This amount was 200 million tons in excess of that actually discharged. Pumping by steam-engines began in 1848, and the lake was dry by the 1st of July 1852. At the first sale of the highest lands along the banks on the 16th of August 1853, about £28 per acre was paid; but the average price afterwards was less. The whole area of 42,096 acres recovered from the waters brought in 9,400,000 florins, or about £780,000, exactly covering the cost of the enterprise; so that the actual cost to the nation was only the amount of the interest on the capital, or about £368,000. The soil is of various kinds, loam, clay, sand and peat; most of it is sufficiently fertile, though in the lower portions there are barren patches where the scanty vegetation is covered with an ochreous deposit. Mineral springs occur containing a very high percentage (3·245 grams per litre) of common salt; and in 1893 a company was formed for working them. Corn, seeds, cattle, butter and cheese are the principal produce. The roads which traverse the commune are bordered by pleasant-looking farm-houses built after the various styles of Holland, Friesland or Brabant. Hoofddorp, Venneperdorp or Nieuw Vennep, Abbenes and the vicinities of the pumping-stations are the spots where the population has clustered most thickly. The first church was built in 1855; in 1877 there were seven. In 1854 the city of Leiden laid claim to the possession of the new territory, but the courts decided in favour of the nation.
HAASE, FRIEDRICH (1827– ), German actor, was born on
the 1st of November 1827, in Berlin, the son of a valet to King
Frederick William IV., who became his godfather. He was
educated for the stage under Ludwig Tieck and made his first
appearance in 1846 in Weimar, afterwards acting at Prague
(1849–1851) and Karlsruhe (1852–1855). From 1860 to 1866
he played in St Petersburg, then was manager of the court
theatre in Coburg, and in 1869 (and again in 1882–1883) visited
the United States. He was manager of the Stadt Theater in
Leipzig from 1870 to 1876, when he removed to Berlin, where he
devoted his energies to the foundation and management of the
Deutsches Theater. He finally retired from the stage in 1898.
Haase’s aristocratic appearance and elegant manner fitted him
specially to play high comedy parts. His chief rôles were those
of Rocheferrier in the Partie Piquet; Richelieu; Savigny in
Der feiner Diplomat, and der Fürst in Der geheime Agent. He
is the author of Ungeschminkte Briefe and Was ich erlebte 1846–1898
(Berlin, 1898).
See Simon, Friedrich Haase (Berlin, 1898).
HAASE, FRIEDRICH GOTTLOB (1808–1867), German
classical scholar, was born at Magdeburg on the 4th of January
1808. Having studied at Halle, Greifswald and Berlin, he
obtained in 1834 an appointment at Schulpforta, from which
he was suspended and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for
identifying himself with the Burschenschaften (students’ associations).
Having been released after serving one year of his
sentence, he visited Paris, and on his return in 1840 he was
appointed professor at Breslau, where he remained till his
death on the 16th of August 1867. He was undoubtedly
one of the most successful teachers of his day in Germany, and
exercised great influence upon all his pupils.
He edited several classic authors: Xenophon (Λακεδαιμονίων πολιτεία, 1833); Thucydides (1840); Velleius Paterculus (1858); Seneca the philosopher (2nd ed., 1872, not yet superseded); and Tacitus (1855), the introduction to which is a masterpiece of Latinity. His Vorlesungen über lateinische Sprachwissenschaft was published after his death by F. A. Eckstein and H. Peter (1874–1880). See C Bursian, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland (1883); G. Fickert, Friderici Haasii memoria (1868), with a list of works; T. Oelsner in Rübezahl (Schlesische Provinzialblätter), vii. Heft 3 (Breslau, 1868).
HAAST, SIR JOHANN FRANZ JULIUS VON (1824–1887),
German and British geologist, was born at Bonn on the 1st of
May 1824. He received his early education partly in that town
and partly in Cologne, and then entered the university at Bonn,
where he made a special study of geology and mineralogy. In
1858 he started for New Zealand to report on the suitability
of the colony for German emigrants. He then became acquainted
with Dr von Hochstetter, and rendered assistance to him in the
preliminary geological survey which von Hochstetter had undertaken.
