although he had previously refused two offers of the kind, accepted that of Christian VII. king of Denmark, to observe the transit in an island in the Frozen Ocean, near Wardoehuus, at the Northern extremity of Europe. Having set out in April 1768, with J. Sajnovies, a member of the same order, as his assistant, he arrived at the place of his destination October 11. He now constructed an observatory, and began his observations, which extended to a great many other phænomena than that which was the chief object of his journey; but in this last he was successful beyond all expectation, the serenity of the sky being so much in his favour. As the results, however, of the astronomers sent out to different parts to make their observations, did not agree, Hell was involved in a literary contest, particularly with Lalande.

In June 1769 he set out on his return, and arrived safely at Copenhagen, where he was honoured with every mark of respect by the king, and he and his assistant were admitted members of the academies of Copenhagen, Drontheim, and Norway. During his residence at Copenhagen, which lasted seven months, he communicated, besides other things, to the academy of sciences, the observations he had made of the transit, which were published, and afterwards reprinted in the Ephemerides for 1771. In May 1770 he returned to Vienna, and collected and arranged the fruits of his journey, which he meant to publish under the title of " Expeditio literaria ad Polum Arcticum;" but the suppression of the order of the Jesuits, which gave him great concern, and the dispersion of some of his literary coadjutors, are supposed to have prevented him from completing this undertaking. He was also unsuccessful in endeavouring to establish an academy of sciences, which, according to his plan, was to be under the direction of the Jesuits. He superintended, however, the building of a new observatory at Erlau, in Hungary, at the expence of the bishop, count Charles of Esterhazy, and undertook two journeys thither to direct the operations, and to arrange a valuable collection of instruments which had been sent to him from England. In the mouth of March 1792, he was attacked by an inflammation of the lungs, which producing a suppuration, put an end to his life in a few weeks. He is to be ranked with those who have rendered essential service to the science of astronomy. The "Ephemerides Astronomicæ ad meridianum Vindobonensem," begun in 1767, and continued till his death, forms a valuable astronomical calendar, which contains a great many interesting papers. In other branches of knowledge, and particularly theology, he was a firm adherent to the principles he had been taught in his youth, and which he strenuously defended. He always entertained hopes of the revival of the order of the Jesuits. He possessed a benevolent heart, and was always ready to assist the distressed; in particular he endeavoured to relieve the sufferings of the poor, and with this noble view expended almost the whole of his property.1

HELLANICUS, of Mitylene, was an ancient Greek historian, born in the year A. C. 496, twelve years before the birth of Herodotus. He wrote a history of "the earliest Kings of various Nations, and the Founders of Cities;" which is mentioned by several ancient authors, but is not extant. He lived to the age of eighty-five. There was another Hellanicus of much later times, who was a Milesian, but very little is known of either."

HELLOT (JOHN), a French chemist, was born in 1686, and destined by his friends for the profession of theology, but the accidentally meeting with a book of chemistry, determined him to make that science the principal pursuit of his life. From 1718 to 1732, he was employed as the compiler of the "Gazette de France." He translated Schlutter's work on the "Fusions of Ores, and on Founderies," and published it in 1750-1753, 2 vols. 4to, with his own notes and remarks. He published a work, entitled "L'Art de la Teinture des Laines et Etoffes de Laines," 1750, 12mo, which is reckoned a very valuable treatise, and is the first in which chemical principles are applied to the practice of the art. He furnished many articles to thể "Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences," and some to the royal society of London, of which he was elected a fellow in 1740. He died at Paris in 1766.

HELMICH (WERNER), a Dutch protestant divine, and one of the early promoters of the reformed religion in that country, was born at Utrecht in 1551. He had attained so much reputation with his fellow citizens, that in 1579 they unanimously chose him their pastor. The same year, as all obstacles to the establishment of the reformation were not yet overcome, they appointed him one of a deputation sent to our queen Elizabeth, to request that in the treaty of peace with Spain, she should stipulate for the free exercise of the protestant religion in the United Provinces. In 1582, he was the first who preached that religion openly in the cathedral of Utrecht, notwithstanding the opposition given by the chapter. He afterwards refused the theological chair in the university of Leyden, but accepted the pastoral office at Amsterdam in 1602, which he held until his death, Aug. 29, 1608. All his contemporaries, the protestant divines, speak highly of his talents, character, and services. He did not write much; except an "Analysis of the Psalms," printed after his death, at Amst. 1641, 4to, and a controversial work against Coster the Jesuit, entitled "Gladius Goliathi," much commended by Voetius.1

HELMONT (JOHN BAPTIST VAN), commonly called Van Helmont, from a borough and castle of that name in Brabant, was a person of quality, and a man of great learning, especially in physic and natural philosophy; and born at Brussels in 1577. The particulars of his life, as given in the two introductory chapters to his works, give a just notion of the man.

