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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XIII SLICE VIII
Hudson River to Hurstmonceaux
Articles in This Slice
HUDSON RIVER, the principal river of New York state, and one of the most important highways of commerce in the United States of America. It is not a river in the truest sense of the word, but a river valley into which the ocean water has been admitted by subsidence of the land, transforming a large part of the valley into an inlet, and thus opening it up to navigation.
The Hudson lies entirely in the state of New York, which it crosses in a nearly north-and-south direction near the eastern boundary of the state. The sources of the river are in the wildest part of the Adirondack Mountains, in Essex county, north-eastern New York. There are a number of small mountain streams which contribute to the headwater supply, any one of which might be considered the main stream; but assuming the highest collected and permanent body of water to be the true head, the source of the Hudson is Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, which lies near Mount Marcy at an elevation of about 4322 ft. This small mountain stream flows irregularly southward with a fall of 64 ft. per mile in the upper 52 miles, then, from the mouth of North Creek to the mouth of the Sacondaga, at the rate of nearly 14 ft. per mile. In this part of its course the Hudson has many falls and rapids, and receives a number of mountain streams as tributaries, the largest being Indian river, Schroon river and Sacondaga river. Below the mouth of the Sacondaga the Hudson turns sharply and flows eastward for about 12 m., passing through the mountains, and leaping over several falls of great height and beauty. At Glens Falls there is a fall of about 50 ft.; and just below this, at Sandy Hill, the river again turns abruptly, and for the rest of its course to New York Bay flows almost due south. There are numerous falls and rapids between Glens Falls and Troy which are used as a source of power and are the seats of busy manufacturing plants. Several large tributaries join this part of the river, including Batten Kill, Fish Creek, Hoosic river and the Mohawk, which is the largest of all the tributaries to the Hudson, and contributes more water than the main river itself.
From Troy to the mouth of the Hudson the river is tidal, and from this point also the river is navigable, not because of the river water itself, but because of the low grade of the river bed by which the tide is able to back up the water sufficiently to float good-sized boats. From Albany, 6 m. below Troy, to the mouth of the Hudson, a distance of 145 m., there is a total fall of only 5 ft. It is this lower, tidal, navigable portion of the Hudson that is of so much importance and general interest. Numerous tributaries enter this part of the Hudson from both the east and the west, the largest and most important being the Wallkill which enters at Kingston. In general there is in this part of the river a broad upper valley with a much narrower gorge cut in its bottom, with its rock floor below sea level and drowned by the entrance of the sea. Although this is true in a general way, the character of the river valley varies greatly in detail from point to point, under the influence of the geological structure of the enclosing rock walls.
Most of these variations may be included in a threefold division of the lower Hudson valley. The uppermost of these extends from the south-eastern base of the Adirondack Mountains to the northern portal of the Highlands in Dutchess and Ulster counties. This is a lowland region of ancient Paleozoic rocks. Into the upper portion of this section of the river the non-tidal Hudson is depositing its load of detritus, building a delta below Troy. This, shifted about by the currents, has interposed an obstacle to navigation which has called for extensive dredging and other work, for the purpose of maintaining a navigable channel. The width of the tidal river varies somewhat, being about 300 yds. at Albany and thence to the Highlands varying from 300 yds. to 900 yds.
The scenery in this part of the river, though not tame, is a little monotonous, the gently sloping hills, with the variegated colours of wood and cultivated land, and the occasional occurrence of a town or village being repeated, without any marked feature to break their regularity. Thirty miles from Troy noble views begin to be obtained of the Catskill Mountains towering up behind the west bank, the nearest eminence at the distance of about 7 m. Along the immediate banks of the river are great beds of clay which is extensively used in the manufacture of brick; and the brick-burning plants and huge ice houses are conspicuous features in the landscape. Although the river freezes in the winter, so that ice-boating is a favourite winter sport, the summer climate is warm enough for the cultivation of grapes and other fruits, which is aided to a considerable extent by the influence of the large body of water enclosed between the valley walls, which tends to retard both early and late frosts, and thus to extend the growing season. In addition to smaller towns and villages, there are a number of larger towns and cities, including Hudson and Catskill, nearly opposite each other, and farther down Kingston and the thriving city of Poughkeepsie. Near the extreme end of this section of the Hudson lies the city of Newburgh, a short distance below which, at Cornwall Landing, the river enters the Highlands, the second division of the tidal part of the Hudson and far the grandest of all.
The river enters the northern portals of the Highlands between a series of hills whose frequently precipitous sides rise often abruptly from the water’s edge. For about 16 m. the river is bordered by steeply rising hills, giving picturesque and striking views of great variety. These are due to the fact that the river here is crossing a belt of ancient crystalline rocks of moderately high relief, comparable in geological structure to the Adirondack region. The views in this part of the river, often compared with those along the Rhine, are of a character in some respects unparalleled, and at several points they have an impressiveness and surprising grandeur rarely equalled. About 10 m. after the Highlands are entered West Point is reached, a favourite landing-place of tourists and the seat of the United States Military Academy, from whose grounds fine views of the river may be had. This point is historically interesting as the seat of Fort Putnam, now in ruins, built during the American War of Independence, at which time a chain was stretched across the river to prevent the passage of British ships.
The third and lowest section of the tidal part of the Hudson extends from the lower end of the Highlands to New York Bay. This is a region of ancient and metamorphic Paleozoic rocks on the eastern side, and mainly Triassic rocks on the west. Because of their less resistance to denudation, these rocks have permitted a broadening of the valley in this part of the course. Just below Peekskill the river broadens out to form Haverstraw Bay, at the extremity of which is the headland of Croton Point. Below this is the wider expanse of Tappan Bay, which has a length of 12 m. and a breadth of from 4 to 5 m., while below this bay the river narrows to a breadth between 1 and 2 m. On Tappan Bay stands Tarrytown, famous both historically and from its connexion with Washington Irving, whose cottage of Sunnyside is in the vicinity. At Piermont, where the bay ends, the range named the Palisades rises picturesquely from the water’s edge to the height of between 300 and 500 ft., extending along the west bank for about 20 m., the opposite shore being level and dotted with hamlets, villages and towns. The Palisades are a lava rock of the variety called trap, which has been intruded as a sheet into the Triassic sandstones, and, on cooling, has developed the prismatic jointing which is so much more perfectly seen at Fingal’s Cave in Scotland and Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. It is this imperfect hexagonal jointing that has given rise to the name “palisade,” applied to the range whose face fronts the lower Hudson. At its mouth the Hudson both broadens and branches, forming a series of islands and an excellent harbour, owing to the fact that the sinking of the land here has permitted the sea to fill the valleys and even to flood low divides. A submerged valley, traceable over the continental shelf, south-east of New York, is commonly believed to represent an earlier course of the Hudson when the land stood 2000 or 3000 ft. higher than at present, and when the inner gorge above New York was being excavated.
Although the Hudson river has a total length of only about 300 m., and a drainage area of but 13,370 sq. m., it has been one of the most significant factors in the development of the United States. With an excellent harbour at its mouth, and navigable waters leading into a fertile interior for a distance of 150 m., it early invited exploration and settlement. Verrazano proceeded a short distance up the Hudson in a boat in 1524; but the first to demonstrate its extent and importance was Henry Hudson, from whom it derives its name. He sailed above the mouth of the Mohawk in September 1609. The Dutch later explored and settled the valley and proceeded westward along the Mohawk. The Dutch place-names of the region clearly show the significance of this early use of the Hudson highway. Later, in wars, and notably in the American War of Independence, and American War of 1812, the valley became a region of great strategic importance. This was increased by the fact that from the Hudson near Sandy Hill there are two low gaps into the northern country, one along the valley occupied by Lake George, the other into the Lake Champlain valley. The divide between this part of the Hudson and Lake Champlain is only 147 ft. above sea level, and a depression of the land of only 200 ft. in the region between Albany and the St Lawrence river would convert the Hudson and Champlain valleys into a navigable strait having a depth sufficient for the largest vessels. Movements of armies across these gaps were noteworthy events in the wars between the United States and the French and British; but modern commerce has made far less significant use of this highway, mainly because the gaps lead to a region of little economic importance, and thence to the boundary line of a foreign country. Far more important has been the highway westward along the Mohawk, which has cut a gap across the mountains that has been the most useful of all the gaps through the Appalachians. It has been useful in exploration, in war and in commerce, the latter especially because it leads to the fertile interior and to the waterway of the Great Lakes. By the Erie canal the river is connected with Lake Erie, with a branch to Lake Ontario, and other branches to smaller lakes. The Champlain canal connects the Hudson with Lake Champlain. Although these canals are far less used than formerly, the Hudson is still a busy highway for navigation. It is of interest to note that it was on the Hudson that Fulton, the inventor of steam navigation, made his first successful experiment; and that it was along this same highway, from Albany, that one of the first successful railways of the country was built. A railway line now runs parallel to each bank of the Hudson, the New York Central & Hudson River on the eastern side and the West Shore on the western side, each with connexions to the north, east and west, and each turning westward along the Mohawk to Buffalo. It is largely because of the importance of this highway of commerce, by water and by rail, from the coast to the interior, that the greatest and densest population in the United States has gathered at the seaward end of the route in New York City, Jersey City, Hoboken and other places on and near New York Bay, making one of the leading industrial and commercial centres of the world.
For references to articles on the physiography of the Hudson river see R. S. Tarr, Physical Geography of New York State (New York, 1902), pp. 184-190. For Pleistocene conditions see J. B. Woodworth, Ancient Water Levels of the Champlain and Hudson Valleys (Albany, 1905), N.Y. State Museum, Bulletin 84. For facts concerning water supply see Surface Water Supply of the Hudson, Passaic, Raritan and Delaware River Drainages (1907), being U.S. Geological Survey, Water Supply Paper, No. 202. For relation between physiography and history see chapters in E. C. Semple’s American History and its Geographic Conditions (Boston, 1903); A. P. Brigham, Geographic Influences in American History (Boston, 1903), and From Trail to Railway through the Appalachians (Boston, 1907). See also E. M. Bacon, The Hudson River (New York, 1902); W. E. Verplanck and M. W. Collyer, Sloops of the Hudson: Sketch of the Packet and Market Sloops of the Last Century (New York, 1908), D. L. Buckman, Old Steamboat Days on the Hudson River (New York, 1907), and Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque Hudson (New York, 1909).
(R. S. T.)
HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY, or “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay,” a corporation formed for the purpose of importing into Great Britain the furs and skins which it obtains, chiefly by barter, from the Indians of British North America. The trading stations of the Company are dotted over the immense region (excluding Canada proper and Alaska), which is bounded E. and W. by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and N. and S. by the Arctic Ocean and the United States. From these various stations the furs are despatched in part to posts in Hudson Bay and the coast of Labrador for transportation to England by the Company’s ships, and in part by steamboat or other conveyances to points on the railways from whence they can be conveyed to Montreal, St John, N.B., or other Atlantic port, for shipment to London by Canadian Pacific Railway Company’s mail ships, or other line of steamers, to be sold at auction.
In the year 1670 Charles II. granted a charter to Prince Rupert and seventeen other noblemen and gentlemen, incorporating them as the “Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay,” and securing to them “the sole trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson’s Straits, together with all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts and confines of the seas, bays, &c., aforesaid, that are not already actually possessed by or granted to any of our subjects, or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian prince or state.” Besides the complete lordship and entire legislative, judicial and executive power within these vague limits (which the Company finally agreed to accept as meaning all lands watered by streams flowing into Hudson Bay), the corporation received also the right to “the whole and entire trade and traffic to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes and seas into which they shall find entrance or passage by water or land out of the territories, limits or places aforesaid.” The first settlements in the country thus granted, which was to be known as Rupert’s Land, were made on James Bay and at Churchill and Hayes rivers; but it was long before there was any advance into the interior, for in 1749, when an unsuccessful attempt was made in parliament to deprive the Company of its charter on the plea of “non-user,” it had only some four or five forts on the coast, with about 120 regular employés. Although the commercial success of the enterprise was from the first immense, great losses, amounting before 1700 to £217,514, were inflicted on the Company by the French, who sent several military expeditions against the forts. After the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 1763, numbers of fur-traders spread over that country, and into the north-western parts of the continent, and began even to encroach on the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories. These individual speculators finally combined into the North-West Fur Company of Montreal.
The fierce competition which at once sprang up between the companies was marked by features which sufficiently demonstrate the advantages of a monopoly in commercial dealings with savages, even although it is the manifest interest of the monopolists to retard the advance of civilization towards their hunting grounds. The Indians were demoralized, body and soul, by the abundance of ardent spirits with which the rival traders sought to attract them to themselves; the supply of furs threatened soon to be exhausted by the indiscriminate slaughter, even during the breeding season, of both male and female animals; the worst passions of both whites and Indians were inflamed to their fiercest (see [Red River Settlement]). At last, in 1821, the companies, mutually exhausted, amalgamated, obtaining a licence to hold for 21 years the monopoly of trade in the vast regions lying to the west and north-west of the older company’s grant. In 1838 the Hudson’s Bay Company acquired the sole rights for itself, and obtained a new licence, also for 21 years. On the expiry of this it was not renewed, and since 1859 the district has been open to all.
The licences to trade did not of course affect the original possessions of the Company. Under the terms of the Deed of Surrender, dated November 19th, 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company surrendered “to the Queen’s Most Gracious Majesty, all the rights of Government, and other rights, privileges, liberties, franchises, powers and authorities, granted or purported to be granted to the said Government and Company by the said recited Letters Patent of His Late Majesty King Charles II.; and also all similar rights which may have been exercised or assumed by the said Governor and Company in any parts of British North America, not forming part of Rupert’s Land or of Canada, or of British Columbia, and all the lands and territories within Rupert’s Land (except and subject as in the said terms and conditions mentioned) granted or purported to be granted to the said Governor and Company by the said Letters Patent,” subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Deed of Surrender, including the payment to the Company by the Canadian Government of a sum of £300,000 sterling on the transfer of Rupert’s Land to the Dominion of Canada, the retention by the Company of its posts and stations, with a right of selection of a block of land adjoining each post in conformity with a schedule annexed to the Deed of Surrender; and the right to claim in any township or district within the Fertile Belt in which land is set out for settlement, grants of land not exceeding one-twentieth part of the land so set out. The boundaries of the Fertile Belt were in terms of the Deed of Surrender to be as follows:—“On the south by the United States’ boundary; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the north by the northern branch of the Saskatchewan; on the east by Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods, and the waters connecting them,” and “the Company was to be at liberty to carry on its trade without hindrance, in its corporate capacity; and no exceptional tax was to be placed on the Company’s land, trade or servants, nor any import duty on goods introduced by them previous to the surrender.”
An Order in Council was passed confirming the terms of the Deed of Surrender at the Court of Windsor, the 23rd of June 1870.
In 1872, in terms of the Dominion Lands Act of that year, it was mutually agreed in regard to the one-twentieth of the lands in the Fertile Belt reserved to the Company under the terms of the Deed of Surrender that they should be taken as follows:—
“Whereas by article five of the terms and conditions in the Deed of Surrender from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Crown, the said Company is entitled to one-twentieth of the lands surveyed into Townships in a certain portion of the territory surrendered, described and designated as the Fertile Belt.
“And whereas by the terms of the said deed, the right to claim the said one-twentieth is extended over the period of fifty years, and it is provided that the lands comprising the same shall be determined by lot, and whereas the said Company and the Government of the Dominion have mutually agreed that with a view to an equitable distribution throughout the territory described, of the said one-twentieth of the lands, and in order further to simplify the setting apart thereof, certain sections or parts of sections, alike in numbers and position in each township throughout the said Territory, shall, as the townships are surveyed, be set apart and designated to meet and cover such one-twentieth:
“And whereas it is found by computation that the said one-twentieth will be exactly met, by allotting in every fifth township two whole sections of 640 acres each, and in all other townships one section and three quarters of a section each, therefore—
“In every fifth Township in the said Territory; that is to say: in those townships numbered 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and so on in regular succession northerly from the International boundary, the whole of sections Nos. 8 and 26, and in each and every of the other townships the whole of section No. 8, and the south half and north-west quarter of section 26 (except in the cases hereinafter provided for) shall be known and designated as the lands of the said Company.”
See G. Bryce, Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company (London, 1900); and A. C Laut, Conquest of the great North-west; being the story of the adventurers of England known as Hudson’s Bay Co. (New York, 1909).
HUÉ, a town of French Indo-China, capital of Annam, on the Hué river (Song-Huong-Giang) about 8 m. from its mouth in the China Sea. Pop. about 42,000, of whom 240 are Europeans. The country immediately surrounding it is flat, alluvial land, traversed by streams and canals and largely occupied by rice fields. Beyond the plain rises a circle of hills formed by spurs of the mountains of Annam. The official portion of the town, fortified under French superintendence, lies on the left bank of the river within an enclosure over 7300 yds. square. It contains the royal palace, the houses of the native ministers and officials, the arsenals, &c. The palace stands inside a separate enclosure. Once forbidden ground, it is to-day open to foreigners, and the citadel is occupied by French troops. The palace of the French resident-general and the European quarter, opposite the citadel on the right bank of the Hué, are connected with the citadel by an iron bridge. Important suburbs adjoin the official town, the villages of Dōng-Bo, Bo-vinh, Gia-Ho, Kim-Long and Nam-Pho forming a sort of commercial belt around it. Glass- and ivory-working are carried on, but otherwise industry is of only local importance. Rice is imported by way of the river. A frequent service of steam launches connects the town with the ports of Thuan-an, at the mouth of the river, and Tourane, on the bay of that name. Tourane is also united to Hué by a railway opened in 1906. In the vicinity the chief objects of interest are the tombs of the dead kings of Annam.
HUE AND CRY, a phrase employed in English law to signify the old common law process of pursuing a criminal with horn and voice. It was the duty of any person aggrieved, or discovering a felony, to raise the hue and cry,[1] and his neighbours were bound to turn out with him and assist in the discovery of the offender. In the case of a hue and cry, all those joining in the pursuit were justified in arresting the person pursued, even though it turned out that he was innocent. A swift fate awaited any one overtaken by hue and cry, if he still had about him the signs of his guilt. If he resisted he could be cut down, while, if he submitted to capture, his fate was decided. Although brought before a court, he was not allowed to say anything in self-defence, nor was there any need for accusation, indictment or appeal. Although regulated from time to time by writs and statutes, the process of hue and cry continued to retain its summary method of procedure, and proof was not required of a culprit’s guilt, but merely that he had been taken red-handed by hue and cry. The various statutes relating to hue and cry were repealed in 1827 (7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 27). The Sheriffs Act 1887, reenacting 3 Edw. I. c. 9, provides that every person in a county must be ready and apparelled at the command of the sheriff and at the cry of the county to arrest a felon, and in default shall on conviction be liable to a fine.
“Hue and cry” has, from its original meaning, come to be applied to a proclamation for the capture of an offender or for the finding of stolen goods, and to an official publication, issued for the information of the authorities interested, in which particulars are given of offenders “wanted,” offences committed, &c.
For the early history, see Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, vol. ii.; W. Stubbs, Select Charters.
[1] The word “hue,” which is now obsolete except in this phrase and in the “huers” on the Cornish coast who direct the pilchard-fishing from the cliffs, is generally connected with the Old French verb huer, to cry, shout, especially in war or the chase. It has been suggested that while “cry” represents the sound of the voices of the pursuers, “hue” applies to the sound of horns or other instruments used in the pursuit; and so Blackstone, Comment. iv. xxi. 293 (1809), “an hue and cry, hutesium et clamor, ... with horn and voice.” “Hue,” appearance, colour, is in Old English hiew, hiw, cognate with Swedish hij, complexion, skin, and probably connected with Sanskrit chawi, skin, complexion, beauty.
HUEHUETANANGO (i.e. in the local Indian dialect, “City of the Ancients”), the capital of the department of Huehuetanango, western Guatemala, 106 m. W.N.W. of Guatemala city, on the right bank and near the source of the river Salegua, a tributary of the Chiapas. Pop. (1905) about 12,000. Huehuetanango was built near the site of the ancient Indian city of Zakuleu, now represented by some ruins on a neighbouring ridge surrounded by deep ravines. It is the principal town of a fertile upland region, which produces coffee, cocoa and many European and tropical fruits. Chiantla, a neighbouring town mainly inhabited by Indians, was long the headquarters of a successful Dominican mission; its convent, enriched by the gifts of pilgrims and the revenues of the silver mines owned by the monks, became one of the wealthiest foundations in Central America. It was secularized in 1873, and the mines have been abandoned.
HUELVA, a maritime province of south-western Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from Andalusia, and bounded on the N. by Badajoz, E. by Seville, S. by the Gulf of Cadiz and W. by Portugal. Pop. (1900) 260,880; area 3913 sq. m. With the exception of its south-eastern angle, where the province merges into the flat waste lands known as Las Marismas, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, Huelva presents throughout its entire extent an agreeably varied surface. It is traversed in a south-westerly direction by the Sierra Morena, here known, in its main ridge, as the Sierra de Aracena. The principal streams are the navigable lower reaches of the Guadalquivir and Guadiana, which respectively form for some distance the south-eastern and south-western boundaries; the Odiel and the Tinto, which both fall into the Atlantic by navigable rias or estuaries; the Malagon, Chanza, Alcalaboza and Murtiga, which belong to the Guadiana system; and the Huelva, belonging to that of the Guadalquivir. Huelva has a mild and equable climate, with abundant moisture and a fertile soil. Among the mountains there are many valuable woodlands, in which oaks, pines, beeches, cork-trees and chestnuts predominate, while the lowlands afford excellent pasturage. But agriculture and stock-breeding are here less important than in most Spanish provinces, although the exports comprise large quantities of fruit, oil and wine, besides cork and esparto grass. The headquarters of the fishing trades, which include the drying and salting of fish, are at Huelva, the capital, and Ayamonte on the Guadiana. There are numerous brandy distilleries; and bricks, pottery, soap, candles and flour are also manufactured; but the great local industry is mining. In 1903 no fewer than 470 mines were at work; and their output, consisting chiefly of copper with smaller quantities of manganese and iron, exceeded £1,500,000 in value. The celebrated Rio Tinto copper mines, near the sources of the Tinto, were, like those of Tharsis, 30 m. N.N.W. of Huelva, exploited long before the Christian era, probably by the Carthaginians, and certainly by the Romans. They are still among the most important copper mines in the world (see [Rio Tinto]). Saline and other mineral springs are common throughout the province. Huelva is the principal seaport, and is connected with Seville on the east and Mérida on the north by direct railways; while a network of narrow-gauge railways gives access to the chief mining centres. The principal towns, besides Huelva (21,359) and Rio Tinto (11,603), which are described in separate articles, are Alosno (8187), Ayamonte (7530), Bollullos (7922), Moguer (8455), Nerva (7908) and Zalamea la Real (7335). The state and municipal roads are better engineered and maintained than those of the neighbouring provinces. See also [Andalusia].
HUELVA (the ancient Onuba, Onoba, or Onuba Aestuaria), the capital of the Spanish province of Huelva, about 10 m. from the Atlantic Ocean, on the left bank of the river Odiel, and on the Seville-Huelva, Mérida-Huelva and Rio Tinto-Huelva railways, the last-named being a narrow-gauge line. Pop. (1900) 21,357. Huelva is built on the western shore of a triangular peninsula formed by the estuaries of the Odiel and Tinto, which meet below the town. It is wholly modern in character and appearance, and owes its prosperity to an ever-increasing transit trade in copper and other ores, for which it is the port of shipment. After 1872, when the famous Rio Tinto copper mines were for the first time properly exploited, it progressed rapidly in size and wealth. Dredging operations removed a great part of the sandbanks lining the navigable main channel of the Odiel, and deepened the water over the bar at its mouth; new railways were opened, and port works were undertaken on a large scale, including the construction of extensive quays and two piers, and the installation of modern appliances for handling cargo. Many of these improvements were added after 1900. Besides exporting copper, manganese and other minerals, which in 1903 reached 2,750,000 tons, valued at more than £1,500,000, Huelva is the headquarters of profitable sardine, tunny and bonito fisheries, and of a trade in grain, grapes, olives and cork. The copper and cork industries are mainly in British hands, and the bulk of the imports, which consist chiefly of coal, iron and steel and machinery, comes from Great Britain. Foodstuffs and Australian hardwood are also imported.
Huelva was originally a Carthaginian trading-station, and afterwards a Roman colony; but it retains few memorials of its past, except the Roman aqueduct, repaired in modern times, and the colossal statue of Columbus. This was erected in 1892 to commemorate the fourth centenary of his voyage to the new world in 1492-1493, which began and ended in the village of San Pálos de la Frontera on the Tinto. Columbus resided in the neighbouring monastery of Santa Maria la Rabida after his original plans for the voyage had been rejected by King John II. of Portugal in 1484. An exact reproduction of this monastery was erected in 1893 at the World’s Fair, Chicago, U.S.A., and was afterwards converted into a sanatorium. Higher up the Tinto, above San Pálos, is the town of Moguer (pop. 8455), which exports large quantities of oil and wine.
HUÉRCAL OVERA, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Almería, on the Lorca-Baza railway, and between two branches of the river Almanzora. Pop. (1900) 15,763. Huércal Overa is the chief town of a thriving agricultural district, largely dependent for its prosperity on the lead mining carried on among the surrounding highlands.
HUESCA, a frontier province of northern Spain, formed in 1833 of districts previously belonging to Aragon; and bounded on the N. by France, E. and S.E. by Lérida, S.W. and W. by Saragossa, and N.W. by Navarre. Pop. (1900) 244,867; area 5848 sq. m. The entire northern half of Huesca belongs to the mountain system of the Pyrenees, which here attain their greatest altitudes in Aneto, the highest point of the Maladetta ridge (11,168 ft.), and in Monte Perdido (10,997 ft.). The southern half forms part of the rugged and high-lying plateau of Aragon. Its only conspicuous range of hills is the Sierra de Alcubierre on the south-western border. The whole province is included in the basin of the Ebro, and is drained by four of its principal tributaries—the Aragon in the north-west, the Gallego in the west, the Cinca in the centre, and the Noguera Ribagorzana along part of the eastern border. These rivers rise among the Pyrenees, and take a southerly course; the two last-named unite with the Segre on their way to join the Ebro. The Cinca receives the combined waters of the Alcanadre and Isuela on the right and the Esera on the left.
The climate varies much according to the region; in the north, cold winds from the snow-capped Pyrenees prevail, while in the south, the warm summers are often unhealthy from the humidity of the atmosphere. Agriculture, the leading industry of Huesca, is facilitated by a fairly complete system of irrigation, by means of which much waste land has been reclaimed, although large tracts remain barren. There is good summer pasturage on the mountains, where cattle, sheep and swine are reared. The mountains are richly clothed with forests of pine, beech, oak and fir; and the southern regions, wherever cultivation is possible, produce abundant crops of wheat and other cereals, vines, mulberries and numerous other fruits and vegetables. The mineral resources include argentiferous lead, copper, iron and cobalt, with salt, lignite, limestone, millstone, gypsum, granite and slate. None of these, however, occurs in large quantities; and in 1903 only salt, lignite and fluor-spar were worked, while the total output was worth less than £1500. Mineral springs are numerous, and the mining industry was formerly much more important; but the difficulties of transport hinder the development of this and other resources. Trade is most active with France, whither are sent timber, millstones, cattle, leather, brandy and wine. Between 1882 and 1892 the wine trade throve greatly, owing to the demand for common red wines, suitable for blending with finer French vintages; but the exports subsequently declined, owing to the protective duties imposed by France. The manufactures, which are of little importance, include soap, spirits, leather, pottery and coarse cloth.
The Saragossa-Lérida-Barcelona railway traverses the province, and gives access, by two branch lines, to Jaca, by way of Huesca, the provincial capital, and to Barbastro. Up to the beginning of the 20th century this was the only railway completed, although it was supplemented by many good roads. But by the Railway Convention of 1904, ratified by the Spanish government in 1906, France and Spain agreed jointly to construct a Transpyrenean line from Oloron, in the Basses Pyrénées, to Jaca, which should pass through the Port de Canfranc, and connect Saragossa with Pau. Apart from the episcopal cities of Huesca (pop. 1900, 12,626) and Jaca (4934), which are separately described, the only towns in the province with more than 5000 inhabitants are Barbastro (7033), an agricultural market, and Fraga (6899), an ancient residence of the kings of Aragon, with a fine 12th century parish church and a ruined Moorish citadel. Monzon, long celebrated as the meeting-place of the Aragonese and Catalonian parliaments, is a town on the lower Cinca, with the ruins of a Roman fortification, and of a 12th century castle, which was owned by the Knights Templar. (See also Aragon.)
HUESCA (anc. Osca), the capital of the Spanish province of Huesca, 35 m. N.N.E. of Saragossa, on the Tardienta-Huesca-Jaca railway. Pop. (1900), 12,626. Huesca occupies a height near the right bank of the river Isuela, overlooking a broad and fertile plain. It is a very ancient city and bears many traces of its antiquity. The streets in the older part are narrow and crooked, though clean, and many of the houses witness by their size and style to its former magnificence. It is an episcopal see and has an imposing Gothic cathedral, begun in 1400, finished in 1515, and enriched with fine carving. In the same plaza is the old palace of the kings of Aragon, formerly given up for the use of the now closed Sertoria (the university), so named in memory of a school for the sons of native chiefs, founded at Huesca by Sertorius in 77 B.C. (Plut. Sert. 15). Among the other prominent buildings are the interesting parish churches (San Pedro, San Martin and San Juan), the episcopal palace, and various benevolent and religious foundations. Considerable attention is paid to public education, and there are not only several good primary schools, but schools for teachers, an institute, an ecclesiastical seminary, an artistic and archaeological museum, and an economic society. Huesca manufactures cloth, pottery, bricks and leather; but its chief trade is in wine and agricultural produce. The development of these industries caused an increase in the population which, owing to emigration to France, had declined by nearly 2000 between 1887 and 1897.
