additions by way of conquest, and his kingdom extended from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and from Phoenicia to the Arabian gulf. A new residence was fixed at Jerusalem, which was intended to be the seat of a national sanctuary. The strict observance of the worship of Jehovah, as the exclusive national worship, was maintained; commerce was established, and the general cultivation of the nation promoted. At the same time, the foundation was laid for the future disunion and final decline of the state: for although the nation, during his reign and that of his son Solomon (q. v.), reached the highest point of its power and prosperity, the excessive splendor of the religious worship appealed too much to the senses, and the introduction of foreign mauners and customs enervated the national character and the moral simplicity of the people; too many of the conquered nations revolted, and the jealousy entertained by the other tribes of the ruling tribe, and the discontent of the people with their increasing burdens, afforded too many subjects of dissension, to allow of the long continuance of this golden age of Israel. The reign of Solomon (1015 975) was the splendid reign of an unwarlike, ostentatious, but cultivated monarch. The government was administered from the interior of the seraglio. The kingdom was organized anew for the maintenance of a luxurious court. (For an idea of the luxury of the Jews, consult professor Hartmann's Die Hebräerin am Putztische.) Foreign commerce was carried on as a monopoly of the crown, and a costly temple and palace were erected in the royal residence. But while the metropolis grew rich, the country was impoverished and oppressed by the profuse expenditures of the court. The gradual internal decline was hastened by the introduction of the worship of foreign gods, and Syria, which had been gained by conquest, was lost. Rehoboam was so little able to avert the threatening storm, that he succeeded to the government of only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin; the ten other tribes formed the kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam.2. The Jewish State as a divided Kingdom; 975-588. The capital of Israel was at first Sichem, afterwards Samaria; that of Judah was Jerusalem. Although Israel was larger and more populous, Judah was richer, and in possession of the national temple and the priesthood, so that the power of the states was nearly equal, and the contest between them obstinate. The kings of Israel endeavored to con

The

firm the political division of the nation by establishing a sanctuary in their own territory, and prohibiting their subjects from visiting the ancient national sanctuary in Jerusalem. They were therefore denominated enemies of Jehovah. Even in the kingdom of Judah, some of the kings introduced the service of other gods. But oppression itself preserved the worship of Jehovah. The number and political importance of the prophets increased, the more the oracles of God were rendered necessary by troubles. The notion of a future period of prosperity under a powerful king, the idea of a Messiah and his kingdom, was continually more and more developed and cherished. jealousy and wars between the two kingdoms not only continued with little interruption, but were rendered more dangerous by connexions with foreign princes, particularly with the kings of Damascus and Egypt, until these feeble states were destroyed by the more powerful empires of Asia. The kingdom of Israel survived the separation 253 years, under 19 kings of different houses, who succeeded each other by means of violent revolutions. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, took Samaria, the capital, and put an end to the kingdom of Israel, carrying away the inhabitants captive into the interior of Asia, B. C. 722. The kingdom of Judah existed, under 20 kings of the house of David, until 588. The throne passed successively from father to son, and the succession was only twice interrupted, by the usurpation of Athaliah and by foreign interference. Jehosaphat (914-891) restored the worship of Jehovah. Hezekiah, in whose reign Isaiah prophesied (728—699), delivered his country from the tribute which Tiglath-Pileser had exacted in the reign of his predecessor. During the reign of Manasseh (699-644) the worship of the Phoenician Baal was introduced, and the laws of Moses fell into oblivion. Josiah (642-611) restored the temple and worship of Jehovah, recovered the lost book of the law, and introduced strict reforms according to it. In 606, Nebuchadnezzar rendered the country tributary to Babylon, and on a third invasion, in consequence of an attempt to throw off the Babylonian yoke, took Jerusalem (588), and carried away the inhabitants, who had been spared on his second campaign. After their return from the captivity, the name of Hebrews gives way to that of Jews, under which head their history will be continued. (See Hebrew Language and Literature.)

