Part 246 (1/2)

HOME, JOHN, Scotch divine and dramatist, born at Leith; graduated at Edinburgh, and entered the Church in 1745; became minister at Athelstaneford, near Haddington, where he wrote the tragedies ”Agis” and ”Douglas”; the latter established his fame, but brought him into disgrace with the Presbytery, and he withdrew to England, becoming secretary to the Earl of Bute; his plays were produced by Garrick, and displaced the stiff and artificial tragedies of Addison, Johnson, &c.; besides his dramatic works and poems he published a ”History of the Rebellion of 1745” (1722-1808).

HOME RULE, a form of local self-government, a name applied to an administration of the kind projected by Mr. Gladstone for Ireland.

HOMER, the great epic poet of Greece, and the greatest of all time; author of the ”Iliad” and the ”Odyssey,” and for the honour of being the place of whose birth seven Greek cities contended; is said, when old and blind, to have wandered from city to city rehearsing his verses, and to have lived 900 years before Christ, some time after the reign of Solomon; it is only modern criticism that has called in question his existence, and has ventured to argue that the poems ascribed to him are a mere congeries of compositions of the early fabulous age of Greece, but the unity of the plan and the simplicity of the style of the poems go to condemn this theory in the regard of most Homeric scholars.

HOMILDON HILL, in Northumberland, 1 m. NE. of Wooler; the scene of Hotspur's famous victory over the Scots under Earl Douglas, December 14, 1402.

h.o.m.oEOPATHY, a method of treating diseases advocated by HAHNEMANN (q. v.) which professes to cure a disease by administering in small quant.i.ties medicines that would produce it in a healthy person.

h.o.m.oIOUSIA, name given to the Semi-Arian doctrine that the Son is of _like_ substance with the Father, in opposition to the orthodox doctrine called h.o.m.oousia that He is of the _same_ substance.

h.o.m.oLOGOUMENA, name given to the books of the New Testament accepted as canonical.

HONDURAS (435), a maritime republic of Central America, whose northern seaboard fronts the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, between Nicaragua on the S. and SE. and Guatemala on the W., less than four-fifths the size of England; the coast lands are low and swampy, but the interior consists chiefly of elevated tableland diversified by broad rich valleys; the Cordilleras traverse the country in a NW. direction, and form the watershed of many streams; fever prevails along the low, hot coast, but the highlands are cool and healthful; large numbers of cattle are raised, and fruits, india-rubber, indigo, &c., are exported, but agriculture is backward; its mineral wealth is very great; silver ore is abundant, and other minerals, such as gold, iron, copper, but the enterprise is wanting to the carrying out of mining on a proper scale; Honduras broke away from Spain in 1821, and became an independent State in 1839; the Government is vested in a President and six ministers, and the legislative power in a Congress of 37 members; the population is, with the exception of a few thousands, composed of blacks; Tegucigalpa (12) is the capital.

HONE, WILLIAM, miscellaneous writer and political satirist, born at Bath; threw up his position as a law clerk in London and started a print and book shop; became a busy contributor to newspapers, and involved himself in serious trouble by the freedom of his political parodies and satires; of his many squibs, satires, &c., mention maybe made of ”The Political House that Jack Built,” ”The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder,” ”The Political Showman,” all ill.u.s.trated by G. CRUIKSHANK (q. v.) (1780-1842).

HONEYCOMB, WILL, a jaunty member of the ”Spectator Club.”

HONFLEUR (9), a seaport of France, situated on the estuary of the Seine, opposite Havre; has a good harbour; exports dairy produce, cattle, &c.; has sugar refineries, tanworks, &c.

HONG-KONG (222), an island lying off the mouth of the Canton River, South China; was ceded to Britain in 1842; is hilly and unproductive, but is well watered and tolerably healthy; it owes its great importance as a commercial centre to its favourable position, its magnificent harbour, and to its having been made a free port and the head-quarters of the European banks; opium is the chief import, silk and tea the princ.i.p.al exports; Victoria, a handsome city on the N. side, is the capital, seat of the British governor, &c.

HONITON (3), an ancient market-town of Devons.h.i.+re, close to the Otter, 17 m. NE. of Exeter; is famed for its pillow-lace, an industry introduced by some Flemish refugees in the 16th century.

HONOLULU (20), capital of the HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (q. v.), situated on an arid strip of land on the S. side of Oahu; is nicely laid out after the manner of a European town; and has the only good harbour in the archipelago.

HONORIUS, the name of four popes: H. I., the most famous, Pope from 626 to 638; H. II., pope from 1124 to 1130; H. III., Pope from 1216 to 1227; and H. IV., Pope from 1286 to 1287.

HONORIUS, FLAVIUS, emperor of the West, born at Constantinople, son of Theodosius the Great, a weak ruler, and only able to resist the invasion of the Goths so long as Stilicho, his minister, lived, for after the murder of the latter by treachery matters with him went from bad to worse, and he saw some of his finest provinces s.n.a.t.c.hed from his grasp (384-423).

HONTHEIM, a German Catholic theologian, born at Treves; distinguished for his bold a.s.sertion and subsequent retractation of a doctrine called Febronianism, from the _nom de plume_ Febronius which he a.s.sumed, tending to the disparagement of the Papal authority in the Church (1701-1790).

HONTHORST, GERARD VAN, a Flemish painter, born at Utrecht, painted night and torchlight scenes; ”Christ before Pilate” his best-known work (1592-1666).