fusing to acknowledge the superiority of the Spartans, was attacked and destroyed by them, and its inhabitants made slaves, who were treated with the greatest injustice and cruelty by their conquerors.-A general name of contempt.

HEMANS, MRS., a poetess of high standing, was born in Liverpool, 25th September, 1794. Her father was an Irish gentleman of small fortune, of the name of Browne, and her own name was Felicia Dorothea Browne. The father does not seem to have been a person of first-rate character; and on account of his improvident conduct, the family was reduced to the necessity of leaving Liverpool, and retiring into Wales, to practise economy, where they lived in a retired country house on the sea-coast, near Abergeley. Miss Browne's position here, so near the sea, and surrounded with the wild and romantic scenery of Wales, must have had a favourable effect in cherishing and strengthening those tastes and tendencies of her richly endowed and highly cultivated mind, which have raised her name so high in the list of true poets. Indeed this is evident from some of her first efforts in poetry, such as Lines written in North Wales on the sea-shore, &c. Miss Browne was very early married to Captain Hemans, (in 1812,) yet she had become both a poet and an authoress some years before she became a wife. Indeed, some of her published little pieces were written at the remarkably early ages of 8, 9, and 10 years. Mrs. Hemans' extraordinary love of books and literature, and her highly imaginative cast of mind, did not tend much to qualify her for the discharge of domestic duties; this, combined with the peculiar cast of her husband's mind, made their union an unhappy one; and after she had born him five sons, they agreed to separate-he going abroad, and she retiring again to her mother's house in

Wales, where she remained till her mother's death. Shortly after this event, in 1828, she removed to the village of Wavertree, near Liverpool, where she resided for three years. Mrs. Hemans' popularity was now at its hight; and while not only her own countrymen and women, but also foreigners, were manifesting the greatest anxiety to be introduced to her, she was living in a comparatively humble, and not very poetical manner, in this village-her house being but small, and forming one of a row along the side of a dusty road. During her stay at Wavertree, Mrs. Hemans made two or three visits to Scotland and the north of England, and spent some weeks with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and Wordsworth at Ambleside, Westmoreland. In 1831, Mrs. Hemans removed to Dublin; and on the 16th of May, 1835, she closed her checquered, but valuable life, in the 41st year of her age.

HEMIP'TERA (from hemi, Gr., half, and pteron, Gr., a wing), an order of insects half-winged, or having their wings half-horny, half-membranous.

HERACLEI'DAN, or HERACLI'DEAN, belonging to Hercules; brave, heroic.

HER'CULES, or HERACLES, a celebrated hero, who, after death, like most of the famous ancients, was ranked among the gods, and received divine honours. There were a number of persons of this name, but the most renowned was the son of Zeus and Alcmen, but called the son of Jupiter, and frequently called Theban, from being born and educated at Thebes. The wildest ravings of a madman cannot exceed in absurdity and extravagance the deeds and feats attributed to this hero by the roving imagination of the superstitious Greekssuch as squeezing two serpents to death with his hands when but a child of eight months old, in his cradle, which Juno had sent to devour him-slaying the two

