Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/185

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Dictionary of English Literature
173

them are The Primitive Origination of Mankind, and Contemplations, Moral and Divine. His legal works are still of great authority. Though somewhat dissipated in early youth, he has handed down a high reputation for wisdom and piety.


Hales, John (1584-1656).—Theologian, b. at Bath, and ed. there and at Oxf., became one of the best Greek scholars of his day, and lectured on that language at Oxf. In 1616 he accompanied the English ambassador to the Hague in the capacity of chaplain, and attended the Synod of Dort, where he was converted from Calvinism to Arminianism. A lover of quiet and learned leisure, he declined all high and responsible ecclesiastical preferment, and chose and obtained scholarly retirement in a Fellowship of Eton, of which his friends Sir Henry Savile and Sir Henry Wotton were successively Provost. A treatise on Schism and Schismatics (1636?) gave offence to Laud, but H. defended himself so well that Laud made him a Prebendary of Windsor. Refusing to acknowledge the Commonwealth, he was deprived, fell into poverty, and had to sell his library. After his death his writings were pub. in 1659 as The Golden Remains of the Ever-Memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton College.


Haliburton, Thomas Chandler (1796-1865).—B. at Windsor, Nova Scotia, was a lawyer, and rose to be Judge of the Supreme Court of the Colony. He was the author of The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville, and a continuation, The Attaché, or Sam Slick in England. In these he made a distinctly original contribution to English fiction, full of shrewdness and humour. He may be regarded as the pioneer of the American school of humorists. He wrote various other works, including The Old Judge, Nature and Human Nature, A Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, etc. In 1856 he settled in England, and sat in the House of Commons for Launceston.


Halifax, Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of (1661-1715).—A famous wit, statesman, and patron of literature, was ed. at Westminster School and Trinity Coll., Camb. Entering Parliament he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694, and First Lord of the Treasury 1697. Vain and arrogant, he soon lost popularity and power. His chief literary effort was his collaboration with Prior in The Town and Country Mouse (1687), a parody of and reply to Dryden's Hind and Panther. H. was the friend and patron of Addison, Steele, Congreve, and many other of the classical writers of his day. He became a peer in 1701.


Hall, Mrs. Anna Maria (Fielding) (1800-1881).—Novelist, was b. in Dublin, but left Ireland at the age of 15. Nevertheless, that country gave her the motive of several of her most successful books, such as Sketches of Irish Character (1829), Lights and Shadows of Irish Character (1838), Marian (1839), and The White Boy (1845). Other works are The Buccaneer, and Midsummer Eve, a fairy tale, and many sketches in the Art Journal, of which her husband, Samuel Carter Hall (1800-1889), was ed. With him she also collaborated in a work entitled Ireland, its Scenery, Character