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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10451 ***
+
+BOSWELL'S
+LIFE OF JOHNSON
+
+INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
+AND JOHNSON'S DIARY OF A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES
+
+
+EDITED BY
+
+GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.
+
+PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+IN SIX VOLUMES
+
+VOLUME V.
+TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES (1773)
+
+AND
+
+JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES (1774)
+
+
+
+
+THE
+JOURNAL
+OF A TOUR TO THE
+_HEBRIDES_,
+
+WITH
+
+SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
+BY _JAMES BOSWELL_, ESQ.
+
+CONTAINING
+
+Some Poetical Pieces by Dr. JOHNSON, relative to the TOUR,
+and never before published;
+
+A Series of his Conversation, Literary Anecdotes, and Opinions
+of Men and Books:
+
+WITH AN AUTHENTICK ACCOUNT OF
+
+The Distresses and Escape of the GRANDSON of KING
+JAMES II. in the Year 1746.
+
+_THE THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+       O! while along the stream of time, thy name
+     Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
+     Say, shall my little bark attendant fail,
+     Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?    POPE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_LONDON:_
+PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN,
+FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.
+MDCCLXXXVI.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. V.
+
+JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.:
+DEDICATION TO EDMOND MALONE, ESQ.
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION
+CONTENTS
+JOURNAL
+APPENDICES:
+ I. LETTER FROM DR. BLACKLOCK
+II. VERSES BY SIR ALEXANDER MACDONALD
+    ADVERTISEMENT OF THE LIFE
+A.  EXTRACTS FROM WARBURTON
+B.  LORD HOUGHTON'S TRANSLATION OF JOHNSON'S ODE WRITTEN IN SKY
+C.  JOHNSON'S USE OF THE WORD _BIG_
+
+A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES IN THE YEAR 1774
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION.
+
+
+_TO EDMOND MALONE, ESQ._
+
+
+MY DEAR SIR,
+
+In every narrative, whether historical or biographical, authenticity is
+of the utmost consequence[1]. Of this I have ever been so firmly
+persuaded, that I inscribed a former work[2] to that person who was the
+best judge of its truth. I need not tell you I mean General Paoli; who,
+after his great, though unsuccessful, efforts to preserve the liberties
+of his country, has found an honourable asylum in Britain, where he has
+now lived many years the object of Royal regard and private respect[3];
+and whom I cannot name without expressing my very grateful sense of the
+uniform kindness which he has been pleased to shew me[4].
+
+The friends of Doctor Johnson can best judge, from internal evidence,
+whether the numerous conversations which form the most valuable part of
+the ensuing pages are correctly related. To them, therefore, I wish to
+appeal, for the accuracy of the portrait here exhibited to the world.
+
+As one of those who were intimately acquainted with him, you have a
+title to this address. You have obligingly taken the trouble to peruse
+the original manuscript of this Tour, and can vouch for the strict
+fidelity of the present publication[5]. Your literary alliance with our
+much lamented friend, in consequence of having undertaken to render one
+of his labours more complete, by your edition of _Shakspeare_[6], a work
+which I am confident will not disappoint the expectations of the
+publick, gives you another claim. But I have a still more powerful
+inducement to prefix your name to this volume, as it gives me an
+opportunity of letting the world know that I enjoy the honour and
+happiness of your friendship; and of thus publickly testifying the
+sincere regard with which I am,
+
+  My dear Sir,
+      Your very faithful
+          And obedient servant,
+              JAMES BOSWELL.
+
+  LONDON,
+20th September, 1785.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT
+
+TO THE
+
+_THIRD EDITION._
+
+Animated by the very favourable reception which two large impressions of
+this work have had[7], it has been my study to make it as perfect as I
+could in this edition, by correcting some inaccuracies which I
+discovered myself, and some which the kindness of friends or the
+scrutiny of adversaries pointed out. A few notes are added, of which the
+principal object is, to refute misrepresentation and calumny.
+
+To the animadversions in the periodical Journals of criticism, and in
+the numerous publications to which my book has given rise, I have made
+no answer. Every work must stand or fall by its own merit. I cannot,
+however, omit this opportunity of returning thanks to a gentleman who
+published a Defence of my Journal, and has added to the favour by
+communicating his name to me in a very obliging letter.
+
+It would be an idle waste of time to take any particular notice of the
+futile remarks, to many of which, a petty national resentment, unworthy
+of my countrymen, has probably given rise; remarks which have been
+industriously circulated in the publick prints by shallow or envious
+cavillers, who have endeavoured to persuade the world that Dr. Johnson's
+character has been _lessened_ by recording such various instances of
+his lively wit and acute judgment, on every topick that was presented to
+his mind. In the opinion of every person of taste and knowledge that I
+have conversed with, it has been greatly _heightened_; and I will
+venture to predict, that this specimen of the colloquial talents and
+extemporaneous effusions of my illustrious fellow-traveller will become
+still more valuable, when, by the lapse of time, he shall have become an
+_ancient_; when all those who can now bear testimony to the transcendent
+powers of his mind, shall have passed away; and no other memorial of
+this great and good man shall remain but the following Journal, the
+other anecdotes and letters preserved by his friends, and those
+incomparable works, which have for many years been in the highest
+estimation, and will be read and admired as long as the English language
+shall be spoken or understood.
+
+J.B.
+
+LONDON, 15th Aug. 1786.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+DEDICATION.
+ADVERTISEMENT.
+INTRODUCTION. Character of Dr. Johnson. He arrives in Scotland.
+
+_August 15_. Sir William Forbes. Practice of the law. Emigration. Dr.
+Beattie and Mr. Hume. Dr. Robertson. Mr. Burke's various and
+extraordinary talents. Question concerning genius. Whitfield and Wesley.
+Instructions to political parties. Dr. Johnson's opinion of Garrick as a
+tragedian.
+
+_August 16_. Ogden on Prayer. Aphoristick writing. Edinburgh surveyed.
+Character of Swift's works. Evil spirits and witchcraft. Lord Monboddo
+and the Ouran-Outang.
+
+_August 17_. Poetry and Dictionary writing. Scepticism. Eternal
+necessity refuted. Lord Hailes's criticism on _The Vanity of Human
+Wishes._ Mr. Maclaurin. Decision of the Judges in Scotland on
+literary property.
+
+_August 18_. Set out for the Hebrides. Sketch of the authour's
+character. Trade of Glasgow. Suicide. Inchkeith. Parliamentary
+knowledge. Influence of Peers. Popular clamours. Arrive at St. Andrews.
+
+_August 19_. Dr. Watson. Literature and patronage. Writing and
+conversation compared. Change of manners. The Union. Value of money. St.
+Andrews and John Knox. Retirement from the world. Dinner with the
+Professors. Question concerning sorrow and content. Instructions for
+composition. Dr. Johnson's method. Uncertainty of memory.
+
+_August 20_. Effect of prayer. Observance of Sunday. Professor Shaw.
+Transubstantiation. Literary property. Mr. Tyers's remark on Dr.
+Johnson. Arrive at Montrose.
+
+_August 21_. Want of trees. Laurence Kirk. Dinner at Monboddo.
+Emigration. Homer. Biography and history compared. Decrease of learning.
+Causes of it. Promotion of bishops. Warburton. Lowth. Value of
+politeness. Dr. Johnson's sentiments concerning Lord Monboddo. Arrive
+at Aberdeen.
+
+_August 22_. Professor Thomas Gordon. Publick and private education.
+Sir Alexander Gordon. Trade of Aberdeen. Prescription of murder in
+Scotland. Mystery of the Trinity. Satisfaction of Christ. Importance of
+old friendships.
+
+_August 23_. Dr. Johnson made a burgess of Aberdeen. Dinner at Sir
+Alexander Gordon's. Warburton's powers of invective. His _Doctrine of
+Grace_. Lock's verses. Fingal.
+
+_August 24_. Goldsmith and Graham. Slains castle. Education of children.
+Buller of Buchan. Entails. Consequence of Peers. Sir Joshua Reynolds.
+Earl of Errol.
+
+_August 25_. The advantage of being on good terms with relations.
+Nabobs. Feudal state of subordination. Dinner at Strichen. Life of
+country gentlemen. THE LITERARY CLUB.
+
+_August 26_. Lord Monboddo. Use and importance of wealth. Elgin.
+Macbeth's heath. Fores.
+
+_August 27_. Leonidas. Paul Whitehead. Derrick. Origin of Evil.
+Calder-manse. Reasonableness of ecclesiastical subscription.
+Family worship.
+
+_August 28_. Fort George. Sir Adolphus Oughton. Contest between
+Warburton and Lowth. Dinner at Sir Eyre Coote's. Arabs and English
+soldiers compared. The Stage. Mr. Garrick, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard,
+Mrs. Clive. Inverness.
+
+_August 29_. Macbeth's Castle. Incorrectness of writers of Travels.
+Coinage of new words. Dr. Johnson's _Dictionary_.
+
+_August 30_. Dr. Johnson on horseback. A Highland hut. Fort Augustus.
+Governour Trapaud.
+
+_August 31_. Anoch. Emigration. Goldsmith. Poets and soldiers compared.
+Life of a sailor. Landlord's daughter at Anoch.
+
+_September 1_. Glensheal. The Macraas. Dr. Johnson's anger at being left
+for a little while by the authour on a wild plain. Wretched inn
+at Glenelg.
+
+_September 2_. Dr. Johnson relents. Isle of Sky. Armidale.
+
+_September 3_. Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune.
+
+_September 4_. Ancient Highland Enthusiasm.
+
+_September 5_. Sir James Macdonald's epitaph and last letters to his
+mother. Dr. Johnson's Latin ode on the Isle of Sky. Isaac
+Hawkins Browne.
+
+_September 6_. Corrichatachin. Highland hospitality and mirth. Dr.
+Johnson's Latin ode to Mrs. Thrale.
+
+_September 7_. Uneasy state of dependence on the weather. State of those
+who live in the country. Dr. M'Pherson's Dissertations. Second Sight.
+
+_September 8_. Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen. Mr. Malcolm M'Cleod. Sail to
+Rasay. Fingal. Homer. Elegant and gay entertainment at Rasay.
+
+_September 9_. Antiquity of the family of Rasay. Cure of infidelity.
+
+_September 10_. Survey of the island of Rasay. Bentley. Mallet. Hooke.
+Duchess of Marlborough.
+
+_September 11_. Heritable jurisdictions. Insular life. The Laird of
+M'Cleod.
+
+_September 12_. Sail to Portree. Dr. Johnson's discourse on death.
+Letters from Lord Elibank to Dr. Johnson and the authour. Dr. Johnson's
+answer. Ride to Kingsburgh. Flora M'Donald.
+
+_September 13_. Distresses and escape of the grandson of King James II.
+Arrive at Dunvegan.
+
+_September 14_. Importance of the chastity of women. Dr. Cadogan.
+Whether the practice of authours is necessary to enforce their
+Doctrines. Good humour acquirable.
+
+_September 15_. Sir George M'Kenzie. Mr. Burke's wit, knowledge and
+eloquence.
+
+_September 16_. Dr. Johnson's hereditary melancholy. His minute
+knowledge in various arts. Apology for the authour's ardour in his
+pursuits. Dr. Johnson's imaginary seraglio. Polygamy.
+
+_September 17_. Cunning. Whether great abilities are necessary to be
+wicked. Temple of the Goddess Anaitis. Family portraits. Records not
+consulted by old English historians. Mr. Pennant's Tours criticised.
+
+_September 18_. Ancient residence of a Highland Chief. Languages the
+pedigree of nations. Laird of the Isle of Muck.
+
+_September 19_. Choice of a wife. Women an over-match for men. Lady
+Grange in St. Kilda. Poetry of savages. French Literati. Prize-fighting.
+French and English soldiers. Duelling.
+
+_September 20_. Change of London manners. Laziness censured. Landed and
+traded interest compared. Gratitude considered.
+
+_September 21_. Description of Dunvegan. Lord Lovat's Pyramid. Ride to
+Ulinish. Phipps's Voyage to the North Pole.
+
+_September 22_. Subterraneous house and vast cave in Ulinish. Swift's
+Lord Orrery. Defects as well as virtues the proper subject of biography,
+though the life be written by a friend. Studied conclusions of letters.
+Whether allowable in dying men to maintain resentment to the last.
+Instructions for writing the lives of literary men. Fingal denied to be
+genuine, and pleasantly ridiculed.
+
+_September 23_. Further disquisition concerning Fingal. Eminent men
+disconcerted by a new mode of publick appearance. Garrick. Mrs.
+Montague's Essay on Shakspeare. Persons of consequence watched in
+London. Learning of the Scots from 1550 to 1650. The arts of civil life
+little known in Scotland till the Union. Life of a sailor. The folly of
+Peter the Great in working in a dock-yard. Arrive at Talisker.
+Presbyterian clergy deficient in learning.  _September 24_. French
+hunting. Young Col. Dr. Birch, Dr. Percy. Lord Hailes. Historical
+impartiality. Whiggism unbecoming in a clergyman.
+
+_September 25_. Every island a prison. A Sky cottage. Return to
+Corrichatachin. Good fellowship carried to excess.
+
+_September 26_. Morning review of last night's intemperance. Old
+Kingsburgh's Jacobite song. Lady Margaret Macdonald adored in Sky.
+Different views of the same subject at different times. Self-deception.
+
+_September 27_. Dr. Johnson's popularity in the Isle of Sky. His
+good-humoured gaiety with a Highland lady.
+
+_September 28_. Ancient Irish pride of family. Dr. Johnson on threshing
+and thatching. Dangerous to increase the price of labour. Arrive at
+Ostig. Dr. M'Pherson's Latin poetry.
+
+_September 29_. Reverend Mr. M'Pherson, Shenstone. Hammond. Sir Charles
+Hanbury Williams.
+
+_September 30_. Mr. Burke the first man every where. Very moderate
+talents requisite to make a figure in the House of Commons. Dr. Young.
+Dr. Doddridge. Increase of infidel writings since the accession of the
+Hanover family. Gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson. Particular
+minutes to be kept of our studies.
+
+_October 1_. Dr. Johnson not answerable for all the words in his
+_Dictionary_. Attacks on authours useful to them. Return to Armidale.
+
+_October 2_. Old manners of great families in Wales. German courts.
+Goldsmith's love of talk. Emigration. Curious story of the people of
+St. Kilda.
+
+_October 3_. Epictetus on the voyage of death. Sail for Mull. A storm.
+Driven into Col.
+
+_October 4_. Dr. Johnson's mode of living in the Temple. His curious
+appearance on a sheltie. Nature of sea-sickness. Burnet's _History of
+his own Times_. Difference between dedications and histories.
+
+_October 5_. People may come to do anything by talking of it. The
+Reverend Mr. Hector Maclean. Bayle. Leibnitz and Clarke. Survey of Col.
+Insular life. Arrive at Breacacha. Dr. Johnson's power of ridicule.
+
+_October 6_. Heritable jurisdictions. The opinion of philosophers
+concerning happiness in a cottage, considered. Advice to landlords.
+
+_October 7_. Books the best solace in a state of confinement.
+
+_October 8_. Pretended brother of Dr. Johnson. No redress for a man's
+name being affixed to a foolish work. Lady Sidney Beauclerk. Carte's
+_Life of the Duke of Ormond_. Col's cabinet. Letters of the great
+Montrose. Present state of the island of Col.
+
+_October 9_. Dr. Johnson's avidity for a variety of books. Improbability
+of a Highland tradition. Dr. Johnson's delicacy of feeling.
+
+_October 10_. Dependence of tenants on landlords.
+
+_October 11_. London and Pekin compared. Dr. Johnson's high opinion of
+the former.
+
+_October 12_. Return to Mr. M'Sweyn's. Other superstitions beside those
+connected with religion. Dr. Johnson disgusted with coarse manners. His
+peculiar habits.
+
+_October 13_. Bustle not necessary to dispatch. _Oats_ the food not of
+the Scotch alone.
+
+_October 14_. Arrive in Mull. Addison's _Remarks on Italy_. Addison not
+much conversant with Italian literature. The French masters of the art
+of accommodating literature. Their _Ana_. Racine. Corneille. Moliere.
+Fenelon. Voltaire. Bossuet. Massillon. Bourdaloue. Virgil's description
+of the entrance into hell, compared to a printing-house.
+
+_October 15_. Erse poetry. Danger of a knowledge of musick. The
+propriety of settling our affairs so as to be always prepared for death.
+Religion and literary attainments not to be described to young persons
+as too hard. Reception of the travellers in their progress. Spence.
+
+_October 16_. Miss Maclean. Account of Mull. The value of an oak
+walking-stick in the Hebrides. Arrive at Mr. M'Quarrie's in Ulva.
+Captain Macleod. Second Sight. _Mercheta Mulierum_, and Borough-English.
+The grounds on which the sale of an estate may be set aside in a court
+of equity.
+
+_October 17_. Arrive at Inchkenneth. Sir Allan Maclean and his
+daughters. None but theological books should be read on Sunday. Dr.
+Campbell. Dr. Johnson exhibited as a Highlander. Thoughts on drinking.
+Dr. Johnson's Latin verses on Inchkenneth.
+
+_October 18_. Young Col's various good qualities. No extraordinary
+talents requisite to success in trade. Dr. Solander. Mr. Burke. Dr.
+Johnson's intrepidity and presence of mind. Singular custom in the
+islands of Col and Otaheité. Further elogium on young Col. Credulity of
+a Frenchman in foreign countries.
+
+_October 19_. Death of young Col. Dr. Johnson slow of belief without
+strong evidence. _La Crédulité des incrédules_. Coast of Mull. Nun's
+Island. Past scenes pleasing in recollection. Land on Icolmkill.
+_October 20_. Sketch of the ruins of Icolmkill. Influence of solemn
+scenes of piety. Feudal authority in the extreme. Return to Mull.
+
+_October 21_. Pulteney. Pitt. Walpole. Mr. Wilkes. English and Jewish
+history compared. Scotland composed of stone and water, and a little
+earth. Turkish Spy. Dreary ride to Lochbuy. Description of the laird.
+
+_October 22_. Uncommon breakfast offered to Dr. Johnson, and rejected.
+Lochbuy's war-saddle. Sail to Oban.
+
+_October 23_. Goldsmith's _Traveller_. Pope and Cowley compared.
+Archibald Duke of Argyle. Arrive at Inverary. Dr. Johnson drinks some
+whisky, and assigns his reason. Letter from the authour to Mr. Garrick.
+Mr. Garrick's answer.
+
+_October 24_. Specimen of Ogden on Prayer. Hervey's _Meditations_. Dr.
+Johnson's Meditation on a Pudding. Country neighbours. The authour's
+visit to the castle of Inverary. Perverse opposition to the influence of
+Peers in Ayrshire.
+
+_October 25_. Dr. Johnson presented to the Duke of Argyle. Grandeur of
+his grace's seat. The authour possesses himself in an embarrassing
+situation. Honourable Archibald Campbell on _a middle state_. The old
+Lord Townshend. Question concerning luxury. Nice trait of character.
+Good principles and bad practice.
+
+_October 26_. A passage in Home's _Douglas_, and one in _Juvenal_,
+compared. Neglect of religious buildings in Scotland. Arrive at Sir
+James Colquhoun's.
+
+_October 27_. Dr. Johnson's letter to the Duke of Argyle. His grace's
+answer. Lochlomond. Dr. Johnson's sentiments on dress. Forms of prayer
+considered. Arrive at Mr. Smollet's.
+
+_October 28_. Dr. Smollet's Epitaph. Dr. Johnson's wonderful memory. His
+alacrity during the Tour. Arrive at Glasgow.
+
+_October 29_. Glasgow surveyed. Attention of the professors to Dr.
+Johnson.
+
+_October 30_. Dinner at the Earl of Loudoun's. Character of that
+nobleman. Arrive at Treesbank.
+
+_October 31_. Sir John Cunningham of Caprington.
+
+_November 1_. Rules for the distribution of charity. Castle of
+Dundonald. Countess of Eglintoune. Alexander Earl of Eglintoune.
+
+_November 2_. Arrive at Auchinleck. Character of Lord Auchinleck, His
+idea of Dr. Johnson.
+
+_November 3_. Dr. Johnson's sentiments concerning the Highlands. Mr.
+Harris of Salisbury.
+
+_November 4_. Auchinleck. Cattle without horns. Composure of mind how
+far attainable.  _November 5_. Dr. Johnson's high respect for the
+English clergy.
+
+_November 6_. Lord Auchinleck and Dr. Johnson in collision.
+
+_November 7_. Dr. Johnson's uniform piety. His dislike of presbyterian
+worship.
+
+_November 8_. Arrive at Hamilton.
+
+_November 9_. The Duke of Hamilton's house. Arrive at Edinburgh.
+
+_November 10_. Lord Elibank. Difference in political principles
+increased by opposition. Edinburgh Castle. Fingal. English credulity not
+less than Scottish. Second Sight. Garrick and Foote compared as
+companions. Moravian Missions and Methodism.
+
+_November 11_. History originally oral. Dr. Robertson's liberality of
+sentiment. Rebellion natural to man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Summary account of the manner in which Dr. Johnson spent his time from
+November 12 to November 21. Lord Mansfield, Mr. Richardson. The private
+life of an English Judge. Dr. Johnson's high opinion of Dr. Robertson
+and Dr. Blair. Letter from Dr. Blair to the authour. Officers of the
+army often ignorant of things belonging to their own profession. Academy
+for the deaf and dumb. A Scotch Highlander and an English sailor.
+Attacks on authours advantageous to them. Roslin Castle and Hawthornden.
+Dr. Johnson's _Parody of Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs_. Arrive at
+Cranston. Dr. Johnson's departure for London. Letters from Lord Hailes
+and Mr. Dempster to the authour. Letter from the Laird of Rasay to the
+authour. The authour's answer. Dr. Johnson's Advertisement,
+acknowledging a mistake in his _Journey to the Western Islands_. His
+letter to the Laird of Rasay. Letter from Sir William Forbes to the
+authour. Conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+     HE WAS OF AN ADMIRABLE PREGNANCY OF WIT, AND THAT PREGNANCY
+     MUCH IMPROVED BY CONTINUAL STUDY FROM HIS CHILDHOOD:
+     BY WHICH HE HAD GOTTEN SUCH A PROMPTNESS IN EXPRESSING HIS
+     MIND, THAT HIS EXTEMPORAL SPEECHES WERE LITTLE INFERIOR TO
+     HIS PREMEDITATED WRITINGS. MANY, NO DOUBT, HAD READ AS MUCH,
+     AND PERHAPS MORE THAN HE; BUT SCARCE EVER ANY CONCOCTED
+     HIS READING INTO JUDGEMENT AS HE DID[8].
+
+     _Baker's Chronicle_ [ed. 1665, p. 449].
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+JOURNAL
+
+OF A
+
+TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
+
+WITH
+
+SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
+
+
+Dr. Johnson had for many years given me hopes that we should go
+together, and visit the Hebrides[9]. Martin's Account of those islands
+had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system
+of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to
+see; and, to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of
+remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object
+within the reach of reasonable curiosity. Dr. Johnson has said in his
+_Journey_[10] 'that he scarcely remembered how the wish to visit the
+Hebrides was excited;' but he told me, in summer, 1763[11], that his
+father put Martin's Account into his hands when he was very young, and
+that he was much pleased with it. We reckoned there would be some
+inconveniencies and hardships, and perhaps a little danger; but these we
+were persuaded were magnified in the imagination of every body. When I
+was at Ferney, in 1764, I mentioned our design to Voltaire. He looked at
+me, as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, 'You do not
+insist on my accompanying you?'--'No, Sir,'--'Then I am very willing
+you should go.' I was not afraid that our curious expedition would be
+prevented by such apprehensions; but I doubted that it would not be
+possible to prevail on Dr. Johnson to relinquish, for some time, the
+felicity of a London life, which, to a man who can enjoy it with full
+intellectual relish, is apt to make existence in any narrower sphere
+seem insipid or irksome. I doubted that he would not be willing to come
+down from his elevated state of philosophical dignity; from a
+superiority of wisdom among the wise, and of learning among the learned;
+and from flashing his wit upon minds bright enough to reflect it.
+
+He had disappointed my expectations so long, that I began to despair;
+but in spring, 1773, he talked of coming to Scotland that year with so
+much firmness, that I hoped he was at last in earnest. I knew that, if
+he were once launched from the metropolis he would go forward very well;
+and I got our common friends there to assist in setting him afloat. To
+Mrs. Thrale in particular, whose enchantment over him seldom failed, I
+was much obliged. It was, '_I'll give thee a wind._'-' _Thou art
+kind._[12]'--To _attract_ him, we had invitations from the chiefs
+Macdonald and Macleod; and, for additional aid, I wrote to Lord
+Elibank[13], Dr. William Robertson, and Dr. Beattie.
+
+To Dr. Robertson, so far as my letter concerned the present subject, I
+wrote as follows:
+
+'Our friend, Mr. Samuel Johnson, is in great health and spirits; and, I
+do think, has a serious resolution to visit Scotland this year. The more
+attraction, however, the better; and therefore, though I know he will be
+happy to meet you there, it will forward the scheme, if, in your answer
+to this, you express yourself concerning it with that power of which you
+are so happily possessed, and which may be so directed as to operate
+strongly upon him.'
+
+His answer to that part of my letter was quite as I could have wished.
+It was written with the address and persuasion of the historian of
+America.  'When I saw you last, you gave us some hopes that you might
+prevail with Mr. Johnson to make out that excursion to Scotland, with
+the expectation of which we have long flattered ourselves. If he could
+order matters so, as to pass some time in Edinburgh, about the close of
+the summer session, and then visit some of the Highland scenes, I am
+confident he would be pleased with the grand features of nature in many
+parts of this country: he will meet with many persons here who respect
+him, and some whom I am persuaded he will think not unworthy of his
+esteem. I wish he would make the experiment. He sometimes cracks his
+jokes upon us; but he will find that we can distinguish between the
+stabs of malevolence, and _the rebukes of the righteous, which are like
+excellent oil[14], and break not the head[15]_. Offer my best
+compliments to him, and assure him that I shall be happy to have the
+satisfaction of seeing him under my roof.
+
+To Dr. Beattie I wrote, 'The chief intention of this letter is to inform
+you, that I now seriously believe Mr. Samuel Johnson will visit Scotland
+this year: but I wish that every power of attraction may be employed to
+secure our having so valuable an acquisition, and therefore I hope you
+will without delay write to me what I know you think, that I may read it
+to the mighty sage, with proper emphasis, before I leave London, which I
+must do soon. He talks of you with the same warmth that he did last
+year[16]. We are to see as much of Scotland as we can, in the months of
+August and September. We shall not be long of being at Marischal
+College[17]. He is particularly desirous of seeing some of the
+Western Islands.'
+
+Dr. Beattie did better: _ipse venit_. He was, however, so polite as to
+wave his privilege of _nil mihi rescribas[18]_, and wrote from
+Edinburgh, as follows:--'Your very kind and agreeable favour of the
+20th of April overtook me here yesterday, after having gone to Aberdeen,
+which place I left about a week ago. I am to set out this day for
+London, and hope to have the honour of paying my respects to Mr. Johnson
+and you, about a week or ten days hence. I shall then do what I can, to
+enforce the topick you mention; but at present I cannot enter upon it,
+as I am in a very great hurry; for I intend to begin my journey within
+an hour or two.'
+
+He was as good as his word, and threw some pleasing motives into the
+northern scale. But, indeed, Mr. Johnson loved all that he heard, from
+one whom he tells us, in his _Lives of the Poets_, Gray found 'a poet, a
+philosopher, and a good man[19].'
+
+My Lord Elibank did not answer my letter to his lordship for some time.
+The reason will appear, when we come to the isle of _Sky_[20]. I shall
+then insert my letter, with letters from his lordship, both to myself
+and Mr. Johnson. I beg it may be understood, that I insert my own
+letters, as I relate my own sayings, rather as keys to what is valuable
+belonging to others, than for their own sake.
+
+Luckily Mr. Justice (now Sir Robert) Chambers[21], who was about to sail
+for the East-Indies, was going to take leave of his relations at
+Newcastle, and he conducted Dr. Johnson to that town. Mr. Scott, of
+University College, Oxford, (now Dr. Scott[22], of the Commons,)
+accompanied him from thence to Edinburgh, With such propitious convoys
+did he proceed to my native city. But, lest metaphor should make it be
+supposed he actually went by sea, I choose to mention that he travelled
+in post-chaises, of which the rapid motion was one of his most favourite
+amusements[23].
+
+Dr. Samuel Johnson's character, religious, moral, political, and
+literary, nay his figure and manner, are, I believe, more generally
+known than those of almost any man; yet it may not be superfluous here
+to attempt a sketch of him. Let my readers then remember that he was a
+sincere and zealous Christian, of high church of England and monarchical
+principles, which he would not tamely suffer to be questioned; steady
+and inflexible in maintaining the obligations of piety and virtue, both
+from a regard to the order of society, and from a veneration for the
+Great Source of all order; correct, nay stern in his taste; hard to
+please, and easily offended, impetuous and irritable in his temper, but
+of a most humane and benevolent heart; having a mind stored with a vast
+and various collection of learning and knowledge, which he communicated
+with peculiar perspicuity and force, in rich and choice expression. He
+united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave
+him an extraordinary advantage in arguing; for he could reason close or
+wide, as he saw best for the moment. He could, when he chose it, be the
+greatest sophist that ever wielded a weapon in the schools of
+declamation; but he indulged this only in conversation; for he owned he
+sometimes talked for victory[24]; he was too conscientious to make
+errour permanent and pernicious, by deliberately writing it. He was
+conscious of his superiority. He loved praise when it was brought to
+him; but was too proud to seek for it. He was somewhat susceptible of
+flattery[25]. His mind was so full of imagery, that he might have been
+perpetually a poet. It has been often remarked, that in his poetical
+pieces, which it is to be regretted are so few, because so excellent,
+his style is easier than in his prose. There is deception in this: it is
+not easier, but better suited to the dignity of verse; as one may dance
+with grace, whose motions, in ordinary walking, in the common step, are
+awkward. He had a constitutional melancholy, the clouds of which
+darkened the brightness of his fancy, and gave a gloomy cast to his
+whole course of thinking: yet, though grave and awful in his deportment,
+when he thought it necessary or proper, he frequently indulged himself
+in pleasantry and sportive sallies. He was prone to superstition, but
+not to credulity. Though his imagination might incline him to a belief
+of the marvellous and the mysterious, his vigorous reason examined the
+evidence with jealousy. He had a loud voice, and a slow deliberate
+utterance, which no doubt gave some additional weight to the sterling
+metal of his conversation[26]. His person was large, robust, I may say
+approaching to the gigantick, and grown unwieldy from corpulency. His
+countenance was naturally of the cast of an ancient statue, but somewhat
+disfigured by the scars of that _evil_, which, it was formerly imagined,
+the _royal touch_[27] could cure. He was now in his sixty-fourth year,
+and was become a little dull of hearing. His sight had always been
+somewhat weak; yet, so much does mind govern, and even supply the
+deficiency of organs, that his perceptions were uncommonly quick and
+accurate[28]. His head, and sometimes also his body shook with a kind of
+motion like the effect of a palsy: he appeared to be frequently
+disturbed by cramps, or convulsive contractions[29], of the nature of
+that distemper called _St. Vitus's dance_. He wore a full suit of plain
+brown clothes, with twisted hair-buttons[30] of the same colour, a
+large bushy greyish wig, a plain shirt, black worsted stockings, and
+silver buckles. Upon this tour, when journeying, he wore boots, and a
+very wide brown cloth great coat, with pockets which might have almost
+held the two volumes of his folio _Dictionary_; and he carried in his
+hand a large English oak stick. Let me not be censured for mentioning
+such minute particulars. Every thing relative to so great a man is worth
+observing. I remember Dr. Adam Smith, in his rhetorical lectures at
+Glasgow[31], told us he was glad to know that Milton wore latchets in
+his shoes, instead of buckles. When I mention the oak stick, it is but
+letting _Hercules_ have his club; and, by-and-by, my readers will find
+this stick will bud, and produce a good joke[32].
+
+This imperfect sketch of 'the COMBINATION and the _form_[33]' of that
+Wonderful Man, whom I venerated and loved while in this world, and after
+whom I gaze with humble hope, now that it has pleased ALMIGHTY GOD to
+call him to a better world, will serve to introduce to the fancy of my
+readers the capital object of the following journal, in the course of
+which I trust they will attain to a considerable degree of
+acquaintance with him.
+
+His prejudice against Scotland[34] was announced almost as soon as he
+began to appear in the world of Letters. In his _London_, a poem, are
+the following nervous lines:--
+
+     'For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land?
+      Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand?
+      There none are swept by sudden fate away;
+      But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay.'
+
+The truth is, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, he allowed himself to
+look upon all nations but his own as barbarians[35]: not only Hibernia,
+and Scotland, but Spain, Italy, and France, are attacked in the same
+poem. If he was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was
+because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in
+England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and
+because he could not but see in them that nationality which I believe no
+liberal-minded Scotsman will deny. He was indeed, if I may be allowed
+the phrase, at bottom much of a _John Bull_[36]; much of a blunt _true
+born Englishman_[37]. There was a stratum of common clay under the rock
+of marble. He was voraciously fond of good eating[38]; and he had a
+great deal of that quality called _humour_, which gives an oiliness and
+a gloss to every other quality.
+
+I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world.--In my
+travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I
+never felt myself from home; and I sincerely love 'every kindred and
+tongue and people and nation[39].' I subscribe to what my late truly
+learned and philosophical friend Mr. Crosbie[40] said, that the English
+are better animals than the Scots; they are nearer the sun; their blood
+is richer, and more mellow: but when I humour any of them in an
+outrageous contempt of Scotland, I fairly own I treat them as children.
+And thus I have, at some moments, found myself obliged to treat even
+Dr. Johnson.
+
+To Scotland however he ventured; and he returned from it in great good
+humour, with his prejudices much lessened, and with very grateful
+feelings of the hospitality with which he was treated; as is evident
+from that admirable work, his _Journey to the Western Islands of
+Scotland_, which, to my utter astonishment, has been misapprehended,
+even to rancour, by many of my countrymen.  To have the company of
+Chambers and Scott, he delayed his journey so long, that the court of
+session, which rises on the eleventh of August, was broke up before he
+got to Edinburgh[41].
+
+On Saturday the fourteenth of August, 1773, late in the evening, I
+received a note from him, that he was arrived at Boyd's inn[42], at the
+head of the Canongate. I went to him directly. He embraced me cordially;
+and I exulted in the thought, that I now had him actually in Caledonia.
+Mr. Scott's amiable manners, and attachment to our _Socrates_, at once
+united me to him. He told me that, before I came in, the Doctor had
+unluckily had a bad specimen of Scottish cleanliness[43]. He then drank
+no fermented liquor. He asked to have his lemonade made sweeter; upon
+which the waiter, with his greasy fingers, lifted a lump of sugar, and
+put it into it. The Doctor, in indignation, threw it out of the window.
+Scott said, he was afraid he would have knocked the waiter down. Mr.
+Johnson told me, that such another trick was played him at the house of
+a lady in Paris[44]. He was to do me the honour to lodge under my roof.
+I regretted sincerely that I had not also a room for Mr. Scott. Mr.
+Johnson and I walked arm-in-arm up the High=street, to my house in
+James's court[45]: it was a dusky night: I could not prevent his being
+assailed by the evening effluvia of Edinburgh. I heard a late baronet,
+of some distinction in the political world in the beginning of the
+present reign, observe, that 'walking the streets of Edinburgh at night
+was pretty perilous, and a good deal odoriferous.' The peril is much
+abated, by the care which the magistrates have taken to enforce the city
+laws against throwing foul water from the windows[46]; but from the
+structure of the houses in the old town, which consist of many stories,
+in each of which a different family lives, and there being no covered
+sewers, the ordour still continues. A zealous Scotsman would have wished
+Mr. Johnson to be without one of his five senses upon this occasion. As
+we marched slowly along, he grumbled in my ear, 'I smell you in the
+dark[47]!' But he acknowledged that the breadth of the street, and the
+loftiness of the buildings on each side made a noble appearance[48].
+
+My wife had tea ready for him, which it is well known he delighted to
+drink at all hours, particularly when sitting up late, and of which his
+able defence against Mr. Jonas Hanway[49] should have obtained him a
+magnificent reward from the East-India Company. He shewed much
+complacency upon finding that the mistress of the house was so attentive
+to his singular habit; and as no man could be more polite when he chose
+to be so, his address to her was most courteous and engaging; and his
+conversation soon charmed her into a forgetfulness of his external
+appearance[50].
+
+I did not begin to keep a regular full journal till some days after we
+had set out from Edinburgh; but I have luckily preserved a good many
+fragments of his _Memorabilia_ from his very first evening in Scotland.
+
+We had, a little before this, had a trial for murder, in which the
+judges had allowed the lapse of twenty years since its commission as a
+plea in bar, in conformity with the doctrine of prescription in the
+_civil_ law, which Scotland and several other countries in Europe have
+adopted. He at first disapproved of this; but then he thought there was
+something in it, if there had been for twenty years a neglect to
+prosecute a crime which was _known_. He would not allow that a murder,
+by not being _discovered_ for twenty years, should escape
+punishment[51]. We talked of the ancient trial by duel. He did not think
+it so absurd as is generally supposed; 'For (said he) it was only
+allowed when the question was _in equilibrio_, as when one affirmed and
+another denied; and they had a notion that Providence would interfere in
+favour of him who was in the right. But as it was found that in a duel,
+he who was in the right had not a better chance than he who was in the
+wrong, therefore society instituted the present mode of trial, and gave
+the advantage to him who is in the right.'
+
+We sat till near two in the morning, having chatted a good while after
+my wife left us. She had insisted, that to shew all respect to the Sage
+she would give up her own bed-chamber to him and take a worse[52]. This
+I cannot but gratefully mention, as one of a thousand obligations which
+I owe her, since the great obligation of her being pleased to accept of
+me as her husband[53].
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, AUGUST 15[54]
+
+Mr. Scott came to breakfast, at which I introduced to Dr. Johnson and
+him, my friend Sir William Forbes, now of Pitsligo[55]; a man of whom
+too much good cannot be said; who, with distinguished abilities and
+application in his profession of a Banker, is at once a good companion,
+and a good christian; which I think is saying enough. Yet it is but
+justice to record, that once, when he was in a dangerous illness, he was
+watched with the anxious apprehension of a general calamity; day and
+night his house was beset with affectionate enquiries; and, upon his
+recovery, _Te deum_ was the universal chorus from the _hearts_ of his
+countrymen.  Mr. Johnson was pleased with my daughter Veronica[56],
+then a child of about four months old. She had the appearance of
+listening to him. His motions seemed to her to be intended for her
+amusement; and when he stopped, she fluttered, and made a little
+infantine noise, and a kind of signal for him to begin again. She would
+be held close to him; which was a proof, from simple nature, that his
+figure was not horrid. Her fondness for him endeared her still more to
+me, and I declared she should have five hundred pounds of additional
+fortune[57].
+
+We talked of the practice of the law. Sir William Forbes said, he
+thought an honest lawyer should never undertake a cause which he was
+satisfied was not a just one. 'Sir, (said Mr. Johnson,) a lawyer has no
+business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes,
+unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it
+honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the
+judge. Consider, Sir; what is the purpose of courts of justice? It is,
+that every man may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed to try
+causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he knows to be a lie: he is not to
+produce what he knows to be a false deed; but he is not to usurp the
+province of the jury and of the judge, and determine what shall be the
+effect of evidence,--what shall be the result of legal argument. As it
+rarely happens that a man is fit to plead his own cause, lawyers are a
+class of the community, who, by study and experience, have acquired the
+art and power of arranging evidence, and of applying to the points at
+issue what the law has settled. A lawyer is to do for his client all
+that his client might fairly do for himself, if he could. If, by a
+superiority of attention, of knowledge, of skill, and a better method of
+communication, he has the advantage of his adversary, it is an
+advantage to which he is entitled. There must always be some advantage,
+on one side or other; and it is better that advantage should be had by
+talents than by chance. Lawyers were to undertake no causes till they
+were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a
+trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined it might be
+found a very just claim[58].' This was sound practical doctrine, and
+rationally repressed a too refined scrupulosity[59] of conscience.
+
+Emigration was at this time a common topick of discourse[60]. Dr.
+Johnson regretted it as hurtful to human happiness: 'For (said he) it
+spreads mankind, which weakens the defence of a nation, and lessens the
+comfort of living. Men, thinly scattered, make a shift, but a bad shift,
+without many things. A smith is ten miles off: they'll do without a nail
+or a staple. A taylor is far from them: they'll botch their own clothes.
+It is being concentrated which produces high convenience[61].'
+
+Sir William Forbes, Mr. Scott, and I, accompanied Mr. Johnson to the
+chapel[62], founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith, for the Service of the
+Church of England. The Reverend Mr. Carre, the senior clergyman,
+preached from these words, 'Because the Lord reigneth, let the earth be
+glad[63].' I was sorry to think Mr. Johnson did not attend to the
+sermon, Mr. Carre's low voice not being strong enough to reach his
+hearing. A selection of Mr. Carre's sermons has, since his death, been
+published by Sir William Forbes[64], and the world has acknowledged
+their uncommon merit. I am well assured Lord Mansfield has pronounced
+them to be excellent.
+
+Here I obtained a promise from Lord Chief Baron Orde[65], that he would
+dine at my house next day. I presented Mr. Johnson to his Lordship, who
+politely said to him, I have not the honour of knowing you; but I hope
+for it, and to see you at my house. I am to wait on you to-morrow.' This
+respectable English judge will be long remembered in Scotland, where he
+built an elegant house, and lived in it magnificently. His own ample
+fortune, with the addition of his salary, enabled him to be splendidly
+hospitable. It may be fortunate for an individual amongst ourselves to
+be Lord Chief Baron; and a most worthy man now has the office; but, in
+my opinion, it is better for Scotland in general, that some of our
+publick employments should be filled by gentlemen of distinction from
+the south side of the Tweed, as we have the benefit of promotion in
+England. Such an interchange would make a beneficial mixture of manners,
+and render our union more complete. Lord Chief Baron Orde was on good
+terms with us all, in a narrow country filled with jarring interests and
+keen parties; and, though I well knew his opinion to be the same with my
+own, he kept himself aloof at a very critical period indeed, when the
+_Douglas cause_ shook the sacred security of _birthright_ in Scotland
+to its foundation; a cause, which had it happened before the Union, when
+there was no appeal to a British House of Lords, would have left the
+great fortress of honours and of property in ruins[66].  When we got
+home, Dr. Johnson desired to see my books. He took down Ogden's _Sermons
+on Prayer_[67], on which I set a very high value, having been much
+edified by them, and he retired with them to his room. He did not stay
+long, but soon joined us in the drawing room. I presented to him Mr.
+Robert Arbuthnot, a relation of the celebrated Dr. Arbuthnot[68], and a
+man of literature and taste. To him we were obliged for a previous
+recommendation, which secured us a very agreeable reception at St.
+Andrews, and which Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_, ascribes to 'some
+invisible friend[69].'
+
+Of Dr. Beattie, Mr. Johnson said, 'Sir, he has written like a man
+conscious of the truth, and feeling his own strength[70]. Treating your
+adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not
+entitled[71]. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and
+are impressed by character; so that, if you allow your adversary a
+respectable character, they will think, that though you differ from him,
+you may be in the wrong. Sir, treating your adversary with respect, is
+striking soft in a battle. And as to Hume,--a man who has so much
+conceit as to tell all mankind that they have been bubbled[72] for ages,
+and he is the wise man who sees better than they,--a man who has so
+little scrupulosity as to venture to oppose those principles which have
+been thought necessary to human happiness,--is he to be surprized if
+another man comes and laughs at him? If he is the great man he thinks
+himself, all this cannot hurt him: it is like throwing peas against a
+rock.' He added '_something much too rough_' both as to Mr. Hume's head
+and heart, which I suppress. Violence is, in my opinion, not suitable to
+the Christian cause. Besides, I always lived on good terms with Mr.
+Hume, though I have frankly told him, I was not clear that it was right
+in me to keep company with him. 'But, (said I) how much better are you
+than your books!' He was cheerful, obliging, and instructive; he was
+charitable to the poor; and many an agreeable hour have I passed with
+him[73]: I have preserved some entertaining and interesting memoirs of
+him, particularly when he knew himself to be dying, which I may some
+time or other communicate to the world[74]. I shall not, however, extol
+him so very highly as Dr. Adam Smith does, who says, in a letter to Mr.
+Strahan the Printer (not a confidential letter to his friend, but a
+letter which is published[75] with all formality:) 'Upon the whole, I
+have always considered him, both in his life time and since his death,
+as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous
+man as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.' Let Dr. Smith
+consider: Was not Mr. Hume blest with good health, good spirits, good
+friends, a competent and increasing fortune? And had he not also a
+perpetual feast of fame[76]? But, as a learned friend has observed to
+me, 'What trials did he undergo to prove the perfection of his virtue?
+Did he ever experience any great instance of adversity?'--When I read
+this sentence delivered by my old _Professor of Moral Philosophy_, I
+could not help exclaiming with the _Psalmist_, 'Surely I have now more
+understanding than my teachers[77]!'
+
+While we were talking, there came a note to me from Dr. William
+Robertson.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+   'I have been expecting every day to hear from you, of Dr. Johnson's
+arrival. Pray, what do you know about his motions? I long
+to take him by the hand. I write this from the college, where I have
+only this scrap of paper. Ever yours,
+
+'W. R.'
+
+'Sunday.'
+
+It pleased me to find Dr. Robertson thus eager to meet Dr. Johnson. I
+was glad I could answer, that he was come: and I begged Dr. Robertson
+might be with us as soon as he could.
+
+Sir William Forbes, Mr. Scott, Mr. Arbuthnot, and another gentleman
+dined with us. 'Come, Dr. Johnson, (said I,) it is commonly thought that
+our veal in Scotland is not good. But here is some which I believe you
+will like.' There was no catching him. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, what is
+commonly thought, I should take to be true. _Your_ veal may be good; but
+that will only be an exception to the general opinion; not a proof
+against it.'
+
+Dr. Robertson, according to the custom of Edinburgh at that time, dined
+in the interval between the forenoon and afternoon service, which was
+then later than now; so we had not the pleasure of his company till
+dinner was over, when he came and drank wine with us. And then began
+some animated dialogue[78], of which here follows a pretty full note.
+
+We talked of Mr. Burke. Dr. Johnson said, he had great variety of
+knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language. ROBERTSON. 'He has
+wit too.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; he never succeeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis
+conceit. I used to say, Burke never once made a good joke[79]. What I
+most envy Burke for, is his being constantly the same. He is never what
+we call hum-drum; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to
+leave off.' BOSWELL. 'Yet he can listen.' JOHNSON. 'No: I cannot say he
+is good at that[80]. So desirous is he to talk, that, if one is speaking
+at this end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end.
+Burke, Sir, is such a man, that if you met him for the first time in the
+street where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped
+aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a
+manner, that, when you parted, you would say, this is an extraordinary
+man[81]. Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding any thing
+extraordinary.' He said, he believed Burke was intended for the law; but
+either had not money enough to follow it, or had not diligence
+enough[82]. He said, he could not understand how a man could apply to
+one thing, and not to another. ROBERTSON said, one man had more
+judgment, another more imagination. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it is only, one
+man has more mind than another. He may direct it differently; he may, by
+accident, see the success of one kind of study, and take a desire to
+excel in it. I am persuaded that, had Sir Isaac Newton applied to
+poetry, he would have made a very fine epick poem. I could as easily
+apply to law as to tragick poetry.' BOSWELL. 'Yet, Sir, you did apply to
+tragick poetry, not to law.' JOHNSON. 'Because, Sir, I had not money to
+study law. Sir, the man who has vigour, may walk to the east, just as
+well as to the west, if he happens to turn his head that way[83].'
+BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, 'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will
+naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill
+best, from her fore-legs being short; a dog down.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir;
+that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may
+argue in that manner. One mind is a vice, and holds fast; there's a good
+memory. Another is a file; and he is a disputant, a controversialist.
+Another is a razor; and he is sarcastical.' We talked of Whitefield. He
+said he was at the same college with him[84], and knew him _before he
+began to be better than other people_ (smiling;) that he believed he
+sincerely meant well, but had a mixture of politicks and ostentation:
+whereas Wesley thought of religion only[85]. ROBERTSON said, Whitefield
+had strong natural eloquence, which, if cultivated, would have done
+great things. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I take it, he was at the height of
+what his abilities could do, and was sensible of it. He had the ordinary
+advantages of education; but he chose to pursue that oratory which is
+for the mob[86].' BOSWELL. 'He had great effect on the passions.'
+JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I don't think so. He could not represent a
+succession of pathetic images. He vociferated, and made an impression.
+_There_, again, was a mind like a hammer.' Dr. Johnson now said, a
+certain eminent political friend of our's[87] was wrong, in his maxim of
+sticking to a certain set of _men_ on all occasions. 'I can see that a
+man may do right to stick to a _party_ (said he;) that is to say, he is
+a _Whig_, or he is a _Tory_, and he thinks one of those parties upon the
+whole the best, and that to make it prevail, it must be generally
+supported, though, in particulars it may be wrong. He takes its faggot
+of principles, in which there are fewer rotten sticks than in the other,
+though some rotten sticks to be sure; and they cannot well be separated.
+But, to bind one's self to one man, or one set of men, (who may be right
+to-day and wrong to-morrow,) without any general preference of system, I
+must disapprove[88].'
+
+He told us of Cooke, who translated Hesiod, and lived twenty years on a
+translation of Plautus, for which he was always taking subscriptions;
+and that he presented Foote to a Club, in the following singular manner:
+'This is the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for
+murdering his brother[89].'  In the evening I introduced to Mr.
+Johnson[90] two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, Advocate, and
+Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my neighbour in the country, both of whom
+supped with us. I have preserved nothing of what passed, except that Dr.
+Johnson displayed another of his heterodox opinions,--a contempt of
+tragick acting[91]. He said, 'the action of all players in tragedy is
+bad. It should be a man's study to repress those signs of emotion and
+passion, as they are called.' He was of a directly contrary opinion to
+that of Fielding, in his _Tom Jones_; who makes Partridge say, of
+Garrick, 'why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had
+seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done
+just as he did[92].' For, when I asked him, 'Would you not, Sir, start
+as Mr. Garrick does, if you saw a ghost?' He answered, 'I hope not. If I
+did, I should frighten the ghost.'
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, AUGUST 16.
+
+Dr. William Robertson came to breakfast. We talked of _Ogden on Prayer_.
+Dr. Johnson said, 'The same arguments which are used against GOD'S
+hearing prayer, will serve against his rewarding good, and punishing
+evil. He has resolved, he has declared, in the former case as in the
+latter.' He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's _Remarks on the
+History of Scotland_. Dr. Robertson and I said, it was a pity Lord
+Hailes did not write greater things. His lordship had not then published
+his _Annals of Scotland_[93]. JOHNSON. 'I remember I was once on a
+visit at the house of a lady for whom I had a high respect. There was a
+good deal of company in the room. When they were gone, I said to this
+lady, "What foolish talking have we had!" "Yes, (said she,) but while
+they talked, you said nothing." I was struck with the reproof. How much
+better is the man who does anything that is innocent, than he who does
+nothing. Besides, I love anecdotes[94]. I fancy mankind may come, in
+time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of
+preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by
+which a big book is made. If a man is to wait till he weaves anecdotes
+into a system, we may be long in getting them, and get but few, in
+comparison of what we might get.
+
+Dr. Robertson said, the notions of _Eupham Macallan_, a fanatick woman,
+of whom Lord Hailes gives a sketch, were still prevalent among some of
+the Presbyterians; and therefore it was right in Lord Hailes, a man of
+known piety, to undeceive them[95].
+
+We walked out[96], that Dr. Johnson might see some of the things which
+we have to shew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament-House[97],
+where the Parliament of Scotland sat, and where the _Ordinary Lords_ of
+Session hold their courts; and to the New Session-House adjoining to it,
+where our Court of Fifteen (the fourteen _Ordinaries_, with the Lord
+President at their head,) sit as a court of Review. We went to the
+_Advocates Library_[98], of which Dr. Johnson took a cursory view, and
+then to what is called the _Laigh_[99] (or under) Parliament-House,
+where the records of Scotland, which has an universal security by
+register, are deposited, till the great Register Office be finished. I
+was pleased to behold Dr. Samuel Johnson rolling about in this old
+magazine of antiquities. There was, by this time, a pretty numerous
+circle of us attending upon him. Somebody talked of happy moments for
+composition; and how a man can write at one time, and not at another.
+'Nay, (said Dr. Johnson,) a man may write at any time, if he will set
+himself _doggedly_[100] to it.'
+
+I here began to indulge _old Scottish_[101] sentiments, and to express a
+warm regret, that, by our Union with _England_, we were no more;--our
+independent kingdom was lost[102]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, never talk of your
+independency, who could let your Queen remain twenty years in captivity,
+and then be put to death, without even a pretence of justice, without
+your ever attempting to rescue her; and such a Queen too; as every man
+of any gallantry of spirit would have sacrificed his life for[103].'
+Worthy Mr. JAMES KERR, Keeper of the Records. 'Half our nation was
+bribed by English money.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is no defence: that makes
+you worse.' Good Mr. BROWN, Keeper of the Advocates' Library. 'We had
+better say nothing about it.' BOSWELL. 'You would have been glad,
+however, to have had us last war, sir, to fight your battles!' JOHNSON.
+'We should have had you for the same price, though there had been no
+Union, as we might have had Swiss, or other troops. No, no, I shall
+agree to a separation. You have only to _go home_.' Just as he had said
+this, I, to divert the subject, shewed him the signed assurances of the
+three successive Kings of the Hanover family, to maintain the
+Presbyterian establishment in Scotland. 'We'll give you that (said he)
+into the bargain.'
+
+We next went to the great church of St. Giles, which has lost its
+original magnificence in the inside, by being divided into four places
+of Presbyterian worship[104]. 'Come, (said Dr. Johnson jocularly to
+Principal Robertson[105],) let me see what was once a church!' We
+entered that division which was formerly called the _New Church_, and of
+late the _High Church_, so well known by the eloquence of Dr. Hugh
+Blair. It is now very elegantly fitted up; but it was then shamefully
+dirty[106]. Dr. Johnson said nothing at the time; but when we came to
+the great door of the Royal Infirmary, where upon a board was this
+inscription, '_Clean your feet!_' he turned about slyly and said, 'There
+is no occasion for putting this at the doors of your churches!'
+
+We then conducted him down the Post-house stairs, Parliament-close, and
+made him look up from the Cow-gate to the highest building in Edinburgh,
+(from which he had just descended,) being thirteen floors or stories
+from the ground upon the back elevation; the front wall being built upon
+the edge of the hill, and the back wall rising from the bottom of the
+hill several stories before it comes to a level with the front wall. We
+proceeded to the College, with the Principal at our head. Dr. Adam
+Fergusson, whose _Essay on the History of Civil Society[107]_ gives him
+a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us. As the
+College buildings[108] are indeed very mean, the Principal said to Dr.
+Johnson, that he must give them the same epithet that a Jesuit did when
+shewing a poor college abroad: '_Hae miseriae nostrae_.' Dr. Johnson
+was, however, much pleased with the library, and with the conversation
+of Dr. James Robertson, Professor of Oriental Languages, the Librarian.
+We talked of Kennicot's edition of the Hebrew Bible[109], and hoped it
+would be quite faithful. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I know not any crime so great
+that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the sources of
+eternal truth.'
+
+I pointed out to him where there formerly stood an old wall enclosing
+part of the college, which I remember bulged out in a threatening
+manner, and of which there was a common tradition similar to that
+concerning _Bacon's_ study at Oxford, that it would fall upon some very
+learned man[110]. It had some time before this been taken down, that the
+street might be widened, and a more convenient wall built. Dr. Johnson,
+glad of an opportunity to have a pleasant hit at Scottish learning,
+said, 'they have been afraid it never would fall.'
+
+We shewed him the Royal Infirmary, for which, and for every other
+exertion of generous publick spirit in his power, that noble-minded
+citizen of Edinburgh, George Drummond, will be ever held in honourable
+remembrance. And we were too proud not to carry him to the Abbey of
+Holyrood-house, that beautiful piece of architecture, but, alas! that
+deserted mansion of royalty, which Hamilton of Bangour, in one of his
+elegant poems, calls
+
+     'A virtuous palace, where no monarch dwells[111].'
+
+I was much entertained while Principal Robertson fluently harangued to
+Dr. Johnson, upon the spot, concerning scenes of his celebrated _History
+of Scotland_. We surveyed that part of the palace appropriated to the
+Duke of Hamilton, as Keeper, in which our beautiful Queen Mary lived,
+and in which David Rizzio was murdered; and also the State Rooms. Dr.
+Johnson was a great reciter of all sorts of things serious or comical. I
+overheard him repeating here in a kind of muttering tone, a line of the
+old ballad, _Johnny Armstrong's Last Good Night_:
+
+     'And ran him through the fair body[112]!'
+
+We returned to my house, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchess of
+Douglas[113], Sir Adolphus Oughton, Lord Chief Baron, Sir William
+Forbes, Principal Robertson, Mr. Cullen[114], Advocate. Before dinner he
+told us of a curious conversation between the famous George
+Faulkner[115] and him. George said that England had drained Ireland of
+fifty thousand pounds in specie, annually, for fifty years. 'How so,
+Sir! (said Dr. Johnson,) you must have a very great trade?' 'No trade.'
+'Very rich mines?' 'No mines.' 'From whence, then, does all this money
+come?' 'Come! why out of the blood and bowels of the poor people
+of Ireland!'
+
+He seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift[116];
+for I once took the liberty to ask him, if Swift had personally offended
+him, and he told me he had not. He said to-day, 'Swift is clear, but he
+is shallow. In coarse humour, he is inferior to Arbuthnot[117]; in
+delicate humour, he is inferior to Addison. So he is inferior to his
+contemporaries; without putting him against the whole world. I doubt if
+the _Tale of a Tub_ was his[118]: it has so much more thinking, more
+knowledge, more power, more colour, than any of the works which are
+indisputably his. If it was his, I shall only say, he was _impar
+sibi_[119].'
+
+We gave him as good a dinner as we could. Our Scotch muir-fowl, or
+growse, were then abundant, and quite in season; and so far as wisdom
+and wit can be aided by administering agreeable sensations to the
+palate, my wife took care that our great guest should not be deficient.
+
+Sir Adolphus Oughton, then our Deputy Commander in Chief, who was not
+only an excellent officer, but one of the most universal scholars I ever
+knew, had learned the Erse language, and expressed his belief in the
+authenticity of Ossian's Poetry[120]. Dr. Johnson took the opposite side
+of that perplexed question; and I was afraid the dispute would have run
+high between them. But Sir Adolphus, who had a very sweet temper,
+changed the discourse, grew playful, laughed at Lord Monboddo's[121]
+notion of men having tails, and called him a Judge, _à posteriori_,
+which amused Dr. Johnson; and thus hostilities were prevented.
+
+At supper[122] we had Dr. Cullen, his son the advocate, Dr. Adam
+Fergusson, and Mr. Crosbie, advocate. Witchcraft was introduced[123].
+Mr. Crosbie said, he thought it the greatest blasphemy to suppose evil
+spirits counteracting the Deity, and raising storms, for instance, to
+destroy his creatures. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if moral evil be consistent
+with the government of the Deity, why may not physical evil be also
+consistent with it? It is not more strange that there should be evil
+spirits, than evil men: evil unembodied spirits, than evil embodied
+spirits. And as to storms, we know there are such things; and it is no
+worse that evil spirits raise them, than that they rise.' CROSBIE. 'But
+it is not credible, that witches should have effected what they are said
+in stories to have done.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am not defending their
+credibility. I am only saying, that your arguments are not good, and
+will not overturn the belief of witchcraft.--(Dr. Fergusson said to me,
+aside, 'He is right.')--And then, Sir, you have all mankind, rude and
+civilized, agreeing in the belief of the agency of preternatural powers.
+You must take evidence: you must consider, that wise and great men have
+condemned witches to die[124].' CROSBIE. 'But an act of parliament put
+an end to witchcraft[125].' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; witchcraft had ceased;
+and therefore an act of parliament was passed to prevent persecution for
+what was not witchcraft. Why it ceased, we cannot tell, as we cannot
+tell the reason of many other things.'--Dr. Cullen, to keep up the
+gratification of mysterious disquisition, with the grave address for
+which he is remarkable in his companionable as in his professional
+hours, talked, in a very entertaining manner, of people walking and
+conversing in their sleep. I am very sorry I have no note of this. We
+talked of the _Ouran-Outang_, and of Lord Monboddo's thinking that he
+might be taught to speak. Dr. Johnson treated this with ridicule. Mr.
+Crosbie said, that Lord Monboddo believed the existence of every thing
+possible; in short, that all which is in _posse_ might be found in
+_esse_. JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, it is as possible that the _Ouran-Outang_
+does not speak, as that he speaks. However, I shall not contest the
+point. I should have thought it not possible to find a Monboddo; yet
+_he_ exists.' I again mentioned the stage. JOHNSON. 'The appearance of a
+player, with whom I have drunk tea, counteracts the imagination that he
+is the character he represents. Nay, you know, nobody imagines that he
+is the character he represents. They say, "See _Garrick!_ how he looks
+to night! See how he'll clutch the dagger!" That is the buz of the
+theatre[126].'
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, AUGUST 17.
+
+Sir William Forbes came to breakfast, and brought with him Dr.
+Blacklock[127], whom he introduced to Dr. Johnson, who received him with
+a most humane complacency; 'Dear Dr. Blacklock, I am glad to see you!'
+Blacklock seemed to be much surprized, when Dr. Johnson said, 'it was
+easier to him to write poetry than to compose his _Dictionary_[128]. His
+mind was less on the stretch in doing the one than the other. Besides;
+composing a _Dictionary_ requires books and a desk: you can make a poem
+walking in the fields, or lying in bed. Dr. Blacklock spoke of
+scepticism in morals and religion, with apparent uneasiness, as if he
+wished for more certainty[129]. Dr. Johnson, who had thought it all
+over, and whose vigorous understanding was fortified by much experience,
+thus encouraged the blind Bard to apply to higher speculations what we
+all willingly submit to in common life: in short, he gave him more
+familiarly the able and fair reasoning of Butler's _Analogy_: 'Why, Sir,
+the greatest concern we have in this world, the choice of our
+profession, must be determined without demonstrative reasoning. Human
+life is not yet so well known, as that we can have it. And take the case
+of a man who is ill. I call two physicians: they differ in opinion. I am
+not to lie down, and die between them: I must do something.' The
+conversation then turned on Atheism; on that horrible book, _Système de
+la Nature_[130]; and on the supposition of an eternal necessity, without
+design, without a governing mind. JOHNSON. 'If it were so, why has it
+ceased? Why don't we see men thus produced around us now? Why, at least,
+does it not keep pace, in some measure, with the progress of time? If
+it stops because there is now no need of it, then it is plain there is,
+and ever has been, an all powerful intelligence. But stay! (said he,
+with one of his satyrick laughs[131].) Ha! ha! ha! I shall suppose
+Scotchmen made necessarily, and Englishmen by choice.'
+
+At dinner this day, we had Sir Alexander Dick, whose amiable character,
+and ingenious and cultivated mind, are so generally known; (he was then
+on the verge of seventy, and is now (1785) eighty-one, with his
+faculties entire, his heart warm, and his temper gay;) Sir David
+Dalrymple, Lord Hailes; Mr. Maclaurin[132], advocate; Dr. Gregory, who
+now worthily fills his father's medical chair[133]; and my uncle, Dr.
+Boswell. This was one of Dr. Johnson's best days. He was quite in his
+element. All was literature and taste, without any interruption. Lord
+Hailes, who is one of the best philologists in Great Britain, who has
+written papers in _The World_[134], and a variety of other works in
+prose and in verse, both Latin and English, pleased him highly. He told
+him, he had discovered the life of _Cheynel_, in _The Student_[135], to
+be his. JOHNSON. 'No one else knows it.' Dr. Johnson had, before this,
+dictated to me a law-paper, upon a question purely in the law of
+Scotland, concerning _vicious intromission_[136], that is to say,
+intermeddling with the effects of a deceased person, without a regular
+title; which formerly was understood to subject the intermeddler to
+payment of all the defunct's debts. The principle has of late been
+relaxed. Dr. Johnson's argument was, for a renewal of its strictness.
+The paper was printed, with additions by me, and given into the Court of
+Session. Lord Hailes knew Dr. Johnson's part not to be mine, and pointed
+out exactly where it began, and where it ended. Dr. Johnson said, 'It is
+much, now, that his lordship can distinguish so.'  In Dr. Johnson's
+_Vanity of Human Wishes_, there is the following passage:--
+
+     'The teeming mother, anxious for her race,
+      Begs, for each birth, the fortune of a face:
+      Yet _Vane_ could tell, what ills from beauty spring,
+      And _Sedley_ curs'd the charms which pleas'd a king[137].'
+
+Lord Hailes told him, he was mistaken in the instances he had given of
+unfortunate fair ones; for neither _Vane_ nor _Sedley_ had a title to
+that description. His Lordship has since been so obliging as to send me
+a note of this, for the communication of which I am sure my readers
+will thank me.
+
+'The lines in the tenth Satire of Juvenal, according to my alteration,
+should have run thus:--
+
+     'Yet _Shore_[138] could tell-----;
+      And _Valiere_[139] curs'd------.'
+
+'The first was a penitent by compulsion, the second by sentiment; though
+the truth is, Mademoiselle de la Valiere threw herself (but still from
+sentiment) in the King's way.
+
+'Our friend chose _Vane_[140], who was far from being well-looked; and
+_Sedley_, who was so ugly, that Charles II. said, his brother had her by
+way of penance[141].'
+
+Mr. Maclaurin's learning and talents enabled him to do his part very
+well in Dr. Johnson's company. He produced two epitaphs upon his
+father, the celebrated mathematician[142]. One was in English, of which
+Dr. Johnson did not change one word. In the other, which was in Latin,
+he made several alterations. In place of the very words of _Virgil_,
+'_Ubi luctus et pavor et plurima mortis imago_[143],' he wrote '_Ubi
+luctus regnant et pavor_.' He introduced the word _prorsus_ into the
+line '_Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium_,' and after '_Hujus enim
+scripta evolve_,' he added '_Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem corpori
+caduco superstitem crede_;' which is quite applicable to Dr. Johnson
+himself[144].
+
+Mr. Murray, advocate, who married a niece of Lord Mansfield's, and is
+now one of the judges of Scotland, by the title of Lord _Henderland_,
+sat with us a part of the evening; but did not venture to say any thing,
+that I remember, though he is certainly possessed of talents which would
+have enabled him to have shewn himself to advantage, if too great
+anxiety had not prevented him.
+
+At supper we had Dr. Alexander Webster, who, though not, learned, had
+such a knowledge of mankind, such a fund of information and
+entertainment, so clear a head and such accommodating manners, that Dr.
+Johnson found him a very agreeable companion.
+
+When Dr. Johnson and I were left by ourselves, I read to him my notes of
+the Opinions of our Judges upon the questions of Literary Property[145].
+He did not like them; and said, 'they make me think of your Judges not
+with that respect which I should wish to do.' To the argument of one of
+them, that there can be no property in blasphemy or nonsense, he
+answered, 'then your rotten sheep are mine! By that rule, when a man's
+house falls into decay, he must lose it.' I mentioned an argument of
+mine, that literary performances are not taxed. As _Churchill_ says,
+
+     'No statesman yet has thought it worth his pains
+      To tax our labours, or excise our brains[146];'
+
+and therefore they are not property. 'Yet, (said he,) we hang a man for
+stealing a horse, and horses are not taxed.' Mr. Pitt has since put an
+end to that argument[147].
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18.
+
+On this day we set out from Edinburgh. We should gladly have had Mr.
+Scott to go with us; but he was obliged to return to England.--I have
+given a sketch of Dr. Johnson: my readers may wish to know a little of
+his fellow traveller[148]. Think then, of a gentleman of ancient blood,
+the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his
+thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married. His
+inclination was to be a soldier[149]; but his father, a respectable[150]
+Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled
+a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more
+than any body supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning
+and knowledge[151]. He had all Dr. Johnson's principles, with some
+degree of relaxation. He had rather too little, than too much prudence;
+and, his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the
+effect was very different from the intention[152]. He resembled sometimes
+
+     'The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse[153].'
+
+He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr.
+Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his Tour
+represents him as one 'whose acuteness would help my enquiry, and whose
+gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to
+counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable
+than we have passed[154].'  Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put
+himself to the additional expence of bringing with him Francis Barber,
+his faithful black servant; so we were attended only by my man, Joseph
+Ritter, a Bohemian; a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had
+been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages. He was the
+best servant I ever saw. Let not my readers disdain his introduction!
+For Dr. Johnson gave him this character: 'Sir, he is a civil man, and a
+wise man[155].'
+
+From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr. Johnson had provided a
+pair of pistols, some gunpowder, and a quantity of bullets: but upon
+being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his
+arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the
+charge. He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and
+curious Diary of his Life, of which I have a few fragments; but the book
+has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to
+have had it all transcribed; which might easily have been done; and I
+should think the theft, being _pro bono publico_, might have been
+forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once looked into
+it[156].--She did not seem quite easy when we left her: but away
+we went!
+
+Mr. Nairne, advocate, was to go with us as far as St. Andrews. It gives
+me pleasure that, by mentioning his _name_, I connect his title to the
+just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson, in his book: 'A
+gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how
+much we lost by his leaving us[157]. 'When we came to Leith, I talked
+with perhaps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked;
+as indeed, after the prospect from Constantinople, of which I have been
+told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of
+that Frith and its environs, from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the
+finest prospect in Europe. 'Ay, (said Dr. Johnson,) that is the state of
+the world. Water is the same every where.
+
+     "Una est injusti caerula forma maris[158]."'
+
+I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of _Leith_.
+'Not _Lethe_; said Mr. Nairne. 'Why, Sir, (said Dr. Johnson,) when a
+Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native
+country.' NAIRNE. 'I hope, Sir, you will forget England here.' JOHNSON.
+'Then 'twill still be more _Lethe_' He observed of the Pier or Quay,
+'you have no occasion for so large a one: your trade does not require
+it: but you are like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only for what he
+has to put in it, but that it may be believed he has a great deal to put
+into it.' It is very true, that there is now, comparatively, little
+trade upon the eastern coast of Scotland. The riches of Glasgow shew how
+much there is in the west; and perhaps we shall find trade travel
+westward on a great scale, as well as a small.
+
+We talked of a man's drowning himself. JOHNSON. 'I should never think it
+time to make away with myself.' I put the case of Eustace Budgell[159],
+who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames,
+before the trial of its authenticity came on. 'Suppose, Sir, (said I,)
+that a man is absolutely sure, that, if he lives a few days longer, he
+shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter
+disgrace and expulsion from society.' JOHNSON. 'Then, Sir, let him go
+abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is _not_
+known. Don't let him go to the devil where he _is_ known!'
+
+He then said, 'I see a number of people bare-footed here: I suppose you
+all went so before the Union. Boswell, your ancestors went so, when they
+had as much land as your family has now. Yet _Auchinleck_ is the _Field
+of Stones_: there would be bad going bare-footed there. The _Lairds_,
+however, did it.' I bought some _speldings_, fish (generally whitings)
+salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the sea and
+dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish. He had
+never seen them, though they are sold in London. I insisted on
+_scottifying_[160] his palate; but he was very reluctant. With
+difficulty I prevailed with him to let a bit of one of them lie in his
+mouth. He did not like it.
+
+In crossing the Frith, Dr. Johnson determined that we should land upon
+Inch Keith[161]. On approaching it, we first observed a high rocky
+shore. We coasted about, and put into a little bay on the North-west. We
+clambered up a very steep ascent, on which was very good grass, but
+rather a profusion of thistles. There were sixteen head of black cattle
+grazing upon the island. Lord Hailes observed to me, that Brantome calls
+it _L'isle des Chevaux_, and that it was probably 'a _safer_ stable'
+than many others in his time. The fort[162], with an inscription on
+it, _Maria Re_ 1564, is strongly built. Dr. Johnson examined it with much
+attention. He stalked like a giant among the luxuriant thistles and
+nettles. There are three wells in the island; but we could not find one
+in the fort. There must probably have been one, though now filled up, as
+a garrison could not subsist without it. But I have dwelt too long on
+this little spot. Dr. Johnson afterwards bade me try to write a
+description of our discovering Inch Keith, in the usual style of
+travellers, describing fully every particular; stating the grounds on
+which we concluded that it must have once been inhabited, and
+introducing many sage reflections; and we should see how a thing might
+be covered in words, so as to induce people to come and survey it. All
+that was told might be true, and yet in reality there might be nothing
+to see. He said, 'I'd have this island. I'd build a house, make a good
+landing-place, have a garden, and vines, and all sorts of trees. A rich
+man, of a hospitable turn, here, would have many visitors from
+Edinburgh.' When we got into our boat again, he called to me, 'Come,
+now, pay a classical compliment to the island on quitting it.' I
+happened luckily, in allusion to the beautiful Queen Mary, whose name is
+upon the fort, to think of what Virgil makes Aeneas say, on having left
+the country of his charming Dido.
+
+     'Invitus, regina, tuo de littore cessi[163].'
+
+'Very well hit off!' said he.
+
+We dined at Kinghorn, and then got into a post-chaise[164]. Mr. Nairne
+and his servant, and Joseph, rode by us. We stopped at Cupar, and drank
+tea. We talked of parliament; and I said, I supposed very few of the
+members knew much of what was going on, as indeed very few gentlemen
+know much of their own private affairs. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if a man is
+not of a sluggish mind, he may be his own steward. If he will look into
+his affairs, he will soon learn[165]. So it is as to publick affairs.
+There must always be a certain number of men of business in parliament.'
+BOSWELL. 'But consider, Sir; what is the House of Commons? Is not a
+great part of it chosen by peers? Do you think, Sir, they ought to have
+such an influence?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir. Influence must ever be in
+proportion to property; and it is right it should[166].' BOSWELL. 'But
+is there not reason to fear that the common people may be oppressed?'
+JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. Our great fear is from want of power in government.
+Such a storm of vulgar force has broke in.' BOSWELL. 'It has only
+roared.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it has roared, till the Judges in
+Westminster-Hall have been afraid to pronounce sentence in opposition to
+the popular cry[167]. You are frightened by what is no longer dangerous,
+like Presbyterians by Popery.' He then repeated a passage, I think, in
+_Butler's Remains_, which ends, 'and would cry, Fire! Fire! in Noah's
+flood[168].'
+
+We had a dreary drive, in a dusky night, to St. Andrews, where we
+arrived late. We found a good supper at Glass's inn, and Dr. Johnson
+revived agreeably. He said, 'the collection called _The Muses' Welcome
+to King James_, (first of England, and sixth of Scotland,) on his return
+to his native kingdom, shewed that there was then abundance of learning
+in Scotland; and that the conceits in that collection, with which people
+find fault, were mere mode.' He added, 'we could not now entertain a
+sovereign so; that Buchanan had spread the spirit of learning amongst
+us, but we had lost it during the civil wars[169].' He did not allow the
+Latin Poetry of Pitcairne so much merit as has been usually attributed
+to it; though he owned that one of his pieces, which he mentioned, but
+which I am sorry is not specified in my notes, was, 'very well.' It is
+not improbable that it was the poem which Prior has so elegantly
+translated[170].
+
+After supper, we made a _procession_ to _Saint Leonard's College_, the
+landlord walking before us with a candle, and the waiter with a lantern.
+That college had some time before been dissolved; and Dr. Watson, a
+professor here, (the historian of Philip II.) had purchased the ground,
+and what buildings remained. When we entered this court, it seemed quite
+academical; and we found in his house very comfortable and genteel
+accommodation[171].
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, AUGUST 19.
+
+We rose much refreshed. I had with me a map of Scotland, a bible which
+was given me by Lord Mountstuart when we were together in Italy[172],
+and Ogden's _Sermons on Prayer_; Mr. Nairne introduced us to Dr. Watson,
+whom we found a well-informed man, of very amiable manners. Dr. Johnson,
+after they were acquainted, said, 'I take great delight in him.' His
+daughter, a very pleasing young lady, made breakfast. Dr. Watson
+observed, that Glasgow University had fewer home-students, since trade
+increased, as learning was rather incompatible with it. JOHNSON. 'Why,
+Sir, as trade is now carried on by subordinate hands, men in trade have
+as much leisure as others; and now learning itself is a trade. A man
+goes to a bookseller, and gets what he can. We have done with
+patronage[173]. In the infancy of learning, we find some great man
+praised for it. This diffused it among others. When it becomes general,
+an authour leaves the great, and applies to the multitude.' BOSWELL. 'It
+is a shame that authours are not now better patronized.' JOHNSON. 'No,
+Sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he must sit with his hands
+across till somebody feeds him, it is as to him a bad thing, and it is
+better as it is. With patronage, what flattery! what falsehood! While a
+man is in equilibrio, he throws truth among the multitude, and lets them
+take it as they please: in patronage, he must say what pleases his
+patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be truth or falsehood.'
+WATSON. 'But is not the case now, that, instead of flattering one
+person, we flatter the age?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. The world always lets a
+man tell what he thinks, his own way. I wonder, however, that so many
+people have written, who might have let it alone. That people should
+endeavour to excel in conversation, I do not wonder; because in
+conversation praise is instantly reverberated[174].'
+
+We talked of change of manners. Dr. Johnson observed, that our drinking
+less than our ancestors was owing to the change from ale to wine.' I
+remember, (said he,) when all the _decent_ people in Lichfield got drunk
+every night, and were not the worse thought of[175]. Ale was cheap, so
+you pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not
+in such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing,
+blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and
+noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why a
+thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind from
+total vacuity, should have gone out[176]. Every man has something by
+which he calms himself: beating with his feet, or so[177]. I remember
+when people in England changed a shirt only once a week[178]: a Pandour,
+when he gets a shirt, greases it to make it last. Formerly, good
+tradesmen had no fire but in the kitchen; never in the parlour, except
+on Sunday. My father, who was a magistrate of Lichfield, lived thus.
+They never began to have a fire in the parlour, but on leaving off
+business, or some great revolution of their life.' Dr. Watson said, the
+hall was as a kitchen, in old squires' houses. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. The
+hall was for great occasions, and never was used for domestick
+refection[179].' We talked of the Union, and what money it had brought
+into Scotland. Dr. Watson observed, that a little money formerly went as
+far as a great deal now. JOHNSON. 'In speculation, it seems that a
+smaller quantity of money, equal in value to a larger quantity, if
+equally divided, should produce the same effect. But it is not so in
+reality. Many more conveniences and elegancies are enjoyed where money
+is plentiful, than where it is scarce. Perhaps a great familiarity with
+it, which arises from plenty, makes us more easily part with it.'
+
+After what Dr. Johnson had said of St. Andrews, which he had long wished
+to see, as our oldest university, and the seat of our Primate in the
+days of episcopacy, I can say little. Since the publication of Dr.
+Johnson's book, I find that he has been censured for not seeing here
+the ancient chapel of _St. Rule_, a curious piece of sacred
+architecture.[180] But this was neither his fault nor mine. We were both
+of us abundantly desirous of surveying such sort of antiquities: but
+neither of us knew of this. I am afraid the censure must fall on those
+who did not tell us of it. In every place, where there is any thing
+worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for
+strangers, such as we find in all the towns of Italy, and in some of the
+towns in England. I was told that there is a manuscript account of St.
+Andrews, by Martin, secretary to Archbishop Sharp;[181] and that one
+Douglas has published a small account of it. I inquired at a
+bookseller's, but could not get it. Dr. Johnson's veneration for the
+Hierarchy is well known.[182] There is no wonder then, that he was
+affected with a strong indignation, while he beheld the ruins of
+religious magnificence. I happened to ask where John Knox was buried.
+Dr. Johnson burst out, 'I hope in the high-way.[183] I have been looking
+at his reformations.'[184]  It was a very fine day. Dr. Johnson seemed
+quite wrapt up in the contemplation of the scenes which were now
+presented to him. He kept his hat off while he was upon any part of the
+ground where the cathedral had stood. He said well, that 'Knox had set
+on a mob, without knowing where it would end; and that differing from a
+man in doctrine was no reason why you should pull his house about his
+ears.' As we walked in the cloisters, there was a solemn echo, while he
+talked loudly of a proper retirement from the world. Mr. Nairne said, he
+had an inclination to retire. I called Dr. Johnson's attention to this,
+that I might hear his opinion if it was right. JOHNSON. 'Yes, when he
+has done his duty to society[185]. In general, as every man is obliged
+not only to "love GOD, but his neighbour as himself," he must bear his
+part in active life; yet there are exceptions. Those who are exceedingly
+scrupulous, (which I do not approve, for I am no friend to
+scruples[186],) and find their scrupulosity[187] invincible, so that
+they are quite in the dark, and know not what they shall do,--or those
+who cannot resist temptations, and find they make themselves worse by
+being in the world, without making it better, may retire[188]. I never
+read of a hermit, but in imagination I kiss his feet; never of a
+monastery, but I could fall on my knees, and kiss the pavement. But I
+think putting young people there, who know nothing of life, nothing of
+retirement, is dangerous and wicked[189]. It is a saying as old
+as Hesiod,
+
+     Erga neon, boulaite meson, enchaite geronton[190].
+
+That is a very noble line: not that young men should not pray, or old
+men not give counsel, but that every season of life has its proper
+duties. I have thought of retiring, and have talked of it to a friend;
+but I find my vocation is rather to active life.' I said, some young
+monks might be allowed, to shew that it is not age alone that can retire
+to pious solitude; but he thought this would only shew that they could
+not resist temptation.
+
+He wanted to mount the steeples, but it could not be done. There are no
+good inscriptions here. Bad Roman characters he naturally mistook for
+half Gothick, half Roman. One of the steeples, which he was told was in
+danger, he wished not to be taken down; 'for, said he, it may fall on
+some of the posterity of John Knox; and no great matter!'--Dinner was
+mentioned. JOHNSON. 'Ay, ay; amidst all these sorrowful scenes, I have
+no objection to dinner[191].'
+
+We went and looked at the castle, where Cardinal Beaton was
+murdered[192], and then visited Principal Murison at his college, where
+is a good library-room; but the Principal was abundantly vain of it, for
+he seriously said to Dr. Johnson, 'you have not such a one in
+England.'[193]
+
+The professors entertained us with a very good dinner. Present: Murison,
+Shaw, Cook, Hill, Haddo, Watson, Flint, Brown. I observed, that I
+wondered to see him eat so well, after viewing so many sorrowful scenes
+of ruined religious magnificence. 'Why, said he, I am not sorry, after
+seeing these gentlemen; for they are not sorry.' Murison said, all
+sorrow was bad, as it was murmuring against the dispensations of
+Providence. JOHNSON. 'Sir, sorrow is inherent in humanity. As you cannot
+judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four, so,
+when comparing a worse present state with a better which is past, you
+cannot but feel sorrow.[194] It is not cured by reason, but by the
+incursion of present objects, which wear out the past. You need not
+murmur, though you are sorry.' MURISON. 'But St. Paul says, "I have
+learnt, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content."' JOHNSON.
+'Sir, that relates to riches and poverty; for we see St. Paul, when he
+had a thorn in the flesh, prayed earnestly to have it removed; and then
+he could not be content.' Murison, thus refuted, tried to be smart, and
+drank to Dr. Johnson, 'Long may you lecture!' Dr. Johnson afterwards,
+speaking of his not drinking wine, said, 'The Doctor spoke of
+_lecturing_ (looking to him). I give all these lectures on water.'
