[1] J. B. Bury, in _Classical Review_, iii. p. 416, suggests that the
name means "dog," against which see J. H. Vince, ib. iv. p. 47. G. C.
Warr, ib. ix. 390, takes the Hesiodic Hecate to be a moon-goddess,
daughter of the sun-god Perseus.
HECATOMB (Gr. [Greek: hekatombe] from [Greek: hekaton], a hundred, and
[Greek: bous], an ox), originally the sacrifice of a hundred oxen in the
religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans; later a large number of
any kind of animals devoted for sacrifice. Figuratively, "hecatomb" is
used to describe the sacrifice or destruction by fire, tempest, disease
or the sword of any large number of persons or animals; and also of the
wholesale destruction of inanimate objects, and even of mental and moral
attributes.
HECATO OF RHODES, Greek Stoic philosopher and disciple of Panaetius
(Cicero, _De officiis_, iii. 15). Nothing else is known of his life, but
it is clear that he was eminent amongst the Stoics of the period. He was
a voluminous writer, but nothing remains. A list is preserved by
Diogenes, who mentions works on _Duty_, _Good_, _Virtues_, _Ends_. The
first, dedicated to Tubero, is eulogized by Cicero in the _De officiis_,
and Seneca refers to him frequently in the _De beneficiis_. According to
Diogenes Laertius, he divided the virtues into two kinds, those founded
on scientific intellectual principles (i.e. wisdom and justice), and
those which have no such basis (e.g. temperance and the resultant health
and vigour). Cicero shows that he was much interested in casuistical
questions, as, for example, whether a good man who had received a coin
which he knew to be bad was justified in passing it on to another. On
the whole, his moral attitude is cynical, and he is inclined to regard
self-interest as the best criterion. This he modifies by explaining that
self-interest is based on the relationships of life; a man needs money
for the sake of his children, his friends and the state whose general
prosperity depends on the wealth of its citizens. Like the earlier
Stoics, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, he held that virtue may be taught.
(See STOICS and PANAETIUS.)
HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL (1811-1881), German revolutionist, was born
at Eichtersheim in the Palatinate on the 28th of September 1811, his
father being a revenue official. He studied law with the intention of
becoming an advocate, but soon became absorbed in politics. On entering
the Second Chamber of Baden in 1842, he at once began to take part in
the opposition against the government, which assumed a more and more
openly Radical character, and in the course of which his talents as an
agitator and his personal charm won him wide popularity and influence. A
speech, denouncing the projected incorporation of Schleswig and Holstein
with Denmark, delivered in the Chamber of Baden on the 6th of February
1845, spread his fame beyond the limits of his own state, and his
popularity was increased by his expulsion from Prussia on the occasion
of a journey to Stettin. After the death of his more moderate-minded
friend Adolf Sander (March 9th, 1845), Hecker's tone towards the
government became more and more bitter. In spite of the shallowness and
his culture and his extremely weak character, he enjoyed an
ever-increasing popularity. Even before the outbreak of the revolution
he included Socialistic claims in his programme. In 1847 he was
temporarily occupied with ideas of emigration, and with this object made
a journey to Algiers, but returned to Baden and resumed his former
position as the Radical champion of popular rights, later becoming
president of the _Volksverein_, where he was destined to fall still
further under the influence of the agitator Gustav von Struve. In
conjunction with Struve he drew up the Radical programme carried at the
great Liberal meeting held at Offenburg on the 12th of September 1847
(entitled "Thirteen Claims put forward by the People of Baden"). In
addition to the Offenburg programme, the _Sturmpetition_ of the 1st of
March 1848 attempted to extort from the government the most far-reaching
concessions. But it was in vain that on becoming a deputy Hecker
endeavoured to carry out its impracticable provisions. He had to yield
to the more moderate majority, but on this account was driven still
further towards the Left. The proof lies in the new Offenburg demands of
the 19th of March, and in the resolution moved by Hecker in the
preliminary parliament of Frankfort that Germany should be declared a
republic. But neither in Baden nor Frankfort did he at any time gain his
point.
