He is the author of the famous Golden Rule in its earlier form, uttered in reply to a heathen who would have him teach the whole Law while he stood on one foot: "That which is hateful to thee do not unto thy neighbor; this is the principle, all the rest is commentary." Another heathen must needs be made a priest if converted: Hillel gently showed him the prohibition of the Law. But the instances show that proselytism was encouraged. In the following maxims many phases of his character are revealed: "He who craves to raise his name, lowers it." "A name inflated is a name destroyed." "My humility is my pride, my pride my humility." "He who will not learn or teach deserves death." "He who does not progress, retrogrades." "Say not, 'when I have leisure I will study,' for you may never have leisure." "Study God's word; then both this world and the next will be thine." "Trust not thyself till the day of thy death." "In a place where there is no man, strive to show thyself a man." "Judge not thy neighbor till thou art in his place." "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?" Do you realize how much is contained in that last maxim? Unravel it and you will see revealed his philosophy of life. Hillel as Legislator. So gentle, he was yet daring. When an old law was abused, he ventured to modify it. The Law, for example, for release of debts every seventh year, made particularly for the benefit of the poor (Deut. xv), hampered the growth of trade in more complex times and changed a generous purpose into an occasional embarrassment. There is a gulf of difference between a loan to buy bread and a loan for business enterprise. In the latter case Hillel allowed the stipulation to be stated in the contract, called _prosbul_, that the law of release was to be suspended. To Hillel is due the important service of devising a logical system of seven rules of deduction by which new laws to meet new needs could be developed out of the fewer and more general principles in the Bible code. It must be confessed that these deductions were occasionally far-fetched. None the less the custom prevailed among the rabbis to make laws for all exigencies in that way for many centuries to come. The practice arose from the reverence paid the five books of Moses that induced them to seek authority for every regulation they found needful, in their pages. We might say it was a virtue carried to the extreme of a fault. Hillel's method earned him the title "Regenerator of the Law." Last Days.