mighty lions of mount Citha'ron and the Nemæ’an forest-the latter of which he chased to his den, and choked with his hands-destroying a monstrous serpent with seven heads, which are fabled to have grown on again as fast as Hercules knocked them off, till he got a friend to burn their roots with a hot iron as fast as he knocked them off-catching a stag, famous for its great swiftness, its golden horns, and brazen feet-bringing alive to Eurys'theus a wild boar, which had done much mischief-cleaning the stables of Aúgeas, King of Elis, in which 3000 cattle had been kept for thirty years, without any of the filth being removed. Hercules accomplished this feat by turning a neighbouring river into the stables-killing the voracious birds which fed upon human flesh, and ravished the country near the lake Stymphális, in Arcadia-bringing alive into Greece a prodigious wild bull, which had laid waste the island of Crete-taking possession of the mares of Diomédes, King of Thrace, who fed them with human flesh. Hercules slew the barbarous tyrant Diomedes, and gave him to be eaten by his mares, which he brought to Eurystheus-obtaining the girdle of Hippol'yta, Queen of the Amazons-slaying Géryon, King of Gádes (now Cadiz, in Spain), a cruel monster with three heads, and a due proportion of arms and legs, and carrying off his cattle. In this expedition, Hercules is said to have opened up the Straits of Gibraltar, by rending asunder Africa and Spain, which had till then been united; thus forming a mountain upon each side, called the Pillars of Hercules bringing apples from the garden of the Hesper'ides-three famous nymphs who dwelt in a beautiful garden (some place it in Africa, and some in other parts of the world) where golden apples grew. These apples were guarded by a fierce dragon, called Ladon, which never slept. Hercules killed the dragon,

and carried off the fruit-carrying from hell to earth the three-headed dog Cer'berus. Killing the Nemean lion, with the eleven last mentioned feats, are called the twelve labours of Hercules, imposed upon him by Eurystheus, the King of Argos and Mycénæ, to whom Jupiter had given power over Hercules for 12 years. There are many such stories told in heathen mythology about Hercules, but the above is a sufficient specimen of such nonsense; still there are so many allusions to heathen fable by all authors of any standing, especially by the poets, that their works cannot be understood without a pretty accurate knowledge of such things; while, at the same time, it must be admitted, they often enable a writer to illustrate a fine idea in an interesting and striking manner. And, moreover, when they are contrasted with the simple but sublime statements of Christianity, they greatly tend to strengthen our belief in its divine origin. The true history of Hercules seems to be, that he was a brave and valorous Greek prince, something like our own Wallace or Bruce, whose noble and heroic acts the lively imagination of the Greeks has .made ridiculous. Hercules lived in the thirteenth century before Christ.

HERSCHEL, SIR WILLIAM, the second son of a musician at Hanover, was born in November, 1738. His father trained him up to his own profession, at the same time giving him a good general education, and placed him, at the age of 14, in the band of the Hanoverian foot guards. He came to England about the year 1757, and was employed at Durham for some time after his arrival in forming a military band. He then acted for several years as organist in Halifax, where he also employed himself in teaching music and studying languages. About the year 1766, he removed to Bath, where, besides acting as organist of Octagon

chapel, he commenced the diligent study of mathematics and astronomy. Herschel constructed a telescope for himself, with which he prosecuted a careful examination of the heavens; and, on the 13th March, 1781, he discovered a new primary planet, which he named Georgium Sidus (the Georgean Star), after George III. It is also called Uranius, and Herschel, after himself. The fame of this discovery brought him under the notice of the King, who appointed him astronomer to himself, with a salary of L.400 a year, which enabled him to devote his whole attention to this noble science. Herschel's labours were so arduous, and his discoveries so many and valuable, that the University of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.—an honour which the king followed up, in 1816, by knighting him. He latterly resided at Slough, near Windsor, and died in August, 1822, in his 84th year. Herschel married a Mrs. Mary Pitt, a widow lady, by whom he left one son, Sir John Herschel, who has nobly followed in the footsteps of his father, and honourably sustained his high fame.

HESPE'RIAN (hesperius, Lat., western,) belonging to the west. (See HERCULES.)

HILUM, Lat., the sear or mark left upon a seed, such as a bean or a pea, by breaking it off from its seed-vessel.

HINNOM, a deep ravine or vale on the south and south-east of Jerusalem, so called either from some proprietor of it, or it may be rendered, the valley of shrieking. Here the Jews wickedly burned their children to Moloch, who was represented by an image made of brass, with a man's body, and a calf's head, with a crown upon it. The idol was hollow, and had its arms stretched out, and when they sacrificed a child, they made a fire in the inside of it, and when it became burning hot, they laid the wretched infant on its arms, who thus endured