a paper of pronounced Radical views. The appearance
in this journal of an article on the Prince Regent
in which he was described in words which have been
condensed into “a fat Adonis of fifty,”
led to H. being fined L500 and imprisoned for two
years. With his customary genial philosophy,
however, the prisoner made the best of things, turned
his cell into a study, with bookcases and a piano,
and his yard into a garden. He had the sympathy
of many, and received his friends, including Byron,
Moore, and Lamb. On his release he
pub.
his poem,
The Story of Rimini. Two other
vols. of poetry followed,
The Feast of the Poets
and
Foliage, in 1814 and 1818 respectively.
In the latter year he started the
Indicator,
a paper something in the style of the
Spectator
or
Tatler, and after this had run its course
the
Companion, conceived on similar lines,
took its place in 1828. In 1822 H. went to Italy
with Byron, and there established the
Liberal,
a paper which did not prove a success. Disillusioned
with Byron, H. returned home, and
pub. in 1828
Lord Byron and his Contemporaries, a work which
gave great offence to Byron’s friends, who accused
the author of ingratitude. In 1834 H. started
the
London Journal, which he ed. for two years.
Among his later works are
Captain Sword and Captain
Pen (1835),
The Palfrey, a poem,
A Legend
of Florence (drama),
Imagination and Fancy
(1844),
Wit and Humour (1846),
A Jar of
Honey from Mount Hybla (1848),
The Old Court
Suburb (1855),
The Town,
Sir Ralph Esher,
a novel, and his Autobiography (1850). Although
his poems have considerable descriptive power and
brightness, he had not the depth and intensity to make
a poet, and his reputation rests rather upon his essays,
which are full of a genial philosophy, and display
a love of books, and everything pleasant and beautiful.
He did much to popularise the love of poetry and literature
in general among his fellow-countrymen.
HURD, RICHARD (1720-1808).—Divine, and
miscellaneous writer, b. at Congreve, Staffordshire,
was ed. at Camb., and entering the Church,
became Bishop successively of Lichfield and Worcester.
He produced an ed. of the Ars Poetica of Horace,
Dissertations on Poetry, Dialogues on Sincerity,
Letters on Chivalry and Romance, and An Introduction
to the Prophecies. He was in 1783 offered,
but declined, the Primacy.
HUTCHESON, FRANCIS (1694-1746).—Philosopher,
b. in Ireland, and ed. for the Presbyterian
ministry at Glasgow Univ. After keeping an academy
at Dublin for some years he pub. his Enquiry
into Beauty and Virtue, which won for him a great
reputation. In 1729 he became Prof. of Moral
Philosophy at Glasgow, where he exercised a great influence
over his students, and also upon the Scottish system
of philosophy. In his philosophical views he
was to some extent a disciple of Shaftesbury.
He introduced the term, “moral sense,”
which he defined as a power of perceiving moral attributes
in action. His System of Moral Philosophy
appeared posthumously in two vols.