+
+He defended requiring subscription in those admitted to universities,
+thus: 'As all who come into the country must obey the king, so all who
+come into an university must be of the church[195].'
+
+And here I must do Dr. Johnson the justice to contradict a very absurd
+and ill-natured story, as to what passed at St. Andrews. It has been
+circulated, that, after grace was said in English, in the usual manner,
+he with the greatest marks of contempt, as if he had held it to be no
+grace in an university, would not sit down till he had said grace aloud
+in Latin. This would have been an insult indeed to the gentlemen who
+were entertaining us. But the truth was precisely thus. In the course of
+conversation at dinner, Dr. Johnson, in very good humour, said, 'I
+should have expected to have heard a Latin grace, among so many learned
+men: we had always a Latin grace at Oxford. I believe I can repeat
+it.'[196] Which he did, as giving the learned men in one place a
+specimen of what was done by the learned men in another place.
+
+We went and saw the church, in which is Archbishop Sharp's
+monument.[197] I was struck with the same kind of feelings with which
+the churches of Italy impressed me. I was much pleased, to see Dr.
+Johnson actually in St. Andrews, of which we had talked so long.
+Professor Haddo was with us this afternoon, along with Dr. Watson. We
+looked at St. Salvador's College. The rooms for students seemed very
+commodious, and Dr. Johnson said, the chapel was the neatest place of
+worship he had seen. The key of the library could not be found; for it
+seems Professor Hill, who was out of town, had taken it with him. Dr.
+Johnson told a joke he had heard of a monastery abroad, where the key of
+the library could never be found.
+
+It was somewhat dispiriting, to see this ancient archiepiscopal city
+now sadly deserted[198]. We saw in one of its streets a remarkable proof
+of liberal toleration; a nonjuring clergyman, strutting about in his
+canonicals, with a jolly countenance and a round belly, like a
+well-fed monk.
+
+We observed two occupations united in the same person, who had hung out
+two sign-posts. Upon one was, 'James Hood, White Iron Smith' (_i.e._
+Tin-plate Worker). Upon another, 'The Art of Fencing taught, by James
+Hood.'--Upon this last were painted some trees, and two men fencing, one
+of whom had hit the other in the eye, to shew his great dexterity; so
+that the art was well taught. JOHNSON. 'Were I studying here, I should
+go and take a lesson. I remember _Hope_, in his book on this art[199],
+says, "the Scotch are very good fencers."'
+
+We returned to the inn, where we had been entertained at dinner, and
+drank tea in company with some of the Professors, of whose civilities I
+beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgement to the
+honourable testimony of Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_[200].
+
+We talked of composition, which was a favourite topick of Dr. Watson's,
+who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetorick. JOHNSON. 'I
+advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose,
+to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start
+promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed than in
+accuracy[201].' WATSON. 'I own I am for much attention to accuracy in
+composing, lest one should get bad habits of doing it in a slovenly
+manner.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you are confounding _doing_ inaccurately
+with the _necessity_ of doing inaccurately. A man knows when his
+composition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But,
+if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with difficulty, upon all
+occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not
+like to do that which is not done easily; and, at any rate, more time is
+consumed in a small matter than ought to be.' WATSON. 'Dr. Hugh Blair
+has taken a week to compose a sermon.' JOHNSON. 'Then, Sir, that is for
+want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am insisting one should
+acquire.' WATSON. 'Blair was not composing all the week, but only such
+hours as he found himself disposed for composition.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir,
+unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing. If I say I
+took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been
+ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have
+composed about forty sermons[202]. I have begun a sermon after dinner,
+and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty-eight of the
+printed octavo pages of the _Life of Savage_ at a sitting; but then I
+sat up all night. I have also written six sheets in a day of translation
+from the French[203].' BOSWELL. 'We have all observed how one man
+dresses himself slowly, and another fast.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir: it is
+wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing; taking up
+a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again.
+Every one should get the habit of doing it quickly. I would say to a
+young divine, "Here is your text; let me see how soon you can make a
+sermon." Then I'd say, "Let me see how much better you can make it."
+Thus I should see both his powers and his judgement.'
+
+We all went to Dr. Watson's to supper. Miss Sharp, great grandchild of
+Archbishop Sharp, was there; as was Mr. Craig, the ingenious architect
+of the new town of Edinburgh[204] and nephew of Thomson, to whom Dr.
+Johnson has since done so much justice, in his _Lives of the Poets_.
+
+We talked of memory, and its various modes. JOHNSON. 'Memory will play
+strange tricks. One sometimes loses a single word. I once lost _fugaces_
+in the Ode _Posthume, Posthume_[205].' I mentioned to him, that a worthy
+gentleman of my acquaintance actually forgot his own name. JOHNSON.
+'Sir, that was a morbid oblivion.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, AUGUST 20.
+
+Dr. Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out my
+_Ogden on Prayer_, and read some of it to the company. Dr. Johnson
+praised him. 'Abernethy[206], (said he,) allows only of a physical
+effect of prayer upon the mind, which may be produced many ways, as well
+as by prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth,
+we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether
+offered up by individuals, or by assemblies; and Revelation has told us,
+it will be effectual.' I said, 'Leechman seemed to incline to
+Abernethy's doctrine.' Dr. Watson observed, that Leechman meant to shew,
+that, even admitting no effect to be produced by prayer, respecting the
+Deity, it was useful to our own minds[207]. He had given only a part of
+his system. Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole.
+
+Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday[208]. 'It should be
+different (he observed) from another day. People may walk, but not throw
+stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no
+levity[209].'
+
+We went and saw Colonel Nairne's garden and grotto. Here was a fine old
+plane tree. Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this and another
+large tree in the county. This assertion was an excellent cue for Dr.
+Johnson, who laughed enormously, calling to me to hear it. He had
+expatiated to me on the nakedness of that part of Scotland which he had
+seen. His _Journey_ has been violently abused, for what he has said upon
+this subject. But let it be considered, that, when Dr. Johnson talks of
+trees, he means trees of good size, such as he was accustomed to see in
+England; and of these there are certainly very few upon the _eastern
+coast_ of Scotland. Besides, he said, that he meant to give only a map
+of the road; and let any traveller observe how many trees, which deserve
+the name, he can see from the road from Berwick to Aberdeen[210]. Had
+Dr. Johnson said, 'there are _no_ trees' upon this line, he would have
+said what is colloquially true; because, by no trees, in common speech,
+we mean few. When he is particular in counting, he may be attacked. I
+know not how Colonel Nairne came to say there were but _two_ large trees
+in the county of Fife. I did not perceive that he smiled. There are
+certainly not a great many; but I could have shewn him more than two at
+_Balmuto_, from whence my ancestors came, and which now belongs to a
+branch of my family[211].
+
+The grotto was ingeniously constructed. In the front of it were
+petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other tree. Dr. Johnson said,
+'Scotland has no right to boast of this grotto; it is owing to personal
+merit. I never denied personal merit to many of you.' Professor Shaw
+said to me, as we walked, 'This is a wonderful man; he is master of
+every subject he handles.' Dr. Watson allowed him a very strong
+understanding, but wondered at his total inattention to established
+manners, as he came from London.
+
+I have not preserved in my Journal, any of the conversation which passed
+between Dr. Johnson and Professor Shaw; but I recollect Dr. Johnson said
+to me afterwards, 'I took much to Shaw.'
+
+We left St. Andrews about noon, and some miles from it observing, at
+_Leuchars_, a church with an old tower, we stopped to look at it. The
+_manse_, as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by. I
+waited on the minister, mentioned our names, and begged he would tell us
+what he knew about it. He was a very civil old man; but could only
+inform us, that it was supposed to have stood eight hundred years. He
+told us, there was a colony of Danes in his parish[212]; that they had
+landed at a remote period of time, and still remained a distinct people.
+Dr. Johnson shrewdly inquired whether they had brought women with them.
+We were not satisfied as to this colony.
+
+We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, the last of which Dr. Johnson
+has celebrated in his _Journey_[213]. Upon the road we talked of the
+Roman Catholick faith. He mentioned (I think) Tillotson's argument
+against transubstantiation: 'That we are as sure we see bread and wine
+only, as that we read in the Bible the text on which that false doctrine
+is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both[214].' 'If,
+(he added,) GOD had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he
+speaks literally, when he says, "This is my body[215]."' BOSWELL. 'But
+what do you say, Sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the
+church upon this point?' JOHNSON. 'Tradition, Sir, has no place, where
+the Scriptures are plain; and tradition cannot persuade a man into a
+belief of transubstantiation. Able men, indeed, have _said_ they
+believed it.'
+
+This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr. Johnson upon it: nor
+shall I now enter upon a disquisition concerning the import of those
+words uttered by our Saviour[216], which had such an effect upon many of
+his disciples, that they 'went back, and walked no more with him.' The
+Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of England,
+maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere commemoration of the
+death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of bread and wine.
+
+Dr. Johnson put me in mind, that, at St. Andrews, I had defended my
+profession very well, when the question had again been started, Whether
+a lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers him a
+fee. 'Sir, (said I,) it was with your arguments against Sir William
+Forbes[217]: but it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliah.'
+
+He said, our judges had not gone deep in the question concerning
+literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man
+could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the mind
+is exercised. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; a man's repeating it no more makes it
+his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives home.' I said,
+printing an abridgement of a work was allowed, which was only cutting
+the horns and tail off the cow. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; 'tis making the cow
+have a calf[218].'
+
+About eleven at night we arrived at Montrose. We found but a sorry inn,
+where I myself saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his fingers
+into Dr. Johnson's lemonade, for which he called him 'Rascal!' It put me
+in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor
+upon this, and he grew quiet[219]. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr.
+Burney's _History of Musick_ had then been advertised. I asked if this
+was not unlucky: would not they hurt one another? JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.
+They will do good to one another. Some will buy the one, some the other,
+and compare them; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the books
+are sold.'
+
+He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that
+he might be sure to have his lemonade. 'Sir, (said he,) I do not wish to
+be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it is
+very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he could
+not entertain you. To an inferior, it is oppressive; to a superior, it
+is insolent.'
+
+Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that
+he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company
+with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly
+experienced, he smiled and said, 'It is true, Sir[220]. Tom Tyers, (for
+so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has
+paid a biographical tribute to his memory[221],) Tom Tyers described me
+the best. He once said to me, "Sir, you are like a ghost: you never
+speak till you are spoken to[222]."'
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, AUGUST 31.
+
+Neither the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the established minister, nor the Rev. Mr.
+Spooner, the episcopal minister, were in town. Before breakfast, we went
+and saw the town-hall, where is a good dancing-room, and other rooms for
+tea-drinking. The appearance of the town from it is very well; but many
+of the houses are built with their ends to the street, which looks
+awkward. When we came down from it, I met Mr. Gleg, a merchant here. He
+went with us to see the English chapel. It is situated on a pretty dry
+spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It is really an elegant building,
+both within and without. The organ is adorned with green and gold. Dr.
+Johnson gave a shilling extraordinary to the clerk, saying, 'He belongs
+to an honest church[223].' I put him in mind, that episcopals were but
+_dissenters_ here; they were only _tolerated_. 'Sir, (said he,) we are
+here, as Christians in Turkey.' He afterwards went into an apothecary's
+shop, and ordered some medicine for himself, and wrote the prescription
+in technical characters. The boy took him for a physician[224].
+
+I doubted much which road to take, whether to go by the coast, or by
+Laurence Kirk and Monboddo. I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not
+love each other[225]; yet I was unwilling not to visit his Lordship; and
+was also curious to see them together[226]. I mentioned my doubts to Dr.
+Johnson, who said, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord
+Monboddo[227]. I therefore sent Joseph forward with the
+following note:--
+
+'Montrose, August 21.
+
+'My Dear Lord,
+
+'Thus far I am come with Mr. Samuel Johnson. We must be at Aberdeen
+to-night. I know you do not admire him so much as I do; but I cannot be
+in this country without making you a bow at your old place, as I do not
+know if I may again have an opportunity of seeing Monboddo. Besides, Mr.
+Johnson says, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo.
+I have sent forward my servant, that we may know if your lordship be
+at home.
+
+'I am ever, my dear lord,
+
+'Most sincerely yours,
+
+'JAMES BOSWELL.'
+
+As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we had the Grampion hills in our
+view, and some good land around us, but void of trees and hedges. Dr.
+Johnson has said ludicrously, in his _Journey_, that the _hedges_ were
+of _stone_[228]; for, instead of the verdant _thorn_ to refresh the eye,
+we found the bare _wall_ or _dike_ intersecting the prospect. He
+observed, that it was wonderful to see a country so divested, so
+denuded of trees.
+
+We stopped at Laurence Kirk[229], where our great Grammarian,
+Ruddiman[230], was once schoolmaster. We respectfully remembered that
+excellent man and eminent scholar, by whose labours a knowledge of the
+Latin language will be preserved in Scotland, if it shall be preserved
+at all. Lord Gardenston[231], one of our judges, collected money to
+raise a monument to him at this place, which I hope will be well
+executed[232]. I know my father gave five guineas towards it. Lord
+Gardenston is the proprietor of Laurence Kirk, and has encouraged the
+building of a manufacturing village, of which he is exceedingly fond,
+and has written a pamphlet upon it[233], as if he had founded Thebes; in
+which, however, there are many useful precepts strongly expressed. The
+village seemed to be irregularly built, some of the houses being of
+clay, some of brick, and some of brick and stone. Dr. Johnson observed,
+they thatched well here.  I was a little acquainted with Mr. Forbes,
+the minister of the parish. I sent to inform him that a gentleman
+desired to see him. He returned for answer, 'that he would not come to a
+stranger.' I then gave my name, and he came. I remonstrated to him for
+not coming to a stranger; and, by presenting him to Dr. Johnson, proved
+to him what a stranger might sometimes be. His Bible inculcates, 'be not
+forgetful to entertain strangers,' and mentions the same motive[234]. He
+defended himself by saying, 'He had once come to a stranger who sent for
+him; and he found him "_a little worth person!_"'
+
+Dr. Johnson insisted on stopping at the inn, as I told him that Lord
+Gardenston had furnished it with a collection of books, that travellers
+might have entertainment for the mind, as well as the body. He praised
+the design, but wished there had been more books, and those
+better chosen.
+
+About a mile from Monboddo, where you turn off the road, Joseph was
+waiting to tell us my lord expected us to dinner. We drove over a wild
+moor. It rained, and the scene was somewhat dreary. Dr. Johnson
+repeated, with solemn emphasis, Macbeth's speech on meeting the witches.
+As we travelled on, he told me, 'Sir, you got into our club by doing
+what a man can do[235]. Several of the members wished to keep you out.
+Burke told me, he doubted if you were fit for it: but, now you are in,
+none of them are sorry. Burke says, that you have so much good humour
+naturally, it is scarce a virtue[236].' BOSWELL. 'They were afraid of
+you, Sir, as it was you who proposed me.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they knew, that
+if they refused you, they'd probably never have got in another. I'd have
+kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you.' BOSWELL.
+"Beauclerk has a keenness of mind which is very uncommon." JOHNSON.
+'Yes, Sir; and everything comes from him so easily. It appears to me
+that I labour, when I say a good thing.' BOSWELL. 'You are loud, Sir;
+but it is not an effort of mind[237].'
+
+Monboddo is a wretched place, wild and naked, with a poor old house;
+though, if I recollect right, there are two turrets which mark an old
+baron's residence. Lord Monboddo received us at his gate most
+courteously; pointed to the Douglas arms upon his house, and told us
+that his great-grandmother was of that family. 'In such houses (said
+he,) our ancestors lived, who were better men than we.' 'No, no, my lord
+(said Dr. Johnson). We are as strong as they, and a great deal
+wiser[238].' This was an assault upon one of Lord Monboddo's capital
+dogmas, and I was afraid there would have been a violent altercation in
+the very close, before we got into the house. But his lordship is
+distinguished not only for 'ancient metaphysicks,' but for ancient
+_politesse_, '_la vieille cour_' and he made no reply[239].
+
+His lordship was dressed in a rustick suit, and wore a little round
+hat; he told us, we now saw him as _Farmer Burnet_[240], and we should
+have his family dinner, a farmer's dinner. He said, 'I should not have
+forgiven Mr. Boswell, had he not brought you here, Dr. Johnson.' He
+produced a very long stalk of corn, as a specimen of his crop, and said,
+'You see here the _loetas segetes_[241];' he added, that _Virgil_ seemed
+to be as enthusiastick a farmer as he[242], and was certainly a
+practical one. JOHNSON. 'It does not always follow, my lord, that a man
+who has written a good poem on an art, has practised it. Philip Miller
+told me, that in Philips's _Cyder_, a poem, all the precepts were just,
+and indeed better than in books written for the purpose of instructing;
+yet Philips had never made cyder[243].'
+
+I started the subject of emigration[244]. JOHNSON. 'To a man of mere
+animal life, you can urge no argument against going to America, but that
+it will be some time before he will get the earth to produce. But a man
+of any intellectual enjoyment will not easily go and immerse himself and
+his posterity for ages in barbarism.'
+
+He and my lord spoke highly of Homer. JOHNSON. 'He had all the learning
+of his age. The shield of Achilles shews a nation in war, a nation in
+peace; harvest sport, nay, stealing[245].' MONBODDO. 'Ay, and what we
+(looking to me) would call a parliament-house scene[246]; a cause
+pleaded.' JOHNSON. 'That is part of the life of a nation in peace. And
+there are in Homer such characters of heroes, and combinations of
+qualities of heroes, that the united powers of mankind ever since have
+not produced any but what are to be found there.' MONBODDO. 'Yet no
+character is described.' JOHNSON. 'No; they all develope themselves.
+Agamemnon is always a gentleman-like character; he has always [Greek:
+Basilikon ti]. That the ancients held so, is plain from this; that
+Euripides, in his _Hecuba_, makes him the person to interpose[247].'
+MONBODDO. 'The history of manners is the most valuable. I never set a
+high value on any other history.' JOHNSON. 'Nor I; and therefore I
+esteem biography, as giving us what comes near to ourselves, what we can
+turn to use[248].' BOSWELL. 'But in the course of general history, we
+find manners. In wars, we see the dispositions of people, their degrees
+of humanity, and other particulars.' JOHNSON. 'Yes; but then you must
+take all the facts to get this; and it is but a little you get.'
+MONBODDO. 'And it is that little which makes history valuable.' Bravo!
+thought I; they agree like two brothers. MONBODDO. 'I am sorry, Dr.
+Johnson, you were not longer at Edinburgh to receive the homage of our
+men of learning.' JOHNSON. 'My lord, I received great respect and great
+kindness.' BOSWELL. 'He goes back to Edinburgh after our tour.' We
+talked of the decrease of learning in Scotland, and of the _Muses'
+Welcome_[249]. JOHNSON. 'Learning is much decreased in England, in my
+remembrance[250].' MONBODDO. 'You, Sir, have lived to see its decrease
+in England, I its extinction in Scotland.' However, I brought him to
+confess that the High School of Edinburgh did well. JOHNSON. 'Learning
+has decreased in England, because learning will not do so much for a man
+as formerly. There are other ways of getting preferment. Few bishops are
+now made for their learning. To be a bishop, a man must be learned in a
+learned age,--factious in a factious age; but always of eminence[251].
+Warburton is an exception; though his learning alone did not raise him.
+He was first an antagonist to Pope, and helped Theobald to publish his
+_Shakspeare_; but, seeing Pope the rising man, when Crousaz attacked his
+_Essay on Man_, for some faults which it has, and some which it has not,
+Warburton defended it in the Review of that time[252]. This brought him
+acquainted with Pope, and he gained his friendship. Pope introduced him
+to Allen, Allen married him to his niece: so, by Allen's interest and
+his own, he was made a bishop[253]. But then his learning was the _sine
+qua non_: he knew how to make the most of it; but I do not find by any
+dishonest means.' MONBODDO. 'He is a great man.' JOHNSON. 'Yes; he has
+great knowledge,--great power of mind. Hardly any man brings greater
+variety of learning to bear upon his point[254].' MONBODDO. 'He is one
+of the greatest lights of your church.' JOHNSON. 'Why, we are not so
+sure of his being very friendly to us[255]. He blazes, if you will, but
+that is not always the steadiest light. Lowth is another bishop who has
+risen by his learning.'
+
+Dr. Johnson examined young Arthur, Lord Monboddo's son, in Latin. He
+answered very well; upon which he said, with complacency, 'Get you gone!
+When King James comes back[256], you shall be in the _Muses Welcome_!'
+My lord and Dr. Johnson disputed a little, whether the Savage or the
+London Shopkeeper had the best existence; his lordship, as usual,
+preferring the Savage. My lord was extremely hospitable, and I saw both
+Dr. Johnson and him liking each other better every hour.
+
+Dr. Johnson having retired for a short time, his lordship spoke of his
+conversation as I could have wished. Dr. Johnson had said, 'I have done
+greater feats with my knife than this;' though he had eaten a very
+hearty dinner. My lord, who affects or believes he follows an
+abstemious system, seemed struck with Dr. Johnson's manner of living. I
+had a particular satisfaction in being under the roof of Monboddo, my
+lord being my father's old friend, and having been always very good to
+me. We were cordial together. He asked Dr. Johnson and me to stay all
+night. When I said we _must_ be at Aberdeen, he replied, 'Well, I am
+like the Romans: I shall say to you, "Happy to come;--happy to depart!"'
+He thanked Dr. Johnson for his visit.
+
+JOHNSON. 'I little thought, when I had the honour to meet your Lordship
+in London, that I should see you at Monboddo.'
+
+After dinner, as the ladies[257] were going away, Dr. Johnson would
+stand up. He insisted that politeness was of great consequence in
+society. 'It is, (said he,) fictitious benevolence[258]. It supplies the
+place of it amongst those who see each other only in publick, or but
+little. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something
+disagreeable to one or other. I have always applied to good breeding,
+what Addison in his _Cato_[259] says of honour:--
+
+     "Honour's a sacred tie; the law of Kings;
+      The noble mind's distinguishing perfection,
+      That aids and strengthens Virtue where it meets her;
+      And imitates her actions where she is not."'
+
+When he took up his large oak stick, he said, 'My lord, that's
+_Homerick_[260];' thus pleasantly alluding to his lordship's
+favourite writer.
+
+Gory, my lord's black servant, was sent as our guide, to conduct us to
+the high road. The circumstance of each of them having a black servant
+was another point of similarity between Johnson and Monboddo. I
+observed how curious it was to see an African in the North of Scotland,
+with little or no difference of manners from those of the natives. Dr.
+Johnson laughed to see Gory and Joseph riding together most cordially.
+'Those two fellows, (said he,) one from Africa, the other from Bohemia,
+seem quite at home.' He was much pleased with Lord Monboddo to-day. He
+said, he would have pardoned him for a few paradoxes, when he found he
+had so much that was good: but that, from his appearance in London, he
+thought him all paradox; which would not do. He observed that his
+lordship had talked no paradoxes to-day. 'And as to the savage and the
+London shopkeeper, (said he,) I don't know but I might have taken the
+side of the savage equally, had any body else taken the side of the
+shopkeeper.[261]' He had said to my lord, in opposition to the value of
+the savage's courage, that it was owing to his limited power of
+thinking, and repeated Pope's verses, in which 'Macedonia's madman' is
+introduced, and the conclusion is,
+
+     'Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose[262].'
+
+I objected to the last phrase, as being low. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is
+intended to be low: it is satire. The expression is debased, to debase
+the character.'
+
+When Gory was about to part from us, Dr. Johnson called to him, 'Mr.
+Gory, give me leave to ask you a question! are you baptised?' Gory told
+him he was, and confirmed by the Bishop of Durham. He then gave him
+a shilling.
+
+We had tedious driving this afternoon, and were somewhat drowsy. Last
+night I was afraid Dr. Johnson was beginning to faint in his resolution;
+for he said, 'If we must ride much, we shall not go; and there's an end
+on't.' To-day, when he talked of _Sky_ with spirit, I said, 'Why, Sir,
+you seemed to me to despond yesterday. You are a delicate Londoner;--you
+are a maccaroni[263]; you can't ride.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I shall ride
+better than you. I was only afraid I should not find a horse able to
+carry me.' I hoped then there would be no fear of getting through our
+wild Tour.
+
+We came to Aberdeen at half an hour past eleven. The New Inn, we were
+told, was full. This was comfortless. The waiter, however, asked, if one
+of our names was Boswell, and brought me a letter left at the inn: it
+was from Mr. Thrale, enclosing one to Dr. Johnson[264]. Finding who I
+was, we were told they would contrive to lodge us by putting us for a
+night into a room with two beds. The waiter said to me in the broad
+strong Aberdeenshire dialect, 'I thought I knew you by your likeness to
+your father.' My father puts up at the New Inn, when on his circuit.
+Little was said to-night. I was to sleep in a little press-bed in Dr.
+Johnson's room. I had it wheeled out into the dining-room, and there I
+lay very well.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, AUGUST 22.
+
+I sent a message to Professor Thomas Gordon, who came and breakfasted
+with us. He had secured seats for us at the English chapel. We found a
+respectable congregation, and an admirable organ, well played by
+Mr. Tait.
+
+We walked down to the shore: Dr. Johnson laughed to hear that Cromwell's
+soldiers taught the Aberdeen people to make shoes and stockings, and to
+plant cabbages[265]. He asked, if weaving the plaids[266] was ever a
+domestick art in the Highlands, like spinning or knitting. They could
+not inform him here. But he conjectured probably, that where people
+lived so remote from each other, it was likely to be a domestick art; as
+we see it was among the ancients, from Penelope. I was sensible to-day,
+to an extraordinary degree, of Dr. Johnson's excellent English
+pronunciation. I cannot account for its striking me more now than any
+other day: but it was as if new to me; and I listened to every sentence
+which he spoke, as to a musical composition. Professor Gordon gave him
+an account of the plan of education in his college. Dr. Johnson said, it
+was similar to that at Oxford. Waller the poet's great-grandson was
+studying here. Dr. Johnson wondered that a man should send his son so
+far off, when there were so many good schools in England[267]. He said,
+'At a great school there is all the splendour and illumination of many
+minds; the radiance of all is concentrated in each, or at least
+reflected upon each. But we must own that neither a dull boy, nor an
+idle boy, will do so well at a great school as at a private one. For at
+a great school there are always boys enough to do well easily, who are
+sufficient to keep up the credit of the school; and after whipping being
+tried to no purpose, the dull or idle boys are left at the end of a
+class, having the appearance of going through the course, but learning
+nothing at all[268]. Such boys may do good at a private school, where
+constant attention is paid to them, and they are watched. So that the
+question of publick or private education is not properly a general one;
+but whether one or the other is best for _my son_.'  We were told the
+present Mr. Waller was a plain country gentleman; and his son would be
+such another. I observed, a family could not expect a poet but in a
+hundred generations. 'Nay, (said Dr. Johnson,) not one family in a
+hundred can expect a poet in a hundred generations.' He then repeated
+Dryden's celebrated lines,
+
+     'Three poets in three distant ages born,' &c.
+
+and a part of a Latin translation of it done at Oxford[269]: he did not
+then say by whom.
+
+He received a card from Sir Alexander Gordon, who had been his
+acquaintance twenty years ago in London, and who, 'if forgiven for not
+answering a line from him,' would come in the afternoon. Dr. Johnson
+rejoiced to hear of him, and begged he would come and dine with us. I
+was much pleased to see the kindness with which Dr. Johnson received his
+old friend Sir Alexander[270]; a gentleman of good family, _Lismore_,
+but who had not the estate. The King's College here made him Professor
+of Medicine, which affords him a decent subsistence. He told us that the
+value of the stockings exported from Aberdeen was, in peace, a hundred
+thousand pounds; and amounted, in time of war, to one hundred and
+seventy thousand pounds. Dr. Johnson asked, What made the difference?
+Here we had a proof of the comparative sagacity of the two professors.
+Sir Alexander answered, 'Because there is more occasion for them in
+war.' Professor Thomas Gordon answered, 'Because the Germans, who are
+our great rivals in the manufacture of stockings, are otherwise employed
+in time of war.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you have given a very good solution.'
+
+At dinner, Dr. Johnson ate several plate-fulls of Scotch broth, with
+barley and peas in it, and seemed very fond of the dish. I said, 'You
+never ate it before.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; but I don't care how soon I eat
+it again[271].' My cousin, Miss Dallas, formerly of Inverness, was
+married to Mr. Riddoch, one of the ministers of the English chapel here.
+He was ill, and confined to his room; but she sent us a kind invitation
+to tea, which we all accepted. She was the same lively, sensible,
+cheerful woman as ever. Dr. Johnson here threw out some jokes against
+Scotland. He said, 'You go first to Aberdeen; then to _Enbru_ (the
+Scottish pronunciation of Edinburgh); then to Newcastle, to be polished
+by the colliers; then to York; then to London.' And he laid hold of a
+little girl, Stuart Dallas, niece to Mrs. Riddoch, and, representing
+himself as a giant, said, he would take her with him! telling her, in a
+hollow voice, that he lived in a cave, and had a bed in the rock, and
+she should have a little bed cut opposite to it!
+
+He thus treated the point, as to prescription of murder in
+Scotland[272]. 'A jury in England would make allowance for deficiencies
+of evidence, on account of lapse of time; but a general rule that a
+crime should not be punished, or tried for the purpose of punishment,
+after twenty years, is bad. It is cant to talk of the King's advocate
+delaying a prosecution from malice. How unlikely is it the King's
+advocate should have malice against persons who commit murder, or should
+even know them at all. If the son of the murdered man should kill the
+murderer who got off merely by prescription, I would help him to make
+his escape; though, were I upon his jury, I would not acquit him. I
+would not advise him to commit such an act. On the contrary, I would bid
+him submit to the determination of society, because a man is bound to
+submit to the inconveniences of it, as he enjoys the good: but the
+young man, though politically wrong, would not be morally wrong. He
+would have to say, 'here I am amongst barbarians, who not only refuse to
+do justice, but encourage the greatest of all crimes. I am therefore in
+a state of nature: for, so far as there is no law, it is a state of
+nature: and consequently, upon the eternal and immutable law of justice,
+which requires that he who sheds man's blood should have his blood
+shed[273], I will stab the murderer of my father.'
+
+We went to our inn, and sat quietly. Dr. Johnson borrowed, at Mr.
+Riddoch's, a volume of _Massillon's Discourses on the Psalms_: but I
+found he read little in it. Ogden too he sometimes took up, and glanced
+at; but threw it down again. I then entered upon religious conversation.
+Never did I see him in a better frame: calm, gentle, wise, holy. I said,
+'Would not the same objection hold against the Trinity as against
+Transubstantiation?' 'Yes, (said he,) if you take three and one in the
+same sense. If you do so, to be sure you cannot believe it: but the
+three persons in the Godhead are Three in one sense, and One in another.
+We cannot tell how; and that is the mystery!'
+
+I spoke of the satisfaction of Christ. He said his notion was, that it
+did not atone for the sins of the world; but, by satisfying divine
+justice, by shewing that no less than the Son of God suffered for sin,
+it shewed to men and innumerable created beings, the heinousness of it,
+and therefore rendered it unnecessary for divine vengeance to be
+exercised against sinners, as it otherwise must have been; that in this
+way it might operate even in favour of those who had never heard of it:
+as to those who did hear of it, the effect it should produce would be
+repentance and piety, by impressing upon the mind a just notion of sin:
+that original sin was the propensity to evil, which no doubt was
+occasioned by the fall. He presented this solemn subject in a new light
+to me[274], and rendered much more rational and clear the doctrine of
+what our Saviour has done for us;--as it removed the notion of imputed
+righteousness in co-operating; whereas by this view, Christ has done all
+already that he had to do, or is ever to do for mankind, by making his
+great satisfaction; the consequences of which will affect each
+individual according to the particular conduct of each. I would
+illustrate this by saying, that Christ's satisfaction resembles a sun
+placed to shew light to men, so that it depends upon themselves whether
+they will walk the right way or not, which they could not have done
+without that sun, '_the sun of righteousness_[275]' There is, however,
+more in it than merely giving light--_a light to lighten the
+Gentiles_[276]: for we are told, there _is healing under his
+wings_[277]. Dr. Johnson said to me, 'Richard Baxter commends a
+treatise by Grotius, _De Satisfactione Christi_. I have never read it:
+but I intend to read it; and you may read it.' I remarked, upon the
+principle now laid down, we might explain the difficult and seemingly
+hard text, 'They that believe shall be saved; and they that believe not
+shall be damned[278]:' They that believe shall have such an impression
+made upon their minds, as will make them act so that they may be
+accepted by GOD.
+
+We talked of one of our friends[279] taking ill, for a length of time, a
+hasty expression of Dr. Johnson's to him, on his attempting to prosecute
+a subject that had a reference to religion, beyond the bounds within
+which the Doctor thought such topicks should be confined in a mixed
+company. JOHNSON. 'What is to become of society, if a friendship of
+twenty years is to be broken off for such a cause?' As Bacon says,
+
+     'Who then to frail mortality shall trust,
+      But limns the water, or but writes in dust[280].'
+
+I said, he should write expressly in support of Christianity; for that,
+although a reverence for it shines through his works in several places,
+that is not enough. 'You know, (said I,) what Grotius has done, and what
+Addison has done[281].--You should do also.' He replied, 'I hope
+I shall.'
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, AUGUST 23.
+
+Principal Campbell, Sir Alexander Gordon, Professor Gordon, and
+Professor Ross, visited us in the morning, as did Dr. Gerard, who had
+come six miles from the country on purpose. We went and saw the
+Marischal College[282], and at one o'clock we waited on the magistrates
+in the town hall, as they had invited us in order to present Dr. Johnson
+with the freedom of the town, which Provost Jopp did with a very good
+grace. Dr. Johnson was much pleased with this mark of attention, and
+received it very politely. There was a pretty numerous company
+assembled. It was striking to hear all of them drinking 'Dr. Johnson!
+Dr. Johnson!' in the town-hall of Aberdeen, and then to see him with
+his burgess-ticket, or diploma[283], in his hat, which he wore as he
+walked along the street, according to the usual custom. It gave me great
+satisfaction to observe the regard, and indeed fondness too, which every
+body here had for my father.
+
+While Sir Alexander Gordon conducted Dr. Johnson to old Aberdeen,
+Professor Gordon and I called on Mr. Riddoch, whom I found to be a grave
+worthy clergyman. He observed, that, whatever might be said of Dr.
+Johnson while he was alive, he would, after he was dead, be looked upon
+by the world with regard and astonishment, on account of his
+_Dictionary_.
+
+Professor Gordon and I walked over to the Old College, which Dr. Johnson
+had seen by this time. I stepped into the chapel, and looked at the tomb
+of the founder, Archbishop Elphinston[284], of whom I shall have
+occasion to write in my _History of James IV. of Scotland_, the patron
+of my family[285].  We dined at Sir Alexander Gordon's. The Provost,
+Professor Ross, Professor Dunbar, Professor Thomas Gordon, were there.
+After dinner came in Dr. Gerard, Professor Leslie[286], Professor
+Macleod. We had little or no conversation in the morning; now we were
+but barren. The professors seemed afraid to speak[287].
+
+Dr. Gerard told us that an eminent printer[288] was very intimate with
+Warburton. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he has printed some of his works, and
+perhaps bought the property of some of them. The intimacy is such as one
+of the professors here may have with one of the carpenters who is
+repairing the college.' 'But, (said Gerard,) I saw a letter from him to
+this printer, in which he says, that the one half of the clergy of the
+church of Scotland are fanaticks, and the other half infidels.' JOHNSON.
+'Warburton has accustomed himself to write letters just as he speaks,
+without thinking any more of what he throws out[289]. When I read
+Warburton first, and observed his force, and his contempt of mankind, I
+thought he had driven the world before him; but I soon found that was
+not the case; for Warburton, by extending his abuse, rendered it
+ineffectual[290].'
+
+He told me, when we were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong in
+the printer to shew Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body of
+enemies against him. He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so to
+the printer; and added, 'Sir, the worst way of being intimate, is by
+scribbling.' He called Warburton's _Doctrine of Grace_[291] a poor
+performance, and so he said was Wesley's Answer[292]. 'Warburton, he
+observed, had laid himself very open. In particular, he was weak enough
+to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had spoken
+with tongues, had spoken languages which they never knew before; a thing
+as absurd as to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people
+had been known to fly.'
+
+I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard in
+a disquisition with Dr. Johnson; but I did not succeed. I mentioned, as
+a curious fact, that Locke had written verses. JOHNSON. 'I know of none,
+Sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr. Sydenham's Works[293], in
+which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and burning
+are united; and how Dr. Sydenham removed fire by drawing off water,
+contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by bringing
+water upon it. I am not sure that there is a word of all this; but it is
+such kind of talk[294].'  We spoke of _Fingal_[295]. Dr. Johnson said
+calmly, 'If the poems were really translated, they were certainly first
+written down. Let Mr. Macpherson deposite the manuscript in one of the
+colleges at Aberdeen, where there are people who can judge; and, if the
+professors certify the authenticity, then there will be an end of the
+controversy. If he does not take this obvious and easy method, he gives
+the best reason to doubt; considering too, how much is against it
+_à priori'_.
+
+We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander's garden, and saw his little
+grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair hand. It
+was agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet,
+benevolent man. Professor Macleod was brother to Macleod of Talisker,
+and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col. He gave me a letter to young
+Col. I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being
+again in motion. I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I
+fancied Dr. Johnson quite satisfied. But he owned to me that he was
+fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander's doing too much to entertain him.
+I said, it was all kindness. JOHNSON. 'True, Sir; but sensation is
+sensation.' BOSWELL. 'It is so: we feel pain equally from the surgeon's
+probe, as from the sword of the foe.'
+
+We visited two booksellers' shops, and could not find Arthur Johnston's
+Poems'[296]. We went and sat near an hour at Mr. Riddoch's. He could
+not tell distinctly how much education at the college here costs[297],
+which disgusted Dr. Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should go to
+the inn, and not stay supper. They pressed us, but he was resolute. I
+saw Mr. Riddoch did not please him. He said to me, afterwards, 'Sir, he
+has no vigour in his talk.' But my friend should have considered that he
+himself was not in good humour; so that it was not easy to talk to his
+satisfaction. We sat contentedly at our inn. He then became merry, and
+observed how little we had either heard or said at Aberdeen: that the
+Aberdonians had not started a single _mawkin_ (the Scottish word for
+hare) for us to pursue[298].
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, AUGUST 24.
+
+We set out about eight in the morning, and breakfasted at Ellon. The
+landlady said to me, 'Is not this the great Doctor that is going about
+through the country?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Ay, (said she) we heard of him. I
+made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's something
+great in his appearance: it is a pleasure to have such a man in one's
+house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I would have
+shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat for some
+time.' 'But, (said I,) he is not a doctor of physick.' 'Is he an
+oculist?' said the landlord. 'No, (said I,) he is only a very learned
+man.' LANDLORD. 'They say he is the greatest man in England, except Lord
+Mansfield[299].' Dr. Johnson was highly entertained with this, and I do
+think he was pleased too. He said, 'I like the exception: to have called
+me the greatest man in England, would have been an unmeaning compliment:
+but the exception marked that the praise was in earnest: and, in
+_Scotland_, the exception must be _Lord Mansfield_, or--_Sir John
+Pringle_[300].'
+
+He told me a good story of Dr. Goldsmith. Graham, who wrote _Telemachus,
+a Masque_[301], was sitting one night with him and Dr. Johnson, and was
+half drunk. He rattled away to Dr. Johnson: 'You are a clever fellow, to
+be sure; but you cannot write an essay like Addison, or verses like the
+RAPE OF THE LOCK.' At last he said[302], '_Doctor_, I should be happy to
+see you at Eaton[303].' 'I shall be glad to wait on you,' answered
+Goldsmith. 'No, (said Graham,) 'tis not you I mean, Dr. _Minor_; 'tis
+Doctor _Major_, there.' Goldsmith was excessively hurt by this. He
+afterwards spoke of it himself. 'Graham, (said he,) is a fellow to make
+one commit suicide.'
+
+We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there
+just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though, from
+its being just on the North-east Ocean, no trees will grow here, Lord
+Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields so as
+to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent
+kitchen-garden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family:
+but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable
+Charles Boyd, the earl's brother[304]. We were conducted into the
+house, and at the dining-room door were met by that gentleman, whom both
+of us at first took to be Lord Errol; but he soon corrected our mistake.
+My Lord was gone to dine in the neighbourhood, at an entertainment given
+by Mr. Irvine of Drum. Lady Errol received us politely, and was very
+attentive to us during the time of dinner. There was nobody at table but
+her ladyship, Mr. Boyd, and some of the children, their governour and
+governess. Mr. Boyd put Dr. Johnson in mind of having dined with him at
+Cumming the Quaker's[305], along with a Mr. Hall and Miss Williams[306]:
+this was a bond of connection between them. For me, Mr. Boyd's
+acquaintance with my father was enough. After dinner, Lady Errol
+favoured us with a sight of her young family, whom she made stand up in
+a row. There were six daughters and two sons. It was a very
+pleasing sight.
+
+Dr. Johnson proposed our setting out. Mr. Boyd said, he hoped we would
+stay all night; his brother would be at home in the evening, and would
+be very sorry if he missed us. Mr. Boyd was called out of the room. I
+was very desirous to stay in so comfortable a house, and I wished to
+see Lord Errol. Dr Johnson, however, was right in resolving to go, if we
+were not asked again, as it is best to err on the safe side in such
+cases, and to be sure that one is quite welcome. To my great joy, when
+Mr. Boyd returned, he told Dr. Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had
+called him out, and said that she would never let Dr. Johnson into the
+house again, if he went away that night; and that she had ordered the
+coach, to carry us to view a great curiosity on the coast, after which
+we should see the house. We cheerfully agreed.
+
+Mr. Boyd was engaged, in 1745-6, on the same side with many unfortunate
+mistaken noblemen and gentlemen. He escaped, and lay concealed for a
+year in the island of Arran, the ancient territory of the Boyds. He then
+went to France, and was about twenty years on the continent. He married
+a French Lady, and now lived very comfortably at Aberdeen, and was much
+at Slains castle. He entertained us with great civility. He had a
+pompousness or formal plenitude in his conversation, which I did not
+dislike. Dr. Johnson said, 'there was too much elaboration in his talk.'
+It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family, setting
+forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady Errol was
+one of the most pious and sensible women in the island; had a good head,
+and as good a heart. He said, she did not use force or fear in educating
+her children. JOHNSON. 'Sir, she is wrong[307]; I would rather have the
+rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a
+child if you do thus or thus, you will be more esteemed than your
+brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in
+itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and
+there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation, and comparisons of
+superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make
+brothers and sisters hate each other.'
+
+During Mr. Boyd's stay in Arran, he had found a chest of medical books,
+left by a surgeon there, and had read them till he acquired some skill
+in physick, in consequence of which he is often consulted by the poor.
+There were several here waiting for him as patients. We walked round the
+house till stopped by a cut made by the influx of the sea. The house is
+built quite upon the shore; the windows look upon the main ocean, and
+the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on the
+north-east[308].
+
+We got immediately into the coach, and drove to _Dunbui_, a rock near
+the shore, quite covered with sea-fowls; then to a circular bason of
+large extent, surrounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next the
+sea, there is a high arch in the rock, which the force of the tempest
+has driven out. This place is called _Buchan's Buller_, or the _Buller
+of Buchan_, and the country people call it the _Pot_. Mr. Boyd said it
+was so called from the French _Bouloir_. It may be more simply traced
+from _Boiler_ in our own language. We walked round this monstrous
+cauldron. In some places, the rock is very narrow; and on each side
+there is a sea deep enough for a man of war to ride in; so that it is
+somewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grass upon
+the rock, and a kind of road marked out by the print of feet; so that
+one makes it out pretty safely: yet it alarmed me to see Dr. Johnson
+striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat, and sailing
+into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The
+Buchan-men all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange sharp
+accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of curiosity. He was
+not sensible of the difference of pronunciation in the South and North
+of Scotland, which I wondered at.
+
+As the entry into the _Buller_ is so narrow that oars cannot be used as
+you go in, the method taken is, to row very hard when you come near it,
+and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr.
+Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we
+entering into an unknown place. There are caves of considerable depth; I
+think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of them
+far enough to know the size. Mr. Boyd told us that it is customary for
+the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine in one
+of the caves here.
+
+He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable distance from Aberdeen,
+Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a surgeon of
+his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's sons, who is now
+settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which we saw from the
+road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the practice which he
+has had, he is in very easy circumstances. He had kept an exact account
+of all that had been laid out on his education, and he came to his
+lordship one day, and told him that he had arrived at a much higher
+situation than ever he expected; that he was now able to repay what his
+lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of it. The earl was
+pleased with the generous gratitude and genteel offer of the man; but
+refused it. Mr. Boyd also told us, Cumming the Quaker first began to
+distinguish himself by writing against Dr. Leechman on Prayer[309], to
+prove it unnecessary, as GOD knows best what should be, and will order
+it without our asking:--the old hackneyed objection.
+
+When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the
+drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I supposed, engaged
+with her young family. There is a bow-window fronting the sea. Dr.
+Johnson repeated the ode, _Jam satis terris_[310], while Mr. Boyd was
+with his patients. He spoke well in favour of entails[311], to preserve
+lines of men whom mankind are accustomed to reverence. His opinion was
+that so much land should be entailed as that families should never fall
+into contempt, and as much left free as to give them all the advantages
+of property in case of any emergency. 'If (said he,) the nobility are
+suffered to sink into indigence[312], they of course become corrupt;
+they are ready to do whatever the king chooses; therefore it is fit they
+should be kept from becoming poor, unless it is fixed that when they
+fall below a certain standard of wealth they shall lose their
+peerages[313]. We know the House of Peers have made noble stands, when
+the House of Commons durst not. The two last years of parliament they
+dare not contradict the populace[314].'
+
+This room is ornamented with a number of fine prints, and with a whole
+length picture of Lord Errol, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This led Dr.
+Johnson and me to talk of our amiable and elegant friend, whose
+panegyrick he concluded by saying, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir, is the
+most invulnerable man I know; the man with whom if you should quarrel,
+you would find the most difficulty how to abuse[315].'
+
+Dr. Johnson observed, the situation here was the noblest he had ever
+seen,--better than Mount Edgecumbe, reckoned the first in England;
+because, at Mount Edgecumbe[316], the sea is bounded by land on the
+other side, and though there is there the grandeur of a fleet, there is
+also the impression of there being a dock-yard, the circumstances of
+which are not agreeable. At Slains is an excellent old house. The noble
+owner has built of brick, along the square in the inside, a gallery,
+both on the first and second story, the house being no higher; so that
+he has always a dry walk, and the rooms, to which formerly there was no
+approach but through each other, have now all separate entries from the
+gallery, which is hung with Hogarth's works, and other prints. We went
+and sat a while in the library. There is a valuable numerous
+collection. It was chiefly made by Mr. Falconer, husband to the late
+Countess of Errol in her own right. This earl has added a good many
+modern books.
+
+About nine the Earl came home. Captain Gordon of Park was with him. His
+Lordship put Dr. Johnson in mind of their having dined together in
+London, along with Mr. Beauclerk. I was exceedingly pleased with Lord
+Errol. His dignified person and agreeable countenance, with the most
+unaffected affability, give me high satisfaction. From perhaps a
+weakness, or, as I rather hope, more fancy and warmth of feeling than is
+quite reasonable, my mind is ever impressed with admiration for persons
+of high birth, and I could, with the most perfect honesty, expatiate on
+Lord Errol's good qualities; but he stands in no need of my praise. His
+agreeable manners and softness of address prevented that constraint
+which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of Scotland[317] might
+otherwise have occasioned. He talked very easily and sensibly with his
+learned guest. I observed that Dr. Johnson, though he shewed that
+respect to his lordship, which, from principle, he always does to high
+rank, yet, when they came to argument, maintained that manliness which
+becomes the force and vigour of his understanding. To shew external
+deference to our superiors, is proper: to seem to yield to them in
+opinion, is meanness[318]. The earl said grace, both before and after
+supper, with much decency. He told us a story of a man who was executed
+at Perth, some years ago, for murdering a woman who was with child by
+him, and a former child he had by her. His hand was cut off: he was then
+pulled up; but the rope broke, and he was forced to lie an hour on the
+ground, till another rope was brought from Perth, the execution being in
+a wood at some distance,--at the place where the murders were committed.
+_'There_,(said my lord,) _I see the hand of Providence_.' I was really
+happy here. I saw in this nobleman the best dispositions and best
+principles; and I saw him, _in my mind's eye_[319], to be the
+representative of the ancient Boyds of Kilmarnock. I was afraid he might
+have urged drinking, as, I believe, he used formerly to do; but he drank
+port and water out of a large glass himself, and let us do as we
+pleased[320]. He went with us to our rooms at night; said, he took the
+visit very kindly; and told me, my father and he were very old
+acquaintance;--that I now knew the way to Slains, and he hoped to see me
+there again.
+
+I had a most elegant room; but there was a fire in it which blazed; and
+the sea, to which my windows looked, roared; and the pillows were made
+of the feathers of some sea-fowl, which had to me a disagreeable smell;
+so that, by all these causes, I was kept awake a good while. I saw, in
+imagination, Lord Errol's father, Lord Kilmarnock[321] (who was beheaded
+on Tower-hill in 1746), and I was somewhat dreary. But the thought did
+not last long, and I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25.
+
+We got up between seven and eight, and found Mr. Boyd in the
+dining-room, with tea and coffee before him, to give us breakfast. We
+were in an admirable humour. Lady Errol had given each of us a copy of
+an ode by Beattie, on the birth of her son, Lord Hay. Mr. Boyd asked Dr.
+Johnson how he liked it. Dr. Johnson, who did not admire it, got off
+very well, by taking it out, and reading the second and third stanzas of
+it with much melody. This, without his saying a word, pleased Mr. Boyd.
+He observed, however, to Dr. Johnson, that the expression as to the
+family of Errol,
+
+     'A thousand years have seen it shine,'
+
+compared with what went before, was an anticlimax, and that it would
+have been better
+
+     'Ages have seen,' &c.
+
+Dr. Johnson said, 'So great a number as a thousand is better. _Dolus
+latet in universalibus_. Ages might be only two ages.' He talked of the
+advantage of keeping up the connections of relationship, which produce
+much kindness. 'Every man (said he,) who comes into the world, has need
+of friends. If he has to get them for himself, half his life is spent
+before his merit is known. Relations are a man's ready friends who
+support him. When a man is in real distress, he flies into the arms of
+his relations. An old lawyer, who had much experience in making wills,
+told me, that after people had deliberated long, and thought of many for
+their executors, they settled at last by fixing on their relations. This
+shews the universality of the principle.'
+
+I regretted the decay of respect for men of family, and that a Nabob now
+would carry an election from them. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, the Nabob will
+carry it by means of his wealth, in a country where money is highly
+valued, as it must be where nothing can be had without money; but, if it
+comes to personal preference, the man of family will always carry
+it[322]. There is generally a _scoundrelism_ about a low man[323].' Mr.
+Boyd said, that was a good _ism_.
+
+I said, I believed mankind were happier in the ancient feudal state[324]
+of subordination, than they are in the modern state of independency.
+JOHNSON. 'To be sure, the _Chief_ was: but we must think of the number
+of individuals. That _they_ were less happy, seems plain; for that state
+from which all escape as soon as they can, and to which none return
+after they have left it, must be less happy; and this is the case with
+the state of dependance on a chief or great man.'
+
+I mentioned the happiness of the French in their subordination, by the
+reciprocal benevolence and attachment between the great and those in
+lower rank[325]. Mr. Boyd gave us an instance of their gentlemanly
+spirit. An old Chevalier de Malthe, of ancient _noblesse_, but in low
+circumstances, was in a coffee-house at Paris, where was Julien, the
+great manufacturer at the Gobelins, of the fine tapestry, so much
+distinguished both for the figures and the _colours_. The chevalier's
+carriage was very old. Says Julien, with a plebeian insolence, 'I think,
+Sir, you had better have your carriage new painted.' The chevalier
+looked at him with indignant contempt, and answered, 'Well, Sir, you may
+take it home and _dye_ it!' All the coffee-house rejoiced at Julien's
+confusion.
+
+We set out about nine. Dr. Johnson was curious to see one of those
+structures which northern antiquarians call a Druid's temple. I had a
+recollection of one at Strichen; which I had seen fifteen years ago; so
+we went four miles out of our road, after passing Old Deer, and went
+thither. Mr. Fraser, the proprietor, was at home, and shewed it to us.
+But I had augmented it in my mind; for all that remains is two stones
+set up on end, with a long one laid upon them, as was usual, and one
+stone at a little distance from them. That stone was the capital one of
+the circle which surrounded what now remains. Mr. Fraser was very
+hospitable[326]. There was a fair at Strichen; and he had several of his
+neighbours from it at dinner. One of them, Dr. Fraser, who had been in
+the army, remembered to have seen Dr. Johnson at a lecture on
+experimental philosophy, at Lichfield. The doctor recollected being at
+the lecture; and he was surprised to find here somebody who knew him.
+
+Mr. Fraser sent a servant to conduct us by a short passage into the
+high-road. I observed to Dr. Johnson, that I had a most disagreeable
+notion of the life of country gentlemen; that I left Mr. Fraser just
+now, as one leaves a prisoner in a jail. Dr. Johnson said, that I was
+right in thinking them unhappy; for that they had not enough to keep
+their minds in motion[327].
+
+I started a thought this afternoon which amused us a great part of the
+way. 'If, (said I,) our club should come and set up in St. Andrews, as a
+college, to teach all that each of us can, in the several departments of
+learning and taste, we should rebuild the city: we should draw a
+wonderful concourse of students.' Dr. Johnson entered fully into the
+spirit of this project. We immediately fell to distributing the offices.
+I was to teach Civil and Scotch law[328]; Burke, politicks and
+eloquence; Garrick, the art of publick speaking; Langton was to be our
+Grecian[329], Colman our Latin professor[330]; Nugent to teach
+physick[331]; Lord Charlemont, modern history[332]; Beauclerk, natural
+philosophy[333]; Vesey, Irish antiquities, or Celtick learning[334];
+Jones, Oriental learning[335]; Goldsmith, poetry and ancient history;
+Chamier, commercial politicks[336]; Reynolds, painting, and the arts
+which have beauty for their object; Chambers, the law of England[337].
+Dr. Johnson at first said, 'I'll trust theology to nobody but myself.'
+But, upon due consideration, that Percy is a clergyman, it was agreed
+that Percy should teach practical divinity and British antiquities; Dr.
+Johnson himself, logick, metaphysicks[338], and scholastick divinity. In
+this manner did we amuse ourselves;--each suggesting, and each varying
+or adding, till the whole was adjusted. Dr. Johnson said, we only wanted
+a mathematician since Dyer[339] died, who was a very good one; but as to
+every thing else, we should have a very capital university[340].
+
+We got at night to Banff. I sent Joseph on to Duff-house; but Earl Fife
+was not at home, which I regretted much, as we should have had a very
+elegant reception from his lordship. We found here but an indifferent
+inn[341]. Dr. Johnson wrote a long letter to Mrs. Thrale. I wondered to
+see him write so much so easily. He verified his own doctrine that 'a
+man may always write when he will set himself _doggedly_ to it[342].'
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, AUGUST 26.
+
+We got a fresh chaise here, a very good one, and very good horses. We
+breakfasted at Cullen. They set down dried haddocks broiled, along with
+our tea. I ate one; but Dr. Johnson was disgusted by the sight of them,
+so they were removed[343]. Cullen has a comfortable appearance, though
+but a very small town, and the houses mostly poor buildings.
+
+I called on Mr. Robertson, who has the charge of Lord Findlater's
+affairs, and was formerly Lord Monboddo's clerk, was three times in
+France with him, and translated Condamine's _Account of the Savage
+Girl_, to which his lordship wrote a preface, containing several remarks
+of his own. Robertson said, he did not believe so much as his lordship
+did; that it was plain to him, the girl confounded what she imagined
+with what she remembered: that, besides, she perceived Condamine and
+Lord Monboddo forming theories, and she adapted her story to them.
+
+Dr. Johnson said, 'It is a pity to see Lord Monboddo publish such
+notions as he has done; a man of sense, and of so much elegant learning.
+There would be little in a fool doing it; we should only laugh; but when
+a wise man does it, we are sorry. Other people have strange notions; but
+they conceal them. If they have tails, they hide them; but Monboddo is
+as jealous of his tail as a squirrel.' I shall here put down some more
+remarks of Dr. Johnson's on Lord Monboddo, which were not made exactly
+at this time, but come in well from connection. He said, he did not
+approve of a judge's calling himself _Farmer_ Burnett[344], and going
+about with a little round hat[345]. He laughed heartily at his
+lordship's saying he was an _enthusiastical_ farmer; 'for, (said he,)
+what can he do in farming by his _enthusiasm_?' Here, however, I think
+Dr. Johnson mistaken. He who wishes to be successful, or happy, ought to
+be enthusiastical, that is to say, very keen in all the occupations or
+diversions of life. An ordinary gentleman-farmer will be satisfied with
+looking at his fields once or twice a day: an enthusiastical farmer will
+be constantly employed on them; will have his mind earnestly engaged;
+will talk perpetually, of them. But Dr. Johnson has much of the _nil
+admirari_[346] in smaller concerns. That survey of life which gave birth
+to his _Vanity of Human Wishes_ early sobered his mind. Besides, so
+great a mind as his cannot be moved by inferior objects: an elephant
+does not run and skip like lesser animals.  Mr. Robertson sent a
+servant with us, to shew us through Lord Findlater's wood, by which our
+way was shortened, and we saw some part of his domain, which is indeed
+admirably laid out. Dr. Johnson did not choose to walk through it. He
+always said, that he was not come to Scotland to see fine places, of
+which there were enough in England; but wild objects,--mountains,
+--waterfalls,--peculiar manners; in short, things which he had not seen
+before. I have a notion that he at no time has had much taste for rural
+beauties. I have myself very little[347].
+
+Dr. Johnson said, there was nothing more contemptible than a country
+gentleman living beyond his income, and every year growing poorer and
+poorer[348]. He spoke strongly of the influence which a man has by being
+rich. 'A man, (said he,) who keeps his money, has in reality more use
+from it, than he can have by spending it.' I observed that this looked
+very like a paradox; but he explained it thus: 'If it were certain that
+a man would keep his money locked up for ever, to be sure he would have
+no influence; but, as so many want money, and he has the power of giving
+it, and they know not but by gaining his favour they may obtain it, the
+rich man will always have the greatest influence. He again who lavishes
+his money, is laughed at as foolish, and in a great degree with justice,
+considering how much is spent from vanity. Even those who partake of a
+man's hospitality, have but a transient kindness for him. If he has not
+the command of money, people know he cannot help them, if he would;
+whereas the rich man always can, if he will, and for the chance of that,
+will have much weight.' BOSWELL. 'But philosophers and satirists have
+all treated a miser as contemptible.' JOHNSON. 'He is so
+philosophically; but not in the practice of life[349].' BOSWELL. 'Let me
+see now:--I do not know the instances of misers in England, so as to
+examine into their influence.' JOHNSON. 'We have had few misers in
+England.' BOSWELL. 'There was Lowther[350].' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir,
+Lowther, by keeping his money, had the command of the county, which the
+family has now lost, by spending it[351]; I take it he lent a great
+deal; and that is the way to have influence, and yet preserve one's
+wealth. A man may lend his money upon very good security, and yet have
+his debtor much under his power.' BOSWELL. 'No doubt, Sir. He can always
+distress him for the money; as no man borrows, who is able to pay on
+demand quite conveniently.'
+
+We dined at Elgin, and saw the noble ruins of the cathedral. Though it
+rained much, Dr. Johnson examined them with a most patient attention.
+He could not here feel any abhorrence at the Scottish reformers[352],
+for he had been told by Lord Hailes, that it was destroyed before the
+Reformation, by the Lord of Badenoch[353], who had a quarrel with the
+bishop. The bishop's house, and those of the other clergy, which are
+still pretty entire, do not seem to have been proportioned to the
+magnificence of the cathedral, which has been of great extent, and had
+very fine carved work. The ground within the walls of the cathedral is
+employed as a burying-place. The family of Gordon have their vault here;
+but it has nothing grand.
+
+We passed Gordon Castle[354] this forenoon, which has a princely
+appearance. Fochabers, the neighbouring village, is a poor place, many
+of the houses being ruinous; but it is remarkable, they have in general
+orchards well stored with apple-trees[355]. Elgin has what in England
+are called piazzas, that run in many places on each side of the street.
+It must have been a much better place formerly. Probably it had piazzas
+all along the town, as I have seen at Bologna. I approved much of such
+structures in a town, on account of their conveniency in wet weather.
+Dr. Johnson disapproved of them, 'because (said he) it makes the under
+story of a house very dark, which greatly over-balances the conveniency,
+when it is considered how small a part of the year it rains; how few are
+usually in the street at such times; that many who are might as well be
+at home; and the little that people suffer, supposing them to be as much
+wet as they commonly are in walking a street.'
+
+We fared but ill at our inn here; and Dr. Johnson said, this was the
+first time he had seen a dinner in Scotland that he could not eat[356].
+
+In the afternoon, we drove over the very heath where Macbeth met the
+witches, according to tradition[357]. Dr. Johnson again[358] solemnly
+repeated--
+
+     'How far is't called to Fores? What are these,
+      So wither'd, and so wild in their attire?
+      That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
+      And yet are on't?'
+
+He repeated a good deal more of Macbeth. His recitation[359] was grand
+and affecting, and as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, had no
+more tone than it should have: it was the better for it. He then
+parodied the _All-hail_ of the witches to Macbeth, addressing himself to
+me. I had purchased some land called _Dalblair_; and, as in Scotland it
+is customary to distinguish landed men by the name of their estates, I
+had thus two titles, _Dalblair_ and Young _Auchinleck_. So my friend, in
+imitation of
+
+     'All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!'
+
+condescended to amuse himself with uttering
+
+     'All hail, Dalblair! hail to thee, Laird of Auchinleck[360]!'
+
+We got to Fores[361] at night, and found an admirable inn, in which Dr.
+Johnson was pleased to meet with a landlord who styled himself
+'Wine-Cooper, from LONDON.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, AUGUST 27.
+
+It was dark when we came to Fores last night; so we did not see what is
+called King Duncan's monument[362]. I shall now mark some gleanings of
+Dr. Johnson's conversation. I spoke of _Leonidas_[363], and said there
+were some good passages in it. JOHNSON. 'Why, you must _seek_ for them.'
+He said, Paul Whitehead's _Manners_[364] was a poor performance.
+Speaking of Derrick, he told me 'he had a kindness for him, and had
+often said, that if his letters had been written by one of a more
+established name, they would have been thought very pretty
+letters[365].'
+
+This morning I introduced the subject of the origin of evil[366].
+JOHNSON. 'Moral evil is occasioned by free will, which implies choice
+between good and evil. With all the evil that there is, there is no man
+but would rather be a free agent, than a mere machine without the evil;
+and what is best for each individual, must be best for the whole. If a
+man would rather be the machine, I cannot argue with him. He is a
+different being from me.' BOSWELL. 'A man, as a machine, may have
+agreeable sensations; for instance, he may have pleasure in musick.'
+JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, he cannot have pleasure in musick; at least no power
+of producing musick; for he who can produce musick may let it alone: he
+who can play upon a fiddle may break it: such a man is not a machine.'
+This reasoning satisfied me. It is certain, there cannot be a free
+agent, unless there is the power of being evil as well as good. We must
+take the inherent possibilities of things into consideration, in our
+reasonings or conjectures concerning the works of GOD.
+
+We came to Nairn to breakfast. Though a county town and a royal burgh,
+it is a miserable place. Over the room where we sat, a girl was spinning
+wool with a great wheel, and singing an Erse song[367]: 'I'll warrant
+you, (said Dr. Johnson.) one of the songs of Ossian.' He then repeated
+these lines:---
+
+     'Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound.
+        All at her work the village maiden sings;
+      Nor while she turns the giddy wheel around,
+        Revolves the sad vicissitude of things[368].'
+
+I thought I had heard these lines before. JOHNSON. 'I fancy not, Sir;
+for they are in a detached poem, the name of which I do not remember,
+written by one Giffard, a parson.'
+
+I expected Mr. Kenneth M'Aulay[369], the minister of Calder, who
+published the history of St. Kilda[370], a book which Dr. Johnson liked,
+would have met us here, as I had written to him from Aberdeen. But I
+received a letter from him, telling me that he could not leave home, as
+he was to administer the sacrament the following Sunday, and earnestly
+requesting to see us at his manse. 'We'll go,' said Dr. Johnson; which
+we accordingly did. Mrs. M'Aulay received us, and told us her husband
+was in the church distributing tokens[371]. We arrived between twelve
+and one o'clock, and it was near three before he came to us.
+
+Dr. Johnson thanked him for his book, and said 'it was a very pretty
+piece of topography.' M'Aulay did not seem much to mind the compliment.
+From his conversation, Dr. Johnson was persuaded that he had not written
+the book which goes under his name. I myself always suspected so; and I
+have been told it was written by the learned Dr. John M'Pherson of
+Sky[372], from the materials collected by M'Aulay. Dr. Johnson said
+privately to me, 'There is a combination in it of which M'Aulay is not
+capable[373].' However, he was exceedingly hospitable; and, as he
+obligingly promised us a route for our Tour through the Western Isles,
+we agreed to stay with him all night.
+
+After dinner, we walked to the old castle of Calder (pronounced Cawder),
+the Thane of Cawdor's seat. I was sorry that my friend, this 'prosperous
+gentleman[374],' was not there. The old tower must be of great
+antiquity[375]. There is a draw-bridge--what has been a moat,--and an
+ancient court. There is a hawthorn-tree, which rises like a wooden
+pillar through the rooms of the castle; for, by a strange conceit, the
+walls have been built round it. The thickness of the walls, the small
+slaunting windows, and a great iron door at the entrance on the second
+story as you ascend the stairs, all indicate the rude times in which
+this castle was erected. There were here some large venerable trees.
+
+I was afraid of a quarrel between Dr. Johnson and Mr. M'Aulay, who
+talked slightingly of the lower English clergy. The Doctor gave him a
+frowning look, and said, 'This is a day of novelties; I have seen old
+trees in Scotland, and I have heard the English clergy treated with
+disrespect[376].'
+
+I dreaded that a whole evening at Calder manse would be heavy; however,
+Mr. Grant, an intelligent and well-bred minister in the neighbourhood,
+was there, and assisted us by his conversation. Dr. Johnson, talking of
+hereditary occupations in the Highlands, said, 'There is no harm in such
+a custom as this; but it is wrong to enforce it, and oblige a man to be
+a taylor or a smith, because his father has been one.' This custom,
+however, is not peculiar to our Highlands; it is well known that in
+India a similar practice prevails.
+
+Mr. M'Aulay began a rhapsody against creeds and confessions. Dr. Johnson
+shewed, that 'what he called _imposition_, was only a voluntary
+declaration of agreement in certain articles of faith, which a church
+has a right to require, just as any other society can insist on certain
+rules being observed by its members. Nobody is compelled to be of the
+church, as nobody is compelled to enter into a society.' This was a very
+clear and just view of the subject: but, M'Aulay could not be driven out
+of his track. Dr. Johnson said, 'Sir, you are a _bigot to laxness_.'
+
+Mr. M'Aulay and I laid the map of Scotland before us; and he pointed out
+a route for us from Inverness, by Fort Augustus, to Glenelg, Sky, Mull,
+Icolmkill, Lorn, and Inverary, which I wrote down. As my father was to
+begin the northern circuit about the 18th of September, it was necessary
+for us either to make our tour with great expedition, so as to get to
+Auchinleck before he set out, or to protract it, so as not to be there
+till his return, which would be about the 10th of October. By M'Aulay's
+calculation, we were not to land in Lorn till the 2Oth of September. I
+thought that the interruptions by bad days, or by occasional
+excursions, might make it ten days later; and I thought too, that we
+might perhaps go to Benbecula, and visit Clanranald, which would take a
+week of itself.
+
+Dr. Johnson went up with Mr. Grant to the library, which consisted of a
+tolerable collection; but the Doctor thought it rather a lady's library,
+with some Latin books in it by chance, than the library of a clergyman.
+It had only two of the Latin fathers, and one of the Greek fathers in
+Latin. I doubted whether Dr. Johnson would be present at a Presbyterian
+prayer. I told Mr. M'Aulay so, and said that the Doctor might sit in the
+library while we were at family worship. Mr. M'Aulay said, he would omit
+it, rather than give Dr. Johnson offence: but I would by no means agree
+that an excess of politeness, even to so great a man, should prevent
+what I esteem as one of the best pious regulations. I know nothing more
+beneficial, more comfortable, more agreeable, than that the little
+societies of each family should regularly assemble, and unite in praise
+and prayer to our heavenly Father, from whom we daily receive so much
+good, and may hope for more in a higher state of existence. I mentioned
+to Dr. Johnson the over-delicate scrupulosity of our host. He said, he
+had no objection to hear the prayer. This was a pleasing surprise to me;
+for he refused to go and hear Principal Robertson[377] preach. 'I will
+hear him, (said he,) if he will get up into a tree and preach; but I
+will not give a sanction, by my presence, to a Presbyterian
+assembly[378].'
+
+Mr. Grant having prayed, Dr. Johnson said, his prayer was a very good
+one; but objected to his not having introduced the Lord's Prayer[379].
+He told us, that an Italian of some note in London said once to him, 'We
+have in our service a prayer called the _Pater Noster_, which is a very
+fine composition. I wonder who is the author of it.' A singular instance
+of ignorance in a man of some literature and general inquiry[380]!
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, AUGUST 28.
+
+Dr. Johnson had brought a _Sallust_ with him in his pocket from
+Edinburgh. He gave it last night to Mr. M'Aulay's son, a smart young lad
+about eleven years old. Dr. Johnson had given an account of the
+education at Oxford, in all its gradations. The advantage of being a
+servitor to a youth of little fortune struck Mrs. M'Aulay much[381]. I
+observed it aloud. Dr. Johnson very handsomely and kindly said, that, if
+they would send their boy to him, when he was ready for the university,
+he would get him made a servitor, and perhaps would do more for him. He
+could not promise to do more; but would undertake for the
+servitorship[382].
+
+I should have mentioned that Mr. White, a Welshman, who has been many
+years factor (i.e. steward) on the estate of Calder, drank tea with us
+last night, and upon getting a note from Mr. M'Aulay, asked us to his
+house. We had not time to accept of his invitation. He gave us a letter
+of introduction to Mr. Ferne, master of stores at Fort George. He shewed
+it to me. It recommended 'two celebrated gentlemen; no less than Dr.
+Johnson, _author of his Dictionary_,--and Mr. Boswell, known at
+Edinburgh by the name of Paoli.' He said he hoped I had no objection to
+what he had written; if I had, he would alter it. I thought it was a
+pity to check his effusions, and acquiesced; taking care, however, to
+seal the letter, that it might not appear that I had read it.
+
+A conversation took place about saying grace at breakfast (as we do in
+Scotland) as well as at dinner and supper; in which Dr. Johnson said,
+'It is enough if we have stated seasons of prayer; no matter when[383].
+A man may as well pray when he mounts his horse, or a woman when she
+milks her cow, (which Mr. Grant told us is done in the Highlands,) as at
+meals; and custom is to be followed[384].'
+
+We proceeded to Fort George. When we came into the square, I sent a
+soldier with the letter to Mr. Ferne. He came to us immediately, and
+along with him came Major _Brewse_ of the Engineers, pronounced _Bruce_.
+He said he believed it was originally the same Norman name with Bruce.
+That he had dined at a house in London, where were three Bruces, one of
+the Irish line, one of the Scottish line, and himself of the English
+line. He said he was shewn it in the Herald's office spelt fourteen
+different ways[385]. I told him the different spellings of my name[386].
+Dr Johnson observed, that there had been great disputes about the
+spelling of Shakspear's name; at last it was thought it would be settled
+by looking at the original copy of his will; but, upon examining it, he
+was found to have written it himself no less than three different ways.
+
+Mr. Ferne and Major Brewse first carried us to wait on Sir Eyre
+Coote[387], whose regiment, the 37th, was lying here, and who then
+commanded the fort. He asked us to dine with him, which we agreed to do.
+
+Before dinner we examined the fort. The Major explained the
+fortification to us, and Mr. Ferne gave us an account of the stores. Dr.
+Johnson talked of the proportions of charcoal and salt-petre in making
+gunpowder, of granulating it, and of giving it a gloss[388]. He made a
+very good figure upon these topicks. He said to me afterwards, that 'he
+had talked _ostentatiously_[389].' We reposed ourselves a little in Mr.
+Ferne's house. He had every thing in neat order as in England; and a
+tolerable collection of books. I looked into Pennant's _Tour in
+Scotland_. He says little of this fort; but that 'the barracks, &c. form
+several streets[390].' This is aggrandising. Mr. Ferne observed, if he
+had said they form a square, with a row of buildings before it, he would
+have given a juster description. Dr. Johnson remarked, 'how seldom
+descriptions correspond with realities; and the reason is, that people
+do not write them till some time after, and then their imagination has
+added circumstances.'
+
+We talked of Sir Adolphus Oughton[391]. The Major said, he knew a great
+deal for a military man. JOHNSON. 'Sir, you will find few men, of any
+profession, who know more. Sir Adolphus is a very extraordinary man; a
+man of boundless curiosity and unwearied diligence.'
+
+I know not how the Major contrived to introduce the contest between
+Warburton and Lowth. JOHNSON. 'Warburton kept his temper all along,
+while Lowth was in a passion. Lowth published some of Warburton's
+letters. Warburton drew _him_ on to write some very abusive letters, and
+then asked his leave to publish them; which he knew Lowth could not
+refuse, after what _he_ had done. So that Warburton contrived that he
+should publish, apparently with Lowth's consent, what could not but shew
+Lowth in a disadvantageous light[392].'
+
+At three the drum beat for dinner. I, for a little while, fancied myself
+a military man, and it pleased me. We went to Sir Eyre Coote's, at the
+governour's house, and found him a most gentleman-like man. His lady is
+a very agreeable woman, with an uncommonly mild and sweet tone of voice.
+There was a pretty large company: Mr. Ferne, Major Brewse, and several
+officers. Sir Eyre had come from the East-Indies by land, through the
+Desarts of Arabia. He told us, the Arabs could live five days without
+victuals, and subsist for three weeks on nothing else but the blood of
+their camels, who could lose so much of it as would suffice for that
+time, without being exhausted. He highly praised the virtue of the
+Arabs; their fidelity, if they undertook to conduct any person; and
+said, they would sacrifice their lives rather than let him be robbed.
+Dr. Johnson, who is always for maintaining the superiority of civilized
+over uncivilized men[393], said, 'Why, Sir, I can see no superiour
+virtue in this. A serjeant and twelve men, who are my guard, will die,
+rather than that I shall be robbed.' Colonel Pennington, of the 37th
+regiment, took up the argument with a good deal of spirit and
+ingenuity. PENNINGTON. 'But the soldiers are compelled to this by fear
+of punishment. 'JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, the Arabs are compelled by the fear
+of infamy.' PENNINGTON. 'The soldiers have the same fear of infamy, and
+the fear of punishment besides; so have less virtue; because they act
+less voluntarily.' Lady Coote observed very well, that it ought to be
+known if there was not, among the Arabs, some punishment for not being
+faithful on such occasions.
+
+We talked of the stage. I observed, that we had not now such a company
+of actors as in the last age; Wilks[394], Booth[395], &c. &c. JOHNSON.
+'You think so, because there is one who excels all the rest so much: you
+compare them with Garrick, and see the deficiency. Garrick's great
+distinction is his universality[396]. He can represent all modes of
+life, but that of an easy fine bred gentleman[397].' PENNINGTON. 'He
+should give over playing young parts.' JOHNSON. 'He does not take them
+now; but he does not leave off those which he has been used to play,
+because he does them better than any one else can do them. If you had
+generations of actors, if they swarmed like bees, the young ones might
+drive off the old. Mrs. Cibber[398], I think, got more reputation than
+she deserved, as she had a great sameness; though her expression was
+undoubtedly very fine. Mrs. Clive[399] was the best player I ever saw.
+Mrs. Prichard[400] was a very good one; but she had something affected
+in her manner: I imagine she had some player of the former age in her
+eye, which occasioned it.'  Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes
+failed in emphasis[401]; as for instance, in _Hamlet_,
+
+     'I will speak _daggers_ to her; but use _none_[402].'
+
+instead of
+
+     'I will _speak_ daggers to her; but _use_ none.'
+
+We had a dinner of two complete courses, variety of wines, and the
+regimental band of musick playing in the square, before the windows,
+after it. I enjoyed this day much. We were quite easy and cheerful. Dr.
+Johnson said, 'I shall always remember this fort with gratitude.' I
+could not help being struck with some admiration, at finding upon this
+barren sandy point, such buildings,--such a dinner,--such company: it
+was like enchantment. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, said to me more
+rationally, that 'it did not strike _him_ as any thing extraordinary;
+because he knew, here was a large sum of money expended in building a
+fort; here was a regiment. If there had been less than what we found, it
+would have surprised him.' _He_ looked coolly and deliberately through
+all the gradations: my warm imagination jumped from the barren sands to
+the splendid dinner and brilliant company, to borrow the expression of
+an absurd poet,
+
+                         'Without ands or ifs,
+     I leapt from off the sands upon the cliffs.'
+
+The whole scene gave me a strong impression of the power and excellence
+of human art.
+
+We left the fort between six and seven o'clock: Sir Eyre Coote, Colonel
+Pennington, and several more accompanied us down stairs, and saw us into
+our chaise. There could not be greater attention paid to any visitors.
+Sir Eyre spoke of the hardships which Dr. Johnson had before him.
+BOSWELL. 'Considering what he has said of us, we must make him feel
+something rough in Scotland.' Sir Eyre said to him, 'You must change
+your name, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'Ay, to Dr. M'Gregor[403].'  We got safely to
+Inverness, and put up at Mackenzie's inn. Mr. Keith, the collector of
+Excise here, my old acquaintance at Ayr, who had seen us at the Fort,
+visited us in the evening, and engaged us to dine with him next day,
+promising to breakfast with us, and take us to the English chapel; so
+that we were at once commodiously arranged.
+
+Not finding a letter here that I expected, I felt a momentary impatience
+to be at home. Transient clouds darkened my imagination, and in those
+clouds I saw events from which I shrunk; but a sentence or two of the
+_Rambler's_ conversation gave me firmness, and I considered that I was
+upon an expedition for which I had wished for years, and the
+recollection of which would be a treasure to me for life.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, AUGUST 29.
+
+Mr. Keith breakfasted with us. Dr. Johnson expatiated rather too
+strongly upon the benefits derived to Scotland from the Union[404], and
+the bad state of our people before it. I am entertained with his copious
+exaggeration upon that subject; but I am uneasy when people are by, who
+do not know him as well as I do, and may be apt to think him
+narrow-minded[405]. I therefore diverted the subject.
+
+The English chapel, to which we went this morning, was but mean. The
+altar was a bare fir table, with a coarse stool for kneeling on, covered
+with a piece of thick sail-cloth doubled, by way of cushion. The
+congregation was small. Mr. Tait, the clergyman, read prayers very well,
+though with much of the Scotch accent. He preached on '_Love your
+Enemies_[406].' It was remarkable that, when talking of the connections
+amongst men, he said, that some connected themselves with men of
+distinguished talents, and since they could not equal them, tried to
+deck themselves with their merit, by being their companions. The
+sentence was to this purpose. It had an odd coincidence with what might
+be said of my connecting myself with Dr. Johnson[407].
+
+After church we walked down to the Quay. We then went to Macbeth's
+castle[408]. I had a romantick satisfaction in seeing Dr. Johnson
+actually in it. It perfectly corresponds with Shakspear's description,
+which Sir Joshua Reynolds has so happily illustrated, in one of his
+notes on our immortal poet[409]:
+
+          'This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air
+          Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
+          Unto our gentle sense,' &c.[410]
+
+Just as we came out of it, a raven perched on one of the chimney-tops,
+and croaked. Then I repeated
+
+           '----The raven himself is hoarse,
+           That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
+           Under my battlements[411].'
+
+We dined at Mr. Keith's. Mrs. Keith was rather too attentive to Dr.
+Johnson, asking him many questions about his drinking only water. He
+repressed that observation, by saying to me, 'You may remember that Lady
+Errol took no notice of this.'
+
+Dr. Johnson has the happy art (for which I have heard my father praise
+the old Earl of Aberdeen) of instructing himself, by making every man he
+meets tell him something of what he knows best. He led Keith to talk to
+him of the Excise in Scotland, and, in the course of conversation,
+mentioned that his friend Mr. Thrale, the great brewer, paid twenty
+thousand pounds a year to the revenue; and that he had four casks, each
+of which holds sixteen hundred barrels,--above a thousand hogsheads.
+
+After this there was little conversation that deserves to be remembered.
+I shall therefore here again glean what I have omitted on former days.
+Dr. Gerrard, at Aberdeen, told us, that when he was in Wales, he was
+shewn a valley inhabited by Danes, who still retain their own language,
+and are quite a distinct people. Dr. Johnson thought it could not be
+true, or all the kingdom must have heard of it. He said to me, as we
+travelled, 'these people, Sir, that Gerrard talks of, may have somewhat
+of a _peregrinity_ in their dialect, which relation has augmented to a
+different language.' I asked him if _peregrinity_ was an English word:
+he laughed, and said, 'No.' I told him this was the second time that I
+had heard him coin a word[412]. When Foote broke his leg, I observed
+that it would make him fitter for taking off George Faulkner as Peter
+Paragraph[413], poor George having a wooden leg. Dr. Johnson at that
+time said, 'George will rejoice at the _depeditation_ of Foote;' and
+when I challenged that word, laughed, and owned he had made it, and
+added that he had not made above three or four in his _Dictionary_[414].
+ Having conducted Dr. Johnson to our inn, I begged permission to leave
+him for a little, that I might run about and pay some short visits to
+several good people of Inverness. He said to me 'You have all the
+old-fashioned principles, good and bad' I acknowledge I have. That of
+attention to relations in the remotest degree, or to worthy persons, in
+every state whom I have once known, I inherit from my father. It gave me
+much satisfaction to hear every body at Inverness speak of him with
+uncommon regard. Mr. Keith and Mr. Grant, whom we had seen at Mr.
+M'Aulay's, supped with us at the inn. We had roasted kid, which Dr.
+Johnson had never tasted before. He relished it much.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, AUGUST 30.
+
+This day we were to begin our _equitation,_ as I said; for _I_ would
+needs make a word too. It is remarkable, that my noble, and to me most
+constant friend, the Earl of Pembroke[415], (who, if there is too much
+ease on my part, will please to pardon what his benevolent, gay, social
+intercourse, and lively correspondence have insensibly produced,) has
+since hit upon the very same word. The title of the first edition of his
+lordship's very useful book was, in simple terms, _A Method of breaking
+Horses and teaching Soldiers to ride._ The title of the second edition
+is, 'MILITARY EQUITATION[416].'
+
+We might have taken a chaise to Fort Augustus, but, had we not hired
+horses at Inverness, we should not have found them afterwards: so we
+resolved to begin here to ride. We had three horses, for Dr. Johnson,
+myself, and Joseph, and one which carried our portmanteaus, and two
+Highlanders who walked along with us, John Hay and Lauchland Vass, whom
+Dr. Johnson has remembered with credit in his JOURNEY[417], though he
+has omitted their names. Dr. Johnson rode very well.  About three miles
+beyond Inverness, we saw, just by the road, a very complete specimen of
+what is called a Druid's temple. There was a double circle, one of very
+large, the other of smaller stones. Dr. Johnson justly observed, that
+'to go and see one druidical temple is only to see that it is nothing,
+for there is neither art nor power in it; and seeing one is
+quite enough.'