Hebrew Language and Literature. The influence which the monotheism of the Hebrews has exerted over the civilization of the human race, through Christianity and Mohammedanism, gives to the old national documents, in which this religion has come down to us purer than in the worship of their descendants, the Jews, a universal historical importance. Hebrew literature, therefore, independently of its containing the records of a divine revelation, possesses a peculiar scientific interest. It surpasses in antiquity, general credibility, originality, poetic strength and religious importance, that of any other nation before the Christian era, and contains most remarkable memorials and trustworthy materials for the history of the human race, and its mental developement. Though the Hebrew is no longer to be considered as the original language of the human race (see Wahl's General History of the Oriental Languages, &c., Leipsic, 1784), yet it is evidently one of the oldest of the Shemitish languages (the Chaldee, Aramæan, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Phoenician and Ethiopian, so called on account of the supposed descent of these different natious from Shem, the son of Noah). In its formation, the following periods are to be distinguished: 1. from Abraham to Moses, when the old Aramaan stock was changed by the influx of the Egyptian and Arabic; 2. from Moses, or the composition of the Pentateuch, to Solomon, when it attained its perfection, not without being influenced by the Phoenician; 3. from Solomon to Ezra, when, although increasing in beauty and richness, it became less pure, by the adoption of foreign ideas and idioms; 4. froin Ezra to the end of the age of the Maccabees, when it was gradually lost in the modern Aramæan, and became a dead language. Traces of different dialects appear about the end of the third period; for after the captivity, the old Hebrew, the language of the manuscripts of the Old Testament that have come down to us, was distinguished under the name of Jehudit, that is, the Judaic language, from the Samaritan and Aramæan. The Hebrews had characters or letters as early as the beginning of the third period, until the captivity. Their written characters were the same as the Phoenician, to which the letters of the Samaritan manuscripts approach the nearest. During the Babylonish captivity, they received from the Chaldees the square character in common use; and in the time of Ezra, the old Hebrew manuscripts were copied in Chaldee characters. This

character, according to some, had originally three vowel-points; but the position that the written vowel signs are of recent date, is now admitted by all critics of any note. The punctuation was not settled before the 7th century of the Christian era. (See Masora.) The introduction of the accents, and the division of the words, were also innovations of a late period. Thus the external form of the text had undergone many changes; and, as some critics believe, the contents of the books which now compose the Old Testament, cannot have come down to us perfectly unchanged. Moses, they say, wrote upon stone; for a long time after him the Hebrews appear to have engraved whatever they wished to perpetuate, only upon stone, brass or wood, and not to have used, before the time of Samuel, and the school of the prophets established by him, any more convenient materials for writing, such as linen or papyrus, which alone, according to our ideas, could have made the origin of a literature possible. And even at this time, writing was very rare among all nations. Many books of the Old Testament, for example, the books of Moses, the book of Job, and some of the Psalins, evidently indicate an earlier origin. The supposition cannot therefore be avoided, that only their principal points were in part written by the authors to whom they are ascribed, and in part handed down by oral tradition, and that they were afterwards revised by later hands, completed from tradition, and collected into that form in which they now exist. The same is true in regard to the greatest part of the remaining books of the Old Testament, the composition of which, according to general opinion, belongs to the age before the captivity. The genuineness of the form, in which we possess them, can therefore be allowed only in a limited sense, by the Orientalists of our times. In this view, not only the arrangement, but much of the contents of the old Hebrew writings, especially the historical, must be considered as more or less the work of a later period than they were formerly considered to belong to. But the genuineness of the facts which they relate, and of the spirit which is peculiar to these books, can by no means be rendered doubtful by this circumstance. The scrupulous conscientiousness and veneration, with which the Hebrews regarded their sacred writings, even to the minutest particulars, must free them from the slightest suspicion of any arbitrary additious or alterations, even if it were not for the internal evidence derived from the

