Part 49

III. LATER HISTORY.--It remains only to glance at the ultimate destinies of Hellenism in West and East. In the Latin West knowledge of Greek, first-hand acquaintance with the Greek classics, became rarer and rarer as general culture declined, till in the dark ages (after the 5th century) it existed practically nowhere but in Ireland (Sandys, _History of Classical Scholarship_, i. 438). In Latin literature, however, a great mass of Hellenistic tradition in a derived form was maintained in currency, wherever, that is, culture of any kind continued to exist. It was a small number of monkish communities whose care of those narrow channels prevented their ever drying up altogether. Then the stream began to rise again, first with the influx of the learning of the Spanish Moors, then with the new knowledge of Greek brought from Constantinople in the 14th century. With the Renaissance and the new learning, Hellenism came in again in flood, to form a chief part of that great river on which the modern world is being carried forward into a future, of which one can only say that it must be utterly unlike anything that has gone before. In the East it is popularly thought that Hellenism, as an exotic, withered altogether away. This view is superficial. During the dark ages, in the Byzantine East, as well as in the West, Hellenism had become little more than a dried and shrivelled tradition, although the closer study of Byzantine culture in latter years has seemed to discover more vitality than was once supposed. Ultimately the Greek East was absorbed by Islam; the popular mistake lies in supposing that the Hellenistic tradition thereby came to an end. The Mahommedan conquerors found a considerable part of it taken over, as we saw, by the Syrian Christians, and Greek philosophical and scientific classics were now translated from Syriac into Arabic. These were the starting-points for the Mahommedan schools in these subjects. Accordingly we find that Arabian philosophy (q.v.), mathematics, geography, medicine and philology are all based professedly upon Greek works (Brockelmann, _Gesch. d. arabischen Literatur_, 1898, vol. i.; R. A. Nicholson, _A Literary History of the Arabs_, 1907, pp. 358-361). Aristotle in the East no less than in the West was the "master of them that know"; and Moslem physicians to this day invoke the names of Hippocrates and Galen. The Hellenistic strain in Mahommedan civilization has, it is true, flagged and failed, but only as that civilization as a whole has declined. It was not that the Hellenistic element failed, whilst the native elements in the civilization prospered; the culture of Islam has, as a whole (from whatever causes), sunk ever lower during the centuries that have witnessed the marvellous expansion of Europe.

AUTHORITIES.--For the inner history of Hellenism after Alexander, the general historical literature dealing with later Greece and Rome supplies material in various degrees. See works quoted in articles GREECE, _History_; ROME, _History_; PTOLEMIES; SELEUCID DYNASTY; BACTRIA, &c.

Different elements (literature, philosophy, art, &c.) are dealt with in works dealing specially with these subjects, among which those of Susemihl, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Erwin Rohde and E. Schwartz are of especial importance for the literature; those of Schreiber and Strzygowski for the later Greek art.

Sketches of Hellenistic civilization generally are found in J. P. Mahaffy's _Greek Life and Thought_ (1887), _The Greek World under Roman Sway_ (1890); _The Silver Age of the Greek World_ (1906); Julius Kaerst, _Gesch. d. hellenist. Zeitalters_ (Band ii., publ. 1909); and in Beloch's _Griechische Geschichte_, vol. iii. (for the century immediately succeeding Alexander). R. von Scala's "The Greeks after Alexander," in Helmolt's _History of the World_ (vol. v.), covers the whole period from Alexander to the end of the Byzantine Empire. P. Wendland's _Hellenistisch-romische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu Judentum u. Christentum_ (1907) is an illuminating monograph, giving a conspectus of the material. For Hellenistic Egypt, Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire des Lagides_, vol. iii. (1906). (E. R. B.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See, among recent writers, on one side Kaerst, _Gesch. des hellenist. Zeitalters_, pp. 97 f., and on the other Beloch, _Griech. Gesch._, iii. [i.] 1-9; Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Gesch. d. griech. Sprache_, p. 283 f.; O. Hoffmann, _Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache u. ihr Volkstum_ (1906).