+
+It was a delightful day. Lochness, and the road upon the side of it,
+shaded with birch trees, and the hills above it, pleased us much. The
+scene was as sequestered and agreeably wild as could be desired, and for
+a time engrossed all our attention[418].
+
+To see Dr. Johnson in any new situation is always an interesting object
+to me; and, as I saw him now for the first time on horseback, jaunting
+about at his ease in quest of pleasure and novelty, the very different
+occupations of his former laborious life, his admirable productions, his
+_London_, his _Rambler_, &c. &c., immediately presented themselves to my
+mind, and the contrast made a strong impression on my imagination.
+
+When we had advanced a good way by the side of Lochness, I perceived a
+little hut, with an old-looking woman at the door of it. I thought here
+might be a scene that would amuse Dr. Johnson; so I mentioned it to him.
+'Let's go in,' said he. We dismounted, and we and our guides entered the
+hut. It was a wretched little hovel of earth only, I think, and for a
+window had only a small hole, which was stopped with a piece of turf,
+that was taken out occasionally to let in light. In the middle of the
+room or space which we entered, was a fire of peat, the smoke going out
+at a hole in the roof. She had a pot upon it, with goat's flesh,
+boiling. There was at one end under the same roof, but divided by a kind
+of partition made of wattles, a pen or fold in which we saw a good
+many kids.
+
+Dr. Johnson was curious to know where she slept. I asked one of the
+guides, who questioned her in Erse. She answered with a tone of emotion,
+saying, (as he told us,) she was afraid we wanted to go to bed to her.
+This _coquetry_, or whatever it may be called, of so wretched a being,
+was truly ludicrous. Dr. Johnson and I afterwards were merry upon it. I
+said it was he who alarmed the poor woman's virtue. 'No, Sir, (said he,)
+she'll say "there came a wicked young fellow, a wild dog, who I believe
+would have ravished me, had there not been with him a grave old
+gentleman, who repressed him: but when he gets out of the sight of his
+tutor, I'll warrant you he'll spare no woman he meets, young or old."'
+'No, Sir, (I replied,) she'll say, "There was a terrible ruffian who
+would have forced me, had it not been for a civil decent young man who,
+I take it, was an angel sent from heaven to protect me."'
+
+Dr. Johnson would not hurt her delicacy, by insisting on 'seeing her
+bed-chamber,' like _Archer_ in the _Beaux Stratagem_[419]. But my
+curiosity was more ardent; I lighted a piece of paper, and went into the
+place where the bed was. There was a little partition of wicker, rather
+more neatly done than that for the fold, and close by the wall was a
+kind of bedstead of wood with heath upon it by way of bed! at the foot
+of which I saw some sort of blankets or covering rolled up in a heap.
+The woman's name was Fraser; so was her husband's. He was a man of
+eighty. Mr. Fraser of Balnain allows him to live in this hut, and keep
+sixty goats, for taking care of his woods, where he then was. They had
+five children, the eldest only thirteen. Two were gone to Inverness to
+buy meal[420]; the rest were looking after the goats. This contented
+family had four stacks of barley, twenty-four sheaves in each. They had
+a few fowls. We were informed that they lived all the spring without
+meal, upon milk and curds and whey alone. What they get for their goats,
+kids, and fowls, maintains them during the rest of the year.  She asked
+us to sit down and take a dram. I saw one chair. She said she was as
+happy as any woman in Scotland. She could hardly speak any English
+except a few detached words. Dr. Johnson was pleased at seeing, for the
+first time, such a state of human life. She asked for snuff. It is her
+luxury, and she uses a great deal. We had none; but gave her sixpence a
+piece. She then brought out her whiskey bottle. I tasted it; as did
+Joseph and our guides, so I gave her sixpence more. She sent us away
+with many prayers in Erse.
+
+We dined at a publick house called the General's Hut[421], from General
+Wade, who was lodged there when he commanded in the North. Near it is
+the meanest parish _Kirk_ I ever saw. It is a shame it should be on a
+high road. After dinner, we passed through a good deal of mountainous
+country. I had known Mr. Trapaud, the deputy governour of Fort Augustus,
+twelve years ago, at a circuit at Inverness, where my father was judge.
+I sent forward one of our guides, and Joseph, with a card to him, that
+he might know Dr. Johnson and I were coming up, leaving it to him to
+invite us or not[422]. It was dark when we arrived. The inn was
+wretched. Government ought to build one, or give the resident governour
+an additional salary; as in the present state of things, he must
+necessarily be put to a great expence in entertaining travellers. Joseph
+announced to us, when we alighted, that the governour waited for us at
+the gate of the fort. We walked to it. He met us, and with much civility
+conducted us to his house. It was comfortable to find ourselves in a
+well-built little square, and a neatly furnished house, in good company,
+and with a good supper before us; in short, with all the conveniences of
+civilised life in the midst of rude mountains. Mrs. Trapaud, and the
+governour's daughter, and her husband, Captain Newmarsh, were all most
+obliging and polite. The governour had excellent animal spirits, the
+conversation of a soldier, and somewhat of a Frenchman, to which his
+extraction entitles him. He is brother to General Cyrus Trapaud. We
+passed a very agreeable evening.[423]
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, AUGUST 31.
+
+The governour has a very good garden. We looked at it, and at the rest
+of the fort, which is but small, and may be commanded from a variety of
+hills around. We also looked at the galley or sloop belonging to the
+fort, which sails upon the Loch, and brings what is wanted for the
+garrison. Captains Urie and Darippe, of the 15th regiment of foot,
+breakfasted with us. They had served in America, and entertained Dr.
+Johnson much with an account of the Indians.[424] He said, he could make
+a very pretty book out of them, were he to stay there. Governour Trapaud
+was much struck with Dr. Johnson. 'I like to hear him, (said he,) it is
+so majestick. I should be glad to hear him speak in your court.' He
+pressed us to stay dinner; but I considered that we had a rude road
+before us, which we could more easily encounter in the morning, and that
+it was hard to say when we might get up, were we to sit down to good
+entertainment, in good company: I therefore begged the governour would
+excuse us. Here too, I had another very pleasing proof how much my
+father is regarded. The governour expressed the highest respect for him,
+and bade me tell him, that, if he would come that way on the Northern
+circuit, he would do him all the honours of the garrison.
+
+Between twelve and one we set out, and travelled eleven miles, through a
+wild country, till we came to a house in Glenmorison, called _Anoch_,
+kept by a McQueen[425]. Our landlord was a sensible fellow; he had
+learned his grammar[426], and Dr. Johnson justly observed, that 'a man
+is the better for that as long as he lives.' There were some books here:
+_a Treatise against Drunkenness_, translated from the French; a volume
+of _The Spectator_; a volume of _Prideaux's Connection_, and _Cyrus's
+Travels_[427]. McQueen said he had more volumes; and his pride seemed to
+be much piqued that we were surprised at his having books.
+
+Near to this place we had passed a party of soldiers, under a serjeant's
+command, at work upon the road. We gave them two shillings to drink.
+They came to our inn, and made merry in the barn. We went and paid them
+a visit, Dr. Johnson saying, 'Come, let's go and give 'em another
+shilling a-piece.' We did so; and he was saluted 'MY LORD' by all of
+them. He is really generous, loves influence, and has the way of gaining
+it. He said, 'I am quite feudal, Sir.' Here I agree with him. I said, I
+regretted I was not the head of a clan; however, though not possessed of
+such an hereditary advantage, I would always endeavour to make my
+tenants follow me. I could not be a _patriarchal_ chief, but I would be
+a _feudal_ chief.
+
+The poor soldiers got too much liquor. Some of them fought, and left
+blood upon the spot, and cursed whiskey next morning. The house here was
+built of thick turfs, and thatched with thinner turfs and heath. It had
+three rooms in length, and a little room which projected. Where we sat,
+the side-walls were _wainscotted_, as Dr. Johnson said, with wicker,
+very neatly plaited. Our landlord had made the whole with his own hands.
+
+After dinner, McQueen sat by us a while, and talked with us. He said,
+all the Laird of Glenmorison's people would bleed for him if they were
+well used; but that seventy men had gone out of the Glen to America.
+That he himself intended to go next year; for that the rent of his farm,
+which twenty years ago was only five pounds, was now raised to twenty
+pounds. That he could pay ten pounds and live; but no more.[428] Dr.
+Johnson said, he wished M'Queen laird of Glenmorison, and the laird to
+go to America. M'Queen very generously answered, he should be sorry for
+it; for the laird could not shift for himself in America as he could do.
+
+I talked of the officers whom we had left to-day; how much service they
+had seen, and how little they got for it, even of fame. JOHNSON. 'Sir, a
+soldier gets as little as any man can get.' BOSWELL. 'Goldsmith has
+acquired more fame than all the officers last war, who were not
+Generals.'[429] JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you will find ten thousand fit to do
+what they did, before you find one who does what Goldsmith has done. You
+must consider, that a thing is valued according to its rarity. A pebble
+that paves the street is in itself more useful than the diamond upon a
+lady's finger.' I wish our friend Goldsmith had heard this.[430]
+
+I yesterday expressed my wonder that John Hay, one of our guides, who
+had been pressed aboard a man of war, did not choose to continue in it
+longer than nine months, after which time he got off. JOHNSON. 'Why,
+Sir, no man will be a sailor, who has contrivance enough to get himself
+into a jail; for, being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of
+being drowned.'[431]  We had tea in the afternoon, and our landlord's
+daughter, a modest civil girl, very neatly drest, made it for us. She
+told us, she had been a year at Inverness, and learnt reading and
+writing, sewing, knotting[432], working lace, and pastry. Dr. Johnson
+made her a present of a book which he had bought at Inverness[433].
+
+The room had some deals laid across the joists, as a kind of ceiling.
+There were two beds in the room, and a woman's gown was hung on a rope
+to make a curtain of separation between them. Joseph had sheets, which
+my wife had sent with us, laid on them. We had much hesitation, whether
+to undress, or lie down with our clothes on. I said at last, 'I'll
+plunge in! There will be less harbour for vermin about me, when I am
+stripped!' Dr. Johnson said, he was like one hesitating whether to go
+into the cold bath. At last he resolved too. I observed he might serve a
+campaign. JOHNSON. 'I could do all that can be done by patience: whether
+I should have strength enough, I know not.' He was in excellent humour.
+To see the Rambler as I saw him to-night, was really an amusement. I
+yesterday told him, I was thinking of writing a poetical letter to him,
+_on his return from Scotland_, in the style of Swift's humorous epistle
+in the character of Mary Gulliver to her husband, Captain Lemuel
+Gulliver, on his return to England from the country of the HOUYHNHUMS:--
+
+     'At early morn I to the market haste,
+      Studious in ev'ry thing to please thy taste.
+      A curious _fowl_ and _sparagrass_ I chose;
+      (For I remember you were fond of those:)
+      Three shillings cost the first, the last sev'n groats;
+      Sullen you turn from both, and call for OATS[434]:'
+
+He laughed, and asked in whose name I would write it. I said, in Mrs.
+Thrale's. He was angry. 'Sir, if you have any sense of decency or
+delicacy, you won't do that!' BOSWELL. 'Then let it be in Cole's, the
+landlord of the _Mitre tavern_; where we have so often sat together.'
+JOHNSON. 'Ay, that may do.'
+
+After we had offered up our private devotions, and had chatted a little
+from our beds, Dr. Johnson said, 'GOD bless us both, for Jesus Christ's
+sake! Good night!' I pronounced 'Amen.' He fell asleep immediately. I
+was not so fortunate for a long time. I fancied myself bit by
+innumerable vermin under the clothes; and that a spider was travelling
+from the _wainscot_ towards my mouth. At last I fell into insensibility.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1.
+
+I awaked very early. I began to imagine that the landlord, being about
+to emigrate, might murder us to get our money, and lay it upon the
+soldiers in the barn. Such groundless fears will arise in the mind,
+before it has resumed its vigour after sleep! Dr. Johnson had had the
+same kind of ideas; for he told me afterwards, that he considered so
+many soldiers, having seen us, would be witnesses, should any harm be
+done, and that circumstance, I suppose, he considered as a
+security.[435] When I got up, I found him sound asleep in his miserable
+_stye_, as I may call it, with a coloured handkerchief tied round his
+head. With difficulty could I awaken him. It reminded me of Henry the
+Fourth's fine soliloquy on sleep; for there was here as _uneasy a
+pallet_[436] as the poet's imagination could possibly conceive.
+
+A _red coat_ of the 15th regiment, whether officer, or only serjeant, I
+could not be sure, came to the house, in his way to the mountains to
+shoot deer, which it seems the Laird of Glenmorison does not hinder any
+body to do. Few, indeed, can do them harm. We had him to breakfast with
+us. We got away about eight. M'Queen walked some miles to give us a
+convoy. He had, in 1745, joined the Highland army at Fort Augustus, and
+continued in it till after the battle of Culloden. As he narrated the
+particulars of that ill-advised, but brave attempt, I could not refrain
+from tears. There is a certain association of ideas in my mind upon that
+subject, by which I am strongly affected. The very Highland names, or
+the sound of a bagpipe, will stir my blood, and fill me with a mixture
+of melancholy and respect for courage; with pity for an unfortunate and
+superstitious regard for antiquity, and thoughtless inclination for war;
+in short, with a crowd of sensations with which sober rationality has
+nothing to do.
+
+We passed through Glensheal, with prodigious mountains on each side. We
+saw where the battle was fought in the year 1719.[437] Dr. Johnson
+owned he was now in a scene of as wild nature as he could see; but he
+corrected me sometimes in my inaccurate observations. 'There, (said I,)
+is a mountain like a cone.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. It would be called so in
+a book; and when a man comes to look at it, he sees it is not so. It is
+indeed pointed at the top; but one side of it is larger than the
+other[438].' Another mountain I called immense. JOHNSON. 'No; it is no
+more than a considerable protuberance.'
+
+We came to a rich green valley, comparatively speaking, and stopped a
+while to let our horses rest and eat grass[439]. We soon afterwards came
+to Auchnasheal, a kind of rural village, a number of cottages being
+built together, as we saw all along in the Highlands. We passed many
+miles this day without seeing a house, but only little summer-huts,
+called _shielings_. Evan Campbell, servant to Mr. Murchison, factor to
+the Laird of Macleod in Glenelg, ran along with us to-day. He was a
+very obliging fellow. At Auchnasheal, we sat down on a green turf seat
+at the end of a house; they brought us out two wooden dishes of milk,
+which we tasted. One of them was frothed like a syllabub. I saw a woman
+preparing it with such a stick as is used for chocolate, and in the same
+manner. We had a considerable circle about us, men, women, and children,
+all M'Craas, Lord Seaforth's people. Not one of them could speak
+English. I observed to Dr. Johnson, it was much the same as being with a
+tribe of Indians. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but not so terrifying[440].' I
+gave all who chose it, snuff and tobacco. Governour Trapaud had made us
+buy a quantity at Fort Augustus, and put them up in small parcels. I
+also gave each person a bit of wheat bread, which they had never tasted
+before. I then gave a penny apiece to each child. I told Dr. Johnson of
+this; upon which he called to Joseph and our guides, for change for a
+shilling, and declared that he would distribute among the children. Upon
+this being announced in Erse, there was a great stir; not only did some
+children come running down from neighbouring huts, but I observed one
+black-haired man, who had been with us all along, had gone off, and
+returned, bringing a very young child. My fellow traveller then ordered
+the children to be drawn up in a row; and he dealt about his copper, and
+made them and their parents all happy. The poor M'Craas, whatever may be
+their present state, were of considerable estimation in the year 1715,
+when there was a line in a song,
+
+     'And aw the brave M'Craas are coming[441].'
+
+There was great diversity in the faces of the circle around us: some
+were as black and wild in their appearance as any American savages
+whatever. One woman was as comely almost as the figure of Sappho, as we
+see it painted. We asked the old woman, the mistress of the house where
+we had the milk, (which by the bye, Dr. Johnson told me, for I did not
+observe it myself, was built not of turf, but of stone,) what we should
+pay. She said, what we pleased. One of our guides asked her in Erse, if
+a shilling was enough. She said, 'yes.' But some of the men bade her ask
+more[442]. This vexed me; because it shewed a desire to impose upon
+strangers, as they knew that even a shilling was high payment. The
+woman, however, honestly persisted in her first price; so I gave her
+half a crown. Thus we had one good scene of life uncommon to us. The
+people were very much pleased, gave us many blessings, and said they had
+not had such a day since the old Laird of Macleod's time.
+
+Dr. Johnson was much refreshed by this repast. He was pleased when I
+told him he would make a good Chief. He said, 'Were I a chief, I would
+dress my servants better than myself, and knock a fellow down if he
+looked saucy to a Macdonald in rags: but I would not treat men as
+brutes. I would let them know why all of my clan were to have attention
+paid to them. I would tell my upper servants why, and make them tell the
+others.'  We rode on well[443], till we came to the high mountain
+called the Rattakin, by which time both Dr. Johnson and the horses were
+a good deal fatigued. It is a terrible steep to climb, notwithstanding
+the road is formed slanting along it; however, we made it out. On the
+top of it we met Captain M'Leod of Balmenoch (a Dutch officer who had
+come from Sky) riding with his sword slung across him. He asked, 'Is
+this Mr. Boswell?' which was a proof that we were expected. Going down
+the hill on the other side was no easy task. As Dr. Johnson was a great
+weight, the two guides agreed that he should ride the horses
+alternately. Hay's were the two best, and the Doctor would not ride but
+upon one or other of them, a black or a brown. But as Hay complained
+much after ascending the _Rattakin_, the Doctor was prevailed with to
+mount one of Vass's greys. As he rode upon it down hill, it did not go
+well; and he grumbled. I walked on a little before, but was excessively
+entertained with the method taken to keep him in good humour. Hay led
+the horse's head, talking to Dr. Johnson as much as he could; and
+(having heard him, in the forenoon, express a pastoral pleasure on
+seeing the goats browzing) just when the Doctor was uttering his
+displeasure, the fellow cried, with a very Highland accent, 'See, such
+pretty goats!' Then he whistled, _whu!_ and made them jump. Little did
+he conceive what Dr. Johnson was. Here now was a common ignorant
+Highland clown, imagining that he could divert, as one does a
+child,--_Dr. Samuel Johnson!_ The ludicrousness, absurdity, and
+extraordinary contrast between what the fellow fancied, and the reality,
+was truly comick.
+
+It grew dusky; and we had a very tedious ride for what was called five
+miles; but I am sure would measure ten. We had no conversation. I was
+riding forward to the inn at Glenelg, on the shore opposite to Sky, that
+I might take proper measures, before Dr. Johnson, who was now advancing
+in dreary silence, Hay leading his horse, should arrive. Vass also
+walked by the side of his horse, and Joseph followed behind: as
+therefore he was thus attended, and seemed to be in deep meditation, I
+thought there could be no harm in leaving him for a little while. He
+called me back with a tremendous shout, and was really in a passion with
+me for leaving him. I told him my intentions, but he was not satisfied,
+and said, 'Do you know, I should as soon have thought of picking a
+pocket, as doing so?' BOSWELL. 'I am diverted with you, Sir.' JOHNSON.
+'Sir, I could never be diverted with incivility. Doing such a thing,
+makes one lose confidence in him who has done it, as one cannot tell
+what he may do next.' His extraordinary warmth confounded me so much,
+that I justified myself but lamely to him; yet my intentions were not
+improper. I wished to get on, to see how we were to be lodged, and how
+we were to get a boat; all which I thought I could best settle myself,
+without his having any trouble. To apply his great mind to minute
+particulars, is wrong: it is like taking an immense balance, such as is
+kept on quays for weighing cargoes of ships,--to weigh a guinea. I knew
+I had neat little scales, which would do better; and that his attention
+to every thing which falls in his way, and his uncommon desire to be
+always in the right, would make him weigh, if he knew of the
+particulars: it was right therefore for me to weigh them, and let him
+have them only in effect. I however continued to ride by him, finding he
+wished I should do so.
+
+As we passed the barracks at Bernéra, I looked at them wishfully, as
+soldiers have always every thing in the best order: but there was only a
+serjeant and a few men there. We came on to the inn at Glenelg. There
+was no provender for our horses; so they were sent to grass, with a man
+to watch them. A maid shewed us up stairs into a room damp and dirty,
+with bare walls, a variety of bad smells, a coarse black greasy fir
+table, and forms of the same kind; and out of a wretched bed started a
+fellow from his sleep, like Edgar in _King Lear_[444], '_Poor Tom's a
+cold_[445].'  This inn was furnished with not a single article that we
+could either eat or drink[446]; but Mr. Murchison, factor to the Laird
+of Macleod in Glenelg, sent us a bottle of rum and some sugar, with a
+polite message, to acquaint us, that he was very sorry that he did not
+hear of us till we had passed his house, otherwise he should have
+insisted on our sleeping there that night; and that, if he were not
+obliged to set out for Inverness early next morning, he would have
+waited upon us. Such extraordinary attention from this gentleman, to
+entire strangers, deserves the most honourable commemoration.
+
+Our bad accommodation here made me uneasy, and almost fretful. Dr.
+Johnson was calm. I said, he was so from vanity. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, it
+is from philosophy.' It pleased me to see that the _Rambler_ could
+practise so well his own lessons.
+
+I resumed the subject of my leaving him on the road, and endeavoured to
+defend it better. He was still violent upon that head, and said, 'Sir,
+had you gone on, I was thinking that I should have returned with you to
+Edinburgh, and then have parted from you, and never spoken to you more.'
+
+I sent for fresh hay, with which we made beds for ourselves, each in a
+room equally miserable. Like Wolfe, we had a 'choice of
+difficulties[447]'. Dr. Johnson made things easier by comparison. At
+M'Queen's, last night, he observed that few were so well lodged in a
+ship. To-night he said, we were better than if we had been upon the
+hill. He lay down buttoned up in his great coat. I had my sheets spread
+on the hay, and my clothes and great coat laid over me, by way
+of blankets.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2.
+
+I had slept ill. Dr. Johnson's anger had affected me much. I considered
+that, without any bad intention, I might suddenly forfeit his
+friendship; and was impatient to see him this morning. I told him how
+uneasy he had made me, by what he had said, and reminded him of his own
+remark at Aberdeen, upon old friendships being hastily broken off. He
+owned he had spoken to me in passion; that he would not have done what
+he threatened; and that, if he had, he should have been ten times worse
+than I; that forming intimacies, would indeed be 'limning the
+water[448],' were they liable to such sudden dissolution; and he added,
+'Let's think no more on't.' BOSWELL. 'Well then, Sir, I shall be easy.
+Remember, I am to have fair warning in case of any quarrel. You are
+never to spring a mine upon me. It was absurd in me to believe you.'
+JOHNSON. 'You deserved about as much, as to believe me from night
+to morning.'
+
+After breakfast, we got into a boat for Sky. It rained much when we set
+off, but cleared up as we advanced. One of the boatmen, who spoke
+English, said, that a mile at land was two miles at sea. I then
+observed, that from Glenelg to Armidale in Sky, which was our present
+course, and is called twelve, was only six miles: but this he could not
+understand. 'Well, (said Dr. Johnson,) never talk to me of the native
+good sense of the Highlanders. Here is a fellow who calls one mile two,
+and yet cannot comprehend that twelve such imaginary miles make in
+truth but six.'
+
+We reached the shore of Armidale before one o'clock. Sir Alexander
+M'Donald came down to receive us. He and his lady, (formerly Miss
+Bosville of Yorkshire[449],) were then in a house built by a tenant at
+this place, which is in the district of Slate, the family mansion here
+having been burned in Sir Donald Macdonald's time.  The most ancient
+seat of the chief of the Macdonalds in the isle of Sky was at Duntulm,
+where there are the remains of a stately castle. The principal residence
+of the family is now at Mugstot, at which there is a considerable
+building. Sir Alexander and Lady Macdonald had come to Armidale in their
+way to Edinburgh, where it was necessary for them to be soon after this
+time.  Armidale is situated on a pretty bay of the narrow sea, which
+flows between the main land of Scotland and the Isle of Sky. In front
+there is a grand prospect of the rude mountains of Moidart and
+Knoidart[451]. Behind are hills gently rising and covered with a finer
+verdure than I expected to see in this climate, and the scene is
+enlivened by a number of little clear brooks.
+
+Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an Eton scholar[452], and being a
+gentleman of talents, Dr. Johnson had been very well pleased with him in
+London[453]. But my fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old
+Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing of racked rents and
+emigration, and finding a chief not surrounded by his clan. Dr. Johnson
+said, 'Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to go farther
+south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like Sir James Macdonald[454],
+may be improved by an English education; but in general, they will be
+tamed into insignificance.'
+
+We found here Mr. Janes of Aberdeenshire, a naturalist. Janes said he
+had been at Dr. Johnson's in London, with Ferguson the astronomer[455].
+JOHNSON. 'It is strange that, in such distant places, I should meet with
+any one who knows me. I should have thought I might hide myself in Sky.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3.
+
+This day proving wet, we should have passed our time very uncomfortably,
+had we not found in the house two chests of books, which we eagerly
+ransacked. After dinner, when I alone was left at table with the few
+Highland gentlemen who were of the company, having talked with very high
+respect of Sir James Macdonald, they were all so much affected as to
+shed tears. One of them was Mr. Donald Macdonald, who had been
+lieutenant of grenadiers in the Highland regiment, raised by Colonel
+Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune, in the war before last; one of those
+regiments which the late Lord Chatham prided himself in having brought
+from 'the mountains of the North[456]:' by doing which he contributed to
+extinguish in the Highlands the remains of disaffection to the present
+Royal Family. From this gentleman's conversation, I first learnt how
+very popular his Colonel was among the Highlanders; of which I had such
+continued proofs, during the whole course of my Tour, that on my return
+I could not help telling the noble Earl himself, that I did not before
+know how great a man he was.
+
+We were advised by some persons here to visit Rasay, in our way to
+Dunvegan, the seat of the Laird of Macleod. Being informed that the Rev.
+Mr. Donald M'Queen was the most intelligent man in Sky, and having been
+favoured with a letter of introduction to him, by the learned Sir James
+Foulis, I sent it to him by an express, and requested he would meet us
+at Rasay; and at the same time enclosed a letter to the Laird of
+Macleod, informing him that we intended in a few days to have the honour
+of waiting on him at Dunvegan.
+
+Dr. Johnson this day endeavoured to obtain some knowledge of the state
+of the country; but complained that he could get no distinct information
+about any thing, from those with whom he conversed[457].
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4.
+
+My endeavours to rouse the English-bred Chieftain[458], in whose house
+we were, to the feudal and patriarchal feelings, proving ineffectual,
+Dr. Johnson this morning tried to bring him to our way of thinking.
+JOHNSON. 'Were I in your place, Sir, in seven years I would make this an
+independant island. I would roast oxen whole, and hang out a flag as a
+signal to the Macdonalds to come and get beef and whiskey.' Sir
+Alexander was still starting difficulties. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir; if you
+are born to object, I have done with you. Sir, I would have a magazine
+of arms.' SIR ALEXANDER. 'They would rust.' JOHNSON. 'Let there be men
+to keep them clean. Your ancestors did not use to let their arms
+rust[459].'
+
+We attempted in vain to communicate to him a portion of our enthusiasm.
+He bore with so polite a good nature our warm, and what some might call
+Gothick, expostulations, on this subject, that I should not forgive
+myself, were I to record all that Dr. Johnson's ardour led him to
+say.--This day was little better than a blank.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5.
+
+I walked to the parish church of Slate, which is a very poor one. There
+are no church bells in the island. I was told there were once some; what
+has become of them, I could not learn. The minister not being at home,
+there was no service. I went into the church, and saw the monument of
+Sir James Macdonald, which was elegantly executed at Rome, and has the
+following inscription, written by his friend, George Lord Lyttelton:--
+
+     To the memory
+     Of SIR JAMES MACDONALD, BART.
+     Who in the flower of youth
+     Had attained to so eminent a degree of knowledge,
+     In Mathematics, Philosophy, Languages,
+     And in every other branch of useful and polite learning
+     As few have acquired in a long life
+     Wholly devoted to study:
+     Yet to this erudition he joined
+     What can rarely be found with it,
+     Great talents for business,
+     Great propriety of behaviour,
+     Great politeness of manners!
+     His eloquence was sweet, correct, and flowing;
+     His memory vast and exact;
+     His judgement strong and acute;
+     All which endowments, united
+     With the most amiable temper
+     And every private virtue,
+     Procured him, not only in his own country,
+     But also from foreign nations[460],
+     The highest marks of esteem.
+     In the year of our Lord 1766,
+     The 25th of his life,
+     After a long and extremely painful illness,
+     Which he supported with admirable patience and fortitude,
+     He died at Rome,
+     Where, notwithstanding the difference of religion,
+     Such extraordinary honours were paid to his memory,
+     As had never graced that of any other British Subject,
+     Since the death of Sir Philip Sidney.
+     The fame he left behind him is the best consolation
+     To his afflicted family,
+     And to his countrymen in this isle,
+     For whose benefit he had planned
+     Many useful improvements,
+     Which his fruitful genius suggested,
+     And his active spirit promoted,
+     Under the sober direction
+     Of a clear and enlightened understanding.
+     Reader, bewail our loss,
+     And that of all Britain.
+     In testimony of her love,
+     And as the best return she can make
+     To her departed son,
+     For the constant tenderness and affection
+     Which, even to his last moments,
+     He shewed for her,
+     His much afflicted mother,
+     The LADY MARGARET MACDONALD,
+     Daughter to the EARL of EGLINTOUNE,
+     Erected this Monument,
+     A.D. 1768[461]'
+
+Dr. Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every
+thing intended to be universal and permanent should be[462].
+
+This being a beautiful day, my spirits were cheered by the mere effect
+of climate. I had felt a return of spleen during my stay at Armidale,
+and had it not been that I had Dr. Johnson to contemplate, I should have
+sunk into dejection; but his firmness supported me. I looked at him, as
+a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock, or any fixed
+object. I wondered at his tranquillity. He said, 'Sir, when a man
+retires into an island, he is to turn his thoughts entirely to another
+world. He has done with this.' BOSWELL. 'It appears to me, Sir, to be
+very difficult to unite a due attention to this world, and that which is
+to come; for, if we engage eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to
+be totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the other hand, a steady
+contemplation of the awful concerns of eternity renders all objects here
+so insignificant, as to make us indifferent and negligent about them.'
+JOHNSON. 'Sir, Dr. Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this
+subject, which should be imprinted on every mind:--"_To neglect nothing
+to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should
+die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations
+and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty
+years more[463]_."'
+
+I must here observe, that though Dr. Johnson appeared now to be
+philosophically calm, yet his genius did not shine forth as in
+companies, where I have listened to him with admiration. The vigour of
+his mind was, however, sufficiently manifested, by his discovering no
+symptoms of feeble relaxation in the dull, 'weary, flat and
+unprofitable[464]' state in which we now were placed.
+
+I am inclined to think that it was on this day he composed the following
+Ode upon the _Isle of Sky_, which a few days afterwards he shewed me
+at Rasay:--
+
+     ODA,
+
+     Ponti profundis clausa recessibus,
+     Strepens procellis, rupibus obsita,
+     Quam grata defesso virentem
+     Skia sinum nebulosa pandis.
+
+     His cura, credo, sedibus exulat;
+     His blanda certe pax habitat locis:
+     Non ira, non moeror quietis
+     Insidias meditatur horis.
+
+     At non cavata rupe latescere,
+     Menti nec aegrae montibus aviis
+     Prodest vagari, nec frementes
+     E scopulo numerare fluctus.
+
+     Humana virtus non sibi sufficit,
+     Datur nec aequum cuique animum sibi
+     Parare posse, ut Stoicorum
+     Secta crepet nimis alta fallax.
+
+     Exaestuantis pectoris impetum,
+     Rex summe, solus tu regis arbiter,
+     Mentisque, te tollente, surgunt,
+     Te recidunt moderante fluctus[465].
+
+After supper, Dr. Johnson told us, that Isaac Hawkins Browne drank
+freely for thirty years, and that he wrote his poem, _De Animi
+Immortalitate_, in some of the last of these years[466]. I listened to
+this with the eagerness of one who, conscious of being himself fond of
+wine, is glad to hear that a man of so much genius and good thinking as
+Browne had the same propensity[467].
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6.
+
+We set out, accompanied by Mr. Donald M'Leod, (late of Canna) as our
+guide. We rode for some time along the district of Slate, near the
+shore. The houses in general are made of turf, covered with grass. The
+country seemed well peopled. We came into the district of Strath, and
+passed along a wild moorish tract of land till we arrived at the shore.
+There we found good verdure, and some curious whin-rocks, or collections
+of stones like the ruins of the foundations of old buildings. We saw
+also three Cairns of considerable size.
+
+About a mile beyond Broadfoot, is Corrichatachin, a farm of Sir
+Alexander Macdonald's, possessed by Mr. M'Kinnon[468], who received us
+with a hearty welcome, as did his wife, who was what we call in Scotland
+a _lady-like_ woman. Mr. Pennant in the course of his tour to the
+Hebrides, passed two nights at this gentleman's house. On its being
+mentioned, that a present had here been made to him of a curious
+specimen of Highland antiquity, Dr. Johnson said, 'Sir, it was more than
+he deserved; the dog is a Whig[469].'
+
+We here enjoyed the comfort of a table plentifully furnished[470], the
+satisfaction of which was heightened by a numerous and cheerful company;
+and we for the first time had a specimen of the joyous social manners of
+the inhabitants of the Highlands. They talked in their own ancient
+language, with fluent vivacity, and sung many Erse songs with such
+spirit, that, though Dr. Johnson was treated with the greatest respect
+and attention, there were moments in which he seemed to be forgotten.
+For myself, though but a _Lowlander_, having picked up a few words of
+the language, I presumed to mingle in their mirth, and joined in the
+choruses with as much glee as any of the company. Dr. Johnson being
+fatigued with his journey, retired early to his chamber, where he
+composed the following Ode, addressed to Mrs. Thrale[471]:--
+
+     ODA.
+
+     Permeo terras, ubi nuda rupes
+     Saxeas miscet nebulis ruinas,
+     Torva ubi rident steriles coloni
+     Rura labores.
+
+     Pervagor gentes, hominum ferorum
+     Vita ubi nullo decorata cultu
+     Squallet informis, tugurique fumis
+     Foeda latescit.
+
+     Inter erroris salebrosa longi,
+     Inter ignotae strepitus loquelae,
+     Quot modis mecum, quid agat, requiro,
+     Thralia dulcis?
+
+     Seu viri curas pia nupta mulcet,
+     Seu fovet mater sobolem benigna,
+     Sive cum libris novitate pascet
+     Sedula mentem;
+
+     Sit memor nostri, fideique merces,
+     Stet fides constans, meritoque blandum
+     Thraliae discant resonare nomen
+     Littora Skiae.
+
+Scriptum in Skiá, Sept. 6, 1773[472].
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7.
+
+Dr. Johnson was much pleased with his entertainment here. There were
+many good books in the house: _Hector Boethius_ in Latin; Cave's _Lives
+of the Fathers_; Baker's _Chronicle_; Jeremy Collier's _Church History_;
+Dr. Johnson's small _Dictionary_; Craufurd's _Officers of State_, and
+several more[473]:--a mezzotinto of Mrs. Brooks the actress (by some
+strange chance in Sky[474]), and also a print of Macdonald of
+Clanranald[475], with a Latin inscription about the cruelties after the
+battle of Culloden, which will never be forgotten.
+
+It was a very wet stormy day; we were therefore obliged to remain here,
+it being impossible to cross the sea to Rasay.
+
+I employed a part of the forenoon in writing this Journal. The rest of
+it was somewhat dreary, from the gloominess of the weather, and the
+uncertain state which we were in, as we could not tell but it might
+clear up every hour. Nothing is more painful to the mind than a state of
+suspence, especially when it depends upon the weather, concerning which
+there can be so little calculation. As Dr. Johnson said of our weariness
+on the Monday at Aberdeen, 'Sensation is sensation[476]:'
+Corrichatachin, which was last night a hospitable house, was, in my
+mind, changed to-day into a prison. After dinner I read some of Dr.
+Macpherson's _Dissertations on the Ancient Caledonians_[477]. I was
+disgusted by the unsatisfactory conjectures as to antiquity, before the
+days of record. I was happy when tea came. Such, I take it, is the state
+of those who live in the country. Meals are wished for from the cravings
+of vacuity of mind, as well as from the desire of eating. I was hurt to
+find even such a temporary feebleness, and that I was so far from being
+that robust wise man who is sufficient for his own happiness. I felt a
+kind of lethargy of indolence. I did not exert myself to get Dr. Johnson
+to talk, that I might not have the labour of writing down his
+conversation. He enquired here if there were any remains of the second
+sight[478]. Mr. M'Pherson, Minister of Slate, said, he was _resolved_
+not to believe it, because it was founded on no principle[479]. JOHNSON.
+'There are many things then, which we are sure are true, that you will
+not believe. What principle is there, why a loadstone attracts iron? why
+an egg produces a chicken by heat? why a tree grows upwards, when the
+natural tendency of all things is downwards? Sir, it depends upon the
+degree of evidence that you have.' Young Mr. M'Kinnon mentioned one
+M'Kenzie, who is still alive, who had often fainted in his presence, and
+when he recovered, mentioned visions which had been presented to him. He
+told Mr. M'Kinnon, that at such a place he should meet a funeral, and
+that such and such people would be the bearers, naming four; and three
+weeks afterwards he saw what M'Kenzie had predicted. The naming the very
+spot in a country where a funeral comes a long way, and the very people
+as bearers, when there are so many out of whom a choice may be made,
+seems extraordinary. We should have sent for M'Kenzie, had we not been
+informed that he could speak no English. Besides, the facts were not
+related with sufficient accuracy.
+
+Mrs. M'Kinnon, who is a daughter of old Kingsburgh, told us that her
+father was one day riding in Sky, and some women, who were at work in a
+field on the side of the road, said to him they had heard two _taiscks_,
+(that is, two voices of persons about to die[480],) and what was
+remarkable, one of them was an _English taisck_, which they never heard
+before. When he returned, he at that very place met two funerals, and
+one of them was that of a woman who had come from the main land, and
+could speak only English. This, she remarked, made a great impression
+upon her father.
+
+How all the people here were lodged, I know not. It was partly done by
+separating man and wife, and putting a number of men in one room, and of
+women in another.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8.
+
+When I waked, the rain was much heavier than yesterday; but the wind had
+abated. By breakfast, the day was better, and in a little while it was
+calm and clear. I felt my spirits much elated. The propriety of the
+expression, '_the sunshine of the breast_[481],' now struck me with
+peculiar force; for the brilliant rays penetrated into my very soul. We
+were all in better humour than before. Mrs. M'Kinnon, with unaffected
+hospitality and politeness, expressed her happiness in having such
+company in her house, and appeared to understand and relish Dr.
+Johnson's conversation, as indeed all the company seemed to do. When I
+knew she was old Kingsburgh's daughter, I did not wonder at the good
+appearance which she made.
+
+She talked as if her husband and family would emigrate, rather than be
+oppressed by their landlord; and said, 'how agreeable would it be, if
+these gentlemen should come in upon us when we are in America.' Somebody
+observed that Sir Alexander Macdonald was always frightened at sea.
+JOHNSON. '_He_ is frightened at sea; and his tenants are frightened when
+he comes to land.'
+
+We resolved to set out directly after breakfast. We had about two miles
+to ride to the sea-side, and there we expected to get one of the boats
+belonging to the fleet of bounty[482] herring-busses then on the coast,
+or at least a good country fishing-boat. But while we were preparing to
+set out, there arrived a man with the following card from the Reverend
+Mr. Donald M'Queen:--
+
+'Mr. M'Queen's compliments to Mr. Boswell, and begs leave to acquaint
+him that, fearing the want of a proper boat, as much as the rain of
+yesterday, might have caused a stop, he is now at Skianwden with
+Macgillichallum's[483] carriage, to convey him and Dr. Johnson to Rasay,
+where they will meet with a most hearty welcome, and where. Macleod,
+being on a visit, now attends their motions.' 'Wednesday afternoon.'
+
+This card was most agreeable; it was a prologue to that hospitable and
+truly polite reception which we found at Rasay. In a little while
+arrived Mr. Donald M'Queen himself; a decent minister, an elderly man
+with his own black hair, courteous, and rather slow of speech, but
+candid, sensible, and well informed, nay learned. Along with him came,
+as our pilot, a gentleman whom I had a great desire to see, Mr. Malcolm
+Macleod, one of the Rasay family, celebrated in the year 1745-6. He was
+now sixty-two years of age, hale, and well proportioned,--with a manly
+countenance, tanned by the weather, yet having a ruddiness in his
+cheeks, over a great part of which his rough beard extended. His eye was
+quick and lively, yet his look was not fierce, but he appeared at once
+firm and good-humoured. He wore a pair of brogues[484],--Tartan hose
+which came up only near to his knees, and left them bare,--a purple
+camblet kilt[485],--a black waistcoat,--a short green cloth coat bound
+with gold cord,--a yellowish bushy wig,--a large blue bonnet with a gold
+thread button. I never saw a figure that gave a more perfect
+representation of a Highland gentleman. I wished much to have a picture
+of him just as he was. I found him frank and _polite_, in the true sense
+of the word.
+
+The good family at Corrichatachin said, they hoped to see us on our
+return. We rode down to the shore; but Malcolm walked with
+graceful agility.
+
+We got into Rasay's _carriage_, which was a good strong open boat made
+in Norway. The wind had now risen pretty high, and was against us; but
+we had four stout rowers, particularly a Macleod, a robust black-haired
+fellow, half naked, and bare-headed, something between a wild Indian and
+an English tar. Dr. Johnson sat high, on the stern, like a magnificent
+Triton. Malcolm sung an Erse song, the chorus of which was '_Hatyin foam
+foam eri_', with words of his own[486]. The tune resembled '_Owr the
+muir amang the heather_'. The boatmen and Mr. M'Queen chorused, and all
+went well. At length Malcolm himself took an oar, and rowed vigorously.
+We sailed along the coast of Scalpa, a rugged island, about four miles
+in length. Dr. Johnson proposed that he and I should buy it, and found a
+good school, and an episcopal church, (Malcolm[487] said, he would come
+to it,) and have a printing-press, where he would print all the Erse
+that could be found.  Here I was strongly struck with our long
+projected scheme of visiting the Hebrides being realized[488]. I called
+to him, 'We are contending with seas;' which I think were the words of
+one of his letters to me[489]. 'Not much,' said he; and though the wind
+made the sea lash considerably upon us, he was not discomposed. After we
+were out of the shelter of Scalpa, and in the sound between it and
+Rasay, which extended about a league, the wind made the sea very
+rough[490]. I did not like it. JOHNSON. 'This now is the Atlantick. If I
+should tell at a tea table in London, that I have crossed the Atlantick
+in an open boat, how they'd shudder, and what a fool they'd think me to
+expose myself to such danger?' He then repeated Horace's ode,--
+
+     'Otium Divos rogat in patenti
+      Prensus Aegaeo----[491]'
+
+In the confusion and hurry of this boisterous sail, Dr. Johnson's spurs,
+of which Joseph had charge, were carried over-board into the sea, and
+lost[492]. This was the first misfortune that had befallen us. Dr.
+Johnson was a little angry at first, observing that 'there was something
+wild in letting a pair of spurs be carried into the sea out of a boat;'
+but then he remarked, 'that, as Janes the naturalist had said upon
+losing his pocket-book, it was rather an inconvenience than a loss.' He
+told us, he now recollected that he dreamt the night before, that he put
+his staff into a river, and chanced to let it go, and it was carried
+down the stream and lost. 'So now you see, (said he,) that I have lost
+my spurs; and this story is better than many of those which we have
+concerning second sight and dreams.' Mr. M'Queen said he did not believe
+the second sight; that he never met with any well attested instances;
+and if he should, he should impute them to chance; because all who
+pretend to that quality often fail in their predictions, though they
+take a great scope, and sometimes interpret literally, sometimes
+figuratively, so as to suit the events. He told us, that, since he came
+to be minister of the parish where he now is, the belief of witchcraft,
+or charms, was very common, insomuch that he had many prosecutions
+before his _session_ (the parochial ecclesiastical court) against women,
+for having by these means carried off the milk from people's cows. He
+disregarded them; and there is not now the least vestige of that
+superstition. He preached against it; and in order to give a strong
+proof to the people that there was nothing in it, he said from the
+pulpit that every woman in the parish was welcome to take the milk from
+his cows, provided she did not touch them[493].
+
+Dr. Johnson asked him as to _Fingal_. He said he could repeat some
+passages in the original, that he heard his grandfather had a copy of
+it; but that he could not affirm that Ossian composed all that poem as
+it is now published. This came pretty much to what Dr. Johnson had
+maintained[494]; though he goes farther, and contends that it is no
+better than such an epick poem as he could make from the song of Robin
+Hood[495]; that is to say, that, except a few passages, there is nothing
+truly ancient but the names and some vague traditions. Mr. M'Queen
+alleged that Homer was made up of detached fragments. Dr. Johnson denied
+this; observing, that it had been one work originally, and that you
+could not put a book of the _Iliad_ out of its place; and he believed
+the same might be said of the _Odyssey_.
+
+The approach to Rasay was very pleasing. We saw before us a beautiful
+bay, well defended by a rocky coast; a good family mansion; a fine
+verdure about it,--with a considerable number of trees;--and beyond it
+hills and mountains in gradation of wildness. Our boatmen sung with
+great spirit. Dr. Johnson observed, that naval musick was very ancient.
+As we came near the shore, the singing of our rowers was succeeded by
+that of reapers, who were busy at work, and who seemed to shout as much
+as to sing, while they worked with a bounding activity[496]. Just as we
+landed, I observed a cross, or rather the ruins of one, upon a rock,
+which had to me a pleasing vestige of religion. I perceived a large
+company coming out from the house. We met them as we walked up. There
+were Rasay himself; his brother Dr. Macleod; his nephew the Laird of
+M'Kinnon; the Laird of Macleod; Colonel Macleod of Talisker, an officer
+in the Dutch service, a very genteel man, and a faithful branch of the
+family; Mr. Macleod of Muiravenside, best known by the name of Sandie
+Macleod, who was long in exile on account of the part which he took in
+1745; and several other persons. We were welcomed upon the green, and
+conducted into the house, where we were introduced to Lady Rasay, who
+was surrounded by a numerous family, consisting of three sons and ten
+daughters. The Laird of Rasay is a sensible, polite, and most hospitable
+gentleman. I was told that his island of Rasay, and that of Rona, (from
+which the eldest son of the family has his title,) and a considerable
+extent of land which he has in Sky, do not altogether yield him a very
+large revenue[497]: and yet he lives in great splendour; and so far is
+he from distressing his people, that, in the present rage for
+emigration, not a man has left his estate.  It was past six o'clock
+when we arrived. Some excellent brandy was served round immediately,
+according to the custom of the Highlands, where a dram is generally
+taken every day. They call it a _scalch_[498]. On a side-board was
+placed for us, who had come off the sea, a substantial dinner, and a
+variety of wines. Then we had coffee and tea. I observed in the room
+several elegantly bound books, and other marks of improved life. Soon
+afterwards a fidler appeared, and a little ball began. Rasay himself
+danced with as much spirit as any man, and Malcolm bounded like a roe.
+Sandie Macleod, who has at times an excessive flow of spirits, and had
+it now, was, in his days of absconding, known by the name of
+_M'Cruslick_[499], which it seems was the designation of a kind of
+wild man in the Highlands, something between Proteus and Don Quixote;
+and so he was called here. He made much jovial noise. Dr. Johnson was so
+delighted with this scene, that he said, 'I know not how we shall get
+away.' It entertained me to observe him sitting by, while we danced,
+sometimes in deep meditation,--sometimes smiling complacently,--sometimes
+looking upon Hooke's _Roman History_,--and sometimes talking a
+little, amidst the noise of the ball, to Mr. Donald M'Queen, who
+anxiously gathered knowledge from him. He was pleased with M'Queen, and
+said to me, 'This is a critical man, Sir. There must be great vigour of
+mind to make him cultivate learning so much in the isle of Sky, where
+he might do without it. It is wonderful how many of the new publications
+he has. There must be a snatch of every opportunity.' Mr. M'Queen told
+me that his brother (who is the fourth generation of the family
+following each other as ministers of the parish of Snizort,) and he
+joined together, and bought from time to time such books as had
+reputation. Soon after we came in, a black cock and grey hen, which had
+been shot, were shewn, with their feathers on, to Dr. Johnson, who had
+never seen that species of bird before. We had a company of thirty at
+supper; and all was good humour and gaiety, without intemperance.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9.
+
+At breakfast this morning, among a profusion of other things, there were
+oat-cakes, made of what is called _graddaned_ meal, that is, meal made
+of grain separated from the husks, and toasted by fire, instead of being
+threshed and kiln-dried. This seems to be bad management, as so much
+fodder is consumed by it. Mr. M'Queen however defended it, by saying,
+that it is doing the thing much quicker, as one operation effects what
+is otherwise done by two. His chief reason however was, that the
+servants in Sky are, according to him, a faithless pack, and steal what
+they can; so that much is saved by the corn passing but once through
+their hands, as at each time they pilfer some. It appears to me, that
+the gradaning is a strong proof of the laziness of the Highlanders, who
+will rather make fire act for them, at the expence of fodder, than
+labour themselves. There was also, what I cannot help disliking at
+breakfast, cheese: it is the custom over all the Highlands to have it;
+and it often smells very strong, and poisons to a certain degree the
+elegance of an Indian repast[500]. The day was showery; however, Rasay
+and I took a walk, and had some cordial conversation. I conceived a more
+than ordinary regard for this worthy gentleman. His family has possessed
+this island above four hundred years[501]. It is the remains of the
+estate of Macleod of Lewis, whom he represents. When we returned, Dr.
+Johnson walked with us to see the old chapel. He was in fine spirits. He
+said,' This is truly the patriarchal life: this is what we came to
+find.'  After dinner, M'Cruslick, Malcolm, and I, went out with guns,
+to try if we could find any black-cock; but we had no sport, owing to a
+heavy rain. I saw here what is called a Danish fort. Our evening was
+passed as last night was. One of our company, I was told, had hurt
+himself by too much study, particularly of infidel metaphysicians; of
+which he gave a proof, on second sight being mentioned. He immediately
+retailed some of the fallacious arguments of Voltaire and Hume against
+miracles in general. Infidelity in a Highland gentleman appeared to me
+peculiarly offensive. I was sorry for him, as he had otherwise a good
+character. I told Dr. Johnson that he had studied himself into
+infidelity. JOHNSON. 'Then he must study himself out of it again. That
+is the way. Drinking largely will sober him again.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10.
+
+Having resolved to explore the Island of Rasay, which could be done only
+on foot, I last night obtained my fellow-traveller's permission to leave
+him for a day, he being unable to take so hardy a walk. Old Mr. Malcolm
+M'Cleod, who had obligingly promised to accompany me, was at my bed-side
+between five and six. I sprang up immediately, and he and I, attended by
+two other gentlemen, traversed the country during the whole of this day.
+Though we had passed over not less than four-and-twenty miles of very
+rugged ground, and had a Highland dance on the top of _Dun Can_, the
+highest mountain in the island, we returned in the evening not at all
+fatigued, and piqued ourselves at not being outdone at the nightly ball
+by our less active friends, who had remained at home.
+
+My survey of Rasay did not furnish much which can interest my readers; I
+shall therefore put into as short a compass as I can, the observations
+upon it, which I find registered in my journal. It is about fifteen
+English miles long, and four broad. On the south side is the laird's
+family seat, situated on a pleasing low spot. The old tower of three
+stories, mentioned by Martin, was taken down soon after 1746, and a
+modern house supplies its place. There are very good grass-fields and
+corn-lands about it, well-dressed. I observed, however, hardly any
+inclosures, except a good garden plentifully stocked with vegetables,
+and strawberries, raspberries, currants, &c.
+
+On one of the rocks just where we landed, which are not high, there is
+rudely carved a square, with a crucifix in the middle. Here, it is said,
+the Lairds of Rasay, in old times, used to offer up their devotions. I
+could not approach the spot, without a grateful recollection of the
+event commemorated by this symbol.
+
+A little from the shore, westward, is a kind of subterraneous house.
+There has been a natural fissure, or separation of the rock, running
+towards the sea, which has been roofed over with long stones, and above
+them turf has been laid. In that place the inhabitants used to keep
+their oars. There are a number of trees near the house, which grow well;
+some of them of a pretty good size. They are mostly plane and ash. A
+little to the west of the house is an old ruinous chapel, unroofed,
+which never has been very curious. We here saw some human bones of an
+uncommon size. There was a heel-bone, in particular, which Dr. Macleod
+said was such, that if the foot was in proportion, it must have been
+twenty-seven inches long. Dr. Johnson would not look at the bones. He
+started back from them with a striking appearance of horrour[502]. Mr.
+M'Queen told us it was formerly much the custom, in these isles, to have
+human bones lying above ground, especially in the windows of churches.
+On the south of the chapel is the family burying-place. Above the door,
+on the east end of it, is a small bust or image of the Virgin Mary,
+carved upon a stone which makes part of the wall. There is no church
+upon the island. It is annexed to one of the parishes of Sky; and the
+minister comes and preaches either in Rasay's house, or some other
+house, on certain Sundays. I could not but value the family seat more,
+for having even the ruins of a chapel close to it. There was something
+comfortable in the thought of being so near a piece of consecrated
+ground.[503] Dr. Johnson said, 'I look with reverence upon every place
+that has been set apart for religion;' and he kept off his hat while he
+was within the walls of the chapel[504].
+
+The eight crosses, which Martin mentions as pyramids for deceased
+ladies, stood in a semicircular line, which contained within it the
+chapel. They marked out the boundaries of the sacred territory within
+which an asylum was to be had. One of them, which we observed upon our
+landing, made the first point of the semicircle. There are few of them
+now remaining. A good way farther north, there is a row of buildings
+about four feet high; they run from the shore on the east along the top
+of a pretty high eminence, and so down to the shore on the west, in much
+the same direction with the crosses. Rasay took them to be the marks for
+the asylum; but Malcolm thought them to be false sentinels, a common
+deception, of which instances occur in Martin, to make invaders imagine
+an island better guarded. Mr. Donald M'Queen, justly in my opinion,
+supposed the crosses which form the inner circle to be the church's
+land-marks.
+
+The south end of the island is much covered with large stones or rocky
+strata. The laird has enclosed and planted part of it with firs, and he
+shewed me a considerable space marked out for additional plantations.
+
+_Dun Can_ is a mountain three computed miles from the laird's house. The
+ascent to it is by consecutive risings, if that expression may be used
+when vallies intervene, so that there is but a short rise at once; but
+it is certainly very high above the sea. The palm of altitude is
+disputed for by the people of Rasay and those of Sky; the former
+contending for Dun Can, the latter for the mountains in Sky, over
+against it. We went up the east side of Dun Can pretty easily. It is
+mostly rocks all around, the points of which hem the summit of it.
+Sailors, to whom it was a good object as they pass along, call it
+Rasay's cap. Before we reached this mountain, we passed by two lakes. Of
+the first, Malcolm told me a strange fabulous tradition. He said, there
+was a wild beast in it, a sea horse, which came and devoured a man's
+daughter; upon which the man lighted a great fire, and had a sow roasted
+at it, the smell of which attracted the monster. In the fire was put a
+spit. The man lay concealed behind a low wall of loose stones, and he
+had an avenue formed for the monster, with two rows of large flat
+stones, which extended from the fire over the summit of the hill, till
+it reached the side of the loch. The monster came, and the man with the
+red-hot spit destroyed it. Malcolm shewed me the little hiding-place,
+and the rows of stones. He did not laugh when he told this story. I
+recollect having seen in the _Scots Magazine_, several years ago, a poem
+upon a similar tale, perhaps the same, translated from the Erse, or
+Irish, called _Albin and the Daughter of Mey_.
+
+There is a large tract of land, possessed as a common, in Rasay. They
+have no regulations as to the number of cattle. Every man puts upon it
+as many as he chooses. From Dun Can northward, till you reach the other
+end of the island, there is much good natural pasture unincumbered by
+stones. We passed over a spot, which is appropriated for the exercising
+ground. In 1745, a hundred fighting men were reviewed here, as Malcolm
+told me, who was one of the officers that led them to the field[505].
+They returned home all but about fourteen. What a princely thing is it
+to be able to furnish such a band! Rasay has the true spirit of a chief.
+He is, without exaggeration, a father to his people.
+
+There is plenty of lime-stone in the island, a great quarry of
+free-stone, and some natural woods, but none of any age, as they cut the
+trees for common country uses. The lakes, of which there are many, are
+well stocked with trout. Malcolm catched one of four-and-twenty pounds
+weight in the loch next to Dun Can, which, by the way, is certainly a
+Danish name, as most names of places in these islands are.
+
+The old castle, in which the family of Rasay formerly resided, is
+situated upon a rock very near the sea. The rock is not one mass of
+stone, but a concretion of pebbles and earth, so firm that it does not
+appear to have mouldered. In this remnant of antiquity I found nothing
+worthy of being noticed, except a certain accommodation rarely to be
+found at the modern houses of Scotland, and which Dr. Johnson and I
+sought for in vain at the Laird of Rasay's new built mansion, where
+nothing else was wanting. I took the liberty to tell the Laird it was a
+shame there should be such a deficiency in civilized times. He
+acknowledged the justice of the remark. But perhaps some generations may
+pass before the want is supplied. Dr. Johnson observed to me, how
+quietly people will endure an evil, which they might at any time very
+easily remedy; and mentioned as an instance, that the present family of
+Rasay had possessed the island for more than four hundred years, and
+never made a commodious landing place, though a few men with pickaxes
+might have cut an ascent of stairs out of any part of the rock in a
+week's time[506].
+
+The north end of Rasay is as rocky as the south end. From it I saw the
+little isle of Fladda, belonging to Rasay, all fine green ground;--and
+Rona, which is of so rocky a soil that it appears to be a pavement. I
+was told however that it has a great deal of grass in the interstices.
+The Laird has it all in his own hands. At this end of the island of
+Rasay is a cave in a striking situation. It is in a recess of a great
+cleft, a good way up from the sea. Before it the ocean roars, being
+dashed against monstrous broken rocks; grand and aweful _propugnacula_.
+On the right hand of it is a longitudinal cave, very low at the
+entrance, but higher as you advance. The sea having scooped it out, it
+seems strange and unaccountable that the interior part, where the water
+must have operated with less force, should be loftier than that which is
+more immediately exposed to its violence. The roof of it is all covered
+with a kind of petrifications formed by drops, which perpetually distil
+from it. The first cave has been a place of much safety. I find a great
+difficulty in describing visible objects[507]. I must own too that the
+old castle and cave, like many other things of which one hears much, did
+not answer my expectations. People are every where apt to magnify the
+curiosities of their country.
+
+This island has abundance of black cattle, sheep, and goats;--a good
+many horses, which are used for ploughing, carrying out dung, and other
+works of husbandry. I believe the people never ride. There are indeed no
+roads through the island, unless a few detached beaten tracks deserve
+that name. Most of the houses are upon the shore; so that all the people
+have little boats, and catch fish. There is great plenty of potatoes
+here. There are black-cock in extraordinary abundance, moorfowl, plover
+and wild pigeons, which seemed to me to be the same as we have in
+pigeon-houses, in their state of nature. Rasay has no pigeon-house.
+There are no hares nor rabbits in the island, nor was there ever known
+to be a fox[508], till last year, when one was landed on it by some
+malicious person, without whose aid he could not have got thither, as
+that animal is known to be a very bad swimmer. He has done much
+mischief. There is a great deal of fish caught in the sea round Rasay;
+it is a place where one may live in plenty, and even in luxury. There
+are no deer; but Rasay told us he would get some.
+
+They reckon it rains nine months in the year in this island, owing to
+its being directly opposite to the western[509] coast of Sky, where the
+watery clouds are broken by high mountains. The hills here, and indeed
+all the heathy grounds in general, abound with the sweet-smelling plant
+which the Highlanders call _gaul_, and (I think) with dwarf juniper in
+many places. There is enough of turf, which is their fuel, and it is
+thought there is a mine of coal.--Such are the observations which I made
+upon the island of Rasay, upon comparing it with the description given
+by Martin, whose book we had with us.
+
+There has been an ancient league between the families of Macdonald and
+Rasay. Whenever the head of either family dies, his sword is given to
+the head of the other. The present Rasay has the late Sir James
+Macdonald's sword. Old Rasay joined the Highland army in 1745, but
+prudently guarded against a forfeiture, by previously conveying his
+estate to the present gentleman, his eldest son[510]. On that occasion,
+Sir Alexander, father of the late Sir James Macdonald, was very friendly
+to his neighbour. 'Don't be afraid, Rasay,' said he; 'I'll use all my
+interest to keep you safe; and if your estate should be taken, I'll buy
+it for the family.'--And he would have done it.
+
+Let me now gather some gold dust,--some more fragments of Dr. Johnson's
+conversation, without regard to order of time. He said, 'he thought very
+highly of Bentley; that no man now went so far in the kinds of learning
+that he cultivated[511]; that the many attacks on him were owing to
+envy, and to a desire of being known, by being in competition with such
+a man; that it was safe to attack him, because he never answered his
+opponents, but let them die away[512]. It was attacking a man who would
+not beat them, because his beating them would make them live the longer.
+And he was right not to answer; for, in his hazardous method of writing,
+he could not but be often enough wrong; so it was better to leave things
+to their general appearance, than own himself to have erred in
+particulars.' He said, 'Mallet was the prettiest drest puppet about
+town, and always kept good company[513]. That, from his way of talking
+he saw, and always said, that he had not written any part of the _Life
+of the Duke of Marlborough_, though perhaps he intended to do it at some
+time, in which case he was not culpable in taking the pension[514]. That
+he imagined the Duchess furnished the materials for her _Apology_, which
+Hooke wrote, and Hooke furnished the words and the order, and all that
+in which the art of writing consists. That the duchess had not superior
+parts, but was a bold frontless woman, who knew how to make the most of
+her opportunities in life. That Hooke got a _large_ sum of money for
+writing her _Apology_[515]. That he wondered Hooke should have been weak
+enough to insert so profligate a maxim, as that to tell another's secret
+to one's friend is no breach of confidence[516]; though perhaps Hooke,
+who was a virtuous man[517], as his _History_ shews, and did not wish
+her well, though he wrote her _Apology_, might see its ill tendency, and
+yet insert it at her desire. He was acting only ministerially.' I
+apprehended, however, that Hooke was bound to give his best advice. I
+speak as a lawyer. Though I have had clients whose causes I could not,
+as a private man, approve; yet, if I undertook them, I would not do any
+thing that might be prejudicial to them, even at their desire, without
+warning them of their danger.
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11.
+
+It was a storm of wind and rain; so we could not set out. I wrote some
+of this _Journal_, and talked a while with Dr. Johnson in his room, and
+passed the day, I cannot well say how, but very pleasantly. I was here
+amused to find Mr. Cumberland's comedy of the _Fashionable Lover_[518],
+in which he has very well drawn a Highland character, Colin M'Cleod, of
+the same name with the family under whose roof we now were. Dr. Johnson
+was much pleased with the Laird of Macleod, who is indeed a most
+promising youth, and with a noble spirit struggles with difficulties,
+and endeavours to preserve his people. He has been left with an
+incumbrance of forty thousand pounds debt, and annuities to the amount
+of thirteen hundred pounds a year. Dr. Johnson said, 'If he gets the
+better of all this, he'll be a hero; and I hope he will[519]. I have
+not met with a young man who had more desire to learn, or who has learnt
+more. I have seen nobody that I wish more to do a kindness to than
+Macleod.' Such was the honourable elogium, on this young chieftain,
+pronounced by an accurate observer, whose praise was never
+lightly bestowed.
+
+There is neither justice of peace, nor constable in Rasay. Sky has Mr.
+M'Cleod of Ulinish, who is the sheriff substitute, and no other justice
+of peace. The want of the execution of justice is much felt among the
+islanders. Macleod very sensibly observed, that taking away the
+heritable jurisdictions[520] had not been of such service in the islands
+as was imagined. They had not authority enough in lieu of them. What
+could formerly have been settled at once, must now either take much time
+and trouble, or be neglected. Dr. Johnson said, 'A country is in a bad
+state which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur
+for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.
+Now destroying the authority of the chiefs set the people loose. It did
+not pretend to bring any positive good, but only to cure some evil; and
+I am not well enough acquainted with the country to know what degree of
+evil the heritable jurisdictions occasioned[521].' I maintained hardly
+any; because the chiefs generally acted right, for their own sakes.
+Dr. Johnson was now wishing to move. There was not enough of
+intellectual entertainment for him, after he had satisfied his
+curiosity, which he did, by asking questions, till he had exhausted the
+island; and where there was so numerous a company, mostly young people,
+there was such a flow of familiar talk, so much noise, and so much
+singing and dancing, that little opportunity was left for his energetick
+conversation[522]. He seemed sensible of this; for when I told him how
+happy they were at having him there, he said, 'Yet we have not been able
+to entertain them much.' I was fretted, from irritability of nerves, by
+M'Cruslick's too obstreperous mirth. I complained of it to my friend,
+observing we should be better if he was, gone. 'No, Sir (said he). He
+puts something into our society, and takes nothing out of it.' Dr.
+Johnson, however, had several opportunities of instructing the company;
+but I am sorry to say, that I did not pay sufficient attention to what
+passed, as his discourse now turned chiefly on mechanicks, agriculture
+and such subjects, rather than on science and wit. Last night Lady Rasay
+shewed him the operation of _wawking_ cloth, that is, thickening it in
+the same manner as is done by a mill. Here it is performed by women, who
+kneel upon the ground, and rub it with both their hands, singing an Erse
+song all the time. He was asking questions while they were performing
+this operation, and, amidst their loud and wild howl, his voice was
+heard even in the room above[523].
+
+They dance here every night. The queen of our ball was the eldest Miss
+Macleod, of Rasay, an elegant well-bred woman, and celebrated for her
+beauty over all those regions, by the name of Miss Flora Rasay[524].
+There seemed to be no jealousy, no discontent among them; and the gaiety
+of the scene was such, that I for a moment doubted whether unhappiness
+had any place in Rasay. But my delusion was soon dispelled, by
+recollecting the following lines of my fellow-traveller:--
+
+     'Yet hope not life from pain or danger free,
+      Or think the doom of man revers'd for thee[525]!'
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12.
+
+It was a beautiful day, and although we did not approve of travelling on
+Sunday, we resolved to set out, as we were in an island from whence one
+must take occasion as it serves. Macleod and Talisker sailed in a boat
+of Rasay's for Sconser, to take the shortest way to Dunvegan. M'Cruslick
+went with them to Sconser, from whence he was to go to Slate, and so to
+the main land. We were resolved to pay a visit at Kingsburgh, and see
+the celebrated Miss Flora Macdonald, who is married to the present Mr.
+Macdonald of Kingsburgh; so took that road, though not so near. All the
+family, but Lady Rasay, walked down to the shore to see us depart. Rasay
+himself went with us in a large boat, with eight oars, built in his
+island[526]; as did Mr. Malcolm M'Cleod, Mr. Donald M'Queen, Dr.
+Macleod, and some others. We had a most pleasant sail between Rasay and
+Sky; and passed by a cave, where Martin says fowls were caught by
+lighting fire in the mouth of it. Malcolm remembers this. But it is not
+now practised, as few fowls come into it.
+
+We spoke of Death. Dr. Johnson on this subject observed, that the
+boastings of some men, as to dying easily, were idle talk[527],
+proceeding from partial views. I mentioned Hawthornden's
+_Cypress-grove_, where it is said that the world is a mere show; and
+that it is unreasonable for a man to wish to continue in the show-room,
+after he has seen it. Let him go cheerfully out, and give place to other
+spectators[528]. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if he is sure he is to be well,
+after he goes out of it. But if he is to grow blind after he goes out of
+the show-room, and never to see any thing again; or if he does not know
+whither he is to go next, a man will not go cheerfully out of a
+show-room. No wise man will be contented to die, if he thinks he is to
+go into a state of punishment. Nay, no wise man will be contented to
+die, if he thinks he is to fall into annihilation: for however unhappy
+any man's existence may be, he yet would rather have it, than not exist
+at all[529]. No; there is no rational principle by which a man can die
+contented, but a trust in the mercy of GOD, through the merits of Jesus
+Christ.' This short sermon, delivered with an earnest tone, in a boat
+upon the sea, which was perfectly calm, on a day appropriated to
+religious worship, while every one listened with an air of satisfaction,
+had a most pleasing effect upon my mind.
+
+Pursuing the same train of serious reflection, he added that it seemed
+certain that happiness could not be found in this life, because so many
+had tried to find it, in such a variety of ways, and had not found it.
+
+We reached the harbour of Portree, in Sky, which is a large and good
+one. There was lying in it a vessel to carry off the emigrants called
+the _Nestor_. It made a short settlement of the differences between a
+chief and his clan:--
+
+     '-----_Nestor_ componere lites
+      Inter Peleiden festinat & inter Atriden.'[530]
+
+We approached her, and she hoisted her colours. Dr. Johnson
+and Mr. McQueen remained in the boat: Rasay and I, and the
+rest went on board of her. She was a very pretty vessel, and, as
+we were told, the largest in Clyde. Mr. Harrison, the captain,
+shewed her to us. The cabin was commodious, and even elegant.
+There was a little library, finely bound. _Portree_ has its name
+from King James the Fifth having landed there in his tour
+through the Western Isles, _Ree_ in Erse being King, as _Re_ is in
+Italian; so it is _Port Royal_. There was here a tolerable inn.
+On our landing, I had the pleasure of finding a letter from
+home; and there were also letters to Dr. Johnson and me, from
+Lord Elibank[531], which had been sent after us from Edinburgh.
+His Lordship's letter to me was as follows:--
+
+'DEAR BOSWELL,
+
+'I flew to Edinburgh the moment I heard of Mr. Johnson's arrival; but so
+defective was my intelligence, that I came too late. 'It is but justice
+to believe, that I could never forgive myself, nor deserve to be
+forgiven by others, if I was to fail in any mark of respect to that very
+great genius.--I hold him in the highest veneration; for that very
+reason I was resolved to take no share in the merit, perhaps guilt, of
+inticing him to honour this country with a visit.--I could not persuade
+myself there was any thing in Scotland worthy to have a Summer of Samuel
+Johnson bestowed on it; but since he has done us that compliment, for
+heaven's sake inform me of your motions. I will attend them most
+religiously; and though I should regret to let Mr. Johnson go a mile out
+of his way on my account, old as I am,[532] I shall be glad to go five
+hundred miles to enjoy a day of his company. Have the charity to send a
+council-post[533] with intelligence; the post does not suit us in the
+country.--At any rate write to me. I will attend you in the north, when
+I shall know where to find you.
+
+     I am,
+     My dear Boswell,
+     Your sincerely
+     Obedient humble servant,
+     'ELIBANK.'
+
+'August 21st, 1773.'
+
+The letter to Dr. Johnson was in these words:--
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'I was to have kissed your hands at Edinburgh, the moment I heard of
+you; but you was gone.
+
+'I hope my friend Boswell will inform me of your motions. It will be
+cruel to deprive me an instant of the honour of attending you. As I
+value you more than any King in Christendom, I will perform that duty
+with infinitely greater alacrity than any courtier. I can contribute but
+little to your entertainment; but, my sincere esteem for you gives me
+some title to the opportunity of expressing it.
+
+'I dare say you are by this time sensible that things are pretty much
+the same, as when Buchanan complained of being born _solo et seculo
+inerudito_. Let me hear of you, and be persuaded that none of your
+admirers is more sincerely devoted to you, than,
+
+     Dear Sir,
+         Your most obedient,
+             And most humble servant,
+                      'ELIBANK.'
+
+Dr. Johnson, on the following Tuesday, answered for both of us, thus:--
+
+'My LORD, 'On the rugged shore of Skie, I had the honour of your
+Lordship's letter, and can with great truth declare, that no place is so
+gloomy but that it would be cheered by such a testimony of regard, from
+a mind so well qualified to estimate characters, and to deal out
+approbation in its due proportions. If I have more than my share, it is
+your Lordship's fault; for I have always reverenced your judgment too
+much, to exalt myself in your presence by any false pretensions.
+
+'Mr. Boswell and I are at present at the disposal of the winds, and
+therefore cannot fix the time at which we shall have the honour of
+seeing your lordship. But we should either of us think ourselves injured
+by the supposition that we would miss your lordship's conversation, when
+we could enjoy it; for I have often declared that I never met you
+without going away a wiser man.[534]
+
+    'I am, my Lord,
+     Your Lordship's most obedient
+     And most humble servant,
+     Skie, Sept. 14, 1773.'   'SAM. JOHNSON.'
+
+At Portree, Mr. Donald McQueen went to church and officiated in Erse,
+and then came to dinner. Dr. Johnson and I resolved that we should treat
+the company, so I played the landlord, or master of the feast, having
+previously ordered Joseph to pay the bill.
+
+Sir James Macdonald intended to have built a village here, which would
+have done great good. A village is like a heart to a country. It
+produces a perpetual circulation, and gives the people an opportunity to
+make profit of many little articles, which would otherwise be in a good
+measure lost. We had here a dinner, _et praeterea nihil_. Dr. Johnson
+did not talk. When we were about to depart, we found that Rasay had been
+beforehand with us, and that all was paid: I would fain have contested
+this matter with him, but seeing him resolved, I declined it. We parted
+with cordial embraces from him and worthy Malcolm. In the evening Dr.
+Johnson and I remounted our horses, accompanied by Mr. McQueen and Dr.
+Macleod. It rained very hard. We rode what they call six miles, upon
+Rasay's lands in Sky, to Dr. Macleod's house. On the road Dr. Johnson
+appeared to be somewhat out of spirits. When I talked of our meeting
+Lord Elibank, he said, 'I cannot be with him much. I long to be again in
+civilized life; but can stay but a short while;' (he meant at
+Edinburgh.) He said, 'let us go to Dunvegan to-morrow.' 'Yes, (said I,)
+if it is not a deluge.' 'At any rate,' he replied. This shewed a kind of
+fretful impatience; nor was it to be wondered at, considering our
+disagreeable ride. I feared he would give up Mull and Icolmkill, for he
+said something of his apprehensions of being detained by bad weather in
+going to Mull and _Iona_. However I hoped well. We had a dish of tea at
+Dr. Macleod's, who had a pretty good house, where was his brother, a
+half-pay officer. His lady was a polite, agreeable woman. Dr. Johnson
+said, he was glad to see that he was so well married, for he had an
+esteem for physicians.[535] The doctor accompanied us to Kingsburgh,
+which is called a mile farther; but the computation of Sky has no
+connection whatever with real distance.[536]  I was highly pleased to
+see Dr. Johnson safely arrived at Kingsburgh, and received by the
+hospitable Mr. Macdonald, who, with a most respectful attention,
+supported him into the house. Kingsburgh was completely the figure of a
+gallant Highlander,--exhibiting 'the graceful mien and manly
+looks[537],' which our popular Scotch song has justly attributed to that
+character. He had his Tartan plaid thrown about him, a large blue bonnet
+with a knot of black ribband like a cockade, a brown short coat of a
+kind of duffil, a Tartan waistcoat with gold buttons and gold
+button-holes, a bluish philibeg, and Tartan hose. He had jet black hair
+tied behind, and was a large stately man, with a steady sensible
+countenance.
+
+There was a comfortable parlour with a good fire, and a dram went round.
+By and by supper was served, at which there appeared the lady of the
+house, the celebrated Miss Flora Macdonald. She is a little woman, of a
+genteel appearance, and uncommonly mild and well-bred[538]. To see Dr.
+Samuel Johnson, the great champion of the English Tories, salute Miss
+Flora Macdonald in the isle of Sky, was a striking sight; for though
+somewhat congenial in their notions, it was very improbable they should
+meet here.
+
+Miss Flora Macdonald (for so I shall call her) told me, she heard upon
+the main land, as she was returning home about a fortnight before, that
+Mr. Boswell was coming to Sky, and one Mr. Johnson, a young English
+buck[539], with him. He was highly entertained with this fancy. Giving
+an account of the afternoon which we passed, at _Anock_, he said, 'I,
+being a _buck_, had miss[540] in to make tea.' He was rather quiescent
+to-night, and went early to bed. I was in a cordial humour, and promoted
+a cheerful glass. The punch was excellent. Honest Mr. M'Queen observed
+that I was in high glee, 'my _governour_[541] being gone to bed.' Yet in
+reality my heart was grieved, when I recollected that Kingsburgh was
+embarrassed in his affairs, and intended to go to America[542]. However,
+nothing but what was good was present, and I pleased myself in thinking
+that so spirited a man would be well every where. I slept in the same
+room with Dr. Johnson. Each had a neat bed, with Tartan curtains, in an
+upper chamber.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13.
+
+The room where we lay was a celebrated one. Dr. Johnson's bed was the
+very bed in which the grandson of the unfortunate King James the
+Second[543] lay, on one of the nights after the failure of his rash
+attempt in 1745-6, while he was eluding the pursuit of the emissaries of
+government, which had offered thirty thousand pounds as a reward for
+apprehending him. To see Dr. Samuel Johnson lying in that bed, in the
+isle of Sky, in the house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such a
+group of ideas as it is not easy for words to describe, as they passed
+through the mind. He smiled, and said, 'I have had no ambitious thoughts
+in it[544].' The room was decorated with a great variety of maps and
+prints. Among others, was Hogarth's print of Wilkes grinning, with a cap
+of liberty on a pole by him. That too was a curious circumstance in the
+scene this morning; such a contrast was Wilkes to the above groupe. It
+reminded me of Sir William Chambers's _Account of Oriental
+Gardening_[545], in which we are told all odd, strange, ugly, and even
+terrible objects, are introduced for the sake of variety; a wild
+extravagance of taste which is so well ridiculed in the celebrated
+Epistle to him[546]. The following lines of that poem immediately
+occurred to me;
+
+     'Here too, O king of vengeance! in thy fane,
+      Tremendous Wilkes shall rattle his gold chain[547].'
+
+Upon the table in our room I found in the morning a slip of paper, on
+which Dr. Johnson had written with his pencil these words,
+
+     'Quantum cedat virtutibus aurum[548].'
+
+What he meant by writing them I could not tell[549]. He had caught cold
+a day or two ago, and the rain yesterday having made it worse, he was
+become very deaf. At breakfast he said, he would have given a good deal
+rather than not have lain in that bed. I owned he was the lucky man; and
+observed, that without doubt it had been contrived between Mrs.
+Macdonald and him. She seemed to acquiesce; adding, 'You know young
+_bucks_ are always favourites of the ladies.' He spoke of Prince Charles
+being here, and asked Mrs. Macdonald, '_Who_ was with him? We were told,
+madam, in England, there was one Miss Flora Macdonald with him.' She
+said, 'they were very right;' and perceiving Dr. Johnson's curiosity,
+though he had delicacy enough not to question her, very obligingly
+entertained him with a recital of the particulars which she herself knew
+of that escape, which does so much honour to the humanity, fidelity, and
+generosity of the Highlanders. Dr. Johnson listened to her with placid
+attention, and said, 'All this should be written down.'
+
+From what she told us, and from what I was told by others personally
+concerned, and from a paper of information which Rasay was so good as to
+send me, at my desire, I have compiled the following abstract, which, as
+it contains some curious anecdotes, will, I imagine, not be
+uninteresting to my readers, and even, perhaps, be of some use to future
+historians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Prince Charles Edward, after the battle of Culloden, was conveyed to
+what is called the _Long Island_, where he lay for some time concealed.
+But intelligence having been obtained where he was, and a number of
+troops having come in quest of him, it became absolutely necessary for
+him to quit that country without delay. Miss Flora Macdonald, then a
+young lady, animated by what she thought the sacred principle of
+loyalty, offered, with the magnanimity of a Heroine, to accompany him in
+an open boat to Sky, though the coast they were to quit was guarded by
+ships. He dressed himself in women's clothes, and passed as her supposed
+maid, by the name of Betty Bourke, an Irish girl. They got off
+undiscovered, though several shots were fired to bring them to, and
+landed at Mugstot, the seat of Sir Alexander Macdonald. Sir Alexander
+was then at Fort Augustus, with the Duke of Cumberland; but his lady was
+at home. Prince Charles took his post upon a hill near the house. Flora
+Macdonald waited on lady Margaret[550], and acquainted her of the
+enterprise in which she was engaged. Her ladyship, whose active
+benevolence was ever seconded by superior talents, shewed a perfect
+presence of mind, and readiness of invention, and at once settled that
+Prince Charles should be conducted to old Rasay, who was himself
+concealed with some select friends. The plan was instantly communicated
+to Kingsburgh, who was dispatched to the hill to inform the Wanderer,
+and carry him refreshments. When Kingsburgh approached, he started up,
+and advanced, holding a large knotted stick, and in appearance ready to
+knock him down, till he said, 'I am Macdonald of Kingsburgh, come to
+serve your highness.' The Wanderer answered, 'It is well,' and was
+satisfied with the plan.
+
+Flora Macdonald dined with Lady Margaret, at whose table there sat an
+officer of the army, stationed here with a party of soldiers, to watch
+for Prince Charles in case of his flying to the isle of Sky. She
+afterwards often laughed in good-humour with this gentleman, on her
+having so well deceived him.  After dinner, Flora Macdonald on
+horseback, and her supposed maid, and Kingsburgh, with a servant
+carrying some linen, all on foot, proceeded towards that gentleman's
+house. Upon the road was a small rivulet which they were obliged to
+cross. The Wanderer, forgetting his assumed sex, that his clothes might
+not be wet, held them up a great deal too high. Kingsburgh mentioned
+this to him, observing, it might make a discovery. He said, he would be
+more careful for the future. He was as good as his word; for the next
+brook they crossed, he did not hold up his clothes at all, but let them
+float upon the water. He was very awkward in his female dress. His size
+was so large, and his strides so great, that some women whom they met
+reported that they had seen a very big woman, who looked like a man in
+woman's clothes, and that perhaps it was (as they expressed themselves)
+the _Prince_, after whom so much search was making.
+
+At Kingsburgh he met with a most cordial reception; seemed gay at
+supper, and after it indulged himself in a cheerful glass with his
+worthy host. As he had not had his clothes off for a long time, the
+comfort of a good bed was highly relished by him, and he slept soundly
+till next day at one o'clock.
+
+The mistress of Corrichatachin told me, that in the forenoon she went
+into her father's room, who was also in bed, and suggested to him her
+apprehensions that a party of the military might come up, and that his
+guest and he had better not remain here too long. Her father said, 'Let
+the poor man repose himself after his fatigues; and as for me, I care
+not, though they take off this old grey head ten or eleven years sooner
+than I should die in the course of nature.' He then wrapped himself in
+the bed-clothes, and again fell fast asleep.
+
+On the afternoon of that day, the Wanderer, still in the same dress, set
+out for Portree, with Flora Macdonald and a man servant. His shoes being
+very bad, Kingsburgh provided him with a new pair, and taking up the old
+ones, said, 'I will faithfully keep them till you are safely settled at
+St. James's. I will then introduce myself by shaking them at you, to put
+you in mind of your night's entertainment and protection under my roof.'
