La Bibliothèque Orientale (folio). Be sides this, he left a collection on the same subject, entitled Anthologia, 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 Visdelou.

HERBERSTEIN, Sigismund, baron of, a distinguished 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. (See Christian II.) 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 ejus Moscovia Descriptio, chorographica Tabula, Religionis Indicatio, Modus excipiendi et tractandi Oratores, Itineraria in Moscoviam duo et alia quædam continentur. It has been often published and translated. The writers on Russia call it the best of the early works on that country. An autobiography of Herberstein, to the year 1545, remained unpublished till 1805, when it appeared at Buda, in the collection of Kovachich.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 12, he was entered as a gentleman commoner at University college, 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 oath 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 returned 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 favorite 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 Veritate prout distin guitur 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 publication, 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 Veritate 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. I am not satisfied enough whether I shall publish this book De Veri tate. 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 extraordinary 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 parliamentary party in the first instance, but subsequently 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 his memoirs, which show him to be vain, punctilious and fanciful, but open, generous, brave and disinterested. The De Veritate was followed by a work entitled De Religione Gentilium, Errorumque apud eos Causis (or an Inquiry into those Causes which misled the Priests and Sages of Antiquity). Soon after his death, was published his Life and Reign of Henry VIII, which is rather a panegyric on that prince, than a fair representation. The English style of lord Herbert is strong, manly, and free from the quaint pedantry of the age. A collection of his poems, published by his son, in 1665, displays little poetical merit. His entertaining memoirs, written by himself, remained in manuscript until first printed by lord Orford, at Strawberry-hill, in 1764. HERBERT, George, younger brother of the subject of the last article, was born at Montgomery castle, April 3, 1593, and received his education at Westminster school, and Trinity college, Cambridge. His talents attracted the notice of James I, but the death of his majesty, in 1625, put an end to his prospects of promotion, and, in conjunction with other motives, induced him to take orders in the church of England. In 1630, he took priest's orders, and was presented to the rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury, in Wiltshire. He died in 1633. His friend, Nicholas Ferrar, published, from Herbert's manuscript, The Temple: sacred Poems and private Ejaculations (Cambridge, 1663). The poetry of Herbert, in common with that of Donne and Cowley, is deformed by point and antithesis, and obscured by metaphysical allusion; but some of his minor pieces, in spite of their defects, are extremely beautiful, and may be said to bear the stamp of genius. His life, by Isaac Walton, has been often published.

HERCULANEUM, OF HERCULANUM, a city, 11,000 paces distant from Naples, was so completely buried by a stream of lava and a shower of ashes, in an eruption of mount Vesuvius, during the reign of Titus, A. D. 79, that the site of the city was no longer visible. The neighboring

Pompeii, on the river Sarno, one of the most populous and commercial cities of this coast, and Stabiæ, which stood on the site of the modern Gragnano, together with Oplontia and Teglanum, experienced the same fate. Earlier excavations were already forgotten, when three female statues (now in the Dresden museum) were found in digging a well, by the direction of prince Elbeuf, at Portici, a village situated on the spot of the ancient Herculaneum. After this discovery, farther excavation was prohibited by the government, and nothing more was thought of the matter till Charles, king of Spain, father of Ferdinand IV, having taken possession of the conquered Naples, chose Portici for his spring residence. Now (1738) the well was dug deeper, and traces of buildings were found. The theatre of Herculaneum was the first discovery. It is to be regretted that the ignorance of the superintendent, the Spanish engineer, Rocco Gioachino Alcubierre, was the cause of the loss of many fine remains. A Swiss engineer, Charles Weber, having received the superintendence of the work, a better method was adopted, and to this intelligent man, who was succeeded by the equally skilful La Vega, we are indebted for the arrangements which were afterwards made. In 1750, Stabiæ and Pompeii were explored. The latter place, being covered with ashes rather than lava, was more easily examined. Here were discovered the extensive ruins of an amphitheatre. In the cellar of a villa, 27 female skeletons were found near a door, and the impression of the breast of one of these unfortunate persons in a once soft and subsequently hardened mass of ashes. Ornaments for the neck and arms were lying around. Here, also, near the lower door of a villa, were found two skeletons, one of which held a key in one hand, and, in the other, a bag with coins and cameos. Near them were silver and bronze vessels. It was supposed that one was the master and the other the slave, and that they were suffocated, under the mass of ashes, while endeavoring to find the passage out. It is probable, however, that most of the inhabitants of this city had time to save themselves by flight. For the antiquary and archaeologist, antiquity seems here to revive, and awakens sensations which Schiller has so beautifully described in the poem Pompeii and Herculaneum. The ancient streets and buildings are again thrown open, and in them we see, as it were, the domestic life of the an

