ideas in the shortest space of time”; its continuation, Lettre sur
les désirs (1770); Lettre sur l’homme et ses rapports (1772), in which
the “moral organ” and the theory of knowledge are discussed;
Sopyle (1778), a dialogue on the relation between the soul and the
body, and also an attack on materialism; Aristée (1779), the
“theodicy” of Hemsterhuis, discussing the existence of God and his
relation to man; Simon (1787), on the four faculties of the soul,
which are the will, the imagination, the moral principle (which is
both passive and active); Alexis (1787), an attempt to prove that
there are three golden ages, the last being the life beyond the grave;
Lettre sur l’athéisme (1787).
The best collected edition of his works is by P. S. Meijboom (1846–1850); see also S. A. Gronemann, F. Hemsterhuis, de Nederlandische Wijsgeer (Utrecht, 1867); E. Grucker, François Hemsterhuis, sa vie et ses œuvres (Paris, 1866); E. Meyer, Der Philosoph Franz Hemsterhuis (Breslau, 1893), with bibliographical notice.
HEMSTERHUIS, TIBERIUS (1685–1766), Dutch philologist
and critic, was born on the 9th of January 1685 at Groningen
in Holland. His father, a learned physician, gave him so good
an early education that, when he entered the university of his
native town in his fifteenth year, he speedily proved himself to
be the best student of mathematics. After a year or two at
Groningen, he was attracted to the university of Leiden by the
fame of Perizonius; and while there he was entrusted with the
duty of arranging the manuscripts in the library. Though he
accepted an appointment as professor of mathematics and
philosophy at Amsterdam in his twentieth year, he had already
directed his attention to the study of the ancient languages.
In 1706 he completed the edition of Pollux’s Onomasticon begun
by Lederlin; but the praise he received from his countrymen
was more than counterbalanced by two letters of criticism from
Bentley, which mortified him so keenly that for two months he
refused to open a Greek book. In 1717 Hemsterhuis was
appointed professor of Greek at Franeker, but he did not enter
on his duties there till 1720. In 1738 he became professor of
national history also. Two years afterwards he was called to
teach the same subjects at Leiden, where he died on the 7th of
April 1766. Hemsterhuis was the founder of a laborious and
useful Dutch school of criticism, which had famous disciples
in Valckenaer, Lennep and Ruhnken.
His chief writings are the following: Luciani colloquia et Timon (1708); Aristophanis Plutus (1744); Notae, &c., ad Xenophontem Ephesium in the Miscellanea critica of Amsterdam, vols. iii. and iv.; Observationes ad Chrysostomi homilias; Orationes (1784); a Latin translation of the Birds of Aristophanes, in Küster’s edition; notes to Bernard’s Thomas Magister, to Alberti’s Hesychius, to Ernesti’s Callimachus and to Burmann’s Propertius. See Elogium T. Hemsterhusii (with Bentley’s letters) by Ruhnken (1789), and Supplementa annotationis ad elogium T. Hemsterhusii, &c. (Leiden, 1874); also J. E. Sandys’ Hist. Class. Scholarship, ii. (1908).
HEMY, CHARLES NAPIER (1841– ), British painter,
born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was trained in the Newcastle school
of art, in the Antwerp academy and in the studio of Baron Leys.
He has produced some figure subjects and landscapes, but is
best known by his admirable marine paintings. He was elected
an associate of the Royal Academy in 1898, associate of the Royal
Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1890 and member in
1897. Two of his paintings, “Pilchards” (1897) and “London
River” (1904), are in the National Gallery of British Art.
HEN, a female bird, especially the female of the common fowl
(q.v.). The O. Eng. hæn is the feminine form of hana, the male bird,
a correlation of words which is represented in other Teutonic
languages, cf. Ger. Hahn, Henne, Dutch haan, hen, Swed. hane,
hönne, &c. The O. Eng. name for the male bird has disappeared,
its place being taken by “cock,” a word probably of onomatopoeic
origin, being from a base kuk- or kik-, seen also in “chicken.”
This word also appears in Fr. coq, and medieval Lat. coccus.
