spoke once or twice, and had the honour of being- listened to with great attention, which is a compliment in a society of this kind, which is made up of people of all descriptions. It sits on Mondays from eight to ten. A ticket costs six-pence, for which yon get a well lighted room and as much porter and lemonade as you choose to drink. There is a subject fixed, and if that fail, the president gives another. I shall be a constant attendant, not only as it is one of the highest entertainments, but as the best substitute for the select clubs which I have left." "I carried," he says in another letter to his mother, "my pupil to the Robin Hood Society, along with Mr Brodie, Mr Campbell's parochial clergyman at Calder, who was on a visit to London. I made a splendid oration, which had the honour of a loud clap, and was very much approved by Mr Brodie. It is a fine exercise for oratorical talents." On another occasion Mr Hill thus expresses himself: "I am obliged to you for your observations on the knowledge of mankind. The true secret certainly for passing through life with comfort, and
especially to a person in my situation, is to study the tempers of those about him and to accommodate himself to them I don't know whether I am possessed of this secret, or whether there is something remarkable in the persons with whom I
converse, but I have found every body with whom I have had any connexion since I came to England or Wales, exceedingly agreeable. From all I have met with politeness and attention, and, from many, particular marks of favour and kindness. I may be defective in penetration and sagacity, and in judging of character, but I am sure I am pliable enough, more than I think sometimes quite right. I can laugh or be grave, talk nonsense, or politics, or philosophy, just as it suits my company, and can submit to any mortification to please those with whom I converse. I cannot flatter; but I can listen with attention, and
seem pleased with every thing that any body says. By arts like these, which have,
perhaps, a little meanness in them, but are so convenient that one does not
choose to lay them aside, I have had the good luck to be a favourite in most
places." This at eighteen, except perhaps in Scotland, will be looked upon as
an amazing instance of precocious worldly sense. In the scramble for the good
things of this world, had such a man failed, who could ever hope to succeed?
In a subsequent letter to his mother, referring to the circumstance of a younger brother entering upon his education, he observes, "What is the learning of any one language, but throwing away so much time in getting by heart a parcel of words in one language, and another parcel corresponding to the first in another? It is an odd thing that some more rational and useful employment cannot be found out for boys of his age, and that we should still throw away eight or ten years in learning dead languages, after we have spunged out of them all that is to be found. God certainly never intended that so much of our time should be spent in learning Greek and Latin. The period allotted to us for action is so short that we cannot too soon begin to fit ourselves for appearing upon the stage. Mr Campbell cannot read Greek, and he is a bad Latin scholar ; yet he is a philosopher, a divine, and a statesman, because he has improved his natural parts by reading a great deal of English, I am, and perhaps all my life shall continue a close student ; but I hate learning. I have no more than is absolutely necessary, and as soon as I can I shall throw that little away." Whatever was his Latinity, Mr Campbell's interest was good and promised still to be better, in consequence of which Mr Hill's friends were instant with him to go into the church of England, where, through the attention of Mr Campbell, he might be much better provided for than he could be in the church of Scotland, to which, notwithstanding, he still professed not only adherence, but a high degree of veneration.
From this temptation he was delivered by the death of Mr Pryce Campbell,