cients. We had never before had such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the disposition of the houses of the ancients, and with their utensils, These discoveries are especially important to literature and art, since a great treasure of manuscripts and works of art has been found. In 1759, 1696 papyrus rolls were discovered in a villa of the ancient Herculaneum. The expectations of the learned world from these literary treasures have not yet been fulfilled, since the work of examining the manuscripts has been carried on very slowly; but still it is of some importance that we have become better acquainted with the material of the ancient manuscripts, and perhaps the difficult business of unrolling these remains of ancient times will at length be rewarded with the discovery of some work of importance. The rolls were of a cylindrical form, and so much charred as to have the appearance of tobacco rolls. Antonio Piaggio invented a simple, but ingenious machine, to unroll the manuscripts, previously strengthened by goldbeater's skin, by means of silk threads at tached to their exterior edge. The uses of this machine were, however, very limited; and various other experiments on the manuscripts, which were for the most part not only reduced to a coal, but almost entirely dissolved by the moisture which had penetrated them, afforded no satisfactory results. According to an examination instituted by sir Humphrey Davy, in Naples, in 1819, 407 of the 1696 rolls had been unrolled, of which only 88 were found legible; 24 had been sent as presents to foreign princes, and, of the remaining 1265, only from 80 to 120 were in a state which promised any chance of success, according to the chemical method invented by him. (See Journal of the Royal Institution, April, 1819.) The authors of the works hitherto discovered are Epicurus, Philodemos, Demetrius, Polystratus, Colotes, Phædrus, Phanas. There have been published Herculanensium Voluminum que supersunt (tom. i. and ii, Naples, 1793-1809, folio); Dissertationes Isagogica ad Herculan. Voll. Explanationem (pars i, Naples, 1797). In 1824, the university of Oxford published Herculanensium Voll. Partes dua, containing fragments from the papyri at Oxford. It is to be regretted that the fourth book of Philodemos, upon music, which is printed, is only a worthless declamation on its uses. The second volume of the work first mentioned contains the natural philosophy of Epicurus. Scotti and Carlo

Rossini have been engaged in the interpretation and publication of these works. The knowledge of ancient art has gained more by the discoveries made here than literature. How many statues, bass-reliefs and other works of sculpture have been found in these buried cities! The paintings on the walls discovered here, among which are Andromeda and Perseus, Diana and Endymion, the education of Bacchus, and the celebrated Aldobrandine wedding (see Aldobrandini), are of particular importance, whether we consider their subjects or composition, the drawing or coloring. The portions of the wall which contained them have been cut out, and are preserved in the museum of Portici, in 16 apartments, under glass frames, and marked P,, E., or St., to indicate whether they were found in Pompeii, Herculaneum (called by the Italians Ercolano), or Stabiæ. The antiques discovered in these buried cities are represented in the great work, Le Antichità d'Ercolano (Naples, 1757), which, with the not very critical Catalogo degli Antichi Monumenti d'Ercolano, by Bayardi (1755), comprises 10 folio volumes. These paintings, and some discovered later, are represented in the six first volumes of this costly work (Con qualche Spiegazioni di Pasquale Carcani), of which there is also a cheaper edition, by David, in France. During the reign of Murat, the excavations were carried on with greater activity, and on a more systematic plan. Rossini, Scotti and Pasetti, at Naples, were engaged in unrolling and deciphering the Herculanean manuscripts, and some valuable literary remains of Grecian and Roman antiquity were more or less completely restored. The attempt of the German, Sickler, at London, in 1818, to unroll the manuscripts had not the expected success, the rolls being too much injured. The attempts of sir Humphrey, in 1820, were also unsuccessful. The excavations took place particularly in the ruins of Pompeii, and in the consular way leading from Pompeii to Naples. A part of the beautiful ceilings and floors of marble has been deposited in the galleries of the museum, others in the saloons of the drawing academy, for the study of the artists. The political events of the year 1815 interrupted the excavations. In February, 1816, king Ferdinand I ordered a continuation of the labor. The ruins were subsequently almost closed up.*

