Sketches of the History of Man (1774) is Deistic. He says (bk. iii, sk. iii, ch. iii): "The Being that made the world governs it by laws that are inflexible because they are the best; and to imagine that he can be moved by prayers, oblations, or sacrifices, to vary his plan of government, is an impious thought." D. Dec. 27, 1782.
Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton, O.M., G.S.G.I., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S., botanist. B. June 30, 1817. Ed. Glasgow High School and University. He was assistant surgeon and naturalist on the Erebus in the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843, and he published the botanical results in his Flora Antarctica (1844-47). In 1845 he became botanist to the Geological Survey, and in 1855, after three years in India, he was appointed assistant botanist at Kew. Hooker was an intimate friend of Darwin, and had given him great assistance in writing the Origin of Species. In 1865 he succeeded his father as Director at Kew. He was President of the British Association in 1868, and of the Royal Society in 1873. One of the first botanists of his time, he was honoured by no less than nineteen gold medals and the membership of one hundred learned societies. From the Life and Letters of Sir J. ''D.'' Hooker (1918), by L. Huxley, it is clear that his serious position in regard to religion was Spencerian. "I distrust all theologians …… their minds are those of women," he said (ii, 57). He held that the ultimate power of the universe was "inscrutable" (119), and that Jesus was an Essenian monk (336); and he looked forward to the founding of "a religion of pure reason" (337). He thought discussion futile, as " Theism and Atheism are just where they were in the days of Job " (ii, 67 and 106). D. Dec. 10, 1911.
Hooper, Charles Edward, philosophical writer. B. Mar. 11, 1864. Ed. private schools. Mr. Hooper was brought up a "Friend," but he passed to Unitarianism, then to " an attitude of Agnosticism on religious subjects." In 1896 he began to contribute to the Literary Guide, and from 1899 to 1913 (when his health compelled him to retire) he was secretary of the R. P. A. He seeks to provide Rationalism with a philosophy " to co-ordinate and supplement the outlooks of the various sciences " (The Anatomy of Knowledge, 1906; , 1913). He contributes occasionally to Mind, the Arbitrator, and other periodicals.
Hope, Thomas, F.R.S., writer. B. about 1770. Son of an Amsterdam merchant, he studied architecture in various countries, and settled in England in 1796, devoting himself to art collecting. He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries and Vice-President of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Besides some works on art, and a novel (Anastasius, 1819), he wrote An Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man (1831), which contains an early exposition of evolution. Carlyle called it " an apotheosis of Materialism." D. Feb. 3, 1831.
Horneffer, Ernst, Ph.D., German writer. B. Sep. 7, 1871. Ed. Treptow Gymnasium, and Berlin and Göttingen Universities. Horneffer took up the study of Nietzsche, together with his brother August. They edited Nietzsche's literary remains (1895) for the Nietzsche Archiv, and Ernst delivered the funeral oration in 1900. He is a Monist of Munich, editor of Die Tat, author of several Rationalist works (Die Kunftige Religion, 1909; Monismus und Freiheit, 1911; etc.), and an active promoter of Sunday lectures and the secular moral instruction of the young.
Horsley, Sir Victor Alexander Haden, M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.S., surgeon. B. Apr. 14, 1857. Ed. Granbrook School and University College Hospital. He won the Gold Medal in Anatomy and Surgery and the Surgical Scholarship at the London University, and