+He smiled, and said, 'Be as good as your word!' Kingsburgh kept the
+shoes as long as he lived. After his death, a zealous Jacobite gentleman
+gave twenty guineas for them.  Old Mrs. Macdonald, after her guest had
+left the house, took the sheets in which he had lain, folded them
+carefully, and charged her daughter that they should be kept unwashed,
+and that, when she died, her body should be wrapped in them as a winding
+sheet. Her will was religiously observed.
+
+Upon the road to Portree, Prince Charles changed his dress, and put on
+man's clothes again; a tartan short coat and waistcoat, with philibeg
+and short hose, a plaid, and a wig and bonnet.
+
+Mr. Donald M'Donald, called Donald Roy, had been sent express to the
+present Rasay, then the young laird, who was at that time at his
+sister's house, about three miles from Portree, attending his brother,
+Dr. Macleod, who was recovering of a wound he had received at the battle
+of Culloden. Mr. M'Donald communicated to young Rasay the plan of
+conveying the Wanderer to where old Rasay was; but was told that old
+Rasay had fled to Knoidart, a part of Glengary's estate. There was then
+a dilemma what should be done. Donald Roy proposed that he should
+conduct the Wanderer to the main land; but young Rasay thought it too
+dangerous at that time, and said it would be better to conceal him in
+the island of Rasay, till old Rasay could be informed where he was, and
+give his advice what was best. But the difficulty was, how to get him to
+Rasay. They could not trust a Portree crew, and all the Rasay boats had
+been destroyed, or carried off by the military, except two belonging to
+Malcolm M'Leod, which he had concealed somewhere.
+
+Dr. Macleod being informed of this difficulty, said he would risk his
+life once more for Prince Charles; and it having occurred, that there
+was a little boat upon a fresh-water lake in the neighbourhood, young
+Rasay and Dr. Macleod, with the help of some women, brought it to the
+sea, by extraordinary exertion, across a Highland mile of land, one half
+of which was bog, and the other a steep precipice.
+
+These gallant brothers, with the assistance of one little boy, rowed the
+small boat to Rasay, where they were to endeavour to find Captain
+M'Leod, as Malcolm was then called, and get one of his good boats, with
+which they might return to Portree, and receive the Wanderer; or, in
+case of not finding him, they were to make the small boat serve, though
+the danger was considerable.
+
+Fortunately, on their first landing, they found their cousin Malcolm,
+who, with the utmost alacrity, got ready one of his boats, with two
+strong men, John M'Kenzie, and Donald M'Friar. Malcolm, being the oldest
+man, and most cautious, said, that as young Rasay had not hitherto
+appeared in the unfortunate business, he ought not to run any risk; but
+that Dr. Macleod and himself, who were already publickly engaged, should
+go on this expedition. Young Rasay answered, with an oath, that he would
+go, at the risk of his life and fortune. 'In GOD'S name then (said
+Malcolm) let us proceed.' The two boatmen, however, now stopped short,
+till they should be informed of their destination; and M'Kenzie declared
+he would not move an oar till he knew where they were going. Upon which
+they were both sworn to secrecy; and the business being imparted to
+them, they were eager to put off to sea without loss of time. The boat
+soon landed about half a mile from the inn at Portree.
+
+All this was negotiated before the Wanderer got forward to Portree.
+Malcolm M'Leod and M'Friar were dispatched to look for him. In a short
+time he appeared, and went into the publick house. Here Donald Roy, whom
+he had seen at Mugstot, received him, and informed him of what had been
+concerted. He wanted silver for a guinea, but the landlord had only
+thirteen shillings. He was going to accept of this for his guinea; but
+Donald Roy very judiciously observed, that it would discover him to be
+some great man; so he desisted. He slipped out of the house, leaving his
+fair protectress, whom he never again saw; and Malcolm Macleod was
+presented to him by Donald Roy, as a captain in his army. Young Rasay
+and Dr. Macleod had waited, in impatient anxiety, in the boat. When he
+came, their names were announced to him. He would not permit the usual
+ceremonies of respect, but saluted them as his equals.
+
+Donald Roy staid in Sky, to be in readiness to get intelligence, and
+give an alarm in case the troops should discover the retreat to Rasay;
+and Prince Charles was then conveyed in a boat to that island in the
+night. He slept a little upon the passage, and they landed about
+day-break. There was some difficulty in accommodating him with a
+lodging, as almost all the houses in the island had been burnt by the
+soldiery. They repaired to a little hut, which some shepherds had lately
+built, and having prepared it as well as they could, and made a bed of
+heath for the stranger, they kindled a fire, and partook of some
+provisions which had been sent with him from Kingsburgh. It was
+observed, that he would not taste wheat-bread, or brandy, while
+oat-bread and whisky lasted; 'for these, said he, are my own country
+bread and drink.'--This was very engaging to the Highlanders.
+
+Young Rasay being the only person of the company that durst appear with
+safety, he went in quest of something fresh for them to eat: but though
+he was amidst his own cows, sheep, and goats, he could not venture to
+take any of them for fear of a discovery, but was obliged to supply
+himself by stealth. He therefore caught a kid, and brought it to the hut
+in his plaid, and it was killed and drest, and furnished them a meal
+which they relished much. The distressed Wanderer, whose health was now
+a good deal impaired by hunger, fatigue, and watching, slept a long
+time, but seemed to be frequently disturbed. Malcolm told me he would
+start from broken slumbers, and speak to himself in different languages,
+French, Italian, and English. I must however acknowledge, that it is
+highly probable that my worthy friend Malcolm did not know precisely the
+difference between French and Italian. One of his expressions in English
+was, 'O GOD! poor Scotland!'
+
+While they were in the hut, M'Kenzie and M'Friar, the two boatmen, were
+placed as sentinels upon different eminences; and one day an incident
+happened, which must not be omitted. There was a man wandering about the
+island, selling tobacco. Nobody knew him, and he was suspected to be a
+spy. M'Kenzie came running to the hut, and told that this suspected
+person was approaching. Upon which the three gentlemen, young Rasay, Dr.
+Macleod, and Malcolm, held a council of war upon him, and were
+unanimously of opinion that he should instantly be put to death. Prince
+Charles, at once assuming a grave and even severe countenance, said,
+'God forbid that we should take away a man's life, who may be innocent,
+while we can preserve our own.' The gentlemen however persisted in their
+resolution, while he as strenuously continued to take the merciful side.
+John M'Kenzie, who sat watching at the door of the hut, and overheard
+the debate, said in Erse, 'Well, well; he must be shot. You are the
+king, but we are the parliament, and will do what we choose.' Prince
+Charles, seeing the gentlemen smile, asked what the man had said, and
+being told it in English, he observed that he was a clever fellow, and,
+notwithstanding the perilous situation in which he was, laughed loud and
+heartily. Luckily the unknown person did not perceive that there were
+people in the hut, at least did not come to it, but walked on past it,
+unknowing of his risk. It was afterwards found out that he was one of
+the Highland army, who was himself in danger. Had he come to them, they
+were resolved to dispatch him; for, as Malcolm said to me, 'We could not
+keep him with us, and we durst not let him go. In such a situation, I
+would have shot my brother, if I had not been sure of him.' John
+M'Kenzie was at Rasay's house when we were there[551]. About eighteen
+years before, he hurt one of his legs when dancing, and being obliged to
+have it cut off, he now was going about with a wooden leg. The story of
+his being a _member of parliament_ is not yet forgotten. I took him out
+a little way from the house, gave him a shilling to drink Rasay's
+health, and led him into a detail of the particulars which I have just
+related. With less foundation, some writers have traced the idea of a
+parliament, and of the British constitution, in rude and early times. I
+was curious to know if he had really heard, or understood, any thing of
+that subject, which, had he been a greater man, would probably have been
+eagerly maintained. 'Why, John, (said I,) did you think the king should
+be controuled by a parliament?' He answered, 'I thought, Sir, there were
+many voices against one.'
+
+The conversation then turning on the times, the Wanderer said, that, to
+be sure, the life he had led of late was a very hard one; but he would
+rather live in the way he now did, for ten years, than fall into the
+hands of his enemies. The gentlemen asked him, what he thought his
+enemies would do with him, should he have the misfortune to fall into
+their hands. He said, he did not believe they would dare to take his
+life publickly, but he dreaded being privately destroyed by poison or
+assassination. He was very particular in his inquiries about the wound
+which Dr. Macleod had received at the battle of Culloden, from a ball
+which entered at one shoulder, and went cross to the other. The doctor
+happened still to have on the coat which he wore on that occasion. He
+mentioned, that he himself had his horse shot under him at Culloden;
+that the ball hit the horse about two inches from his knee, and made him
+so unruly that he was obliged to change him for another. He threw out
+some reflections on the conduct of the disastrous affair at Culloden,
+saying, however, that perhaps it was rash in him to do so. I am now
+convinced that his suspicions were groundless; for I have had a good
+deal of conversation upon the subject with my very worthy and ingenious
+friend, Mr. Andrew Lumisden, who was under secretary to Prince Charles,
+and afterwards principal secretary to his father at Rome, who, he
+assured me, was perfectly satisfied both of the abilities and honour of
+the generals who commanded the Highland army on that occasion. Mr.
+Lumisden has written an account of the three battles in 1745-6, at once
+accurate and classical[552]. Talking of the different Highland corps,
+the gentlemen who were present wished to have his opinion which were the
+best soldiers. He said, he did not like comparisons among those corps:
+they were all best.
+
+He told his conductors, he did not think it advisable to remain long in
+any one place; and that he expected a French ship to come for him to
+Lochbroom, among the Mackenzies. It then was proposed to carry him in
+one of Malcolm's boats to Lochbroom, though the distance was fifteen
+leagues coastwise. But he thought this would be too dangerous, and
+desired that, at any rate, they might first endeavour to obtain
+intelligence. Upon which young Rasay wrote to his friend, Mr. M'Kenzie
+of Applecross, but received an answer, that there was no appearance of
+any French ship.  It was therefore resolved that they should return to
+Sky, which they did, and landed in Strath, where they reposed in a
+cow-house belonging to Mr. Niccolson of Scorbreck. The sea was very
+rough, and the boat took in a good deal of water. The Wanderer asked if
+there was danger, as he was not used to such a vessel. Upon being told
+there was not, he sung an Erse song with much vivacity. He had by this
+time acquired a good deal of the Erse language.
+
+Young Rasay was now dispatched to where Donald Roy was, that they might
+get all the intelligence they could; and the Wanderer, with much
+earnestness, charged Dr. Macleod to have a boat ready, at a certain
+place about seven miles off, as he said he intended it should carry him
+upon a matter of great consequence; and gave the doctor a case,
+containing a silver spoon, knife, and fork, saying, 'keep you that till
+I see you,' which the doctor understood to be two days from that time.
+But all these orders were only blinds; for he had another plan in his
+head, but wisely thought it safest to trust his secrets to no more
+persons than was absolutely necessary. Having then desired Malcolm to
+walk with him a little way from the house, he soon opened his mind,
+saying, 'I deliver myself to you. Conduct me to the Laird of M'Kinnon's
+country.' Malcolm objected that it was very dangerous, as so many
+parties of soldiers were in motion. He answered, 'There is nothing now
+to be done without danger.' He then said, that Malcolm must be the
+master, and he the servant; so he took the bag, in which his linen was
+put up, and carried it on his shoulder; and observing that his
+waistcoat, which was of scarlet tartan, with a gold twist button, was
+finer than Malcolm's, which was of a plain ordinary tartan, he put on
+Malcolm's waistcoat, and gave him his; remarking at the same time, that
+it did not look well that the servant should be better dressed than
+the master.
+
+Malcolm, though an excellent walker, found himself excelled by Prince
+Charles, who told him, he should not much mind the parties that were
+looking for him, were he once but a musket shot from them; but that he
+was somewhat afraid of the Highlanders who were against him. He was well
+used to walking in Italy, in pursuit of game; and he was even now so
+keen a sportsman, that, having observed some partridges, he was going
+to take a shot: but Malcolm cautioned him against it, observing that the
+firing might be heard by the tenders[553] who were hovering upon
+the coast.
+
+As they proceeded through the mountains, taking many a circuit to avoid
+any houses, Malcolm, to try his resolution, asked him what they should
+do, should they fall in with a party of soldiers: he answered, 'Fight,
+to be sure!' Having asked Malcolm if he should be known in his present
+dress, and Malcolm having replied he would, he said, 'Then I'll blacken
+my face with powder.' 'That, said Malcolm, would discover you at once.'
+'Then, said he, I must be put in the greatest dishabille possible.' So
+he pulled off his wig, tied a handkerchief round his head, and put his
+night-cap over it, tore the ruffles from his shirt, took the buckles out
+of his shoes, and made Malcolm fasten them with strings; but still
+Malcolm thought he would be known. 'I have so odd a face, (said he) that
+no man ever saw me but he would know me again[554].'
+
+He seemed unwilling to give credit to the horrid narrative of men being
+massacred in cold blood, after victory had declared for the army
+commanded by the Duke of Cumberland. He could not allow himself to think
+that a general could be so barbarous[555].  When they came within two
+miles of M'Kinnon's house, Malcolm asked if he chose to see the laird.
+'No, (said he) by no means. I know M'Kinnon to be as good and as honest
+a man as any in the world, but he is not fit for my purpose at present.
+You must conduct me to some other house; but let it be a gentleman's
+house.' Malcolm then determined that they should go to the house of his
+brother-in-law, Mr. John M'Kinnon, and from thence be conveyed to the
+main land of Scotland, and claim the assistance of Macdonald of
+Scothouse. The Wanderer at first objected to this, because Scothouse was
+cousin to a person of whom he had suspicions. But he acquiesced in
+Malcolm's opinion.
+
+When they were near Mr. John M'Kinnon's house, they met a man of the
+name of Ross, who had been a private soldier in the Highland army. He
+fixed his eyes steadily on the Wanderer in his disguise, and having at
+once recognized him, he clapped his hands, and exclaimed, 'Alas! is this
+the case?' Finding that there was now a discovery, Malcolm asked 'What's
+to be done?' 'Swear him to secrecy,' answered Prince Charles. Upon which
+Malcolm drew his dirk, and on the naked blade, made him take a solemn
+oath, that he would say nothing of his having seen the Wanderer, till
+his escape should be made publick.
+
+Malcolm's sister, whose house they reached pretty early in the morning,
+asked him who the person was that was along with him. He said it was one
+Lewis Caw, from Crieff, who being a fugitive like himself, for the same
+reason, he had engaged him as his servant, but that he had fallen sick.
+'Poor man! (said she) I pity him. At the same time my heart warms to a
+man of his appearance.' Her husband was gone a little way from home; but
+was expected every minute to return. She set down to her brother a
+plentiful Highland breakfast. Prince Charles acted the servant very
+well, sitting at a respectful distance, with his bonnet off. Malcolm
+then said to him, 'Mr. Caw, you have as much need of this as I have;
+there is enough for us both: you had better draw nearer and share with
+me.' Upon which he rose, made a profound bow, sat down at table with his
+supposed master, and eat very heartily. After this there came in an old
+woman, who, after the mode of ancient hospitality, brought warm water,
+and washed Malcolm's feet. He desired her to wash the feet of the poor
+man who attended him. She at first seemed averse to this, from pride, as
+thinking him beneath her, and in the periphrastick language of the
+Highlanders and the Irish, said warmly, 'Though I washed your father's
+son's feet, why should I wash his father's son's feet?' She was however
+persuaded to do it.
+
+They then went to bed, and slept for some time; and when Malcolm awaked,
+he was told that Mr. John M'Kinnon, his brother-in-law, was in sight. He
+sprang out to talk to him before he should see Prince Charles. After
+saluting him, Malcolm, pointing to the sea, said, 'What, John, if the
+prince should be prisoner on board one of those tenders?' 'GOD forbid!'
+replied John. 'What if we had him here?' said Malcolm. 'I wish we had,'
+answered John; 'we should take care of him.' 'Well, John,' said Malcolm,
+'he is in your house.' John, in a transport of joy, wanted to run
+directly in, and pay his obeisance; but Malcolm stopped him, saying,
+'Now is your time to behave well, and do nothing that can discover him.'
+John composed himself, and having sent away all his servants upon
+different errands, he was introduced into the presence of his guest, and
+was then desired to go and get ready a boat lying near his house, which,
+though but a small leaky one, they resolved to take, rather than go to
+the Laird of M'Kinnon. John M'Kinnon, however, thought otherwise; and
+upon his return told them, that his Chief and lady M'Kinnon were coming
+in the laird's boat. Prince Charles said to his trusty Malcolm, 'I am
+sorry for this, but must make the best of it.' M'Kinnon then walked up
+from the shore, and did homage to the Wanderer. His lady waited in a
+cave, to which they all repaired, and were entertained with cold meat
+and wine. Mr. Malcolm M'Leod being now superseded by the Laird of
+M'Kinnon, desired leave to return, which was granted him, and Prince
+Charles wrote a short note, which he subscribed _James Thompson_,
+informing his friends that he had got away from Sky, and thanking them
+for their kindness; and he desired this might be speedily conveyed to
+young Rasay and Dr. Macleod, that they might not wait longer in
+expectation of seeing him again. He bade a cordial adieu to Malcolm, and
+insisted on his accepting of a silver stock-buckle, and ten guineas from
+his purse, though, as Malcolm told me, it did not appear to contain
+above forty. Malcolm at first begged to be excused, saying, that he had
+a few guineas at his service; but Prince Charles answered, 'You will
+have need of money. I shall get enough when I come upon the main land.'
+
+The Laird of M'Kinnon then conveyed him to the opposite coast of
+Knoidart. Old Rasay, to whom intelligence had been sent, was crossing at
+the same time to Sky; but as they did not know of each other, and each
+had apprehensions, the two boats kept aloof.
+
+These are the particulars which I have collected concerning the
+extraordinary concealment and escapes of Prince Charles, in the
+Hebrides. He was often in imminent danger.[556] The troops traced him
+from the Long Island, across Sky, to Portree, but there lost him.
+
+Here I stop,--having received no farther authentick information of his
+fatigues and perils before he escaped to France. Kings and subjects may
+both take a lesson of moderation from the melancholy fate of the House
+of Stuart; that Kings may not suffer degradation and exile, and subjects
+may not be harassed by the evils of a disputed succession.
+
+Let me close the scene on that unfortunate House with the elegant and
+pathetick reflections of _Voltaire_, in his _Histoire Générale_:--
+
+'Que les hommes privés (says that brilliant writer, speaking of Prince
+Charles) qui se croyent malheureux, jettent les yeux sur ce prince et
+ses ancêtres.'[557] In another place he thus sums up the sad story of
+the family in general:--
+
+'Il n'y a aucun exemple dans l'histoire d'une maison si longtems
+infortunée. Le premier des Rois d'Écosse, [ses aïeux] qui eut le nom de
+_Jacques_, après avoir été dix-huit ans prisonnier en Angleterre, mourut
+assassiné, avec sa femme, par la main de ses sujets. _Jacques_ II, son
+fils, fut tué à vingt-neuf ans en combattant contre les Anglois.
+_Jacques_ III, mis en prison par son peuple, fut tué ensuite par les
+révoltés, dans une bataille. _Jacques_ IV, périt dans un combat qu'il
+perdit. _Marie Stuart_, sa petite-fille, chassée de son trône, fugitive
+en Angleterre, ayant langui dix-huit ans en prison, se vit condamnée à
+mort par des juges Anglais, et eut la tête tranchée. _Charles_ Ier,
+petit-fils de _Marie_, Roi d'Écosse et d'Angleterre, vendu par les
+Écossois, et jugé à mort par les Anglais, mourut sur un échafaud dans la
+place publique. _Jacques_, son fils, septième du nom, et deuxième en
+Angleterre, fut chassé de ses trois royaumes; et pour comble de malheur
+on contesta à son fils [jusqu'à] sa naissance. Ce fils ne tenta de
+remonter sur le trône de ses pères, que pour faire périr ses amis par
+des bourreaux; et nous avons vu le Prince _Charles Édouard_, réunissant
+en vain les vertus de ses pères[558] et le courage du Roi _Jean
+Sobieski_, son aïeul maternel, exécuter les exploits et essuyer les
+malheurs les plus incroyables. Si quelque chose justifie ceux qui
+croient une fatalité à laquelle rien ne peut se soustraire, c'est cette
+suite continuelle de malheurs qui a persécuté la maison de _Stuart_,
+pendant plus de trois cents années.'[559]
+
+The gallant Malcolm was apprehended in about ten days after they
+separated, put aboard a ship and carried prisoner to London. He said,
+the prisoners in general were very ill treated in their passage; but
+there were soldiers on board who lived well, and sometimes invited him
+to share with them: that he had the good fortune not to be thrown into
+jail, but was confined in the house of a messenger, of the name of Dick.
+To his astonishment, only one witness could be found against him, though
+he had been so openly engaged; and therefore, for want of sufficient
+evidence, he was set at liberty. He added, that he thought himself in
+such danger, that he would gladly have compounded for banishment[560].
+Yet, he said, 'he should never be so ready for death as he then
+was[561].' There is philosophical truth in this. A man will meet death
+much more firmly at one time than another. The enthusiasm even of a
+mistaken principle warms the mind, and sets it above the fear of death;
+which in our cooler moments, if we really think of it, cannot but be
+terrible, or at least very awful.
+
+Miss Flora Macdonald being then also in London, under the protection of
+Lady Primrose[562], that lady provided a post-chaise to convey her to
+Scotland, and desired she might choose any friend she pleased to
+accompany her. She chose Malcolm. 'So (said he, with a triumphant air) I
+went to London to be hanged, and returned in a post-chaise with Miss
+Flora Macdonald.'
+
+Mr. Macleod of Muiravenside, whom we saw at Rasay, assured us that
+Prince Charles was in London in 1759[563], and that there was then a
+plan in agitation for restoring his family. Dr. Johnson could scarcely
+credit this story, and said, there could be no probable plan at that
+time. Such an attempt could not have succeeded, unless the King of
+Prussia had stopped the army in Germany; for both the army and the fleet
+would, even without orders, have fought for the King, to whom they had
+engaged themselves.
+
+Having related so many particulars concerning the grandson of the
+unfortunate King James the Second; having given due praise to fidelity
+and generous attachment, which, however erroneous the judgment may be,
+are honourable for the heart; I must do the Highlanders the justice to
+attest, that I found every where amongst them a high opinion of the
+virtues of the King now upon the throne, and an honest disposition to be
+faithful subjects to his majesty, whose family has possessed the
+sovereignty of this country so long, that a change, even for the
+abdicated family, would now hurt the best feelings of all his subjects.
+
+The _abstract_ point of _right_ would involve us in a discussion of
+remote and perplexed questions; and after all, we should have no clear
+principle of decision. That establishment, which, from political
+necessity, took place in 1688, by a breach in the succession of our
+kings, and which, whatever benefits may have accrued from it, certainly
+gave a shock to our monarchy,[564]--the able and constitutional
+Blackstone wisely rests on the solid footing of authority. 'Our
+ancestors having most indisputably a competent jurisdiction to decide
+this great and important question, and having, in fact, decided it, it
+is now become our duty, at this distance of time, to acquiesce in their
+determination.[565]'
+
+Mr. Paley, the present Archdeacon of Carlisle, in his _Principles of
+Moral and Political Philosophy_, having, with much clearness of
+argument, shewn the duty of submission to civil government to be founded
+neither on an indefeasible _jus divinum_, nor on _compact_, but on
+_expediency_, lays down this rational position:--
+
+'Irregularity in the first foundation of a state, or subsequent
+violence, fraud, or injustice, in getting possession of the supreme
+power, are not sufficient reasons for resistance, after the government
+is once peaceably settled. No subject of the _British_ empire conceives
+himself engaged to vindicate the justice of the _Norman_ claim or
+conquest, or apprehends that his duty in any manner depends upon that
+controversy. So likewise, if the house of _Lancaster_, or even the
+posterity of _Cromwell_, had been at this day seated upon the throne of
+_England_, we should have been as little concerned to enquire how the
+founder of the family came there[566].'  In conformity with this
+doctrine, I myself, though fully persuaded that the House of _Stuart_
+had originally no right to the crown of _Scotland_; for that _Baliol_,
+and not _Bruce_, was the lawful heir; should yet have thought it very
+culpable to have rebelled, on that account, against Charles the First,
+or even a prince of that house much nearer the time, in order to assert
+the claim of the posterity of Baliol.
+
+However convinced I am of the justice of that principle, which holds
+allegiance and protection to be reciprocal, I do however acknowledge,
+that I am not satisfied with the cold sentiment which would confine the
+exertions of the subject within the strict line of duty. I would have
+every breast animated with the _fervour_ of loyalty[567]; with that
+generous attachment which delights in doing somewhat more than is
+required, and makes 'service perfect freedom[568].' And, therefore, as
+our most gracious Sovereign, on his accession to the throne, gloried in
+being _born a Briton_[569]; so, in my more private sphere, _Ego me nunc_
+denique natum, _gratulor_[570]. I am happy that a disputed succession no
+longer distracts our minds; and that a monarchy, established by law, is
+now so sanctioned by time, that we can fully indulge those feelings of
+loyalty which I am ambitious to excite. They are feelings which have
+ever actuated the inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides. The
+plant of loyalty is there in full vigour, and the Brunswick graft now
+flourishes like a native shoot. To that spirited race of people I may
+with propriety apply the elegant lines of a modern poet, on the 'facile
+temper of the beauteous sex[571]:'--
+
+     'Like birds new-caught, who flutter for a time,
+      And struggle with captivity in vain;
+      But by-and-by they rest, they smooth their plumes,
+      And to _new masters_ sing their former notes[572].'
+
+Surely such notes are much better than the querulous growlings of
+suspicious Whigs and discontented Republicans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kingsburgh conducted us in his boat across one of the lochs, as they
+call them, or arms of the sea, which flow in upon all the coasts of
+Sky,--to a mile beyond a place called _Grishinish_. Our horses had been
+sent round by land to meet us. By this sail we saved eight miles of bad
+riding. Dr. Johnson said, 'When we take into computation what we have
+saved, and what we have gained, by this agreeable sail, it is a great
+deal.' He observed, 'it is very disagreeable riding in Sky. The way is
+so narrow, one only at a time can travel, so it is quite unsocial; and
+you cannot indulge in meditation by yourself, because you must be always
+attending to the steps which your horse takes.' This was a just and
+clear description of its inconveniences.
+
+The topick of emigration being again introduced[573], Dr. Johnson said,
+that 'a rapacious chief would make a wilderness of his estate.' Mr.
+Donald M'Queen told us, that the oppression, which then made so much
+noise, was owing to landlords listening to bad advice in the letting of
+their lands; that interested and designed[574] people flattered them
+with golden dreams of much higher rents than could reasonably be paid:
+and that some of the gentlemen _tacksmen_[575], or upper tenants, were
+themselves in part the occasion of the mischief, by over-rating the
+farms of others. That many of the _tacksmen_, rather than comply with
+exorbitant demands, had gone off to America, and impoverished the
+country, by draining it of its wealth; and that their places were filled
+by a number of poor people, who had lived under them, properly speaking,
+as servants, paid by a certain proportion of the produce of the lands,
+though called sub-tenants. I observed, that if the men of substance were
+once banished from a Highland estate, it might probably be greatly
+reduced in its value; for one bad year might ruin a set of poor tenants,
+and men of any property would not settle in such a country, unless from
+the temptation of getting land extremely cheap; for an inhabitant of any
+good county in Britain, had better go to America than to the Highlands
+or the Hebrides. Here, therefore, was a consideration that ought to
+induce a Chief to act a more liberal part, from a mere motive of
+interest, independent of the lofty and honourable principle of keeping a
+clan together, to be in readiness to serve his king. I added, that I
+could not help thinking a little arbitrary power in the sovereign, to
+control the bad policy and greediness of the Chiefs, might sometimes be
+of service. In France a Chief would not be permitted to force a number
+of the king's subjects out of the country. Dr. Johnson concurred with
+me, observing, that 'were an oppressive chieftain a subject of the
+French king, he would probably be admonished by a _letter_.[576]'
+
+During our sail, Dr. Johnson asked about the use of the dirk, with which
+he imagined the Highlanders cut their meat. He was told, they had a
+knife and fork besides, to eat with. He asked, how did the women do? and
+was answered, some of them had a knife and fork too; but in general the
+men, when they had cut their meat, handed their knives and forks to the
+women, and they themselves eat with their fingers. The old tutor of
+Macdonald always eat fish with his fingers, alledging that a knife and
+fork gave it a bad taste. I took the liberty to observe to Dr. Johnson,
+that he did so. 'Yes, said he; but it is because I am short-sighted, and
+afraid of bones, for which reason I am not fond of eating many kinds of
+fish, because I must use my fingers.'
+
+Dr. M'Pherson's _Dissertations on Scottish Antiquities_, which he had
+looked at when at Corrichatachin[577], being mentioned, he remarked,
+that 'you might read half an hour, and ask yourself what you had been
+reading: there were so many words to so little matter, that there was no
+getting through the book.'
+
+As soon as we reached the shore, we took leave of Kingsburgh, and
+mounted our horses. We passed through a wild moor, in many places so
+soft that we were obliged to walk, which was very fatiguing to Dr.
+Johnson. Once he had advanced on horseback to a very bad step. There
+was a steep declivity on his left, to which he was so near, that there
+was not room for him to dismount in the usual way. He tried to alight on
+the other side, as if he had been a _young buck_ indeed, but in the
+attempt he fell at his length upon the ground; from which, however, he
+got up immediately without being hurt. During this dreary ride, we were
+sometimes relieved by a view of branches of the sea, that universal
+medium of connection amongst mankind. A guide, who had been sent with us
+from Kingsburgh, explored the way (much in the same manner as, I
+suppose, is pursued in the wilds of America,) by observing certain marks
+known only to the inhabitants. We arrived at Dunvegan late in the
+afternoon. The great size of the castle, which is partly old and partly
+new, and is built upon a rock close to the sea, while the land around it
+presents nothing but wild, moorish, hilly, and craggy appearances, gave
+a rude magnificence to the scene. Having dismounted, we ascended a
+flight of steps, which was made by the late Macleod, for the
+accommodation of persons coming to him by land, there formerly being,
+for security, no other access to the castle but from the sea; so that
+visitors who came by the land were under the necessity of getting into a
+boat, and sailed round to the only place where it could be approached.
+We were introduced into a stately dining-room, and received by Lady
+Macleod, mother of the laird, who, with his friend Talisker, having been
+detained on the road, did not arrive till some time after us.
+
+We found the lady of the house a very polite and sensible woman, who had
+lived for some time in London, and had there been in Dr. Johnson's
+company. After we had dined, we repaired to the drawing-room, where some
+of the young ladies of the family, with their mother, were at tea[578].
+This room had formerly been the bed-chamber of Sir Roderick Macleod, one
+of the old Lairds; and he chose it, because, behind it, there was a
+considerable cascade[579], the sound of which disposed him to sleep.
+Above his bed was this inscription: 'Sir Rorie M'Leod of Dunvegan,
+Knight. GOD send good rest!' Rorie is the contraction of Roderick. He
+was called Rorie _More_, that is, great Rorie, not from his size, but
+from his spirit. Our entertainment here was in so elegant a style, and
+reminded my fellow-traveller so much of England, that he became quite
+joyous. He laughed, and said, 'Boswell, we came in at the wrong end of
+this island.' 'Sir, (said I,) it was best to keep this for the last.' He
+answered, 'I would have it both first and last.'
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.
+
+Dr. Johnson said in the morning, 'Is not this a fine lady[580]?' There
+was not a word now of his 'impatience to be in civilized
+life[581];--though indeed I should beg pardon,--he found it here. We had
+slept well, and lain long. After breakfast we surveyed the castle, and
+the garden. Mr. Bethune, the parish minister,--Magnus M'Leod, of
+Claggan, brother to Talisker, and M'Leod of Bay, two substantial
+gentlemen of the clan, dined with us. We had admirable venison, generous
+wine; in a word, all that a good table has. This was really the hall of
+a chief. Lady M'Leod had been much obliged to my father, who had settled
+by arbitration a variety of perplexed claims between her and her
+relation, the Laird of Brodie, which she now repaid by particular
+attention to me. M'Leod started the subject of making women do penance
+in the church for fornication. JOHNSON. 'It is right, Sir. Infamy is
+attached to the crime, by universal opinion, as soon as it is known. I
+would not be the man who would discover it, if I alone knew it, for a
+woman may reform; nor would I commend a parson who divulges a woman's
+first offence; but being once divulged, it ought to be infamous.
+Consider, of what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon
+that all the property in the world depends[582]. We hang a thief for
+stealing a sheep; but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep, and
+farm and all, from the right owner. I have much more reverence for a
+common prostitute than for a woman who conceals her guilt. The
+prostitute is known. She cannot deceive: she cannot bring a strumpet
+into the arms of an honest man, without his knowledge. BOSWELL. 'There
+is, however, a great difference between the licentiousness of a single
+woman, and that of a married woman.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; there is a
+great difference between stealing a shilling, and stealing a thousand
+pounds; between simply taking a man's purse, and murdering him first,
+and then taking it. But when one begins to be vicious, it is easy to go
+on. Where single women are licentious, you rarely find faithful married
+women.' BOSWELL. 'And yet we are told that in some nations in India, the
+distinction is strictly observed.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, don't give us India.
+That puts me in mind of Montesquieu, who is really a fellow of genius
+too in many respects; whenever he wants to support a strange opinion, he
+quotes you the practice of Japan or of some other distant country of
+which he knows nothing. To support polygamy, he tells you of the island
+of Formosa, where there are ten women born for one man[583]. He had but
+to suppose another island, where there are ten men born for one woman,
+and so make a marriage between them.[584]'  At supper, Lady Macleod
+mentioned Dr. Cadogan's book on the gout[585]. JOHNSON. 'It is a good
+book in general, but a foolish one in particulars. It is good in
+general, as recommending temperance and exercise, and cheerfulness. In
+that respect it is only Dr. Cheyne's book told in a new way; and there
+should come out such a book every thirty years, dressed in the mode of
+the times. It is foolish, in maintaining that the gout is not
+hereditary, and that one fit of it, when gone, is like a fever when
+gone.' Lady Macleod objected that the author does not practise what he
+teaches[586]. JOHNSON. 'I cannot help that, madam. That does not make
+his book the worse. People are influenced more by what a man says, if
+his practice is suitable to it,--because they are blockheads. The more
+intellectual people are, the readier will they attend to what a man
+tells them. If it is just, they will follow it, be his practice what it
+will. No man practises so well as he writes. I have, all my life long,
+been lying till noon[587]; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with
+great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any
+good. Only consider! You read a book; you are convinced by it; you do
+not know the authour. Suppose you afterwards know him, and find that he
+does not practise what he teaches; are you to give up your former
+conviction? At this rate you would be kept in a state of equilibrium,
+when reading every book, till you knew how the authour practised.[588]'
+'But,' said Lady M'Leod, 'you would think better of Dr. Cadogan, if he
+acted according to his principles.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Madam, to be sure, a
+man who acts in the face of light, is worse than a man who does not know
+so much; yet I think no man should be the worse thought of for
+publishing good principles. There is something noble in publishing
+truth, though it condemns one's self.[589]' I expressed some surprize at
+Cadogan's recommending good humour, as if it were quite in our own power
+to attain it. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, a man grows better humoured as he
+grows older. He improves by experience. When young, he thinks himself of
+great consequence, and every thing of importance. As he advances in
+life, he learns to think himself of no consequence, and little things of
+little importance; and so he becomes more patient, and better pleased.
+All good-humour and complaisance are acquired. Naturally a child seizes
+directly what it sees, and thinks of pleasing itself only. By degrees,
+it is taught to please others, and to prefer others; and that this will
+ultimately produce the greatest happiness. If a man is not convinced of
+that, he never will practise it. Common language speaks the truth as to
+this: we say, a person is well _bred_. As it is said, that all material
+motion is primarily in a right line, and is never _per circuitum_, never
+in another form, unless by some particular cause; so it may be said
+intellectual motion is.' Lady M'Leod asked, if no man was naturally
+good? JOHNSON. 'No, Madam, no more than a wolf.' BOSWELL. 'Nor no woman,
+Sir?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.[590]' Lady M'Leod started at this, saying, in a
+low voice, 'This is worse than Swift.'
+
+M'Leod of Ulinish had come in the afternoon. We were a jovial company at
+supper. The Laird, surrounded by so many of his clan, was to me a
+pleasing sight. They listened with wonder and pleasure, while Dr.
+Johnson harangued. I am vexed that I cannot take down his full strain of
+eloquence.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15.
+
+The gentlemen of the clan went away early in the morning to the harbour
+of Lochbradale, to take leave of some of their friends who were going to
+America. It was a very wet day. We looked at Rorie More's horn, which is
+a large cow's horn, with the mouth of it ornamented with silver
+curiously carved. It holds rather more than a bottle and a half. Every
+Laird of M'Leod, it is said, must, as a proof of his manhood, drink it
+off full of claret, without laying it down. From Rorie More many of the
+branches of the family are descended; in particular, the Talisker
+branch; so that his name is much talked of. We also saw his bow, which
+hardly any man now can bend, and his _Glaymore>_, which was wielded with
+both hands, and is of a prodigious size. We saw here some old pieces of
+iron armour, immensely heavy. The broadsword now used, though called the
+_Glaymore, (i.e._ the _great sword_) is much smaller than that used in
+Rorie More's time. There is hardly a target now to be found in the
+Highlands. After the disarming act[591], they made them serve as covers
+to their butter-milk barrels; a kind of change, like beating spears into
+pruning-hooks[592].
+
+Sir George Mackenzie's Works (the folio edition) happened to lie in a
+window in the dining room. I asked Dr. Johnson to look at the
+_Characteres Advocatorum_. He allowed him power of mind, and that he
+understood very well what he tells[593]; but said, that there was too
+much declamation, and that the Latin was not correct. He found fault
+with _appropinquabant_[594], in the character of Gilmour. I tried him
+with the opposition between _gloria_ and _palma_, in the comparison
+between Gilmour and Nisbet, which Lord Hailes, in his _Catalogue of the
+Lords of Session_, thinks difficult to be understood. The words are,
+_'penes illum gloria, penes hunc palma_[595].' In a short _Account of
+the Kirk of Scotland_, which I published some years ago, I applied these
+words to the two contending parties, and explained them thus: 'The
+popular party has most eloquence; Dr. Robertson's party most influence.'
+I was very desirous to hear Dr. Johnson's explication. JOHNSON. 'I see
+no difficulty. Gilmour was admired for his parts; Nisbet carried his
+cause by his skill in law. _Palma_ is victory.' I observed, that the
+character of Nicholson, in this book resembled that of Burke: for it is
+said, in one place, _'in omnes lusos & jocos se saepe resolvebat_[596];'
+and, in another, _'sed accipitris more e conspectu aliquando astantium
+sublimi se protrahens volatu, in praedam miro impetu descendebat[597]'._
+JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I never heard Burke make a good joke in my
+life[598].' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, you will allow he is a hawk.' Dr.
+Johnson, thinking that I meant this of his joking, said, 'No, Sir, he is
+not the hawk there. He is the beetle in the mire[599].' I still adhered
+to my metaphor,--'But he _soars_ as the hawk.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but
+he catches nothing.' M'Leod asked, what is the particular excellence of
+Burke's eloquence? JOHNSON. 'Copiousness and fertility of allusion; a
+power of diversifying his matter, by placing it in various relations.
+Burke has great information, and great command of language; though, in
+my opinion, it has not in every respect the highest elegance.' BOSWELL.
+'Do you think, Sir, that Burke has read Cicero much?' JOHNSON. 'I don't
+believe it, Sir. Burke has great knowledge, great fluency of words, and
+great promptness of ideas, so that he can speak with great illustration
+on any subject that comes before him. He is neither like Cicero, nor
+like Demosthenes[600], nor like any one else, but speaks as well as
+he can.'
+
+In the 65th page of the first volume of Sir George Mackenzie, Dr.
+Johnson pointed out a paragraph beginning with _Aristotle_, and told me
+there was an error in the text, which he bade me try to discover. I was
+lucky enough to hit it at once. As the passage is printed, it is said
+that the devil answers _even_ in _engines_. I corrected it to--_ever_ in
+_oenigmas_. 'Sir, (said he,) you are a good critick. This would have
+been a great thing to do in the text of an ancient authour.'
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16.
+
+Last night much care was taken of Dr. Johnson, who was still distressed
+by his cold. He had hitherto most strangely slept without a night-cap.
+Miss M'Leod made him a large flannel one, and he was prevailed with to
+drink a little brandy when he was going to bed. He has great virtue in
+not drinking wine or any fermented liquor, because, as he acknowledged
+to us, he could not do it in moderation[601]. Lady M'Leod would hardly
+believe him, and said, 'I am sure, Sir, you would not carry it too far.'
+JOHNSON. 'Nay, madam, it carried me. I took the opportunity of a long
+illness to leave it off. It was then prescribed to me not to drink wine;
+and, having broken off the habit, I have never returned to it[602].'
+
+In the argument on Tuesday night, about natural goodness, Dr. Johnson
+denied that any child was better than another, but by difference of
+instruction; though, in consequence of greater attention being paid to
+instruction by one child than another, and of a variety of imperceptible
+causes, such as instruction being counteracted by servants, a notion was
+conceived, that of two children, equally well educated, one was
+naturally much worse than another. He owned, this morning, that one
+might have a greater aptitude to learn than another, and that we
+inherit dispositions from our parents[603]. 'I inherited, (said he,) a
+vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at
+least not sober[604].' Lady M'Leod wondered he should tell this. 'Madam,
+(said I,) he knows that with that madness he is superior to other men.'
+
+I have often been astonished with what exactness and perspicuity he will
+explain the process of any art. He this morning explained to us all the
+operation of coining, and, at night, all the operation of brewing, so
+very clearly, that Mr. M'Queen said, when he heard the first, he thought
+he had been bred in the Mint; when he heard the second, that he had been
+bred a brewer.
+
+I was elated by the thought of having been able to entice such a man to
+this remote part of the world. A ludicrous, yet just image presented
+itself to my mind, which I expressed to the company. I compared myself
+to a dog who has got hold of a large piece of meat, and runs away with
+it to a corner, where he may devour it in peace, without any fear of
+others taking it from him. 'In London, Reynolds, Beauclerk, and all of
+them, are contending who shall enjoy Dr. Johnson's conversation. We are
+feasting upon it, undisturbed, at Dunvegan.'
+
+It was still a storm of wind and rain. Dr. Johnson however walked out
+with M'Leod, and saw Rorie More's cascade in full perfection. Colonel
+M'Leod, instead of being all life and gaiety, as I have seen him, was at
+present grave, and somewhat depressed by his anxious concern about
+M'Leod's affairs, and by finding some gentlemen of the clan by no means
+disposed to act a generous or affectionate part to their Chief in his
+distress, but bargaining with him as with a stranger. However, he was
+agreeable and polite, and Dr. Johnson said, he was a very pleasing man.
+My fellow-traveller and I talked of going to Sweden[605]; and, while we
+were settling our plan, I expressed a pleasure in the prospect of seeing
+the king. JOHNSON. 'I doubt, Sir, if he would speak to us.' Colonel
+M'Leod said, 'I am sure Mr. Boswell would speak to _him_.' But, seeing
+me a little disconcerted by his remark, he politely added, 'and with
+great propriety.' Here let me offer a short defence of that propensity
+in my disposition, to which this gentleman alluded. It has procured me
+much happiness. I hope it does not deserve so hard a name as either
+forwardness or impudence. If I know myself, it is nothing more than an
+eagerness to share the society of men distinguished either by their rank
+or their talents, and a diligence to attain what I desire[606]. If a man
+is praised for seeking knowledge, though mountains and seas are in his
+way, may he not be pardoned, whose ardour, in the pursuit of the same
+object, leads him to encounter difficulties as great, though of a
+different kind?
+
+After the ladies were gone from table, we talked of the Highlanders not
+having sheets; and this led us to consider the advantage of wearing
+linen. JOHNSON. 'All animal substances are less cleanly than vegetable.
+Wool, of which flannel is made, is an animal substance; flannel
+therefore is not so cleanly as linen. I remember I used to think tar
+dirty; but when I knew it to be only a preparation of the juice of the
+pine, I thought so no longer. It is not disagreeable to have the gum
+that oozes from a plum-tree upon your fingers, because it is vegetable;
+but if you have any candle-grease, any tallow upon your fingers, you are
+uneasy till you rub it off. I have often thought, that if I kept a
+seraglio, the ladies should all wear linen gowns,--or cotton; I mean
+stuffs made of vegetable substances. I would have no silk; you cannot
+tell when it is clean: It will be very nasty before it is perceived to
+be so. Linen detects its own dirtiness.'
+
+To hear the grave Dr. Samuel Johnson, 'that majestick teacher of moral
+and religious wisdom,' while sitting solemn in an armchair in the Isle
+of Sky, talk, _ex cathedra_, of his keeping a seraglio[607], and
+acknowledge that the supposition had _often_ been in his thoughts,
+struck me so forcibly with ludicrous contrast, that I could not but
+laugh immoderately. He was too proud to submit, even for a moment, to be
+the object of ridicule, and instantly retaliated with such keen
+sarcastick wit, and such a variety of degrading images, of every one of
+which I was the object, that, though I can bear such attacks as well as
+most men, I yet found myself so much the sport of all the company, that
+I would gladly expunge from my mind every trace of this severe retort.
+
+Talking of our friend Langton's house in Lincolnshire, he said, 'the old
+house of the family was burnt. A temporary building was erected in its
+room; and to this day they have been always adding as the family
+increased. It is like a shirt made for a man when he was a child, and
+enlarged always as he grows older.'
+
+We talked to-night of Luther's allowing the Landgrave of Hesse two
+wives, and that it was with the consent of the wife to whom he was first
+married. JOHNSON. 'There was no harm in this, so far as she was only
+concerned, because _volenti non fit injuria_. But it was an offence
+against the general order of society, and against the law of the Gospel,
+by which one man and one woman are to be united. No man can have two
+wives, but by preventing somebody else from having one.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17.
+
+After dinner yesterday, we had a conversation upon cunning. M'Leod said
+that he was not afraid of cunning people; but would let them play their
+tricks about him like monkeys. 'But, (said I,) they'll scratch;' and Mr.
+M'Queen added, 'they'll invent new tricks, as soon as you find out what
+they do.' JOHNSON. 'Cunning has effect from the credulity of others,
+rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no
+extraordinary talents to lie and deceive[608].' This led us to consider
+whether it did not require great abilities to be very wicked. JOHNSON.
+'It requires great abilities to have the _power_ of being very wicked;
+but not to _be_ very wicked. A man who has the power, which great
+abilities procure him, may use it well or ill; and it requires more
+abilities to use it well, than to use it ill. Wickedness is always
+easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to every thing. It is
+much easier to steal a hundred pounds, than to get it by labour, or any
+other way. Consider only what act of wickedness requires great abilities
+to commit it, when once the person who is to do it has the power; for
+_there_ is the distinction. It requires great abilities to conquer an
+army, but none to massacre it after it is conquered.'
+
+The weather this day was rather better than any that we had since we
+came to Dunvegan. Mr. M'Queen had often mentioned a curious piece of
+antiquity near this, which he called a temple of the Goddess ANAITIS.
+Having often talked of going to see it, he and I set out after
+breakfast, attended by his servant, a fellow quite like a savage. I must
+observe here, that in Sky there seems to be much idleness; for men and
+boys follow you, as colts follow passengers upon a road. The usual
+figure of a Sky-boy, is a _lown_ with bare legs and feet, a dirty
+_kilt_, ragged coat and waistcoat, a bare head, and a stick in his hand,
+which, I suppose, is partly to help the lazy rogue to walk, partly to
+serve as a kind of a defensive weapon. We walked what is called two
+miles, but is probably four, from the castle, till we came to the sacred
+place. The country around is a black dreary moor on all sides, except to
+the sea-coast, towards which there is a view through a valley; and the
+farm of _Bay_ shews some good land. The place itself is green ground,
+being well drained by means of a deep glen on each side, in both of
+which there runs a rivulet with a good quantity of water, forming
+several cascades, which make a considerable appearance and sound. The
+first thing we came to was an earthen mound, or dyke, extending from the
+one precipice to the other. A little farther on was a strong stone-wall,
+not high, but very thick, extending in the same manner. On the outside
+of it were the ruins of two houses, one on each side of the entry or
+gate to it. The wall is built all along of uncemented stones, but of so
+large a size as to make a very firm and durable rampart. It has been
+built all about the consecrated ground, except where the precipice is
+steep enough to form an inclosure of itself. The sacred spot contains
+more than two acres. There are within it the ruins of many houses, none
+of them large,--a _cairn_,--and many graves marked by clusters of
+stones. Mr. M'Queen insisted that the ruin of a small building, standing
+east and west, was actually the temple of the Goddess ANAITIS, where her
+statue was kept, and from whence processions were made to wash it in one
+of the brooks. There is, it must be owned, a hollow road, visible for a
+good way from the entrance; but Mr. M'Queen, with the keen eye of an
+antiquary, traced it much farther than I could perceive it. There is not
+above a foot and a half in height of the walls now remaining; and the
+whole extent of the building was never, I imagine, greater than an
+ordinary Highland house. Mr. M'Queen has collected a great deal of
+learning on the subject of the temple of ANAITIS; and I had endeavoured,
+in my _Journal_, to state such particulars as might give some idea of
+it, and of the surrounding scenery; but from the great difficulty of
+describing visible objects[609], I found my account so unsatisfactory,
+that my readers would probably have exclaimed
+
+     'And write about it, _Goddess_, and about it[610];'
+
+and therefore I have omitted it.
+
+When we got home, and were again at table with Dr. Johnson, we first
+talked of portraits. He agreed in thinking them valuable in families. I
+wished to know which he preferred, fine portraits, or those of which the
+merit was resemblance. JOHNSON. 'Sir, their chief excellence is being
+like.' BOSWELL. 'Are you of that opinion as to the portraits of
+ancestors, whom one has never seen?' JOHNSON. 'It then becomes of more
+consequence that they should be like; and I would have them in the dress
+of the times, which makes a piece of history. One should like to see how
+_Rorie More_ looked. Truth, Sir, is of the greatest value in these
+things[611].' Mr. M'Queen observed, that if you think it of no
+consequence whether portraits are like, if they are but well painted,
+you may be indifferent whether a piece of history is true or not, if
+well told.
+
+Dr. Johnson said at breakfast to-day, 'that it was but of late that
+historians bestowed pains and attention in consulting records, to attain
+to accuracy[1]. Bacon, in writing his history of Henry VII, does not
+seem to have consulted any, but to have just taken what he found in
+other histories, and blended it with what he learnt by tradition.' He
+agreed with me that there should be a chronicle kept in every
+considerable family, to preserve the characters and transactions of
+successive generations.
+
+After dinner I started the subject of the temple of ANAITIS. Mr. M'Queen
+had laid stress on the name given to the place by the country
+people,--_Ainnit_; and added, 'I knew not what to make of this piece of
+antiquity, till I met with the _Anaitidis delubrum_ in Lydia, mentioned
+by Pausanias and the elder Pliny.' Dr. Johnson, with his usual
+acuteness, examined Mr. M'Queen as to the meaning of the word _Ainnit_,
+in Erse; and it proved to be a _water-place_, or a place near water,
+'which,' said Mr. M'Queen, 'agrees with all the descriptions of the
+temples of that goddess, which were situated near rivers, that there
+might be water to wash the statue.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, the argument
+from the name is gone. The name is exhausted by what we see. We have no
+occasion to go to a distance for what we can pick up under our feet. Had
+it been an accidental name, the similarity between it and Anaitis might
+have had something in it; but it turns out to be a mere physiological
+name.' Macleod said, Mr. M'Queen's knowledge of etymology had destroyed
+his conjecture. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; Mr. M'Queen is like the eagle
+mentioned by Waller, who was shot with an arrow feather'd from his own
+wing[612].' Mr. M'Queen would not, however, give up his conjecture.
+JOHNSON. 'You have one possibility for you, and all possibilities
+against you. It is possible it may be the temple of Anaitis. But it is
+also possible that it may be a fortification; or it may be a place of
+Christian worship, as the first Christians often chose remote and wild
+places, to make an impression on the mind; or, if it was a heathen
+temple, it may have been built near a river, for the purpose of
+lustration; and there is such a multitude of divinities, to whom it may
+have been dedicated, that the chance of its being a temple of _Anaitis_
+is hardly any thing. It is like throwing a grain of sand upon the
+sea-shore to-day, and thinking you may find it to-morrow. No, Sir, this
+temple, like many an ill-built edifice, tumbles down before it is roofed
+in.' In his triumph over the reverend antiquarian, he indulged himself
+in a _conceit_; for, some vestige of the _altar_ of the goddess being
+much insisted on in support of the hypothesis, he said, 'Mr. M'Queen is
+fighting _pro_ aris _et focis'_.
+
+It was wonderful how well time passed in a remote castle, and in dreary
+weather. After supper, we talked of Pennant. It was objected that he was
+superficial. Dr. Johnson defended him warmly[613]. He said, 'Pennant has
+greater variety of enquiry than almost any man, and has told us more
+than perhaps one in ten thousand could have done, in the time that he
+took. He has not said what he was to tell; so you cannot find fault with
+him, for what he has not told. If a man comes to look for fishes, you
+cannot blame him if he does not attend to fowls.' 'But,' said Colonel
+M'Leod, 'he mentions the unreasonable rise of rents in the Highlands,
+and says, "the gentlemen are for emptying the bag, without filling
+it[614];" for that is the phrase he uses. Why does he not tell how to
+fill it?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no end of negative criticism. He tells
+what he observes, and as much as he chooses. If he tells what is not
+true, you may find fault with him; but, though he tells that the land is
+not well cultivated, he is not obliged to tell how it may be well
+cultivated. If I tell that many of the Highlanders go bare-footed, I am
+not obliged to tell how they may get shoes. Pennant tells a fact. He
+need go no farther, except he pleases. He exhausts nothing; and no
+subject whatever has yet been exhausted. But Pennant has surely told a
+great deal. Here is a man six feet high, and you are angry because he is
+not seven.' Notwithstanding this eloquent _Oratio pro Pennantio_, which
+they who have read this gentleman's _Tours_, and recollect the _Savage_
+and the _Shopkeeper_ at _Monboddo_[615], will probably impute to the
+spirit of contradiction, I still think that he had better have given
+more attention to fewer things, than have thrown together such a number
+of imperfect accounts.
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18.
+
+Before breakfast, Dr. Johnson came up to my room to forbid me to mention
+that this was his birthday; but I told him I had done it already; at
+which he was displeased[616]; I suppose from wishing to have nothing
+particular done on his account. Lady M'Leod and I got into a warm
+dispute. She wanted to build a house upon a farm which she has taken,
+about five miles from the castle, and to make gardens and other
+ornaments there; all of which I approved of; but insisted that the seat
+of the family should always be upon the rock of Dunvegan. JOHNSON. 'Ay,
+in time we'll build all round this rock. You may make a very good house
+at the farm; but it must not be such as to tempt the Laird of M'Leod to
+go thither to reside. Most of the great families in England have a
+secondary residence, which is called a jointure-house: let the new house
+be of that kind.' The lady insisted that the rock was very inconvenient;
+that there was no place near it where a good garden could be made; that
+it must always be a rude place; that it was a _Herculean_ labour to make
+a dinner here. I was vexed to find the alloy of modern refinement in a
+lady who had so much old family spirit. 'Madam, (said I,) if once you
+quit this rock, there is no knowing where you may settle. You move five
+miles first;--then to St. Andrews, as the late Laird did;--then to
+Edinburgh;--and so on till you end at Hampstead, or in France. No, no;
+keep to the rock: it is the very jewel of the estate. It looks as if it
+had been let down from heaven by the four corners, to be the residence
+of a Chief. Have all the comforts and conveniences of life upon it, but
+never leave Rorie More's cascade.' 'But, (said she,) is it not enough if
+we keep it? Must we never have more convenience than Rorie More had? he
+had his beef brought to dinner in one basket, and his bread in another.
+Why not as well be Rorie More all over, as live upon his rock? And
+should not we tire, in looking perpetually on this rock? It is very well
+for you, who have a fine place, and every thing easy, to talk thus, and
+think of chaining honest folks to a rock. You would not live upon it
+yourself.' 'Yes, Madam, (said I,) I would live upon it, were I Laird of
+M'Leod, and should be unhappy if I were not upon it.' JOHNSON. (with a
+strong voice, and most determined manner), 'Madam, rather than quit the
+old rock, Boswell would live in the pit; he would make his bed in the
+dungeon.' I felt a degree of elation, at finding my resolute feudal
+enthusiasm thus confirmed by such a sanction. The lady was puzzled a
+little. She still returned to her pretty farm,--rich ground,--fine
+garden. 'Madam, (said Dr. Johnson,) were they in Asia, I would not leave
+the rock.' My opinion on this subject is still the same. An ancient
+family residence ought to be a primary object; and though the situation
+of Dunvegan be such that little can be done here in gardening, or
+pleasure-ground, yet, in addition to the veneration required by the
+lapse of time, it has many circumstances of natural grandeur, suited to
+the seat of a Highland Chief: it has the sea--islands--rocks,--hills,
+--a noble cascade; and when the family is again in opulence, something
+may be done by art.  Mr. Donald M'Queen went away to-day, in order to
+preach at Bracadale next day. We were so comfortably situated at
+Dunvegan, that Dr. Johnson could hardly be moved from it. I proposed to
+him that we should leave it on Monday. 'No, Sir, (said he,) I will not
+go before Wednesday. I will have some more of this good[617].' However,
+as the weather was at this season so bad, and so very uncertain, and we
+had a great deal to do yet, Mr. M'Queen and I prevailed with him to
+agree to set out on Monday, if the day should be good. Mr. M'Queen,
+though it was inconvenient for him to be absent from his harvest,
+engaged to wait on Monday at Ulinish for us. When he was going away, Dr.
+Johnson said, 'I shall ever retain a great regard for you[618];' then
+asked him if he had _The Rambler_. Mr. M'Queen said, 'No; but my brother
+has it.' JOHNSON. 'Have you _The Idler_? M'QUEEN. 'No, Sir.' JOHNSON.
+'Then I will order one for you at Edinburgh, which you will keep in
+remembrance of me.' Mr. M'Queen was much pleased with this. He expressed
+to me, in the strongest terms, his admiration of Dr. Johnson's wonderful
+knowledge, and every other quality for which he is distinguished. I
+asked Mr. M'Queen, if he was satisfied with being a minister in Sky. He
+said he was; but he owned that his forefathers having been so long
+there, and his having been born there, made a chief ingredient in
+forming his contentment. I should have mentioned that on our left hand,
+between Portree and Dr. Macleod's house, Mr. M'Queen told me there had
+been a college of the Knights Templars; that tradition said so; and that
+there was a ruin remaining of their church, which had been burnt: but I
+confess Dr. Johnson has weakened my belief in remote tradition. In the
+dispute about _Anaitis_, Mr. M'Queen said, Asia Minor was peopled by
+Scythians, and, as they were the ancestors of the Celts, the same
+religion might be in Asia Minor and Sky. JOHNSON. 'Alas! Sir, what can a
+nation that has not letters tell of its original. I have always
+difficulty to be patient when I hear authours gravely quoted, as giving
+accounts of savage nations, which accounts they had from the savages
+themselves. What can the _M'Craas_[619] tell about themselves a thousand
+years ago? There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations, but by
+language; and therefore I am always sorry when any language is lost,
+because languages are the pedigree of nations[620]. If you find the same
+language in distant countries, you may be sure that the inhabitants of
+each have been the same people; that is to say, if you find the
+languages a good deal the same; for a word here and there being the
+same, will not do. Thus Butler, in his _Hudibras_, remembering that
+_Penguin_, in the Straits of Magellan, signifies a bird with a white
+head, and that the same word has, in Wales, the signification of a
+white-headed wench, (_pen_ head, and _guin_ white,) by way of ridicule,
+concludes that the people of those Straits are Welsh[621].'
+
+A young gentleman of the name of M'Lean, nephew to the Laird of the isle
+of Muck, came this morning; and, just as we sat down to dinner, came the
+Laird of the isle, of Muck himself, his lady, sister to Talisker, two
+other ladies their relations, and a daughter of the late M'Leod of
+Hamer, who wrote a treatise on the second sight, under the designation
+of THEOPHILUS INSULANUS[622]. It was somewhat droll to hear this Laird
+called by his title. _Muck_ would have sounded ill; so he was called
+_Isle of Muck_, which went off with great readiness. The name, as now
+written, is unseemly, but it is not so bad in the original Erse, which
+is _Mouach_, signifying the Sows' Island. Buchanan calls it INSULA
+PORCORUM. It is so called from its form. Some call it Isle of _Monk_.
+The Laird insists that this is the proper name. It was formerly
+church-land belonging to Icolmkill, and a hermit lived in it. It is two
+miles long, and about three quarters of a mile broad. The Laird said, he
+had seven score of souls upon it. Last year he had eighty persons
+inoculated, mostly children, but some of them eighteen years of age. He
+agreed with the surgeon to come and do it, at half a crown a head. It is
+very fertile in corn, of which they export some; and its coasts abound
+in fish. A taylor comes there six times in a year. They get a good
+blacksmith from the isle of Egg.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.
+
+It was rather worse weather than any that we had yet. At breakfast Dr.
+Johnson said, 'Some cunning men choose fools for their wives, thinking
+to manage them, but they always fail. There is a spaniel fool and a mule
+fool. The spaniel fool may be made to do by beating. The mule fool will
+neither do by words or blows; and the spaniel fool often turns mule at
+last: and suppose a fool to be made do pretty well, you must have the
+continual trouble of making her do. Depend upon it, no woman is the
+worse for sense and knowledge.[623]' Whether afterwards he meant merely
+to say a polite thing, or to give his opinion, I could not be sure; but
+he added, 'Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore
+they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they
+never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.'[624] In
+justice to the sex, I think it but candid to acknowledge, that, in a
+subsequent conversation, he told me that he was serious in what he
+had said.
+
+He came to my room this morning before breakfast, to read my Journal,
+which he has done all along. He often before said, 'I take great delight
+in reading it.' To-day he said, 'You improve: it grows better and
+better.' I observed, there was a danger of my getting a habit of writing
+in a slovenly manner. 'Sir,' said he, 'it is not written in a slovenly
+manner. It might be printed, were the subject fit for printing[625].'
+While Mr. Beaton preached to us in the dining-room, Dr. Johnson sat in
+his own room, where I saw lying before him a volume of Lord Bacon's
+works, _The Decay of Christian Piety_, Monboddo's _Origin of Language_,
+and Sterne's _Sermons_[626]. He asked me to-day how it happened that we
+were so little together: I told him, my Journal took up much time. Yet,
+on reflection, it appeared strange to me, that although I will run from
+one end of London to another to pass an hour with him, I should omit to
+seize any spare time to be in his company, when I am settled in the same
+house with him. But my Journal is really a task of much time and labour,
+and he forbids me to contract it.
+
+I omitted to mention, in its place, that Dr. Johnson told Mr. M'Queen
+that he had found the belief of the second sight universal in Sky,
+except among the clergy, who seemed determined against it. I took the
+liberty to observe to Mr. M'Queen, that the clergy were actuated by a
+kind of vanity. 'The world, (say they,) takes us to be credulous men in
+a remote corner. We'll shew them that we are more enlightened than they
+think.' The worthy man said, that his disbelief of it was from his not
+finding sufficient evidence; but I could perceive that he was prejudiced
+against it[627].
+
+After dinner to-day, we talked of the extraordinary fact of Lady
+Grange's being sent to St. Kilda, and confined there for several years,
+without any means of relief[628]. Dr. Johnson said, if M'Leod would let
+it be known that he had such a place for naughty ladies, he might make
+it a very profitable island. We had, in the course of our tour, heard of
+St. Kilda poetry. Dr. Johnson observed, 'it must be very poor, because
+they have very few images.' BOSWELL. 'There may be a poetical genius
+shewn in combining these, and in making poetry of them.' JOHNSON. 'Sir,
+a man cannot make fire but in proportion as he has fuel. He cannot coin
+guineas but in proportion as he has gold.' At tea he talked of his
+intending to go to Italy in 1775. M'Leod said, he would like Paris
+better. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; there are none of the French literati now
+alive, to visit whom I would cross a sea. I can find in Buffon's book
+all that he can say[629].'
+
+After supper he said, 'I am sorry that prize-fighting is gone out[630];
+every art should be preserved, and the art of defence is surely
+important. It is absurd that our soldiers should have swords, and not be
+taught the use of them. Prize-fighting made people accustomed not to be
+alarmed at seeing their own blood, or feeling a little pain from a
+wound. I think the heavy _glaymore_ was an ill-contrived weapon. A man
+could only strike once with it. It employed both his hands, and he must
+of course be soon fatigued with wielding it; so that if his antagonist
+could only keep playing a while, he was sure of him. I would fight with
+a dirk against Rorie More's sword. I could ward off a blow with a dirk,
+and then run in upon my enemy. When within that heavy sword, I have him;
+he is quite helpless, and I could stab him at my leisure, like a calf.
+It is thought by sensible military men, that the English do not enough
+avail themselves of their superior strength of body against the French;
+for that must always have a great advantage in pushing with bayonets. I
+have heard an officer say, that if women could be made to stand, they
+would do as well as men in a mere interchange of bullets from a
+distance: but, if a body of men should come close up to them, then to be
+sure they must be overcome; now, (said he,) in the same manner the
+weaker-bodied French must be overcome by our strong soldiers.'
+
+The subject of duelling was introduced[631] JOHNSON. 'There is no case
+in England where one or other of the combatants _must_ die: if you have
+overcome your adversary by disarming him, that is sufficient, though you
+should not kill him; your honour, or the honour of your family, is
+restored, as much as it can be by a duel. It is cowardly to force your
+antagonist to renew the combat, when you know that you have the
+advantage of him by superior skill. You might just as well go and cut
+his throat while he is asleep in his bed. When a duel begins, it is
+supposed there may be an equality; because it is not always skill that
+prevails. It depends much on presence of mind; nay on accidents. The
+wind may be in a man's face. He may fall. Many such things may decide
+the superiority. A man is sufficiently punished, by being called out,
+and subjected to the risk that is in a duel.' But on my suggesting that
+the injured person is equally subjected to risk, he fairly owned he
+could not explain the rationality of duelling.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20.
+
+When I awaked, the storm was higher still. It abated about nine, and the
+sun shone; but it rained again very soon, and it was not a day for
+travelling. At breakfast, Dr. Johnson told us, 'there was once a pretty
+good tavern in Catherine-street in the Strand, where very good company
+met in an evening, and each man called for his own half-pint of wine, or
+gill, if he pleased; they were frugal men, and nobody paid but for what
+he himself drank. The house furnished no supper; but a woman attended
+with mutton-pies, which any body might purchase. I was introduced to
+this company by Cumming the Quaker[632], and used to go there sometimes
+when I drank wine. In the last age, when my mother lived in London,
+there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who
+took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. When I returned to
+Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me whether I was
+one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now, it is fixed
+that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall,
+another yields it, and it is never a dispute[633].' He was very severe
+on a lady, whose name was mentioned. He said, he would have sent her to
+St. Kilda. That she was as bad as negative badness could be, and stood
+in the way of what was good: that insipid beauty would not go a great
+way; and that such a woman might be cut out of a cabbage, if there was a
+skilful artificer.
+
+M'Leod was too late in coming to breakfast. Dr. Johnson said, laziness
+was worse than the tooth-ach. BOSWELL. 'I cannot agree with you, Sir; a
+bason of cold water or a horse whip will cure laziness.' JOHNSON. 'No,
+Sir, it will only put off the fit; it will not cure the disease. I have
+been trying to cure my laziness all my life, and could not do it.'
+BOSWELL. 'But if a man does in a shorter time what might be the labour
+of a life, there is nothing to be said against him.' JOHNSON (perceiving
+at once that I alluded to him and his _Dictionary_). 'Suppose that
+flattery to be true, the consequence would be, that the world would have
+no right to censure a man; but that will not justify him to
+himself[634].'
+
+After breakfast, he said to me, 'A Highland Chief should now endeavour
+to do every thing to raise his rents, by means of the industry of his
+people. Formerly, it was right for him to have his house full of idle
+fellows; they were his defenders, his servants, his dependants, his
+friends. Now they may be better employed. The system of things is now so
+much altered, that the family cannot have influence but by riches,
+because it has no longer the power of ancient feudal times. An
+individual of a family may have it; but it cannot now belong to a
+family, unless you could have a perpetuity of men with the same views.
+M'Leod has four times the land that the Duke of Bedford has. I think,
+with his spirit, he may in time make himself the greatest man in the
+King's dominions; for land may always be improved to a certain degree. I
+would never have any man sell land, to throw money into the funds, as is
+often done, or to try any other species of trade. Depend upon it, this
+rage of trade will destroy itself. You and I shall not see it; but the
+time will come when there will be an end of it. Trade is like gaming. If
+a whole company are gamesters, play must cease; for there is nothing to
+be won. When all nations are traders, there is nothing to be gained by
+trade[635], and it will stop first where it is brought to the greatest
+perfection. Then the proprietors of land only will be the great men.' I
+observed, it was hard that M'Leod should find ingratitude in so many of
+his people. JOHNSON. 'Sir, gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation;
+you do not find it among gross people.' I doubt of this. Nature seems to
+have implanted gratitude in all living creatures[636]. The lion,
+mentioned by Aulus Gellius, had it[637]. It appears to me that culture,
+which brings luxury and selfishness with it, has a tendency rather to
+weaken than promote this affection.
+
+Dr. Johnson said this morning, when talking of our setting out, that he
+was in the state in which Lord Bacon represents kings. He desired the
+end, but did not like the means[638]. He wished much to get home, but
+was unwilling to travel in Sky. 'You are like kings too in this, Sir,
+(said I,) that you must act under the direction of others.'
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
+
+The uncertainty of our present situation having prevented me from
+receiving any letters from home for some time, I could not help being
+uneasy. Dr. Johnson had an advantage over me, in this respect, he having
+no wife or child to occasion anxious apprehensions in his mind[639]. It
+was a good morning; so we resolved to set out. But, before quitting this
+castle, where we have been so well entertained, let me give a short
+description of it.
+
+Along the edge of the rock, there are the remains of a wall, which is
+now covered with ivy. A square court is formed by buildings of different
+ages, particularly some towers, said to be of great antiquity; and at
+one place there is a row of false cannon of stone[640]. There is a very
+large unfinished pile, four stories high, which we were told was here
+when _Leod_, the first of this family, came from the Isle of Man,
+married the heiress of the M'Crails, the ancient possessors of Dunvegan,
+and afterwards acquired by conquest as much land as he had got by
+marriage. He surpassed the house of Austria; for he was _felix_ both
+_bella gerere_ et _nubere_[641]. John _Breck_ M'Leod, the grandfather of
+the late laird, began to repair the castle, or rather to complete it:
+but he did not live to finish his undertaking[642]. Not doubting,
+however, that he should do it, he, like those who have had their
+epitaphs written before they died, ordered the following inscription,
+composed by the minister of the parish, to be cut upon a broad stone
+above one of the lower windows, where it still remains to celebrate what
+was not done, and to serve as a memento of the uncertainty of life, and
+the presumption of man:--
+
+'Joannes Macleod Beganoduni Dominus gentis suae Philarchus[643],
+Durinesiae Haraiae Vaternesiae, &c.: Baro D. Florae Macdonald
+matrimoniali vinculo conjugatus turrem hanc Beganodunensem proavorum
+habitaculum longe vetustissimum diu penitus labefectatam Anno aerae
+vulgaris MDCLXXXVI. instauravit.
+
+     'Quem stabilire juvat proavorum tecta vetusta,
+      Omne scelus fugiat, justitiamque colat.
+      Vertit in aerias turres magalia virtus,
+      Inque casas humiles tecta superba nefas.'
+
+M'Leod and Talisker accompanied us. We passed by the parish church of
+_Durinish_. The church-yard is not inclosed, but a pretty murmuring
+brook runs along one side of it. In it is a pyramid erected to the
+memory of Thomas Lord Lovat, by his son Lord Simon, who suffered on
+Tower-hill[644]. It is of free-stone, and, I suppose, about thirty feet
+high. There is an inscription on a piece of white marble inserted in it,
+which I suspect to have been the composition of Lord Lovat himself,
+being much in his pompous style:--
+
+'This pyramid was erected by SIMON LORD FRASER of LOVAT, in honour of
+Lord THOMAS his Father, a Peer of Scotland, and Chief of the great and
+ancient Clan of the FRASERS. Being attacked for his birthright by the
+family of ATHOLL, then in power and favour with KING WILLIAM, yet, by
+the valour and fidelity of his clan, and the assistance of the
+CAMPBELLS, the old friends and allies of his family, he defended his
+birthright with such greatness and fermety of soul, and such valour and
+activity, that he was an honour to his name, and a good pattern to all
+brave Chiefs of clans. He died in the month of May, 1699, in the 63rd
+year of his age, in Dunvegan, the house of the LAIRD of MAC LEOD, whose
+sister he had married: by whom he had the above SIMON LORD FRASER, and
+several other children. And, for the great love he bore to the family of
+MAC LEOD, he desired to be buried near his wife's relations, in the
+place where two of her uncles lay. And his son LORD SIMON, to shew to
+posterity his great affection for his mother's kindred, the brave MAC
+LEODS, chooses rather to leave his father's bones with them, than carry
+them to his own burial-place, near Lovat.'
+
+I have preserved this inscription[645], though of no great value,
+thinking it characteristical of a man who has made some noise in the
+world. Dr. Johnson said, it was poor stuff, such as Lord Lovat's butler
+might have written.
+
+I observed, in this church-yard, a parcel of people assembled at a
+funeral, before the grave was dug. The coffin, with the corpse in it,
+was placed on the ground, while the people alternately assisted in
+making a grave. One man, at a little distance, was busy cutting a long
+turf for it, with the crooked spade which is used in Sky; a very aukward
+instrument. The iron part of it is like a plough-coulter. It has a rude
+tree for a handle, in which a wooden pin is placed for the foot to press
+upon. A traveller might, without further enquiry, have set this down as
+the mode of burying in Sky. I was told, however, that the usual way is
+to have a grave previously dug.
+
+I observed to-day, that the common way of carrying home their grain here
+is in loads on horseback. They have also a few sleds, or _cars_, as we
+call them in Ayrshire, clumsily made, and rarely used[646].
+
+We got to Ulinish about six o'clock, and found a very good farm-house,
+of two stories. Mr. M'Leod of Ulinish, the sheriff-substitute of the
+island, was a plain honest gentleman, a good deal like an English
+Justice of peace; not much given to talk, but sufficiently sagacious,
+and somewhat droll. His daughter, though she was never out of Sky, was a
+very well-bred woman. Our reverend friend, Mr. Donald M'Queen, kept his
+appointment, and met us here.
+
+Talking of Phipps's voyage to the North Pole, Dr. Johnson observed, that
+it 'was conjectured that our former navigators have kept too near land,
+and so have found the sea frozen far north, because the land hinders the
+free motion of the tide; but, in the wide ocean, where the waves tumble
+at their full convenience, it is imagined that the frost does not take
+effect.'[647]
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22.
+
+In the morning I walked out, and saw a ship, the Margaret of Clyde, pass
+by with a number of emigrants on board. It was a melancholy sight. After
+breakfast, we went to see what was called a subterraneous house, about a
+mile off. It was upon the side of a rising ground. It was discovered by
+a fox's having taken up his abode in it, and in chasing him, they dug
+into it. It was very narrow and low, and seemed about forty feet in
+length. Near it, we found the foundations of several small huts, built
+of stone. Mr. M'Queen, who is always for making every thing as ancient
+as possible, boasted that it was the dwelling of some of the first
+inhabitants of the island, and observed, what a curiosity it was to find
+here a specimen of the houses of the _Aborigines_, which he believed
+could be found no where else; and it was plain that they lived without
+fire. Dr. Johnson remarked, that they who made this were not in the
+rudest state; for that it was more difficult to make _it_ than to build
+a house; therefore certainly those who made it were in possession of
+houses, and had this only as a hiding-place. It appeared to me, that the
+vestiges of houses, just by it, confirmed Dr. Johnson's opinion.
+
+From an old tower, near this place, is an extensive view of
+Loch-Braccadil, and, at a distance, of the isles of Barra and South
+Uist; and on the land-side, the _Cuillin_, a prodigious range of
+mountains, capped with rocky pinnacles in a strange variety of shapes.
+They resemble the mountains near Corté in Corsica, of which there is a
+very good print. They make part of a great range for deer, which, though
+entirely devoid of trees, is in these countries called a _forest_.
+
+In the afternoon, Ulinish carried us in his boat to an island possessed
+by him, where we saw an immense cave, much more deserving the title of
+_antrum immane_[648] than that of the Sybil described by Virgil, which I
+likewise have visited. It is one hundred and eighty feet long, about
+thirty feet broad, and at least thirty feet high. This cave, we were
+told, had a remarkable echo; but we found none[649]. They said it was
+owing to the great rains having made it damp. Such are the excuses by
+which the exaggeration of Highland narratives is palliated. There is a
+plentiful garden at Ulinish, (a great rarity in Sky,) and several trees;
+and near the house is a hill, which has an Erse name, signifying, _'the
+hill of strife'_, where, Mr. M'Queen informed us, justice was of old
+administered. It is like the _mons placiti_ of Scone, or those hills
+which are called _laws_[650], such as Kelly _law_, North Berwick _law_,
+and several others. It is singular that this spot should happen now to
+be the sheriff's residence.
+
+We had a very cheerful evening, and Dr. Johnson talked a good deal on
+the subject of literature. Speaking of the noble family of Boyle, he
+said, that all the Lord Orrerys, till the present, had been writers.
+The first wrote several plays[651]; the second[652] was Bentley's
+antagonist; the third[653] wrote the _Life of Swift_, and several other
+things; his son Hamilton wrote some papers in the _Adventurer_ and
+_World_. He told us, he was well acquainted with Swift's Lord Orrery. He
+said, he was a feebleminded man; that, on the publication of Dr.
+Delany's _Remarks_ on his book, he was so much alarmed that he was
+afraid to read them. Dr. Johnson comforted him, by telling him they were
+both in the right; that Delany had seen most of the good side of
+Swift,--Lord Orrery most of the bad. M'Leod asked, if it was not wrong
+in Orrery to expose the defects of a man with whom he lived in intimacy.
+JOHNSON. 'Why no, Sir, after the man is dead; for then it is done
+historically[654].' He added, 'If Lord Orrery had been rich, he would
+have been a very liberal patron. His conversation was like his writings,
+neat and elegant, but without strength. He grasped at more than his
+abilities could reach; tried to pass for a better talker, a better
+writer, and a better thinker than he was[655]. There was a quarrel
+between him and his father, in which his father was to blame; because it
+arose from the son's not allowing his wife to keep company with his
+father's mistress. The old lord shewed his resentment in his
+will[656],--leaving his library from his son, and assigning, as his
+reason, that he could not make use of it.'
+
+I mentioned the affectation of Orrery, in ending all his letters on the
+_Life of Swift_ in studied varieties of phrase[657], and never in the
+common mode of _'I am'_, &c., an observation which I remember to have
+been made several years ago by old Mr. Sheridan. This species of
+affectation in writing, as a foreign lady of distinguished talents once
+remarked to me, is almost peculiar to the English. I took up a volume of
+Dryden, containing the CONQUEST of GRANADA, and several other plays, of
+which all the dedications had such studied conclusions. Dr. Johnson
+said, such conclusions were more elegant, and in addressing persons of
+high rank, (as when Dryden dedicated to the Duke of York[658],) they
+were likewise more respectful. I agreed that _there_ it was much better:
+it was making his escape from the Royal presence with a genteel sudden
+timidity, in place of having the resolution to stand still, and make a
+formal bow.
+
+Lord Orrery's unkind treatment of his son in his will, led us to talk of
+the dispositions a man should have when dying. I said, I did not see why
+a man should act differently with respect to those of whom he thought
+ill when in health, merely because he was dying. JOHNSON. 'I should not
+scruple to speak against a party, when dying; but should not do it
+against an individual. It is told of Sixtus Quintus, that on his
+death-bed, in the intervals of his last pangs, he signed
+death-warrants[659].' Mr. M'Queen said, he should not do so; he would
+have more tenderness of heart. JOHNSON. 'I believe I should not either;
+but Mr. M'Queen and I are cowards[660]. It would not be from tenderness
+of heart; for the heart is as tender when a man is in health as when he
+is sick, though his resolution may be stronger[661]. Sixtus Quintus was
+a sovereign as well as a priest; and, if the criminals deserved death,
+he was doing his duty to the last. You would not think a judge died ill,
+who should be carried off by an apoplectick fit while pronouncing
+sentence of death. Consider a class of men whose business it is to
+distribute death:--soldiers, who die scattering bullets. Nobody thinks
+they die ill on that account.'
+
+Talking of Biography, he said, he did not think that the life of any
+literary man in England had been well written[662]. Beside the common
+incidents of life, it should tell us his studies, his mode of living,
+the means by which he attained to excellence, and his opinion of his own
+works. He told us, he had sent Derrick to Dryden's relations, to gather
+materials for his Life[663]; and he believed Derrick[664] had got all
+that he himself should have got; but it was nothing. He added, he had a
+kindness for Derrick, and was sorry he was dead.
+
+His notion as to the poems published by Mr. M'Pherson, as the works of
+Ossian, was not shaken here. Mr. M'Queen always evaded the point of
+authenticity, saying only that Mr. M'Pherson's pieces fell far short of
+those he knew in Erse, which were said to be Ossian's. JOHNSON. 'I hope
+they do. I am not disputing that you may have poetry of great merit; but
+that M'Pherson's is not a translation from ancient poetry. You do not
+believe it. I say before you, you do not believe it, though you are very
+willing that the world should believe it.' Mr. M'Queen made no answer
+to this[665]. Dr. Johnson proceeded. 'I look upon M'Pherson's _Fingal_
+to be as gross an imposition as ever the world was troubled with. Had it
+been really an ancient work, a true specimen how men thought at that
+time, it would have been a curiosity of the first rate. As a modern
+production, it is nothing.' He said, he could never get the meaning of
+an _Erse_ song explained to him[666]. They told him, the chorus was
+generally unmeaning. 'I take it, (said he,) Erse songs are like a song
+which I remember: it was composed in Queen Elizabeth's time, on the Earl
+of Essex: and the burthen was
+
+     "Radaratoo, radarate, radara tadara tandore."'
+
+'But surely,' said Mr. M'Queen, 'there were words to it, which had
+meaning.' JOHNSON. 'Why, yes, Sir; I recollect a stanza, and you shall
+have it:--
+
+     "O! then bespoke the prentices all,
+      Living in London, both proper and tall,
+      For Essex's sake they would fight all.
+        Radaratoo, radarate, radara, tadara, tandore[667]."'
+
+When Mr. M'Queen began again to expatiate on the beauty of Ossian's
+poetry, Dr. Johnson entered into no farther controversy, but, with a
+pleasant smile, only cried, 'Ay, ay; _Radaratoo radarate'_.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23.
+
+I took _Fingal_ down to the parlour in the morning, and tried a test
+proposed by Mr. Roderick M'Leod, son to Ulinish. Mr. M'Queen had said he
+had some of the poem in the original. I desired him to mention any
+passage in the printed book, of which he could repeat the original. He
+pointed out one in page 50 of the quarto edition, and read the Erse,
+while Mr. Roderick M'Leod and I looked on the English;--and Mr. M'Leod
+said, that it was pretty like what Mr. M'Queen had recited. But when Mr.
