sareft piles of books by a number of cobwebs: At their entrance, he commonly ufed to call out to them, Not to hurt his fpiders!' Magliabechi was early made a Member of the Arcadi; a fociety established at Rome, towards the end of the last century, for the revival of true tafte in poetry, eloquence, and the polite arts. Moft of the eminent people all over Italy, and many of other countries, are inrolled in it; and, though of fo much later date than many of the other Acade mies in Italy, there is fearce any one of them, perhaps, that can boast the names of many Kings and Princes, or Popes and Cardinals, as appears in their lift. Their affemblies and games have for many years been kept in a theatre built on purpofe for them in the gardens, now belonging to the King of Naples, on the Palatine-hill, in Rome. It is here too that they have ufed, almoft ever fince their inftitution, to set up memorial infcriptions to fome of the moit worthy of their Members. There is one to Magliabechi, in the fourth year of the it hundred and twenty-fifth Olympiad, for they have revived that ancient way of rec koning, in which he is tiled, Their Coun fellor, or oracle, in all forts of learning Crefcembeni, the great promoter and foul of this Society for fo many years, and Prefident of it from its firit etablishment, to the end of his own life, has given the world a fuller account of thefe Arcadians, than is any where elle to be met with, in his hiftory of Italian poetry. He was a particular friend of Magliabechi; with whom he got acquainted, when he was obliged to go into Tufcany for his health. He fpeaks of him frequently in his history just mentioned, and never without some encomium. Moreri fays, That he was famous alt over Europe, for his great knowledge in books, and in literary history: And Lavocat, That he was confulted by all the learned in Europe; and highly commended by them all. Cardinal Norris, in one of his works, calls him, The most learned man, and the most applauded in all nations of the world, which are not inhabited by barbarians.')) 3 Salvini made his funeral oration, in the Florentine Academy; by which Maglia bechi had been chofen for their Secretary annually, for several years before his deathAnd, even in the midst of that affembly of fo many learned and eminent men, calls him, "The principal ornament of his country. The whole speech confifts of compli ments to his merit, or excufes for what might feem amifs in him; and, in the courfe of it, he gives him the titles of The great Magliabechi: The univerfal library : A prodigy of learning and fome others, which may perhaps found better in Italian, than they would in English. Thus lived and died Magliabechi, in the midst of the public applaufe; and with such an affluence, for all the latter part of his life, as very few perfons have ever procured by their knowledge or learning. falisado aid an ROBERT HILL. cat bound him (1714) apprentice to his fatherham. 1699 at Mifwell, a little village of only three or four houses, near Tring in Hert- It was about two years after (1716) he ford hire. His mother's maiden name was was apprentice, that he first happened to Clark; the loft her husband within the get an imperfect Accidence and Grammar, year; returned to her own family at Mif- and about three quarters of a Littleton's well; and, about five years after, was mar- Dictionary, into his poffeffion. From the red to Thomas Robinson, a taylor at Buc firft moment of fo great an acquifition, he kingham. On her going thither, the left was reading whenever he could; and, as our Robert, the only fon of her first mar. they would fearce allow him any time from rage, with his grandmother at Mifwell; his work by day, he fed to procure canwho taught him to read, and fent him to dies as privately as he could, and indulge School for feven or eight weeks to learn himself in the violent paffion he had for to write which was all the fchooling he reading, for good part of the nights. He ever had. In the year 1710, the removed wanted greatly to learn Latin; why, does with her family from Milwell to Tring- not appear: For he himself does not regrove; where little Robert was employed member any other reafon for it at prefent, in driving the plough, and other country than that he might be able to read a few bulinefs, for his uncle. But they finding Latin epitaphs in their church. However this rather too much for his conftitution, that be, this purfuit of his was foon interwhich was but weakly, thought an eafyrupted (1717), by the fmail pox coming Wade would be better for him; and fo into Buckingham, and growing so violent 2 there, there, that his friends fent him to Tringgrove; and, in the hurry, his books were left behind him. At the Grove, he was employed in keeping his uncle's fheep; and