Part 16

Hawkesworth (John), English essayist and novelist, b. in London about 1715. Became contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine and editor of the Adventurer. In '61 he edited Swift's works with a life of that author. He compiled an account of the voyages of Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook for government, for which he received £6,000; but the work was censured as incidentally attacking the doctrine of Providence. His novel Almoran and Hamet was very popular. Died at Bromley, Kent, 17 Nov. 1773.

Hawley (Henry), a Scotch major-general, who died in 1765, and by the terms of his will prohibited Christian burial.

Hebert (Jacques René), French revolutionist, b. Alençon 15 Nov. 1757, published the notorious Père Duchêsne, and with Chaumette instituted the Feasts of Reason. He was denounced by Saint Just, and guillotined 2 March 1794. His widow, who had been a nun, was executed a few days later.

Hegel (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich), German metaphysician b. Stuttgart, 27 Aug. 1770. He studied theology at Tübingen, but, becoming acquainted with Schelling, devoted his attention to philosophy. His Encyclopædia of the Philosophical Sciences made a deep impression in Germany, and two schools sprang up, one claiming it as a philosophical statement of Christianity, the other as Pantheism hostile to revelation. Hegel said students of philosophy must begin with Spinozism. He is said to have remarked that of all his many disciples only one understood him, and he understood him falsely. He was professor at Jena, Heidelberg, and Berlin, in which last city he died 14 Nov. 1831, and was buried beside Fichte.

Heine (Heinrich), German poet and littérateur, b. of Jewish parents at Dusseldorf, 31 Dec. 1797. He studied law at Bonn, Berlin, and Göttingen; became acquainted with the philosophy of Spinoza and Hegel; graduated LL.D., and in June 1825 renounced Judaism and was baptised. The change was only formal. He satirised all forms of religious faith. His fine Pictures of Travel was received with favor and translated by himself into French. His other principal works are the Book of Songs, History of Recent Literature in Germany, The Romantic School, The Women of Shakespeare, Atta Troll and other poems. In 1835 he married a French lady, having settled in Paris, where "the Voltaire of Germany" became more French than German. About 1848 he became paralysed and lost his eyesight, but he still employed himself in literary composition with the aid of an amanuensis. After an illness of eight years, mostly passed in extreme suffering on his "mattress grave," he died 17 Feb. 1856. Heine was the greatest and most influential German writer since Goethe. He called himself a Soldier of Freedom, and his far-flashing sword played havoc with the forces of reaction.

Heinzen (Karl Peter) German-American poet, orator and politician, b. near Dusseldorf, 22 Feb. 1809. He studied medicine at Bonn, and travelled to Batavia, an account of which he published (Cologne 1842). A staunch democrat, in 1845 he published at Darmstadt a work on the Prussian Bureaucracy, for which he was prosecuted and had to seek shelter in Switzerland. At Zurich he edited the German Tribune and the Democrat. At the beginning of '48 he visited New York but returned to participate in the attempted German Revolution. Again "the regicide" had to fly and in August '50 returned to New York. He wrote on many papers and established the Pioneer (now Freidenker), first in Louisville, then in Cincinnati, then in New York, and from '59 in Boston. He wrote many works, including Letters on Atheism, which appeared in The Reasoner 1856, Poems, German Revolution, The Heroes of German Communism, The Rights of Women, Mankind the Criminal, Six Letters to a Pious Man (Boston 1869), Lessons of a Century, and What is Humanity? (1877.) Died Boston 12 Nov. 1880.

Hellwald (Friedrich von), German geographer, b. Padua 29 March 1842, and in addition to many works on various countries has written an able Culture History, 1875.

Helmholtz (Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von) German scientist, b. Potsdam 31 Aug. 1821. Distinguished for his discoveries in acoustics, optics and electricity, he is of the foremost rank among natural philosophers in Europe. Among his works we mention The Conservation of Force (1847), and Popular Scientific Lectures (1865-76.) Professor Helmholtz rejects the design hypothesis.