+M'Queen read a description of Cuchullin's sword in Erse, together with a
+translation of it in English verse, by Sir James Foulis, Mr. M'Leod
+said, that was much more like than Mr. M'Pherson's translation of the
+former passage. Mr. M'Queen then repeated in Erse a description of one
+of the horses in Cuchillin's car. Mr. M'Leod said, Mr. M'Pherson's
+English was nothing like it.
+
+When Dr. Johnson came down, I told him that I had now obtained some
+evidence concerning _Fingal_; for that Mr. M'Queen had repeated a
+passage in the original Erse, which Mr. M'Pherson's translation was
+pretty like; and reminded him that he himself had once said, he did not
+require Mr. M'Pherson's _Ossian_ to be more like the original than
+Pope's _Homer_. JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, this is just what I always
+maintained. He has found names, and stories, and phrases, nay, passages
+in old songs, and with them has blended his own compositions, and so
+made what he gives to the world as the translation of an ancient poem.'
+If this was the case, I observed, it was wrong to publish it as a poem
+in six books. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; and to ascribe it to a time too when
+the Highlanders knew nothing of _books_, and nothing of _six_;--or
+perhaps were got the length of counting six. We have been told, by
+Condamine, of a nation that could count no more than four[668]. This
+should be told to Monboddo; it would help him. There is as much charity
+in helping a man down-hill, as in helping him up-hill.' BOSWELL. 'I
+don't think there is as much charity.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if his
+_tendency_ be downwards. Till he is at the bottom he flounders; get him
+once there, and he is quiet. Swift tells, that Stella had a trick, which
+she learned from Addison, of encouraging a man in absurdity, instead of
+endeavouring to extricate him[669].'
+
+Mr. M'Queen's answers to the inquiries concerning _Ossian_ were so
+unsatisfactory, that I could not help observing, that, were he examined
+in a court of justice, he would find himself under a necessity of being
+more explicit. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he has told Blair a little too much, which
+is published[670]; and he sticks to it. He is so much at the head of
+things here, that he has never been accustomed to be closely examined;
+and so he goes on quite smoothly.' BOSWELL. 'He has never had any body
+to work[671] him.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; and a man is seldom disposed to
+work himself; though he ought to work himself, to be sure.' Mr. M'Queen
+made no reply[672].
+
+Having talked of the strictness with which witnesses are examined in
+courts of justice, Dr. Johnson told us, that Garrick, though accustomed
+to face multitudes, when produced as a witness in Westminster-hall, was
+so disconcerted by a new mode of public appearance, that he could not
+understand what was asked[673]. It was a cause where an actor claimed a
+_free benefit_; that is to say, a benefit without paying the expence of
+the house; but the meaning of the term was disputed. Garrick was asked,
+'Sir, have you a free benefit?' 'Yes.' 'Upon what terms have you it?'
+'Upon-the terms-of-a free benefit.' He was dismissed as one from whom no
+information could be obtained. Dr. Johnson is often too hard on our
+friend Mr. Garrick. When I asked him why he did not mention him in the
+Preface to his _Shakspeare_[674] he said, 'Garrick has been liberally
+paid for any thing he has done for Shakspeare. If I should praise him, I
+should much more praise the nation who paid him. He has not made
+Shakspeare better known[675]; he cannot illustrate Shakspeare; so I have
+reasons enough against mentioning him, were reasons necessary. There
+should be reasons _for_ it.' I spoke of Mrs. Montague's very high
+praises of Garrick[676]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is fit she should say so
+much, and I should say nothing. Reynolds is fond of her book, and I
+wonder at it; for neither I, nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs. Thrale, could get
+through it[677].'  Last night Dr. Johnson gave us an account of the
+whole process of tanning and of the nature of milk, and the various
+operations upon it, as making whey, &c. His variety of information is
+surprizing[678]; and it gives one much satisfaction to find such a man
+bestowing his attention on the useful arts of life. Ulinish was much
+struck with his knowledge; and said, 'He is a great orator, Sir; it is
+musick to hear this man speak.' A strange thought struck me, to try if
+he knew any thing of an art, or whatever it should be called, which is
+no doubt very useful in life, but which lies far out of the way of a
+philosopher and a poet; I mean the trade of a butcher. I enticed him
+into the subject, by connecting it with the various researches into the
+manners and customs of uncivilized nations, that have been made by our
+late navigators into the South Seas. I began with observing, that Mr.
+(now Sir Joseph) Banks tells us, that the art of slaughtering animals
+was not known in Otaheité, for, instead of bleeding to death their
+dogs, (a common food with them,) they strangle them. This he told me
+himself; and I supposed that their hogs were killed in the same way. Dr.
+Johnson said, 'This must be owing to their not having knives,--though
+they have sharp stones with which they can cut a carcase in pieces
+tolerably.' By degrees, he shewed that he knew something even of
+butchery. 'Different animals (said he) are killed differently. An ox is
+knocked down, and a calf stunned; but a sheep has its throat cut,
+without any thing being done to stupify it. The butchers have no view to
+the ease of the animals, but only to make them quiet, for their own
+safety and convenience. A sheep can give them little trouble. Hales[679]
+is of opinion, that every animal should be blooded, without having any
+blow given to it, because it bleeds better.' BOSWELL. 'That would be
+cruel.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; there is not much pain, if the jugular vein
+be properly cut.' Pursuing the subject, he said, the kennels of
+Southwark ran with blood two or three days in the week; that he was
+afraid there were slaughter-houses in more streets in London than one
+supposes; (speaking with a kind of horrour of butchering;) and, yet he
+added, 'any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef.' I said we
+_could_ not. 'Yes, (said he,) any one may. The business of a butcher is
+a trade indeed, that is to say, there is an apprenticeship served to it;
+but it may be learnt in a month[680].'
+
+I mentioned a club in London at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap, the very
+tavern[681] where Falstaff and his joyous companions met; the members of
+which all assume Shakspeare's characters. One is Falstaff, another
+Prince Henry, another Bardolph, and so on. JOHNSON. 'Don't be of it,
+Sir. Now that you have a name, you must be careful to avoid many things,
+not bad in themselves, but which will lessen your character[682]. This
+every man who has a name must observe. A man who is not publickly known
+may live in London as he pleases, without any notice being taken of him;
+but it is wonderful how a person of any consequence is watched. There
+was a member of parliament, who wanted to prepare himself to speak on a
+question that was to come on in the House; and he and I were to talk it
+over together. He did not wish it should be known that he talked with
+me; so he would not let me come to his house, but came to mine. Some
+time after he had made his speech in the house, Mrs. Cholmondeley[683],
+a very airy[684] lady, told me, 'Well, you could make nothing of him!'
+naming the gentleman; which was a proof that he was watched. I had once
+some business to do for government, and I went to Lord North's.
+Precaution was taken that it should not be known. It was dark before I
+went; yet a few days after I was told, 'Well, you have been with Lord
+North.' That the door of the prime minister should be watched is not
+strange; but that a member of parliament should be watched, or that my
+door should be watched, is wonderful.'
+
+We set out this morning on our way to Talisker, in Ulinish's boat,
+having taken leave of him and his family. Mr. Donald M'Queen still
+favoured us with his company, for which we were much obliged to him. As
+we sailed along Dr. Johnson got into one of his fits of railing at the
+Scots. He owned that they had been a very learned nation for a hundred
+years, from about 1550 to about 1650; but that they afforded the only
+instance of a people among whom the arts of civil life did not advance
+in proportion with learning; that they had hardly any trade, any money,
+or any elegance, before the Union; that it was strange that, with all
+the advantages possessed by other nations, they had not any of those
+conveniencies and embellishments which are the fruit of industry, till
+they came in contact with a civilized people. 'We have taught you, (said
+he,) and we'll do the same in time to all barbarous nations,--to the
+Cherokees,--and at last to the Ouran-Outangs;' laughing with as much
+glee as if Monboddo had been present. BOSWELL. 'We had wine before the
+Union.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; you had some weak stuff, the refuse of
+France, which would not make you drunk.' BOSWELL. 'I assure you, Sir,
+there was a great deal of drunkenness.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; there were
+people who died of dropsies, which they contracted in trying to get
+drunk[685].'
+
+I must here glean some of his conversation at Ulinish, which I have
+omitted. He repeated his remark, that a man in a ship was worse than a
+man in a jail[686]. 'The man in a jail, (said he,) has more room, better
+food, and commonly better company, and is in safety.' 'Ay; but, (said
+Mr. M'Queen,) the man in the ship has the pleasing hope of getting to
+shore.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am not talking of a man's getting to shore; but
+of a man while he is in a ship: and then, I say, he is worse than a man
+while he is in a jail. A man in a jail _may_ have the _"pleasing hope"_
+of getting out. A man confined for only a limited time, actually _has_
+it.' M'Leod mentioned his schemes for carrying on fisheries with spirit,
+and that he would wish to understand the construction of boats. I
+suggested that he might go to a dock-yard and work, as Peter the Great
+did. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, he need not work. Peter the Great had not the
+sense to see that the mere mechanical work may be done by any body, and
+that there is the same art in constructing a vessel, whether the boards
+are well or ill wrought. Sir Christopher Wren might as well have served
+his time to a bricklayer, and first, indeed, to a brick-maker.'
+
+There is a beautiful little island in the Loch of Dunvegan, called
+_Isa_. M'Leod said, he would give it to Dr. Johnson, on condition of his
+residing on it three months in the year; nay one month. Dr. Johnson was
+highly amused with the fancy. I have seen him please himself with little
+things, even with mere ideas like the present. He talked a great deal of
+this island;--how he would build a house there,--how he would fortify
+it,--how he would have cannon,--how he would plant,--how he would sally
+out, and _take_ the isle of Muck;--and then he laughed with uncommon
+glee, and could hardly leave off. I have seen him do so at a small
+matter that struck him, and was a sport to no one else[687]. Mr. Langton
+told me, that one night he did so while the company were all grave about
+him:--only Garrick, in his significant smart manner, darting his eyes
+around, exclaimed, '_Very_ jocose, to be sure!' M'Leod encouraged the
+fancy of Doctor Johnson's becoming owner of an island; told him, that it
+was the practice in this country to name every man by his lands; and
+begged leave to drink to him in that mode: '_Island Isa_, your health!'
+Ulinish, Talisker, Mr. M'Queen, and I, all joined in our different
+manners, while Dr. Johnson bowed to each, with much good humour.
+
+We had good weather, and a fine sail this day. The shore was varied with
+hills, and rocks, and corn-fields, and bushes, which are here dignified
+with the name of natural _wood_. We landed near the house of Ferneley, a
+farm possessed by another gentleman of the name of M'Leod, who,
+expecting our arrival, was waiting on the shore, with a horse for Dr.
+Johnson. The rest of us walked. At dinner, I expressed to M'Leod the joy
+which I had in seeing him on such cordial terms with his clan.
+'Government (said he) has deprived us of our ancient power; but it
+cannot deprive us of our domestick satisfactions. I would rather drink
+punch in one of their houses, (meaning the houses of his people,) than
+be enabled by their hardships to have claret in my own.[688]' This
+should be the sentiment of every Chieftain. All that he can get by
+raising his rents, is more luxury in his own house. Is it not better to
+share the profits of his estate, to a certain degree, with his kinsmen,
+and thus have both social intercourse and patriarchal influence?
+
+We had a very good ride, for about three miles, to Talisker, where
+Colonel M'Leod introduced us to his lady. We found here Mr. Donald
+M'Lean, the young Laird of _Col_, (nephew to Talisker,) to whom I
+delivered the letter with which I had been favoured by his uncle,
+Professor M'Leod, at Aberdeen[689]. He was a little lively young man. We
+found he had been a good deal in England, studying farming, and was
+resolved to improve the value of his father's lands, without oppressing
+his tenants, or losing the ancient Highland fashions.
+
+Talisker is a better place than one commonly finds in Sky. It is
+situated in a rich bottom. Before it is a wide expanse of sea, on each
+hand of which are immense rocks; and, at some distance in the sea, there
+are three columnal rocks rising to sharp points. The billows break with
+prodigious force and noise on the coast of Talisker[690]. There are here
+a good many well-grown trees. Talisker is an extensive farm. The
+possessor of it has, for several generations, been the next heir to
+M'Leod, as there has been but one son always in that family. The court
+before the house is most injudiciously paved with the round blueish-grey
+pebbles which are found upon the sea-shore; so that you walk as if upon
+cannon-balls driven into the ground.
+
+After supper, I talked of the assiduity of the Scottish clergy, in
+visiting and privately instructing their parishioners, and observed how
+much in this they excelled the English clergy. Dr. Johnson would not let
+this pass. He tried to turn it off, by saying, 'There are different ways
+of instructing. Our clergy pray and preach.' M'Leod and I pressed the
+subject, upon which he grew warm, and broke forth: 'I do not believe
+your people are better instructed. If they are, it is the blind leading
+the blind; for your clergy are not instructed themselves.' Thinking he
+had gone a little too far, he checked himself, and added, 'When I talk
+of the ignorance of your clergy, I talk of them as a body: I do not mean
+that there are not individuals who are learned (looking at Mr.
+M'Queen[691]). I suppose there are such among the clergy in Muscovy. The
+clergy of England have produced the most valuable books in support of
+religion, both in theory and practice. What have your clergy done, since
+you sunk into presbyterianism? Can you name one book of any value, on a
+religious subject, written by them[692]?' We were silent. 'I'll help
+you. Forbes wrote very well; but I believe he wrote before episcopacy
+was quite extinguished.' And then pausing a little, he said, 'Yes, you
+have Wishart AGAINST Repentance[693].' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, we are not
+contending for the superior learning of our clergy, but for their
+superior assiduity.' He bore us down again, with thundering against
+their ignorance, and said to me, 'I see you have not been well taught;
+for you have not charity.' He had been in some measure forced into this
+warmth, by the exulting air which I assumed; for, when he began, he
+said, 'Since you _will_ drive the nail!' He again thought of good Mr.
+M'Queen, and, taking him by the hand, said, 'Sir, I did not mean any
+disrespect to you[694].'
+
+Here I must observe, that he conquered by deserting his ground, and not
+meeting the argument as I had put it. The assiduity of the Scottish
+clergy is certainly greater than that of the English. His taking up the
+topick of their not having so much learning, was, though ingenious, yet
+a fallacy in logick. It was as if there should be a dispute whether a
+man's hair is well dressed, and Dr. Johnson should say, 'Sir, his hair
+cannot be well dressed; for he has a dirty shirt. No man who has not
+clean linen has his hair well dressed.' When some days afterwards he
+read this passage, he said, 'No, Sir; I did not say that a man's hair
+could not be well dressed because he has not clean linen, but because
+he is bald.'
+
+He used one argument against the Scottish clergy being learned, which I
+doubt was not good. 'As we believe a man dead till we know that he is
+alive; so we believe men ignorant till we know that they are learned.'
+Now our maxim in law is, to presume a man alive, till we know he is
+dead. However, indeed, it may be answered, that we must first know he
+has lived; and that we have never known the learning of the Scottish
+clergy. Mr. M'Queen, though he was of opinion that Dr. Johnson had
+deserted the point really in dispute, was much pleased with what he
+said, and owned to me, he thought it very just; and Mrs. M'Leod was so
+much captivated by his eloquence, that she told me 'I was a good
+advocate for a bad cause.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.
+
+This was a good day. Dr. Johnson told us, at breakfast, that he rode
+harder at a fox chace than any body[695]. 'The English (said he) are the
+only nation who ride hard a-hunting. A Frenchman goes out, upon a
+managed[696] horse, and capers in the field, and no more thinks of
+leaping a hedge than of mounting a breach. Lord Powerscourt laid a
+wager, in France, that he would ride a great many miles in a certain
+short time. The French academicians set to work, and calculated that,
+from the resistance of the air, it was impossible. His lordship however
+performed it.'
+
+Our money being nearly exhausted, we sent a bill for thirty pounds,
+drawn on Sir William Forbes and Co.[697], to Lochbraccadale, but our
+messenger found it very difficult to procure cash for it; at length,
+however, he got us value from the master of a vessel which was to carry
+away some emigrants. There is a great scarcity of specie in Sky[698].
+Mr. M'Queen said he had the utmost difficulty to pay his servants'
+wages, or to pay for any little thing which he has to buy. The rents are
+paid in bills[699], which the drovers give. The people consume a vast
+deal of snuff and tobacco, for which they must pay ready money; and
+pedlars, who come about selling goods, as there is not a shop in the
+island, carry away the cash. If there were encouragement given to
+fisheries and manufactures, there might be a circulation of money
+introduced. I got one-and-twenty shillings in silver at Portree, which
+was thought a wonderful store.
+
+Talisker, Mr. M'Queen, and I, walked out, and looked at no less than
+fifteen different waterfalls near the house, in the space of about a
+quarter of a mile[700]. We also saw Cuchillin's well, said to have been
+the favourite spring of that ancient hero. I drank of it. The water is
+admirable. On the shore are many stones full of crystallizations in
+the heart.
+
+Though our obliging friend, Mr. M'Lean, was but the young laird, he had
+the title of _Col_ constantly given him. After dinner he and I walked to
+the top of Prieshwell, a very high rocky hill, from whence there is a
+view of Barra,--the Long Island,--Bernera,--the Loch of Dunvegan,--part
+of Rum--part of Rasay, and a vast deal of the isle of Sky. Col, though
+he had come into Sky with an intention to be at Dunvegan, and pass a
+considerable time in the island, most politely resolved first to
+conduct us to Mull, and then to return to Sky. This was a very fortunate
+circumstance; for he planned an expedition for us of more variety than
+merely going to Mull. He proposed we should see the islands of _Egg,
+Muck, Col,_ and _Tyr-yi_. In all these islands he could shew us every
+thing worth seeing; and in Mull he said he should be as if at home, his
+father having lands there, and he a farm.
+
+Dr. Johnson did not talk much to-day, but seemed intent in listening to
+the schemes of future excursion, planned by Col. Dr. Birch[701],
+however, being mentioned, he said, he had more anecdotes than any man. I
+said, Percy had a great many; that he flowed with them like one of the
+brooks here. JOHNSON. 'If Percy is like one of the brooks here, Birch
+was like the river Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that, as much as
+Percy excels Goldsmith.' I mentioned Lord Hailes as a man of anecdote.
+He was not pleased with him, for publishing only such memorials and
+letters as were unfavourable for the Stuart family[702]. 'If, (said he,)
+a man fairly warns you, "I am to give all the ill; do you find the
+good;" he may: but if the object which he professes be to give a view of
+a reign, let him tell all the truth. I would tell truth of the two
+Georges, or of that scoundrel, King William[703]. Granger's
+_Biographical History_[704] is full of curious anecdote, but might have
+been better done. The dog is a Whig. I do not like much to see a Whig in
+any dress; but I hate to see a Whig in a parson's gown[705].'
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25.
+
+It was resolved that we should set out, in order to return to Slate, to
+be in readiness to take boat whenever there should be a fair wind. Dr.
+Johnson remained in his chamber writing a letter, and it was long before
+we could get him into motion. He did not come to breakfast, but had it
+sent to him. When he had finished his letter, it was twelve o'clock, and
+we should have set out at ten. When I went up to him, he said to me, 'Do
+you remember a song which begins,
+
+     "Every island is a prison[706]
+      Strongly guarded by the sea;
+      Kings and princes, for that reason,
+      Prisoners are, as well as we?"'
+
+I suppose he had been thinking of our confined situation[707]. He would
+fain have gone in a boat from hence, instead of riding back to Slate. A
+scheme for it was proposed. He said, 'We'll not be driven tamely from
+it:'-but it proved impracticable.
+
+We took leave of M'Leod and Talisker, from whom we parted with regret.
+Talisker, having been bred to physick, had a tincture of scholarship in
+his conversation, which pleased Dr. Johnson, and he had some very good
+books; and being a colonel in the Dutch service, he and his lady, in
+consequence of having lived abroad, had introduced the ease and
+politeness of the continent into this rude region.
+
+Young Col was now our leader. Mr. M'Queen was to accompany us half a day
+more. We stopped at a little hut, where we saw an old woman grinding
+with the _quern_, the ancient Highland instrument, which it is said was
+used by the Romans, but which, being very slow in its operation, is
+almost entirely gone into disuse.
+
+The walls of the cottages in Sky, instead of being one compacted mass
+of stones, are often formed by two exterior surfaces of stone, filled up
+with earth in the middle, which makes them very warm. The roof is
+generally bad. They are thatched, sometimes with straw, sometimes with
+heath, sometimes with fern. The thatch is secured by ropes of straw, or
+of heath; and, to fix the ropes, there is a stone tied to the end of
+each. These stones hang round the bottom of the roof, and make it look
+like a lady's hair in papers; but I should think that, when there is
+wind, they would come down, and knock people on the head.
+
+We dined at the inn at Sconser, where I had the pleasure to find a
+letter from my wife. Here we parted from our learned companion, Mr.
+Donald M'Queen. Dr. Johnson took leave of him very affectionately,
+saying, 'Dear Sir, do not forget me!' We settled, that he should write
+an account of the Isle of Sky, which Dr. Johnson promised to revise. He
+said, Mr. M'Queen should tell all that he could; distinguishing what he
+himself knew, what was traditional, and what conjectural.
+
+We sent our horses round a point of land, that we might shun some very
+bad road; and resolved to go forward by sea. It was seven o'clock when
+we got into our boat. We had many showers, and it soon grew pretty dark.
+Dr. Johnson sat silent and patient. Once he said, as he looked on the
+black coast of Sky,-black, as being composed of rocks seen in the
+dusk,--'This is very solemn.' Our boatmen were rude singers, and seemed
+so like wild Indians, that a very little imagination was necessary to
+give one an impression of being upon an American river. We landed at
+_Strolimus_, from whence we got a guide to walk before us, for two
+miles, to _Corrichatachin_. Not being able to procure a horse for our
+baggage, I took one portmanteau before me, and Joseph another. We had
+but a single star to light us on our way. It was about eleven when we
+arrived. We were most hospitably received by the master and mistress,
+who were just going to bed, but, with unaffected ready kindness, made a
+good fire, and at twelve o'clock at night had supper on the table.
+
+James Macdonald, of _Knockow_, Kingsburgh's brother, whom we had seen at
+Kingsburgh, was there. He shewed me a bond granted by the late Sir James
+Macdonald, to old Kingsburgh, the preamble of which does so much honour
+to the feelings of that much-lamented gentleman, that I thought it worth
+transcribing. It was as follows:--
+
+'I, Sir James Macdonald, of Macdonald, Baronet, now, after arriving at
+my perfect age, from the friendship I bear to Alexander Macdonald of
+Kingsburgh, and in return for the long and faithful services done and
+performed by him to my deceased father, and to myself during my
+minority, when he was one of my Tutors and Curators; being resolved, now
+that the said Alexander Macdonald is advanced in years, to contribute my
+endeavours for making his old age placid and comfortable,'--
+
+therefore he grants him an annuity of fifty pounds sterling.
+
+Dr. Johnson went to bed soon. When one bowl of punch was finished, I
+rose, and was near the door, in my way up stairs to bed; but
+Corrichatachin said, it was the first time Col had been in his house,
+and he should have his bowl;-and would not I join in drinking it? The
+heartiness of my honest landlord, and the desire of doing social honour
+to our very obliging conductor, induced me to sit down again. Col's bowl
+was finished; and by that time we were well warmed. A third bowl was
+soon made, and that too was finished. We were cordial, and merry to a
+high degree; but of what passed I have no recollection, with any
+accuracy. I remember calling _Corrichatachin_ by the familiar
+appellation of _Corri_, which his friends do. A fourth bowl was made, by
+which time Col, and young M'Kinnon, Corrichatachin's son, slipped away
+to bed. I continued a little with Corri and Knockow; but at last I left
+them. It was near five in the morning when I got to bed.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
+
+I awaked at noon, with a severe head-ach. I was much vexed that I should
+have been guilty of such a riot, and afraid of a reproof from Dr.
+Johnson. I thought it very inconsistent with that conduct which I ought
+to maintain, while the companion of the Rambler. About one he came into
+my room, and accosted me, 'What, drunk yet?' His tone of voice was not
+that of severe upbraiding; so I was relieved a little. 'Sir, (said I,)
+they kept me up.' He answered, 'No, you kept them up, you drunken
+dog:'-This he said with good-humoured _English_ pleasantry. Soon
+afterwards, Corrichatachin, Col, and other friends assembled round my
+bed. Corri had a brandy-bottle and glass with him, and insisted I should
+take a dram. 'Ay, said Dr. Johnson, fill him drunk again. Do it in the
+morning, that we may laugh at him all day. It is a poor thing for a
+fellow to get drunk at night, and sculk to bed, and let his friends have
+no sport.' Finding him thus jocular, I became quite easy; and when I
+offered to get up, he very good naturedly said, 'You need be in no such
+hurry now[708].' I took my host's advice, and drank some brandy, which I
+found an effectual cure for my head-ach. When I rose, I went into Dr.
+Johnson's room, and taking up Mrs. M'Kinnon's Prayer-book, I opened it
+at the twentieth Sunday after Trinity, in the epistle for which I read,
+'And be not drunk with wine, wherein there is excess[709].' Some would
+have taken this as a divine interposition.
+
+Mrs. M'Kinnon told us at dinner, that old Kingsburgh, her father, was
+examined at Mugstot, by General Campbell, as to the particulars of the
+dress of the person who had come to his house in woman's clothes along
+with Miss Flora M'Donald; as the General had received intelligence of
+that disguise. The particulars were taken down in writing, that it might
+be seen how far they agreed with the dress of the _Irish girl_ who went
+with Miss Flora from the Long Island. Kingsburgh, she said, had but one
+song, which he always sung when he was merry over a glass. She dictated
+the words to me, which are foolish enough:--
+
+     'Green sleeves[710] and pudding pies,
+      Tell me where my mistress lies,
+      And I'll be with her before she rise,
+      Fiddle and aw' together.
+
+      May our affairs abroad succeed,
+      And may our king come home with speed,
+      And all pretenders shake for dread,
+      And let _his_ health go round.
+
+      To all our injured friends in need,
+      This side and beyond the Tweed!--
+      Let all pretenders shake for dread,
+      And let _his_ health go round.
+         Green sleeves,' &c.
+
+While the examination was going on, the present Talisker, who was there
+as one of M'Leod's militia, could not resist the pleasantry of asking
+Kingsburgh, in allusion to his only song, 'Had she _green sleeves_?'
+Kingsburgh gave him no answer. Lady Margaret M'Donald was very angry at
+Talisker for joking on such a serious occasion, as Kingsburgh was really
+in danger of his life. Mrs. M'Kinnon added that Lady Margaret was quite
+adored in Sky. That when she travelled through the island, the people
+ran in crowds before her, and took the stones off the road, lest her
+horse should stumble and she be hurt[711]. Her husband, Sir Alexander,
+is also remembered with great regard. We were told that every week a
+hogshead of claret was drunk at his table.
+
+This was another day of wind and rain; but good cheer and good society
+helped to beguile the time. I felt myself comfortable enough in the
+afternoon. I then thought that my last night's riot was no more than
+such a social excess as may happen without much moral blame; and
+recollected that some physicians maintained, that a fever produced by it
+was, upon the whole, good for health: so different are our reflections
+on the same subject, at different periods; and such the excuses with
+which we palliate what we know to be wrong.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27.
+
+Mr. Donald M'Leod, our original guide, who had parted from us at
+Dunvegan, joined us again to-day. The weather was still so bad that we
+could not travel. I found a closet here, with a good many books, beside
+those that were lying about. Dr. Johnson told me, he found a library in
+his room at Talisker; and observed, that it was one of the remarkable
+things of Sky, that there were so many books in it.
+
+Though we had here great abundance of provisions, it is remarkable that
+Corrichatachin has literally no garden: not even a turnip, a carrot, or
+a cabbage. After dinner, we talked of the crooked spade used in Sky,
+already described, and they maintained that it was better than the usual
+garden-spade, and that there was an art in tossing it, by which those
+who were accustomed to it could work very easily with it. 'Nay, (said
+Dr. Johnson,) it may be useful in land where there are many stones to
+raise; but it certainly is not a good instrument for digging good land.
+A man may toss it, to be sure; but he will toss a light spade much
+better: its weight makes it an incumbrance. A man _may_ dig any land
+with it; but he has no occasion for such a weight in digging good land.
+You may take a field piece to shoot sparrows; but all the sparrows you
+can bring home will not be worth the charge.' He was quite social and
+easy amongst them; and, though he drank no fermented liquor, toasted
+Highland beauties with great readiness. His conviviality engaged them so
+much, that they seemed eager to shew their attention to him, and vied
+with each other in crying out, with a strong Celtick pronunciation,
+'Toctor Shonson, Toctor Shonson, your health!'
+
+This evening one of our married ladies, a lively pretty little woman,
+good-humouredly sat down upon Dr. Johnson's knee, and, being encouraged
+by some of the company, put her hands round his neck, and kissed him.
+'Do it again, (said he,) and let us see who will tire first.' He kept
+her on his knee some time, while he and she drank tea. He was now like a
+_buck_[712] indeed. All the company were much entertained to find him so
+easy and pleasant. To me it was highly comick, to see the grave
+philosopher,--the Rambler,-toying with a Highland beauty[713]!--But what
+could he do? He must have been surly, and weak too, had he not behaved
+as he did. He would have been laughed at, and not more respected, though
+less loved.
+
+He read to-night, to himself, as he sat in company, a great deal of my
+Journal, and said to me, 'The more I read of this, I think the more
+highly of you.' The gentlemen sat a long time at their punch, after he
+and I had retired to our chambers. The manner in which they were
+attended struck me as singular:--The bell being broken, a smart lad lay
+on a table in the corner of the room, ready to spring up and bring the
+kettle, whenever it was wanted. They continued drinking, and singing
+Erse songs, till near five in the morning, when they all came into my
+room, where some of them had beds. Unluckily for me, they found a bottle
+of punch in a corner, which they drank; and Corrichatachin went for
+another, which they also drank. They made many apologies for disturbing
+me. I told them, that, having been kept awake by their mirth, I had once
+thoughts of getting up, and joining them again. Honest Corrichatachin
+said, 'To have had you done so, I would have given a cow.'
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28.
+
+The weather was worse than yesterday. I felt as if imprisoned. Dr.
+Johnson said, it was irksome to be detained thus: yet he seemed to have
+less uneasiness, or more patience, than I had. What made our situation
+worse here was, that we had no rooms that we could command; for the good
+people had no notion that a man could have any occasion but for a mere
+sleeping-place; so, during the day, the bed chambers were common to all
+the house. Servants eat in Dr. Johnson's; and mine was a kind of general
+rendezvous of all under the roof, children and dogs not excepted. As the
+gentlemen occupied the parlour, the ladies had no place to sit in,
+during the day, but Dr. Johnson's room. I had always some quiet time for
+writing in it, before he was up; and, by degrees, I accustomed the
+ladies to let me sit in it after breakfast, at my _Journal_, without
+minding me.
+
+Dr. Johnson was this morning for going to see as many islands as we
+could; not recollecting the uncertainty of the season, which might
+detain us in one place for many weeks. He said to me, 'I have more the
+spirit of adventure than you.' For my part, I was anxious to get to
+Mull, from whence we might almost any day reach the main land.
+
+Dr. Johnson mentioned, that the few ancient Irish gentlemen yet
+remaining have the highest pride of family; that Mr. Sandford, a friend
+of his, whose mother was Irish, told him, that O'Hara (who was true
+Irish, both by father and mother) and he, and Mr. Ponsonby, son to the
+Earl of Besborough, the greatest man of the three, but of an English
+family, went to see one of those ancient Irish, and that he
+distinguished them thus: 'O'Hara, you are welcome! Mr. Sandford, your
+mother's son is welcome! Mr. Ponsonby, you may sit down.'
+
+He talked both of threshing and thatching. He said, it was very
+difficult to determine how to agree with a thresher. 'If you pay him by
+the day's wages, he will thresh no more than he pleases; though to be
+sure, the negligence of a thresher is more easily detected than that of
+most labourers, because he must always make a sound while he works. If
+you pay him by the piece, by the quantity of grain which he produces, he
+will thresh only while the grain comes freely, and, though he leaves a
+good deal in the ear, it is not worth while to thresh the straw over
+again; nor can you fix him to do it sufficiently, because it is so
+difficult to prove how much less a man threshes than he ought to do.
+Here then is a dilemma: but, for my part, I would engage him by the day:
+I would rather trust his idleness than his fraud.' He said, a roof
+thatched with Lincolnshire reeds would last seventy years, as he was
+informed when in that county; and that he told this in London to a great
+thatcher, who said, he believed it might be true. Such are the pains
+that Dr. Johnson takes to get the best information on every
+subject[714].
+
+He proceeded:--'It is difficult for a farmer in England to find
+day-labourers, because the lowest manufacturers can always get more than
+a day-labourer. It is of no consequence how high the wages of
+manufacturers are; but it would be of very bad consequence to raise the
+wages of those who procure the immediate necessaries of life, for that
+would raise the price of provisions. Here then is a problem for
+politicians. It is not reasonable that the most useful body of men
+should be the worst paid; yet it does not appear how it can be ordered
+otherwise. It were to be wished, that a mode for its being otherwise
+were found out. In the mean time, it is better to give temporary
+assistance by charitable contributions to poor labourers, at times when
+provisions are high, than to raise their wages; because, if wages are
+once raised, they will never get down again[715].'
+
+Happily the weather cleared up between one and two o'clock, and we got
+ready to depart; but our kind host and hostess would not let us go
+without taking a _snatch_, as they called it; which was in truth a very
+good dinner. While the punch went round, Dr. Johnson kept a close
+whispering conference with Mrs. M'Kinnon, which, however, was loud
+enough to let us hear that the subject of it was the particulars of
+Prince Charles's escape. The company were entertained and pleased to
+observe it. Upon that subject, there was something congenial between the
+soul of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and that of an isle of Sky farmer's wife. It
+is curious to see people, how far so ever removed from each other in the
+general system of their lives, come close together on a particular point
+which is common to each. We were merry with Corrichatachin, on Dr.
+Johnson's whispering with his wife. She, perceiving this, humourously
+cried, 'I am in love with him. What is it to live and not to love?' Upon
+her saying something, which I did not hear, or cannot recollect, he
+seized her hand eagerly, and kissed it.
+
+As we were going, the Scottish phrase of '_honest man_!' which is an
+expression of kindness and regard, was again and again applied by the
+company to Dr. Johnson. I was also treated with much civility; and I
+must take some merit from my assiduous attention to him, and from my
+contriving that he shall be easy wherever he goes, that he shall not be
+asked twice to eat or drink any thing (which always disgusts him), that
+he shall be provided with water at his meals, and many such little
+things, which, if not attended to, would fret him. I also may be allowed
+to claim some merit in leading the conversation: I do not mean leading,
+as in an orchestra, by playing the first fiddle; but leading as one does
+in examining a witness--starting topics, and making him pursue them. He
+appears to me like a great mill, into which a subject is thrown to be
+ground. It requires, indeed, fertile minds to furnish materials for this
+mill. I regret whenever I see it unemployed; but sometimes I feel myself
+quite barren, and have nothing to throw in. I know not if this mill be a
+good figure; though Pope makes his mind a mill for turning verses[716].
+
+We set out about four. Young Corrichatachin went with us. We had a fine
+evening, and arrived in good time at _Ostig_, the residence of Mr.
+Martin M'Pherson, minister of Slate. It is a pretty good house, built by
+his father, upon a farm near the church. We were received here with much
+kindness by Mr. and Mrs. M'Pherson, and his sister, Miss M'Pherson, who
+pleased Dr. Johnson much, by singing Erse songs, and playing on the
+guittar. He afterwards sent her a present of his _Rasselas_. In his
+bed-chamber was a press stored with books, Greek, Latin, French, and
+English, most of which had belonged to the father of our host, the
+learned Dr. M'Pherson; who, though his _Dissertations_ have been
+mentioned in a former page[717] as unsatisfactory, was a man of
+distinguished talents. Dr. Johnson looked at a Latin paraphrase of the
+song of Moses, written by him, and published in the _Scots Magazine_ for
+1747, and said, 'It does him honour; he has a good deal of Latin, and
+good Latin.' Dr. M'Pherson published also in the same magazine, June
+1739, an original Latin ode, which he wrote from the isle of Barra,
+where he was minister for some years. It is very poetical, and exhibits
+a striking proof how much all things depend upon comparison: for Barra,
+it seems, appeared to him so much worse than Sky, his _natale
+solum_[718], that he languished for its 'blessed mountains,' and thought
+himself buried alive amongst barbarians where he was. My readers will
+probably not be displeased to have a specimen of this ode:--
+
+     'Hei mihi! quantos patior dolores,
+      Dum procul specto juga ter beata;
+      Dum ferae Barrae steriles arenas
+           Solus oberro.
+     'Ingemo, indignor, crucior, quod inter
+      Barbaros Thulen lateam colentes;
+      Torpeo languens, morior sepultus,
+           Carcere coeco.'
+
+After wishing for wings to fly over to his dear country, which was in
+his view, from what he calls _Thule_, as being the most western isle of
+Scotland, except St. Kilda; after describing the pleasures of society,
+and the miseries of solitude, he at last, with becoming propriety, has
+recourse to the only sure relief of thinking men,--_Sursum
+corda_[719]--the hope of a better world, disposes his mind to
+resignation:--
+
+     'Interim fiat, tua, rex, voluntas:
+      Erigor sursum quoties subit spes
+      Certa migrandi Solymam supernam,
+           Numinis aulam.'
+
+He concludes in a noble strain of orthodox piety:--
+
+     'Vita tum demum vocitanda vita est.
+      Tum licet gratos socios habere,
+      Seraphim et sanctos TRIADEM verendam
+           Concelebrantes.'
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29[720].
+
+After a very good sleep, I rose more refreshed than I had been for some
+nights. We were now at but a little distance from the shore, and saw the
+sea from our windows, which made our voyage seem nearer. Mr. M'Pherson's
+manners and address pleased us much. He appeared to be a man of such
+intelligence and taste as to be sensible of the extraordinary powers of
+his illustrious guest. He said to me, 'Dr. Johnson is an honour to
+mankind; and, if the expression may be used, is an honour to religion.'
+
+Col, who had gone yesterday to pay a visit at Camuscross, joined us this
+morning at breakfast. Some other gentlemen also came to enjoy the
+entertainment of Dr. Johnson's conversation. The day was windy and
+rainy, so that we had just seized a happy interval for our journey last
+night. We had good entertainment here, better accommodation than at
+Corrichatachin, and time enough to ourselves. The hours slipped along
+imperceptibly. We talked of Shenstone. Dr. Johnson said he was a good
+layer-out of land[721], but would not allow him to approach excellence
+as a poet. He said, he believed he had tried to read all his _Love
+Pastorals_, but did not get through them. I repeated the stanza,
+
+     'She gazed as I slowly withdrew;
+        My path I could hardly discern;
+      So sweetly she bade me adieu,
+        I thought that she bade me return[722].'
+
+He said, 'That seems to be pretty.' I observed that Shenstone, from his
+short maxims in prose, appeared to have some power of thinking; but Dr.
+Johnson would not allow him that merit[723]. He agreed, however, with
+Shenstone, that it was wrong in the brother of one of his correspondents
+to burn his letters[724]: 'for, (said he,) Shenstone was a man whose
+correspondence was an honour.' He was this afternoon full of critical
+severity, and dealt about his censures on all sides. He said, Hammond's
+_Love Elegies_ were poor things[725]. He spoke contemptuously of our
+lively and elegant, though too licentious, Lyrick bard, Hanbury
+Williams, and said, 'he had no fame, but from boys who drank with
+him[726].'
+
+While he was in this mood, I was unfortunate enough, simply perhaps, but
+I could not help thinking, undeservedly, to come within 'the whiff and
+wind of his fell sword[727].' I asked him, if he had ever been
+accustomed to wear a night-cap. He said 'No.' I asked, if it was best
+not to wear one. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I had this custom by chance, and perhaps
+no man shall ever know whether it is best to sleep with or without a
+night-cap.' Soon afterwards he was laughing at some deficiency in the
+Highlands, and said, 'One might as well go without shoes and stockings.'
+Thinking to have a little hit at his own deficiency, I ventured to
+add,------' or without a night-cap, Sir.' But I had better have been
+silent; for he retorted directly. 'I do not see the connection there
+(laughing). Nobody before was ever foolish enough to ask whether it was
+best to wear a night-cap or not. This comes of being a little
+wrong-headed.' He carried the company along with him: and yet the truth
+is, that if he had always worn a night-cap, as is the common practice,
+and found the Highlanders did not wear one, he would have wondered at
+their barbarity; so that my hit was fair enough.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30.
+
+There was as great a storm of wind and rain as I have almost ever seen,
+which necessarily confined us to the house; but we were fully
+compensated by Dr. Johnson's conversation. He said, he did not grudge
+Burke's being the first man in the House of Commons, for he was the
+first man every where; but he grudged that a fellow who makes no figure
+in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet,
+should make a figure in the House of Commons, merely by having the
+knowledge of a few forms, and being furnished with a little occasional
+information[728]. He told us, the first time he saw Dr. Young was at the
+house of Mr. Richardson, the author of _Clarissa_. He was sent for, that
+the doctor might read to him his _Conjectures on original
+Composition_[729], which he did, and Dr. Johnson made his remarks; and
+he was surprized to find Young receive as novelties, what he thought
+very common maxims. He said, he believed Young was not a great scholar,
+nor had studied regularly the art of writing[730]; that there were very
+fine things in his _Night Thoughts_[731], though you could not find
+twenty lines together without some extravagance. He repeated two
+passages from his _Love of Fame_,--the characters of Brunetta[732] and
+Stella[733], which he praised highly. He said Young pressed him much to
+come to Wellwyn. He always intended it, but never went[734]. He was
+sorry when Young died. The cause of quarrel between Young and his son,
+he told us, was, that his son insisted Young should turn away a
+clergyman's widow, who lived with him, and who, having acquired great
+influence over the father, was saucy to the son. Dr. Johnson said, she
+could not conceal her resentment at him, for saying to Young, that 'an
+old man should not resign himself to the management of any body.' I
+asked him, if there was any improper connection between them. 'No, Sir,
+no more than between two statues. He was past fourscore, and she a very
+coarse woman. She read to him, and I suppose made his coffee, and
+frothed his chocolate, and did such things as an old man wishes to have
+done for him.'
+
+Dr. Doddridge being mentioned, he observed that 'he was author of one of
+the finest epigrams in the English language. It is in Orton's Life of
+him.[735] The subject is his family motto,--_Dum vivimus, vivamus_;
+which, in its primary signification, is, to be sure, not very suitable
+to a Christian divine; but he paraphrased it thus:
+
+     "Live, while you live, the _epicure_ would say,
+      And seize the pleasures of the present day.
+      Live, while you live, the sacred _preacher_ cries,
+      And give to GOD each moment as it flies.
+      Lord, in my views let both united be;
+      I live in _pleasure_, when I live to _thee_."'
+
+I asked if it was not strange that government should permit so many
+infidel writings to pass without censure. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is mighty
+foolish. It is for want of knowing their own power. The present family
+on the throne came to the crown against the will of nine tenths of the
+people.[736] Whether those nine tenths were right or wrong, it is not
+our business now to enquire. But such being the situation of the royal
+family, they were glad to encourage all who would be their friends. Now
+you know every bad man is a Whig; every man who has loose notions. The
+church was all against this family. They were, as I say, glad to
+encourage any friends; and therefore, since their accession, there is no
+instance of any man being kept back on account of his bad principles;
+and hence this inundation of impiety[737].' I observed that Mr. Hume,
+some of whose writings were very unfavourable to religion, was, however,
+a Tory. JOHNSON. 'Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance[738] as being a
+Scotchman; but not upon a principle of duty; for he has no principle. If
+he is any thing, he is a Hobbist.'
+
+There was something not quite serene in his humour to-night, after
+supper; for he spoke of hastening away to London, without stopping much
+at Edinburgh. I reminded him that he had General Oughton and many others
+to see. JOHNSON. 'Nay, I shall neither go in jest, nor stay in jest. I
+shall do what is fit.' BOSWELL. 'Ay, Sir, but all I desire is, that you
+will let me tell you when it is fit.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I shall not consult
+you.' BOSWELL. 'If you are to run away from us, as soon as you get
+loose, we will keep you confined in an island.' He was, however, on the
+whole, very good company. Mr. Donald McLeod expressed very well the
+gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson on those who are so fortunate as
+to obtain his acquaintance. 'When you see him first, you are struck with
+awful reverence;--then you admire him;--and then you love him
+cordially.'
+
+I read this evening some part of Voltaire's _History of the War_ in
+1741[739], and of Lord Kames against Hereditary Indefeasible Right. This
+is a very slight circumstance, with which I should not trouble my
+reader, but for the sake of observing that every man should keep minutes
+of whatever he reads. Every circumstance of his studies should be
+recorded; what books he has consulted; how much of them he has read; at
+what times; how often the same authors; and what opinions he formed of
+them, at different periods of his life. Such an account would much
+illustrate the history of his mind.[740]
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1.
+
+I shewed to Dr. Johnson verses in a magazine, on his _Dictionary_,
+composed of uncommon words taken from it:--
+
+     'Little of _Anthropopathy_[741] has he,' &c.
+
+He read a few of them, and said, 'I am not answerable for all the words
+in my _Dictionary_'. I told him that Garrick kept a book of all who had
+either praised or abused him. On the subject of his own reputation, he
+said,' Now that I see it has been so current a topick, I wish I had done
+so too; but it could not well be done now, as so many things are
+scattered in newspapers.' He said he was angry at a boy of Oxford, who
+wrote in his defence against Kenrick; because it was doing him hurt to
+answer Kenrick. He was told afterwards, the boy was to come to him to
+ask a favour. He first thought to treat him rudely, on account of his
+meddling in that business; but then he considered, he had meant to do
+him all the service in his power, and he took another resolution; he
+told him he would do what he could for him, and did so; and the boy was
+satisfied. He said, he did not know how his pamphlet was done, as he had
+'read very little of it. The boy made a good figure at Oxford, but
+died.[742] He remarked, that attacks on authors did them much service.
+'A man who tells me my play is very bad, is less my enemy than he who
+lets it die in silence. A man whose business it is to be talked of, is
+much helped by being attacked.'[743] Garrick, I observed, had been often
+so helped. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; though Garrick had more opportunities
+than almost any man, to keep the publick in mind of him, by exhibiting
+himself to such numbers, he would not have had so much reputation, had
+he not been so much attacked. Every attack produces a defence; and so
+attention is engaged. There is no sport in mere praise, when people are
+all of a mind.' BOSWELL. 'Then Hume is not the worse for Beattie's
+attack?[744]' JOHNSON. 'He is, because Beattie has confuted him. I do
+not say, but that there may be some attacks which will hurt an author.
+Though Hume suffered from Beattie, he was the better for other attacks.'
+(He certainly could not include in that number those of Dr. Adams[745],
+and Mr. Tytler[746].) BOSWELL. 'Goldsmith is the better for attacks.'
+JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but he does not think so yet. When Goldsmith and I
+published, each of us something, at the same time[747], we were given to
+understand that we might review each other. Goldsmith was for accepting
+the offer. I said, No; set Reviewers at defiance. It was said to old
+Bentley, upon the attacks against him, "Why, they'll write you down."
+"No, Sir," he replied; "depend upon it, no man was ever written down but
+by himself[748]." 'He observed to me afterwards, that the advantages
+authors derived from attacks, were chiefly in subjects of taste, where
+you cannot confute, as so much may be said on either side.[749] He told
+me he did not know who was the authour of the _Adventures of a
+Guinea_[750], but that the bookseller had sent the first volume to him
+in manuscript, to have his opinion if it should be printed; and he
+thought it should.
+
+The weather being now somewhat better, Mr. James McDonald, factor to Sir
+Alexander McDonald in Slate, insisted that all the company at Ostig
+should go to the house at Armidale, which Sir Alexander had left, having
+gone with his lady to Edinburgh, and be his guests, till we had an
+opportunity of sailing to Mull. We accordingly got there to dinner; and
+passed our day very cheerfully, being no less than fourteen in number.
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2.
+
+Dr. Johnson said, that 'a Chief and his Lady should make their house
+like a court. They should have a certain number of the gentlemen's
+daughters to receive their education in the family, to learn pastry and
+such things from the housekeeper, and manners from my lady. That was the
+way in the great families in Wales; at Lady Salisbury's,[751] Mrs.
+Thrale's grandmother, and at Lady Philips's.[752] I distinguish the
+families by the ladies, as I speak of what was properly their province.
+There were always six young ladies at Sir John Philips's: when one was
+married, her place was filled up. There was a large school-room, where
+they learnt needle-work and other things.' I observed, that, at some
+courts in Germany, there were academies for the pages, who are the sons
+of gentlemen, and receive their education without any expence to their
+parents. Dr. Johnson said, that manners were best learned at those
+courts.' You are admitted with great facility to the prince's company,
+and yet must treat him with much respect. At a great court, you are at
+such a distance that you get no good.' I said, 'Very true: a man sees
+the court of Versailles, as if he saw it on a theatre.' He said, 'The
+best book that ever was written upon good breeding, _Il Corteggiano_, by
+Castiglione[753], grew up at the little court of Urbino, and you should
+read it.' I am glad always to have his opinion of books. At Mr.
+McPherson's, he commended Whitby's _Commentary_[754], and said, he had
+heard him called rather lax; but he did not perceive it. He had looked
+at a novel, called _The Man of the World_[755], at Rasay, but thought
+there was nothing in it. He said to-day, while reading my _Journal_,
+'This will be a great treasure to us some years hence.'
+
+Talking of a very penurious gentleman of our acquaintance[756], he
+observed, that he exceeded _L'Avare_ in the play[757]. I concurred with
+him, and remarked that he would do well, if introduced in one of Foote's
+farces; that the best way to get it done, would be to bring Foote to be
+entertained at his house for a week, and then it would be _facit
+indignatio_[758]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I wish he had him. I, who have eaten
+his bread, will not give him to him; but I should be glad he came
+honestly by him.'
+
+He said, he was angry at Thrale, for sitting at General Oglethorpe's
+without speaking. He censured a man for degrading himself to a
+non-entity. I observed, that Goldsmith was on the other extreme; for he
+spoke at all ventures.[759] JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; Goldsmith, rather than
+not speak, will talk of what he knows himself to be ignorant, which can
+only end in exposing him.' 'I wonder, (said I,) if he feels that he
+exposes himself. If he was with two taylors,' 'Or with two founders,
+(said Dr. Johnson, interrupting me,) he would fall a talking on the
+method of making cannon, though both of them would soon see that he did
+not know what metal a cannon is made of.' We were very social and merry
+in his room this forenoon. In the evening the company danced as usual.
+We performed, with much activity, a dance which, I suppose, the
+emigration from Sky has occasioned. They call it _America_. Each of the
+couples, after the common _involutions_ and _evolutions_, successively
+whirls round in a circle, till all are in motion; and the dance seems
+intended to shew how emigration catches, till a whole neighbourhood is
+set afloat. Mrs. M'Kinnon told me, that last year when a ship sailed
+from Portree for America, the people on shore were almost distracted
+when they saw their relations go off, they lay down on the ground,
+tumbled, and tore the grass with their teeth. This year there was not a
+tear shed. The people on shore seemed to think that they would soon
+follow. This indifference is a mortal sign for the country.
+
+We danced to-night to the musick of the bagpipe, which made us beat the
+ground with prodigious force. I thought it better to endeavour to
+conciliate the kindness of the people of Sky, by joining heartily in
+their amusements, than to play the abstract scholar. I looked on this
+Tour to the Hebrides as a copartnership between Dr. Johnson and me. Each
+was to do all he could to promote its success; and I have some reason to
+flatter myself, that my gayer exertions were of service to us. Dr.
+Johnson's immense fund of knowledge and wit was a wonderful source of
+admiration and delight to them; but they had it only at times; and they
+required to have the intervals agreeably filled up, and even little
+elucidations of his learned text. I was also fortunate enough frequently
+to draw him forth to talk, when he would otherwise have been silent. The
+fountain was at times locked up, till I opened the spring. It was
+curious to hear the Hebridians, when any dispute happened while he was
+out of the room, saying, 'Stay till Dr. Johnson comes: say that
+to _him!_
+
+Yesterday, Dr. Johnson said, 'I cannot but laugh, to think of myself
+roving among the Hebrides at sixty[760]. I wonder where I shall rove at
+fourscore[761]!' This evening he disputed the truth of what is said, as
+to the people of St. Kilda catching cold whenever strangers come. 'How
+can there (said he) be a physical effect without a physical cause[762]?'
+He added, laughing, 'the arrival of a ship full of strangers would kill
+them; for, if one stranger gives them one cold, two strangers must give
+them two colds; and so in proportion.' I wondered to hear him ridicule
+this, as he had praised M'Aulay for putting it in his book: saying, that
+it was manly in him to tell a fact, however strange, if he himself
+believed it[763]. He said, the evidence was not adequate to the
+improbability of the thing; that if a physician, rather disposed to be
+incredulous, should go to St. Kilda, and report the fact, then he would
+begin to look about him. They said, it was annually proved by M'Leod's
+steward, on whose arrival all the inhabitants caught cold. He jocularly
+remarked, 'the steward always comes to demand something from them; and
+so they fall a coughing. I suppose the people in Sky all take a cold,
+when--(naming a certain person[764]) comes.' They said, he came only in
+summer. JOHNSON. 'That is out of tenderness to you. Bad weather and he,
+at the same time, would be too much.'
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3.
+
+Joseph reported that the wind was still against us. Dr. Johnson said, 'A
+wind, or not a wind? that is the question[765];' for he can amuse
+himself at times with a little play of words, or rather sentences. I
+remember when he turned his cup at Aberbrothick, where we drank tea, he
+muttered _Claudite jam rivos, pueri'_[766]. I must again and again
+apologize to fastidious readers, for recording such minute particulars.
+They prove the scrupulous fidelity of my _Journal_. Dr. Johnson said it
+was a very exact picture of a portion of his life.
+
+While we were chatting in the indolent stile of men who were to stay
+here all this day at least, we were suddenly roused at being told that
+the wind was fair, that a little fleet of herring-busses was passing by
+for Mull, and that Mr. Simpson's vessel was about to sail. Hugh
+M'Donald, the skipper, came to us, and was impatient that we should get
+ready, which we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure and solemnity,
+repeated the observation of Epictetus, that, 'as man has the voyage of
+death before him,--whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at
+the master's call; and an old man should never be far from the shore,
+lest he should not be able to get himself ready.' He rode, and I and the
+other gentlemen walked, about an English mile to the shore, where the
+vessel lay. Dr. Johnson said, he should never forget Sky, and returned
+thanks for all civilities. We were carried to the vessel in a small boat
+which she had, and we set sail very briskly about one o'clock. I was
+much pleased with the motion for many hours. Dr. Johnson grew sick, and
+retired under cover, as it rained a good deal. I kept above, that I
+might have fresh air, and finding myself not affected by the motion of
+the vessel, I exulted in being a stout seaman, while Dr. Johnson was
+quite in a state of annihilation. But I was soon humbled; for after
+imagining that I could go with ease to America or the East-Indies, I
+became very sick, but kept above board, though it rained hard.
+
+As we had been detained so long in Sky by bad weather, we gave up the
+scheme that Col had planned for us of visiting several islands, and
+contented ourselves with the prospect of seeing Mull, and Icolmkill and
+Inchkenneth, which lie near to it.
+
+Mr. Simpson was sanguine in his hopes for awhile, the wind being fair
+for us. He said, he would land us at Icolmkill that night. But when the
+wind failed, it was resolved we should make for the sound of Mull, and
+land in the harbour of Tobermorie. We kept near the five herring vessels
+for some time; but afterwards four of them got before us, and one little
+wherry fell behind us. When we got in full view of the point of
+Ardnamurchan, the wind changed, and was directly against our getting
+into the Sound. We were then obliged to tack, and get forward in that
+tedious manner. As we advanced, the storm grew greater, and the sea very
+rough. Col then began to talk of making for Egg, or Canna, or his own
+island. Our skipper said, he would get us into the Sound. Having
+struggled for this a good while in vain, he said, he would push forward
+till we were near the land of Mull, where we might cast anchor, and lie
+till the morning; for although, before this, there had been a good moon,
+and I had pretty distinctly seen not only the land of Mull, but up the
+Sound, and the country of Morven as at one end of it, the night was now
+grown very dark. Our crew consisted of one M'Donald, our skipper, and
+two sailors, one of whom had but one eye: Mr. Simpson himself, Col, and
+Hugh M'Donald his servant, all helped. Simpson said, he would willingly
+go for Col, if young Col or his servant would undertake to pilot us to
+a harbour; but, as the island is low land, it was dangerous to run upon
+it in the dark. Col and his servant appeared a little dubious. The
+scheme of running for Canna seemed then to be embraced; but Canna was
+ten leagues off, all out of our way; and they were afraid to attempt the
+harbour of Egg. All these different plans were successively in
+agitation. The old skipper still tried to make for the land of Mull; but
+then it was considered that there was no place there where we could
+anchor in safety. Much time was lost in striving against the storm. At
+last it became so rough, and threatened to be so much worse, that Col
+and his servant took more courage, and said they would undertake to hit
+one of the harbours in Col. 'Then let us run for it in GOD'S name,' said
+the skipper; and instantly we turned towards it. The little wherry which
+had fallen behind us had hard work. The master begged that, if we made
+for Col, we should put out a light to him. Accordingly one of the
+sailors waved a glowing peat for some time. The various difficulties
+that were started, gave me a good deal of apprehension, from which I was
+relieved, when I found we were to run for a harbour before the wind. But
+my relief was but of short duration: for I soon heard that our sails
+were very bad, and were in danger of being torn in pieces, in which case
+we should be driven upon the rocky shore of Col. It was very dark, and
+there was a heavy and incessant rain. The sparks of the burning peat
+flew so much about, that I dreaded the vessel might take fire. Then, as
+Col was a sportsman, and had powder on board, I figured that we might be
+blown up. Simpson and he appeared a little frightened, which made me
+more so; and the perpetual talking, or rather shouting, which was
+carried on in Erse, alarmed me still more. A man is always suspicious of
+what is saying in an unknown tongue; and, if fear be his passion at the
+time, he grows more afraid. Our vessel often lay so much on one side,
+that I trembled lest she should be overset, and indeed they told me
+afterwards, that they had run her sometimes to within an inch of the
+water, so anxious were they to make what haste they could before the
+night should be worse. I now saw what I never saw before, a prodigious
+sea, with immense billows coming upon a vessel, so as that it seemed
+hardly possible to escape. There was something grandly horrible in the
+sight. I am glad I have seen it once. Amidst all these terrifying
+circumstances, I endeavoured to compose my mind. It was not easy to do
+it; for all the stories that I had heard of the dangerous sailing among
+the Hebrides, which is proverbial[767], came full upon my recollection.
+When I thought of those who were dearest to me, and would suffer
+severely, should I be lost, I upbraided myself, as not having a
+sufficient cause for putting myself in such danger. Piety afforded me
+comfort; yet I was disturbed by the objections that have been made
+against a particular providence, and by the arguments of those who
+maintain that it is in vain to hope that the petitions of an individual,
+or even of congregations, can have any influence with the Deity;
+objections which have been often made, and which Dr. Hawkesworth has
+lately revived, in his Preface to the _Voyages to the South Seas_[768];
+but Dr. Ogden's excellent doctrine on the efficacy of intercession
+prevailed.
+
+It was half an hour after eleven before we set ourselves in the course
+for Col. As I saw them all busy doing something, I asked Col, with much
+earnestness, what I could do. He, with a happy readiness, put into my
+hand a rope, which was fixed to the top of one of the masts, and told me
+to hold it till he bade me pull. If I had considered the matter, I might
+have seen that this could not be of the least service; but his object
+was to keep me out of the way of those who were busy working the vessel,
+and at the same time to divert my fear, by employing me, and making me
+think that I was of use. Thus did I stand firm to my post, while the
+wind and rain beat upon me, always expecting a call to pull my rope.
+The man with one eye steered; old M'Donald, and Col and his servant, lay
+upon the fore-castle, looking sharp out for the harbour. It was
+necessary to carry much _cloth_, as they termed it, that is to say, much
+sail, in order to keep the vessel off the shore of Col. This made
+violent plunging in a rough sea. At last they spied the harbour of
+Lochiern, and Col cried, 'Thank GOD, we are safe!' We ran up till we
+were opposite to it, and soon afterwards we got into it, and
+cast anchor.
+
+Dr. Johnson had all this time been quiet and unconcerned. He had lain
+down on one of the beds, and having got free from sickness, was
+satisfied. The truth is, he knew nothing of the danger we were in[769]
+but, fearless and unconcerned, might have said, in the words which he
+has chosen for the motto to his _Rambler_,
+
+     'Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.[770]'
+
+Once, during the doubtful consultations, he asked whither we were going;
+and upon being told that it was not certain whether to Mull or Col, he
+cried, 'Col for my money!' I now went down, with Col and Mr. Simpson, to
+visit him. He was lying in philosophick tranquillity with a greyhound of
+Col's at his back, keeping him warm. Col is quite the _Juvenis qui
+gaudet canibus_[771]. He had, when we left Talisker, two greyhounds,
+two terriers, a pointer, and a large Newfoundland water-dog. He lost one
+of his terriers by the road, but had still five dogs with him. I was
+very ill, and very desirous to get to shore. When I was told that we
+could not land that night, as the storm had now increased, I looked so
+miserably, as Col afterwards informed me, that what Shakspeare has made
+the Frenchman say of the English soldiers, when scantily dieted,
+_'Piteous they will look, like drowned mice!'_[772] might, I believe,
+have been well applied to me. There was in the harbour, before us, a
+Campbelltown vessel, the Betty, Kenneth Morrison master, taking in
+kelp, and bound for Ireland. We sent our boat to beg beds for two
+gentlemen, and that the master would send his boat, which was larger
+than ours. He accordingly did so, and Col and I were accommodated in his
+vessel till the morning.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, OCTOBER 4.
+
+About eight o'clock we went in the boat to Mr. Simpson's vessel, and
+took in Dr. Johnson. He was quite well, though he had tasted nothing but
+a dish of tea since Saturday night. On our expressing some surprise at
+this, he said, that, 'when he lodged in the Temple, and had no regular
+system of life, he had fasted for two days at a time, during which he
+had gone about visiting, though not at the hours of dinner or supper;
+that he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread; that this was no intentional
+fasting, but happened just in the course of a literary life.'[773]
+
+There was a little miserable publick-house close upon the shore, to
+which we should have gone, had we landed last night: but this morning
+Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan
+M'Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquired a fortune in the
+East-Indies, and taken a farm in Col[774]. We had about an English mile
+to go to it. Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses,
+called here _Shelties_, that were running wild on a heath, and catched
+one of them. We had a saddle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a
+straw halter was put on its head. Dr. Johnson was then mounted, and
+Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse. I said to Dr. Johnson, 'I
+wish, Sir, _the Club_ saw you in this attitude.[775]'
+
+It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin. Captain M'Lean had
+but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very good
+haven to us. There was a blazing peat-fire, and Mrs. M'Lean, daughter of
+the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the motion of the
+sea. Dr. Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a continuation of
+motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm
+is over.
+
+There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece. Dr.
+Johnson took up Burnet's _History of his own Times_[776]. He said, 'The
+first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English
+language; it is quite dramatick: while he went about every where, saw
+every where, and heard every where. By the first part, I mean so far as
+it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has told;
+and this may be easily distinguished.' Captain M'Lean censured Burnet,
+for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication[777], when he shews
+him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. 'I do not myself
+think that a man should say in a dedication what he could not say in a
+history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a great
+difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it professes
+to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man says in a
+dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer's
+pleading a cause, and reporting it.'
+
+The day passed away pleasantly enough. The wind became fair for Mull in
+the evening, and Mr. Simpson resolved to sail next morning: but having
+been thrown into the island of Col we were unwilling to leave it
+unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbelltown vessel
+would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we determined
+to stay.
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5.
+
+I rose, and wrote my _Journal_ till about nine; and then went to Dr.
+Johnson, who sat up in bed and talked and laughed. I said, it was
+curious to look back ten years, to the time when we first thought of
+visiting the Hebrides[778]. How distant and improbable the scheme then
+appeared! Yet here we were actually among them. 'Sir, (said he,) people
+may come to do any thing almost, by talking of it. I really believe, I
+could talk myself into building a house upon island Isa[779], though I
+should probably never come back again to see it. I could easily persuade
+Reynolds to do it; and there would be no great sin in persuading him to
+do it. Sir, he would reason thus: "What will it cost me to be there once
+in two or three summers? Why, perhaps, five hundred pounds; and what is
+that, in comparison of having a fine retreat, to which a man can go, or
+to which he can send a friend?" He would never find out that he may have
+this within twenty miles of London. Then I would tell him, that he may
+marry one of the Miss M'Leods, a lady of great family. Sir, it is
+surprising how people will go to a distance for what they may have at
+home. I knew a lady who came up from Lincolnshire to Knightsbridge with
+one of her daughters, and gave five guineas a week for a lodging and a
+warm bath; that is, mere warm water. _That_, you know, could not be had
+in _Lincolnshire_! She said, it was made either too hot or too
+cold there.'
+
+After breakfast, Dr. Johnson and I, and Joseph, mounted horses, and Col
+and the Captain walked with us about a short mile across the island. We
+paid a visit to the Reverend Mr. Hector M'Lean. His parish consists of
+the islands of Col and Tyr-yi. He was about seventy-seven years of age,
+a decent ecclesiastick, dressed in a full suit of black clothes, and a
+black wig. He appeared like a Dutch pastor, or one of the assembly of
+divines at Westminster. Dr. Johnson observed to me afterwards, 'that he
+was a fine old man, and was as well-dressed, and had as much dignity in
+his appearance as the dean of a cathedral.' We were told, that he had a
+valuable library, though but poor accommodation for it, being obliged to
+keep his books in large chests. It was curious to see him and Dr.
+Johnson together. Neither of them heard very distinctly; so each of them
+talked in his own way, and at the same time. Mr. M'Lean said, he had a
+confutation of Bayle, by Leibnitz. JOHNSON. 'A confutation of Bayle,
+Sir! What part of Bayle do you mean? The greatest part of his writings
+is not confutable: it is historical and critical.' Mr. M'Lean said, 'the
+irreligious part;' and proceeded to talk of Leibnitz's controversy with
+Clarke, calling Leibnitz a great man. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, Leibnitz
+persisted in affirming that Newton called space _sensorium numinis_,
+notwithstanding he was corrected, and desired to observe that Newton's
+words were QUASI _sensorium numinis_[780]. No, Sir; Leibnitz was as
+paltry a fellow as I know. Out of respect to Queen Caroline, who
+patronised him, Clarke treated him too well.[781]'  During the time
+that Dr. Johnson was thus going on, the old minister was standing with
+his back to the fire, cresting up erect, pulling down the front of his
+periwig, and talking what a great man Leibnitz was. To give an idea of
+the scene, would require a page with two columns; but it ought rather to
+be represented by two good players. The old gentleman said, Clarke was
+very wicked, for going so much into the Arian system[782]. 'I will not
+say he was wicked, said Dr. Johnson; he might be mistaken.' M'LEAN. 'He
+was wicked, to shut his eyes against the Scriptures; and worthy men in
+England have since confuted him to all intents and purposes.' JOHNSON.
+'I know not _who_ has confuted him to _all intents and purposes_.' Here
+again there was a double talking, each continuing to maintain his own
+argument, without hearing exactly what the other said.
+
+I regretted that Dr. Johnson did not practice the art of accommodating
+himself to different sorts of people. Had he been softer with this
+venerable old man, we might have had more conversation; but his forcible
+spirit, and impetuosity of manner, may be said to spare neither sex nor
+age. I have seen even Mrs. Thrale stunned; but I have often maintained,
+that it is better he should retain his own manner[783]. Pliability of
+address I conceive to be inconsistent with that majestick power of mind
+which he possesses, and which produces such noble effects. A lofty oak
+will not bend like a supple willow.
+
+He told me afterwards, he liked firmness in an old man, and was pleased
+to see Mr. M'Lean so orthodox. 'At his age, it is too late for a man to
+be asking himself questions as to his belief[784].'  We rode to the
+northern part of the island, where we saw the ruins of a church or
+chapel[785]. We then proceeded to a place called Grissipol, or the
+rough Pool.
+
+At Grissipol we found a good farm house, belonging to the Laird of Col,
+and possessed by Mr. M'Sweyn. On the beach here there is a singular
+variety of curious stones. I picked up one very like a small cucumber.
+By the by, Dr. Johnson told me, that Gay's line in _The Beggars Opera_,
+'As men should serve a cucumber[786],' &c. has no waggish meaning, with
+reference to men flinging away cucumbers as too _cooling_, which some
+have thought; for it has been a common saying of physicians in England,
+that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and
+vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing. Mr. M'Sweyn's
+predecessors had been in Sky from a very remote period, upon the estate
+belonging to M'Leod; probably before M'Leod had it The name is certainly
+Norwegian, from _Sueno_, King of Norway. The present Mr. M'Sweyn left
+Sky upon the late M'Leod's raising his rents. He then got this farm
+from Col.
+
+He appeared to be near fourscore; but looked as fresh, and was as strong
+as a man of fifty. His son Hugh looked older; and, as Dr. Johnson
+observed, had more the manners of an old man than he. I had often heard
+of such instances, but never saw one before. Mrs. M'Sweyn was a decent
+old gentlewoman. She was dressed in tartan, and could speak nothing but
+Erse. She said, she taught Sir James M'Donald Erse, and would teach me
+soon. I could now sing a verse of the song _Hatyin foam'eri_[787], made
+in honour of Allan, the famous Captain of Clanranald, who fell at
+Sherrif-muir[788]; whose servant, who lay on the field watching his
+master's dead body, being asked next day who that was, answered, 'He was
+a man yesterday.'
+
+We were entertained here with a primitive heartiness. Whiskey was served
+round in a shell, according to the ancient Highland custom. Dr. Johnson
+would not partake of it; but, being desirous to do honour to the modes
+'of other times,' drank some water out of the shell.
+
+In the forenoon Dr. Johnson said, 'it would require great resignation to
+live in one of these islands.' BOSWELL. 'I don't know, Sir; I have felt
+myself at times in a state of almost mere physical existence, satisfied
+to eat, drink, and sleep, and walk about, and enjoy my own thoughts; and
+I can figure a continuation of this.' JOHNSON. 'Ay, Sir; but if you were
+shut up here, your own thoughts would torment you. You would think of
+Edinburgh or London, and that you could not be there.'
+
+We set out after dinner for _Breacacha_, the family seat of the Laird of
+Col, accompanied by the young laird, who had now got a horse, and by the
+younger Mr. M'Sweyn, whose wife had gone thither before us, to prepare
+every thing for our reception, the laird and his family being absent at
+Aberdeen. It is called _Breacacha_, or the Spotted Field, because in
+summer it is enamelled with clover and daisies, as young Col told me. We
+passed by a place where there is a very large stone, I may call it a
+_rock_;--'a vast weight for Ajax[789].' The tradition is, that a giant
+threw such another stone at his mistress, up to the top of a hill, at a
+small distance; and that she in return, threw this mass down to
+him[790]. It was all in sport.
+
+     'Malo me petit lasciva puella[791].'
+
+As we advanced, we came to a large extent of plain ground. I had not
+seen such a place for a long time. Col and I took a gallop upon it by
+way of race. It was very refreshing to me, after having been so long
+taking short steps in hilly countries. It was like stretching a man's
+legs after being cramped in a short bed. We also passed close by a large
+extent of sand-hills, near two miles square. Dr. Johnson said, 'he never
+had the image before. It was horrible, if barrenness and danger could be
+so.' I heard him, after we were in the house of _Breacacha_, repeating
+to himself, as he walked about the room,
+
+     'And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind, dies[792].'
+
+Probably he had been thinking of the whole of the simile in _Cato_, of
+which that is the concluding line; the sandy desart had struck him so
+strongly. The sand has of late been blown over a good deal of meadow,
+and the people of the island say, that their fathers remembered much of
+the space which is now covered with sand, to have been under
+tillage[793]. Col's house is situated on a bay called _Breacacha_ Bay.
+We found here a neat new-built gentleman's house, better than any we had
+been in since we were at Lord Errol's. Dr. Johnson relished it much at
+first, but soon remarked to me, that 'there was nothing becoming a Chief
+about it: it was a mere tradesman's box[794].' He seemed quite at home,
+and no longer found any difficulty in using the Highland address; for as
+soon as we arrived, he said, with a spirited familiarity, 'Now, _Col_,
+if you could get us a dish of tea.' Dr. Johnson and I had each an
+excellent bed-chamber. We had a dispute which of us had the best
+curtains. His were rather the best, being of linen; but I insisted that
+my bed had the best posts, which was undeniable. 'Well, (said he,) if
+you _have_ the best _posts_, we will have you tied to them and whipped.'
+I mention this slight circumstance, only to shew how ready he is, even
+in mere trifles, to get the better of his antagonist, by placing him in
+a ludicrous view. I have known him sometimes use the same art, when hard
+pressed in serious disputation. Goldsmith, I remember, to retaliate for
+many a severe defeat which he has suffered from him, applied to him a
+lively saying in one of Cibber's comedies, which puts this part of his
+character in a strong light.--'There is no arguing with Johnson; for,
+_if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of
+it_[795].'
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6.
+
+After a sufficiency of sleep, we assembled at breakfast. We were just as
+if in barracks. Every body was master. We went and viewed the old castle
+of Col, which is not far from the present house, near the shore, and
+founded on a rock. It has never been a large feudal residence, and has
+nothing about it that requires a particular description. Like other old
+inconvenient buildings of the same age, it exemplified Gray's
+picturesque lines,
+
+     'Huge[796] windows that exclude the light,
+      And passages that lead to nothing.'
+
+It may however be worth mentioning, that on the second story we saw a
+vault, which was, and still is, the family prison. There was a woman put
+into it by the laird, for theft, within these ten years; and any
+offender would be confined there yet; for, from the necessity of the
+thing, as the island is remote from any power established by law, the
+laird must exercise his jurisdiction to a certain degree.
+
+We were shewn, in a corner of this vault, a hole, into which Col said
+greater criminals used to be put. It was now filled up with rubbish of
+different kinds. He said, it was of a great depth, 'Ay, (said Dr.
+Johnson, smiling,) all such places, that _are filled up_, were of a
+great depth.' He is very quick in shewing that he does not give credit
+to careless or exaggerated accounts of things. After seeing the castle,
+we looked at a small hut near it. It is called _Teigh Franchich, i.e._
+the Frenchman's House. Col could not tell us the history of it. A poor
+man with a wife and children now lived in it. We went into it, and Dr.
+Johnson gave them some charity. There was but one bed for all the
+family, and the hut was very smoky. When he came out, he said to me,
+_'Et hoc secundum sententiam philosophorum est esse beatus_[797].'
+BOSWELL. 'The philosophers, when they placed happiness in a cottage,
+supposed cleanliness and no smoke.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they did not think
+about either.'
+
+We walked a little in the laird's garden, in which endeavours have been
+used to rear some trees; but, as soon as they got above the surrounding
+wall, they died. Dr. Johnson recommended sowing the seeds of hardy
+trees, instead of planting.
+
+Col and I rode out this morning, and viewed a part of the island. In the
+course of our ride, we saw a turnip-field, which he had hoed with his
+own hands. He first introduced this kind of husbandry into the Western
+islands[798]. We also looked at an appearance of lead, which seemed very
+promising. It has been long known; for I found letters to the late
+laird, from Sir John Areskine and Sir Alexander Murray, respecting it.
+
+After dinner came Mr. M'Lean, of Corneck, brother to Isle of Muck, who
+is a cadet of the family of Col. He possesses the two ends of Col, which
+belong to the Duke of Argyll. Corneck had lately taken a lease of them
+at a very advanced rent, rather than let the Campbells get a footing in
+the island, one of whom had offered nearly as much as he. Dr. Johnson
+well observed, that, 'landlords err much when they calculate merely
+what their land _may_ yield. The rent must be in a proportionate ratio
+of what the land may yield, and of the power of the tenant to make it
+yield. A tenant cannot make by his land, but according to the corn and
+cattle which he has. Suppose you should give him twice as much land as
+he has, it does him no good, unless he gets also more stock. It is clear
+then, that the Highland landlords, who let their substantial tenants
+leave them, are infatuated; for the poor small tenants cannot give them
+good rents, from the very nature of things. They have not the means of
+raising more from their farms[799].' Corneck, Dr. Johnson said, was the
+most distinct man that he had met with in these isles: he did not shut
+his eyes, or put his fingers in his ears, which he seemed to think was a
+good deal the mode with most of the people whom we have seen of late.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7.
+
+Captain M'Lean joined us this morning at breakfast. There came on a
+dreadful storm of wind and rain, which continued all day, and rather
+increased at night. The wind was directly against our getting to Mull.
+We were in a strange state of abstraction from the world: we could
+neither hear from our friends, nor write to them. Col had brought Daille
+_on the Fathers_[800], Lucas _on Happiness_[801], and More's
+_Dialogues_[802], from the Reverend Mr. M'Lean's, and Burnet's _History
+of his own Times_, from Captain M'Lean's; and he had of his own some
+books of farming, and Gregory's _Geometry_[803]. Dr. Johnson read a good
+deal of Burnet, and of Gregory, and I observed he made some geometrical
+notes in the end of his pocket-book. I read a little of Young's _Six
+Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties_; and Ovid's _Epistles_, which
+I had bought at Inverness, and which helped to solace many a weary hour.
+
+We were to have gone with Dr. Johnson this morning to see the mine; but
+were prevented by the storm. While it was raging, he said, 'We may be
+glad we are not _damnati ad metalla_.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8.
+
+Dr. Johnson appeared to-day very weary of our present confined
+situation. He said, 'I want to be on the main land, and go on with
+existence. This is a waste of life.'
+
+I shall here insert, without regard to chronology, some of his
+conversation at different times.
+
+'There was a man some time ago, who was well received for two years,
+among the gentlemen of Northamptonshire, by calling himself my brother.
+At last he grew so impudent as by his influence to get tenants turned
+out of their farms. Allen the Printer[804], who is of that county, came
+to me, asking, with much appearance of doubtfulness, if I had a brother;
+and upon being assured I had none alive, he told me of the imposition,
+and immediately wrote to the country, and the fellow was dismissed. It
+pleased me to hear that so much was got by using my name. It is not
+every name that can carry double; do both for a man's self and his
+brother (laughing). I should be glad to see the fellow. However, I could
+have done nothing against him. A man can have no redress for his name
+being used, or ridiculous stories being told of him in the newspapers,
+except he can shew that he has suffered damage. Some years ago a foolish
+piece was published, said to be written _by S. Johnson_. Some of my
+friends wanted me to be very angry about this. I said, it would be in
+vain; for the answer would be, "_S. Johnson_ may be Simon Johnson, or
+Simeon Johnson, or Solomon Johnson;" and even if the full name, Samuel
+Johnson, had been used, it might be said; "it is not you; it is a much
+cleverer fellow."
+
+'Beauclerk and I, and Langton, and Lady Sydney Beauclerk, mother to our
+friend, were one day driving in a coach by Cuper's Gardens[805], which
+were then unoccupied. I, in sport, proposed that Beauclerk and Langton,
+and myself should take them; and we amused ourselves with scheming how
+we should all do our parts. Lady Sydney grew angry, and said, "an old
+man should not put such things in young people's heads." She had no
+notion of a joke, Sir; had come late into life, and had a mighty
+unpliable understanding.
+
+'_Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond_ is considered as a book of
+authority; but it is ill-written. The matter is diffused in too many
+words; there is no animation, no compression, no vigour. Two good
+volumes in duodecimo might be made out of the two in folio[806].
+
+Talking of our confinement here, I observed, that our discontent and
+impatience could not be considered as very unreasonable; for that we
+were just in the state of which Seneca complains so grievously, while in
+exile in Corsica[807]. 'Yes, (said Dr. Johnson,) and he was not farther
+from home than we are.' The truth is, he was much nearer.
+
+There was a good deal of rain to-day, and the wind was still contrary.
+Corneck attended me, while I amused myself in examining a collection of
+papers belonging to the family of Col. The first laird was a younger son
+of the Chieftain M'Lean, and got the middle part of Col for his
+patrimony. Dr. Johnson having given a very particular account[808] of
+the connection between this family and a branch of the family of
+Camerons, called M'Lonich, I shall only insert the following document,
+(which I found in Col's cabinet,) as a proof of its continuance, even to
+a late period:--
+
+TO THE LAIRD OF COL.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'The long-standing tract of firm affectionate friendship 'twixt your
+worthy predecessors and ours affords us such assurance, as that we may
+have full relyance on your favour and undoubted friendship, in
+recommending the bearer, Ewen Cameron, our cousin, son to the deceast
+Dugall M'Connill of Innermaillie, sometime in Glenpean, to your favour
+and conduct, who is a man of undoubted honesty and discretion, only
+that he has the misfortune of being alledged to have been accessory to
+the killing of one of M'Martin's family about fourteen years ago, upon
+which alledgeance the M'Martins are now so sanguine on revenging, that
+they are fully resolved for the deprivation of his life; to the
+preventing of which you are relyed on by us, as the only fit instrument,
+and a most capable person. Therefore your favour and protection is
+expected and intreated, during his good behaviour; and failing of which
+behaviour, you'll please to use him as a most insignificant
+person deserves.
+
+'Sir, he had, upon the alledgeance foresaid, been transported, at
+Lochiel's desire, to France, to gratify the M'Martins, and upon his
+return home, about five years ago, married: But now he is so much
+threatened by the M'Martins, that he is not secure enough to stay where
+he is, being Ardmurchan, which occasions this trouble to you. Wishing
+prosperity and happiness to attend still yourself, worthy Lady, and good
+family, we are, in the most affectionate manner,
+
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'Your most obliged, affectionate,
+    'And most humble Servants,
+        'DUGALL CAMERON, _of Strone_.
+         DUGALL CAMERON, _of Barr_.
+         DUGALL CAMERON, _of Inveriskvouilline_.
+         DUGALL CAMERON, _of Invinvalie_.'
+
+'Strone, 11th March, 1737.'
+
+Ewen Cameron was protected, and his son has now a farm from the Laird of
+Col, in Mull.
+
+The family of Col was very loyal in the time of the great Montrose[809],
+from whom I found two letters in his own handwriting. The first is
+as follows:--
+
+FOR MY VERY LOVING FRIEND THE LAIRD OF COALL.
+
+'Sir,
+
+'I must heartily thank you for all your willingness and good affection
+to his Majesty's service, and particularly the sending alongs of your
+son, to who I will heave ane particular respect, hopeing also that you
+will still continue ane goode instrument for the advanceing ther of the
+King's service, for which, and all your former loyal carriages, be
+confident you shall find the effects of his Ma's favour, as they can be
+witnessed you by
+
+     'Your very faithful friende,
+     'MONTROSE.'
+
+'Strethearne, 20 Jan. 1646.'
+
+The other is:--
+
+     'FOR THE LAIRD OF COL.
+
+'SIR,
+
+'Having occasion to write to your fields, I cannot be forgetful of your
+willingness and good affection to his Majesty's service. I acknowledge
+to you, and thank you heartily for it, assuring, that in what lies in my
+power, you shall find the good. Meanwhile, I shall expect that you will
+continue your loyal endeavours, in wishing those slack people that are
+about you, to appear more obedient than they do, and loyal in their
+prince's service; whereby I assure you, you shall find me ever
+
+     'Your faithful friend,
+     'MONTROSE[810].'