speaks of that occupation in as high a ftile of happiness, as the romance-writers talk of their Arcadian fwains: But what made it fo happy to him was, as he himself expreffes it, That he could lie under a hedge, and read all day long. His study here confifted only of the Practice of Piety, the Whole Duty of Man, and Mauger's French Grammar. Thefe he read over and over fo often, that he had them almost all by heart; and has a great deal of them ftill. He ftaid there a year and a quarter; and on his return to Buckingham (1719), he was highly delighted at feeing his old friend the Latin Grammar again, and immediately renewed his ac quaintance with it. In this fecond attempt of his for Latin, he was affifted by fome of his play-fellows among the boys at the free-fchool at Buckingham: And, by fuch means, enabled himself to read a good part of a Latin Teftament, which he had purcha. fed, and à Cæfar's Commentaries, that had been given him, before he was out of his apprenticeship. Soon after he was out of his time, he married (1721); and had Horace and a Greek Teftament added to his books, by the goodness of a Gentleman for whom he was at work. As he could not bear to have a book in his hands, that he could not read; he no fooner received the latter, than he refolved to learn Greek: And, that very evening, communicated his deign to a young Gentleman, with whom he was acquainted; who gave him a Greek Grammar, and pro mifed to affift him as far as he could in his defign. In the mean time, as his wife proved a good breeder, he found it neceffary to do fomething to add to his income; and there. fore fet up for a schoolmaster (1724), as well as a a taylor; and he had fo good fuccefs, that he had generally upwards of fifty fcholars, for the fix or feven years that he practifed it. However, there were fome difficulties that he met with, in his new employ. He had fcarce been in it half a year, when a lad, well advanced in another fchool, returned home to Buckingham to go to his. In the first converfation, Mr. Hill found, that this new fcholar of his was got to decimal fractions; whereas he himself was but lately entered, and that but a little way, into divifion. This was a terrible embarrassment, at firft; but Mr. Hill took the following method of difentangling himself from it; he fet his young man to copying out the tables of decimal fraction from Wingate; which engaged him fo about fix weeks: And in the mean tim he himself applied fo hard to his arithme tic, that he himself made master of decim fractions, before that time was expired but to do this, he was forced to fit up th greatest part of every night, in the interval About two years after, Mr. Hill had lo his first wife (1730), he married his fecond She was a widow, and was looked upon a a fortune, for the brought him a great man goods; but he was a bad woman in all re pects; and he suffered fo much from he and her extravagancies, that, before the had lived two years together, the debts fh had brought upon him obliged him to re folve to quit Buckingham, and to trave and work about the country, in his busine as a taylor and stay-maker. Some time before he fet out, he wa feized with a violent paffion for learning Hebrew; for which he can give no other reafon, than that he had seen several quota tions in that language, in an English book of controverfy, which he had been studying tor fome time. How very laborious a thing muft it be to purfue one's firft ftudies in any language or science, without a fingle friend to give one any advice? And indeed a purfuit fo tedious, and fo often baffled, at la quite tired out even his patience; and one day, in a mixture of paffion and despair, he parted with the books he had hitherto ufed to atfist him (1735), as weak and insufficient friends. However, this proved only a fudden guft of paffion; and his fettled eagernels for conquering the Hebrew language foon returned again, and grew as Itrong as ever upon him. All this while, it was neceffary that the places of his refidence fhould be concealed; which prevented his keeping up any correfpondence with his friends at Buckingham; fo that death had been fo good as to eale him of his greatest embaraffment, his wife, two or three years before he heard of it. She had, as he himself allows, one child, and, as fhe ufed to affirm, two by him; but the parentage of the latter was very equivocal. However, I think, they both died foon after their mother. On the news of this his relief from a con fort, who did nothing but add to his unhappinefs and difficulties while the lived, he returned January 31, 1744, N. S. to Buc kingham. There he fettled himfelf again in his firft occupation of taylor and ftay maker; which anfwered all his purposes very well for four or five years, in which