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are full of plot, the action lively and interefting his verfifica tion is not esteemed by the French to be of confummate perfection, nor his profe always pure; yet his dialogue constantly pleased, and was allowed to have the merit of nature and found compofition. Mr. Hele died at Paris, of a confumptive diforder, in December, 1780; and it may poffibly be long before ano ther Englishman will be fo diftinguifhed as a writer in the French language. We take this account from French authors, who write his name d'Héle, perhaps it was properly Hale or Dale.

HELENA, the emprefs, mother of Conftantine, and one of the faints of the Romish communion, owed her elevation to the charms of her perfon. She was of obfcure origin, born at the little village of Drepanum in Bithynia, where the first fituation in which we hear of her was that of hoftefs of an inn. Conftantius Chlorus became enamoured of her, probably there, and married her; but, on being affociated with Dioclefian in the empire, divorced her to marry Theodora, daughter of Maximi lian Hercules. The acceffion of her fon to the empire drew her again from obfcurity; the obtained the title of Augufta, and was received at court with all the honours due to the mother of am emperor. Her many virtues rivetted the affection of her fon to her, and, when he became a chriftian, she also was converted; yet he did not fcruple to admonish him when the dif-. approved his conduct. When he was near eighty years old, the planned and executed a journey to the Holy Land, where fhe is faid to have affifted at the difcovery of the true cross of Christ, reported by the Romanists to have been accompanied by many miracles. In the year 328, foon after this difcovery, the died at the age of 80. Helena, wherever the went, left proofs of a truly Christian liberality; the relieved the poor, orphans, and widows; built churches, and in all refpects thewed herfelf worthy of the confidence of her fon, who fupported her in these pious efforts by an unlimited permiffion to draw upon his treafures. At her death, he paid her the highest honours, had her body fent to Rome to be depofited in the tomb of the emperors, and raised her native village to the rank of a city, with the new name of Helenopolis. She proved her prudence and political wifdom by the influence the always retained over her fon, and by the care he took to prevent all interference of the halfbrothers of Conftantine, fons of Conftantius Chlorus and Theodora; who, being brought into notice after her death, by the injudicious. liberality of the emperor, were maffacred by their nephews as foon as they fucceeded their father in the empire.

HELIODORUS, a native of Emefa in Phoenicia, and bishop of Tricca in Theffaly, flourished in the reigns of Theodofius and Arcadius towards the end of the fourth century. In his youth he wrote a romance, by which he is now better known,

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than by his fubfequent bishopric of Tricca. It is entitled, "Ethiopics," and relates the amours of Theagenes and Chariclea, in ten books. The learned Huetius is of opinion, that Heliodorus was among the romance-writers, what Homer was among the poets [K]; that is, the fource and model of an infinite number of imitations, all inferior to their original. The first edition of the Ethiopics was printed at Bafil, 1533, with a dedication to the fenate of Nuremberg, prefixed by Vincentius Opfopæus; who informs us, that a foldier preferved the MS. when the library of Buda was plundered. Bourdelot's notes upon this romance are very learned; and were printed at Paris, in 1619, with Heliodorus's Greek original, and a Latin translation, which had been publifhed by Stanislaus Warfzewicki, a Polish knight, (with the Greek) at Bafil, in 1551. A notion has prevailed, that a provincial fynod, being fenfible how dangerous the reading of Heliodorus's Ethiopics was, to which the author's rank was fuppofed to add great authority, required of the bishop, that he fhould either burn the book, or refign his dignity; and that the bishop chose the latter. But this story is thought to be entirely fabulous; as depending only upon the fingle teftimony of Nicephorus, an ecclefiaftical hiftorian of great credulity and little judgement: not to mention, how difficult it is to fuppose, that Socrates fhould omit fo memorable a circumstance in the paffage; where he obferves, that Heliodorus" wrote a love-tale in his youth, which he entitled, Ethiopics." Valefius, in his notes upon this paffage, not only rejects the account of Nicephorus as a mere fable, but feems inclined to think, that the romance itself was not written by Heliodorus bishop of Tricca; of which, however, Huetius entertained no doubt. Some have fancied, as Opfopæus and Melancthon, that this romance was in reality a true hiftory; but Fabricius thinks this as incredible, as that Heliodorus, according to others, wrote it originally in the Ethiopic tongue. Some again have afferted, that Heliodorus was not a Chriftian, from his faying at the end of his book, that he was a Phoenician, born in the city of Emefa, and of the race of the fun; fince, they fay, it would be madness in a Chrif tian, and much more in a bishop, to declare, that he was defcended from that luminary. This objection Bayle, who quotes it, anfwers in the following manner: "It is certain,' fays he," that feveral Chriftians in the fourth century mentioned the ancientnefs of their nobility; why then fhould not we believe, that Heliodorus mentioned his? He did not believe that his family was really defcended from the fun; but he might imagine, that he fhould diftinguith it by that mark. This was a title, by which his family had been known a long time, and

