earth is rapidly drawn across the whole vault of heaven. One more departing day is added to the countless series which has silently witnessed the death-like change that passes over the eternal snows as they are left raising their cold pale fronts against the now leaden sky ; till slowly with the deepening night the world of mountains rises again, as it were to a new life, under the changed light of the thousand stars which stud the firmament and shine with a brilliancy unknown except in the clear rarefied air
of these sublime heights
HIMERA, a city on the north coast of Sicily. It was founded in 648 b.c. by the Chalcidian inhabitants of Zancle, but with them were many Syracusan exiles who gave to the language of the city a Doric character. Early in the 5th century the tyrant Terillus, being expelled by Theron of Agrigentum, invoked the aid of the Carthaginians. They gladly availed themselves of the pretext, but their general Hamilcar was defeated at Himera by the Greeks under Gelon of Syracuse (480 b.c.). Thrasydaeus, son of Theron, brought a large body of Doric immigrants to the city in 476; but was not long after expelled by Hiero. It seems to have enjoyed great prosperity during the rest of the 5th century. In 415 it refused to admit the Athenian fleet, and was a zealous ally of Syracuse. In 408 the Carthaginians sent another great army under Hannibal, grandson of Hamilcar, who razed the city to the ground. A new city called Thermae Himerenses was founded in 407 close to the former site. This name was derived from the famous hot springs, in which Hercules was said to have bathed. The new city was in Carthaginian hands till it was annexed by the Romans in the Second Punic War. It was treated with peculiar favour by them, and was left a free city under its own laws. In the time of Cicero it was a flourishing town, though not very large. Under Augustus it became a " colonia." We hear little of it from that time, though the site was never deserted, and the town still exists under the name of Termini. Ergotetes, an Olympian victor celebrated by Pindar (01. xii.), was a citizen of Himera. Stesichorus the poet was a native of the city ; and his statue was preserved at Thermae in the time of Cicero. Agathocles also was a native of Thermae.
HIMMEL, Frederick Henry (1765–1814), a German composer of mark, was born November 20, 1765, at Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg, Prussia, and originally studied theology at Halle. During a temporary stay at Potsdam he had an opportunity of showing his self-acquired skill as a pianist before King Frederick William II., who thereupon made him a yearly allowance in order to enable him to complete his musical studies. This he did under Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, and the style of that school Himmel himself adopted in his serious operas. The first of these, a pastoral opera Primo Navigatore, was produced at Venice in 1794 with great success. After his return to Berlin in 1795 Himmel became court chapel master to the king of Prussia, and in that capacity wrote a great deal of official music, such as cantatas, a coronation Te Deum, and the like, now justly forgotten. The same fate is shared by his Italian operas, successively composed for Stockholm, St Petersburg, and Berlin, and all received with great applause in their day. Infinitely more important than these is an operetta to German words called Fanchon, the popularity of which has seldom bsen surpassed. Although antiquated it still re mains an admirable specimen of the primitive form of the musical drama known in Germany as the "Singspiel." Himmel s gift of writing genuine simple melody, to which the operetta owed its success, is also observable in his songs, amongst which one called " To Alexis " is the best. It may be found in the first volume of the Musical Library. Himmel died at Berlin, June 8, 1814.
HINCKLEY, a market-town of England, county of Leicester, is situated 13 miles S. W. of Leicester, on a branch line between that town and Nuneaton, which connects the London and North-Western and the Midland railways. The principal buildings are the church of St Mary, a Gothic structure lately restored, with tower and spire 120 feet high ; the town-hall ; the priestshouse and Roman Catholic academy named St Peter s Priory ; and the union poorhouse, erected in 1838, with accommodation for 400 inmates. There are a grammar school, a national school, and board schools. Hinckley is the centre of the stocking- weaving district, and its speciality is circular hose. It also possesses breweries, brick and tile works, and lime works. There are several mineral springs in the neighbourhood, and at one of these baths have been erected. The population in 1871 was 6902.
Hinckley was created a barony soon after the Conquest, when it was held by Hugh de Grentismenil, who erected a castle, the ditch of which is still traceable, and also founded a priory of Benedictine monks. Originally the town had the privileges of a borough, but these were annulled by Edward IV. Mention is made of "Hinckley Fair" in the second part oflfcnry IV., act v. sc. 1.
845 to 882, a prominent figure in most of the theological and ecclesiastical struggles of his day, and perhaps the most vigorous and influential prelate France has ever produced, belonged to a noble West Frankish family, and was born about the year 806. Other forms of the name are Ingumar, Ingmar, and Igmar. His early education was received at the abbey of St Denis under Hilduin (the author of Areojmgiticci), whom he followed to Corvey, Westphalia, when banished by Louis the Pious in 830 for having joined the party of Lothair. Returning about two years afterwards along with his superior to St Denis, of which he had become a canon, he resided partly there and partly at court, where he rapidly rose high in the royal favour. He was with Louis at the " Field of Falsehood " (Campus mendacii) in Alsace, and was one of the few- who remained faithful when the majority of the prelates and nobles went over to the other side. After the death of Louis (840), he equally gained the confidence of Charles the Bald, through whose influence, after he had successively held the abbacies of St Mary s, of Compiegne, and of St Germer, he was in 845 elected to succeed the deposed Ebbo or Ebo in the archiepiscopal see of Rheims. Having exacted from Charles a full restitution of all the church property which had belonged to the diocese, and a further promise that it should never again be alienated, he at once entered on the duties of his office, and took a leading part in the council of Meaux (C. Meldense), the reforming decrees of which so strongly roused the opposition of the king. Some attempt having been made to revive the claims of Ebo, Hincmar s title to the archbishopric was confirmed by a synod of French bishops at Paris, and ultimately settled by Leo IV. s transmission of the pallium in 847. Apart from the ordi nary affairs of his diocese, which included the completion and adornment of the cathedral begun by his predecessor, he now became deeply involved in the discussions which arose out of the predestinarianism of Gottschalk (see Gottschalk), whom Hrabanus Maurus at the synod of Mainz (848) had caused to be relegated to Hincmar as his metropolitan. At a synod held at Quierzy on the Oise (Carisiacum), in the diocese of Soissons, in 849, Hincmar
had united with Wenilo of Sens and other prelates in condemning the refractory monk to degradation, scourging,