Strabo (iii. 161, where some editors read Ileosca) describes Osca as a town of the Ilergetes, and the scene of Sertorius’s death in 72 B.C.; while Pliny places the Oscenses in regio Vescitania. Plutarch (loc. cit.) calls it a large city. Julius Caesar names it Vencedora; and the name by which Augustus knew it, Urbs victrix Osca, was stamped on its coins, and is still preserved on its arms. In the 8th century A.D. it was captured by the Moors; but in 1096 Pedro I. of Aragon regained it, after winning the decisive battle of Alcoraz.
HUET, PIERRE DANIEL (1630-1721), bishop of Avranches, French scholar, was born at Caen in 1630. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Caen, and also received lessons from the Protestant pastor, Samuel Bochart. At the age of twenty he was recognized as one of the most promising scholars of the time. He went in 1651 to Paris, where he formed a friendship with Gabriel Naudé, conservator of the Mazarin library. In the following year Samuel Bochart, being invited by Queen Christina to her court at Stockholm, took his friend Huet with him. This journey, in which he saw Leiden, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, as well as Stockholm, resulted chiefly in the discovery, in the Swedish royal library, of some fragments of Origen’s Commentary on St Matthew, which gave Huet the idea of editing Origen, a task he completed in 1668. He eventually quarrelled with his friend Bochart, who accused him of having suppressed a line in Origen in the Eucharistic controversy. In Paris he entered into close relations with Chapelain. During the famous dispute of Ancients and Moderns Huet took the side of the Ancients against Charles Perrault and Desmarets. Among his friends at this period were Conrart and Pellisson. His taste for mathematics led him to the study of astronomy. He next turned his attention to anatomy, and, being himself shortsighted, devoted his inquiries mainly to the question of vision and the formation of the eye. In this pursuit he made more than 800 dissections. He then learned all that was then to be learned in chemistry, and wrote a Latin poem on salt. All this time he was no mere book-worm or recluse, but was haunting the salons of Mlle de Scudéry and the studios of painters; nor did his scientific researches interfere with his classical studies, for during this time he was discussing with Bochart the origin of certain medals, and was learning Syriac and Arabic under the Jesuit Parvilliers. He also translated the pastorals of Longus, wrote a tale called Diane de Castro, and defended, in a treatise on the origin of romance, the reading of fiction. On being appointed assistant tutor to the Dauphin in 1670, he edited with the assistance of Anne Lefèvre, afterwards Madame Dacier, the well-known edition of the Delphin Classics. This series was a comprehensive edition of the Latin classics in about sixty volumes, and each work was accompanied by a Latin commentary, ordo verborum, and verbal index. The original volumes have each an engraving of Arion and the Dolphin, and the appropriate inscription in usum serenissimi Delphini. Huet was admitted to the Academy in 1674. He issued one of his greatest works, the Demonstratio evangelica, in 1679. He took holy orders in 1676, and two years later the king gave him the abbey of Aulnay, where he wrote his Questiones Aletuanae (Caen, 1690), his Censura philosophiae Cartesianae (Paris, 1689), his Nouveau mémoire pour servir à l’histoire du Cartésianisme (1692), and his discussion with Boileau on the Sublime. In 1685 he was made bishop of Soissons, but after waiting for installation for four years he took the bishopric of Avranches instead. He exchanged the cares of his bishopric for what he thought would be the easier chair of the Abbey of Fontenay, but there he was vexed with continual lawsuits. At length he retired to the Jesuits’ House in the Rue Saint Antoine at Paris, where he died in 1721. His great library and manuscripts, after being bequeathed to the Jesuits, were bought by the king for the royal library.
In the Huetiana (1722) of the abbé d’Olivet will be found material for arriving at an idea of his prodigious labours, exact memory and wide scholarship. Another posthumous work was his Traité philosophique de la faiblesse de l’esprit humain (Amsterdam, 1723), His autobiography, found in his Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus (Paris, 1718), has been translated into French and into English.
See de Gournay, Huet, évêque d’Avranches, sa vie et ses ouvrages (Paris, 1854).
HUFELAND, CHRISTOPH WILHELM (1762-1836), German physician, was born at Langensalza on the 12th of August 1762. His early education was carried on at Weimar, where his father held the office of court physician to the grand duchess. In 1780 he entered the university of Jena, and in the following year proceeded to Göttingen, where in 1783 he graduated in medicine. After assisting his father for some years at Weimar, he was called in 1793 to the chair of medicine at Jena, receiving at the same time the dignities of court physician and councillor at Weimar. In 1798 he was placed at the head of the medical college and generally of state medical affairs in Berlin. He filled the chair of pathology and therapeutics in the university of Berlin, founded in 1809, and in 1810 became councillor of state. He died at Berlin on the 25th of August 1836. Hufeland is celebrated as the most eminent practical physician of his time in Germany, and as the author of numerous works displaying extensive reading and cultivated and critical faculty.
The most widely known of his many writings is the treatise entitled Makrobiotik, oder die Kunst, das menschliche Leben zu verlängern (1796), which was translated into many languages. Of his practical works, the System of Practical Medicine (System der praktischen Heilkunde, 1818-1828) is the most elaborate. From 1795 to 1835 he published a Journal der praktischen Arznei und Wundarzneikunde. His autobiography was published in 1863. There are sketches of his life and labours by Augustin and Stourdza (1837).
HUFELAND, GOTTLIEB (1760-1817), German economist and jurist, was born at Dantzig on the 19th of October 1760. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and completed his university studies at Leipzig and Göttingen. He graduated at Jena, and in 1788 was there appointed to an extraordinary professorship. Five years later he was made ordinary professor. His lectures on natural law, in which he developed with great acuteness and skill the formal principles of the Kantian theory of legislation, attracted a large audience, and contributed to raise to its height the fame of the university of Jena, then unusually rich in able teachers. In 1803, after the secession of many of his colleagues from Jena, Hufeland accepted a call to Würzburg, from which, after but a brief tenure of a professorial chair, he proceeded to Landshut. From 1808 to 1812 he acted as burgomaster in his native town of Dantzig. Returning to Landshut, he lived there till 1816, when he was invited to Halle, where he died on the 25th of February 1817.
Hufeland’s works on the theory of legislation—Versuch über den Grundsatz Naturrechts (1785); Lehrbuch des Naturrechts (1790); Institutionen des gesammten positiven Rechts (1798); and Lehrbuch der Geschichte und Encyclopädie aller in Deutschland geltenden positiven Rechte (1790), are distinguished by precision of statement and clearness of deduction. They form on the whole the best commentary upon Kant’s Rechtslehre, the principles of which they carry out in detail, and apply to the discussion of positive laws. In political economy Hufeland’s chief work is the Neue Grundlegung der Staatswirthschaftskunst (2 vols., 1807 and 1813), the second volume of which has the special title, Lehre vom Gelde und Geldumlaufe. The principles of this work are for the most part those of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which were then beginning to be accepted and developed in Germany; but both in his treatment of fundamental notions, such as economic good and value, and in details, such as the theory of money, Hufeland’s treatment has a certain originality. Two points in particular seem deserving of notice. Hufeland was the first among German economists to point out the profit of the entrepreneur as a distinct species of revenue with laws peculiar to itself. He also tends towards, though he does not explicitly state, the view that rent is a general term applicable to all payments resulting from differences of degree among productive forces of the same order. Thus the superior gain of a specially gifted workman or specially skilled employer is in time assimilated to the payment for a natural agency of more than the minimum efficiency.
See Roscher, Geschichte der Nationalökonomik in Deutschland, 654-662.
HUG, JOHANN LEONHARD (1765-1846), German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Constance on the 1st of June 1765. In 1783 he entered the university of Freiburg, where he became a pupil in the seminary for the training of priests, and soon distinguished himself in classical and Oriental philology as well as in biblical exegesis and criticism. In 1787 he became superintendent of studies in the seminary, and held this appointment until the breaking up of the establishment in 1790. In the following year he was called to the Freiburg chair of Oriental languages and Old Testament exegesis; to the duties of this post were added in 1793 those of the professorship of New Testament exegesis. Declining calls to Breslau, Tübingen, and thrice to Bonn, Hug continued at Freiburg for upwards of thirty years, taking an occasional literary tour to Munich, Paris or Italy. In 1827 he resigned some of his professorial work, but continued in active duty until in the autumn of 1845 he was seized with a painful illness, which proved fatal on the 11th of March 1846.
Hug’s earliest publication was the first instalment of his Einleitung; in it he argued with much acuteness against J. G. Eichhorn in favour of the “borrowing hypothesis” of the origin of the synoptical gospels, maintaining the priority of Matthew, the present Greek text having been the original. His subsequent works were dissertations on the origin of alphabetical writing (Die Erfindung der Buchstabenschrift, 1801), on the antiquity of the Codex Vaticanus (1810), and on ancient mythology (Über den Mythos der alten Völker, 1812); a new interpretation of the Song of Solomon (Das hohe Lied in einer noch unversuchten Deutung, 1813), to the effect that the lover represents King Hezekiah, while by his beloved is intended the remnant left in Israel after the deportation of the ten tribes; and treatises on the indissoluble character of the matrimonial bond (De conjugii christiani vinculo indissolubili commentatio exegetica, 1816) and on the Alexandrian version of the Pentateuch (1818). His Einleitung in die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, undoubtedly his most important work, was completed in 1808 (fourth German edition, 1847; English translations by D. G. Wait, London, 1827, and by Fosdick, New York, 1836; French partial translation by J. E. Cellerier, Geneva, 1823). It is specially valuable in the portion relating to the history of the text (which up to the middle of the 3rd century he holds to have been current only in a common edition (κοινὴ ἔκδοσις), of which recensions were afterwards made by Hesychius, an Egyptian bishop, by Lucian of Antioch, and by Origen) and in its discussion of the ancient versions. The author’s intelligence and acuteness are more completely hampered by doctrinal presuppositions when he comes to treat questions relating to the history of the individual books of the New Testament canon. From 1839 to his death Hug was a regular and important contributor to the Freiburger Zeitschrift für kathol. Theologie.
See A. Maier, Gedächtnisrede auf J. L. Hug (1847); K. Werner, Geschichte der kath. Theol. in Deutschland, 527-533 (1866).
HUGGINS, SIR WILLIAM (1824-1910), English astronomer, was born in London on the 7th of February 1824, and was educated first at the City of London School and then under various private teachers. Having determined to apply himself to the study of astronomy, he built in 1856 a private observatory at Tulse Hill, in the south of London. At first he occupied himself with ordinary routine work, but being far from satisfied with the scope which this afforded, he seized eagerly upon the opportunity for novel research, offered by Kirchhoff’s discoveries in spectrum analysis. The chemical constitution of the stars was the problem to which he turned his attention, and his first results, obtained in conjunction with Professor W. A. Miller, were presented to the Royal Society In 1863, in a preliminary note on the “Lines of some of the fixed stars.” His experiments, in the same year, on the photographic registration of stellar spectra, marked an innovation of a momentous character. But the wet collodion process was then the only one available, and its inconveniences were such as to preclude its extensive employment; the real triumphs of photographic astronomy began in 1875 with Huggins’s adoption and adaptation of the gelatine dry plate. This enabled the observer to make exposures of any desired length, and, through the cumulative action of light on extremely sensitive surfaces, to obtain permanent accurate pictures of celestial objects so faint as to be completely invisible to the eye, even when aided by the most powerful telescopes. In the last quarter of the 19th century spectroscopy and photography together worked a revolution in observational astronomy, and in both branches Huggins acted as pioneer. Many results of great importance are associated with his name. Thus in 1864 the spectroscope yielded him evidence that planetary and irregular nebulae consist of luminous gas—a conclusion tending to support the nebular hypothesis of the origin of stars and planets by condensation from glowing masses of fluid material. On the 18th of May 1866 he made the first spectroscopic examination of a temporary star (Nova Coronae), and found it to be enveloped in blazing hydrogen. In 1868 he proved incandescent carbon-vapours to be the main source of cometary light; and on the 23rd of April in the same year applied Doppler’s principle to the detection and measurement of stellar velocities in the line of sight. Data of this kind, which are by other means inaccessible to the astronomer, are obviously indispensable to any adequate conception of the stellar system as a whole or in its parts. In solar physics Huggins suggested a spectroscopic method for viewing the red prominences in daylight; and his experiments went far towards settling a much-disputed question regarding the solar distribution of calcium. In the general solar spectrum this element is represented by a large number of lines, but in the spectrum of the prominences and chromosphere one pair only can be detected. This circumstance appeared so anomalous that some astronomers doubted whether the surviving lines were really due to calcium; but Sir William and Lady Huggins (née Margaret Lindsay Murray, who, after their marriage in 1875, actively assisted her husband) successfully demonstrated in the laboratory that calcium vapour, if at a sufficiently low pressure, gives under the influence of the electric discharge precisely these lines and no others. The striking discovery was, in 1903, made by the same investigators that the spontaneous luminosity of radium gives a spectrum of a kind never before obtained without the aid of powerful excitation, electrical or thermal. It consists, that is to say, in a range of bright lines, the agreement of which with the negative pole bands of nitrogen, together with details of interest connected with its mode of production, was ascertained by a continuance of the research. Sir William Huggins, who was made K.C.B. in 1897, received the Order of Merit in 1902, and was awarded many honours, academic and other. He presided over the meeting of the British Association in 1891, and during the five years 1900-1905 acted as president of the Royal Society, from which he at different times received a Royal, a Copley and a Rumford medal. Four of his presidential addresses were republished in 1906, in an illustrated volume entitled The Royal Society. A list of his scientific papers is contained in chapter ii. of the magnificent Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra, published in 1899, by Sir William and Lady Huggins conjointly, for which they were adjudged the Actonian prize of the Royal Institution. Sir William Huggins died on the 12th of May 1910.
See ch. i. of Atlas of Stellar Spectra, containing a history of the Tulse Hill observatory; Sir W. Huggins’s personal retrospect in the Nineteenth Century for June 1897; “Scientific Worthies,” with photogravure portrait (Nature); Astronomers of To-Day, by Hector Macpherson, junr. (1905) (portrait); Month. Notices Roy. Astr. Society, xxvii. 146 (C. Pritchard).
(A. M. C.)
HUGH, ST. St Hugh of Avalon (c. 1140-1200), bishop of Lincoln, who must be distinguished from Hugh of Wells, and also from St Hugh of Lincoln (see below), was born of a noble family at Avalon in Burgundy. At the age of eight he entered along with his widowed father the neighbouring priory of canons regular at Villard-Benoît, where he was ordained deacon at nineteen. Appointed not long after prior of a dependent cell, Hugh was attracted from that position by the holy reputation of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse, whose house he finally entered despite an oath to the contrary which he had given his superior. There he remained about ten years, receiving priest’s orders, and rising to the important office of procurator, which brought him into contact with the outer world. The wide reputation for energy and tact which Hugh speedily attained penetrated to the ears of Henry II. of England, and induced that monarch to request the procurator’s assistance in establishing at Witham in Somersetshire the first English Carthusian monastery. Hugh reluctantly consented to go to England, where in a short time he succeeded in overcoming every obstacle, and in erecting and organizing the convent, of which he was appointed first prior. He speedily became prime favourite with Henry, who in 1186 procured his election to the see of Lincoln. He took little part in political matters, maintaining as one of his chief principles that a churchman should hold no secular office. A sturdy upholder of what he believed to be right, he let neither royal nor ecclesiastical influence interfere with his conduct, but fearlessly resisted whatever seemed to him an infringement of the rights of his church or diocese. But with all his bluff firmness Hugh had a calm judgment and a ready tact, which almost invariably left him a better friend than before of those whom he opposed; and the astute Henry, the impetuous Richard, and the cunning John, so different in other points, agreed in respecting the bishop of Lincoln. Hugh’s manners were a little rigid and harsh; but, though an ascetic to himself, he was distinguished by a broad kindliness to others, so that even the Jews of Lincoln wept at his funeral. He had great skill in taming birds, and for some years had a pet swan, which occupies a prominent place in all histories and representations of the saint. In 1200 Bishop Hugh revisited his native country and his first convents, and on the return journey was seized with an illness, of which he died at London on the 16th of November 1200. He was canonized by Honorius III. on the 17th of February 1220. His feast day is kept on the 17th of November in the Roman Church.
The chief life of St Hugh, the Magna vita S. Hugonis, probably written by Adam, afterwards abbot of Eynsham, the bishop’s chaplain, was edited by J. F. Dimock in Rer. Britan. med. aevi script. No. xxxvii, (London, 1864). MSS. of this are in the Bodleian Library (Digby, 165 of the 13th century) and in Paris (Bib. Nat. 5575, Fonds Latin); the Paris MS. fortunately makes good the portions lacking in the Oxford one. Mr Dimock also edited a Metrical Life of St Hugh of Avalon (London, 1860), from two MSS. in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. The best modern source for information as to St Hugh and his time is the Vie de St Hugues, évêque de Lincoln (1140-1200) par un religieux de la Grande Chartreuse (Montreuil, 1890), Eng. trans. edited by H. Thurston, S.J., with valuable appendices and notes (London, 1898). A complete bibliography is given in U. Chevalier, Bio-bibliographie (Paris, 1905, 2206-2207); see also A. Potthast, Bibliotheca med. aev., 1380.
Hugh of Wells, one of King John’s officials and councillors, became bishop of Lincoln in 1209. He soon fell into disfavour with John, and the earlier years of his bishopric were mainly spent abroad, while the king seized the revenues of his see. However, he was one of John’s supporters when Magna Carta was signed, and after the accession of Henry III. he was able to turn his attention to his episcopal duties. His chief work was the establishment of vicarages in his diocese, thus rendering the parish priest more independent of the monastic houses; this policy, and consequently Hugh himself, was heartily disliked by Matthew Paris and other monastic writers. The bishop, who did some building at Lincoln and also at Wells, died on the 7th of February 1235.
St Hugh of Lincoln, a native of Lincoln, was a child about ten years old when he was found dead on premises belonging to a Jew. It was said, and the story was generally believed, that the boy had been scourged and crucified in imitation of the death of Jesus Christ. Great and general indignation was aroused, and a number of Jews were hanged or punished in other ways. The incident is referred to by Chaucer in the Prioresses Tale and by Marlowe in the Jew of Malta.
HUGH, called The Great (d. 956), duke of the Franks and count of Paris, son of King Robert I. of France (d. 923) and nephew of King Odo or Eudes (d. 898), was one of the founders of the power of the Capetian house in France. Hugh’s first wife was Eadhild, a sister of the English king, Æthelstan. At the death of Raoul, duke of Burgundy, in 936, Hugh was in possession of nearly all the region between the Loire and the Seine, corresponding to the ancient Neustria, with the exception of the territory ceded to the Normans in 911. He took a very active part in bringing Louis IV. (d’Outremer) from England in 936, but in the same year Hugh married Hadwig, sister of the emperor Otto the Great, and soon quarrelled with Louis. Hugh even paid homage to Otto, and supported him in his struggle against Louis. When Louis fell into the hands of the Normans in 945, he was handed over to Hugh, who released him in 946 only on condition that he should surrender the fortress of Laon. At the council of Ingelheim (948) Hugh was condemned, under pain of excommunication, to make reparation to Louis. It was not, however, until 950 that the powerful vassal became reconciled with his suzerain and restored Laon. But new difficulties arose, and peace was not finally concluded until 953. On the death of Louis IV. Hugh was one of the first to recognize Lothair as his successor, and, at the intervention of Queen Gerberga, was instrumental in having him crowned. In recognition of this service Hugh was invested by the new king with the duchies of Burgundy (his suzerainty over which had already been nominally recognized by Louis IV.) and Aquitaine. But his expedition in 955 to take possession of Aquitaine was unsuccessful. In the same year, however, Giselbert, duke of Burgundy, acknowledged himself his vassal and betrothed his daughter to Hugh’s son Otto. At Giselbert’s death (April 8, 956) Hugh became effective master of the duchy, but died soon afterwards, on the 16th or 17th of June 956.
HUGH CAPET (c. 938-996), king of France and founder of the Capetian dynasty, was the eldest son of Hugh the Great by his wife Hadwig. When his father died in 956 he succeeded to his numerous fiefs around Paris and Orleans, and thus becoming one of the most powerful of the feudatories of his cousin, the Frankish king Lothair, he was recognized somewhat reluctantly by that monarch as duke of the Franks. Many of the counts of northern France did homage to him as their overlord, and Richard I., duke of Normandy, was both his vassal and his brother-in-law. His authority extended over certain districts south of the Loire, and, owing to his interference, Lothair was obliged to recognize his brother Henry as duke of Burgundy. Hugh supported his royal suzerain when Lothair and the emperor Otto II. fought for the possession of Lorraine; but chagrined at the king’s conduct in making peace in 980, he went to Rome to conclude an alliance with Otto. Laying more stress upon independence than upon loyalty, Hugh appears to have acted in a haughty manner toward Lothair, and also towards his son and successor Louis V.; but neither king was strong enough to punish this powerful vassal, whose clerical supporters already harboured the thought of securing for him the Frankish crown. When Louis V. died without children in May 987, Hugh and the late king’s uncle Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine, were candidates for the vacant throne, and in this contest the energy of Hugh’s champions, Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, and Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., prevailed. Declaring that the Frankish crown was an elective and not an hereditary dignity, Adalberon secured the election of his friend, and crowned him, probably at Noyon, in July 987.
The authority of the new king was quickly recognized in his kingdom, which covered the greater part of France north of the Loire with the exception of Brittany, and in a shadowy fashion he was acknowledged in Aquitaine; but he was compelled to purchase the allegiance of the great nobles by large grants of royal lands, and he was hardly more powerful as king than he had been as duke. Moreover, Charles of Lorraine was not prepared to bow before his successful rival, and before Hugh had secured the coronation of his son Robert as his colleague and successor in December 987, he had found allies and attacked the king. Hugh was worsted during the earlier part of this struggle, and was in serious straits, until he was saved by the wiles of his partisan Adalberon, bishop of Laon, who in 991 treacherously seized Charles and handed him over to the king. This capture virtually ended the war, but one of its side issues was a quarrel between Hugh and Pope John XV., who was supported by the empire, then under the rule of the empresses Adelaide and Theophano as regents for the young emperor Otto III. In 987 the king had appointed to the vacant archbishopric of Reims a certain Arnulf, who at once proved himself a traitor to Hugh and a friend to Charles of Lorraine. In June 991, at the instance of the king, the French bishops deposed Arnulf and elected Gerbert in his stead, a proceeding which was displeasing to the pope, who excommunicated the new archbishop and his partisans. Hugh and his bishops remained firm, and the dispute was still in progress when the king died at Paris on the 24th of October 996.
Hugh was a devoted son of the church, to which, it is not too much to say, he owed his throne. As lay abbot of the abbeys of St Martin at Tours and of St Denis he was interested in clerical reform, was fond of participating in religious ceremonies, and had many friends among the clergy. His wife was Adelaide, daughter of William III., duke of Aquitaine, by whom he left a son, Robert, who succeeded him as king of France. The origin of Hugh’s surname of Capet, which was also applied to his father, has been the subject of some discussion. It is derived undoubtedly from the Lat. capa, cappa, a cape, but whether Hugh received it from the cape which he wore as abbot of St Martin’s, or from his youthful and playful habit of seizing caps, or from some other cause, is uncertain.
See Richerus, Historiarum libri IV., edited by G. Waitz (Leipzig, 1877); F. Lot, Les Derniers Carolingiens (Paris, 1891), and Études sur le règne de Hugues Capet (Paris, 1900); G. Monod, “Les Sources du règne de Hugues Capet,” in the Revue historique, tome xxviii. (Paris, 1891); P. Viollet, La Question de la légitimité à l’avènement à Hugues Capet (Paris, 1892); and E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1903-1905).
HUGH DE PUISET (c. 1125-1195), bishop of Durham, was the nephew of Stephen and Henry of Blois; the latter brought him to England and made him an archdeacon of the see of Winchester. Hugh afterwards became archdeacon and treasurer of York. In 1153 he was chosen bishop of Durham, in spite of the opposition of the archbishop of York; but he only obtained consecration by making a personal visit to Rome. Hugh took little part in politics in the reign of Henry II., remaining in the north, immersed in the affairs of his see. He was, however, present with Roger, archbishop of York, at the coronation of young Henry (1170), and was in consequence suspended by Alexander III. He remained neutral, as far as he could, in the quarrel between Henry and Becket, but he at least connived at the rebellion of 1173 and William the Lion’s invasion of England in that year. After the failure of the rebellion the bishop was compelled to surrender Durham, Norham and Northallerton to the king. In 1179 he attended the Lateran Council at Rome, and in 1181 by the pope’s order he laid Scotland under an interdict. In 1184 he took the cross. At the general sale of offices with which Richard began his reign (1189) Hugh bought the earldom of Northumberland. The archbishopric of York had been vacant since 1181. This vacancy increased Hugh’s power vastly, and when the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Geoffrey he naturally raised objections. This quarrel with Geoffrey lasted till the end of his life. Hugh was nominated justiciar jointly with William Longchamp when Richard left the kingdom. But Longchamp soon deprived the bishop of his place (1191), even going so far as to imprison Hugh and make him surrender his castle, his earldom and hostages. Hugh’s chief object in politics was to avoid acknowledging Geoffrey of York as his ecclesiastical superior, but this he was compelled to do in 1195. On Richard’s return Hugh joined the king and tried to buy back his earldom. He seemed on the point of doing so when he died. Hugh was one of the most important men of his day, and left a mark upon the north of England which has never been effaced. Combining in his own hands the palatinate of Durham and the earldom of Northumberland, he held a position not much dissimilar to that of the great German princes, a local sovereign in all but name.
See Kate Norgate’s England under the Angevin Kings (1887); Stubbs’s preface to Hoveden, iii.
HUGH OF ST CHER (c. 1200-1263), French cardinal and Biblical commentator, was born at St Cher, a suburb of Vienne, Dauphiné, and while a student in Paris entered the Dominion convent of the Jacobins in 1225. He taught philosophy, theology and canon law. As provincial of his order, which office he held during most of the third decade of the century, he contributed largely to its prosperity, and won the confidence of the popes Gregory IX., Innocent IV. and Alexander IV., who charged him with several important missions. Created cardinal-priest in 1244, he played an important part in the council of Lyons in 1245, contributed to the institution of the Feast of Holy Sacrament, the reform of the Carmelites (1247), and the condemnations of the Introductorius in evangelium aeternum of Gherardino del Borgo San Donnino (1255), and of William of St Amour’s De periculis novissimorum temporum. He died at Orvieto on the 19th of March 1263. He directed the first revision of the text of the Vulgate, begun in 1236 by the Dominicans; this first “correctorium,” vigorously criticized by Roger Bacon, was revised in 1248 and in 1256, and forms the base of the celebrated Correctorium Bibliae Sorbonicum. With the aid of many of his order he edited the first concordance of the Bible (Concordantiae Sacrorum Bibliorum or Concordantiae S. Jacobi), but the assertion that we owe the present division of the chapters of the Vulgate to him is false.
Besides a commentary on the book of Sentences, he wrote the Postillae in sacram scripturam juxta quadruplicem sensum, litteralem, allegoricum, anagogicum et moralem, published frequently in the 15th and 16th centuries. His Sermones de tempore et sanctis are apparently only extracts. His exegetical works were published at Venice in 1754 in 8 vols.
See, for sources, Quetif-Echard, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum; Denifle, in Archiv für Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, i. 49, ii. 171, iv. 263 and 471; L’Année dominicaine, iii. (1886) 509 and 883; Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis, i. 158.
(H. L.)
HUGH OF ST VICTOR (c. 1078-1141), mystic philosopher, was probably born at Hartingam, in Saxony. After spending some time in a house of canons regular at Hamersleben, in Saxony, where he completed his studies, he removed to the abbey of St Victor at Marseilles, and thence to the abbey of St Victor in Paris. Of this last house he rose to be canon, in 1125 scholasticus, and perhaps even prior, and it was there that he died on the 11th of February 1141. His eloquence and his writings earned for him a renown and influence which far exceeded St Bernard’s, and which held its ground until the advent of the Thomist philosophy. Hugh was more especially the initiator of a movement of ideas—the mysticism of the school of St Victor—which filled the whole of the second part of the 12th century. “The mysticism which he inaugurated,” says Ch. V. Langlois, “is learned, unctuous, ornate, florid, a mysticism which never indulges in dangerous temerities; it is the orthodox mysticism of a subtle and prudent rhetorician.” This tendency undoubtedly shows a marked reaction from the contentious theology of Roscellinus and Abelard. For Hugh of St Victor dialectic was both insufficient and perilous. Yet he did not profess the haughty contempt for science and philosophy which his followers the Victorines expressed; he regarded knowledge, not as an end in itself, but as the vestibule of the mystic life. The reason, he thought, was but an aid to the understanding of the truths which faith reveals. The ascent towards God and the functions of the “threefold eye of the soul”—cogitatio, meditatio and contemplatio—were minutely taught by him in language which is at once precise and symbolical.
