Hellawes
A sorceress, Lady of the Castle Nigramous. She attempted to win the love of Lancelot, but being unable to do so, she perished.
Hellenbach, Baron: (See Germany.) Helmont, John Baptista van, must be ranked as one of the pioneers of science by reason of his experimental researches, his acute judgment, his penetrating attitude of mind leading him to say Names do not trouble me, I contemplate the thing in itself as near as I can," and his untiring search for the truth, not for personal aggrandizement or power, but in the service of progress and for the good of mankind. He was born of a noble family in the year 1557 at Bois-le-Duc in Brabant. Studying at Louvain, he early attained distinction in the science of mathematics, lecturing on physics at the age of seventeen. Before he was twenty-two he had read Hippocrates and the Greek and Arabian authors and become eminent in the doctrines of Aristotle and Galen and the practice of medicine according to Vopiscus and Plempius. In the year 1599 he took his degree of doctor of medicine. After this some years were spent in the practice of physic, but meeting a follower of Paracelsus he became interested in his theories of chemical medicine to such a degree that he retired to the castle of Vilvord, near Brussels, to spend the rest of his life in the study of experimental chemistry on which he wrote various treatises, becoming famous throughout Europe for his scientific knowledge. He revolutionized medicine as known in his day, turning aside from the theories of Galen and the Arabs, and created an epoch in the history of physiology, being the first to recognize the functions of the stomach and its relation to the other organs of the body. His many and varied experiments led him to deal with aerial fluids, to which he gave the name of gas-carbonic acid gas being his discovery -and it is said that without him the chemistry of steel in all probability would have been unknown to science. The writings of van Helmont contain many truths, foreshadowings of ideas and principles now accepted as indispensable commonplaces, though these almost of necessity are hidden under much of the incomprehensible beliefs and illusions prevalent in his time. Alchemy, with its visions of the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone represented to him another field for experiment and research and though he never pretended to the art of making the transmuting powder, he testified his belief in the transmutation of metals, having seen the experiment performed many times. Among other things he became a firm believer in Mineral and Human Magnetism, anticipating Mesmer in almost the very terms of the later exponent of the theory and basing his argument on the well-known facts of the sympathy or antagonism spontaneously arising between individuals and the influence exerted by a firm will over a weak imagination. To the last he declined to leave his retirement, though his fame brought him flattering invitations and offers from the Emperor and Elector Palatine. Almost unknown to his neighbours he yet attended any stricken by illness without accepting any fees for his services. He lived to the age of sixty-seven, dying at his castle of Vilvord in 1624.
Helvetius, John Frederick : A physician of the Hague who in 1667 published a work concerning a strange adventure of his life in which he claimed to have taken part in a veritable act of metallic transmutation by alchemical processes. The book was translated into English and published at London 1670 under the title Of a Transmutation. As it is one of the few exact descriptions of such an experiment, it has been thought well to append the passage recounting it in full, as follows :- "
On the 27th December, 1666, in the afternoon, a stranger, in a plain, rustic dress, came to my house at the Hague. His manner of address was honest, grave authoritative; his stature was low, with a long face and hair black, his chin smooth. He seemed like a native of the north of Scotland, and I guessed he was about fortyfour years old. After saluting me he requested me most respectfully to pardon his rude intrusion, but that his love of the pyrotechnic art made him visit me. Having read some of my small treatises, particularly that against the sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby and observed therein my doubt of the Hermetic mystery, it caused him to request this interview. He asked me if I still thought there was no medicine in Nature which could cure all diseases, unless the principal parts, as the lungs, liver, etc. were perished, or the time of death were come. To which I replied I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though I read of much of it and often wished for it. Then I asked if he was a physician. He said he was a founder of brass, yet from his youth learned many rare things in chemistry, particularly of a friend-the manner to extract out of metals many medicinal arcana by the use of fire. After discoursing of experiments in metals, he asked me, would I know the philosophers' stone if I saw it? I answered, I would not, though I read much of it in Paracelsus, Helmont, Basil, and others, yet I dare not say I could know the philosophers' matter. In the interim he drew from his breast pocket a neat ivory box, and out of it took three ponderous lumps of the stone, each about the size of a