HARTE. 598 HARTFORD. jiiners and of their followers give a view of early (.'alifornia that, in spite of an exaggeration per- ceptible to contemporary Californians, supplies an interesting sujjplement to formal history. Whether he tells of the rough Caucasian or of the mysterious Asiatic, Bret Harte has the knack of catching representative traits so admirably that we can see the whole of an almost lawless society. His stuff was romantic, melodramatic, and mostly disreputable. He handled it with humor, irony, pathos, or with a cjTiical lack of a superior point of view. He was imagi- native in that he could cull the essence of things, but he was neither a dreamer nor a deep or far- seeing thinker. What was close to him he saw marvelously, and few writers have ever given a more distinct impression of being a part of what they have described. But Bret Harte is as im- personal as Maupassant. He assumes no respon- sibility, preaches no sermon, for his whole mind is; absorbed in the portrayal of facts. The facts he coordinates with the genius of a born story- writer. ^'isible physical nature, wild canons and mountains furnish him a setting. But Bret Harte admits nature only as a background. He de- lights in what is dazzling, spectacular, or dread- ful. Yet his characters never pose. Many of them are even epically molded : but they are no heroes, or sorry ones at best. What one remem- bers most vividly is the gambler, the adventurer, the desperado, or the bedraggled woman. And these characters constitute a gallery of vagrants, sordid unfortunates, or downright rogues. Bret Harte wrote and wrote abundantly till the end. In his early work one may feel a quick intelli- gence, keenly interested in a new world. He is, through his" subjects, and perhaps through his manner, an American author otherwise than by mere birth. His American qualities endeared him not only to his readers at home, but to many in Europe ; for Europeans found and still find in him what in much American literature is too often faint or absent — an artistic portrayal of a phase of American life. Consult Pemberton, Bret Harte (London, 1001). HARTE, Walter (1709-74). An English poet and historian. Educated at Marlborough and Oxford, he entered the Chxirch, was preacher and teacher at his alma mater, and became vice- principal of Saint Mary Hall. His first poems, published at the age of eighteen, brought him the notice of Pope, whose stanch friend he after- wards became, and also his imitator in an Essay on Reason (1735). From 1745 to 1749 he was traveling tutor to the recipient of the famous Chesterfield Letters, and on his home-coming was made canon at Windsor, and afterwards rector in a Cornwall parish. His most pretentious work, a mine of information. Life of Gustainis Adolphtis, King of Sioeden. (2 vols., 1759), was pronounced a very good book — in a German translation — but Harte's English was much better in his Es- sai/s on Bushandry (1764), approved both by Lord Chesterfield and Dr. Johnson. HARTEL, hiir'tel, Wilhelm von (1839—). An Austrian philologist. He was born at Hof, in Moravia, and studied at the University of Vien- na. He was appointed professor of classical phi- lology at Vienna in 1872. made a member of the Vienna Academy in 1875. of the Berlin Academy in 1893; and became a life member of the Aus- trian House of Peers in 1890. In 1899 he was for a short time -Minister of Education and Public orship, lo which post he was reappointed in 1900. His principal works are: Bomeiische titu- dicn (1871-74; 2d ed. 1873); Demoslhenische iStudien {1S~7-7S) ; Studien iiber attisches Staats- ncht und Urkundenwesen (1878); and various editions of classical authors, including the lire- riarium of Eutropius (1872); Cyprian's Opera Omnia (3 vols., 1868-71) ; and Ennodius's Opera for the Corpus Heriptorum Ecclesiasticorum.puh- lished by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. He was made editor of the Zeitschrift fiir Oester- reichisehe Oymnasicn in 1874; and with Schenkl founded the Wiener Studien, a journal on classi- cal philologj', in 1879. HARTENSTEIN, har'ten-stin, Gustav ( 1808- 90). A German philosopher and author, born at Plauen, Saxony, and edvicated at Grimma and Leipzig, where in 1834 he was appointed pro- fessor of philosophy. He was one of the most gifted followers of Herbart, to whose philosophi- cal views he gave wide extension in the works entitled Die Probleme und G-rundlehren der oll- fli'.neinen Mefaphysik (1836), and Die Grundbe- griffe der cthischen Wissenschaften (1844). HART'FORD. A city and port of entry, the capital of Connecticut, and the county-scat of Hartford County. 124 miles west by south of Bos- ton, 32 miles north-northeast of New Haven, and 111 miles northeast of New York; on the Central New England, the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and the Connecticut Valley railroads (Map: Connecticut, E 2). It is situated at the head of navigation for large vessels on the Con- necticut River. 50 miles from Long Island Sound, and at the mouth of Park River, a narrow stream that flows through the city, being crossed by several bridges. Hartford has a fine site, its more elevated sections commanding grand views of the Connecticut Valley, and is regularly laid out over an area of about 17 square miles. !Much historical interest attaches to the city, the niemory of its prominence in Colonial as well as in later times being preserved in several of its churches and houses, in its localities, and in its interesting collections of relics. The old State House, in which the Hartford Convention (q.v.) met, now serves as the city hall ; and the new Capitol is a large and beautiful structure of white marble, with portraits and statues of fa- mous persons. Several of the insurance companies for which Hartford is noted occupy fine offices, and among other pretentious buildings are the high school. Young Men's Christian AssociaHon building. State Arsenal, post-office. Wadsworth Athena'um. and Saint Joseph's Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop (Roman Catholic) of Hartford. Among the charitable institutions are Hartford and Saint .Toseph's hospitals, Hartford Orphan Asylum, Old People's Home. Retreat for the In- sane, American Asylum fnr the Deaf, and Asy- lum for the Blind. Hartford is the seat of Trinitv College (q.v.) and of the Hartford The- ological Seminary (Congregational) founded in 1834. Besides the libraries of these educational institutions, there are the State, Public, Watkin- son, and Historical Society libraries. The city has a niunber of parks: Bushnell Park (46 acres), the site of the State Capitol, and Charter Oak Park, famous for its fair-grounds and trot-
