HERRNIIUT, an establishment in Upper Lusatia, comprising, it is said, at present 120 houses, soil 1500 inhabitants, which was founded by a few Moravians about the year 1722, tinder the patronage of Count Zinzendorf. The principles of the society thus formed are seclusion from the wat Id, the enjoyment of a con templative life, and the possession of all goods ;a common. lts members are bound together, under the title of Mora vian Brethren, by strict laws amil observ ances. Accusations have been thrown out against them of their indulging, in their retirement, in many licentious practices ; but it is certain that their in dustry supplies many of the markets of Germany with various useful and orna mental articles of handiwork ; that their zeal has prompted them to establish affi liated societies in many parts of Europe and America; and that in religious mat ters they are neither extravagant them selves, nor intolerant of others.
'1E11:T11A, (sometimes writ ten A e rtha, Aortha, and Eorthe.) In German my
thology, the name generally assigned in modern times to the chief divinity of the ancient German and Scandinavian no tions. She was worshipped under a va riety of names, of which the chief were exactly analogous to those of Terra, Rhea, Cybele, and Ops, among the Greeks and Romans. Long before the Christian era the knowledge of Hertha appeared to have been extended over a great portion of northern Europe. Tacitus speaks of the wonderful unanimity which tribes that had no other feature in common dis played in worshipping this goddess, whom ho designates Herthus, or Mother Earth. Iler chief sanctuary was situated, accord ing to the same authority, in a sacred grove in an island of the ocean, in insula oceani, which, by some writers, has been supposed to be Riga, and by others Zet land or Heligoland; but no modern re searches have been able accurately to fix its locality.