This double failure, combined with various energetic measures of the
government, which were indirectly aimed at him (e.g. the arrest of the
editor of the _Constanzer Seeblatt_, a friend of Hecker's, in Karlsruhe
station on the 8th of April), inspired Hecker with the idea of an armed
rising under pretext of the foundation of the German republic. The 9th
to the 11th of April was secretly spent in preliminaries. On the 12th of
April Hecker and Struve sent a proclamation to the inhabitants of the
_Seekreis_ and of the Black Forest "to summon the people who can bear
arms to Donaueschingen at mid-day on the 14th, with arms, ammunition and
provisions for six days." They expected 70,000 men, but only a few
thousand appeared. The grand-ducal government of the _Seekreis_ was
dissolved, and Hecker gradually gained reinforcements. But friendly
advisers also joined him, pointing out the risks of his undertaking.
Hecker, however, was not at all ready to listen to them; on the
contrary, he added to violence an absurd defiance, and offered an
amnesty to the German princes on condition of their retiring within
fourteen days into private life. The troops of Baden and Hesse marched
against him, under the command of General Friedrich von Gagern, and on
the 20th of April they met near Kandern, where Gagern was killed, it is
true, but Hecker was completely defeated.
Like many of the revolutionaries of that period, Hecker retired to
Switzerland. He was, it is true, again elected to the Chamber of Baden
by the circle of Thiengen, but the government, no longer willing to
respect his immunity as a deputy, refused its ratification. On this
account Hecker resolved in September 1848 to emigrate to North America,
and obtained possession of a farm near Belleville in the state of
Illinois.
During the second rising in Baden in the spring of 1849 he again made
efforts to obtain a footing in his own state, but without success. He
only came as far as Strassburg, but had to retreat before the victories
of the Prussian troops over the Baden insurgents.
On his return to America he won some distinction during the Civil War as
colonel of a regiment which he had himself got together on the Federal
side in 1861 and 1864. It was with great joy that he heard of the union
of Germany brought about by the victory over France in 1870-71. It was
then that he made his famous festival speech at St Louis, in which he
gave an animated expression to the enthusiasm of the German Americans
for their newly-united fatherland. He received a less favourable
impression during a journey he made in Germany in 1873. He died at St
Louis on the 24th of March 1881.
Hecker was always very much beloved of all the German democrats. The
song and the hat named after him (the latter a broad slouch hat with a
feather) became famous as the symbols of the middle-classes in revolt.
In America, too, he had won great esteem, not only on political grounds
but also for his personal qualities.
See F. Hecker, _Die Erhebung des Volkes in Baden fur die deutsche
Republik_ (Baden, 1848); F. Hecker, _Reden und Vorlesungen_ (Neerstadt
a. d. H., 1872); F. v. Weech, _Badische Biographien_, iv. (1891); L.
Mathy, _Aus dem Nachlasse von K. Matty, Briefe aus den Jahren
1846-1848_ (Leipzig, 1898). (J. Hn.)
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS (1819-1888), American Roman Catholic priest, the
founder of the "Paulist Fathers," was born in New York City, of German
immigrant parents, on the 18th of December 1819. When barely twelve
years of age, he had to go to work, and pushed a baker's cart for his
elder brothers, who had a bakery in Rutgers Street. But he studied at
every possible opportunity, becoming immersed in Kant's _Critique of
Pure Reason_, and while still a lad took part in certain politico-social
movements which aimed at the elevation of the working man. It was at
this juncture that he met Orestes Brownson, who exercised a marked
influence over him. Isaac was deeply religious, a characteristic for
which he gave much credit to his prayerful mother, and remained so amid
all the reading and agitating in which he engaged. Having grown into
young manhood, he joined the Brook Farm movement, and in that colony he
tarried some six months. Shortly after leaving it (in 1844) he was
baptized into the Roman Catholic Church by Bishop McCloskey of New York.
One year later he was entered in the novitiate of the Redemptorists in
Belgium, and there he cultivated to a high degree the spirit of lofty
mystical piety which marked him through life.
