tions led him to adopt in an imperfect form the undulatory theory of light, to anticipate the doctrine of interference, and to observe, independently of though subsequently to Grimaldi, the phenomenon of diffraction. He was the first to state clearly that the motions of the heavenly bodies must be regarded as a mechanical problem, and he approached in a remarkable manner the discovery of universal gravita tion. He suggested a method of meteorological forecasting and a system of telescopic signalling, anticipated Chladni s experiment of strewing a vibrating bell with flour, investi gated the nature of sounds and the function of" the air in respiration and combustion, and originated the idea of using the pendulum as a measure of gravity.
His principal writings are MicrograjjJiia, 1664 ; Lcctioncs Cutler i- anic, 1674-79 ; and Posthumous J^orfcs, containing a sketch of liis " Philosophical Algebra," published by Waller in 1705.
HOOKER, Joseph (1814–1879), American general, was born in Old Hadley, Massachusetts, November 13, 1814. He was educated at the Military Academy at West Point, 1833-37, and immediately commissioned second lieutenant in the 1st Artillery. In the war with Mexico (1846-48) he served as aide-de-camp and assistant adjutant-general, and was breveted captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel, and commissioned captain, for meritorious services in the engagements at Monterey, National Bridge, and Chapultepec. He was transferred with his regiment to California in 1849. In 1853 he resigned his commission and bought a large farm near Sonoma, which he managed successfully till 1858, when he was made superintendent of military roads in Oregon. Upon the opening of hostilities in the civil war of 1861-65, he sacrificed his fine estate and offered his sword to the Federal Government. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, May 17, 1801, and major-general May 5, 1863. At Williamsburg, May 5th, he attacked a strong Confederate position, and for nine hours maintained the fight, inflicting and sustaining heavy loss, and winning the title of " Fighting Joe." Tie was engaged at Fair Oaks, June 1st, and at Malvern Hill, July 1st, and did signal service at Charles City Cross Roads, June 29th, when his division aided in holding a vital position on the flank of the Union Army, in its noted " change of base." In the campaign of Northern Virginia, under General Pope, August 27 to September 1, 1862, he led his division in the actions at Bristoe Station, Manassas, and Chantilly. In the Maryland campaign, September 6-17 (under General M Clellan), hs commanded the first corps, and gallantly carried the north pass of South Mount, opening the way for the advance of the army. He opened the battle of Antietam on the 14th, and on the following morning was pitted against "Stonewall" Jackson, at the noted "corn field," where he used his artillery with terrible effect, but received a painful wound, and was borne from the field. He was commissioned brigadier-general in the United States army September 20, 1862, and in the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, under Burnside, he commanded the centre grand division (3d and 5th corps). He commanded the army of the Potomac January 26th to June 28th, 1863, and, having by a fine strategic movement thrown his army across a turbulent stream in face of the foe, fought a severe battle at Chancellorsville, where he was seriously injured ; and, his army being thrown into an unfavourable position by the unexpected giving way of his right wing, he decided to retire. He was relieved at his own request, on the 28th of June, with the thanks of Congress "for skill, energy, and endurance " in the beginning of the Gettysburg cam paign. He commanded the 20th corps (llth and 12th corps consolidated) in the Atlanta campaign, winning special distinction in the night battle of Wauhatchie, and at Lookout Mountain, "the battle above the clouds." For a hundred days, and until the capture of Atlanta, the noise of battle scarcely ceased, his corps doing signal service at Mill Creek, Resaca, New Hope Church, Pine Mount, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege of Atlanta. He was com missioned brevet-major-general in the United States army, March 13, 1865, and retired from active service at his own request, October 15, 1868. The last years of his life were passed in the neighbourhood of New York. He died at Garden City, Long Island, October 31, 1879.
HOOKER,
Richard (
1553–1600), author of the Lairs of Ecclesiastical Polity, was born at Heavitree, near the city of Exeter, about the end of
1553 or beginning of
1554. At school, not only his facility in mastering his tasks, but his intellectual inquisitiveness and his fine moral qualities, attracted the special notice of his teacher, who strongly recommended his parents to educate him for the church. Though well connected, they were, however, somewhat straitened in their worldly circumstances, and Hooker was indebted for admission to the university to his uncle, John Hooker, chamberlain of Exeter, and in his day a man of some literary repute, who, besides giving him an annual pension, induced Bishop Jewel to become his patron and to bestow on him a clerk s place in Corpus College, Oxford. To this Hooker was admitted in
1567. Bishop Jewel died in September
1571, but Dr Cole, presi dent of the college, from the strong interest he felt in the young man, on account at once of his character and his abilities, spontaneously offered to take the bishop s place as his patron ; and shortly afterwards Hooker, by his own labours as a tutor, became independent of gratuitous aid. Two of his pupils, and these his favourite ones, were Edwin Sandys, afterwards author of Europce Speculum, and George Cranmer, grand-nephew of the archbishop. Hooker s reputation as a tutor soon became very high, for he had employed his five years at the university to such good purpose as not only to have acquired great proficiency in the learned languages, but to have joined to this a wide and varied culture which had delivered him from the bondage of learned pedantry ; in addition to which he is said to have possessed a remarkable talent for communicat ing knowledge in a clear and interesting manner, and to have exercised a special influence over his pupils intellec tual and moral tendencies. In December
1573 he was elected to a foundation in his college ; in Juty
1577 he proceeded M.A., and in September of the
same year he was admitted a fellow. In
1579 he was appointed by the chancellor of the university to read the public Hebrew lecture, a duty which he continued to discharge till he left Oxford. Not long after his admission into holy orders, about
1581, he was appointed to preach at St Paul s Cross ; and, according to Walton, he was so kindly entertained by Mrs Church man, who kept the Shunamite s house where the preachers were boarded, that he permitted her to choose him a wife, " promising upon a fair summons to return to London and accept of her choice." The lady selected by her was " her daughter Joan," who, says the same authority, " found him neither beauty nor portion ; and for her conditions they were too like that wife s which is by Solomon compared to a dripping house." It is probable that Walton has exag- gerated the simplicity and passiveness of Hooker in the matter, but though, as Keble observes with justice, his writings betray uncommon shrewdness and quickness of observation, as well as a vein of keenest humour, it would appear that either g.ratitude or some other impulse had on this occasion led his judgment astray. After his marriage he was about the end of
1584 presented to the living of Drayton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire. In the
following year he received a visit from his two pupils Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer, who found him with the Odes of Horacs in his hand, tending the sheep while the
