Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/808

* HELVETII. 748 in the spring of B.C. 58. Citsar hastened to Ge- neva, destroyed tlie bridge there, raised two le- gions in Cisalpine Gaul, and when the Helvetians sent delegates to demand a passage delayed them until he had built a wall along the Rhone 19 Roman miles in length, flanked with redoubts. Having vainly attempted to pass this barrier, the Helvetii took another route, but were followed and defeated with a terrible slaughter at Bib- racte (modern Mont-Beuvra_T, in Burgundy), and the renuiant were obliged to return to their own country, where they became subject to the Ro- • mans. Of 368,000 who left their homes, according to Ciesar, including 02,000 fighting men, only 110.000 returned. In the commotions which fol- lowed the death of Nero, the Helvetians met with another catastrophe. Remaining faithful to Galba, they were attacked by Coeeina, a gen- eral of Vitellius, who gave them over to the rapacity of his legions. From this iime they scarcely appear as a distinct people. HELVETIUS, hel-ve'shi-us, Fr. pron. el'va'- se'us', Claude Adrien (1715-71). A noted French encyclopaedist. He was born in Paris in 1715, educated at the Coll&ge Louis-le-Grand, and after some practical training at Caen ap- pointed at the age of twenty-three to the lucra- tive office of farmer-general; but as he was of a very humane and gentle disposition, the cruel ami odious duties connected with the post de- cided him to resign it subsequently for the situ- ation of chamberlain to the t^ueen's household. He wearied of the idle and dissipated life of ine Court, and marrying in 1751 the daughter of the Comte de Ligneville, he withdrew to a small estate at Vore, where he spent the most of his life in the education of his family, the im- provement of his peasantry, and literary labors. In 1758 appeared his celebrated work, De I'esprit, in which he endeavored to prove that sensation {sensihilite) is the source of all intellectual ac- tivity, and that the grand lever of all human conduct is self-satisfaction. But he admits, at the same time, that self-satisfaction assumes dif- ferent forms ; e.g. the self-satisfaction of a good man consists in the subordination of private to more general interests — first to the circle among which he lives, then to the community, and finally to the world at large. The book was de- nounced by the doctors of the Sorbonne, and con- demned by the Parliament of Paris to be publicly burned. He then went to England and to Ger- many, where Frederick II. received him with dis- tinction. He died in Paris, December 26, 1771, leaving behind him, besides some other writings, a work called De Vhonnne, de ses facult^s in- tellectuelles, ct dc son Education (published 1772). His collected works were published in Paris in 1791, in 14 volumes. Consult: Morley, Diderot and the Encyelopcedisis (London, 1878) ; Avezae-Lavigne, Diderot et la socicfd du Baron d'Holbach (Paris, 1875). HELVia, hel'vlK. Amalie von (1776-1831). A German poet, bom Amalie von ImhofT. at Weimar. She received a careful education, and traveled much. In 1803 she married a Swedish officer. Karl Gottfried von Helvig, who entered the Prussian service in 1815. Several of her poems were first published by Schiller in the Musennhnaiwrh, and her "Abdallah wnd Bal- sora" appeared in the Horen. She read Greek, and Goethe taught her to use the hexameter, in HELYOT. which she composed the epic Die Schwestern von Lesbos (1800). Her other works include a translation of the Fridthjof's Saga (la.st ed. 1879) ; the collection Taschoibiicli dcr Sugen tind Lcgcnden (1.S12-13); and tlie poems Die Hchwcstern auf Corcyra (1812), Die Tages- zeiten (1812), Die Sage voiii Wolfsbrunnen (1821). and Ilelcnc roii Tounion. For her biography consult Bissing (Berlin, 1889). HEL'VIUS CIN'NA, Gaius. An eminent Roman poet, who lived about B.C. 50. He was a friend of Catullus, and was considered by Vergil a poet superior to himself. On the day of the funeral of Julius Cssar, he was killed by the infuriated rabble, which, defeated in its at- tempt to fire the houses of Brutus and Cassius, encountered him, and mistook his name for that of Cornelius Cinna, the praetor of the year, and one of the conspirators against Ciesar. By the ancient historians who narrate this, he is called a tribune of the plebeians. The story of his dream as given by Plutarch ( Cas. 08 ) has been intro- duced by Shakespeare into the drama of Julius Cwsar (act iii., scene 3). His most highly esteemed work was the Smyrna, whose subject is unknown, but whose style is shifwn by two extant fragments to have been epic. He wrote also a poem entitled "Propemptieon Pollionis," in respect to which the few lines preserved afford no information. Prior to the publication of the JEneid, the Smyrna was regarded as the most complete thesaurus of Roman mythology. Con- sult: Weichert, Commentationes II. de Caio Eel- vio Cinna, Poeta (1822-23) ; and Kiessling, "De C. Helvctio Cinna Poetica." in Commentationes Mommsen.ianw (Berlin, 1877). HE'LY-HTJTCH'INSON, John, Baron Hutchinson (1757-1832). An English general, son of John Hely-Hutchinson ( 1724-94) . He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1798 was in command at Castlebar when the French landed in Killalla Bay, but General Lake succeeded him previous to the flight of the raw Irish troops. Two years after he was ap- pointed a chief of division in Abereromby's army in Eg3'pt, and assumed command in the battle of Alexandria when that general was mor- tally wounded. He succeeded, in spite of dis- affection among his officers, in separating the two superior French forces ; then forced the surrender of Cairo (June, 1801), and two months later of Alexandria. HELY-HUTCHINSON, Sir Walter Francis (1849—). An English colonial administrator, born in Dublin, and educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was attache to Sir Hercules Robinson in Fiji (1874), and, after serving as private secretary for Fiji Affairs and for New South Wales Affairs, became Colonial Secretary of the Barbadoes (1877), and chief secretary to the Governor of llalta ( 1883). where he was Lieutenant-Governor for five years ( 1884- 89). He w-as then appointed Governor of the Windward Islands (1889). and four years later of Natal, where he introduced 'responsible gov- ernment,' and of Zululand, to which he annexed the territories across the Pongola (1895). In 1895 he was made Sjiecial Commissioner for Tongaland. and in 1901 was transferred to the Cape of Good Hope as Governor of the Colony. Hl^LYOT, a'ly6'. Pierre (16601716). A French Franciscan scholar. He was born and died