The eikonal approximation is applied to study the elastic and inelastic scattering of an electron by the hydrogen atom. The trajectory of the incident electron is assumed as a hyperbolic curve. 1s - Is, 1s - 2s and Is - 2p differential cross sections at various incident electron energies are calculated and compared with the previous works. Our calculated differential cross sections agree better with the corresponding observed values than those obtained by the first order Born approximation and straight line or angle eikonal approximations, especially in the larger scattering angle region. It is also found that the exchange effect for the incident and the atomic electrons becomes important as the incident energy is below ~ 50 eVs. The including of the exchange effect at low energy indeed improves the calculated results. It is found that hyperbolic eikonal approximation is superior to the straight line or angle eikonal approximation in the incident electron energy range of 50 ~ 200 eVs.