peculiar character of each book, which is abundantly decisive of their genuineness. That much must have been lost from the treasures of Hebrew literature, which was very rich, particularly in the age of Solomon, is evident from passages in the Old Testament itself. But whatever, in the small part which we possess, has relation to the history of the Hebrews and religion, belongs, as to its substantial, historical and religious contents, to the epochs to which it relates. Hence the succession of the different ages, into which the history of the Hebrews is divided (1. patriarchal, the first covenant with God; 2. Moses and the giving of laws (Thorah); 3. heroic ages under the judges, the theocratic republic; 4. the reign of David and Solomon, the theocratic monarchy; 5. the prophets, the contest of theocracy with monarchy; 6. the Babylonish exile; 7. the age after the return from captivity), appears in the gradual developement of the spirit which breathes through their writings. The supposition of these works having been committed to writing at a comparatively late period, still remains good in this view. When, from the first period, the accounts contained in Genesis (see Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph), from the second, the laws inscribed by Moses on stone, the fuller rules for the worship of God and the constitution of society, the historical accounts and hymns delivered by oral tradition (see Moses), and from the third, similar accounts (the contents of the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth) had come down to the fourth period, the historical and poetical materials (the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, the books of Samuel) were reduced to writing, and new poetical creations arose. The Hebrew authors would find strong impulses to poetry in the pastoral life of their patriarchs, the beautiful and grand scenery of their country, in the wonderful history of their nation (their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, their struggles with nature and with hostile hordes during the forty years' wandering in the desert, and the wars under the judges), in the practice of singing at divine worship, in their passion for music, strengthened by this circumstance, and in the existence of an order of prophets (teachers and poets). (See Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum, translated into English, and Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, 3d edition, by doctor Justi, in 2 volumes, Leipsic, 1825, a work of greater originality.) Poetry was the foundation of their literature. Lyric poetry

prevailed under David, who was equally successful in song and elegy; didactic poetry under his successor, when attempts were likewise made in pastoral (Ruth) and the shorter epic. (See David, Psalms, Solomon, Solomon's Song, Job.) Strong religious feeling distinguished the spirit and subject of these poems. Never has the reverence for Jehovah's laws been displayed in a more lively manner than in the holy songs of David's time. On the contrary, Solomon, in his actions as well as in the writings which bear his name, inclines evidently to a philosophic and even worldly indifference, very remote from the Israelitish character. After the division of the kingdom, religion and literature alone preserved a residue of national vigor, and the prophets now became the instructers and comforters of this morally and politically degraded people, until the unfortunate time of the Babylonish captivity; before which, under the kings, lived Jonas, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Obadiah, Nahum and Habakkuk. During the captivity flourished Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zephaniah; and at the time of the return, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi. (For the circumstances of their lives, and the peculiar spirit of the writings which are known under their names, see Prophets, and the separate articles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, &c.) These writings are, for the most part, later collections of their actions, discourses and prophecies, the unequal extent of which has given occasion to the distinction of the great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) and the minor prophets. We have not even the works of the former complete, and evidently but fragments of the latter. The period of the restitution of the Mosaic institution after the return from the captivity, was of the highest importance to the Hebrew literature, as Ezra established the great synagogue-a college of 120 learned men, to collect the ancient treasures; and Nehemiah, soon after him, preserved this or a new collection in the temple. (See Jews.) The design of these reformers, to give the Jews a religious canon in their old national writings, induces us to believe that they engaged in the work with the greatest fidelity to the old Mosaic institution; and it is certain, that the canon of the Old Testament, in the time of the Maccabees, was the same, as to the number and order of the books, as at present, and that the present division into historical, poetical and prophetic, was then observable. To the historical belong, besides those collected in the time of Da