Since the commencement of 1823, the gov

ernment of Naples have caused excavations to be made. They have discovered the most splen

HERCULES (called by the Greeks Heracles and Alcides); the most celebrated hero of the mythological age of Greece, in whom poetry has presented a model of human perfection, according to the ideas of the heroic age, the highest bodily vigor, united with the finest qualities of mind and heart which entered into the conceptions of that period, and all devoted to the welfare of mankind. The hero is, indeed, a man, but the godlike portion of his nature is of divine origin. He is, therefore, the son of the king of the gods, by a mortal mother. His nature strives perpetually after divine excellence, but under the common conditions of humanity; that is, amid a ceaseless succession of labors and sacrifices. His indomitable perseverance gives him the victory. This victory shows us the triumph of the divine part of man's nature over the earthly. His death secures him immortality, and a seat among the gods. What story can be more interesting and instructive than that of Hercules, throughout of a moral tendency, under an allegorical veil, and presenting so clear a picture of human life, its alternations of fortunes, its struggles, its hopes and its prospects! No wonder, therefore, that it has afforded a favorite subject for poets and artists, and that his achievements have been multiplied without number or consistency. The birth of Hercules was at

did private house of the ancients that has ever been seen by modern eyes. The house has a suite of chambers, with a court in the centre. There is a separate part of the mansion allotted to the females, a garden, surrounded by arcades and columns, and also a grand saloon, which probably served for the meeting of the whole family. Another house, also discovered, was very remarkable, from the quantity and nature of the provisions in it, none of which have been disturbed for 18 centuries, for the doors remained fastened, in the same state as they were at the period of the catastrophe which buried Herculaneum. The family which occupied this mansion was, in all likelihood, when the disaster took place, laying in provisions for the winter. The provisions found in the store-rooms consist of dates, chest nuts, large walnuts, dried figs, almonds, prunes, corn, oil, peas, lentils, pies and hams. The internal arrangement of the house, the manner in which it was ornamented, all, in fact, announced that it had belonged to a very rich family, and to admirers of the arts; for there were discovered many pictures, representing Polyphemus and Galatea, Hercules and the three Hesperides, Cupid and a Bacchante, Mercury and Io, Perseus killing Medusa. There were also in the same house vases, articles in glass, bronze and terra cotta, as well as medallions in silver, representing in relief Apollo and Diana. The persons who direct the excavations have caused them to be continued in the same street, and they will, in regular order, search the shops and houses which border on each side, and also the lanes which branch off from it.

tended with many miraculous and supernatural events. Hercules was brought up at Tirynthus, or, according to Diodorus, at Thebes; and, before he had completed his eighth month, the jealousy of Juno, intent upon his destruction, sent two snakes to devour him. The child, not terrified at the sight of the serpents, boldly seized them in both his hands, and squeezed them to death, while his brother, Iphiclus, alarmed the house with his frightful shrieks. Jupiter sought to protect his favorite in every manner, and to make him worthy of immortality. Once, while Juno was slumbering, he laid the infant on her breast, that he might suck the milk of the goddess. She awoke, and cast from her the hated babe. Some drops of milk that fell from her formed the milky way. With the milk of the goddess, he imbibed immortality. He was early instructed in the liberal arts, and Castor, the son of Tyndarus, taught him how to fight, Eurytus how to shoot with a bow and arrows, Autolycus to drive a chariot, Linus to play on the lyre, and Eumolpus to sing. He, like the rest of his illustrious contemporaries, soon after, became the pupil of the Centaur Chiron, and under him he perfected himself, and became the most valiant and accomplished hero of the age. When he had completed the years of boyhood, he retired into a solitary district, and stood at the meeting of two ways, reflecting on his fate. Two lovely female figures approached, and one (Pleasure) invited him to follow her flowery path; the other (Virtue) invited him to choose a course full of labor and self-control, but crowned with honor and immortality. The suit of Vir tue prevailed, and Hercules resolved to pursue her guidance without shrinking. In the 18th year of his age, he resolved to deliver the neighborhood of mount Citharon from a huge lion, which preyed on the flocks of Amphitryon, his supposed father, and which laid waste the adjacent country. He went to the court of Thespius, king of Thespis, who shared in the general calamity, and was entertained there during 50 days. The 50 daughters of the king became mothers by Hercules, during his stay at Thespis. After he had destroyed the lion of mount Citharon, he delivered his country from the annual tribute of a hundred oxen, which it paid to Erginus. Such public services became universally known, and Creon, who then sat on the throne of Thebes, rewarded the patriotic deeds of Hercules by giving him his daughter in marriage, and intrusting him with the government of his kingdom.

