of wood; to
attach the heliometer head firmly to this tube; to place the eye-piece
permanently in the axis of the telescope; and to fix a strong cradle
on the end of the declination axis, in which the tube, with the
attached head and eye-piece, could rotate on its axis.
Both suggestions are important. The first is originally the idea of
Dollond; its advantages were overlooked by his son, and it seems to
have been quite forgotten till resuggested by Struve. But the method
is not available if the separation is to be measured by screws; it is
found, in that case, that the direction of the final motion of turning
of the screw must always be such as to produce motion of the segment
against gravity, otherwise the "loss of time" is apt to be variable.
Thus the simple connexion of the two screws by cog-wheels to give them
automatic opposite motion is not an available method unless the
separation of the segments is independently measured by scales.
Struve's second suggestion has been adopted in nearly all succeeding
heliometers. It permits complete rotation of the tube and measurement
of all angles in reversed positions of the circle; the handles that
move the slides can be brought down to the eye-end, inside the tube,
and consequently made to rotate with it; and the position circle may
be placed at the end of the cradle next the eye-end where it is
convenient of access. Struve also points out that by attaching a fine
scale to the focusing slide of the eye-piece, and knowing the
coefficient of expansion of the metal tube, the means would be
provided for determining the absolute change of the focal length of
the object-glass at any time by the simple process of focusing on a
double star. This, with a knowledge of the temperature of the screw or
scale and its coefficient of expansion, would enable the change of
screw-value to be determined at any instant.
It is probable that the Bonn heliometer was in course of construction
before these suggestions of Struve were published or discussed, since
its construction resembles that of the Königsberg and Pulkowa
instruments. Its dimensions are similar to those of the former
instrument. Bessel, having been consulted by the celebrated statesman,
Sir Robert Peel, on behalf of the Radcliffe trustees, as to what
instrument, added to the Radcliffe Observatory, would probably most
promote the advancement of astronomy, strongly advised the selection
of a heliometer. The order for the instrument was given to the
Repsolds in 1840, but "various circumstances, for which the makers are
not responsible, contributed to delay the completion of the
instrument, which was not delivered before the winter of 1848."[14]
The building to receive it was commenced in March 1849 and completed
in the end of the same year. This instrument has a superb object-glass
of 7½ in. aperture and 126 in. focal length. The makers availed
themselves of Bessel's suggestion to make the segments move in
cylindrical slides, and of Struve's to have the head attached to a
brass tube; the eye-piece is set permanently in the axis, and the
whole rotates in a cradle attached to the declination axis. They
provided a splendid, rigidly mounted, equatorial stand, fitted with
every luxury in the way of slow motion, and scales for measuring the
displacement of the segments were read by powerful micrometers from
the eye-end.[15] It is somewhat curious that, though Struve's second
suggestion was adopted, his first was overlooked by the makers. But it
is still more curious that it was not afterwards carried out, for the
communication of automatic symmetrical motion to both segments only
involves a simple alteration previously described. But, as it came
from the hands of the makers in 1849, the Oxford heliometer was
incomparably the most powerful and perfect instrument in the world for
the highest order of micrometric research. It so remained, unrivalled
in every respect, till 1873.
As the transit of Venus of 1874 approached, preparations were set on
foot by the German Government in good time; a commission of the most
celebrated astronomers was appointed, and it was resolved that the
heliometer should be the instrument chiefly relied on. The four
long-neglected small heliometers made by Fraunhofer were brought into
requisition. Fundamental alterations were made upon them: their wooden
tubes were replaced by tubes of metal; means of measuring the focal
point were provided; symmetrical motion was given to the slides;
scales on each slide were provided instead of screws for measuring the
separation of the segments, and both scales were read by the same
micrometer microscope; a metallic thermometer was added to determine
the temperature of the scales. These small instruments have since done
admirable work in the hands of Schur, Hartwig, Küstner, Elkin, Auwers
and others.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
The Russian Government ordered three new heliometers (each of 4 in.
aperture and 5 ft. focal length) from the Repsolds, and the design for
their construction was superintended by Struve, Auwers and Winnecke,
the last-named making the necessary experiments at Carlsruhe. Fig. 9
represents the resulting type of instrument which was finally designed
and constructed by Repsolds. The brass tube, strengthened at the
bearing points by strong truly turned collars, rotates in the cast
iron cradle q attached to the declination axis, a is the eye-piece
fixed in the optical axis, b the micrometer for reading both scales, c
and d are telescopes for reading the position circle p, e the handle
for quick motion in position angle, f the slow motion in position
angle, g the handle for changing the separation of the segments by
acting on the bevel-wheel g´ (fig. 10). h is a milled head connected
by a rod with h´ (fig. 10), for the purpose of interposing at pleasure
the prism [pi] in the axis of the reading micrometer; this enables the
observer to view the graduations on the face of the metallic
thermometer [tau tau] (composed of a rod of brass and a rod of zinc),
i is a milled head connected with the wheel i´i´ (fig. 10), and
affords the means of placing the screen s (fig. 9), counterpoised by w
over either half of the object-glass. k clamps the telescope in
declination, n clamps it in right ascension, and the handles m and l
provide slow motion in declination and right ascension respectively.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
The details of the interior mechanism of the "head" will be almost
evident from fig. 10 without description. The screw, turned by the
wheels at g´, acts in a toothed arc, whence, as shown in the figure,
equal and opposite motion is communicated to the slides by the jointed
rods v, v. The slides are kept firmly down to their bearings by the
rollers r, r, r, r, attached to axes which are, in the middle, very
strong springs. Side-shake is prevented by the screws and pieces k, k,
k, k. The scales are at n, n; they are fastened only at the middle,
and are kept down by the brass pieces t, t.
A similar heliometer was made by the Repsolds to the order of Lord
Lindsay for his Mauritius expedition in 1874. It differed only from
the three Russian instruments in having a mounting by the Cookes in
which the declination circle reads from the eye-end.[16] This
instrument was afterwards most generously lent by Lord Lindsay to Gill
for his expedition to Ascension in 1877.[17]
These four Repsold heliometers proved to be excellent instruments,
easy and convenient in use, and yielding results of very high
accuracy in measuring distances. Their slow motion in position angle,
however, was not all that could be desired. When small movements were
communicated to the handle e (fig. 9) by the tangent screw f, acting
on a small toothed wheel clamped to the rod connected with the driving
pinion, there was apt to be a torsion of the rod rather than an
immediate action. Thus the slow motion would take place by jerks
instead of with the necessary smoothness and certainty. When the
heliometer-part of Lord Lindsay's heliometer was acquired by Gill in
1879, he changed the manner of imparting the motion in question. A
square toothed racked wheel was applied to the tube at r (fig. 9).
This wheel is acted on by a tangent screw whose bearings are attached
to the cradle; the screw is turned by means of a handle supported by
bearings attached to the cradle, and coming within convenient reach of
the observer's hand. The tube turns smoothly in the racked wheel, or
can be clamped to it at the will of the observer. This alteration and
the new equatorial mounting have been admirably made by Grubb; the
result is completely successful. The instrument so altered was in use
at the Cape Observatory from March 1881 till 1887 in determining the
parallax of some of the more interesting southern stars. The
instrument then passed, by purchase from Gill, to Lord McLaren, by
whom it was presented to the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
Still more recently the Repsolds have completed a new heliometer for
Yale College, New Haven, United States. The object-glass is of 6 in.
aperture and 98 in. focal length. The mounting, the tube,
objective-cell, slides, &c., are all of steel.[18] The instrument is
shown in fig. 11. The circles for position angle and declination are
read by micrometer-microscopes illuminated by the lamp L; the scales
are illuminated by the lamp l. T is part of the tube proper, and turns
with the head. The tube V, on the contrary, is attached to the cradle,
and merely forms a support for the finder Q, the handles at f and p,
and the moving ring P. The latter gives quick motion in position
angle; the handles at p clamp and give slow motion in position angle,
those at f clamp and give slow motion in right ascension and
declination. a is the eye-piece, b the handle for moving the segments,
c the micrometer microscope for reading the scales and scale
micrometer, d the micrometer readers of the position and declination
circles, e the handle for rotating the large wheel E which carries the
screens. The hour circle is also read by microscopes, and the
instrument can be used in both positions (tube preceding and
following) for elimination of the effect of flexure on the position
angles. Elkin found that the chief drawbacks to speed and convenience
in working this heliometer were: (1) The loss of time involved in
entering the corresponding readings of the micrometer pointings on two
scales. (2) That an additional motion intermediate between the quick
and slow motion in position angle was necessary, because, whilst the
slow motion provided by Repsolds was admirably adapted for adjusting
the pointings in position angle, it was too slow for causing the
images to "cross through" each other in the process of measuring
distances. To remedy drawback (1) Repsolds devised the form of
printing micrometer which is shown in figs. 12 and 13. This micrometer
is provided with two pairs of parallel webs. One fixed pair of webs is
attached to the micrometer-box, the other pair is moved by the screw
S. The whole micrometer-box is moved by the screw attached to the
heads. Accordingly, in reading the scales A and B (attached to the
slides which carry the two halves of the object-glass), it is only
necessary to turn the screws until the fixed double web is pointed
symmetrically on one of the divisions of scale A, then to move the
other double web by the screw S until it is symmetrically pointed on
the adjoining division of scale B. By turning the quick acting screw P
(fig. 13) to the right, the cushion C (which is faced with
india-rubber) presses the paper ribbon (shown in fig. 13) against the
index-edge and type-wheels, and thus the beautifully cut divisions of
the micrometer-head, the numbers marking the 1/100 parts of the head,
the index and the total number of revolutions are all sharply embossed
together upon the paper ribbon. Fig. 14 shows the record of several
successive paintings on the same scale as that given by the
micrometer. The reverse motion of P automatically moves the paper
ribbon forward, ready to receive the next impression. It must be
mentioned that the pressure of the cushion C on the type-wheels has no
influence whatever upon the micrometer-screw, because the type-wheels
are mounted on a hollow cylindrical axis, concentric with the axis of
the screw, but entirely disconnected from the screw itself. The only
connexion between the type-wheel and the screw-head S is by the pin p
(which is screwed into S), the cylindrical end of which acts in a slot
cut in the type-wheel. To remedy drawback (2) Repsolds provided for
the Yale heliometer an additional handle for motion in position angle,
intermediate in velocity between the original quick and slow motions.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
[Illustration: From _Engineering_, vol. xlix.
FIG. 15.]
In the 7-in. heliometer, completed in 1887 for the Royal Observatory
at the Cape of Good Hope, Repsolds, on Gill's suggestion, introduced
the following improvements: (a) Four different speeds of motion in
position angle were provided. The quickest movement is given by the
hand-ring, 73 (fig. 15). This ring runs between friction wheels and is
provided with teeth on its inner periphery, and these teeth transmit
motion to a pinion on a spindle having at its other end another pinion
which, through an intermediate wheel, rotates the heliometer tube. The
transmission spindle, just mentioned, carries at its end a head, 74,
which, if turned directly, gives the second speed. The slowest speed
is given by means of a tangent screw which is carried by a
ball-bearing on the flange of the telescope-sleeve, whilst its nut is
double-jointed to a ring that encircles the flange of the
heliometer-tube. This ring is provided with a clamping screw, which,
through the intervention of bevel-gear and rods, is operated by means
of the hand-wheel 78. With similar bevel-gear and rods the tangent
screw is connected to the hand-wheel, 79, by which the observer
communicates the fourth or slowest motion in position angle. Finally
the hand-wheel 80 is connected by gearing to the rod carrying the
hand-wheel 79, and it can thus be used to give the latter a more rapid
motion than if used direct; this constitutes the third speed of
movement.
(b) In lieu of oil-lamps, small, conveniently placed incandescent
electric 6-volt lamps are employed; and these are fitted with suitable
switches and variable resistances. Thus the scales, the position- and
declination-circles, the field of view, the heads of all the
micrometer-microscopes, the focusing scale, &c., are read without the
aid of a hand-lamp and with an amount of illumination that can be
regulated at the observer's pleasure.
(c) A button in the centre of the position-angle handle (74) connects
with a chronograph which enables the observer to record the instant of
observation. Little card-holders (81) (also illuminated) enable the
astronomer to enter beforehand the R.A. and Dec. of the object to be
observed, the scale divisions to be pointed upon, and thus, in
measures of distance, with the aid of the chronograph and printing
micrometer, enable the observer to adjust the instrument for
observation and obtain a record of his observations without the aid of
a hand-lamp or the necessity to make any records in his notebook. In
observations of position angle one of the two tablets 81 can be used
to record the readings.
(d) The scales are made of iridio-platinum instead of silver, and the
magnifying power of the reading microscope is increased fourfold (viz.
to 100 diameters). A special microscope is introduced for determining
the division errors of the scales. It enables the observer to compare
any division-interval on one half of either scale with any
corresponding interval on the other scale. With this apparatus Gill
was enabled (_Annals Cape Obs._ vii. 29-42, and _Monthly Notices,
R.A.S._, xlix. 105-115) to determine the division error of every line
on both scales with a probable error corresponding to ± 0´´.0092 arc.
(e) A position-micrometer is attached to the finder to enable the
observer to select comparison stars for observation with some
unexpected object. Thus a comet may be encountered in the morning dawn
or evening twilight, and without such an adjunct the astronomer may
lose the whole available opportunity for observation in the vain
endeavour to find a suitable comparison-star. But with such a
position-micrometer of large field he has no difficulty. Directing the
finder to the comet, he has at once in the field of view all available
comparison stars. Having selected the most suitable one he directs the
axis of the finder to the estimated middle point between the comet and
the star, turns the finder-micrometer in position angle until the
images of comet and star lie symmetrically between the parallel
position wires, and then turns the micrometer screw (which moves the
distance-wires symmetrically from the centre in opposite directions)
till one wire bisects the comet and the other the star. The reading of
the position-circle of the finder is then the reading to which the
position-circle of the heliometer should be set, and from the readings
of the micrometer-screw he finds, by a convenient table, the proper
settings of the heliometer scales in distance. When the scales and
position-circle of the heliometer have been set to these readings, the
comet and the selected comparison-star appear together in the field of
view.
Fig. 15 shows the very convenient arrangement of the eye-end of the
instrument. The disk, 30 with its small projecting handle enables the
2 segments of the divided object to be moved rapidly or with any
required delicacy relative to each other. The disk 32 operates the
wire gauze screens for equalizing the brightness of the two stars
under observation. The dial between 30 and 32 indicates the screen in
use. 18 clamps and 19 gives slow motion in declination; 20 clamps and
21 gives slow motion in right ascension. The two handles 82 serve for
manipulating the instrument. The microscopes adjoining 82 read the
position and declination circles; for, by an ingenious arrangement of
prisms and screens, the images of both circles can be read by each
single microscope as shown in fig. 16, thus avoiding the necessity for
the employment of two additional micrometers.
Experience has shown that there is little that can be advantageously
changed to improve this instrument either in convenience or precision
of working. A series of observations can be easily and more accurately
accomplished with the Cape heliometer in half an hour; with the Oxford
heliometer it would occupy 2 hours, and with the 4 in. Repsold
heliometer (fig. 9) 1 hour. Heliometers of 6 to 8 in. aperture have
subsequently been constructed by Repsolds on these plans for
Göttingen, Bamberg, Leipzig and the Kuffner Observatory (near Vienna),
and all of them have made important contributions to astronomy of
precision.
Heliometer observations of distance in their most refined sense cannot
be considered absolute measures of angles. Essentially the scale-value
of the instrument depends on the relation of the focal length of the
object-glass to the length of the unit of the scale. But _the eye is
tolerant of small changes in the focal adjustment which sensibly
affect the scale-value_. These changes may and do arise from the
following causes: (i.) The focal length of the object-glass and the
length of the tube are affected by temperature. (ii.) The focal length
is sensibly different for objects of different colour. (iii.) The
length of the scale is affected by temperature. (iv.) The state of
adaptation of the observer's eye is dependent on his state of health,
on a condition of greater or less fatigue, or on the inclination of
the head in consequence of the altitude of the object observed. (v.)
The temperature of the object-glass, of the scale and of the tube,
cannot be assumed to be identical.
[Illustration: From _Engineering_, vol. xlix.
FIG. 16.]
Thus, for refined purposes, it cannot be assumed with any certainty
that the instantaneous scale-value of the heliometer is known, or that
it is a function of the temperature. Of course, for many purposes,
mean conditions may be adopted and mean scale-values be found which
are applicable with considerable precision to small angles or to
comparatively crude observations of large distances; but the highest
refinement is lost unless means are provided for determining the
scale-value for each observer at each epoch of observation.
In determinations of stellar or solar parallax, comparison stars,
symmetrically situated with respect to the object whose parallax is
sought, should be employed, in which case the instantaneous
scale-value may be regarded as an unknown quantity which can be
derived in the process of the computation of the results. Examples of
this mode of procedure will be found, in the case of stellar parallax
in the _Mem. R.A.S._ vol. xlviii. pp. 1-194, and in the _Annals of the
Cape Observatory_, vol. viii. parts 1 and 2; and in the case of
planetary parallax in the _Mem. R.A.S._ vol. xlvi. pp. 1-171, and in
the _Annals of the Cape Observatory_, vol. vi. In other operations,
such as the triangulation of large groups of stars, it is necessary to
select a pair of standard stars, if possible near the middle of the
group, and to determine the scale-value by measures of this standard
distance at frequent intervals during the night (see _Annals of the
Cape Observatory_, vol. vi. pp. 3-224). In other cases, such as the
measurement of the mutual distances and position angles of the
satellites of Jupiter, for derivation of the elements of the orbits of
the satellites and the mass of Jupiter, reference must also be made to
measures of standard stars whose relative distance and position angle
is accurately determined by independent methods (see _Annals of the
Cape Observatory_, vol. xii. part 2).
[Illustration: FIG. 17.]
Gill introduced a powerful auxiliary to the accuracy of heliometer
measures in the shape of a reversing prism placed in front of the
eye-piece, between the latter and the observer's eye. If measures are
made by placing the image of a star in the centre of the disk of a
planet, the observer may have a tendency to do so systematically in
error from some acquired habit or from natural astigmatism of the eye.
But by rotating the prism 90° the image is presented entirely reversed
to the eye, so that in the mean of measures made in two such positions
personal error is eliminated. Similarly the prism may be used for the
study and elimination of personal errors depending on the angle made
by a double star with the vertical. The best plan of mounting such a
prism has been found to be the following. l^1, l^2 (fig. 17) are the
eye lens and field lens respectively of a Merz positive eye-piece. In
this construction the lenses are much closer together and the
diaphragm for the eye is much farther from the lenses than in
Ramsden's eye-piece. The prism p is fitted accurately into brass
slides (care has to be taken in the construction to place the prism so
that an object in the centre of the field will so remain when the
eye-piece is rotated in its adapter). There is a collar, clamped by
the screw at S, which is so adjusted that the eye-piece is in focus
when pushed home, in its adapter, to this collar. The prism and
eye-piece are then rotated together in the adapter.
_The Double Image Micrometer._--Thomas Clausen in 1841 (_Ast. Nach._
No. 414) proposed a form of micrometer consisting of a divided plate
of parallel glass placed within the cone of rays from the object-glass
at right angles to the telescope axis. One-half of this plane remains
fixed, the other half is movable. When the inclination of the movable
half with respect to the axis of the telescope is changed by rotation
about an axis at right angles to the plane of division, two images are
produced. The amount of separation is very small, and depends on the
thickness of the glass, the index of refraction and the focal length
of the telescope. Angelo Secchi (_Comptes rendus_, xli., 1855, p. 906)
gives an account of some experiments with a similar micrometer; and
Ignarjio Porro (_Comptes rendus_, xli. p. 1058) claims the original
invention and construction of such a micrometer in 1842. Clausen,
however, has undoubted priority. Helmholtz in his "Ophthalmometer" has
employed Clausen's principle, but arranges the plates so that both
move symmetrically in opposite directions with respect to the
telescope axis. Should Clausen's micrometer be employed as an
astronomical instrument, it would be well to adopt the improvement of
Helmholtz.
_Double-Image Micrometers with Divided Lenses._--Various micrometers
have been invented besides the heliometer for measuring by double
image. Ramsden's dioptric micrometer consists of a divided lens placed
in the conjugate focus of the innermost lens of the erecting eye-tube
of a terrestrial telescope. The inventor claimed that it would
supersede the heliometer, but it has never done anything for
astronomy. Dollond claims the independent invention and first
construction of a similar instrument (Pearson's _Practical Astronomy_,
ii. 182). Of these and kindred instruments only two types have proved
of practical value. G. B. Amici of Modena (_Mem. Soc. Ital._ xvii.,
1815, pp. 344-359) describes a micrometer in which a negative lens is
introduced between the eye-piece and the object-glass. This lens is
divided and mounted like a heliometer object-glass; the separation of
the lenses produces the required double image, and is measured by a
screw. W. R. Dawes very successfully used this micrometer in
conjunction with a filar micrometer, and found that the precision of
the measures was in this way greatly increased (_Monthly Notices_,
vol. xviii. p. 58, and _Mem. R.A.S._ vol. xxxv. p. 147).
In the improved form[19] of Airy's divided eye-glass micrometer (_Mem.
R.A.S._ vol. xv. pp. 199-209) the rays from the object-glass pass
successively through lenses as follows:
+-----------------------------------+---------------+---------------+
| Lens. | Distance from | Focal Length. |
| | next Lens. | |
+-----------------------------------+---------------+---------------+
| a. An equiconvex lens | p | arbitrary = p |
| b. " " | 2 | 5 |
| c. Plano-convex, convex towards b | 1¾ | 1 |
| d. Plano-convex, convex towards c | " | 1 |
+-----------------------------------+---------------+---------------+
The lens b is divided, and one of the segments is moved by a
micrometer screw. The magnifying power is varied by changing the lens
a for another in which p has a different value. The magnifying power
of the eye-piece is that of a single lens of focus = 4/5p.