Manuscript copies of his works abound, and are to be found in almost every library which possesses a collection of ancient writings. The works themselves are very numerous and very diverse. The middle ages attributed to him sixty works, and the edition in Migne’s Patr. Lat. vols. clxxv.-clxxvii. (Paris, 1854) contains no fewer than forty-seven treatises, commentaries and collections of sermons. Of that number, however, B. Hauréau (Les Œuvres de Hugues de St Victor (1st ed., Paris, 1859; 2nd ed., Paris, 1886) contests the authenticity of several, which he ascribes with some show of probability to Hugh of Fouilloi, Robert Paululus or others. Among those works with which Hugh of St Victor may almost certainly be credited may be mentioned the celebrated De sacramentis christianae fidei; the Didascalicon de studio legendi; the treatises on mysticism entitled Soliloquium de arrha animae, De contemplatione et ejus operibus, Aureum de meditando opusculum, De arca Noë morali, De arca Noë mystica, De vanitate mundi, De arrha animae, De amore sponsi ad sponsam, &c.; the introduction (Praenotatiunculae) to the study of the Scriptures; homilies on the book of Ecclesiastes; commentaries on other books of the Bible, e.g. the Pentateuch, Judges, Kings, Jeremiah, &c.
See B. Hauréau, op. cit. and Notices et extraits des MSS. latins de la Bibliothèque Nationale, passim; De Wulf, Histoire de la philosophie médiévale (Louvain, 1900), pp. 220-221; article by H. Denifle in Archiv für Literatur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, iii. 634-640 (1887); A. Mignon, Les Origines de la scholastique et Hugues de St Victor (Paris, 1895); J. Kilgenstein, Die Gotteslehre des Hugo von St Victor (1898).
(P. A.)
HUGHES, DAVID EDWARD (1831-1900), Anglo-American electrician, was born on the 16th of May 1831 in London, but the earlier part of his life was spent in America, whither his parents emigrated when he was about seven years old. In 1850 he became professor of music at the college of Bardstown, Kentucky, and soon afterwards his attainments in physical science procured his appointment as teacher of natural philosophy at the same place. His professorial career, however, was brief, for in 1854 he removed to Louisville to supervise the manufacture of the type-printing telegraph instrument which he had been thinking out for some time, and which was destined to make both his name and his fortune. The patent for this machine was taken out in the United States in 1855, and its success was immediate. After seeing it well established on one side of the Atlantic, Hughes in 1857 brought it over to his native country, where, however, the telegraph companies did not receive it with any favour. Two or three years afterwards he introduced it to the notice of the French Government, who, after submitting it to severe tests, ultimately adopted it, and in the succeeding ten years it came into extensive use all over Europe, gaining for its inventor numerous honours and prizes. In the development of telephony also Hughes had an important share, and the telephone has attained its present perfection largely as a result of his investigations. The carbon transmitters which in various forms are in almost universal use are modifications of a simple device which he called a microphone, and which consists essentially of two pieces of carbon, in loose contact one with the other. The arrangement constitutes a variable electrical resistance of the most delicate character; if it is included in an electric circuit with a battery and subjected to the influence of sonorous vibrations, its resistance varies in such a way as to produce an undulatory current which affords an exact representation of the sound waves as to height, length and form. These results were published in 1878, but Hughes did much more work on the properties of such microphonic joints, of which he said nothing till many years afterwards. When towards the end of 1879 he found that they were also sensitive to “sudden electric impulses, whether given out to the atmosphere through the extra current from a coil or from a frictional machine,” he in fact discovered the phenomena on which depends the action of the so-called “coherers” used in wireless telegraphy. But he went further and practised wireless telegraphy himself, surmising, moreover, that the agency he was employing consisted of true electric waves. Setting some source of the “sudden electric impulses” referred to above into operation in his house, he walked along the street carrying a telephone in circuit with a small battery and one of these microphonic joints, and found that the sounds remained audible in the telephone until he had traversed a distance of 500 yards. This experiment he showed to several English men of science, among others to Sir G. G. Stokes, to whom he broached the theory that the results were due to electric waves. That physicist, however, was not disposed to accept this explanation, considering that a sufficient one could be found in well-known electromagnetic induction effects, and Hughes was so discouraged at that high authority taking this view of the matter that he resolved to publish no account of his inquiry until further experiments had enabled him to prove the correctness of his own theory. These experiments were still in progress when H. R. Hertz settled the question by his researches on electric waves in 1887-1889. Hughes, who is also known for his invention of the induction balance and for his contributions to the theory of magnetism, died in London on the 22nd of January 1900. As an investigator he was remarkable for the simplicity of the apparatus which served his purposes, domestic articles like jam-pots, pins, &c., forming a large part of the equipment of his laboratory. His manner of life, too, was simple and frugal in the extreme. He amassed a large fortune, which, with the exception of some bequests to the Royal Society, the Paris Academy of Sciences, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and the Paris Société Internationale des Électriciens, for the establishment of scholarships and prizes in physical science, was left to four London hospitals, subject only to certain life annuities.
HUGHES, SIR EDWARD (c. 1720-1794), British admiral, entered the Royal Navy in 1735, and four years later was present at Porto Bello. In 1740 he became lieutenant, and in that rank served in the Cartagena expedition of 1741, and at the indecisive battle of Toulon (1744). In H.M.S. “Warwick” he was present at the action with the “Glorioso,” but in default of proper support from the “Lark” (which was sailing in company with the “Warwick”), the combat ended with the enemy’s escape. The commander of the “Lark” was subsequently tried and condemned for his conduct, and Hughes received the vacant command. Captain Hughes was with Boscawen at Louisburg and with Saunders at Quebec. He was in continual employment during the peace, and as Commodore commanded in the East Indies from 1773 to 1777. It was not long before he returned to the East as a rear-admiral, with an overwhelming naval force. On his outward voyage he retook Goree from the French, and he was called upon to conduct only minor operations for the next two years, as the enemy could not muster any force fit to meet the powerful squadron Hughes had brought from the Channel. In 1782 he stormed Trincomalee a few days before the squadron of Suffren arrived in the neighbourhood. For the next year these Indian waters were the scene of one of the most famous of naval campaigns. Suffren (q.v.) was perhaps the ablest sea-commander that France ever produced, but his subordinates were factious and unskilful; Hughes on the other hand, whose ability was that born of long experience rather than genius, was well supported. No fewer than five fiercely contested general actions were fought by two fleets, neither of them gaining a decisive advantage. In the end Hughes held his ground. After the peace he returned to England, and, though further promotions came to him, he never again hoisted his flag. He had accumulated considerable wealth during his Indian service, which for the most part he spent in unostentatious charity. He died at his seat of Luxborough in Essex in 1794.
HUGHES, HUGH PRICE (1847-1902), British Nonconformist divine, was born at Carmarthen on the 8th of February 1847, the son of a surgeon. He began to preach when he was fourteen, and in 1865 entered Richmond College to study for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry under the Rev. Alfred Barrett, one of whose daughters he married in 1873. He graduated at London University in 1869, the last year of his residence. He established in 1887 the West London Mission, holding popular services on Sunday in St James’s Hall, Piccadilly, when he preached from time to time on the housing of the poor, sweating, gambling and other subjects of social interest. In connexion with this mission he founded a sisterhood to forward the social side of the work, which was presided over by Mrs Hughes. He had started in 1885 the Methodist Times, and rapidly made it a leading organ of Nonconformist opinion. He was a born fighter, and carried the fire and eloquence he showed on the platform and in the pulpit into journalism. He supported Mr W. T. Stead in 1885, as he had earlier supported Mrs Josephine Butler in a similar cause; he attacked the trade in alcohol; was an anti-vivisectionist; he advocated arbitration; and his vehement attacks on Sir Charles Dilke and Charles Stewart Parnell originated the phrase the “Nonconformist conscience.” He differed strongly, however, from a large section of Nonconformist opinion in his defence of the South African War. He was long regarded with some distrust by the more conservative section of his own church, but in 1898 he was made president of the Wesleyan Conference He raised large sums for church work, amounting it is said to over a quarter of a million of money. His energies were largely devoted to co-operation among the various Nonconformist bodies, and he was one of the founders and most energetic members of the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches. He had long been in failing health when he died suddenly in London on the 17th of November 1902.
See his Life (1904) by his daughter, Dorothea Price Hughes.
HUGHES, JOHN (1677-1720), English poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marlborough, Wiltshire, on the 29th of January 1677. His father was a clerk in a city office, and his grandfather was ejected from the living of Marlborough in 1662 for his Nonconformist opinions. Hughes was educated at a dissenting academy in London, where Isaac Watts was among his fellow scholars. He became a clerk in the Ordnance Office, and served on several commissions for the purchase of land for the royal dockyards. In 1717 Lord Chancellor Cowper made him secretary to the commissions of the peace in the court of chancery. He died on the night of the production of his most celebrated work, The Siege of Damascus, the 17th of February 1720.
His poems include occasional pieces in honour of William III., imitations of Horace, and a translation of the tenth book of the Pharsalia of Lucan. He was an amateur of the violin, and played in the concerts of Thomas Britton, the “musical small-coal man.” He wrote some of the libretti of the cantatas (2 vols., 1712) set to music by Dr John Christopher Pepusch. To these he prefixed an essay advocating the claims of English libretti, and insisting on the value of recitative. Others of his pieces were set to music by Ernest Galliard and by Händel. In the masque of Apollo and Daphne (1716) he was associated with Pepusch, and in his opera of Calypso and Telemachus (1712) with John E. Galliard. He was a contributor to the Tatler, the Spectator and the Guardian, and he collaborated with Sir Richard Blackmore in a series of essays entitled The Lay Monastery (1713-1714). He persuaded Joseph Addison to stage Cato. Addison had requested Hughes to write the last act, but eventually completed the play himself. He wrote a version of the Letters of Abelard and Heloise ... (1714) chiefly from the French translation printed at the Hague in 1693, which went through several editions, and is notable as the basis of Pope’s “Eloisa to Abelard” (1717). He also made translations from Molière, Fontenelle and the Abbé Vertot, and in 1715 edited The Works of Edmund Spenser ... (another edition, 1750). His last work, the tragedy of The Siege of Damascus, is his best. It remained on the list of acting plays for a long time, and is to be found in various collected editions of British drama.
His Poems on Several Occasions, with some Select Essays in Prose ... were edited with a memoir in 1735, by William Duncombe, who had married his sister Elizabeth. See also Letters by several eminent persons (2 vols., 1772) and The Correspondence of John Hughes, Esq. ... and Several of his Friends ... (2 vols., 1773), with some additional poems. There is a long and eulogistic account of Hughes, with some letters, in the Biographia Britannica.
HUGHES, JOHN (1797-1864), American Roman Catholic divine, was born in Annaloghan, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, on the 24th of June 1797. In 1817 he followed his father to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He was ordained deacon in 1825 and priest in 1826; and as vicar in St Augustine’s and other churches in Philadelphia he took a prominent part in the defence of ecclesiastical authority against the lay trustee system. In 1837 he was consecrated coadjutor to Bishop Dubois in New York. In the New York diocese, of which he was made administrator in 1839 and bishop in 1842, besides suppressing (1841) church control by lay trustees, he proved himself an active, almost pugnacious, leader. His unsuccessful attempt to build in Lafargeville, Jefferson county, a seminary of St Vincent de Paul, was followed by the transfer of the school to Fordham, where St John’s College (now Fordham University) was established (1841), largely out of funds collected by him in Europe in 1839-1840. His demand for state support for parochial schools was favoured by Governor Seward and was half victorious: it was in this controversy that he was first accused of forming a Catholic party in politics. John McCloskey was consecrated his coadjutor in 1844; in 1847 the diocese of New York was divided; and in 1850 Hughes was named the first archbishop of New York, with suffragan bishops of Boston, Hartford, Albany and Buffalo. In the meantime, during the “Native American” disturbances of 1844, he had been viciously attacked together with his Church; he kept his parishioners in check, but bade them protect their places of worship. His attitude was much the same at the time of the Anti-Popery outcry of the “Know-Nothings” in 1854. His early anti-slavery views had been made much less radical by his travels in the South and in the West Indies, but at the outbreak of the Civil War he was strongly pro-Union, and in 1861 he went to France to counteract the influence of the Slidell mission. He met with success not only in France, but at Rome and in Ireland, where, however, he made strong anti-English speeches. He died in New York City on the 3rd of January 1864. Hughes was a hard fighter and delighted in controversy. In 1826 he wrote An Answer to Nine Objections Made by an Anonymous Writer Against the Catholic Religion; he was engaged in a bitter debate with Dr John Breckenridge (Presbyterian), partly in letters published in 1833 and partly in a public discussion in Philadelphia in 1835, on the subject of civil and religious liberty as affected by the Roman Catholic and the Presbyterian “religions”; in 1856, through his organ, the Metropolitan Record, he did his best to discredit any attempts by the Catholic press to forward either the movement to “Americanize” the Catholic Church or that to disseminate the principles of “Young Ireland.”
His works were edited by Laurence Kehoe (2 vols., New York, 1864-1865). See John R. G. Hassard, Life of the Most Rev. John Hughes (New York, 1866); and Henry A. Brann, John Hughes (New York, 1894), a briefer sketch, in “The Makers of America” series.
HUGHES, THOMAS, English dramatist, a native of Cheshire, entered Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1571. He graduated and became a fellow of his college in 1576, and was afterwards a member of Gray’s Inn. He wrote The Misfortunes of Arthur Uther Pendragon’s son reduced into tragical notes by Thomas Hughes, which was performed at Greenwich in the Queen’s presence on the 28th of February 1588. Nicholas Trotte provided the introduction, Francis Flower the choruses of Acts I. and II., William Fulbeck two speeches, while three other gentlemen of Gray’s Inn, one of whom was Francis Bacon, undertook the care of the dumb show. The argument of the play, based on a story of incest and crime, was borrowed, in accordance with Senecan tradition, from mythical history, and the treatment is in close accordance with the model. The ghost of Gorlois, who was slain by Uther Pendragon, opens the play with a speech that reproduces passages spoken by the ghost of Tantalus in the Thyestes; the tragic events are announced by a messenger, and the chorus comments on the course of the action. Dr W. J. Cunliffe has proved that Hughes’s memory was saturated with Seneca, and that the play may be resolved into a patchwork of translations, with occasional original lines. Appendix II. to his exhaustive essay On the Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy (1893) gives a long list of parallel passages.
The Misfortunes of Arthur was reprinted in J. P. Collier’s supplement to Dodsley’s Old Plays; and by Harvey Carson Grumline (Berlin, 1900), who points out that Hughes’s source was Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Britonum, not the Morte D’Arthur.
HUGHES, THOMAS (1822-1896), English lawyer and author, second son of John Hughes of Donnington Priory, editor of The Boscobel Tracts (1830), was born at Uffington, Berks, on the 20th of October 1822. In February 1834 he went to Rugby School, to be under Dr Arnold, a contemporary of his father at Oriel. He rose steadily to the sixth form, where he came into contact with the headmaster whom he afterwards idealized; but he excelled rather in sports than in scholarship, and his school career culminated in a cricket match at Lord’s. In 1842 he proceeded to Oriel, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1845. He was called to the bar in 1848, became Q.C. in 1869, a bencher in 1870, and was appointed to a county court judgeship in the Chester district in July 1882. While at Lincoln’s Inn he came under the dominating influence of his life, that of Frederick Denison Maurice. In 1848 he joined the Christian Socialists, under Maurice’s banner, among his closest allies being Charles Kingsley. In January 1854 he was one of the original promoters of the Working Men’s College in Great Ormond Street, and whether he was speaking on sanitation, sparring or singing his favourite ditty of “Little Billee,” his work there continued one of his chief interests to the end of his life. After Maurice’s death he held the principalship of the college. His Manliness of Christ (1879) grew out of a Bible class which he held there. Hughes had been influenced mentally by Arnold, Carlyle, Thackeray, Lowell and Maurice, and had developed into a liberal churchman, extremely religious, with strong socialistic leanings; but the substratum was still and ever the manly country squire of old-fashioned, sport-loving England. In Parliament, where he sat for Lambeth (1865-1868), and for Frome (1868-1874), he reproduced some of the traits of Colonel Newcome. Hughes was an energetic supporter of the claims of the working classes, and introduced a trades union Bill which, however, only reached its second reading. Of Mr Gladstone’s home rule policy he was an uncompromising opponent. Thrice he visited America and received a warm welcome, less as a propagandist of social reform than as a friend of Lowell and of the North, and an author. In 1879, in a sanguine humour worthy of Mark Tapley, he planned a cooperative settlement, “Rugby,” in Tennessee, over which he lost money. In 1848 Hughes had married Frances, niece of Richard Ford, of Spanish Handbook fame. They settled in 1853 at Wimbledon, and there was written his famous story, Tom Brown’s School-Days, “by an Old Boy” (dedicated to Mrs Arnold of Fox Howe), which came out in April 1857. It is probably impossible to depict the schoolboy in his natural state and in a realistic manner; it is extremely difficult to portray him at all in such a way as to interest the adult. Yet this last has certainly been achieved twice in English literature—by Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby, and by Hughes in Tom Brown. In both cases interest is concentrated upon the master, in the first a demon, in the second a demigod. Tom Brown did a great deal to fix the English concept of what a public school should be. Hughes also wrote The Scouring of the White Horse (1859), Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), Religio laici (1868), Life of Alfred the Great (1869) and the Memoir of a Brother. The brother was George Hughes, who was in the main the original “Tom Brown,” just as Dean Stanley was in the main the original of “Arthur.” Hughes died at Brighton, on 22nd March 1896. He was English of the English, a typical broad-churchman, full of “muscular Christianity,” straightforward and unsuspicious to a fault, yet attaching a somewhat exorbitant value to “earnestness”—a favourite expression of Doctor Arnold.
(T. Se.)
HUGLI, or Hooghly, the most westerly and commercially the most important channel by which the Ganges enters the Bay of Bengal. It takes its distinctive name near the town of Santipur, about 120 m. from the sea. The stream now known as the Hugli represents three western deltaic distributaries of the Ganges—viz. (1) the Bhagirathi, (2) the Jalangi and (3) part of the Matabhanga. The Bhagirathi and Jalangi unite at Nadia, above the point of their junction with the lower waters of the Matabhanga, which has taken the name of the Churni before the point of junction and thrown out new distributaries of its own. These three western distributaries are known as the Nadia rivers, and are important, not only as great highways for internal traffic, but also as the headwaters of the Hugli. Like other deltaic distributaries, they are subject to sudden changes in their channels, and to constant silting up. The supervising and keeping open of the Nadia rivers, therefore, forms one of the great tasks of fluvial engineering in Bengal. Proceeding south from Santipur, with a twist to the east, the Hugli river divides Nadia from Hugli district, until it touches the district of the Twenty-Four Parganas. It then proceeds almost due south to Calcutta, next twists to the south-west and finally turns south, entering the Bay of Bengal in 21° 41′ N., 88° E.
In the 40 miles of its course above Calcutta, the channels of the Hugli are under no supervision, and the result is that they have silted up and shifted to such an extent as to be no longer navigable for sea-going ships. Yet it was upon this upper section that all the famous ports of Bengal lay in olden times. From Calcutta to the sea (about 80 m.) the river is a record of engineering improvement and success. A minute supervision, with steady dredging and constant readjustment of buoys, now renders it a safe waterway to Calcutta for ships of the largest tonnage. Much attention has also been paid to the port of Calcutta (q.v.).
The tide runs rapidly on the Hugli, and produces a remarkable example of the fluvial phenomenon known as a “bore.” This consists of the head-wave of the advancing tide, hemmed in where the estuary narrows suddenly into the river, and often exceeds 7 ft. in height. It is felt as high up as Calcutta, and frequently destroys small boats. The difference from the lowest point of low-water in the dry season to the highest point of high-water in the rains is reported to be 20 ft. 10 in. The greatest mean rise of tide, about 16 ft., takes place in March, April or May—with a declining range during the rainy season to a mean of 10 ft., and a minimum during freshets of 3 ft. 6 in.
HUGLI, or Hooghly, a town and district of British India, in the Burdwan division of Bengal, taking their name from the river Hugli. The town, situated on the right bank of the Hugli, 24 m. above Calcutta by rail, forms one municipality with Chinsura, the old Dutch settlement, lower down the river. Pop. (1901) 29,383. It contains the Hooghly College at Chinsura, a Mahommedan college, two high schools and a hospital with a Lady Dufferin branch for female patients. The principal building is a handsome imambara, or mosque, constructed out of funds which had accumulated from an endowment originally left for the purpose by a wealthy Shia gentleman, Mahommed Mohsin. The town was founded by the Portuguese in 1537, on the decay of Satgaon, the royal port of Bengal. Upon establishing themselves, they built a fort at a place called Gholghat (close to the present jail), vestiges of which are still visible in the bed of the river. This fort gradually grew into the town and port of Hugli.
The District comprises an area of 1191 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 1,049,282, showing an increase of 1% in the decade. It is flat, with a gradual ascent to the north and north-west. The scenery along the high-lying bank of the Hugli has a quiet beauty of its own, presenting the appearance of a connected series of orchards and gardens, interspersed with factories, villages and temples. The principal rivers, besides the Hugli, are the Damodar and the Rupnarayan. As in other deltaic districts, the highest land lies nearest the rivers, and the lowest levels are found midway between two streams. There are in consequence considerable marshes both between the Hugli and the Damodar and between the latter river and the Rupnarayan. The district is traversed by the main line of the East Indian railway, with a branch to the pilgrim resort of Tarakeswar, whence a steam tramway has been constructed for a further distance of 31 m. The Eden canal furnishes irrigation, and there are several embankments and drainage works. Silk and indigo are both decaying industries, but the manufacture of brass and bell-metal ware is actively carried on at several places. There are several jute mills, a large flour mill, bone-crushing mills and a brick and tile works.
From an historical point of view the district possesses as much interest as any in Bengal. In the early period of Mahommedan rule Satgaon was the seat of the governors of Lower Bengal and a mint town. It was also a place of great commercial importance. In consequence of the silting up of the Saraswati, the river on which Satgaon was situated, the town became inaccessible to large ships, and the Portuguese settled at Hugli. In 1632 the latter place, having been taken from the Portuguese by the Mahommedans, was made the royal port of Bengal; and all the public offices and records were withdrawn from Satgaon, which rapidly fell into decay. In 1640 the East India Company established a factory at Hugli, their first settlement in Lower Bengal. In 1685, a dispute having taken place between the English factors and the nawab, the town was bombarded and burned to the ground. This was not the first time that Hugli had been the scene of a struggle deciding the fate of a European power in India. In 1629, when held by the Portuguese, it was besieged for three months and a half by a large Mahommedan force sent by the emperor Shah Jahan. The place was carried by storm; more than 1000 Portuguese were killed, upwards of 4000 prisoners taken, and of 300 vessels only 3 escaped. But Hugli district possesses historical interest for other European nations besides England and Portugal. The Dutch established themselves at Chinsura in the 17th century, and held the place till 1825, when it was ceded to Great Britain in exchange for the island of Sumatra. The Danes settled at Serampur in 1616, where they remained till 1845, when all Danish possessions in India were transferred to the East India Company. Chandernagore became a French settlement in 1688. The English captured this town twice, but since 1816 it has remained in the possession of the French.
See D. G. Crawford, A Brief History of the Hooghly District (Calcutta, 1903).
HUGO, GUSTAV VON (1764-1844), German jurist, was born at Lörrach in Baden, on the 23rd of November 1764. From the gymnasium at Carlsruhe he passed in 1782 to the university of Göttingen, where he studied law for three years. Having received the appointment of tutor to the prince of Anhalt-Dessau, he took his doctor’s degree at the university of Halle in 1788. Recalled in this year to Göttingen as extraordinary professor of law, he became ordinary professor in 1792. In the preface to his Beiträge zur zivilistischen Bücherkenntnis der letzten vierzig Jahre (1828-1829) he gives a sketch of the condition of the civil law teaching at Göttingen at that time. The Roman Canon and German elements of the existing law were, without criticism or differentiation, welded into an ostensible whole for practical needs, with the result that it was difficult to say whether historical truth or practical ends were most prejudiced. One man handed on the inert mass to the next in the same condition as he had received it, new errors crept in, and even the best of teachers could not escape from the false method which had become traditional. These were the evils which Hugo set himself to combat, and he became the founder of that historical school of jurisprudence which was continued and further developed by Savigny. His magna opera are the Lehrbuch eines zivilistischen Kursus (7 vols., 1792-1821), in which his method is thoroughly worked out, and the Zivilistisches Magazin (6 vols., 1790-1837). He died at Göttingen on the 15th of September 1844.
For an account of his life see Eyssenhardt, Zur Erinnerung an Gustav Hugo (Berlin, 1845).
HUGO, VICTOR MARIE (1802-1885), French poet, dramatist and romance-writer, youngest son of General J. L. S. Hugo (1773-1828), a distinguished soldier in Napoleon’s service, was born at Besançon on the 26th of February 1802. The all but still-born child was only kept alive and reared by the indefatigable devotion of his mother Sophie Trébuchet (d. 1821), a royalist of La Vendée. Educated first in Spain and afterwards in France, the boy whose infancy had followed the fortunes of the imperial camp grew up a royalist and a Catholic. His first work in poetry and in fiction was devoted to the passionate proclamation of his faith in these principles.
The precocious eloquence and ardour of these early works made him famous before his time. The odes which he published at the age of twenty, admirable for their spontaneous fervour and fluency, might have been merely the work of a marvellous boy; the ballads which followed them two years later revealed him as a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song. In 1823, at the age of twenty-one, he married his cousin Adèle Foucher (d. 1868). In the same year his first romance, Han d’Islande, was given to the press; his second, Bug-Jargal, appeared three years later. In 1827 he published the great dramatic poem of Cromwell, a masterpiece at all points except that of fitness for the modern stage. Two years afterwards he published Les Orientales, a volume of poems so various in style, so noble in spirit, so perfect in workmanship, in music and in form, that they might alone suffice for the foundation of an immortal fame. In the course of nine years, from 1831 to 1840, he published Les Feuilles d’automne, Les Chants du crépuscule, Les Voix intérieures and Les Rayons et les ombres.
That their author was one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets ever born into the world, any one of these volumes would amply suffice to prove. That he was the greatest tragic and dramatic poet born since the age of Shakespeare, the appearance of Hernani in 1830 made evident for ever to all but the meanest and most perverse of dunces and malignants. The earlier and even greater tragedy of Marion de Lorme (1828) had been proscribed on the ground that it was impossible for royalty to tolerate the appearance of a play in which a king was represented as the puppet of a minister. In all the noble and glorious life of the greatest poet of his time there is nothing on record more chivalrous and characteristic than the fact that Victor Hugo refused to allow the play which had been prohibited by the government of Charles X. to be instantly produced under the government of his supersessor. Le Roi s’amuse (1832), the next play which Hugo gave to the stage, was prohibited by order of Louis Philippe after a tumultuous first night—to reappear fifty years later on the very same day of the same month, under the eyes of its author, with atoning acclamation from a wider audience than the first. Terror and pity had never found on the stage word or expression which so exactly realized the ideal aim of tragic poetry among the countrymen of Aeschylus and Sophocles since the time or since the passing of Shakespeare, of Marlowe and of Webster. The tragedy of Lucrèce Borgia, coequal in beauty and power with its three precursors, followed next year in the humbler garb of prose; but the prose of Victor Hugo stands higher on the record of poetry than the verse of any lesser dramatist or poet. Marie Tudor (1833), his next play, was hardly more daring in its Shakespearean defiance of historic fact, and hardly more triumphant in its Shakespearean loyalty to the everlasting truth of human character and passion. Angelo, Tyran de Padoue (1835), the last of the tragic triad to which their creator denied the transfiguration of tragic verse, is inferior to neither in power of imagination and of style, in skill of invention and construction, and in mastery over all natural and noble sources of pity and of terror. La Esmeralda, the libretto of an opera founded on his great tragic romance of Notre-Dame de Paris, is a miracle of lyric melody and of skilful adaptation. Ruy Blas (1838) was written in verse, and in such verse as none but he could write. In command and in expression of passion and of pathos, of noble and of evil nature, it equals any other work of this great dramatic poet; in the lifelike fusion of high comedy with deep tragedy it excels them all. Les Burgraves, a tragic poem of transcendent beauty in execution and imaginative audacity in conception, found so little favour on the stage that the author refused to submit his subsequent plays to the verdict of a public audience.
Victor Hugo’s first mature work in prose fiction, Le Dernier Jour d’un condamné, has appeared thirteen years earlier (1829). As a tragic monodrama it is incomparable for sustained power and terrible beauty. The story of Claude Gueux, published five years later (1834), another fervent protest against the infliction of capital punishment, was followed by many other eloquent and passionate appeals to the same effect, written or spoken on various occasions which excited the pity or the indignation of the orator or the poet. In 1831 appeared the greatest of all tragic or historic or romantic poems in the form of prose narrative, Notre-Dame de Paris. Three years afterwards the author published, under the title of Littérature et philosophie mêlées, a compilation or selection of notes and essays ranging and varying in date and in style from his earliest effusions of religious royalism to the magnificent essay on Mirabeau which represents at once the historical opinion and the critical capacity of Victor Hugo at the age of thirty-two. Next year he published Le Rhin, a series of letters from Germany, brilliant and vivid beyond all comparison, containing one of the most splendid stories for children ever written, and followed by a political supplement rather pathetically unprophetic in its predictions.
