802 



HOSANNA 



HOSIERY 



1823-48 (2 vols. 1863), and History of the War 

 of Independence in Hungary (3 vols. 1865). 



HosuIlIliU used as an expression of praise, is 

 really a prayer ' Save, we pray' (through Gr. 

 hosanna, from Heb. hdshidhnnd). 



Hosea (Heb. HdshS'a ; LXX. Osee ; Vulg. Osee), 

 the first in order of the twelve minor prophets, is 

 nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament except 

 in the book which bears his name. From this 

 source we learn that he was a citizen of the 

 kingdom of Israel (see i. 2, where ' the land 

 is plainly the northern kingdom, and vii. 5, where 

 'our king' is the king of Samaria), that his 

 father's name was Befiri, and that he prophesied 

 during, and apparently also after, the reign of 

 Jeroboam II. i.e. from about the middle of the 8th 

 century B.C. The fourteen chapters which preserve 

 to us all that we know of what must have been a 

 long period of prophetic activity may plausibly be 

 believed to have been edited by himself and given 

 to the world in writing towards the close of his 

 life. The first three derive a special interest from 

 their autobiographical element. The remaining 

 eleven consist of a series of prophecies, mostly of 

 a threatening character, relating to the king- 

 dom of Israel. The details of these present many 

 exegetical difficulties, and it is impossible to de- 

 termine with any certainty what may have been 

 the precise circumstances under which each oracle 

 was originally delivered. Some relate to the still 

 outwardly prosperous times of Jeroboam II., and 

 others, most likely, to the troubled years that im- 

 mediately followed. They point generally to an 

 exceedingly dissolute internal condition of society, 

 which ultimately drove the prophet to the verge of 

 despair, and out of which he saw no escape save in 

 the destruction of the kingdom, to be followed by 

 a final restoration brought about in some unex- 

 plained way through the sovereign love and mercy 

 of Jehovah. The question of greatest interest to 

 interpreters of the Book of Hosea is that connected 

 with the narrative of the first three chapters, in 

 which the prophet relates how the experiences of 

 his married life furnished him with his prophetic 

 message. In the opening words we read of his 

 marriage to Gomer bath-Diblaim, by whom he had 

 three children to whom he gave the significant 

 names, Jexreel ( ' Jehovah shall sow '), Lo Ruhamah 

 i ' not pitied ' ), and Lo Ammi ( ' not my people ' ). 

 Her profligate conduct after marriage led to a 

 separation, but, in obedience to a divine call, he 

 took her back ; and in the ultimate victoiy of 

 marital love over a wife's infidelity he saw the 

 token and the promise of the final triumph of 

 Jehovah's grace over Israel's sin. According to 

 the modern view, first suggested by Ewald, further 

 elaborated by Wellhausen (in 4th ed. of Bleek's 

 Einleitung) and Robertson Smith, and now adopted 

 by most scholars, Hosea, i. 2, is to be interpreted in 

 the light of such a passage as Jer. xxxii. 8, where 

 we have a clear instance of recognition of a divine 

 command only after the deed has been accomplished, 

 and there is therefore no necessity for supposing 

 that Hosea was aware of the profligate character 

 of Gomer bath-Diblaim when he married her, or 

 indeed that her profligacy had declared itself at 

 that time. Earlier interpreters either took the 

 passage literally and argued that a marriage which 

 otherwise would have been contrary to all sound 

 moral feeling was justified by a divine command, 

 and that the repulsive elements in it magnified the 

 obedience of the prophet ; or they treated it as an 

 allegory, without much attempt to explain how a 

 proceeding which would be objectionable in fact 

 ceases to be so in the realms of fiction. 



For a full discussion of Hosea and his prophecies, see 

 "W. E, Smith, Prophets of Israel (1882). There are 



special commentaries on the book by Simson ( Hamburg 



and Gotha, 1851), Wiinsche (Leip. 1868), Nowack 

 Berlin, 1880 ), and Cheyne ( new ed. Cambridge, 1889 ). 



See also the commentaries on the minor prophets 

 generally Ewald ( Propheten, vol. i. ; Eng. trans. 1876 ), 

 Hitzig, Keil (Eng. trans. 1868), Reuss (Bible, 1876), 

 Pusey (1860) ; and, for homiletical purposes, Schmoller 

 n Lange's Bibelwerk (Eng. trans. 1874). 

 Hosliangabad, chief town of Hoshangabad 



district (area, 4437 sq. m. ; pop. in 1891, 529,945), 

 n the Central Provinces of India, stands on the- 

 ^erbudda River, 40 miles SSE. from Bhopal. 

 .t does a lively business in English piece-goods, 



cotton, grain, &c. It has been in British hands 



since 1817, and is a military station. Pop. 16,500. 

 Hoshiarpur, capital of a district in Punjab, 



near the foot of the Siwalik Hills, 90 miles E. from 

 Lahore. It is the seat of an American Presbyterian 



Mission. Pop. 21,552. 



Hosiery, in its most limited sense, refers to- 



the manufacture of stockings ( hose ) ; but in its 

 more general application it comprises all knitted 

 goods, whether made by hand or by machinery. 

 The use of hose or stockings originated in the cold 

 countries of the north, and probably the first were 

 made of skins, and subsequently of cloth. Illu- 

 minations in ancient MSS. show that these nether 

 garments were worn by the Anglo-Saxons and the 

 Normans. The art of knitting was invented (it is 

 supposed in Scotland) in the 15th century. Certain 

 it is that knitted stockings found their way to 

 France from Scotland, and led to the establish- 

 ment of a guild of stocking-knitters, who chose 

 for their patron saint St Fiacre of Scotland 

 (really an Irish monk of the 6th century, the 

 patron of gardeners). In 1589 William Lee, of 

 Wood borough, Nottinghamshire, entirely altered 

 the hosiery trade by inventing the knitting-frame, 

 or stocking-frame ; and, although he did not live to- 

 enjoy much benefit himself from it, it soon became 

 a very important feeder to the commerce of Great 

 Britain. 



The first improvement of marked importance on 

 Lee's machine was the ribbing apparatus invented 

 by Jedediah Strutt in 1758. This consisted in add- 

 ing a second series of needles, with an arrangement 

 for working tfem, to Lee's machine, which could 

 only make a plain, not a ribbed, web. Sir Marc I. 

 Brunei invented, in 1816, a circular knitting-frame, 

 to which he gave the name of tricoteur. This- 

 produced a tubular web, and was a meritorious 

 machine, but it did not come much into use till 

 it was improved, about 1844, by Claussen of 

 Brussels. His further modification of it in 1847 

 caused it to be widely adopted, and it has received 

 various improvements since. Several important 

 improvements in hosiery machines are due to 

 Townsend, chief among them being a tumbler or 

 latch needle, patented by him in 1858, which is 

 now largely employed in certain kinds of knitting- 

 machines, especially those for fancy hosiery and 

 for domestic use. Fig. 1 shows two views of this- 



Fig. 1. 



needle. A represents it with the hinged latch or 

 tongue folded back on the stalk so that the hook 

 may catch the thread. B shows the latch closed 

 on the point of the hook so that it may freely pass 

 a new loop of thread through the last-formed loop. 

 The latch is moved by the loops of thread or yarn 

 during the action of the machine. The modem. 