In 1850 J. B. Valz pointed out that the other optical conditions could
be equally satisfied if the divided lens were made concave instead of
convex, with the advantage of giving a larger field of view (_Monthly
Notices_, vol. x. p. 160).
The last improvement on this instrument is mentioned in the _Report_
of the R.A.S. council, February 1865. It consists in the introduction
by Simms of a fifth lens, but no satisfactory description has ever
appeared. There is only one practical published investigation of
Airy's micrometer that is worthy of mention, viz. that of F. Kaiser
(_Annalen der Sternwarte in Leiden_, iii. 111-274). The reader is
referred to that paper for an exhaustive history and discussion of the
instrument.[20] It is somewhat surprising that, after Kaiser's
investigations, observers should continue, as many have done, to
discuss their observations with this instrument as if the screw-value
were constant for all angles.
Steinheil (_Journal savant de Munich_, Feb. 28, 1843) describes a
"heliomètre-oculaire" which he made for the great Pulkowa refractor,
the result of consultations between himself and the elder Struve. It
is essentially the same in principle as Amici's micrometer, except
that the divided lens is an achromatic positive instead of a negative
lens. Struve (_Description de l'Observatoire Central de Pulkowa_, pp.
196, 197) adds a few remarks to Steinheil's description, in which he
states that the images have not all desirable precision--a fault
perhaps inevitable in all micrometers with divided lenses, and which
is probably in this case aggravated by the fact that the rays falling
upon the divided lens have considerable convergence. He, however,
successfully employed the instrument in measuring double stars, so
close as 1´´ or 2´´, and using a power of 300 diameters, with results
that agreed satisfactorily amongst themselves and with those obtained
with the filar micrometer. If Struve had employed a properly
proportioned double circular diaphragm, fixed symmetrically with the
axis of the telescope in front of the divided lens and turning with
the micrometer, it is probable that his report on the instrument would
have been still more favourable. This particular instrument has
historical interest, having led Struve to some of those criticisms of
the Pulkowa heliometer which ultimately bore such valuable fruit (see
_ante_).
Ramsden (_Phil. Trans._ vol. xix. p. 419) suggested the division of
the small speculum of a Cassegrain telescope and the production of
double image by micrometric rotation of the semispecula in the plane
passing through their axis. Brewster (_Ency. Brit._ 8th ed. vol. xiv.
p. 749) proposed a plan on a like principle, by dividing the plane
mirror of a Newtonian telescope. Again, in an ocular heliometer by
Steinheil double image is similarly produced by a divided prism of
total reflection placed in parallel rays. But practically these last
three methods are failures. In the last the field is full of false
light, and it is not possible to give sufficiently minute and steady
separation to the images; and there are of necessity a collimator, two
prisms of total reflection, and a small telescope through which the
rays must pass; consequently there is great loss of light.
_Micrometers Depending on Double Refraction._--To the Abbé Rochon
(_Jour. de phys._ liii., 1801, pp. 169-198) is due the happy idea of
applying the two images formed by double refraction to the
construction of a micrometer. He fell upon a most ingenious plan of
doubling the amount of double refraction of a prism by using two
prisms of rock-crystal, so cut out of the solid as to give each the
same quantity of double refraction, and yet to double the quantity in
the effect produced. The combination so formed is known as Rochon's
prism. Such a prism he placed between the object-glass and eye-piece
of a telescope. The separation of the images increases as the prism is
approached to the object-glass, and diminishes as it is approached
towards the eye-piece.
D. F. J. Arago (_Comptes rendus_, xxiv., 1847, pp. 400-402) found that
in Rochon's micrometer, when the prism was approached close to the
eye-piece for the measurement of very small angles, the smallest
imperfections in the crystal or its surfaces were inconveniently
magnified. He therefore selected for any particular measurement such a
Rochon prism as when fixed between the eye and the eye-piece (i.e.
where a sunshade is usually placed) would, combined with the normal
eye-piece employed, bring the images about to be measured nearly in
contact. He then altered the magnifying power by sliding the field
lens of the eye-piece (which was fitted with a slipping tube for the
purpose) along the eye-tube, till the images were brought into
contact. By a scale attached to the sliding tube the magnifying power
of the eye-piece was deduced, and this combined with the angle of the
prism employed gave the angle measured. If p" is the refracting angle
of the prism, and n the magnifying power of the eye-piece, then p"/n
will be the distance observed. Arago made many measures of the
diameters of the planets with such a micrometer.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.]
Dollond (_Phil. Trans._, 1821, pp. 101-103) describes a double-image
micrometer of his own invention, in which a sphere of rock-crystal is
substituted for the eye-lens of an ordinary eye-piece. In this
instrument (figs. 18, 19) a is the sphere, placed in half-holes on the
axis bb, so that when its principal axis is parallel to the axis of
the telescope it gives only one image of the object. In a direction
perpendicular to that axis it must be so placed that when it is moved
by rotation of the axis bb the separation of the images shall be
parallel to that motion. The angle of rotation is measured on the
graduated circle C. The angle between the objects measured is = r sin
2[theta], where r is a constant to be determined for each magnifying
power employed,[21] and [theta] the angle through which the sphere has
been turned from zero (i.e. from coincidence of its principal axis
with that of the telescope). The maximum separation is consequently at
45° from zero. The measures can be made on both sides of zero for
eliminating index error. There are considerable difficulties of
construction, but these have been successfully overcome by Dollond;
and in the hands of Dawes (_Mem. R.A.S._ xxxv. p. 144 seq.) such
instruments have done valuable service. They are liable to the
objection that their employment is limited to the measurement of very
small angles, viz. 13´´ or 14´´ when the magnifying power is 100, and
varying inversely as the power. Yet the beautiful images which these
micrometers give permit the measurement of very difficult objects as a
check on measures with the parallel-wire micrometer.
On the theory of the heliometer and its use consult Bessel,
_Astronomische Untersuchungen_, vol. i.; Hansen, _Ausführliche Methode
mit dem Fraunhoferschen Heliometer anzustellen_ (Gotha, 1827);
Chauvenet, _Spherical and Practical Astronomy_, vol. ii. (Philadelphia
and London, 1876); Seeliger, _Theorie des Heliometers_ (Leipzig,
1877); Lindsay and Gill, _Dunecht Publications_, vol. ii. (Dunecht,
for private circulation, 1877); Gill, _Mem. R.A.S._ vol. xlvi. pp.
1-172, and references mentioned in the text. (D. Gi.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The circles by Reichenbach, then almost exclusively used in
Germany, were read by verniers only.
[2] The diameter of Venus was measured with one of these heliometers
at the observatory of Breslau by Brandes in 1820 (_Berlin Jahrbuch_,
1824, p. 164).
[3] The distances of the optical centres of the segments from the
eye-piece are in this method as 1; secant of the angle under
measurement. In Bessel's heliometer this would amount to a difference
of 15/1000th of an inch when an angle of 1° is measured. For 2° the
difference would amount to nearly 1/10th of an inch. Bessel confined
his measures to distances considerably less than 1°.
[4] In criticizing Bessel's choice of methods, and considering the
loss of time involved in each, it must be remembered that Fraunhofer
provided no means of reading the screws or even the heads from the
eye-end. Bessel's practice was to unclamp in declination, lower and
read off the head, and then restore the telescope to its former
declination reading, the clockwork meanwhile following the stars in
right ascension. The setting of both lenses symmetrically would,
under such circumstances, be very tedious.
[5] This most important improvement would permit any two stars under
measurement each to be viewed in the optical axis of each segment.
The optical centres of the segments would also remain at the same
distance from the eye-piece at all angles of separation. Thus, in
measuring the largest as well as the smallest angles, the images of
both stars would be equally symmetrical and equally well in focus.
Modern heliometers made with cylindrical slides measure angles over
2°, the images remaining as sharp and perfect as when the smallest
angles are measured.
[6] Bessel found, in course of time, that the original corrections
for the errors of his screw were no longer applicable. He considered
that the changes were due to wear, which would be much lessened if
the screws were protected from dust.
[7] The tube, being of wood, was probably liable to warp and twist in
a very uncertain way.
[8] We have been unable to find any published drawing showing how the
segments are fitted in their cells.
[9] We have been unable to ascertain the reasons which led Bessel to
choose _ivory_ planes for the end-bearings of his screws. He actually
introduced them in the Königsberg heliometer in 1840, and they were
renewed in 1848 and 1850.
[10] A screen of wire gauze, placed in front of the segment through
which the fainter star is viewed, was employed by Bessel to equalize
the brilliancy of the images under observation. An arrangement,
afterwards described, has been fitted in modern heliometers for
placing the screen in front of either segment by a handle at the
eye-end.
[11] This heliometer resembles Bessel's, except that its foot is a
solid block of granite instead of the ill-conceived wooden structure
that supported his instrument. The object-glass is of 7.4 in.
aperture and 123 in. focus.
[12] _Description de l'observatoire central de Pulkowa_, p. 208.
[13] Steinheil applied such motion to a double-image micrometer made
for Struve. This instrument suggested to Struve the above-mentioned
idea of employing a similar motion for the heliometer.
[14] Manuel Johnson, M.A., Radcliffe observer, _Astronomical
Observations made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, in the Year
1850_, Introduction, p. iii.
[15] The illumination of these scales is interesting as being the
first application of electricity to the illumination of astronomical
instruments. Thin platinum wire was rendered incandescent by a
voltaic current; a small incandescent electric lamp would now be
found more satisfactory.
[16] For a detailed description of this instrument see _Dunecht
Publications_, vol. ii.
[17] _Mem. Royal Astronomical Society_, xlvi., 1-172.
[18] The primary object was to have the object-glass mounted in steel
cells, which more nearly correspond in expansion with glass. It
became then desirable to make the head of steel for sake of
uniformity of material, and the advantages of steel in lightness and
rigidity for the tube then became evident.
[19] For description of the earliest form see _Cambridge Phil.
Trans._ vol. ii., and _Greenwich Observations_ (1840).
[20] Dawes (_Monthly Notices_, January 1858, and _Mem. R.A.S._ vol.
xxxv. p. 150) suggested and used a valuable improvement for producing
round images, instead of the elongated images which are otherwise
inevitable when the rays pass through a divided lens of which the
optical centres are not in coincidence, viz. "the introduction of a
diaphragm having two circular apertures touching each other in a
point coinciding with the line of collimation of the telescope, and
the diameter of each aperture _exactly equal_ to the semidiameter of
the cone of rays at the distance of the diaphragm from the local
point of the object-glass." Practically the difficulty of making
these diaphragms for the different powers of the _exact_ required
equality is insuperable; but, if the observer is content to lose a
certain amount of light, we see no reason why they may not readily be
made slightly less. Dawes found the best method for the purpose in
question was to limit the aperture of the object-glass by a diaphragm
having a double circular aperture, placing the line joining the
centres of the circles approximately in the position angle under
measurement. Dawes successfully employed the double circular aperture
also with Amici's micrometer. The present writer has successfully
used a similar plan in measuring position angles of a Centauri with
the heliometer, viz. by placing circular diaphragms on the two
segments of the object-glass.
[21] Dollond provides for changing the power by sliding the lens d
nearer to or farther from a.
HELIOPOLIS, one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, met with in the
Bible under its native name On. It stood 5 m. E. of the Nile at the apex
of the Delta. It was the principal seat of sun-worship, and in historic
times its importance was entirely religious. There appear to have been
two forms of the sun-god at Heliopolis in the New Kingdom--namely,
Ra-Harakht, or Re'-Harmakhis, falcon-headed, and Etom, human-headed; the
former was the sun in his mid-day strength, the latter the evening sun.
A sacred bull was worshipped here under the name Mnevis (Eg. _Mreu_),
and was especially connected with Etom. The sun-god Re' (see EGYPT:
_Religion_) was especially the royal god, the ancestor of all the
Pharaohs, who therefore held the temple of Heliopolis in great honour.
Each dynasty might give the first place to the god of its
residence--Ptah of Memphis, Ammon of Thebes, Neith of Sais, Bubastis of
Bubastis, but all alike honoured Re'. His temple became in a special
degree a depository for royal records, and Herodotus states that the
priests of Heliopolis were the best informed in matters of history of
all the Egyptians. The schools of philosophy and astronomy are said to
have been frequented by Plato and other Greek philosophers; Strabo,
however, found them deserted, and the town itself almost uninhabited,
although priests were still there, and cicerones for the curious
traveller. The Ptolemies probably took little interest in their "father"
Re', and Alexandria had eclipsed the learning of Heliopolis; thus with
the withdrawal of royal favour Heliopolis quickly dwindled, and the
students of native lore deserted it for other temples supported by a
wealthy population of pious citizens. In Roman times obelisks were taken
from its temples to adorn the northern cities of the Delta, and even
across the Mediterranean to Rome. Finally the growth of Fostat and
Cairo, only 6 m. to the S.W., caused the ruins to be ransacked for
building materials. The site was known to the Arabs as _'Ayin esh
shems_, "the fountain of the sun," more recently as Tel Hisn. It has now
been brought for the most part under cultivation, but the ancient city
walls of crude brick are to be seen in the fields on all sides, and the
position of the great temple is marked by an obelisk still standing (the
earliest known, being one of a pair set up by Senwosri I., the second
king of the Twelfth Dynasty) and a few granite blocks bearing the name
of Rameses II.
See Strabo xvii. cap. 1. 27-28; Baedeker's _Egypt_. (F. Ll. G.)
HELIOSTAT (from Gr. [Greek: hêlios], the sun, [Greek: statos], fixed,
set up), an instrument which will reflect the rays of the sun in a fixed
direction notwithstanding the motion of the sun. The optical apparatus
generally consists of a mirror mounted on an axis parallel to the axis
of the earth, and rotated with the same angular velocity as the sun.
This construction assumes that the sun describes daily a small circle
about the pole of the celestial sphere, and ignores any diurnal
variation in the declination. This variation is, however, so small that
it can be neglected for most purposes.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
[Illustration: From Jamin and Bouty, _Cours de physique_,
Gauthier-Villars.
FIG. 3.--Silbermann's Heliostat.]
Many forms of heliostats have been devised, the earliest having been
described by Wilhelm Jacob s' Gravesande in the 3rd edition of his
_Physices elementa_ (1742). One of the simplest consists of a plane
mirror rigidly connected with a revolving axis so that the angle
between the normal to the mirror and the axis of the instrument equals
half the sun's polar distance, the mirror being adjusted so that the
normal has the same right ascension as the sun. It is easily seen that
if the mirror be rotated at the same angular velocity as the sun the
right ascensions will remain equal throughout the day, and therefore
this device reflects the rays in the direction of the earth's axis; a
second fixed mirror reflects them in any other fixed direction.
Foucault's heliostat reflects the rays horizontally in any required
direction. The principle of the apparatus may be explained by
reference to fig. 1. The axis of rotation AB bears a rigidly attached
rod DBC inclined to it at an angle equal to the sun's polar distance.
By adjusting the right ascension of the plane ABC and rotating the
axis with the angular velocity of the sun, it follows that BC will be
the direction of the solar rays throughout the day. X is the mirror
rotating about the point E, and placed so that (if EB is the
horizontal direction in which the rays are to be reflected) (1) the
normal CE to the mirror is jointed to BC at C and is equal in length
to BE, (2) the rod DBC passes through a slot in a rod ED fixed to, and
in the plane of, the mirror. Since CE equals BE these directions are
equally inclined to, and coplanar with, the normal to the mirror.
Hence light incident along the direction BC will be reflected along
CE. Silbermann's heliostat reflects the rays in any direction. The
principle may be explained by means of fig. 2. AB is the axis of
rotation, BC an adjustable rod as in Foucault's construction, and BD
is another rod which can be set to the direction in which the rays are
to be reflected. The rods BC and DB carry two small rods EF, GF
jointed at F; at this joint there is a pin which slides in a slot on
the rod BH, which is normal to the mirror X. The rods EF, GF are such
that BEFG is a rhombus. It is easy to show that rays falling on the
mirror in the direction BC will be reflected along BD. One
construction of the instrument, described in Jamin's _Cours de
physique_, is shown in fig. 3. The mirror mm is attached to the
framework _pafe_, the members of which are parallel to the incident
and reflected rays SO, OR, and the diagonal pf is perpendicular to the
mirror. The framework is attached to two independent circular arcs Cs
and rr´ having their centres at O and provided with clamps D and A on
the axis F of the instrument. The arc Cs is graduated, and is set so
that the angle COD equals the complement of the sun's declination.
This can be effected (after setting the axis) by rotating Cs until a
needle indicates true time on the hour dial B. The arc rr´ is set so
as to reflect the rays in the required direction. The axis F of the
instrument is set at an angle equal to the latitude of the place of
observation and in the meridian by means of the screw K, and rotated
by clockwork contained in the barrel H. The setting in the meridian is
effected by turning the instrument after setting for latitude until a
pin-hole aperture s and a small screen P, placed so that Ps is
parallel to CO, are in a line with the sun.
Many other forms of heliostats have been designed, the chief
difference consisting in the mechanical devices for maintaining the
constant direction of the reflecting ray. One of the most important
applications of the heliostat is as an adjunct to the newer forms of
horizontal telescopes (q.v.) and in conjunction with spectroscopic
telescopes in observations of eclipses.
HELIOTROPE, or TURNSOLE, _Heliotropium_ (Gr. [Greek: hêliotropion], i.e.
a plant which follows the sun with its flowers or leaves, or, according
to Theophrastus (_Hist, plant_, vii. 15), which flowers at the summer
solstice), a genus of usually more or less hairy herbs or undershrubs of
the tribe _Heliotropieae_ of the natural order Boraginaceae, having
alternate, rarely almost opposite leaves; small white, lilac or blue
flowers, in terminal or lateral one-sided simple or once or twice forked
spikes, with a calyx of five deeply divided segments, a salver-shaped,
hypogynous, 5-lobed corolla, and entire 4-celled ovary; fruit 2- to
4-sulcate or lobed, at length separable into four 1-seeded nutlets or
into two hard 2-celled carpels. The genus contains 220 species
indigenous in the temperate and warmer parts of both hemispheres. A few
species are natives of Europe, as _H. europaeum_, which is also a
naturalized species in the southern parts of North America.
[Illustration: _Heliotropium suaveolens._]
The common heliotrope of English hothouses, _H. peruvianum_, popularly
known as "cherry-pie," is on account of the delicious odour of its
flowers a great favourite with florists. It was introduced into Europe
by the younger Jussieu, who sent seed of it from Peru to the royal
garden at Paris. About the year 1757 it was grown in England by Philip
Miller from seed obtained from St Germains. _H. corymbosum_ (also a
native of Peru), which was grown in Hammersmith nurseries as early as
1812, has larger but less fragant flowers than _H. peruvianum_. The
species commonly grown in Russian gardens is _H. suaveolens_, which has
white, highly fragrant flowers.
Heliotropes may be propagated either from seed, or, as commonly, by
means of cuttings of young growths taken an inch or two in length.
Cuttings when sufficiently ripened, are struck in spring or during the
summer months; when rooted they should be potted singly into small pots,
using as a compost fibry loam, sandy peat and well-decomposed stable
manure from an old hotbed. The plants soon require to be shifted into a
pot a size larger. To secure early-flowering plants, cuttings should be
struck in August, potted off before winter sets in, and kept in a warm
greenhouse. In the spring larger pots should be given, and the plants
shortened back to make them bushy. They require frequent shiftings
during the summer, to induce them to bloom freely.
The heliotrope makes an elegant standard. The plants must in this case
be allowed to send up a central shoot, and all the side growths must be
pinched off until the necessary height is reached, when the shoot must
be stopped and lateral growths will be produced to form the head. During
winter they should be kept somewhat dry, and in spring the ball of soil
should be reduced and the plants repotted, the shoots being slightly
pruned, so as to maintain a symmetrical head. When they are planted out
against the walls and pillars of the greenhouse or conservatory an
abundance of highly perfumed blossoms will be supplied all the year
round. From the end of May till October heliotropes are excellent for
massing in beds in the open air by themselves or with other plants. Many
florists' varieties of the common heliotrope are known in cultivation.
Pliny (_Nat. hist._ xxii. 29) distinguishes two kinds of "heliotropium,"
the _tricoccum_, and a somewhat taller plant, the _helioscopium_; the
former, it has been supposed, is _Croton tinctorium_, and the latter the
[Greek: hêliotropion mikron] of Dioscorides or _Heliotropium europaeum_.
The helioscopium, according to Pliny, was variously employed in
medicine; thus the juice of the leaves with salt served for the removal
of warts, whence the term _herba verrucaria_ applied to the plant. What,
from the perfume of its flowers, is sometimes called winter heliotrope,
is the fragrant butterbur, or sweet-scented coltsfoot, _Petasites_
(_Tussilago_) _fragrans_, a perennial Composite plant.
HELIOTROPE, in mineralogy, is the mineral commonly called "bloodstone"
(q.v.), and sometimes termed girasol--a name applied also to fire-opal.
The name, like those of many ancient names of minerals, seems to have
had a fanciful origin. According to Pliny the stone was so called
because when thrown into the water it turned the sun's light falling
upon it into a reflection like that of blood.
HELIOZOA, in zoology, a group of the Sarcodina (q.v.) so named by E.
