[Herat] (50), the chief town of the province of Herat, in W. Afghanistan, on the Hari-Rud, 300 m. W. of Cabul; its central position has given it a great commercial and military importance; it has manufactures of leather and wool, and as a place of great strategical value, since the advance of Russia in Asia is strongly fortified by a British citadel and garrison.
[Hérault] (462), a maritime dep. of S. France fronting the Gulf of Lyons; in the N. are the Cévennes Mountains, but wide plains fringed on the sea border with large lagoons occupy the S.; the climate, except on the marshy coast, is dry and healthy; its former importance as a wine-growing district has greatly diminished, but olives and almonds are cultivated, sheep and silkworms bred; coal is the most important mineral; salt is obtained in large quantities from the salt marshes, and fishing is an important industry.
[Herbart], German philosopher, born at Oldenburg; Kant's successor at Königsberg, professor also at Göttingen twice over; founded his philosophy like Kant on the criticism of subjective experience, but arrived at different results, and arrayed itself against the whole post-Kantian philosophy of Germany; it is described by [Schwegler] "as an extension of the monadology of Leibnitz, full of ingenuity but devoid of inward fertility, or any germ of movement"; he failed to see, as Dr. Stirling points out, that "Philosophy is possible only on the supposition of a single principle that possesses within itself the capability of transition into all existent variety and varieties" (1776-1841).
[Herbert, Edward, Lord], of Cherbury, diplomatist, soldier, and scholar, born at Montgomery Castle, in Wales; served as a soldier under Maurice of Orange; was twice ambassador in France, but chiefly devoted to philosophical speculation; was the first of the deistical writers of England, though his deism was dogmatic not critical, positive not sceptical, as that of the subsequent English deists is (1581-1648).
[Herbert, George], poet, brother of the preceding, born in Montgomery Castle; failing in preferment at Court, took holy orders and became rector of Bemerton, Wiltshire, a post he lived only two years to hold; was the author of a Christian poem entitled "The Temple"; held in high regard by people of the devout and reverently contemplative spirit of the author; his memory is embalmed in a Life of him by Izaak Walton (1593-1632).
[Herbert, Sidney] (Lord Herbert of Lea), politician, born at Richmond; entered the House of Commons in 1832 as a Tory, and was in turn Secretary to the Admiralty and War Secretary under Peel; during the Aberdeen ministry he, as War Secretary, incurred much popular disfavour for the mismanagement of the Crimean War, but under Palmerston he effected many beneficial reforms while at the head of the War Office; he was elevated to the House of Lords in 1860 (1810-1861).
[Herculaneum], a city of ancient Italy, overwhelmed in A.D. 79 along with Pompeii and Stabiæ by an eruption of Vesuvius, at the north-western base of which it was situated, 5 m. E. of Naples; so completely was it buried by the ashes and lava that its site was completely obliterated, and in time two villages sprang up on the new surface, 40 to 100 ft. below which lay the buried city; relics were discovered while deepening a well in 1706, and since then a considerable portion of the town has been excavated, pictures, statues, &c., of the greatest value having been brought to light.
[Hercules], the typical hero of the Greeks, son of Zeus and Alkmene, and the tried therefore of Hera, who persecuted him from his cradle, sending two serpents to devour him as he lay there, but which he strangled with his arms; grown into manhood, and distinguished for his stature and strength, was doomed by the artifice of Hera to a series of perilous adventures before he could claim his rights as a son of his father; these are known as the "Twelve Labours of Hercules": the first the throttling of the Nemean lion; the second, the killing of the Lernean hydra; the third, the hunt and capture of the hind of Diana, with its hoofs of brass; the fourth, the taking alive of the boar of Erymanthus; the fifth, the cleansing of the stables of Augeas; the sixth, the destruction of the Stymphalian birds; the seventh, the capture of the Cretan bull; the eighth, the capture of the mares of Diomedes of Thrace; the ninth, the seizure of the girdle of the queen of the Amazons; the tenth, the killing of Geryon and capture of his oxen; the eleventh, fetching of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides; the twelfth, dragging Cerberus to the light of day. These were the twelve, but in addition, he strangled the giant Antæus, slew the robber Cacus, delivered Hesione, unchained Prometheus from the rocks of Caucasus, and smote the centaur Nessus, the last proving the cause of his death. See [Nessus].
[Hercules, The Choice of], the choice of a life of virtue offered to him by Athene, in preference to a life of pleasure offered by Aphrodité, in his youth.
[Hercules, The Pillars of], two mountains on the opposite sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, originally one, but fabled to have been separated by Hercules, Calpë on the Spanish coast and Abyla on the African.