HEXAPLA HEYNE. 



721 



meter, the divisions of the feet should be distinctly 

 marked in the pronunciation ; for instance, the hexa- 

 meter 



Intlignor, quandoque bonus ilor/nitat lloinrrus, 

 in this way, 



Indig-norquan-doquebo-nusdor-mitatHo-mcrus 

 The proper mode is to divide the verses according 

 to their chief and secondary caesuras ; to discrimi- 

 nate accurately between the long and short syllables, 

 and to dwell slightly, but perceptibly, on the arsis. 

 As the hexameter was particularly used in the epic 

 (q. v.), it received the name of heroic verse. If, as 

 was mentioned above, the chief caesura of the hexa- 

 meter is in the fourth foot, it is called a bucolic 

 caesura, because it occurs most frequently in the 

 bucolics. A spondee is rarely used in the fifth foot, 

 and then, in Latin, the word with which the verse 

 ends is generally composed of four syllables, and the 

 fourth foot, at least, must be a dactyle ; as, 



Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum. 



Why the last foot cannot be a dactyle, every one 

 feels. The close would be incomplete ; the mind 

 would not be at rest. 



The prevalence of the dactyle or spondee in the 

 hexameter, depends much upon the genius of the 

 language ; thus the dactyle is more frequent in Greek 

 than in Latin, and in German than in Greek. It is 

 evident that the hexameter requires distinctly long 

 and short syllables, and cannot, therefore, be formed 

 in languages which have no distinct prosody, as 

 Italian, French, Spanish, English, &c., more particu- 

 larly in the latter, on account of its great number of 

 monosyllables, very few of which a good ear would 

 allow to be short. Annibal Caro, however, tried 

 hexameters in Italian ; Baif, in French ; Stanyhurst, 

 fcidney , and Southey, in English ; but without success. 

 Adlerbeth used Swedish hexameters in his transla- 

 tion of Virgil. Meermann has written Dutch, and 

 recently, also, Baros and Debreuti, Hungarian hexa- 

 meters. In no modern European language have 

 hexameters become truly naturalized, except in Ger- 

 man, to which this measure, skilfully used, seems 

 nearly as well adapted as to the Greek. Fischart at- 

 tempted the German hexameter in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. In the middle of the eighteenth century, it 

 was used and recommended by Klopstock, Uz, and 

 Kleist, but was still in a very rude state. Goethe's 

 hexameters are exceedingly rude, and very often as 

 poor as their sense is beautiful. John Henry Voss 

 improved the German hexameter by the excellent 

 translation of Homer, and his valuable Zeitmessung 

 der Deutschen Sprache (Konigsberg, 1802). But 

 the German hexameter is most indebted to Schlegel, 

 who has made some of the best observations within 

 our knowledge on it, in the Indian Library, in treat- 

 ing of the Descent of the Ganges, of which he has 

 given a translation in hexameters from the Sanscrit. 

 Grecian tradition attributed the origin of the hexame- 

 ter to the Delphic oracle ; hence it was called also 

 the theological and Pythian metre. 



HEXAPLA ; a collection of the Holy Scriptures, 

 in six languages, used, particularly, for the one 

 published by the Greek bishop Origen, containing 

 the text in Hebrew and Greek letters, the Septuagint, 

 and three other translations. 



HEYNE, CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB, a distinguished 

 scholar, was born September 25, 1729, at Chemnitz, 

 in Saxony, whither his father, a poor linen weaver, 

 had fled from Gravenschutz, in Silesia, on account of 

 religious persecution. The difficulties which pur- 

 sued him till manhood, could not repress his fine 

 powers, or destroy his natural sensibility ; but, on 

 the contrary, threw him back on himself, and taught 

 him to confide in himself. He could hardly obtain 

 in. 



the slight assistance which was necessary to gratify 

 his early wish of being instructed in the Latin lan- 

 guage. From 1741 to 1748, he attended the lycenni 

 at Chemnitz, where the instructors acknowledged his 

 uncommon talent, and the untiring industry with 

 which, deprived of almost all literary resources, he 

 had acquired a remarkable acquaintance with the 

 ancient languages. In the most destitute condition, 

 he proceeded to the university of Leipsic, in 1748. 

 There he was principally attracted by Ernesti's lec- 

 tures, which made him acquainted with the princi- 

 ples of interpretation, while the archaeological and 

 antiquarian prelections of professor Christ enlarged 

 his knowledge of classic antiquity, and his knowledge 

 of literature was speedily extended by industrious 

 reading and almost excessive nocturnal labour. 

 Besides these studies, he pursued another as a means 

 of subsistence (the law), and listened with great bene- 

 fit to the history of the Roman law, with reference to 

 ancient literature and history, as delivered by the 

 celebrated Bach, by which means he was afterwards 

 enabled to deliver lectures on Roman antiquities, for 

 jurists in particular. He also wrote, in 1752, a legfil 

 disputation, for ii<s degree of master. A Latin elegy, 

 composed by Heyne, at the request of the reformed 

 congregation of Leipsic, on the death of their pastor, 

 made him known to the minister of state, count Vou 

 Bruhl, in whose library he was appointed copyist, 

 with a salary equal to about seventy-five dollars. 

 The only benefit that he derived from this appoint- 

 ment, was an enlarged acquaintance with the works 

 of ancient literature, for which his inclination became 

 every day more settled. Necessity at first compelled 

 him to undertake several translations. The first 

 classic of which he undertook an edition through 

 inclination, was Tibullus, which he published for the 

 first time in 1755. The moral tone of his own mind 

 also led him to the writings of the stoic Epictetus, of 

 which he published an edition in 1756. These two 

 works made him known abroad. The breaking out 

 of the seven years' war deprived Heyne not only of 

 his salary, but also of his other means of subsistence. 

 By Rabener's recommendation, he at last found sup- 

 port in the house of a lady named Von Schonberg, 

 whose brother he accompanied as governor to Wit- 

 tenberg, in 1759, where he was introduced by Ritter 

 to a more thorough acquaintance with history. The 

 war again dragged him from his studies, and placed 

 him in a difficult situation, which, however, developed 

 in him a talent for business. At this time, he pre- 

 pared the Latin text for the third thousand of the 

 Lippert Dactyliotheca, which made him more intimate 

 with this department of archaeology. At Ruhnken's 

 recommendation, he received, in 1763, an invitation 

 to succeed Gessner as professor of eloquence at Got- 

 tingen. He was soon after appointed first librarian 

 and counsellor. To discharge the functions of these 

 posts, required the most multiplied labours. He says 

 of himself, with great candour, that, " till he was 

 professor, he never learned the art it was his duty to 

 teach." But he soon made himself at home in his 

 new duties. His numerous and really classical pro- 

 grams, embracing the most attractive subjects of an- 

 tiquity, and giving us cause to admire the extent of 

 his knowledge (Opusc. Acad., six parts), evince that 

 he thought and composed in Latin, and that he could 

 express himself not only with purity, but also with 

 ease and taste. His lectures, which he read with the 

 greatest punctuality, constituted by degrees a circle 

 of the most attractive and instructive subjects that 

 the study of the ancients presented, and were closely 

 connected with his activity as an author. By these 

 prelections, as well as by his five years' connexion 

 with the Royal Society, founded at Gottingen, by 

 Haller, of which he was a most industrious member ; 