Haeckel, 1866. They are characterized by the radiate pseudopods, finely
tapering at the apex, springing abruptly from the superficial
protoplasm, containing a denser, rather permanent axial rod (figs. 1
(1), 2 (2)); protoplasm without a clear ectoplasm or pellicle, often
frothy with large vacuoles, like the alveoli of Radiolaria; nucleus 1 or
numerous; skeleton absent, gelatinous or of separate siliceous fibres,
plates or spicules, rarely complete and latticed; reproduction by simple
fission or by brood-formation, often syngamous; form usually nearly
spherical, rarely changing slowly. This group was formerly included with
the Rhizopoda; but was separated from it by Haeckel on account of the
character of its pseudopods, and its general adaptation to a semipelagic
existence correlated with the frothy cytoplasm (fig. 1 (1)).
_Actinophrys sol_ and _Actinosphaerium eichhornii_ (fig. 2), known as
sun animalcules to the older microscopists, float freely in stagnant or
slow-flowing waters, and _Myriophrys_ is able by an investment of long
flagelliform cilia to swim freely. The majority, however, lurk among
confervae or the light débris of the bottom ooze; and come under the
head of "sapropelic" rather than pelagic organisms. The body is usually
of constant spherical form in relation to the floating habit.
_Nuclearia_, however, shows amoeboid changes of general outline. The
pseudopods are retractile, the axial filament being absorbed as the
filament grows shorter and thicker and disappearing when the pseudopod
merges into the ectoplasm, to be reformed at the same time with the
pseudopod. There is often a distinction, clear, but never sharp, between
the richly vacuolate, almost frothy ectoplasm and the denser endoplasm.
One or more contractile vacuoles may protrude from the ectoplasm. The
endoplasm contains the nucleus or nuclei. The nucleus when single may be
central or excentric: in the latter case, the endoplasm contains a clear
central sphere ("centrosome") on which abut the axial filaments of the
pseudopods. The ectoplasm contains, in some species, constantly
(_Raphidiophrys viridis_) or occasionally (_Actinosphaerium_), green
cells belonging to the genera _Zoochlorella_ and _Sphaerocystis_, both
probably--the latter certainly--vegetative stages of a Chlamydomonad
(FLAGELLATA, q.v.) and of symbiotic significance.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Heliozoa. 1. _Actinophrys sol_, Ehrb. a,
food-particle lying in a large food-vacuole; b, deep-lying finely
granular protoplasm; c, axial filament of a pseudopodium extended
inwards to the nucleus; d, the central nucleus; e, contractile vacuole;
f, superficial much vacuolated protoplasm. 2. _Clathrulina elegans_,
Cienk. 3. _Heterophrys marina_, H. and L. a, nucleus; b, clearer
protoplasm surrounding the nucleus; c, the peculiar felted envelope. 4.
_Raphidiophrys pallida_, F. E. Schultze. a, food-particle; b,
contractile vacuole; c, the nucleus; d, central granule in which all the
axis-filaments of the pseudopodia meet. The tangentially disposed
spicules are seen arranged in masses on the surface. 5. _Acanthocystis
turfacea_, Carter. a, probably the central nucleus; b, clear protoplasm
around the nucleus; c, more superficial protoplasm with vacuoles and
chlorophyll corpuscles; d, coarser siliceous spicules; e, finer forked
siliceous spicules; f, finely granular layer of protoplasm. The long
pseudopodia reaching beyond the spicules are not lettered. 6.
Bi-flagellate "flagellula" of _Acanthocystis aculeata_. a, nucleus. 7.
Id. of _Clathrulina elegans_. a, nucleus; b, granules. 8. _Astrodisculus
ruber_, Greeff. a, red-coloured central sphere (? nucleus); b,
peripheral homogeneous envelope.]
The Heliozoa can move by rolling over on their extended pseudopods;
_Acanthocystis ludibunda_ traversing a path of as much as twenty times
its diameter in a minute, according to Penard. Several species (e.g.
_Raphidiophrys elegans_) remain associated by the union of their
pseudopods, whether into social aggregates (due to approximation) or
"colonies" due to lack of separation after fission, is not accurately
known. The multinuclear species _Actinosphaerium eichhornii_ (fig. 2),
normally apocytial (i.e. the nuclei divide repeatedly without division
of the cytoplasm), may increase in size by the fusion ("plastogamic")
of small individuals. If a large specimen be cut up or fragment itself
under irritation, the small ones so produced soon approach one another
and fuse completely.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Heliozoa. 1. _Actinosphaerium eichhornii_, Ehr.;
a, nuclei; b, deeper protoplasm with smaller vacuoles and numerous
nuclei; c, contractile vacuoles; d, peripheral protoplasm with larger
vacuoles. 2. A portion of the same specimen more highly magnified and
seen in optical section. a, Nuclei; b, deeper protoplasm (so-called
endosarc); d, peripheral protoplasm (so-called ectosarc); e, pseudopodia
showing the granular protoplasm streaming over the stiff axial filament:
f, food-particle in a good-vacuole. 3, 4. Nuclei of _Actinosphaerium_ in
the resting condition. 5-13. Successive stages in the division of a
nucleus of _Actinosphaerium_, showing fibrillation, and in 7 and 8
formation of an equatorial plate of chromatin substance (after Hertwig).
14. Cyst-phase of _Actinosphaerium eichhornii_, showing the protoplasm
divided into twelve chlamydospores, each of which has a siliceous coat;
a, nucleus of the spore; g, gelatinous wall of the cyst; h, siliceous
coat of the spore.]
_Reproduction._--Binary fission has been repeatedly observed; in some
cases one or both of the daughter cells may swim for a time as a
biflagellate zoospore (fig. 1 (6, 7)). The process may take place when
the cell is naked or after preliminary encystment. Budding has been
well studied in _Acanthocystis_; the cell nucleus divides repeatedly
and most of the daughter nuclei pass to the periphery, aggregate part
of the cytoplasm, and with it are constricted off as independent
cells; one nucleus remains central and the process may be repeated.
The detached bud may assume the typical character after a short
amoeboid (lobose) stage, sometimes preceded by rest, or it may develop
2 flagella and swim off (fig. 1 (6)).
Brood formation is only known here in relation to a syngamic process;
this is a sharp contrast to Proteomyxa (q.v.) where brood formation is
the commonest mode of reproduction, and plasmodium-formation, rare
indeed, is the nearest approach to syngamy observed. Indeed, if we
knew the life-history of all the species this difference in the life
cycle would be a convenient critical character.
Equal conjugation was demonstrated fully by F. Schaudinn in
_Actinophrys_; two individuals approach and enter into close contact,
and are surrounded by a common cyst wall. The nucleus of either male
divides; and one nucleus passes to the surface at either side, and is
budded off with a small portion of the cytoplasm as an abortive cell;
the two remaining nuclei which are "first cousins" in cellular
relationship now fuse, as is the case with the cytoplasts. The
resulting coupled cell or zygote divides into two, which again encyst.
_Actinosphaerium_ (fig. 2) shows a still more remarkable process,
fully studied by R. Hertwig. The large multinucleate animal withdraws
its pseudopods, its vacuoles disappear, it encysts and its nuclei
diminish in number to about 1/20th partly by fusion, 2 and 2, probably
by digestion of the majority. Within the primary cyst the body is now
resolved into nuclear cells, which again surround themselves with
secondary cysts. The cell in each secondary cyst divides (by
karyokinesis), and these sister cells, or rather their offspring, pair
in much the same way as the individual cells of _Actinophrys_--the
chief difference is that after the first division and budding off of a
rudimentary cell, a second division of the same character takes place,
with the formation of a second rudimentary cell, which is the niece of
the first, absolutely in the same way as the 1st and 2nd polar bodies
are formed in the maturation of the ovum in Metazoa. The actual
pairing cells are thus second cousins, great-granddaughters of the
original cell of the secondary cysts. Complete fusion now takes place
to form the coupled cell, which is now contracted and forms a
gelatinous wall within the siliceous secondary cyst wall (fig. 2
(14)), During a resting stage nuclear divisions occur and finally a
brood of young 1-nuclear _Actinosphaerium_ leave the cyst.
_Classification._
Aphrothoraca. Body naked. Actinophrys Ehrb. (fig. 1 (1)) (nucleate),
Actinosphaerium Stein plurinucleate (fig. 2 (1)), Camptonema
(plurinucleate) Schaud., Dimorpha Gruber (sometimes 2 flagellate).
I. Chlamydophora. Investment gelatinous. Astrodiscus.
II. Chalarothoraca. Body protected by an investment of spicules or
fibre scattered or approximated, never fused into a continuous
skeleton.
§ 1. Spicules netted or free in the protoplasm. Heterophrys Arch.
(fig. 1 (3)), Raphidiophrys Arch. (fig. 1 (4)), Pinacodocystis,
Hertw. and Less.
§ 2. Spicules approximated radially. Pinaciophora Greeff,
Pompholyxophrys Arch., Lithocolla F. E. Schultze, Elaeorhanis Greeff
(in the two foregoing genera the spicules represented by sand
granules), Acanthocystis Carter (fig. 1 (5)), Pinacocystis (?)
Hertw. and Less, Myriophrys Penard. (Astrodisculus).
III. Desmothoraca. § 1 attached by a stalk. Clathrulina Cienk. (fig. 1
(2, 7)), Hedriocystis, Hertw. and Less.
§ 2. Free Elaster, Grimin, Choanocystis.
_Literature._--The most important English original papers on this
group are those by W. Archer, "On some Freshwater Rhizopoda, new, or
little known," _Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science_, N.S.
ix.-xi. (1869-1871), and "Résumé of Recent Contributions to the
Knowledge of Freshwater Rhizopods," _ibid._ xvi., xvii. (1876-1877).
See also R. Hertwig and Lesser, "Über Rhizopoda und denselben
nahestehenden Organismen," in _Archiv für mikroscopische Anatomie_, x.
(1874), p. 35; R. Schaudinn, "Heliozoa" in _Tierreich_ (1896); E.
Penard, _Les Héliozoaires d'eau douce_ (1904); the two last named
contain full bibliographies. (M. Ha.)
HELIUM (from Gr. [Greek: hêlios], the sun), a gaseous chemical element,
the modern discovery of which followed closely on that of argon (q.v.).
The Investigations of Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay had shown
that indifference to chemical reagents did not sufficiently characterize
an unknown gas as nitrogen, and it became necessary to reinvestigate
other cases of the occurrence of "nitrogen" in nature. H. Miers drew
Ramsay's attention to the work of W. F. Hillebrand, who had noticed, in
examining the mineral uraninite, that an inert gas was evolved when the
mineral was decomposed with acid. Ramsay, repeating these experiments,
found that the inert gas emitted refused to oxidize when sparked with
oxygen, and on examining it spectroscopically he saw that the spectrum
was not that of argon, but was characterized by a bright yellow line
near to, but not identical with, the D line of sodium. This was
afterwards identified with the D3 line of the solar chromosphere,
observed in 1868 by Sir J. Norman Lockyer, and ascribed by him to a
hypothetical element _helium_. This name was adopted for the new gas.
Helium is relatively abundant in many minerals, all of which are
radioactive, and contain uranium or thorium as important constituents.
(For the significance of this fact see RADIOACTIVITY.) The richest known
source is thorianite, which consists mainly of thorium oxide, and
contains 9.5 cc. of helium per gram. Monazite, a phosphate of thorium
and other rare earths, contains on the average about 1 cc. per gram.
Cleveite, samarskite and fergusonite contain a little more than
monazite. The gas also occurs in minute quantities in the common
minerals of the earth's crust. In this case too it is associated with
radioactive matter, which is almost ubiquitous. In two cases, however,
it has been found in the absence of appreciable quantities of uranium
and thorium compounds, namely in beryl, and in sylvine (potassium
chloride). Helium is contained almost universally in the gases which
bubble up with the water of thermal springs. The proportion varies
greatly. In the hot springs of Bath it amounts to about one-thousandth
part of the gas evolved. Much larger percentages have been recorded in
some French springs (_Compt. rend._, 1906, 143, p. 795, and 146, p.
435), and considerable quantities occur in some natural gas (_Journ.
Amer. Chem. Soc._ 29, p. 1524). R. J. Strutt has suggested that helium
in hot springs may be derived from the disintegration of common rocks at
great depths.
Helium is present in the atmosphere, of which it constitutes four parts
in a million. It is conspicuous by its absorption spectrum in many of
the white stars. Certain stars and nebulae show a bright line helium
spectrum.
Much the best practical source of helium is thorianite, a mineral
imported from Ceylon for the manufacture of thoria. It dissolves readily
in strong nitric acid, and the helium contained is thus liberated. The
gas contains a certain amount of hydrogen and oxides of carbon, also
traces of nitrogen. In order to get rid of hydrogen, some oxygen is
added to the helium, and the mixture exploded by an electric spark. All
remaining impurities, including the excess of oxygen, can then be taken
out of the gas by Sir James Dewar's ingenious method of absorption with
charcoal cooled in liquid air. Helium alone refuses to be absorbed, and
it can be pumped off from the charcoal in a state of absolute purity. In
the absence of liquid air the helium must be purified by the methods
employed for argon (q.v.). If thorianite cannot be obtained, monazite,
which is more abundant, may be utilized. A part of the helium contained
in minerals can be extracted by heat or by grinding (J. A. Gray, _Proc.
Roy. Soc._, 1909, 82A, p. 301).
_Properties._--All attempts to make helium enter into stable chemical
union have hitherto proved unsuccessful. The gas is in all probability
only mechanically retained in the minerals in which it is found.
Jacquerod and Perrot have found that quartz-glass is freely permeable to
helium below a red-heat (_Compt. rend._, 1904, 139, p. 789). The effect
is even perceptible at a temperature as low as 220° C. Hydrogen, and, in
a much less degree, oxygen and nitrogen, will also permeate silica, but
only at higher temperatures. They have made this observation the basis
of a practical method of separating helium from the other inert gases.
M. Travers has suggested that it may explain the liberation of helium
from minerals by heat, the gas being enabled to permeate the siliceous
materials in which it is enclosed. Thorianite, however, contains no
silica, and until it is shown that metallic oxides behave in the same
way this explanation must be accepted with reserve.
The density of helium has been determined by Ramsay and Travers as 1.98.
Its ratio of specific heats has very nearly the ideal value 1.666,
appropriate to a monatomic molecule. The accepted atomic weight is
accordingly double the density, i.e. approximately four times that of
hydrogen. The refractivity of helium is 0.1238 (air = 1). The solubility
in water is the lowest known, being, at 18.2°, only .0073 vols. per unit
volume of water. The viscosity is .96 (air = 1).
The spectrum of helium as observed in a discharge tube is distinguished
by a moderate number of brilliant lines, distributed over the whole
visual spectrum. The following are the approximate wave-lengths of the
most brilliant lines:
Red 7066
Red 6678
Yellow 5876
Green 4922
Blue 4472
Violet 4026
When the discharge passes through helium at a pressure of several
millimetres, the yellow line 5876 is prominent. At lower pressures the
green line 4922 becomes more conspicuous. At atmospheric pressure the
discharge is able to pass through a far greater distance in helium than
in the common gases.
M. Travers, G. Senter and A. Jacquerod (_Phil. Trans._ A. 1903, 200, p.
105) carefully examined the behaviour of a constant volume gas
thermometer filled with helium. For the pressure coefficient per degree,
between 0° and 100° C., they give the value .00366255, when the initial
pressure is 700 mm. This value is indistinguishable from that which they
find for hydrogen. Thus at high temperatures a helium thermometer is of
no special advantage. At low temperatures, on the other hand, they find,
using an initial pressure of 1000 mm., that the temperatures on the
helium scale are measurably higher than on the hydrogen scale, owing to
the more perfectly gaseous condition of helium. This difference amounts
to about 1/10° at the temperature of liquid oxygen, and about 1/5° at
that of liquid hydrogen.
The liquefaction of helium was achieved by H. Kamerlingh Onnes at Leiden
in 1908. According to him its boiling point is 4.3° abs. (-268.7° C.),
the density of the liquid 0.154, the critical temperature 5° abs., and
the critical pressure 2.3 atmospheres (_Communications from the Physical
Laboratory at Leiden_, No. 108; see also LIQUID GASES).
REFERENCES.--A bibliography and summary of the earlier work on helium
will be found in a paper by Ramsay, _Ann. chim. phys._ (1898) [7], 13,
p. 433. See also M. Travers, _The Study of Gases_ (1901).
(R. J. S.)
HELIX (Gr. [Greek: helix], a spiral or twist), an architectural term for
the spiral tendril which is carried up to support the angles of the
abacus of the Corinthian capital; from the same stalk springs a second
helix rising to the centre of the capital, its junction with one on the
opposite side being sometimes marked by a flower. Sometimes the term
"volute" is given to the angle helix, which is incorrect, as it is of a
different design and rises from the same stalk as the central helices.
Its origin is probably metallic, that is to say, it was copied from the
conventional treatment in Corinthian bronze of the tendrils of a plant.
HELL (O. Eng. _hel_, a Teutonic word from a root meaning "to cover," cf.
Ger. _Hölle_, Dutch _hel_), the word used in English both of the place
of departed spirits and of the place of torment of the wicked after
death. It is used in the Old Testament to translate the Hebrew _Sheol_,
and in the New Testament the Greek [Greek: hadês], Hades, and [Greek:
geenna], Hebrew _Gehenna_ (see ESCHATOLOGY).
HELLANICUS of Lesbos, Greek logographer, flourished during the latter
half of the 5th century B.C. According to Suidas, he lived for some time
at the court of one of the kings of Macedon, and died at Perperene, a
town on the gulf of Adramyttium opposite Lesbos. Some thirty works are
attributed to him--chronological, historical and episodical. Mention may
be made of: _The Priestesses of Hera at Argos_, a chronological
compilation, arranged according to the order of succession of these
functionaries; the _Carneonikae_, a list of the victors in the Carnean
games (the chief Spartan musical festival), including notices of
literary events; an _Atthis_, giving the history of Attica from 683 to
the end of the Peloponnesian War (404), which is referred to by
Thucydides (i. 97), who says that he treated the events of the years
480-431 briefly and superficially, and with little regard to
chronological sequence: _Phoronis_, chiefly genealogical, with short
notices of events from the times of Phoroneus the Argive "first man" to
the return of the Heraclidae; _Troica_ and _Persica_, histories of Troy
and Persia.
Hellanicus marks a real step in the development of historiography. He
transcended the narrow local limits of the older logographers, and was
not content to repeat the traditions that had gained general acceptation
through the poets. He tried to give the traditions as they were locally
current, and availed himself of the few national or priestly registers
that presented something like contemporary registration. He endeavoured
to lay the foundations of a scientific chronology, based primarily on
the list of the Argive priestesses of Hera, and secondarily on
genealogies, lists of magistrates (e.g. the archons at Athens), and
Oriental dates, in place of the old reckoning by generations. But his
materials were insufficient and he often had recourse to the older
methods. On account of his deviations from common tradition, Hellanicus
is often called an untrustworthy writer by the ancients themselves, and
it is a curious fact that he appears to have made no systematic use of
the many inscriptions which were ready to hand. Dionysius of
Halicarnassus censures him for arranging his history, not according to
the natural connexion of events, but according to the locality or the
nation he was describing; and undoubtedly he never, like his
contemporary Herodotus, rose to the conception of a single current of
events wider than the local distinction of race. His style, like that of
the older logographers, was dry and bald.
Fragments in Müller, _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, i. and iv.;
see among older works L. Preller, _De Hellanico Lesbio historico_
(1840); Mure, _History of Greek Literature_, iv.; late criticism in H.
Kullmer, "Hellanikos" in _Jahrbücher für klass. Philologie_
(Supplementband, xxvii. 455 sqq.) (1902), which contains new edition
and arrangement of fragments; C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, "Hellanikos,
Herodot, Thukydides," in _Klio_ vi. 127 sqq. (1906); J. B. Bury,
_Ancient Greek Historians_ (1909), pp. 27 sqq.
HELLEBORE (Gr. [Greek: helleboros]: mod. Gr. also [Greek: skaphê]: Ger.
_Nieswurz_, _Christwurz_; Fr. _hellébore_, and in the district of
Avranche, _herbe enragée_), a genus (_Helleborus_) of plants of the
natural order Ranunculaceae, natives of Europe and western Asia. They
are coarse perennial herbs with palmately or pedately lobed leaves. The
flowers have five persistent petaloid sepals, within the circle of which
are placed the minute honey-containing tubular petals of the form of a
horn with an irregular opening. The stamens are very numerous, and are
spirally arranged; and the carpels are variable in number, sessile or
stipitate and slightly united at the base and dehisce by ventral suture.
_Helleborus niger_, black hellebore, or, as from blooming in mid-winter
it is termed the Christmas rose (Ger. _Schwarze Nieswurz_; Fr., _rose de
Noël_ or _rose d'hiver_), is found in southern and central Europe, and
with other species was cultivated in the time of Gerard (see _Herball_,
p. 977, ed. Johnson, 1633) in English gardens. Its knotty root-stock is
blackish-brown externally, and, as with other species, gives origin to
numerous straight roots. The leaves spring from the top of the
root-stock, and are smooth, distinctly pedate, dark-green above, and
lighter below, with 7 to 9 segments and long petioles. The scapes, which
end the branches of the rhizome, have a loose entire bract at the base,
and terminate in a single flower, with two bracts, from the axis of one
of which a second flower may be developed. The flowers have 5 white or
pale-rose, eventually greenish sepals, 15 to 18 lines in breadth; 8 to
13 tubular green petals containing honey; and 5 to 10 free carpels.
