Hepatica
a lowly, modest plant of the buttercup family, closely allied to the anemone. In northeastern United States the hepatica is the earliest flower to bloom in the woodlands. Its flowers vary from white and pink to purple. The leaf is three-lobed. While the snow still lies deep in the sugar camp hepaticas may be found on the brow of a ravine exposed to the southern sun. A few days later others may be found snuggled up to the south side of a huge stump. Hepaticas do well in a shady, rich corner of a garden, if they can have plenty of loam from the woods.
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Hephaestus
he-fes'tus, in Greek mythology, the god of fire and of all artists who worked in iron and metals. He is identified with the Roman Vulcan. See Vulcan
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Heptarchy
the name sometimes applied to the seven kingdoms supposed to have been established by the Saxons in England. This is understood to mean only that the chief kingdoms at various periods from the 5th to the 9th century were Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumberland.
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Hera
he'ra, in Greek mythology, a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and the sister and wife of Zeus. She corresponds to the Roman Juno. The name Hera means the "chosen one." She was the type of a faithful wife and mother, and was treated with reverence by the other gods, Zeus himself respecting her counsels, although she must obey him unquestioningly. She was jealous, but with excellent reason, for her husband was often faithless. The disposition ascribed to Hera by Greek writers is much that of a modern termagant. When she became too obstinate and quarrelsome Zeus punished her. Once he hung her up in the clouds with her hands bound and anvils tied to her feet. Later writers give Hera the character of queen of heaven, second in power to Zeus only. Hera aided the Greeks in the Trojan war, because Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, gave the golden apple inscribed "for the fairest," not to her, but to her beautiful rival Aphrodite. In art, Hera is represented as a majestic woman, wearing a diadem and clad in flowing drapery. In her right hand she holds a sceptre. The Graces and the Hours were here handmaids, and Iris, the rainbow, was her messenger.
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Heraclitus
A celebrated Greek philosopher of Ephesus, who lived about 500 years before the Christian era. He received the appellation of the Obscure Philosopher and the Mourner, from his custom of weeping at the follies and frailties of human life.
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Herat
a city of Afghanistan, and capital of an independent state; in a plain near the Herirood river, 360 miles W. by N. of Kabul. It is well fortified, and surrounded by a wet ditch, mound, and bastioned wall. It contains a number of caravanseries, public baths, reservoirs, and numerous mosques, besides a strong citadel. Herat is the emporium of the commerce carried on between Kabul and Bokhara, Hindustan, and Persia, and is a grand central mart for the products of India, China, Tartary, Afghanistan, and Persia. The local manufactures include carpets, leather, caps, cloaks, shoes, etc. This place has often been ravaged by various conquerors disputing the empire of Asia. The position of Herat is one of the greatest possible importance, and has been well described as the "Gate of India"; for within the limits of the Heratee country all the great roads leading to India converge. By the Herat route alone could a formidable and well-equipped army march upon the Indian frontier from the N. W. regions. Pop. about 20,000. See AFGHANISTAN.
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Herb
erb, a plant that dies to the ground each season. Herbs are annuals, biennials, or perennials. Annuals die root and branch on the approach of winter. Corn, wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, pigweed, foxtail, peas, and beans are annuals. Carrots, onions, cabbage, and mullein, if planted from the seed, grow a root or bulb or root-stock one season, die down to the ground, and produce seed the second season. They are biennials. In their native countries the roots live over winter in the ground. Perennial herbs make underground arrangements each season for spring growth, and die down to the ground. Timothy, Kentucky blue grass , strawberries, hollyhocks, tansy, nearly all wild sunflowers, asters, goldenrod, and water lilies are perennial herbs. Theoretically the clump of a perennial plant will grow year after year in the same spot to the end of time.
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Herbart, Johann Friedrich
Johann Friedrich (1776-1841), a distinguished German psychologist. He was a student of Fichte at Jena and became a professor in the universities of Konigsberg and Gottingen. His psychological lectures and writings are celebrated for their application to educational questions. Students of his theory are known as Herbartians. Among other doctrines emphasized by him that now seem but common sense is that of interest, namely, that a child can learn to best advantage when interested in a subject.
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Herbert
GEORGE, an English poet, brother of Lord Herbert of Cherbury; born in 1593. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1619 till 1627 he was university orator. The death of James I. in 1625 put an end to his prospects of civil promotion, and in the same year he took orders, and became a prebendary in the diocese of Lincoln. În 1630 he took priest's orders, and was presented to the rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury, in Wiltshire. His collection of religious poems, "The Temple," was published in 1631 and the "Jacula Prudentum," a collection of proverbs, in 1640. His chief prose work was "The Country Parson" (1652). He died in 1633.
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Herder, Johann Gottfried
Johann Gottfried (1744-1803), a German poet, critic, and thinker. He was the son of a poor schoolmaster. He worked his way through the University of Konigsberg. He held various positions as a tutor, teacher, and pastor. Through the influence of Goethe he was invited to accept a position as court preacher at Weimar. He was a man of profound thought and intense patriotism,--one who had a wondrous quickening influence on those whom he met. He lived at a time when Germans looked up to France in literature as well as in politics. He was one of a small group of men who succeeded in making the Germans believe for the first time that they had as much mental ability as the French. He wrote poems and essays. He criticised the literary productions of his day, showing his countrymen that what was written in imitation of French writers was worthless, and the really good bits of literature that had appeared treated German subjects in a German way. His masterpiece is considered Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind. The Stuttgart edition of his complete works runs into sixty volumes. His is one of the great names in the history of German thought, not so much for felicity of expression, for his writing is faulty and awkward, as for his influence on younger men. Even Goethe said that the very sight of Herder's handwriting set him on to be up and doing.
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