vid and Solomon, the books of the Kings and the Chronicles, which were compiled after the captivity, from the old annals of the kings, and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. To the poetical belong Job, the Psalms, Solomon's Proverbs, Song and Ecclesiastes, the elegies called the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the book of Esther and the idyl of Ruth. The prophetic embraces the writings of the abovenamed four great and twelve minor prophets. The Mosaic religion is the all-prevailing soul of this literature. As, in the historical books, the selection and arrangement of the matter seem to depend upon the theocratic nature of the religion, and the religious feeling breathes throughout the poetical; so, likewise, anger and grief for the degeneracy of the people, threats against their apostasy, and consolations for the pious, are mingled in the prophetic writings. The promise of an anointed Messiah, who should raise the nation from its degradation, and restore the happy age of David, spreads through the productions of the prophets. But in the prophets who flourished during and after the Babylonish captivity, the influence of Chaldæan dogmas, which were derived from the precepts of Zoroaster, and many alterations, which the peculiar notions of the Jews underwent in consequence of their destiny and their intercourse with foreign nations, are perceptible. (See Gesenius, Geschichte der Hebr. Sprache und Schrift, Leipsic, 1815.) The best German grammars of the Hebrew language are those of Michaelis, Güte, Hezel, Pfeiffer, Jahn, Wezel, Vater, Wekherlin, Hartmann and Gesenius (q. v.); the best in English is by professor Moses Stuart. There are Hebrew and German lexicons by Castelli, Coccejus, Simonis, Michaelis, Schulz, and a later and more excellent one by Gesenius (translated by J. W. Gibbs, Andover, 1824). The translation has been reprinted in London. An abridgment by Mr. Gibbs was printed at Andover, 1828. (See Jews, Hellenists, Septuagint, Rabbinical Language and Literature, and Cabala.)

HEBRIDES, OF WESTERN ISLANDS; a cluster of islands, situated on the western coast of Scotland, in the Atlantic ocean. They extend about 180 miles in length, from 58° 35 N. lat. to 55° 22′; and they are from 10 to 30 miles in breadth. They contain, as nearly as can be computed, 2,000,000 of English acres. The principal islands are Lewis and its adjacent islands, belonging to Ross-shire; Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Sky, Barra, Eigg, and the smaller neighboring

islands, attached to Inverness-shire; and Rum, Muck, Canna, Coll, Tyrie, Mull, Lismore, Staffa, Luing, Scarba, Colonsay, Oronsay, Jura, Isla, Gigha, Cara, &c., belonging to the shire of Argyle. To these we may add those islands which lie in the Frith of Clyde, to the eastward of the peninsula of Kintyre, viz., the isles of Bute, Arran, Cambrays (Greater and Lesser), and Inchmarnock, which form the shire of Bute. The various tracts of ground and clusters of rocks, thus detached from the main land, are estimated to amount to 300, of which 86 are inhabited, and are calculated to contain 70,000 inhabitants. They were ruled by their own independent princes until the 8th century, when the Pictish kingdom was overthrown by Kenneth II. They continued, during the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, the haunts of pirates, who infested the neighboring countries; and when they came under the dominion of the kings of Scotland, their chieftains were long lawless and turbulent. The act of parliament of 1748, abolishing all heritable jurisdictions, gave the final blow to the influence of the independent chieftains of the Western Isles. (See MacCulloch's Descriptions of the Western Islands; London, 1819.)

HEBRIDES, NEW; a group of islands in the South Pacific ocean, discovered by Quiros in the year 1506. In 1773, captain Cook surveyed this group, and gave to the whole the appellation of New Hebrides, from considering them to be the most western islands of the Pacific ocean. They are situated between lon. 166° 41' and 170° 21' E., and lat. 14° 29′ and 20° 4' S., extending 125 leagues, in the direction of N. N. W. W. and S. S. E. E. These islands are fertile, producing figs, oranges, bananas, the bread fruit and the sugar cane. The only quadrupeds observed in them are rats and swine. The inhabitants are of different races, but in general are less pleasing than those of the other islands of the Pacific. Like other inhabitants of the tropical regions, they are active, but impatient of labor. They are of a dark complexion, and have black, short, frizzled hair.