+
+'Petty, 17 April, 1646.'
+
+I found some uncouth lines on the death of the present laird's father,
+intituled 'Nature's Elegy upon the death of Donald Maclean of Col.' They
+are not worth insertion. I shall only give what is called his Epitaph,
+which Dr. Johnson said, 'was not so very bad.'
+
+     'Nature's minion, Virtue's wonder,
+      Art's corrective here lyes under.'
+
+I asked, what 'Art's corrective' meant. 'Why, Sir, (said he,) that the
+laird was so exquisite, that he set art right, when she was wrong.'
+
+I found several letters to the late Col, from my father's old companion
+at Paris, Sir Hector M'Lean, one of which was written at the time of
+settling the colony in Georgia[811]. It dissuades Col from letting
+people go there, and assures him there will soon be an opportunity of
+employing them better at home. Hence it appears that emigration from
+the Highlands, though not in such numbers at a time as of late, has
+always been practised. Dr. Johnson observed that 'the Lairds, instead of
+improving their country, diminished their people.'
+
+There are several districts of sandy desart in Col. There are
+forty-eight lochs of fresh water; but many of them are very small,--meer
+pools. About one half of them, however, have trout and eel. There is a
+great number of horses in the island, mostly of a small size. Being
+over-stocked, they sell some in Tir-yi, and on the main land. Their
+black cattle, which are chiefly rough-haired, are reckoned remarkably
+good. The climate being very mild in winter, they never put their beasts
+in any house. The lakes are never frozen so as to bear a man; and snow
+never lies above a few hours. They have a good many sheep, which they
+eat mostly themselves, and sell but a few. They have goats in several
+places. There are no foxes; no serpents, toads, or frogs, nor any
+venomous creature. They have otters and mice here; but had no rats till
+lately that an American vessel brought them. There is a rabbit-warren on
+the north-east of the island, belonging to the Duke of Argyle. Young Col
+intends to get some hares, of which there are none at present. There are
+no black-cock, muir-fowl[812], nor partridges; but there are snipe,
+wild-duck, wild-geese, and swans, in winter; wild-pidgeons, plover, and
+great number of starlings; of which I shot some, and found them pretty
+good eating. Woodcocks come hither, though there is not a tree upon the
+island. There are no rivers in Col; but only some brooks, in which there
+is a great variety of fish. In the whole isle there are but three hills,
+and none of them considerable for a Highland country. The people are
+very industrious. Every man can tan. They get oak, and birch-bark, and
+lime, from the main land. Some have pits; but they commonly use tubs. I
+saw brogues[813] very well tanned; and every man can make them. They all
+make candles of the tallow of their beasts, both moulded and dipped; and
+they all make oil of the livers of fish. The little fish called Cuddies
+produce a great deal. They sell some oil out of the island, and they use
+it much for light in their houses, in little iron lamps, most of which
+they have from England; but of late their own blacksmith makes them. He
+is a good workman; but he has no employment in shoeing horses, for they
+all go unshod here, except some of a better kind belonging to young Col,
+which were now in Mull. There are two carpenters in Col; but most of the
+inhabitants can do something as boat-carpenters. They can all dye. Heath
+is used for yellow; and for red, a moss which grows on stones. They make
+broad-cloth, and tartan, and linen, of their own wool and flax,
+sufficient for their own use; as also stockings. Their bonnets come from
+the mainland. Hard-ware and several small articles are brought annually
+from Greenock, and sold in the only shop in the island, which is kept
+near the house, or rather hut, used for publick worship, there being no
+church in the island. The inhabitants of Col have increased considerably
+within these thirty years, as appears from the parish registers. There
+are but three considerable tacksmen on Col's part of the island[814]:
+the rest is let to small tenants, some of whom pay so low a rent as
+four, three, or even two guineas. The highest is seven pounds, paid by a
+farmer, whose son goes yearly on foot to Aberdeen for education, and in
+summer returns, and acts as a schoolmaster in Col. Dr. Johnson said,
+'There is something noble in a young man's walking two hundred miles and
+back again, every year, for the sake of learning[815].'
+
+This day a number of people came to Col, with complaints of each others'
+trespasses. Corneck, to prevent their being troublesome, told them, that
+the lawyer from Edinburgh was here, and if they did not agree, he would
+take them to task. They were alarmed at this; said, they had never been
+used to go to law, and hoped Col would settle matters himself. In the
+evening Corneck left us.
+
+As, in our present confinement, any thing that had even the name of
+curious was an object of attention, I proposed that Col should shew me
+the great stone, mentioned in a former page[816], as having been thrown
+by a giant to the top of a mountain. Dr. Johnson, who did not like to be
+left alone, said he would accompany us as far as riding was practicable.
+We ascended a part of the hill on horseback, and Col and I scrambled up
+the rest. A servant held our horses, and Dr. Johnson placed himself on
+the ground, with his back against a large fragment of rock. The wind
+being high, he let down the cocks of his hat, and tied it with his
+handkerchief under his chin. While we were employed in examining the
+stone, which did not repay our trouble in getting to it, he amused
+himself with reading _Gataker on Lots and on the Christian Watch[817],_
+a very learned book, of the last age, which had been found in the garret
+of Col's house, and which he said was a treasure here. When we descried
+him from above, he had a most eremitical appearance; and on our return
+told us, he had been so much engaged by Gataker, that he had never
+missed us. His avidity for variety of books, while we were in Col, was
+frequently expressed; and he often complained that so few were within
+his reach. Upon which I observed to him, that it was strange he should
+complain of want of books, when he could at any time make such
+good ones.
+
+We next proceeded to the lead mine. In our way we came to a strand of
+some extent, where we were glad to take a gallop, in which my learned
+friend joined with great alacrity. Dr. Johnson, mounted on a large bay
+mare without shoes, and followed by a foal, which had some difficulty in
+keeping up with him, was a singular spectacle.
+
+After examining the mine, we returned through a very uncouth district,
+full of sand hills; down which, though apparent precipices, our horses
+carried us with safety, the sand always gently sliding away from their
+feet. Vestiges of houses were pointed out to us, which Col, and two
+others who had joined us, asserted had been overwhelmed with sand blown
+over them. But, on going close to one of them, Dr. Johnson shewed the
+absurdity of the notion, by remarking, that 'it was evidently only a
+house abandoned, the stones of which had been taken away for other
+purposes; for the large stones, which form the lower part of the walls,
+were still standing higher than the sand. If _they_ were not blown over,
+it was clear nothing higher than they could be blown over.' This was
+quite convincing to me; but it made not the least impression on Col and
+the others, who were not to be argued out of a Highland tradition.
+
+We did not sit down to dinner till between six and seven. We lived
+plentifully here, and had a true welcome. In such a season good firing
+was of no small importance. The peats were excellent, and burned
+cheerfully. Those at Dunvegan, which were damp, Dr. Johnson called 'a
+sullen fuel.' Here a Scottish phrase was singularly applied to him. One
+of the company having remarked that he had gone out on a stormy evening,
+and brought in a supply of peats from the stack, old Mr. M'Sweyn said,
+'that was _main honest_[818]!'
+
+Blenheim being occasionally mentioned, he told me he had never seen
+it[819]: he had not gone formerly; and he would not go now, just as a
+common spectator, for his money: he would not put it in the power of
+some man about the Duke of Marlborough to say, 'Johnson was here; I knew
+him, but I took no notice of him[820].' He said, he should be very glad
+to see it, if properly invited, which in all probability would never be
+the case, as it was not worth his while to seek for it. I observed, that
+he might be easily introduced there by a common friend of ours, nearly
+related to the duke[821]. He answered, with an uncommon attention to
+delicacy of feeling, 'I doubt whether our friend be on such a footing
+with the duke as to carry any body there; and I would not give him the
+uneasiness of seeing that I knew he was not, or even of being himself
+reminded of it.'
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10.
+
+There was this day the most terrible storm of wind and rain that I ever
+remember[822]. It made such an awful impression on us all, as to
+produce, for some time, a kind of dismal quietness in the house. The day
+was passed without much conversation: only, upon my observing that there
+must be something bad in a man's mind, who does not like to give leases
+to his tenants, but wishes to keep them in a perpetual wretched
+dependance on his will, Dr. Johnson said, 'You are right: it is a man's
+duty to extend comfort and security among as many people as he can. He
+should not wish to have his tenants mere _Ephemerae_,--mere beings of an
+hour[823].' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, if they have leases is there not some
+danger that they may grow insolent? I remember you yourself once told
+me, an English tenant was so independent, that, if provoked, he would
+_throw_ his rent at his landlord.' JOHNSON. 'Depend upon it, Sir, it is
+the landlord's own fault, if it is thrown at him. A man may always keep
+his tenants in dependence enough, though they have leases. He must be a
+good tenant indeed, who will not fall behind in his rent, if his
+landlord will let him; and if he does fall behind, his landlord has him
+at his mercy. Indeed, the poor man is always much at the mercy of the
+rich; no matter whether landlord or tenant. If the tenant lets his
+landlord have a little rent beforehand, or has lent him money, then the
+landlord is in his power. There cannot be a greater man than a tenant
+who has lent money to his landlord; for he has under subjection the very
+man to whom he should be subjected.'
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, OCTOBER II.
+
+We had some days ago engaged the Campbelltown vessel to carry us to
+Mull, from the harbour where she lay. The morning was fine, and the wind
+fair and moderate; so we hoped at length to get away.
+
+Mrs. M'Sweyn, who officiated as our landlady here, had never been on the
+main land. On hearing this, Dr. Johnson said to me, before her, 'That is
+rather being behind-hand with life. I would at least go and see
+Glenelg.' BOSWELL. 'You yourself, Sir, have never seen, till now, any
+thing but your native island.' JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, by seeing London, I
+have seen as much of life as the world can shew[824].' BOSWELL. 'You
+have not seen Pekin.' JOHNSON. 'What is Pekin? Ten thousand Londoners
+would _drive_ all the people of Pekin: they would drive them like deer.'
+
+We set out about eleven for the harbour; but, before we reached it, so
+violent a storm came on, that we were obliged again to take shelter in
+the house of Captain M'Lean, where we dined, and passed the night.
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12.
+
+After breakfast, we made a second attempt to get to the harbour; but
+another storm soon convinced us that it would be in vain. Captain
+M'Lean's house being in some confusion, on account of Mrs. M'Lean being
+expected to lie-in, we resolved to go to Mr. M'Sweyn's, where we arrived
+very wet, fatigued, and hungry. In this situation, we were somewhat
+disconcerted by being told that we should have no dinner till late in
+the evening, but should have tea in the mean time. Dr. Johnson opposed
+this arrangement; but they persisted, and he took the tea very readily.
+He said to me afterwards, 'You must consider, Sir, a dinner here is a
+matter of great consequence. It is a thing to be first planned, and then
+executed. I suppose the mutton was brought some miles off, from some
+place where they knew there was a sheep killed.'
+
+Talking of the good people with whom we were, he said, 'Life has not got
+at all forward by a generation in M'Sweyn's family; for the son is
+exactly formed upon the father. What the father says, the son says; and
+what the father looks, the son looks.'
+
+There being little conversation to-night, I must endeavour to recollect
+what I may have omitted on former occasions. When I boasted, at Rasay,
+of my independency of spirit, and that I could not be bribed, he said,
+'Yes, you may be bribed by flattery.' At the Reverend Mr. M'Lean's, Dr.
+Johnson asked him, if the people of Col had any superstitions. He said,
+'No.' The cutting peats at the increase of the moon was mentioned as
+one; but he would not allow it, saying, it was not a superstition, but a
+whim. Dr. Johnson would not admit the distinction. There were many
+superstitions, he maintained, not connected with religion; and this was
+one of them[825]. On Monday we had a dispute at the Captain's, whether
+sand-hills could be fixed down by art. Dr. Johnson said, 'How _the
+devil_ can you do it?' but instantly corrected himself, 'How can you do
+it[826]?' I never before heard him use a phrase of that nature.
+
+He has particularities which it is impossible to explain[827]. He never
+wears a night-cap, as I have already mentioned; but he puts a
+handkerchief on his head in the night. The day that we left Talisker, he
+bade us ride on. He then turned the head of his horse back towards
+Talisker, stopped for some time; then wheeled round to the same
+direction with ours, and then came briskly after us. He sets open a
+window in the coldest day or night, and stands before it. It may do with
+his constitution; but most people, amongst whom I am one, would say,
+with the frogs in the fable, 'This may be sport to you; but it is death
+to us.' It is in vain to try to find a meaning in every one of his
+particularities, which, I suppose, are mere habits, contracted by
+chance; of which every man has some that are more or less remarkable.
+His speaking to himself, or rather repeating, is a common habit with
+studious men accustomed to deep thinking; and, in consequence of their
+being thus rapt, they will even laugh by themselves, if the subject
+which they are musing on is a merry one. Dr. Johnson is often uttering
+pious ejaculations, when he appears to be talking to himself; for
+sometimes his voice grows stronger, and parts of the Lord's Prayer are
+heard[828]. I have sat beside him with more than ordinary reverence on
+such occasions[829].
+
+In our Tour, I observed that he was disgusted whenever he met with
+coarse manners. He said to me, 'I know not how it is, but I cannot bear
+low life[830]: and I find others, who have as good a right as I to be
+fastidious, bear it better, by having mixed more with different sorts of
+men. You would think that I have mixed pretty well too.'
+
+He read this day a good deal of my _Journal_, written in a small book
+with which he had supplied me, and was pleased, for he said, 'I wish thy
+books were twice as big.' He helped me to fill up blanks which I had
+left in first writing it, when I was not quite sure of what he had said,
+and he corrected any mistakes that I had made. 'They call me a scholar,
+(said he,) and yet how very little literature is there in my
+conversation.' BOSWELL. 'That, Sir, must be according to your company.
+You would not give literature to those who cannot taste it. Stay till we
+meet Lord Elibank.'
+
+We had at last a good dinner, or rather supper, and were very well
+satisfied with our entertainment.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13.
+
+Col called me up, with intelligence that it was a good day for a passage
+to Mull; and just as we rose, a sailor from the vessel arrived for us.
+We got all ready with dispatch. Dr. Johnson was displeased at my
+bustling, and walking quickly up and down. He said, 'It does not hasten
+us a bit. It is getting on horseback in a ship[831]. All boys do it; and
+you are longer a boy than others.' He himself has no alertness, or
+whatever it may be called; so he may dislike it, as _Oderunt hilarem
+tristes[832]._
+
+Before we reached the harbour, the wind grew high again. However, the
+small boat was waiting and took us on board. We remained for some time
+in uncertainty what to do: at last it was determined, that, as a good
+part of the day was over, and it was dangerous to be at sea at night, in
+such a vessel, and such weather, we should not sail till the morning
+tide, when the wind would probably be more gentle. We resolved not to go
+ashore again, but lie here in readiness. Dr. Johnson and I had each a
+bed in the cabin. Col sat at the fire in the fore-castle, with the
+captain, and Joseph, and the rest. I eat some dry oatmeal, of which I
+found a barrel in the cabin. I had not done this since I was a boy. Dr.
+Johnson owned that he too was fond of it when a boy[833]; a circumstance
+which I was highly pleased to hear from him, as it gave me an
+opportunity of observing that, notwithstanding his joke on the article
+of OATS[834], he was himself a proof that this kind of _food_ was not
+peculiar to the people of Scotland.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14.
+
+When Dr. Johnson awaked this morning, he called _'Lanky!'_ having, I
+suppose, been thinking of Langton; but corrected himself instantly, and
+cried, _'Bozzy!'_ He has a way of contracting the names of his friends.
+Goldsmith feels himself so important now, as to be displeased at it. I
+remember one day, when Tom Davies was telling that Dr. Johnson said, We
+are all in labour for a name to _Goldy's_ play,' Goldsmith cried 'I have
+often desired him not to call me _Goldy[835].'_
+
+Between six and seven we hauled our anchor, and set sail with a fair
+breeze; and, after a pleasant voyage, we got safely and agreeably into
+the harbour of Tobermorie, before the wind rose, which it always has
+done, for some days, about noon.  Tobermorie is an excellent harbour.
+An island lies before it, and it is surrounded by a hilly theatre[836].
+The island is too low, otherwise this would be quite a secure port; but,
+the island not being a sufficient protection, some storms blow very hard
+here. Not long ago, fifteen vessels were blown from their moorings.
+There are sometimes sixty or seventy sail here: to-day there were twelve
+or fourteen vessels. To see such a fleet was the next thing to seeing a
+town. The vessels were from different places; Clyde, Campbelltown,
+Newcastle, &c. One was returning to Lancaster from Hamburgh. After
+having been shut up so long in Col, the sight of such an assemblage of
+moving habitations, containing such a variety of people, engaged in
+different pursuits, gave me much gaiety of spirit. When we had landed,
+Dr. Johnson said, 'Boswell is now all alive. He is like Antaeus; he gets
+new vigour whenever he touches the ground.' I went to the top of a hill
+fronting the harbour, from whence I had a good view of it. We had here a
+tolerable inn. Dr. Johnson had owned to me this morning, that he was out
+of humour. Indeed, he shewed it a good deal in the ship; for when I was
+expressing my joy on the prospect of our landing in Mull, he said, he
+had no joy, when he recollected that it would be five days before he
+should get to the main land. I was afraid he would now take a sudden
+resolution to give up seeing Icolmkill. A dish of tea, and some good
+bread and butter, did him service, and his bad humour went off. I told
+him, that I was diverted to hear all the people whom we had visited in
+our tour, say, _'Honest man!_ he's pleased with every thing; he's always
+content!'--'Little do they know,' said I. He laughed, and said, 'You
+rogue[837]!'
+
+We sent to hire horses to carry us across the island of Mull to the
+shore opposite to Inchkenneth, the residence of Sir Allan M'Lean, uncle
+to young Col, and Chief of the M'Leans, to whose house we intended to go
+the next day. Our friend Col went to visit his aunt, the wife of Dr.
+Alexander M'Lean, a physician, who lives about a mile from Tobermorie.
+
+Dr. Johnson and I sat by ourselves at the inn, and talked a good deal. I
+told him, that I had found, in Leandro Alberti's Description of Italy,
+much of what Addison has given us in his _Remarks_[838]. He said, 'The
+collection of passages from the Classicks has been made by another
+Italian: it is, however, impossible to detect a man as a plagiary in
+such a case, because all who set about making such a collection must
+find the same passages; but, if you find the same applications in
+another book, then Addison's learning in his _Remarks_ tumbles down. It
+is a tedious book; and, if it were not attached to Addison's previous
+reputation, one would not think much of it. Had he written nothing else,
+his name would not have lived. Addison does not seem to have gone deep
+in Italian literature: he shews nothing of it in his subsequent
+writings. He shews a great deal of French learning. There is, perhaps,
+more knowledge circulated in the French language than in any other[839].
+There is more original knowledge in English.' 'But the French (said I)
+have the art of accommodating[840] literature.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir: we
+have no such book as Moreri's _Dictionary_[841].' BOSWELL. 'Their
+_Ana_[842] are good.' JOHNSON. 'A few of them are good; but we have one
+book of that kind better than any of them; Selden's _Table-talk_. As to
+original literature, the French have a couple of tragick poets who go
+round the world, Racine and Corneille, and one comick poet, Moliere.'
+BOSWELL. 'They have Fenelon.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, _Telemachus_ is pretty
+well.' BOSWELL. 'And Voltaire, Sir.' JOHNSON. 'He has not stood his
+trial yet. And what makes Voltaire chiefly circulate is collection; such
+as his _Universal History_.' BOSWELL. 'What do you say to the Bishop of
+Meaux?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, nobody reads him[843].' He would not allow
+Massilon and Bourdaloue to go round the world. In general, however, he
+gave the French much praise for their industry.
+
+He asked me whether he had mentioned, in any of the papers of the
+_Rambler_, the description in Virgil of the entrance into Hell, with an
+application to the press; 'for (said he) I do not much remember them.' I
+told him, 'No.' Upon which he repeated it:--
+
+     'Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus orci,
+      Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae;
+      Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus,
+      Et metus, et malesuada Fames, et turpis Egestas,
+      Terribiles visu formae; Lethumque, Laborque[844].'
+
+'Now, (said he) almost all these apply exactly to an authour: all these
+are the concomitants of a printing-house. I proposed to him to dictate
+an essay on it, and offered to write it. He said, he would not do it
+then, but perhaps would write one at some future period.
+
+The Sunday evening that we sat by ourselves at Aberdeen, I asked him
+several particulars of his life, from his early years, which he readily
+told me; and I wrote them down before him. This day I proceeded in my
+inquiries, also writing them in his presence. I have them on detached
+sheets. I shall collect authentick materials for THE LIFE OF SAMUEL
+JOHNSON, LL.D.; and, if I survive him, I shall be one who will most
+faithfully do honour to his memory. I have now a vast treasure of his
+conversation, at different times, since the year 1762[845], when I first
+obtained his acquaintance; and, by assiduous inquiry, I can make up for
+not knowing him sooner[846].
+
+A Newcastle ship-master, who happened to be in the house, intruded
+himself upon us. He was much in liquor, and talked nonsense about his
+being a man for _Wilkes and Liberty_, and against the ministry. Dr.
+Johnson was angry, that 'a fellow should come into _our_ company, who
+was fit for _no_ company.' He left us soon.
+
+Col returned from his aunt, and told us, she insisted that we should
+come to her house that night. He introduced to us Mr. Campbell, the Duke
+of Argyle's factor in Tyr-yi. He was a genteel, agreeable man. He was
+going to Inverary, and promised to put letters into the post-office for
+us[847]. I now found that Dr. Johnson's desire to get on the main land,
+arose from his anxiety to have an opportunity of conveying letters to
+his friends.
+
+After dinner, we proceeded to Dr. M'Lean's, which was about a mile from
+our inn. He was not at home, but we were received by his lady and
+daughter, who entertained us so well, that Dr. Johnson seemed quite
+happy. When we had supped, he asked me to give him some paper to write
+letters. I begged he would write short ones, and not _expatiate_, as we
+ought to set off early. He was irritated by this, and said, 'What must
+be done; must be done: the thing is past a joke.' 'Nay, Sir, (said I,)
+write as much as you please; but do not blame me, if we are kept six
+days before we get to the main land. You were very impatient in the
+morning: but no sooner do you find yourself in good quarters, than you
+forget that you are to move.' I got him paper enough, and we parted in
+good humour.
+
+Let me now recollect whatever particulars I have omitted. In the morning
+I said to him, before we landed at Tobermorie, 'We shall see Dr. M'Lean,
+who has written _The History of the M'Leans'_. JOHNSON. 'I have no great
+patience to stay to hear the history of the M'Leans. I would rather hear
+the History of the Thrales.' When on Mull, I said, 'Well, Sir, this is
+the fourth of the Hebrides that we have been upon.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, we
+cannot boast of the number we have seen. We thought we should see many
+more. We thought of sailing about easily from island to island; and so
+we should, had we come at a better season[848]; but we, being wise men,
+thought it would be summer all the year where _we_ were. However, Sir,
+we have seen enough to give us a pretty good notion of the system of
+insular life.'
+
+Let me not forget, that he sometimes amused himself with very slight
+reading; from which, however, his conversation shewed that he contrived
+to extract some benefit. At Captain M'Lean's he read a good deal in _The
+Charmer_, a collection of songs[849].
+
+We this morning found that we could not proceed, there being a violent
+storm of wind and rain, and the rivers being impassable. When I
+expressed my discontent at our confinement, Dr. Johnson said, 'Now that
+I have had an opportunity of writing to the main land, I am in no such
+haste.' I was amused with his being so easily satisfied; for the truth
+was, that the gentleman who was to convey our letters, as I was now
+informed, was not to set out for Inverary for some time; so that it was
+probable we should be there as soon as he: however, I did not undeceive
+my friend, but suffered him to enjoy his fancy.
+
+Dr. Johnson asked, in the evening, to see Dr. M'Lean's books. He took
+down Willis _de Anima Brutorum_[850], and pored over it a good deal.
+
+Miss M'Lean produced some Erse poems by John M'Lean, who was a famous
+bard in Mull, and had died only a few years ago. He could neither read
+nor write. She read and translated two of them; one, a kind of elegy on
+Sir John M'Lean's being obliged to fly his country in 1715; another, a
+dialogue between two Roman Catholick young ladies, sisters, whether it
+was better to be a nun or to marry. I could not perceive much poetical
+imagery in the translation. Yet all of our company who understood Erse,
+seemed charmed with the original. There may, perhaps, be some choice of
+expression, and some excellence of arrangement, that cannot be shewn in
+translation.
+
+After we had exhausted the Erse poems, of which Dr. Johnson said
+nothing, Miss M'Lean gave us several tunes on a spinnet, which, though
+made so long ago as in 1667, was still very well toned. She sung along
+with it. Dr. Johnson seemed pleased with the musick, though he owns he
+neither likes it, nor has hardly any perception of it. At Mr.
+M'Pherson's, in Slate, he told us, that 'he knew a drum from a trumpet,
+and a bagpipe from a guittar, which was about the extent of his
+knowledge of musick.' To-night he said, that, 'if he had learnt musick,
+he should have been afraid he would have done nothing else but play. It
+was a method of employing the mind without the labour of thinking at
+all, and with some applause from a man's self[851].'
+
+We had the musick of the bagpipe every day, at Armidale, Dunvegan, and
+Col. Dr. Johnson appeared fond of it, and used often to stand for some
+time with his ear close to the great drone.
+
+The penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, formerly alluded to[852],
+afforded us a topick of conversation to-night. Dr. Johnson said, I ought
+to write down a collection of the instances of his narrowness, as they
+almost exceeded belief. Col told us, that O'Kane, the famous Irish
+harper, was once at that gentleman's house. He could not find in his
+heart to give him any money, but gave him a key for a harp, which was
+finely ornamented with gold and silver, and with a precious stone, and
+was worth eighty or a hundred guineas. He did not know the value of it;
+and when he came to know it, he would fain have had it back; but O'Kane
+took care that he should not. JOHNSON. 'They exaggerate the value; every
+body is so desirous that he should be fleeced. I am very willing it
+should be worth eighty or a hundred guineas; but I do not believe it.'
+BOSWELL. 'I do not think O'Kane was obliged to give it back.' JOHNSON.
+'No, Sir. If a man with his eyes open, and without any means used to
+deceive him, gives me a thing, I am not to let him have it again when he
+grows wiser. I like to see how avarice defeats itself: how, when
+avoiding to part with money, the miser gives something more valuable.'
+Col said, the gentleman's relations were angry at his giving away the
+harp-key, for it had been long in the family. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he values a
+new guinea more than an old friend.'
+
+Col also told us, that the same person having come up with a serjeant
+and twenty men, working on the high road, he entered into discourse with
+the serjeant, and then gave him sixpence for the men to drink. The
+serjeant asked, 'Who is this fellow?'. Upon being informed, he said, 'If
+I had known who he was, I should have thrown it in his face.' JOHNSON.
+'There is much want of sense in all this. He had no business to speak
+with the serjeant. He might have been in haste, and trotted on. He has
+not learnt to be a miser: I believe we must take him apprentice.'
+BOSWELL. 'He would grudge giving half a guinea to be taught.' JOHNSON.
+'Nay, Sir, you must teach him _gratis_. You must give him an opportunity
+to practice your precepts.'
+
+Let me now go back, and glean _Johnsoniana_. The Saturday before we
+sailed from Slate, I sat awhile in the afternoon, with Dr. Johnson in
+his room, in a quiet serious frame. I observed, that hardly any man was
+accurately prepared for dying; but almost every one left something
+undone, something in confusion; that my father, indeed, told me he knew
+one man, (Carlisle of Limekilns,) after whose death all his papers were
+found in exact order; and nothing was omitted in his will. JOHNSON.
+'Sir, I had an uncle who died so; but such attention requires great
+leisure, and great firmness of mind. If one was to think constantly of
+death, the business of life would stand still. I am no friend to making
+religion appear too hard. Many good people have done harm by giving
+severe notions of it. In the same way, as to learning: I never frighten
+young people with difficulties; on the contrary, I tell them that they
+may very easily get as much as will do very well. I do not indeed tell
+them that they will be _Bentleys_!
+
+The night we rode to Col's house, I said, 'Lord Elibank is probably
+wondering what is become of us.' JOHNSON. 'No, no; he is not thinking of
+us.' BOSWELL. 'But recollect the warmth with which he wrote[853]. Are we
+not to believe a man, when he says he has a great desire to see another?
+Don't you believe that I was very impatient for your coming to
+Scotland?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; I believe you were; and I was impatient
+to come to you. A young man feels so, but seldom an old man.' I however
+convinced him that Lord Elibank, who has much of the spirit of a young
+man, might feel so. He asked me if our jaunt had answered expectation. I
+said it had much exceeded it. I expected much difficulty with him, and
+had not found it. 'And (he added) wherever we have come, we have been
+received like princes in their progress.'
+
+He said, he would not wish not to be disgusted in the Highlands; for
+that would be to lose the power of distinguishing, and a man might then
+lie down in the middle of them. He wished only to conceal his disgust.
+
+At Captain M'Lean's, I mentioned Pope's friend, Spence. JOHNSON. 'He was
+a weak conceited man[854].' BOSWELL. 'A good scholar, Sir?' JOHNSON.
+'Why, no, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'He was a pretty scholar.' JOHNSON. 'You have
+about reached him.'
+
+Last night at the inn, when the factor in Tyr-yi spoke of his having
+heard that a roof was put on some part of the buildings at Icolmkill, I
+unluckily said, 'It will be fortunate if we find a cathedral with a roof
+on it.' I said this from a foolish anxiety to engage Dr. Johnson's
+curiosity more. He took me short at once. 'What, Sir? how can you talk
+so? If we shall _find_ a cathedral roofed! as if we were going to a
+_terra incognita_; when every thing that is at Icolmkill is so well
+known. You are like some New-England-men who came to the mouth of the
+Thames. "Come, (say they,) let us go up and see what sort of inhabitants
+there are here." They talked, Sir, as if they had been to go up the
+Susquehannah, or any other American river.'
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16.
+
+This day there was a new moon, and the weather changed for the better.
+Dr. Johnson said of Miss M'Lean, 'She is the most accomplished lady that
+I have found in the Highlands. She knows French, musick, and drawing,
+sews neatly, makes shellwork, and can milk cows; in short, she can do
+every thing. She talks sensibly, and is the first person whom I have
+found, that can translate Erse poetry literally[855].' We set out,
+mounted on little Mull horses. Mull corresponded exactly with the idea
+which I had always had of it; a hilly country, diversified with heath
+and grass, and many rivulets. Dr. Johnson was not in very good humour.
+He said, it was a dreary country, much worse than Sky. I differed from
+him. 'O, Sir, (said he,) a most dolorous country[856]!'
+
+We had a very hard journey to-day. I had no bridle for my sheltie, but
+only a halter; and Joseph rode without a saddle. At one place, a loch
+having swelled over the road, we were obliged to plunge through pretty
+deep water. Dr. Johnson observed, how helpless a man would be, were he
+travelling here alone, and should meet with any accident; and said, 'he
+longed to get to _a country of saddles and bridles_' He was more out of
+humour to-day, than he has been in the course of our Tour, being fretted
+to find that his little horse could scarcely support his weight; and
+having suffered a loss, which, though small in itself, was of some
+consequence to him, while travelling the rugged steeps of Mull, where he
+was at times obliged to walk. The loss that I allude to was that of the
+large oak-stick, which, as I formerly mentioned, he had brought with him
+from London[857]. It was of great use to him in our wild peregrination;
+for, ever since his last illness in 1766[858], he has had a weakness in
+his knees, and has not been able to walk easily. It had too the
+properties of a measure; for one nail was driven into it at the length
+of a foot; another at that of a yard. In return for the services it had
+done him, he said, this morning he would make a present of it to some
+Museum; but he little thought he was so soon to lose it. As he
+preferred riding with a switch, it was entrusted to a fellow to be
+delivered to our baggage-man, who followed us at some distance; but we
+never saw it more. I could not persuade him out of a suspicion that it
+had been stolen. 'No, no, my friend, (said he,) it is not to be expected
+that any man in Mull, who has got it, will part with it. Consider, Sir,
+the value of such a _piece of timber_ here!'
+
+As we travelled this forenoon, we met Dr. McLean, who expressed much
+regret at his having been so unfortunate as to be absent while we were
+at his house.
+
+We were in hopes to get to Sir Allan Maclean's at Inchkenneth, to-night;
+but the eight miles, of which our road was said to consist, were so very
+long, that we did not reach the opposite coast of Mull till seven at
+night, though we had set out about eleven in the forenoon; and when we
+did arrive there, we found the wind strong against us. Col determined
+that we should pass the night at M'Quarrie's, in the island of Ulva,
+which lies between Mull and Inchkenneth; and a servant was sent forward
+to the ferry, to secure the boat for us; but the boat was gone to the
+Ulva side, and the wind was so high that the people could not hear him
+call; and the night so dark that they could not see a signal. We should
+have been in a very bad situation, had there not fortunately been lying
+in the little sound of Ulva an Irish vessel, the Bonnetta, of
+Londonderry, Captain M'Lure, master. He himself was at M'Quarrie's; but
+his men obligingly came with their long-boat, and ferried us over.
+M'Quarrie's house was mean; but we were agreeably surprized with the
+appearance of the master, whom we found to be intelligent, polite, and
+much a man of the world. Though his clan is not numerous, he is a very
+ancient Chief, and has a burial place at Icolmkill. He told us, his
+family had possessed Ulva for nine hundred years; but I was distressed
+to hear that it was soon to be sold for payment of his debts.
+
+Captain M'Lure, whom we found here, was of Scotch extraction, and
+properly a McLeod, being descended of some of the M'Leods who went with
+Sir Normand of Bernera to the battle of Worcester; and after the defeat
+of the royalists, fled to Ireland, and, to conceal themselves, took a
+different name. He told me, there was a great number of them about
+Londonderry; some of good property. I said, they should now resume
+their real name. The Laird of M'Leod should go over, and assemble them,
+and make them all drink the large horn full[859], and from that time
+they should be M'Leods. The captain informed us, he had named his ship
+the Bonnetta, out of gratitude to Providence; for once, when he was
+sailing to America with a good number of passengers, the ship in which
+he then sailed was becalmed for five weeks, and during all that time,
+numbers of the fish Bonnetta swam close to her, and were caught for
+food; he resolved therefore, that the ship he should next get, should be
+called the Bonnetta.
+
+M'Quarrie told us a strong instance of the second sight. He had gone to
+Edinburgh, and taken a man-servant along with him. An old woman, who was
+in the house, said one day, 'M'Quarrie will be at home to-morrow, and
+will bring two gentlemen with him;' and she said, she saw his servant
+return in red and green. He did come home next day. He had two gentlemen
+with him; and his servant had a new red and green livery, which
+M'Quarrie had bought for him at Edinburgh, upon a sudden thought, not
+having the least intention when he left home to put his servant in
+livery; so that the old woman could not have heard any previous mention
+of it. This, he assured us, was a true story.
+
+M'Quarrie insisted that the _Mercheta Mulierum_, mentioned in our old
+charters, did really mean the privilege which a lord of the manor, or a
+baron, had, to have the first night of all his vassals' wives. Dr.
+Johnson said, the belief of such a custom having existed was also held
+in England, where there is a tenure called _Borough English_, by which
+the eldest child does not inherit, from a doubt of his being the son of
+the tenant[860]. M'Quarrie told us, that still, on the marriage of each
+of his tenants, a sheep is due to him; for which the composition is
+fixed at five shillings[861]. I suppose, Ulva is the only place where
+this custom remains.
+
+Talking of the sale of an estate of an ancient family, which was said to
+have been purchased much under its value by the confidential lawyer of
+that family, and it being mentioned that the sale would probably be set
+aside by a suit in equity, Dr. Johnson said, 'I am very willing that
+this sale should be set aside, but I doubt much whether the suit will be
+successful; for the argument for avoiding the sale is founded on vague
+and indeterminate principles, as that the price was too low, and that
+there was a great degree of confidence placed by the seller in the
+person who became the purchaser. Now, how low should a price be? or what
+degree of confidence should there be to make a bargain be set aside? a
+bargain, which is a wager of skill between man and man. If, indeed, any
+fraud can be proved, that will do.'
+
+When Dr. Johnson and I were by ourselves at night, I observed of our
+host, '_aspectum generosum habet;'--'et generosum animum_', he added.
+For fear of being overheard in the small Highland houses, I often talked
+to him in such Latin as I could speak, and with as much of the English
+accent as I could assume, so as not to be understood, in case our
+conversation should be too loud for the space.
+
+We had each an elegant bed in the same room; and here it was that a
+circumstance occurred, as to which he has been strangely misunderstood.
+From his description of his chamber, it has erroneously been supposed,
+that his bed being too short for him, his feet during the night were in
+the mire; whereas he has only said, that when he undressed, he felt his
+feet in the mire: that is, the clay-floor of the room, on which he stood
+upon before he went into bed, was wet, in consequence of the windows
+being broken, which let in the rain[862].
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17.
+
+Being informed that there was nothing worthy of observation in Ulva, we
+took boat, and proceeded to Inchkenneth, where we were introduced by our
+friend Col to Sir Allan M'Lean, the Chief of his clan, and to two young
+ladies, his daughters. Inchkenneth is a pretty little island, a mile
+long, and about half a mile broad, all good land[863].
+
+As we walked up from the shore, Dr. Johnson's heart was cheered by the
+sight of a road marked with cart-wheels, as on the main land; a thing
+which we had not seen for a long time. It gave us a pleasure similar to
+that which a traveller feels, when, whilst wandering on what he fears is
+a desert island, he perceives the print of human feet.  Military men
+acquire excellent habits of having all conveniences about them. Sir
+Allan M'Lean, who had been long in the army, and had now a lease of the
+island, had formed a commodious habitation, though it consisted but of a
+few small buildings, only one story high[864]. He had, in his little
+apartments, more things than I could enumerate in a page or two.
+
+Among other agreeable circumstances, it was not the least, to find here
+a parcel of the _Caledonian Mercury_, published since we left Edinburgh;
+which I read with that pleasure which every man feels who has been for
+some time secluded from the animated scenes of the busy world.
+
+Dr. Johnson found books here. He bade me buy Bishop Gastrell's
+_Christian Institutes_[865], which was lying in the room. He said, 'I do
+not like to read any thing on a Sunday, but what is theological; not
+that I would scrupulously refuse to look at any thing which a friend
+should shew me in a newspaper; but in general, I would read only what is
+theological. I read just now some of Drummond's _Travels_[866], before I
+perceived what books were here. I then took up Derham's
+_Physico-Theology_[867].'
+
+Every particular concerning this island having been so well described by
+Dr. Johnson, it would be superfluous in me to present the publick with
+the observations that I made upon it, in my _Journal_.
+
+I was quite easy with Sir Allan almost instantaneously. He knew the
+great intimacy that had been between my father and his predecessor, Sir
+Hector, and was himself of a very frank disposition. After dinner, Sir
+Allan said he had got Dr. Campbell about an hundred subscribers to his
+_Britannia Elucidata_, (a work since published under the title of _A
+Political Survey of Great Britain_[868],) of whom he believed twenty
+were dead, the publication having been so long delayed. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I
+imagine the delay of publication is owing to this;--that, after
+publication, there will be no more subscribers, and few will send the
+additional guinea to get their books: in which they will be wrong; for
+there will be a great deal of instruction in the work. I think highly of
+Campbell[869]. In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second
+place, he has very extensive reading; not, perhaps, what is properly
+called learning, but history, politicks, and, in short, that popular
+knowledge which makes a man very useful. In the third place, he has
+learned much by what is called the _vox viva_. He talks with a great
+many people.'
+
+Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he told us, that he one day called
+on him, and they talked of Tull's _Husbandry_[870]. Dr. Campbell said
+something. Dr. Johnson began to dispute it. 'Come, (said Dr. Campbell,)
+we do not want to get the better of one another: we want to encrease
+each other's ideas.' Dr. Johnson took it in good part, and the
+conversation then went on coolly and instructively. His candour in
+relating this anecdote does him much credit, and his conduct on that
+occasion proves how easily he could be persuaded to talk from a better
+motive than 'for victory[871].'
+
+Dr. Johnson here shewed so much of the spirit of a Highlander, that he
+won Sir Allan's heart: indeed, he has shewn it during the whole of our
+Tour. One night, in Col, he strutted about the room with a broad sword
+and target, and made a formidable appearance; and, another night, I took
+the liberty to put a large blue bonnet on his head. His age, his size,
+and his bushy grey wig, with this covering on it, presented the image
+of a venerable _Senachi_[872]: and, however unfavourable to the Lowland
+Scots, he seemed much pleased to assume the appearance of an ancient
+Caledonian. We only regretted that he could not be prevailed with to
+partake of the social glass. One of his arguments against drinking,
+appears to me not convincing. He urged, that 'in proportion as drinking
+makes a man different from what he is before he has drunk, it is bad;
+because it has so far affected his reason.' But may it not be answered,
+that a man may be altered by it _for the better_; that his spirits may
+be exhilarated, without his reason being affected[873]. On the general
+subject of drinking, however, I do not mean positively to take the other
+side. I am _dubius, non improbus_.
+
+In the evening, Sir Allan informed us that it was the custom of his
+house to have prayers every Sunday; and Miss M'Lean read the evening
+service, in which we all joined. I then read Ogden's second and ninth
+_Sermons on Prayer_, which, with their other distinguished excellence,
+have the merit of being short. Dr. Johnson said, that it was the most
+agreeable Sunday he had ever passed[874]; and it made such an impression
+on his mind, that he afterwards wrote the following Latin verses upon
+Inchkenneth[875]:--
+
+     INSULA SANCTI KENNETHI.
+
+     Parva quidem regio, sed relligione priorum
+       Nota, Caledonias panditur inter aquas;
+     Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse feroces
+       Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos.
+     Hue ego delatus placido per coerula cursu
+       Scire locum volui quid daret ille novi.
+     Illic Leniades humili regnabat in aula,
+       Leniades magnis nobilitatus avis:
+     Una duas habuit casa cum genitore puellas,
+       Quas Amor undarum fingeret esse deas:
+     Non tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris,
+       Accola Danubii qualia saevus habet;
+     Mollia non decrant vacuae solatia vitae,
+       Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram.
+     Luxerat ilia dies, legis gens docta supernae
+       Spes hominum ac curas cum procul esse jubet,
+     Ponti inter strepitus sacri non munera cultus
+       Cessarunt; pietas hic quoque cura fuit:
+     Quid quod sacrifici versavit femina libros,
+       Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces[876].
+     Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est;
+       Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor[877].
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, OCTOBER 18.
+
+We agreed to pass this day with Sir Allan, and he engaged to have every
+thing in order for our voyage to-morrow.
+
+Being now soon to be separated from our amiable friend young Col, his
+merits were all remembered. At Ulva he had appeared in a new character,
+having given us a good prescription for a cold. On my mentioning him
+with warmth, Dr. Johnson said, 'Col does every thing for us: we will
+erect a statue to Col.' 'Yes, said I, and we will have him with his
+various attributes and characters, like Mercury, or any other of the
+heathen gods. We will have him as a pilot; we will have him as a
+fisherman, as a hunter, as a husbandman, as a physician.'
+
+I this morning took a spade, and dug a little grave in the floor of a
+ruined chapel[878], near Sir Allan M'Lean's house, in which I buried
+some human bones I found there. Dr. Johnson praised me for what I had
+done, though he owned, he could not have done it. He shewed in the
+chapel at Rasay[879] his horrour at dead men's bones. He shewed it again
+at Col's house. In the Charter-room there was a remarkable large
+shin-bone, which was said to have been a bone of _John Garve_[880], one
+of the lairds. Dr. Johnson would not look at it; but started away.
+
+At breakfast, I asked, 'What is the reason that we are angry at a
+trader's having opulence[881]?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, the reason is,
+(though I don't undertake to prove that there is a reason,) we see no
+qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority. We are not
+angry at a soldier's getting riches, because we see that he possesses
+qualities which we have not. If a man returns from a battle, having lost
+one hand, and with the other full of gold, we feel that he deserves the
+gold; but we cannot think that a fellow, by sitting all day at a desk,
+is entitled to get above us.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, may we not suppose a
+merchant to be a man of an enlarged mind, such as Addison in the
+_Spectator_ describes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been?' JOHNSON. 'Why,
+Sir, we may suppose any fictitious character. We may suppose a
+philosophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his
+labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the support
+of his fellow-creatures; but we find no such philosophical day-labourer.
+A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but there is
+nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind[882].'
+
+I mentioned that I had heard Dr. Solander say he was a Swedish
+Laplander[883]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I don't believe he is a Laplander. The
+Laplanders are not much above four feet high. He is as tall as you; and
+he has not the copper colour of a Laplander.' BOSWELL. 'But what motive
+could he have to make himself a Laplander?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he must
+either mean the word Laplander in a very extensive sense, or may mean a
+voluntary degradation of himself. "For all my being the great man that
+you see me now, I was originally a Barbarian;" as if Burke should say,
+"I came over a wild Irishman." Which he might say in his present state
+of exaltation.'
+
+Having expressed a desire to have an island like Inchkenneth, Dr.
+Johnson set himself to think what would be necessary for a man in such a
+situation. 'Sir, I should build me a fortification, if I came to live
+here; for, if you have it not, what should hinder a parcel of ruffians
+to land in the night, and carry off every thing you have in the house,
+which, in a remote country, would be more valuable than cows and sheep?
+add to all this the danger of having your throat cut.' BOSWELL. 'I would
+have a large dog.' JOHNSON. 'So you may, Sir; but a large dog is of no
+use but to alarm.' He, however, I apprehend, thinks too lightly of the
+power of that animal. I have heard him say, that he is afraid of no dog.
+'He would take him up by the hinder legs, which would render him quite
+helpless,--and then knock his head against a stone, and beat out his
+brains.' Topham Beauclerk told me, that at his house in the country, two
+large ferocious dogs were fighting. Dr. Johnson looked steadily at them
+for a little while; and then, as one would separate two little boys, who
+were foolishly hurting each other, he ran up to them, and cuffed their
+heads till he drove them asunder[884]. But few men have his intrepidity,
+Herculean strength, or presence of mind. Most thieves or robbers would
+be afraid to encounter a mastiff.
+
+I observed, that, when young Col talked of the lands belonging to his
+family, he always said, '_my_ lands[885].' For this he had a plausible
+pretence; for he told me, there has been a custom in this family, that
+the laird resigns the estate to the eldest son when he comes of age,
+reserving to himself only a certain life-rent. He said, it was a
+voluntary custom; but I think I found an instance in the charter-room,
+that there was such an obligation in a contract of marriage. If the
+custom was voluntary, it was only curious; but if founded on obligation,
+it might be dangerous; for I have been told, that in Otaheité, whenever
+a child is born, (a son, I think,) the father loses his right to the
+estate and honours, and that this unnatural, or rather absurd custom,
+occasions the murder of many children.
+
+Young Col told us he could run down a greyhound; 'for, (said he,) the
+dog runs himself out of breath, by going too quick, and then I get up
+with him[886].' I accounted for his advantage over the dog, by remarking
+that Col had the faculty of reason, and knew how to moderate his pace,
+which the dog had not sense enough to do. Dr. Johnson said, 'He is a
+noble animal. He is as complete an islander as the mind can figure. He
+is a farmer, a sailor, a hunter, a fisher: he will run you down a dog:
+if any man has a _tail_[887], it is Col. He is hospitable; and he has an
+intrepidity of talk, whether he understands the subject or not. I regret
+that he is not more intellectual.'
+
+Dr. Johnson observed, that there was nothing of which he would not
+undertake to persuade a Frenchman in a foreign country. 'I'll carry a
+Frenchman to St. Paul's Church-yard, and I'll tell him, "by our law you
+may walk half round the church; but, if you walk round the whole, you
+will be punished capitally," and he will believe me at once. Now, no
+Englishman would readily swallow such a thing: he would go and inquire
+of somebody else[888].' The Frenchman's credulity, I observed, must be
+owing to his being accustomed to implicit submission; whereas every
+Englishman reasons upon the laws of his country, and instructs his
+representatives, who compose the legislature.  This day was passed in
+looking at a small island adjoining Inchkenneth, which afforded nothing
+worthy of observation; and in such social and gay entertainments as our
+little society could furnish.
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19.
+
+After breakfast we took leave of the young ladies, and of our excellent
+companion Col, to whom we had been so much obliged. He had now put us
+under the care of his Chief; and was to hasten back to Sky. We parted
+from him with very strong feelings of kindness and gratitude; and we
+hoped to have had some future opportunity of proving to him the
+sincerity of what we felt; but in the following year he was
+unfortunately lost in the Sound between Ulva and Mull[889]; and this
+imperfect memorial, joined to the high honour of being tenderly and
+respectfully mentioned by Dr. Johnson, is the only return which the
+uncertainty of human events has permitted us to make to this deserving
+young man.
+
+Sir Allan, who obligingly undertook to accompany us to Icolmkill[890],
+had a strong good boat, with four stout rowers. We coasted along Mull
+till we reached _Gribon_, where is what is called Mackinnon's cave,
+compared with which that at Ulinish[891] is inconsiderable. It is in a
+rock of a great height, close to the sea. Upon the left of its entrance
+there is a cascade, almost perpendicular from the top to the bottom of
+the rock. There is a tradition that it was conducted thither
+artificially, to supply the inhabitants of the cave with water. Dr.
+Johnson gave no credit to this tradition. As, on the one hand, his faith
+in the Christian religion is firmly founded upon good grounds; so, on
+the other, he is incredulous when there is no sufficient reason for
+belief[892]; being in this respect just the reverse of modern infidels,
+who, however nice and scrupulous in weighing the evidences of religion,
+are yet often so ready to believe the most absurd and improbable tales
+of another nature, that Lord Hailes well observed, a good essay might be
+written _Sur la crédulité des Incrédules_.
+
+The height of this cave I cannot tell with any tolerable exactness; but
+it seemed to be very lofty, and to be a pretty regular arch. We
+penetrated, by candlelight, a great way; by our measurement, no less
+than four hundred and eighty-five feet. Tradition says, that a piper and
+twelve men once advanced into this cave, nobody can tell how far; and
+never returned. At the distance to which we proceeded the air was quite
+pure; for the candle burned freely, without the least appearance of the
+flame growing globular; but as we had only one, we thought it dangerous
+to venture farther, lest, should it have been extinguished, we should
+have had no means of ascertaining whether we could remain without
+danger. Dr. Johnson said, this was the greatest natural curiosity he had
+ever seen.
+
+We saw the island of Staffa, at no very great distance, but could not
+land upon it, the surge was so high on its rocky coast[893].
+
+Sir Allan, anxious for the honour of Mull, was still talking of its
+_woods_, and pointing them out to Dr. Johnson, as appearing at a
+distance on the skirts of that island, as we sailed along. JOHNSON.
+'Sir, I saw at Tobermorie what they called a wood, which I unluckily
+took for _heath_. If you shew me what I shall take for _furze_, it will
+be something.'
+
+In the afternoon we went ashore on the coast of Mull, and partook of a
+cold repast, which we carried with us. We hoped to have procured some
+rum or brandy for our boatmen and servants, from a publick-house near
+where we landed; but unfortunately a funeral a few days before had
+exhausted all their store[894]. Mr. Campbell, however, one of the Duke
+of Argyle's tacksmen, who lived in the neighbourhood, on receiving a
+message from Sir Allan, sent us a liberal supply.
+
+We continued to coast along Mull, and passed by Nuns' Island, which, it
+is said, belonged to the nuns of Icolmkill, and from which, we were
+told, the stone for the buildings there was taken. As we sailed along by
+moon-light, in a sea somewhat rough, and often between black and gloomy
+rocks, Dr. Johnson said, 'If this be not _roving among the Hebrides_,
+nothing is[895]. The repetition of words which he had so often
+previously used, made a strong impression on my imagination; and, by a
+natural course of thinking, led me to consider how our present
+adventures would appear to me at a future period.
+
+I have often experienced, that scenes through which a man has passed,
+improve by lying in the memory: they grow mellow. _Acti labores sunt
+jucundi_[896]. This may be owing to comparing them with present listless
+ease. Even harsh scenes acquire a softness by length of time[897]; and
+some are like very loud sounds, which do not please, or at least do not
+please so much, till you are removed to a certain distance. They may be
+compared to strong coarse pictures, which will not bear to be viewed
+near. Even pleasing scenes improve by time, and seem more exquisite in
+recollection, than when they were present; if they have not faded to
+dimness in the memory. Perhaps, there is so much evil in every human
+enjoyment, when present,--so much dross mixed with it, that it requires
+to be refined by time; and yet I do not see why time should not melt
+away the good and the evil in equal proportions;--why the shade should
+decay, and the light remain in preservation.
+
+After a tedious sail, which, by our following various turnings of the
+coast of Mull, was extended to about forty miles, it gave us no small
+pleasure to perceive a light in the village at Icolmkill, in which
+almost all the inhabitants of the island live, close to where the
+ancient building stood. As we approached the shore, the tower of the
+cathedral, just discernible in the air, was a picturesque object.
+
+When we had landed upon the sacred place, which, as long as I can
+remember, I had thought on with veneration, Dr. Johnson and I cordially
+embraced. We had long talked of visiting Icolmkill; and, from the
+lateness of the season, were at times very doubtful whether we should be
+able to effect our purpose. To have seen it, even alone, would have
+given me great satisfaction; but the venerable scene was rendered much
+more pleasing by the company of my great and pious friend, who was no
+less affected by it than I was; and who has described the impressions it
+should make on the mind, with such strength of thought, and energy of
+language, that I shall quote his words, as conveying my own sensations
+much more forcibly than I am capable of doing:--
+
+'We were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the
+luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving
+barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of
+religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be
+impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were
+possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever
+makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the
+present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and
+from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent
+and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery,
+or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not
+gain force upon the plain of _Marathon_, or whose piety would not grow
+warmer among the ruins of _Iona_[898]!'
+
+Upon hearing that Sir Allan M'Lean was arrived, the inhabitants, who
+still consider themselves as the people of M'Lean, to whom the island
+formerly belonged, though the Duke of Argyle has at present possession
+of it, ran eagerly to him.
+
+We were accommodated this night in a large barn, the island, affording
+no lodging that we should have liked so well. Some good hay was strewed
+at one end of it, to form a bed for us, upon which we lay with our
+clothes on; and we were furnished with blankets from the village[899].
+Each of us had a portmanteau for a pillow. When I awaked in the morning,
+and looked round me, I could not help smiling at the idea of the chief
+of the M'Leans, the great English Moralist, and myself, lying thus
+extended in such a situation.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20.
+
+Early in the morning we surveyed the remains of antiquity at this place,
+accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as _Cicerone_, who called himself a
+descendant of a cousin of Saint Columba, the founder of the religious
+establishment here. As I knew that many persons had already examined
+them, and as I saw Dr. Johnson inspecting and measuring several of the
+ruins of which he has since given so full an account, my mind was
+quiescent; and I resolved to stroll among them at my ease, to take no
+trouble to investigate minutely, and only receive the general impression
+of solemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of such objects as should
+of themselves strike my attention.
+
+We walked from the monastery of Nuns to the great church or cathedral,
+as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They told us, that this
+had been a street; and that there were good houses built on each side.
+Dr. Johnson doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the
+nuns. The convent of Monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four
+other chapels, are still to be discerned. But I must own that Icolmkill
+did not answer my expectations; for they were high, from what I had read
+of it, and still more from what I had heard and thought of it, from my
+earliest years. Dr. Johnson said, it came up to his expectations,
+because he had taken his impression from an account of it subjoined to
+Sacheverel's _History of the Isle of Man_[900], where it is said, there
+is not much to be seen here. We were both disappointed, when we were
+shewn what are called the monuments of the kings of Scotland, Ireland,
+and Denmark, and of a King of France. There are only some grave-stones
+flat on the earth, and we could see no inscriptions. How far short was
+this of marble monuments, like those in Westminster Abbey, which I had
+imagined here! The grave-stones of Sir Allan M'Lean's family, and of
+that of M'Quarrie, had as good an appearance as the royal grave-stones;
+if they were royal, we doubted.
+
+My easiness to give credit to what I heard in the course of our Tour was
+too great. Dr. Johnson's peculiar accuracy of investigation detected
+much traditional fiction, and many gross mistakes. It is not to be
+wondered at, that he was provoked by people carelessly telling him, with
+the utmost readiness and confidence, what he found, on questioning them
+a little more, was erroneous[901]. Of this there were innumerable
+instances.
+
+I left him and Sir Allan at breakfast in our barn, and stole back again
+to the cathedral, to indulge in solitude and devout meditation[902].
+While contemplating the venerable ruins, I refleeted with much
+satisfaction, that the solemn scenes of piety never lose their sanctity
+and influence, though the cares and follies of life may prevent us from
+visiting them, or may even make us fancy that their effects are only 'as
+yesterday, when it is past[903],' and never again to be perceived. I
+hoped, that, ever after having been in this holy place, I should
+maintain an exemplary conduct. One has a strange propensity to fix upon
+some point of time from whence a better course of life may begin[904].
+
+Being desirous to visit the opposite shore of the island, where Saint
+Columba is said to have landed, I procured a horse from one
+M'Ginnis[905], who ran along as my guide. The M'Ginnises are said to be
+a branch of the clan of M'Lean. Sir Allan had been told that this man
+had refused to send him some rum, at which the knight was in great
+indignation. 'You rascal! (said he,) don't you know that I can hang you,
+if I please?' Not adverting to the Chieftain's power over his clan, I
+imagined that Sir Allan had known of some capital crime that the fellow
+had committed, which he could discover, and so get him condemned; and
+said, 'How so?' 'Why, (said Sir Allan,) are they not all my people?'
+Sensible of my inadvertency, and most willing to contribute what I could
+towards the continuation of feudal authority, 'Very true,' said I. Sir
+Allan went on: 'Refuse to send rum to me, you rascal! Don't you know
+that, if I order you to go and cut a man's throat, you are to do it?'
+'Yes, an't please your honour! and my own too, and hang myself too.' The
+poor fellow denied that he had refused to send the rum. His making these
+professions was not merely a pretence in presence of his Chief; for
+after he and I were out of Sir Allan's hearing, he told me, 'Had he sent
+his dog for the rum, I would have given it: I would cut my bones for
+him.' It was very remarkable to find such an attachment to a Chief,
+though he had then no connection with the island, and had not been there
+for fourteen years. Sir Allan, by way of upbraiding the fellow, said, 'I
+believe you are a _Campbell_.'
+
+The place which I went to see is about two miles from the village. They
+call it _Portawherry_, from the wherry in which Columba came; though,
+when they shew the length of his vessel, as marked on the beach by two
+heaps of stones, they say, 'Here is the length of the _Currach_', using
+the Erse word.
+
+Icolmkill is a fertile island. The inhabitants export some cattle and
+grain; and I was told, they import nothing but iron and salt. They are
+industrious, and make their own woollen and linen cloth; and they brew a
+good deal of beer, which we did not find in any of the other
+islands[906].
+
+We set sail again about mid-day, and in the evening landed on Mull, near
+the house of the Reverend Mr. Neal M'Leod, who having been informed of
+our coming, by a message from Sir Allan, came out to meet us. We were
+this night very agreeably entertained at his house. Dr. Johnson observed
+to me, that he was the cleanest-headed man that he had met with in the
+Western islands. He seemed to be well acquainted with Dr. Johnson's
+writings, and courteously said, 'I have been often obliged to you,
+though I never had the pleasure of seeing you before.'
+
+He told us, he had lived for some time in St. Kilda, under the tuition
+of the minister or catechist there, and had there first read Horace and
+Virgil. The scenes which they describe must have been a strong contrast
+to the dreary waste around him.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21.
+
+This morning the subject of politicks was introduced. JOHNSON. 'Pulteney
+was as paltry a fellow as could be[907]. He was a Whig, who pretended to
+be honest; and you know it is ridiculous for a Whig to pretend to be
+honest. He cannot hold it out[908].' He called Mr. Pitt a meteor; Sir
+Robert Walpole a fixed star[909]. He said, 'It is wonderful to think
+that all the force of government was required to prevent Wilkes from
+being chosen the chief magistrate of London[910], though the liverymen
+knew he would rob their shops,--knew he would debauch their
+daughters[911].'
+
+BOSWELL. 'The History of England is so strange, that, if it were not so
+well vouched as it is, it would hardly be credible.'
+
+JOHNSON. 'Sir, if it were told as shortly, and with as little
+preparation for introducing the different events, as the History of the
+Jewish Kings, it would be equally liable to objections of
+improbability.' Mr. M'Leod was much pleased with the justice and novelty
+of the thought. Dr. Johnson illustrated what he had said, as follows:
+'Take, as an instance, Charles the First's concessions to his
+parliament, which were greater and greater, in proportion as the
+parliament grew more insolent, and less deserving of trust. Had these
+concessions been related nakedly, without any detail of the
+circumstances which generally led to them, they would not have been
+believed.'
+
+Sir Allan M'Lean bragged, that Scotland had the advantage of England, by
+its having more water. JOHNSON. 'Sir, we would not have your water, to
+take the vile bogs which produce it. You have too much! A man who is
+drowned has more water than either of us;'--and then he laughed. (But
+this was surely robust sophistry: for the people of taste in England,
+who have seen Scotland, own that its variety of rivers and lakes makes
+it naturally more beautiful than England, in that respect.) Pursuing his
+victory over Sir Allan, he proceeded: 'Your country consists of two
+things, stone and water. There is, indeed, a little earth above the
+stone in some places, but a very little; and the stone is always
+appearing. It is like a man in rags; the naked skin is still
+peeping out.'
+
+He took leave of Mr. M'Leod, saying, 'Sir, I thank you for your
+entertainment, and your conversation.'
+
+Mr. Campbell, who had been so polite yesterday, came this morning on
+purpose to breakfast with us, and very obligingly furnished us with
+horses to proceed on our journey to Mr. M'Lean's of _Lochbuy_, where we
+were to pass the night. We dined at the house of Dr. Alexander M'Lean,
+another physician in Mull, who was so much struck with the uncommon
+conversation of Dr. Johnson, that he observed to me, 'This man is just a
+_hogshead_ of sense.'
+
+Dr. Johnson said of the _Turkish Spy_[912], which lay in the room, that
+it told nothing but what every body might have known at that time; and
+that what was good in it, did not pay you for the trouble of reading
+to find it.
+
+After a very tedious ride, through what appeared to me the most gloomy
+and desolate country I had ever beheld[913], we arrived, between seven
+and eight o'clock, at May, the seat of the Laird of _Lochbuy_. _Buy_, in
+Erse, signifies yellow, and I at first imagined that the loch or branch
+of the sea here, was thus denominated, in the same manner as the _Red
+Sea_; but I afterwards learned that it derived its name from a hill
+above it, which being of a yellowish hue has the epithet of _Buy_.
+
+We had heard much of Lochbuy's being a great roaring braggadocio, a kind
+of Sir John Falstaff, both in size and manners; but we found that they
+had swelled him up to a fictitious size, and clothed him with imaginary
+qualities. Col's idea of him was equally extravagant, though very
+different: he told us he was quite a Don Quixote; and said, he would
+give a great deal to sec him and Dr. Johnson together. The truth is,
+that Lochbuy proved to be only a bluff, comely, noisy old gentleman,
+proud of his hereditary consequence, and a very hearty and hospitable
+landlord. Lady Lochbuy was sister to Sir Allan M'Lean, but much older.
+He said to me, 'They are quite _Antediluvians_.' Being told that Dr.
+Johnson did not hear well, Lochbuy bawled out to him, 'Are you of the
+Johnstons of Glencro, or of Ardnamurchan[914]?' Dr. Johnson gave him a
+significant look, but made no answer; and I told Lochbuy that he was not
+Johns_ton_, but John_son_, and that he was an Englishman[915].  Lochbuy
+some years ago tried to prove himself a weak man, liable to imposition,
+or, as we term it in Scotland, a _facile_ man, in order to set aside a
+lease which he had granted; but failed in the attempt. On my mentioning
+this circumstance to Dr. Johnson, he seemed much surprized that such a
+suit was admitted by the Scottish law, and observed, that 'In England no
+man is allowed to _stultify_ himself[916].'
+
+Sir Allan, Lochbuy, and I, had the conversation chiefly to ourselves
+to-night: Dr. Johnson, being extremely weary, went to bed soon
+after supper.
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22.
+
+Before Dr. Johnson came to breakfast, Lady Lochbuy said, 'he was a
+_dungeon_ of wit;' a very common phrase in Scotland to express a
+profoundness of intellect, though he afterwards told me, that he never
+had heard it. She proposed that he should have some cold sheep's-head
+for breakfast. Sir Allan seemed displeased at his sister's vulgarity,
+and wondered how such a thought should come into her head. From a
+mischievous love of sport, I took the lady's part; and very gravely
+said, 'I think it is but fair to give him an offer of it. If he does not
+choose it, he may let it alone.' 'I think so,' said the lady, looking at
+her brother with an air of victory. Sir Allan, finding the matter
+desperate, strutted about the room, and took snuff. When Dr. Johnson
+came in, she called to him, 'Do you choose any cold sheep's-head, Sir?'
+'No, MADAM,' said he, with a tone of surprise and anger[917]. 'It is
+here, Sir,' said she, supposing he had refused it to save the trouble of
+bringing it in. They thus went on at cross purposes, till he confirmed
+his refusal in a manner not to be misunderstood; while I sat quietly by,
+and enjoyed my success.
+
+After breakfast, we surveyed the old castle, in the pit or dungeon of
+which Lochbuy had some years before taken upon him to imprison several
+persons[918]; and though he had been fined in a considerable sum by the
+Court of Justiciary, he was so little affected by it, that while we were
+examining the dungeon, he said to me, with a smile, 'Your father knows
+something of this;' (alluding to my father's having sat as one of the
+judges on his trial.) Sir Allan whispered me, that the laird could not
+be persuaded that he had lost his heritable jurisdiction[919].
+
+We then set out for the ferry, by which we were to cross to the main
+land of Argyleshire. Lochbuy and Sir Allan accompanied us. We were told
+much of a war-saddle, on which this reputed Don Quixote used to be
+mounted; but we did not see it, for the young laird had applied it to a
+less noble purpose, having taken it to Falkirk fair _with a drove of
+black cattle._ We bade adieu to Lochbuy, and to our very kind
+conductor[920], Sir Allan M'Lean, on the shore of Mull, and then got
+into the ferry-boat, the bottom of which was strewed with branches of
+trees or bushes, upon which we sat. We had a good day and a fine
+passage, and in the evening landed at Oban, where we found a tolerable
+inn. After having been so long confined at different times in islands,
+from which it was always uncertain when we could get away, it was
+comfortable to be now on the mainland, and to know that, if in health,
+we might get to any place in Scotland or England in a certain number
+of days.
+
+Here we discovered from the conjectures which were formed, that the
+people on the main land were entirely ignorant of our motions; for in a
+Glasgow newspaper we found a paragraph, which, as it contains a just
+and well-turned compliment to my illustrious friend, I shall
+here insert:--
+
+'We are well assured that Dr. Johnson is confined by tempestuous weather
+to the isle of Sky; it being unsafe to venture, in a small boat, upon
+such a stormy surge as is very common there at this time of the year.
+Such a philosopher, detained on an almost barren island, resembles a
+whale left upon the strand. The latter will be welcome to every body, on
+account of his oil, his bone, &c., and the other will charm his
+companions, and the rude inhabitants, with his superior knowledge and
+wisdom, calm resignation, and unbounded benevolence.'
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23.
+
+After a good night's rest, we breakfasted at our leisure. We talked of
+Goldsmith's _Traveller_, of which Dr. Johnson spoke highly; and, while I
+was helping him on with his great coat, he repeated from it the
+character of the British nation, which he did with such energy, that the
+tear started into his eye:--
+
+     'Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
+      With daring aims irregularly great,
+      Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
+      I see the lords of human kind pass by,
+      Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,
+      By forms unfashion'd, fresh from nature's hand;
+      Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
+      True to imagin'd right, above control,
+      While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan,
+      And learns to venerate himself as man.'
+
+We could get but one bridle here, which, according to the maxim _detur
+digniori_, was appropriated to Dr. Johnson's sheltie. I and Joseph rode
+with halters. We crossed in a ferry-boat a pretty wide lake[921], and on
+the farther side of it, close by the shore, found a hut for our inn. We
+were much wet. I changed my clothes in part, and was at pains to get
+myself well dried. Dr. Johnson resolutely kept on all his clothes, wet
+as they were, letting them steam before the smoky turf fire. I thought
+him in the wrong; but his firmness was, perhaps, a species of heroism.
+
+I remember but little of our conversation. I mentioned Shenstone's
+saying of Pope, that he had the art of condensing sense more than any
+body[922]. Dr. Johnson said, 'It is not true, Sir. There is more sense
+in a line of Cowley than in a page (or a sentence, or ten lines,--I am
+not quite certain of the very phrase) of Pope.' He maintained that
+Archibald, Duke of Argyle[923], was a narrow man. I wondered at this;
+and observed, that his building so great a house at Inverary was not
+like a narrow man. 'Sir, (said he,) when a narrow man has resolved to
+build a house, he builds it like another man. But Archibald, Duke of
+Argyle, was narrow in his ordinary expences, in his quotidian
+expences.'
+
+The distinction is very just. It is in the ordinary expences of life
+that a man's liberality or narrowness is to be discovered. I never heard
+the word _quotidian_ in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of
+Dr. Johnson's own fabrication; but I have since found it in _Young's
+Night Thoughts_, (Night fifth,)
+
+     'Death's a destroyer of quotidian prey,'
+
+and in my friend's _Dictionary_, supported by the authorities of Charles
+I. and Dr. Donne.
+
+It rained very hard as we journied on after dinner. The roar of torrents
+from the mountains, as we passed along in the dusk, and the other
+circumstances attending our ride in the evening, have been mentioned
+with so much animation by Dr. Johnson, that I shall not attempt to say
+any thing on the subject[924].
+
+We got at night to Inverary, where we found an excellent inn. Even here,
+Dr. Johnson would not change his wet clothes.
+
+The prospect of good accommodation cheered us much. We supped well; and
+after supper, Dr. Johnson, whom I had not seen taste any fermented
+liquor during all our travels, called for a gill of whiskey. 'Come,
+(said he,) let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy[925]!' He
+drank it all but a drop, which I begged leave to pour into my glass,
+that I might say we had drunk whisky together. I proposed Mrs. Thrale
+should be our toast. He would not have _her_ drunk in whisky, but rather
+'some insular lady;' so we drank one of the ladies whom we had lately
+left. He owned to-night, that he got as good a room and bed as at an
+English inn.
+
+I had here the pleasure of finding a letter from home, which relieved me
+from the anxiety I had suffered, in consequence of not having received
+any account of my family for many weeks. I also found a letter from Mr.
+Garrick, which was a regale[926] as agreeable as a pine-apple would be
+in a desert[927]. He had favoured me with his correspondence for many
+years; and when Dr. Johnson and I were at Inverness, I had written to
+him as follows:--
+
+     Inverness,
+     Sunday, 29 August, 1773.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,
+
+'Here I am, and Mr. Samuel Johnson actually with me. We were a night at
+Fores, in coming to which, in the dusk of the evening, we passed over
+the bleak and blasted heath where Macbeth met the witches[928]. Your old
+preceptor[929] repeated, with much solemnity, the speech--
+
+     "How far is't called to Fores?  What are these,
+      So wither'd and so wild in their attire," &c.
+
+This day we visited the ruins of Macbeth's castle at Inverness. I have
+had great romantick satisfaction in seeing Johnson upon the classical
+scenes of Shakspeare in Scotland; which I really looked upon as almost
+as improbable as that "Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane[930]."
+Indeed, as I have always been accustomed to view him as a permanent
+London object, it would not be much more wonderful to me to see St.
+Paul's Church moving along where we now are. As yet we have travelled
+in post-chaises; but to-morrow we are to mount on horseback, and ascend
+into the mountains by Fort Augustus, and so on to the ferry, where we
+are to cross to Sky. We shall see that island fully, and then visit some
+more of the Hebrides; after which we are to land in Argyleshire, proceed
+by Glasgow to Auchinleck, repose there a competent time, and then return
+to Edinburgh, from whence the Rambler will depart for old England again,
+as soon as he finds it convenient. Hitherto we have had a very
+prosperous expedition. I flatter myself, _servetur ad imum, qualis ab
+incepto processerit_[931]. He is in excellent spirits, and I have a rich
+journal of his conversation. Look back, Davy[932], to Litchfield,--run
+up through the time that has elapsed since you first knew Mr.
+Johnson,--and enjoy with me his present extraordinary Tour. I could not
+resist the impulse of writing to you from this place. The situation of
+the old castle corresponds exactly to Shakspeare's description. While we
+were there to-day[933], it happened oddly, that a raven perched upon one
+of the chimney-tops, and croaked. Then I in my turn repeated--
+
+     "The raven himself is hoarse,
+      That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan,
+      Under my battlements."
+
+'I wish you had been with us. Think what enthusiastick happiness I shall
+have to see Mr. Samuel Johnson walking among the romantick rocks and
+woods of my ancestors at Auchinleck[934]! Write to me at Edinburgh. You
+owe me his verses on great George and tuneful Cibber, and the bad verses
+which led him to make his fine ones on Philips the musician[935]. Keep
+your promise, and let me have them. I offer my very best compliments to
+Mrs. Garrick, and ever am,
+
+     'Your warm admirer and friend,
+
+     'JAMES BOSWELL.'
+
+'_To David Garrick, Esq., London._'
+
+His answer was as follows:--
+
+     'Hampton, September 14, 1773.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'You stole away from London, and left us all in the lurch; for we
+expected you one night at the club, and knew nothing of your departure.
+Had I payed you what I owed you, for the book you bought for me, I
+should only have grieved for the loss of your company, and slept with a
+quiet conscience; but, wounded as it is, it must remain so till I see
+you again, though I am sure our good friend Mr. Johnson will discharge
+the debt for me, if you will let him. Your account of your journey to
+_Fores_, the _raven_, _old castle_, &c., &c., made me half mad. Are you
+not rather too late in the year for fine weather, which is the life and
+soul of seeing places? I hope your pleasure will continue _qualis ab
+incepto_, &c.
+
+'Your friend[936] ------ threatens me much. I only wish that he would
+put his threats in execution, and, if he prints his play, I will forgive
+him. I remember he complained to you, that his bookseller called for the
+money for some copies of his ------, which I subscribed for, and that I
+desired him to call again. The truth is, that my wife was not at
+home[937], and that for weeks together I have not ten shillings in my
+pocket.--However, had it been otherwise, it was not so great a crime to
+draw his poetical vengeance upon me. I despise all that he can do, and
+am glad that I can so easily get rid of him and his ingratitude. I am
+hardened both to abuse and ingratitude.
+
+'You, I am sure, will no more recommend your poetasters to my civility
+and good offices.
+
+'Shall I recommend to you a play of Eschylus, (the Prometheus,)
+published and translated by poor old Morell, who is a good scholar[938],
+and an acquaintance of mine? It will be but half a guinea, and your name
+shall be put in the list I am making for him. You will be in very
+good company.
+
+'Now for the Epitaphs!
+
+[_These, together with the verses on George the Second, and Colley
+Cibber, as his Poet Laureat, of which imperfect copies are gone about,
+will appear in my Life of Dr. Johnson[939]._]
+
+'I have no more paper, or I should have said more to you. My love[940]
+and respects to Mr. Johnson.
+
+'Yours ever,
+
+'D. GARRICK.'
+
+'I can't write. I have the gout in my hand.'
+
+'_To James Boswell, Esq., Edinburgh._'
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24.
+
+We passed the forenoon calmly and placidly. I prevailed on Dr. Johnson
+to read aloud Ogden's sixth sermon on Prayer, which he did with a
+distinct expression, and pleasing solemnity. He praised my favourite
+preacher, his elegant language, and remarkable acuteness; and said, he
+fought infidels with their own weapons.
+
+As a specimen of Ogden's manner, I insert the following passage from the
+sermon which Dr. Johnson now read. The preacher, after arguing against
+that vain philosophy which maintains, in conformity with the hard
+principle of eternal necessity, or unchangeable predetermination, that
+the only effect of prayer for others, although we are exhorted to pray
+for them, is to produce good dispositions in ourselves towards them;
+thus expresses himself:--
+
+'A plain man may be apt to ask, But if this then, though enjoined in the
+holy scriptures, is to be my real aim and intention, when I am taught to
+pray for other persons, why is it that I do not plainly so express it?
+Why is not the form of the petition brought nearer to the meaning? Give
+them, say I to our heavenly father, what is good. But this, I am to
+understand, will be as it will be, and is not for me to alter. What is
+it then that I am doing? I am desiring to become charitable myself; and
+why may I not plainly say so? Is there shame in it, or impiety? The wish
+is laudable: why should I form designs to hide it?
+
+'Or is it, perhaps, better to be brought about by indirect means, and in
+this artful manner? Alas! who is it that I would impose on? From whom
+can it be, in this commerce, that I desire to hide any thing? When, as
+my Saviour commands me, I have _entered into my closet, and shut my
+door_, there are but two parties privy to my devotions, GOD and my own
+heart; which of the two am I deceiving?'
+
+He wished to have more books, and, upon inquiring if there were any in
+the house, was told that a waiter had some, which were brought to him;
+but I recollect none of them, except Hervey's _Meditations_. He thought
+slightingly of this admired book. He treated it with ridicule, and would
+not allow even the scene of the dying Husband and Father to be
+pathetick[941]. I am not an impartial judge; for Hervey's _Meditations_
+engaged my affections in my early years. He read a passage concerning
+the moon, ludicrously, and shewed how easily he could, in the same
+style, make reflections on that planet, the very reverse of
+Hervey's[942], representing her as treacherous to mankind. He did this
+with much humour; but I have not preserved the particulars. He then
+indulged a playful fancy, in making a _Meditation on a Pudding_[943], of
+which I hastily wrote down, in his presence, the following note; which,
+though imperfect, may serve to give my readers some idea of it.
+
+MEDITATION ON A PUDDING.
+
+'Let us seriously reflect of what a pudding is composed. It is composed
+of flour that once waved in the golden grain, and drank the dews of the
+morning; of milk pressed from the swelling udder by the gentle hand of
+the beauteous milk-maid, whose beauty and innocence might have
+recommended a worse draught; who, while she stroked the udder, indulged
+no ambitious thoughts of wandering in palaces, formed no plans for the
+destruction of her fellow-creatures: milk, which is drawn from the cow,
+that useful animal, that eats the grass of the field, and supplies us
+with that which made the greatest part of the food of mankind in the age
+which the poets have agreed to call golden. It is made with an egg, that
+miracle of nature, which the theoretical Burnet[944] has compared to
+creation. An egg contains water within its beautiful smooth surface; and
+an unformed mass, by the incubation of the parent, becomes a regular
+animal, furnished with bones and sinews, and covered with feathers. Let
+us consider; can there be more wanting to complete the Meditation on a
+Pudding? If more is wanting, more may be found. It contains salt, which
+keeps the sea from putrefaction: salt, which is made the image of
+intellectual excellence, contributes to the formation of a pudding.'
+
+In a Magazine I found a saying of Dr. Johnson's, something to this
+purpose; that the happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying
+awake in bed in the morning. I read it to him. He said, 'I may, perhaps,
+have said this; for nobody, at times, talks more laxly than I do[945].'
+I ventured to suggest to him, that this was dangerous from one of his
+authority.
+
+I spoke of living in the country, and upon what footing one should be
+with neighbours. I observed that some people were afraid of being on too
+easy a footing with them, from an apprehension that their time would not
+be their own. He made the obvious remark, that it depended much on what
+kind of neighbours one has, whether it was desirable to be on an easy
+footing with them, or not. I mentioned a certain baronet, who told me,
+he never was happy in the country, till he was not on speaking terms
+with his neighbours, which he contrived in different ways to bring
+about. 'Lord ----------(said he) stuck long; but at last the fellow
+pounded my pigs, and then I got rid of him.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, My Lord
+got rid of Sir John, and shewed how little he valued him, by putting his
+pigs in the pound.'
+
+I told Dr. Johnson I was in some difficulty how to act at Inverary. I
+had reason to think that the Duchess of Argyle disliked me, on account
+of my zeal in the Douglas cause[946]; but the Duke of Argyle had always
+been pleased to treat me with great civility. They were now at the
+castle, which is a very short walk from our inn; and the question was,
+whether I should go and pay my respects there. Dr. Johnson, to whom I
+had stated the case, was clear that I ought; but, in his usual way, he
+was very shy of discovering a desire to be invited there himself. Though
+from a conviction of the benefit of subordination[947] to society, he
+has always shewn great respect to persons of high rank, when he happened
+to be in their company, yet his pride of character has ever made him
+guard against any appearance of courting the great. Besides, he was
+impatient to go to Glasgow, where he expected letters. At the same time
+he was, I believe, secretly not unwilling to have attention paid him by
+so great a Chieftain, and so exalted a nobleman. He insisted that I
+should not go to the castle this day before dinner, as it would look
+like seeking an invitation. 'But, (said I,) if the Duke invites us to
+dine with him to-morrow, shall we accept?' 'Yes, Sir;' I think he said,
+'to be sure.' But, he added, 'He won't ask us!' I mentioned, that I was
+afraid my company might be disagreeable to the duchess. He treated this
+objection with a manly disdain: '_That_, Sir, he must settle with his
+wife.' We dined well. I went to the castle just about the time when I
+supposed the ladies would be retired from dinner. I sent in my name;
+and, being shewn in, found the amiable Duke sitting at the head of his
+table with several gentlemen. I was most politely received, and gave his
+grace some particulars of the curious journey which I had been making
+with Dr. Johnson. When we rose from table, the Duke said to me, 'I hope
+you and Dr. Johnson will dine with us to-morrow.' I thanked his grace;
+but told him, my friend was in a great hurry to get back to London. The
+Duke, with a kind complacency, said, 'He will stay one day; and I will
+take care he shall see this place to advantage.' I said, I should be
+sure to let him know his grace's invitation. As I was going away, the
+Duke said, 'Mr. Boswell, won't you have some tea ?' I thought it best to
+get over the meeting with the duchess this night; so respectfully
+agreed. I was conducted to the drawing room by the Duke, who announced
+my name; but the duchess, who was sitting with her daughter, Lady Betty
+Hamilton[948], and some other ladies, took not the least notice of me. I
+should have been mortified at being thus coldly received by a lady of
+whom I, with the rest of the world, have always entertained a very high
+admiration, had I not been consoled by the obliging attention of
+the Duke.
+
+When I returned to the inn, I informed Dr. Johnson of the Duke of
+Argyle's invitation, with which he was much pleased, and readily
+accepted of it. We talked of a violent contest which was then carrying
+on, with a view to the next general election for Ayrshire; where one of
+the candidates, in order to undermine the old and established interest,
+had artfully held himself out as a champion for the independency of the
+county against aristocratick influence, and had persuaded several
+gentlemen into a resolution to oppose every candidate who was supported
+by peers[949]. 'Foolish fellows! (said Dr. Johnson), don't they see that
+they are as much dependent upon the Peers one way as the other. The
+Peers have but to _oppose_ a candidate to ensure him success. It is said
+the only way to make a pig go forward, is to pull him back by the tail.
+These people must be treated like pigs.'
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, OCTOBER 25.