[2] "Ce sont les Tadjik de l'Afghanistan qui constituent les trente-deux corps de metier, qui tiennent boutique, expedient les marchandises, representent, en un mot, la vie industrielle et commerciale de la nation. Ce sont aussi les Tadjik des villes qui forment la classe lettree, et qui ont empeche les Afghans de retomber dans la barbarie." (Reclus, _Nouvelle Geograph. univ._ ix. p. 71.)

HELLER, STEPHEN (1815-1888), Austrian pianist and composer, was born at Pest on the 15th of May 1815. (Fetis's dictionary says 1814, but this is almost certainly wrong.) He was at first intended for a lawyer, but at nine years of age performed so successfully at a concert that he was sent to Vienna to study under Czerny. Halm was his principal master, and from the age of twelve he gave concerts in Vienna, and made a tour through Hungary, Poland and Germany. At Augsburg he had the good fortune to be befriended when ill by a wealthy family, who practically adopted him and gave him the opportunity to complete his musical education. In 1838 he went to Paris, and soon became intimate with Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz and their set, among whom was Halle, throughout his life an indefatigable performer of Heller's music. In 1849 he came to England and played a few times, and in 1862 he appeared with Halle at the Crystal Palace. He outlived the great reputation he had enjoyed among cultivated amateurs for so many years, and was almost forgotten when he died at Paris on the 14th of January 1888. His pianoforte pieces, almost all of them published in sets and provided with fancy names, do not show very startling originality, but their grace and refinement could not but make them popular with players and listeners of all classes.

HELLESPONT (i.e. "Sea of Helle"; variously named in classical literature [Greek: Hellespontos], [Greek: ho Helles pontos], _Hellespontum Pelagus_, and _Fretum Hellesponticum_), the ancient name of the Dardanelles (q.v.). It was so-called from Helle, the daughter of Athamas (q.v.), who was drowned here. See ARGONAUTS.

HELLEVOETSLUIS, or HELVOETSLUIS, a fortified seaport in the province of South Holland, the kingdom of Holland, on the south side of the island of Voorne-and-Putten, on the sea-arm known as the Haringvliet, 5(1/2) m. S. of Brielle. It has daily steamboat connexion with Rotterdam by the Voornsche canal. Pop. (1900), 4152. Hellevoetsluis is an important naval station, and possesses a naval arsenal, dry and wet docks, wharves and a naval college for engineers. Among the public buildings are the communal chambers, a Reformed church (1661), a Roman Catholic church and a synagogue.

HELLIN, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Albacete, on the Albacete-Murcia railway. Pop. (1900), 12,558. Hellin is built on the outskirts of the low hills which line the left bank of the river Mundo. It possesses the remains of an old Roman castle and a beautiful parish church, the masonry and marble pavement at the entrance of which are worthy of special notice. The surrounding country yields wine, oil and saffron in abundance; within the town there are manufactures of coarse cloth, leather and pottery. Sulphur is obtained from the celebrated mining district of Minas del Mundo, 12 m. S., at the junction between the Mundo and the Segura; and there are warm sulphurous springs in the neighbouring village of Azaraque. Hellin was known to the Romans who first exploited its sulphur as Illunum.

HELLO, ERNEST (1828-1885), French critic, was born at Treguier. He was the son of a lawyer who held posts of great importance at Rennes and in Paris, and was well educated at both places, but took to no profession and resided much, for a time, in his father's country-house in Brittany. A very strong Roman Catholic, he appears to have been specially excited by his countryman Renan's attitude to religious matters, and coming under the influence of J. A. Barbey d'Aurevilly and Louis Veuillot, the two most brilliant crusaders of the Church in the press, he started a newspaper of his own, _Le Croise_, in 1859; but it only lasted two years. He wrote, however, much in other papers. He had very bad health, suffering apparently from spinal or bone disease. But he was fortunate enough to meet with a wife, Zoe Berthier, who, ten years older than himself, and a friend for some years before their marriage, became his devoted nurse, and even brought upon herself abuse from gutter journalists of the time for the care with which she guarded him. He died in 1885. Hello's work is somewhat varied in form but uniform in spirit. His best-known book, _Physionomie de saints_ (1875), which has been translated into English (1903) as _Studies in Saintship_, does not display his qualities best. _Contes extraordinaires_, published not long before his death, is better and more original. But the real Hello is to be found in a series of philosophical and critical essays, from _Renan, l'Allemagne et l'atheisme_ (1861), through _L'Homme_ (1871) and _Les Plateaux de la balance_ (1880), perhaps his chief book, to the posthumously published _Le Siecle_. The peculiarity of his standpoint and the originality and vigour of his handling make his studies, of Shakespeare, Hugo and others, of abiding importance as literary "triangulations," results of object, subject and point of view.