There are several forms, the best being _maximus_. The Christmas rose is
extensively grown in many market gardens to provide white flowers forced
in gentle heat about Christmas time for decorations, emblems, &c.
_H. orientalis_, the Lenten rose, has given rise to several fine hybrids
with _H. niger_, some of the best forms being clear in colour and
distinctly spotted. _H. foetidus_, stinking hellebore, is a native of
England, where like _H. viridis_, it is confined chiefly to limestone
districts; it is common in France and the south of Europe. Its leaves
have 7- to 11-toothed divisions, and the flowers are in panicles,
numerous, cup-shaped and drooping, with many bracts, and green sepals
tinged with purple, alternating with the five petals.
_H. viridis_, or green hellebore proper, is probably indigenous in some
of the southern and eastern counties of England, and occurs also in
central and southern Europe. It has bright yellowish-green flowers, 2 to
4 on a stem, with large leaf-like bracts. O. Brunfels and H. Bock (16th
century) regarded the plant as the black hellebore of the Greeks.
_H. lividus_, holly-leaved hellebore, found in the Balearic Islands, and
in Corsica and Sardinia, is remarkable for the handsomeness of its
foliage. White hellebore is _Veratrum album_ (see VERATRUM), a
liliaceous plant.
[Illustration: _Helleborus niger_. 1, Vertical section of flower; 2,
Nectary, side and front view.]
Hellebores may be grown in any ordinary light garden mould, but thrive
best in a soil of about equal parts of turfy loam and well-rotted
manure, with half a part each of fibrous peat and coarse sand, and in
moist but thoroughly-drained situations, more especially where, as at
the margins of shrubberies, the plants can receive partial shade in
summer. For propagation cuttings of the rhizome may be taken in August,
and placed in pans of light soil, with a bottom heat of 60° to 70°
Fahr.; hellebores can also be grown from seed, which must be sown as
soon as ripe, since it quickly loses its vitality. The seedlings usually
blossom in their third year. The exclusion of frost favours the
production of flowers; but the plants, if forced, must be gradually
inured to a warm atmosphere, and a free supply of air must be afforded,
without which they are apt to become much affected by greenfly. For
potting, _H. niger_ and its varieties, and _H. orientalis_, _atrorubens_
and _olympicus_ have been found well suited. After lifting, preferably
in September, the plants should receive plenty of light, with abundance
of water, and once a week liquid manure, not over-strong. The flowers
are improved in delicacy of hue, and are brought well up among the
leaves, by preventing access of light except to the upper part of the
plants. Of the numerous species of hellebore now grown, the
deep-purple-flowered _H. colchicus_ is one of the handsomest; by
crossing with _H. guttatus_ and other species several valuable garden
forms have been produced, having variously coloured spreading or
bell-shaped flowers, spotted with crimson, red or purple.
The rhizome of _H. niger_ occurs in commerce in irregular and nodular
pieces, from about 1 to 3 in. in length, white and of a horny texture
within. Cut transversely it presents internally a circle of 8 to 12
cuneiform ligneous bundles, surrounded by a thick bark. It emits a faint
odour when cut or broken, and has a bitter and slightly acrid taste. The
drug is sometimes adulterated with the rhizome of baneberry, _Actaea
spicata_, which, however, may be recognized by the distinctly cruciate
appearance of the central portion of the attached roots when cut
across, and by its decoction giving the chemical reactions for
tannin.[1] The rhizome is darker in colour in proportion to its degree
of dryness, age and richness in oil. A specimen dried by Schroff lost in
eleven days 65% of water.
_H. niger_, _orientalis_, _viridis_, _foetidus_, and several other
species of hellebore contain the glucosides _helleborin_, C36H42O6,
and _helleboreïn_, C23H20O15, the former yielding glucose and
_helleboresin_, C30H38O4, and the latter glucose and a violet-coloured
substance _helleboretin_, C14H20O3. Helleborin is most abundant in _H.
viridis_. A third and volatile principle is probably present in _H.
foetidus_. Both helleborin and helleboreïn act poisonously on animals,
but their decomposition-products helleboresin and helleboretin seem to
be devoid of any injurious qualities. Helleborin produces excitement
and restlessness, followed by paralysis of the lower extremities or
whole body, quickened respiration, swelling and injection of the
mucous membranes, dilatation of the pupil, and, as with helleboreïn,
salivation, vomiting and diarrhoea. Helleboreïn exercises on the heart
an action similar to that of digitalis, but more powerful, accompanied
by at first quickened and then slow and laboured respiration; it
irritates the conjunctiva, and acts as a sternutatory, but less
violently than veratrine. Pliny states that horses, oxen and swine are
killed by eating "black hellebore"; and Christison (_On Poisons_, p.
876, 11th ed., 1845) writes: "I have known severe griping produced by
merely tasting the fresh root in January." Poisonous doses of
hellebore occasion in man singing in the ears, vertigo, stupor,
thirst, with a feeling of suffocation, swelling of the tongue and
fauces, emesis and catharsis, slowing of the pulse, and finally
collapse and death from cardiac paralysis. Inspection after death
reveals much inflammation of the stomach and intestines, more
especially the rectum. The drug has been observed to exercise a
cumulative action. Its extract was an ingredient in Bacher's pills, an
empirical remedy once in great repute in France. In British medicine
the rhizome was formerly official. _H. foetidus_ was in past times
much extolled as an anthelmintic, and is recommended by Bisset (_Med.
Ess._, pp. 169 and 195, 1766) as the best vermifuge for children; J.
Cook, however, remarks of it (_Oxford Mag._, March 1769, p. 99):
"Where it killed not the patient, it would certainly kill the worms;
but the worst of it is, it will sometimes kill both." This plant, of
old termed by farriers ox-heel, setter-wort and setter-grass, as well
as _H. viridis_ (Fr. _Herbe à séton_), is employed in veterinary
surgery, to which also the use of _H. niger_ is now chiefly confined
in Britain.
In the early days of medicine two kinds of hellebore were recognized,
the white or _Veratrum album_ (see VERATRUM), and the black, including
the various species of _Helleborus_. The former, according to
Codronchius (_Comm.... de elleb._, 1610), Castellus (_De helleb.
epist._, 1622), and others, is the drug usually signified in the
writings of Hippocrates. Among the hellebores indigenous to Greece and
Asia Minor, _H. orientalis_, the rhizome of which differs from that of
_H. niger_ and of _H. viridis_ in the bark being readily separable
from the woody axis, is the species found by Schroff to answer best to
the descriptions given by the ancients of black hellebore, the [Greek:
helleboros melas] of Dioscorides. The rhizome of this plant, if
identical, as would appear, with that obtained by Tournefort at Prusa
in Asia Minor (_Rel. d'un voy. du Levant_, ii. 189, 1718), must be a
remedy of no small toxic properties. According to an early tradition,
black hellebore administered by the soothsayer and physician Melampus
(whence its name _Melampodium_), was the means of curing the madness
of the daughters of Proetus, king of Argos. The drug was used by the
ancients in paralysis, gout and other diseases, more particularly in
insanity, a fact frequently alluded to by classical writers, e.g.
Horace (_Sat._ ii. 3. 80-83, _Ep. ad Pis._ 300). Various superstitions
were in olden times connected with the cutting of black hellebore. The
best is said by Pliny (_Nat. hist._ xxv. 21) to grow on Mt Helicon. Of
the three Anticyras that in Phocis was the most famed for its
hellebore, which, being there used combined with "sesamoides," was,
according to Pliny, taken with more safety than elsewhere.
The British Pharmaceutical Conference has recommended the preparation
which it terms _the tinctura veratri viridis_, as the best form in which
to administer this drug. It may be given in doses of 5-15 minims. The
tincture is prepared from the dried rhizome and rootlets of green
hellebore, containing the alkaloids jervine, veratrine and veratroidine.
It is recommended as a cardiac and nervous sedative in cerebral
haemorrhage and puerperal eclampsia. Black hellebore is a purgative and
uterine stimulant.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For the microscopical characters and for figures of transverse
sections of the rhizome, see Lanessan, _Hist. des drogues_, i. 6
(1878).
HELLENISM (from Gr. [Greek: hellênizein], to imitate the Greeks, who
were known as [Greek: Hellênes], after [Greek: Hellên], the son of
Deucalion). The term "Hellenism" is ambiguous. It may be used to denote
ancient Greek culture in all its phases, and even those elements in
modern civilization which are Greek in origin or in spirit; but, while
Matthew Arnold made the term popular in the latter connexion as the
antithesis of "Hebraism," the German historian J. G. Droysen introduced
the fashion (1836) of using it to describe particularly the latter
phases of Greek culture from the conquests of Alexander to the end of
the ancient world, when those over whom this culture extended were
largely not Greek in blood, i.e. _Hellenes_, but peoples who had adopted
the Greek speech and way of life, _Hellenistai_. Greek culture had,
however, both in "Hellenic" and "Hellenistic" times, a common essence,
just as light is light whether in the original luminous body or in a
reflection, and to describe this by the term Hellenism seems most
natural. But whilst using the term in the larger sense, this article, in
deference to the associations which have come to be specially connected
with it, will devote its principal attention to Hellenism as it appeared
in the world after the Macedonian conquests. But it will be first
necessary to indicate briefly what Hellenism in itself implied.
No verbal formula can really enclose the life of a people or an age, but
we can best understand the significance of the old Greek cities and the
life they developed, when, looking at the history of mankind as a whole,
we see the part played by reason, active and critical, in breaking down
the barriers by which custom hinders movement, in guiding movement to
definite ends, in dissipating groundless beliefs and leading onwards to
fresh scientific conquests--when we see this and then take note that
among the ancient Greeks such an activity of reason began in an entirely
novel degree and that its activity in Europe ever since is due to their
impulsion. When Hellenism came to stand in the world for something
concrete and organic, it was, of course, no mere abstract principle, but
embodied in a language, a literature, an artistic tradition. In the
earliest existing monument of the Hellenic genius, the Homeric poems,
one may already observe that regulative sense of form and proportion,
which shaped the later achievements of the race in the intellectual and
artistic spheres. It was not till the great colonizing epoch of the 8th
and 7th centuries B.C., when the name "Hellene" came into use as the
antithesis of "barbarian," that the Greek race came to be conscious of
itself as a peculiar people; it was yet some three centuries more before
Hellenism stood fully declared in art and literature, in politics and in
thought. There was now a new thing in the world, and to see how the
world was affected by it is our immediate concern.
I. THE EXPANSION OF HELLENISM BEFORE ALEXANDER.--In the 5th century B.C.
Greek cities dotted the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
from Spain to Egypt and the Caucasus, and already Greek culture was
beginning to pass beyond the limits of the Greek race. Already in the
7th century B.C., when Hellenism was still in a rudimentary stage, the
citizens of the Greek city-states had been known to the courts of
Babylon and Egypt as admirable soldiers, combining hardihood with
discipline, and Greek mercenaries came to be in request throughout the
Nearer East. But as Hellenism developed, its social and intellectual
life began to exercise a power of attraction. The proud old
civilizations of the Euphrates and the Nile might ignore it, but the
ruder barbarian peoples in East and West, on whose coasts the Greek
colonies had been planted, came in various degrees under its spell. In
some cases an outlying colony would coalesce with a native population,
and a fusion of Hellenism with barbarian customs take place, as at
Emporium in Spain (Strabo iii. p. 160) and at Locri in S. Italy (Polyb.
xii. 5. 10). Perinthus included a Thracian phyle. The stories of
Anacharsis and Scylas (Herod, iv. 76-80) show how the leading men of the
tribes in contact with the Greek colonies in the Black Sea might be
fascinated by the appeal which the exotic culture made to mind and to
eye.
The great developments of the century and a half before Alexander set
the Greek people in a very different light before the world. In the
sphere of material power the repulse of Xerxes and the extension of
Athenian or Spartan supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean were large
facts patent to the most obtuse. The kings of the East leant more than
ever upon Greek mercenaries, whose superiority to barbarian levies was
sensibly brought home to them by the expedition of Cyrus. But the
developments within the Hellenic sphere itself were also of great
consequence for its expansion outwards. The political disunion of the
Greeks was to some extent neutralized by the rise of Athens to a leading
position in art, in literature and in philosophy. In Athens the Hellenic
genius was focussed, its tendencies drawn together and combined; nor was
it a circumstance of small moment that the Attic dialect attained, for
prose, a classical authority; for if Hellenism was to be propagated in
the world at large, it was obviously convenient that it should have some
one definite form of speech to be its medium.
1. _The Persians._--The ruling race of the East, the Persian, was but
little open to the influences of the new culture. The military qualities
of the Greeks were appreciated, and so, too, was Greek science, where it
touched the immediately useful; a Greek captain was entrusted by Darius
with the exploration of the Indus; a Greek architect bridged the
Bosporus for him; Greek physicians (e.g. Democedes, Ctesias) were
retained for enormous fees at the Persian court. The brisk diplomatic
intercourse between the Great King and the Greek states in the 4th
century may have produced effects that were not merely political. We
certainly find among those members of the Persian aristocracy, who came
by residence in Asia Minor into closer contact with the Greeks, some
traces of interest in the more ideal side of Hellenism. A man like the
younger Cyrus invited Greek captains to his friendship for something
more than their utility in war, and procured Greek hetaerae for
something more than sensual pleasure. There is the Mithradates who
presented the Academy with a statue of Plato by Silanion, not improbably
identical (though the supposition implies a correction in the text of
Diogenes Laërtius) with that Mithradates who, together with his father
Ariobarzanes, received the citizenship of Athens (Dem. xxiii. 141, 202).
Exactly how far Greek influence can be traced in the remains of Persian
art, such as the royal palaces of Persepolis and Susa may be doubtful
(see Gayet, _L'Art persan_; R. Phené Spiers, _Architecture East and
West_, p. 245 f.), but it is certain that the engraved gems for which
there was a demand in the Persian empire were largely the work of Greek
artists (Furtwängler, _Antike Gemmen_, iii. p. 116 f.).
2. _The Phoenicians._--As early as the first half of the 4th century we
find communities of Phoenician traders established in the Peiraeus
(_C.I.A._ ii. 86). In Cyprus, on the frontier between the Greek and
Semitic worlds, a struggle for ascendancy went on. The Phoenician
element seems to have been dominant in the island when Evagoras made
himself king of Salamis in 412, and restored Hellenism with a strong
hand. The words of Isocrates (even allowing for their rhetorical colour)
give us a vivid insight into what such a process meant. "Before Evagoras
established his rule, they were so hostile and exclusive, that those of
their rulers were actually held to be the best who were the fiercest
adversaries of the Greeks; but now such a change has taken place, that
it is a matter of emulation who shall show himself the most ardent
phil-hellen, that for the mothers of their children most of them choose
wives from amongst us, and that they take pride in having Greek things
about rather than native, in following the Greek fashion of life, whilst
our masters of the fine arts and other branches of culture now resort to
them in greater numbers than were once to be found in those quarters
they specially frequented" (Isoc. 199 = _Evag._ §§ 49, 50). Even into
the original seats of the Phoenicians Hellenism began to intrude.
Evagoras at one time (about 386) made himself master of Tyre (Isoc.
_Evag._ § 62; Diod. xv. 2, 4). His grandson Evagoras II. is found as
governor of Sidon for the Persian king 349-346. (Babelon, _Perses
Achéménides_, p. cxxii.; cf. Diod. xvi. 46, 3).
Abdashtart, king of Sidon (374-362 B.C.), called Straton by the Greeks,
had already entered into close relations with the Greek states, and
imitated the Hellenic princes of Cyprus (_Athen._ xii. 531; _C.I.A._ ii.
86; _Corp. inscr. Semit._ i. 114). The Phoenician colonists in Sardinia
purchased or imitated the work of Greek artists (Furtwängler, _Antike
Gemmen_, iii. 109).
3. _The Carians and Lycians._--The seats of the Greeks in the East
touched peoples more or less nearly related to the Hellenic stock, with
native traditions not so far remote from those of the Greeks in a more
primitive age, the Carians and the Lycians. It came about in the last
century preceding Alexander that the first of these peoples was
organized as a strong state under native princes, the line founded by
Hecatomnus of Mylasa. Hecatomnus made himself master of Caria in the
first decade of the 4th century, but it was under his son Mausolus, who
succeeded him in 377-376 that the house rose to its zenith. These Carian
princes ruled as satraps for the Great King, but they modelled
themselves upon the pattern of the Greek tyrant. The capital of Mausolus
was a Greek city, Halicarnassus, and all that we can still trace of his
great works of construction and adornment shows conformity to the pure
Hellenic type. His famous sepulchre, the Mausoleum (the remains of it
are now in the British Museum), was a monument upon which the most
eminent Greek sculptors of the time worked in rivalry (Plin. _N.H._
xxxvi. 5, § 30; Vitruv. vii. 13). His court gave a welcome to the
vagrant Greek philosopher (Diog. Laërt. viii. 8, § 87). Even the Carian
town of Mylasa now shows the forms of a Greek city and records its
public decrees in Greek (_C.I.G._ 2691 c, d, e = Michel 471). In Lycia,
which in spite of "the son of Harpagus" and King Pericles, had never
been brought under one man's rule, the Greek influence is more limited.
Here, for the most part in the inscriptions, the native language
maintains itself against Greek. The proper names are (if not native)
mainly Persian. But the Greek language makes an occasional appearance;
Greek names are borne by others beside Pericles. The coins are Greek in
type. And above all the monumental remains of Lycia show strong Greek
influence, especially the well-known "Nereid Monument" in the British
Museum, whose date is held to go back to the 5th century (Gardner,
_Handbook of Gk. Sculp._ p. 344).
4. _South Russia._--Hellenic influences continued to penetrate the
Scythian peoples from the Greek colonies of the Black Sea, at any rate
in the matter of artistic fabrication. Our evidence is the actual
objects recovered from the soil. (See SCYTHIA.)
5. _Egypt._--From the time of Psammetichus (d. 610 B.C.) Greek
mercenaries had been used to prop Pharaoh's throne. At the same time
Greek merchants had begun to find their way up the Nile and even to the
Oases. A Greek city Naucratis (q.v.) was allowed to arise at the
Bolbitinic mouth of the Nile. But the racial repugnance to the Greek,
which forbade an Egyptian even to eat an animal which had been carved
with a Greek's knife (Hdt. ii. 41), probably kept the soul of the people
more shut against Hellenic influences than was that of the other races
of the East.
6. _Macedonia._--In Macedonia the native chiefs had been attracted by
the rich Hellenic life at any rate from the beginning of the 5th
century, when Alexander I., surnamed "Phil-hellen," persuaded the judges
at Olympia that the Temenid house was of good Argive descent (Hdt. v.
22). And, although their enemies might stigmatize them as barbarians,
the Macedonian kings maintained that they were not Macedonians, but
Greeks (cf. [Greek: anêr Hellên Makedonôn hyparchos], Hdt. v. 20). It
was not probably till the reorganization of the kingdom by Archelaus
(413-399) that Greek culture found any abundant entrance into Macedonia.
Now all that was most brilliant in Greek literature and Greek art was
concentrated in the court of Aegae; the palace was decorated by Zeuxis;
Euripides spent there the end of his days. From that time, no doubt, a
certain degree of literary culture was general among the Macedonian
nobility; their names in the days of Philip are largely Greek; the
Macedonian service was full of men from the Greek cities within Philip's
dominions. The values recognized at the court would naturally be
recognized in noble families generally, and Philip chose Aristotle to be
the educator of his son. How far the country generally may be regarded
as Hellenized is a problem which involves the vexed question what right
the Macedonian people itself has to be classed among the Hellenes, and
Macedonian to be considered a dialect of Greek.[1] As the literary and
official language, Greek alone would seem to have had any status.
7. _In the West: the Native Races of Sicily._--Italy and the south of
Gaul had not remained unaffected by the neighbourhood of the Greek
colonies. Under the rule of the elder and younger Dionysius in the 4th
century, the hellenization of the Sicels in the interior of Sicily seems
to have become complete (Freeman, _History of Sicily_, ii. 387, 388,
422-424; Beloch, _Griech. Gesch._ iii. [i.] 261).
The alphabets used by the various Italian races from the 5th century
were directly or indirectly learnt from the Greeks. The peoples of the
south (Lucanians, Bruttians, Mamertines) show a Greek principle of
nomenclature (Mommsen, _Unterital. Dialekt_, p. 240 f.). The Pythagorean
philosophy, whose seat was in southern Italy, won adherents among the
native chiefs (Cic. _De senec._ 12, cf. Dio Chrys. _Orat. Cor._ 37, §
24). From the Greeks of southern Gaul Hellenic influences penetrated the
Celtic races so far that imitations of Greek coins were struck even on
the coasts of the Atlantic.
II. AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT.--When we review generally the extent to
which Hellenism had penetrated the outer world in the middle of the 4th
century B.C., it must be admitted that it had not seriously affected any
but the more primitive races which dwelt upon the borders of the
Hellenic lands, and here it would seem, with the doubtful exception of
the Macedonians, to have been an affair rather of the courts than of the
life of the people. On the other hand it must be taken into account that
Hellenism had as yet only been a very short while in the world. What
would have happened had it continued to depend upon its spiritual force
only for propagation we cannot say. Everything was changed when by the
conquests of Alexander (334-323) it suddenly rose to material supremacy
in all the East as far as India, and when cities of Greek speech and
constitution were planted by the might of kings at all the cardinal
points of intercourse within those lands. The values honoured by the
rulers of the world must naturally impress themselves upon the subject
multitudes. The Macedonian chiefs found their pride in being champions
of Hellenism. Of Alexander there is no need to speak. The courts of his
successors in Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt were Greek in language and
atmosphere. All kings liked to win the good word of the Greeks by
munificence bestowed upon Greek cities and Greek institutions. All of
them in some degree patronized Greek art and letters, and some sought
fame for themselves as authors. Even the barbarian courts, their
neighbours or vassals, were swayed by the dominant fashion to imitation.
