HEAVY SPAR F1EBERT. 



which s[-rt au> above u- ilk'" a hollow hemisphere, and 

 appears to rest on the limus of the horizon. Modern 

 astronomy has taught us, that this blue vault is. in 

 fact, the immeasurable space in which our earth, the 

 sun, and all the planets, with the countless host of 

 fixed stars, revolve. The blue colour of the heavens 

 is, according to Nollet, an effect of the light of the 

 sun and stars. According to this explanation, the 

 boundless fields of unilluuiined space must, like all 

 things else in the absence of light, appear black ; 

 but the light of the celestial bodies, which is reflected 

 by the earth to the air, and thence again to the earth, 

 occasions the blue colour. Saussure derives the blue 

 colour, indeed, from the reflected light, but attributes 

 the reflection not to the air, but to the vapours which 

 it contains. He supports his opinion in this way : 

 that if this were owing to the reflection of light from 

 the air, glaciers and mountains covered with snow, 

 seen at a distance of seventy to ninety miles, would 

 appear blue. That the rays of light are, in fact, 

 reflected by the vapours in the atmosphere, appears 

 also from this circumstance, that the heavens, seen 

 from a high mountain, appear of a much darker blue 

 than when seen from a plain ; and even from this 

 last situation, the blue is very different at different 

 times, and appears dark in proportion to the purity of 

 the atmosphere. Saussure, on the basis of these 

 observations, has invented an apparatus, called a 

 cyanometer, in order to determine the quantity of 

 vapour in the atmosphere, from the degree of blue- 

 ness in the colour of the sky. 



Heaven, in the ancient astronomy, denoted an orb 

 or circular region of the ethereal heaven. The 

 ancient astronomers assumed as many different hea- 

 vens as they observed different celestial motions. 

 These they supposed to be all solid, thinking they 

 could not otherwise sustain the bodies fixed in them ; 

 and spherical, that being the most proper form for mo- 

 tion. Thus they have seven heavens for the seven 

 planets, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, 

 Jupiter, and Saturn. The eighth was that of the 

 fixed stars, which was particularly denominated the 

 firmament. Ptolemy adds a ninth heaven, which he 

 calls the primum mobile. After him, two crystalline 

 heavens were added by Alphonso, king of Castile, to 

 account for some irregularities in the motions of the 

 other heavens; and lastly, an empyrean heaven was 

 drawn over the whole for the residence of the Deity; 

 which made, in all, twelve heavens. But others 

 admitted many more heavens, according as their dif- 

 ferent views and hypotheses required: Eudoxus sup- 

 posed twenty-three ; Regiomontanus, thirty-three ; 

 A ristotle, forty-seven ; and Fracaster no less than 

 se venty. 



HEAVY SPAR. See Barytes, Sulphate of . 



HEBE ; the goddess of youth, and the cup-bearer 

 on Olympus, a daughter of Jupiter and Juno, who 

 gave her as a wife to Hercules, in reward of his 

 achievements. In the arts she is represented with 

 the cup in which she presents the nectar, under the 

 figure of a charming young girl, her dress adorned 

 with roses, and wearing a wreath of flowers. An 

 eagle often stands beside her (as at the side of 

 Ganymede), which she is caressing. 



HEBER, REGINALD, D. D., bishop of Calcutta, 

 was born April 21, 1783, at Malpas, in Cheshire, 

 and, in 1800, was sent to Brazen-nose college, Ox- 

 ford. In 1802, he obtained a university prize for a 

 copy of Latin hexameters ; and the following year he 

 greatly distinguished himself by another prize poem 

 Palestine in English. He was elected to a fel- 

 lowship in All Souls college, and, soon after travelled 

 in Germany, Russia, and the Crimea, and made 

 observations, from which many curious extracts were 

 published in the travels of doctor E. D. Clarke. 



Having returned home, he published iin Knglisl) 

 poem entitled Europe, Lines on the present U'ar 

 (1809.) About the same time, he was presented to 

 the family living of Hodnet, and he married Amelia, 

 daughter of the reverend \V. Shipley, dean of St 

 Asaph. For several years subsequently, he devoted 

 himself, with great assiduity, to his duties as a paro- 

 chial priest. In 1822 appeared his life of Jeremy 

 Taylor, with a review of his writings. On the death 

 of bishop Middleton, he was offered the see of Cal- 

 cutta, which he accepted, and, June 16, 1823, em- 

 barked for the East Indies. On Ascension day, 1824. 

 bishop Heber held his first visitation, in the cathedral 

 of Calcutta; and he subsequently made progresses 

 through various parts of his very extensive diocese, 

 consecrating churches, and taking the appropriate 

 steps for extending the knowledge of Christianity 

 among the Hindoos. Having taken a journey in the 

 discharge of his episcopal duty, he arrived at Tirut- 

 chinopoli, April 1, 1826; and, on the next day, 

 while bathing, he was seized with an apoplectic lit, 

 which terminated his existence. Since the death of 

 this prelate, has been published, a Narrative of a 

 Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from 

 Calcutta to Bombay (2 vols., 4to, new edition, 3 

 vols., 8vo). His widow has also published his 

 biography (2 vols., 4to, London, 1830. 



HEBERT, JAMES RENE, notorious during the 

 French revolution, was born at Alengon, in the de- 

 partment of the Orne, about 1755. When yet very 

 young, he went to Paris, where he supported himself 

 by very dishonourable methods. Employed as a 

 checque-taker at the Theatre des Farleies, he was 

 dismissed for dishonesty ; after which he lived with a 

 physician, whom he ungratefully robbed. At the 

 beginning of the French revolution, Lemaire publish- 

 ed a journal supporting constitutional principles, 

 under the title Pere Duc/iene, which was distributed 

 in the streets. The Jacobins soon established an- 

 other paper, also called Pere Duchene, and Hebert 

 became editor. It owed its success to the warmth 

 and virulence with which he advocated the populai 

 cause, and abused the court and the monarchy 

 August 10, 1792, he became one of the members of 

 the municipality of Paris, which contributed to the 

 massacre in the prisons in the following September 

 Hebert was soon after nominated attorney-general of 

 the commune, and employed all his influence in for- 

 warding a project to establish the authority of the 

 commune on the ruins of the national representation. 

 The Hebertists rejected the advances of the Orleans 

 party, and separated from the Cordeliers, of whom 

 they had hitherto formed a part. The Girondists, 

 who were at that period contending against the 

 Mountain, had credit enough to produce the arrest 

 of Hebert, May 24, 1793. He was defended by 

 Marat in the convention; the deputies of all the sec- 

 tions spoke in his favour at the bar on the twenty- 

 fifth, and on the twenty-seventh, after a tempestuous 

 session, he was again restored to liberty. Prompted 

 by revenge, as well as other motives, he assisted with 

 all his power and influence in the proscription of the 

 Brissotins. Then- downfall hastened his own. He 

 established the feast of reason, and afterwards accused 

 Danton of having violated the nature of liberty and 

 the rights of mankind. This terrified both Danton 

 and Robespierre ; they suspended their mutual jeal- 

 ousies to accomplish his destruction ; find Hebert, 

 with the greater part of his associates, was arrested, 

 and condemned to death, March 24, 1794. None of 

 the numberless victims died in a more cowardly man- 

 ner. Besides his journal, he was the author of some 

 other political pieces of a similar description. Among 

 the crimes of this man were the calumnies with whicn 

 he assailed the character of the queen of France. His 



