160 HIFFERNAN-HOBBES. place of that admirable actor, in the various characters of the immortal Shakespeare. His private character was exceedingly amiable. HİFFERNAN, (PAUL) a modern author of more eccentricity than genius, was born in Ireland in 1718, and educated for orders in the church of Rome. But he applied himself to physic, and for some time practised in that line in Dublin, where he wrote a periodical work, called, The Tickler, and another under the title of The Tuner. Meeting with little success in his native country, he came to London and commenced author, translator, and compiler, to procure a scanty subsistence. But as he was a man of infinite pleasantry, humour, and eccentricity, his company was courted by the most eminent wits of the day, who were very kind to him, and contributed to render his life tolerably comfortable. He was frequently to be seen at Mr. Foote's table. Dr. Hiffernan wrote a dramatic afterpiece, called The Lady's Choice, and compelled the manager of Covent-Garden theatre to introduce it on the stage, for fear of incurring his displeasure; the Doctor having a knack at abusive criticism, which he frequently indulged in against plays and players. This piece, however, met with general disapprobation, and never made a second appearance. Some curious anecdotes of this gentleman may be found in vol. 25. of the European Magazine, and in this Dictionary under the article FooTE. HOBBES, (THOMAS) was born at Malmesbury in Wiltshire in 1588, and educated at Magdalenhall, Oxford. In 1608 he was engaged by the earl earl of Devonshire, as tutor to lord William Cavendish, with whom he made the tour of Europe. On the death of his patron and pupil, he became employed in the same character by a young gentleman; but the countess dowager of Devonshire recalled him to undertake the education of the young earl; a trust which he discharged with great fidelity. In 1628 he published an English translation of Thucydides, and reprinted it in 1634. The same year he accompanied the earl upon his travels, and at Pisa contracted an intimacy with Galileo. In 1637 he returned with his pupil to England, and, through the recommendation of Sir Charles Cavendish, afterwards duke of Newcastle, he was appointed mathematical tutor to the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. In 1650 appeared in English, his Treatise on Human Nature, and another De Corpore Politico, or The Elements of the Law. This latter piece was presented to Gassendus, and read by him a few months before his death; who is said to have kissed it, and then to have given his opinion of it in the following words :-" This treatise is in"deed small in bulk, but, in my judgment, the In 1651 he puvery marrow of science." blished his religious, political, and moral principles, in a complete system, which he called "The Leviathan," and caused a copy of it to be presented to the king; but his Majesty was dissuaded from giving it any countenance. 88th year, he published a translation, in English verse, of the whole Iliad and Odyssey of Homer: but his poetry was below mediocrity; P 3 In his though though he had before given some tokens of a poetic turn, in a Latin poem, entitled De Mirabilitus Pecci, or The Wonders of the Peak. He engaged in a dispute with Dr. Wallis, on the subject of Mathematics, but gained no honour in the contest. On the Restoration of the king he obtained a pension; but in 1666 the parlia ment passed a censure on his writings, at which he was exceedingly alarmed. There have been few persons whose writings have had a more pernicious influence, in spreading irreligion and infidelity than those of Hobbes; and yet none of his pieces are directly levelled against revealed religion. His Leviathan, by which he is now chiefly known, tends not only to subvert the authority of scripture, but to destroy God's moral government of the world: it confounds the natural difference of good and evil, virtue and vice; it destroys the best principles of the human nature; and, instead of that innate benevolence and social disposition which should unite men together, supposes all men to be naturally in a state of war with one another. The earl of Devonshire remained his constant patron, and Hobbes continued in the family till his death, which happened in 1679. When his physician assured him there were no hopes of a recovery, he said, "Then I am glad to find a loop-hole to creep out of the world at." It is wonderful to relate, that though he was a sceptic, he had great apprehensions of dying, and could not bear to be left alone for fear of apparitions, though in his writings he ridicules all ideas of immaterial beings. HOGARTH, HOGARTH, (WILLIAM) a celebrated English ar tist, was born in the parish of St. Martin, Ludgate, in 1698, and bound apprentice to Mr. Ellis Gamble, an engraver of arms upon silver plate. He began business on his own account about 1720, and his first employment appears to have been the engraving of arms and shop-bills. He next undertook to design and engrave plates for booksellers; the chief of which are a set of prints to illustrate Hudibras, in 1726. The first piece in which he distinguished himself as a painter, was a representation of Wanstead Assembly, the portraits taken from life, but without burlesque or caricature. In 1730 he married the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill; and soon after, having summer lodgings at South Lambeth, he embellished the gardens of Vauxhall with some excellent paintings, for which Mr. Tyers, the proprietor, complimented him with a golden ticket of admission for himself and friends. In 1733 his talents became more generally known and acknowledged. His Harlot's Progress introduced him to the notice of the great, and at once stampt his reputation.. This set of prints. was soon followed by other moral histories, most strikingly executed. Soon after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapel, he went over to France, and was taken into custody at Calais while he was drawing the gate of that town; after some time, however, he obtained his discharge, on condition that he continued a close prisoner to Grandsire his landlord, on his promising that Hogarth should not go out of his house till it was to embark for England. This circumstance gave rise fo rant, and the indigent; such as could neither plead their own cause, nor hire an advocate, were the miserable victims of this wretch's cre dulity, spleen, and avarice. He pretended to be a great critic in special marks, which were only moles, scorbutic spots, or warts, that frequently grow large and pendulous in old age; but were absuredly supposed to be teats to suckle imps. His ultimate method of proof was by tying together the thumbs and toes of the suspected person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the ends of which were held on the banks of a river by two men, in whose power it was to strain or slacken it. Swimming, upon this experiment, was deemed a sufficient proof of guilt; for which king James, (who is said to have recommended, if he did not invent it) assigned a ridiculous reason; That, as such persons had renounced their baptism by water, so the water refuses to receive them." Sometimes those who were accused of diabolical practices, were tied neck and heels, and tossed into a pond: "If they floated or swam they were consequently guilty, and therefore taken " out and burnt; if they were innocent they "were only drowned." The experiment of swimming was at length tried upon Hopkins himself, in his own way, and he was upon the event, condemned, and, as it seems, executed as a wizzard. Dr. Zach. Grey says, that he had seen an account of between three and four thousand persons, who suffered death for witchcraft in the king's dominions, from 1640 to the restoration of Charles II. In a letter from Ser jeant |