Chapter Hales to Hallam of H by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

and Vices (1614), and his Virgidemiarum, or Satires (1597-8), the last written before he was in orders, and condemned by Archbishop Whitgift to be burned. Pope, however, thought them “the best poetry and truest satire in the English language.” Hall’s Divine Right of Episcopacy gave rise to much controversy, in which Archbishop Ussher, Milton, and the writers who called themselves “Smectymnuus” (a combination of their initials) took part.

Hall, Robert (1764-1831).—Divine, born at Arnsby, Leicestershire, the son of a Baptist minister of some note, was educated at a Baptist Academy, and at the University of Aberdeen, from which he received the degree of D.D. in 1817. He ministered to congregations at Bristol, Cambridge, Leicester, and again at Bristol, and became one of the greatest pulpit orators of his day. His most famous sermon was that on the Death of the Princess Charlotte (1817). Another which created a great impression was that on Modern Infidelity. Hall was a life-long sufferer, and was occasionally insane, yet his intellectual activity was unceasing. After his death a collection of 50 of his sermons was published (1843), and Miscellaneous Works and Remains (1846).

Hallam, Henry (1777-1859).—Historian, son of a Dean of Wells, was born at Windsor, and educated at Eton and Oxford He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, and appointed a Commissioner of Stamps. Among his earliest writings were papers in the Edinburgh Review; but in 1818 he leaped into a foremost place among historical writers by the publication of his View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. This was followed in 1827 by The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II., and his third great work, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries, in 4 vols., appeared in 1837-39. All these, which have gone through several ed., and have been translated into the principal languages of Europe, are characterised by wide and profound learning, indefatigable research, and judicial impartiality. They opened a new field of investigation in which their author has had few, if any, superiors. In politics Hallam was a Whig; but he took no active share in party warfare. He had two sons of great promise, both of whom predeceased him. Of these the elder, Arthur Henry, is the subject of Tennyson’s In Memoriam, and of him his father wrote a touching memoir prefixed to his literary remains.