At the age of thirty-eight he honoured the French Academy by taking his place among its members; the speech delivered on the occasion was characteristically generous in its tribute to an undeserving memory, and significantly enthusiastic in its glorification of Napoleon. Idolatry of his father’s hero and leader had now superseded the earlier superstition inculcated by his mother. In 1846 his first speech in the chamber of peers—Louis Philippe’s House of Lords—was delivered on behalf of Poland; his second, on the subject of coast defence, is memorable for the evidence it bears of careful research and practical suggestion. His pleading on behalf of the exiled family of Bonaparte induced Louis Philippe to cancel the sentence which excluded its members from France. After the fall and flight of the house of Orleans, his parliamentary eloquence was never less generous in aim and always as fervent in its constancy to patriotic and progressive principle. When the conspiring forces of clerical venality and political prostitution had placed a putative Bonaparte in power attained by perjury after perjury, and supported by massacre after massacre, Victor Hugo, in common with all honourable men who had ever taken part in political or public life under the government superseded by force of treason and murder, was driven from his country into an exile of well-nigh twenty years. Next year he published Napoléon le petit; twenty-five years afterwards, Histoire d’un crime. In these two books his experience and his opinion of the tactics which founded the second French empire stand registered for all time. In the deathless volume of Châtiments, which appeared in 1853, his indignation, his genius, and his faith found such utterance and such expression as must recall to the student alternately the lyric inspiration of Coleridge and Shelley, the prophetic inspiration of Dante and Isaiah, the satiric inspiration of Juvenal and Dryden. Three years after Les Châtiments, a book written in lightning, appeared Les Contemplations, a book written in sunlight and starlight. Of the six parts into which it is divided, the first translates into many-sided music the joys and sorrows, the thoughts and fancies, the studies and ardours and speculations of youth; the second, as full of light and colour, grows gradually deeper in tone of thought and music; the third is yet riper and more various in form of melody and in fervour of meditation; the fourth is the noblest of all tributes ever paid by song to sorrow—a series of poems consecrated to the memory of the poet’s eldest daughter, who was drowned, together with her husband, by the upsetting of a boat off the coast of Normandy, a few months after their wedding-day, in 1843; the fifth and the sixth books, written during his first four years of exile (all but one noble poem which bears date nine years earlier than its epilogue or postscript), contain more than a few poems unsurpassed and unsurpassable for depth and clarity and trenchancy of thought, for sublimity of inspiration, for intensity of faith, for loyalty in translation from nature, and for tenderness in devotion to truth; crowned and glorified and completed by their matchless dedication to the dead. Three years later again, in 1859, Victor Hugo gave to the world the first instalment of the greatest book published in the 19th century, La Légende des siècles. Opening with a vision of Eve in Paradise which eclipses Milton’s in beauty no less than in sublimity—a dream of the mother of mankind at the hour when she knew the first sense of dawning motherhood, it closes with a vision of the trumpet to be sounded on the day of judgment which transcends the imagination of Dante by right of a realized idea which was utterly impossible of conception to a believer in Dante’s creed: the idea of real and final equity; the concept of absolute and abstract righteousness. Between this opening and this close the pageant of history and of legend, marshalled and vivified by the will and the hand of the poet, ranges through an infinite variety of action and passion, of light and darkness, of terror and pity, of lyric rapture and of tragic triumph.
After yet another three years’ space the author of La Légende des siècles reappeared as the author of Les Misérables, the greatest epic and dramatic work of fiction ever created or conceived: the epic of a soul transfigured and redeemed, purified by heroism and glorified through suffering; the tragedy and the comedy of life at its darkest and its brightest, of humanity at its best and at its worst. Two years afterwards the greatest man born since the death of Shakespeare paid homage to the greatest of his predecessors in a volume of magnificent and discursive eloquence which bore the title of William Shakespeare, and might, as its author admitted and suggested, more properly have been entitled À propos de Shakespeare. It was undertaken with the simple design of furnishing a preface to his younger son’s translation of Shakespeare; a monument of perfect scholarship, of indefatigable devotion, and of literary genius, which eclipses even Urquhart’s Rabelais—its only possible competitor; and to which the translator’s father prefixed a brief and admirable note of introduction in the year after the publication of the volume which had grown under his hand into the bulk and the magnificence of an epic poem in prose. In the same year Les Chansons des rues el des bois gave evidence of new power and fresh variety in the exercise and display of an unequalled skill and a subtle simplicity of metre and of style employed on the everlasting theme of lyric and idyllic fancy, and touched now and then with a fire more sublime than that of youth and love. Next year the exile of Guernsey published his third great romance, Les Travailleurs de la mer, a work unsurpassed even among the works of its author for splendour of imagination and of style, for pathos and sublimity of truth. Three years afterwards the same theme was rehandled with no less magnificent mastery in L’Homme qui rit; the theme of human heroism confronted with the superhuman tyranny of blind and unimaginable chance, overpowered and unbroken, defeated and invincible. Between the dates of these two great books appeared La Voix de Guernesey, a noble and terrible poem on the massacre of Mentana which branded and commemorated for ever the papal and imperial infamy of the colleagues in that crime. In 1872 Victor Hugo published in imperishable verse his record of the year which followed the collapse of the empire, L’Année terrible. All the poet and all the man spoke out and stood evident in the perfervid patriotism, the filial devotion, the fatherly tenderness, the indignation and the pity, which here find alternate expression in passionate and familiar and majestic song. In 1874 he published his last great romance, the tragic and historic poem in prose called Quatrevingt-treize; a work as rich in thought, in tenderness, in wisdom and in humour and in pathos, as ever was cast into the mould of poetry or of fiction.
The introduction to his first volume of Actes et paroles, ranging in date from 1841 to 1851, is dated in June 1875; it is one of his most earnest and most eloquent appeals to the conscience and intelligence of the student. The second volume contains the record of his deeds and words during the years of his exile; like the first and the third, it is headed by a memorable preface, as well worth the reverent study of those who may dissent from some of the writer’s views as of those who may assent to all. The third and fourth volumes preserve the register of his deeds and words from 1870 to 1885; they contain, among other things memorable, the nobly reticent and pathetic tribute to the memory of the two sons, Charles (1826-1871) and François (1828-1873), he had lost since their common return from exile. In 1877 appeared the second series of La Légende des siècles; and in the same year the author of that colossal work, treating no less of superhuman than of human things, gave us the loveliest and most various book of song on the loveliest and simplest of subjects ever given to man, L’Art d’être grandpère. Next year he published Le Pape, a vision of the spirit of Christ in appeal against the spirit of Christianity, his ideal follower confronted and contrasted with his nominal vicar; next year again La Pitié suprême, a plea for charity towards tyrants who know not what they do, perverted by omnipotence and degraded by adoration; two years later Religions et religion, a poem which is at once a cry of faith and a protest against the creeds which deform and distort and leave it misshapen and envenomed and defiled; and in the same year L’Ane, a paean of satiric invective against the past follies of learned ignorance, and lyric rapture of confidence in the future wisdom and the final conscience of the world. These four great poems, one in sublimity of spirit and in supremacy of style, were succeeded next year by a fourfold gift of even greater price, Les Quatre Vents de l’esprit: the first book, that of satire, is as full of fiery truth and radiant reason as any of his previous work in that passionate and awful kind; the second or dramatic book is as full of fresh life and living nature, of tragic humour and of mortal pathos, as any other work of the one great modern dramatist’s; the third or lyric book would suffice to reveal its author as incomparably and immeasurably the greatest poet of his age, and one great among the greatest of all time; the fourth or epic book is the sublimest and most terrible of historic poems—a visionary pageant of French history from the reign and the revelries of Henry IV. to the reign and the execution of Louis XVI. Next year the great tragic poem of Torquemada came forth to bear witness that the hand which wrote Ruy Blas had lost nothing of its godlike power and its matchless cunning, if the author of Le Roi s’amuse had ceased to care much about coherence of construction from the theatrical point of view as compared with the perfection of a tragedy designed for the devotion of students not unworthy or incapable of the study; that his command of pity and terror, his powers of intuition and invention, had never been more absolute and more sublime; and that his infinite and illimitable charity of imagination could transfigure even the most monstrous historic representative of Christian or Catholic diabolatry into the likeness of a terribly benevolent and a tragically magnificent monomaniac. Two years later Victor Hugo published the third and concluding series of La Légende des siècles.
On the 22nd of May 1885 Victor Hugo died. He was given a magnificent public funeral, and his remains were laid in the Pantheon. The first volume published of his posthumous works was the exquisite and splendid Théâtre en liberté, a sequence if not a symphony of seven poems in dramatic form, tragic or comic or fanciful eclogues, incomparable with the work of any other man but the author of The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale in combination and alternation of gayer and of graver harmonies. The unfinished poems, Dieu and La Fin de Satan, are full to overflowing of such magnificent work, such wise simplicity of noble thought, such heroic and pathetic imagination, such reverent and daring faith, as no other poet has ever cast into deathless words and set to deathless music. Les Jumeaux, an unfinished tragedy, would possibly have been the very greatest of his works if it had been completed on the same scale and on the same lines as it was begun and carried forward to the point at which it was cut short for ever. His reminiscences of “Things Seen” in the course of a strangely varied experience, and his notes of travel among the Alps and Pyrenees, in the north of France and in Belgium, in the south of France and in Burgundy, are all recorded by such a pen and registered by such a memory as no other man ever had at the service of his impressions or his thoughts. Toute la lyre, his latest legacy to the world, would be enough, though no other evidence were left, to show that the author was one of the very greatest among poets and among men; unsurpassed in sublimity of spirit, in spontaneity of utterance, in variety of power, and in perfection of workmanship; infinite and profound beyond all reach of praise at once in thought and in sympathy, in perception and in passion; master of all the simplest as of all the subtlest melodies or symphonies of song that ever found expression in a Border ballad or a Pythian ode.
(A. C. S.)
Bibliography.—Victor Hugo’s complete works were published in a definitive edition at Paris in 58 volumes (1885-1902). The critical literature which has grown up round his name is very extensive, from the time of Sainte-Beuve onwards, and only a few of the more important books need here be mentioned for reference on biographical and other details: F. T. Marzials, Life of Hugo, with bibliography (1888); A. C. Swinburne, Study of Hugo (1886); E. Dupuy, Victor Hugo, l’homme et le poète (1886); Paul de Saint Victor, Victor Hugo (1885); F. Brunetière, Victor Hugo (1903); Jules Claretie, Victor Hugo, souvenirs intimes (1902). See also The Bookman for August 1904; Francis Gribble, “The Hugo Legend,” an adverse view, in Fortnightly Review (February 1910); and the article [French Literature].
HUGUENOTS, the name given from about the middle of the 16th century to the Protestants of France. It was formerly explained as coming from the German Eidgenossen, the designation of the people of Geneva at the time when they were admitted to the Swiss confederation. This explanation is now abandoned. The words Huguenot, Huguenote are old French words, common in 14th and 15th-century charters. As the Protestants called the Catholics papistes, so the Catholics called the Protestants huguenots. Henri Estienne, one of the great savants of his time, in the introduction to his Apologie d’Herodote (1566) gives a very clear explanation of the term huguenots. The Protestants at Tours, he says, used to assemble by night near the gate of King Hugo, whom the people regarded as a spirit. A monk, therefore, in a sermon declared that the Lutherans ought to be called Huguenots as kinsmen of King Hugo, inasmuch as they would only go out at night as he did. This nickname became popular from 1560 onwards, and for a long time the French Protestants were always known by it.
France could not stand outside the religious movement of the 16th century. It is true that the French reform movement has often been regarded as an offshoot of Lutheranism; up to I he middle of the century its adherents were known as Lutherans. But it should not be forgotten that so early as 1512 Jacobus Faber (q.v.) of Étaples published his Santi Pauli Epistolae xiv. ... cum commentariis, which enunciates the cardinal doctrine of reform, justification by faith, and that in 1523 appeared his French translation of the New Testament. The first Protestants were those who set the teachings of the Gospel against the doctrines of the Roman Church. As early as 1525 Jacques Pavannes, the hermit of Livry, and shortly afterwards Louis de Berquin, the first martyrs, were burned at the stake. But no persecution could stop the Reform movement, and on the walls of Paris and even at Amboise, on the very door of Francis I.’s bedroom, there were found placards condemning the mass (1534). On the 29th of January 1535 an edict was published ordering the extermination of the heretics. From this edict dates the emigration of French Protestants, an emigration which did not cease till the middle of the 18th century. Three years later (1538) at Strassburg the first French Protestant Church, composed of 1500 refugees, was founded.
Of all these exiles the most famous was John Calvin (q.v.), the future leader of the movement, who fled to Basel, where he is said to have written the famous Institutio christianae religionis, preceded by a letter to Francis I. in which he pleaded the cause of the reformers. The first Protestant community in France was that of Meaux (1546) organized on the lines of the church at Strassburg of which Calvin was pastor. The Catholic Florimond de Remond paid it the beautiful tribute of saying that it seemed as though “la chrétienté fut revenue en elle à sa primitive innocence.”
Persecution, however, became more rigorous. The Vaudois of Cabrières and Mérindol had in 1545 been massacred by the orders of Jean de Maynier, baron d’Oppède, lieutenant-general of Provence, and at Paris was created a special court in the parlement, for the suppression of heretics, a court which became famous in history as the Chambre ardente (1549). In spite of persecution the churches became more numerous; the church at Paris was founded in 1556. They realized the necessity of uniting in defence of their rights and their liberty, and in 1558 at Poitiers it was decided that all the Protestant churches in France should formulate by common accord a confession of faith and an ecclesiastical discipline. The church at Paris was commissioned to summon the first synod, which in spite of the danger of persecution met on the 25th of May 1559. The Synod of Paris derived its inspiration from the constitution introduced by Calvin at Geneva, which has since become the model for all the presbyterian churches. Ecclesiastical authority resides ultimately in the people, for the faithful select the elders who are charged with the general supervision of the church and the choice of pastors. The churches are independent units, and there can be no question of superiority among them; at the same time they have common interests and their unity must be maintained by an authority which is capable of protecting them. The association of several neighbouring churches forms a local council (colloque). Over these stands the provincial synod, on which each church is equally represented by lay delegates and pastors. Supreme authority resides in the National Synod composed of representatives, lay and ecclesiastic, elected by the provincial synods. The democratic character of this constitution of elders and synods is particularly remarkable in view of the early date at which it began to flourish. The striking individuality of the Huguenot character cannot be fully realized without a clear understanding of this powerful organization which contrived to reconcile individual liberty with a central authority.
The synod of 1559 was the beginning of a remarkable increase in the Reform movement; at that synod fifteen churches were represented, two years later, in 1561, the number increased to 2150. The parlements were powerless before this increase; thousands left the Catholic Church, and when it was seen that execution and popular massacre provided no solution of the difficulty the struggle was carried into the arena of national politics. On the side of the reformers were ranged some among the noblest Frenchmen of the age, Coligny, La Noue, Duplessis Mornay, Jean Cousin, Ramus, Marot, Ambroise Paré, Olivier de Serres, Bernard Palissy, the Estiennes, Hotman, Jean de Serres, with the princess Renée of France, Jeanne d’Albret, Louise de Coligny. The policy which refused liberty of conscience to the reformers and thus plunged the country into the horrors of civil war came near to causing a national catastrophe. For more than fifty years the history of the Huguenots is that of France (1560-1629). Francis II., who succeeded Henry II. at the age of sixteen, married Mary Stuart, and fell under the domination of the queen’s uncles, the Guises, who were to lead the anti-Reform party. The Bourbons, the Montmorencies, the Chatillons, out of hostility to them, became the chiefs of the Huguenots.
The conspiracy of Amboise, formed with the object of kidnapping the king (March 1560), was discovered, and resulted in the death of the plotters; it was followed by the proclamation of the Edict of Romorantin which laid an interdict upon the Protestant religion. But the reformers had become so powerful that Coligny, who was to become their most famous leader, protested in their name against this violation of liberty of conscience. The Guise party caused the prince of Condé to be arrested and condemned to death, but the sentence was not carried into effect, and at this moment Catherine de’ Medici became regent on the accession of Charles IX. She introduced Italian methods of government, alternating between concessions and vigorous persecution, both alike devoid of sincerity. For a moment, at the colloquy of Poissy (Oct. 1561), at which Roman Catholic and Protestant divines were assembled together and Theodore Beza played so important a part, it seemed as though a modus vivendi would be established. The attempt failed, but by the edict of January 1562, religious liberty was assured to the Huguenots. This, however, was merely the prelude to civil war, the signal for which was given by the Guises, who slaughtered a number of Huguenots assembled for worship in a barn at Vassy (March 1, 1562). The duke of Guise, entering Paris in triumph, transferred the court to Fontainebleau by a daring coup d’état in defiance of the queen regent. It was then that Condé declared “qu’on ne pouvait plus rien espérer que de Dieu et ses armes,” and with the Huguenot leaders signed at Orleans (April 11, 1562) the manifesto in which, having declared their loyalty to the crown, they stated that as good and loyal subjects they were driven to take up arms for liberty of conscience on behalf of the persecuted saints. The first civil war had already broken out; till the end of the century the history of France is that of the struggle between the Huguenots upholding “The Cause” (La Cause) and the Roman Catholics fighting for the Holy League (La Sainte Ligue). The leading events only will be related here (see also [France]: History). The Huguenots lost the battle of Dreux (Dec. 19, 1562), the duke of Guise was assassinated by Poltrot de Méré (Feb. 18, 1563) and finally Condé signed the Edict of Amboise which put an end to this first war. But the League gradually extended its action and Catherine de’ Medici entered into negotiations with Spain. The Huguenots, seeing their danger, renewed hostilities, but after their defeat at St Denis (Nov. 10, 1567) and the revolt of La Rochelle, peace was concluded at Longjumeau (March 23, 1568). This truce lasted only a few months. Pope Pius V. did not cease to demand the extermination of the heretics, and the queen mother finally issued the edict of the 28th of September 1568, which put the Huguenots outside the protection of the law. The Huguenots once more took up arms, but were defeated at Jarnac (March 13, 1569), and Condé was taken prisoner and assassinated by Montesquiou. But Jeanne d’Albret renewed the courage of the vanquished by presenting to them her son Henri de Bourbon, the future Henry IV. Coligny, whose heroic courage rose with adversity, collected the remnants of the Protestant army and by a march as able as it was audacious moved on Paris, and the Peace of St Germain was signed on the 8th of August 1570.
For a moment it seemed reasonable to hope that the war was at an end. Coligny had said that he would prefer to be dragged through the streets of Paris than to recommence the fighting; Charles IX. had realized the nobility and the patriotism of the man who wished to drive the Spaniards from Flanders; Henri de Bourbon was to marry Marguerite of France. Peace seemed to be assured when on the night of the 24th of August, 1572, after a council at which Catherine de’ Medici, Charles IX., the duke of Anjou and other leaders of the League assisted, there occurred the treacherous Massacre of St Bartholomew (q.v.) in which Coligny and all the leading Huguenots were slain. This date marks a disastrous epoch in the history of France, the long period of triumph of the Catholic reaction, during which the Huguenots had to fight for their very existence. The Paris massacre was repeated throughout France; few were those who were noble enough to decline to become the executioners of their friends, and the Protestants were slain in thousands. The survivors resolved upon a desperate resistance. It was at this time that the Huguenots were driven to form a political party; otherwise they must, like the Protestants of Spain, have been exterminated. This party was formed at Milhau in 1573, definitely constituted at La Rochelle in 1588, and lasted until the peace of Alais in 1629. The delegates selected by the churches bound themselves to offer a united opposition to the violence of the enemies of God, the king and the state. It is a profound mistake to attribute to them, as their enemies have done, the intention of overthrowing the monarchy and substituting a republic. They were royalists to the core, as is shown by the sacrifices they made for the sake of setting Henry IV. on the throne. It is true, however, that among themselves they formed a kind of republic which, according to the historian J. A. de Thou, had its own laws dealing with civil government, justice, war, commerce, finance. They had a president called the Protector of the Churches, an office held first by Condé and afterwards by the king of Navarre up to the day on which he became king of France as Henry IV. (1589). The fourth religious war, which had broken out immediately after the Massacre of St Bartholomew, was brought to an end by the pacification of Boulogne (July 16, 1573), which granted a general amnesty, but the obstinate intolerance of the League resulted in the creation of a Catholic party called “les Politiques” which refused to submit to their domination and offered aid to the Huguenots against the Guises. The recollections of the horrors of St Bartholomew’s night had hastened the death of Charles IX., the last of the Valois; he had been succeeded by the most debauched and effeminate of monarchs, Henry III. Once more war broke out. Henry of Guise, “le Balafré,” nephew of the cardinal of Lorraine, became chief of the League, while the duke of Anjou, the king’s brother, made common cause with the Huguenots. The peace of Monsieur, signed on the 5th of May 1576, marked a new victory of liberty of conscience, but its effect was ephemeral; hostilities soon recommenced and lasted for many years, and only became fiercer when the duke of Anjou died on the 10th of June 1584.
The fact that on the death of Henry III. the crown would pass to Henry of Navarre, the Protector of the Churches, induced the Guise party to declare that they would never accept a heretical monarch, and, at the instigation of Henry of Guise, Cardinal de Bourbon was nominated by them to succeed. Henry of Navarre since 1575 leader of the Huguenots, had year by year seen his influence increase, and now, faced by the machinations of the Guises, who had made overtures to Spain, declared that his only object was to free the feeble Henry III. from their influence. On the 20th of October 1587 he won the battle of Coutras, but on the 28th the foreign Protestants who were coming to his aid were routed by Guise at Montargis. The new body, known as “the Sixteen of Paris,” thereupon compelled Henry III. to sign the “Edict of Union” by which the cardinal of Bourbon was declared heir presumptive. The king could not, however, endure the humiliation of hearing Henry of Guise described as “king of Paris” and on the 23rd of December 1588 had him murdered together with the cardinal of Lorraine at the château of Blois. The League, now led by the duke of Mayenne, Guise’s brother, declared war to the knife upon him and caused him to be excommunicated. In his isolation Henry III. threw himself into the arms of Henry of Navarre, who saved the royalist party by defeating Mayenne and escorted the king with his victorious army to St. Cloud, whence he proposed to enter Paris and destroy the League. But Henry III., on the 1st of August 1589, was assassinated by the monk Jacques Clement, on his deathbed appointing Henry of Navarre as his successor.
This only spurred the League to redoubled energy, and Mayenne proclaimed the cardinal of Bourbon king with the title of Charles X. But Henry IV., who had already promised to maintain the Roman Church, gained new adherents every day, defeated the Leaguers at Arques in 1589, utterly routed Mayenne at Ivry on the 14th of March 1590, and laid siege to Paris. Cardinal de Bourbon having died in the same year and France being in a state of anarchy, Philip II. of Spain, in concert with Pope Gregory XIV., who excommunicated Henry IV., supported the claims of the infanta Isabella. Mayenne, unable to continue the struggle without Spanish help, promised to assist him, but Henry neutralized this danger by declaring himself a Roman Catholic at St Denis (July 25, 1593), saying, “Paris after all is worth a mass, in spite of the advice and the prayers of my faithful Huguenots.” “It is with anguish and grief,” writes Beza, “that I think of the fall of this prince in whom so many hopes were placed.” On the 22nd of March 1594 Henry entered Paris. The League was utterly defeated. Thus the Huguenots after forty years of strife obtained by their constancy the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes (April 13, 1598), the charter of religion and political freedom (see [Nantes, Edict of]).
The Protestants might reasonably hope that Henry IV., in spite of his abjuration of their faith, would remember the devoted support which they had given him, and that his authority would guarantee the observance of the provisions of the Edict. Unhappily twelve years afterwards, on the 14th of May 1610, Henry was assassinated by Ravaillac, leaving the great work incomplete. Once more France was to undergo the misery of civil war. During the minority of Louis XIII. power resided in the hands of counsellors who had not inherited the wisdom of Henry IV. and were only too ready to favour the Catholic party. The Huguenots, realizing that their existence was at stake, once more took up arms in defence of their liberty under the leadership of Henri de Rohan (q.v.). Their watchword had always been that, so long as the state was opposed to liberty of conscience, so long there could be no end to religious and civil strife, that misfortune and disaster must attend an empire of which the sovereign identified himself with a single section of his people. Richelieu had entered the king’s council on the 4th of May 1624; the destruction of the Huguenots was his policy and he pursued it to a triumphant conclusion. On the 28th of October 1628, La Rochelle, the last stronghold of the Huguenots, was obliged to surrender after a siege rendered famous for all time by the heroism of its defenders and of its mayor. The peace of Alais, which was signed on the 28th of June 1629, marks the end of the civil wars.
The Huguenots had ceased to exist as a political party and, in the assurance that liberty of conscience would be accorded to them, showed themselves loyal subjects. On the death of Louis XIII., the declaration of the 8th of July 1643 had guaranteed to the Protestants “free and unrestricted, exercise of their religion,” thus confirming the Edict of Nantes. The synods of Charenton (1644) and Loudun (1659) asserted their absolute loyalty to Louis XIV., a loyalty of which the Huguenots had given proof not only by their entire abstention from the troubles of the Fronde, but also by their public adherence to the king. The Roman Catholic clergy had never accepted the Edict of Nantes, and all their efforts were directed to obtaining its revocation. As long as Mazarin was alive the complaints of the clergy were in vain, but when Louis XIV. attained his majority there commenced a legal persecution which was bound in time to bring about the ruin of the reformed churches. The Edict of Nantes, which was part of the law of the land, might seem to defy all attacks, but the clergy found means to evade the law by demanding that it should be observed with literal accuracy, disregarding the changes which had been produced in France during more than half a century. The clergy in 1661 successfully demanded that commissioners should be sent to the provinces to report infractions of the Edict, and thus began a judicial war which was to last for more than twenty years. All the churches which had been built since the Edict of Nantes were condemned to be demolished. All the privileges which were not explicitly stated in the actual text of the Edict were suppressed. More than four hundred proclamations, edicts or declarations attacking the Huguenots in their households and their civil freedom, their property and their liberty of conscience were promulgated during the years which preceded the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In spite of all sufferings which this rigorous legislation inflicted upon them they did not cease to resist, and in order to crush this resistance and to compel them to accept the “king’s religion,” there were organized the terrible dragonnades (1683-1686) which effected the forcible conversion of thousands of Protestants who gave way under the tortures which were inflicted upon them. It was then that Louis XIV. declared that “the best of the larger part of our subjects, who formerly held the so-called reformed religion, have embraced the Catholic religion, and therefore the Edict of Nantes has become unnecessary”; on the 18th of October 1685 he pronounced its revocation. Thus under the influence of the clergy was committed one of the most flagrant political and religious blunders in the history of France, which in the course of a few years lost more than 400,000 of its inhabitants, men who, having to choose between their conscience and their country, endowed the nations which received them with their heroism, their courage and their ability.
There is perhaps no example in history of so cruel a persecution as this, which destroyed a church of which Protestant Europe was justly proud. At no period in its career had it numbered among its adherents so many men of eminence, Abbadie, Claude, Bayle, Du Bosc, Jurieu, Élie Benoist, La Placette, Basnage, Daillé, Mestrezat, Du Quesne, Schomberg, Ruvigny. There were no Huguenots left in France; those who, conquered by persecution, remained there were described as “New Catholics.” All the pastors who refused to abjure their faith were compelled to leave the country within fifteen days. The work was complete. Protestantism, with its churches and its schools, was destroyed. As Bayle wrote, “France was Catholic to a man under the reign of Louis the Great.”
Persecution had succeeded in silencing, but it could not convert the people. The Huguenots, before the ruins of their churches, remembered the early Christians and held their services in secret. Their pastors, making light of death, returned from the lands of their exile and visited their own churches to restore their courage. If any one denied the Catholic faith on his death-bed his body was thrown into the common sewers. The galleys were full of brave Huguenots condemned for remaining constant to the Protestant faith. For fifteen years the exiles continuously besought Louis XIV. to give them back their religious liberty. For a moment they hoped that the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) would realise their hopes, but Louis XIV. steadily declined to grant their requests. Despair armed the Cévennes, and in 1702 the war of the Camisards broke out, a struggle of giants sustained by Jean Cavalier with his mountaineers against the royal troops (see [Camisards] and [Cavalier], Jean). The Huguenots seemed to be finally conquered. On the 8th of March 1715 Louis XIV. announced that he had put an end to all exercise of the Protestant religion; but in this very year, on the 21st of August, while the king was dying at Versailles, there assembled together at Monoblet in Languedoc, under the presidency of a young man twenty years of age, Antoine Court, a number of preachers, as the pastors were then called, with the object of raising the church from its ruins. This was the first synod of the Desert. To re-establish the abandoned worship, to unite the churches in the struggle for liberty of conscience, such was the work to which Court devoted his life, and which earned for him the name of the “Restorer of Protestantism” (see [Court, Antoine]). In spite of persecution the Protestants continued their assemblies; the fear of death and of the galleys were alike powerless to break their resistance. On the demand of the clergy all marriages celebrated by their pastors were declared null and void, and the children born of these unions were regarded as bastards.
Protestantism, which persecution seemed to have driven from France, drew new life from this very persecution. Outlawed, exiles in their own country, deprived of all civil existence, the Huguenots showed an invincible heroism. The history of their church during the period of the Desert is the history of a church which refused to die. Amongst its famous defenders was Paul Rabaut, the successor of Antoine Court. Year by year the churches became more numerous. In 1756 there were already 40 pastors; several years later, in 1763, the date of the last synod of the Desert, their number had increased to 65. The question of Protestant marriages roused public opinion which could not tolerate the idea that Frenchmen, whose sole crime was their religious belief, should be condemned to civil death. The torture of Jean Calas, who was condemned on a false charge of having killed his son because he desired to become a Catholic, caused general indignation, of which Voltaire became the eloquent mouthpiece. Ideas of tolerance, of which Bayle had been the earliest advocate, became victorious, and owing to the devotion of Rabaut Saint-Étienne, son of Paul Rabaut, and the zeal of Lafayette, the edict of November 1787, in spite of the fierce opposition of the clergy, renewed the civil rights of the Huguenots by recognizing the validity of their marriages. Victories even greater were in store; two years later liberty of conscience was won. On the 22nd of August 1789 the pastor Rabaut Saint-Étienne, deputy for the sénéchaussée of Nîmes to the States General, cried out, “It is not tolerance which I demand, it is liberty, that my country should accord it equally without distinction of rank, of birth or of religion.” The Declaration of the Rights of Man affirmed the liberty of religion; the Huguenots had not suffered in vain, for the cause for which their ancestors and themselves had suffered so much was triumphant, and it was the nation itself which proclaimed the victory. But religious passions were always active, and at Montauban as at Nîmes (1790) Catholics and Protestants came to blows. The Huguenots, having endured the persecutions of successive monarchs, had to endure those of the Terror; their churches were shut, their pastors dispersed and some died upon the scaffold. On the 3rd of Ventose, year II. (February 21, 1795), the church was divorced from the state and the Protestants devoted themselves to reorganization. Some years later Bonaparte, having signed the Concordat of the 15th of July 1801, promulgated the law of the 18th of Germinal, year X., which recognized the legal standing of the Protestant church, but took from it the character of free church which it had always claimed. So great was the contrast between a past which recalled to Protestants nothing but persecution, and a present in which they enjoyed liberty of conscience, that they accepted with a profound gratitude a régime of which the ecclesiastical standpoint was so alien to their traditions. With enthusiasm they repeated the words with which Napoleon had received the pastors at the Tuileries on the 16th of Frimaire, year XII.: “The empire of the law ends where the undefined empire of conscience begins; law and prince are powerless against this liberty.”
