A

NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL

DICTIONARY;

CONTAINING

AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIVES and WRITINGS

12572

OF THE

Most Eminent Perfons

IN EVERY NATION;

PARTICULARLY THE BRITISH AND IRISH;
From the Earliest Accounts of Time to the present Period.

WHEREIN

Their remarkable ACTIONS; and SUFFERINGS,

Their VIRTUES, PARTS, and LEARNING,

0.02

ARE ACCURATELY DISPLAYED.

With a CATALOGUE of their LITERARY PRODUCTIONS.

A NEW EDITION, IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES.

GREATLY ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.

VOL. VIII.

LONDON:

Printed for G. G. and J. ROBINSON, J. JOHNSON, J. NICHOLS, J. SEWELL,

H. L. GARDNER, F. and C. RIVINGTON, W. OTRIDGE and SoN,

G. NICOL, E. NEWBERY, HOOKHAM and CARPENTER,

R. FAULDER, W. CHAPMAN and SON, J. DEIGHTON,

D. WALKER, J. ANDERSON, T. PAYNE, J. LOWNDES,
P. MACQUEEN, J. WALKER, T. EGERTON, T.
CADELL, jun. and W. DAVIES, R. EDWARDS,
VERNOR and HOOD, J. NUNN, MURRAY
and HIGHLEY, T. N. LONGMAN, LEY
and HURST, and J. WHITE.

1798.

NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

H.

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EATH (BENJAMIN), a lawyer of eminence, and townHe wrote, 1." An Effay towards a demonstrative Proof of the Divine Existence, Unity, and: Attributes to which is premifed, a fhort Defence of the Argument commonly called, à priori, 1740." This pamphlet was dedicated to Dr. Oliver of Bath, and is to be ranked amongst the ableft defences of Dr. Clarke's, or rather Mr. Howe's, hypothefis, for it appears to be taken from Howe's "Living Temple 2 The Cafe of the County of Devon with refpect to the Confequences of the new Excife Duty on Cyder and Perry. Published by the direction of the Committee appointed at a General Meeting of that County to fuperintend the Application for the Repeal of that Duty, 1763," 4to. To this representation of the Circum ftances peculiar to Devonshire, the repeal of the act is greatly to be afcribed. The piece indeed was confidered as fo welltimed a service to the public, that Mr. Heath received fome honourable notice on account of it at a general meeting of the county. 3. "Notæ five Lectiones ad Tragicorum Græcorum veterum, Æfchyli, &c. 1752," 4to; a work which places the author's learning and critical skill in a very confpicuous light: a principal object of which was to reftore the metre of the Grecian tragic poets. It is highly valued by all found critics of our own and foreign countries. The fame folidity of judgement apparent in the preceding, diftinguifhed the author's laft production; 4." A Revifal of Shak fpeare's Text, wherein the alterations introduced into it by the more modern editors and critics are particularly confidered, 1765" 8vo. It appears from the lift of Oxford graduates, that Mr. Benjamin Heath was created D. C. L. by diploma, March 31, 1762. The brother of VOL, VIII.

B.

this

this author, Mr. Thomas Heath, an alderman of Exeter, publifhed "An Effay towards a new Verfion of Job," &c. in 1755.

HEBENSTRÉIT (JOHN ERNEST), a celebrated phyfician and philologer of Leipfic, was born at Neuenhoff in the diocefe of Neustadt, in the year 1702. In 1719, he went to the univerfity of Jena, but, not finding a fubfiftence there, removed to Leipfic. He paffed the greater part of his life in the latter univerfity, and finally died there in 1756. Befides his academical and phyfiological tracts, he published, in 1739, 1. "Carmen de ufu partium," or Phyfiologia metrica, in 8vo. 2." De homine fano et ægroto Carmen, fiftens Phyfiologiam, Pathologiam, Hygienen, Therapiam, materiam medicam, cum præfatione de antiqua medicinâ." Leipfic, 1753, 8vo. 3. "Oratio de Antiquitatibus Romanis per Africam repertis," 1733, 4to. 4. "Museum Richterianum," &c. Leipf. 1743. And, 5. A pofthumous work, entitled, Palæologia therapiæ," Hala, 8vo, 1779. This author had alfo an elder brother, John Christian Hebenstreit, who was a celebrated divine, and profoundly versed in the Hebrew language. Ernefti has published an eulogium of each, in his Opufcula Oratoria.

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HECHT (CHRISTIAN); a native of Hall, and minister of Effen in Eaft Friezeland, died in 1748 the age of 52. His principal works are, L. Commentatio philogico-critico-exegetica," &c. 2." Antiquitas. Harorum inter Judæos in PoIonia," &c. Befides .thefe, he wrote feveral finaller works in German. He had a brother, Godfrey Hecht, who was the author of feveral very learned differtations:

HECQUET (PHILIP), a French phyfician of fingular merit and skill, but a ftrong partizan of the ufe of warm water and of bleeding; for which reafon he was ridiculed by Le Sage in his Gil Blas, under the name of Dr. Sangrado. He was born at Abbeville, in 1661, and practifed firft in that city, then at Portroyal, and laftly, at Paris. He was not properly fan grado, for he took the degree of doctor in 1697; and in 1698 had more business than he could attend. Though attached to the most fimple mode of life, he was obliged to keep his carriage, in which he ftudied with as much attention as in his clofet. In 1712, he was appointed dean of the faculty of medicine, and fuperintended the publication of a fort of difpenfary, called, "The New Code of Pharmacy," which was published fome time afterwards. Hecquet was no lefs zealous in religious matters than ftudious in his own profellion, and is said never to have prescribed in doubtful cafes, without having a previous recourse to prayer. He lived in the moft abftemious manner, and in 1727 retired to a convent of Carmelites in Paris, where he continued acceffible only to the poor, to whom he was a friend, a comforter, and a father. He died in 1737, at the age of 76.