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[x] De origin. Fabul. Romanens, p. 381.

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which was honourable to him: and though the principle was falfe, yet one might infer from it fome confequences favourable to his family with regard to its antiquity. Such a motive might engage a Christian thus to distinguish the nobility of his extraction. Add to this, that Heliodorus was not yet a bishop, when he wrote his romance; he was ftill in all the fire of his youth; and as he did not put his name to his work, he might with more liberty make his defcent known by the ancient tradition of his family." Bayle refers us, in the course of this folution, to a differtation of Balzac at the end of his "Socrate Chretien:" where it is obferved among other things, that St. Jerom makes St. Paul to be defcended from Agamemnon, and that Synesius boafted his defcent from Hercules.

Befides the Ethiopics, Cedrenus tells us of another book of Heliodorus, concerning the Philofopher's Stone, or the art of tranfmuting metals into gold, which he prefented to Theodofius the Great; and Fabricius has inferted in his "Bibliotheca Græca," a chemical Greek poem written in Iambic verse, which he had from a MS. in the king of France's library, and which carries the name of Heliodorus, bishop of Tricca; but leaves it very juftly questionable, whether it be not a spurious performance. Socrates relates, in the book and chapter above cited, that this bishop introduced the custom of deposing those minifters who lay with their wives after ordination; which Bayle thinks a profitable argument in favour of the prelate's chastity; and adds, that he appears from his romance to have been a lover of this virtue.

HELLANICUS of Mitylene, an ancient Greek historian, born in the year A. C. 496, twelve years before the birth of Herodotus. He wrote a hiftory" of the earliest Kings of various Nations, and the Founders of Cities;" which is mentioned by feveral ancient authors, but is not extant. He lived to the age of 85. There was another Hellanicus of much later times, who was a Milesian.

HELMONT (JOHN BAPTIST VAN), commonly called Van Helmont, from a borough and caftle of that name in Brabant, was a perfon of quality, and a man of great learning, especially in phyfic and natural philofophy; and born at Bruffels in 1577. But, instead of relating the particulars of his life, we will make. him relate them himself, as he does in the two introductory chapters to his works: for nothing can give a jufter notion of the man, or, indeed, be more entertaining to the curious reader.

"In the year 1580 [1]," fays he, "a most miserable one to the Low Countries, my father died. I, the youngest and least esteemed of all my brothers and fifters, was bred a scholar; and

[1] Ortus Medicinæ, p. 14. Amft. 1652.

in the year 1594, which was to me the 17th, had finished the courfe of philofophy. Upon feeing none admitted to examina tions at Louvain, but in a gown, and masked with a hood, as though the garmen: did promife learning, I began to perceive, that the taking degrees in arts was a piece of mere mockery; and wondered at the fimplicity of young men, in fancying that they had learned any thing from their doting profeffors. I entered, therefore, into a ferious and honeft examination of myfelf, that I might know by my own judgement, how much I was a philofopher, and whether I had really acquired truth and knowledge: but found myself altogether deftitute, fave that I had learned to wrangle artificially. Then came I first to perceive, that I knew nothing, or at least that which was not worth knowing. Natural philofophy feemed to promife fomething of knowledge, to which therefore I joined the ftudy of astronomy. I applied myself also to logic and the mathematics, by way of、 recreation, when I was wearied with other ftudies; and made myself a master of Euclid's Elements, as I did alfo of Copernicus's Theory De revolutionibus orbium coeleftium: but all these things were of no-account with me, because they contained little truth and certainty, little but a parade of science falfely fo called. Finding after all, therefore, that nothing was found, nothing true, I refufed the title of mafter of arts, though I had finished my courfe; unwilling, that profeffors fhould play the fool with me, in declaring me a master of the feven arts, when I was confcious to myself that I knew nothing.

