HEINECKEN, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH (1721-1725), a child remarkable for precocity of intellect, was born on the 6th of February 1721 at Lübeck, where his father was a painter. Able to speak at the age of ten months, by the time he was one year old he knew by heart the principal incidents in the Pentateuch. At two years of age he had mastered sacred history; at three he was intimately acquainted with history and geography, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, besides being able to speak French and Latin; and in his fourth year he devoted himself to the study of religion and church history. This wonderful precocity was no mere feat of memory, for the youthful savant could reason on and discuss the knowledge he had acquired. Crowds of people flocked to Lübeck to see the wonderful child; and in 1724 he was taken to Copenhagen at the desire of the king of Denmark. On his return to Lübeck he began to learn writing, but his sickly constitution gave way, and he died on the 22nd of June 1725.
The Life, Deeds, Travels and Death of the Child of Lübeck were published in the following year by his tutor Schöneich. See also Teutsche Bibliothek, xvii., and Mémoires de Trévoux (Jan. 1731).
HEINICKE, SAMUEL (1727-1790), the originator in Germany of systematic education for the deaf and dumb, was born on the 10th of April 1727, at Nautschütz, Germany. Entering the electoral bodyguard at Dresden, he subsequently supported himself by teaching. About 1754 his first deaf and dumb pupil was brought him. His success in teaching this pupil was so great that he determined to devote himself entirely to this work. The outbreak of the Seven Years’ War upset his plans for a time. Taken prisoner at Pirna, he was brought to Dresden, but soon made his escape. In 1768, when living in Hamburg, he successfully taught a deaf and dumb boy to talk, following the methods prescribed by Amman in his book Surdus loquens, but improving on them. Recalled to his own country by the elector of Saxony, he opened in Leipzig, in 1778, the first deaf and dumb institution in Germany. This school he directed till his death, which took place on the 30th of April 1790. He was the author of a variety of books on the instruction of the deaf and dumb.
HEINSE, JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM (1749-1803), German author, was born at Langewiesen near Ilmenau in Thuringia on the 16th of February 1749. After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and Erfurt. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland and through him with “Father” Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg. In 1774 he went to Düsseldorf, where he assisted the poet J. G. Jacobi to edit the periodical Iris. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780-1783), He returned to Düsseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where he died on the 22nd of June 1803.
The work upon which Heinse’s fame mainly rests is Ardinghello und die glückseligen Inseln (1787), a novel which forms the framework for the exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the “Sturm und Drang.” Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the romantic school.
Heinse’s complete works (Sämtliche Schriften) were published by H. Laube in 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1838). A new edition by C. Schüddekopf is in course of publication (Leipzig, 1901 sqq.). See H. Pröhle, Lessing, Wieland, Heinse (Berlin, 1877), and J. Schober, Johann Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben und seine Werke (Leipzig, 1882); also K. D. Jessen, Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst (Berlin, 1903).
HEINSIUS (or Heins) DANIEL (1580-1655), one of the most famous scholars of the Dutch Renaissance, was born at Ghent on the 9th of June 1580. The troubles of the Spanish war drove his parents to settle first at Veere in Zeeland, then in England, next at Ryswick and lastly at Flushing. In 1594, being already remarkable for his attainments, he was sent to the university of Franeker to perfect himself in Greek under Henricus Schotanus. He stayed at Franeker half a year, and then settled at Leiden for the remaining sixty years of his life. There he studied under Joseph Scaliger, and there he found Marnix de St Aldegonde, Janus Douza, Paulus Merula and others, and was soon taken into the society of these celebrated men as their equal. His proficiency in the classic languages won the praise of all the best scholars of Europe, and offers were made to him, but in vain, to accept honourable positions outside Holland. He soon rose in dignity at the university of Leiden. In 1602 he was made professor of Latin, in 1605 professor of Greek, and at the death of Merula in 1607 he succeeded that illustrious scholar as librarian to the university. The remainder of his life is recorded in a list of his productions. He died at the Hague on the 25th of February 1655. The Dutch poetry of Heinsius is of the school of Roemer Visscher, but attains no very high excellence. It was, however, greatly admired by Martin Opitz, who was the pupil of Heinsius, and who, in translating the poetry of the latter, introduced the German public to the use of the rhyming alexandrine.