Ordained a priest in London by Wiseman in 1849, he returned to America,
and worked until 1857 as a Redemptorist missionary. With all his
mysticism, Isaac Hecker had the wide-awake mind of the typical American,
and he perceived that the missionary activity of the Catholic Church in
the United States must remain to a large extent ineffective unless it
adopted methods suited to the country and the age. In this he had the
sympathy of four fellow Redemptorists, who like himself were of American
birth and converts from Protestantism. Acting as their agent, and with
the consent of his local superiors, Hecker went to Rome to beg of the
Rector Major of his Order that a Redemptorist novitiate might be opened
in the United States, in order thus to attract American youths to the
missionary life. In furtherance of this request, he took with him the
strong approval of some members of the American hierarchy. The Rector
Major, instead of listening to Father Hecker, expelled him from the
Order for having made the journey to Rome without sufficient
authorization. The outcome of the trouble was that Hecker and the other
four American Redemptorists were permitted by Pius IX. in 1858 to form
the separate religious community of the Paulists. Hecker trained and
governed this community in spiritual exercises and mission-preaching
until his death in New York City, after seventeen years of suffering, on
the 22nd of December 1888. He founded and was the director of the
Catholic Publication Society, was the founder, and from 1865 until his
death the editor, of the _Catholic World_, and wrote _Questions of the
Soul_ (1855), _Aspirations of Nature_ (1857), _Catholicity in the United
States_ (1879) and _The Church and the Age_ (1888).
The name of Hecker is closely associated with that of "Americanism."
To understand this movement it is necessary to comprehend the tendency
of events in Catholic Europe rather than in America itself. The steady
decline in the power and influence of French Catholicism since shortly
after 1870 is the most remarkable feature of the history of the Third
Republic. Not only did the French State pass laws bearing more and
more stringently on the Church, under each succeeding ministry, but
the bulk of the people acquiesced in the policy of its legislators.
The clergy, if not Catholicism, was rapidly losing its hold over the
once Catholic nation. Observing this fact, and encouraged by the
action of Leo XIII., who, in 1892 called on French Catholics loyally
to accept the Republic, a body of vigorous young French priests set
themselves to check the disaster. They studied the causes which
produced it. These causes, they considered to be, first, the clergy's
predominant sympathy with the monarchists, and in its undisguised
hostility to the Republic; secondly, the Church's aloofness from
modern men, methods and thought. The progressive party believed that
there was too little cultivation of individual, independent character,
while too much stress was laid upon what might be called the
mechanical or routine side of religion. The party perceived, too, that
Catholicism was making scarcely any use of modern aggressive modes of
propaganda; that, for example, the Church took but an insignificant
part in social movements, in the organization of clubs for social
study, in the establishing of settlements and similar philanthropic
endeavour. Lack of adaptability to modern needs expresses in short the
deficiencies in Catholicism which these men endeavoured to correct.
They began a domestic apostolate which had for one of its rallying
cries, "_Allons au peuple_,"--"Let us go to the people." They agitated
for the inauguration of social works, for a more intimate mingling of
priests with the people, and for general cultivation of personal
initiative, both in clergy and in laity.
Not unnaturally, they looked for inspiration to America. There they
saw a vigorous Church among a free people, with priests publicly
respected, and with a note of aggressive zeal in every project of
Catholic enterprise. From the American priesthood, Father Hecker stood
out conspicuous for sturdy courage, deep interior piety, an assertive
self-initiative and immense love of modern times and modern liberty.
So they took Father Hecker for a kind of patron saint. His biography
(New York, 1891), written in English by the Paulist Father Elliott,
was translated into French (1897), and speedily became the book of the
hour. Under the inspiration of Father Hecker's life and character, the
more spirited section of the French clergy undertook the task of
persuading their fellow-priests loyally to accept the actual political
establishment, and then, breaking out of their isolation, to put
themselves in touch with the intellectual life of the country, and
take an active part in the work of social amelioration.
In 1897 the movement received an impetus--and a warning--when Mgr
O'Connell, former Rector of the American College in Rome, spoke on
behalf of Father Hecker's ideas at the Catholic Congress in Friburg.
The conservatives took alarm at what they considered to be symptoms of
pernicious modernism or "Liberalism." Did not the watchword "_Allons
au peuple_" savour of heresy? Did it not tend toward breaking down the
divinely established distinction between the priest and the layman,
and conceding something to the laity in the management of the Church?
The insistence upon individual initiative was judged to be
incompatible with the fundamental principle of Catholicism, obedience
to authority. Moreover, the conservatives were, almost to a man,
anti-republicans who distrusted and disliked the democratic abbes.