+
+My acquaintance, the Reverend Mr. John M'Aulay[950], one of the
+Ministers of Inverary, and brother to our good friend at Calder[951],
+came to us this morning, and accompanied us to the castle, where I
+presented Dr. Johnson to the Duke of Argyle. We were shewn through the
+house; and I never shall forget the impression made upon my fancy by
+some of the ladies' maids tripping about in neat morning dresses. After
+seeing for a long time little but rusticity, their lively manner, and
+gay inviting appearance, pleased me so much, that I thought, for the
+moment, I could have been a knight-errant for them[952].
+
+We then got into a low one-horse chair, ordered for us by the Duke, in
+which we drove about the place. Dr. Johnson was much struck by the
+grandeur and elegance of this princely seat. He thought, however, the
+castle too low, and wished it had been a story higher. He said, 'What I
+admire here, is the total defiance of expence.' I had a particular pride
+in shewing him a great number of fine old trees, to compensate for the
+nakedness which had made such an impression on him on the eastern coast
+of Scotland.
+
+When we came in, before dinner, we found the duke and some gentlemen in
+the hall. Dr. Johnson took much notice of the large collection of arms,
+which are excellently disposed there. I told what he had said to Sir
+Alexander M'Donald, of his ancestors not suffering their arms to
+rust[953]. 'Well, (said the doctor,) but let us be glad we live in times
+when arms _may_ rust. We can sit to-day at his grace's table, without
+any risk of being attacked, and perhaps sitting down again wounded or
+maimed.' The duke placed Dr. Johnson next himself at table. I was in
+fine spirits; and though sensible that I had the misfortune of not being
+in favour with the duchess, I was not in the least disconcerted, and
+offered her grace some of the dish that was before me. It must be owned
+that I was in the right to be quite unconcerned, if I could. I was the
+Duke of Argyle's guest; and I had no reason to suppose that he adopted
+the prejudices and resentments of the Duchess of Hamilton.
+
+I knew it was the rule of modern high life not to drink to any body; but
+that I might have the satisfaction for once to look the duchess in the
+face, with a glass in my hand, I with a respectful air addressed
+her,--'My Lady Duchess, I have the honour to drink your grace's good
+health.' I repeated the words audibly, and with a steady countenance.
+This was, perhaps, rather too much; but some allowance must be made for
+human feelings.
+
+The duchess was very attentive to Dr. Johnson. I know not how a _middle
+state[954]_ came to be mentioned. Her grace wished to hear him on that
+point. 'Madam, (said he,) your own relation, Mr. Archibald Campbell, can
+tell you better about it than I can. He was a bishop of the nonjuring
+communion, and wrote a book upon the subject[955].' He engaged to get it
+for her grace. He afterwards gave a full history of Mr. Archibald
+Campbell, which I am sorry I do not recollect particularly. He said, Mr.
+Campbell had been bred a violent Whig, but afterwards 'kept better
+company, and became a Tory.' He said this with a smile, in pleasant
+allusion, as I thought, to the opposition between his own political
+principles and those of the duke's clan. He added that Mr. Campbell,
+after the revolution, was thrown into gaol on account of his tenets;
+but, on application by letter to the old Lord Townshend[956], was
+released; that he always spoke of his Lordship with great gratitude,
+saying, 'though a _Whig_, he had humanity.'
+
+Dr. Johnson and I passed some time together, in June 1784[957], at
+Pembroke College, Oxford, with the Reverend Dr. Adams, the master; and I
+having expressed a regret that my note relative to Mr. Archibald
+Campbell was imperfect, he was then so good as to write with his own
+hand, on the blank page of my _Journal_, opposite to that which contains
+what I have now mentioned, the following paragraph; which, however, is
+not quite so full as the narrative he gave at Inverary:--
+
+'_The Honourable_ ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL _was, I believe, the Nephew[958] of
+the Marquis of Argyle. He began life by engaging in Monmouth's
+rebellion, and, to escape the law, lived some time in Surinam. When he
+returned, he became zealous for episcopacy and monarchy; and at the
+Revolution adhered not only to the Nonjurors, but to those who refused
+to communicate with the Church of England, or to be present at any
+worship where the usurper was mentioned as king. He was, I believe, more
+than once apprehended in the reign of King William, and once at the
+accession of George. He was the familiar friend of Hicks[959] and
+Nelson[960]; a man of letters, but injudicious; and very curious and
+inquisitive, but credulous. He lived[961] in 1743, or 44, about 75 years
+old.'_  The subject of luxury having been introduced, Dr. Johnson
+defended it. 'We have now (said he) a splendid dinner before us; which
+of all these dishes is unwholesome?' The duke asserted, that he had
+observed the grandees of Spain diminished in their size by luxury. Dr.
+Johnson politely refrained from opposing directly an observation which
+the duke himself had made; but said, 'Man must be very different from
+other animals, if he is diminished by good living; for the size of all
+other animals is increased by it[962].' I made some remark that seemed
+to imply a belief in _second sight_. The duchess said, 'I fancy you will
+be a _Methodist_.' This was the only sentence her grace deigned to utter
+to me; and I take it for granted, she thought it a good hit on my
+_credulity_ in the Douglas cause.
+
+A gentleman in company, after dinner, was desired by the duke to go to
+another room, for a specimen of curious marble, which his grace wished
+to shew us. He brought a wrong piece, upon which the duke sent him back
+again. He could not refuse; but, to avoid any appearance of servility,
+he whistled as he walked out of the room, to shew his independency. On
+my mentioning this afterwards to Dr. Johnson, he said, it was a nice
+trait of character.
+
+Dr. Johnson talked a great deal, and was so entertaining, that Lady
+Betty Hamilton, after dinner, went and placed her chair close to his,
+leaned upon the back of it, and listened eagerly. It would have made a
+fine picture to have drawn the Sage and her at this time in their
+several attitudes. He did not know, all the while, how much he was
+honoured. I told him afterwards. I never saw him so gentle and
+complaisant as this day.
+
+We went to tea. The duke and I walked up and down the drawing-room,
+conversing. The duchess still continued to shew the same marked coldness
+for me; for which, though I suffered from it, I made every allowance,
+considering the very warm part that I had taken for Douglas, in the
+cause in which she thought her son deeply interested. Had not her grace
+discovered some displeasure towards me, I should have suspected her of
+insensibility or dissimulation.
+
+Her grace made Dr. Johnson come and sit by her, and asked him why he
+made his journey so late in the year. 'Why, madam, (said he,) you know
+Mr. Boswell must attend the Court of Session, and it does not rise till
+the twelfth of August.' She said, with some sharpness, 'I _know nothing_
+of Mr. Boswell.' Poor Lady Lucy Douglas[963], to whom I mentioned this,
+observed, 'She knew _too much_ of Mr. Boswell.' I shall make no remark
+on her grace's speech. I indeed felt it as rather too severe; but when I
+recollected that my punishment was inflicted by so dignified a beauty, I
+had that kind of consolation which a man would feel who is strangled by
+a _silken cord_. Dr. Johnson was all attention to her grace. He used
+afterwards a droll expression, upon her enjoying the three titles of
+Hamilton, Brandon, and Argyle[964]. Borrowing an image from the Turkish
+empire, he called her a _Duchess_ with _three tails_.
+
+He was much pleased with our visit at the castle of Inverary. The Duke
+of Argyle was exceedingly polite to him, and upon his complaining of the
+shelties which he had hitherto ridden being too small for him, his grace
+told him he should be provided with a good horse to carry him next day.
+
+Mr. John M'Aulay passed the evening with us at our inn. When Dr. Johnson
+spoke of people whose principles were good, but whose practice was
+faulty, Mr. M'Aulay said, he had no notion of people being in earnest in
+their good professions, whose practice was not suitable to them. The
+Doctor grew warm, and said, 'Sir, you are so grossly ignorant of human
+nature, as not to know that a man may be very sincere in good
+principles, without having good practice[965]!'
+
+Dr. Johnson was unquestionably in the right; and whoever examines
+himself candidly, will be satisfied of it, though the inconsistency
+between principles and practice is greater in some men than in others.
+
+I recollect very little of this night's conversation. I am sorry that
+indolence came upon me towards the conclusion of our journey, so that I
+did not write down what passed with the same assiduity as during the
+greatest part of it.
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26.
+
+Mr. M'Aulay breakfasted with us, nothing hurt or dismayed by his last
+night's correction. Being a man of good sense, he had a just admiration
+of Dr. Johnson.
+
+Either yesterday morning, or this, I communicated to Dr. Johnson, from
+Mr. M'Aulay's information, the news that Dr. Beattie had got a pension
+of two hundred pounds a year[966]. He sat up in his bed, clapped his
+hands, and cried, 'O brave we[967]!'--a peculiar exclamation of his
+when he rejoices[968].
+
+As we sat over our tea, Mr. Home's tragedy of _Douglas_ was mentioned. I
+put Dr. Johnson in mind, that once, in a coffee house at Oxford, he
+called to old Mr. Sheridan, 'How came you, Sir, to give Home a gold
+medal for writing that foolish play?' and defied Mr. Sheridan to shew
+ten good lines in it. He did not insist they should be together; but
+that there were not ten good lines in the whole play[969]. He now
+persisted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetick and beautiful
+tragedy, and repeated the following passage:--
+
+     --'Sincerity,
+     Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave
+     Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
+     And from the gulph of hell destruction cry,
+     To take dissimulation's winding way[970].'
+
+JOHNSON. 'That will not do, Sir. Nothing is good but what is consistent
+with truth or probability, which this is not. Juvenal, indeed, gives us
+a noble picture of inflexible virtue:--
+
+     "Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus, arbiter idem
+     Integer: ambiguae si quando citabere testis,
+     Incertaeque rei, Phalaris licet imperet ut sis,
+     Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,
+     Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori,
+     Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas[2]."'
+
+He repeated the lines with great force and dignity; then
+added, 'And, after this, comes Johnny Home, with his _earth
+gaping_, and his _destruction crying_:--Pooh[971]!'
+
+While we were lamenting the number of ruined religious buildings which
+we had lately seen, I spoke with peculiar feeling of the miserable
+neglect of the chapel belonging to the palace of Holyrood-house, in
+which are deposited the remains of many of the Kings of Scotland, and
+many of our nobility. I said, it was a disgrace to the country that it
+was not repaired: and particularly complained that my friend Douglas,
+the representative of a great house and proprietor of a vast estate,
+should suffer the sacred spot where his mother lies interred, to be
+unroofed, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. Dr.
+Johnson, who, I know not how, had formed an opinion on the Hamilton
+side, in the Douglas cause, slily answered, 'Sir, Sir, don't be too
+severe upon the gentleman; don't accuse him of want of filial piety!
+Lady Jane Douglas was not _his_ mother.' He roused my zeal so much that
+I took the liberty to tell him he knew nothing of the cause: which I do
+most seriously believe was the case[972].
+
+We were now 'in a country of bridles and saddles[973],' and set out
+fully equipped. The Duke of Argyle was obliging enough to mount Dr.
+Johnson on a stately steed from his grace's stable. My friend was highly
+pleased, and Joseph said, 'He now looks like a bishop.'
+
+We dined at the inn at Tarbat, and at night came to Rosedow, the
+beautiful seat of Sir James Colquhoun, on the banks of Lochlomond, where
+I, and any friends whom I have introduced, have ever been received with
+kind and elegant hospitality.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27.
+
+When I went into Dr. Johnson's room this morning, I observed to him how
+wonderfully courteous he had been at Inveraray, and said, 'You were
+quite a fine gentleman, when with the duchess.' He answered, in good
+humour, 'Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man:' and he was
+right, in a proper manly sense of the word[974]. As an immediate proof
+of it, let me observe, that he would not send back the Duke of Argyle's
+horse without a letter of thanks, which I copied.
+
+'TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ARGYLE.
+
+'MY LORD,
+
+'That kindness which disposed your grace to supply me with the horse,
+which I have now returned, will make you pleased to hear that he has
+carried me well.
+
+'By my diligence in the little commission with which I was honoured by
+the duchess[975], I will endeavour to shew how highly I value the
+favours which I have received, and how much I desire to be thought,
+
+'My Lord,
+
+'Your Grace's most obedient,
+
+'And most humble servant,
+
+'SAM. JOHNSON.'
+
+'Rosedow, Oct. 29, 1773.'
+
+The duke was so attentive to his respectable[976] guest, that on the
+same day, he wrote him an answer, which was received at Auchinleck:--
+
+'TO DR. JOHNSON, AUCHINLECK, AYRSHIRE.
+
+'SIR,  'I am glad to hear your journey from this place was not
+unpleasant, in regard to your horse. I wish I could have supplied you
+with good weather, which I am afraid you felt the want of.
+
+'The Duchess of Argyle desires her compliments to you, and is much
+obliged to you for remembering her commission.
+
+'I am, Sir,
+
+'Your most obedient humble servant,
+
+'ARGYLE.'
+
+'Inveraray, Oct. 29, 1773.'
+
+I am happy to insert every memorial of the honour done to my great
+friend. Indeed, I was at all times desirous to preserve the letters
+which he received from eminent persons, of which, as of all other
+papers, he was very negligent; and I once proposed to him, that they
+should be committed to my care, as his _Custos Rotulorum_. I wish he had
+complied with my request, as by that means many valuable writings might
+have been preserved, that are now lost[977].
+
+After breakfast, Dr. Johnson and I were furnished with a boat, and
+sailed about upon Lochlomond, and landed on some of the islands which
+are interspersed[978]. He was much pleased with the scene, which is so
+well known by the accounts of various travellers, that it is unnecessary
+for me to attempt any description of it.
+
+I recollect none of his conversation, except that, when talking of
+dress, he said, 'Sir, were I to have any thing fine, it should be very
+fine. Were I to wear a ring, it should not be a bauble, but a stone of
+great value. Were I to wear a laced or embroidered waistcoat, it should
+be very rich. I had once a very rich laced waistcoat, which I wore the
+first night of my tragedy[979].'  Lady Helen Colquhoun being a very
+pious woman, the conversation, after dinner, took a religious turn. Her
+ladyship defended the presbyterian mode of publick worship; upon which
+Dr. Johnson delivered those excellent arguments for a form of prayer
+which he has introduced into his _Journey_[980]. I am myself fully
+convinced that a form of prayer for publick worship is in general most
+decent and edifying. _Solennia verba_ have a kind of prescriptive
+sanctity, and make a deeper impression on the mind than extemporaneous
+effusions, in which, as we know not what they are to be, we cannot
+readily acquiesce. Yet I would allow also of a certain portion of
+extempore address, as occasion may require. This is the practice of the
+French Protestant churches. And although the office of forming
+supplications to the throne of Heaven is, in my mind, too great a trust
+to be indiscriminately committed to the discretion of every minister, I
+do not mean to deny that sincere devotion may be experienced when
+joining in prayer with those who use no Liturgy.
+
+We were favoured with Sir James Colquhoun's coach to convey us in the
+evening to Cameron, the seat of Commissary Smollet[981]. Our
+satisfaction of finding ourselves again in a comfortable carriage was
+very great. We had a pleasing conviction of the commodiousness of
+civilization, and heartily laughed at the ravings of those absurd
+visionaries who have attempted to persuade us of the superior advantages
+of a _state of nature_[982].
+
+Mr. Smollet was a man of considerable learning, with abundance of animal
+spirits; so that he was a very good companion for Dr. Johnson, who said
+to me, 'We have had more solid talk here than at any place where we
+have been.'
+
+I remember Dr. Johnson gave us this evening an able and eloquent
+discourse on the _Origin of Evil_[983], and on the consistency of moral
+evil with the power and goodness of GOD. He shewed us how it arose from
+our free agency, an extinction of which would be a still greater evil
+than any we experience. I know not that he said any thing absolutely
+new, but he said a great deal wonderfully well; and perceiving us to be
+delighted and satisfied, he concluded his harangue with an air of
+benevolent triumph over an objection which has distressed many worthy
+minds: 'This then is the answer to the question, _Pothen to Kakon_?'
+Mrs. Smollet whispered me, that it was the best sermon she had ever
+heard. Much do I upbraid myself for having neglected to preserve it.
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28.
+
+Mr. Smollet pleased Dr. Johnson, by producing a collection of
+newspapers in the time of the Usurpation, from which it appeared that
+all sorts of crimes were very frequent during that horrible anarchy. By
+the side of the high road to Glasgow, at some distance from his house,
+he had erected a pillar to the memory of his ingenious kinsman, Dr.
+Smollet; and he consulted Dr. Johnson as to an inscription for it. Lord
+Kames, who, though he had a great store of knowledge, with much
+ingenuity, and uncommon activity of mind, was no profound scholar, had
+it seems recommended an English inscription[984]. Dr. Johnson treated
+this with great contempt, saying, 'An English inscription would be a
+disgrace to Dr. Smollet[985];' and, in answer to what Lord Kames had
+urged, as to the advantage of its being in English, because it would be
+generally understood, I observed, that all to whom Dr. Smollet's merit
+could be an object of respect and imitation, would understand it as well
+in Latin; and that surely it was not meant for the Highland drovers, or
+other such people, who pass and repass that way.
+
+We were then shewn a Latin inscription, proposed for this monument. Dr.
+Johnson sat down with an ardent and liberal earnestness to revise it,
+and greatly improved it by several additions and variations. I
+unfortunately did not take a copy of it, as it originally stood; but I
+have happily preserved every fragment of what Dr. Johnson wrote:--
+
+    Quisquis ades, viator[986],
+    Vel mente felix, vel studiis cultus,
+    Immorare paululum memoriae
+    TOBIAE SMOLLET, M.D.
+    Viri iis virtutibus
+    Quas in homine et cive
+    Et laudes, et imiteris,
+
+    Postquam mira--
+    Se ----
+
+    Tali tantoque viro, suo patrueli,
+
+    Hanc columnam,
+    Amoris eheu! inane monumentum,
+    In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
+    Quas primis infans vagitibus personuit,
+    Versiculisque jam fere moriturus illustravit[987],
+    Ponendam curavit[988].
+
+We had this morning a singular proof of Dr. Johnson's quick and
+retentive memory. Hay's translation of _Martial_ was lying in a window.
+I said, I thought it was pretty well done, and shewed him a particular
+epigram, I think, of ten, but am certain of eight, lines. He read it,
+and tossed away the book, saying--'No, it is not pretty well.' As I
+persisted in my opinion, he said, 'Why, Sir, the original is
+thus,'--(and he repeated it;) 'and this man's translation is thus,'--and
+then he repeated that also, exactly, though he had never seen it before,
+and read it over only once, and that too, without any intention of
+getting it by heart[989].
+
+Here a post-chaise, which I had ordered from Glasgow, came for us, and
+we drove on in high spirits. We stopped at Dunbarton, and though the
+approach to the castle there is very steep, Dr. Johnson ascended it with
+alacrity, and surveyed all that was to be seen. During the whole of our
+Tour he shewed uncommon spirit, could not bear to be treated like an old
+or infirm man, and was very unwilling to accept of any assistance,
+insomuch that, at our landing at Icolmkill, when Sir Allan M'Lean and I
+submitted to be carried on men's shoulders from the boat to the shore,
+as it could not be brought quite close to land, he sprang into the sea,
+and waded vigorously out.  On our arrival at the Saracen's Head Inn, at
+Glasgow, I was made happy by good accounts from home; and Dr. Johnson,
+who had not received a single letter since we left Aberdeen[990], found
+here a great many, the perusal of which entertained him much. He enjoyed
+in imagination the comforts which we could now command, and seemed to be
+in high glee. I remember, he put a leg up on each side of the grate, and
+said, with a mock solemnity, by way of soliloquy, but loud enough for me
+to hear it, 'Here am I, an ENGLISH man, sitting by a _coal_ fire.'
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29.
+
+The professors[991] of the University being informed of our arrival, Dr.
+Stevenson, Dr. Reid[992], and Mr. Anderson breakfasted with us. Mr.
+Anderson accompanied us while Dr. Johnson viewed this beautiful city. He
+had told me, that one day in London, when Dr. Adam Smith was boasting of
+it, he turned to him and said, 'Pray, Sir, have you ever seen
+Brentford[993]?' This was surely a strong instance of his impatience,
+and spirit of contradiction. I put him in mind of it to-day, while he
+expressed his admiration of the elegant buildings, and whispered him,
+'Don't you feel some remorse[994]?'
+
+We were received in the college by a number of the professors, who
+shewed all due respect to Dr. Johnson; and then we paid a visit to the
+principal, Dr. Leechman[995], at his own house, where Dr. Johnson had
+the satisfaction of being told that his name had been gratefully
+celebrated in one of the parochial congregations in the Highlands, as
+the person to whose influence it was chiefly owing that the New
+Testament was allowed to be translated into the Erse language. It seems
+some political members of the Society in Scotland for propagating
+Christian Knowledge had opposed this pious undertaking, as tending to
+preserve the distinction between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. Dr.
+Johnson wrote a long letter upon the subject to a friend, which being
+shewn to them, made them ashamed, and afraid of being publickly exposed;
+so they were forced to a compliance. It is now in my possession, and is,
+perhaps, one of the best productions of his masterly pen[996].
+
+Professors Reid and Anderson, and the two Messieurs Foulis, the Elzevirs
+of Glasgow, dined and drank tea with us at our inn, after which the
+professors went away; and I, having a letter to write, left my
+fellow-traveller with Messieurs Foulis. Though good and ingenious men,
+they had that unsettled speculative mode of conversation which is
+offensive to a man regularly taught at an English school and university.
+I found that, instead of listening to the dictates of the Sage, they
+had teazed him with questions and doubtful disputations. He came in a
+flutter to me, and desired I might come back again, for he could not
+bear these men. 'O ho! Sir, (said I,) you are flying to me for refuge!'
+He never, in any situation, was at a loss for a ready repartee. He
+answered, with a quick vivacity, 'It is of two evils choosing the
+least.' I was delighted with this flash bursting from the cloud which
+hung upon his mind, closed my letter directly, and joined the company.
+
+We supped at Professor Anderson's. The general impression upon my memory
+is, that we had not much conversation at Glasgow, where the professors,
+like their brethren at Aberdeen[997], did not venture to expose
+themselves much to the battery of cannon which they knew might play upon
+them[998]. Dr. Johnson, who was fully conscious of his own superior
+powers, afterwards praised Principal Robertson for his caution in this
+respect[999]. He said to me, 'Robertson, Sir, was in the right.
+Robertson is a man of eminence, and the head of a college at Edinburgh.
+He had a character to maintain, and did well not to risk its being
+lessened.'
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30.
+
+We set out towards Ayrshire. I sent Joseph on to Loudoun, with a
+message, that, if the Earl was at home, Dr. Johnson and I would have the
+honour to dine with him. Joseph met us on the road, and reported that
+the Earl '_jumped for joy,_' and said, 'I shall be very happy to see
+them.' We were received with a most pleasing courtesy by his Lordship,
+and by the Countess his mother, who, in her ninety-fifth year, had all
+her faculties quite unimpaired[1000]. This was a very cheering sight to
+Dr. Johnson, who had an extraordinary desire for long life. Her
+ladyship was sensible and well-informed, and had seen a great deal of
+the world. Her lord had held several high offices, and she was sister to
+the great Earl of Stair[1001].
+
+I cannot here refrain from paying a just tribute to the character of
+John Earl of Loudoun, who did more service to the county of Ayr in
+general, as well as to the individuals in it, than any man we have ever
+had. It is painful to think that he met with much ingratitude from
+persons both in high and low rank: but such was his temper, such his
+knowledge of 'base mankind[1002],' that, as if he had expected no other
+return, his mind was never soured, and he retained his good-humour and
+benevolence to the last. The tenderness of his heart was proved in
+1745-6, when he had an important command in the Highlands, and behaved
+with a generous humanity to the unfortunate. I cannot figure a more
+honest politician; for, though his interest in our county was great, and
+generally successful, he not only did not deceive by fallacious
+promises, but was anxious that people should not deceive themselves by
+too sanguine expectations. His kind and dutiful attention to his mother
+was unremitted. At his house was true hospitality; a plain but a
+plentiful table; and every guest, being left at perfect freedom, felt
+himself quite easy and happy. While I live, I shall honour the memory of
+this amiable man[1003].
+
+At night, we advanced a few miles farther, to the house of Mr. Campbell
+of Treesbank, who was married to one of my wife's sisters, and were
+entertained very agreeably by a worthy couple.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31.
+
+We reposed here in tranquillity. Dr. Johnson was pleased to find a
+numerous and excellent collection of books, which had mostly belonged to
+the Reverend Mr. John Campbell, brother of our host. I was desirous to
+have procured for my fellow-traveller, to-day, the company of Sir John
+Cuninghame, of Caprington, whose castle was but two miles from us. He
+was a very distinguished scholar, was long abroad, and during part of
+the time lived much with the learned Cuninghame[1004], the opponent of
+Bentley as a critick upon Horace. He wrote Latin with great elegance,
+and, what is very remarkable, read Homer and Ariosto through every year.
+I wrote to him to request he would come to us; but unfortunately he was
+prevented by indisposition.
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1.
+
+Though Dr. Johnson was lazy, and averse to move, I insisted that he
+should go with me, and pay a visit to the Countess of Eglintoune, mother
+of the late and present earl. I assured him, he would find himself amply
+recompensed for the trouble; and he yielded to my solicitations, though
+with some unwillingness. We were well mounted, and had not many miles to
+ride. He talked of the attention that is necessary in order to
+distribute our charity judiciously. 'If thoughtlessly done, we may
+neglect the most deserving objects; and, as every man has but a certain
+proportion to give, if it is lavished upon those who first present
+themselves, there may be nothing left for such as have a better claim. A
+man should first relieve those who are nearly connected with him, by
+whatever tie; and then, if he has any thing to spare, may extend his
+bounty to a wider circle.[1005]'
+
+As we passed very near the castle of Dundonald, which was one of the
+many residences of the kings of Scotland, and in which Robert the Second
+lived and died, Dr. Johnson wished to survey it particularly. It stands
+on a beautiful rising ground, which is seen at a great distance on
+several quarters, and from whence there is an extensive prospect of the
+rich district of Cuninghame, the western sea, the isle of Arran, and a
+part of the northern coast of Ireland. It has long been unroofed; and,
+though of considerable size, we could not, by any power of imagination,
+figure it as having been a suitable habitation for majesty[1006]. Dr.
+Johnson, to irritate my _old Scottish_[1007] enthusiasm, was very
+jocular on the homely accommodation of 'King _Bob_,' and roared and
+laughed till the ruins echoed.
+
+Lady Eglintoune, though she was now in her eighty-fifth year, and had
+lived in the retirement of the country for almost half a century, was
+still a very agreeable woman. She was of the noble house of Kennedy, and
+had all the elevation which the consciousness of such birth inspires.
+Her figure was majestick, her manners high-bred, her reading extensive,
+and her conversation elegant. She had been the admiration of the gay
+circles of life, and the patroness of poets[1008]. Dr. Johnson was
+delighted with his reception here. Her principles in church and state
+were congenial with his. She knew all his merit, and had heard much of
+him from her son, Earl Alexander[1009], who loved to cultivate the
+acquaintance of men of talents, in every department.
+
+All who knew his lordship, will allow that his understanding and
+accomplishments were of no ordinary rate. From the gay habits which he
+had early acquired, he spent too much of his time with men, and in
+pursuits far beneath such a mind as his. He afterwards became sensible
+of it, and turned his thoughts to objects of importance; but was cut off
+in the prime of his life. I cannot speak, but with emotions of the most
+affectionate regret, of one, in whose company many of my early days were
+passed, and to whose kindness I was much indebted.
+
+Often must I have occasion to upbraid myself, that soon after our return
+to the main land, I allowed indolence to prevail over me so much, as to
+shrink from the labour of continuing my journal with the same minuteness
+as before; sheltering myself in the thought, that we had done with the
+Hebrides; and not considering, that Dr. Johnson's Memorabilia were
+likely to be more valuable when we were restored to a more polished
+society. Much has thus been irrecoverably lost.
+
+In the course of our conversation this day, it came out, that Lady
+Eglintoune was married the year before Dr. Johnson was born; upon which
+she graciously said to him, that she might have been his mother; and
+that she now adopted him; and when we were going away, she embraced him,
+saying, 'My dear son, farewell[1010]!' My friend was much pleased with
+this day's entertainment, and owned that I had done well to force
+him out.
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2.
+
+We were now in a country not only '_of saddles and bridles_[1011],' but
+of post-chaises; and having ordered one from Kilmarnock, we got to
+Auchinleck[1012] before dinner.
+
+My father was not quite a year and a half older than Dr. Johnson; but
+his conscientious discharge of his laborious duty as a judge in
+Scotland, where the law proceedings are almost all in writing,--a severe
+complaint which ended in his death,--and the loss of my mother, a woman
+of almost unexampled piety and goodness,--had before this time in some
+degree affected his spirits[1013], and rendered him less disposed to
+exert his faculties: for he had originally a very strong mind, and
+cheerful temper. He assured me, he never had felt one moment of what is
+called low spirits, or uneasiness, without a real cause. He had a great
+many good stories, which he told uncommonly well, and he was remarkable
+for 'humour, _incolumi gravitate_[1014],' as Lord Monboddo used to
+characterise it. His age, his office, and his character, had long given
+him an acknowledged claim to great attention, in whatever company he
+was; and he could ill brook any diminution of it. He was as sanguine a
+Whig and Presbyterian, as Dr. Johnson was a Tory and Church of England
+man: and as he had not much leisure to be informed of Dr. Johnson's
+great merits by reading his works, he had a partial and unfavourable
+notion of him, founded on his supposed political tenets; which were so
+discordant to his own, that instead of speaking of him with that respect
+to which he was entitled, he used to call him 'a _Jacobite fellow_.'
+Knowing all this, I should not have ventured to bring them together, had
+not my father, out of kindness to me, desired me to invite Dr. Johnson
+to his house.
+
+I was very anxious that all should be well; and begged of my friend to
+avoid three topicks, as to which they differed very widely; Whiggism,
+Presbyterianism, and--Sir John Pringle.[1015] He said courteously, 'I
+shall certainly not talk on subjects which I am told are disagreeable to
+a gentleman under whose roof I am; especially, I shall not do so to
+_your father_.'
+
+Our first day went off very smoothly. It rained, and we could not get
+out; but my father shewed Dr. Johnson his library, which in curious
+editions of the Greek and Roman classicks, is, I suppose, not excelled
+by any private collection in Great Britain. My father had studied at
+Leyden, and been very intimate with the Gronovii, and other learned men
+there. He was a sound scholar, and, in particular, had collated
+manuscripts and different editions of _Anacreon_, and others of the
+Greek Lyrick poets, with great care; so that my friend and he had much
+matter for conversation, without touching on the fatal topicks of
+difference.
+
+Dr. Johnson found here Baxter's _Anacreon_[1016], which he told me he
+had long enquired for in vain, and began to suspect there was no such
+book. Baxter was the keen antagonist of Barnes[1017]. His life is in
+the _Biographia Britannica_[1018]. My father has written many notes on
+this book, and Dr. Johnson and I talked of having it reprinted.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3.
+
+It rained all day, and gave Dr. Johnson an impression of that
+incommodiousness of climate in the west, of which he has taken notice in
+his _Journey_[1019]; but, being well accommodated, and furnished with
+variety of books, he was not dissatisfied.
+
+Some gentlemen of the neighbourhood came to visit my father; but there
+was little conversation. One of them asked Dr. Johnson how he liked the
+Highlands. The question seemed to irritate him, for he answered, 'How,
+Sir, can you ask me what obliges me to speak unfavourably of a country
+where I have been hospitably entertained? Who _can_ like the
+Highlands[1020]? I like the inhabitants very well[1021].' The gentleman
+asked no more questions.
+
+Let me now make up for the present neglect, by again gleaning from the
+past. At Lord Monboddo's, after the conversation upon the decrease of
+learning in England, his Lordship mentioned _Hermes_, by Mr. Harris of
+Salisbury[1022], as the work of a living authour, for whom he had a
+great respect. Dr. Johnson said nothing at the time; but when we were in
+our post-chaise, he told me, he thought Harris 'a coxcomb.' This he
+said of him, not as a man, but as an authour[1023]; and I give his
+opinions of men and books, faithfully, whether they agree with my own or
+not. I do admit, that there always appeared to me something of
+affectation in Mr. Harris's manner of writing; something of a habit of
+clothing plain thoughts in analytick and categorical formality. But all
+his writings are imbued with learning; and all breathe that philanthropy
+and amiable disposition, which distinguished him as a man[1024].
+
+At another time, during our Tour, he drew the character of a rapacious
+Highland Chief[1025] with the strength of Theophrastus or la Bruyère;
+concluding with these words:--'Sir, he has no more the soul of a Chief,
+than an attorney who has twenty houses in a street, and considers how
+much he can make by them.'
+
+He this day, when we were by ourselves, observed, how common it was for
+people to talk from books; to retail the sentiment's of others, and not
+their own; in short, to converse without any originality of thinking. He
+was pleased to say, 'You and I do not talk from books[1026].'
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4.
+
+I was glad to have at length a very fine day, on which I could shew Dr.
+Johnson the _Place_ of my family, which he has honoured with so much
+attention in his _Journey_. He is, however, mistaken in thinking that
+the Celtick name, _Auchinleck_, has no relation to the natural
+appearance of it. I believe every Celtick name of a place will be found
+very descriptive. _Auchinleck_ does not signify a _stony field_, as he
+has said, but a _field of flag stones_; and this place has a number of
+rocks, which abound in strata of that kind. The 'sullen dignity of the
+old castle,' as he has forcibly expressed it, delighted him
+exceedingly.[1027] On one side of the rock on which its ruins stand,
+runs the river Lugar, which is here of considerable breadth, and is
+bordered by other high rocks, shaded with wood. On the other side runs a
+brook, skirted in the same manner, but on a smaller scale. I cannot
+figure a more romantick scene.
+
+I felt myself elated here, and expatiated to my illustrious Mentor on
+the antiquity and honourable alliances of my family, and on the merits
+of its founder, Thomas Boswell, who was highly favoured by his
+sovereign, James IV. of Scotland, and fell with him at the battle of
+Flodden-field[1028]; and in the glow of what, I am sensible, will, in a
+commercial age, be considered as genealogical enthusiasm, did not omit
+to mention what I was sure my friend would not think lightly of, my
+relation[1029] to the Royal Personage, whose liberality, on his
+accession to the throne, had given him comfort and independence[1030].
+I have, in a former page[1031], acknowledged my pride of ancient blood,
+in which I was encouraged by Dr. Johnson: my readers therefore will not
+be surprised at my having indulged it on this occasion.
+
+Not far from the old castle is a spot of consecrated earth, on which may
+be traced the foundations of an ancient chapel, dedicated to St.
+Vincent, and where in old times 'was the place of graves' for the
+family. It grieves me to think that the remains of sanctity here, which
+were considerable, were dragged away, and employed in building a part of
+the house of Auchinleck, of the middle age; which was the family
+residence, till my father erected that 'elegant modern mansion,' of
+which Dr. Johnson speaks so handsomely. Perhaps this chapel may one day
+be restored.
+
+Dr. Johnson was pleased when I shewed him some venerable old trees,
+under the shade of which my ancestors had walked. He exhorted me to
+plant assiduously[1032], as my father had done to a great extent.
+
+As I wandered with my reverend friend in the groves of Auchinleck, I
+told him, that, if I survived him, it was my intention to erect a
+monument to him here, among scenes which, in my mind, were all
+classical; for in my youth I had appropriated to them many of the
+descriptions of the Roman poets. He could not bear to have death
+presented to him in any shape; for his constitutional melancholy made
+the king of terrours more frightful. He turned off the subject, saying,
+'Sir, I hope to see your grand-children!'
+
+This forenoon he observed some cattle without horns, of which he has
+taken notice in his _Journey_[1033], and seems undecided whether they be
+of a particular race. His doubts appear to have had no foundation; for
+my respectable neighbour, Mr. Fairlie, who, with all his attention to
+agriculture, finds time both for the classicks and his friends, assures
+me they are a distinct species, and that, when any of their calves have
+horns, a mixture of breed can be traced. In confirmation of his opinion,
+he pointed out to me the following passage in Tacitus,--'_Ne armentis
+quidem suus honor, aut gloria frontis_[1034];' (_De mor. Germ. § 5_)
+which he wondered had escaped Dr. Johnson.
+
+On the front of the house of Auchinleck is this inscription:--
+
+     'Quod petis, hic est;
+     Est Ulubris; animus si te non deficit aequus[1035].'
+
+It is characteristick of the founder; but the _animus aequus_ is, alas!
+not inheritable, nor the subject of devise. He always talked to me as if
+it were in a man's own power to attain it; but Dr. Johnson told me that
+he owned to him, when they were alone, his persuasion that it was in a
+great measure constitutional, or the effect of causes which do not
+depend on ourselves, and that Horace boasts too much, when he says,
+_aequum mi animum ipse parabo_[1036].
+
+
+
+
+FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5.
+
+The Reverend Mr. Dun, our parish minister, who had dined with us
+yesterday, with some other company, insisted that Dr. Johnson and I
+should dine with him to-day. This gave me an opportunity to shew my
+friend the road to the church, made by my father at a great expence, for
+above three miles, on his own estate, through a range of well enclosed
+farms, with a row of trees on each side of it. He called it the _Via
+sacra_, and was very fond of it.[1037]Dr. Johnson, though he held
+notions far distant from those of the Presbyterian clergy, yet could
+associate on good terms with them. He indeed occasionally attacked
+them. One of them discovered a narrowness of information concerning the
+dignitaries of the Church of England, among whom may be found men of the
+greatest learning, virtue, and piety, and of a truly apostolic
+character. He talked before Dr. Johnson, of fat bishops and drowsy
+deans; and, in short, seemed to believe the illiberal and profane
+scoffings of professed satyrists, or vulgar railers. Dr. Johnson was so
+highly offended, that he said to him, 'Sir, you know no more of our
+Church than a Hottentot[1038].' I was sorry that he brought this
+upon himself.
+
+
+
+
+SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6.
+
+I cannot be certain, whether it was on this day, or a former, that Dr.
+Johnson and my father came in collision. If I recollect right, the
+contest began while my father was shewing him his collection of medals;
+and Oliver Cromwell's coin unfortunately introduced Charles the First,
+and Toryism. They became exceedingly warm, and violent, and I was very
+much distressed by being present at such an altercation between two men,
+both of whom I reverenced; yet I durst not interfere. It would certainly
+be very unbecoming in me to exhibit my honoured father, and my respected
+friend, as intellectual gladiators, for the entertainment of the
+publick: and therefore I suppress what would, I dare say, make an
+interesting scene in this dramatick sketch,--this account of the
+transit of Johnson over the Caledonian Hemisphere[1039].
+
+Yet I think I may, without impropriety, mention one circumstance, as an
+instance of my father's address. Dr. Johnson challenged him, as he did
+us all at Talisker[1040], to point out any theological works of merit
+written by Presbyterian ministers in Scotland. My father, whose studies
+did not lie much in that way, owned to me afterwards, that he was
+somewhat at a loss how to answer, but that luckily he recollected having
+read in catalogues the title of _Durham on the Galatians_; upon which he
+boldly said, 'Pray, Sir, have you read Mr. Durham's excellent commentary
+on the Galatians?' 'No, Sir,' said Dr. Johnson. By this lucky thought my
+father kept him at bay, and for some time enjoyed his triumph[1041]; but
+his antagonist soon made a retort, which I forbear to mention.
+
+In the course of their altercation, Whiggism and Presbyterianism,
+Toryism and Episcopacy, were terribly buffeted. My worthy hereditary
+friend, Sir John Pringle, never having been mentioned, happily escaped
+without a bruise.
+
+My father's opinion of Dr. Johnson may be conjectured from the name he
+afterwards gave him, which was URSA MAJOR[1042]. But it is not true, as
+has been reported, that it was in consequence of my saying that he was a
+_constellation_[1043] of genius and literature. It was a sly abrupt
+expression to one of his brethren on the bench of the Court of Session,
+in which Dr. Johnson was then standing; but it was not said in
+his hearing.
+
+
+
+
+SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7.
+
+My father and I went to publick worship in our parish-church, in which I
+regretted that Dr. Johnson would not join us; for, though we have there
+no form of prayer, nor magnificent solemnity, yet, as GOD is worshipped
+in spirit and in truth, and the same doctrines preached as in the Church
+of England, my friend would certainly have shewn more liberality, had he
+attended. I doubt not, however, but he employed his time in private to
+very good purpose. His uniform and fervent piety was manifested on many
+occasions during our Tour, which I have not mentioned. His reason for
+not joining in Presbyterian worship has been recorded in a former
+page[1044].
+
+
+
+
+MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8.
+
+Notwithstanding the altercation that had passed, my father, who had the
+dignified courtesy of an old Baron, was very civil to Dr. Johnson, and
+politely attended him to the post-chaise, which was to convey us to
+Edinburgh[1045].
+
+Thus they parted. They are now in another, and a higher, state of
+existence: and as they were both worthy Christian men, I trust they have
+met in happiness. But I must observe, in justice to my friend's
+political principles, and my own, that they have met in a place where
+there is no room for _Whiggism_[1046].
+
+We came at night to a good inn at Hamilton. I recollect no more.
+
+
+
+
+TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9.
+
+I wished to have shewn Dr. Johnson the Duke of Hamilton's house,
+commonly called the _Palace_ of Hamilton, which is close by the town. It
+is an object which, having been pointed out to me as a splendid edifice,
+from my earliest years, in travelling between Auchinleck and Edinburgh,
+has still great grandeur in my imagination. My friend consented to stop,
+and view the outside of it, but could not be persuaded to go into it.
+
+We arrived this night at Edinburgh, after an absence of eighty-three
+days. For five weeks together, of the tempestuous season, there had been
+no account received of us. I cannot express how happy I was on finding
+myself again at home.
+
+
+
+
+WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10.
+
+Old Mr. Drummond, the bookseller[1047], came to breakfast. Dr. Johnson
+and he had not met for ten years. There was respect on his side, and
+kindness on Dr. Johnson's. Soon afterwards Lord Elibank came in, and was
+much pleased at seeing Dr. Johnson in Scotland. His lordship said,
+'hardly any thing seemed to him more improbable.' Dr. Johnson had a
+very high opinion of him. Speaking of him to me, he characterized him
+thus: 'Lord Elibank has read a great deal. It is true, I can find in
+books all that he has read; but he has a great deal of what is in books,
+proved by the test of real life.' Indeed, there have been few men whose
+conversation discovered more knowledge enlivened by fancy. He published
+several small pieces of distinguished merit; and has left some in
+manuscript, in particular an account of the expedition against
+Carthagena, in which he served as an officer in the army. His writings
+deserve to be collected. He was the early patron of Dr. Robertson, the
+historian, and Mr. Home, the tragick poet; who, when they were ministers
+of country parishes, lived near his seat. He told me, 'I saw these lads
+had talents, and they were much with me.' I hope they will pay a
+grateful tribute to his memory[1048].
+
+The morning was chiefly taken up by Dr. Johnson's giving him an account
+of our Tour. The subject of difference in political principles was
+introduced. JOHNSON. 'It is much increased by opposition. There was a
+violent Whig, with whom I used to contend with great eagerness. After
+his death I felt my Toryism much abated.' I suppose he meant Mr.
+Walmsley of Lichfield, whose character he has drawn so well in his _Life
+of Edmund Smith_[1049].  Mr. Nairne[1050] came in, and he and I
+accompanied Dr. Johnson to Edinburgh Castle, which he owned was 'a great
+place.' But I must mention, as a striking instance of that spirit of
+contradiction to which he had a strong propensity, when Lord Elibank was
+some days after talking of it with the natural elation of a Scotchman,
+or of any man who is proud of a stately fortress in his own country, Dr.
+Johnson affected to despise it, observing that 'it would make a good
+_prison_ in ENGLAND.'
+
+Lest it should be supposed that I have suppressed one of his sallies
+against my country, it may not be improper here to correct a mistaken
+account that has been circulated, as to his conversation this day. It
+has been said, that being desired to attend to the noble prospect from
+the Castle-hill, he replied, 'Sir, the noblest prospect that a Scotchman
+ever sees, is the high road that leads him to London.' This lively
+sarcasm was thrown out at a tavern[1051] in London, in my presence, many
+years before.
+
+We had with us to-day at dinner, at my house, the Lady Dowager Colvill,
+and Lady Anne Erskine, sisters of the Earl of Kelly[1052]; the
+Honourable Archibald Erskine, who has now succeeded to that title; Lord
+Elibank; the Reverend Dr. Blair; Mr. Tytler, the acute vindicator of
+Mary Queen of Scots[1053], and some other friends[1054].
+
+_Fingal_ being talked of, Dr. Johnson, who used to boast that he had,
+from the first, resisted both Ossian[1055] and the Giants of
+Patagonia[1056], averred his positive disbelief of its authenticity.
+Lord Elibank said, 'I am sure it is not M'Pherson's. Mr. Johnson, I keep
+company a great deal with you; it is known I do. I may borrow from you
+better things than I can say myself, and give them as my own; but, if I
+should, every body will know whose they are.' The Doctor was not
+softened by this compliment. He denied merit to _Fingal_, supposing it
+to be the production of a man who has had the advantages that the
+present age affords; and said, 'nothing is more easy than to write
+enough in that style if once you begin[1057].'[1058]One gentleman in
+company[1059] expressing his opinion 'that _Fingal_ was certainly
+genuine, for that he had heard a great part of it repeated in the
+original,' Dr. Johnson indignantly asked him whether he understood the
+original; to which an answer being given in the negative, 'Why then,
+(said Dr. Johnson,) we see to what _this_ testimony comes:--thus it is.'
+
+I mentioned this as a remarkable proof how liable the mind of man is to
+credulity, when not guarded by such strict examination as that which Dr.
+Johnson habitually practised.[1060]The talents and integrity of the
+gentleman who made the remark, are unquestionable; yet, had not Dr.
+Johnson made him advert to the consideration, that he who does not
+understand a language, cannot know that something which is recited to
+him is in that language, he might have believed, and reported to this
+hour, that he had 'heard a great part of _Fingal_ repeated in the
+original.'
+
+For the satisfaction of those on the north of the Tweed, who may think
+Dr. Johnson's account of Caledonian credulity and inaccuracy too
+strong,[1061] it is but fair to add, that he admitted the same kind of
+ready belief might be found in his own country. 'He would undertake, (he
+said) to write an epick poem on the story of _Robin Hood_,[1062] and
+half England, to whom the names and places he should mention in it are
+familiar, would believe and declare they had heard it from their
+earliest years.'
+
+One of his objections to the authenticity of _Fingal_, during the
+conversation at Ulinish,[1063] is omitted in my _Journal_, but I
+perfectly recollect it. 'Why is not the original deposited in some
+publick library, instead of exhibiting attestations of its
+existence?[1064] Suppose there were a question in a court of justice,
+whether a man be dead or alive: You aver he is alive, and you bring
+fifty witnesses to swear it: I answer, "Why do you not produce the
+man?"' This is an argument founded upon one of the first principles of
+the _law of evidence_, which _Gilbert_[1065] would have held to be
+irrefragable.
+
+I do not think it incumbent on me to give any precise decided opinion
+upon this question, as to which I believe more than some, and less than
+others.[1066]
+
+The subject appears to have now become very uninteresting to the
+publick. That _Fingal_ is not from beginning to end a translation from
+the Gallick, but that _some_ passages have been supplied by the editor
+to connect the whole, I have heard admitted by very warm advocates for
+its authenticity. If this be the case, why are not these distinctly
+ascertained? Antiquaries, and admirers of the work, may complain, that
+they are in a situation similar to that of the unhappy gentleman, whose
+wife informed him, on her death-bed, that one of their reputed children
+was not his; and, when he eagerly begged her to declare which of them it
+was, she answered, '_That_ you shall never know;' and expired, leaving
+him in irremediable doubt as to them all.
+
+I beg leave now to say something upon _second sight_, of which I have
+related two instances,[1067] as they impressed my mind at the time. I
+own, I returned from the Hebrides with a considerable degree of faith in
+the many stories of that kind which I heard with a too easy
+acquiescence, without any close examination of the evidence: but, since
+that time, my belief in those stories has been much weakened,[1068] by
+reflecting on the careless inaccuracy of narrative in common matters,
+from which we may certainly conclude that there may be the same in what
+is more extraordinary. It is but just, however, to add, that the belief
+in second sight is not peculiar to the Highlands and Isles.[1069]
+
+Some years after our Tour, a cause[1070] was tried in the Court of
+Session, where the principal fact to be ascertained was, whether a
+ship-master, who used to frequent the Western Highlands and Isles, was
+drowned in one particular year, or in the year after. A great number of
+witnesses from those parts were examined on each side, and swore
+directly contrary to each other, upon this simple question. One of them,
+a very respectable Chieftain, who told me a story of second sight, which
+I have not mentioned, but which I too implicitly believed, had in this
+case, previous to this publick examination, not only said, but attested
+under his hand, that he had seen the ship-master in the year subsequent
+to that in which the court was finally satisfied he was drowned. When
+interrogated with the strictness of judicial inquiry, and under the awe
+of an oath, he recollected himself better, and retracted what he had
+formerly asserted, apologising for his inaccuracy, by telling the
+judges, 'A man will _say_ what he will not _swear_.' By many he was much
+censured, and it was maintained that every gentleman would be as
+attentive to truth without the sanction of an oath, as with it. Dr.
+Johnson, though he himself was distinguished at all times by a
+scrupulous adherence to truth, controverted this proposition; and as a
+proof that this was not, though it ought to be, the case, urged the very
+different decisions of elections under Mr. Grenville's Act,[1071] from
+those formerly made. 'Gentlemen will not pronounce upon oath what they
+would have said, and voted in the house, without that sanction.'
+
+However difficult it may be for men who believe in preternatural
+communications, in modern times, to satisfy those who are of a different
+opinion, they may easily refute the doctrine of their opponents, who
+impute a belief in _second sight_ to _superstition_. To entertain a
+visionary notion that one sees a distant or future event, may be called
+_superstition_: but the correspondence of the fact or event with such an
+impression on the fancy, though certainly very wonderful, _if proved_,
+has no more connection with superstition, than magnetism or electricity.
+
+After dinner, various topicks were discussed; but I recollect only one
+particular. Dr. Johnson compared the different talents of Garrick and
+Foote,[1072] as companions, and gave Garrick greatly the preference for
+elegance, though he allowed Foote extraordinary powers of entertainment.
+He said, 'Garrick is restrained by some principle; but Foote has the
+advantage of an unlimited range. Garrick has some delicacy of feeling;
+it is possible to put him out; you may get the better of him; but Foote
+is the most incompressible fellow that I ever knew; when you have driven
+him into a corner, and think you are sure of him, he runs through
+between your legs, or jumps over your head, and makes his escape.'
+
+Dr. Erskine[1073] and Mr. Robert Walker, two very respectable ministers
+of Edinburgh, supped with us, as did the Reverend Dr. Webster.[1074] The
+conversation turned on the Moravian missions, and on the Methodists. Dr.
+Johnson observed in general, that missionaries were too sanguine in
+their accounts of their success among savages, and that much of what
+they tell is not to be believed. He owned that the Methodists had done
+good; had spread religious impressions among the vulgar part of
+mankind:[1075] but, he said, they had great bitterness against other
+Christians, and that he never could get a Methodist to explain in what
+he excelled others; that it always ended in the indispensible necessity
+of hearing one of their preachers.[1076]
+
+
+
+
+THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11.
+
+Principal Robertson came to us as we sat at breakfast, he advanced to
+Dr. Johnson, repeating a line of Virgil, which I forget. I
+suppose, either
+
+     Post varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum[1077]--
+
+or
+
+     --multum ille et terris jactatus, et alto[1078].
+
+Every body had accosted us with some studied compliment on our return.
+Dr. Johnson said, 'I am really ashamed of the congratulations which we
+receive. We are addressed as if we had made a voyage to Nova Zembla, and
+suffered five persecutions in Japan[1079].' And he afterwards remarked,
+that, 'to see a man come up with a formal air and a Latin line, when we
+had no fatigue and no danger, was provoking[1080].' I told him, he was
+not sensible of the danger, having lain under cover in the boat during
+the storm[1081]: he was like the chicken, that hides its head under its
+wing, and then thinks itself safe.
+
+Lord Elibank came to us, as did Sir William Forbes. The rash attempt in
+1745 being mentioned, I observed, that it would make a fine piece of
+History. Dr. Johnson said it would.[1082] Lord Elibank doubted whether
+any man of this age could give it impartially. JOHNSON. 'A man, by
+talking with those of different sides, who were actors in it, and
+putting down all that he hears, may in time collect the materials of a
+good narrative. You are to consider, all history was at first oral. I
+suppose Voltaire was fifty years[1083] in collecting his _Louis XIV_.
+which he did in the way that I am proposing.' ROBERTSON. 'He did so. He
+lived much with all the great people who were concerned in that reign,
+and heard them talk of everything: and then either took Mr. Boswell's
+way, of writing down what he heard, or, which is as good, preserved it
+in his memory; for he has a wonderful memory.' With the leave, however,
+of this elegant historian, no man's memory can preserve facts or sayings
+with such fidelity as may be done by writing them down when they are
+recent. Dr. Robertson said, 'it was now full time to make such a
+collection as Dr. Johnson suggested; for many of the people who were
+then in arms, were dropping off; and both Whigs and Jacobites were now
+come to talk with moderation.' Lord Elibank said to him, 'Mr. Robertson,
+the first thing that gave me a high opinion of you, was your saying in
+the _Select Society_[1084], while parties ran high, soon after the year
+1745, that you did not think worse of a man's moral character for his
+having been in rebellion. This was venturing to utter a liberal
+sentiment, while both sides had a detestation of each other.'  Dr.
+Johnson observed, that being in rebellion from a notion of another's
+right, was not connected with depravity; and that we had this proof of
+it, that all mankind applauded the pardoning of rebels; which they would
+not do in the case of robbers and murderers. He said, with a smile, that
+'he wondered that the phrase of _unnatural_ rebellion should be so much
+used, for that all rebellion was natural to man.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I kept no Journal of anything that passed after this morning, I
+shall, from memory, group together this and the other days, till that on
+which Dr. Johnson departed for London. They were in all nine days; on
+which he dined at Lady Colvill's, Lord Hailes's, Sir Adolphus Oughton's,
+Sir Alexander Dick's, Principal Robertson's, Mr. M'Laurin's[1085], and
+thrice at Lord Elibank's seat in the country, where we also passed two
+nights[1086]. He supped at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's[1087], now
+one of our judges, by the title of Lord Rockville; at Mr. Nairne's, now
+also one of our judges, by the title of Lord Dunsinan; at Dr. Blair's,
+and Mr. Tytler's; and at my house thrice, one evening with a numerous
+company, chiefly gentlemen of the law; another with Mr. Menzies of
+Culdares, and Lord Monboddo, who disengaged himself on purpose to meet
+him; and the evening on which we returned from Lord Elibank's, he supped
+with my wife and me by ourselves[1088].
+
+He breakfasted at Dr. Webster's, at old Mr. Drummond's, and at Dr.
+Blacklock's; and spent one forenoon at my uncle Dr. Boswell's[1089], who
+shewed him his curious museum; and, as he was an elegant scholar, and a
+physician bred in the school of Boerhaave[1090], Dr. Johnson was pleased
+with his company.  On the mornings when he breakfasted at my house, he
+had, from ten o'clock till one or two, a constant levee of various
+persons, of very different characters and descriptions. I could not
+attend him, being obliged to be in the Court of Session; but my wife was
+so good as to devote the greater part of the morning to the endless task
+of pouring out tea for my friend and his visitors.
+
+Such was the disposition of his time at Edinburgh. He said one evening
+to me, in a fit of languor, 'Sir, we have been harassed by invitations.'
+I acquiesced. 'Ay, Sir,' he replied; but how much worse would it have
+been, if we had been neglected[1091]?'
+
+From what has been recorded in this _Journal_, it may well be supposed
+that a variety of admirable conversation has been lost, by my neglect to
+preserve it. I shall endeavour to recollect some of it, as well as
+I can.
+
+At Lady Colvill's, to whom I am proud to introduce any stranger of
+eminence, that he may see what dignity and grace is to be found in
+Scotland, an officer observed, that he had heard Lord Mansfield was not
+a great English lawyer. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, supposing Lord Mansfield not
+to have the splendid talents which he possesses, he must be a great
+English lawyer, from having been so long at the bar, and having passed
+through so many of the great offices of the law. Sir, you may as well
+maintain that a carrier, who has driven a packhorse between Edinburgh
+and Berwick for thirty years, does not know the road, as that Lord
+Mansfield does not know the law of England[1092].'
+
+At Mr. Nairne's, he drew the character of Richardson, the authour of
+_Clarissa_, with a strong yet delicate pencil. I lament much that I have
+not preserved it; I only remember that he expressed a high opinion of
+his talents and virtues; but observed, that 'his perpetual study was to
+ward off petty inconveniences, and procure petty pleasures; that his
+love of continual superiority was such, that he took care to be always
+surrounded by women[1093], who listened to him implicitly, and did not
+venture to controvert his opinions; and that his desire of distinction
+was so great, that he used to give large vails to the Speaker Onslow's
+servants, that they might treat him with respect.'
+
+On the same evening, he would not allow that the private life of a
+Judge, in England, was required to be so strictly decorous as I
+supposed. 'Why then, Sir, (said I,) according to your account, an
+English judge may just live like a gentleman.' JOHNSON. 'Yes,
+Sir[1094],--if he _can_.'
+
+At Mr. Tytler's, I happened to tell that one evening, a great many years
+ago, when Dr. Hugh Blair and I were sitting together in the pit of
+Drury-lane play-house, in a wild freak of youthful extravagance, I
+entertained the audience _prodigiously_[1095], by imitating the lowing
+of a cow. A little while after I had told this story, I differed from
+Dr. Johnson, I suppose too confidently, upon some point, which I now
+forget. He did not spare me. 'Nay, Sir, (said he,) if you cannot talk
+better as a man, I'd have you bellow like a cow[1096].'
+
+At Dr. Webster's, he said, that he believed hardly any man died without
+affectation. This remark appears to me to be well founded, and will
+account for many of the celebrated death-bed sayings which are
+recorded[1097].
+
+On one of the evenings at my house, when he told that Lord Lovat boasted
+to an English nobleman, that though he had not his wealth, he had two
+thousand men whom he could at any time call into the field, the
+Honourable Alexander Gordon observed, that those two thousand men
+brought him to the block. 'True, Sir, (said Dr. Johnson:) but you may
+just as well argue, concerning a man who has fallen over a precipice to
+which he has walked too near,--"His two legs brought him to that," is he
+not the better for having two legs?'
+
+At Dr. Blair's I left him, in order to attend a consultation, during
+which he and his amiable host were by themselves. I returned to supper,
+at which were Principal Robertson, Mr. Nairne, and some other gentlemen.
+Dr. Robertson and Dr. Blair, I remember, talked well upon
+subordination[1098] and government; and, as my friend and I were walking
+home, he said to me, 'Sir, these two doctors are good men, and wise
+men[1099].' I begged of Dr. Blair to recollect what he could of the long
+conversation that passed between Dr. Johnson and him alone, this
+evening, and he obligingly wrote to me as follows:--
+
+'_March_ 3, 1785.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'--As so many years have intervened, since I chanced to have that
+conversation with Dr. Johnson in my house, to which you refer, I have
+forgotten most of what then passed, but remember that I was both
+instructed and entertained by it. Among other subjects, the discourse
+happening to turn on modern Latin poets, the Dr. expressed a very
+favourable opinion of Buchanan, and instantly repeated, from beginning
+to end, an ode of his, intituled _Calendae Maiae_, (the eleventh in his
+_Miscellaneorum Liber_), beginning with these words, '_Salvete sacris
+deliciis sacrae_,' with which I had formerly been unacquainted; but upon
+perusing it, the praise which he bestowed upon it, as one of the
+happiest of Buchanan's poetical compositions, appeared to me very just.
+He also repeated to me a Latin ode he had composed in one of the western
+islands, from which he had lately returned. We had much discourse
+concerning his excursion to those islands, with which he expressed
+himself as having been highly pleased; talked in a favourable manner of
+the hospitality of the inhabitants; and particularly spoke much of his
+happiness in having you for his companion; and said, that the longer he
+knew you, he loved and esteemed you the more. This conversation passed
+in the interval between tea and supper, when we were by ourselves. You,
+and the rest of the company who were with us at supper, have often taken
+notice that he was uncommonly bland and gay that evening, and gave much
+pleasure to all who were present. This is all that I can recollect
+distinctly of that long conversation.
+
+'Your's sincerely,
+
+'HUGH BLAIR.'
+
+At Lord Hailes's, we spent a most agreeable day; but again I must lament
+that I was so indolent as to let almost all that passed evaporate into
+oblivion. Dr. Johnson observed there, that 'it is wonderful how ignorant
+many officers of the army are, considering how much leisure they have
+for study, and the acquisition of knowledge[1100].' I hope he was
+mistaken; for he maintained that many of them were ignorant of things
+belonging immediately to their own profession; 'for instance, many
+cannot tell how far a musket will carry a bullet;' in proof of which, I
+suppose, he mentioned some particular person, for Lord Hailes, from whom
+I solicited what he could recollect of that day, writes to me as
+follows:--
+
+'As to Dr. Johnson's observation about the ignorance of officers, in the
+length that a musket will carry, my brother, Colonel Dalrymple, was
+present, and he thought that the doctor was either mistaken, by putting
+the question wrong, or that he had conversed on the subject with some
+person out of service.
+
+'Was it upon that occasion that he expressed no curiosity to see the
+room at Dumfermline, where Charles I. was born? "I know that he was
+born, (said he;) no matter where."--Did he envy us the birth-place of
+the king?'
+
+Near the end of his _Journey_, Dr. Johnson has given liberal praise to
+Mr. Braidwood's academy for the deaf and dumb[1101]. When he visited it,
+a circumstance occurred which was truly characteristical of our great
+Lexicographer. 'Pray, (said he,) can they pronounce any _long_ words?'
+Mr. Braidwood informed him they could. Upon which Dr. Johnson wrote one
+of his _sesquipedalia verba_[1102], which was pronounced by the
+scholars, and he was satisfied. My readers may perhaps wish to know what
+the word was; but I cannot gratify their curiosity. Mr. Braidwood told
+me, it remained long in his school, but had been lost before I made my
+inquiry[1103].
+
+Dr. Johnson one day visited the Court of Session[1104]. He thought the
+mode of pleading there too vehement, and too much addressed to the
+passions of the judges. 'This (said he) is not the Areopagus.'
+
+At old Mr. Drummond's, Sir John Dalrymple quaintly said, the two noblest
+animals in the world were, a Scotch Highlander and an English
+sailor[1105]. 'Why, Sir, (said Dr. Johnson,) I shall say nothing as to
+the Scotch Highlander; but as to the English Sailor, I cannot agree with
+you.' Sir John said, he was generous in giving away his money.' JOHNSON.
+'Sir, he throws away his money, without thought, and without merit. I do
+not call a tree generous, that sheds its fruit at every breeze.' Sir
+John having affected to complain of the attacks made upon his
+_Memoirs_[1106], Dr. Johnson said, 'Nay, Sir, do not complain. It is
+advantageous to an authour, that his book should be attacked as well as
+praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck only at one end of the
+room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck
+at both ends[1107].' Often have I reflected on this since; and, instead
+of being angry at many of those who have written against me, have smiled
+to think that they were unintentionally subservient to my fame, by using
+a battledoor to make me _virum volitare per ora_[1108].
+
+At Sir Alexander Dick's, from that absence of mind to which every man is
+at times subject, I told, in a blundering manner, Lady Eglingtoune's
+complimentary adoption of Dr. Johnson as her son; for I unfortunately
+stated that her ladyship adopted him as her son, in consequence of her
+having been married the year _after_ he was born. Dr. Johnson instantly
+corrected me. 'Sir, don't you perceive that you are defaming the
+countess? For, supposing me to be her son, and that she was not married
+till the year after my birth, I must have been her _natural_ son.' A
+young lady of quality, who was present, very handsomely said, 'Might not
+the son have justified the fault?' My friend was much flattered by this
+compliment, which he never forgot. When in more than ordinary spirits,
+and talking of his journey in Scotland, he has called to me, 'Boswell,
+what was it that the young lady of quality said of me at Sir Alexander
+Dick's ?' Nobody will doubt that I was happy in repeating it.
+
+My illustrious friend, being now desirous to be again in the great
+theatre of life and animated exertion, took a place in the coach, which
+was to set out for London on Monday the 22nd of November[1109]. Sir John
+Dalrymple pressed him to come on the Saturday before, to his house at
+Cranston, which being twelve miles from Edinburgh, upon the middle road
+to Newcastle, (Dr. Johnson had come to Edinburgh by Berwick, and along
+the naked coast[1110],) it would make his journey easier, as the coach
+would take him up at a more seasonable hour than that at which it sets
+out. Sir John, I perceived, was ambitious of having such a guest; but,
+as I was well assured, that at this very time he had joined with some of
+his prejudiced countrymen in railing at Dr. Johnson[1111], and had said,
+he 'wondered how any gentleman of Scotland could keep company with him,'
+I thought he did not deserve the honour: yet, as it might be a
+convenience to Dr. Johnson, I contrived that he should accept the
+invitation, and engaged to conduct him. I resolved that, on our way to
+Sir John's, we should make a little circuit by Roslin Castle, and
+Hawthornden, and wished to set out soon after breakfast; but young Mr.
+Tytler came to shew Dr. Johnson some essays which he had written; and my
+great friend, who was exceedingly obliging when thus consulted[1112],
+was detained so long, that it was, I believe, one o'clock before we got
+into our post-chaise. I found that we should be too late for dinner at
+Sir John Dalrymple's, to which we were engaged: but I would by no means
+lose the pleasure of seeing my friend at Hawthornden,--of seeing _Sam
+Johnson_ at the very spot where _Ben Jonson_ visited the learned and
+poetical Drummond[1113].
+
+We surveyed Roslin Castle, the romantick scene around it, and the
+beautiful Gothick chapel[1114], and dined and drank tea at the inn;
+after which we proceeded to Hawthornden, and viewed the caves; and I
+all the while had _Rare Ben_[1115] in my mind, and was pleased to think
+that this place was now visited by another celebrated wit of England.
+
+By this time 'the waning night was growing old,' and we were yet several
+miles from Sir John Dalrymple's. Dr. Johnson did not seem much troubled
+at our having treated the baronet with so little attention to
+politeness; but when I talked of the grievous disappointment it must
+have been to him that we did not come to the _feast_ that he had
+prepared for us, (for he told us he had killed a seven-year old sheep on
+purpose,) my friend got into a merry mood, and jocularly said, 'I dare
+say, Sir, he has been very sadly distressed: Nay, we do not know but the
+consequence may have been fatal. Let me try to describe his situation in
+his own historical style, I have as good a right to make him think and
+talk, as he has to tell us how people thought and talked a hundred years
+ago, of which he has no evidence. All history, so far as it is not
+supported by contemporary evidence, is romance[1116]--Stay now.--Let us
+consider!' He then (heartily laughing all the while) proceeded in his
+imitation, I am sure to the following effect, though now, at the
+distance of almost twelve years, I cannot pretend to recollect all the
+precise words:--
+
+'Dinner being ready, he wondered that his guests were not yet come.
+His wonder was soon succeeded by impatience. He walked about the
+room in anxious agitation; sometimes he looked at his watch, sometimes
+he looked out at the window with an eager gaze of expectation,
+and revolved in his mind the various accidents of human life. His
+family beheld him with mute concern. "Surely (said he, with a sigh,)
+they will not fail me." The mind of man can bear a certain pressure;
+but there is a point when it can bear no more. A rope was in his view,
+and he died a Roman death[1117].
+
+It was very late before we reached the seat of Sir John Dalrymple, who,
+certainly with some reason, was not in very good humour. Our
+conversation was not brilliant. We supped, and went to bed in ancient
+rooms, which would have better suited the climate of Italy in summer,
+than that of Scotland in the month of November.
+
+I recollect no conversation of the next day, worth preserving, except
+one saying of Dr. Johnson, which will be a valuable text for many decent
+old dowagers, and other good company, in various circles to descant
+upon. He said, 'I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is
+very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates
+society[1118].' He certainly could not mean deep play.
+
+My friend and I thought we should be more comfortable at the inn at
+Blackshields, two miles farther on. We therefore went thither in the
+evening, and he was very entertaining; but I have preserved nothing but
+the pleasing remembrance, and his verses on George the Second and
+Cibber[1119], and his epitaph on Parnell[1120], which he was then so
+good as to dictate to me. We breakfasted together next morning, and then
+the coach came, and took him up. He had, as one of his companions in it,
+as far as Newcastle, the worthy and ingenious Dr. Hope, botanical
+professor at Edinburgh. Both Dr. Johnson and he used to speak of their
+good fortune in thus accidentally meeting; for they had much instructive
+conversation, which is always a most valuable enjoyment, and, when found
+where it is not expected, is peculiarly relished.
+
+I have now completed my account of our Tour to the Hebrides. I have
+brought Dr. Johnson down to Scotland, and seen him into the coach which
+in a few hours carried him back into England. He said to me often, that
+the time he spent in this Tour was the pleasantest part of his
+life[1121], and asked me if I would lose the recollection of it for five
+hundred pounds. I answered I would not; and he applauded my setting such
+a value on an accession of new images in my mind[1122].
+
+Had it not been for me, I am persuaded Dr. Johnson never would have
+undertaken such a journey; and I must be allowed to assume some merit
+from having been the cause that our language has been enriched with such
+a book as that which he published on his return; a book which I never
+read but with the utmost admiration, as I had such opportunities of
+knowing from what very meagre materials it was composed.
+
+But my praise may be supposed partial; and therefore I shall insert two
+testimonies, not liable to that objection, both written by gentlemen of
+Scotland, to whose opinions I am confident the highest respect will be
+paid, Lord Hailes[1123], and Mr. Dempster[1124]. 'TO JAMES
+BOSWELL, ESQ.
+
+'SIR,
+
+'I have received much pleasure and much instruction, from perusing _The
+Journey to the Hebrides_.
+
+'I admire the elegance and variety of description, and the lively
+picture of men and manners. I always approve of the moral, often of the
+political, reflections. I love the benevolence of the authour.
+
+'They who search for faults, may possibly find them in this, as well as
+in every other work of literature.
+
+'For example, the friends of the old family say that _the aera of
+planting_ is placed too late, at the Union of the two kingdoms[1125]. I
+am known to be no friend of the old family; yet I would place the aera
+of planting at the Restoration; after the murder of Charles I. had been
+expiated in the anarchy which succeeded it.
+
+'Before the Restoration, few trees were planted, unless by the
+monastick drones: their successors, (and worthy patriots they were,) the
+barons, first cut down the trees, and then sold the estates. The
+gentleman at St. Andrews, who said that there were but two trees in
+Fife[1126], ought to have added, that the elms of Balmerino[1127] were
+sold within these twenty years, to make pumps for the fire-engines.
+
+'In J. Major de _Gestis Scotorum_, L. i. C. 2. last edition, there is a
+singular passage:--
+
+'"Davidi Cranstoneo conterraneo, dum de prima theologiae licentia foret,
+duo ei consocii et familiares, et mei cum eo in artibus auditores,
+scilicet Jacobus Almain Senonensis, et Petrus Bruxcellensis,
+Praedicatoris ordinis, in Sorbonae curia die Sorbonico commilitonibus
+suis publice objecerunt, _quod pane avenaceo plebeii Scoti_, sicut a
+quodam religioso intellexerant, _vescebantur, ut virum, quem cholericum
+noverant, honestis salibus tentarent, qui hoc inficiari tanquam patriae
+dedecus nisus est_."
+
+'Pray introduce our countryman, Mr. Licentiate David Cranston, to
+the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson.
+
+'The syllogism seems to have been this:
+
+     'They who feed on oatmeal are barbarians;
+      But the Scots feed on oatmeal:
+      Ergo--
+
+The licentiate denied the _minor_,
+
+     I am, Sir,
+     Your most obedient servant,
+    'DAV. DALRYMPLE.'
+
+'Newhailes, 6th Feb. 1775.'
+
+     To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
+     Dunnichen, 16th February, 1775.
+
+'MY DEAR BOSWELL,
+
+'I cannot omit a moment to return you my best thanks for the
+entertainment you have furnished me, my family, and guests, by the
+perusal of Dr. Johnson's _Journey to the Western Islands_; and now for
+my sentiments of it. I was well entertained. His descriptions are
+accurate and vivid. He carried me on the Tour along with him. I am
+pleased with the justice he has done to your humour and vivacity. "The
+noise of the wind being all its own," is a _bon-mot_, that it would have
+been a pity to have omitted, and a robbery not to have ascribed to its
+author[1128].
+
+'There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman
+need to take amiss[1129]. What he says of the country is true, and his
+observations on the people are what must naturally occur to a sensible,
+observing, and reflecting inhabitant of a _convenient_ Metropolis, where
+a man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the
+little wants of life, than _Col._ or _Sir Allan_. He reasons candidly
+about the _second sight_; but I wish he had enquired more, before he
+ventured to say he even doubted of the possibility of such an unusual
+and useless deviation from all the known laws of nature[1130]. The
+notion of the second sight I consider as a remnant of superstitious
+ignorance and credulity, which a philosopher will set down as such, till
+the contrary is clearly proved, and then it will be classed among the
+other certain, though unaccountable parts of our nature, like
+dreams[1131], and-I do not know what.  'In regard to the language, it
+has the merit of being all his own. Many words of foreign extraction are
+used, where, I believe, common ones would do as well, especially on
+familiar occasions. Yet I believe he could not express himself so
+forcibly in any other stile. I am charmed with his researches concerning
+the Erse language, and the antiquity of their manuscripts. I am quite
+convinced; and I shall rank _Ossian_, and his _Fingals_ and _Oscars_,
+amongst the Nursery Tales, not the true history of our country, in all
+time to come.
+
+'Upon the whole, the book cannot displease, for it has no pretensions.
+The author neither says he is a Geographer, nor an Antiquarian, nor very
+learned in the History of Scotland, nor a Naturalist, nor a
+Fossilist[1132]. The manners of the people, and the face of the country,
+are all he attempts to describe, or seems to have thought of. Much were
+it to be wished, that they who have travelled into more remote, and of
+course, more curious, regions, had all possessed his good sense. Of the
+state of learning, his observations on Glasgow University[1133] shew he
+has formed a very sound judgement. He understands our climate too, and
+he has accurately observed the changes, however slow and imperceptible
+to us, which Scotland has undergone, in consequence of the blessings of
+liberty and internal peace. I could have drawn my pen through the story
+of the old woman at St. Andrews, being the only silly thing in the
+book[1134]. He has taken the opportunity of ingrafting into the work
+several good observations, which I dare say he had made upon men and
+things, before he set foot on Scotch ground, by which it is considerably
+enriched[1135]. A long journey, like a tall May-pole, though not very
+beautiful itself, yet is pretty enough, when ornamented with flowers and
+garlands; it furnishes a sort of cloak-pins for hanging the furniture of
+your mind upon; and whoever sets out upon a journey, without furnishing
+his mind previously with much study and useful knowledge, erects a
+May-pole in December, and puts up very useless cloak-pins[1136].
+
+'I hope the book will induce many of his countrymen to make the same
+jaunt, and help to intermix the more liberal part of them still more
+with us, and perhaps abate somewhat of that virulent antipathy which
+many of them entertain against the Scotch: who certainly would never
+have formed those _combinations_[1137] which he takes notice of, more
+than their ancestors, had they not been necessary for their mutual
+safety, at least for their success, in a country where they are treated
+as foreigners. They would find us not deficient, at least in point of
+hospitality, and they would be ashamed ever after to abuse us in
+the mass.
+
+'So much for the Tour. I have now, for the first time in my life, passed
+a winter in the country; and never did three months roll on with more
+swiftness and satisfaction. I used not only to wonder at, but pity,
+those whose lot condemned them to winter any where but in either of the
+capitals. But every place has its charms to a cheerful mind. I am busy
+planting and taking measures for opening the summer campaign in farming;
+and I find I have an excellent resource, when revolutions in politicks
+perhaps, and revolutions of the sun for certain, will make it decent for
+me to retreat behind the ranks of the more forward in life.
+
+'I am glad to hear the last was a very busy week with you. I see you as
+counsel in some causes which must have opened a charming field for your
+humourous vein. As it is more uncommon, so I verily believe it is more
+useful than the more serious exercise of reason; and, to a man who is to
+appear in publick, more eclat is to be gained, sometimes more money too,
+by a _bon-mot_, than a learned speech. It is the fund of natural humour
+which Lord North possesses, that makes him so much the favourite of the
+house, and so able, because so amiable, a leader of a party[1138].
+
+'I have now finished _my_ Tour of _Seven Pages_. In what remains, I beg
+leave to offer my compliments, and those of _ma tres chere femme_, to
+you and Mrs. Boswell. Pray unbend the busy brow, and frolick a little in
+a letter to,
+
+'My dear Boswell,
+
+'Your affectionate friend,
+
+'GEORGE DEMPSTER[1139].'
+
+I shall also present the publick with a correspondence with the Laird
+of Rasay, concerning a passage in the _Journey to the_ Western Islands,
+which shews Dr. Johnson in a very amiable light.
+
+'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
+
+'Rasay, April 10th, 1775.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'I take this occasion of returning you my most hearty thanks for the
+civilities shewn to my daughter by you and Mrs. Boswell. Yet, though she
+has informed me that I am under this obligation, I should very probably
+have deferred troubling you with making my acknowledgments at present,
+if I had not seen Dr. Johnson's _Journey to the Western Isles_, in which
+he has been pleased to make a very friendly mention of my family, for
+which I am surely obliged to him, as being more than an equivalent for
+the reception you and he met with. Yet there is one paragraph I should
+have been glad he had omitted, which I am sure was owing to
+misinformation; that is, that I had acknowledged McLeod to be my chief,
+though my ancestors disputed the pre-eminence for a long tract of time.
+
+'I never had occasion to enter seriously on this argument with the
+present laird or his grandfather, nor could I have any temptation to
+such a renunciation from either of them. I acknowledge, the benefit of
+being chief of a clan is in our days of very little significancy, and to
+trace out the progress of this honour to the founder of a family, of any
+standing, would perhaps be a matter of some difficulty.
+
+'The true state of the present case is this: the McLeod family consists
+of two different branches; the M'Leods of Lewis, of which I am
+descended, and the M'Leods of Harris. And though the former have lost a
+very extensive estate by forfeiture in king James the Sixth's time,
+there are still several respectable families of it existing, who would
+justly blame me for such an unmeaning cession, when they all acknowledge
+me head of that family; which though in fact it be but an ideal point of
+honour, is not hitherto so far disregarded in our country, but it would
+determine some of my friends to look on me as a much smaller man than
+either they or myself judge me at present to be. I will, therefore, ask
+it as a favour of you to acquaint the Doctor with the difficulty he has
+brought me to. In travelling among rival clans, such a silly tale as
+this might easily be whispered into the ear of a passing stranger; but
+as it has no foundation in fact, I hope the Doctor will be so good as to
+take his own way in undeceiving the publick, I principally mean my
+friends and connections, who will be first angry at me, and next sorry
+to find such an instance of my littleness recorded in a book which has a
+very fair chance of being much read. I expect you will let me know what
+he will write you in return, and we here beg to make offer to you and
+Mrs. Boswell of our most respectful compliments.
+
+'I am,
+
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'Your most obedient humble servant,
+
+'JOHN M'LEOD.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'TO THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
+
+'London, May 8, 1775.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'The day before yesterday I had the honour to receive your letter, and I
+immediately communicated it to Dr. Johnson. He said he loved your
+spirit, and was exceedingly sorry that he had been the cause of the
+smallest uneasiness to you. There is not a more candid man in the world
+than he is, when properly addressed, as you will see from his letter to
+you, which I now enclose. He has allowed me to take a copy of it, and he
+says you may read it to your clan, or publish it if you please. Be
+assured, Sir, that I shall take care of what he has entrusted to me,
+which is to have an acknowledgement of his errour inserted in the
+Edinburgh newspapers. You will, I dare say, be fully satisfied with Dr.
+Johnson's behaviour. He is desirous to know that you are; and therefore
+when you have read his acknowledgement in the papers, I beg you may
+write to me; and if you choose it, I am persuaded a letter from you to
+the Doctor also will be taken kind. I shall be at Edinburgh the week
+after next.
+
+'Any civilities which my wife and I had in our power to shew to your
+daughter, Miss M'Leod, were due to her own merit, and were well repaid
+by her agreeable company. But I am sure I should be a very unworthy man
+if I did not wish to shew a grateful sense of the hospitable and genteel
+manner in which you were pleased to treat me. Be assured, my dear Sir,
+that I shall never forget your goodness, and the happy hours which I
+spent in Rasay.
+
+'You and Dr. M'Leod were both so obliging as to promise me an account in
+writing, of all the particulars which each of you remember, concerning
+the transactions of 1745-6. Pray do not forget this, and be as minute
+and full as you can; put down every thing; I have a great curiosity to
+know as much as I can, authentically.
+
+'I beg that you may present my best respects to Lady Rasay, my
+compliments to your young family, and to Dr. M'Leod; and my hearty good
+wishes to Malcolm, with whom I hope again to shake hands cordially. I
+have the honour to be,
+
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'Your obliged and faithful humble servant,
+
+'JAMES BOSWELL.'  ADVERTISEMENT, written by Dr. Johnson, and inserted
+by his desire in the Edinburgh newspapers:--Referred to in the foregoing
+letter[1140].
+
+_'THE authour of the_ Journey to the Western Islands, _having related
+that the M'Leods of Rasay acknowledge the chieftainship or superiority
+of the M'Leods of Sky, finds that he has been misinformed or mistaken.
+He means in a future edition to correct his errour[1141], and wishes to
+be told of more, if more have been discovered.'_
+
+Dr. Johnson's letter was as follows:--
+
+'To THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'Mr. Boswell has this day shewn me a letter, in which you complain of a
+passage in _The Journey to the Hebrides._ My meaning is mistaken. I did
+not intend to say that you had personally made any cession of the rights
+of your house, or any acknowledgement of the superiority of M'Leod of
+Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally
+admitted,--that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house
+of Dunvegan. Even this I now find to be erroneous, and will therefore
+omit or retract it in the next edition.
+
+'Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to
+you, I should have wished it unsaid; for it is not my business to adjust
+precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct, both
+by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth.  'As I know not when
+the book will be reprinted, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the
+correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done.
+
+'I hope I may now venture to desire that my compliments may be made, and
+my gratitude expressed, to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald
+M'Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the
+island of Rasay; a place which I remember with too much pleasure and too
+much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion,
+should, for a single moment, have violated its tranquillity.
+
+'I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to
+consider me as,
+
+'Sir, your most obliged,
+
+'And most humble servant,
+
+'SAM. JOHNSON[1142].'
+
+'London, May 6, 1775.'
+
+It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours; but I cannot
+refrain from publishing such praise as I received from such a man as Sir
+William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after the perusal of the original
+manuscript of my _Journal_[1143].
+
+'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
+
+'Edinburgh, March 7, 1777.
+
+'My DEAR SIR,
+
+'I ought to have thanked you sooner, for your very obliging letter, and
+for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you
+trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you
+have sent me[1144]. Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and
+shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I
+shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen.
+
+'They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the
+most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure
+that an ordinary observer would become so well acquainted either with
+Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by a personal
+intercourse, as by a perusal of your _Journal_.
+
+'I am, very truly,
+
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'Your most obedient,
+
+'And affectionate humble servant,
+
+'WILLIAM FORBES.'