space he procured books for his use, in Latin Greek, and Ilebrew: But marrying a third wife (1747), who proved as good a breeder as his brit, he began to be involved again in difficulties; not by any fault of her's, for he speaks of her as of the best of women; but in the former part of the time, from the increase of his family; and in the latter, from the uncommon dearness of d things, and hardness of the times. Though Mr. Hill, in his whole courfe of getting the three learned languages, had endeavoured to keep his acquifition of them as much a fecret as he could; it could not be fo wholly concealed, but that there was fome talk of it. In particular, at this period of his life, it was rumoured about the country, That he could read the Bible in the fame books, and the fame ftrange fi gures, that the travelling Jews did.' Upon hearing this, a very worthy clergyman in the neighbourhood of Buckingham, when Mr. Hill happened to be working one day at his houfe, in the way of his trade, put a question to him (1748), relating to a difficulty in the New Testament: Pray Robin, fays the Doctor, Can you folve the difficulty of St. Peter, calling the fame perfor the fon of Bofor, whom Mofes calls the fon of Beor? Hill's anfwer was, That he did not know any difficulty in it; that they were both one and the fame name : Bolor in the Chaldaic pronunciation be ing exactly the fame with Beor in the He brew 2 Epift. of St. Peter, c. ii. v. 14; and Numbers, c. xxii. v, 5. The fame Gentleman fome years after fent Mr. Hill the Effay on Spirit, faid to be written by the late Bishop of Clogher, in Ireland; and defired him to write down his thoughts on that piece, as they occurred to him in reading it. He did fo; and I am told by those who understand Hebrew, for which there was frequent occafion in thofe obfervations, that our humble tay. lor has proved his Lordfhip to be in the wrong in feveral of his quotations and affertions in that work. This was the first piece of Mr. Hill's, that was ever printed (1753). The next thing the fame Gentle man employed him about, was to write a paper against the Papifts, whofe emiffaries were then very buff in thofe parts, in which Mr. Hill endeavoured to fhew, that feveral of the most important and favourite doctrines of the church of Rome are novel inventions; and confequently, that it is they, and not we, that are the innovators. About the fame time, or rather in the interval between these two, Hill wrote the Character of a Jew, when the bill for naturalifing that people was in agitation: This, he fays, was the best thing he ever wrote, and Was the leaft approved of. And lately he has written Criticifins on Job, in five fheets; which, I think, is the largest of all his works. According to his own account, Mr. Hill was taken up seven years in getting Latin, and twice as long in getting Greek; but as to the Hebrew, he fays, he himself would now engage to teach it to any body of tolerable parts, and with very moderate application, in fix weeks. He fays he has read, he believes, twenty Hebrew grammars; and is now writing one himtelf: In which fort of fubject he feems likely to fucceed better than in any other, because it has been the most general fiudy of his life. Mayr's grammar he thinks much the best of all he has read; he therefore intends to build his chiefly upon Mayr's, as Mayr himfelf did his d that of Cardinal Bellarmine. on He thinks he could teach the Hebrew language, even at a diftance, by way of letters; that fix or feven would be fufficient; and that even the pronunciation of it, as it is a dead language, might be taught the fame way. He is a vaft admirer of St. Jerome: thinks him as fine a writer as Cicero; and that no-body ever could excel him in eloquence: Yet he fays, That he is not obliged to any one writer, nor to all others put together, for fo many lights as he had from Father Simon." As his ftudies have lain chiefly in languages, explaining difficult texts of feripture, and controverfial divinity, he himself is not unfond of difputing: In particular, he thinks the followers of Mr. Hutchinson wrong in almost every thing they advance; and faid, He would go as far, and almoft with as much pleasure, as he came to fee me, to difpute with a Hutchinfonian; and his journey to me was near fixty miles, and that, poor man! on foot. Poetry has now and then come in for part of his diverfion in reading; and in particular he had a Horace, and the Epiftles of Ovid, among his books very early; but, among them all, his chief acquaintance have been Homer, Virgil, and Ogilby; and yet, as to Homer, he had gone no farther than his Iliad, in 1758, which he had read over many times. The firft day after he came to fee me he defired to fee the Odyffey; which I put into his hands, both in the