As Hercules, by the will of Jupiter, was subjected to the power of Eurystheus, and obliged to obey him in every respect, Eurystheus, acquainted with his successes and rising power, ordered him to appear at Mycenae, and perform the labors which, by priority of birth, he was empowered to impose upon him. Hercules refused, and Juno, to punish his disobedience, rendered him so delirious that he killed his own children by Megara, supposing them to be the offspring of Eurystheus. (See Megara.) When he recovered the use of his senses, he was so struck with the misfortunes which had proceeded from his insanity, that he concealed himself, and retired from the society of men for some time. He afterwards consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told that he must be subservient, for twelve years, to the will of Eurystheus, in compliance to the commands of Jupiter; and that, after he had achieved the most celebrated labors, he should be reckoned in the number of the gods. So plain and expressive an answer determined him to go to Mycenae, and to bear with fortitude whatever gods or men imposed upon him. Eurystheus, seeing so great a man totally subjected to him, and apprehensive of so powerful an enemy, commanded him to achieve a number of enterprises the most difficult and arduous ever known, generally called the twelve labors of Hercules. The favors of the gods had completely armed him when he undertook his labors. He had received a coat of arms and helmet from Minerva, a sword from Mercury, a horse from Neptune, a shield from Jupiter, a bow and arrows from Apollo, and from Vulcan a golden cuirass and brazen buskin, with a celebrated club of brass, according to the opinion of some writers. The first labor imposed upon Hercules by Eurystheus was to kill the lion of Nemea, which ravaged the country near Mycenae. The hero, unable to destroy him with his arrows, boldly attacked him with his club, pursued him to his den, and, after a close and sharp engagement, he choked him to death. He carried the dead beast on his shoulders to Mycenae, and ever after clothed himself with the skin. Eurystheus was so astonished at the sight of the beast, and at the courage of Hercules, that he ordered him never to enter the gates of the city when he returned from his expeditions, but to wait for his orders without the walls. He even made himself a brazen vessel, into which he retired whenever Hercules returned. The second labor of Hercules was to destroy the Lernæan hy

dra, which had seven heads, according to Apollodorus, 50 according to Simonides, and 100 according to Diodorus. This celebrated monster he attacked with his arrows; and soon after he came to a close engagement, and, by means of his heavy club, he destroyed the heads of his enemy; but this was productive of no advantage, for, as soon as one head was beaten to pieces by the club, immediately two sprang up; and the labor of Hercules would have remained unfinished, had not he commanded his friend, Iolas, to burn with a hot iron the root of the head which he had crushed to pieces. This succeeded (see Hydra), and Hercules became victorious, opened the belly of the monster, and dipped his arrows in the gall, to render the wounds which he gave fatal and incurable. He was ordered, in his third labor, to bring, alive and unhurt, into the presence of Eurystheus, a stag famous for its incredible swiftness, its golden horns and brazen feet. This celebrated animal frequented the neighborhood of Enoe, and Hercules was employed, for a whole year, in continually pursuing it, and at last caught it in a trap, or when tired, or, according to others, by slightly wounding it and lessening its swiftness. As he returned victorious, Diana snatched the goat from him, and severely reprimanded him for molesting an animal which was sacred to her. Hercules pleaded necessity, and, by representing the commands of Eurystheus, he appeased the goddess, and obtained the beast. The fourth labor was to bring alive to Eurystheus a wild boar, which ravaged the neighborhood of Erymanthus. In this expedition he destroyed the Centaurs (see Centaur), and caught the boar by closely pursuing him through the deep snow. Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of the boar, that, according to Diodorus, he hid himself in his brazen vessel for some days. In his fifth labor, Hercules was ordered to clean the stables of Augeas, where 3000 oxen had been confined for many years. (See Augeas.) For his sixth labor, he was ordered to kill the carnivorous birds which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis, in Arcadia. (See Stymphalis.) In his seventh labor, he brought alive into Peloponnesus a prodigious wild bull, which laid waste the island of Crete. In his eighth labor, he was employed in obtaining the mares of Diomedes, which fed upon human flesh. He killed Diomedes, and gave him to be eaten by his mares, which he brought to Eurystheus. They were sent to mount Olympus by the king of Mycenae, where