Helvetius (Claude Adrien) French philosopher, b. Paris 18 Jan. 1715. Descended from a line of celebrated physicians, he had a large fortune which he dispensed in works of benevolence. Attracted by reading Locke he resigned a lucrative situation as farmer-general to devote himself to philosophy. In August 1758 he published a work On the Mind (De L'Esprit) which was condemned by Pope Clement XIII, 31 Jan. 1759, and burnt by the order of Parliament 6 Feb. 1759 for the hardihood of his materialistic opinions. Mme. Du Deffand said "he told everybody's secret." It was republished at Amsterdam and London. He also wrote a poem On Happiness and a work on Man his Faculties and Education. He visited England and Prussia and became an honored guest of Frederick the Great. Died 26 Dec. 1771. His wife, née Anne Catherine De Lingville, b. 1719, after his death retired to Auteuil, where her house was the rendezvous of Condillac, Turgot, d'Holbach, Morellet, Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy, etc. This re-union of Freethinkers was known as the Société d'Auteuil. Madame Helvetius died 12 August 1800.

Henault, or Hesnault (Jean), French Epicurean poet of the 17th century, son of a Paris baker, was a pupil of Gassendi, and went to Holland to see Spinoza. Bayle says he professed Atheism, and had composed three different systems of the mortality of the soul. His most famous sonnet is on The Abortion. Died Paris, 1682.

Henin de Cuvillers (Etienne Felix), Baron, French general and writer, b. Balloy, 27 April, 1755. He served as diplomatist in England, Venice, and Constantinople. Employed in the army of Italy, he was wounded at Arcola, 26 Sept. '96. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1811. He wrote much, particularly on magnetism. In the 8th vol. of his Archives du Magnétisme Animal, he suggests that the miracles of Jesus were not supernatural, but wrought by means of magnetism learnt in Egypt. In other writings, especially in reflections on the crimes committed in the name of religion, '22, he shows himself the enemy of fanaticism and intolerance. Died 2 August, 1841.

Hennell (Charles Christian), English Freethinker, b. 9 March, 1809, author of an able Inquiry concerning the Origin of Christianity, first published in '38, a work which powerfully influenced "George Eliot," and a translation of which was introduced to German readers by Dr. D. F. Strauss. It was Hennell who induced "George Eliot" to translate Strauss's Life of Jesus. He also wrote on Christian Theism. Hennell lived most of his time in Coventry. He was married at London in '39, and died 2 Sept. 1850.

Herault de Sechelles (Marie Jean), French revolutionist, b. of noble family, Paris, 1760. Brought up as a friend of Buffon and Mirabeau, he gained distinction as a lawyer and orator before the Revolution. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in '91, he was made President of the Convention, 2 Nov. 92. He edited the document known as the Constitution of 1793, and was president and chief speaker at the national festival, 10 Aug. '93. He drew on himself the enmity of Robespierre, and was executed with Danton and Camille Desmoulins, 5 April, 1794.

Herbart (Johann Friedrich), b. Oldenburg 4 May 1776. In 1805 he was made professor of philosophy at Göttingen, and in 1808 became Kant's successor at Königsberg and opposed his philosophy. Though religiously disposed, his philosophy has no room for the notion of a God. He was recalled to Göttingen, where he died 14 Aug. 1841.

Herbert (Edward), Lord of Cherbury, in Shropshire, b. Montgomery Castle, 1581. Educated at Oxford, after which he went on his travels. On his return he was made one of the king's counsellors, and soon after sent as ambassador to France to intercede for the Protestants. He served in the Netherlands, and distinguished himself by romantic bravery. In 1625 he was made a peer of Ireland, and in '31 an English peer. During the civil wars he espoused the side of Parliament. His principal work is entitled De Veritate, the object of which was to assert the sufficiency of natural religion apart from revelation. He also wrote Lay Religion, his own Memoirs, a History of Henry VIII., etc. Died 20 Aug. 1648.

Hertell (Thomas), judge of the Marine Court of New York, and for some years Member of the Legislature of his State. He wrote two or three small works criticising Christian Theology, and exerted his influence in favour of State secularization.

Hertzen or Gertsen (Aleksandr Ivanovich), Russian patriot, chief of the revolutionary party, b. Moscow, 25 March, 1812. He studied at Moscow University, where he obtained a high degree. In '34 he was arrested for Saint Simonian opinions and soon afterwards banished to Viatka, whence he was permitted to return in '37. He was expelled from Russia in '42, visited Italy, joined the "Reds" at Paris in '48, took refuge at Geneva, and soon after came to England. In '57 he set up in London a Russian printing press for the publication of works prohibited in Russia, and his publications passed into that country in large numbers. Among his writings are Dilettantism in Science, '42; Letters on the Study of Nature, '45-46; Who's to Blame? '57; Memoirs of the Empress Catherine, and My Exile, '55. In '57 Herzen started the magazine the Kolokol or Bell. Died at Paris, 21 Jan. 1870. His son, Alessandro Herzen, b. Wladimar, 1839, followed his father's fortunes, learnt most of the European languages and settled at Florence, where he did much to popularise physiological science. He has translated Maudsley's Physiology of Mind, and published a physiological analysis of human free will.