But by the courts alone Hellenism could never have been propagated far.
Greek culture had been the product of the city-state, and Hellenism
could not be dissevered from the city. It was upon the system of Greek
and Macedonian cities, planted by Alexander and his successors, that
their work rested, and though their dynasties crumbled, their work
remained. Rome, when it stepped into their place, did no more than
safeguard its continuance; in the East Rome acted as a Hellenistic
power, and if, when the legions had thundered past, the brooding East
"plunged in thought again," that thought was largely directed by the
Greek schoolmaster who followed in the legions' train. From our present
point of view we may therefore regard this work of Hellenism as one
continuous process, initiated by the Macedonians and carried on under
Roman protection, and ask in the first place what the institution of a
Greek city implied.
_The Character of the New Greek Cities._--The citizen bodies at the
outset were really of Greek or Macedonian blood--soldiers who had served
in the royal armies, or men attracted from the older Greek cities to the
new lands thrown open to commerce. To fix their European soldiery upon
the new soil was an obvious necessity for the Macedonian chiefs who had
set up kingdoms among the barbarians, and the lots of the veterans
(except in Egypt) were naturally attached to various urban centres. The
cities, of course, drew in numbers beside of the people of the land;
Alexander is specially said to have incorporated large bodies of natives
in some of the new cities of the Eastern provinces (Arr. iv. 4, 1; Diod.
xvii. 83, 2; Curtius ix. 10, 7). It may generally be taken for granted
that the lower strata of the city-populations was mainly native; to be
included in the city population was not, however, to be included in the
citizen body, and it remains a question how far the latter admitted
members of other than European origin (Beloch iii. [i.] 414). The
statements, for instance, of Josephus that the Jews were given full
citizen rights in the new foundations are probably false (Willrich,
_Juden und Griechen vor der makkabäischen Erhebung_, 1895, p. 19 f.).
The social organization of the citizen-body conformed to the regular
Hellenic type with a division into _phylae_ and, in Egypt, at any rate,
into _demi_ (Liban. Or. xix. 62; Satyrus, frag. 21 = _F.H.G._ iii. 164;
Sir W. M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics_, i. 60; Kenyon, _Archiv f.
Papyr._ ii. 74; Jonguet, _Bull. corr. hell._ xxi., 1897, 184 f.;
Liebenam, _Städteverwaltung_, 220 f.). The cities appear equally
Hellenic in their political organs and functions with _boule_ and
_demos_ and popularly elected magistrates. Life was filled with the
universal Hellenic interests, which centred in the gymnasium and the
religious festivals, these last including, of course, not only athletic
contests but performances of the classical dramas or later imitations of
them. The wandering sophist and rhetorician would find a hearing no less
than the musical artist. The language of the upper classes was Greek;
and the material background of building and decoration, of dress and
furniture, was of Greek design. A greater regularity in the street-plans
seems to have distinguished the new cities from the older slowly grown
cities of the Greek lands, just as it distinguishes the cities of the
New World to-day from those of Europe. Alexandria and Antioch were both
traversed from end to end by one long straight street, crossed by
shorter ones at right angles; Nicaea was a square from the centre of
which all the four gates could be seen at the ends of the intersecting
thoroughfares (Strabo xii. 565); similar characteristics are noted in
the rebuilt Smyrna (ib. xiv. 646).
Sometimes the Greek city was not an absolutely new foundation, but an
old Oriental city, re-colonized and transformed. And in such cases the
old name was often replaced by a Greek one. Thus Celaenae in Phrygia
became Apamea; Haleb (Aleppo) in Syria became Beroea; Nisibis in
Mesopotamia, Antioch; Rhagae (Rai) in Media, Europus. In some cases the
old name was left unchallenged, e.g. Thyatira, Damascus and Samaria.
Even where there was no new foundation the older cities of Phoenicia and
Syria became transformed from the overwhelming prestige of Hellenic
culture. In Tyre and Sidon, no less than in Antioch or Alexandria, Greek
literature and philosophy were seriously cultivated, as we may see by
the great names which they contributed. The process by which Hellenism
thus leavened an older city we may trace with peculiar vividness in the
case of Jerusalem; we see there the younger generation captivated by its
ideals, the appearance of gymnasium and theatre, the eager adoption of
Greek political forms (1 Macc. i. 13 f.; 2 Macc. 4., 10 f.).
A. _Characteristics of Hellenism after Alexander._--To the number of
Greek city-states existing before Alexander were now therefore added
those which extended Hellas as far as India. With the enormous extension
of Greek territory a great shifting took place in the old centres of
gravity. What changes in the character of Greek culture did the new
conditions of the world bring about?
Government.
Hellenism had been the product of the free life of the Greek city-state,
and after Chaeronea the great days of the city-state were past. Not that
all liberty was everywhere extinguished. Under Alexander himself the
Greek states were restive, and Aetolia unsubdued; and, with the break-up
of the empire at Alexander's death, there was once more scope for the
action of the individual cities among the rival great powers. In the
history of the next two or three centuries the cities are by no means
ciphers. Rhodes takes a great part in _Weltpolitik_, as a sovereign ally
of one or other of the royal courts. In Greece itself the overlordship
to which the Macedonian king aspires is imperfect in extent and only
maintained to that extent by continual wars. The Greek states on their
side show that they are capable even of progressive political
development, the needs of the time being met by the federal system, by
larger unions of equal members than the leading cities of the past would
have tolerated, with their extreme unwillingness to forego the least
shred of sovereign independence. The Achaean and Aetolian Leagues are
independent powers, which the Macedonian can indeed check by garrisons
in Corinth, Chalcis and elsewhere, but which keep a field clear for
Hellenic freedom within their borders. Sparta also is a power which can
cross swords with the Macedonian king, and Cleomenes III. aspires to
unite the Peloponnesus under his headship. As to the cities outside
Greece, within or around the royal realms, Seleucid, Ptolemaic or
Attalid, their degree of freedom probably differed widely according to
circumstances. At one end of the scale, cities of old renown, e.g.
Lampsacus or Smyrna, could still make good their independence against
Antiochus III. at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. At the other end
of the scale the cities which were royal capitals, e.g. Alexandria,
Antioch and Pergamum, were normally controlled altogether by royal
nominees. At Pergamum indeed and (at any rate after Antiochus IV.) at
Antioch, forms of self-government subsisted upon which, of course, the
court had its hand, whilst at Alexandria even such forms were wanting.
Between the two extremes there was variation not only between city and
city, but, no doubt, in one and the same city at different times. In
Syria the independent action of the cities greatly increased during the
last weakness of the Seleucid monarchy. With the extension of the single
strong rule of Rome over this Hellenistic world, the conditions were
changed. Just as the Macedonian conquest, whilst increasing the domain
of Greek culture, had straitened Greek liberty, so Rome, whilst bringing
Hellenism finally into secure possession of the nearer East,
extinguished Greek freedom altogether. Even now the old forms were long
religiously respected. Formally, the most illustrious Greek states,
Athens, for instance, or Marseilles, or Rhodes, were not subjects of
Rome, but free allies. Even in the case of _civitates stipendiariae_
(tribute-paying states), municipal autonomy, subject indeed to
interference on the part of the Roman governor, was allowed to go on.
_Boule_ and _demos_ long continued to function. The old catchword,
"autonomy of the Hellens," was still heard and indeed was solemnly
proclaimed by Nero at the Isthmian games of A.D. 67. But during the
first centuries of the Christian era, this municipal autonomy, by a
process which can only be imperfectly traced in detail, decayed. The
_demos_ first sank into political annihilation and the council, no
longer popularly elected but an aristocratic order, concentrated the
whole administration in its hands. By the end of the 2nd century A.D.,
claims made by the imperial government upon the municipal senate are
more and more changing membership of the order from an honour into an
intolerable burden, and financial disorganization is calling on imperial
officials in one place after another to undertake the business of
government. After Diocletian and under the Eastern Empire the Greek
world is organized on the principles of a vast bureaucracy.
Social changes.
With this long process of political decline from Alexander to Diocletian
correspond the inner changes in the temper of the Hellenic and
Hellenistic peoples. There were, of course, marked differences between
one region and another. But certain general characteristics
distinguished at once Greek society after the Macedonian conquests from
the society of the earlier age. When the vast field of the East was
opened to Hellenic enterprise and the bullion of its treasuries flung
abroad, fortunes were made on a scale before unparalleled. A new
standard of sumptuousness and splendour was set up in the richest
stratum of society. This material elaboration of life was furthered by
the existence of Hellenistic courts, where the great ministers amassed
fabulous riches (e.g. Dionysius, the state secretary of Antiochus IV.,
Polyb. xxxi. 3, 16; Hermias, the chief minister of Seleucus III., and
Antiochus III., Polyb. v. 50. 2; cf. Plutarch, _Agis_ 9), and of huge
cities like Alexandria, Antioch and the enlarged Ephesus. It is
significant that whereas the earlier Greeks had used precious stones
only as a medium for the engraver's art, unengraven gems, valuable for
their mere material, now came to be used in profusion for adornment.
Already before Alexander pan-hellenic feeling had in various ways
overridden the internal divisions of the Greek race, but now, with the
vast mingling of Greeks of all sorts in the newly-conquered lands, a
generalized Greek culture in which the old local characteristics were
merged, came to overspread the world. The gradual supersession of the
old dialects by the Koine the common speech of the Greeks, a
modification of the Attic idiom coloured by Ionic, was one obvious sign
of the new order of things (see GREEK LANGUAGE).
Art and literature.
In its artistic, its literary, its spiritual products the age after
Alexander gave evidence of the change. In no department did activity
immediately stop; but the old freshness and creative exuberance was
gone. Artistic pleasure, grown less delicate, required the stimulus of a
more sensational effect or a more striking realism, as we may see by the
Pergamene and Rhodian schools of sculpture, by the bas-reliefs with the
_genre_ subjects drawn from the life of the countryside, or, in
literature by the sort of historical writing which became popular with
Cleitarchus and Duris, by the studied emotional or rhetorical point of
Callimachus, and by the portrayal of country life in Theocritus. At the
same time, artists and men of letters were now addressing themselves in
most cases, not to their fellow-citizens in a free city, but to kings
and courtiers, or the educated class generally of the Greek world. In
those departments of intellectual activity which demand no high ideal
faculty, in the study of the world of fact, the centuries immediately
following Alexander witnessed notable advance. Scientific research might
prosper, just as poetry withered, under the patronage of kings, and such
research had now a vast amount of new material at its disposal and could
profit by the old Babylonian and Egyptian traditions. The medical
schools, especially that of Alexandria, really enlarged knowledge of the
animal frame. Knowledge of the earth gained immensely by the Macedonian
conquests. The literary schools of Alexandria and Pergamum built up
grammatical science, and brought literary and artistic criticism to a
fine point. If indeed the earlier ages had been those of creative and
spontaneous life, the Hellenistic age was that of conscious criticism
and book-learning. The classical products were registered, studied,
assorted and commented upon. Men travelled and read more. Books were in
demand and were multiplied. Libraries became a feature of the age, the
kings leading the way as collectors, of books, especially the rival
dynasties of Egypt and Pergamum. The library attached to the Museum at
Alexandria is said to have contained at the time of its destruction in
47 B.C. as many as 700,000 rolls (Aul. Gell. vi. 17. 3). Even smaller
cities, like Aphrodisias in Caria, had public libraries for the
instruction of their youth (Le Bas, III. No. 1618).
With the general decay of ancient civilization under the Roman empire,
even scientific research ceased, and though there were literary
revivals, like that connected with the new Atticism under the Antonine
emperors, these were mainly imitative and artificial, and even learning
became at last under the Byzantine emperors a jejune and formal
tradition (see GREEK LITERATURE).
Religion and philosophy.
The diffusion of the Greek race far from the former centres of its life,
the mingling of citizens of many cities, the close contact between Greek
and barbarian in the conquered lands--all this had made the old
sanctions of civic religion and civic morality of less account than
ever. New guides of life were needed. The Stoic philosophy, with its
cosmopolitan note, its fixed dogmas and plain ethical precepts, came
into the world at the time of the Macedonian conquests to meet the needs
of the new age. Its ideas became popular among ordinary men as the older
philosophies had never been. The Stoic or Cynic preacher, attacking the
ways of society, in pungent, often coarse, phrase, became a familiar
figure of the Greek market-place (P. Wendland, _Beiträge zur Gesch. d.
griech. Philosophie_, 1895).
Although the cults of the old Greek deities in the new cities, with
their splendid apparatus of festivals and sacrifice might still hold the
multitude, men turned ever in large numbers to alien religions, felt as
more potent because strange, and the various gods of Egypt and the East
began to find larger entrance in the Greek world. Even in the old Greek
religion before Alexander there had been large elements of foreign
origin, and that the Greeks should now do honour to the gods of the
lands into which they came, as we find the Cilician and Syrian Greeks
doing to Baal-tars and Baal-marcod and the Egyptian Greeks to the gods
of Egypt, was only in accordance with the primitive way of thinking. But
it was a sign of the times when Serapis and Isis, Osiris and Anubis
began to take place among the popular deities in the old Greek lands.
The origin of the cult of Serapis, which Ptolemy I. found, or
established, in Egypt is disputed; the familiar type of the god is the
invention of a Greek artist, but the name and religion came from
somewhere in the East (see discussion under SERAPIS). Before the end of
the 2nd century B.C. there were temples of Serapis in Athens, Rhodes,
Delos and Orchomenos in Boeotia. Under the Roman empire the cult of
Isis, now furnished with an official priesthood and elaborate ritual,
became really popular in the Hellenistic world. King Asoka in the 3rd
century B.C. sent Buddhist missionaries from India to the Mediterranean
lands; their preaching has, it is true, left little or no trace in our
Western records. But other religions of Oriental origin penetrated far,
the worship of the Phrygian Great Mother, and in the 2nd century A.D.
the religion of the Mithras (Lafaye, _Culte des divinités alexandrines_,
1884; Roscher, articles "Anubis," "Isis," &c.; F. Cumont, _Mystères de
Mithra_, Eng. trans., 1903; _Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme
romain_, 1906).
The Jews, too, by the time of Christ were finding in many quarters an
open door. Besides those who were ready to go the whole length and
accept circumcision, numbers adopted particular Jewish practices,
observing the Sabbath, for instance, or turned from polytheism to the
doctrine of the One God. The synagogues in the Gentile cities had
generally attached to them, in more or less close connexion a multitude
of those "who feared God" and frequented the services (Schürer, _Gesch.
d. jüd. Volks_, iii. 102-135).
Christianity.
Among the religions which penetrated the Hellenistic world from an
Eastern source, one ultimately overpowered all the rest and made that
world its own. The inter-action of Christianity and Hellenism opens
large fields of inquiry. The teaching of Christ Himself contained, as it
is given to us, no Hellenic element; so far as He built with older
material, that material was exclusively the sacred tradition of Israel.
So soon, however, as the Gospel was carried in Greek to Greeks, Hellenic
elements began to enter into it, in the writings, for instance, of St
Paul, the appeal to what "nature" teaches would be generally admitted to
be the adoption of a Greek mode of thought. It was, of course,
impossible that speaking in Greek and living among Greeks, Christians
should not to some extent use current conceptions for the expression of
their faith. There was, at the same time, in the early Church a powerful
current of feeling hostile to Greek culture, to the wisdom of the world.
What the attitude of the New People should be to it, whether it was all
bad, or whether there were good things in it which Christians should
appropriate, was a vital question that always confronted them. The great
Christian School of Alexandria represented by Clement and Origen
effected a durable alliance between Greek education and Christian
doctrine. In proportion as the Christian Church had to go deeper into
metaphysics in the formulation of its belief as to God, as to Christ, as
to the soul, the Greek philosophical terminology, which was the only
vehicle then available for precise thought, had to become more and more
an essential part of Christianity. At the same time Christian ethics
incorporated much of the current popular philosophy, especially large
Stoical elements. In this way the Church itself, as we shall see, became
a propagator of Hellenism (see Hatch, _Hibbert Lectures_, 1888;
Wendland, "Christentum u. Hellenismus" in _Neue Jahrb. f. kl. Alt._ ix.
1902, p. 1 f.; and _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren
Beziehungen zu Judentum u. Christentum_, 1907).
B. _Effect upon non-Hellenic Peoples._--Hellenism secured by the
Macedonian conquest _points d'appui_ from the Mediterranean to India,
and brought the system of commerce and intercourse into Greek hands.
What effect did it produce in these various countries? What effect again
in the lands of the West which fell under the sway of Rome?
Greek cities.
Greek art.
(i.) _India._--In India (including the valleys of the Kabul and its
northern tributaries, then inhabited by an Indian, not, as now, by an
Iranian, population) Alexander planted a number of Greek towns.
Alexandria "under the Caucasus" commanded the road from Bactria over the
Hindu-Kush; it lay somewhere among the hills to the north of Kabul,
perhaps at Opian near Charikar (MacCrindle, _Ancient India_, p. 87, note
4); that it is the city meant by "Alasadda the capital of the Yona
(Greek) country" in the Buddhist Mahavanso, as is generally affirmed,
seems doubtful (Tarn, loc. cit. below, p. 269, note 7). We hear of a
Nicaea in the Kabul valley itself (near Jalalabad?), another Nicaea on
the Hydaspes (Jhelum) where Alexander crossed it, with Bucephala (see
BUCEPHALUS) opposite, a city (unnamed) on the Acesines (Chenab) (Arr.
vi. 29, 3), and a series of foundations strung along the Indus to the
sea. Soon after 321, Macedonian supremacy beyond the Indus collapsed
before the advance of the native Maurya dynasty, and about 303 even
large districts west of the Indus were ceded by Seleucus. But the
chapter of Greek rule in India was not yet closed. The Maurya dynasty
broke up about 180 B.C., and at the same time the Greek rulers of
Bactria began to lead expeditions across the Hindu-Kush. Menander in the
middle of the 2nd century B.C. extended his rule from the Hindu-Kush to
the Ganges. Then "Scythian" peoples from central Asia, Sakas and
Yue-chi, having conquered Bactria, gradually squeezed within
ever-narrowing limits the Greek power in India. The last Greek prince,
Hermaeus, seems to have succumbed about 30 B.C. It was just at this time
that the Graeco-Roman world of the West was consolidated as the Roman
Empire, and, though Greek rule in India had disappeared, active
commercial intercourse went on between India and the Hellenistic lands.
How far, through these changes, did the Greek population settled by
Alexander or his successors in India maintain their distinctive
character? What influence did Hellenism during the centuries in which it
was in contact with India exert upon the native mind? Only extremely
qualified answers can be given to these questions. Capital data are
possibly waiting there under ground--the Kabul valley for instance is
almost virgin soil for the archaeologist--and any conclusion we can
arrive at is merely provisional. If certain statements of classical
authors were true, Hellenism in India flourished exceedingly. But the
phil-hellenic Brahmins in Philostratus' life of Apollonius had no
existence outside the world of romance, and the statement of Dio
Chrysostom that the Indians were familiar with Homer in their own tongue
(_Or._ liii. 6) is a traveller's tale. India, the sceptical observe, has
yielded no Greek inscription, except, of course, on the coins of the
Greek kings and their Scythian rivals and successors. To what extent can
it be inferred from legends on coins that Greek was a living speech in
India? Perhaps to no large extent outside the Greek courts. The fact,
however, that the Greek character was still used on coins for two
centuries after the last Greek dynasty had come to an end shows that the
language had a prestige in India which any theory, to be plausible, must
account for. If we argue by probability from what we know of the
conditions, we have to consider that the Greek rule in India was all
through fighting for existence, and can have had "little time or energy
left for such things as art, science and literature" (Tarn, _loc. cit._
p. 292), and it is pointed out that a casual reference to the Greeks in
an Indian work contemporary with Menander characterizes them as
"viciously valiant Yonas." How long is it probable that Greek colonies
planted in the midst of alien races would have remained distinct? Mr
Tarn builds much upon the fact that the descendants of the Greek
Branchidae settled by Xerxes in central Asia had become bilingual in six
generations (Curt. vii. 5, 29). But the Greek race before Alexander had
not its later prestige, and we must consider such a sentiment as leads
the Eurasian to-day to cling to his Western parentage, so that the
instance of the Branchidae cannot be used straight away for the time
after Alexander. Certainly, had the Greek colonies in India been active
political bodies, we could hardly have failed to find some trace of
them, in civic architecture or in inscriptions, by this time. Perhaps we
should rather think of them as resembling the Greeks found to-day
dispersed over the nearer East with interests mainly commercial, easily
assimilating themselves to their environment. A notice derived from
Agatharchides (about 140 B.C.) possibly refers to the activity of these
Indian Greeks in the sea-borne trade of the Indian Ocean (Müller, _Geog.
Graeci min._ i. p. 191; cf. Diod. iii. 47. 9). As to what India derived
from Greece there has been a good deal of erudite debate. That the
Indian drama took its origin from the Greek is still maintained by some
scholars, though hardly proved. There is no doubt that Indian astronomy
shows marked Hellenic features, including actual Greek words borrowed.
