315 



HELMONT, FRANCIS MERCURIUS VAN. 



HEMAN8, FELICIA DOROTHEA. 



346 



FRANCIS MERCCRIUS VAN HELMONT, his son, who waa born in 1618, 

 and died in 1699, was also a physician, and the author of several 

 works, which, like his father's, are more noticeable for their eccentricity 

 than their value. 



HELOISE. [ABELARD.] 



HELPS, ARTHUR, is a name less familiar to the British public 

 than it will be when it is openly associated with certain writings 

 which, in an anonymous form, have been widely read and highly 

 admired. In 1841 a new English author made his modest ddbut in a 

 work entitled ' Essays written in the Intervals of Business.' From 

 the same pen there came ' Catherine Douglas ; a Tragedy,' and ' King 

 Henry the Second ; an Historical Drama,' both published in 1843. 

 The author's next publication was 'The Claims of Labour; an Essay 

 on the Duties of the Employers to the Employed ; to which is added 

 an Kssay on the Means of Improving the Health, &c., of the Labouring 

 Classes.' This appeared in 1845, and was followed by 'Friends in 

 Council : a Series of Reading and Discourse thereon," 1847-49 ; to 

 which were subsequently added two other works, namely, 'The 

 Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen ; being a Narrative 

 of the Principal Events which led to Negro Slavery in the West 

 Indies and America,' 1848 ; and ' Companions of my Solitude ' (a kind 

 of sequel to' Friends in Council'), 1851. While these writings were 

 being widely circulated, and the author was being spoken of under 

 his assumed designation as the author of ' Friends in Council," it was 

 no secret in literary circles that the thoughtful writer was Mr. Arthur 

 Helps, a gentleman of independent means, who had been educated at 

 Trinity College, Cambridge (where he had graduated B.A. in 1835), 

 had subsequently for some years held an official appointment in one 

 of the chief departments of civil service, and had at length retired to 

 enjoy literary and philosophic leisure on his property near Bishop's 

 Waltham in Hampshire. As Mr. Helps, though he had published 

 anonymously, never wished to conceal the fact of his being the author 

 of the writings that have been mentioned, it has been thought no 

 breach of etiquette by his friends to refer to him by name in connec- 

 tion with bis literary successes ; and recently he has given his own 

 authority for this, by publishing one more extensive and elaborate 

 work with his name on the title-page. This work, which is an expan- 

 sion of one of those already named, is entitled ' The Spanish Conquest 

 in America, and iU relations to the History of Slavery and to the 

 Government of the Colonies by Arthur Helps, 2 vols., 1855." Like 

 all Mr. Helps' writings, it is remarkable for its simple English style 

 and its calui wisdom ; but, being on a larger scale than his essays, it 

 permit* the display of qualities not there so visible. It is, in fact, a 

 valuable history ; and those who know its merits, and who know also 

 that Mr. Helps a still (1856) in the prime of life, augur from it many 

 more admirable contributions to English literature from the same 

 quiet and graceful pen. 



HELVE'TIUS, CLAUDE-ADRIEN, was born at Paris in January 

 17 15, and was educated at the Jesuits' College of Louis le-Grand, where 

 his earlier yean were far from betokening those talents of shrewdness 

 and observation which his writings subsequently exhibited. Having 

 patted through a course of legal study, Helvetius was sent to his 

 maternal uncle, D'Armancourt, directeur des fermes at Caen, in order 

 to acquire a practical knowledge of finance, and he shortly afterwards 

 obtained tho lucrative appointment of fernrier-gc'nc'ral, through the 

 influence of the queen, Marie Lecztnsky, to whom hi? father was 

 physician; but disgusted with the oppressive nature of its duties, 

 which however he discharged with singular lenity, he resigned this 

 situation, and purchased that of chamberlain to the queen's household. 

 At this period Helvetius led a disorderly life, without having any 

 elevated or moral end in view, though his general conduct was relieved 

 by occasional acts of the noblest generosity. Into these excesses he 

 appear* to have been led by an inordinate vanity athirat for universal 

 admiration. Thus, in order to gain the applause of the theatre, he 

 danced on the public stage in the mask of Javiller (for masks had not 

 yet bean exploded by Voverre), and his temporary study of mathe- 

 matics waa stimulated by the honours and attention which were lavished 

 by the highest circles at Paris upon Maupertuis, after bis return from 

 a scientific visit to Lapland. Aspiring to rival the dramatic fame of 

 Voltaire, he composed the tragedy ' La Conjuration de Fiesque;' and 

 upon the appearance of Montesquieu's work, 'L'Esprit des Lois,' 

 Helvetius declared that he too would raise a monument worthy to 

 stand by the side of that of the philosophical legist. But Helvetius 

 was as kind-hearted as he was vain, and an act of beneficence was as 

 dear to him for its own sake as the applause which he courted so 

 eagerly. When Sauriu the academician married, Helvetius not only 

 mad him a free gift of 2002., but also settled upon him an annuity of 

 01, ; and when Marivaux, to whom he allowed a yearly pension of 

 I20i, forgot ths decencies of gratitude, Helvetius mildly observed, 

 " How would I have answered him if he had not, by accepting my 

 favour*, laid me under an obligation to him !" 