The Protestants, on the day on which liberty of conscience was restored, could measure the full extent of the misery which they had endured. Of this people, which in the 16th century formed more than one-tenth of the population of France, there survived only a few hundred thousands; migration and persecution had more than decimated them. In 1626 there were 809 pastors in the service of 751 churches; in 1802 there were only 121 pastors and 171 churches; in Paris there was only a single church with a single pastor. The church had no faculty of theology, no schools, no Bible societies, no asylums, no orphanages, no religious literature. Everything had to be created afresh, and this work was pursued during the 19th century with the energy and the earnest faith which is characteristic of the Huguenot character.
At the fall of the Empire (1815) the reaction of the White Terror once more exposed the Protestants to outrage, and once more a number fled from persecution and sought safety in foreign countries. Peace having been established, attention was once more focussed on religious questions, and the period was marked in Protestantism by a remarkable awakening. On all sides churches were built and schools opened. It was an epoch of the greatest importance, for the church concentrated itself more and more on its real mission. During this period were founded the great religious societies:—Société biblique (1819), Société de l’instruction primaire (1829), Société des traités (1821), Société des missions (1822). The influence of English thought on the development of religious life was remarkable, and theology drew its inspiration from the writings of Paley, David Bogue, Chalmers, Ebenezer Erskine, Robert and James Alexander Haldane, which were translated into French. Later on German theology and the works of Kant, Neander and Schleiermacher produced a far-reaching effect. This was due to the period of persecution which had checked that development of religious thought which had been so remarkable a feature of French Protestantism of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Slowly Protestantism once more took its place in the national life. The greatest names in its history are those of Guizot and Cuvier; Adolf Monod, with Athanase Coquerel, stand in the front rank of pulpit orators. The Protestants associated themselves with all the great philanthropic works—Baron Jules Delessert founded savings banks, Baron de Staël condemned slavery, and all France united to honour the pastor, Jean Frédéric Oberlin. But the reformers, if they had no longer to fear persecution, had still to fight in order to win respect for religious liberty, which was unceasingly threatened by their adversaries. Numerous were the cases tried at this epoch in order to obtain justice. On the other hand the old union of the reformed churches had ceased to exist since the revolution of July. Ecclesiastical strife broke out and has never entirely ceased. A schism occurred first in 1848, owing to the refusal of the synod to draw up a profession of faith, the comte de Gasparin and the pastor Frédéric Monod seceding and founding the Union des Églises Évangéliques de France, separated from the state, of which later on E. de Pressensé was to become the most famous pastor. Under the Second Empire (1852-1870) the divisions between the orthodox and the liberal thinkers were accentuated; they resulted in a separation which followed on the reassembly of the national synod, authorized in 1872 by the government of the Third Republic. The old Huguenot church was thus separated into two parts, having no other link than that of the Concordat of 1802 and each possessing its own peculiar organization.
The descendants of the Huguenots, however, remained faithful to the traditions of their ancestors, and extolled the great past of the French reform movement. Moreover, in 1859 were held the magnificent religious festivals to celebrate the third centenary of the convocation of their first national synod; and when on the 18th of October 1885 they recalled the 200th anniversary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they were able to assert that the Huguenots had been the first defenders of religious liberties in France. In the early days of the 20th century the work of restoring French Protestantism, which had been pursued with steady perseverance for more than one hundred years, showed great results. This church, which in 1802 had scarcely 100 pastors has seen this number increased to 1000; it possesses more than 900 churches or chapels and 180 presbyteries. In contrast with the poverty of religious life under the First Empire it presented a striking array of Bible societies, missionary societies, and others for evangelical, educational, pastoral and charitable work, which bear witness to a church risen from its ruins. French Protestantism in the course of the 19th century reckoned among its members such eminent theologians as Timothée Colani (1824-1888), who together with Edmond Scherer founded the celebrated Revue de théologie de Strasbourg (1850); Edmond de Pressensé, editor of the Revue chrétienne, Charles Bois and Michel Nicolas, professors of theology at Montauban, Auguste Sabatier, professor of theology at the university of Paris, Albert Réville, professor at the Collège de France, Félix Pécaut, &c.; well-known preachers such as Eugène Bersier, Ernest Dhornbres, Ariste Viguré, Numa Recolin, Auguste de Coppet, and missionaries, for example Eugène Casalis and Coillard; Jean Bost, who founded the hospitals at Laforce; historians like Napoléon Peyrat, the brothers Haag, who wrote La France protestante, François Puaux, Charles Coquerel, Onesime Douen, Henri Bordier, Edouard Sayous, de Félice, Théophile Rollez; Jean Pédézert, Léon Pilatte and others, who were journalists; such statesmen as Guizot, Léon Say, Waddington; such scholars as Cuvier, Broca, Wurtz, Friedel de Quatrefages; such illustrious soldiers and sailors as Rapp, Admirals Baudin, Jauréguiberry, Colonel Denfert-Rochereau. But the population of Protestant France does not exceed 750,000 souls, without counting the Lutherans, who are attached to the Confession of Augsburg, numbering about 75,000. Their chief centres are in the departments of Gard, Ardèche, Drôme, Lozère, the Deux Sèvres and the Seine.
The law of the 9th of December 1905, which separated the church from the state, has been accepted by the great majority of Protestants as a legitimate consequence of the reform principles. Nor has its application given rise to any difficulty with the state. They used their influence only in the direction of rendering the law more liberal and immediately devoted themselves to the organization of their churches under the new régime. If the two great parties, orthodox and liberal, have each their particular constitution, nevertheless a third party has been formed with the object of effecting a reconciliation of all the Protestant churches and of thus reconstituting the old Huguenot church.
Bibliography.—A complete list of works is impossible. The following are the most important:—
General Authorities.—Bulletin de la société de l’histoire du protestantisme français (54 vols.), a most valuable collection, indispensable as a work of reference; Haag, La France protestante, lives of French Protestants (10 vols., 1846; 2nd ed., Henri Bordier, 6 vols., 1887); F. Puaux, Histoire de la Réformation française (7 vols., 1858) and articles “Calvin” and “France protestante” in Encyclopédie des sciences religieuses of Lichtenberger; Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (3 vols., London, 1832); Browning, History of the Huguenots (1 vol., 1840); G. A. de Félice, Histoire des protestants de France (1874).
Special Periods. The 16th Century.—H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (2 vols., New York, 1886), and History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France (New York, 1879); A. W. Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny (London, 1904); J. W. Thompson, The Wars of Religion in France, 1559-1576 (1909); Th. Beza, Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées au royaume de France (3 vols., Antwerp, 1580; new edition by G. Baum et Cunitz, 1883); Crespin, Histoire des martyrs persécutés et mis à mort pour la vérité de l’évangile (2 vols. in fol., Geneva, 1619; abridged translation by Rev. A. Maddock, London, 1780); Pierre de la Place, Commentaires sur l’état de la religion et de la république (1565); Florimond de Raemond, L’Histoire de la naissance, progrès et décadence de l’hérésie du siècle (1610); De Thou, Histoire universelle (16 vols.); Th. Agrippa D’Aubigné, Histoire universelle (3 vols., Geneva, 1626); Hermingard, Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de la langue française (8 vols., 1866), a scholarly work and the most trustworthy source for the history of the origin of French reform. “Calvini opera” in the Corpus reformatorum, edited by Reuss, Baum and Cunitz, particularly the correspondence, vols. x. to xxii.; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps (3 vols., 1899); G. von Polenz, Geschichte des französischen Calvinismus (5 vols., 1857); Étienne A. Laval, Compendious history of the reformation in France and of the reformed Church in that Kingdom from the first beginning of the Reformation to the Repealing of the Edict of Nantes (7 vols., London, 1737-1741); Soldan, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frankreich bis zum Tode Karls IX. (2 vols., 1855); Merle D’Aubigné, Histoire de la réformation en Europe au temps de Calvin (5 vols., 1863).
17th Century.—Élie Benoit, Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes (5 vols., Delft, 1693), a work of the first rank; Aymon, Tous les synodes nationaux des églises réformées de France (2 vols.); J. Quick, Synodicon (2 vols., London, 1692), important for the ecclesiastical history of French Protestantism; D’Huisseau, La Discipline des églises réformées de France (Amsterdam, 1710); H. de Rohan, Mémoires ... jusqu’en 1629 (Amsterdam, 1644); Jean Claude, Les Plaintes des Protestans de France (Cologne, 1686, new edition with notes by Frank Puaux, Paris, 1885); Pierre Jurieu, Lettres pastorales (3 vols., Rotterdam, 1688); Brousson, État des Réformés de France (3 vols., The Hague, 1685); Anquez, Histoire des assemblées politiques des réformés de France (1 vol., Paris, 1859); Pilatte, Édits et arrêts concernant la religion prétendue réformée, 1662-1711 (1889); Douen, Les Premiers pasteurs du Désert (2 vols., 1879); H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (2 vols., New York).
18th Century.—Peyrat, Histoire des pasteurs du Désert (2 vols., 1842); Ch. Coquerel, Histoire des églises du Désert (2 vols., 1841); E. Hugues, Antoine Court, Histoire de la restauration du protestantisme en France (2 vols., 1872); Les Synodes du Désert (3 vols., 1875); A. Coquerel, Jean Calas (1869); Court de Gebelin, Les Toulousaines (1763).
19th Century.—Die protestantische Kirche Frankreichs (2 vols., 1848); Annuaire de Rabaut 1807, de Soulier 1827, de De Prat 1862, (1878); Agenda protestant de Frank Puaux (1880-1894); Agenda annuaire protestant de Gambier (1895-1907); Bersier, Histoire du Synode de 1872 (2 vols.); Frank Puaux, Les Œuvres du protestantisme français au XIXe siècle. See also [Camisards], [Calvin], [Edict of Nantes].
(F. Px.)
HUGUES, CLOVIS (1851-1907), French poet and socialist, was born at Menerbes in Vaucluse on the 3rd of November 1851. He studied for the priesthood, but did not take orders. For some revolutionary articles in the local papers of Marseilles he was condemned in 1871 to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 6000 francs. In 1877 he fought a duel in which he killed his adversary, a rival journalist. Elected deputy by Marseilles in the general elections of 1881, he was at that time the sole representative of the Socialist party in the chambers. He was re-elected in 1885, and in 1893 became one of the deputies for Paris, retaining his seat until 1906. He died on the 11th of June 1907.
His poems, novels and comedies are full of wit and exuberant vitality.
His principal works are: Poèmes de prison (1875), written during his detention, Soirs de bataille (1883); Jours de combat (1883); and Le Travail (1889); the novels, Madame Phaéton (1885) and Monsieur le gendarme (1891); and the dramas, Une étoile (1888) and Le sommeil de Danton (1888).
HUICHOL (pronounced Veetchol—a corruption of the native name Vishalika or Virarika, doctors or healers), a tribe of Mexican Indians living in a mountainous region on the eastern side of the Chapalagana river, Jalisco. Huichol tradition assigns the south as their place of origin. Their name of “healers” is deserved, for about one-fourth of the men are Shamans. The Huichols are in much the same social condition as at the time of the Aztec empire. They were conquered by the Spaniards in 1722.
For full description of the people and their habits see Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (1903).
HUITZILOPOCHTLI, the supreme being in the religions of ancient Mexico, and as a specialized deity, the god of war. He was the mythic leader and chief divinity of the Aztecs, dominant tribe of the Nahua nation. As a humming-bird Huitzilopochtli was alleged to have led the Aztecs to a new home. E. B. Tylor (Primitive Culture, 4th ed., vol. ii. p. 307) calls him an “inextricable compound parthenogenetic deity”; and finds, in the fact that his chief festival (when his paste idol was shot through with an arrow, and afterwards eaten) was at the winter solstice, ground for believing that he was at first a nature-god, whose life and death were connected with the year’s. His idol was a huge block of basalt (still thought to be preserved in Mexico), on one side of which he is sculptured in hideous form, adorned with the feathers of the humming-bird. The ceremonies of his worship were of the most bloodthirsty character, and hundreds of human beings were murdered annually before his shrine, their limbs being eaten by his worshippers. When his temple was dedicated in 1486 it is traditionally reported that 70,000 people were killed. See [Mexico].
HULDA, in Teutonic mythology, goddess of marriage. She was a beneficent deity, the patroness and guardian of all maidens (see [Berchta]).
HULKE, JOHN WHITAKER (1830-1895), British surgeon and geologist, was born on the 6th of November 1830, being the son of a well-known medical practitioner at Deal. He was educated partly at a boarding-school in this country, partly at the Moravian College at Neuwied (1843-1845), where he gained an intimate knowledge of German and an interest in geology through visits to the Eifel district. He then entered King’s College school, and three years later commenced work at the hospital, becoming M.R.C.S. in 1852. In the Crimean War he volunteered, and was appointed (1855) assistant-surgeon at Smyrna and subsequently at Sebastopol. On returning home he became medical tutor at his old hospital, was elected F.R.C.S. in 1857, and afterwards assistant-surgeon to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields (1857), and surgeon (1868-1890). In 1870 he became surgeon at the Middlesex hospital, and here much of his more important surgical work was accomplished. His skill as an operator was widely known: he was an excellent general surgeon, but made his special mark as an ophthalmologist, while as a geologist he attained a European reputation. He was elected F.R.S. in 1867 for his researches on the anatomy and physiology of the retina in man and the lower animals, particularly the reptiles. He subsequently devoted all his spare time to geology and especially to the fossile reptilia, describing many remains of Dinosaurs, to our knowledge of which as well as of other Saurians he largely contributed. In 1887 the Wollaston medal was awarded to him by the Geological Society of London. He was president of both the Geological and Pathological Societies in 1883, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1893 until his death. He was a man with a wide range of knowledge not only of science but of literature and art. He died in London on the 19th of February 1895.
HULL, ISAAC (1775-1843), commodore in the U.S. navy, was born at Derby in Connecticut on the 9th of March 1775. He went to sea young in the merchant service and was in command of a vessel at the age of nineteen. In 1798 he was appointed lieutenant in the newly organized U.S. navy. From 1803 to 1805 he served in the squadron sent to chastise the Barbary pirates as commander of the “Enterprise,” but was transferred to the “Argus” in November of 1803. When the War of 1812 broke out he was captain of the U.S. frigate “Constitution” (44), and was on a mission to Europe carrying specie for the payment of a debt in Holland. The “Constitution” was shadowed by British men-of-war, but was not attacked. In July of that year, however, he was pursued by a squadron of British vessels, and escaped by good seamanship and the fine sailing qualities of the “Constitution.” He was to have been superseded, but put to sea before the officer who was to have relieved him arrived—an action which might have been his ruin if he had not signalized his cruise by the capture of the British frigate “Guerrière” (38). Captain Hull had been cruising off the Gulf of St Lawrence, and the engagement, which took place on the 19th of August, was fought south of the Grand Bank. The “Constitution” was a fine ship of 1533 tons, originally designed for a two-decker, but cut down to a frigate. The “Guerrière” was of 1092 tons and very ill-manned, while the “Constitution” had a choice crew. The British ship was easily overpowered. Hull received a gold medal for the capture of the “Guerrière,” but had no further opportunity of distinction in the war. After the peace he held a variety of commands at sea, and was a naval commissioner from 1815 to 1817. He had a high reputation in the United States navy for practical seamanship. He died at Philadelphia on the 13th of February 1843.
HULL, a city (1875) and railway junction of the province of Quebec, Canada, and the capital of Wright county, opposite the city of Ottawa. Pop. (1901) 13,988. The magnificent water-power of the Chaudière Falls of the Ottawa is utilized for the lighting of the city, the operation of a system of electric railways connecting Hull with Ottawa and Aylmer, and a number of large saw-mills, pulp, paper and match manufactories. Hull has gone through several disastrous fires, but since that of 1900, which swept out most of the town, an efficient system of fire protection has been established. Three bridges unite Ottawa and Hull. The city is governed by a council composed of a mayor and twelve aldermen elected annually. Champlain was the first white man to set foot on the site of Hull, but long before he came it was a favourite meeting-place for the Indians. Later it became familiar to explorers and fur-traders as the foot of the Chaudière portage, and many a canoe has been carried shoulder high over the site of future busy streets. Philemon Wright, of Woburn, Massachusetts, was the first man to settle here in 1800. The report he sent back was so favourable that a number of other families followed from the same place and laid the foundations of the future city. His descendants have remained among the substantial men of the town.
HULL (officially Kingston-upon-Hull), a city and county of a city, municipal, county and parliamentary borough, and seaport in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, at the junction of the river Hull with the Humber, 22 m. from the open sea, and 181 m. N. of London. Pop. (1891) 200,472; (1901) 240,259. Its full name, not in general use, is Kingston-upon-Hull. It is served by the North Eastern, Great Central and Hull & Barnsley railways, the principal station being Paragon Street. The town stands on a level plain so low as to render embankments necessary to prevent inundation. The older portion is completely enclosed by the Hull and Humber on the E. and S. and by docks on the N. and W. Here are narrow streets typical of the medieval mercantile town, though modern improvements have destroyed some of them; and there are a few ancient houses. In Holy Trinity church Hull possesses one of the largest English parish churches, having an extreme length of 272 ft. It is cruciform and has a massive central tower. This and the transepts and choir are of Decorated work of various dates. The choir is largely constructed of brick, and thus affords an unusually early example of the use of this material in English ecclesiastical architecture. The nave is Perpendicular, a fine example of the style. William Mason the poet (1725-1797) was the son of a rector of the parish. The church of St Mary, Lowgate, was founded in the 14th century, but is almost wholly a reconstruction. Modern churches are numerous, but of no remarkable architectural merit. Among public buildings the town-hall, in Lowgate, ranks first. It was completed in 1866, but was subsequently extended and in great part rebuilt; it is in Italian renaissance style, having a richly adorned façade. The exchange, in the same street, was also completed in 1866, in a less ornate Italian style. There are also theatres, a chamber of commerce, corn exchange, market-hall, custom-house, and the dock offices, a handsome Italian building. The principal intellectual institution is the Royal Institution, a fine classical building opened by Albert, prince consort, in 1854, and containing a museum and large library. It accommodates the Literary and Philosophical Society. The grammar school was founded in 1486. One of its masters was Joseph Milner (1744-1797), author of a history of the Church; and among its students were Andrew Marvell the poet (1621-1678) and William Wilberforce the philanthropist (1759-1833), who is commemorated by a column and statue near the dock offices, and by the preservation of the house of his birth in High Street. This house belongs to the corporation and was opened in 1906 as the Wilberforce and Historical Museum. There are also to be mentioned the Hull and East Riding College, Hymer’s College, comprising classical, modern and junior departments, the Trinity House marine school (1716), the Humber industrial school ship “Southampton,” and technical and art schools. Charities and benevolent foundations are numerous. Trinity House is a charity for seamen of the merchant service; the building (1753) was founded by the Trinity House Gild instituted in 1369, and contains a noteworthy collection of paintings and a museum. The Charterhouse belongs to a foundation for the support of the old and feeble, established by Sir Michael de la Pole, afterwards earl of Suffolk, in 1384. The infirmary was founded in 1782. Of the three parks, Pearson Park was presented by a mayor of that name in 1860, and contains statues of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. A botanic garden was opened in 1880.
The original harbour occupied that part of the river Hull which faced the old town, but in 1774 an act was passed for forming a dock on the site of the old fortifications on the right bank of the Hull. This afterwards became known as Queen’s dock, and with Prince’s and Humber docks completes the circle round the old town. The small railway dock opens from Humber dock. East of the Hull lie the Victoria dock and extensive timber ponds, and west of the Humber dock basin, parallel to the Humber, is Albert dock. Others are the Alexandra, St Andrew’s and fish docks. The total area of the docks is about 186 acres, and the owning companies are the North Eastern and the Hull & Barnsley railways. The ports of Hull and Goole (q.v.) have been administratively combined since 1888, the conservancy of the river being under the Humber Conservancy Board. Hull is one of the principal shipping ports for the manufactures of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and has direct communication with the coal-fields of the West Riding. Large quantities of grain are imported from Russia, America, &c., and of timber from Norway and Sweden. Iron, fish, butter and fruit are among other principal imports. The port was an early seat of the whale fisheries. Of passenger steamship services from Hull the principal are those to the Norwegian ports, which are greatly frequented during the summer; these, with others to the ports of Sweden, &c., are in the hands of the large shipping firm of Thomas Wilson & Co. A ferry serves New Holland, on the Lincolnshire shore (Great Central railway). The principal industries of Hull are iron-founding, shipbuilding and engineering, and the manufacture of chemicals, oil-cake, colours, cement, paper, starch, soap and cotton goods; and there are tanneries and breweries.
The parliamentary borough returns three members, an increase from two members in 1885. Hull became the seat of a suffragan bishop in the diocese of York in 1891. This was a revival, as the office was in existence from 1534 till the death of Edward VI. The county borough was created in 1888. The city is governed by a mayor, 16 aldermen and 48 councillors. Area, 8989 acres.
The first mention of Hull occurs under the name of Wyke-upon-Hull in a charter of 1160 by which Maud, daughter of Hugh Camin, granted it to the monks of Meaux, who in 1278 received licence to hold a market here every Thursday and a fair on the vigil, day and morrow of Holy Trinity and twelve following days. Shortly afterwards Edward I., seeing its value as a port, obtained the town from the monks in exchange for other lands in Lincolnshire and changed its name to Kingston-upon-Hull. To induce people to settle here he gave the town a charter in 1299. This granted two weekly markets on Tuesday and Friday and a fair on the eve of St Augustine lasting thirty days; it made the town a free borough and provided that the king would send his justices to deliver the prison when necessary. He sent commissioners in 1303 to inquire how and where the roads to the “new town of Kingston-upon-Hull” could best be made, and in 1321 Edward II. granted the burgesses licence to enclose the town with a ditch and “a wall of stone and lime.” In the 14th century the burgesses of Hull disputed the right of the archbishop of York to prisage of wine and other liberties in Hull, which they said belonged to the king. The archbishop claimed under charters of King Æthelstand and Henry III. The dispute, after lasting several years, was at length decided in favour of the king. In 1381 Edward III., while inspecting former charters, granted that the burgesses might hold the borough with fairs, markets and free customs at a fee-farm of £70, and that every year they might choose a mayor and four bailiffs. The king in 1440 granted the burgesses Hessle, North Ferriby and other places in order that they might obtain a supply of fresh water. The charter also granted that the above places with the town itself should become the county of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull. Henry VIII. visited the town in 1541, and ordered that a castle and other places of defence should be built, and Edward VI. in 1552 granted the manor to the burgesses. The town was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth in 1576 and a new charter was granted by James II. in 1688. During the civil wars Hull, although the majority of the inhabitants were royalists, was garrisoned by the parliamentarians, and Charles I. was refused admission by the governor Sir John Hotham. In 1643 it stood a siege of six weeks, but the new governor Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Baron Fairfax, obliged the Royalist army to retreat by opening the sluices and placing the surrounding country under water. Hull was represented in the parliament of 1295 and has sent members ever since, save that in 1384 the burgesses were exempted from returning any member on account of the expenses which they were incurring through fortifying their town. Besides the fairs granted to the burgesses by Edward I., two others were granted by Charles II. in 1664 to Henry Hildiard who owned property in the town.
See T. Gent, Annales Regioduni Hullini (York, 1735, reprinted 1869); G. Hadley, History of the Town and County of Kingston-upon-Hull (Hull, 1788); C. Frost, Notices relative to the Early History of the Town and Port of Hull (London, 1827); J. J. Sheaham, General and Concise History of Kingston-upon-Hull (London and Beverley, 1864).
HULL (in O. Eng. hulu, from helan, to cover, cf. Ger. Hülle, covering), the outer covering, pod, or shell of beans, peas, &c., also the enclosing envelope of a chrysalis. The word may be the same as “hull,” meaning the body of a ship without its masts or superstructure, &c., but in this sense the word is more usually connected with “hold,” the interior cargo-carrying part of a vessel. This word was borrowed, as a nautical term, from the Dutch, hol (cognate with “hole”), the d being due to confusion with “to hold,” “grasp” (O. Eng. healdan). The meanings of “hull” and “hold” are somewhat far apart, and the closest sense resemblance is to the word “hulk,” which is not known till about a century later.
HULLAH, JOHN PYKE (1812-1884), English composer and teacher of music, was born at Worcester on the 27th June 1812. He was a pupil of William Horsley from 1829, and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1833. He wrote an opera to words by Dickens, The Village Coquettes, produced in 1836; The Barbers of Bassora in 1837, and The Outpost in 1838, the last two at Covent Garden. From 1839, when he went to Paris to investigate various systems of teaching music to large masses of people, he identified himself with Wilhem’s system of the “fixed Do,” and his adaptation of that system was taught with enormous success from 1840 to 1860. In 1847 a large building in Long Acre, called St Martin’s Hall, was built by subscription and presented to Hullah. It was inaugurated in 1850 and burnt to the ground in 1860, a blow from which Hullah was long in recovering. He had risked his all in the maintenance of the building, and had to begin the world again. A series of lectures was given at the Royal Institution in 1861, and in 1864 he lectured in Edinburgh, but in the following year was unsuccessful in his application for the Reid professorship. He conducted concerts in Edinburgh in 1866 and 1867, and the concerts of the Royal Academy of Music from 1870 to 1873; he had been elected to the committee of management in 1869. In 1872 he was appointed by the Council of Education musical inspector of training schools for the United Kingdom. In 1878 he went abroad to report on the condition of musical education in schools, and wrote a very valuable report, quoted in the memoir of him published by his wife in 1886. He was attacked by paralysis in 1880, and again in 1883. His compositions, which remained popular for some years after his death in 1884, consisted mainly of ballads; but his importance in the history of music is owing to his exertions in popularizing musical education, and his persistent opposition to the Tonic Sol-Fa system, which had a success he could not foresee. His objections to it were partly grounded on the character of the music which was in common use among the early teachers of the system. While it cannot be doubted that Hullah would have won more success if he had not opposed the Tonic Sol-Fa movement so strenuously, it must be confessed that his work was of great value, for he kept constantly in view and impressed upon all who followed him or learnt from him the supreme necessity of maintaining the artistic standard of the music taught and studied, and of not allowing trumpery compositions to usurp the place of good music on account of the greater ease with which they could be read.
HULME, WILLIAM (1631-1691), English philanthropist, was born in the neighbourhood of Manchester, and died on the 29th of October 1691. Having lost his only son Banastre, Hulme left his property in trust to maintain “four exhibitioners of the poorest sort of bachelors for the space of four years” at Brasenose College, Oxford. This was the beginning of the Hulme Trust. Its property was in Manchester, and owing to its favourable situation its value increased rapidly. Eventually in 1881 a scheme was drawn up by the charity commissioners, by which (as amended in 1907) the trust is now governed. Its income of about £10,000 a year is devoted to maintaining the Hulme Grammar School in Manchester and to assisting other schools, to supporting a theological college, Hulme Hall, attached to the university of Manchester, and to providing a number of scholarships and exhibitions at Brasenose College.
See J. Croston, Hulme’s Charity (1877).
HÜLS, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, 4 m. N. of Crefeld and 17 N.W. of Düsseldorf by rail. Pop. (1905) 6510. It has two Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue and manufactures of damask and velvet. In the neighbourhood ironstone is obtained.
HULSE, JOHN (1708-1790), English divine, was born—the eldest of a family of nineteen—at Middlewich, in Cheshire, in 1708. Entering St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1724, he graduated in 1728; and on taking orders (in 1732) was presented to a small country curacy. His father having died in 1753, Hulse succeeded to his estates in Cheshire, where, owing to feeble health, he lived in retirement till his death in December 1790. He bequeathed his estates to Cambridge University for the purpose of maintaining two divinity scholars (£30 a year each) at St John’s College, of founding a prize for a dissertation, and of instituting the offices of Christian advocate and of Christian preacher or Hulsean lecturer. By a statute in 1860 the Hulsean professorship of divinity was substituted for the office of Christian advocate, and the lectureship was considerably modified. The first course of lectures under the benefaction was delivered in 1820. In 1830 the number of annual lectures or sermons was reduced from twenty to eight; after 1861 they were further reduced to a minimum of four. The annual value of the Hulse endowment is between £800 and £900, of which eight-tenths go to the professor of divinity and one-tenth to the prize and lectureship respectively.
An account of the Hulsean lectures from 1820 to 1894 is given in J. Hunt’s Religious Thought in the 19th Century, 332-338; among the lecturers have been Henry Alford (1841), R. C. Trench (1845), Christopher Wordsworth (1847), Charles Merivale (1861), James Moorhouse (1865), F. W. Farrar (1870), F. J. A. Hort (1871), W. Boyd Carpenter (1878), W. Cunningham (1885), M. Creighton (1893).
