as a Romish priest, but continued his labours as a teacher. His first work appeared in 1805, "On the Truth of Christianity." In 1807 he was made professor of dogmatic theology at Münster. Believing the doctrines of Kant and Fichte to be irreconcilable with christianity, he wrote a "Philosophical Introduction to Catholic Theology," Münster, 1819 and 1831. He also published an "Outline of Theological Studies," and "Christian Catholic Dogmatics," which came out after his death. In 1819 Hermes became theological professor at Bonn, where he remained till his death in 1831. The "Introduction" was his great work. A fierce controversy arose out of its publication, but Hermes was well supported, and maintained his ground. A papal rescript against his writings, by Gregory XVI., appeared in 1835. Pius IX., in 1847, issued a document in which, with some modifications, he confirmed the decision of Gregory.—B. H. C.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, a supposed Egyptian philosopher, legislator, priest, &c., who is variously referred to from one thousand five hundred to two thousand years before Christ. Hermes is the Greek name for the Latin Mercury and the Egyptian Thoth, and is most probably the fictitious name of the inventor of all arts and sciences. Cicero, in his De Natura Deorum, says, after naming other Mercuries, "The fifth is he whom the inhabitants of Pheneus worship, who is said to have slain Argus, and therefore to have been set over Egypt, and to have conferred upon the Egyptians laws and letters. Him the Egyptians call Thoth; and the first month of the year is among them designated by the same name." Lactantius quotes these words where he says that Mercury fled into Egypt because he murdered Argus; that he was the founder of Hermopolis, and, for his great knowledge of arts and sciences, called Trismegistus, or thrice-great. He adds that Hermes wrote many books, not a few of which are on divination; in which he affirms the majesty of the supreme and only God, whom he calls by the same names as we—God, and Father. Under various names Hermes is much referred to in ancient writers. It seems extremely probable that there was a historical Hermes who laid the basis for the mythological and traditional character, to whom all arts and sciences by unknown persons, and all learned books by unknown authors, were conveniently ascribed. Of the works now extant bearing his name, the oldest is perhaps the one called "Asclepius, or dialogue on the nature of the gods," of which the Greek is lost and the Latin version only remains. This work does not seem to be much older than the fourth century. The other Hermetic works are numerous, and continued to be written down to the middle ages.—B. H. C.
HERMIAS, the supposed author of a small work entitled διασυρμὸς τῶν ἔξω φιλοσόφων, is generally supposed to have lived in the second or third century after Christ. His book is against the Greek philosophers, whom he holds up to ridicule. In consequence of the nature of the work, Hermias is usually classed among the early christian apologists. Nothing is known of his person, life, or age. We are inclined to place the treatise in the fifth or sixth century, and to regard it as supposititious. The latest edition is that of Menzel, Leyden, 1840, 8vo. It has been translated into German by Thienemann, 1828.—S. D.
HERMOGENES, a celebrated Greek rhetorician of the second century, born at Tarsus in Cilicia. He was remarkable for the great precocity of his intellect and the brilliancy and briefness of his career. At the age of fifteen he had already acquired so much fame as an orator, that the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, went to hear him. At eighteen he published his "Art of Rhetoric," and subsequently four books on oratorical invention, two on the various forms of the oratorical style, a work on method in public speaking, and lastly his "Progymnasmata," a book of practical instructions in oratory according to given models. His works form together a complete system of rhetoric, and were long used as a standard book in the Greek schools. At twenty-five years of age he entirely lost his memory, and became absolutely imbecile. He lived to an advanced age.—G. BL.
HERMOGENES, a painter who lived in the time of Tertullian, may be placed at the commencement of the third century. All that we know of him is from his opponent Tertullian, who wrote severely against him (adversus Hermogenem). The nature of his sentiments as a christian is not clear. He was certainly not a gnostic, though his speculative tendency was gnosticizing. It is probable that he endeavoured to bring certain positions borrowed from the Aristotelian philosophy into connection with the current doctrines of the church, so as to give them a more complete and scientific form. His leading position was the eternity of matter, and consequent denial of a creation out of nothing. Nothing corrupt in morals was fairly chargeable against the painter. What and how he wrote is unknown. Theodoret and Eusebius assert that Theophilus of Antioch and Origen wrote against Hermogenes.—S. D.
