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HAMERTON 



HAMILTON 



1886; each edition enlarged and improved). His 

 lyric talent found expression also in such later 

 works as Das Schwanenlied der Bomantik (1862), 

 Amor und Psyche (1882), and Blatter im Winde 

 ( 1887). But his best books are three satirical epics 

 Ahasver in Rom, (1866; 17th ed. 1889), Der 

 Konig von Sion (1869), and Horminculus (1888). 

 In these books his theme is the problems that are 

 knit about the inner nature of man, his mundane 

 existence, and the institutions his mind has con- 

 ceived and his hand has made. The structural 

 conceptions are often grand, and the imagina- 

 tion bold ; the emotional and descriptive colour- 

 ing is both rich and truthful, the action vigorous, 

 the philosophy ultra-modern ; and there is a firm 

 grasp of details, and a patient and clever use of 

 them, mostly for satiric purposes. Satire is indeed 

 one of the strongest elements in these epics. 

 Hamerling's remaining works include Venus im 

 Exil (1858); Germanenzug (1864), a translation of 

 Leopardi's poems (1865); a novel, Aspasia (1875); 

 a tragedy, Danton und Robespierre ( 1871) ; two or 

 three other dramatic pieces ; Die sieben Todsiinden 

 . ( 1873 ) ; an autobiographical work, Stationen meiner 

 Lebenspilgerscha.ft (1886); Lehrjahre der Liebe 

 (Letters, &c. 1889). Soanmtliche Werke { Hamburg, 

 1889 ). See Life by A. Polzer ( 1889 ). 



llaiiierton, PHILIP GILBERT, was born, the 

 son of a solicitor, at Laneside near Oldham, on 

 10th September 1834. According to the auto- 

 biography contained in the Life published by his 

 widow in 1896, his youth was quite exceptionally 

 unhappy. He commenced writing on art for maga- 

 zines and reviews, and soon produced a volume of 

 poems on The Isles of Loch Awe (1855), and A 

 Painter's Camp in the Highlands, and Thoughts 

 about Art (1862). In 1868 he published Etching 

 and Etchers and Contemporary French Painters ; a 

 continuation of the latter appeared in the following 

 year, Painting in France after the Decline of Classi- 

 cism. From 1869 he edited the Portfolio. The 

 Intellectual Life (1873) is in the form of letters of 

 advice, illustrated by many examples, addressed to 

 literary aspirants and others, of every class and in 

 all circumstances ; Human Intercourse (1884) is a 

 volume of essays on social subjects, many of them 

 dealing with intercourse as affected by nationality; 

 The Graphic Arts (1882), finely illustrated, is 'a 

 treatise on the varieties of drawing, painting, and 

 engraving,, in comparison with each other and with 

 nature,' the analyses of the technique of the masters 

 of the various arts being remarkable for discrimina- 

 tion and acumen; Landscape (1885), a superbly- 

 illustrated volume, is not so much a treatise on 

 landscape-painting as a work illustrating the influ- 

 ence of natural landscape on man. Other works 

 are Portfolio Papers (1889), French and English 

 ( 1889), Man in Art ( 1893), a couple of novels, and 

 his Life of Turner ( 1879 ) ; and to this Encyclopaedia 

 he contributed the articles PAINTING, REMBRANDT, 

 and TURNER. He lived many years in France, and 

 died at Boulogne-sur-Seine, 6th November 1894. 



Hamesucken, in Scots law, the offence of 

 assaulting a man in his own house. 



Hamilcar, next to Hannibal the greatest of 

 the Carthaginians and one of the greatest generals 

 of antiquity. He was surnamed Barca (the Hebrew 

 Barak) or 'Lightning.' When a young man he 

 came into prominence in the sixteenth year of the 

 First Punic War (247 B.C.), when all Sicily, save 

 the fortresses of Drepanum and Lilybreum, had 

 been wrested from Carthage by the Romans. After 

 ravaging the Italian coast, he landed in Sicily, near 

 Panormus, and seized the stronghold of Ercte, a 

 hill of 2000 feet high rising sheer from the sea. 

