"bountiful favour of the Lord fhall fhine upon him. Lo, "thus have I waxed ripe of age, being become a man; and "now alfo an old man, unprofitable, and unacceptable to "God, to whom be all honour."

From the account here given by himself, it is easy to conceive, that Van Helmont, at his first appearance in the world, would pafs for no better than an enthusiast and a madman. He certainly had in him a strong mixture of both enthusiasm and madness: nevertheless he was very acute and very profound, and discovered in many cafes a wonderful penetration and infight into nature. By his fkill in phyfic, he performed fuch unexpected cures, that he was put into the inquifition, as a man that did things beyond the reach of nature. He cleared himself before the inquifitors; but, to be more at liberty, retired afterwards into Holland. He died Dec. 30, 1644, and the day before wrote a letter to a friend at Paris, in which were these words: " Praise and glory be to God " for evermore, who is pleased to call me out of the world; " and, as I conjecture, my life will not last above 24 hours. "For this day I find myself first affaulted by a fever, which, "fuch is the weakness of my body, muft, I know, finish me "within that space." A few days before that, he said to Præfat. ad his fon Francis Mercurius Van Helmont, "Take all my "writings, as well thofe that are crude and uncorrected, "as thofe that are thoroughly purged, and join them toge❝ther. I now commit them to thy care; finish and digeft "them according to thy own judgement. It hath so pleased "the Lord Almighty, who attempts all things powerfully, ❝ and directs all things fweetly."

Oper.

John Caramuel Lobkowiz has given a good account of this physician and philofopher in a very few words "Hel"mont," fays he," for I knew the man, was pious, learn"ed, famous: a fworn enemy of Galen and Ariftotle. The ❝fick never languished long under his hands: being always "killed or cured in two or three days. He was fent for "chiefly to those who were given up by other phyficians; "and, to the great grief and indignation of fuch physicians, "often reftored the patient unexpectedly to health. His "works were publifhed in folio. They are one continued "fatire against the Peripatetics and Galenifts; very vo- Blount, "luminous, but not very profitable for inftruction in Cenfura Authorum, ❝phyfic." &c. p. 670.

HELOISA, the concubine, and afterwards the wife, of Peter Abelard; a nun, and afterwards priorefs of Argenteuil;

Abelardi
Oper.p.260.

and lastly, abbefs of the Paraclete, was born about the beginning of the 12th century. The hiftory of her amour with Abelard having been already related in our account of him, we refer the reader to it; and fhall content ourselves here, with giving fome particulars of Heloifa, which we have either not mentioned at all, or but very flightly, under that article.

This lady has ufually been celebrated for her great beauty and her great learning. In the age fhe lived, a young girl with a very small fhare of erudition might eafily pafs for a miracle. However, we fay not this, to derogate from Heloifa's merit in this particular, fince it is certain that she deferves an honourable place among the very learned women: for fhe was killed, not only in the Latin tongue, but also in the Greek and Hebrew. This Abelard exprefsly declares in a letter, which he wrote to the nuns of the Paraclete. As to thofe who afcribe to her a ravishing beauty, we may upon very good grounds prefume them to be mistaken. Abelard must have been as good a judge of it as any one; he muft have had more reason to exaggerate, than to diminish in his account of it, than any one; yet he contents himself with faying, that "as fhe was not the laft of her fex in beauty, "fo in letters fhe was the firft:" " Cum per faciem non "effet infima, per abundantium literarum erat fuprema:" a very flat elogium, fuppofing her to have been an accomplished beauty, and by no means confiftent with the paffion which Abelard entertained for her. But Abelard's poetry may account for this fuppofed beauty in Heloifa: his verses were filled with nothing but love for her, which, making the name of this mistress to fly all over the world, would naturally occafion perfons to afcribe charms to her, which nature had not given her. Her paffion, on the other hand, was as extravagant for Abelard; and her encomiums upon him have fet him perhaps as much too high in the opinion of the women, as the herself has ftood in the opinion of the men. Take a little of her language by way of fpecimen: "What "wife, what maid, did not languish for you when abfent, "and was not all in a flame with love, when you was near? "What queen or great lady did not envy my joys and my bed?

