HENRY HKRACLITUS. 



693 



the sermons of Slillingfleet and Tillotson. In 1686, 

 having qualified himself for the ministry, he began 

 to preach ; and in the succeeding year lie was settled 

 as pastor to a congregation of dissenters at Chester, 

 and continued with exemplary zeal and success to 

 discharge the duties of his office for twenty-five years, 

 when he was removed to Hackney in the vicinity of 

 London, where his clerical labours were still more 

 extended. He died of apoplexy in 1714, while on 

 his return from a visit to his old congregation in 

 Cheshire. 



The works published by Mr Henry furnish suffi- 

 cient proof of his learning and knowledge. He was 

 an elegant and pathetic preacher, and he was not less 

 distinguished by the warmth of his piety and the 

 amiableness of his manners. Besides his greatest 

 work, " Expositions on the Bible," in 5 vols. folio, 

 of which four contain the Old Testament, and the 

 fifth the Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles, 

 part of the exposition of the Epistle to the Romans 

 being finished by Dr Evans, he was the author of a 

 discourse on Schism, A Biographical Sketch of his 

 Father, a Scripture Catechism, Family Hymns, and 

 several other religious tracts. 



HENRY, ROBERT, D.D., an English historian and 

 Scottish divine, was a native of Stirlingshire, and was 

 born in 1718, received the early part of his educa- 

 tion at his native village St Ninians and at Stirling, 

 and completed his studies at the university of Edin- 

 burgh. He was some time master of the grammar 

 school at Annan ; and being licensed to preach in 

 1746, he officiated for twelve years in a congregation 

 of dissenters at Carlisle, from which, in 1760, he re- 

 moved to Berwick-upon Tweed, to become pastor of 

 a similar congregation ; and in 1768, through the 

 influence of a near relative, he was appointed one of 

 the ministers of Edinburgh. He died in 1790, when 

 he had reached the seventy-third year of his age; 

 and it is worthy of notice, that he made a bequest of 

 his library to the magistrates of Linlithgow, in the 

 vicinity of which he had long resided during the 

 summer season, to be the foundation of a public lib- 

 rary for the use of the inhabitants. 



The " History of England upon a New Plan," it is 

 understood, began to occupy his thoughts about the 

 year 1763, and his removal to Edinburgh gave him 

 many facilities for its accomplishment. The first 

 volume appeared in 1771, and it excited a great deal 

 of ill-natured criticism from a party of his country- 

 men, who used every exertion to detract from its 

 merits. But he steadily continued in the prosecu- 

 tion of his design ; and four other volumes were pub- 

 lished at successive intervals, the last in 1785. He 

 had prepared for the press a sixth volume, which 

 brings down the history to the reign of Henry VIII., 

 and which was published in 1793, with the author's 

 life prefixed. The different periods embraced by 

 Dr Henry's history of Great Britain are arranged 

 under seven heads: 1. The civil and military his- 

 tory ; 2. The history of religion ; 3. The history of 

 our constitution, government, laws, and courts of 

 justice; 4. The history of learning, learned men, 

 and seminaries of learning ; 5. The history of arts ; 

 6. The history of commerce, shipping, money or 

 coin, and of the price of commodities ; 7. The his- 

 tory of manners, customs, language, dress, and 

 amusements. This elaborate work, which may be 

 regarded as an authentic repository of historical 

 information, was at first but coldly received, and 

 indeed met with some unjust criticism, part of which 

 was excited by private malignity. But it is worthy of 

 notice, that the actual emolument which he derived 

 from the labour of thirty years on his history amounted 

 to 3300, beside ail annual pension from government 

 of .100, which he enjoyed for ten years. 



HEPATITIS. See Liver Complaint. 



HEPH^ESTION, the friend of Alexander the 

 Great, was a noble Macedonian of Pella. He ac- 

 companied the king in his campaigns, and died at 

 Ecbatana (B. C. 325.) Alexander, who was incon- 

 solable for his death, intended to erect a monument 

 to him, but died himself soon after. 



HEPTACHORD (from the Greek); a term which 

 with the ancients implied a conjunct tetrachord, or a 

 system of seven sounds. It was also the name given 

 to a lyre, or cithara, with seven chords. In the 

 ancient poetry, the word heptachord signified certain 

 verses that were sung to the sound of seven chords ; 

 that is, to seven different notes or tones. The inter- 

 val of the heptachord was equivalent to our seventh. 



HEPTAGON ; a plain figure of seven sides or 

 angles ; it is said to be regular when all the sides or 

 angles are equal. See Polygon. 



HEPTARCHY ; the seven kingdoms into which 

 England was divided under the Saxons. It termi- 

 nated in 827 or 828, when king Egbert united the 

 seven kingdoms into one, and assumed the title of 

 king of England. See England. 



HEPTATEUCH ; a name sometimes given to the 

 five books of Moses, or Pentateuch, together with 

 the books of Joshua and the Judges. 



HERACLID^E ; the descendants of Hercules, 

 who, assisted by the Dorians, asserted the claims 

 which they had inherited to the Peloponnesus by 

 arms. Their attacks had already been twice re- 

 pulsed, when, eighty years after the capture of Troy, 

 they appeared a third time. But Aristodemus, one 

 of their leaders, perished while making preparations 

 for the expedition, and the greater part of the army 

 was destroyed by famine. In their distress, they 

 consulted the oracle of Delphi, and received the 

 answer, that they should follow a three-eyed general, 

 whom they found in the JStolian Oxylus, riding on 

 a mule with one eye. Conducted by him, they 

 penetrated by several points into the Peloponnesus, 

 conquered almost the whole peninsula, and distri- 

 buted the country among their commanders. Teme- 

 nus received Argos with Mycene and Sicyon ; Cres- 

 phontes, Messenia ; and the sons of Aristodemus, 

 Procles and Eurysthenes, Lacedsemon, where they 

 reigned in common. The recovery of the Pelopon- 

 nesus by the Heraclidw forms an important epoch in 

 Grecian history. 



HERACLITUS, a Greek philosopher, born at 

 Ephesus, in Asia Minor, surnamed the obscure, 

 flourished in the 69th Olympiad, about 500 B. C. 

 Instead of accepting the highest official dignities 

 in his native city, he devoted himself to philosophy. 

 He travelled in different countries, particularly in 

 Africa. His disposition, gloomy and melancholy by 

 nature, as appears also in his philosophy, early 

 impelled him to avoid all intercourse with men, 

 on account of their vices. He repaired to solitary 

 mountains, to live on roots and herbs, but, being 

 attacked by a fatal disease, was obliged to return to 

 the city, where he died soon afterwards, in his sixtieth 

 year. He left a work on the nature of things, 

 in which he treats also of religion and politics. It 

 was written in an obscure and figurative style, and 

 therefore excited but little attention, and was finally 

 lost. From the little of his philosophy which has 

 come down to us, it appears that he considered fire 

 as the element of all things ; probably understanding 

 not the common fire, but an ethereal fiery substance ; 

 which supposition is reconcilable with the account 

 that he considered the pure air, or vapour, to be the 

 primitive element. From this originates the world, 

 and it is in turn reproduced by the world. Every 

 thing is in a constant state of change. The act of 

 originating is separation from the j'rimitive existence 