 Here, with a small band of mercenaries, though he 

 received no aid from his unworthy countrymen, he 



waged almost daily war with the Romans for three 

 years, and defied every effort to dislodge him. By 

 the spell of his genius lie preserved discipline among 

 his unpaid followers, whom he taught to banish 

 their old dread of the Roman veterans, while with 

 his few ships he harassed the Italian shores. In 

 244 B.C. he occupied Mount Eryx, a hill 2 miles from 

 the coast and a less strong position than Ercte, but 

 one which lay nearer to the besieged cities of Dre- 

 panum and Lilybseum. For two years he stood at 

 bay with his handful of men against a Roman army, 

 ' lighting,' says Polybius, ' like a royal eagle, which, 

 grappling with another eagle as noble as himself, 

 stops only to take breath from sheer exhaustion, or 

 to gather fresh strength for the next attack.' The 

 battle of the yEgatian Isles in 241 B.C. ended the 

 First Punic War, and Sicily was yielded to Rome. 

 But Hamilcar marched out from Eryx with all the 

 honours of war. Scarcely had peace been concluded 

 when the Carthaginian mercenaries revolted and 

 were joined by the subject Libyans. Hanno, a 

 personal enemy of Hamilcar, was sent against them. 

 He failed, and the task of saving the state Avas 

 assigned to Hamilcar, who crushed out the rebellion 

 after a terrible struggle of three years in 238 B.C. 

 In the same year the Romans, in defiance of treaty 

 engagements, seized on the Carthaginian possessions 

 in Corsica. Despite the antagonism of the peace 

 party, headed by the incompetent Hanno, the 

 patriotic or Barcine party, though a minority, ob- 

 tained the command of an army for Hamilcar, with 

 which he resolved to carry out his master-concep- 

 tion. He proposed to throw Spain into the balance 

 to redress the loss of Sicily. Spain was not only 

 rich in mineral and other wealth ; she would form 

 an admirable recruiting-ground. The main defect 

 in the Carthaginian armies hitherto had been the 

 want of an infantry capable of coping on at all equal 

 terms with the legionaries. Such a force Hamilcar 

 determined to create in Spain, whence it could be 

 marched or carried over sea to Italy ; in future the 

 war would be waged on Roman soil. In 237 B.C. 

 the general entered Spain, and in nine years built 

 up a new dominion by his military genius, his 

 policy, and the magic of his personality. In 228 B.C. 

 he fell fighting against the tribe of the Vettones. 

 The conceptions of the great Hamilcar were carried 

 out by his mightier son. Unfortunately only a 

 dim light is cast on Hamil car's marvellous career. 

 What is incontestable is that he was a military 

 genius of the highest order ; a statesman as lofty 

 in his conceptions as he was adroit in carrying them 

 out ; a patriot whom neither obloquy, ingratitude, 

 nor treachery could alienate from the ignoble state 

 he strove so hard to save. Two men only, it has 

 been truly said, in the whole course of Roman his- 

 tory, seem to have struck the Romans with real 

 terror. These were Hamilcar and his greater son. 

 See Bosworth Smith's Carthage and the Cartha- 

 ginians (1879). 



Hamilton, a town of Lanarkshire, on the 

 left bank of the Clyde, 10 miles SE. of Glas- 

 gow. The principal edifice is the burgh buildings 

 (1863), with a clock-tower nearly 130 feet high; 

 and there are also the county buildings, large 

 barracks, and a good racecourse. The former 

 manufactures of lace, tamboured bobinette, and 

 cambric have declined ; and mining is now the chief 

 industry of the district. Hamilton was made, a 

 royal burgh in 1548, and one of the five Falkirk 

 parliamentary burghs in 1832. Pop. (1841) 8724; 

 (1881) 18,517; (1891) 24,863. In 1886 the parlia- 

 mentary boundary was made coincident with the 

 municipal (extended in 1878). Hamilton Palace, 

 successor to Cadzow Castle, is the seat of the Duke 

 of Hamilton. Dating partly from 1594, but greatly 

 enlarged in 1705 and 1822, it is a sumptuous classi- 

 cal structure, though its choicest art-collections were 



