"See where my son, who gratefully repays
Whate'er I lavish'd on his younger days;
Whom still my arm protects to brave the town
Secure from Fielding, Machiavel, or Brown;
Whom rage nor sword e'er mortally shall hurt,
Chief of a hundred chiefs o'er all the pert!
Rescued an orphan babe from common sense,
I gave his mother's milk to Confidence;
She with her own ambrosia bronz'd his face,
And changed his skin to monumental brass.
Whom rage nor sword e'er mortally shall hurt,
Chief of a hundred chiefs o'er all the pert!
Rescued an orphan babe from common sense,
I gave his mother's milk to Confidence;
She with her own ambrosia bronz'd his face,
And changed his skin to monumental brass."
[292] Hill addresses the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and the Speaker, on Sir Hans Sloane's Collection of Natural
History, proposing himself as a candidate for nomination in
the principal office, by whatever name that shall be
called:--"I deliver myself with humility; but conscious also
that I possess the liberties of a British subject, I shall
speak with freedom." He says that the only means left for a
Briton is to address his sovereign and the public. "That
foreigners will resort to this collection is certain, for it
is the most considerable in the world; and that our own people
will often visit it is as sure, because it may be made the
means of much useful as well as curious knowledge. One and the
other will expect a person in that office who has sufficient
knowledge: he must be able to give account of every article,
freely and fluently, not only in his own, but in the Latin and
French languages.
"This the world, and none in it better than your lordship,
sees is not a place that any one can execute: it requires
knowledge in a peculiar and uncommon kind of study--knowledge
which very few possess; and in which, my lord, the bitterest
of my enemies (and I have thousands, although neither myself
nor they know why) will not say I am deficient----.
"My lord, the eyes of all Europe are upon this transaction.
What title I have to your lordship's favour, those books which
I have published, and with which (pardon the necessary boast)
all Europe is acquainted, declare. Many may dispute by
interest with me; but if there be one who would prefer
himself, by his abilities, I beg the matter may be brought to
trial. The collection is at hand; and I request, my lord, such
person and myself may be examined by that test, together. It
is an amazing store of knowledge; and he has most, in this
way, who shall show himself most acquainted with it.
"What are my own abilities it very ill becomes me thus to
boast; but did they not qualify me for the trust, my lord, I
would not ask it. As to those of any other, unless a man be
conjured from the dead, I shall not fear to say there is not
any one whoever that is able so much as to call the parts of
the collection by their names.
"I know I shall be accused of ostentation in giving to myself
this preference; and I am sorry for it: but those who have
candour will know it could not be avoided.
"Many excel, my lord, in other studies: it is my chance to
have bestowed the labour of my life on this: those labours may
be of some use to others. This appears the only instance in
which it is possible that they should be rewarded----."
In a subsequent _Inspector_, he treated on the improvement of
botany by raising plants, and reading lectures on them at the
British Museum, with the living plants before the lecturer and
his auditors. Poor Sir John! he was born half a century too
early!--He would, in this day, have made his lectures
fashionable; and might have secured at the opera every night
an elegant audience for the next morning in the gardens of the
Museum.
[293] It would be difficult to form a list of his anonymous works or
compilations, among which many are curious. Tradition has
preserved his name as the writer of Mrs. Glasse's Cookery, and
of several novels. There is a very curious work, entitled
"Travels in the East," 2 vols. 8vo, of which the author has
been frequently and in vain inquired after. These travels are
attributed to a noble lord; but it now appears that they are a
very entertaining narrative manufactured by Hill. Whiston, the
bookseller, had placed this work in his MS. catalogue of
Hill's books.
There is still another production of considerable merit,
entitled "Observations on the Greek and Roman Classics," 1753.
A learned friend recollects, when young, that this critical
work was said to be written by Hill. It excels Blackwell and
Fenton; and aspires to the numerous composition of prose. The
sentimental critic enters into the feelings of the great
authors whom he describes with spirit, delicacy of taste, and
sometimes with beautiful illustration. It only wants a
chastening hand to become a manual for the young classical
student, by which he might acquire those vivid emotions, which
many college tutors may not be capable of communicating.
I suspect, too, he is the author of this work, from a passage
which Smart quotes, as a specimen of Hill's puffing himself,
and of those smart short periods which look like wit, without
being witty. In a letter to himself, as we are told, Hill
writes:--"You have discovered many of the beauties of the
ancients--they are obliged to you; we are obliged to you: were
they alive, they would thank you; we who are alive do thank
you." If Hill could discriminate the most hidden beauties of
the ancients, the _tact_ must have been formed at his
leisure--in his busy hours he never copied them; but when had
he leisure?
Two other works, of the most contrasted character, display the
versatility and dispositions of this singular genius, at
different eras. When "The Inspector" was rolling in his
chariot about the town, appeared "Letters from the Inspector
to a Lady," 1752. It is a pamphlet, containing the amorous
correspondence of Hill with a reigning beauty, whom he first
saw at Ranelagh. On his first ardent professions he is
contemptuously rejected; he perseveres in high passion, and is
coldly encouraged; at length he triumphs; and this proud and
sullen beauty, in her turn, presents a horrid picture of the
passions. Hill then becomes the reverse of what he was; weary
of her jealousy, sated with the intercourse, he studiously
avoids, and at length rejects her; assigning for his final
argument his approaching marriage. The work may produce a
moral effect, while it exhibits a striking picture of all the
misery of illicit connexions: but the scenes are coloured with
Ovidian warmth. The original letters were shown at the
bookseller's: Hill's were in his own handwriting, and the
lady's in a female hand. But whether Hill was the publisher,
as an attempt at notoriety--or the lady admired her own
correspondence, which is often exquisitely wrought, is not
known.
Hill, in his serious hours, published a large quarto volume,
entitled "Thoughts Concerning God and Nature," 1755. This
work, the result of his scientific knowledge and his moral
reasoning, was never undertaken for the purpose of profit. He
printed it with the certainty of a considerable loss, from its
abstract topics, not obvious to general readers; at a time,
too, when a guinea quarto was a very hazardous enterprise. He
published it purely from conscientious and religious motives;
a circumstance mentioned in that Apology of his Life which we
have noticed. The more closely the character of Hill is
scrutinised, the more extraordinary appears this man, so often
justly contemned, and so often unjustly depreciated.
[294] Through the influence of Lord Bute he became connected with the
Royal Gardens at Kew; and his lordship also assisted him in
publishing his botanical works. See note, p. 363.
[295] It would occupy pages to transcribe epigrams on Hill. One of
them alludes to his philosophical as well as his literary
character:--
"Hill puffs himself; forbear to chide!
An insect vile and mean
Must first, he knows, be magnified
Before it can be seen."