Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/308

50 sale. In the newspapers—The Oracle, The Porcupine, when it existed, The General Evening Tost, The Morning Tost, The British Tress, The Courier, &c. 1 have published my reports of the debates in parliament, and I believe a greater variety of fugitive pieces than I know to have been written by any one person. I have written also a great variety of compositions in Latin and French, in favour of which I have been honoured with the testimonials of liberal approbation.

"I have invariably written to serve the cause of religion and morality, pious Christian education, and good order in the most direct manner. I have considered what I have written as mere trifles, and I have incessantly studied to qualify myself for something better. I can prove that I have for many years read and written one day with another from twelve to sixteen hours a-day. As a human being I have not been free from follies and errors; but the tenor of my life has been temperate, laborious, humble, quiet, and, to the utmost of my power, beneficent. I can prove the general tenor of my writings to be candid, and ever adapted to exhibit the most favourable views of the abilities, dispositions, and exertions of others. For the last ten months I have been brought to the very extremity of bodily and pecuniary distress.

"I shudder at the thoughts of perishing in a jail.

"92, Chancery Lane, Feb. 2d. 1807.

His life was now fast drawing to a close. With a mind bowed down by want and despair, and a body emaciated from increasing disease, he was incapable of farther exertion ; and being removed to an hospital as his last and only hope, in one week after his entrance there, he breathed his last, on the 13th of April, 1807, without a friend to console or assist him. Thus perished Robert Heron in the prime of life, with talents and acquirements of a very rare description, which, if governed by prudence, were eminently calculated to gain for him an honourable independence in the world. It is difficult to estimate the true depth of his genius by his miscellaneous publications in prose; his style was of a mixed description, sometimes pompous and declamatory, at other times chaste and elegant. But it must be considered he was seldom allowed the choice of a subject, being all his life under the dictates of a publisher. He composed with great rapidity, and seldom made any corrections but in his proof sheets. His appearance was at most times impressive and dignified ; his figure, above the middle size, stately and erect, and his countenance had a benevolent expression, though pale and care-worn from study and confinement.

With all his faults he had still many redeeming virtues; and above all a strong sense of the respect which is due to religion and morality. In a diary of his life, kept at various times, which contains a free confession of his sentiments, he has recorded, that, in whatever manner he spent the day, he never closed his eyes at night without humbling himself in prayer before the throne of the Most High.

The brief memoir of this accomplished scholar affords another striking instance of the impossibility of shielding genius from poverty and disgrace when blinded by passion, or perverted by eccentricity.

HILL, (, an eminent leader of the church of Scotland, and principal of St Mary's college, St Andrews, was born in that city, in the month of June, 1750. His father, the Rev. John Hill, was one of the ministers of St Andrews; and he went through his whole course of education in the university there. The elements of education he received very early, after which he was