hich Sir John
strenuously opposed; but his lordship repeating his desire,
Sir John complied, lest his lordship should find a pretext to
cast aside repeated promises of ample provision for himself
and family. But this was the crisis of his fate--he died."
Lady Hill adds:--"He was a character on which every virtue was
impressed." The domestic partiality of the widow cannot alter
the truth of the narrative of "The Vegetable System," and its
twenty-six tomes.

[283] His apologist forms this excuse for one then affecting to be a
student and a rake:--"Though engaged in works which required
the attention of a whole life, he was so exact an economist of
his time that he scarcely ever missed a public amusement for
many years; and this, as he somewhere observes, was of no
small service to him; as, without indulging in these respects,
he could not have undergone the fatigue and study inseparable
from the execution of his vast designs."--Short Account of the
"Life, Writings, and Character of the late Sir John Hill,
M.D." Edinburgh: 1779.

[284] Hogarth has painted a portrait of Folkes, which is still hanging
in the rooms of the Royal Society. He was nominated
vice-president by the great Sir Isaac Newton, and succeeded
him as president. He wrote a work on the "English Silver
Coinage," and died at the age of sixty-four, 1754.--ED.

[285] Hill planned his Review with good sense. He says:--"If I am
merry in some places, it ought to be considered that the
subjects are too ridiculous for serious criticism. That the
work, however, might not be without its _real use_, an _Error_
is nowhere exposed without establishing a _Truth_ in its
place." He has incidentally thrown out much curious
knowledge--such as his plan for forming a _Hortus Siccus_, &c.
The Review itself may still be considered both as curious and
entertaining.

[286] In exposing their deficiencies, as well as their redundancies,
Hill only wishes, as he tells us, that the Society may by this
means become ashamed of what it has been, and that the world
may know that _he is NOT a member of it till it is an honour
to a man to be so_! This was telling the world, with some
ingenuity, and with no little i