small walnut. They were transparent and of a pale brimstone colour, whereto some scales of the crucible adhered when this most noble substance was melted. The value of it I since calculated was twenty tons weight of gold. When I had greedily examined and handled the stone almost a quarter of an hour, and heard from the owner many rare secrets of its admirable effects in human and metallic bodies, also its other wonderful properties, I returned him this treasure of treasures, truly with a most sorrowful mind, like those who conquer themselves, yet, as was just, very thankfully and humbly. I further desired to know why the colour was yellow, and not red, ruby colour, or purple, as the philosophers write. He answered Helvetius 66 that was nothing, for the matter was mature and ripe enough. Then I humbly requested him to bestow a little piece of the medicine on me, in perpetual memory of him, though but of the size of a coriander or hemp seed. He presently answered, "Oh no, this is not lawful, though thou wouldst give me as many ducats in gold as would fill this room, not for the value of the metal, but for some particular consequences. Nay, if it were possible," said he, that fire could be burnt by fire, I would rather at this instant cast all this substance into the fiercest flames." He then demanded if I had a more private chamber, as this was seen from the public street. I presently conducted him into the best furnished room backward, not doubting but he would bestow part thereof or some great treasure on me. He entered without wiping his shoes, although they were full of snow and dirt. He asked me for a little piece of gold, and, pulling off his cloak, opened his vest, under which he had five pieces of gold. They were hanging to a green silk ribbon, and were of the size of breakfast plates. This gold so far excelled mine that there was no comparison for flexibility and colour. The inscriptions engraven upon them he granted me to write out; they were pious thanksgivings to God, dated 20th August, 1666, with the characters of the Sun, Mercury, the Moon, and the signs of Leo and Libra. 66 "
I was in great admiration, and desired to know where and how he obtained them. He answered, "A foreigner, who dwelt some days in my house, said he was a lover of this science, and came to reveal it to me. He taught me various arts-first, of ordinary stones and chrystals, to make rubies, chrysolites, sapphires, etc., much more valuable than those of the mine; and how in a quarter of an hour to make oxide of iron, one dose of which would infallibly cure the pestilential dysentery, or bloody flux; also how to make a metallic liquor to cure all kinds of dropsies, most certainly and in four days; as also a limpid, clear water, sweeter than honey, by which in two hours of itself, in hot sand, it would extract the tincture of garnets, corals, glasses, and such like." He said more, which I Helvetius, did not observe, my mind being occupied to understand how a noble juice could be drawn out of minerals to transmute metals. He told me his said master caused him to bring a glass of rain-water, and to put some silver leaf into it, which was dissolved therein within a quarter of an hour, like ice when heated. Presently he drank to me the half, and I pledged him the other half, which had not so much taste as sweet milk, but whereby, methought, I became very light-headed. I thereupon asked if this were a philosophical drink, and wherefore we drank this potion; but he replied, I ought not to be so curious." By the said master's directions, a piece of a leaden pipe being melted, he took a little sulphureous powder out of his pocket, put a little of it on the point of a knife into the melted lead, and after a great blast of the bellows, in a short time he poured it on the red stones of the kitchen chimney. It proved most excellent pure gold, which the stranger said brought him into such trembling amazement that he could hardly speak; but his master encouraged him saying, "Cut for thyself the sixteenth part of this as a memorial and give the rest away among the poor," which the stranger did, distributing this alms, as he affirmed if my memory fail not, at the Church of Sparenda. "At last," said he, the generous foreigner taught me thoroughly this divine art." "
As soon as his relation was finished, I asked my visitor to show me the effect of transmutation and so confirm my faith; but he declined it for that time in such a discreet manner that I was satisfied, he promising to come again in three weeks, to show me some curious arts in the fire, provided it were then lawful without prohibition. At the three weeks end he came, and invited me abroad for an hour or too. In our walk we discoursed of Nature's secrets, but he was very silent on the subject of the great elixir gravely asserted that it was only to magnify the sweet fame and mercy of the most glorious God; that few men endeavoured to serve Him, and this he expressed as a pastor or minister of a church; but I recalled his attention, entreating him to show me the metallic mystery, desiring also that he would eat, drink, and lodge at my house, which I pressed, but he was of so fixed a determination that all my endeavours were frustrated. I could not forbear to tell him that I had a laboratory ready for an experiment, and that a promised favour was a kind of debt.