Complaints were sent to Rome. A violent polemic against the new
movement was launched in Abbe Maignan's _Le pere Hecker, est-il un
saint?_ (1898). Repugnance to American tendencies and influences had a
strong representation in the Curia and in powerful circles in Rome.
Leo XIII. was extremely reluctant to pronounce any strictures upon
American Catholics, of whose loyalty to the Roman See, and to their
faith, he had often spoken in terms of high approbation. But he
yielded, in a measure, to the pressure brought to bear upon him, and,
early in February 1899, addressed to Cardinal Gibbons the Brief
_Testem Benevolentiae_. This document contained a condemnation of the
following doctrines or tendencies: (a) undue insistence on interior
initiative in the spiritual life, as leading to disobedience; (b)
attacks on religious vows, and disparagement of the value in the
present age, of religious orders; (c) minimizing Catholic doctrine;
(d) minimizing the importance of spiritual direction. The brief did
not assert that any unsound doctrine on the above points had been held
by Hecker or existed among Americans. Its tenour was, that if such
opinions did exist, the Pope called upon the hierarchy to eradicate
the evil. Cardinal Gibbons and many other prelates replied to Rome.
With all but unanimity, they declared that the incriminated opinions
had no existence among American Catholics. It was well known that
Hecker never had countenanced the slightest departure from Catholic
principles in their fullest and most strict application. The
disturbance caused by the condemnation was slight; almost the entire
laity, and a considerable part of the clergy, never understood what
the noise was about. The affair was soon forgotten, but the result was
to strengthen the hands of the conservatives in France. (J. J. F.)
HECKMONDWIKE, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary
division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 8 m. S.S.E. of
Bradford, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern, and London &
North-Western railways. Pop. (1901), 9459. Like the town of Dewsbury, on
the south-east, it is an important centre of the blanket and carpet
manufactures, and there are also machine works, dye works and iron
foundries. Coal is extensively wrought in the vicinity.
HECTOR, in Greek mythology, son of Priam and Hecuba, the husband of
Andromache. Like Paris and other Trojans, he had an Oriental name,
Darius. In Homer he is represented as an ideal warrior, the champion of
the Trojans and the mainstay of the city. His character, is drawn in
most favourable colours as a good son, a loving husband and father, and
a trusty friend. His leave-taking of Andromache in the sixth book of the
_Iliad_, and his departure to meet Achilles for the last time, are most
touchingly described. He is an especial favourite of Apollo; and later
poets even describe him as son of that god. His chief exploits during
the war were his defence of the wounded Sarpedon, his fight with Ajax,
son of Telamon (his particular enemy), and the storming of the Greek
ramparts. When Achilles, enraged with Agamemnon, deserted the Greeks,
Hector drove them back to their ships, which he almost succeeded in
burning. Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, who came to the help of the
Greeks, was slain by Hector with the help of Apollo. Then Achilles, to
revenge his friend's death, returned to the war, slew Hector, dragged
his body behind his chariot to the camp, and afterwards round the tomb
of Patroclus. Aphrodite and Apollo preserved it from corruption and
mutilation. Priam, guarded by Hermes, went to Achilles and prevailed on
him to give back the body, which was buried with great honour. Hector
was afterwards worshipped in the Troad by the Boeotian tribe Gephyraei,
who offered sacrifices at his grave.
HECUBA (Gr. [Greek: Hekabe]), wife of Priam, daughter of the Phrygian
king Dymas (or of Cisseus, or of the river-god Sangarius). According to
Homer she was the mother of nineteen of Priam's fifty sons. When Troy
was captured and Priam slain, she was made prisoner by the Greeks. Her
fate is told in various ways, most of which connect her with the
promontory Cynossema, on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont. According
to Euripides (in the _Hecuba_), her youngest son Polydorus had been
placed during the siege of Troy under the care of Polymestor, king of
Thrace. When the Greeks reached the Thracian Chersonese on their way
home Hecuba discovered that her son had been murdered, and in revenge
put out the eyes of Polymestor and murdered his two sons. She was
acquitted by Agamemnon; but, as Polymestor foretold, she was turned into
a dog, and her grave became a mark for ships (Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.
