700 



HERBELOT HERBERT. 



of the greater quantity of moisture which they con- 

 tain, and the greater delicacy of their texture. 



HERBELOT, BARTHOLOMEW D'; a celebrated 

 Orientalist, born of a good family, at Paris, in 1625. 

 After having' gone through a course of study in the 

 university of Iris native city.he applied himself parti- 

 cularly to the Eastern languages, with a view to the 

 elucidation of the Hebrew Scriptures. He visited 

 Italy for improvement, and formed an acquaintance, 

 at Rome, with Lucas Holstenius and Leo Allatius, 

 two of the most learned men of the age. He was 

 patronized by cardinal Grimaldi, who, in 1656, sent 

 him to Marseilles to meet Christina, queen of Sweden, 

 then on her way to Rome ; and that princess was much 

 pleased with his society. On his return to France, 

 the minister of state, Foucquet, received him into his 

 family, and gave him a pension of 1500 livres. On 

 the disgrace of Iris patron, D'Herbelot was fortunate 

 enough to escape the general ruin which involved 

 the dependants of the fallen statesman, and his merit 

 procured him the office of Oriental interpreter to the 

 king of France. After some years, lie again travell- 

 ed into Italy. At Leghorn, he was introduced to 

 the grand-duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II., who invit- 

 ed him to Florence, where he arrived in July, 1666. 

 He was magnificently entertained by the duke, and 

 was also gratified with a present of a valuable col- 

 lection of Eastern manuscripts. While in Italy, he 

 commenced his great work, the Oriental Library; and, 

 being recalled to Paris by Colbert, a pension was given 

 him, that he might be at liberty to proceed with his 

 undertaking. It was his first design to have pub- 

 lished his collection in the Arabic language, and 

 types were cast for the purpose of printing it. But 

 the death of Colbert having interrupted this plan, 

 he recom posed his work in the French language, as 

 likely to prove more generally useful. On the 

 recommendation of the chancellor, M. de Pontchar- 

 train, he was afterwards appointed to the royal 

 professorship of Syriac, vacant by the death of M. 

 d'Auvergne. He died at Paris, December 8, 1695. 

 His book was published in 1697, under the title of 

 La Bibliothlque Orientate (folio). Besides this, he 

 left a collection on the same subject, entitled Antho- 

 logia, and a dictionary in the Turkish, Persian, 

 Arabic, and Latin languages, neither of which has 

 been printed. The best edition of the Oriental 

 Library is that of the Hague, (1777, four volumes, 

 4to), with the Supplements of Galland and Vis- 

 delou. 



HERBERTSTEIN, SJGISMOND, baron of, a distin- 

 guished politician and historiographer, was born in 

 1486, at Vippach, in Carniola. He studied law, but 

 afterwards became a soldier, and fought against the 

 Turks. The emperor of Germany intrusted him 

 with important missions. In 1516, he was sent 

 to Christian II., king of Denmark, to induce him to 

 give up his foolish and unhappy passion for Dyveke. 

 Soon after his return, he was sent to Russia, and, at 

 a later period, to Constantinople. In fact, he 

 travelled over almost all Europe. He was made 

 privy-counsellor and president of the college of 

 finances. In 1553, he retired from public life, and 

 died in 1566. His name has been handed down to 

 posterity by a work which is still highly esteemed 

 Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii, quibus Russia 

 ac Metropolis efus Moscoviae Descriptio, chorogra- 

 phicae Tabulae, Religionis Indicatio, Modus excipiendi 

 el tractandi Oratores, Itineraria in Moscoviam duo et 

 alia qucedam continentur. It has been often pub- 

 lished and translated. The writers on Russia call it 

 the best of the early works on that country. An 

 autobiography of Herbertstein, to the year 1545, 

 remained unpublished till 1805, when it appeared at 

 Buda, in the collection of Kovachich. From this 



Adelung chiefly took his biography of Herberstein, 

 Petersburg, 1818. 



HERBERT, EDWARD, lord Herbert of Cherbury, 

 in Shropshire, was born at Montgomery castle, in 

 Wales, in 1581. At the age of twelve, he was 

 entered as a gentleman commoner at University col- 

 lege, Oxford. In 1600, he went to London, and, 

 shortly after the accession of James I. became a 

 knight of the Bath, having previously married the 

 heiress of Sir William Herbert, another branch of the 

 family. He then visited the continent, carrying 

 with him those chivalrous ideas with which the oatli 

 and ceremonies of the investiture of the order of the 

 Bath seem to have impressed him. He returned to 

 England in 1607, and, in 1609, quitted it again, in 

 order to join the English forces serving in aid of the 

 prince of Orange, at the siege of Juliers, where he 

 distinguished himself by his rash and romantic 

 bravery. On the conclusion of the siege, he re- 

 turned to London, where he was one of the most 

 conspicuous characters of the period. His gallantry 

 towards a court lady, which, however, he asserts to 

 have been without criminality, produced an attempt 

 by her husband to assassinate him in the streets of 

 London, which he foiled by an extraordinary effort 

 of courage and dexterity. In 1614, he served again 

 in the Low Countries, under the prince of Orange, 

 and, in 1616, was sent ambassador to the court of 

 France, where he resented some high language on 

 the part of the constable Luynes, the favourite 

 of Louis XIII., with so much spirit, that a complaint 

 was sent to the English court, which produced his 

 recall. He cleared himself, however, so well to 

 king James, that, on the death of Luynes, he was 

 sent back to France as resident ambassador. At 

 Paris, in 1624, he printed his famous book, De Veri- 

 tate prout distinguitztr a Revelatione, the object of 

 which was to assert the sufficiency, universality, and 

 perfection of natural religion, with a view to prove 

 the uselessness of revelation. An incident which he 

 has mentioned as occurring previously to its publica- 

 tion, affords a remarkable proof of the power of 

 imagination over an enthusiastic mind. Being in his 

 chamber, doubtful as to the propriety of publishing 

 his book, on one fair day in summer, his casement 

 opened to the south, the sun shining clear, and no 

 wind stirring, " I took," says he, " my book De Veri- 

 tate in my hand, and, kneeling devoutly on my knees, 

 said these words ' O thou eternal God, author of 

 the light which now shines upon me, and giver of 

 all inward illuminations, I do beseech thee, of thy 

 infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a 

 sinner ought to make. 1 am not satisfied enough 

 whether I shall publish this book De reritate. If it 

 be for thy glory, I beseech thee give me some sign 

 from heaven ; if not, I shall suppress it.' I had no 

 sooner spoken these words, but a loud, though yet 

 gentle noise came from the heavens (for it was like 

 nothing on earth), which did so comfort and cheer 

 me, that I took my petition as granted, and that I 

 had the sign demanded." He makes the most solemn 

 assertions of the truth of this narrative, and there is 

 no reason to doubt that he fully believed it an ex- 

 traordinary instance of vanity and self-delusion in 

 one whose chief argument against revealed religion 

 is founded on the improbability that Heaven would 

 communicate its will to a part of the world only. In 

 1625, he returned from France, and was created an 

 Irish peer, and afterwards an English baron, by the 

 title of lord Herbert of Cherbury . Little more is heard 

 of him in public life, except that he joined the par- 

 liamentary party in the first instance, but subse- 

 quently quitted it, and was a great sufferer in his 

 fortune in consequence. He died in London, 1648. 

 The character of lord Herbert is strongly marked in 