Herwegh (Georg), German Radical and poet, b. Stuttgart, 31 May, 1817. Intended for the Church, he left that business for Literature. His Gedichte eines Lebendigen (Poems of a Living Man) aroused attention by their boldness. In '48 he raised a troop and invaded Baden, but failed, and took refuge in Switzerland and Paris. Died at Baden-Baden, 7 April, 1875.

Hetherington (Henry), English upholder of a free press, b. Soho, London, 1792. He became a printer, and was one of the most energetic of working men engaged in the foundation of mechanics' institutes. He also founded the Metropolitan Political Union in March, 1830, which was the germ both of trades' unionism and of the Chartist movement. He resisted the "taxes upon knowledge" by issuing unstamped The Poor Man's Guardian, a weekly newspaper for the people, established, contrary to "law," to try the power of "might" against "right," '31-35. For this he twice suffered sentences of six months' imprisonment. He afterwards published The Unstamped, and his persistency had much to do in removing the taxes. While in prison he wrote his Cheap Salvation in consequence of conversation with the chaplain of Clerkenwell Gaol. On Dec. 8, '40, he was tried for "blasphemous libel" for publishing Haslam's Letters to the Clergy, and received four month's imprisonment. Hetherington published A Few Hundred Bible Contradictions, and other Freethought works. Much of his life was devoted to the propaganda of Chartism. He died 24 Aug. 1849, leaving a will declaring himself an Atheist.

Hetzer (Ludwig), anti-Trinitarian martyr, b. Bischopzell, Switzerland; was an Anabaptist minister at Zurich. He openly denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and was condemned to death by the magistrates of Constance on a charge of blasphemy. The sentence was carried out 4 Feb. 1529.

Heusden (C. J. van), Dutch writer in De Dageraad. Has written several works, Thoughts on a Coming More Universal Doctrine, by a Believer, etc.

Hibbert (Julian), Freethought philanthropist, b. 1801. During the imprisonment of Richard Carlile he was active in sustaining his publications. Learning that a distinguished political prisoner had received a gift of £1,000, he remarked that a Freethinking prisoner should not want equal friends, and gave Carlile a cheque for the same amount. Julian Hibbert spent nearly £1,000 in fitting up Carlile's shop in Fleet Street. He contributed "Theological Dialogues" to the Republican, and also contributed to the Poor Man's Guardian. Hibbert set up a private press and printed in uncial Greek the Orphic Hymns, '27, and also Plutarch and Theophrastus on Superstition, to which he wrote a life of Plutarch and appended valuable essays "on the supposed necessity of deceiving the vulgar"; "various definitions of an important word" [God], and a catalogue of the principal modern works against Atheism. He also commenced a Dictionary of Anti-Superstitionists, and Chronological Tables of British Freethinkers. He wrote a short life of Holbach, published by James Watson, to whom, and to Henry Hetherington, he left £500 each. Died December 1834.

Hedin (Sven Adolph), Swedish member of the "Andra Kammaren" [House of Commons], b. 1834. Studied at Upsala and became philosophical candidate, '61. Edited the Aftonbladet, '74-76. Has written many radical works.

Higgins (Godfrey), English archæologist, b. Skellow Grange, near Doncaster, 1771. Educated at Cambridge and studied for the bar, but never practised. Being the only son he inherited his father's property, married, and acted as magistrate, in which capacity he reformed the treatment of lunatics in York Asylum. His first work was entitled Horæ Sabbaticæ, 1813, a manual on the Sunday Question. In '29 he published An Apology for the Life and Character of Mohammed and Celtic Druids, which occasioned some stir on account of the exposure of priestcraft. He died 9 Aug. 1833, leaving behind a work on the origin of religions, to the study of which he devoted ten hours daily for about twenty years. The work was published in two volumes in 1826, under the title of "Anacalypsis, an attempt to draw aside the veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions."