But by far the most signal borrowing is in the sphere of art. The stream
of Buddhist art which went out eastwards across Asia had its rise in
North-West India, and the remains of architecture and sculpture
unearthed in this region enable us to trace its development back to pure
Greek types. It remains, of course, a question whether the tradition was
transmitted by the Greek dynasties from Bactria or by intercourse with
the Roman empire; the latter seems now almost certain; but the fact of
the influence is equally striking on either theory. How far to the east
the distinctive influence of Greece went is shown by the
seal-impressions with Athena and Eros types found by Dr Stein in the
buried cities of Khotan (_Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan_, p. 396), and
according to Mr E. B. Havell, there exist "paintings treasured as the
most precious relics and rarely shown to Europeans, which closely
resemble the Graeco-Buddhist art of India" in some of the oldest temples
of Japan (_Studio_, vol. xxvii. 1903, p. 26).
See A. A. Macdonell, _History of Sanskrit Literature_ (1900) p. 411
f., and the references on p. 452; V. A. Smith, _Early History of
India_ (1904); Grünwedel, _Buddhist Art in India_ (Eng. trans., edited
by Dr Burgess, 1901); W. W. Tarn, "Notes on Hellenism in Bactria and
India" in _Journ. of Hell. Studies_, xxii. (1902); Foucher, _L'Art
gréco-bouddhique du Gandhâra_ (1905).
Greek cities.
(ii.) _Iran and Babylonia._--The colonizing activity of Alexander and
his successors found a large field in Iran where, up till his time,
hardly any walled towns seem to have existed. Cities now arose in all
its provinces, superseding in many cases native market places and
villages, and holding the vantage-points of commerce. Media, Polybius
says, was defended by a chain of Greek cities from barbarian incursion
(x. 27. 3); in the neighbourhood of Teheran seem to have stood Heraclea
and Europus. In Eastern Iran the cities which are its chief places
to-day then bore Greek names, and looked upon Alexander or some other
Hellenic prince as their founder. Khojend, Herat, Kandahar were
Alexandrias, Merv was an Alexandria till it changed that name for
Antioch. When the farther provinces broke away under independent Greek
kings, a Eucratidea and a Demetrias attested their glory. Even in a town
definitely barbarian like Syrinca in 209 B.C. there was a resident
mercantile community of Greeks (Polyb. x. 31). The bulk of Greek
historical literature having perished, and in the absence of both
archaeological data from Iran, we can only speculate on the inner life
of these Greek cities under a strange sky. One precious document is the
decree of Antioch in Persis (about 206 B.C.) cited in a recently
discovered inscription (Kern, _Inschr. v. Magnesia_, No. 61;
Dittenberger, _Orient. gr. Inscr._ i. No. 233). This shows us the normal
organs of a Greek city, _boule_, _ecclesia_, _prytaneis_, &c., in full
working, with the annual election of magistrates, and ordinary forms of
public action. But more than this, it throws a remarkable light upon the
solidarity of the Hellenic Dispersion. The citizen body had been
increased some generations before by colonists from Magnesia-on-Meander
sent at the invitation of Antiochus I. The Magnesians are instigated by
pan-hellenic enthusiasm. And we see a brisk diplomatic intercourse
between the scattered Greek cities going on. It is especially the local
religious festivals which bind them together. Antioch in Persis, of
course, sends athletes to the great games of Greece, but in this decree
it determines to take part in the new festival being started in honour
of Artemis at Magnesia. The loyalty, too, expressed towards the Seleucid
king implies a predominant interest in pan-hellenic unity, natural in
colonies isolated among barbarians. A list is given (fragmentary) of
other Greek cities in Babylonia and beyond from which similar decrees
had come.
Greek kingdoms.
In the middle of the 3rd century B.C. Bactria and Sogdiana broke away
from the Seleucid empire; independent Greek kings reigned there till the
country was conquered by nomads from Central Asia (Sacae and Yue-chi) a
century later. Alexander had settled large masses of Greeks in these
regions (Greeks, it would seem, not Macedonians), whose attempts to
return home in 325 and 323 had been frustrated, and it may well be that
a racial antagonism quickened the revolt against Macedonian rule in 250.
The history of these Greek dynasties is for us almost a blank, and for
estimating the amount and quality of Hellenism in Bactria during the 180
years or so of Macedonian and Greek rule, we are reduced to building
hypotheses upon the scantiest data. Probably nothing important bearing
on the subject has been left out of view in W. W. Tarn's learned
discussion (_Journ. of Hell. Stud._ xxii., 1902, p. 268 f.), and his
result is mainly negative, that palpable evidences of an active
Hellenism have not been found; he inclines to think that the Greek
kingdoms mainly took on the native Iranian colour. The coins, of course,
are adduced on the other side, being not only Greek in type and legend,
but (in many cases) of a peculiarly fine and vigorous execution; and
excellence in one branch of art is thought to imply that other branches
flourished in the same _milieu_. Tarn suggests that they may be a
"sport," a spasmodic outbreak of genius (see BACTRIA and works there
quoted). In these outlying provinces the national Iranian sentiment
seems to have been most intense, and it is interesting to see that under
Alexander Hellenism appeared as "belligerent civilization," in the
attempt to suppress practices like the exposure of the dying to the dogs
(an exaggeration of Zoroastrianism) and, possibly also, abhorrent forms
of marriage (Strabo xi. 517; Porphyr. _De abstin._ 4. 21; Plut. _De
fort. Al._ 5).
The west of Iran slipped from the Seleucids in the course of the 2nd
century B.C. to be joined to the Parthian kingdom, or fall under petty
native dynasties. Soon after 130 Babylonia too was conquered by the
Parthian, and Mesopotamia before 88. Then the reconquest of the nearer
East by Oriental dynasties was checked by the advance of Rome. Asia
Minor and Syria remained substantial parts of the Roman Empire till the
Mahommedan conquests of the 7th century A.D. began a new process of
recoil on the part of the Hellenistic power. In Babylonia, also, in
Susiana and Mesopotamia, Hellenism had been established in a system of
cities for 200 years before the coming of the Parthian. The greatest of
all of them stood here--almost on the site of Bagdad--Seleucia on the
Tigris. It superseded Babylon as the industrial focus of Babylonia and
counted some 600,000 inhabitants (_plebs urbana_) according to Pliny,
_N.H._ vi. § 122 (cf. Joseph. _Arch._ xviii. § 372, 374; for coins,
probably of Seleucia, with the type of Tyche issued in the years A.D.
43-44 see Wroth, _Coins of Parthia_, p. xlvi.). The list of other Greek
cities known to us in these regions is too long to give here (see
Droysen, _loc. cit._, and E. Schwartz in Kern's _Inschr. v. Magnesia_,
p. 171 f.). In Mesopotamia, Pliny especially notes how the character of
the country was changed when the old village life was broken in upon by
new centres of population in the cities of Macedonian foundation (Pliny,
_N.H._ vi. § 117; cf. K. Regling, "Histor. geog. d. mesopot.
Parallelograms," in Lehmann's _Beiträge_, i. p. 442 f.).
Hellenic-Iranian culture.
We do not look in vain for notable names in Hellenistic literature and
philosophy produced on an Asiatic soil. Diogenes, the Stoic philosopher
(head of the school in 156 B.C.), was a "Babylonian," i.e. a citizen of
Seleucia on the Tigris; so too was Seleucus, the mathematician and
astronomer, being possibly a native Babylonian; Berossus, who wrote a
Babylonian history in Greek (before 261 B.C.) was a Hellenized native.
Apollodorus, Strabo's authority for Parthian history (c. 80 B.C.?), was
from the Greek city of Artemita in Assyria. When the Parthians rent away
provinces from the Seleucid empire, the Greek cities did not cease to
exist by passing under barbarian rule. Gradually no doubt the Greek
colonies were absorbed, but the process was a long one. In 140 and 130
B.C. those of Iran were ready to rise in support of the Seleucid invader
(Joseph. _Arch._ xiii. § 184; Justin xxxviii. 10.6-8). Just so, Crassus
in 53 B.C. found a welcome in the Greek cities of Mesopotamia. Seleucia
on the Tigris is spoken of by Tacitus as being in A.D. 36 "proof against
barbarian influences and mindful of its founder Seleucus" (_Ann._ vi.
42). How important an element the Greek population of their realm seemed
to the Parthian kings we can see by the fact that they claimed to be
themselves champions of Hellenism. From the reign of Artabanus I.
(128/7-123 B.C.) they bear the epithet of "Phil-hellen" as a regular
part of their title upon the coins. Under the later reigns the Tyche
figure (the personification of a Greek city) becomes common as a coin
type (Wroth, _Coins of Parthia_, pp. liii., lxxiv.). The coinage may, of
course, give a somewhat one-sided representation of the Parthian
kingdom, being specially designed for the commercial class, in which the
population of the Greek cities was, we may guess, predominant. The state
of things which prevails in modern Afghanistan, where trade is in the
hands of a class distinct in race and speech (Persian in this case) from
the ruling race of fighters is very probably analogous to that which we
should have found in Iran under the Parthians.[2] That the Parthian
court itself was to some extent Hellenized is shown by the story, often
adduced, that a Greek company of actors was performing the _Bacchae_
before the king when the head of Crassus was brought in. This single
instance need not, it is true, show a Hellenism of any profundity; still
it does show that certain parts of Hellenism had become so essential to
the lustre of a court that even an Arsacid could not be without them.
Artavasdes, king of Armenia (54?-34 B.C.) composed Greek tragedies and
histories (Plut. _Crass._ 33). Then the prestige of the Roman Empire,
with its prevailingly Hellenistic culture, must have told powerfully.
The Parthian princes were in many cases the children of Greek mothers
who had been taken into the royal harems (Plut. _Crass._ 32). Musa, the
queen-mother, whose head appears on the coins of Phraataces (3/2
B.C.-A.D. 4) had been an Italian slave-girl. Many of the Parthian
princes resided temporarily, as hostages or refugees, in the Roman
Empire; but one notes that the nation at large looked with anything but
favour upon too liberal an introduction of foreign manners at the court
(Tac. _Ann._ ii. 2).
Such slight notices in Western literature do not give us any penetrating
view into the operation of Hellenism among the Iranians. As an
expression of the Iranian mind we have the Avesta and the Pehlevi
theological literature. Unfortunately in a question of this kind the
dating of our documents is the first matter of importance, and it seems
that we can only assign dates to the different parts of the Avesta by
processes of fine-drawn conjecture. And even if we could date the Avesta
securely, we could only prove borrowing by more or less close
coincidences of idea, a tempting but uncertain method of inquiry. Taking
an opinion based on such data for what it is worth, we may note that
Darmesteter believed in the influence of the later Greek philosophy
(Philonian and Neo-platonic) as one of those which shaped the Avesta as
we have it (_Sacred Books of the East_, iv. 54 f.), but we must also
note that such an influence is emphatically denied by Dr L. Mills
(_Zarathushtra and the Greeks_, Leipzig, 1906). Outside literature, we
have to look to the artistic remains offered by the region to determine
Hellenic influence. But here, too, the preliminary classification of the
documents is beset with doubt. In the case of small objects like gems
the place of manufacture may be far from the place of discovery. The
architectural remains are solidly _in situ_, but we may have such vast
disagreement as to date as that between Dieulafoy and M. de Morgan with
respect to domed buildings of Susa, a disagreement of at least five
centuries. It is enough then here to observe that Iran and Babylonia do,
as a matter of fact, continually yield the explorer objects of
workmanship either Greek or influenced by Greek models, belonging to the
age after Alexander, and that we may hence infer at any rate such an
influence of Hellenism upon the tastes of the richer classes as would
create a demand for these things.
For gems see "Gobineau" in the _Rev. archéol._, vols. xxvii., xxviii.
(1874); Ménant, _Recherches sur la glyptique orientale_, ii. 189 f.;
E. Babelon, _Catalogue des camées de la Bibl. Nat._ (1897), p. 56; A.
Furtwängler, _Die antiken Gemmen_, pp. 165, 369 ff.; Figurines:
Heuzey, _Fig. ant. du Louvre_ (1883) p. 3; J. P. Peters, _Nippur_, ii.
128; Military standard: Heuzey, _Comptes rendus de l'Acad. d. Inscr._
(1895) p. 16; _Rev. d'Assyr._ v. (1903), p. 103 f. Alabaster vase:
Sykes, _Ten Thousand Miles in Persia_, p. 445. In the case of the
architectural remains, the Greek tradition is obvious at Hatra
(Jacquerel, _Rev. archéol._, 1897 [ii.], 343 f.), and in the relics of
the temple at Kingavar (Dieulafoy, _L'Art antique de la Perse_, v. p.
10 f.).
Sassanian empire.
If any vestige of Hellenism still survived under the Sassanian kings,
our records do not show it. The spirit of the Sassanian monarchy was
more jealously national than that of the Arsacid, and alien grafts could
hardly have flourished under it. Of course, if Darmesteter was right in
seeing a Greek element in Zoroastrianism, Greek influence must still
have operated under the new dynasty, which recognized the national
religion. But, as we saw, the Greek influence has been authoritatively
denied. At the court a limited recognition might be given, as fashion
veered, to the values prevalent in the Hellenistic world. The story of
Hormisdas in Zosimus is suggestive in this connexion (Zosim. _Hist.
nov._ ii. 27). Chosroes I. interested himself in Greek philosophy and
received its professors from the West with open arms (Agath. ii. 28 f.);
according to one account, he had his palace at Ctesiphon built by Greeks
(Theophylact. Simocat. v. 6).
But the account of Chosroes' mode of action makes it plain that the
Hellenism once planted in Iran had withered away; representatives of
Greek learning and skill have all to be imported from across the
frontier.
For Hellenism in Babylonia and Iran, see the useful article of M.
Victor Chapot in the _Bull. et mémoires de la Soc. Nat. des
Antiquaires de France_ for 1902 (published 1904), p. 206 f., which
gives a conspectus of the relevant literature.
(iii.) _Asia Minor._--Very different were the fortunes of Hellenism in
those lands which became annexed to the Roman Empire.
Greek cities of the Diadochi.
In Asia Minor, we have seen how, even before Alexander, Hellenism had
begun to affect the native races and Persian nobility. During
Alexander's own reign, we cannot trace any progress in the Hellenization
of the interior, nor can we prove here his activity as a builder of
cities. But under the dynasties of his successors a great work of
city-building and colonization went on. Antigonus fixed his capital at
the old Phrygian town of Celaenae, and the famous cities of Nicaea and
Alexandria Troas owed to him their first foundation, each as an
Antigonia; they were refounded and renamed by Lysimachus (301-281 B.C.).
Then we have the great system of Seleucid foundations. Sardis, the
Seleucid capital in Asia Minor, had become a Greek city before the end
of the 3rd century B.C. The main high road between the Aegean coast and
the East was held by a series of new cities. Going west from the
Cilician Gates we have Laodicea Catacecaumene, Apamea, the Phrygian
capital which absorbed Celaenae, Laodicea on the Lycus,
Antioch-on-Meander, Antioch-Nysa, Antioch-Tralles. To the south of this
high road we have among the Seleucid foundations Antioch in Pisidia
(colonized with Magnesians from the Meander) and Stratonicea in Caria;
in the region to the north of it the most famous Seleucid colony was
Thyatira. Along the southern coast, where the houses of Seleucus and
Ptolemy strove for predominance, we find the names of Berenice, Arsinoë
and Ptolemais confronting those of Antioch and Seleucia. With the rise
of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum, a system of Pergamene foundation
begins to oppose the Seleucid in the interior, bearing such names as
Attalia, Philetaeria, Eumenia, Apollonis. Of these, one may note for
their later celebrity Philadelphia in Lydia and Attalia on the
Pamphylian coast. The native Bithynian dynasty became Hellenized in the
course of the 3rd century, and in the matter of city building Prusias
(the old Cius), Apamea (the old Myrlea), probably Prusa, and above all
Nicomedia attested its activity. While new Greek cities were rising in
the interior, the older Hellenism of the western coast grew in material
splendour under the munificence of Hellenistic kings. Its centres of
gravity to some extent shifted. There was a tendency towards
concentration in large cities of the new type, which caused many of the
lesser towns, like Lebedus, Myus or Colophon, to sink to insignificance,
while Ephesus grew in greatness and wealth, and Smyrna rose again after
an extinction of four centuries. The great importance of Rhodes belongs
to the days after Alexander, when it received the riches of the East
from the trade-routes which debouched into the Mediterranean at
Alexandria and Antioch. In Aeolis, of course, the centre of gravity
moved to the Attalid capital, Pergamum. It was the irruption of the
Celts, beginning in 278-277 B.C., which checked the Hellenization of the
interior. Not only did the Galatian tribes take large tracts towards the
north of the plateau in possession, but they were an element of
perpetual unrest, which hampered and distracted the Hellenistic
monarchies. The wars, therefore, in which the Pergamene kings in the
latter part of the 3rd century stemmed their aggressions, had the glory
of a Hellenic crusade.
Native dynasties.
The minor dynasties of non-Greek origin, the native Bithynian and the
two Persian dynasties in Pontus and Cappadocia, were Hellenized before
the Romans drove the Seleucid out of the country. In Bithynia the upper
classes seem to have followed the fashion of the court (Beloch iii. [i.],
278); the dynasty of Pontus was phil-hellenic by ancestral tradition;
the dynasty of Cappadocia, the most conservative, dated its conversion
to Hellenism from the time when a Seleucid princess came to reign there
early in the 2nd century B.C. as the wife of Ariarathes V. (Diod. xxxi.
19. 8). But Hellenism in Cappadocia was for centuries to come still
confined to the castles of the king and the barons, and the few towns.
Hellenism under Roman sway.
When Rome began to interfere in Asia Minor, its first action was to
break the power of the Gauls (189 B.C.). In 133 Rome entered formally
upon the heritage of the Attalid kingdom and became the dominant power
in the Anatolian peninsula for 1200 years. Under Rome the process of
Hellenization, which the divisions and weakness of the Macedonian
kingdoms had checked, went forward. The coast regions of the west and
south the Romans found already Hellenized. In Lydia "not a trace" of the
old language was left in Strabo's time (Strabo xiv. 631); in Lycia, the
old language became obsolete in the early days of Macedonian rule (see
Kalinka, _Tituli Asiae minoris_, i. 8). But inland, in Phrygia,
Hellenism had as yet made little headway outside the Greek cities. Even
the Attalids had not effected much here (Körte, _Athen. Mitth._ xxiii.,
1898, p. 152), and under the Romans, the penetration of the interior by
Hellenism was slow. It was not till the reign of Hadrian that city life
on the Phrygian plateau became rich and vigorous, with its material
circumstances of temples, theatres and baths. Among the villages of the
north and east of Phrygia, Hellenism "was only beginning to make itself
felt in the middle of the 3rd century A.D." (Ramsay in Kuhn's _Zeitsch.
f. vergleich. Sprachforschung_, xxviii., 1885, p. 382). Gravestones in
this region as late as the 4th century curse violators in the old
Phrygian speech. The lower classes at Lystra in St Paul's time spoke
Lycaonian (Acts xiv. 11). In that part of Phrygia, which by the
settlement of the Celtic invaders became Galatia, the larger towns seem
to have become Hellenized by the time of the Christian era, whilst the
Celtic speech maintained itself in the country villages till the 4th
century A.D. (Jerome, Preface to Comment, in _Epist. ad Gal._ book ii.;
see J. G. C. Anderson, _Journ. of Hell. Stud._ xix., 1899, p. 312 f.).
Cappadocia at the beginning of the Christian era was still comparatively
townless (Strabo xii. 537), a country of large estates with a servile
peasantry. Even in the 4th century its Hellenization was still far from
complete; but Christianity had assimilated so much of the older Hellenic
culture that the Church was now a main propagator of Hellenism in the
backward regions. The native languages of Asia Minor all ultimately gave
way to Greek (unless Phrygian lingered on in parts till the Turkish
invasions; see Mordtmann, _Sitzungsb. d. bayer. Ak._ 1862, i. p. 30; K.
Holl in _Hermes_, xliii., 1908, p. 240 f.). The effective Hellenization
of Armenia did not take place till the 5th century, when the school of
Mesrop and Sahak gave Armenia a literature translated from, or
imitating, Greek books (Gelzer in I. v. Müller's _Handbuch_, vol. ix.
Abt. i. p. 916.)
Seleucid empire.
Roman period.
(iv.) _Syria._--In Syria, which with Cilicia and Mesopotamia, formed the
central part of the Seleucid empire, the new colonies were especially
numerous. Alexander himself had perhaps made a beginning with
Alexandria-by-Issus (mod. Alexandretta), Samaria, Pella (the later
Apamea), Carrhae, &c. Antigonus founded Antigonia, which was absorbed a
few years later by Antioch, and after the fall of Antigonus in 301, the
work of planting Syria with Greek cities was pursued effectively north
of the Lebanon by the house of Seleucus, and, less energetically, south
of the Lebanon by the house of Ptolemy. In the north of Syria four
cities stood pre-eminent above the rest, (1) Antioch on the Orontes, the
Seleucid capital; (2) Seleucia-in-Pieria near the mouth of the Orontes,
which guarded the approach to Antioch from the sea; (3) Apamea (mod.