Yes, true," said he, " but I promised to teach thee at my return, with this proviso, if it were not forbidden." 66 66 "
When I perceived that all this was in vain, I earnestly requested a small crumb of his powder, sufficient to transmute a few grains of lead to gold, and at last, out of his philosophical commiseration, he gave me as much as a turnip seed in size, saying, "Receive this small parcel of the greatest treasure of the world, which truly few kings or princes have ever seen or known." But," I said, "this perhaps will not transmute four grains of lead," whereupon he bid me deliver it back to him, which, in hopes of a greater parcel, I did, but he, cutting half off with his nail, flung it into the fire, and gave me the rest wrapped neatly up in blue paper, saying, "It is yet sufficient for thee." I answered him, indeed with a most dejected countenance, "Sir, what means this? The other being too little, you give me now less." He told me to put into the crucible half an ounce of lead, for there ought to be no more lead put in than the medicine can transmute. I gave him great thanks for my diminished treasure, concentrated truly in the superlative degree, and put it charily up into my little box, saying I meant to try it the next day, nor would I reveal it to any. 'Not so, not so,' said he, 'for we ought to divulge all things to the children of art which may tend alone to the honour of God, that so they may live in the theosophical truth.' I now made a confession to him, that while the mass of his medicine was in my hands, I endeavoured to scrape away a little of it with my nail, and could not forbear; but scratched off so very little, that, it being picked from my nail, wrapped in a paper, and projected on melted lead, I found no transmutation, but almost the whole mass sublimed, while the remainder was a glassy earth. At this unexpected account he immediately said, "You are more dexterous to commit theft than to apply the medicine, for if you had only wrapped up the stolen prey in yellow wax, to preserve it from the fumes of the lead, it would have sunk to the bottom, and transmuted it to gold; but having cast it into the fumes, the violence of the vapour, partly by its sympathetic alliance, carried the medicine quite away. I brought him the crucible, and he perceived a most beautiful saffron-like tincture sticking to the sides. He promised to come next morning at nine o'clock, to show me that this tincture would transmute the lead into gold. Having taken his leave, I impatiently awaited his return, but the next day he came not, nor ever since. He sent an excuse at half-past nine that morning, and promised to come at three in the afternoon, but I never heard of him since. I soon began to doubt the whole matter. Late that night my wife, who was a most curious student and inquirer after the art, came soliciting me to make an experiment of that little grain of the stone, to be assured of the truth. 'Unless this be done,' said she, 'I shall have no rest or sleep this night.' She being so earnest, I commanded a fire to be made, saying to myself, ' I fear, I fear indeed, this man hath deluded me.' My wife wrapped the said matter in wax, and I cut half an ounce of lead, and put it into a Hermes crucible in the fire. Being melted, my wife put in the medicine, made into a small pill with the wax, which presently made a hissing noise, and in a quarter of an hour the mass of lead was totally transmuted into the best and finest gold, which amaxed us exceedingly. We could not sufficiently gaze upon this admirable and miraculous work of nature, for the melted lead, after projection, showed on the fire the rarest and most beautiful colours imaginable, settling in green, and when poured forth into an ingot, it had the lively fresh colour of blood. When cold it shined as the purest and most splendid gold. Truly all those who were standing about me were exceedingly startled, and I ran with this aurified lead, being yet hot, to the goldsmith, who wondered at the fineness, and after a short trial by the test, said it was the most excellent gold in the world. "The next day a rumour of this prodigy went about the Hague and spread abroad, so that many illustrious and learned persons gave me their friendly visits for its sake. Amongst the rest, the general Assay-master, examiner of coins of this province of Holland, Mr. Porelius, who with others earnestly besought me to pass some part of the gold through all their customary trials, which I did, to gratify my own curiosity. We went to Mr. Brectel, a silversmith, who first mixed four parts of silver with one part of the gold, then he filled it, put aquafortis to it, dissolved the silver, and let the gold precipitate to the bottom; the solution being poured off and the calx of gold washed with water, then reduced and melted, it appeared excellent gold, and instead of a loss in weight, we found the gold was increased, and had transmuted a scruple of the silver into gold by its abounding tincture. ،،
