Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/897

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HEB
849
HED

already mentioned, the public are now in possession of several volumes of his sermons, and of his Indian journal. The excellent Life of him by his widow was given to the world in 1830. The Last Days of Heber, a small but most interesting volume, by Thomas Robinson, chaplain to the bishop, contains much information respecting Heber's labours in India.—R. M., A.

HEBER, Richard, an eminent bibliomaniac, elder half-brother of the preceding, was born at Westminster on the 5th of January, 1773. Educated privately, he proceeded to Brasennose college, Oxford, where he began the accumulation of a library, chiefly classical. At nineteen he published an edition of Silius Italicus and printed one of Claudian. He began his career, in the heyday of the school for the illustration of Shakspeare, by the study of even the obscurest contemporaries of the great poet; and in the society of such men as Stevens and Malone, he became a collector of the works of our old dramatists and poets. From this to bibliomania there was but a step, and Heber became the facile princeps of bibliomaniacs; the death of his father in 1804 leaving him heir to considerable estates, and allowing him ample means for the indulgence of his favourite tastes. He was through life in constant communication with all the old booksellers of the United Kingdom; and on hearing of the attainability of a rare or curious book, has been known "to put himself into the mail-coach and travel three, four, or five hundred miles to obtain it, fearful to intrust the commission to a letter." He travelled extensively on the continent in pursuit of such treasures; and when he died he left full of books, his residence at Pimlico, a house in York Street, and extensive libraries at Oxford, Paris, Antwerp, Brussels, and Ghent. Sir Walter Scott has immortalized him in the introduction to the sixth canto of Marmion; and it was Heber who unearthed John Leyden in Archibald Constable's old book shop and introduced him to Scott. Heber silently represented Oxford university in the house of commons during the years 1821-25. He died at Pimlico on the 4th of October, 1833.—F. E.

HEBERDEN, William, an eminent physician and medical writer, born in London in the year 1710, was sent at an early age to St. John's college, Cambridge, and became M.D. in 1739. He remained at Cambridge about ten years longer as a practitioner of physic. In 1746 he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians; and two years afterwards he left Cambridge and established himself in London, where he was employed in a very extensive medical practice during more than thirty years. He died on the 17th of May, 1801. Dr. Heberden was the author of several papers communicated to the Royal Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1769. He was also the projector of the Medical Transactions, and contributed to the first three volumes. But far the most important production of his pen is a work which appeared in 1802 under the title "Commentarii de Morborum Historia et Curatione." Two editions of this admirable work were published in Germany. Dr. Heberden was a man of deep religious convictions, and paid £200 to the widow of Dr. Conyers Middleton for a sceptical treatise left in manuscript by her husband, in order to destroy it.—His son, Dr. William Heberden, was likewise the author of a valuable work "On the Increase and Decrease of different Diseases," London, 1801.—G. BL.

HEBERT. See Herbert.

HÉBERT, Jacques René, was born at Alençon, of obscure parents, in 1755. Coming to Paris, he lost two situations by his embezzlements, and he was living in the most abject poverty when the Revolution broke out. He then became editor of Le Père Duchesne, which Mr. Carlyle calls the "brutallest newspaper yet published on earth." In 1792 he was made substitute to the procureur-syndic, Chaumette; and when a moderate majority in the convention had him arrested in May, 1793, the people rose and released him. During the trial of Marie Antoinette, he brought a charge against her too revolting to be here repeated—a charge which she spurned with touching dignity, and which made Robespierre himself lose all patience with Hebert's brutality. On the 13th March, 1794, Saint-Just denounced him from the tribune; he was arrested that very night, and guillotined on the 22nd. He died like a coward. He was married but a year, and his widow was executed on the same day as the widow of Camille Desmoulins.—W. J. P.