HERNANDEZ, Francisco, a Spanish naturalist, was born at Toledo, and became physician to Philip II. Of his life few particulars are known, except that he was commissioned by the king, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, to observe and describe the natural productions of the Spanish possessions of North America. After spending seven years in Mexico, and collecting a vast number of documents and drawings relating not only to the natural history, but also to the topography and antiquities of the country, he died before he had prepared his work for publication. Nardo Antonio Recchi, an Italian physician at the court of Spain, was then chosen by the king to compile from the manuscript of Hernandez an account of whatever related to the science of medicine. Of this compilation a Spanish translation appeared at Mexico in 1615; but the original, in consequence of the author's death and other causes, was not published till 1651, when it was edited by the members of the academy de' Lincei. More than a century after the death of Hernandez, an edition of his complete works was begun under the care of C. G. Ortega the botanist; but of this only three volumes have appeared under the following title:—"Francisci Hernandi medici atque historici Philippi II. , Hisp. et Indiar. regis et totius novi orbis, archiatri opera, cum edita, tum inedita," &c., Matriti, 1790.—E. A. R.
HERNE, Thomas, M.A., a writer of the last century, who became somewhat famous in connection with the Bangorian controversy and some other theological disputes. Of his life but little is recorded; but he was born in Suffolk, entered the college of Corpus Christi at Cambridge in 1711, and in 1715 became A. B. Near this time the duchess of Bedford, to whom he had been warmly recommended, admitted him into her family to direct the education of her two sons, both of whom were afterwards dukes of Bedford. In 1716 Mr. Herne became fellow of Merton college, Oxford, and M.A. in 1718. He never married, nor took orders, but was in good repute for learning and piety, and died young in 1722. A list of his publications will be found in Watt. See also R. Masters' History of the college of Corpus Christi, 1753.—B. H. C.
HERO (Ἡρων) of Alexandria, an engineer and mechanical philosopher, flourished about the middle of the third century b.c., during the reigns of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes, and was the pupil of Ctesibius. He is reported to have written treatises upon almost every branch of mechanics known in his time. A few of his works have been preserved, and may be found in the collection entitled "Veterum Mathematicorum Opera," published in Paris in 1693. Some of them relate to engines of war, such as Βελοποιητικά or Βελοποιηκά. (on the construction of missile weapons); one is a treatise on hydraulic clocks—Περὶ ὑδροσκοπειων or περὶ ὑδρείων; another relates to the construction of machines, apparently intended to excite wonder or amusement—περὶ αυτοματοποιητικῶν. To the latter class of machines belong many of those described in his most celebrated work, πνευματῖκα (called by the Latin translators "Spiritualia"). In this treatise, amongst a number of machines working by the aid of the elasticity of air, are described two, which are the earliest examples known of the application of heat as a motive power. In one of these, a close metallic vessel, shaped like an altar, contains wine in its lower part, with air above. A fire being lighted on the top of the altar, causes the air to expand and press on the surface of the wine, which rises through a tube concealed within an image called by the author ζῶον, and flows out upon the altar, on which the image thus seems to pour a libation. The principle of the action of this machine is the same with that of the engines employed by Solomon de Caus, the marquis of Worcester, and Savery, to raise water by the pressure of steam. Another machine consists of a close vessel capable of turning upon an axis, and having a set of nozzles round its circumference, all pointing backwards. When this vessel is partly filled by water, and sufficiently heated, the reaction of the jets of steam which escape in one direction from the nozzles causes it to spin round in the opposite direction with great speed. The same principle has been carried into effect in modern times
