Hough, John, D.D., 2, a Congregational minis- ter, was born in Stamford, Conn., August 17, 1783. He graduated at Yale in 1802, then studied divinity, and was sent in 1806 as missionary to Vermont, where l.e was ordained pastor at Vergennes in 1807. This pas- torate he resigned in 1812, and became professor of lan- guages in ]\Iiddlebury College, Vt. Here he remained twenty-seven years, occupying several chairs in turn. He left in 1839, and was some time in the service of the Colonization Society. In 1841 he was installed pastor at Windham, Ohio. He obtained a dismission in 1850, on account of failing eyesight, ■which finally became blindness. He died at Fort Wajnie, Indiana, July 17, 1861. Hough was eminently successful and popular as an instructor. He published three sermons, preached at ordinations (1810, 1823, 1826), and was one of the editjors of " The Adviser, or Vermont Evangelical Magazine." — Congreg. Quurt. iii, 378 ; Wilson, Presbyt. Historical A l- manac, 1862, p. 186.
Houghtaling, J. B., a IMethodist Episcopal minis- ter, was l^orn in Northeast, Dutchess Co., N. Y., Oct. 9, 1797; studied law for five years, from 1813; was con- verted about 1817, and entered the itinerant ministry in 1828. He was appointed agent of the Troy Confer- ence Academy in 1835, and, on account of poor health, took a supernumerary relation in 1847, which he retain- ed until his death in 1856 or 7. He was a N-ery useful preacher and an excellent pastor. His business abilities were fine, and he was for many j-ears secretary of the Troy Conference, and twice assistant secretary of the General Conference. — Minutes of Conferences, vi, 353. (G. L. T.)
Hour (Chald. n^'TT, shaah', a moment, prop, a looh, i. q. "the M-ink of an eye" [Germ. Avgenhliclc'] ; Greek iopa), a terra first found in Dan. iii, 6; iv, 19, 33; v, 5; and occurring several times in the Apocrypha (Judith xix, 8 ; 2 Esd. ix, 44). It seems to be a vague expres- sion for a short period, and the frequent phrase "in the
same hour" means " immediately :" hence we find InU/'tJS substituted in the Targum for "5"3, "in a moment" (Numb, xvi, 21, etc.). The corre?ponding Gr. term is frequently used in the same way by the N.-T. writers (Matt, viii, 13 ; Luke xii, 39, etc.). The word hour is sometimes used in Scripture to denote some determinate season, as "mine hour is not yet come," "this is your hour, and the power of darkness," " the hour is coming," etc. It occurs in the Sept. as a rendering for various words meaning time, just as it does in Greelc writers long before it acquired the specific meaning of our word " hour." Saah is still used in Arabic both for an hour and a moment.
The ancient Hebrews were probably unacquainted with the division of the natural day into twenty-foiur parts. The general distinctions of " morning, evening, and noonday" (Psa. Iv, 17 ; comp. Gen. xv, 12 ; xviii, 1 ; xix, 1, 15, 23) were sufficient for them at first, as they were for the early Greeks (Homer, //. xxi, 3, 111) ; af- tenvards the Greeks adopted five marked periods of the day (Jul. Pollux, Onom. i, 68 ; Dio Chrysost. Orat. in De Glor.), and the Hebrews parcelled out the period be- tween sunrise and sunset into a series of minute divi- sions distinguished by the sun's course, as is still done by the Arabs, who have stated forms of prayers for each period (Lane's Mod. Eg. vol. i, ch. iii). See Day.
The early Jews appear to have divided the day into fotir parts (Neh. ix, 3), and even in the N. T. we find a trace of this division in Matt, xx, 1-5. There is, how- ever, no proof of the assertion sometimes made, that ulpa in the Gospels may occasionally mean a space of three hours. It has been thought by some interpreters (see Wolfii Curcc in N. T. ad John xix, 14) that the evangel- ist John alv.-ays computes the hours of the day after the Roman reckoning, i. e. from midnight to midnight (see Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii, 79 ; Aul. Gell. Noct. A II. iii, 2) ; but this is without support from Hebrew analog}', and obliges the gratuitous supposition of a reckoning also from mid- day (against John xi, 9).
The Greeks adopted the division of the day into twelve hours from the Babylonians (Herodotus, ii, 109 ; comp. Rawlinson, Herod, ii, 334). At what period the Jews became first acquainted with this way of reckon- ing time is unknown, but it is generally supjiosed that they, too, learned it from the Babylonians during the Captivity (Wiihner, A nl. Hehr. § v, i, 8, 9). They may have had some such division at a much earlier period, as has been inferred from the fact that Ahaz erected a sun-dial in Jerusalem, the use of which had probably been learned from Babylon. There is, however, the greatest imcertainty as to the meaning of the word r.ibs-O (A. V. "degrees," Isa. xxxviii, 8). See Dial. It is strange that the Je\vs were not acquainted with this method of reckoning even earlier, for, although a purely conventional one, it is naturally suggested by the montlis in a year. Sir G. WUkmson thinks that it arose from a less obvious cause (Rawlinson, Herod, ii, 334). In whatever M^ay it originated, it was known to the Egyptians at a very early period. They had twelve hours of the day and of the night (called Nau = \niVLr), each of which had its own genius, drawn with a star on its head. The word is said by Lepsius to be found as far back as the fifth dynasty (Rawlinson, //f;-w/.ii, 135). The night was divided into twelve equal pfirtions or hours, in precisely the same manner as the day. The. most ancient division, however, was into three watches {Ant. Ixiii, 6; xc, 4) — the first, or beginning of the watches, as it is called (Lam. ii. 19) ; the middle watch (Judg. vii, 19) ; and the morning watch (Exod. xiv, 24). See WATCir. When Judwa became a province of Rome, the Roman distribution of the night into four watches was introduced; to which division frequent allusions occiur in the New Testament (Lulie xii, 38 ; Matt, xiv, 25; xiii, 35), as well as to that of hours (IMatt. xxv, 13; xxvi, 40 ; IMark xiv, 37 ; Luke xvii, 59 ; Acts xxiii, 23 ; Rev. iii, 3). See Cock-ckowing.