HELMERS, JAN FREDERIK (1767-1813), Dutch poet, was born at Amsterdam on the 7th of March 1767. His early poems, _Night_ (1788) and _Socrates_ (1790), were tame and sentimental, but after 1805 he determined, in company with his brother-in-law, Cornelis Loots (1765-1834), to rouse national feeling by a burst of patriotic poetry. His _Poems_ (2 vols., 1809-1810), but especially his great work _The Dutch Nation_, a poem in six cantos (1812), created great enthusiasm and enjoyed immense success. Helmers died at Amsterdam on the 26th of February 1813. He owed his success mainly to the integrity of his patriotism and the opportune moment at which he sounded his counterblast to the French oppression. His posthumous poems were collected in 1815.

HELMERSEN, GREGOR VON (1803-1885), Russian geologist, was born at Laugut-Duckershof, near Dorpat, on the 29th of September (O.S.) 1803. He received an engineering training and became major-general in the corps of Mining Engineers. In 1837 he was appointed professor of geology in the mining institute at St Petersburg. He was author of numerous memoirs on the geology of Russia, especially on the coal and other mineral deposits of the country; and he wrote also some explanations to accompany separate sheets of the geological map of Russia. His geological work was continued to an advanced age, one of the later publications being _Studien uber die Wanderblocke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands_ (1869 and 1882). Most of his memoirs were published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg. He died at St Petersburg on the 3rd of February (O.S.) 1885.

HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. _helme_, mod. _heaume_; the English word is "helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the Teutonic base _hal_-, pre-Teut. _kal_-, to cover; cf. Lat. _celare_, to hide, Eng. "hell," &c.), a defensive covering for the head. The present article deals with the helmet during the middle ages down to the close of the period when body armour was worn. For the helmet worn by the Greeks and Romans see ARMS AND ARMOUR.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Casque with Neck-guard.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Casque with Nasal and Mail Hood.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Heaume, early 13th century.]

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Heaume, 15th century.]

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Heaume, 15th century.]

The head-dress of the warriors of the dark ages and of the earlier feudal period was far from being the elaborate helmet which is associated in the imagination with the knight in armour and the tourney. It was a mere casque, a cap with or without additional safeguards for the ears, the nape of the neck and the nose (fig. 1). By those warriors who possessed the means to equip themselves fully, the casque was worn over a hood of mail, as shown in fig. 2. In manuscripts, &c., armoured men are sometimes portrayed fighting in their hoods, without casques, basinets or other form of helmet. The casque was, of course, normally of plate, but in some instances it was a strong leather cap covered with mail or imbricated plates. The most advanced form of this early helmet is the conical steel or iron cap with nasal (fig. 2), worn in conjunction with the hood of mail. This is the typical helmet of the 11th-century warrior, and is made familiar by the Bayeux Tapestry. From this point however (c. 1100) the evolution of war head-gear follows two different paths for many years. On the one hand the simple casque easily transformed itself into the _basinet_, originally a pointed iron skull-cap without nasal, ear-guards, &c. On the other hand the knight in armour, especially after the fashion of the tournament set in, found the mere cap with nasal insufficient, and the _heaume_ (or "helmet") gradually came into vogue. This was in principle a large heavy iron pot covering the head and neck. Often a light basinet was worn underneath it--or rather the knight usually wore his basinet and only put the heaume on over it at the last moment before engaging. The earlier (12th century) war heaumes are intended to be worn with the mail hood and have nasals (fig. 3). Towards the end of the 13th century, however, the basinet grew in size and strength, just as the casque had grown, and began to challenge comparison with the heavy and clumsy heaume. Thereupon the heaume became, by degrees, the special head-dress of the tournament, and grew heavier, larger and more elaborate, while the basinet, reinforced with camail and vizor, was worn in battle. Types of the later, purely tilting, heaume are shown in figs. 4 and 5.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Basinets.]