Two qualities you had, feldom to be found among the "learned, by which you could not fail to gain all women's "hearts: poetry, I mean, and mufic. With these you un"bended your mind after its philofophic labours, and wrote "many love verfes, which by their fweetness and harmony "have caused them to be fung in every corner of the world,

"fo that even the illiterate found your praise. And as the "greateft part of your fongs celebrated our loves, they have σε fpread my name to many nations, and kindled there the

66

envy

of the women against me." In the mean time Abe- Abelard lard was very handsome and very accomplished; though pro- Op. p. 46bably neither fo handfome nor accomplished as, according

to Heloifa, to make every woman frantic, who thould caft her eyes upon him. :

When Abelard confented to marry Heloifa, fhe used a thousand arguments to put him out of conceit with the conjugal tié: "I know my uncle's temper," said fhe to him; See ABE"nothing will appease his rage against you and then what LARD. "glory will it be to me to be your wife, fince I fhall ruin

46

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6

your reputation by it? What curfes have I not reafon to "fear, if I rob the world of fo bright a luminary as you are? What injury fhall I not do the church? What forrow fhall I not give the philosophers? What a fhame and injury will it be to you, whom nature has formed for the "public good, to give yourself up entirely to a woman? "Confider these words of St. Paul, Art thou loofed from a "wife, feek not a wife.' And if the counsel of this great "apoftle, and the exhortations of the holy fathers, cannot "diffuade you from that heavy burden, confider at least "what the philofophers have faid of it. Hear Theophraf "tus, who has proved by fo many reafons, that a wife man "ought not to marry. Hear what Cicero, when he had "divorced his wife Terentia, anfwered to Hirtius, who pro“posed a match to him with his fifter: that he could not "divide his thoughts between philosophy and a wife.' Be"fides, what conformity is there between maid fervants and "scholars, inkhorns and cradles, books and distaffs, pens “and spindles? How will you be able to bear, in the midst "of philofophical and theological meditations, the cries of "children, the fongs of nurses, and the disturbance of "house-keeping?" And afterwards, in the correspondence Abelard which fhe kept up with him, when she had renounced the Op. p. 14. world many years, and engaged in a monaftic life, fhe reprefented to him the difinterestedness of her affection; and how fhe had neither fought the honour of marriage, nor the advantages of a dowry, nor her own pleasure, but the fingle fatisfaction of poffeffing her dear Abelard. She tells him, that although the name of wife feems more holy and of greater dignity, yet fhe was always better pleafed with that of his mistress, his concubine, or even ftrumpet; and declares in the most folemn manner, that she had rather be the VOL. VII.

whore

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whore of Peter Abelard, than the lawful wife of the emperor of the world [A]. "Deum teftem invoco," fays fhe, "fime Auguftus univerfo præfidens mundo matrimonii honore dignaretur, totumque mihi orbem confirmaret in perpetuo "præfidendum, charius mihi & dignius videretur TUA DICI "MERETRIX, quam illius imperatrix." I know not, fays Op. p. 45. Bayle, how this lady meant; but we have here one of the

Abelard

Effais, Liv.

iii. c. 5. Ælius Verus apud Spartian. in Vit.

moft mysterious refinements in love. It has been, continues he, for feveral ages believed, that marriage deftroys the principal poignancy of this fort of falt, and that when a man does a thing by engagement, duty, and neceffity, as a task and drudgery, he no longer finds the natural charms of it; fo that, according to thefe nice judges, a man takes a wife "ad "honores," and not " ad delicias." "Marriage," as Montaigne obferves, "has on its fide, profit, juftice, honour, and "conftancy; a flat but more univerfal pleasure. Love is "founded only upon pleasure, which is more touching, "fprightly, and exquifite; a pleasure inflamed by difficulty. "There must be in it fting and ardour: 'tis no more love, "if without darts and fire. The bounty of the ladies is too "profufe in marriage: it blunts the edge of affection and defire." And this perhaps made a Roman emperor say to his wife," Patere me per alias exercere cupiditates meas, nam uxor nomen eft dignitatis, non voluptatis:" that is, "fuffer me to fatisfy my defires with other women, for spouse " is a name of dignity, not of pleasure.'

