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:--