Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/940

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HER
890
HER

great reflecting; telescope, forty feet in focal length, and with a speculum four feet in diameter; George III. having liberally offered to defray the whole expense of it. It was finished on the 27th August, 1789. and on that very evening he discovered the sixth satellite of Saturn, and in less than a month the seventh—both these bodies being nearer the planet than the five old ones. In addition to these great discoveries we owe to Sir W. Herschel the discovery of the many spots at the poles of Mars, the rotation of Saturn's ring, the belts of Saturn, the rotation of Jupiter's satellites, the daily period of Saturn and Venus, and the motions of binary sidereal systems. In 1786, the university of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. In 1816 he was presented with the decoration of the Guelphic order, and in 1820 he was chosen the first president of the Astronomical Society. In 1788, Sir William married the widow of John Pitt, Esq., with whom he received a considerable fortune, and by whom he had an only son, the present Sir John Herschel, to whom science owes so many and such deep obligations. After completing his paper on one hundred and forty-five double stars, which was published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Astronomical Society, his health began to decline, and he died on the 25th August, 1822, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His remains were interred in the church of Upton in Buckinghamshire.—D. B.

* HERTZ, Henrik, an eminent Danish poet, was born of Jewish parents at Copenhagen on the 28th August, 1798. In 1817 he became a student of law at the university of his native city, and after the lapse of seven years took his academic degrees with honour. In 1830 he made his appearance on the arena of authorship in the famous "Giengangerbreve" (Letters of an Apparition), a poetical satire that produced great sensation in Denmark. This production was published anonymously, and the name of the writer was not revealed until two years afterwards. It then also appeared that Hertz was the previously unknown author of several plays, that since 1827 had achieved decided success on the Danish stage. In 1832 he renounced the Jewish creed, and embraced protestantism. During the following year, having received a travelling pension from the Danish government, he undertook a tour to Italy, Germany, and France. In 1834 he returned to Copenhagen, since which time he has been a prolific writer in various departments of literature. His dramas are on a vast variety of subjects, and are characterized by much vigour, life, and versatility. Among them we may specify "Svend Dyring's House," a powerful romantic tragedy of old northern life; and that beautiful little blossom of southern poetry, "King René's Daughter," which has been translated into several European languages, and, among them, into English. His lyric pieces are of a high order, and rank among the finest productions of the modern Danish muse.—J. J.

HERTZBERG, Ewald Friedrich, Count von, royal cabinet minister of Prussia, and curator of the royal academy at Berlin, was born in 1725, and died May 27, 1795. In 1752 Frederick the Great named him councillor of legation (legationsrath). Soon after he wrote a dissertation on the first inhabitants of the Brandenburg March, which was crowned by the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and rewarded with an appointment as privy councillor of legation. He next wrote his account of the ancient naval power of Brandenburg, &c. He wrote in 1756 his famous "Memoir Raisonée," in Latin, German, and French, to justify the Prussian invasion of Saxony. This memoir was the work of eight days. In 1762 he concluded the treaty of peace between Russia and Sweden. In 1772 he advocated the rights of Frederick to Western Prussia. He took an active part in the discussions arising from the claims of Austria to Bavaria, which led to the formation of the Fürstenbund in 1785. In 1787 he had a principal share in settling the troubles in Holland. His public services only terminated with his life.—B. H. C.

HERVET, Gentien, a celebrated editor and translator of Greek authors and miscellaneous writers, was born in 1499, and studied at Orleans under Reuchlin, Erasmus, &c. He afterwards went to Paris, where he assisted Edward Lupset in editing the Latin version of Galen by Linacre. He followed Lupset to England, where the countess of Salisbury made him preceptor to her son, Arthur Pole, brother of Cardinal Pole. The cardinal invited him to Rome, where he laboured for some years on Latin, translating from the Greek. Having returned to France, he became professor at Bordeaux and Orleans. He was recalled to Rome, where he resided with Cardinal Cervin (afterwards Marcellus II.), in whose house he executed many of his translations of the Greek fathers. In 1545 he accompanied Cervin to the council of Trent. In 1561 he attended the colloquy of Poissy. In 1562-63 he went again to the council of Trent with the cardinal de Lorraine, who soon after made him canon of Rheims, where he died in 1584. His works, translated and original, form a library in themselves. As might be expected, they reveal more of industry and of erudition than of taste and genius.—B. H. C.

