H I L 
the emprefs Catharine. In 1724 he commenced a perio- 
dicalpaper, called The Plain Dealer. It was probably 
this exercife of his pen which gave him admiffion among 
the party-writers fatirifed in the Dunciad, which was 
firft printed in 1727. He was, however, treated very 
refpe&fully ; and it is probable that Pope’s lines will 
perpetuate his memory, with more credit than any of 
his own works. He is defcribing the diving-match in 
Fleet-ditch : 
Then H— afTay’d ; fcarce vaniflt’d out of fight, 
He buoys up inftant, and returns to light; 
He bears no token of the fabler dreams, 
And mounts far off among the fwans.of Thames. 
I-lill, however, did not relifh a compliment fo mixed; 
and, in a piece entitled The Progr.efs of Wit, he retali¬ 
ated by fome lines, which, for polilhed keennefs, are 
worthy of Pope himfelf. The breach was afterwards 
healed, and they became friends. In 1731 he had the 
misfortune to lofe his beloved wife, who had made him 
father of nine children, four of whom furvived him. In 
that year he brought out his tragedy of Athelwold, 
which was his juvenile-Elfrid, re-written; and the dif¬ 
ference between them proved the progrefs of his judg¬ 
ment and poetical powers. He afterwards tranflated in 
fucceiTion, and adapted for the Englilh theatre, the Zaia, 
Alzira, and Merope, of Voltaire ; in which talks he dif- 
played a command of language, and a knowledge of the 
llage, which placed him much above the common im¬ 
porters of foreign dramas. His Merope was his la ft per¬ 
formance: falling into a decline, he died in February 
1750, in his fixty-eighth year, and was interred in the 
tloifters of Weftminfter-abbey. 
HILL (fir John), a multifarious writer, and celebrated 
natural!!!, the fou of a clergyman of Spalding, born in 
1716. Early in life he obtained a recommendation to 
the duke of Richmond and lord Petre, who engaged 
him in the infpection and arrangement of their botanical 
gardens. By means of their liberality he was enabled to 
make a tour through various parts of the kingdom, for 
the colleiSlion of rare plants, of which lie publilhed an 
account by fubfcription. He' then purfued the other 
branches of natural hiftory; and by the publication of 
a verfion of the Greek trad! On Gems, by Theophraftus, 
in 1746, he acquired credit among the learned. He now 
undertook a General Hiftory of Nature, 3 vols. folio ; 
a Hiftory of the Materia Medica ; and a Supplement to 
Chambers’s Didlionary. He publilhed in 1752, Eftays 
on Natural Hiftory and Philofophy, which contain many 
curious microfcopical obfervations. Other works of his 
relative to botany were : 1. The Britilh Herbal, »75 6 > 
folio ; a fplendid work, with delineations of moft of the 
indigenous plants in Ray’s Synopfis, and fome foreign 
ones” it is chiefly arranged according to natural dalles. 
2. Eden, or a complete Body of Gardening, 1757, folio. 
The Sleep of Plants explained, 1757, 8vo. 4. Out- 
fines of a Syftem of Vegetable Generation, 175S, 8vo. 
r. Exotic Botany, illuftrated in thirty-five Figures of 
curious Plants, 1759, folio. The Linnaean fyfteni in bo¬ 
tany now beginning to prevail, he feized the opportunity 
of adapting Englilh botany to its rules, in his Flora Bri- 
tannica, 1760; “ but this,” fays Dr. Pulteney, “ was 
executed in a manner fo unworthy of his abilities, that 
his work can have no claim to the merit of having an- 
fwered the occafion.” His greateft performance in this 
branch was undertaken through the liberal patronage of 
the earl of Bute. It was entitled the Vegetable Syftem, 
and confifted of feventeen.volumes folio, publilhed in 
fucceflion, and illuftrated with figures of his own deli¬ 
neation. He alfo publilhed a Hortus Kewenfis, 1768, Svb. 
and,a work which Haller fpeaks of as very valuable, 
The ConftruftionofTimber from its early Growth, 1770, 
Svo. He took the degree of M.D. from St. Andrew’s, 
Scotland ; and, fome time before his death, a prefent of 
bis botanical works to the king of Sweden procured him 
Vol. IX. No-. 634. 