Afterwards Dr Haast accepted offers from the governments
of Nelson and Canterbury to investigate the geology of
those districts, and the results of his detailed labours greatly
enriched our knowledge with regard to the rocky structure,
the glacial phenomena and the economic products. He discovered
gold and coal in Nelson, and he carried on important
researches with reference to the occurrence of Dinornis and other
extinct wingless birds (Moas). His Geology of the Provinces of
Canterbury and Westland, N.Z., was published in 1879. He
was the founder of the Canterbury museum at Christchurch,
of which he became director, and which he endeavoured to
render the finest collection in the southern hemisphere. He
was surveyor-general of Canterbury from 1861 to 1871, and
professor of geology at Canterbury College. He was elected
F.R.S. in 1867; and he was knighted for his services at the
time of the colonial exhibition in London in 1887. He died at
Wellington, N.Z., on the 15th of August 1887.
HABABS (Az-Hibbehs), a nomadic pastoral people of Hamitic
stock, living in the coast region north-west of Massawa. Physically
they are Beja, by language and traditions Abyssinians.
They were Christians until the 19th century, but are now
Mahommedans. Their sole wealth consists in cattle.
HABAKKUK, the name borne by the eighth book of the Old
Testament “Minor Prophets.” It occurs twice in the book
itself (i. 1, iii. 1) in titles, but nowhere else in the Old Testament.
The meaning of the name is uncertain. If Hebrew, it might be
derived from the root חבק (to embrace) as an intensive term
of affection. It has also been connected more plausibly with
an Assyrian plant name, ḫambaḳūḳu (Delitzsch, Assyrisches
Handwörterbuch, p. 281). The Septuagint has Ἀμβακούμ. Of
the person designated, no more is known than may be inferred
from the writing which bears his name. Various legends are
connected with him, of which the best known is given in the
Apocryphal story of “Bel and the Dragon” (v. 33-39); but
none of these has any historic value.[1]
The book itself falls into three obvious parts, viz. (1) a dialogue between the prophet and God (i. 2–ii. 4); (2) a series of five woes pronounced on wickedness (ii. 5–ii. 20); (3) a poem describing the triumphant manifestation of God (iii.). There is considerable difficulty in regard to the interpretation of (1), on which that of (2) will turn; while (3) forms an independent section, to be considered separately.
In the dialogue, the prophet cries to God against continued violence and injustice, though it is not clear whether this is done within or to Israel (i. 2-4). The divine answer declares that God raises up the Chaldaeans, whose formidable resources are invincible (i. 5-11). The prophet thereupon calls God’s attention to the tyranny which He apparently allows to triumph, and declares his purpose to wait till an answer is given to his complaint (i. 12–ii. 2). God answers by demanding patience, and by declaring that the righteous shall live by his faithfulness (ii. 3-4).
The interpretation of this dialogue which first suggests itself is that the prophet is referring to wickedness within the nation, which is to be punished by the Chaldaeans as a divine instrument; in the process, the tyranny of the instrument itself calls for punishment, which the prophet is bidden to await in patient fidelity. On this view of the dialogue, the subsequent woes will be pronounced against the Chaldaeans, and the date assigned to the prophecy will be about 600 B.C., i.e. soon after the battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.), when the Chaldaean victory over Egypt inaugurated a period of Chaldaean supremacy which lasted till the Chaldaeans themselves were overthrown by Cyrus in 538 B.C. Grave objections, however, confront this interpretation, as is admitted even by such recent defenders of it as Davidson and Driver. Is it likely that a prophet would begin a complaint against Chaldaean tyranny (admittedly central in the prophecy) by complaining of that wickedness of his fellow-countrymen which seems partly to justify it? Are not the terms of reference in
- ↑ These legends are collected in Hastings, D. B. vol. ii. p. 272. He is the watchman of Is. xxi. 6 (cf. Hab. ii. 1); the son of the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 16); and is miraculously lifted by his hair to carry his own dinner to Daniel in the lions’ den (supra).
