Part 44 (1/2)
”My lord, the eyes of all Europe are upon this transaction.
What t.i.tle I have to your lords.h.i.+p'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 fas.h.i.+onable; 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. Gla.s.se's Cookery, and of several novels. There is a very curious work, ent.i.tled ”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 n.o.ble 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, ent.i.tled ”Observations on the Greek and Roman Cla.s.sics,” 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 ill.u.s.tration. It only wants a chastening hand to become a manual for the young cla.s.sical 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sion, and is coldly encouraged; at length he triumphs; and this proud and sullen beauty, in her turn, presents a horrid picture of the pa.s.sions. 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; a.s.signing 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, ent.i.tled ”Thoughts Concerning G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstance 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 lords.h.i.+p also a.s.sisted him in publis.h.i.+ng 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.”
Garrick's happy lines are well known on his farces:--
”For physic and farces his equal there scarce is-- His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.”
Another said--
”The worse that we wish thee, for all thy vile crimes, Is to take thy own physic, and read thy own rhymes.”
The rejoinder would reverse the wish--
”For, if he takes his physic first, He'll never read his rhymes.”
[296] Hill says, in his pamphlet on the ”Virtues of British Herbs”:--”It will be happy if, by the same means, the knowledge of plants also becomes more general. The study of them is pleasant, and the exercise of it healthful. He who seeks the herb for its cure, will find it half effected by the walk; and when he is acquainted with the useful kinds, he may be more people's, besides his own, physician.”
BOYLE AND BENTLEY.
A Faction of Wits at Oxford the concealed movers of this Controversy--Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE'S opinions the ostensible cause; Editions of cla.s.sical Authors by young Students at Oxford the probable one--BOYLE'S first attack in the Preface to his ”Phalaris”--BENTLEY, after a silence of three years, betrays his feelings on the literary calumny of BOYLE--BOYLE replies by the ”Examination of Bentley's Dissertation”--BENTLEY rejoins by enlarging it--the effects of a contradictory Narrative at a distant time--BENTLEY'S suspicions of the origin of the ”Phalaris,” and ”The Examination,” proved by subsequent facts--BENTLEY'S dignity when stung at the ridicule of Dr.
KING--applies a cla.s.sical pun, and nicknames his facetious and caustic Adversary--KING invents an extraordinary Index to dissect the character of BENTLEY--specimens of the Controversy; BOYLE'S menace, anathema, and ludicrous humour--BENTLEY'S sarcastic reply not inferior to that of the Wits.
The splendid controversy between BOYLE and BENTLEY was at times a strife of gladiators, and has been regretted as the opprobrium of our literature; but it should be perpetuated to its honour; for it may be considered, on one side at least, as a n.o.ble contest of heroism.