Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/363

Heber elegant and perspicuous, and his matter sensible and in good taste. But his verse is wanting in the ‘divine afflatus,’ and his prose in strength and massiveness. His boyish poem on ‘Palestine,’ although the most popular work of its kind, is not a great poem. In 1811 he published the first specimens of his hymns in the ‘Christian Observer.’ The collection was one of the first attempts to write systematically a set of hymns adapted to the Christian seasons; and some of the hymns, notably those for St. Stephen's day, for the Epiphany, for the sixth Sunday in Lent, and for Trinity Sunday, are still deservedly popular. The best known of all, ‘From Greenland's icy mountains,’ was written, while he was on a visit to his father-in-law, for a service at Wrexham Church, where his father-in-law was to preach in behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1812 he published a single volume of poetry. His prose works include his Bampton lectures, preached in 1815 and published in 1816, on ‘The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter,’ and ‘A Life of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, and a Critical Examination of his Writings,’ written in 1822 for a new edition of Bishop Taylor's works, and afterwards published separately in two small volumes. After his death were published ‘Sermons preached in England’ (1829), and ‘Sermons preached in India’ (1830), both edited by his widow, aided by Sir Robert H. Inglis; his ‘Journey through India from Calcutta to Bombay, with Notes upon Ceylon, and a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces,’ 1828 (2 vols. 4to; and again, 3 vols. 8vo); 1844, 2 vols. 12mo. Some unpublished works are included in the ‘Life’ written by his widow, and in 1841 his ‘Poetical Works,’ in one volume, were ‘for the first time offered in a collected form to the public.’ This volume includes the two most touching of all his poems, the lines addressed to Mrs. Heber, beginning ‘If thou wert by my side, love,’ and ‘An Evening Walk in Bengal.’ Heber also contributed to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ and to the ‘Christian Observer.’ 

HEBER, RICHARD (1773–1833), book-collector, born in Westminster, 5 Jan. 1773, was the eldest son of Reginald Heber, who succeeded his eldest brother as lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire and Hodnet in Shropshire, and of Mary Baylie, his father's first wife. His half-brother was Bishop Reginald Heber [q. v.], a son of the second marriage. Heber received his first instruction from George Henry Glasse [q. v.] In his seventeenth year he began an edition of Persius (1790), which was never completed. He went to Oxford, was entered as a gentleman-commoner at Brasenose College, and graduated B.A. in 1796 and M.A. 1797. While at Oxford his reading was chiefly confined to Greek and Latin authors, and his views on book-collecting limited to a classical library. He projected the editing of the Latin poets not included in Barbou's collection, and published ‘Silius Italicus’ in 1792; he also printed part of an edition of ‘Claudian,’ which was completed and published after his death by H. Drury. As an undergraduate, he was an eager politician, and frequently posted to London to listen to the parliamentary debates.

From the writings and personal acquaintance of the Wartons, George Steevens, Ellis, Percy, and Malone, Heber formed a taste for the study of early English dramatic and poetical literature, but it was the accidental purchase of a copy of Henry Peacham's ‘Vallie of Varietie,’ 1638, which is said to have been the beginning of his unrivalled collection of rarities in these classes. The long and intimate friendship of ‘Heber the magnificent, whose library and cellar are so superior to all others in the world,’ with Scott (letter to Ellis in, Life, ii. 75) began in 1800 (Life, i. 322, see also vols. iv. v. passim). The sixth canto of ‘Marmion’ is affectionately dedicated to him, and there are frequent allusions to Heber in the notes to the ‘Waverley Novels.’

On the death of his father in 1804 Heber came into the possession of the Yorkshire and Shropshire properties, which he afterwards greatly improved. Two years later he was candidate for the representation of the university of Oxford, but was successfully opposed by Lord Colchester (Diary, 1861, ii. 78). His reputation as a bibliophile and student of English literature led John Ferriar to address to him his poem, ‘Bibliomania,’ in 1809, and John Mitford his ‘Letter on Weber's Edition of Ford,’ in 1812. Soon after the peace of 1815 Heber visited France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, buying books and making new friends. In 1818 he was a member of the committee appointed to