Famia), on the middle Orontes, the military headquarters of the kingdom;
and (4) Laodicea "on sea" (_ad mare_), which had a commercial importance
in connexion with the export of Syrian wine. Of the Ptolemaic
foundations in Coele-Syria only one attained an importance comparable
with that of the larger Seleucid foundations, Ptolemais on the coast,
which was the old Semitic Acco transformed (mod. Acre). The group of
Greek cities east of the Jordan also fell within the Ptolemaic realm
during the 3rd century B.C., though their greatness belonged to a
somewhat later day. The whole of Syria was brought under the Seleucid
sceptre, together with Cilicia, by Antiochus III. the Great (223-187
B.C.). Under his son, Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (175-164), a fresh impulse
was given to Syrian Hellenism. In 1 Maccabees he is represented as
writing an order to all his subjects to forsake the ways of their
fathers and conform to a single prescribed pattern, and though in this
form the account can hardly be exact, it does no doubt represent the
spirit of his action. Other facts there are which point the same way. We
now find a sudden issue of bronze money by a large number of the cities
of the kingdom in their own name--an indication of liberties extended or
confirmed. Many of them exchange their existing name for that of Antioch
(Adana, Tarsus, Gadara, Ptolemais), Seleucia (Mopsuestia, Gadara) or
Epiphanea (Oeniandus, Hamath). At Antioch itself great public works were
carried out, such as were involved in the addition of a new quarter to
the city, including, we may suppose, the civic council chamber which is
afterwards spoken of as being here. With the ever-growing weakness of
the Seleucid dynasty, the independence and activity of the cities
increased, although, if, on the one hand, they were less suppressed by a
strong central government, they were less protected against military
adventurers and barbarian chieftains. Accordingly, when Pompey annexed
Syria in 64 B.C. as a Roman province, he found it a chaos of city-states
and petty principalities. The Nabataeans and the Jews above all had
encroached upon the Hellenistic domain; in the south the Jewish raids
had spread desolation and left many cities practically in ruins. Under
Roman protection, the cities were soon rebuilt and Hellenism secured
from the barbarian peril. Greek city life, with its political forms, its
complement of festivities, amusements and intellectual exercise, went on
more largely than before. The great majority of the Hellenistic remains
in Syria belong to the Roman period. Such local dynasties as were
suffered by the Romans to exist had, of course, a Hellenistic
complexion. Especially was this the case with that of the Herods. Not
only were such marks of Hellenism as a theatre introduced by Herod the
Great (37-34 B.C.) at Jerusalem, but in the work of city-building this
dynasty showed itself active. Sebaste (the old Samaria), Caesarea,
Antipatris were built by Herod the Great, Tiberias by Herod Antipas (4
B.C.-A.D. 39). The reclaiming of the wild district of Hauran for
civilization and Hellenistic life was due in the first instance to the
house of Herod (Schürer, _Gesch. d. jüd. Volk._ 3rd ed., ii. p. 12 f.).
In Syria, too, Hellenism under the Romans advanced upon new ground.
Palmyra, of which we hear nothing before Roman times, is a notable
instance.
Greek culture in Syria.
As to the effect of this network of Greek cities upon the aboriginal
population of Syria, we do not find here the same disappearance of
native languages and racial characteristics as in Asia Minor. Still less
was this the case in Mesopotamia, where a strong native element in such
a city as Edessa is indicated by its epithet [Greek: mixobarbaros]. The
old cults naturally went on, and at Carrhae (Harran) even survived the
establishment of Christianity. The lower classes at Antioch, and no
doubt in the cities generally, were in speech Aramaic or bilingual; we
find Aramaic popular nicknames of the later Seleucids (K. O. Müller,
_Antiq. Ant._ p. 29). The villages, of course, spoke Aramaic. The richer
natives, on the other hand, those who made their way into the educated
classes of the towns, and attained official position, would become
Hellenized in language and manners, and the "Syrian Code" shows how far
the social structure was modified by the Hellenic tradition (Mitteis,
_Reichsrecht und Volksrecht in den öst. Provinzen des röm.
Kaiserreichs_, 1891; Arnold Meyer, _Jesu Muttersprache_, 1896). Of the
Syrians who made their mark in Greek literature, some were of native
blood, e.g. Lucian of Samosata.
One may notice the great part taken by natives of the Phoenician cities
in the history of later Greek philosophy, and in the poetic movement of
the last century B.C., which led to fresh cultivation of the epigram.
Greek, in fact, held the field as the language of literature and polite
society. Possibly at places like Edessa, which for some 350 years (till
A.D. 216) was under a dynasty of native princes, Aramaic was cultivated
as a literary language. There was a Syriac-speaking church here as early
as the 2nd century, and with the spread of Christianity Syriac asserted
itself against Greek. The Syriac literature which we possess is all
Christian.
_But where Greek gave place to Syriac, Hellenism was not thereby
effaced. It was to some extent the passing over of the Hellenic
tradition into a new medium._ We must remember the marked Hellenic
elements in Christian theology. The earliest Syriac work which we
possess, the book "On Fate," produced in the circle of the heretic
Bardaisan or Bardesanes (end of the 2nd century), largely follows Greek
models. There was an extensive translation of Greek works into Syriac
during the next centuries, handbooks of philosophy and science for the
most part. The version of Homer into Syriac verses made in the 8th
century has perished, all but a few lines (R. Duval, _La Litt.
syriaque_, 1900, p. 325).
The Jews.
(v.) _The relation of the Jews to Hellenism_ in the first century and a
half of Macedonian rule is very obscure, since the statements made by
later writers like Josephus, as to the visit of Alexander to Jerusalem
or the privileges conferred upon the Jews in the new Macedonian realms
are justly suspected of being fiction. It has been maintained that Greek
influence is to be traced in parts of the Old Testament assigned to this
period, as, for instance, the Book of Proverbs; but even in the case of
Ecclesiastes, the canonical writing whose affinity with Greek thought is
closest, the coincidence of idea need not necessarily prove a Greek
source. The one solid fact in this connexion is the translation of the
Jewish Law into Greek in the 3rd century B.C., implying a Jewish
Diaspora at Alexandria, so far Hellenized as to have forgotten the
speech of Palestine. Early in the 2nd century B.C. we see that the
priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem had, like the well-to-do classes
everywhere in Syria, been carried away by the Hellenistic current, its
strength being evidenced no less by the intensity of the conservative
opposition embodied in the party of the "Pious" (Assideans, _Hasidim_).
Under Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (176-165) the Hellenistic aristocracy
contrived to get Jerusalem converted into a Greek city; the gymnasium
appeared, and Greek dress became fashionable with the young men. But
when Antiochus, owing to political developments, interfered violently at
Jerusalem, the conservative opposition carried the nation with them. The
revolt under the Hasmonaean family (Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren)
followed, ending in 143-142 in the establishment of an independent
Jewish state under a Hasmonaean prince. But whilst the old Hellenistic
party had been crushed the Hasmonaean state was of the nature of a
compromise. The Mosaic Law was respected, but Hellenism still found an
entrance in various forms. The first Hasmonaean "king," Aristobulus I.
(104-103), was known to the Greeks as Phil-hellen. He and all later
kings of the dynasty bear Greek names as well as Hebrew ones, and after
Jannaeus Alexander (103-76) the Greek legends are common on the coins
beside the Hebrew. Herod, who supplanted the Hasmonaean dynasty (37-34
B.C.) made, outside Judaea, a display of Phil-hellenism, building new
Greek cities and temples, or bestowing gifts upon the older ones of
fame. His court, at the same time, welcomed Greek men of letters like
Nicolaus of Damascus. Even in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, he erected
a theatre and an amphitheatre. We have already noticed the work done by
the Herodian dynasty in furthering Hellenism in Syria (see Schürer,
_Gesch. des jüdisch. Volkes_, vols. i. and ii.). Meanwhile a great part
of the Jewish people was living dispersed among the cities of the Greek
world, speaking Greek as their mother-tongue, and absorbing Greek
influences in much larger measure than their brethren of Palestine.
These are the Jews whom we find contrasted as "Hellenists" with the
"Hebrews" in Acts. They still kept in touch with the mother-city, and
indeed we hear of special synagogues in Jerusalem in which the
Hellenists temporarily resident there gathered (Acts vi. 9). A large
Jewish literature in Greek had grown up since the translation of the Law
in the 3rd century. Beside the other canonical books of the Old
Testament, translated in many cases with modifications or additions, it
included translations of other Hebrew books (Ecclesiasticus, Judith,
&c.), works composed originally in Greek but imitating to some extent
the Hebraic style (like Wisdom), works modelled more closely on the
Greek literary tradition, either historical, like 2 Maccabees, or
philosophical, like the productions of the Alexandrian school,
represented for us by Aristobulus and Philo, in which style and thought
are almost wholly Greek and the reference to the Old Testament a mere
pretext; or Greek poems on Jewish subjects, like the epic of the elder
Philo and Ezechiel's tragedy, _Exagoge_. It included also a number of
forgeries, circulated under the names of famous Greek authors, verses
fathered upon Aeschylus or Sophocles, or books like the false Hecataeus,
or above all the pretended prophecies of ancient Sibyls in epic verse.
These frauds were all contrived for the heathen public, as a means of
propaganda, calculated to inspire them with respect for Jewish antiquity
or turn them from idols to God.
For Jewish Hellenism see Schürer, _op. cit._ iii.; Susemihl, _Gesch.
der griech. Lit. in der Alexandrinerzeit_, ii. 601 f.; Willrich,
_Juden und Griechen_ (1895), _Judaica_ (1900); Hastings' _Dict. of the
Bible_, art. "Greece"; _Encyclop. Biblica_, art. "Hellenism";
Pauly-Wissowa, art. "Aristobulus (15)"; also the work of P. Wendland
cited above.
Through the Hellenistic Jews, Greek influences reached Jerusalem itself,
though their effect upon the Aramaic-speaking Rabbinical schools was
naturally not so pronounced. The large number of Greek words, however,
in the language of the Mishnah and the Talmud is a significant
phenomenon. The attitude of the Rabbinic doctors to a Greek education
does not seem to have been hostile till the time of Hadrian. The sect of
the Essenes probably shows an intermingling of the Greek with other
lines of tradition among the Jews of Palestine.
See Schürer ii. 42-67, 583; S. Krauss, _Griech. u. latein. Lehnwörter
im Talmud_ (1898); _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. "Greek Language."
Ptolemaic kingdom.
(vi.) _In Egypt_ the Ptolemies were hindered by special considerations
from building Greek cities after the manner of the other Macedonian
houses. One Greek city they found existing, Naucratis; Alexander had
called Alexandria into being; the first Ptolemy added Ptolemais as a
Greek centre for Upper Egypt. They seem to have suffered no other
community in the Nile Valley with the independent life of a Greek city,
for the Greek and Macedonian soldier-colonies settled in the Fayum or
elsewhere had no political self-existence. And even at Alexandria
Hellenism was not allowed full development. Ptolemais, indeed, enjoyed
all the ordinary forms of self-government, but Alexandria was governed
despotically by royal officials. In its population, too, Alexandria was
only semi-Hellenic; for besides the proportion of Egyptian natives in
its lower strata, its commercial greatness drew in elements from every
quarter; the Jews, for instance, formed a majority of the population in
two out of the five divisions of the city. At the same time the
prevalent tone of the populace was, no doubt, Hellenistic, as is shown
by the fact that the Jews who settled there acquired Greek in place of
Aramaic as their mother-tongue, and in its upper circles Alexandrian
society under the Ptolemies was not only Hellenistic, but notable among
the Hellenes for its literary and artistic brilliance. The state
university, the "Museum," was in close connexion with the court, and
gave to Alexandria the same pre-eminence in natural science and literary
scholarship which Athens had in moral philosophy.
Probably in no other country, except Judaea, did Hellenism encounter as
stubborn a national antagonism as in Egypt. The common description of
"the Oriental" as indurated in his antagonism to the alien conqueror
here perhaps has some truth in it. The assault made upon the Macedonian
devotee in the temple of Serapis at Memphis "because he was a Greek" is
significant (_Papyr. Brit. Mus._ i. No. 44; cf. Grenfell, _Amherst
Papyr._ p. 48). And yet even here one must observe qualifications The
papyri show us habitual marriage of Greeks and native women and a
frequent adoption by natives of Greek names. It has even been thought
that some developments of the Egyptian religion are due to Hellenistic
influence, such as the deification of Imhotp (Bissing, _Deutsche
Literaturzeitung_, 1902, col. 2330) or the practice of forming voluntary
religious associations (Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, i. 125). The
worship of Serapis was patronized by the court with the very object of
affording a mixed cultus in which Greek and native might unite. In
Egypt, too, the triumph of Christianity brought into being a native
Christian literature, and if this was in one way the assertion of the
native against Hellenistic predominance, one must remember that Coptic
literature, like Syriac, necessarily incorporated those Greek elements
which had become an essential part of Christian theology.
Ethiopia.
From the Ptolemaic kingdom Hellenism early travelled up the Nile into
Ethiopia. Ergamenes, the king of the Ethiopians in the time of the
second Ptolemy, "who had received a Greek education and cultivated
philosophy," broke with the native priesthood (Diod. iii. 6), and from
that time traces of Greek influence continue to be found in the
monuments of the Upper Nile. When Ethiopia became a Christian country in
the 4th century, its connexion with the Hellenistic world became closer.
Greek culture in the Roman world.
(vii.) _Hellenism in the West._--Whilst in the East Hellenism had been
sustained by the political supremacy of the Greeks, in Italy _Graecia
capta_ had only the inherent power and charm of her culture wherewith to
win her way. At Carthage in the 3rd century the educated classes seem
generally to have been familiar with Greek culture (Bernhardy,
_Grundriss d. griech. Lit._ § 77). The philosopher Clitomachus, who
presided over the Academy at Athens in the 2nd century, was a
Carthaginian. Even before Alexander, as we saw, Hellenism had affected
the peoples of Italy, but it was not till the Greeks of south Italy and
Sicily were brought under the supremacy of Rome in the 3rd century B.C.
that the stream of Greek influence entered Rome in any volume. It was
now that the Greek freedman, L. Livius Andronicus, laid the foundation
of a new Latin literature by his translation of the _Odyssey_, and that
the Greek dramas were recast in a Latin mould. The first Romans who set
about writing history wrote in Greek. At the end of the 3rd century
there was a circle of enthusiastic phil-hellenes among the Roman
aristocracy, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who in Rome's name
proclaimed the autonomy of the Greeks at the Isthmian games of 196. In
the middle of the 2nd century Roman Hellenism centred in the circle of
Scipio Aemilianus, which included men like Polybius and the philosopher
Panaetius. The visit of the three great philosophers, Diogenes the
"Babylonian," Critolaus and Carneades in 155, was an epoch-making event
in the history of Hellenism at Rome. Opposition there could not fail to
be, and in 161 a _senatus consultum_ ordered all Greek philosophers and
rhetoricians to leave the city. The effect of such measures was, of
course, transient. Even though the opposition found so doughty a
champion as the elder Cato (censor in 184), it was ultimately of no
avail. The Italians did not indeed surrender themselves passively to the
Greek tradition. In different departments of culture the degree of their
independence was different. The system of government framed by Rome was
an original creation. Even in the spheres of art and literature, the
Italians, while so largely guided by Greek canons, had something of
their own to contribute. The mere fact that they produced a literature
in Latin argues a power of creation as well as receptivity. The great
Latin poets were imitators indeed, but _mere_ imitators they were no
more than Petrarch or Milton. On the other hand, even where the creative
originality of Rome was most pronounced, as in the sphere of Law, there
were elements of Hellenic origin. It has been often pointed out how the
Stoic philosophy especially helped to shape Roman jurisprudence
(Schmekel, _Philos. d. mittl. Stoa_, p. 454 f.).
Whilst the upper classes in Italy absorbed Greek influences by their
education, by the literary and artistic tradition, the lower strata of
the population of Rome became largely hellenized by the actual influx on
a vast scale of Greeks and hellenized Asiatics, brought in for the most
part as slaves, and coalescing as freedmen with the citizen body. Of the
Jewish inscriptions found at Rome some two-thirds are in Greek. So too
the early Christian church in Rome, to which St Paul addressed his
epistle, was Greek-speaking, and continued to be till far into the 3rd
century.
The middle ages.
Islam.
III. LATER HISTORY.--It remains only to glance at the ultimate destinies
of Hellenism in West and East. In the Latin West knowledge of Greek,
first-hand acquaintance with the Greek classics, became rarer and rarer
as general culture declined, till in the dark ages (after the 5th
century) it existed practically nowhere but in Ireland (Sandys, _History
of Classical Scholarship_, i. 438). In Latin literature, however, a
great mass of Hellenistic tradition in a derived form was maintained in
currency, wherever, that is, culture of any kind continued to exist. It
was a small number of monkish communities whose care of those narrow
channels prevented their ever drying up altogether. Then the stream
began to rise again, first with the influx of the learning of the
Spanish Moors, then with the new knowledge of Greek brought from
Constantinople in the 14th century. With the Renaissance and the new
learning, Hellenism came in again in flood, to form a chief part of that
great river on which the modern world is being carried forward into a
future, of which one can only say that it must be utterly unlike
anything that has gone before. In the East it is popularly thought that
Hellenism, as an exotic, withered altogether away. This view is
superficial. During the dark ages, in the Byzantine East, as well as in
the West, Hellenism had become little more than a dried and shrivelled
tradition, although the closer study of Byzantine culture in latter
years has seemed to discover more vitality than was once supposed.
Ultimately the Greek East was absorbed by Islam; the popular mistake
lies in supposing that the Hellenistic tradition thereby came to an end.
The Mahommedan conquerors found a considerable part of it taken over,
as we saw, by the Syrian Christians, and Greek philosophical and
scientific classics were now translated from Syriac into Arabic. These
were the starting-points for the Mahommedan schools in these subjects.
Accordingly we find that Arabian philosophy (q.v.), mathematics,
geography, medicine and philology are all based professedly upon Greek
works (Brockelmann, _Gesch. d. arabischen Literatur_, 1898, vol. i.; R.
A. Nicholson, _A Literary History of the Arabs_, 1907, pp. 358-361).
Aristotle in the East no less than in the West was the "master of them
that know"; and Moslem physicians to this day invoke the names of
Hippocrates and Galen. The Hellenistic strain in Mahommedan civilization
has, it is true, flagged and failed, but only as that civilization as a
whole has declined. It was not that the Hellenistic element failed,
whilst the native elements in the civilization prospered; the culture of
Islam has, as a whole (from whatever causes), sunk ever lower during the
centuries that have witnessed the marvellous expansion of Europe.
AUTHORITIES.--For the inner history of Hellenism after Alexander, the
general historical literature dealing with later Greece and Rome
supplies material in various degrees. See works quoted in articles
GREECE, _History_; ROME, _History_; PTOLEMIES; SELEUCID DYNASTY;
BACTRIA, &c.
Different elements (literature, philosophy, art, &c.) are dealt with
in works dealing specially with these subjects, among which those of
Susemihl, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Erwin Rohde and E. Schwartz are of
especial importance for the literature; those of Schreiber and
Strzygowski for the later Greek art.
Sketches of Hellenistic civilization generally are found in J. P.
Mahaffy's _Greek Life and Thought_ (1887), _The Greek World under
Roman Sway_ (1890); _The Silver Age of the Greek World_ (1906); Julius
Kaerst, _Gesch. d. hellenist. Zeitalters_ (Band ii., publ. 1909); and
in Beloch's _Griechische Geschichte_, vol. iii. (for the century
immediately succeeding Alexander). R. von Scala's "The Greeks after
Alexander," in Helmolt's _History of the World_ (vol. v.), covers the
whole period from Alexander to the end of the Byzantine Empire. P.
Wendland's _Hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu
Judentum u. Christentum_ (1907) is an illuminating monograph, giving a
conspectus of the material. For Hellenistic Egypt, Bouché-Leclercq,
_Histoire des Lagides_, vol. iii. (1906). (E. R. B.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See, among recent writers, on one side Kaerst, _Gesch. des
hellenist. Zeitalters_, pp. 97 f., and on the other Beloch, _Griech.
Gesch._, iii. [i.] 1-9; Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Gesch. d.
griech. Sprache_, p. 283 f.; O. Hoffmann, _Die Makedonen, ihre
Sprache u. ihr Volkstum_ (1906).
[2] "Ce sont les Tadjik de l'Afghanistan qui constituent les
trente-deux corps de métier, qui tiennent boutique, expédient les
marchandises, représentent, en un mot, la vie industrielle et
commerciale de la nation. Ce sont aussi les Tadjik des villes qui
forment la classe lettrée, et qui ont empêché les Afghans de retomber
dans la barbarie." (Reclus, _Nouvelle Géograph. univ._ ix. p. 71.)
HELLER, STEPHEN (1815-1888), Austrian pianist and composer, was born at
Pest on the 15th of May 1815. (Fétis's dictionary says 1814, but this is
almost certainly wrong.) He was at first intended for a lawyer, but at
nine years of age performed so successfully at a concert that he was
sent to Vienna to study under Czerny. Halm was his principal master, and
from the age of twelve he gave concerts in Vienna, and made a tour
through Hungary, Poland and Germany. At Augsburg he had the good fortune
to be befriended when ill by a wealthy family, who practically adopted
him and gave him the opportunity to complete his musical education. In
1838 he went to Paris, and soon became intimate with Liszt, Chopin,
Berlioz and their set, among whom was Hallé, throughout his life an
indefatigable performer of Heller's music. In 1849 he came to England
and played a few times, and in 1862 he appeared with Hallé at the
Crystal Palace. He outlived the great reputation he had enjoyed among
cultivated amateurs for so many years, and was almost forgotten when he
died at Paris on the 14th of January 1888. His pianoforte pieces, almost
all of them published in sets and provided with fancy names, do not show
very startling originality, but their grace and refinement could not but
make them popular with players and listeners of all classes.
HELLESPONT (i.e. "Sea of Helle"; variously named in classical literature
[Greek: Hellêspontos], [Greek: ho Hellês pontos], _Hellespontum
Pelagus_, and _Fretum Hellesponticum_), the ancient name of the
Dardanelles (q.v.). It was so-called from Helle, the daughter of Athamas
(q.v.), who was drowned here. See ARGONAUTS.