HÉNAULT, CHARLES JEAN FRANÇOIS (1685–1770), French
historian, was born in Paris on the 8th of February 1685. His
father, a farmer-general of taxes, was a man of literary tastes,
and young Hénault obtained a good education at the Jesuit
college. Captivated by the eloquence of Massillon, in his fifteenth
year he entered the Oratory with the view of becoming a preacher,
but after two years’ residence he changed his intention, and,
inheriting a position which secured him access to the most select
society of Paris, he achieved distinction at an early period by his
gay, witty and graceful manners. His literary talent, manifested
in the composition of various light poetical pieces, an
opera, a tragedy (Cornélie vestale, 1710), &c., obtained his entrance
to the Academy (1723). Petit-maître as he was, he had also
serious capacity, for he became councillor of the parlement of
Paris (1705), and in 1710 he was chosen president of the court of
enquêtes. After the death of the count de Rieux (son of the
famous financier, Samuel Bernard) he became (1753) superintendent
of the household of Queen Marie Leszczynska, whose
intimate friendship he had previously enjoyed. On his recovery
in his eightieth year from a dangerous malady (1765) he professed
to have undergone religious conversion and retired into
private life, devoting the remainder of his days to study and
devotion. His religion was, however, according to the marquis
d’Argenson, “exempt from fanaticism, persecution, bitterness
and intrigue”; and it did not prevent him from continuing his
friendship with Voltaire, to whom it is said he had formerly
rendered the service of saving the manuscript of La Henriade,
when its author was about to commit it to the flames. The
literary work on which Hénault bestowed his chief attention was
the Abrégé chronologique de l’histoire de France, first published
in 1744 without the author’s name. In the compass of two
volumes he comprised the whole history of France from the
earliest times to the death of Louis XIV. The work has no
originality. Hénault had kept his note-books of the history
lectures at the Jesuit college, of which the substance was taken
from Mézeray and P. Daniel. He revised them first in 1723,
and later put them in the form of question and answer on the
model of P. le Ragois, and by following Dubos and Boulainvilliers
and with the aid of the abbé Boudot he compiled his Abrégé.
The research is all on the surface and is only borrowed. But
the work had a prodigious success, and was translated into
several languages, even into Chinese. This was due partly to
Hénault’s popularity and position, partly to the agreeable style
which made the history readable. He inserted, according to
the fashion of the period, moral and political reflections,
which are always brief and generally as fresh and pleasing as they
are just. A few masterly strokes reproduced the leading features
of each age and the characters of its illustrious men; accurate
chronological tables set forth the most interesting events in the
history of each sovereign and the names of the great men
who flourished during his reign; and interspersed throughout
the work are occasional chapters on the social and civil state of
the country at the close of each era in its history. Continuations
of the work have been made at separate periods by Fantin des
Odoards, by Anguis with notes by Walckenaer, and by Michaud.
He died at Paris on the 24th of November 1770.
Bibliography.—Hénault’s Mémoires have come down to us in two different versions, both claiming to be authentic. One was published in 1855 by M. du Vigan; the other was owned by the Comte de Coutades, who permitted Lucien Perey to give long extracts in his work on President Hénault (Paris, 1893). The memoirs are fragmentary and disconnected, but contain interesting anecdotes and details concerning persons of note. See the Correspondance of Grimm, of Madame du Deffand and of Voltaire; the notice by Walckenaer in the edition of the Abrégé; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xi.; and the Origines de l’abrégé (Ann. Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de France, 1901). Also H. Lion, Le Président Hénault (Paris, 1903).
HENBANE (Fr. jusquiaume, from the Gr. ὑοσκύαμος, or
hog’s-bean; Ital. giusquiamo; Ger. Schwarzes Bilsenkraut,
Hühnertod, Saubohne and Zigeuner-Korn or “gipsies’ corn”),
the common name of the plant Hyoscyamus niger, a member
of the natural order Solanaceae, indigenous to Britain, found
wild in waste places, on rubbish about villages and old castles,
and cultivated for medicinal use in various counties in the south
and east of England. It occurs also in central and southern
Europe and in western Asia extending to India and Siberia,
and has long been naturalized in the United States. There
are two forms of the plant, an annual and a biennial, which
spring indifferently from the same crop of seed—the one growing
on during summer to a height of from 1 to 2 ft., and flowering
and perfecting seed; the other producing the first season only
a tuft of radical leaves, which disappear in winter, leaving underground