HUMACAO, a small city and the capital of a municipal district and department of the same name, in Porto Rico, 46 m. S.E. of San Juan. Pop. (1899) of the city, 4428; and of the municipal district, 14,313. Humacao is attractively situated near the E. coast, 9 m. from the port of Naguabo and a little over 6 m. from its own port of Punta Santiago, with which it is connected by a good road; a railway was under construction in 1908, and some of the sugar factories of the department are now connected by rail with the port. The department covers the eastern end of the island and includes all the islands off its coast, among which are Culebra and Vieques; the former (pop. in 1899, 704) has two excellent harbours and is used as a U.S. naval station; the latter is 21 m. long by 6 m. wide and in 1899 had a population of nearly 6000. Grazing is the principal industry, but sugar-cane, tobacco and fruit are cultivated. There are valuable forests in the mountainous districts, a part of which has been set aside for preservation under the name of the Luquillo forest reserve. Humacao was incorporated as a city in 1899. It suffered severely in the hurricane of 1898, the damage not having been fully repaired as late as 1906.
HUMANE SOCIETY, ROYAL. This society was founded in England in 1774 for the purpose of rendering “first aid” in cases of drowning and for restoring life by artificial means to those apparently drowned. Dr William Hawes (1736-1808), an English physician, became known in 1773 for his efforts to convince the public that persons apparently dead from drowning might in many cases be resuscitated by artificial means. For a year he paid a reward out of his own pocket to any one bringing him a body rescued from the water within a reasonable time of immersion. Dr Thomas Cogan (1736-1818), another English physician, who had become interested in the same subject during a stay at Amsterdam, where was instituted in 1767 a society for preservation of life from accidents in water, joined Hawes in his crusade. In the summer of 1774 each of them brought fifteen friends to a meeting at the Chapter Coffee-house, St Paul’s Churchyard, when the Royal Humane Society was founded. The society, the chief offices of which are at 4 Trafalgar Square, London, has upwards of 280 depôts throughout the kingdom, supplied with life-saving apparatus. The chief and earliest of these depôts is the Receiving House in Hyde Park, on the north bank of the Serpentine, which was built in 1794 on a site granted by George III. Boats and boatmen are kept to render aid to bathers, and in the winter ice-men are sent round to the different skating grounds in and around London. The society distributes money-rewards, medals, clasps and testimonials, to those who save or attempt to save drowning people. It further recognizes “all cases of exceptional bravery in rescuing or attempting to rescue persons from asphyxia in mines, wells, blasting furnaces, or in sewers where foul gas may endanger life.” It further awards prizes for swimming to public schools and training ships. Since 1873 the Stanhope gold medal has been awarded “to the case exhibiting the greatest gallantry during the year.” During the year 1905 873 persons were rewarded for saving or attempting to save 947 lives from drowning. The society is maintained by private subscriptions and bequests. Its motto is Lateat scintillula forsan, “a small spark may perhaps lie hid.” (See also [Drowning and Life-Saving].)
HUMANISM (from Lat. humanus, human, connected with homo, mankind), in general any system of thought or action which assigns a predominant interest to the affairs of men as compared with the supernatural or the abstract. The term is specially applied to that movement of thought which in western Europe in the 15th century broke through the medieval traditions of scholastic theology and philosophy, and devoted itself to the rediscovery and direct study of the ancient classics. This movement was essentially a revolt against intellectual, and especially ecclesiastical authority, and is the parent of all modern developments whether intellectual, scientific or social (see [Renaissance]). The term has also been applied to the philosophy of Comte in virtue of its insistence on the dignity of humanity and its refusal to find in the divine anything external or superior to mankind, and the same tendency has had marked influence over the development of modern Christian theology which inclines to obliterate the old orthodox conception of the separate existence and overlordship of God. The narrow sense of the term survives in modern university terminology. Thus in the University of Oxford the curriculum known as Litterae Humaniores (“Humane Literature”) consists of Latin and Greek literature and philosophy, i.e. of the “arts,” often described in former times as the “polite letters.” In the Scottish universities the professor of Latin is called the professor of “humanity.” The plural “humanities” is a generic term for the classics. In ordinary language the adjective “humane” is restricted to the sense of “kind-hearted,” “unselfish”: the abstract “humanity” has this sense and also the sense of “that which pertains to mankind” derived in this case with the companion adjective “human.”
HUMANITARIANS, a term applied (1) to a school of theologians who repudiate the doctrine of the Trinity and hold an extreme view of the person of Christ as simply human. The adoption of this position by men like Nathaniel Lardner, Joseph Priestley and Theophilus Lindsey in the middle of the 18th century led to the establishment of the first definitely organized Unitarian churches in England. (2) It is also applied to those who believe in the perfectibility of man apart from superhuman aid, especially those who follow the teaching of Pierre Leroux (q.v.). The name is also sometimes given to the Positivists, and in a more general sense, to persons whose chief principle of action is the desire to preserve others from pain and discomfort.
HUMAYUN (1508-1556), Mogul emperor of Delhi, succeeded his father Baber in India in 1530, while his brother Kamran obtained the sovereignty of Kabul and Lahore. Humayun was thus left in possession of his father’s recent conquests, which were in dispute with the Indian Afghans under Sher Shah, governor of Bengal. After ten years of fighting, Humayun was driven out of India and compelled to flee to Persia through the desert of Sind, where his famous son, Akbar the Great, was born in the petty fort of Umarkot (1542). Sher Shah was killed at the storming of Kalinjar (1545), and Humayun, returning to India with Akbar, then only thirteen years of age, defeated the Indo-Afghan army and reoccupied Delhi (1555). India thus passed again from the Afghanis to the Moguls, but six months afterwards Humayun was killed by a fall from the parapet of his palace (1556), leaving his kingdom to Akbar. The tomb of Humayun is one of the finest Mogul monuments in the neighbourhood of Delhi, and it was here that the last of the Moguls, Bahadur Shah, was captured by Major Hodson in 1857.
HUMBER, an estuary on the east coast of England formed by the rivers Trent and Ouse, the northern shore belonging to Yorkshire and the southern to Lincolnshire. The junction of these two important rivers is near the village of Faxfleet, from which point the course of the Humber runs E. for 18 m., and then S.E. for 19 m. to the North Sea. The total area draining to the Humber is 9293 sq. m. The width of the estuary is 1 m. at the head, gradually widening to 3½ m. at 8 m. above the mouth, but here, with a great shallow bay on the Yorkshire side, it increases to 8 m. in width. The seaward horn of this bay, however, is formed by a narrow protruding bank of sand and stones, thrown up by a southward current along the Yorkshire coast, and known as Spurn Head. This reduces the width of the Humber mouth to 5½ m. Except where the Humber cuts through a low chalk ridge, between north and south Ferriby, dividing it into the Wolds of Yorkshire and of Lincolnshire, the shores and adjacent lands are nearly flat. The water is muddy; and the course for shipping considerably exceeds in length the distances given above, by reason of the numerous shoals it is necessary to avoid. The course is carefully buoyed and lighted, for the Humber is an important highway of commerce, having on the Yorkshire bank the great port of Hull, and on the Lincolnshire bank that of Grimsby, while Goole lies on the Ouse a little above the junction with the Trent. Canals connect with the great manufacturing district of South Yorkshire, and the Trent opens up wide communications with the Midlands. The phenomenon of the tidal bore is sometimes seen on the Humber. The action of the river upon the flat Yorkshire shore towards the mouth alters the shore-line constantly. Many ancient villages have disappeared entirely, notably Ravenspur or Ravenser, once a port, represented in parliament under Edward I., and the scene of the landing of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry IV., in 1399. Soon after this the town, which lay immediately inside Spurn Point, must have been destroyed.
HUMBERT, RANIERI CARLO EMANUELE GIOVANNI MARIA FERDINANDO EUGENIO, King of Italy (1844-1900), son of Victor Emmanuel II. and of Adelaide, archduchess of Austria, was born at Turin, capital of the kingdom of Sardinia, on the 14th of March 1844. His education was entrusted to the most eminent men of his time, amongst others to Massimo d’Azeglio and Pasquale Stanislao Mancini. Entering the army on the 14th of March 1858 with the rank of captain, he was present at the battle of Solferino in 1859, and in 1866 commanded a division at Custozza. Attacked by the Austrian cavalry near Villafranca, he formed his troops into squares and drove the assailants towards Sommacampagna, remaining himself throughout the action in the square most exposed to attack. With Bixio he covered the retreat of the Italian army, receiving the gold medal for valour. On the 21st of April 1868 he married his cousin, Margherita Teresa Giovanna, princess of Savoy, daughter of the duke of Genoa (born at Turin on the 20th of November 1851). On the 11th of November 1869 Margherita gave birth to Victor Emmanuel, prince of Naples, afterwards Victor Emmanuel III. of Italy. Ascending the throne on the death of his father (9th January 1878), Humbert adopted the style “Humbert I. of Italy” instead of Humbert IV., and consented that the remains of his father should be interred at Rome in the Pantheon, and not in the royal mausoleum of Superga (see Crispi). Accompanied by the premier, Cairoli, he began a tour of the provinces of his kingdom, but on entering Naples (November 17, 1878), amid the acclamations of an immense crowd, was attacked by a fanatic named Passanante. The king warded off the blow with his sabre, but Cairoli, in attempting to defend him, was severely wounded in the thigh. The would-be assassin was condemned to death, but the sentence was by the king commuted to one of penal servitude for life. The occurrence upset for several years the health of Queen Margherita. In 1881 King Humbert, again accompanied by Cairoli, resumed his interrupted tour, and visited Sicily and the southern Italian provinces. In 1882 he took a prominent part in the national mourning for Garibaldi, whose tomb at Caprera he repeatedly visited. When, in the autumn of 1882, Verona and Venetia were inundated, he hastened to the spot, directed salvage operations, and provided large sums of money for the destitute. Similarly, on the 28th of July 1883, he hurried to Ischia, where an earthquake had engulfed some 5000 persons. Countermanding the order of the minister of public works to cover the ruins with quicklime, the king prosecuted salvage operations for five days longer, and personally saved many victims at the risk of his own life. In 1884 he visited Busca and Naples, where cholera was raging, helping with money and advice the numerous sufferers, and raising the spirit of the population. Compared with the reigns of his grandfather, Charles Albert, and of his father, Victor Emmanuel, the reign of Humbert was tranquil. Scrupulously observant of constitutional principles, he followed, as far as practicable, parliamentary indications in his choice of premiers, only one of whom—Rudini—was drawn from the Conservative ranks. In foreign policy he approved of the conclusion of the Triple Alliance, and, in repeated visits to Vienna and Berlin, established and consolidated the pact. Towards Great Britain his attitude was invariably cordial, and he considered the Triple Alliance imperfect unless supplemented by an Anglo-Italian naval entente. Favourably disposed towards the policy of colonial expansion inaugurated in 1885 by the occupation of Massawa, he was suspected of aspiring to a vast empire in north-east Africa, a suspicion which tended somewhat to diminish his popularity after the disaster of Adowa on the 1st of March 1896. On the other hand, his popularity was enhanced by the firmness of his attitude towards the Vatican, as exemplified in his telegram declaring Rome “intangible” (September 20, 1886), and affirming the permanence of the Italian possession of the Eternal City. Above all King Humbert was a soldier, jealous of the honour and prestige of the army to such a degree that he promoted a duel between his nephew, the count of Turin, and Prince Henry of Orleans (August 15, 1897) on account of the aspersions cast by the latter upon Italian arms. The claims of King Humbert upon popular gratitude and affection were enhanced by his extraordinary munificence, which was not merely displayed on public occasions, but directed to the relief of innumerable private wants into which he had made personal inquiry. It has been calculated that at least £100,000 per annum was expended by the king in this way. The regard in which he was universally held was abundantly demonstrated on the occasion of the unsuccessful attempt upon his life made by the anarchist Acciarito near Rome on the 22nd of April 1897, and still more after his tragic assassination at Monza by the anarchist Bresci on the evening of the 29th of July 1900. Good-humoured, active, tender-hearted, somewhat fatalistic, but, above all, generous, he was spontaneously called “Humbert the Good.” He was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, by the side of Victor Emmanuel II., on the 9th of August 1900.
(H. W. S.)
HUMBOLDT, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDER, Baron von (1769-1859), German naturalist and traveller, was born at Berlin, on the 14th of September 1769. His father, who was a major in the Prussian army, belonged to a Pomeranian family of consideration, and was rewarded for his services during the Seven Years’ War with the post of royal chamberlain. He married in 1766 Maria Elizabeth von Colomb, widow of Baron von Hollwede, and had by her two sons, of whom the younger is the subject of this article. The childhood of Alexander von Humboldt was not a promising one as regards either health or intellect. His characteristic tastes, however, soon displayed themselves; and from his fancy for collecting and labelling plants, shells and insects he received the playful title of “the little apothecary.” The care of his education, on the unexpected death of his father in 1779, devolved upon his mother, who discharged the trust with constancy and judgment. Destined for a political career, he studied finance during six months at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder; and a year later, April 25, 1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then eminent for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and J. F. Blumenbach. His vast and varied powers were by this time fully developed; and during the vacation of 1789 he gave a fair earnest of his future performances in a scientific excursion up the Rhine, and in the treatise thence issuing, Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein (Brunswick, 1790). His native passion for distant travel was confirmed by the friendship formed by him at Göttingen with George Forster, Heyne’s son-in-law, the distinguished companion of Captain Cook’s second voyage. Henceforth his studies, which his rare combination of parts enabled him to render at once multifarious, rapid and profound, were directed with extraordinary insight and perseverance to the purpose of preparing himself for his distinctive calling as a scientific explorer. With this view he studied commerce and foreign languages at Hamburg, geology at Freiberg under A. G. Werner, anatomy at Jena under J. C. Loder, astronomy and the use of scientific instruments under F. X. von Zach and J. G. Köhler. His researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to the publication in 1793 of his Florae Fribergensis Specimen; and the results of a prolonged course of experiments on the phenomena of muscular irritability, then recently discovered by L. Galvani, were contained in his Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797), enriched in the French translation with notes by Blumenbach.
In 1794 he was admitted to the intimacy of the famous Weimar coterie, and contributed (June 1795) to Schiller’s new periodical, Die Horen, a philosophical allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische Genius. In the summer of 1790 he paid a flying visit to England in company with Forster. In 1792 and 1797 he was in Vienna; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour through Switzerland and Italy. He had obtained in the meantime official employment, having been appointed assessor of mines at Berlin, February 29, 1792. Although the service of the state was consistently regarded by him but as an apprenticeship to the service of science, he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that he not only rapidly rose to the highest post in his department, but was besides entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. The death of his mother, on the 19th of November 1796, set him free to follow the bent of his genius, and, finally severing his official connexions, he waited for an opportunity of executing his long-cherished schemes of travel. On the postponement of Captain Baudin’s proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, he left Paris for Marseilles with Aimé Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Bonaparte in Egypt. Means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the minister d’Urquijo determined them to make Spanish America the scene of their explorations.
Armed with powerful recommendations, they sailed in the “Pizarro” from Corunna, on the 5th of June 1799, stopped six days at Teneriffe for the ascent of the Peak, and landed, on the 16th of July, at Cumana. There Humboldt observed, on the night of the 12-13th of November, that remarkable meteor-shower which forms the starting-point of our acquaintance with the periodicity of the phenomenon; thence he proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas; and in February 1800 he left the coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco. This trip, which lasted four months, and covered 1725 m. of wild and uninhabited country, had the important result of establishing the existence of a communication between the water-systems of the Orinoco and Amazon, and of determining the exact position of the bifurcation. On the 24th of November the two friends set sail for Cuba, and after a stay of some months regained the mainland at Cartagena. Ascending the swollen stream of the Magdalena, and crossing the frozen ridges of the Cordilleras, they reached Quito after a tedious and difficult journey on the 6th of January 1802. Their stay there was signalized by the ascent of Pichincha and Chimborazo, and terminated in an expedition to the sources of the Amazon en route for Lima. At Callao Humboldt observed the transit of Mercury on the 9th of November, and studied the fertilizing properties of guano, the introduction of which into Europe was mainly due to his writings. A tempestuous sea-voyage brought them to the shores of Mexico, and after a year’s residence in that province, followed by a short visit to the United States, they set sail for Europe from the mouth of the Delaware, and landed at Bordeaux on the 3rd of August 1804.
Humboldt may justly be regarded as having in this memorable expedition laid the foundation in their larger bearings of the sciences of physical geography and meteorology. By his delineation (in 1817) of “isothermal lines,” he at once suggested the idea and devised the means of comparing the climatic conditions of various countries. He first investigated the rate of decrease in mean temperature with increase of elevation above the sea-level, and afforded, by his inquiries into the origin of tropical storms, the earliest clue to the detection of the more complicated law governing atmospheric disturbances in higher latitudes; while his essay on the geography of plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the distribution of organic life as affected by varying physical conditions. His discovery of the decrease in intensity of the earth’s magnetic force from the poles to the equator was communicated to the Paris Institute in a memoir read by him on the 7th of December 1804, and its importance was attested by the speedy emergence of rival claims. His services to geology were mainly based on his attentive study of the volcanoes of the New World. He showed that they fell naturally into linear groups, presumably corresponding with vast subterranean fissures; and by his demonstration of the igneous origin of rocks previously held to be of aqueous formation, he contributed largely to the elimination of erroneous views.
The reduction into form and publication of the encyclopaedic mass of materials—scientific, political and archaeological—collected by him during his absence from Europe was now Humboldt’s most urgent desire. After a short trip to Italy with Gay-Lussac for the purpose of investigating the law of magnetic declination, and a sojourn of two years and a half in his native city, he finally, in the spring of 1808, settled in Paris with the purpose of securing the scientific co-operation required for bringing his great work through the press. This colossal task, which he at first hoped would have occupied but two years, eventually cost him twenty-one, and even then remained incomplete. With the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte, he was the most famous man in Europe. A chorus of applause greeted him from every side. Academies, both native and foreign, were eager to enrol him among their members. Frederick William III. of Prussia conferred upon him the honour, without exacting the duties, attached to the post of royal chamberlain, together with a pension of 2500 thalers, afterwards doubled. He refused the appointment of Prussian minister of public instruction in 1810. In 1814 he accompanied the allied sovereigns to London. Three years later he was summoned by the king of Prussia to attend him at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Again in the autumn of 1822 he accompanied the same monarch to the congress of Verona, proceeded thence with the royal party to Rome and Naples, and returned to Paris in the spring of 1823.
The French capital he had long regarded as his true home. There he found, not only scientific sympathy, but the social stimulus which his vigorous and healthy mind eagerly craved. He was equally in his element as the lion of the salons and as the savant of the institute and the observatory. Thus, when at last he received from his sovereign a summons to join his court at Berlin, he obeyed indeed, but with deep and lasting regret. The provincialism of his native city was odious to him. He never ceased to rail against the bigotry without religion, aestheticism without culture, and philosophy without common sense, which he found dominant on the banks of the Spree. The unremitting benefits and sincere attachment of two well-meaning princes secured his gratitude, but could not appease his discontent. At first he sought relief from the “nebulous atmosphere” of his new abode by frequent visits to Paris; but as years advanced his excursions were reduced to accompanying the monotonous “oscillations” of the court between Potsdam and Berlin. On the 12th of May 1827 he settled permanently in the Prussian capital, where his first efforts were directed towards the furtherance of the science of terrestrial magnetism. For many years it had been one of his favourite schemes to secure, by means of simultaneous observations at distant points, a thorough investigation of the nature and law of “magnetic storms”—a term invented by him to designate abnormal disturbances of the earth’s magnetism. The meeting at Berlin, on the 18th of September 1828, of a newly-formed scientific association, of which he was elected president, gave him the opportunity of setting on foot an extensive system of research in combination with his diligent personal observations. His appeal to the Russian government in 1829 led to the establishment of a line of magnetic and meteorological stations across northern Asia; while his letter to the duke of Sussex, then (April 1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking the wide basis of the British dominions. Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized.
In 1811, and again in 1818, projects of Asiatic exploration were proposed to Humboldt, first by the Russian, and afterwards by the Prussian government; but on each occasion untoward circumstances interposed, and it was not until he had entered upon his sixtieth year that he resumed his early rôle of a traveller in the interests of science. Between May and November 1829 he, together with his chosen associates Gustav Rose and C. G. Ehrenberg, traversed the wide expanse of the Russian empire from the Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five weeks a distance of 9614 m. The journey, however, though carried out with all the advantages afforded by the immediate patronage of the Russian government, was too rapid to be profitable. Its most important fruits were the correction of the prevalent exaggerated estimate of the height of the Central-Asian plateau, and the discovery of diamonds in the gold-washings of the Ural—a result which Humboldt’s Brazilian experiences enabled him to predict, and by predicting to secure.
Between 1830 and 1848 Humboldt was frequently employed in diplomatic missions to the court of Louis Philippe, with whom he always maintained the most cordial personal relations. The death of his brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who expired in his arms, on the 8th of April 1836, saddened the later years of his life. In losing him, Alexander lamented that he had “lost half himself.” The accession of the crown prince, as Frederick William IV., on the death of his father, in June 1840, added to rather than detracted from his court favour. Indeed, the new king’s craving for his society became at times so importunate as to leave him only some hours snatched from sleep for the prosecution of his literary labours.
It is not often that a man postpones to his seventy-sixth year, and then successfully executes, the crowning task of his life. Yet this was Humboldt’s case. The first two volumes of the Kosmos were published, and in the main composed, between the years 1845 and 1847. The idea of a work which should convey, not only a graphic description, but an imaginative conception of the physical world—which should support generalization by details, and dignify details by generalization, had floated before his mind for upwards of half a century. It first took definite shape in a set of lectures delivered by him before the university of Berlin in the winter of 1827-1828. These lectures formed, as his latest biographer expresses it, “the cartoon for the great fresco of the Kosmos.” The scope of this remarkable work may be briefly described as the representation of the unity amid the complexity of nature. In it the large and vague ideals of the 18th are sought to be combined with the exact scientific requirements of the 19th century. And, in spite of inevitable shortcomings, the attempt was in an eminent degree successful. Nevertheless, the general effect of the book is rendered to some extent unsatisfactory by its tendency to substitute the indefinite for the infinite, and thus to ignore, while it does not deny, the existence of a power outside and beyond nature. A certain heaviness of style, too, and laborious picturesqueness of treatment make it more imposing than attractive to the general reader. But its supreme and abiding value consists in its faithful reflection of the mind of a great man. No higher eulogium can be passed on Alexander von Humboldt than that, in attempting, and not unworthily attempting, to portray the universe, he succeeded still more perfectly in portraying his own comprehensive intelligence.
The last decade of his long life—his “improbable” years, as he was accustomed to call them—was devoted to the continuation of this work, of which the third and fourth volumes were published in 1850-1858, while a fragment of a fifth appeared posthumously in 1862. In these he sought to fill up what was wanting of detail as to individual branches of science in the sweeping survey contained in the first volume. Notwithstanding their high separate value, it must be admitted that, from an artistic point of view, these additions were deformities. The characteristic idea of the work, so far as such a gigantic idea admitted of literary incorporation, was completely developed in its opening portions, and the attempt to convert it into a scientific encyclopaedia was in truth to nullify its generating motive. Humboldt’s remarkable industry and accuracy were never more conspicuous than in the erection of this latest trophy to his genius. Nor did he rely entirely on his own labours. He owed much of what he accomplished to his rare power of assimilating the thoughts and availing himself of the co-operation of others. He was not more ready to incur than to acknowledge obligations. The notes to Kosmos overflow with laudatory citations, the current coin in which he discharged his intellectual debts.
On the 24th of February 1857 Humboldt was attacked with a slight apoplectic stroke, which passed away without leaving any perceptible trace. It was not until the winter of 1858-1859 that his strength began to decline, and on the ensuing 6th of May he tranquilly expired, wanting but six months of completing his ninetieth year. The honours which had been showered on him during life followed him after death. His remains, previously to being interred in the family resting-place at Tegel, were conveyed in state through the streets of Berlin, and received by the prince-regent with uncovered head at the door of the cathedral. The first centenary of his birth was celebrated on the 14th of September 1869, with equal enthusiasm in the New and Old Worlds; and the numerous monuments erected in his honour, and newly explored regions called by his name, bear witness to the universal diffusion of his fame and popularity.
Humboldt never married, and seems to have been at all times more social than domestic in his tastes. To his brother’s family he was, however, much attached; and in his later years the somewhat arbitrary sway of an old and faithful servant held him in more than matrimonial bondage. By a singular example of weakness, he executed, four years before his death, a deed of gift transferring to this man Seifert the absolute possession of his entire property. It is right to add that no undue advantage appears to have been taken of this extraordinary concession. Of the qualities of his heart it is less easy to speak than of those of his head. The clue to his inner life might probably be found in a certain egotism of self-culture scarcely separable from the promptings of genius. Yet his attachments, once formed, were sincere and lasting. He made innumerable friends; and it does not stand on record that he ever lost one. His benevolence was throughout his life active and disinterested. His early zeal for the improvement of the condition of the miners in Galicia and Franconia, his consistent detestation of slavery, his earnest patronage of rising men of science, bear witness to the large humanity which formed the ground-work of his character. The faults of his old age have been brought into undue prominence by the injudicious publication of his letters to Varnhagen von Ense. The chief of these was his habit of smooth speaking, almost amounting to flattery, which formed a painful contrast with the caustic sarcasm of his confidential utterances. His vanity, at all times conspicuous, was tempered by his sense of humour, and was so frankly avowed as to invite sympathy rather than provoke ridicule. After every deduction has been made, he yet stands before us as a colossal figure, not unworthy to take his place beside Goethe as the representative of the scientific side of the culture of his country.
The best biography of Humboldt is that of Professor Karl Bruhns (3 vols., 8vo, Leipzig, 1872), translated into English by the Misses Lassell in 1873. Brief accounts of his career are given by A. Dove in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, and by S. Günther in Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin, 1900). The Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799-1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland (Paris, 1807, &c.), consisted of thirty folio and quarto volumes, and comprised a considerable number of subordinate but important works. Among these may be enumerated Vue des Cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l’Amérique (2 vols. folio, 1810); Examen critique de l’histoire de la géographie du Nouveau Continent (1814-1834); Atlas géographique et physique du royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811); Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811); Essai sur la géographie des plantes (1805, now very rare); and Relation historique (1814-1825), an unfinished narrative of his travels, including the Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba. The Nova genera et species plantarum (7 vols. folio, 1815-1825), containing descriptions of above 4500 species of plants collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, was mainly compiled by C. S. Kunth; J. Oltmanns assisted in preparing the Recueil d’observations astronomiques (1808); Cuvier, Latreille, Valenciennes and Gay-Lussac cooperated in the Recueil d’observations de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée (1805-1833), Humboldt’s Ansichten der Natur (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1808) went through three editions in his lifetime, and was translated into nearly every European language. The results of his Asiatic journey were published in Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in Asie centrale (3 vols. 8vo, 1843)—an enlargement of the earlier work. The memoirs and papers read by him before scientific societies, or contributed by him to scientific periodicals, are too numerous for specification.
Since his death considerable portions of his correspondence have been made public. The first of these, in order both of time and of importance, is his Briefe an Varnhagen von Ense (Leipzig, 1860). This was followed in rapid succession by Briefwechsel mit einem jungen Freunde (Friedrich Althaus, Berlin, 1861); Briefwechsel mit Heinrich Berghaus (3 vols., Jena, 1863); Correspondance scientifique et littéraire (2 vols., Paris, 1865-1869); “Lettres à Marc-Aug. Pictet,” published in Le Globe, tome vii. (Geneva, 1868); Briefe an Bunsen (Leipzig, 1869); Briefe zwischen Humboldt und Gauss (1877); Briefe an seinen Bruder Wilhelm (Stuttgart, 1880); Jugendbriefe an W. G. Wegener (Leipzig, 1896); besides some other collections of less note. An octavio edition of Humboldt’s principal works was published in Paris by Th. Morgand (1864-1866). See also Karl von Baer, Bulletin de l’acad. des sciences de St-Pétersbourg, xvii. 529 (1859); R. Murchison, Proceedings, Geog. Society of London, vi. (1859); L. Agassiz, American Jour. of Science, xxviii. 96 (1859); Proc. Roy. Society, X. xxxix.; A. Quetelet, Annuaire de l’acad. des sciences (Brussels, 1860), p. 97; J. Mädler, Geschichte der Himmelskunde, ii. 113; J. C. Houzeau, Bibl. astronomique, ii. 168.
(A. M. C.)
HUMBOLDT, KARL WILHELM VON (1767-1835), German philologist and man of letters, the elder brother of the more celebrated Alexander von Humboldt, was born at Potsdam, on the 22nd of June 1767. After being educated at Berlin, Göttingen and Jena, in the last of which places he formed a close and lifelong friendship with Schiller, he married Fräulein von Dacherode, a lady of birth and fortune, and in 1802 was appointed by the Prussian government first resident and then minister plenipotentiary at Rome. While there he published a poem entitled Rom, which was reprinted in 1824. This was not, however, the first of his literary productions; his critical essay on Goethe’s Hermann und Dorothea, published in 1800, had already placed him in the first rank of authorities on aesthetics, and, together with his family connexions, had much to do with his appointment at Rome; while in the years 1795 and 1797 he had brought out translations of several of the odes of Pindar, which were held in high esteem. On quitting his post at Rome he was made councillor of state and minister of public instruction. He soon, however, retired to his estate at Tegel, near Berlin, but was recalled and sent as ambassador to Vienna in 1812 during the exciting period which witnessed the closing struggles of the French empire. In the following year, as Prussian plenipotentiary at the congress of Prague, he was mainly instrumental in inducing Austria to unite with Prussia and Russia against France; in 1815 he was one of the signatories of the capitulation of Paris, and the same year was occupied in drawing up the treaty between Prussia and Saxony, by which the territory of the former was largely increased at the expense of the latter. The next year he was at Frankfort settling the future condition of Germany, but was summoned to London in the midst of his work, and in 1818 had to attend the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. The reactionary policy of the Prussian government made him resign his office of privy councillor and give up political life in 1819; and from that time forward he devoted himself solely to literature and study.
