686 



HERMES 



HERMITAGE 



To seek for some notion common to them all may 

 be as mistaken a proceeding as it would be to seek 

 to derive the idea of the grave and the idea of 

 horseracing from some idea equidistant between 

 the two, because ' the turf ' bears both meanings. 



Finally, the beauty which characterises the 

 statue of Hermes in the zenith of Greek art ( the so- 

 called Antinous of the Belvedere is a Hermes) 

 naturally belongs to the patron god of the gym- 

 nasium and the palaestra, while the celebrated 

 statue of Hermes by Praxiteles portrays the god 

 of the principle of fertility, in whose care all young 

 things were, and to whom therefore it fell to tend 

 his young brother Dionysus. For Hermes Tris- 

 megistus, see HERMETIC BOOKS. 



Hermes* GEORG, a Roman Catholic philoso- 

 pher and divine, was born at Dreyerwalde, in West- 

 phalia, April 22, 1775. He studied at Minister, 

 became theological professor there in 1807, and 

 in 1819 at Bonn. At Bonn he died, May 26, 

 1831. In his chief works, Die Inner e Wahrheit 

 des Christentums (1805), Philosophische Einle.it- 

 ung in die Christkatholische Theologie (1819), and 

 Christkatholische Dogmatik, he sought to base the 

 Catholic faith and doctrines on a critical theory of 

 knowledge like Kant's. The Hermesian method 

 of investigation in like manner discards, in the 

 first stages, and so far as investigation is permitted 

 to extend, all principle of authority ; and in the 

 details of metaphysical inquiry, in the selection of 

 the arguments of the existence of God, and of the 

 nature of divine attributes, he departed widely 

 from the old text-books of the schools; although in 

 the general sum of the doctrines of the Roman 

 Catholic Church his orthodoxy does not appear to 

 have been in any degree called into question. 

 Soon many theological and philosophical chairs 

 were filled by fferrnesians ; and it was not till 

 after the death of Hermes that his doctrines were 

 condemned by the pope ( 1835), and some professors 

 deprived of their chairs. The controversy was con- 

 tinued, as well in Rome as in Germany, for a con- 

 siderable time ; by degrees, however, the Hermesian 

 party fell away. See works on Hermes and his 

 movement by Esser (1832), Elvenich (1836), 

 Niedner (1839), and Stupp (1845). 



Hermetic Books, the sacred canon of the 

 ancient Egyptians, consisted of forty-two books, 

 divided into six sections. They constitute what is 

 virtually an encyclopedia of Egyptian wisdom, in 

 that they treat of religion, the arts, and science 

 the nature of the gods, laws, liturgical rites and 

 ceremonies, hymns, hieroglyphics, geometry, as- 

 tronomy, medicine, and cosmography. The name 

 ' hermetic ' comes from Hermes Trismegistus 

 ( ' Hermes Thrice-greatest ' ), the Greek name 

 of the Egyptian god Thoth, who was regarded 

 as the originator of Egyptian culture, the god 

 of writing, of religion, and of the arts and 

 sciences. Neither the time at which these books 

 were actually written, nor the author or authors 

 who wrote them, can now be determined. They 

 are evidently based upon the Egyptian mythology, 

 but at a time when it was beginning to feel the in- 

 Huence of Hellenistic culture, since traces of Neo- 

 platonist ideas can be discerned in them, as also 

 indications of the influence of the Jewish philo- 

 sopher Philo. The Greek and Latin texts of the 

 hermetic books exist, but only fragmentarily, in 

 the writings of such writers as Stobseus, Cyrillus, 

 Suidas, and Lactantius. The greater part of these 

 pieces have been published by Parthey (Hermetis 

 Trismegisti Poemander, 1854), and again by 

 Menard (Hermes Trismegiste, 1866). The Papyrus 

 Ebers ( 1875 ) is generally accepted as being one of 

 the medical books of the series. The teachings 

 of Thoth were at first regarded as esoteric 



doctrines, and as such jealously guarded by the 

 sages and from them transmitted to their pupils, 

 these depositions of the sacred lore making what 

 was called the hermetic chain. Thoth was also 

 the inventor of magic and alchemy, whence the 

 latter was sometimes called the hermetic art, and 

 whence are derived the terms hermetic medicine, 

 hermetic freemasonry, and hermetically sealed, this 

 last to signify the closing of a box or jar or other 

 receptacle in such a way as to exclude absolutely 

 the atmosphere. 



Hermit (Gr. eremites), a name given in the 

 early ages, and still more in the later church, to a 

 solitary ascetic, who, with a view to more complete 

 freedom from the cares, temptations, and business 

 of the world, took up his abode in a natural cavern 

 or a rudely -formed nut in a desert, forest, moun- 

 tain, or other solitary place. In the first centuries 

 the names of eremite and anchorite (Gr. anacho- 

 retes = ' one who retires ' i.e. from the world ) were 

 indiscriminately applied to these solitaries ; but, 

 the word eremita having been adopted into Latin, 

 ' hermit ' is more commonly usea in the modern 

 languages which are derived from that tongue. 

 Hermits began to appear in the Christian church 

 in the 3d century. The advocates of Asceticism 

 (q.v.) were the first to set the example of retiring 

 from cities to rural districts and villages. But the 

 hermits went further, and sought to withdraw 

 altogether from mankind, that they might give 

 themselves up to a life of solitary but holy con- 

 templation. The earliest hermit is said to have 

 been Paul of the Thebaid (Egypt), who during 

 the Decian persecution fled for safety to the 

 desert (250); there he lived for the rest of 

 his life, dying, 113 years old, about 342. The 

 fame of his sanctity quickly incited others to 

 imitate his mode of life. The most famous amongst 

 these successors was St Anthony (q.v.). At the 

 time of his death ( 365 ) hermit cells existed in con- 

 siderable numbers in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, 

 and Palestine. But the hermits were not always 

 able to preserve their solitude unbroken. The 

 fame of their sanctity drew many to visit them, 

 partly out of curiosity, partly to enjoy pious con- 

 verse with them, or to get religious advice from 

 them, partly also in the belief that diseases, particu- 

 larly mental diseases, were cured by their blessing. 

 Sometimes they returned for a short time to> 

 the midst of their fellow-men to deliver warnings, 

 instruction, or encouragement, and were received 

 as if they had been inspired prophets or angels 

 from heaven. The Stylites (q.v.) or pillar-her- 

 mits, who spent their lives on the tops of columns,, 

 and similar eccentric beings, were a base carica- 

 ture of the true hermit, men in whom the good 

 spirit of asceticism had become perverted by ex- 

 aggerated fancy or pride or passion. But the 

 number of hermits gradually diminished as the 

 crenobite life of convents grew into fashion. In- 

 deed the institution at no time secured the same 

 footing in the Western Church that it did in the 

 Eastern ; and perhaps the reason may in part be 

 found in the difference of climate, which renders a 

 manner of life impossible in most parts of Europe 

 that could be pursued for many years in Egypt or 

 Syria. Partial revivals of the practice continued 

 to be made, however, during some centuries, St 

 Cuthbert (q.v.) being a casein point. The name 

 hermit was in still later ages applied to those 

 eccentric individuals who separated themselves 

 from their fellow-men to live in caves or solitary 

 huts, not from any religious motives, but from a 

 morbid aversion to human society or an inordinate 

 love of solitude. See MONACHISM, and Charles 

 Kingsley's Hermits (1869). 



Hermitage. See WINE. 