H I L 863 
the title of knight of the Polar Star. The patronage of 
lord Bute procured him the management of' the royal 
gardens at K.ew-, with a handfome Hilary. He died of 
the gouj in November 1775. 
HILL-COUNTRY, J. A diftria of any country 
abounding with hills: a Scripture term. 
HIL'LARY, a town of Sweden, in the province of 
Sma.land : forty-two miles fouth-weft of Wexi®. 
HIL'LEBECK, a town of Norway, in the diocefe of 
Aggerhuus : thirteen miles fouth-weft of Chriftianfa. 
HILfLEBRUN, a town of Sweden, in the province of 
Geftritia : eight miles north of Geiflie. 
HIL'LEL the Elder; probably the perfon who is 
' called Pollio by jofephus, was one of the moft emi¬ 
nent of the Jewilh dodiors ; and, according to St. Je¬ 
rome, flourilhed in Judea not lorig before the birth of 
Chrift. He was defcended pn his mother’s fide from the 
family of David, and born iti tlie Babylonifii territory, 
where he. lived till he was forty years pf age. He was 
chofen a member of th.p-great Sanhedrim ; and, together 
with Shammai, another eminent dodtor,- conftantly re¬ 
filled the meifitr.es of that body for oppofing Herod’s 
elevation to the throne, and defending the city againft 
his army. By this policy thofe men efcaped.the llaugh- 
ter to which all the other members.of the Sanhedrim 
were configned, after Herod had become mafter of the 
city. 0,f the Sanhedrim which was afterwards formed. 
Hill el was made prefident, and Shgimnai vice-prelideiu. 
The time when Hillel entered upon his prefidentfliip, 
was about a hundred years before, the deftrudtion of 
Jerufalem, and when he was. eighty years of age. If 
we are to credit the Jewilh writers, he occupied that 
poll till he was an hundred and twenty years old, and 
difcharged its duties with greater wifdom and juftice 
than any who had filled it before him from the time of 
Simon the Juft. H.llel is faid to have educated above a 
thoufand fch.9l.drs in t-jie knowledge of the law, of whom 
feveral attained to a high degree of. eminence among the 
Jewilh doctors, and fome became diftinguiftied forlheir 
ftiare in producing the Targums, or Chaldee paraphrafes 
upon the Old Teftament. Some Jewilh writers maintain 
that Hillel ought to be confidered as the firft author of 
the Mifi'na, fince they fay,that lie w.as the firft wlm ar¬ 
ranged their traditions in fix Sedarim, or regular treatifes. 
His defcendants are faid to have fucceeded to the honour 
of prefident of the Sanhedrim, from father to fon, foc_ 
ten generations. 
HIL'LEL the Younger, governed the Jewilh church 
in the third century of the Chriftian era, under the title 
of patriarch ; and was a lineal defcendant from the pre¬ 
ceding, and a perfon of great learning and merit. He 
was the firft compiler of the prefent calendar of the Jewilh 
year. He introduced into it the cycle of nineteen years, 
to reconcile the courfe of the fun with that of the moon, 
by the help of feven intercalations. He was one of the 
principal doctors concerned in com’pofing the Gemara • 
and died a profelyte to the Chriftian faith. 
HIL'LER (Matthew), a learned German Lutheran 
divine, born at Stutgard in 1646. After being initiated 
in the elements of learning at the fchools in his native 
city, he went to the univerfity of Tubingen iii i666„ 
where he took the degree of mafter of arts in 1669. In 
1677 he was made deacon of Hernbergj and-in 168 j j re¬ 
ceptor to the convent of Bebenhaufen. Aftei a. Vj. j ;e 
was made profelfor of logic and metaphylics at Tubin¬ 
gen, and in 1692 was appointed to the chair of Hebrew 
profelfor. In 1698 he was created .profeifor in ordinary 
of the Greek and Oriental languages, profchbr-cxtrat r- 
dinary of divinity, principal of the ft a; end mm of ti e 
prince, and vifitor of the fchools of VVirleml erg above 
the Steig. Afterwards he was nominated abbot of Ileren- 
alb, and in 1716 of the convent of ile ,b :bnn . e 
he died in 1725, aged feventy-iiine. Im •.as ,C aui hor 
of, 1. Sciagraphia Grammatics Hebrate, 1674. 2. hijihutioivct 
litngu* SanBte, 2rUxiconLatino-Hebraw.il!!. . .■* 
