HELMERS HELOTS. 



675 



reuse the water will act against it with a force which 

 increases as the square pf the swiftness of the fluid, 

 whether the ship advances or retreats. The direc- 

 tion given in the two cases will of course be con- 

 trary. 



HELMERS, JOHN FREDERIC, a Dutch poet, born 

 at Amsterdam, in 1767, was destined for commerce, 

 and attended particularly to the study of the modern 

 languages ; but the reading of the German, French, 

 and English poets soon inspired him with a taste for 

 literature anil poetry. Kindled by the classical 

 models of foreign countries, Helmers composed, in 

 his nineteenth year, an ode On Night, the beauty of 

 which revealed his talents. His ode, The Poet, lirst 

 established his reputation. From this time, he yield- 

 ed wholly to the impulse of his genius, and, in 1790, 

 published a larger poem, Socrates, in three cantos, 

 which gave him a high rank among the poets of his 

 nation. But his tragedy, Dinomachus, or the Libera- 

 tion of Athens, met with but little success on its re- 

 presentation. He afterwards undertook a theatrical 

 journal for dramatic criticism ; but his attempt did 

 not receive any encouragement from the Dutch 

 public. He afterwards devoted himself to lyric 

 and epic poetry. In 1810, a collection of his poems 

 was published at Amsterdam. His national poem, 

 Holland (in six cantos, Amsterdam, 1812), which 

 was universally admired by his countrymen, soon 

 followed. Hdmers died February 26, 1813. The 

 works found among his papers appeared, under the 

 title Nalezing van Gedichten, at Haerlem (2 vols., 

 1814 and 1815), and, almost at the same time, in 

 another better edition, at Amsterdam. 



HELMET; a defensive armour, for the protection 

 of the head, composed of skins of animals, or of 

 metals. Some of Homer's heroes are represented as 

 wearing brazen helmets, with towering crests, adorn- 

 ed with plumes of the tails or manes of horses. 

 A inong the Romans, the cassis was a metallic helmet ; 

 the galea, a leathern one. (See Lipsius, De Militia 

 Romana, III., 5.) In modern times, they have been 

 of different kinds, some with and others without 

 vizors. 



HELMINTHAGOGA; medicines against worms. 



HELMINTHIASIS ; the disease which proceeds 

 from intestinal worms. 



HELMONT, John Baptist van, born, in 1577, at 

 Brussels, studied natural philosophy, natural history, 

 and medicine, in which he made such rapid profi- 

 ciency, that, in his seventeenth year, he gave public 

 lectures on surgery at Louvain. The study of the 

 ancients convinced him of the insufficiency of many 

 pf their theories on the nature and cure of diseases ; 

 in particular, the system of Galen appeared to him 

 to have great defects. He announced, therefore, his 

 intention of making a reform in medicine. But his 

 inability to cure the itch suddenly inspired him with 

 an aversion to medical science, which he declared to 

 be uncertain, and renounced entirely. He left his 

 country, distributed all that he had gained by his prac- 

 tice in medicine, and, for ten years, wandered about 

 the world ; when, having become acquainted with an 

 empirical chemist, he entered eagerly upon the study 

 of chemistry. After the example of Paracelsus, he 

 employed himself in seeking a universal remedy by 

 means of that study. His former passion for medi- 

 cine no\v revived, but it was a novel kind of medi- 

 cine, of his own creation. He styled himself medicus 

 per ignem, alluding to the source from which he de- 

 rived his remedies. He now married, and retired 

 to the little city of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Here he 

 occupied himself till his death with medical labours, 

 boasted of having found the means of prolonging 

 life, and composed visionary theories on the spiritual 

 and physical formation of man, and on the causes and 



treatment of diseases. Though chemistry was still 

 in its cradle, yet he made many discoveries, such as 

 the laudanum of Paracelsus, the spirit of hartshorn, 

 die sal volatile, c. He intended to have overthrown 

 the whole science of medicine, as it was taught in 

 the schools, which he criticised with much justice ; 

 but what he produced himself was much more un- 

 certain than all the existing theories. According to 

 him, life is ruled by a principal power, which he 

 called ArchcBus, the ruler, and by other subordinate 

 powers. The system of Van Helmont resemblea 

 that of Paracelsus, yet it is more clear and scientific. 

 Helmont never quitted his laboratory during the 

 thirty years he lived in Vilvorde, yet he asserts that 

 he cured annually more than a thousand men. The 

 emperors Rodolph II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II., 

 invited him to Vienna, with promises of wealth and 

 dignities ; but he preferred the independence of his 

 laboratory. He died December 30, 1644. Having 

 given his manuscripts, before his death, to his son, 

 with the request that he would publish them if he 

 thought fit, they were printed by Elzevir. 



HELMSTADT ; a town, with 5200 inhabitants, 

 in the duchy of Brunswick. The university of Julia 

 Carolina, established in 1576 in Helmstadt, was sup- 

 pressed by Jerome, ex-king of Westphalia, Decem- 

 ber 10, 1809. The town has a gymnasium, a semin- 

 ary for the education of teachers, &c., besides manu- 

 factories of linen, cotton, flannel, soap, hats, liqueurs, 

 and perfumes. In the neighbourhood is a mineral 

 spring. 



HELOISE, ELOISE, or LOUISA, celebrated for 

 her beauty and wit, but still more on account of her 

 love for Abelard, was born in Paris, in 1101. After 

 her cruel separation from her illustrious lover, she 

 became prioress of the convent of Argenteuil ; but 

 she attended more to study than to the monastic dis- 

 cipline of those under her charge, who, finally, were 

 dispersed, in 11 29, on account of their licentiousness. 

 She then accepted the invitation of Abelard. and 

 entered, with some of her nuns, the oratory of Para- 

 clete, where she founded a new convent. Here she 

 lived in exemplary piety. The bishops loved her as 

 a daughter, the abbots as a sister, and the laity as a 

 mother. Abelard, at her request, wrote the rules for 

 her convent, which were confirmed by pope Innocent 

 II. She died in 1164. Contemporary writers speak 

 in high terms of the genius of Heloise. She under- 

 stood Latin, Greek, Hebrew, was familiar with the 

 ancients, and had penetrated the depths of philosophy 

 and theology. Among Abelard's letters, we find 

 three which are ascribed to her, full of fire, genius, 

 and imagination. The two first of her letters, which 

 paint the conflict between her present duties and 

 former feelings, and vividly contrast the inward 

 storm of the passions with the repose of the cell, fur- 

 nished Pope with some of the finest passages of one 

 of his best productions. See Abelard. 



HELOTS ; slaves in Sparta. The name is gene- 

 rally derived from the town of Helos, the inhabitants 

 of which were carried off and reduced to slavery by 

 the Heraclidae, about 1000 B. C. They differed 

 from the other Greek slaves in not belonging indivi- 

 dually to separate masters ; they were the property 

 of the state, which alone had the disposal of their 

 life and freedom. They formed a separate class of 

 inhabitants, and their condition was, in many respects, 

 similar to that of the boors in some countries of 

 Europe. The state assigned them to certain citizens, 

 by whom they were employed in private labours, 

 though not exclusively, as the state still exacted 

 certain services from them. Agriculture and all 

 mechanical arts at Sparta were in the hands of the 

 Helots, since the laws of Lycurgus prohibited the 

 Spartans from all lucrative occupations. But the 

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