HECUBA, the wife of Priam, king of Troy; distinguished both as a wife and a mother; on the fall of the city she fell into the hands of the Greeks, and, according to one tradition, was made a slave, and, according to another, threw herself in despair into the sea.

HEDONISM, the doctrine of the Cyrenaics that pleasure is the end of life, and the measure of virtue, or the summum bonum.

HEEM, JAN DAVIDSZ VAN, a famous Dutch painter, born at Utrecht; had a prosperous and uneventful career in Antwerp, where in 1635 he became a member of the Guild of Painters; he is considered the greatest of the “still life” painters; his pictures, masterpieces of colouring and chiaroscuro, have a great monetary value, and are to be found in the famous galleries of Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, &c. (1606-1684).

HEEREN, LUDWIG, a German historian; professor of History at Goettingen; wrote on ancient and modern history, specially the ancient and its antiquities; eminent in both (1760-1842).

HEFELE, KARL JOSEPH VON, a Catholic Church historian, born at Unterkochen, in Wuertemberg; in 1840 became professor of Church History and Christian Archaeology in the Catholic Theological Faculty in Tuebingen University, and in 1869 Bishop of Rottenburg; was for some time zealously opposed to the doctrine of the Papal infallibility, but subsequently acquiesced, putting, however, his own construction on it; his best-known works are the “History of the Christian Councils” and “Contributions to Church History” (1809-1893).

HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH, German philosopher, the greatest of all, born in Stuttgart; studied first at Tuebingen, with a view to theology; as a student attracted no particular attention, was outstript by Schelling; did domestic tutoring for a time; qualified at Jena for an academic career; adhered to and collaborated with Schelling in philosophy; first announced himself in 1807 by his work, “Phenomenology of the Spirit”; became rector of the Academy at Nuernberg, where in 1812-16 he composed his “Logic”; was in 1816 appointed professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg, whence he was removed to Berlin in 1818, where, his philosophy being now matured, he began to apply it with intense earnestness to every subject of human interest; he was the last of a line of thinkers beginning with Kant, with whom, however, he affiliated directly, and in his idealism philosophy first reached the goal which it was till then with hesitating steps only stretching forward to; his works fill 22 goodly sized volumes, and his system may be grouped under three heads, the “Science of Logic,” the “Philosophy of Nature,” and the “Philosophy of Spirit” (1770-1831).