HECATE; the daughter of Tartarus, or, according to some, of Night. Others call Jupiter her father, and Juno, or Ceres, or Asteria, or Phocæa, a daughter of Æolus, her mother. She was the infernal goddess, who presided over magic. Juno having committed the care of her education to the nymphs, she stole the paint-box of the queen of the gods, and gave it to Europa, the daughter of Phoenix. When

Juno was about to punish her, she fled to a woman in childbed, and afterwards to a funeral procession. Jupiter caused her to be plunged into the pool of Acheron, by the Cabiri, for the purpose of purification; and from that time she became an infernal goddess. Various accounts are given of her. Hesiod says, her power extended over the earth and sea; she had a place among the stars, and enjoyed peculiar honor with the gods. She gave fame and wealth to her favorites. She made the warrior victorious, sat by the judge to aid him in his decisions, strengthened the athlete, blessed the labors of the fisherman and the herdsman, and promoted the growth and progress of the young. All the magic powers of nature were at her command. She afterwards became the symbol of the moon, and was then the same as Diana; but her authority extended to the infernal world, whence she was called the Infernal Diana. As a goddess of the lower regions, she is generally call ed Hecate; in heaven, Luna; and on earth, Artemis or Diana. Magicians and witches prayed particularly for her aid. Sacrifices used to be offered to her, at places where three ways met, especially dogs. Her mysterious festivals were celebrated annually at Egina. Her appearance was frightful. She had serpents' feet, and serpents hung hissing around her neck and shoulders. In reference to her threefold relations, she was painted with three faces or three heads; hence called Triformis. With the progress of the fine arts, she was represented only with the three faces of the virgin Diana. Various figures of her are found on gems.

HECATOMB (from the Greek KaTor, a hundred, Bas, oxen); at first, signifying a sacrifice of a hundred oxen; afterwards, of a hundred beasts of any sort. Thus Homer speaks of a hecatomb of lambs. Some explain the word as a poetical figure, denoting, in general, a sacrifice of many victims.

HECKEWELDER, John, reverend, was born in Bedford, England, March 12, 1743. His father, a member of the society of United Brethren at Herrnhut, went to England, in the prosecution of plans for communicating the gospel to heathen nations, and, in 1754, removed to Pennsylvania, with his family. At that time, John was in his 12th year, and had been brought up to the trade of a cooper and joiner. When but nineteen, he accompanied Mr. Post in the perilous expedition upon which he was sent, by the government of Pennsylvania, to attempt to conciliate the

hostile Indian tribes on the Ohio (in 1762). The interest he took in the aboriginals was great, and this expedition made them the principal object of his thoughts. In the year 1771, he entered among them as a missionary, and, for a long series of years, devoted himself entirely to that benevolent, and, at the time, dangerous calling. In common with his brethren, he suffered all the horrors which the revolutionary war entailed upon the Christian Indian flock, and which almost annihilated the fruit of forty years' labors. Until the year 1786, he followed the wrecks of that once flourishing community, and then returned to Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. He had acquired, during this period, a perfect knowledge of the Delaware language, and an extensive acquaintance with Indian affairs generally. On that account, he was several times requested by president Washington to accompany missions to the western Indians, to induce them to adopt pacific measures. In 1797, he went to reside in Ohio, in order to superintend the management of the lands granted by congross on the Muskingum, to the remnants of his former Indian congregation. There he remained until 1810, when he finally took up his residence at Bethlehem. He wrote a Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians, and contributed largely to the first volume of the Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, of which he was a member. Many manuscripts of his are now in the possession of that society, and some of them are soon to be published. He also wrote several pamphlets and books in the German language. He died in 1823.

The

HECLA; a volcanic mountain, about 5000 feet high, in the south-western part of Iceland. At the foot of the mountain is the river Wester Rangaa, the bed of which consists of large masses of lava. nearest inhabited place is the farm Naifurholt. Hecla has three summits, of which the central is the highest. The whole consists of volcanic masses, loose grit and ashes. The crater is not much over 100 feet deep. Since 1004, 24 eruptions are said to have taken place, of which the latest were those in 1766, in 1818 and in 1823. A hot vapor issues from various small openings near the top; and the thermometer, which in the air stands below the freezing point, will rise, when set on the ground, to 120, or even 150 degrees. Sir Joseph Banks visited the mountain in 1772, and sir George Mackenzie in 1810.