4*5 



HOLZER, JOHANN EVANGELIST. 



HOMER. 



466 



observations made by Sir John Holt whenever the due course of law 

 or justice was attempted to be impeded, it ia probable that hia anger 

 at the interference of the House of Commons would be shown by 

 pretty strong language. 



Sir John Holt died in March 1709-10, leaving behind him a repu- 

 tation for learning, honour, and integrity, which has never been 

 surpassed even among the many eminent individuals who have 

 succeeded him in his dignified office. 



HOLZER, JOHANN EVANGELIST, a distinguished German 

 fresco-painter of the early part of the 18th century, was born at 

 Burgeis, near Marienberg in Vintachgau, in the Tyrol, in 1709. His 

 father was miller to the Benedictine Convent of Marienberg, and 

 Holzer was first introduced by N. Auer at Meran in the Tyrol. He 

 made here such extraordinary progress, that ,at the early age of 

 eighteen his reputation spread far into Germany, and he was invited 

 by the painter, J. A. Merz, to Straubing in Bavaria, to assist him in 

 some frescoes in the convent church of Oberalteich. From Straubing 

 Holzer went to Augsburg, where he lived six years in the house of 

 J. G. Bergmiller, the principal painter in Augsburg at that time, from 

 whom he learnt much in the mechanical department of painting, both 

 in fresco and in oil. Holzer painted many excellent frescoes upon the 

 exteriors of houses in Augsburg, but few, if any, now remain ; there 

 is however a collection of twenty-eight prints after them by J. E. 

 Nikon, entitled ' Pictures a Fresco in ^dibus Augusta) Vind, a J. 

 Holzer,' &c. Among these frescoes, a peasant dance, upon the tirade 

 of a beer-shop, was a very popular work ; and it is spoken of in the 

 highest terms in the letters of J. L. Bianconi and Count Algarotti : 

 the figures were above the size of life. Holzer's greatest works how- 

 ever are the frescoes of tho Benedictine church of Schwarzach near 

 Wiirzuurg; he obtained the commission to execute them by compe- 

 tition ; and they were painted in 1737, when he was only twenty-nine 

 years of age. They are the best works that were executed at that 

 time in Germany ; and Holzer is by some considered the founder of 

 the new era of German fresco-paiuting. They are however now in a 

 most dilapidated condition ; the church is in a ruinous state, and the 



convent is a paper-mill, 

 church ; the subjects 



Holzer painted the cupola and ceiling of the 



j ( represented are the 'Glorification of SU 



Benedict;' the ' Transfiguration of Christ;' the 'Martyrdom of St. 

 Sebastian ; ' ' St. Felicita and her Seven Sons ; ' the ' Foundation of 

 the Convent ; ' and the ' Papal Confirmation of the Foundation.' The 

 'Martyrdom of St. Sebastian' is described as the most successful 

 composition. 



After the completion of these works, Holzer was invited by the 

 prince biahop of Wiirzburg to paint his palace, for which he made the 

 designs, but they were not quite satisfactory to the bishop. He was 

 in the meanwhile invited by the Elector Clement of Cologne to paint 

 the newly-established capuchin convent at Clemenswerth, and he 

 accordingly immediately prepared himself for this work. He however 

 did not live to commence it ; he died of a fever at Clemenswerth, a 

 few days after his arrival, in July 1740, at the age of thirty. 



Hulzor's works are described as successful in every department of 



art, in invention, form, character, light and shade, and colour. He 



. c J a few plates. Several accounts of him have been published 



in Germany ; tho fiwt in 1785, at Augsburg, and the last in tho Tyrol 



in 1834. 



HOME, HEXBY (Lord Kamcs), was born at Kamee, in the county 

 of Berwick, in 169(5. He was originally bound to a Writer to the 

 Signet, but by diligent study he qualified himself for the higher 

 practice of au advocate. His first work, entitled ' Remarkable 

 Decisions in the Court of Sessions, 1 which appeared in 1728, excited 

 considerable attention. The reputation of Mr. Home was still further 

 established by the publication of hia ' Essays on Several Subjects in 

 Law.' In 1741 he published, in 2 vols. foL, ' Decisions of the Court 

 of Sessions,' which were arranged under heads in the form of a 



dictionary; and in 1747 appeared his 'Essays on Several Subjects 

 concerning British Antiquities.' In hia ' Essays on the Principles of 

 Morality and Natural Religion,' while he worked out extensively the 

 principle of a moral sense as taught by Lord Shaftesbury, he opposed 

 all exclusive theories of human nature which derive all the actions of 

 men from some single principle, and endeavoured to establish several 

 general principles. Some of the propositions advanced by him concern- 

 ing natural religion however gave considerable offence. In 1752 Mr. 

 Hume was appointed a judge of the Court of Session, and took his seat 

 on the bench by the title of Lord Kamea. At the same time he was 

 nominated a trustee for the encouragement of manufactures, fisheries, 

 and arU, and also commissioner for the management of forfeited 

 estates. Bat the activity of hia mind was far from being exhausted 

 by bin numerous official duties, and he found leisure to compose two 

 important works, in which he attempted to apply to the science of 

 jurisprudence the priociplea of philosphy. The titles of these works 

 an- 'Historical Law Tracts,' and 'The Principles of Equity.' In 

 1761 he published an ' Introduction to the Art of Thinking,' for the 

 use of youth, which as an elementary work has been highly esteemed. 

 The year following there appeared 'Elements of Criticism,' 3 vols. 8vo, 

 which were greatly admired at the time, and which perhaps still find 

 readers. In 176U he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of 

 justiciary ; but his literary labours were still uninterrupted by the 

 growing weight of duty and of years, and in 1774 he published 



BIOO. DIV. VOL. HI. 