During the busiest portion of his political career, however, he had found time for literary work. Thus in 1816 he had published a translation of the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, and in 1817 corrections and additions to Adelung’s Mithridates, that famous collection of specimens of the various languages and dialects of the world. Among these additions that on the Basque language is the longest and most important, Basque having for some time specially attracted his attention. In fact, Wilhelm von Humboldt may be said to have been the first who brought Basque before the notice of European philologists, and made a scientific study of it possible. In order to gain a practical knowledge of the language and complete his investigations into it, he visited the Basque country itself, the result of his visit being the valuable “Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain by the help of the Basque language” (Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache), published in 1821. In this work he endeavoured to show, by an examination of geographical names, that a race or races speaking dialects allied to modern Basque once extended through the whole of Spain, the southern coast of France and the Balearic Islands, and suggested that these people, whom he identified with the Iberians of classical writers, had come from northern Africa, where the name of Berber still perhaps perpetuates their old designation. Another work on what has sometimes been termed the metaphysics of language appeared from his pen in 1828, under the title of Über den Dualis; but the great work of his life, on the ancient Kawi language of Java, was unfortunately interrupted by his death on the 8th of April 1835. The imperfect fragment was edited by his brother and Dr Buschmann in 1836, and contains the remarkable introduction on “The Heterogeneity of Language and its Influence on the Intellectual Development of Mankind” (Über die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts), which was afterwards edited and defended against Steinthal’s criticisms by Pott (2 vols., 1876). This essay, which has been called the text-book of the philosophy of speech, first clearly laid down that the character and structure of a language expresses the inner life and knowledge of its speakers, and that languages must differ from one another in the same way and to the same degree as those who use them. Sounds do not become words until a meaning has been put into them, and this meaning embodies the thought of a community. What Humboldt terms the inner form of a language is just that mode of denoting the relations between the parts of a sentence which reflects the manner in which a particular body of men regards the world about them. It is the task of the morphology of speech to distinguish the various ways in which languages differ from each other as regards their inner form, and to classify and arrange them accordingly. Other linguistic publications of Humboldt, which had appeared in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, or elsewhere, were republished by his brother in the seven volumes of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Gesammelte Werke (1841-1852). These volumes also contain poems, essays on aesthetical subjects and other creations of his prolific mind. Perhaps, however, the most generally interesting of his works, outside those which deal with language, is his correspondence with Schiller, published in 1830. Both poet and philosopher come before us in it in their most genial mood. For, though Humboldt was primarily a philosopher, he was a philosopher rendered practical by his knowledge of statesmanship and wide experience of life, and endowed with keen sympathies, warm imagination and active interest in the method of scientific inquiry.
(A. H. S.)
HUMBUG, an imposture, sham, fraud. The word seems to have been originally applied to a trick or hoax, and appears as a slang term about 1750. According to the New English Dictionary, Ferdinando Killigrew’s The Universal Jester, which contains the word in its sub-title “a choice collection of many conceits ... bonmots and humbugs,” was published in 1754, not, as is often stated, in 1735-1740. The principal passage in reference to the introduction of the word occurs in The Student, 1750-1751, ii. 41, where it is called “a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion.” The origin appears to have been unknown at that date. Skeat connects it (Etym. Dict. 1898) with “hum,” to murmur applause, hence flatter, trick, cajole, and “bug,” bogey, spectre, the word thus meaning a false alarm. Many fanciful conjectures have been made, e.g. from Irish uim-bog, soft copper, worthless as opposed to sterling money; from “Hamburg,” as the centre from which false coins came into England during the Napoleonic wars; and from the Italian uomo bugiardo, lying man.
HUME, ALEXANDER (c. 1557-1609), Scottish poet, second son of Patrick Hume of Polwarth, Berwickshire, was born, probably at Reidbrais, one of his family’s houses, about 1557. It has been generally assumed that he is the Alexander Hume who matriculated at St Mary’s college, St Andrews, in 1571, and graduated in 1574. In Ane Epistle to Maister Gilbert Montcreif (Moncrieff), mediciner to the Kings Majestie, wherein is set downe the Experience of the Authours youth, he relates the course of his disillusionment. He says he spent four years in France before beginning to study law in the courts at Edinburgh (l. 136). After three years’ experience there he abandoned law in disgust and sought a post at court (ib. l. 241). Still dissatisfied, he took orders, and became in 1597 minister of Logic, near Stirling, where he lived until his death on the 4th of December 1609. His best-known work is his Hymns, or Sacred Songs (printed by Robert Waldegrave at Edinburgh in 1599, and dedicated to Elizabeth Melvill, Lady Comrie) containing an epistle to the Scottish youth, urging them to abandon vanity for religion. One poem of the collection, entitled “A description of the day Estivall,” a sketch of a summer’s day and its occupations, has found its way into several anthologies. “The Triumph of the Lord after the Manner of Men” is a song of victory of some merit, celebrating the defeat of the Armada in 1588. His prose works include Ane Treatise of Conscience (Edinburgh, 1594), A Treatise of the Felicitie of the Life to come (Edinburgh, 1594), and Ane Afold Admonitioun to the Ministerie of Scotland. The last is an argument against prelacy. Hume’s elder brother, Lord Polwarth, was probably one of the combatants in the famous “Flyting betwixt Montgomerie and Polwart.”
The editions of Hume’s verse are: (a) by Robert Waldegrave (1599); (b) a reprint of (a) by the Bannatyne Club (1832); and (c) by the Scottish Text Society (ed. A. Lawson) (1902). The last includes the prose tracts.
HUME, DAVID (1711-1776), English philosopher, historian and political economist, was born at Edinburgh, on the 26th of April (O.S.) 1711. His father, Joseph Hume or Home, a scion of the noble house of Home of Douglas (but see Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iv. 72), was owner of a small estate in Berwickshire, on the banks of the Whiteadder, called, from the spring rising in front of the dwelling-house, Ninewells. David was the youngest of a family of three, two sons and a daughter, who after the early death of the father were brought up with great care and devotion by their mother, the daughter of Sir David Falconer, president of the college of justice.
Of Hume’s early education little is known beyond what he has himself stated in his Life. He appears to have entered the Greek classes of the university of Edinburgh in 1723, and, he tells us, “passed through the ordinary course of education with success.” From a letter printed in Burton’s Life (i. 30-39), it appears that about 1726 Hume returned to Ninewells with a fair knowledge of Latin, slight acquaintance with Greek and literary tastes decidedly inclining to “books of reasoning and philosophy, and to poetry and the polite authors.” We do not know, except by inference, to what studies he especially devoted himself. It is, however, clear that from his earliest years he began to speculate upon the nature of knowledge in the abstract, and its concrete applications, as in theology, and that with this object he studied largely the writings of Cicero and Seneca and recent English philosophers (especially Locke, Berkeley and Butler). His acquaintance with Cicero is clearly proved by the form in which he cast some of the most important of his speculations. From his boyhood he devoted himself to acquiring a literary reputation, and throughout his life, in spite of financial and other difficulties, he adhered to his original intention. A man of placid and even phlegmatic temperament, he lived moderately in all things, and sought worldly prosperity only so far as was necessary to give him leisure for his literary work. At first he tried law, but was unable to give his mind to a study which appeared to him to be merely a barren waste of technical jargon. At this time the intensity of his intellectual activity in the area opened up to him by Locke and Berkeley reduced him to a state of physical exhaustion. In these circumstances he determined to try the effect of complete change of scene and occupation, and in 1734 entered a business house in Bristol. In a few months he found “the scene wholly unsuitable” to him, and about the middle of 1734 set out for France, resolved to spend some years in quiet study. He visited Paris, resided for a time at Rheims and then settled at La Flèche, famous in the history of philosophy as the school of Descartes. His health seems to have been perfectly restored, and during the three years of his stay in France his speculations were worked into systematic form in the Treatise of Human Nature. In the autumn of 1737 he was in London arranging for its publication and polishing it in preparation for the judgments of the learned. In January 1739 appeared the first and second volumes of the Treatise of Human Nature, being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects, containing book i., Of the Understanding, and book ii., Of the Passions. The third volume, containing book iii., Of Morals, was published in the following year. The publisher of the first two volumes, John Noone, gave him £50 and twelve bound copies for a first edition of one thousand copies. Hume’s own words best describe its reception. “Never literary attempt was more unfortunate; it fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.” “But,” he adds, “being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered the blow, and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country.” This brief notice, however, is not sufficient to explain the full significance of the event for Hume’s own life. The work undoubtedly failed to do what its author expected from it; even the notice, otherwise not unsatisfactory, which it obtained in the History of the Works of the Learned, then the principal critical journal, did not in the least appreciate the true bearing of the Treatise on current discussions. Hume naturally expected that the world would see as clearly as he did the connexion between the concrete problems agitating contemporary thought and the abstract principles on which their solution depended. Accordingly he looked for opposition, and expected that, if his principles were received, a change in general conceptions of things would ensue. His disappointment at its reception was great; and though he never entirely relinquished his metaphysical speculations, though all that is of value in his later writings depends on the acute analysis of human nature to which he was from the first attracted, one cannot but regret that his high powers were henceforth withdrawn for the most part from the consideration of the foundations of belief, and expended on its practical applications. In later years he attributed his want of success to the immature style of his early exposition, to the rashness of a young innovator in an old and well-established province of literature. But this has little foundation beyond the irritation of an author at his own failure to attract such attention as he deems his due. None of the principles of the Treatise is given up in the later writings, and no addition is made to them. Nor can the superior polish of the more mature productions counterbalance the concentrated vigour of the more youthful work.
After the publication of the Treatise Hume retired to his brother’s house at Ninewells and carried on his studies, mainly in the direction of politics and political economy. In 1741 he published the first volume of his Essays, which had a considerable and immediate success. A second edition was called for in the following year, in which also a second volume was published. These essays Butler, to whom he had sent a copy of his Treatise, but with whom he had failed to make personal acquaintance, warmly commended. The philosophical relation between Butler and Hume is curious. So far as analysis of knowledge is concerned they are in harmony, and Hume’s sceptical conclusions regarding belief in matters of fact are the foundations on which Butler’s defence of religion rests. Butler, however, retained, in spite of his destructive theory of knowledge, confidence in the rational proofs for the existence of God, and certainly maintains what may be vaguely described as an a priori view of conscience. Hume had the greatest respect for the author of the Analogy, ranks him with Locke and Berkeley as an originator of the experimental method in moral science, and in his specially theological essays, such as that on Particular Providence and a Future State, has Butler’s views specifically in mind. (See [Butler].)
The success of the Essays, though hardly great enough to satisfy his somewhat exorbitant cravings, was a great encouragement to him. He began to hope that his earlier work, if recast and lightened, might share the fortunes of its successor; and at intervals throughout the next four years he occupied himself in rewriting it in a more succinct form with all the literary grace at his command. Meantime he continued to look about for some post which might secure him the modest independence he desired. In 1744 we find him, in anticipation of a vacancy in the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh university, moving his friends to advance his cause with the electors; and though, as he tells us, “the accusation of heresy, deism, scepticism or theism, &c., &c., was started” against him, it had no effect, “being bore down by the contrary authority of all the good people in town.” To his great mortification, however, he found out, as he thought, that Hutcheson and Leechman, with whom he had been on terms of friendly correspondence, were giving the weight of their opinion against his election. The after history of these negotiations is obscure. Failing in this attempt, he was induced to become tutor, or keeper, to the marquis of Annandale, a harmless literary lunatic. This position, financially advantageous, was absurdly false (see letters in Burton’s Life, i. ch. v.), and when the matter ended Hume had to sue for arrears of salary.
In 1746 Hume accepted the office of secretary to General St Clair, and was a spectator of the ill-fated expedition to France in the autumn of that year. His admirable account of the transaction has been printed by Burton. After a brief sojourn at Ninewells, doubtless occupied in preparing for publication his Philosophical Essays (afterwards entitled An Inquiry concerning Human Understanding), Hume was again associated with General St Clair as secretary in the embassy to Vienna and Turin (1748). The notes of this journey are written in a light and amusing style, showing Hume’s usual keenness of sight in some directions and his almost equal blindness in others. During his absence from England, early in the year 1748, the Philosophical Essays were published; but the first reception of the work was little more favourable than that accorded to the Treatise. To the later editions of the work Hume prepared an “Advertisement” referring to the Treatise, and desiring that the Essays “may alone be regarded as containing his philosophical sentiments and principles.” Some modern critics have accepted this disclaimer as of real value, but in fact it has no significance; and Hume himself in a striking letter to Gilbert Elliott indicated the true relation of the two works. “I believe the Philosophical Essays contain everything of consequence relating to the understanding which you would meet with in the Treatise, and I give you my advice against reading the latter. By shortening and simplifying the questions, I really render them much more complete. Addo dum minuo. The philosophical principles are the same in both.” The Essays are undoubtedly written with more maturity and skill than the Treatise; they contain in more detail application of the principles to concrete problems, such as miracles, providence, immortality; but the entire omission of the discussion forming part ii. of the first book of the Treatise, and the great compression of part iv., are real defects which must always render the Treatise the more important work.
In 1749 Hume returned to Ninewells, enriched with “near a thousand pounds.” In 1751 he removed to Edinburgh, where for the most part he resided during the next twelve years of his life. These years are the richest so far as literary production is concerned. In 1751 he published his Political Discourses, which had a great and well-deserved success both in England and abroad. It was translated into French by Mauvillon (1753) and by the Abbé le Blanc (1754). In the same year appeared the recast of the third book of the Treatise, called Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, of which he says that “of all his writings, philosophical, literary or historical, it is incomparably the best.” At this time also we hear of the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, a work which Hume was prevailed on not to publish, but which he revised with great care, and evidently regarded with the greatest favour. The work itself, left by Hume with instructions that it should be published, did not appear till 1779.
In 1751 Hume was again unsuccessful in the attempt to gain a professor’s chair. In the following year he received, in spite of the usual accusations of heresy, the librarianship of the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh, small in emoluments (£40 a year) but rich in opportunity for literary work. In a playful letter to Dr Clephane, he describes his satisfaction at his appointment, and attributes it in some measure to the support of “the ladies.”
In 1753 Hume was fairly settled in Edinburgh, preparing for his History of England. He had decided to begin the History, not with Henry VII., as Adam Smith recommended, but with James I., considering that the political differences of his time took their origin from that period. On the whole his attitude in respect to disputed political principles seems not to have been at first consciously unfair. As for the qualities necessary to secure success as a writer on history, he felt that he possessed them in a high degree; and, though neither his ideal of an historian nor his equipment for the task of historical research would now appear adequate, in both he was much in advance of his time. “But,” he writes in the well-known passage of his Life, “miserable was my disappointment. I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation; ... what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr Millar told me that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it.” This account must be accepted with reservations. It expresses Hume’s feelings rather than the real facts. In Edinburgh, as we learn from one of his letters, the book succeeded well, no fewer than 450 copies being disposed of in five weeks. Nor is there anything in Hume’s correspondence to show that the failure of the book was so complete as he declared. Within a very few years the sale of the History was sufficient to gain for the author a larger revenue than had ever before been known in his country to flow from literature, and to place him in comparative affluence. He seems to have received £400 for the first edition of the first volume, £700 for the first edition of the second and £840 for the copyright of the two together. At the same time the bitterness of Hume’s feelings and their effect are of importance in his life. It is from the publication of the History that we date his virulent hatred of everything English, towards society in London, Whig principles, Whig ministers and the public generally (see Burton’s Life, ii. 268, 417, 434). He was convinced that there was a conspiracy to suppress and destroy everything Scottish.[1] The remainder of the History became little better than a party pamphlet. The second volume, published in 1756, carrying on the narrative to the Revolution, was better received than the first; but Hume then resolved to work backwards, and to show from a survey of the Tudor period that his Tory notions were grounded upon the history of the constitution. In 1759 this portion of the work appeared, and in 1761 the work was completed by the history of the pre-Tudor periods. The numerous editions of the various portions—for, despite Hume’s wrath and grumblings, the book was a great literary success—gave him an opportunity of careful revision, which he employed to remove from it all the “villainous seditious Whig strokes,” and “plaguy prejudices of Whiggism” that he could detect. In other words, he bent all his efforts toward making his History more of a party work than it had been, and in his effort he was entirely successful. The early portion of his History may be regarded as now of little or no value. The sources at Hume’s command were few, and he did not use them all. None the less, the History has a distinct place in the literature of England. It was the first attempt at a comprehensive treatment of historic facts, the first to introduce the social and literary aspects of a nation’s life as only second in importance to its political fortunes, and the first historical writing in an animated yet refined and polished style.[2]
While the History was in process of publication, Hume did not entirely neglect his other lines of activity. In 1757 appeared Four Dissertations: The Natural History of Religion, Of the Passions, Of Tragedy, Of the Standard of Taste. Of these the dissertation on the passions is a very subtle piece of psychology, containing the essence of the second book of the Treatise. It is remarkable that Hume does not appear to have been acquainted with Spinoza’s analysis of the affections. The last two essays are contributions of no great importance to aesthetics, a department of philosophy in which Hume was not strong. The Natural History of Religion is a powerful contribution to the deistic controversy; but, as in the case of Hume’s earlier work, its significance was at the time overlooked. It is an attempt to carry the war into a province hitherto allowed to remain at peace, the theory of the general development of religious ideas. Deists, though raising doubts regarding the historic narratives of the Christian faith, had never disputed the general fact that belief in one God was natural and primitive. Hume endeavours to show that polytheism was the earliest as well as the most natural form of religious belief, and that theism or deism is the product of reflection upon experience, thus reducing the validity of the historical argument to that of the theoretical proofs.
In 1763 he accompanied Lord Hertford to Paris, doing the duties of secretary to the embassy, with the prospect of the appointment to that post. He was everywhere received “with the most extraordinary honours.” The society of Paris was peculiarly ready to receive a great philosopher and historian, especially if he were known to be an avowed antagonist of religion, and Hume made valuable friendships, especially with D’Alembert and Turgot, the latter of whom profited much by Hume’s economical essays. In 1766 he left Paris and returned to Edinburgh. In 1767 he accepted the post of under-secretary to General Conway and spent two years in London.
He settled finally in Edinburgh in 1769, having now through his pension and otherwise an income of £1000 a year. The solitary incident of note in this period of his life is the ridiculous quarrel with Rousseau, which throws much light upon the character of the great sentimentalist. Hume certainly did his utmost to secure for Rousseau a comfortable retreat in England, but his usually sound judgment seems at first to have been quite at fault with regard to his protégé. The quarrel which all the acquaintances of the two philosophers had predicted soon came, and no language had expressions strong enough for Rousseau’s anger. Hume came well out of the business, and had the sagacity to conclude that his admired friend was little better than a madman. In one of his most charming letters he describes his life in Edinburgh. The new house to which he alludes was built under his own directions at the corner of what is now called St David Street after him; it became the centre of the most cultivated society of Edinburgh. Hume’s cheerful temper, his equanimity, his kindness to literary aspirants and to those whose views differed from his own won him universal respect and affection. He welcomed the work of his friends (e.g. Robertson and Adam Smith), and warmly recognized the worth of his opponents (e.g. George Campbell and Reid). He assisted Blackwell and Smollett in their difficulties and became the acknowledged patriarch of literature.
In the spring of 1775 Hume was struck with a tedious and harassing though not painful illness. A visit to Bath seemed at first to have produced good effects, but on the return journey more alarming symptoms developed themselves, his strength rapidly sank, and, little more than a month later, he died in Edinburgh on the 25th of August 1776.
No notice of Hume would be complete without the sketch of his character drawn by his own hand:—“To conclude historically with my own character, I am, or rather was (for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments),—I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest women, I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I met with from them. In a word, though most men anywise eminent have found reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched, or even attacked, by her baleful tooth; and, though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seem to be disarmed on my behalf of their wonted fury. My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct; not but that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to invent and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they could never find any which they thought would wear the face of probability. I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleansed and ascertained.” The more his life has become known, the more confidence we place in this admirable estimate.
The results of Hume’s speculations may be discussed under two heads:—(1) philosophical, (2) economical.
1. The philosophical writings, which mark a distinct epoch in the development of modern thought, can here be considered in two only of the many aspects in which they present themselves as of the highest interest to the historian of philosophy. Philosophy. In the Treatise of Human Nature, which is in every respect the most complete exposition of Hume’s philosophical conception, we have the first thorough-going attempt to apply the fundamental principles of Locke’s empirical psychology to the construction of a theory of knowledge, and, as a natural consequence, the first systematic criticism of the chief metaphysical notions from this point of view. Hume, in that work, holds the same relation to Locke and Berkeley as the late J. S. Mill held with his System of Logic to Hartley and James Mill. In certain of the later writings, pre-eminently in the Dialogues on Natural Religion, Hume brings the result of his speculative criticism to bear upon the problems of current theological discussion, and gives in their regard, as previously with respect to general philosophy, the final word of the empirical theory in its earlier form. The interesting parallel between Hume and J. S. Mill in this second feature will not be overlooked.
In the first instance, then, Hume’s philosophical work is to be regarded as the attempt to supply for empiricism in psychology a consistent, that is, a logically developed theory of knowledge. In Locke, indeed, such theory is not wanting, but, of all the many inconsistencies in the Essay on the Human Understanding, none is more apparent or more significant than the complete want of harmony between the view of knowledge developed in the fourth book and the psychological principles laid down in the earlier part of the work. Though Locke, doubtless, drew no distinction between the problems of psychology and of theory of knowledge, yet the discussion of the various forms of cognition given in the fourth book of the Essay seems to be based on grounds quite distinct from and in many respects inconsistent with the fundamental psychological principle of his work. The perception of relations, which, according to him, is the essence of cognition, the demonstrative character which he thinks attaches to our inference of God’s existence, the intuitive knowledge of self, are doctrines incapable of being brought into harmony with the view of mind and its development which is the keynote of his general theory. To some extent Berkeley removed this radical inconsistency, but in his philosophical work it may be said with safety there are two distinct aspects, and while it holds of Locke on the one hand, it stretches forward to Kantianism on the other. Nor in Berkeley are these divergent features ever united into one harmonious whole. It was left for Hume to approach the theory of knowledge with full consciousness from the psychological point of view, and to work out the final consequences of that view so far as cognition is concerned. The terms which he employs in describing the aim and scope of his work are not those which we should now employ, but the declaration, in the introduction to the Treatise, that the science of human nature must be treated according to the experimental method, is in fact equivalent to the statement of the principle implied in Locke’s Essay, that the problems of psychology and of theory of knowledge are identical. This view is the characteristic of what we may call the English school of philosophy.
In order to make perfectly clear the full significance of the principle which Hume applied to the solution of the chief philosophical questions, it is necessary to render somewhat more precise and complete the statement of the psychological view Theory of knowledge. which lies at the foundation of the empirical theory, and to distinguish from it the problem of the theory of knowledge upon which it was brought to bear. Without entering into details, which it is the less necessary to do because the subject has been recently discussed with great fulness in works readily accessible, it may be said that for Locke as for Hume the problem of psychology was the exact description of the contents of the individual mind, and the determination of the conditions of the origin and development of conscious experience in the individual mind. And the answer to the problem which was furnished by Locke is in effect that with which Hume started. The conscious experience of the individual is the result of interaction between the individual mind and the universe of things. This solution presupposes a peculiar conception of the general relation between the mind and things which in itself requires justification, and which, so far at least as the empirical theory was developed by Locke and his successors, could not be obtained from psychological analysis. Either we have a right to the assumption contained in the conception of the individual mind as standing in relation to things, in which case the grounds of the assumption must be sought elsewhere than in the results of this reciprocal relation, or we have no right to the assumption, in which case reference to the reciprocal relation can hardly be accepted as yielding any solution of the psychological problem. But in any case,—and, as we shall see, Hume endeavours so to state his psychological premises as to conceal the assumption made openly by Locke,—it is apparent that this psychological solution does not contain the answer to the wider and radically distinct problem of the theory of knowledge. For here we have to consider how the individual intelligence comes to know any fact whatsoever, and what is meant by the cognition of a fact. With Locke, Hume professes to regard this problem as virtually covered or answered by the fundamental psychological theorem; but the superior clearness of his reply enables us to mark with perfect precision the nature of the difficulty inherent in the attempt to regard the two as identical. For purposes of psychological analysis the conscious experience of the individual mind is taken as given fact, to be known, i.e. observed, discriminated, classified and explained in the same way in which any one special portion of experience is treated. Now if this mode of treatment be accepted as the only possible method, and its results assumed to be conclusive as regards the problem of knowledge, the fundamental peculiarity of cognition is overlooked. In all cognition, strictly so-called, there is involved a certain synthesis or relation of parts of a characteristic nature, and if we attempt to discuss this synthesis as though it were in itself but one of the facts forming the matter of knowledge, we are driven to regard this relation as being of the quite external kind discovered by observation among matters of knowledge. The difficulty of reconciling the two views is that which gives rise to much of the obscurity in Locke’s treatment of the theory of knowledge; in Hume the effort to identify them, and to explain the synthesis which is essential to cognition as merely the accidental result of external relations among the elements of conscious experience, appears with the utmost clearness, and gives the keynote of all his philosophical work. The final perplexity, concealed by various forms of expression, comes forward at the close of the Treatise as absolutely unsolved, and leads Hume, as will be pointed out, to a truly remarkable confession of the weakness of his own system.
While, then, the general idea of a theory of knowledge as based upon psychological analysis is the groundwork of the Treatise, it is a particular consequence of this idea that furnishes to Hume the characteristic criterion applied by him to all philosophical questions. If the relations involved in the fact of cognition are only those discoverable by observation of any particular portion of known experience, then such relations are quite external and contingent. The only necessary relation which can be discovered in a given fact of experience is that of non-contradiction (i.e. purely formal); the thing must be what it is, and cannot be conceived as having qualities contradictory of its nature. The universal test, therefore, of any supposed philosophical principle is the possibility or impossibility of imagining its contradictory. All our knowledge is but the sum of our conscious experience, and is consequently material for imagination. “Let us fix our attention out of ourselves as much as possible; let us chase our imagination to the heavens or to the utmost limits of the universe; we never really advance a step beyond ourselves, nor can conceive any kind of existence, but those perceptions which have appeared in that narrow compass. This is the universe of the imagination, nor have we any idea but what is there produced.” (Works, ed. of 1854, i. 93, cf. i. 107.)
The course of Hume’s work follows immediately from his fundamental principle, and the several divisions of the treatise, so far as the theoretical portions are concerned, are but its logical consequences. The first part of the first book contains a brief statement of the contents of mind, a description of all that observation can discover in conscious experience. The second part deals with those judgments which rest upon the formal elements of experience, space and time. The third part discusses the principle of real connexion among the elements of experience, the relation of cause and effect. The fourth part is virtually a consideration of the ultimate significance of this conscious experience, of the place it is supposed to occupy in the universe of existence, in other words, of the relations between the conscious experience of an individual mind as disclosed to observation and the supposed realities of self and external things.
In the first part Hume gives his own statement of the psychological foundations of his theory. Viewing the contents of mind as matter of experience, he can discover among them only one distinction, a distinction expressed by the terms Ideas and impressions. impressions and ideas. Ideas are secondary in nature, copies of data supplied we know not whence. All that appears in conscious experience as primary, as arising from some unknown cause, and therefore relatively as original, Hume designates by the term impression, and claims to imply by such term no theory whatsoever as to the origin of this portion of experience. There is simply the fact of conscious experience, ultimate and inexplicable. Moreover, if we remain faithful to the fundamental conception that the contents of the mind are merely matters of experience, it is evident in the first place that as impressions are strictly individual, ideas also must be strictly particular, and in the second place that the faculties of combining, discriminating, abstracting and judging, which Locke had admitted, are merely expressions for particular modes of having mental experience, i.e. are modifications of conceiving (cf. i. 128 n., 137, 192). By this theory, Hume is freed from all the problems of abstraction and judgment. A comparative judgment is simplified into an isolated perception of a peculiar form, and a series of similar facts are grouped under a single symbol, representing a particular perception, and only by the accident of custom treated as universal (see i. 37, 38, 100).
Such, in substance, is Hume’s restatement of Locke’s empirical view. Conscious experience consists of isolated states, each of which is to be regarded as a fact and is related to others in a quite external fashion. It remains to be seen how knowledge can be explained on such a basis; but, before proceeding to sketch Hume’s answer to this question, it is necessary to draw attention, first, to the peculiar device invariably resorted to by him when any exception to his general principle that ideas are secondary copies of impressions presents itself, and, secondly, to the nature of the substitute offered by him for that perception of relations or synthesis which even in Locke’s confused statements had appeared as the essence of cognition. Whenever Hume finds it impossible to recognize in an idea the mere copy of a particular impression, he introduces the phrase “manner of conceiving.” Thus general or abstract ideas arc merely copies of a particular impression conceived in a particular manner. The ideas of space and time, as will presently be pointed out, are copies of impressions conceived in a particular manner. The idea of necessary connexion is merely the reproduction of an impression which the mind feels itself compelled to conceive in a particular manner. Such a fashion of disguising difficulties points, not only to an inconsistency in Hume’s theory as stated by himself, but to the initial error upon which it proceeds; for these perplexities are but the consequences of the doctrine that cognition is to be explained on the basis of particular perceptions. These external relations are, in fact, what Hume describes as the natural bonds of connexion among ideas, and, regarded subjectively as principles of association among the facts of mental experience, they form the substitute he offers for the synthesis implied in knowledge. These principles of association determine the imagination to combine ideas in various modes, and by this mechanical combination Hume, for a time, endeavoured to explain what are otherwise called judgments of relation. It was impossible, however, for him to carry out this view consistently. The only combination which, even in appearance, could be explained satisfactorily by its means was the formation of a complex idea out of simpler parts, but the idea of a relation among facts is not accurately described as a complex idea; and, as such relations have no basis in impressions, Hume is finally driven to a confession of the absolute impossibility of explaining them. Such confession, however, is only reached after a vigorous effort had been made to render some account of knowledge by the experimental method.