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Salades or Sallets.]

The basinet, then, is the battle head-dress of nobles, knights and sergeants in the 14th century. Its development from the 10th-century cap to the towering helmet of 1350, with its long snouted vizor and ample drooping "camail," is shown in fig. 6, a, b, c and d, the two latter showing the same helmet with vizor down and up. But the tendency set in during the earlier years of the 15th century to make all parts of the armour thicker. Chain "mail" gradually gave way to plate on the body and the limbs, remaining only in those parts, such as neck and elbows, where flexibility was essential, and even there it was in the end replaced by jointed steel bands or small plates. The final step was the discarding of the "camail" and the introduction of the "armet." The latter will be described later. Soon after the beginning of the 15th century the high-crowned basinet gave place to the _salade_ or _sallet_, a helmet with a low rounded crown and a long brim or neck-guard at the back. This was the typical headpiece of the last half of the Hundred Years' War as the vizored basinet had been of the first. Like the basinet it was worn in a simple form by archers and pikemen and in a more elaborate form by the knights and men-at-arms. The larger and heavier salades were also often used instead of the heaume in tournaments. Here again, however, there is a great difference between those worn by light armed men, foot-soldiers and archers and those of the heavy cavalry. The former, while possessing as a rule the bowl shape and the lip or brim of the type, and always destitute of the conical point which is the distinguishing mark of the basinet, are cut away in front of the face (fig. 7 a). In some cases this was remedied in part by the addition of a small pivoted vizor, which, however, could not protect the throat. In the larger salades of the heavy cavalry the wide brim served to protect the whole head, a slit being made in that part of the brim which came in front of the eyes (in some examples the whole of the front part of the brim was made movable). But the chin and neck, directly opposed to the enemy's blows, were scarcely protected at all, and with these helmets a large volant-piece or beaver (_mentonniere_)--usually a continuation of the body armour up to the chin or even beyond--was worn for this purpose, as shown in fig. 7 b. This arrangement combined, in a rough way, the advantages of freedom of movement for the head with adequate protection for the neck and lower part of the face. The _armet_, which came into use about 1475-1500 and completely superseded the salade, realized these requirements far better, and later at the zenith of the armourer's art (about 1520) and throughout the period of the decline of armour it remained the standard pattern of helmet, whether for war or for tournament. It figures indeed in nearly all portraits of kings, nobles and soldiers up to the time of Frederick the Great, either with the suit of armour or half-armour worn by the subject of the portrait or in allegorical trophies, &c. The armet was a fairly close-fitting rounded shell of iron or steel, with a movable vizor in front and complete plating over chin, ears and neck, the latter replacing the mentonniere or beaver. The armet was connected to the rest of the suit by the gorget, which was usually of thin laminated steel plates. With a good armet and gorget there was no weak point for the enemy's sword to attack, a roped lower edge of the armet generally fitting into a sort of flange round the top of the gorget. Thus, and in other and slightly different ways, was solved the problem which in the early days of plate armour had been attempted by the clumsy heaume and the flexible, if tough, camail of the vizored basinet, and still more clumsily in the succeeding period by the salade and its grotesque mentonniere. As far as existing examples show, the wide-brimmed salade itself first gave way to the more rounded armet, the mentonniere being carried up to the level of the eyes. Then the use (growing throughout the 15th century) of laminated armour for the joints of the harness probably suggested the gorget, and once this was applied to the lower edge of the armet by a satisfactory joint, it was an easy step to the elaborate pivoted vizor which completed the new head-dress. Types of armets are shown in fig. 8.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Armets.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Burgonets.]

