References.—Casiri (Michael), “Bibliotheca Arabico-hispana Escur.,” Vol. I. pp. 260, 273; Hœfer, “Nouv. Biogr. Univ.,” Vol. II. pp. 96–97; Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,” Paris, 1843, Vol. I. p. 468; Gilbert, De Magnete, Book I. chap. i.; Freind (John), “History of Physick”; Choulant (Johann Ludwig), “Handbuch der Bücherkunde ...”; Wüstenfeld (H. F.), “Geschichte d’ Arab. Ærzte,” p. 59; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. II. pp. 96–97.
Harriot, Thomas (1560–1621), one of the learned Englishmen alluded to by Gilbert, at the end of the first chapter, Book I of De Magnete, as having on long sea voyages observed the differences of magnetic variation, was a mathematician and astronomer, whose miscellaneous works, noted at pp. 437–439, Vol. XXIV of the “Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” embrace treatises on magnetism, mechanics, etc. The account he has given of his voyage to Virginia was printed in Hakluyt’s “Principal Navigations,” Vol. III and is pronounced “one of the earliest and best examples of a statistical survey made upon a large scale,” at p. 11, Vol. LXXI of the “Edinburgh Review.”
Heraclides of Pontus and Ecphantus, was a Greek historian and philosopher who died about 330 B.C. Diogenes Laertius attributes to him many works that have not reached us, and we have nothing of him but fragments of his treatise on the constitutions of the different States which have been printed with the works of Elien. Gilbert commences the third chapter of his sixth book by saying that Heraclides, as well as the Pythagoreans Nicetas of Syracuse and Aristarchus of Samos, and, as it seems, many others, held that the earth moves, that the stars set through the interposition of the earth, and that they rise through the earth’s giving way: they do give the earth motion, and the earth being, like a wheel, supported on its axis, rotates upon it from west to east.
References.—Rowles (S.), “De Vita et Scriptis,” 1824, Vol. VIII; Deswert (Eugenius), “Dissert de Heraclide Pontico,” 1830; Krische (August Bernhard), “Forschungen ...” p. 325; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XIX. p. 1131; Dr. F. Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 38–42; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1860, Vol. II. p. 309; “Essai théorique ... des connaissances humaines,” par G. Tiberghien, Bruxelles, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 182–185; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 200.
Hermes Trismegistus (or “thrice great”) is the supposed author of many Greek works that have reached us and which constitute an encyclopædia of Egyptian wisdom in that they treat of astronomy, medicine, and other sciences. As one of his biographers has it, the principal tenets of the Hermetic Books are that the Creator made the Cosmos by his word out of fluid ... that death and life are only changes and that nothing is destructible ... that passion or suffering is the result of motion.... Gilbert only refers to him in Book V. chap. xii. by saying that Hermes, Zoroaster and Orpheus recognize a universal soul. Clemens Alexandrinus, who has given an account and catalogue of his writings, makes him the author of six books of physic and of thirty-six books of divinity and philosophy.
References.—“The Works of George Berkeley,” by A. C. Fraser, Oxford, 1901, Vol. III. pp. 209, 253–255, 261, 267, 280; Baumgarten—Crusius (Ludwig Friedrich Otto), “... de librorum Hermeticorum ...” 1827; “Dict. of Philos. and Psychol.,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1901, Vol. I. p. 475; “Hermes Trismegistus,” by Scheible (J.), 1855; Alex. Chalmers, “Gen. Biog. Dict.,” London, 1814, Vol. XVII. p. 396; “Hermes Trismegistus,” by Parthey (Gustav Friedrich Constantin), 1854; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. I. part i. pp. 427–428, 691–694; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 228; and the long list of citations in “Biog. Générale,” Vol. XXIV. pp. 377–382.
Hero—Heron—of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, pupil of the celebrated Ctesibius who flourished in the third century before Christ and to whom have been attributed many ancient writings upon different technical subjects. Allusion is made by Gilbert (De Magnete, Book II. chap. ii.), to Hero’s “Spiritualia,” which is his most valuable known work and which has been often translated, notably into Latin, 1575, 1680, 1683, into Italian, 1547, 1589, 1592, 1605; and into German, 1687, 1688.
References.—Hultsch (Friedrich), “Heronis Alex.,” 1864–1874; Montucla (J. F.), “Hist. des Mathém.,” Vol. I. p. 267; “Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik,” Vol. VIII. pp. 175–214; Martin, “Sur la vie et les ouvrages d’Héron d’Alexandrie”—Mém. de l’Acad. des Ins. B. L., Paris, 1854, ss. 438–439; Arago (François), “Eloge de Watt” (Œuvres, Vol. I); Fabricius (Johann Albert), “Bibliotheca Græca,” Vol. IV. p. 234; Figuier (Louis), “Hist. des principales découvertes,” Vol. I. p. 42; “A short history of Greek Mathematics,” Jas. Gow, Cambridge, 1884, pp. 276–286; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 241; “Chambers’s Encyclopædia,” Vol. V. p. 689; ninth “Encycl. Britan.,” Vol. XI. p. 760; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XIX. p. 1200; “Journal des Savants” for March 1903, p. 147, and for April 1903, p. 203; “Biogr. Générale,” Vol. XXIV. pp. 447–449; Th. Martin (“Mém. Ac. des Inscr.,” 1854); also two papers by Boncompagni and Vincent in “Bulletino di Bibliog.,” Vol. IV.
Hipparchus the Rhodian, “le plus grand astronome de l’antiquité”—born, according to Strabo, at Nicæa in Bithynia, 160–145 B.C.—is the inventor of the astrolabe[64] and discoverer of “the precession of the equinoxes.” He is mentioned by Gilbert five times in Book VI. chaps, ii. viii. ix. of De Magnete, and is extensively treated of in the “Journal des Savants” for November 1828, January 1829, August and September 1831, October 1843, August and September 1848, July 1859; also by the Rev. H. M. Close, in “Proc. of Roy. Irish Acad.,” Series III. vol. vi. No. 3, in Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. IX. p. 286, in the “Historical Account of Astronomy,” by John Narrien, London, 1833, pp. 219–244, and in the “Astronomy” article of the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”
By Humboldt, Hipparchus is called the founder of scientific astronomy and the greatest astronomical observer of antiquity. He was the actual originator of astronomical tables amongst the Greeks and, in the new map of the world which he constructed and founded upon that of Eratosthenes, the geographical degrees of latitude and longitude were based on lunar observations, and on the measurement of shadows, wherever such an application of astronomy was admissible (“Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 545; Ideler, “Handbuch der Chronologie,” Vol. I. ss. 212, 329).