Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/955

HIP See also the ''Brit. and For. Med. Rev''., before referred to; and an article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, by the present writer.)—W. A. G.  HIPPOCRATES, a mathematician of Chios, who flourished about 460 ., is only known as the discoverer of the proposition, that the crescents made by describing two semicircles on the outer sides of the two legs of a right-angled triangle, and a third semicircle on the inner side of the hypotenuse, are together equal in area to the triangle—a proposition on which many have founded an illusive hope of attaining an exact quadrature of the circle.—W. J. M. R.  HIPPOLYTUS, a bishop and ecclesiastical writer of the third century, whose name has acquired importance in connection with a recently discovered treatise, edited, with explanations and dissertations, by Chevalier Bunsen. The discovery of this treatise was somewhat remarkable. It was found among various other MSS. brought from Mount Athos to Paris in 1842, and deposited in the royal library there. It was designated as a "Book on all the Heresies," but without any author's name. M. Emmanuel Miller, a functionary of the institution, was attracted to it by some fragments of Pindar that it contained. On examining it he formed the conclusion that it was a lost production of Origen; and under this impression the Oxford University press agreed to publish it. It appeared in 1851. It was soon after its publication carefully studied by Bunsen; and the conclusion at which he arrived regarding it was that it was a genuine production of the third century, but that its author was not Origen, but Hippolytus. Various scholars—Dr. Duncker and Dr. Jacobi in Germany, and Dr. Wordsworth in England, have confirmed this conclusion. The character and position of Hippolytus have become much better known than before, in connection with the inquiry excited by the recovery of this treatise. He was a Roman ecclesiastic and bishop of Portus, the harbour of Rome on the northern bank of t he Tiber, lying opposite to the ancient Ostia. In the third century this appears to have been a place of some commercial importance, and of considerable population. The great metropolis of the world brought ships from all maritime countries into its harbour, and especially many Greek sailors and merchants. Among this trading Greek population Hippolytus lived and laboured. A Roman ecclesiastic, he was yet Greek in speech and Greek in his mode of thought. He was a disciple of Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, who again was a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, who had seen and conversed with the apostle John. While occupying an independent position in his own bishopric, he was directly connected with the Roman church as a member of its presbyterial council. In the ninth book of the recovered treatise on heresies, Hippolytus gives us a somewhat lively account of the religious and ecclesiastical state of Rome in the middle of the third century. According to this account it by no means presented the picture of unity which many would fain attribute to the early Roman church. Two of the Roman bishops, Zephyrinus and Callistus, are accused of favouring the heresy of Nœtus—a kind of early unitarianism; and it is evident, moreover, that various scandals were abroad as to the latter of these bishops. Hippolytus appears as an earnest and energetic churchman and defender of the faith. The pupil of Irenæus, he was the friend and precursor of Origen in the speculative and critical study of christian doctrine, and in oratorical talent. In his "Refutation" of the heresies of his day he shows an enlightened acquaintance with the course of Grecian speculation, as well as with the meaning and application of scripture. He was, according to Bunsen, one of the first preachers in the Roman church. Before his time preaching had been merely a popular exposition of the Gospel of the day. He enlarged this exposition into the formal homiletic address, in which he treated of christian topics in an elaborate and scientific manner.—T.  HIPPON, a Greek philosopher of little note, who probably flourished in the fifth century before the christian era, though some make him a contemporary of Thales. He wrote a work, "Physica Dogmata," of which scarcely any fragments remain. Aristotle speaks of him as a philosopher of little refinement in his speculations.—G. BL.  HIPPONAX, a satirical poet of Greece, called , was born at Ephesus about the middle of the sixth century. An ardent spirit of liberty soon compromised the poet, and he had to flee to Clazomenæ in Ionia, where he passed the rest of his days in poverty. As a writer of classical iambic verse, Hipponax is remembered for his well known innovation of the choliambic, a substitution of a trochee, or sometimes of a spondee, for the final iambic in the trimeter of Archilochus, whom he appears to have adopted as his model. But little remains of his writings.—J. F. W.  HIRE. See.  HIRSCHING,, a celebrated German antiquarian and learned writer, was born in 1762, and died in 1800. He studied at Neustadt, and at Erlangen, where he became professor of philosophy, and continued there till his death. His works consist of accounts of German libraries, cabinets, museums, religious houses, and eminent men. They are often useful for consultation.—B. H. C.  HIRSCHVOGEL,, a celebrated old German painter and engraver, born at Nuremburg in 1506, was the son of Veit Hirschvogel, a noted glass-painter of that city—born in 1461; died in 1525. Augustin Hirschvogel himself painted on glass, as well as in oil, and used the dry-point with considerable facility. He lived for some time at Vienna. His etchings are very numerous. He died in 1560.—J. T—e. <section end="955H" /> <section begin="955I" />HIRTIUS,, the reputed author of the continuation of Cæsar's Commentaries, was born of an illustrious Roman family, and applied himself in his youth to the study of rhetoric. He served with distinction under Cæsar, and afterwards cultivated the acquaintance of Cicero. After the death of Cæsar, Hirtius declared himself against Antony. He was made consul, together with C. Vibius Pansa, 43 ., and the conduct of the war was committed to them in conjunction with the young Octavianus. They obtained a victory over Antony near Modena; but Hirtius perished in battle, and Pansa died of his wounds. Suetonius states that some attributed the continuation of Cæsar's Commentaries to Oppius; but it is the general opinion that Aulus Hirtius was the author. This continuation forms the eighth book of the Gallic war. The histories of the Alexandrian and African wars are from the same pen.—G. BL. <section end="955I" /> <section begin="955J" />HITA,, a Spanish chronicler, who lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century. He was a native of Murcia; and during the rebellion of the Moors under Philip II. he served for three years under Luis Fajardo, marquis of Velez. His work, the first part of which was published in 1595, is entitled "The Civil Wars of Granada, and the History of the Factions of the Zegries and Abencerrajes." It is of unequalled value to the historian from the quantity of contemporary ballads and traditions which it preserves, illustrating the character and manners of the times. In 1604 he published a second part, entitled "Civil Wars of Granada, and cruel factions of Moors and neighbouring Christians," but it is very inferior to the first. There is an English translation of his works by Thomas Rodd, London, 1801.—F. M. W. <section end="955J" /> <section begin="955Zcontin" />* HITCHCOCK,, D.D., LL.D., an American naturalist and theologian, was born at Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the 24th of May, 1793. When only twenty-three years of age he became the head-master of the academy of his native place. A few years afterwards he received ordination, and became the pastor of a congregation at Conway. He had previously made his debut as an author by the publication of a tragedy "On the Downfall of Bonaparte." He now turned his attention to the study of natural history. Acquiring a sound practical knowledge of geology, as the sciences was at the time understood, he published in 1823 a work on the "Geology of the Connecticut Valley." Two years later, the author became professor of chemistry at Amherst college. He prepared, while he held this situation, various papers upon scientific subjects, one of the most valuable of these being a catalogue of the wild plants growing in the neighbourhood of Amherst. He wrote about the same time several treatises of a more popular character. Of these perhaps the most important were "Dyspepsia Forestalled and Resisted;" and "An Argument for Early Temperance." The legislature of Massachusetts had first the merit of ordering a scientific state survey on a great scale. Dr. Hitchcock was placed at the head of the undertaking. He published several reports, giving an account of the explorations made for the government; the most important of them relating to the mineralogical resources of the territory. The earliest of these was published in 1831 under the title of a "First Report on the Geology, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts." A second report followed under the same title in 1833. The most <section end="955Zcontin" />