399-575; Juvenal x. 271 and Mayor's note). According to another story,
she fell to the lot of Odysseus, as a slave, and in despair threw
herself into the Hellespont; or, she used such insulting language
towards her captors that they put her to death (Dictys Cretensis v. 13.
16). It is obvious from the tales of Hecuba's transformation and death
that she is a form of some goddess to whom dogs were sacred; and the
analogy with Scylla is striking.
HEDA, WILLEM CLAASZ (c. 1504-c. 1670), Dutch painter, born at Haarlem,
was one of the earliest Dutchmen who devoted himself exclusively to the
painting of still life. He was the contemporary and comrade of Dirk
Hals, with whom he had in common pictorial touch and technical
execution. But Heda was more careful and finished than Hals, and showed
considerable skill and not a little taste in arranging and colouring
chased cups and beakers and tankards of precious and inferior metals.
Nothing is so appetizing as his "luncheon," with rare comestibles set
out upon rich plate, oysters--seldom without the cut lemon--bread,
champagne, olives and pastry. Even the commoner "refection" is also not
without charm, as it comprises a cut ham, bread, walnuts and beer. One
of Heda's early masterpieces, dated 1623, in the Munich Pinakothek is as
homely as a later one of 1651 in the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna. A
more luxurious repast is a "Luncheon in the Augsburg Gallery," dated
1644. Most of Heda's pictures are on the European continent, notably in
the galleries of Paris, Parma, Ghent, Darmstadt, Gotha, Munich and
Vienna. He was a man of repute in his native city, and filled all the
offices of dignity and trust in the gild of Haarlem. He seems to have
had considerable influence in forming the younger Frans Hals.
HEDDLE, MATTHEW FORSTER (1828-1897), Scottish mineralogist, was born at
Hoy in Orkney on the 28th of April 1828. After receiving his early
education at the Edinburgh academy, he entered as a medical student at
the university in that city, and subsequently studied chemistry and
mineralogy at Klausthal and Freiburg. In 1851 he took his degree of M.D.
at Edinburgh, and for about five years practised there. Medical work,
however, possessed for him little attraction; he became assistant to
Prof. Connell, who held the chair of chemistry at St Andrews, and in
1862 succeeded him as professor. This post he held until in 1880 he was
invited to report on some gold mines in South Africa. On his return he
devoted himself with great assiduity to mineralogy, and formed one of
the finest collections by means of personal exploration in almost every
part of Scotland. His specimens are now in the Royal Scottish Museum at
Edinburgh. It had been his intention to publish a comprehensive work on
the mineralogy of Scotland. This he did not live to complete, but the
MSS. fell into able hands, and _The Mineralogy of Scotland_, in 2 vols.,
edited by J. G. Goodchild, was issued in 1901. Heddle was one of the
founders of the Mineralogical Society, and he contributed many articles
on Scottish minerals, and on the geology of the northern parts of
Scotland, to the _Mineralogical Magazine_, as well as to the
_Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_. He died on the 19th of
November 1897.
See _Dr Heddle and his Geological Work_ (with portrait), by J. G.
Goodchild, _Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc._ (1898) vii. 317.
HEDGEHOG, or URCHIN, a member of the mammalian order Insectivora,
remarkable for its dentition, its armature of spines and its short tail.
The upper jaw is longer than the lower, the snout is long and flexible,
with the nostrils narrow, and the claws are long but weak. The animal is
about 10 in. long, its eyes are small, and the lower surface covered
with hairs of the ordinary character. The brain is remarkable for its
low development, the cerebral hemispheres being small, and marked with
but one groove, and that a shallow one, on each side. The hedgehog has
the power of rolling itself up into a ball, from which the spines stand
out in every direction. The spines are sharp, hard and elastic, and form
so efficient a defence that there are few animals able to effect a
successful attack on this creature. The moment it is touched, or even
hears the report of a gun, it rolls itself up by the action of the
muscles beneath the skin, while this contraction effects the erection of
the spines. The most important muscle is the _orbicularis panniculi_,
which extends over the anterior region of the skull, as far down the
body as the ventral hairy region, and on to the tail, but three other
muscles aid in the contraction.