HELLEVOETSLUIS, or HELVOETSLUIS, a fortified seaport in the province of
South Holland, the kingdom of Holland, on the south side of the island
of Voorne-and-Putten, on the sea-arm known as the Haringvliet, 5½ m. S.
of Brielle. It has daily steamboat connexion with Rotterdam by the
Voornsche canal. Pop. (1900), 4152. Hellevoetsluis is an important naval
station, and possesses a naval arsenal, dry and wet docks, wharves and a
naval college for engineers. Among the public buildings are the
communal chambers, a Reformed church (1661), a Roman Catholic church and
a synagogue.
HELLÍN, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Albacete, on
the Albacete-Murcia railway. Pop. (1900), 12,558. Hellín is built on the
outskirts of the low hills which line the left bank of the river Mundo.
It possesses the remains of an old Roman castle and a beautiful parish
church, the masonry and marble pavement at the entrance of which are
worthy of special notice. The surrounding country yields wine, oil and
saffron in abundance; within the town there are manufactures of coarse
cloth, leather and pottery. Sulphur is obtained from the celebrated
mining district of Minas del Mundo, 12 m. S., at the junction between
the Mundo and the Segura; and there are warm sulphurous springs in the
neighbouring village of Azaraque. Hellín was known to the Romans who
first exploited its sulphur as Illunum.
HELLO, ERNEST (1828-1885), French critic, was born at Tréguier. He was
the son of a lawyer who held posts of great importance at Rennes and in
Paris, and was well educated at both places, but took to no profession
and resided much, for a time, in his father's country-house in Brittany.
A very strong Roman Catholic, he appears to have been specially excited
by his countryman Renan's attitude to religious matters, and coming
under the influence of J. A. Barbey d'Aurevilly and Louis Veuillot, the
two most brilliant crusaders of the Church in the press, he started a
newspaper of his own, _Le Croisé_, in 1859; but it only lasted two
years. He wrote, however, much in other papers. He had very bad health,
suffering apparently from spinal or bone disease. But he was fortunate
enough to meet with a wife, Zoe Berthier, who, ten years older than
himself, and a friend for some years before their marriage, became his
devoted nurse, and even brought upon herself abuse from gutter
journalists of the time for the care with which she guarded him. He died
in 1885. Hello's work is somewhat varied in form but uniform in spirit.
His best-known book, _Physionomie de saints_ (1875), which has been
translated into English (1903) as _Studies in Saintship_, does not
display his qualities best. _Contes extraordinaires_, published not long
before his death, is better and more original. But the real Hello is to
be found in a series of philosophical and critical essays, from _Renan,
l'Allemagne et l'athéisme_ (1861), through _L'Homme_ (1871) and _Les
Plateaux de la balance_ (1880), perhaps his chief book, to the
posthumously published _Le Siècle_. The peculiarity of his standpoint
and the originality and vigour of his handling make his studies, of
Shakespeare, Hugo and others, of abiding importance as literary
"triangulations," results of object, subject and point of view.
HELMERS, JAN FREDERIK (1767-1813), Dutch poet, was born at Amsterdam on
the 7th of March 1767. His early poems, _Night_ (1788) and _Socrates_
(1790), were tame and sentimental, but after 1805 he determined, in
company with his brother-in-law, Cornelis Loots (1765-1834), to rouse
national feeling by a burst of patriotic poetry. His _Poems_ (2 vols.,
1809-1810), but especially his great work _The Dutch Nation_, a poem in
six cantos (1812), created great enthusiasm and enjoyed immense success.
Helmers died at Amsterdam on the 26th of February 1813. He owed his
success mainly to the integrity of his patriotism and the opportune
moment at which he sounded his counterblast to the French oppression.
His posthumous poems were collected in 1815.
HELMERSEN, GREGOR VON (1803-1885), Russian geologist, was born at
Laugut-Duckershof, near Dorpat, on the 29th of September (O.S.) 1803. He
received an engineering training and became major-general in the corps
of Mining Engineers. In 1837 he was appointed professor of geology in
the mining institute at St Petersburg. He was author of numerous memoirs
on the geology of Russia, especially on the coal and other mineral
deposits of the country; and he wrote also some explanations to
accompany separate sheets of the geological map of Russia. His
geological work was continued to an advanced age, one of the later
publications being _Studien über die Wanderblöcke und die
Diluvialgebilde Russlands_ (1869 and 1882). Most of his memoirs were
published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg. He died
at St Petersburg on the 3rd of February (O.S.) 1885.
HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. _helme_, mod. _heaume_;
the English word is "helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from
the Teutonic base _hal_-, pre-Teut. _kal_-, to cover; cf. Lat. _celare_,
to hide, Eng. "hell," &c.), a defensive covering for the head. The
present article deals with the helmet during the middle ages down to the
close of the period when body armour was worn. For the helmet worn by
the Greeks and Romans see ARMS AND ARMOUR.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Casque with Neck-guard.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Casque with Nasal and Mail Hood.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Heaume, early 13th century.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Heaume, 15th century.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Heaume, 15th century.]
The head-dress of the warriors of the dark ages and of the earlier
feudal period was far from being the elaborate helmet which is
associated in the imagination with the knight in armour and the tourney.
It was a mere casque, a cap with or without additional safeguards for
the ears, the nape of the neck and the nose (fig. 1). By those warriors
who possessed the means to equip themselves fully, the casque was worn
over a hood of mail, as shown in fig. 2. In manuscripts, &c., armoured
men are sometimes portrayed fighting in their hoods, without casques,
basinets or other form of helmet. The casque was, of course, normally of
plate, but in some instances it was a strong leather cap covered with
mail or imbricated plates. The most advanced form of this early helmet
is the conical steel or iron cap with nasal (fig. 2), worn in
conjunction with the hood of mail. This is the typical helmet of the
11th-century warrior, and is made familiar by the Bayeux Tapestry. From
this point however (c. 1100) the evolution of war head-gear follows two
different paths for many years. On the one hand the simple casque easily
transformed itself into the _basinet_, originally a pointed iron
skull-cap without nasal, ear-guards, &c. On the other hand the knight in
armour, especially after the fashion of the tournament set in, found the
mere cap with nasal insufficient, and the _heaume_ (or "helmet")
gradually came into vogue. This was in principle a large heavy iron pot
covering the head and neck. Often a light basinet was worn underneath
it--or rather the knight usually wore his basinet and only put the
heaume on over it at the last moment before engaging. The earlier (12th
century) war heaumes are intended to be worn with the mail hood and have
nasals (fig. 3). Towards the end of the 13th century, however, the
basinet grew in size and strength, just as the casque had grown, and
began to challenge comparison with the heavy and clumsy heaume.
Thereupon the heaume became, by degrees, the special head-dress of the
tournament, and grew heavier, larger and more elaborate, while the
basinet, reinforced with camail and vizor, was worn in battle. Types of
the later, purely tilting, heaume are shown in figs. 4 and 5.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Basinets.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Salades or Sallets.]
The basinet, then, is the battle head-dress of nobles, knights and
sergeants in the 14th century. Its development from the 10th-century cap
to the towering helmet of 1350, with its long snouted vizor and ample
drooping "camail," is shown in fig. 6, a, b, c and d, the two latter
showing the same helmet with vizor down and up. But the tendency set in
during the earlier years of the 15th century to make all parts of the
armour thicker. Chain "mail" gradually gave way to plate on the body and
the limbs, remaining only in those parts, such as neck and elbows, where
flexibility was essential, and even there it was in the end replaced by
jointed steel bands or small plates. The final step was the discarding of
the "camail" and the introduction of the "armet." The latter will be
described later. Soon after the beginning of the 15th century the
high-crowned basinet gave place to the _salade_ or _sallet_, a helmet
with a low rounded crown and a long brim or neck-guard at the back. This
was the typical headpiece of the last half of the Hundred Years' War as
the vizored basinet had been of the first. Like the basinet it was worn
in a simple form by archers and pikemen and in a more elaborate form by
the knights and men-at-arms. The larger and heavier salades were also
often used instead of the heaume in tournaments. Here again, however,
there is a great difference between those worn by light armed men,
foot-soldiers and archers and those of the heavy cavalry. The former,
while possessing as a rule the bowl shape and the lip or brim of the
type, and always destitute of the conical point which is the
distinguishing mark of the basinet, are cut away in front of the face
(fig. 7 a). In some cases this was remedied in part by the addition of a
small pivoted vizor, which, however, could not protect the throat. In the
larger salades of the heavy cavalry the wide brim served to protect the
whole head, a slit being made in that part of the brim which came in
front of the eyes (in some examples the whole of the front part of the
brim was made movable). But the chin and neck, directly opposed to the
enemy's blows, were scarcely protected at all, and with these helmets a
large volant-piece or beaver (_mentonnière_)--usually a continuation of
the body armour up to the chin or even beyond--was worn for this purpose,
as shown in fig. 7 b. This arrangement combined, in a rough way, the
advantages of freedom of movement for the head with adequate protection
for the neck and lower part of the face. The _armet_, which came into use
about 1475-1500 and completely superseded the salade, realized these
requirements far better, and later at the zenith of the armourer's art
(about 1520) and throughout the period of the decline of armour it
remained the standard pattern of helmet, whether for war or for
tournament. It figures indeed in nearly all portraits of kings, nobles
and soldiers up to the time of Frederick the Great, either with the suit
of armour or half-armour worn by the subject of the portrait or in
allegorical trophies, &c. The armet was a fairly close-fitting rounded
shell of iron or steel, with a movable vizor in front and complete
plating over chin, ears and neck, the latter replacing the mentonnière or
beaver. The armet was connected to the rest of the suit by the gorget,
which was usually of thin laminated steel plates. With a good armet and
gorget there was no weak point for the enemy's sword to attack, a roped
lower edge of the armet generally fitting into a sort of flange round the
top of the gorget. Thus, and in other and slightly different ways, was
solved the problem which in the early days of plate armour had been
attempted by the clumsy heaume and the flexible, if tough, camail of the
vizored basinet, and still more clumsily in the succeeding period by the
salade and its grotesque mentonnière. As far as existing examples show,
the wide-brimmed salade itself first gave way to the more rounded armet,
the mentonnière being carried up to the level of the eyes. Then the use
(growing throughout the 15th century) of laminated armour for the joints
of the harness probably suggested the gorget, and once this was applied
to the lower edge of the armet by a satisfactory joint, it was an easy
step to the elaborate pivoted vizor which completed the new head-dress.
Types of armets are shown in fig. 8.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Armets.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Burgonets.]
The _burgonet_, often confused with the armet, is the typical helmet of
the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In its simple form it was worn
by the foot and light cavalry--though the latter must not be held to
include the pistol-armed _chevaux-légers_ of the wars of religion, these
being clad in half-armour and vizored burgonet--and consisted of a
(generally rounded) cap with a projecting brim shielding the eyes, a
neck-guard and earpieces. It had almost invariably a crest or comb, as
shown in the illustrations (fig. 9). Other forms of infantry head-gear
much in vogue during the 16th century are shown in figs. 10 and 11,
which represent the _morion_ and _cabasset_ respectively. Both these
were lighter and smaller than the burgonet; indeed much of their
popularity was due to the ease with which they were worn or put on and
off, for in the matter of protection they could not compare with the
burgonet, which in one form or another was used by cavalry (and often by
pikemen) up to the final disappearance of armour from the field of
battle about 1670. Fig. 9 b gives the general outline of richly
decorated 16th-century Italian burgonet which is preserved in Vienna.
The archetype of the burgonet is perhaps the casque worn by the Swiss
infantry (fig. 9 a) at the epoch of Marignan (1515). This was probably
copied by them from their former Burgundian antagonists, whose connexion
with this helmet is sufficiently indicated by its name. The lower part
of the more elaborate burgonets worn by nobles and cavalrymen is often
formed into a complete covering for the ears, cheek and chin, and
connected closely with the gorget. They therefore resemble the armets
and have often been confused with them, but the distinguishing feature
of the burgonet is invariably the front peak. Various forms of vizor
were fitted to such helmets; these as a rule were either fixed bars
(fig. 9 c) or mere upward continuations of the chin piece. Often a nasal
was the only face protection (fig. 9 d, a Hungarian type). The latest
form of the burgonet used in active service is the familiar Cromwellian
cavalry helmet with its straight brim, from which depends the slight
vizor of three bars or stout wires joined together at the bottom.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Morion.]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Cabasset.]
The above are of course only the main types. Some writers class all
remaining examples either as casques or as "war-hats," the latter term
conveniently covering all those helmets which resemble in any way the
head-gear of civil life. For illustrations of many curiosities of this
sort, including the famous iron hat of King Charles I. of England, and
also for examples of Russian, Mongolian, Indian and Chinese helmets, the
reader is referred to pp. 262-269 and 285-286 of Demmin's _Arms and
Armour_ (English edition 1894). The helmets in brass, steel or cloth,
worn by troops since the general introduction of uniforms and the disuse
of armour, depend for their shape and material solely on considerations
of comfort and good appearance. From time to time, however, the
readoption of serviceable helmets is advocated by cavalrymen, and there
is much to be said in favour of this. The burgonet, which was the final
type of war helmet evolved by the old armourers, would certainly appear
to be by far the best head-gear to adopt should these views prevail, and
indeed it is still worn, in a modified yet perfectly recognizable form,
by the German and other cuirassiers.
HELMHOLTZ, HERMANN LUDWIG FERDINAND VON (1821-1894), German philosopher
and man of science, was born on the 31st of August 1821 at Potsdam, near
Berlin. His father, Ferdinand, was a teacher of philology and philosophy
in the gymnasium, while his mother was a Hanoverian lady, a lineal
descendant of the great Quaker William Penn. Delicate in early life,
Helmholtz became by habit a student, and his father at the same time
directed his thoughts to natural phenomena. He soon showed mathematical
powers, but these were not fostered by the careful training
mathematicians usually receive, and it may be said that in after years
his attention was directed to the higher mathematics mainly by force of
circumstances. As his parents were poor, and could not afford to allow
him to follow a purely scientific career, he became a surgeon of the
Prussian army. In 1842 he wrote a thesis in which he announced the
discovery of nerve-cells in ganglia. This was his first work, and from
1842 to 1894, the year of his death, scarcely a year passed without
several important, and in some cases epoch-making, papers on scientific
subjects coming from his pen. He lived in Berlin from 1842 to 1849, when
he became professor of physiology in Königsberg. There he remained from
1849 to 1855, when he removed to the chair of physiology in Bonn. In
1858 he became professor of physiology in Heidelberg, and in 1871 he was
called to occupy the chair of physics in Berlin. To this professorship
was added in 1887 the post of director of the physico-technical
institute at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, and he held the two positions
together until his death on the 8th of September 1894.
His investigations occupied almost the whole field of science, including
physiology, physiological optics, physiological acoustics, chemistry,
mathematics, electricity and magnetism, meteorology and theoretical
mechanics. At an early age he contributed to our knowledge of the causes
of putrefaction and fermentation. In physiological science he
investigated quantitatively the phenomena of animal heat, and he was one
of the earliest in the field of animal electricity. He studied the
nature of muscular contraction, causing a muscle to record its movements
on a smoked glass plate, and he worked out the problem of the velocity
of the nervous impulse both in the motor nerves of the frog and in the
sensory nerves of man. In 1847 Helmholtz read to the Physical Society of
Berlin a famous paper, _Über die Erhaltung der Kraft_ (on the
conservation of force), which became one of the epoch-making papers of
the century; indeed, along with J. R. Mayer, J. P. Joule and W. Thomson
(Lord Kelvin), he may be regarded as one of the founders of the now
universally received law of the conservation of energy. The year 1851,
while he was lecturing on physiology at Königsberg, saw the brilliant
invention of the ophthalmoscope, an instrument which has been of
inestimable value to medicine. It arose from an attempt to demonstrate
to his class the nature of the glow of reflected light sometimes seen in
the eyes of animals such as the cat. When the great ophthalmologist, A.
von Gräfe, first saw the fundus of the living human eye, with its optic
disc and blood-vessels, his face flushed with excitement, and he cried,
"Helmholtz has unfolded to us a new world!" Helmholtz's contributions to
physiological optics are of great importance. He investigated the
optical constants of the eye, measured by his invention, the
ophthalmometer, the radii of curvature of the crystalline lens for near
and far vision, explained the mechanism of accommodation by which the
eye can focus within certain limits, discussed the phenomena of colour
vision, and gave a luminous account of the movements of the eyeballs so
as to secure single vision with two eyes. In particular he revived and
gave new force to the theory of colour-vision associated with the name
of Thomas Young, showing the three primary colours to be red, green and
violet, and he applied the theory to the explanation of
colour-blindness. His great work on _Physiological Optics_ (1856-1866)
is by far the most important book that has appeared on the physiology
and physics of vision. Equally distinguished were his labours in
physiological acoustics. He explained accurately the mechanism of the
bones of the ear, and he discussed the physiological action of the
cochlea on the principles of sympathetic vibration. Perhaps his greatest
contribution, however, was his attempt to account for our perception of
quality of tone. He showed, both by analysis and by synthesis, that
quality depends on the order, number and intensity of the overtones or
harmonics that may, and usually do, enter into the structure of a
musical tone. He also developed the theory of differential and of
summational tones. His work on _Sensations of Tone_ (1862) may well be
termed the _principia_ of physiological acoustics. He may also be said
to be the founder of the fixed-pitch theory of vowel tones, according to
which it is asserted that the pitch of a vowel depends on the resonance
of the mouth, according to the form of the cavity while singing it, and
this independently of the pitch of the note on which the vowel is sung.
For the later years of his life his labours may be summed up under the
following heads: (1) On the conservation of energy; (2) on
hydro-dynamics; (3) on electro-dynamics and theories of electricity; (4)
on meteorological physics; (5) on optics; and (6) on the abstract
principles of dynamics. In all these fields of labour he made important
contributions to science, and showed himself to be equally great as a
mathematician and a physicist. He studied the phenomena of electrical
oscillations from 1869 to 1871, and in the latter year he announced that
the velocity of the propagation of electromagnetic induction was about
314,000 metres per second. Faraday had shown that the passage of
electrical action involved time, and he also asserted that electrical
phenomena are brought about by changes in intervening non-conductors or
dielectric substances. This led Clerk Maxwell to frame his theory of
electro-dynamics, in which electrical impulses were assumed to be
transmitted through the ether by waves. G. F. Fitzgerald was the first
to attempt to measure the length of electric waves; Helmholtz put the
problem into the hands of his favourite pupil, Heinrich Hertz, and the
latter finally gave an experimental demonstration of electromagnetic
waves, the "Hertzian waves," on which wireless telegraphy depends, and
the velocity of which is the same as that of light. The last
investigations of Helmholtz related to problems in theoretical
mechanics, more especially as to the relations of matter to the ether,
and as to the distribution of energy in mechanical systems. In
particular he explained the principle of least action, first advanced by
P. L. M. de Maupertuis, and developed by Sir W. R. Hamilton, of
quaternion fame. Helmholtz also wrote on philosophical and aesthetic
problems. His position was that of an empiricist, denying the doctrine
of innate ideas and holding that all knowledge is founded on experience,
hereditarily transmitted or acquired.
The life of Helmholtz was uneventful in the usual sense. He was twice
married, first, in 1849, to Olga von Velten (by whom he had two
children, a son and daughter), and secondly, in 1861, to Anna von Mohl,
of a Würtemberg family of high social position. Two children were born
of this marriage, a son, Robert, who died in 1889, after showing in
experimental physics indications of his father's genius, and a daughter,
who married a son of Werner von Siemens. Helmholtz was a man of simple
but refined tastes, of noble carriage and somewhat austere manner. His
life from first to last was one of devotion to science, and he must be
accounted, on intellectual grounds, one of the foremost men of the 19th
century.
See L. Königsberger, _Hermann von Helmholtz_ (1902; English
translation by F. A. Welby, Oxford, 1906); J. G. McKendrick, _H. L. F.
von Helmholtz_ (1899). (J. G. M.)
HELMOLD, an historian of the 12th century, was a priest at Bosau near
Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg, Vicelin (d. 1154)
and Gerold (d. 1163), who did much to Christianize the Slavs. At Bishop
Gerold's instigation Helmold wrote his _Chronica Slavorum_, a history of
the conquest and conversion of the Slavonic countries from the time of
Charlemagne. For the life and times of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony,
Helmold's chronicle, as that of a contemporary who had exceptional means
for gaining information, is of first-rate importance. The history was
continued down to 1209 by Abbot Arnold of Lübeck.
The _Chronica_ were first edited by Siegmund Schorkel (Frankfort a.
M., 1556). The best edition is by J. M. Lappenberg in _Mon. Germ.
hist. scriptores_, xxi. (1869). For critical works on the _Chronica_
see A. Potthast, _Bibliotheca hist. med. aevi_, s. "Helmoldus."
HELMOND, a town in the province of North Brabant, Holland, on the small
river Aa, and on the canal (Zuid-Willems Vaart) between 's Hertogenbosch
and Maastricht, 24½ m. by rail W.N.W. of Venlo. It is connected by steam
tramway with 's Hertogenbosch (21 m. N.W.), a branch line northwards to
Osch being given off at Veghel. Pop. (1900) 11,465. The castle of
Helmond, built in 1402, is a beautiful specimen of architecture, and
among the other buildings of note in the town are the spacious church of
St Lambert, the Reformed church and the town hall. Helmond is one of the
industrial centres of the province, and possesses over a score of
factories for cotton and silk weaving, cotton printing, dyeing, iron
founding, brewing, soap boiling and tobacco dressing, as well as engine
works and a margarine factory. There is an art school in the
town.
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