HEAFOED
HEBERT
English essayists of the time. He took
Montaigne as his model, and was described
by Thackeray as " one of the keenest and
brightest critics that ever lived " (Cambridge
Hist. Engl. Lit., xii, 178). His works fre
quently betray his Eationalist opinions, as
in the essay, "My First Acquaintance with
Poets," where he tells how he read " with
infinite relish " Hume s Treatise on Human
Nature, and speaks with disdain of the
Bible which captivated the "lack-lustre
eyes " of his father (a Unitarian clergyman).
He was a Theist, but does not seem to
have believed in a future life. D. Sep. 18,
1830.
HE AFORD, William, writer. B. June 16, 1855. Mr. Heaford, who was in the Civil Service until 1920, began to work in the Freethought movement in London in 1876, and founded the Camberwell Secular Society. He contributed to the Secular Chronicle, and during the last three decades he has contributed frequently to the Free thinker and the Literary Guide, as well as to the Pacifist journals Concord and Notes Internationales. He translated Naquet s Collectivisme and Count de Eenesse s Jesus Christ. For many years he was equally prominent on the Freethought platform, and he is one of the chief links between English and Continental Freethinkers. He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian, and has attended a number of the International Freethought Congresses.
HEAPE, Walter, M.A., F.E.S., F.Z.S., zoologist. B. 1855. Ed. Cambridge. He was engaged in business from 1873 to 1879, then went to Cambridge. He was Demon strator of morphology at Cambridge 1882- 85, and Superintendent of the Marine Biological Association 1886-88. He was also Balfour student 1890-93, and has written many papers and works. In Sex Antagonism (1913) Mr. Heape compares the Christian belief in the miraculous conception of Christ to a belief of the Queensland blacks in spirit-conception both " know the truth ; it is only super-
333
stition which compels them to deny it "
(p. 91).
HEARN, Lafcadio, writer. B. June 27, 1850, of Irish father and Greek mother, in Leucadia (or Lafcadia), one of the Ionian Isles. Ed. Ushaw Eoman Catholic College. He early abandoned Catholicism, and was for a time an Atheist. In 1869 he went to America and became a journalist. Sent on a journalistic mission to Japan in 1891, he accepted an appointment at Tokyo Univer sity, and was described as "the most brilliant of writers on Japanese life " (Athenceum, Oct. 1, 1904). His first work on Japan, Out of the East, appeared in 1894. Hearn, who changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi and adopted Buddhism, rendered great service in proving the moral superiority of Buddhism to Christianity. D. Sep. 23, 1904.
HEBBEL, Friedrich, German tragedian and poet. B. Mar. 18, 1813. Ed. village school, Wesselburen. Put^into an office at the age of fourteen, Hebbel published poetry which attracted wide attention, and a few patrons sent him to Heidelberg and Munich Universities. His first tragedy was pro duced in 1841, and his power was soon recognized. His masterpiece, Die Nibe- lungen (1862), depicts the conflict of the Pagan and Christian view of life. Hebbel was a Pantheist (E. Horneffer, Hebbel und das religiose Problem dcr Gegemvart, 1907). His collected works were published in 12 vols., 1866-68. D. Dec. 13, 1863.
HEBERT, Jacques Rene, French Eevo- lutionist. B. Nov. 15, 1755. He was employed at a Parisian theatre at the outbreak of the Eevolution, which he eagerly embraced. His journal, Le Pere Duchesne, was one of the most fiery organs of the Eevolution. In 1792 he was a member of the Eevolutionary Council and Procurator General of the Commune. Hebert was one of the most insistent on substituting the cult of Eeason for the cult of a Supreme Being. He was guillotined March 24, 1794.
334