The _burgonet_, often confused with the armet, is the typical helmet of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In its simple form it was worn by the foot and light cavalry--though the latter must not be held to include the pistol-armed _chevaux-legers_ of the wars of religion, these being clad in half-armour and vizored burgonet--and consisted of a (generally rounded) cap with a projecting brim shielding the eyes, a neck-guard and earpieces. It had almost invariably a crest or comb, as shown in the illustrations (fig. 9). Other forms of infantry head-gear much in vogue during the 16th century are shown in figs. 10 and 11, which represent the _morion_ and _cabasset_ respectively. Both these were lighter and smaller than the burgonet; indeed much of their popularity was due to the ease with which they were worn or put on and off, for in the matter of protection they could not compare with the burgonet, which in one form or another was used by cavalry (and often by pikemen) up to the final disappearance of armour from the field of battle about 1670. Fig. 9 b gives the general outline of richly decorated 16th-century Italian burgonet which is preserved in Vienna. The archetype of the burgonet is perhaps the casque worn by the Swiss infantry (fig. 9 a) at the epoch of Marignan (1515). This was probably copied by them from their former Burgundian antagonists, whose connexion with this helmet is sufficiently indicated by its name. The lower part of the more elaborate burgonets worn by nobles and cavalrymen is often formed into a complete covering for the ears, cheek and chin, and connected closely with the gorget. They therefore resemble the armets and have often been confused with them, but the distinguishing feature of the burgonet is invariably the front peak. Various forms of vizor were fitted to such helmets; these as a rule were either fixed bars (fig. 9 c) or mere upward continuations of the chin piece. Often a nasal was the only face protection (fig. 9 d, a Hungarian type). The latest form of the burgonet used in active service is the familiar Cromwellian cavalry helmet with its straight brim, from which depends the slight vizor of three bars or stout wires joined together at the bottom.

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Morion.]

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Cabasset.]

The above are of course only the main types. Some writers class all remaining examples either as casques or as "war-hats," the latter term conveniently covering all those helmets which resemble in any way the head-gear of civil life. For illustrations of many curiosities of this sort, including the famous iron hat of King Charles I. of England, and also for examples of Russian, Mongolian, Indian and Chinese helmets, the reader is referred to pp. 262-269 and 285-286 of Demmin's _Arms and Armour_ (English edition 1894). The helmets in brass, steel or cloth, worn by troops since the general introduction of uniforms and the disuse of armour, depend for their shape and material solely on considerations of comfort and good appearance. From time to time, however, the readoption of serviceable helmets is advocated by cavalrymen, and there is much to be said in favour of this. The burgonet, which was the final type of war helmet evolved by the old armourers, would certainly appear to be by far the best head-gear to adopt should these views prevail, and indeed it is still worn, in a modified yet perfectly recognizable form, by the German and other cuirassiers.

HELMHOLTZ, HERMANN LUDWIG FERDINAND VON (1821-1894), German philosopher and man of science, was born on the 31st of August 1821 at Potsdam, near Berlin. His father, Ferdinand, was a teacher of philology and philosophy in the gymnasium, while his mother was a Hanoverian lady, a lineal descendant of the great Quaker William Penn. Delicate in early life, Helmholtz became by habit a student, and his father at the same time directed his thoughts to natural phenomena. He soon showed mathematical powers, but these were not fostered by the careful training mathematicians usually receive, and it may be said that in after years his attention was directed to the higher mathematics mainly by force of circumstances. As his parents were poor, and could not afford to allow him to follow a purely scientific career, he became a surgeon of the Prussian army. In 1842 he wrote a thesis in which he announced the discovery of nerve-cells in ganglia. This was his first work, and from 1842 to 1894, the year of his death, scarcely a year passed without several important, and in some cases epoch-making, papers on scientific subjects coming from his pen. He lived in Berlin from 1842 to 1849, when he became professor of physiology in Konigsberg. There he remained from 1849 to 1855, when he removed to the chair of physiology in Bonn. In 1858 he became professor of physiology in Heidelberg, and in 1871 he was called to occupy the chair of physics in Berlin. To this professorship was added in 1887 the post of director of the physico-technical institute at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, and he held the two positions together until his death on the 8th of September 1894.