The psychological conception, then, on the basis of which Hume proceeds to discuss the theory of knowledge, is that of conscious experience as containing merely the succession of isolated impressions and their fainter copies, ideas, and as bound Association. together by merely natural or external links of connexion, the principles of association among ideas. The foundations of cognition must be discovered by observation or analysis of experience so conceived. Hume wavers somewhat in his division of the various kinds of cognition, laying stress now upon one now upon another of the points in which mainly they differ from one another. Nor is it of the first importance, save with the view of criticizing his own consistency, that we should adopt any of the divisions implied in his exposition. For practical purposes we may regard the most important discussions in the Treatise as falling under two heads. In the first place there are certain principles of cognition which appear to rest upon and to express relations of the universal elements in conscious experience, viz. space and time. The propositions of mathematics seem to be independent of this or that special fact of experience, and to remain unchanged even when the concrete matter of experience varies. They are formal. In the second place, cognition, in any real sense of that term, implies connexion for the individual mind between the present fact of experience and other facts, whether past or future. It appears to involve, therefore, some real relation among the portions of experience, on the basis of which relation judgments and inferences as to matters of fact can be shown to rest. The theoretical question is consequently that of the nature of the supposed relation, and of the certainty of judgments and inferences resting on it.
Hume’s well-known distinction between relations of ideas and matters of fact corresponds fairly to this separation of the formal and real problems in the theory of cognition, although that distinction is in itself inadequate and not fully representative of Hume’s own conclusions.
With regard, then, to the first problem, the formal element in knowledge, Hume has to consider several questions, distinct in nature and hardly discriminated by him with sufficient precision. For a complete treatment of this portion of the theory of knowledge, there require to be taken into consideration at least the following points: (a) the exact nature and significance of the space and time relations in our experience, (b) the mode in which the primary data, facts or principles, of mathematical cognition are obtained, (c) the nature, extent and certainty of such data, in themselves and with reference to the concrete material of experience, (d) the principle of inference from the data, however obtained. Not all of these points are discussed by Hume with the same fulness, and with regard to some of them it is difficult to state his conclusions. It will be of service, however, to attempt a summary of his treatment under these several heads,—the more so as almost all expositions of his philosophy are entirely defective in the account given of this essential portion. The brief statement in the Inquiry, § iv., is of no value, and indeed is almost unintelligible unless taken in reference to the full discussion contained in part ii. of the Treatise.
(a) The nature of space and time as elements in conscious experience is considered by Hume in relation to a special problem, that of their supposed infinite divisibility. Evidently upon his view of conscious experience, of the world of imagination, Space and time. such infinite divisibility must be a fiction. The ultimate elements of experience must be real units, capable of being represented or imagined in isolation. Whence then do these units arise? or, if we put the problem as it was necessary Hume should put it to himself, in what orders or classes of impressions do we find the elements of space and time? Beyond all question Hume, in endeavouring to answer this problem, is brought face to face with one of the difficulties inherent in his conception of conscious experience. For he has to give some explanation of the nature of space and time which shall identify these with impressions, and at the same time is compelled to recognize the fact that they are not identical with any single impression or set of impressions. Putting aside, then, the various obscurities of terminology, such as the distinction between the objects known, viz. “points” or several mental states, and the impressions themselves, which disguise the full significance of his conclusion, we find Hume reduced to the following as his theory of space and time. Certain impressions, the sensations of sight and touch, have in themselves the element of space, for these impressions (Hume skilfully transfers his statement to the points) have a certain order or mode of arrangement. This mode of arrangement or manner of disposition is common to coloured points and tangible points, and, considered separately, is the impression from which our idea of space is taken. All impressions and all ideas are received, or form parts of a mental experience only when received, in a certain order, the order of succession. This manner of presenting themselves is the impression from which the idea of time takes its rise.
It is almost superfluous to remark, first, that Hume here deliberately gives up his fundamental principle that ideas are but the fainter copies of impressions, for it can never be maintained that order of disposition is an impression, and, secondly, that he fails to offer any explanation of the mode in which coexistence and succession are possible elements of cognition in a conscious experience made up of isolated presentations and representations. For the consistency of his theory, however, it was indispensable that he should insist upon the real, i.e. presentative character of the ultimate units of space and time.
(b) How then are the primary data of mathematical cognition to be derived from an experience containing space and time relations in the manner just stated? It is important to notice that Hume, in regard to this problem, distinctly separates Mathematics. geometry from algebra and arithmetic, i.e. he views extensive quantity as being cognized differently from number. With regard to geometry, he holds emphatically that it is an empirical doctrine, a science founded on observation of concrete facts. The rough appearances of physical facts, their outlines, surfaces and so on, are the data of observation, and only by a method of approximation do we gradually come near to such propositions as are laid down in pure geometry. He definitely repudiates a view often ascribed to him, and certainly advanced by many later empiricists, that the data of geometry are hypothetical. The ideas of perfect lines, figures and surfaces have not, according to him, any existence. (See Works, i. 66, 69, 73, 97 and iv. 180.) It is impossible to give any consistent account of his doctrine regarding number. He holds, apparently, that the foundation of all the science of number is the fact that each element of conscious experience is presented as a unit, and adds that we are capable of considering any fact or collection of facts as a unit. This manner of conceiving is absolutely general and distinct, and accordingly affords the possibility of an all-comprehensive and perfect science, the science of discrete quantity. (See Works, i. 97.)
(c) In respect to the third point, the nature, extent and certainty of the elementary propositions of mathematical science, Hume’s utterances are far from clear. The principle with which he starts and from which follows his well-known distinction between relations of ideas and matters of fact, a distinction which Kant appears to have thought identical with his distinction between analytical and synthetical judgments, is comparatively simple. The ideas of the quantitative aspects of phenomena are exact representations of these aspects or quantitative impressions; consequently, whatever is found true by consideration of the ideas may be asserted regarding the real impressions. No question arises regarding the existence of the fact represented by the idea, and in so far, at least, mathematical judgments may be described as hypothetical. For they simply assert what will be found true in any conscious experience containing coexisting impressions of sense (specifically, of sight and touch), and in its nature successive. That the propositions are hypothetical in this fashion does not imply any distinction between the abstract truth of the ideal judgments and the imperfect correspondence of concrete material with these abstract relations. Such distinction is quite foreign to Hume, and can only be ascribed to him from an entire misconception of his view regarding the ideas of space and time. (For an example of such misconception, which is almost universal, see Riehl, Der philosophische Kriticismus, i. 96, 97.)
(d) From this point onwards Hume’s treatment becomes exceedingly confused. The identical relation between the ideas of space and time and the impressions corresponding to them apparently leads him to regard judgments of continuous and discrete quantity as standing on the same footing, while the ideal character of the data gives a certain colour to his inexact statements regarding the extent and truth of the judgments founded on them. The emphatic utterances in the Inquiry (iv. 30, 186), and even at the beginning of the relative section in the Treatise (i. 95) may be cited in illustration. But in both works these utterances are qualified in such a manner as to enable us to perceive the real bearings of his doctrine, and to pronounce at once that it differs widely from that commonly ascribed to him. “It is from the idea of a triangle that we discover the relation of equality which its three angles bear to two right ones; and this relation is invariable, so long as our idea remains the same” (i. 95). If taken in isolation this passage might appear sufficient justification for Kant’s view that, according to Hume, geometrical judgments are analytical and therefore perfect. But it is to be recollected that, according to Hume, an idea is actually a representation or individual picture, not a notion or even a schema, and that he never claims to be able to extract the predicate of a geometrical judgment by analysis of the subject. The properties of this individual subject, the idea of the triangle, are, according to him, discovered by observation, and as observation, whether actual or ideal, never presents us with more than the rough or general appearances of geometrical quantities, the relations so discovered have only approximate exactness. “Ask a mathematician what he means when he pronounces two quantities to be equal, and he must say that the idea of equality is one of those which cannot be defined, and that it is sufficient to place two equal quantities before any one in order to suggest it. Now this is an appeal to the general appearances of objects to the imagination or senses” (iv. 180). “Though it (i.e. geometry) much excels, both in universality and exactness, the loose judgments of the senses and imagination, yet [it] never attains a perfect precision and exactness” (i. 97). Any exactitude attaching to the conclusions of geometrical reasoning arises from the comparative simplicity of the data for the primary judgments.
So far, then, as geometry is concerned, Hume’s opinion is perfectly definite. It is an experimental or observational science, founded on primary or immediate judgments (in his phraseology, perceptions), of relation between facts of intuition; its conclusions are hypothetical only in so far as they do not imply the existence at the moment of corresponding real experience; and its propositions have no exact truth. With respect to arithmetic and algebra, the science of numbers, he expresses an equally definite opinion, but unfortunately it is quite impossible to state in any satisfactory fashion the grounds for it or even its full bearing. He nowhere explains the origin of the notions of unity and number, but merely asserts that through their means we can have absolutely exact arithmetical propositions (Works, i. 97, 98). Upon the nature of the reasoning by which in mathematical science we pass from data to conclusions, Hume gives no explicit statement. If we were to say that on his view the essential step must be the establishment of identities or equivalences, we should probably be doing justice to his doctrine of numerical reasoning, but should have some difficulty in showing the application of the method to geometrical reasoning. For in the latter case we possess, according to Hume, no standard of equivalence other than that supplied by immediate observation, and consequently transition from one premise to another by way of reasoning must be, in geometrical matters, a purely verbal process.
Hume’s theory of mathematics—the only one, perhaps, which is compatible with his fundamental principle of psychology—is a practical condemnation of his empirical theory of perception. He has not offered even a plausible explanation of the mode by which a consciousness made up of isolated momentary impressions and ideas can be aware of coexistence and number, or succession. The relations of ideas are accepted as facts of immediate observation, as being themselves perceptions or individual elements of conscious experience, and to all appearance they are regarded by Hume as being in a sense analytical, because the formal criterion of identity is applicable to them. It is applicable, however, not because the predicate is contained in the subject, but on the principle of contradiction. If these judgments are admitted to be facts of immediate perception, the supposition of their non-existence is impossible. The ambiguity in his criterion, however, seems entirely to have escaped Hume’s attention.
A somewhat detailed consideration of Hume’s doctrine with regard to mathematical science has been given for the reason that this portion of his theory has been very generally overlooked or misinterpreted. It does not seem necessary to endeavour Real cognition and causation. to follow his minute examination of the principle of real cognition with the same fulness. It will probably be sufficient to indicate the problem as conceived by Hume, and the relation of the method he adopts for solving it to the fundamental doctrine of his theory of knowledge.
Real cognition, as Hume points out, implies transition from the present impression or feeling to something connected with it. As this thing can only be an impression or perception, and is not itself present, it is represented by its copy or idea. Now the supreme, all-comprehensive link of connexion between present feeling or impression and either past or future experience is that of causation. The idea in question is, therefore, the idea of something connected with the present impression as its cause or effect. But this is explicitly the idea of the said thing as having had or as about to have existence,—in other words, belief in the existence of some matter of fact. What, for a conscious experience so constituted as Hume will admit, is the precise significance of such belief in real existence?
Clearly the real existence of a fact is not demonstrable. For whatever is may be conceived not to be. “No negation of a fact can involve a contradiction.” Existence of any fact, not present as a perception, can only be proved by arguments from cause or effect. But as each perception is in consciousness only as a contingent fact, which might not be or might be other than it is, we must admit that the mind can conceive no necessary relations or connexions among the several portions of its experience.
If, therefore, a present perception leads us to assert the existence of some other, this can only be interpreted as meaning that in some natural, i.e. psychological, manner the idea of this other perception is excited, and that the idea is viewed by the mind in some peculiar fashion. The natural link of connexion Hume finds in the similarities presented by experience. One fact or perception is discovered by experience to be uniformly or generally accompanied by another, and its occurrence therefore naturally excites the idea of that other. But when an idea is so roused up by a present impression, and when this idea, being a consequence of memory, has in itself a certain vivacity or liveliness, we regard it with a peculiar indefinable feeling, and in this feeling consists the immense difference between mere imagination and belief. The mind is led easily and rapidly from the present impression to the ideas of impressions found by experience to be the usual accompaniments of the present fact. The ease and rapidity of the mental transition is the sole ground for the supposed necessity of the causal connexion between portions of experience. The idea of necessity is not intuitively obvious; the ideas of cause and effect are correlative in our minds, but only as a result of experience. Hobbes and Locke were wrong in saying that the mind must find in the relation the idea of Power. We mistake the subjective transition resting upon custom or past experience for an objective connexion independent of special feelings. All reasoning about matters of fact is therefore a species of feeling, and belongs to the sensitive rather than to the cogitative side of our nature. It should be noted that this theory of Causation entirely denies the doctrine of Uniformity in Nature, so far as the human mind is concerned. All alleged uniformity is reduced to observed similarity of process. The idea is a mere convention, product of inaccurate thinking and custom.
While it is evident that some such conclusion must follow from the attempt to regard the cognitive consciousness as made up of disconnected feelings, it is equally clear, not only that the result is self-contradictory, but that it involves certain assumptions not in any way deducible from the fundamental view with which Hume starts. For in the problem of real cognition he is brought face to face with the characteristic feature of knowledge, distinction of self from matters known, and reference of transitory states to permanent objects or relations. Deferring his criticism of the significance of self and object, Hume yet makes use of both to aid his explanation of the belief attaching to reality. The reference of an idea to past experience has no meaning, unless we assume an identity in the object referred to. For a past impression is purely transitory, and, as Hume occasionally points out, can have no connexion of fact with the present consciousness. His exposition has thus a certain plausibility, which would not belong to it had the final view of the permanent object been already given.
The final problem of Hume’s theory of knowledge, the discussion of the real significance of the two factors of cognition, self and external things, is handled in the Treatise with great fulness and dialectical subtlety.
As in the case of the previous problem, it is unnecessary to follow the steps of his analysis, which are, for the most part, attempts to substitute qualities of feeling for the relations of thought which appear to be involved. The results follow with the The self in cognition. utmost ease from his original postulate. If there is nothing in conscious experience save what observation can disclose, while each act of observation is itself an isolated feeling (an impression or idea), it is manifest that a permanent identical thing can never be an object of experience. Whatever permanence or identity is ascribed to an impression or idea is the result of association, is one of those “propensities to feign” which are due to natural connexions among ideas. We regard as successive presentations of one thing the resembling feelings which are experienced in succession. Identity, then, whether of self or object, there is none, and the supposition of objects, distinct from impressions, is but a further consequence of our “propensity to feign.” Hume’s explanation of the belief in external things by reference to association is well deserving of careful study and of comparison with the more recent analysis of the same problem by J. S. Mill.
The weak points in Hume’s empiricism are so admirably realized by the author himself that it is only fair to quote his own summary in the Appendix to the Treatise. He confesses Negative result of Hume’s treatise. that, in confining all cognition to single perceptions and supplying no purely intellectual faculty for modifying, recording and classifying their results, he has destroyed real knowledge altogether:
“If perceptions are distinct existences, they form a whole only by being connected together. But no connexions among distinct existences are ever discoverable by human understanding. We only feel a connexion or determination of the thought to pass from one object to another. It follows, therefore, that the thought alone feels personal identity, when, reflecting on the train of past perceptions that compose a mind, the ideas of them are felt to be connected together and naturally introduce each other.
“However extraordinary this conclusion may seem, it need not surprise us. Modern philosophers seem inclined to think that personal identity arises from consciousness, and consciousness is nothing but a reflected thought or perception. The present philosophy, therefore, has a promising aspect. But all my hopes vanish when I come to explain the principles that unite our successive perceptions in our thought or consciousness. I cannot discover any theory which gives me satisfaction on this head....
“In short, there are two principles which I cannot render consistent, nor is it in my power to renounce either of them; viz. that all our distinct perceptions are distinct existences, and that the mind never perceives any real connexion among distinct existences. Did our perceptions either inhere in something simple or individual, or did the mind perceive some real connexion among them, there would be no difficulty in the case” (ii. 551).
The closing sentences of this passage may be regarded as pointing to the very essence of the Kantian attempt at solution of the problem of knowledge. Hume sees distinctly that if conscious experience be taken as containing only isolated states, no progress in explanation of cognition is possible, and that the only hope of further development is to be looked for in a radical change in our mode of conceiving experience. The work of the critical philosophy is the introduction of this new mode of regarding experience, a mode which, in the technical language of philosophers, has received the title of transcendental as opposed to the psychological method followed by Locke and Hume. It is because Kant alone perceived the full significance of the change required in order to meet the difficulties of the empirical theory that we regard his system as the only sequel to that of Hume. The writers of the Scottish school, Reid in particular, did undoubtedly indicate some of the weaknesses in Hume’s fundamental conception, and their attempts to show that the isolated feeling cannot be taken as the ultimate and primary unit of cognitive experience are efforts in the right direction. But the question of knowledge was never generalized by them, and their reply to Hume, therefore, remains partial and inadequate, while its effect is weakened by the uncritical assumption of principles which is a characteristic feature of their writings.
The results of Hume’s theoretical analysis are applied by him to the problems of practical philosophy and religion. For the first of these the reader is referred to the article Ethics, where Hume’s views are placed in relation to those of his predecessors Theology and ethics. in the same field of inquiry. His position, as regards the second, is very noteworthy. As before said, his metaphysic contains in abstracto the principles which were at that time being employed, uncritically, alike by the deists and by their antagonists. There can be no doubt that Hume has continually in mind the theological questions then current, and that he was fully aware of the mode in which his analysis of knowledge might be applied to them. A few of the less important of his criticisms, such as the argument on miracles, became then and have since remained public property and matter of general discussion. But the full significance of his work on the theological side was not at the time perceived, and justice has barely been done to the admirable manner in which he reduced the theological disputes of the century to their ultimate elements. The importance of the Dialogues on Natural Religion, as a contribution to the criticism of theological ideas and methods, can hardly be over-estimated. A brief survey of its contents will be sufficient to show its general nature and its relations to such works as Clarke’s Demonstration and Butler’s Analogy. The Dialogues introduce three interlocutors, Demea, Cleanthes and Philo, who represent three distinct orders of theological opinion. The first is the type of a certain a priori view, then regarded as the safest bulwark against infidelity, of which the main tenets were that the being of God was capable of a priori proof, and that, owing to the finitude of our faculties, the attributes and modes of operation of deity were absolutely incomprehensible. The second is the typical deist of Locke’s school, improved as regards his philosophy, and holding that the only possible proof of God’s existence was a posteriori, from design, and that such proof was, on the whole, sufficient. The third is the type of completed empiricism or scepticism, holding that no argument, either from reason or experience, can transcend experience, and consequently that no proof of God’s existence is at all possible. The views of the first and second are played off against one another, and criticized by the third with great literary skill and effect. Cleanthes, who maintains that the doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God is hardly distinguishable from atheism, is compelled by the arguments of Philo to reduce to a minimum the conclusion capable of being inferred from experience as regards the existence of God. For Philo lays stress upon the weakness of the analogical argument, points out that the demand for an ultimate cause is no more satisfied by thought than by nature itself, shows that the argument from design cannot warrant the inference of a perfect or infinite or even of a single deity, and finally, carrying out his principles to the full extent, maintains that, as we have no experience of the origin of the world, no argument from experience can carry us to its origin, and that the apparent marks of design in the structure of animals are only results from the conditions of their actual existence. So far as argument from nature is concerned, a total suspension of judgment is our only reasonable resource. Nor does the a priori argument in any of its forms fare better, for reason can never demonstrate a matter of fact, and, unless we know that the world had a beginning in time, we cannot insist that it must have had a cause. Demea, who is willing to give up his abstract proof, brings forward the ordinary theological topic, man’s consciousness of his own imperfection, misery and dependent condition. Nature is throughout corrupt and polluted, but “the present evil phenomena are rectified in other regions and in some future period of existence.” Such a view satisfies neither of his interlocutors. Cleanthes, pointing out that from a nature thoroughly evil we can never prove the existence of an infinitely powerful and benevolent Creator, hazards the conjecture that the deity, though all-benevolent, is not all-powerful. Philo, however, pushing his principles to their full consequences, shows that unless we assumed (or knew) beforehand that the system of nature was the work of a benevolent but limited deity, we certainly could not, from the facts of nature, infer the benevolence of its creator. Cleanthes’s view is, therefore, an hypothesis, and in no sense an inference.
The Dialogues ought here to conclude. There is, however, appended one of those perplexing statements of personal opinion (for Hume declares Cleanthes to be his mouthpiece) not uncommon among writers of this period. Cleanthes and Philo come to an agreement, in admitting a certain illogical force in the a posteriori argument, or, at least, in expressing a conviction as to God’s existence, which may not perhaps be altogether devoid of foundation. The precise value of such a declaration must be matter of conjecture. Probably the true statement of Hume’s attitude regarding the problem is the somewhat melancholy utterance with which the Dialogues close.
It is apparent, even from the brief summary just given, that the importance of Hume in the history of philosophy consists in the vigour and logical exactness with which he develops a particular metaphysical view. Inconsistencies, no doubt, are to be detected in his system, but they arise from the limitations of the view itself, and not, as in the case of Locke and Berkeley, from imperfect grasp of the principle, and endeavour to unite with it others radically incompatible. In Hume’s theory of knowledge we have the final expression of what may be called psychological individualism or atomism, while his ethics and doctrine of religion are but the logical consequences of this theory. So far as metaphysic is concerned, Hume has given the final word of the empirical school, and all additions, whether from the specifically psychological side or from the general history of human culture, are subordinate in character, and affect in no way the nature of his results. It is no exaggeration to say that the later English school of philosophy represented by J. S. Mill made in theory no advance beyond Hume. In the logic of Mill, e.g., we find much of a special character that has no counterpart in Hume, much that is introduced ab extra, from general considerations of scientific procedure, but, so far as the groundwork is concerned, the System of Logic is a mere reproduction of Hume’s doctrine of knowledge. It is impossible for any reader of Mill’s remarkable posthumous essay on theism to avoid the reflection that in substance the treatment is identical with that of the Dialogues on Natural Religion, while on the whole the superiority in critical force must be assigned to the earlier work.
2. Hume’s eminence in the fields of philosophy and history must not be allowed to obscure his importance as a political economist. Berkeley had already, in the Querist, attacked the mercantile theory of the nature of national wealth and the Economics. functions of money, and Locke had, in a partial manner, shown that political economy could with advantage be viewed in relation to the modern system of critical philosophy. But Hume was the first to apply to economics the scientific methods of his philosophy. His services to economics may be summed up in two heads: (1) he established the relation between economic facts and the fundamental phenomena of social life, and (2) he introduced into the study of these facts the new historical method. Thus, though he gave no special name to it, he yet describes the subject-matter, and indicates the true method, of economic science. His economic essays were published in the volumes entitled Political Discourses (1752) and Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1753); the most important are those on Commerce, on Money, on Interest and on the Balance of Trade, but, notwithstanding the disconnected form of the essays in general, the other less important essays combine to make a complete economic system. We have said that Berkeley and Locke had already begun the general work for which Hume is most important; in details also Hume had been anticipated to some extent. Nicholas Barbon and Sir Dudley North had already attacked the mercantile theory as to the precious metals and the balance of trade; Joseph Massie and Barbon had anticipated his theory of interest. Yet when we compare Hume with Adam Smith, the advance which Hume had made on his predecessors in lucidity of exposition and subtlety of intellect becomes clear, and modern criticism is agreed that the main errors of Adam Smith are to be found in those deductions which deviate from the results of the Political Discourses. A very few examples must suffice to illustrate his services to economics.
In dealing with money, he refutes the Mercantile School, which had tended to confound it with wealth. “Money,” said Hume, “is none of the wheels of trade; it is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels more smooth and easy.” “Money Money. and commodities are the real strength of any community.” From the internal, as distinct from the international, aspect, the absolute quantity of money, supposed as of fixed amount, in a country, is of no consequence, while a quantity larger than is required for the interchange of commodities is injurious, as tending to raise prices and to drive foreigners from the home markets. It is only during the period of acquisition of money, and before the rise in prices, that the accumulation of precious metals is advantageous. This principle is perhaps Hume’s most important economic discovery (cf. F. A. Walker’s Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry, London, 1880, p. 84 sqq.). He goes on to show that the variations of prices are due solely to money and commodities in circulation. Further, it is a misconception to regard as injurious the passage of money into foreign countries. “A government,” he says, “has great reason to preserve with care its people and its manufactures; its money it may safely trust to the course of human affairs without fear or jealousy.” Interest. Dealing with the phenomena of interest, he exposes the old fallacy that the rate depends upon the amount of money in a country; low interest does not follow on abundance of money. The reduction in the rate of interest must, in general, result from “the increase of industry and frugality, of arts and commerce.” In connexion with this he emphasizes a too generally neglected factor in economic phenomena, “the constant and insatiable desire of the mind for exercise and employment.” “Interest,” he says in general, “is the barometer of the state, and its lowness an almost infallible sign of prosperity,” arising, as it does, from increased trade, frugality in the merchant class, and the consequent rise of new lenders: low interest and low profits mutually forward each other. In the matter Free trade. of free trade and protection he compromises. He says on the one hand, “not only as a man, but as a British subject I pray for the flourishing commerce of Germany, Spain, Italy and even France itself,” and condemns “the numerous bars, obstructions and imposts which all nations of Europe, and none more than England, have put upon trade.” On the other hand, he approves of a protective tax on German linen in favour of home manufactures, and of a tax on brandy as encouraging the sale of rum and so supporting our southern colonies. Indeed it has been fairly observed that Hume retains an attitude of refined mercantilism. With regard to taxation he takes very definite views. The best taxes, Taxation and national debt. he says, are those levied on consumption, especially on luxuries, for these are least heavily felt. He denies that all taxes fall finally on the land. Superior frugality and industry on the part of the artisan will enable him to pay taxes without mechanically raising the price of labour. Here, as in other points, he differs entirely from the physiocrats, and his criticism of contemporary French views are, as a whole, in accordance with received modern opinion. For the modern expedient of raising money for national emergencies by way of loan he has a profound distrust. He was convinced that what is bad for the individual credit must be bad for the state also. A national debt, he maintains, enriches the capital at the expense of the provinces; further, it creates a leisured class of stockholders, and possesses all the disadvantages of paper credit. “Either the nation must destroy public credit, or public credit will destroy the nation.” To sum up, it may be said that Hume enunciated the principle that “everything in the world is purchased by labour, and our passions are the only causes of labour”; and further, that, in analysing the complex phenomena of commerce, he is superior sometimes to Adam Smith in that he never forgets that the ultimate causes of economic change are the “customs and manners” of the people, and that the solution of problems is to be sought in the elementary factors of industry.
Bibliography.—1. Life.—J. H. Burton’s Life and Correspondence of David Hume (2 vols., 1846); Dr G. Birkbeck Hill, Letters of Hume to William Strahan; C. J. W. Francke, David Hume (Haarlem, 1907).
2. Works.—Until 1874 the standard edition was that of 1826 (reprinted 1854), in 4 vols. The best modern edition is that in 4 vols. by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose (containing a valuable introduction and excellent bibliographical matter); the Enquiry and the Treatise (1894 and 1896, Oxford), edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge.
3. Philosophic (the more important only can be quoted).—Huxley’s Hume (a popular reproduction of Hume’s views in “English Men of Letters” series); Sir L. Stephen’s English Thought in the XVIIIth Century (1876, especially ch. vi.); J. Orr, David Hume and his Influence on Philosophy and Theology (1903, especially ch. ix. on “Moral Theory of Hume”); H. Calderwood, David Hume (1898, especially ch. vii. on Hume’s attitude to religion); A. Seth, Scottish and German Answers to Hume; F. Jodl, Leben und Philosophie D. Humes (1872); E. Pfleiderer, Empirismus und Skepsis in D. Humes Philosophie (1874); G. Spicker, Kant, Hume und Berkeley (1875); G. Compayré, La Philosophie de D. Hume (1873); A. Meinong, Hume-Studien (1877, especially Hume’s nominalism); G. von Gižycki (a thorough exposition of Hume’s utilitarianism), Die Ethik D. Humes (1878); G. Lechartier, D. Hume, moraliste et sociologue (1900); M. Klemme, Die volkswirtschaftlichen Anchauungen D. Humes (1900); E. Marcus, Kants Revolutionsprinzip. Eine exakte Lösung des Kant-Hume’schen Erkenntnisproblems (1902); C. Hedvall, Humes Erkenntnistheorie (1906); R. Hönigswald, Über die Lehre Humes von der Realität der Aussendinge (1904); O. Quast, Der Begriff des Belief bei David Hume (1903). Hume’s relation to the society of his time is described in the Rev. H. G. Graham’s Social Life in Scotland and Scottish Men of Letters; “Jupiter” in Carlyle’s Autobiography. J. MacCosh published a short pamphlet (1884) containing interesting but perhaps not conclusive arguments on the Agnosticism of Hume and Huxley.