In private life Sir John Herschel was a firm and most active friend ; he had no jealousies; he avoided all scientific feuds; he gladly accorded a helping hand to those who consulted him in scientific difficulties; he never discouraged, and still less disparaged, men younger than or inferior to himself ; he was pleased when his own work was appre- ciated, but that was never an object of his solicitude: it was said of him by a discriminating critic, and without extravagance, that “his was a life full of the serenity of the sage and the docile innocence of a child.”
He died at Coliingwood, his residence near Hawkhurst in Kent, May 11, 1871, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and his remains are interred in Westminster Abbey close to the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.
Sir John Herschel, independently of the labours connected with his Cape Observations, was the author of several books, one of which at least, On the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830), possesses an interest which no future advances of the subjects on which he wrote ean obliterate from the attention of thoughtful men in any age. In 1849 came the Outlines of Astronomy, of which it is enough to say that, notwithstanding the obvious disadvantage arising from the practice of stereotyping text-books which relate to progressive sciences, there ig no more instructive volume extant on the subject of which it treats. His articles, ‘‘ Meteorology,” ‘‘ Physical Geography,” and ‘‘ Telescope,” contributed to the 8th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, were afterwards published separately. There is also another very valuable little book, which originated from a happy peculiarity of Sir John Herschel’s dignified simplicity and truthfulness of mind. When he was at the Cape he more than once assisted in the attempts there made to diffuse a love of know- ledge. among men not engaged in literary pursuits. In one of his addresses he, with a kindly and far-seeing wisdom, told his audience that the advance of a nation’s intelligence or a nation’s fame did not depend upon a few successful philosophers toiling in their lonely studies, and gathering-great reputations for their learning or their discoveries, but that a nation’s progress rather lay in the diffusion of their knowledge among the masses of the population. Acting practically on this principle, he, on his return to England, published, in Good Words and elsewhere, a series of papers on interest- ing points of natural philosophy, which have since been collected in a volume called Familiar Lectures on Scicntific Subjects. None but a deep thinking philosopher eould have written this book ; none but a clear thinking master of his subjects could have made it what it is, enticingly intelligible. Another volume of his, not so widely known to the public as any of the above works, is his Col- lected Addresses, in which he is seen in his happiest and most instructive mood, walking, as it were, at liberty among sympathizing associates, in his own fields, and enamoured of their beauties.
HERSENT, Louis (1777–1860), French painter, was one of David’s most distinguished pupils, and became one of the most noted painters of the Restoration. He was born at Paris on 10th March 1777, and obtained the Prix de Rome in 1797; in the Salon of 1802 appeared his Metamorphosis of Narcissus, and he continued to exhibit with rare interruptions up to 1831. His most considerable works under the empire were Achilles parting from Briseis, and Atala dying in the arms of Chactas (both engraved in Landon’s Annales du Musée); an Incident of the life of Fénelon, painted in 1810, found a place at Malmaison, and Passage of the Bridge at Landshut, which belongs to the same date, is now at Versailles. Hersent’s typical works, however, belong to the period of the Restoration ; Louis XVI. relieving the Afflicted (Versailles) and Daphnis and Chloe (engraved by Langier and by Gelée) were both in the Salon of 1317 ; at that of 1819 the Abdication of Gustavus Vasa brought to Hersent a medal of honour, but the picture, purchased by the duke of Orleans, was destroyed at the Palais Royal in 1848, and the engraving by Henriquel-Dupont is now its sole record. Ruth, produced in 1822, became the property of Louis XVIIT., who from the moment that Hersent rallicd to the Restoration zealously patronized him, made him officer of the legion of honour, and pressed his claims at the Institute, where he replaced Van Spaendonck. He continued in favour under Tharles X., for whom was executed Monks of Mount St Gotthard, exhibited in 1824. In 1831 Hersent made his last appearance at the Salon with portraits of Louis Philippe, Marie-Amélie, and the duke of Moutpensier; that of the king, though good, is not equal to the portrait of Spontini (Berlin), which is probably Hersent’s chef-d’auvre. After this date Hersent ceased to exhibit at the yearly salons. Although in 1846 he sent an excellent likeness of Delphine Gay and one or two other works to the rooms of the Socicté d’Artistes, he could not be tempted from his usual reserve even by the international contest of 1855. Five years later, on 2d October 1860, he died. His work shows every artistic merit which can be attained by steadily directed intelligence and labour; his skilful arrangement, delicacy of line, and certainty in execution are points which have excited the admiration even of those who find him wanting in feeling, in interest, and in sense of colour. Louis XVI. relieving the Afflicted, the treatment of which indicates the approach of the realistic movement, is less theatrical than Daphnis and Chloe, which combines, in the true spirit of the Restoration, drawing-room graces with a pseudo-classic style; but both show the same dryness and hardness of manner which Hersent had acquired under the influence of the first empire, and from which he never was able to free himself.
HERSFELD, a town of Prussia, capital of a circle in the government district of Cassel, province of Hesse-Nassau, is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Geisa and Haune with the Fulda, on the railway from Frankfort to Bebra, 10 miles N.N.E. of Fulda. The greater part of its old fortifications remain, but the ramparts and ditches have been laid out as promenades. The principal buildings are the ancient town-house; the parish church, completed in 1320, in the Gothic style, with a fine tower and a large bell; the ruins of the collegiate church in the Byzantine style, erected in the beginning of the 12th century on the site of the cathedral, but burnt down by the French during the Seven Years’ War; and outside the town the ancient monastery with its surrounding grounds. Among the public institu- tions are a gymnasium, a higher town school, an orphanage, and a district infirmary. The town has important manufactures of cloth and leather, as well as dye-works, worsted mills, and soap-boiling works. The population in 1875 was 6929.
Hersfeld owes its origin to a Benedictine abbey which, founded by Lullus, archbishop of Mainz, about 760, was richly endowed by Charlemagne, and became in the 12th century an ecclesiastical principality. In 1370 the town came under the protection of Hesse, and in 1525 it gave in its formal allegiance to it. The abbey was secularized in 1648, but Iersfeld remained the capital of a princi- pality until 1828.