HECKEWELDER, John, distinguished as a Moravian missionary to the American Indians, was born in England, of a German family, in 1743. Proceeding to America as a preacher, he lived and laboured for about forty years amongst the Indians of Pennsylvania, and made himself a perfect master of their various dialects. After many romantic adventures he established himself at Bethlehem, and thence communicated to the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania the results of his observation and research. His work, which is exceedingly interesting, was published at Philadelphia in 1819 as part of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. He endeavoured to prove that all the Indian languages, despite apparent differences, spring from a single stock, and that stock analogous to none known upon the older continents. During the War of Independence he was protected from all violence by his Indian disciples. His blameless and useful life terminated in 1826.—W. J. P.

HECQUET, Philippe, a French physician, born at Abbeville in 1661. He finished his philosophical course at Paris, and afterwards studied for the church, but at last he embraced the medical profession. In 1688 he succeeded Hamon as physician to the brotherhood of Port-Royal; and taking his predecessor as his model, he lived the life of an ascetic, and daily visited the sick within a circuit of four or five leagues, always travelling on foot. His strength failing, he returned to Paris, where he was appointed about 1697 to lecture on the Materia Medica. In 1726, being physician to the Carmelites of Rue Saint Jacques, he chose a small lodging in their outer court, where he passed the last ten years of his life devoted to penance and study, and liberally dispensing pecuniary assistance and medical advice to the poor who came to him for relief. His death, which was in strict harmony with his life, occurred on the 11th April, 1737. One of Hecquet's first works was a "Treatise on Bleeding," which was vigorously attacked by Andri. The work of Hecquet best known was his "Medicine, Surgery, and Pharmacy for the Poor," which was long very popular.—G. BL.

HEDELIN. See Aubignac.

HEDERICH, Benjamin, a German humanist, was born at Geithayn, Saxony, 12th December, 1675, and died at Grossenhayn, July 18, 1748. He is the author of the celebrated "Lexicon Manuale Græcum," which has often been reprinted and edited, both in Germany, by Ernesti, Wendell, and Pinzger; and in England, by Sam. Patrick, 1727, by Morell, 1778, and Taylor, 1803. He published also a Lexicon Manuale Latino-Germanicum, a Mythological Lexicon, and some other valuable dictionaries.—K. E.

HEDIO, Caspar, a German reformer, was born in 1494 at Ettlingen in Baden, and studied at the universities of Freiburg and Basle. He succeeded Capito in the service of the archbishop of Mainz, and was for some time his court preacher and spiritual vicar. He espoused the doctrines of Luther, but found it impossible to obtain any recognition of them at the court of the ecclesiastical elector. He removed in consequence to Strasburg, where in 1529 he was appointed preacher in the cathedral and professor of theology, and became closely associated with Capito and Bucer in carrying on the work of the Reformation in the south of Germany. When the Interim was forced upon Strasburg by Charles V. he manifested great decision, and preferred to resign his position rather than comply with principles and practices which he disapproved. He died 17th October, 1552.—P. L.

HEDLINGER, Jean Charles, a celebrated Swiss medallist, was born at Schwytz, the capital of the canton of the same name, March 28, 1691. While yet a boy he devoted all his thoughts to medal engraving. Without any knowledge of the processes he began to engrave; he forged his own tools as he felt need arise for them; and he produced engravings which, however deficient in technical qualities, foreshadowed the eminence he ultimately attained. He was placed under G. Crauer, the director of the mint of Vallais, where his progress was so rapid that he was soon commissioned to engrave the dies for the coins of the republics of Montbeliard and Porentrui. Eagerness to excel now led him to enter the studio of Saint-Urbain at Nancy, and to accompany that master in 1717 to Rome. At Rome he diligently occupied himself in studying the antique. At the invitation of Charles XII. he went to Stockholm, and was appointed director of the Mint. For many years Hedlinger continued to hold this post, and the coins and royal medals designed by him have never been approached by those of any other period in the history of Sweden. He was also much employed in preparing medals for great state occasions for the kings of Denmark. In 1726-28 he went to Rome and there engraved a medal for