Hillebrand (Karl), cosmopolitan writer, b. 17 Sept. 1829, at Giessen. His father, Joseph Hillebrand, succeeded Hegel as professor at Heidelberg. Involved in the revolutionary movement in Germany, Karl was imprisoned in the fortress of Rastadt, whence he escaped to France. He taught at Strasbourg and Paris, where he became secretary to Heine. On the poet's death he removed to Bordeaux, where he became a naturalised Frenchman. He became professor of letters at Douay. During the Franco-Prussian war he was correspondent to the Times, and was taken for a Prussian spy. In 1871 he settled at Florence, where he translated the poems of Carducci. Hillebrand was a contributor to the Fortnightly Review, Nineteenth Century, Revue des deux Mondes, North American Review, etc. His best known work is on France and the French in the second half of the nineteenth century. Died at Florence, 18 Oct. 1884.

Hins (Eugène), Belgian writer, Dr. of Philosophy, Professor at Royal Athenæum, Charleroi, b. St. Trond, 1842. As general secretary of the International, he edited L'Internationale, in which he laid stress on anti-religious teaching. He contributed to La Liberté, and was one of the prominent lecturers of the Societies Les Solidaires, and La Libre-pensée of Brussels. He has written La Russie dé voilée au moyen de sa littérature populaire, 1883, and other works.

Hippel (Theodor Gottlieb von), German humoristic poet, b. Gerdauen, Prussia, 31 Jan. 1741. He studied theology, but resigned it for law, and became in 1780 burgomaster of Königsberg. His writings, which were published anonymously, betray his advanced opinions. Died Bromberg, 23 April, 1796.

Hittell (John S.), American Freethinker, author of the Evidences against Christianity (New York, 1857): has also written A Plea for Pantheism, A New System of Phrenology, The Resources of California, a History of San Francisco, A Brief History of Culture (New York, 1875), and St. Peter's Catechism (Geneva, 1883).

Hoadley (George), American jurist, b. New Haven, Conn., 31 July, 1836. He studied at Harvard, and in '47 was admitted to the bar, and in '51 was elected judge of the superior court of Cincinnati. He afterwards resigned his place and established a law firm. He was one of the counsel that successfully opposed compulsory Bible reading in the public schools.

Hobbes (Thomas), English philosopher, b. Malmesbury, 5 April, 1588. In 1608 he became tutor to a son of the Earl of Devonshire, with whom he made the tour of Europe. At Pisa in 1628 he made the acquaintance of Galileo. In 1642 he printed his work De Cive. In 1650 appeared in English his work on Human Nature, and in the following year his famous Leviathan. At the Restoration he received a pension, but in 1666 Parliament, in a Bill against Atheism and profaneness, passed a censure on his writings, which much alarmed him. The latter years of his life were spent at the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, where he died 4 Dec. 1679.

Hodgson (William, M.D.), English Jacobin, translator of d'Holbach's System of Nature (1795). In 1794 he was confined in Newgate for two years for drinking to the success of the French Republic. In prison he wrote The Commonwealth of Reason.

Hoelderlin (Johann Christian Friedrich), German pantheistic poet, b. Laufen, 20 March, 1770. Entered as a theological student at Tübingen, but never took to the business. He wrote Hyperion, a fine romance (1797-99), and Lyric Poems, admired for their depth of thought. Died Tübingen, 7 June, 1843.

Hoijer (Benjamin Carl Henrik), Swedish philosopher, b. Great Skedvi, Delecarlia, 1 June, 1767. Was student at Upsala University '83, and teacher of philosophy '98. His promotion was hindered by his liberal opinions. By his personal influence and published treatises he contributed much to Swedish emancipation. In 1808 he became Professor of Philosophy at Upsala. Died 8 June, 1812.

Holbach (Paul Heinrich Dietrich von) Baron, b. Heidelsheim Jan. 1723. Brought up at Paris where he spent most of his life. Rich and generous he was the patron of the Encyclopædists. Buffon, Diderot, d'Alembert, Helvetius, Rousseau, Grimm, Raynal, Marmontel, Condillac, and other authors often met at his table. Hume, Garrick, Franklin, and Priestley were also among his visitors. He translated from the German several works on chemistry and mineralogy, and from the English, Mark Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination. He contributed many articles to the Encyclopédie. In 1765 he visited England, and from this time was untiring in his issue of Freethought works, usually put out under pseudonyms. Thus he wrote and had published at Amsterdam Christianity Unveiled, attributed to Boulanger. The Spirit of the Clergy, translated, from the English of Trenchard and Gordon, was