[Illustration: The Hedgehog (_Erinaceus europaeus_).]
Though insectivorous, the hedgehog is reported to have a liking for
mice, while frogs and toads, as well as plants and fruits, all seem to
be acceptable. It will also eat snakes, and its fondness for eggs has
caused it to meet with the enmity of game-preservers; and there is no
doubt it occasionally attacks leverets and game-chicks. In a state of
nature it does not emerge from its retreat during daylight, unless urged
by hunger or by the necessities of its young. During winter it passes
into a state of hibernation, when its temperature falls considerably;
having provided itself with a nest of dry leaves, it is well protected
from the influences of the rain, and rolling itself up, remains
undisturbed till warmer weather returns. In July or August the female
brings forth four to eight young, or, according to others, two to four
at a somewhat earlier period; at birth the spines, which in the adult
are black in the middle, are white and soft, but soon harden, though
they do not attain their full size until the succeeding spring.
The hedgehog, which is known scientifically as _Erinaceus europaeus_,
and is the type of the family _Erinaceidae_, is found in woods and
gardens, and extends over nearly the whole of Europe; and has been found
at 6000 to 8000 ft. above the level of the sea. The adult is provided
with thirty-six teeth; in the upper jaw are 6 incisors, 2 canines and 12
cheek-teeth, and in the lower jaw 4 incisors, 2 canines and 10
cheek-teeth. The genus is represented by about a score of species,
ranging over Europe, Asia, except the Malay countries, and Africa.
(R. L.*)
HEDGES AND FENCES. The object of the hedge[1] or fence (abbreviation of
"defence") is to mark a boundary or to enclose an area of land on which
stock is kept. The hedge, i.e. a row of bushes or small trees, forms a
characteristic feature of the scenery of England, especially in the
midlands and south; it is more rarely found in other countries. Its
disadvantages as a fence are that it is not portable, that it requires
cutting and training while young, that it harbours weeds and vermin and
that it occupies together with the ditch which usually borders it a
considerable space of ground, the margins of which cannot be cultivated.
For these reasons it is to some extent superseded by the fence proper,
especially where shelter for cattle is not required. In Great Britain
the hawthorn (q.v.) is by far the most important of hedge plants. Holly
resembles the hawthorn in its amenability to pruning and in its prickly
nature and closeness of growth, which make it an effective barrier to,
and shelter for, stock, but it is less hardy and more slow-growing than
the hawthorn. Hornbeam, beech, myrobalan or cherry plum and blackthorn
also have their advantages, hornbeam being proof against great exposure,
blackthorn thriving on poor land and possessing great impenetrability
and so on. Box, yew, privet and many other plants are used for
ornamental hedging; in the United States the osage orange and honey
locust are favourite hedge plants. As fences, wooden posts and rails and
stone walls may be conveniently used in districts where the requisite
materials are plentiful. But the most modern form of fence is formed of
wire strands either smooth or barbed (see BARBED WIRE), strained between
iron standards or wooden or concrete posts. The wire may be interwoven
with vertical strands or, if necessary, may be kept apart by iron
droppers between the standards. Fences of a lighter description are
machine-made with pickets of split chestnut or other wood closely set,
woven with a few strands of wire; they are braced by posts at intervals.
From the fact that tramps and vagabonds frequently sleep under hedges
the word has come to be used as a term of contempt, as in
"hedge-priest," an inferior and illiterate kind of parson at one time
existing in England and Ireland, and in "hedge-school," a low class
school held in the open air, formerly very common in Ireland. From the
sense of "hedge" as an enclosure or barrier the verb "to hedge" means to
enclose, to form a barrier or defence, to bound or limit. As a sporting
term the word is used in betting to mean protection from loss, by
betting on both sides, by "laying off" on one side, after laying odds on
another or vice versa. The word was early used figuratively in the sense
of to avoid committing oneself.
See articles in the _Cyclopaedia of American Agriculture_, vol. i.,
ed. by L. H. Bailey (New York, 1907); in the _Standard Cyclopaedia of
Modern Agriculture_, ed. by R. P. Wright (London, 1908-1909); and in
the _Encyclopaedia of Agriculture_, vol. ii., ed. by C. E. Green and
D. Young (Edinburgh, 1908).