HELLO, ERNEST (1828-1885), French critic, was born at Tréguier. He was the son of a lawyer who held posts of great importance at Rennes and in Paris, and was well educated at both places, but took to no profession and resided much, for a time, in his father’s country-house in Brittany. A very strong Roman Catholic, he appears to have been specially excited by his countryman Renan’s attitude to religious matters, and coming under the influence of J. A. Barbey d’Aurevilly and Louis Veuillot, the two most brilliant crusaders of the Church in the press, he started a newspaper of his own, Le Croisé, in 1859; but it only lasted two years. He wrote, however, much in other papers. He had very bad health, suffering apparently from spinal or bone disease. But he was fortunate enough to meet with a wife, Zoe Berthier, who, ten years older than himself, and a friend for some years before their marriage, became his devoted nurse, and even brought upon herself abuse from gutter journalists of the time for the care with which she guarded him. He died in 1885. Hello’s work is somewhat varied in form but uniform in spirit. His best-known book, Physionomie de saints (1875), which has been translated into English (1903) as Studies in Saintship, does not display his qualities best. Contes extraordinaires, published not long before his death, is better and more original. But the real Hello is to be found in a series of philosophical and critical essays, from Renan, l’Allemagne et l’athéisme (1861), through L’Homme (1871) and Les Plateaux de la balance (1880), perhaps his chief book, to the posthumously published Le Siècle. The peculiarity of his standpoint and the originality and vigour of his handling make his studies, of Shakespeare, Hugo and others, of abiding importance as literary “triangulations,” results of object, subject and point of view.
HELMERS, JAN FREDERIK (1767-1813), Dutch poet, was born at Amsterdam on the 7th of March 1767. His early poems, Night (1788) and Socrates (1790), were tame and sentimental, but after 1805 he determined, in company with his brother-in-law, Cornelis Loots (1765-1834), to rouse national feeling by a burst of patriotic poetry. His Poems (2 vols., 1809-1810), but especially his great work The Dutch Nation, a poem in six cantos (1812), created great enthusiasm and enjoyed immense success. Helmers died at Amsterdam on the 26th of February 1813. He owed his success mainly to the integrity of his patriotism and the opportune moment at which he sounded his counterblast to the French oppression. His posthumous poems were collected in 1815.
HELMERSEN, GREGOR VON (1803-1885), Russian geologist, was born at Laugut-Duckershof, near Dorpat, on the 29th of September (O.S.) 1803. He received an engineering training and became major-general in the corps of Mining Engineers. In 1837 he was appointed professor of geology in the mining institute at St Petersburg. He was author of numerous memoirs on the geology of Russia, especially on the coal and other mineral deposits of the country; and he wrote also some explanations to accompany separate sheets of the geological map of Russia. His geological work was continued to an advanced age, one of the later publications being Studien über die Wanderblöcke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands (1869 and 1882). Most of his memoirs were published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg. He died at St Petersburg on the 3rd of February (O.S.) 1885.
| Fig. 1.—Casque with Neck-guard. |
| Fig. 2.—Casque with Nasal and Mail Hood. |
| Fig. 3.—Heaume, early 13th century. |
HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. helme, mod. heaume; the English word is “helm,” as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the Teutonic base hal-, pre-Teut. kal-, to cover; cf. Lat. celare, to hide, Eng. “hell,” &c.), a defensive covering for the head. The present article deals with the helmet during the middle ages down to the close of the period when body armour was worn. For the helmet worn by the Greeks and Romans see [Arms and Armour.]