## partly rewritten by d'Holbach, 1767. His Sacred Contagion or Natural

History of Superstition, was also wrongly attributed to Trenchard and Gordon. This work was condemned to be burnt by a decree of the French parliament, 8 Aug. 1770. D'Holbach also wrote and published The History of David, 1768, The Critical History of Jesus Christ, Letters to Eugenia, attributed to Freret, Portable Theology, attributed to Bernier, an Essay on Prejudices, attributed to M. Du M [arsais], Religious Cruelty, Hell Destroyed, and other works, said to be from the English. He also translated the Philosophical Letters of Toland, and Collins's Discourses on Prophecy, and attributed to the latter a work with the title The Spirit of Judaism. These works were mostly conveyed to the printer, M. Rey, at Amsterdam, by Naigeon, and the secret of their authorship was carefully preserved. Hence d'Holbach escaped persecution. In 1770 he published his principal work The System of Nature, or The Laws of the Physical and Moral World. This text-book of atheistic philosophy, in which d'Holbach was assisted by Diderot, professed to be the posthumous work of Mirabaud. It made a great sensation. Within two years he published a sort of summary under the title of Good Sense, attributed to the curé Meslier. In 1773 he wrote on Natural Politics and the Social System. His last important work was Universal Morality; or the Duties of Man founded upon Nature. D'Holbach, whose personal good qualities were testified to by many, was depicted in Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloise as the benevolent Atheist Wolmar. Died 21 Jan. 1789.

Holcroft (Thomas), English author, b. 10 Dec. 1745, was successively a groom, shoemaker, schoolmaster, actor and author. His comedies "Duplicity," 1781, and "The Road to Ruin," 1792, were very successful. He translated the Posthumous Works of Frederick the Great, 1789. For his active sympathy with the French Republicans he was indicted for high treason with Hardy and Horne Tooke in 1794, but was discharged without a trial. Died 23 March, 1809.

Holland (Frederic May), American author, b. Boston, 2 May, 1836, graduated at Harvard in '49, and in '63 was ordained Unitarian minister at Rockford, Ill. Becoming broader in his views, he resigned, and has since written in the Truthseeker, the Freethinkers' Magazine, etc. His principal work is entitled The Rise of Intellectual Liberty, 1885.

Hollick (Dr. Frederick), Socialist, b. Birmingham, 22 Dec. 1813. He was educated at the Mechanics' Institute of that town, and became one of the Socialist lecturers under Robert Owen. He held a public discussion with J. Brindley at Liverpool, in 1840, on "What is Christianity?" On the failure of Owenism he went to America, where some of his works popularising medical science have had a large circulation.

Hollis (John), English sceptic, b. 1757. Author of Sober and Serious Reasons for Scepticism, 1796; An Apology for Disbelief in Revealed Religion, 1799; and Free Thoughts, 1812. Died at High Wycombe, Bucks 26 Nov. 1824. Hollis, who came of an opulent dissenting family, was distinguished by his love of truth, his zeal in the cause of freedom, and by his beneficence.

Holmes (William Vamplew), one of Carlile's brave shopmen who came up from Leeds to uphold the right of free publication. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, 1 March, '22, for selling blasphemous and seditious libels in An Address to the Reformers of Great Britain, and when in prison was told that "if hard labor was not expressed in his sentence, it was implied." On his release Holmes went to Sheffield and commenced the open sale of all the prohibited publications.

Holwell (John Zephaniah), noted as one of the survivors of the Black Hole of Calcutta, b. Dublin, 7 Sept. 1711. He practised as a surgeon, went to India as a clerk, defended a fort at Calcutta against Surajah Dowlah, was imprisoned with one hundred and forty-five others in the "Black Hole," 20th June, 1756, of which he published a Narrative. He succeeded Clive as governor of Bengal. On returning to England he published a dissertation directed against belief in a special providence, and advocating the application of church endowments to the exigencies of the State (Bath, 1786). Died 5 Nov. 1798.

Holyoake (Austin), English Freethinker, b. Birmingham, 27 Oct. 1826. His mental emancipation came from hearing the lectures of Robert Owen and his disciples. He took part in the agitation for the abolition of the newspaper stamp--assisting when risk and danger had to be met--and he co-operated with his brother in the production of the Reasoner and other publications from '45 till '62. Soon after this he printed and sub-edited the National Reformer, in which many of his Freethought articles appeared. Among his pamphlets may be mentioned Heaven and Hell, Ludicrous Aspects of Christianity, Thoughts on Atheism, the Book of Esther, and Daniel the Dreamer. He also composed a Secular Burial Service. Austin Holyoake took pride in the character of Freethought, and was ever zealous in promoting its welfare. His amiable spirit endeared him to all who knew him. He died 10 April, 1874, leaving behind thoughts written on his deathbed, in which he repudiated all belief in theology.