' Sketches of the History of Man,' 2 vols. 4to, an amusing work, but 

 full of fanciful ideas, and resting on facts of very doubtful authority. 

 In 1776 appeared ' The Gentleman Farmer, or an Attempt to improve 

 Agriculture by subjecting it to the test of Rational Principles.' This 

 treatise is even now referred to by writers on agriculture, and was 

 not without its influence in effecting the present improved state of 

 Scotch farming. His last work, entitled ' Loose Hints on Education, 

 was published in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He died on the 

 27th of December 1782. (Life of Lord Kama, by Lord Wood- 

 houselee.) 



HOME, or HUME, JOHN, was born in Scotland about tho year 

 1722, and is supposed to have been a relation of David Hume. He 

 was bred to the ministry of the Kirk, and subsequently nominated to 

 the parish of Athelataneford, ' where he produced his tragedy of 

 ' Douglas,' which was acted at Edinburgh with unbounded applause. 

 Perhaps there was scarcely ever a composition more harmless; but 

 the circumstance of its being a drama was enough to draw down the 

 anger of the rigid elders of the Kirk, who were shocked to find such 

 a work proceed from the pen of a minister. Not only was he com- 

 pelled to retire from the ministry, but even those of his friends who 

 might visit him or go to see the performance of his piece were 

 denounced. Home retired to England, where he received the pro- 

 tection of the Earl of Bute, and obtained a pension. The play of 

 ' Douglas ' has kept its place on the stage, and from its purity of stylo 

 and language, and interesting plot, will probably continue a favourite. 

 Four other tragedies ' Agis, 1 'Aquileia,' 'The Fatal Discovery,' and 

 ' Alonso 'followed 'Douglas,' but they did not equal it, and have 

 been long since forgotten. Home died in 1808. 



HOMER (in Greek, Homeros), the supposed author of the earliest 

 Greek heroic poems extant, and of some hymns in praise of different 

 gods. Opinions the most various have been held regarding his birth- 

 place, his age, hia station, and the circumstances of his life; so that it 

 seems almost hopeless to come to any satisfactory conclusion on sub- 

 jects which history has given us such scanty materials to determine. 

 Tha author or authors of the 'Iliad' must have been accurately 

 acquainted with the geography of Greece and the northern part of the 

 archipelago. Leake notices several instances where epithets are applied 

 with an exactness which seems to indicate personal knowledge of the 

 places ; and as these places are in different parts of Greece, we may 

 infer that Homer was a wandering minstreL The existence of such 

 wandering minstrels seems to be shown by the ' Hymn to Apollo, 

 quoted by Thucydides ; as the notices of Phemius and Demodocua, 

 in the Homeric poems, prove the existence of bards attached to par- 

 ticular courts ; and indeed, without this information, the analogy of 

 our own heroic age would render it highly probable that there should 

 have been an order of wandering minstrels, while in a country like 

 Greece, inhabited by kindred though often hostile tribes, it would be 

 impossible for a wandering musician to recite tho same tales at overy 

 court and before every audience. Either he must have had contra- 

 dictory accounts to retail according to the tribe among which he 

 exercised his powers, if he exercised them on international feuds at 

 all or, which is much more probable, considering the reverence m 

 which national legends were held, he must have confined himself to 

 subjects where the whole race could be contemplated as uniting against 

 a common foo, or have resigned all claim to be considered au heroic 



Of thcso two plans, the author of the ' Iliad ' adopted the former. 

 The story of Helen was probably an Athenian legend, as we find that 

 the Attic hero Theseus ia reported to have stolen her when young. 

 What then could be more natural than for a minstrel, particularly an 

 Attic minstrel, to take this legend, and, combining it with others 

 which gave some account of an expedition undertaken by the Greeks 

 against Asia, produce the narrative which we find in the ' Iliad ? We 

 do not insist on this method of accounting for the origin of the 

 Homeric poems; all we wish to do is to illustrate the way in which 



1 i_ _: ... 1 . ., T nra. + 1 , i i i 1- Q 1*9 f.1 r 1 n fl 1 PTfll HI hi Oil 



they might have arisen, and to give what we think a rational exhibition 

 of the causes, or some few of the more important of the causes, 

 which led to the establishment of a national heroic epos hi opposition 

 to a cycle of poems referring to the exploits of particular tribes. 

 Whatever be the origin of the ' Iliad,' it is peculiarly remarkable m 

 standing as it does a witness of the unity of the Hellenic races. We 

 find these races, historically speaking, opposed in every possible way, 

 as rivals, as strangers, as enemies ; if we turn to their poetry, we fiud 

 them united. The common Christianity of Europe is not a moro 

 strongly-marked bond of union than the common poetry of the 

 Greeks, and this community must, in the Epic period particularly 

 (wherein it is most strongly marked), bo referred to that gem 

 whether in the author, or iu the race fo^whom he composed, matters 

 not which has given birth to tho ' Iliad.' 



The poems attributed to Homer are the ' Iliad ' and the Odyssey, 

 to which some have added the 'Homeric Hymns.' Of these poems, 

 the 'Iliad' stands first, as the olJest and at the same time the com- 

 pletest specimen of a national heroic poem. Its subject, as is known 

 to all, is the revenge which Achilles took on Agamemnon for depriving 

 him of his mistress Briaeis, during the siege of Troy, and the conse- 

 quent evils which befel the Greeks. It is divided into twenty^four 

 rhapsodies or books, which detail tho history of the besieging force 

 during the period of Achilles' auger, and end with the death ol 