HERVEY, Augustus John, the third earl of Bristol, and a distinguished naval officer, was born on the 19th May, 1724. He entered the navy when only ten years of age. In 1744, when he had attained the rank of lieutenant, he married privately a young lady named Chudleigh. A few days after the ceremony he went to sea. His wife does not appear at the time to have made her marriage known. So late as 1764 she remained a maid of honour at court. In the meanwhile her husband, promoted to the rank of post-captain, served in the Mediterranean under Byng and highly distinguished himself, and was advanced to the command of a 74 gun-ship. While he had been at sea, his wife had formed an intimacy with the duke of Kingston. She now raised a suit to have it declared that her marriage with Lieutenant Hervey was null; a decision was given in her favour, and in 1769 she became duchess of Kingston. Not many years afterwards, Captain Hervey was named one of the lords of the admiralty. He entered parliament as member for Bury St. Edmunds, and remained in the house of commons until by the death of his brother, without issue, he succeeded to the earldom of Bristol. On becoming a peer, he was raised to the rank of admiral. His wife was indicted at the same time for bigamy before the house of lords. The former judgment in her favour was set aside. She was found guilty, but as a peeress escaped the degradation of corporal punishment. As a politician the earl of Bristol was not consistent. He died in 1779, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his brother, the bishop of Derry, who is the subject of the following notice.—G. B—y.

HERVEY, Frederick, the fourth earl of Bristol, was born in August, 1730. He became a fellow-commoner of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, on 10th November, 1747. After keeping terms for some time at one of the inns of court, he forsook the bar for the church. For many years, after going into holy orders, he received no preferment. He spent most of his time in foreign travel. While at Naples, he ascended to the crater of Vesuvius then in eruption, and received a severe wound on the arm from a falling stone. In February, 1787, while his brother George William, the second earl, was lord-lieutenant, he was promoted to the see of Cloyne. In 1768 he was thence translated to Derry. The measures he took as bishop to promote the comfort of his clergy secured him popularity. He busied himself actively at the same time in the improvement of the town of Londonderry. In 1770 the corporation of Londonderry presented him with the freedom of their city in a gold box, as a mark of their sense of the benefit derived from his exertions. In 1779, on succeeding to the earldom of Bristol by the death of his brother Augustus John, he paid £1000 as a gift into the fund for the endowment for the widows and clergy of his diocese. Adopting the views of the Irish patriots, he attended the famous convention of delegates from the volunteers, held at Dublin in 1782. On this occasion he was escorted from Londonderry to the Irish capital at the head of a regiment of volunteer cavalry, and received military honours in every town through which he passed. Bishop Hervey was a zealous patron of the fine arts. Whimsical and eccentric in his habits, he provoked the remark that there are three sorts of people—women, men, and Herveys. In the latter years of his life he took up his abode in Italy, and made a valuable collection of works of art. In 1798 he was apprehended and plundered by the French. He died at Albano in the states of the church in 1803.—G. B—y.

HERVEY, James, was born at Hardingstone, near Northampton, on the 26th of February, 1714. At the age of seven years his parents sent him to the Northampton grammar-school. From Northampton he was sent to Oxford, where he entered Lincoln college, and made the acquaintance of John Wesley and other founders of methodism. His attachment to them, however, appears to have been originated more by his sympathy with their religious spirit and practices than with their doctrinal conclusions; for although he approved of their devout zeal and strictness, and for some time favoured arminianism, he was not grounded in