"A wealthy canonry was promifed me then, fo that I might, if I pleafed, turn myself to divinity; but faint Bernard affrighted me from it, faying, that I fhould eat the fins of the people.' I begged therefore of the Lord Jefus, that he would vouchfafe to call me to that profeffion, in which I might please him most. The Jefuits began at that time to teach philofophy at Louvain, and one of the profeffors expounded the difquifitions and fecrets of magic. Both thefe lectures I greedily received; but instead of grain, I reaped only ftubble, and fantastic conceits void of fenfe. In the mean time, left an hour fhould pafs without fome benefit, I run through fome writings of the ftoics, thofe of Seneca, and especially of Epictetus, who pleafed me exceedingly. I feemed, in moral philofophy, to have found the quinteffence of truth, and did verily believe, that through ftoicifm I advanced in Christian perfection; but I difcovered afterwards in a dream, that stoicism was an empty and fwollen bubble, and that by this tudy, under the appearance of moderation, I became, indeed, moft felf-fufficient and haughty. Laftly, I turned over Mathiolus and Diofcorides; thinking with myself nothing equally neceffary for mortal man to know and admire, as the wisdom and goodness of God in vegetables; to the end that he might not

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only crop the fruit for food, but alfo minifter of the fame to his other neceffities. My curiofity being now raised upon this branch of study, I enquired, whether there were any book, which delivered the maxims and rule of medicine? for I then fuppofed, that medicine was not altogether a mere gift, but might be taught, and delivered by difcipline, like other arts and fciences: at leaft I thought, if medicine was a good gift coming down from the Father of lights, that it might have, as an human fcience, its theorems and authors, into whom, as into Bazaleel and Aholiab, the spirit of the Lord had infufed the knowledge of all diseases and their causes, and alfo the knowledge of the properties of things. I enquired, I fay, whether no writer had defcribed the qualities, properties, applications, and proportions of vegetables, from the hyffop even, to the cedar of Libanus? A certain profeffor of medicine anfwered me, that none of these things were to be looked for either in Galen or Avicen. I was very ready to believe this, from the many fruitlefs fearches I had made in books for truth and knowledge before; however, following my natural bent, which lay to the study of nature, I read the inftitutions of Fuchfius and Fernelius; in whom I knew I had furveyed the whole fcience of medicine, as it were in an epitome. Is this, faid I, fmiling to myself, the knowledge of healing? Is the whole history of natural properties thus fhut up in elementary qualities? Therefore I read the works of Galen twice; of Hippocrates once, whose aphorifms I almost got by heart; all Avicen; as well as the Greeks, Arabians, and moderns, to the tune of 600 authors. I read them feriously and attentively through; and took down, as I went along, whatever feemed curious, and worthy of attention; when at length, reading over my common-place book, I was grieved at the pains I had beftowed, and the years I had fpent, in throwing together fuch a mass of stuff. Therefore I ftraightway left off all books whatever, all formal discourses, and empty promises of the schools; firmly believing every good and perfect gift to come down from the Father of lights, more particularly that of medicine.

"I have attentively furveyed fome foreign nations; but I found the fame fluggithness, in implicitly following the steps of their forefathers, and ignorance among them all. I then became perfuaded, that the art of healing was a mere imposture, originally fet on foot by the Greeks for filthy lucre's fake; till afterwards the Holy Scriptures informed me better. I confidered, that the plague, which then raged at Louvain, was a most miferable difcafe, in which every one forfook the fick; and faithlefs helpers, diftrustful of their own art, fled more swiftly than the unlearned common people, and homely pretenders to cure it. I propofed to myfelf to dedicate one falutation to the VOL. VIII.

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