In 17.il Helvetius married the beautiful and accomplished daughter 

 of the Comte de Ligneville, and niece of Madame do Graffi^ny, by 

 whom she had been brought up. From this time he lived chiefly in 

 retirement at a small estate at Vore", enjoying with his wife aud children 

 tho pleasures of domestic life, and ameliorating the condition of his 

 tenants and vassals. He is said to have been very jealous of the game 

 O n his estates, and very severe against violators of the game-laws. In 



1758 he published the treatise 'De 1'Esprit,' which, while it was 

 favourably received by the self-styled philosophical party, was 

 denounced by the court and the Jesuits as dangerous to society and to 

 religion, and as being nothing leas than a summary of all the evil 

 doctrines of the 'Eucyclope'die.' A strong passion for praise is usually 

 accompanied by a keen sensibility to censure : to regain the favour of 

 the court Helvetius thought no concession too great, and he successively 

 published three letters of apology which gradually advanced in humility 

 and submission. Notwithstanding the confession which they con tained 

 of a Christian faith, and his disclaimer of all opinions inconsistent 

 with its spirit, the doctors of the Sorbonne drew up a formal con- 

 demnation of the work, which they declared to be a compendium of 

 all the evil contained in all the bad books that had yet appeared. It 

 was publicly burned, according to a decree of the parliament of Paris. 

 As to the literary merits of this work, the style is vicious and 

 declamatory, but the argument is well sustained throughout, and 

 enforced by great felicity and copiousness of illustration. In 1764 

 Helvetiua visited England, and in the following year Germany, where 

 he was received by Frederick the Great with marks of the highest 

 consideration and eateem. Helvetius died at Paria on the 26th of 

 December 1771, leaving a work behind him entitled 'De 1'Hommo, de 

 ses Faculty's, et de son Education,' which was published the same year 

 at London by Prince Gallitzin. Among the earliest works of Helvetius 

 is his poem 'Sur le Bonheur,' which, however secondary as a poetical 

 composition, evinces much of that nice observation of men and manners 

 which forms at once the truth and the charm of his philosophical essays. 

 These may be considered to constitute the practical portion of the 

 sensuous system which in this part was left incomplete by Condillac, 

 who confined himself to the exposition and derivation of the cognitive 

 faculties. By ' esprit' Helvetiua understood as well the mental faculties 

 as the ideas acquired by them. Both faculties and ideaa he reduced 

 to simple sensation, and he accounts for man's superiority over the 

 brutes by the finer organism of his senses and the structure of hia 

 hands. Man, he considers, is tho work of nature, but hia intelligence 

 and virtue are the fruits of education. The end of virtue is happiuess, 

 and utility determines the value of all actions, of which those are 

 virtuous which are generally useful. Utility and inutility are however 

 merely relative, and there is consequently nothing which is either 

 absolutely good or absolutely evil. The happiness and enlightenment 

 of tho people he makes to be the true end of all human government ; 

 and, denying a Divine Providence in the government of the world, he 

 declares all religion to be a cheat and a prejudice. 



((Euvra tl' 'Helvetius, 3 vols., Pari, 1818.) 



HEMANS, FELICIA DOROTHEA, was born September 25th 1794, 

 at Liverpool, where her father, whose name was Browne, was engaged 

 in mercantile pursuits. He was a native of Ireland ; her mother was 

 an Englishwoman, but was descended from a Venetian family through 

 her father, who was commercial agent at Liverpool for the Venetian 

 government. About the year 1SOU Mr. Browne, in consequence of the 

 failure of a mercantile concern in which he was engaged, removed his 

 family from Liverpool to an old mansion, spacious and solitary, called 

 Grwvch, not far from Abergele in Denbighshire, North Wales. Mr. 

 Browne died not long afterwards. Felicia Browne began to writo 

 poetry before she waa nine years of age, and her mother, a woman of 

 education and taste, waa her first confidant and encourager. 



Miss Browne's first volume of poems was published iu 1803, and 

 contains some verses written by her as early as 1803 or 1804. A harsh 

 review of this little volume affected her so much that she was confined 

 to her bed for several days. Her second volume, ' The Domestic 

 Affections,' was published iu 1812. 



In 1812 Miss Browne became the wife of Captain Hemaus of the 

 fourth regiment. His constitution had suffered so severely iu the 

 retreat upon Corunna, aud subsequently by fever caught in the dis- 

 astrous Walcheren expedition, that he felt it necessary, a few years 

 after their marriage, to exchange his native climate for that of Italy. 

 This at least is the motive assigned for his leaving his wife ; but their 

 union, it is said, waa uot happy, and this separation, which took place 

 just before tho birth of her fifth son, closed it for ever. Mrs. Hemaus 

 with her five sous went to reside with her mother, then living at 

 Brouwylfa, near St. Asaph, in North Wales. 



Mrs. Hemaua now resumed her literary and poetical pursuits with 

 increased ardour. She studied the Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, 

 and German languages. She made some translations from Horace, 

 Herrera, and Camoeus, and contributed a series of papers on ' Foreign 

 Literature ' to the ' Edinburgh Magazine.' ' The Restoration of the 

 Works of Art to Italy 'was published in 1815 ; 'Tales and Historic 

 Scenes ' in 1819 ; and about the same time ' The Sceptic,' a didactic 

 poem, in tteroic rhyme ; and ' Modern Greece,' in ten-line stanzas. Her 

 poem of ' Dartmoor ' obtained tho prize from the Royal Society of 

 Literature in 1821. 



When about twenty-five years of age, Mrs. Hemans became acquainted 

 with the Rev. Reginald Heber, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, who 

 passed a part of every year at Bodryddan, near St. Asaph, and their 

 acquaintance soon ripened into friendship. At hia suggestion she 

 wrote her first dramatic work, the tragedy of ' The Vespers of Palermo," 

 which waa represented at Coveut Garden Theatre, London, iu 182u. 

 It was unsuccessful there, but was afterwards better received at 

 Edinburgh, when Walter Scott wrote an epilogue for it. ' The Siege 