"In the year 1580," says he, "a most miserable one to the Low Countries, my father died. I, the youngest and least esteemed of all my brothers and sisters, was bred a scholar; and in the year 1594, which was to me the 17th, had finished the course of philosophy. Upon seeing none admitted to examinations at Louvain, but in a gown, and masked with a hood, as though the garment did promise learning, I began to perceive, that the taking degrees in arts was a piece of mere mockery; and wondered at the simplicity of young men, in fancying that they had learned any thing from their doting professors. I entered, therefore, into a serious and honest examination of myself, that I might know by my own judgment, how much I was a philosopher, and whether I had really acquired truth and knowledge: but found myself altogether destitute, save that I had learned to wrangle artificially. Then came I first to perceive, that I knew nothing, or at least that which was not worth knowing. Natural philosophy seemed to promise something of knowledge, to which therefore I joined the study of astronomy. I applied myself also to logic and the mathematics, by way of recreation, when I was wearied with other studies; and made myself a master of Euclid's Elements, as I did also of Copernicus's theory 'De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium:' but all these things were of no account with me, because they contained little truth and certainty, little but a parade of science falsely so called. Finding after all, therefore, that nothing was sound, nothing true, I refused the title of master of arts, though I had finished my course; unwilling, that professors should play the fool with me, in declaring me a master of the seven arts, when I was conscious to myself that I knew nothing.

"A wealthy canonry was promised me then, so that I might, if I pleased, turn myself to divinity; but saint Bernard affrighted me from it, saying, that 'I should eat the sins of the people.' I begged therefore of the Lord Jesus, that he would vouchsafe to call me to that profession in which I might please him most. The Jesuits began at that time to teach philosophy at Louvain, and one of the professors expounded the disquisitions and secrets of magic. Both these lectures I greedily received; but instead of grain, I reaped only stubble, and fantastic conceits void of sense. In the mean time, lest an hour should pass without some benefit, I run through some writings of the stoics, those of Seneca, and especially of Epictetus, who pleased me exceedingly. I seemed, in moral philosophy, to have found the quintessence of truth, and did verily believe, that through stoicism I advanced in Christian perfection; but I discovered afterwards in a dream, that stoicism was an empty and swollen bubble, and that by this study, under the appearance of moderation, I became, indeed, most self-sufficient and haughty. Lastly, I turned over Mathiolus and Dioscorides; thinking with myself nothing equally necessary for mortal man to know and admire, as the wisdom and goodness of God in vegetables; to the end that he might not only crop the fruit for food, but also minister of the same to his other necessities. My curiosity being now raised upon this branch of study, I inquired, whether there were any book, which delivered the maxims and rule of medicine? for I then supposed, that medicine was not altogether a mere gift, but might be taught, and delivered by discipline, like other arts and sciences: at least I thought, if medicine was a good gift coming down from the Father of lights, that it might have,

I in

as an human science, its theorems and authors, into whom, as into Bazaleel and Aholiab, the spirit of the Lord had infused the knowledge of all diseases and their causes, and also the knowledge of the properties of things. quired, I say, whether no writer had described the qualities, properties, applications, and proportions of vegetables, from the hyssop even to the cedar of Libanus? A certain professor of medicine answered me, that none of these things were to be looked for either in Galen or Avicen. I was very ready to believe this, from the many fruitless searches I had made in books for truth and knowledge before; however, following my natural bent, which lay to the study of nature, I read the institutions of Fuchsius and Fernelius; in whom I knew I had surveyed the whole science of medicine, as it were in an epitome. Is this, said I, smiling to myself, the knowledge of healing? Is the whole history of natural properties thus shut up in elementary qualities? Therefore I read the works of Galen twice; of Hippocrates once, whose aphorisms I almost got by heart; all Avicen, as well as the Greeks, Arabians, and moderns, to the tune of 600 authors. I read them seriously and attentively through; and took down, as I went along, whatever seemed curious and worthy of attention; when at length, reading over my common-place book, I was grieved at the pains I had bestowed, and the years I had spent, in throwing together such a mass of stuff. Therefore I straightway left off all books whatever, all formal discourses, and empty promises of the schools; firınly believing every good and perfect gift to come down from the Father of lights, more particularly that of me

dicine.

"I have attentively surveyed some foreign nations; but I found the same sluggishness, in implicitly following the steps of their forefathers, and ignorance among them all. I then became persuaded, that the art of healing was a mere imposture, originally set on foot by the Greeks for filthy lucre's sake; till afterwards the Holy Scriptures informed me better. I considered, that the plague, which then raged at Louvain, was a most miserable disease, in which every one forsook the sick; and faithless helpers, distrustful of their own art, fled more swiftly than the unlearned common people, and homely pretenders to cure it. I proposed to myself to dedicate one salutation to the miserable infected; and although then no medicine was made