Doubting whether the silver was now sufficiently separated from the gold, we mingled it with seven parts of antimony, which we melted and poured out into a cone, and blew off the regulus on a test, where we missed eight grains of our gold; but after we blew away the red of the antimony, or superfluous scoria, we found nine grains of gold for our eight grains missing, yet it was pale and silverlike but recovered its full colour afterwards, so that in the best proof of fire we lost nothing at all of this gold, but gained, as aforesaid. These tests I repeated four times and found it still alike, and the silver remaining out of the acquafortis was of the very best flexible silver that could be, so that in the total the said medicine or elixir had transmuted six drams and two scruples of the lead and silver into most pure gold."
Henry III. of France: (See France.) Hereburge, Frankish title for a witch: (See France.) Hermes Trismegistus ("the thrice greatest Hermes"): The name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, the god of wisdom, learning and literature. Thoth is alluded to in later Egyptian writings as "twice very great" and even as "five times very great" in some demotic or popular scripts. (ca. third century B.C.) To him was attributed as "scribe of the gods" the authorship of all sacred books which were thus called " Hermetic" by the Greeks. These, according to Clemens Alexandrinus were forty-two in number and were sub-divided into six portions, of which the first dealt with priestly education, the second with temple ritual and the third with geographical matter. The fourth division treated of astrology, the fifth of hymns in honour of the gods and a text-qook for the guidance of Kings, while the sixth was medical. It is unlikely that these books were all the work of one individual, and it is more probable that they represent the accumulated wisdom of Egypt, attributed in the course of ages to the great god of wisdom.
As "scribe of the gods" Thoth was also the author of all strictly sacred writing. Hence by a convenient fiction the name of Hermes was placed at the head of an extensive 66 66 cycle of mystic literature, produced in post-Christian times. Most of this Hermetic or Trismegistic literature has perished, but all that remains of it has been gathered and translated into English. It includes the Poimandres," the "Perfect Sermon," or the Asclepius," excerpts by Stobacus, and fragments from the Church Fathers and from the philosophers, Zosimus and Fulgentius. Hitherto these writings have been neglected by theologians, who have dismissed them as the offspring of third century Neo- Platonism. According to the generally accepted view, they were eclectic compilations, combining Neo-Platonic philosophy, Philonic Judaism and Kabalistic theosophy in an attempt to supply a philosophic substitute for, Christianity. The many Christian elements to be found in these mystic scriptures were ascribed to plagiarism. By an examination of early mystery writings and traditions it has been proved with some degree of certainty that the main source of the Trismegistic Tractates is the wisdom of Egypt, and that they go back in an unbroken tradition of type and form and context to the earliest Ptolemaic times." 66 66 The Poimandres," on which all later Trismegistic literature is based, must, at least in its original form, be placed not later than the first century. The charge of plagiarism from Christian writings, therefore, falls to the ground. If it can be proved that the "Poimandres " belongs to the first century, we have in it a valuable document in determining the environment and development of Christian origins.
Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author of "Thrice Greatest Hermes" says in a illuminating passage :- "The more one studies the best of these mystical sermons, casting aside all prejudices, and trying to feel and think with the writers, the more one is conscious of approaching the threshold of what may well be believed to have been the true adytum of the best in the mystery traditions of antiquity. Innumerable are the hints of the greatnesses and immensities lying beyond that threshold-among other precious things the vision of the key to Egypt's wisdom, the interpretation of apocalypsis by the light of the sun-clear epopteia of the intelligible cosmos."