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.