Heloifa died May 17, 1163, about 20 years after her beloved Abelard, and was buried in his grave. A moft furprifing miracle happened, as we learn from a MS. chronicle of Tours, when the fepulchre was opened, in order to lay Heloifa's body there, viz. "That Abelard ftretched out his "arms to receive her, and closely embraced her:" but many people think, that this may poffibly be a fiction. The letters of Heloifa, together with their anfwers, may be found in Abelard's works, where more may be seen of this notable love affair. Love certainly begets much folly and madness among the fons of men: yet, upon comparing the loves of Abelard and Heloifa with the loves of the reft of mankind, one fhall be apt to apply to the former, what the fervant in the play faid of his mafter's younger fon, when he compared him with his elder: "Hic vero eft, qui fi occeperit amare, ludum jocumque dices fuiffe illum alterum, præut hujus "rabies quæ dabit:" that is, "If this frantic fpark fhall once take it into his head to be a lover, you will say that [^] "Not Cæfar's emprefs would I deign to prove : "No, make me miftrefs to the man I love."

POPE.

"all

"all that the other has done is but mere sport and and jeft, Terent. " compared with the pranks which he will play."

HELVETIUS (ADRIAN), a phyfician of Holland, was born in 1656. He journeyed to Paris, without any defign of fixing there, and only to fee this new world: but accident detained him very unexpectedly. It feems, that the dysentery then prevailed in this town; and, that all who applied to him were infallibly cured. His fuccefs made a noife; and Lewis XIV. ordered him to publifh the remedy, which produced fuch certain and furprizing effects. He declared it to be Ipecacuana, and received 1000 louis-d'-ors for the difcovery. He fettled in Paris, became phyfician to the duke of Orleans, and was also made inspector-general of the military hofpitals. He died in 1721, leaving fome works behind him; the principal of which is, "Traité des Maladies de plus frequentes, & des Remedies specifiques pour les guerir," 2 vols. 8vo.

HELVETIUS (JOHN-CLAUDE), fon of the above, was born in 1685, and died in 1755. He was firft phyfician to the queen, and greatly encouraged by the town as well as court. He was, like his father, infpector-general of the military hofpitals. He was of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, of the Royal Society in London, and of the Academies of Pruffia, Florence, and Bologne. He is the author of, 1. "Idée Générale de l'économie animale, 1722," 8vo. 2." Principia Phyfico-Medica, in tyronum Medicinæ gra"tiam confcripta," 2 vols. 8vo. But this work, though drawn up for pupils, may yet be ferviceable to mafters.

I.

Eunuch,
A& ii.
Sc. iv

We may juft mention alfo, that he is the father of the Monf. HELVETIUS, who wrote the celebrated book "De "l'Esprit;" and whom Voltaire calls " a true philofpher." The fame Voltaire fays alfo, that he "renounced the place "of farmer-general, for the fake of cultivating letters; and, "that he has had the fate of feveral philofophers, to be per"fecuted for his book and for his virtue." His book was Effai fur l' ftigmatized by the authors of the "Journal de Trevoux, and fuppreffed by the government. We prefume this gentleman to be ftill living (that is, in 1782).

"Hift. Gener. Tom. VIII.

HELVICUS (CHRISTOPHER), profeffor of the Greek and Eaftern tongues, and of divinity, in the univerfity of Gieffen, was born, 1581, at Sprendlingen, a little town near Frankfort, where his father was minifter. He went Bayle'sDia.