original and in Mr. Pope's tranflation. He was charmed with them both; but faid, He did not know how it was, but that it read finer to him in the latter than in Homer himelf. On this he was defirons of reading fome more of Mr. Pope; I pointed him to the Effay on Cri ticilm; ticifm; this charmed him ftill more; and he called it, The wifeft poem he had ever read in his whole life. Before our parting I made him a prefent of one or two poems, and above a hundred weight of Fathers and polemic divinity. I dare fay he will go over every line of them; and indeed he declared, I that I had now furnished him with reading, at his leisure hours from work, for these feven years. It was but laft April that he was with me; fo, having brought down the little circumftances of his life almoft to the prefent time, I have nothing more to add. ADVERTISEMENT. ' F any one, in this age so justly eminent for charities of almost all kinds, should be fo far moved with the diftrefs and neceffities of fo worthy and induftrious a poor man, as to be inclined to help towards relieving him They are humbly intreated to fend any prefent which they might with in his hands, either to Mr. Richardson, in Salisburycourt, near Fleet-street, London; or Messieurs Dodsley, book sellers, in Pall-mall, Westminfter; Mr. Prince, at Oxford; Mr. Thurlborn, at Cambridge; Meffieurs Hamilton and Balfour, at Edinburgh; Mr. Faulkner, at Dublin; Mr. Owen, at Tunbridge; Mr. Leake, at Bath; Mr. Cadel, at Briftol; Mr. Hinxman, at York; Mr. Richardíon, at Durham; Mr. Creighton, at Ipfwich; Mr. Chafe, at Norwich; Mr. Burden, at Winchester; Mr. Collins, at Salisbury; and Mr. Seeley, at Buckingham: And they may be affured, that whatever may be thus collected, fhall be put to the pro pereft ufe for the service of him and his family. A Defcription of a MACHINE moved by the Wind, and used for draining marfly Grounds. With a Copper-plate of the Machine, curiouly engraved. Til figure in we plany wind by the help of the weather-flag A, compofed of very thin boards. The axle-tree B is fixed and fteady in the ground. All the rest of the affembiage is moveable, and turns with the weather-flag. When it turns with the wings on the inclined beam CD, as alfo the cup wheel C affembled on the beam, a circular trench is made to collect the water that is to be exhaufted. This is ufually done in a marshy or watery ground, for draining it; for the lower part of the wheel. dips into the water, and turns eafily with out touching the ground. Thus the water of the trench will be raised alfo in a circular furrow, whereof the beam B is the center, to be conveyed where one pleases. This machine does not raise water to more than 6 or 7 feet; but it, notwithstanding, exhaufts a very confiderable quantity, provided the wind favours it. The meadows, in Holland, are amply provided with machines of this fort; but the wheel that draws up the water is different from that in our plate, being composed only of a number of radiufes. Thefe radiufes are a kind of battledores refembling oars, fomewhat excavated on one fide in form of a fpoon; and, infead of carrying the water upwards, as the cups do, they make it fpout out into the furrow, and with such speed and rapidity, that they draw up a confiderable quantity in a very little time. The ange DEB, formed by the axis DC, with the bearn B, being usually of 60 degrees, the angle FGH, formed by the wings with the vertical, will be of 30 degrees; whence it follows that the cloths, extended from F as far as H, receive only the impression of the wind according to an oblique direction; which must be attended to. Wherefore confider, that the triangle rectangle HGF is the half of an equilateral triangle, of which the fide GF is the perpendicular: And as the fide HF is here of feven feet, taking the three fourths of the fquare of this number, that is, the three fourths of 49, which is 363, for the fquare of the perpendicular; and extracting allo the fquare root of this number; there will be about 6 feet for the fide F G. That fuch a mill might be capable of the greatest effect, it is neceffary, above all things, to proportion exactly the fize of the cups to the quantity of water they are to draw; otherwife more or lefs would retard or augment the velocity of the wings; and then, this velocity not being any longer the thirds of the wind, the machine wil not answer its intended purpose. The weather-flag A, for guiding the mill, muft be confidered as having 16 feet 6 inches in length, from the pivot I to its extremity K, and the height K L 6 feet; which makes a triangular furface of 49 feet and a half: The empty space towards the pivot I, need not be regarded; it was fo left to expofe to view the frames to which the boards are faftened; but it must be covered in |