+
+When I consider how many of the persons mentioned in this Tour
+are now gone to 'that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no
+traveller returns[1145],' I feel an impression at once awful and
+tender.--_Requiescant in pace!_
+
+It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends,
+that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of
+conversations is not a desirable member of society. I repeat the answer
+which I made to that friend:--'Few, very few, need be afraid that their
+sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I would take the
+trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I have collected
+such fruits as the _Nonpareil_ and the BON CHRETIEN[1146]?'
+
+On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised! To
+it we owe all those interesting apophthegms and _memorabilia_ of the
+ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have
+transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining
+collections which the French have made under the title of _Ana_, affixed
+to some celebrated name. To it we owe the _Table-Talk_ of Selden[1147],
+the _Conversation_ between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden,
+Spence's _Anecdotes_ of Pope[1148], and other valuable remains in our
+own language. How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into
+the company of Shakspeare and of Dryden[1149], of whom we know scarcely
+any thing but their admirable writings! What pleasure would it have
+given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteristick
+manners, their modes of composition, and their genuine opinion of
+preceding writers and of their contemporaries! All these are now
+irrecoverably lost. Considering how many of the strongest and most
+brilliant effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is
+it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not
+been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities
+enough to register their conversation;
+
+     'Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
+      Multi, sed omnes illacrymabiles
+      Urgentur, ignotique longa
+      Nocte, carent quia vate sacro[1150].'
+
+They whose inferiour exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or
+illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus
+associated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being
+appended to an illustrious character.
+
+Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have
+suppressed[1151] every thing which I thought could _really_ hurt any
+one now living. Vanity and self-conceit indeed may sometimes suffer.
+With respect to what _is_ related, I considered it my duty to 'extenuate
+nothing, nor set down aught in malice[1152];' and with those lighter
+strokes of Dr. Johnson's satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness
+of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account
+of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they who are the
+subject of them have good sense and good temper enough not to be
+displeased.
+
+I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a
+Tour, which has been the means of preserving so much of the enlightened
+and instructive conversation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be
+an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary,
+that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+No. I.
+
+_In justice to the ingenious_ DR. BLACKLOCK, _I publish the following
+letter from him, relative to a passage in p. 47._
+
+'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'Having lately had the pleasure of reading your account of the journey
+which you took with Dr. Samuel Johnson to the Western Isles, I take the
+liberty of transmitting my ideas of the conversation which happened
+between the doctor and myself concerning Lexicography and Poetry, which,
+as it is a little different from the delineation exhibited in the former
+edition of your _Journal_, cannot, I hope, be unacceptable; particularly
+since I have been informed that a second edition of that work is now in
+contemplation, if not in execution: and I am still more strongly tempted
+to encourage that hope, from considering that, if every one concerned in
+the conversations related, were to send you what they can recollect of
+these colloquial entertainments, many curious and interesting
+particulars might be recovered, which the most assiduous attention could
+not observe, nor the most tenacious memory retain. A little reflection,
+Sir, will convince you, that there is not an axiom in Euclid more
+intuitive nor more evident than the doctor's assertion that poetry was
+of much easier execution than lexicography. Any mind therefore endowed
+with common sense, must have been extremely absent from itself, if it
+discovered the least astonishment from hearing that a poem might be
+written with much more facility than the same quantity of a dictionary.
+
+'The real cause of my surprise was what appeared to me much more
+paradoxical, that he could write a sheet of dictionary _with as much
+pleasure_ as a sheet of poetry. He acknowledged, indeed, that the latter
+was much easier than the former. For in the one case, books and a desk
+were requisite; in the other, you might compose when lying in bed, or
+walking in the fields, &c. He did not, however, descend to explain, nor
+to this moment can I comprehend, how the labours of a mere Philologist,
+in the most refined sense of that term, could give equal pleasure with
+the exercise of a mind replete with elevated conceptions and pathetic
+ideas, while taste, fancy, and intellect were deeply enamoured of
+nature, and in full exertion. You may likewise, perhaps, remember, that
+when I complained of the ground which Scepticism in religion and morals
+was continually gaining, it did not appear to be on my own account, as
+my private opinions upon these important subjects had long been
+inflexibly determined. What I then deplored, and still deplore, was the
+unhappy influence which that gloomy hesitation had, not only upon
+particular characters, but even upon life in general; as being equally
+the bane of action in our present state, and of such consolations as we
+might derive from the hopes of a future.
+
+'I have the pleasure of remaining with sincere esteem and respect,
+
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'Your most obedient humble servant,
+
+'THOMAS BLACKLOCK.'
+
+'Edinburgh, Nov. 12, 1785.'
+
+I am very happy to find that Dr. Blacklock's apparent uneasiness on the
+subject of Scepticism was not on his own account, (as I supposed) but
+from a benevolent concern for the happiness of mankind. With respect,
+however, to the question concerning poetry, and composing a dictionary,
+I am confident that my state of Dr. Johnson's position is accurate. One
+may misconceive the motive by which a person is induced to discuss a
+particular topick (as in the case of Dr. Blacklock's speaking of
+Scepticism); but an assertion, like that made by Dr. Johnson, cannot be
+easily mistaken. And indeed it seems not very probable, that he who so
+pathetically laments the _drudgery_[1153] to which the unhappy
+lexicographer is doomed, and is known to have written his splendid
+imitation of _Juvenal_ with astonishing rapidity[1154], should have had
+'as much pleasure in writing a sheet of a dictionary as a sheet of
+poetry[1155].' Nor can I concur with the ingenious writer of the
+foregoing letter, in thinking it an axiom as evident as any in Euclid,
+that 'poetry is of easier execution than lexicography.' I have no doubt
+that Bailey[1156], and the 'mighty blunderbuss of law[1157],' Jacob,
+wrote ten pages of their respective _Dictionaries_ with more ease than
+they could have written five pages of poetry.
+
+If this book should again be reprinted, I shall with the utmost
+readiness correct any errours I may have committed, in stating
+conversations, provided it can be clearly shewn to me that I have been
+inaccurate. But I am slow to believe, (as I have elsewhere
+observed[1158]) that any man's memory, at the distance of several years,
+can preserve facts or sayings with such fidelity as may be done by
+writing them down when they are recent: and I beg it may be remembered,
+that it is not upon _memory_, but upon what was _written at the time_,
+that the authenticity of my _Journal_ rests.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. II.
+
+Verses written by Sir Alexander (now Lord) Macdonald; addressed and
+presented to Dr. Johnson, at Armidale in the Isle of Sky[1159].
+
+     Viator, o qui nostra per aequora
+     Visurus agros Skiaticos venis,
+       En te salutantes tributim
+         Undique conglomerantur oris.
+
+     Donaldiani,--quotquot in insulis
+     Compescit arctis limitibus mare;
+       Alitque jamdudum, ac alendos
+         Piscibus indigenas fovebit.
+
+     Ciere fluctus siste, Procelliger,
+     Nec tu laborans perge, precor, ratis,
+       Ne conjugem plangat marita,
+         Ne doleat soboles parentem.
+
+     Nec te vicissim poeniteat virum
+     Luxisse;--vestro scimus ut aestuant
+       In corde luctantes dolores,
+         Cum feriant inopina corpus.
+
+     Quidni! peremptum clade tuentibus
+     Plus semper illo qui moritur pati
+       Datur, doloris dum profundos
+         Pervia mens aperit recessus.
+
+     Valete luctus;--hinc lacrymabiles
+     Arcete visus:--ibimus, ibimus
+       Superbienti qua theatro
+         Fingaliae memorantur aulae.
+
+     Illustris hospes! mox spatiabere
+     Qua mens ruinae ducta meatibus
+       Gaudebit explorare coetus,
+         Buccina qua cecinit triumphos;
+
+     Audin? resurgens spirat anhelitu
+     Dux usitato, suscitat efficax
+       Poeta manes, ingruitque
+         Vi solitâ redivivus horror.
+
+     Ahaena quassans tela gravi manu
+     Sic ibat atrox Ossiani pater:
+       Quiescat urnâ, stet fidelis
+         Phersonius vigil ad favillam.
+
+
+
+
+_Preparing for the Press, in one Volume Quarto_,
+
+THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
+
+BY _JAMES BOSWELL_, ESQ.
+
+Mr. Boswell has been collecting materials for this work for more than
+twenty years, during which he was honoured with the intimate friendship
+of Dr. Johnson; to whose memory he is ambitious to erect a literary
+monument, worthy of so great an authour, and so excellent a man. Dr.
+Johnson was well informed of his design, and obligingly communicated to
+him several curious particulars. With these will be interwoven the most
+authentick accounts that can be obtained from those who knew him best;
+many sketches of his conversation on a multiplicity of subjects, with
+various persons, some of them the most eminent of the age; a great
+number of letters from him at different periods, and several original
+pieces dictated by him to Mr. Boswell, distinguished by that peculiar
+energy, which marked every emanation of his mind.
+
+Mr. Boswell takes this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the many
+valuable communications which he has received to enable him to render
+his _Life of Dr. Johnson_ more complete. His thanks are particularly due
+to the Rev. Dr. Adams, the Rev. Dr. Taylor, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr.
+Langton, Dr. Brocklesby, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Mr. Hector of
+Birmingham, Mrs. Porter, and Miss Seward.
+
+He has already obtained a large collection of Dr. Johnson's letters to
+his friends, and shall be much obliged for such others as yet remain in
+private hands; which he is the more desirous of collecting, as all the
+letters of that great man, which he has yet seen, are written with
+peculiar precision and elegance; and he is confident that the
+publication of the whole of Dr. Johnson's epistolary correspondence
+will do him the highest honour.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+(_Page_ 80.)
+
+As no one reads Warburton now--I bought the five volumes of his
+_Divine Legation_ in excellent condition, bound in calf, for ten pence--one
+or two extracts from his writing may be of interest. His Dedication
+of that work to the Free-Thinkers is as vigorous as it is abusive. It has
+such passages as the following:--'Low and mean as your buffoonery is,
+it is yet to the level of the people:' p. xi. 'I have now done with
+your buffoonery, which, like chewed bullets, is against the law of arms;
+and come next to your scurrilities, those stink-pots of your offensive
+war.' _Ib. p. xxii_. On page xl. he returns again to their '_cold_
+buffoonery.' In the Appendix to vol. v, p. 414, he thus wittily replies
+to Lowth, who had maintained that 'idolatry was punished under the
+DOMINION of Melchisedec'(p. 409):--'Melchisedec's story is a short
+one; he is just brought into the scene to _bless_ Abraham in his return
+from conquest. This promises but ill. Had this _King and Priest of
+Salem_ been brought in _cursing_, it had had a better appearance: for, I
+think, punishment for opinions which generally ends in a _fagot_ always
+begins with a _curse_. But we may be misled perhaps by a wrong translation.
+The Hebrew word to _bless_ signifies likewise to _curse_, and under
+the management of an intolerant priest good things easily run into their
+contraries. What follows is his taking _tythes_ from Abraham. Nor will
+this serve our purpose, unless we interpret these _tythes_ into _fines for
+non-conformity_; and then by the _blessing_ we can easily understand
+_absolution_. We have seen much stranger things done with the _Hebrew
+verity_. If this be not allowed, I do not see how we can elicit fire and
+fagot from this adventure; for I think there is no inseparable connexion
+between _tythes_ and _persecution_ but in the ideas of a Quaker.--And
+so much for King Melchisedec. But the learned _Professor_, who
+has been hardily brought up in the keen atmosphere of WHOLESOME
+SEVERITIES and early taught to distinguish between _de facto_ and _de
+jure_, thought it 'needless to enquire into _facts_, when he was secure
+of the _right_'.
+
+This 'keen atmosphere of wholesome severities' reappears by the
+way in Mason's continuation of Gray's Ode to Vicissitude:--
+
+     'That breathes the keen yet wholesome air
+      Of rugged penury.'
+
+And later in the first book of Wordsworth's _Excursion_
+(ed. 1857, vi. 29):--
+
+     'The keen, the wholesome air of poverty.'
+
+Johnson said of Warburton: 'His abilities gave him an haughty confidence,
+which he disdained to conceal or mollify; and his impatience
+of opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such contemptuous
+superiority as made his readers commonly his enemies, and
+excited against the advocate the wishes of some who favoured the cause.
+He seems to have adopted the Roman Emperour's determination,
+_oderint dum metuant_; he used no allurements of gentle language, but
+wished to compel rather than persuade.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 288.
+See _ante_, ii. 36, and iv. 46.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+(_Page_ 158.)
+
+Johnson's Ode written in Sky was thus translated by Lord
+Houghton:--
+
+     'Where constant mist enshrouds the rocks,
+      Shattered in earth's primeval shocks,
+      And niggard Nature ever mocks
+                The labourer's toil,
+      I roam through clans of savage men,
+      Untamed by arts, untaught by pen;
+      Or cower within some squalid den
+                O'er reeking soil.
+
+      Through paths that halt from stone to stone,
+      Amid the din of tongues unknown,
+      One image haunts my soul alone,
+                Thine, gentle Thrale!
+      Soothes she, I ask, her spouse's care?
+      Does mother-love its charge prepare?
+      Stores she her mind with knowledge rare,
+                Or lively tale?
+
+Forget me not! thy faith I claim,
+      Holding a faith that cannot die,
+      That fills with thy benignant name
+                These shores of Sky.'
+
+Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 29.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+APPENDIX C.
+
+(_Page_ 307.)
+
+Johnson's use of the word _big_, where he says 'I wish thy books were
+twice as big,' enables me to explain a passage in _The Life of Johnson
+(ante_, iii. 348) which had long puzzled me. Boswell there represents
+him as saying:--'A man who loses at play, or who runs out his fortune at
+court, makes his estate less, in hopes of making it _bigger_.' Boswell
+adds in a parenthesis:--'I am sure of this word, which was often used by
+him.' He had been criticised by a writer in the _Gent. Mag_. 1785, p.
+968, who quoting from the text the words 'a _big_ book,' says:--'Mr.
+Boswell has made his friend (as in a few other passages) guilty of a
+_Scotticism_. An Englishman reads and writes a _large_ book, and wears a
+_great_ (not a _big_ or _bag_) coat.' When Boswell came to publish _The
+Life of Johnson_, he took the opportunity to justify himself, though he
+did not care to refer directly to his anonymous critic. This
+explanation I discovered too late to insert in the text.
+
+
+
+
+A JOURNEY
+
+INTO
+
+NORTH WALES,
+
+IN
+
+THE YEAR 1774.[1160]
+
+
+TUESDAY, JULY 5.
+
+We left Streatham 11 a.m.
+Price of four horses 2s. a mile.
+
+JULY 6.
+
+Barnet 1.40 p.m.
+On the road I read Tully's _Epistles_.
+At night at Dunstable.
+To Lichfield, 83 miles.
+To the Swan[1161].
+
+JULY 7.
+
+To Mrs. Porter's[1162].
+To the Cathedral.
+To Mrs. Aston's.
+To Mr. Green's.
+Mr. Green's Museum was much admired, and
+Mr. Newton's china.
+
+JULY 8.
+
+To Mr. Newton's. To Mrs. Cobb's.
+Dr. Darwin's[1163]. I went again to Mrs. Aston's. She was sorry to part.
+
+JULY 9.
+
+Breakfasted at Mr. Garrick's.
+Visited Miss Vyse[1164].
+Miss Seward.
+Went to Dr. Taylor's.
+I read a little on the road in Tully's _Epistles_ and _Martial_.
+Mart. 8th, 44, 'lino pro limo[1165].'
+
+JULY 10.
+Morning, at church. Company at dinner.
+
+JULY 11.
+
+At Ham[1166]. At Oakover. I was less pleased with Ham than when I saw it
+first, but my friends were much delighted.
+
+JULY 12.
+
+At Chatsworth. The Water willow. The cascade shot out from many spouts.
+The fountains[1167]. The water tree[1168]. The smooth floors in the
+highest rooms. Atlas, fifteen hands inch and half[1169].
+
+River running through the park. The porticoes on the sides support two
+galleries for the first floor.
+
+My friends were not struck with the house. It fell below my ideas of the
+furniture. The staircase is in the corner of the house. The hall in the
+corner the grandest room, though only a room of passage.
+
+On the ground-floor, only the chapel and breakfast-room, and a small
+library; the rest, servants' rooms and offices[1170].
+
+A bad inn.
+
+JULY 13.
+
+At Matlock.
+
+JULY 14.
+
+At dinner at Oakover; too deaf to hear, or much converse. Mrs. Gell.
+
+The chapel at Oakover. The wood of the pews grossly painted. I could not
+read the epitaph. Would learn the old hands.
+
+JULY 15.
+
+At Ashbourn. Mrs. Diot and her daughters came in the morning. Mr. Diot
+dined with us. We visited Mr. Flint.
+
+     [Greek: To proton Moros, to de deuteron ei en Erasmos,
+     To triton ek Mouson stemma Mikullos echei.][1171]
+
+JULY 16.
+
+At Dovedale, with Mr. Langley[1172] and Mr. Flint. It is a place that
+deserves a visit; but did not answer my expectation. The river is small,
+the rocks are grand. Reynard's Hall is a cave very high in the rock; it
+goes backward several yards, perhaps eight. To the left is a small
+opening, through which I crept, and found another cavern, perhaps four
+yards square; at the back was a breach yet smaller, which I could not
+easily have entered, and, wanting light, did not inspect.
+
+I was in a cave yet higher, called Reynard's Kitchen. There is a rock
+called the Church, in which I saw no resemblance that could justify
+the name.
+
+Dovedale is about two miles long. We walked towards the head of the
+Dove, which is said to rise about five miles above two caves called the
+Dog-holes, at the end of Dovedale.
+
+In one place, where the rocks approached, I proposed to build an arch
+from rock to rock over the stream, with a summer-house upon it.
+
+The water murmured pleasantly among the stones.
+
+I thought that the heat and exercise mended my hearing. I bore the
+fatigue of the walk, which was very laborious, without inconvenience.
+
+There were with us Gilpin[1173] and Parker[1174]. Having heard of this
+place before, I had formed some imperfect idea, to which it did not
+answer. Brown[1175] says he was disappointed. I certainly expected a
+larger river where I found only a clear quick brook. I believe I had
+imaged a valley enclosed by rocks, and terminated by a broad expanse
+of water.
+
+He that has seen Dovedale has no need to visit the Highlands.
+
+In the afternoon we visited old Mrs. Dale.
+
+JULY 17.
+
+Sunday morning, at church.
+
+Afternoon, at Mr. Diot's.
+
+JULY 18.
+
+Dined at Mr. Gell's[1176].
+
+JULY 19.
+
+We went to Kedleston[1177] to see Lord Scarsdale's new house, which is
+very costly, but ill contrived. The hall is very stately, lighted by
+three skylights; it has two rows of marble pillars, dug, as I hear from
+Langley, in a quarry of Northamptonshire; the pillars are very large and
+massy, and take up too much room; they were better away. Behind the hall
+is a circular saloon, useless, and therefore ill contrived.
+
+The corridors that join the wings to the body are mere passages through
+segments of circles. The state bed-chamber was very richly furnished.
+The dining parlour was more splendid with gilt plate than any that I
+have seen. There were many pictures. The grandeur was all below. The
+bedchambers were small, low, dark, and fitter for a prison than a house
+of splendour. The kitchen has an opening into the gallery, by which its
+heat and its fumes are dispersed over the house. There seemed in the
+whole more cost than judgment.
+
+We went then to the silk mill at Derby[1178], where I remarked a
+particular manner of propagating motion from a horizontal to a
+vertical wheel.
+
+We were desired to leave the men only two shillings. Mr. Thrale's bill
+at the inn for dinner was eighteen shillings and tenpence.
+
+At night I went to Mr. Langley's, Mrs. Wood's, Captain Astle, &c.
+
+JULY 20.
+
+We left Ashbourn and went to Buxton, thence to Pool's Hole, which is
+narrow at first, but then rises into a high arch; but is so obstructed
+with crags, that it is difficult to walk in it. There are two ways to
+the end, which is, they say, six hundred and fifty yards from the mouth.
+They take passengers up the higher way, and bring them back the lower.
+The higher way was so difficult and dangerous, that, having tried it, I
+desisted. I found no level part.
+
+At night we came to Macclesfield, a very large town in Cheshire, little
+known. It has a silk mill: it has a handsome church, which, however, is
+but a chapel, for the town belongs to some parish of another name[1179],
+as Stourbridge lately did to Old Swinford.
+
+Macclesfield has a town-hall, and is, I suppose, a corporate town.
+
+JULY 21.
+
+We came to Congleton, where there is likewise a silk mill. Then to
+Middlewich, a mean old town, without any manufacture, but, I think, a
+Corporation. Thence we proceeded to Namptwich, an old town: from the
+inn, I saw scarcely any but black timber houses. I tasted the brine
+water, which contains much more salt than the sea water. By slow
+evaporation, they make large crystals of salt; by quick boiling, small
+granulations. It seemed to have no other preparation.
+
+At evening we came to Combermere[1180], so called from a wide lake.
+
+JULY 22.
+
+We went upon the Mere. I pulled a bulrush of about ten feet. I saw no
+convenient boats upon the Mere.
+
+JULY 23.
+
+We visited Lord Kilmorey's house[1181]. It is large and convenient, with
+many rooms, none of which are magnificently spacious. The furniture was
+not splendid. The bed-curtains were guarded[1182]. Lord Kilmorey shewed
+the place with too much exultation. He has no park, and little
+water[1183].
+
+JULY 24.
+
+We went to a chapel, built by Sir Lynch Cotton for his tenants. It is
+consecrated, and therefore, I suppose, endowed. It is neat and plain.
+The Communion plate is handsome. It has iron pales and gates of great
+elegance, brought from Lleweney, 'for Robert has laid all open[1184].'
+
+We saw Hawkestone, the seat of Sir Rowland Hill, and were conducted by
+Miss Hill over a large tract of rocks and woods; a region abounding with
+striking scenes and terrifick grandeur. We were always on the brink of a
+precipice, or at the foot of a lofty rock; but the steeps were seldom
+naked: in many places, oaks of uncommon magnitude shot up from the
+crannies of stone; and where there were not tall trees, there were
+underwoods and bushes.
+
+Round the rocks is a narrow patch cut upon the stone, which is very
+frequently hewn into steps; but art has proceeded no further than to
+make the succession of wonders safely accessible. The whole circuit is
+somewhat laborious; it is terminated by a grotto cut in a rock to a
+great extent, with many windings, and supported by pillars, not hewn
+into regularity, but such as imitate the sports of nature, by asperities
+and protuberances.
+
+The place is without any dampness, and would afford an habitation not
+uncomfortable. There were from space to space seats in the rock. Though
+it wants water, it excels Dovedale by the extent of its prospects, the
+awfulness of its shades, the horrors of its precipices, the verdure of
+its hollows, and the loftiness of its rocks: the ideas which it forces
+upon the mind are, the sublime, the dreadful, and the vast. Above is
+inaccessible altitude, below is horrible profundity. But it excels the
+garden of Ilam only in extent.
+
+Ilam has grandeur, tempered with softness; the walker congratulates his
+own arrival at the place, and is grieved to think that he must ever
+leave it. As he looks up to the rocks, his thoughts are elevated; as he
+turns his eyes on the vallies, he is composed and soothed.
+
+He that mounts the precipices at Hawkestone, wonders how he came
+thither, and doubts how he shall return. His walk is an adventure, and
+his departure an escape. He has not the tranquillity, but the horror, of
+solitude; a kind of turbulent pleasure, between fright and admiration.
+
+Ilam is the fit abode of pastoral virtue, and might properly diffuse its
+shades over Nymphs and Swains. Hawkestone can have no fitter inhabitants
+than giants of mighty bone and bold emprise[1185]; men of lawless
+courage and heroic violence. Hawkestone should be described by Milton,
+and Ilam by Parnel.
+
+Miss Hill shewed the whole succession of wonders with great civility.
+The house was magnificent, compared with the rank of the owner.
+
+JULY 26.
+
+We left Combermere, where we have been treated with great civility. Sir
+L. is gross, the lady weak and ignorant. The house is spacious, but not
+magnificent; built at different times, with different materials; part is
+of timber, part of stone or brick, plastered and painted to look like
+timber. It is the best house that I ever saw of that kind.
+
+The Mere, or Lake, is large, with a small island, on which there is a
+summer-house, shaded with great trees; some were hollow, and have seats
+in their trunks.
+
+In the afternoon we came to West-Chester; (my father went to the fair,
+when I had the small-pox). We walked round the walls, which are
+compleat, and contain one mile three quarters, and one hundred and one
+yards; within them are many gardens: they are very high, and two may
+walk very commodiously side by side. On the inside is a rail. There are
+towers from space to space, not very frequent, and, I think, not all
+compleat[1186].
+
+JULY 27.
+
+We staid at Chester and saw the Cathedral, which is not of the first
+rank. The Castle. In one of the rooms the Assizes are held, and the
+refectory of the Old Abbey, of which part is a grammar school. The
+master seemed glad to see me. The cloister is very solemn; over it are
+chambers in which the singing men live.
+
+In one part of the street was a subterranean arch, very strongly built;
+in another, what they called, I believe rightly, a Roman hypocaust.
+
+Chester has many curiosities.
+
+JULY 28.
+
+We entered Wales, dined at Mold, and came to Lleweney[1187].
+
+JULY 29.
+
+We were at Lleweney.
+
+In the lawn at Lleweney is a spring of fine water, which rises above the
+surface into a stone basin, from which it runs to waste, in a continual
+stream, through a pipe.
+
+There are very large trees.
+
+The Hall at Lleweney is forty feet long, and twenty-eight broad. The
+gallery one hundred and twenty feet long, (all paved.) The Library
+forty-two feet long, and twenty-eight broad. The Dining-parlours
+thirty-six feet long, and twenty-six broad.
+
+It is partly sashed, and partly has casements.
+
+JULY 30.
+
+We went to Bâch y Graig, where we found an old house, built 1567, in an
+uncommon and incommodious form. My Mistress[1188] chattered about
+tiring, but I prevailed on her to go to the top. The floors have been
+stolen: the windows are stopped.
+
+The house was less than I seemed to expect; the river Clwyd is a brook
+with a bridge of one arch, about one third of a mile.
+
+The woods[1189] have many trees, generally young; but some which seem to
+decay. They have been lopped. The house never had a garden. The addition
+of another story would make an useful house, but it cannot be great.
+Some buildings which Clough, the founder, intended for warehouses, would
+make store-chambers and servants' rooms[1190]. The ground seems to be
+good. I wish it well.
+
+JULY 31.  We went to church at St. Asaph. The Cathedral, though not
+large, has something of dignity and grandeur. The cross aisle is very
+short. It has scarcely any monuments. The Quire has, I think, thirty-two
+stalls of antique workmanship. On the backs were CANONICUS, PREBEND,
+CANCELLARIUS, THESAURARIUS, PRAECENTOR. The constitution I do not know,
+but it has all the usual titles and dignities. The service was sung only
+in the Psalms and Hymns.
+
+The Bishop was very civil[1191]. We went to his palace, which is but
+mean. They have a library, and design a room. There lived Lloyd[1192]
+and Dodwell[1193].
+
+AUGUST 1.
+
+We visited Denbigh, and the remains of its Castle.
+
+The town consists of one main street, and some that cross it, which I
+have not seen. The chief street ascends with a quick rise for a great
+length: the houses are built, some with rough stone, some with brick,
+and a few are of timber.
+
+The Castle, with its whole enclosure, has been a prodigious pile; it is
+now so ruined, that the form of the inhabited part cannot easily
+be traced.
+
+There are, as in all old buildings, said to be extensive vaults, which
+the ruins of the upper works cover and conceal, but into which boys
+sometimes find a way. To clear all passages, and trace the whole of what
+remains, would require much labour and expense. We saw a Church, which
+was once the Chapel of the Castle, but is used by the town: it is
+dedicated to St. Hilary, and has an income of about--
+
+At a small distance is the ruin of a Church said to have been begun by
+the great Earl of Leicester[1194], and left unfinished at his death. One
+side, and I think the east end, are yet standing. There was a stone in
+the wall, over the door-way, which it was said would fall and crush the
+best scholar in the diocese. One Price would not pass under it[1195].
+They have taken it down.
+
+We then saw the Chapel of Lleweney, founded by one of the Salusburies:
+it is very compleat: the monumental stones lie in the ground. A chimney
+has been added to it, but it is otherwise not much injured, and might be
+easily repaired.
+
+We went to the parish Church of Denbigh, which, being near a mile from
+the town, is only used when the parish officers are chosen.
+
+In the Chapel, on Sundays, the service is read thrice, the second time
+only in English, the first and third in Welsh. The Bishop came to survey
+the Castle, and visited likewise St. Hilary's Chapel, which is that
+which the town uses. The hay-barn, built with brick pillars from space
+to space, and covered with a roof. A more[1196] elegant and lofty Hovel.
+
+The rivers here, are mere torrents which are suddenly swelled by the
+rain to great breadth and great violence, but have very little constant
+stream; such are the Clwyd and the Elwy. There are yet no mountains. The
+ground is beautifully embellished with woods, and diversified by
+inequalities.
+
+In the parish church of Denbigh is a bas relief of Lloyd the antiquary,
+who was before Camden. He is kneeling at his prayers[1197].
+
+AUGUST 2.
+
+We rode to a summer-house of Mr. Cotton, which has a very extensive
+prospect; it is meanly built, and unskilfully disposed.
+
+We went to Dymerchion Church, where the old clerk acknowledged his
+Mistress. It is the parish church of Bâch y Graig. A mean fabrick: Mr.
+Salusbury[1198] was buried in it. Bâch y Graig has fourteen seats
+in it.
+
+As we rode by, I looked at the house again. We saw Llannerch, a house
+not mean, with a small park very well watered. There was an avenue of
+oaks, which, in a foolish compliance with the present mode, has been cut
+down[1199]. A few are yet standing. The owner's name is Davies.
+
+The way lay through pleasant lanes, and overlooked a region beautifully
+diversified with trees and grass[1200].
+
+At Dymerchion Church there is English service only once a month. This is
+about twenty miles from the English border.
+
+The old clerk had great appearance of joy at the sight of his Mistress,
+and foolishly said, that he was now willing to die. He had only a crown
+given him by my Mistress[1201].
+
+At Dymerchion Church the texts on the walls are in Welsh.
+
+AUGUST 3.
+
+     We went in the coach to Holywell.
+     Talk with Mistress about flattery[1202].
+
+Holywell is a market town, neither very small nor mean. The spring
+called Winifred's Well is very clear, and so copious, that it yields one
+hundred tuns of water in a minute. It is all at once a very great
+stream, which, within perhaps thirty yards of its eruption, turns a
+mill, and in a course of two miles, eighteen mills more. In descent, it
+is very quick. It then falls into the sea. The well is covered by a
+lofty circular arch, supported by pillars; and over this arch is an old
+chapel, now a school. The chancel is separated by a wall. The bath is
+completely and indecently open. A woman bathed while we all looked on.
+
+In the Church, which makes a good appearance, and is surrounded by
+galleries to receive a numerous congregation, we were present while a
+child was christened in Welsh.
+
+We went down by the stream to see a prospect, in which I had no part. We
+then saw a brass work, where the lapis calaminaris[1203] is gathered,
+broken, washed from the earth and the lead, though how the lead was
+separated I did not see; then calcined, afterwards ground fine, and then
+mixed by fire with the copper.
+
+We saw several strong fires with melting pots, but the construction of
+the fire-places I did not learn.
+
+At a copper-work which receives its pigs of copper, I think, from
+Warrington, we saw a plate of copper put hot between steel rollers, and
+spread thin; I know not whether the upper roller was set to a certain
+distance, as I suppose, or acted only by its weight.
+
+At an iron-work I saw round bars formed by a knotched hammer and anvil.
+There I saw a bar of about half an inch, or more, square cut with shears
+worked by water, and then beaten hot into a thinner bar. The hammers all
+worked, as they were, by water, acting upon small bodies, moved very
+quick, as quick as by the hand.
+
+I then saw wire drawn, and gave a shilling. I have enlarged my
+notions[1204], though not being able to see the movements, and having
+not time to peep closely, I know less than I might. I was less weary,
+and had better breath, as I walked farther.
+
+AUGUST 4.
+
+Ruthin Castle is still a very noble ruin; all the walls still remain, so
+that a compleat platform, and elevations, not very imperfect, may be
+taken. It encloses a square of about thirty yards. The middle space was
+always open.
+
+The wall is, I believe, about thirty feet high, very thick, flanked with
+six round towers, each about eighteen feet, or less, in diameter. Only
+one tower had a chimney, so that there was[1205] commodity of living. It
+was only a place of strength. The garrison had, perhaps, tents in
+the area.
+
+Stapylton's house is pretty[1206]: there are pleasing shades about it,
+with a constant spring that supplies a cold bath. We then went to see
+a Cascade.
+
+I trudged unwillingly, and was not sorry to find it dry. The water was,
+however, turned on, and produced a very striking cataract. They are paid
+an hundred pounds a year for permission to divert the stream to the
+mines. The river, for such it may be termed[1207], rises from a single
+spring, which, like that of Winifred's, is covered with a building.
+
+We called then at another house belonging to Mr. Lloyd, which made a
+handsome appearance. This country seems full of very splendid houses.
+
+Mrs. Thrale lost her purse. She expressed so much uneasiness, that I
+concluded the sum to be very great; but when I heard of only seven
+guineas, I was glad to find that she had so much sensibility of money.
+
+I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner. I know not
+when I missed before.
+
+AUGUST 5.
+
+Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet. I know not whether by fatigue
+in walking, or by forbearance of tea[1208].
+
+I gave the ipecacuanha[1209]. Vin. emet. had failed; so had tartar emet.
+
+I dined at Mr. Myddleton's, of Gwaynynog. The house was a gentleman's
+house, below the second rate, perhaps below the third, built of stone
+roughly cut. The rooms were low, and the passage above stairs gloomy,
+but the furniture was good. The table was well supplied, except that the
+fruit was bad. It was truly the dinner of a country gentleman. Two
+tables were filled with company, not inelegant.
+
+After dinner, the talk was of preserving the Welsh language. I offered
+them a scheme. Poor Evan Evans was mentioned, as incorrigibly addicted
+to strong drink. Worthington[1210] was commended. Myddleton is the only
+man, who, in Wales, has talked to me of literature. I wish he were truly
+zealous. I recommended the republication of David ap Rhees's
+Welsh Grammar.
+
+Two sheets of _Hebrides_ came to me for correction to-day, F.G.[1211]
+
+AUGUST 6.
+
+I corrected the two sheets. My sleep last night was disturbed.
+
+Washing at Chester and here, 5_s_. 1_d_.
+
+I did not read.
+
+I saw to-day more of the out-houses at Lleweney. It is, in the whole, a
+very spacious house.
+
+AUGUST 7.
+
+I was at Church at Bodfari. There was a service used for a sick woman,
+not canonically, but such as I have heard, I think, formerly at
+Lichfield, taken out of the visitation.
+
+The Church is mean, but has a square tower for the bells, rather too
+stately for the Church.
+
+OBSERVATIONS.
+
+Dixit injustus, Ps. 36, has no relation to the English[1212].
+
+Preserve us, Lord, has the name of Robert Wisedome, 1618.--Barker's
+_Bible_[1213].
+
+Battologiam ab iteratione, recte distinguit Erasmus.--_Mod. Orandi
+Deum_, p. 56-144[1214].
+
+Southwell's Thoughts of his own death[1215].
+
+Baudius on Erasmus[1216].
+
+AUGUST 8.
+
+The Bishop and much company dined at Lleweney. Talk of Greek--and of the
+army[1217]. The Duke of Marlborough's officers useless. Read
+_Phocylidis_[1218], distinguished the paragraphs. I looked in Leland: an
+unpleasant book of mere hints.
+
+Lichfield School, ten pounds; and five pounds from the Hospital[1219].
+
+AUGUST 10.
+
+At Lloyd's, of Maesmynnan; a good house, and a very large walled garden.
+I read Windus's Account of his _Journey to Mequinez_, and of Stewart's
+Embassy[1220]. I had read in the morning Wasse's _Greek Trochaics to
+Bentley_. They appeared inelegant, and made with difficulty. The Latin
+Elegy contains only common-place, hastily expressed, so far as I have
+read, for it is long. They seem to be the verses of a scholar, who has
+no practice of writing. The Greek I did not always fully understand. I
+am in doubt about the sixth and last paragraphs, perhaps they are not
+printed right, for [Greek: eutokon] perhaps [Greek: eustochon.] q?
+
+The following days I read here and there. The _Bibliotheca Literaria_
+was so little supplied with papers that could interest curiosity, that
+it could not hope for long continuance[1221]. Wasse, the chief
+contributor, was an unpolished scholar, who, with much literature, had
+no art or elegance of diction, at least in English.
+
+AUGUST 14.
+
+At Bodfari I heard the second lesson read, and the sermon preached in
+Welsh. The text was pronounced both in Welsh and English. The sound of
+the Welsh, in a continued discourse, is not unpleasant.
+
+[Greek: Brosis oligae][1222].
+
+The letter of Chrysostom, against transubstantiation. Erasmus to the
+Nuns, full of mystick notions and allegories.
+
+AUGUST 15.
+
+Imbecillitas genuum non sine aliquantulo doloris inter ambulandum quem a
+prandio magis sensi[1223].
+
+AUGUST 18.
+
+We left Lleweney, and went forwards on our journey.
+
+We came to Abergeley, a mean town, in which little but Welsh is spoken,
+and divine service is seldom performed in English.
+
+Our way then lay to the sea-side, at the foot of a mountain, called
+Penmaen Rhôs. Here the way was so steep, that we walked on the lower
+edge of the hill, to meet the coach, that went upon a road higher on the
+hill. Our walk was not long, nor unpleasant: the longer I walk, the less
+I feel its inconvenience. As I grow warm, my breath mends, and I think
+my limbs grow pliable.
+
+We then came to Conway Ferry, and passed in small boats, with some
+passengers from the stage coach, among whom were an Irish gentlewoman,
+with two maids, and three little children, of which, the youngest was
+only a few months old. The tide did not serve the large ferry-boat, and
+therefore our coach could not very soon follow us. We were, therefore,
+to stay at the Inn. It is now the day of the Race at Conway, and the
+town was so full of company, that no money could purchase lodgings. We
+were not very readily supplied with cold dinner. We would have staid at
+Conway if we could have found entertainment, for we were afraid of
+passing Penmaen Mawr, over which lay our way to Bangor, but by bright
+daylight, and the delay of our coach made our departure necessarily
+late. There was, however, no stay on any other terms, than of sitting up
+all night.
+
+The poor Irish lady was still more distressed. Her children wanted rest.
+She would have been content with one bed, but, for a time, none could be
+had. Mrs. Thrale gave her what help she could. At last two gentlemen
+were persuaded to yield up their room, with two beds, for which she gave
+half a guinea. Our coach was at last brought, and we set out with some
+anxiety, but we came to Penmaen Mawr by daylight; and found a way,
+lately made, very easy, and very safe.[1224] It was cut smooth, and
+enclosed between parallel walls; the outer of which secures the
+passenger from the precipice, which is deep and dreadful. This wall is
+here and there broken, by mischievous wantonness.[1225] The inner wall
+preserves the road from the loose stones, which the shattered steep
+above it would pour down. That side of the mountain seems to have a
+surface of loose stones, which every accident may crumble. The old road
+was higher, and must have been very formidable. The sea beats at the
+bottom of the way.
+
+At evening the moon shone eminently bright; and our thoughts of danger
+being now past, the rest of our journey was very pleasant. At an hour
+somewhat late, we came to Bangor, where we found a very mean inn, and
+had some difficulty to obtain lodging. I lay in a room, where the other
+bed had two men.
+
+AUGUST 19.
+
+We obtained boats to convey us to Anglesey, and saw Lord Bulkeley's
+House, and Beaumaris Castle.
+
+I was accosted by Mr. Lloyd, the Schoolmaster of Beaumaris, who had seen
+me at University College; and he, with Mr. Roberts, the Register of
+Bangor, whose boat we borrowed, accompanied us. Lord Bulkeley's house
+is very mean, but his garden garden is spacious, and shady with large
+trees and smaller interspersed. The walks are straight, and cross each
+other, with no variety of plan; but they have a pleasing coolness, and
+solemn gloom, and extend to a great length.
+
+The castle is a mighty pile; the outward wall has fifteen round towers,
+besides square towers at the angles. There is then a void space between
+the wall and the Castle, which has an area enclosed with a wall, which
+again has towers, larger than those of the outer wall. The towers of the
+inner Castle are, I think, eight. There is likewise a Chapel entire,
+built upon an arch as I suppose, and beautifully arched with a stone
+roof, which is yet unbroken. The entrance into the Chapel is about eight
+or nine feet high, and was, I suppose, higher, when there was no rubbish
+in the area.
+
+This Castle corresponds with all the representations of romancing
+narratives. Here is not wanting the private passage, the dark cavity,
+the deep dungeon, or the lofty tower. We did not discover the Well. This
+is the most compleat view that I have yet had of an old Castle.[1226] It
+had a moat.
+
+The Towers.
+
+We went to Bangor.
+
+AUGUST 20.
+
+We went by water from Bangor to Caernarvon, where we met Paoli and Sir
+Thomas Wynne. Meeting by chance with one Troughton,[1227] an intelligent
+and loquacious wanderer, Mr. Thrale invited him to dinner. He attended
+us to the Castle, an edifice of stupendous magnitude and strength; it
+has in it all that we observed at Beaumaris, and much greater
+dimensions: many of the smaller rooms floored with stone are entire; of
+the larger rooms, the beams and planks are all left: this is the state
+of all buildings left to time. We mounted the Eagle Tower by one hundred
+and sixty-nine steps, each of ten inches. We did not find the Well; nor
+did I trace the Moat; but moats there were, I believe, to all castles on
+the plain, which not only hindered access, but prevented mines. We saw
+but a very small part of this mighty ruin, and in all these old
+buildings, the subterraneous works are concealed by the rubbish.
+
+To survey this place would take much time: I did not think there had
+been such buildings; it surpassed my ideas.
+
+AUGUST 21.
+
+We were at Church; the service in the town is always English; at the
+parish Church at a small distance, always Welsh. The town has by
+degrees, I suppose, been brought nearer to the sea side.
+
+We received an invitation to Dr. Worthington. We then went to dinner at
+Sir Thomas Wynne's,--the dinner mean, Sir Thomas civil, his Lady
+nothing.[1228] Paoli civil.
+
+We supped with Colonel Wynne's Lady, who lives in one of the towers of
+the Castle.
+
+I have not been very well.
+
+AUGUST 22.
+
+We went to visit Bodville, the place where Mrs. Thrale was born; and the
+Churches called Tydweilliog and Llangwinodyl, which she holds by
+impropriation.
+
+We had an invitation to the house of Mr. Griffiths of Bryn o dol, where
+we found a small neat new built house, with square rooms: the walls are
+of unhewn stone, and therefore thick; for the stones not fitting with
+exactness, are not strong without great thickness. He had planted a
+great deal of young wood in walks. Fruit trees do not thrive; but having
+grown a few years, reach some barren stratum and wither.
+
+We found Mr. Griffiths not at home; but the provisions were good. Mr.
+Griffiths came home the next day. He married a lady who has a house and
+estate at [Llanver], over against Anglesea, and near Caernarvon, where
+she is more disposed, as it seems, to reside than at Bryn o dol.
+
+I read Lloyd's account of Mona, which he proves to be Anglesea.
+
+In our way to Bryn o dol, we saw at Llanerk a Church built crosswise,
+very spacious and magnificent for this country. We could not see the
+Parson, and could get no intelligence about it.
+
+AUGUST 24.
+
+We went to see Bodville. Mrs. Thrale remembered the rooms, and wandered
+over them with recollection of her childhood. This species of pleasure
+is always melancholy. The walk was cut down, and the pond was dry.
+Nothing was better.[1229]
+
+We surveyed the Churches, which are mean, and neglected to a degree
+scarcely imaginable. They have no pavement, and the earth is full of
+holes. The seats are rude benches; the Altars have no rails. One of them
+has a breach in the roof. On the desk, I think, of each lay a folio
+Welsh Bible of the black letter, which the curate cannot easily
+read.[1230]
+
+Mr. Thrale purposes to beautify the Churches, and if he prospers, will
+probably restore the tithes. The two parishes are, Llangwinodyl and
+Tydweilliog.[1231] The Methodists are here very prevalent. A better
+church will impress the people with more reverence of publick worship.
+
+Mrs. Thrale visited a house where she had been used to drink milk, which
+was left, with an estate of two hundred pounds a year, by one Lloyd, to
+a married woman who lived with him.
+
+We went to Pwllheli, a mean old town, at the extremity of the country.
+Here we bought something, to remember the place.
+
+AUGUST 25.
+
+We returned to Caernarvon, where we ate with Mrs. Wynne.
+
+AUGUST 26.
+
+We visited, with Mrs. Wynne, Llyn Badarn and Llyn Beris, two lakes,
+joined by a narrow strait. They are formed by the waters which fall from
+Snowdon and the opposite mountains. On the side of Snowdon are the
+remains of a large fort, to which we climbed with great labour. I was
+breathless and harassed. The Lakes have no great breadth, so that the
+boat is always near one bank or the other.
+
+_Note_. Queeny's goats, one hundred and forty-nine, I think.[1232]
+
+AUGUST 27.
+
+We returned to Bangor, where Mr. Thrale was lodged at Mr. Roberts's, the
+Register.
+
+AUGUST 28.
+
+We went to worship at the Cathedral. The quire is mean, the service was
+not well read.
+
+AUGUST 29.
+
+We came to Mr. Myddelton's, of Gwaynynog, to the first place, as my
+Mistress observed, where we have been welcome.
+
+_Note_. On the day when we visited Bodville, we turned to the house of
+Mr. Griffiths, of Kefnamwycllh, a gentleman of large fortune, remarkable
+for having made great and sudden improvements in his seat and estate. He
+has enclosed a large garden with a brick wall. He is considered as a man
+of great accomplishments. He was educated in literature at the
+University, and served some time in the army, then quitted his
+commission, and retired to his lands. He is accounted a good man, and
+endeavours to bring the people to church.
+
+In our way from Bangor to Conway, we passed again the new road upon the
+edge of Penmaen Mawr, which would be very tremendous, but that the wall
+shuts out the idea of danger. In the wall are several breaches, made, as
+Mr. Thrale very reasonably conjectures, by fragments of rocks which roll
+down the mountain, broken perhaps by frost, or worn through by rain.
+
+We then viewed Conway.
+
+To spare the horses at Penmaen Rhôs, between Conway and St. Asaph, we
+sent the coach over the road across the mountain with Mrs. Thrale, who
+had been tired with a walk sometime before; and I, with Mr. Thrale and
+Miss, walked along the edge, where the path is very narrow, and much
+encumbered by little loose stones, which had fallen down, as we thought,
+upon the way since we passed it before.
+
+At Conway we took a short survey of the Castle, which afforded us
+nothing new. It is larger than that of Beaumaris, and less than that of
+Caernarvon. It is built upon a rock so high and steep, that it is even
+now very difficult of access. We found a round pit, which was called the
+Well; it is now almost filled, and therefore dry. We found the Well in
+no other castle. There are some remains of leaden pipes at Caernarvon,
+which, I suppose, only conveyed water from one part of the building to
+another. Had the garrison had no other supply, the Welsh, who must know
+where the pipes were laid, could easily have cut them.
+
+AUGUST 29.
+
+We came to the house of Mr. Myddelton, (on Monday,) where we staid to
+September 6, and were very kindly entertained. How we spent our time, I
+am not very able to tell[1233].
+
+We saw the wood, which is diversified and romantick.
+
+SEPTEMBER 4, SUNDAY.
+
+We dined with Mr. Myddelton, the clergyman, at Denbigh, where I saw the
+harvest-men very decently dressed, after the afternoon service, standing
+to be hired. On other days, they stand at about four in the morning.
+They are hired from day to day.
+
+SEPTEMBER 6.
+
+We lay at Wrexham; a busy, extensive, and well built town. It has a very
+large and magnificent Church. It has a famous fair.
+
+SEPTEMBER 7.
+
+We came to Chirk Castle.
+
+SEPTEMBER 8, THURSDAY.
+
+We came to the house of Dr. Worthington[1234], at Llanrhaiadr. Our
+entertainment was poor, though his house was not bad. The situation is
+very pleasant, by the side of a small river, of which the bank rises
+high on the other side, shaded by gradual rows of trees. The gloom, the
+stream, and the silence, generate thoughtfulness.  The town is old, and
+very mean, but has, I think, a market. In this house, the Welsh
+translation of the Old Testament was made. The Welsh singing Psalms were
+written by Archdeacon Price. They are not considered as elegant, but as
+very literal, and accurate.
+
+We came to Llanrhaiadr, through Oswestry; a town not very little, nor
+very mean. The church, which I saw only at a distance, seems to be an
+edifice much too good for the present state of the place.
+
+SEPTEMBER 9.
+
+We visited the waterfall, which is very high, and in rainy weather very
+copious. There is a reservoir made to supply it. In its fall, it has
+perforated a rock. There is a room built for entertainment. There was
+some difficulty in climbing to a near view. Lord Lyttelton[1235] came
+near it, and turned back.
+
+When we came back, we took some cold meat, and notwithstanding the
+Doctor's importunities, went that day to Shrewsbury.
+
+SEPTEMBER 10.
+
+I sent for Gwynn[1236], and he shewed us the town. The walls are
+broken, and narrower than those of Chester. The town is large, and has
+many gentlemen's houses, but the streets are narrow. I saw Taylor's
+library. We walked in the Quarry; a very pleasant walk by the
+river.[1237] Our inn was not bad.
+
+SEPTEMBER 11.
+
+Sunday. We were at St. Chads, a very large and luminous Church. We were
+on the Castle Hill.
+
+SEPTEMBER 12.
+
+We called on Dr. Adams,[1238] and travelled towards Worcester, through
+Wenlock; a very mean place, though a borough. At noon, we came to
+Bridgenorth, and walked about the town, of which one part stands on a
+high rock; and part very low, by the river. There is an old tower,
+which, being crooked, leans so much, that it is frightful to pass by it.
+
+In the afternoon we came through Kinver, a town in Staffordshire; neat
+and closely built. I believe it has only one street.
+
+The road was so steep and miry, that we were forced to stop at
+Hartlebury, where we had a very neat inn, though it made a very poor
+appearance.
+
+SEPTEMBER 13.
+
+We came to Lord Sandys's, at Ombersley, where we were treated with great
+civility.[1239]
+
+The house is large. The hall is a very noble room.
+
+SEPTEMBER 15.
+
+We went to Worcester, a very splendid city. The Cathedral is very noble,
+with many remarkable monuments. The library is in the Chapter House. On
+the table lay the _Nuremberg Chronicle_, I think, of the first edition.
+We went to the china warehouse. The Cathedral has a cloister. The long
+aisle is, in my opinion, neither so wide nor so high as that of
+Lichfield.
+
+SEPTEMBER 16.
+
+We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and
+kindness that we expected[1240].
+
+SEPTEMBER 17.
+
+We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation. The house is
+one square mass. The offices are below. The rooms of elegance on the
+first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above
+it. The bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the
+house. The park has one artificial ruin[1241], and wants water; there
+is, however, one temporary cascade. From the farthest hill there is a
+very wide prospect.
+
+I went to church. The church is, externally, very mean, and is therefore
+diligently hidden by a plantation. There are in it several modern
+monuments of the Lytteltons.
+
+There dined with us, Lord Dudley, and Sir Edward Lyttelton, of
+Staffordshire, and his Lady. They were all persons of agreeable
+conversation.
+
+I found time to reflect on my birthday, and offered a prayer, which I
+hope was heard.
+
+SEPTEMBER 19.
+
+We made haste away from a place, where all were offended[1242]. In the
+way we visited the Leasowes[1243]. It was rain, yet we visited all the
+waterfalls. There are, in one place, fourteen falls in a short line. It
+is the next place to Ham Gardens[1244]. Poor Shenstone never tasted his
+pension. It is not very well proved that any pension was obtained for
+him. I am afraid that he died of misery[1245].
+
+We came to Birmingham, and I sent for Wheeler, whom I found well.
+
+SEPTEMBER 20.
+
+We breakfasted with Wheeler,[1246] and visited the manufacture of Papier
+Maché. The paper which they use is smooth whited brown; the varnish is
+polished with rotten stone. Wheeler gave me a tea-board. We then went to
+Boulton's,[1247] who, with great civility, led us through his shops. I
+could not distinctly see his enginery.
+
+Twelve dozen of buttons for three shillings.[1248] Spoons struck at
+once.
+
+SEPTEMBER 21.
+
+Wheeler came to us again.
+
+We came easily to Woodstock.
+
+SEPTEMBER 22.
+
+We saw Blenheim and Woodstock Park.[1249] The Park contains two thousand
+five hundred acres; about four square miles. It has red deer.  Mr.
+Bryant[1250] shewed me the Library with great civility. _Durandi
+Rationale_, 1459[1251]. Lascaris' _Grammar_ of the first edition, well
+printed, but much less than later editions[1252]. The first
+_Batrachomyomachia_[1253].
+
+The Duke sent Mr. Thrale partridges and fruit.
+
+At night we came to Oxford.
+
+SEPTEMBER 23.
+
+We visited Mr. Coulson[1254]. The Ladies wandered about the University.
+
+SEPTEMBER 24.
+
+We dine with Mr. Coulson. Vansittart[1255] told me his distemper.
+
+Afterwards we were at Burke's, where we heard of the dissolution of the
+Parliament. We went home[1256].
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] See _ante_, ii. 434, note 1, and iii. 209.
+
+[2] His _Account of Corsica_, published in 1768.
+
+[3] Horace Walpole wrote on Nov.6, 1769 (_Letters_, v. 200):--'I found
+Paoli last week at Court. The King and Queen both took great notice of
+him. He has just made a tour to Bath, Oxford, &c., and was everywhere
+received with much distinction.' See _ante_, ii. 71.
+
+[4] Boswell, when in London, was 'his constant guest.' Ante, iii 35.
+
+[5] Boswell's son James says that 'in 1785 Mr. Malone was shewn at Mr.
+Baldwin's printing-house a sheet of the _Tour to the Hebrides_
+which contained Johnson's character. He was so much struck with the
+spirit and fidelity of the portrait that he requested to be introduced
+to its writer. From this period a friendship took place between them,
+which ripened into the strictest and most cordial intimacy. After Mr.
+Boswell's death in 1795 Mr. Malone continued to shew every mark of
+affectionate attention towards his family.' _Gent. Mag._ 1813, p. 518.
+
+[6] Malone began his edition of _Shakespeare_ in 1782; he brought it out
+in 1790. Prior's _Malone_, pp. 98, 166.
+
+[7] Boswell in the 'Advertisement' to the second edition, dated Dec. 20,
+1785, says that 'the whole of the first impression has been sold in a
+few weeks.' Three editions were published within a year, but the fourth
+was not issued till 1807. A German translation was published in Lübeck
+in 1787. I believe that in no language has a translation been published
+of the _Life of Johnson_. Johnson was indeed, as Boswell often calls
+him, 'a trueborn Englishman'--so English that foreigners could neither
+understand him nor relish his _Life_.
+
+[8] The man thus described is James I.
+
+[9] See _ante_, i. 450 and ii. 291.
+
+[10] _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_. Johnson's _Works_
+ix. 1.
+
+[11] See _ante_, i. 450. On a copy of Martin in the Advocates' Library
+[Edinburgh] I found the following note in the handwriting of Mr.
+Boswell:--'This very book accompanied Mr. Samuel Johnson and me in our
+Tour to the Hebrides.' UPCOTT. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 267.
+
+[12] Macbeth, act i. sc. 3.
+
+[13] See _ante_, iii. 24, and _post_, Nov. 10.
+
+[14] Our friend Edmund Burke, who by this time had received some pretty
+severe strokes from Dr. Johnson, on account of the unhappy difference in
+their politicks, upon my repeating this passage to him, exclaimed 'Oil
+of vitriol !' BOSWELL.
+
+[15] _Psalms_, cxli. 5.
+
+[16] 'We all love Beattie,' he had said. _Ante_, ii. 148.
+
+[17] This, I find, is a Scotticism. I should have said, 'It will not be
+long before we shall be at Marischal College.' BOSWELL. In spite of this
+warning Sir Walter Scott fell into the same error. 'The light foot of
+Mordaunt was not long of bearing him to Jarlok [Jarlshof].' _Pirate_,
+ch. viii. CROKER. Beattie was Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in
+Marischal College.
+
+[18] 'Nil mihi rescribas; attamen ipse veni.' Ovid, _Heroides_, i. 2.
+Boswell liked to display such classical learning as he had. When he
+visited Eton in 1789 he writes, 'I was asked by the Head-master to dine
+at the Fellows' table, and made a creditable figure. I certainly have
+the art of making the most of what I have. How should one who has had
+only a Scotch education be quite at home at Eton? I had my classical
+quotations very ready.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 308.
+
+[19] Gray, Johnson writes (_Works_, viii. 479), visited Scotland in
+1765. 'He naturally contracted a friendship with Dr. Beattie, whom he
+found a poet,' &c.
+
+[20] _Post_, Sept. 12.
+
+[21] See _ante_, i. 274.
+
+[22] Afterwards Lord Stowell. He, his brother Lord Eldon, and Chambers
+were all Newcastle men. See _ante_, i. 462, for an anecdote of the
+journey and for a note on 'the Commons.'
+
+[23] See _ante_, ii. 453.
+
+[24] See _ante_, iv. III.
+
+[25] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 309, says:--'The
+most unaccountable part of Johnson's character was his total ignorance
+of the character of his most familiar acquaintance.'
+
+[26] Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry,
+and some truth, that 'Dr. Johnson's sayings would not appear so
+extraordinary, were it not for his _bow-wow way_:' but I admit the truth
+of this only on some occasions. The _Messiah_, played upon the
+_Canterbury organ_, is more sublime than when played upon an inferior
+instrument, but very slight musick will seem grand, when conveyed to the
+ear through that majestick medium. _While therefore Dr. Johnson's
+sayings are read, let his manner be taken along with them_. Let it,
+however, be observed, that the sayings themselves are generally great;
+that, though he might be an ordinary composer at times, he was for the
+most part a Handel. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 326, 371, and under
+Aug. 29, 1783.
+
+[27] See _ante_, i. 42.
+
+[28] See _ante_, i. 41.
+
+[29] Such they appeared to me; but since the first edition, Sir Joshua
+Reynolds has observed to me, 'that Dr. Johnson's extraordinary gestures
+were only habits, in which he indulged himself at certain times. When in
+company, where he was not free, or when engaged earnestly in
+conversation, he never gave way to such habits, which proves that they
+were not involuntary.' I still however think, that these gestures were
+involuntary; for surely had not that been the case, he would have
+restrained them in the publick streets. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 144.
+
+[30] By an Act of the 7th of George I. for encouraging the consumption
+of raw silk and mohair, buttons and button-holes made of cloth, serge,
+and other stuffs were prohibited. In 1738 a petition was presented to
+Parliament stating that 'in evasion of this Act buttons and button-holes
+were made of horse-hair to the impoverishing of many thousands and
+prejudice of the woollen manufactures.' An Act was brought in to
+prohibit the use of horse-hair, and was only thrown out on the third
+reading. _Parl. Hist._ x. 787.
+
+[31] Boswell wrote to Erskine on Dec. 8, 1761: 'I, James Boswell Esq.,
+who "am happily possessed of a facility of manners"--to use the very
+words of Mr. Professor [Adam] Smith, which upon honour were addressed to
+me.' _Boswell and Erskine Corres_. ed. 1879, p. 26.
+
+[32] _Post_, Oct. 16.
+
+[33] _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 4.
+
+[34] See _ante_, iv., March 21, 1783. Johnson is often reproached with
+his dislike of the Scotch, though much of it was assumed; but no one
+blames Hume's dislike of the English, though it was deep and real. On
+Feb. 21, 1770, he wrote:--'Our Government is too perfect in point of
+liberty for so rude a beast as an Englishman; who is a man, a bad animal
+too, corrupted by above a century of licentiousness.' J. H. Burton's
+_Hume_, ii. 434. Dr. Burton writes of the English as 'a people Hume so
+heartily disliked.' _Ib_. p. 433.
+
+[35] See _ante_, iv. 15.
+
+[36] The term _John Bull_ came into the English language in 1712, when
+Dr. Arbuthnot wrote _The History of John Bull_.
+
+[37] Boswell in three other places so describes Johnson. See _ante_,
+i.129, note 3.
+
+[38] See _ante_, i.467.
+
+[39] 'All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.' _Rev_. vii.9.
+
+[40] See _ante_, ii. 376
+
+[41] In Cockburn's _Life of Jeffrey_, i.157, there is a description of
+Edinburgh, towards the close of the century, 'the last purely Scotch age
+that Scotland was destined to see. Almost the whole official state, as
+settled at the Union, survived; and all graced the capital, unconscious
+of the economical scythe which has since mowed it down. All our nobility
+had not then fled. The lawyers, instead of disturbing good company by
+professional matter, were remarkably free of this vulgarity; and being
+trained to take difference of opinion easily, and to conduct discussions
+with forbearance, were, without undue obtrusion, the most cheerful
+people that were to be met with. Philosophy had become indigenous in the
+place, and all classes, even in their gayest hours, were proud of the
+presence of its cultivators. And all this was still a Scotch scene. The
+whole country had not begun to be absorbed in the ocean of London.
+According to the modern rate of travelling [written in 1852] the
+capitals of Scotland and of England were then about 2400 miles asunder.
+Edinburgh was still more distant in its style and habits. It had then
+its own independent tastes, and ideas, and pursuits.' Scotland at this
+time was distinguished by the liberality of mind of its leading
+clergymen, which was due, according to Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p 57), to
+the fact that the Professor of Theology under whom they had studied was
+'dull and Dutch and prolix.' 'There was one advantage,' he says,
+'attending the lectures of a dull professor--viz., that he could form no
+school, and the students were left entirely to themselves, and naturally
+formed opinions far more liberal than those they got from the
+Professor.'
+
+[42] Chambers (_Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, ii.297) says that
+'the very spot which Johnson's armchair occupied is pointed out by the
+modern possessors.' The inn was called 'The White Horse.' 'It derives
+its name from having been the resort of the Hanoverian faction, the
+White Horse being the crest of Hanover.' Murray's _Guide to Scotland_,
+ed. 1867, p. 111.
+
+[43] Boswell writing of Scotland says:--'In the last age it was the
+common practice in the best families for all the company to eat milk, or
+pudding, or any other dish that is eat with a spoon, not by distributing
+the contents of the dish into small plates round the table, but by every
+person dipping his spoon into the large platter; and when the fashion of
+having a small plate for each guest was brought from the continent by a
+young gentleman returned from his travels, a good old inflexible
+neighbour in the country said, "he did not see anything he had learnt
+but to take his broth twice." Nay, in our own remembrance, the use of a
+carving knife was considered as a novelty; and a gentleman of ancient
+family and good literature used to rate his son, a friend of mine, for
+introducing such a foppish superfluity.'--_London Mag_. 1778, p.199.
+
+[44] See _ante_, ii. 403. Johnson, in describing Sir A. Macdonald's
+house in Sky, said:--'The Lady had not the common decencies of her
+tea-table; we picked up our sugar with our fingers.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i.138.
+
+[45] Chambers says that 'James's Court, till the building of the New
+Town, was inhabited by a select set of gentlemen. They kept a clerk to
+record their names and their proceedings, had a scavenger of their own,
+and had balls and assemblies among themselves.' Paoli was Boswell's
+guest there in 1771. _Traditions of Edinburgh_, i. 219. It was burnt
+down in 1857. Murray's _Guide to Scotland_, ed. 1883, p.49. Johnson
+wrote:--'Boswell has very handsome and spacious rooms, level with the
+ground on one side of the house, and on the other four stories high.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 109. Dr. J.H. Burton says that Hume occupied them
+just before Boswell. He continues:--'Of the first impression made on a
+stranger at that period when entering such a house, a vivid description
+is given by Sir Walter Scott in _Guy Mannering_; and in Counsellor
+Pleydell's library, with its collection of books, and the prospect from
+the window, we have probably an accurate picture of the room in which
+Hume spent his studious hours.' _Life of Hume_, ii. 137, 431. At
+Johnson's visit Hume was living in his new house in the street which was
+humorously named after him, St. David Street. _Ib_. p. 436.
+
+[46] The English servant-girl in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of July 18),
+after describing how the filth is thus thrown out, says:--'The maid
+calls _gardy loo_ to the passengers, which signifies _Lord have mercy
+upon you!_'
+
+[47] Wesley, when at Edinburgh in May, 1761, writes:--'How can it be
+suffered that all manner of filth should still be thrown even into this
+street [High Street] continually? How long shall the capital city of
+Scotland, yea, and the chief street of it, stink worse than a common
+sewer?' Wesley's _Journal_, iii. 52. Baretti (_Journey from London to
+Genoa_, ii.255) says that this was the universal practice in Madrid in
+1760. He was driven out of that town earlier than he had intended to
+leave it by the dreadful stench. A few years after his visit the King
+made a reform, so that it became 'one of the cleanest towns in Europe.'
+_Ib_. p 258. Smollett in _Humphry Clinker_ makes Matthew Bramble say
+(Letter of July 18):--'The inhabitants of Edinburgh are apt to imagine
+the disgust that we avow is little better than affectation.'
+
+[48] 'Most of their buildings are very mean; and the whole town bears
+some resemblance to the old part of Birmingham.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 109.
+
+[49] See _ante_, i. 313.
+
+[50] Miss Burney, describing her first sight of Johnson, says:--'Upon
+asking my father why he had not prepared us for such uncouth, untoward
+strangeness, he laughed heartily, and said he had entirely forgotten
+that the same impression had been at first made upon himself; but had
+been lost even on the second interview.' _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii.91.
+
+[51] See _post_, Aug. 22.
+
+[52] see _ante_, iii. 216.
+
+[53] Boswell writes, in his _Hypochondriacks_:--'Naturally somewhat
+singular, independent of any additions which affectation and vanity may
+perhaps have made, I resolved to have a more pleasing species of
+marriage than common, and bargained with my bride that I should not be
+bound to live with her longer than I really inclined; and that whenever
+I tired of her domestic society I should be at liberty to give it up.
+Eleven years have elapsed, and I have never yet wished to take advantage
+of my stipulated privilege.' _London Mag_. 1781, p.136. See _ante_, ii.
+140, note 1.
+
+[54] Sir Walter Scott was two years old this day. He was born in a house
+at the head of the College Wynd. When Johnson and Boswell returned to
+Edinburgh Jeffrey was a baby there seventeen days old. Some seventeen or
+eighteen years later 'he had the honour of assisting to carry the
+biographer of Johnson, in a state of great intoxication, to bed. For
+this he was rewarded next morning by Mr. Boswell clapping his head, and
+telling him that he was a very promising lad, and that if "you go on as
+you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet."' Cockburn's
+_Jeffrey_, i. 33.
+
+[55] He was one of Boswell's executors, and as such was in part
+responsible for the destruction of his manuscripts. _Ante_, iii. 301,
+note i. It is to his _Life of Dr. Beattie_ that Scott alludes in the
+Introduction to the fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--
+
+     'Scarce had lamented Forbes paid
+      The tribute to his Minstrel's shade;
+      The tale of friendship scarce was told,
+      Ere the narrator's heart was cold--
+      Far may we search before we find
+      A heart so manly and so kind.'
+
+It is only of late years that _Forbes_ has generally ceased to be a
+dissyllable.
+
+[56] The saint's name of _Veronica_ was introduced into our family
+through my great grandmother Veronica, Countess of Kincardine, a Dutch
+lady of the noble house of Sommelsdyck, of which there is a full account
+in Bayle's _Dictionary_. The family had once a princely right in
+Surinam. The governour of that settlement was appointed by the States
+General, the town of Amsterdam, and Sommelsdyck. The States General have
+acquired Sommelsdyck's right; but the family has still great dignity and
+opulence, and by intermarriages is connected with many other noble
+families. When I was at the Hague, I was received with all the affection
+of kindred. The present Sommelsdyck has an important charge in the
+Republick, and is as worthy a man as lives. He has honoured me with his
+correspondence for these twenty years. My great grandfather, the husband
+of Countess Veronica, was Alexander, Earl of Kincardine, that eminent
+_Royalist_ whose character is given by Burnet in his _History of his own
+Times_. From him the blood of _Bruce_ flows in my veins. Of such
+ancestry who would not be proud? And, as _Nihil est, nisi hoc sciat
+alter_, is peculiarly true of genealogy, who would not be glad to seize
+a fair opportunity to let it be known. BOSWELL. Boswell visited Holland
+in 1763. _Ante_, i. 473. Burnet says that 'the Earl was both the wisest
+and the worthiest man that belonged to his country, and fit for
+governing any affairs but his own; which he by a wrong turn, and by his
+love for the public, neglected to his ruin. His thoughts went slow and
+his words came much slower; but a deep judgment appeared in everything
+he said or did. I may be, perhaps, inclined to carry his character too
+far; for he was the first man that entered into friendship with me.'
+Burnet's _History_, ed. 1818, i. III. 'The ninth Earl succeeded as fifth
+Earl of Elgin and thus united the two dignities.' Burke's _Peerage_.
+Boswell's quotation is from Persius, _Satires_, i. 27: 'Scire tuum nihil
+est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.' It is the motto to _The
+Spectator_, No. 379.
+
+[57] She died four months after her father. I cannot find that she
+received this additional fortune.
+
+[58] See _ante_, ii. 47.
+
+[59] See _ante_, iv. 5, note 2.
+
+[60] See _ante_, iii. 231. Johnson (_Works_, ix. 33) speaks of 'the
+general dissatisfaction which is now driving the Highlanders into the
+other hemisphere.' This dissatisfaction chiefly arose from the fact that
+the chiefs were 'gradually degenerating from patriarchal rulers to
+rapacious landlords.' _Ib._ p. 86. 'That the people may not fly from the
+increase of rent I know not whether the general good does not require
+that the landlords be, for a time, restrained in their demands, and kept
+quiet by pensions proportionate to their loss.... It affords a
+legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there was
+formerly an insurrection there is now a wilderness.' _Ib._ p. 94. 'As
+the world has been let in upon the people, they have heard of happier
+climates and less arbitrary government.' _Ib._ p. 128.
+
+[61] 'To a man that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to
+contrive wants for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no
+image worthy of attention; but in an island it turns the balance of
+existence between good and evil. To live in perpetual want of little
+things is a state, not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. I
+have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman
+breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.' _Ib._ p. 127.
+
+[62] 'It was demolished in 1822.' Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_,
+i. 215.
+
+[63] 'The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of
+isles be glad thereof.' _Psalms_, xcvii.1.
+
+[64] A brief memoir of Mr. Carre is given in Forbes's _Life of Beattie_,
+Appendix Z.
+
+[65] It was his daughter who gave the name to the new street in which
+Hume had taken a house by chalking on his wall ST. DAVID STREET. 'Hume's
+"lass," judging that it was not meant in honour or reverence, ran into
+the house much excited, to tell her master how he was made game of.
+"Never mind, lassie," he said; "many a better man has been made a saint
+of before."' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 436.
+
+[66] The House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of Session in
+this cause. See _ante_, ii.50, 230.
+
+[67] Ogden was Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge. The sermons were
+published in 1770. Boswell mentions them so often that in Rowlandson's
+caricatures of the tour he is commonly represented as having them in his
+hand or pocket. See _ante_, iii. 248.
+
+[68] 'Talking of the eminent writers in Queen Anne's reign, Johnson
+observed, "I think Dr. Arbuthnot the first man among them.'" _Ante_,
+i. 425.
+
+[69] 'We found that by the interposition of some invisible friend
+lodgings had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors,
+whose easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers.'
+_Works_, ix. 3.
+
+[70] He is referring to Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. See _post_, Oct. 1,
+and _ante_, ii. 201.
+
+[71] See _ante_, ii. 443, where Johnson, again speaking of Hume, and
+perhaps of Gibbon, says:--'When a man voluntarily engages in an
+important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist,
+because authority from personal respect has much weight with most
+people, and often more than reasoning.'
+
+[72] Johnson, in his Dictionary, calls _bubble_ 'a cant [slang] word.'
+
+[73] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1768:--'David [Hume] is really amiable:
+I always regret to him his unlucky principles, and he smiles at my
+faith; but I have a hope which he has not, or pretends not to have. So
+who has the best of it, my reverend friend?' _Letters of Boswell_,
+p.151. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. pp. 274-5) says:--'Mr. Hume gave both
+elegant dinners and suppers, and the best claret, and, which was best of
+all, he furnished the entertainment with the most instructive and
+pleasing conversation, for he assembled whosoever were most knowing and
+agreeable among either the laity or clergy. For innocent mirth and
+agreeable raillery I never knew his match....He took much to the company
+of the younger clergy, not from a wish to bring them over to his
+opinions, for he never attempted to overturn any man's principles, but
+they best understood his notions, and could furnish him with literary
+conversation.'
+
+[74] No doubt they were destroyed with Boswell's other papers. _Ante_,
+iii.301, note 1.
+
+[75] This letter, though shattered by the sharp shot of Dr. _Horne_ of
+_Oxford's_ wit, in the character of _One of the People called
+Christians_, is still prefixed to Mr. Hume's excellent _History of
+England_, like a poor invalid on the piquet guard, or like a list of
+quack medicines sold by the same bookseller, by whom a work of whatever
+nature is published; for it has no connection with his _History_, let it
+have what it may with what are called his _Philosophical_ Works. A
+worthy friend of mine in London was lately consulted by a lady of
+quality, of most distinguished merit, what was the best History of
+England for her son to read. My friend recommended Hume's. But, upon
+recollecting that its usher was a superlative panegyrick on one, who
+endeavoured to sap the credit of our holy religion, he revoked his
+recommendation. I am really sorry for this ostentatious _alliance_;
+because I admire _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and value the
+greatest part of _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
+Nations_. Why should such a writer be so forgetful of human comfort, as
+to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which would make us
+poor indeed?' ['makes me poor indeed.' _Othello_, act iii. sc.3].
+BOSWELL. Dr. Horne's book is entitled, _A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D.,
+On the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume, Esq. By one
+of the People called Christians_. Its chief wit is in the Preface. The
+bookseller mentioned in this note was perhaps Francis Newbery, who
+succeeded his father, Goldsmith's publisher, as a dealer in quack
+medicines and books. They dealt in 'over thirty different nostrums,' and
+published books of every nature. Of the father Johnson said:--'Newbery
+is an extraordinary man, for I know not whether he has read or written
+most books.' He is the original of 'Jack Whirler' in _The Idler_, No.
+19. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 73.
+
+[76] Hume says that his first work, his _Treatise of Human Nature_,
+'fell _dead-born from the press.' Auto._ p.3. His _Enquiry concerning
+Human Understanding_ 'was entirely overlooked and neglected.' _Ib_. p.4.
+His _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_ 'came unnoticed and
+unobserved into the world.' _Ib_. p.5. The first volume of his _History
+of England_ certainly met with numerous assailants; but 'after the first
+ebullitions of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the
+book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me,' he continues,
+'that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it...I was I
+confess, discouraged, and had not the war at that time been breaking out
+between France and England, I had certainly retired to some provincial
+town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have
+returned to my native country.' _Ib_. p.6. Only one of his works, his
+_Political Discourses_, was 'successful on the first publication.' _Ib_.
+p.5. By the time he was turned fifty, however, his books were selling
+very well, and he had become 'not only independent but opulent.' Ib. p.
+8. A few weeks before he died he wrote: 'I see many symptoms of my
+literary reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre.'
+_Ib_. p.10.
+
+[77] _Psalms_, cxix. 99.
+
+[78] We learn, _post_, Oct. 29, that Robertson was cautious in his talk,
+though we see here that he had much more courage than the professors of
+Aberdeen or Glasgow.
+
+[79] This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was strangely
+heterodox. For, surely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities,
+is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of all kinds too: not
+merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit:--
+
+     (True wit is Nature to advantage drest;
+      What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.)
+
+[Pope's Essay on Criticism, ii. 297.] but surprising allusions,
+brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in
+parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which
+he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his
+Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a
+specimen. I told him, I had seen, at a _Blue stocking_ assembly, a
+number of ladies sitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours,
+listening to his literature. 'Ay, (said he) like maids round a
+May-pole.' I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human
+nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philosopher said,
+Man was 'a two-legged animal without feathers,' upon which his rival
+Sage had a Cock plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all
+the disciples, as a 'Philosophick Man.' Dr. Franklin said, Man was 'a
+tool-making animal,' which is very well; for no animal but man makes a
+thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to
+very few of the species. My definition of _Man_ is, 'a Cooking animal.'
+The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of
+our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the
+monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of
+shrewd malice in that _turpissima bestia_, which humbles us so sadly by
+its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man
+whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your
+definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the
+common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr.
+Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the
+shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with
+classical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,
+
+     ..._numeris_que fertur
+  LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]
+
+Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's.
+fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also
+observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an
+evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit
+(whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former
+edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have
+given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious
+friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit
+than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not
+justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly
+merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular
+instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to
+elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of
+a _bon mot_ depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is
+spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom
+it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute
+particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always
+dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs,
+and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those
+concomitant circumstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and
+relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first
+instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and
+brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could
+have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company
+with him, for a single day, is sufficient to shew that what I have
+asserted is well founded; and it was only necessary to have appealed to
+all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox
+opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this subject. _He_ allowed Mr.
+Burke, as the reader will find hereafter [_post_. Sept.15 and 30], to be
+a man of consummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that
+now under consideration; and the variety of his allusions, and splendour
+of his imagery, have made such an impression on _all the rest_ of the
+world, that superficial observers are apt to overlook his other merits,
+and to suppose that _wit_ is his chief and most prominent excellence;
+when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he possesses, which
+are so various and extraordinary, that it is very difficult to ascertain
+precisely the rank and value of each. BOSWELL. For Malone's share in
+this note, see _ante_, iii. 323, note 2. For Burke's Economical Reform
+Bill, which was brought in on Feb. 11, 1780, see Prior's _Burke_, p.184.
+For _Blue Stocking_, see _ante_, iv. 108. The 'tall friend of ours' was
+Mr. Langton (_ante_, i. 336). For Franklin's definition, see _ante_,
+iii. 245, and for Burke's classical pun, _ib_. p. 323. For Burke's
+'talent of wit,' see _ante_, i. 453, iii. 323, iv. May 15, 1784, and
+_post_, Sept. 15.
+
+[80] See _ante_, iv. 27, where Burke said:--'It is enough for me to have
+rung the bell to him [Johnson].'
+
+[81] See _ante_, vol. iv, May 15, 1784.
+
+[82] Prior (_Life of Burke_, pp.31, 36) says that 'from the first his
+destination was the Bar.' His name was entered at the Middle Temple in
+1747, but he was never called. Why he gave up the profession his
+biographer cannot tell.
+
+[83] See _ante_, ii. 437, note 2.
+
+[84] See _ante_, i. 78, note 2.
+
+[85] That cannot be said now, after the flagrant part which Mr. _John
+Wesley_ took against our American brethren, when, in his own name, he
+threw amongst his enthusiastick flock, the very individual combustibles
+of Dr. _Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny_; and after the intolerant spirit
+which he manifested against our fellow-christians of the Roman Catholick
+Communion, for which that able champion, Father _O'Leary_, has given him
+so hearty a drubbing. But I should think myself very unworthy, if I did
+not at the same time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran
+'Soldier of Jesus Christ' [2 _Timothy_, ii. 3], who has, I do believe,
+'turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of _Satan_ to
+the living GOD' [_Acts_, xxvi. 18]. BOSWELL. Wesley wrote on Nov. 11,
+1775 (_Journal_, iv. 56), 'I made some additions to the _Calm Address to
+our American Colonies_. Need any one ask from what motive this was
+wrote? Let him look round; England is in a flame! a flame of malice and
+rage against the King, and almost all that are in authority under him. I
+labour to put out this flame.' He wrote a few days later:--'As to
+reviewers, news-writers, _London Magazines_, and all that kind of
+gentlemen, they behave just as I expected they would. And let them lick
+up Mr. Toplady's spittle still; a champion worthy of their cause.'
+_Journal_, p. 58. In a letter published in Jan. 1780, he said:--'I
+insist upon it, that no government, not Roman Catholic, ought to
+tolerate men of the Roman Catholic persuasion. They ought not to be
+tolerated by any government, Protestant, Mahometan, or Pagan.' To this
+the Rev. Arthur O'Leary replied with great wit and force, in a pamphlet
+entitled, _Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Letters_. Dublin, 1780.
+Wesley (_Journal_, iv. 365) mentions meeting O'Leary, and says:--'He
+seems not to be wanting either in sense or learning.' Johnson wrote to
+Wesley on Feb. 6, 1776 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 475), 'I have thanks to
+return you for the addition of your important suffrage to my argument on
+the American question. To have gained such a mind as yours may justly
+confirm me in my own opinion. What effect my paper has upon the public,
+I know not; but I have no reason to be discouraged. The lecturer was
+surely in the right, who, though he saw his audience slinking away,
+refused to quit the chair while Plato staid.'
+
+[86] 'Powerful preacher as he was,' writes Southey, 'he had neither
+strength nor acuteness of intellect, and his written compositions are
+nearly worthless.' Southey's _Wesley,_ i. 323. See _ante_, ii. 79.
+
+[87] Mr. Burke. See _ante_, ii. 222, 285, note 3, and iii. 45.
+
+[88] If due attention were paid to this observation, there would be more
+virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson justly condemned, has, I am
+sorry to say, greatly increased in the present reign. At the distance of
+four years from this conversation, 21st February, 1777, My Lord
+Archbishop of York, in his 'sermon before the Society for the
+Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' thus indignantly describes
+the then state of parties:--'Parties once had a _principle_ belonging
+to them, absurd perhaps, and indefensible, but still carrying a notion
+of _duty_, by which honest minds might easily be caught. 'But there are
+now _combinations_ of _individuals_, who, instead of being the sons and
+servants of the community, make a league for advancing their _private
+interests_. It is their business to hold high the notion of _political
+honour_. I believe and trust, it is not injurious to say, that such a
+bond is no better than that by which the lowest and wickedest
+combinations are held together; and that it denotes the last stage of
+political depravity.' To find a thought, which just shewed itself to us
+from the mind of _Johnson_, thus appearing again at such a distance of
+time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full
+growth in the mind of _Markham_, is a curious object of philosophical
+contemplation.--That two such great and luminous minds should have been
+so dark in one corner,--that _they_ should have held it to be 'Wicked
+rebellion in the British subjects established in America, to resist the
+abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British
+subjects remaining at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord
+the King was to be preserved inviolate,--is a striking proof to me,
+either that 'He who sitteth in Heaven' [_Psalms_, ii.4] scorns the
+loftiness of human pride,--or that the evil spirit, whose personal
+existence I strongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that
+belief by a _Fell_, nay, by a _Hurd_, has more power than some choose to
+allow. BOSWELL. Horace Walpole writing on June 10, 1778, after censuring
+Robertson for sneering at Las Casas, continues:--'Could Archbishop
+Markham in a Sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
+by fire and sword paint charity in more contemptuous terms? It is a
+Christian age.' _Letters_, vii.81. It was Archbishop Markham to whom
+Johnson made the famous bow; _ante_, vol. iv, just before April 10,
+1783. John Fell published in 1779 _Demoniacs; an Enquiry into the
+Heathen and Scripture Doctrine of Daemons_. For Hurd see _ante_, under
+June 9,1784.
+
+[89] See Forster's _Essays_, ii 304-9. Mr. Forster often quotes Cooke in
+his _Life of Goldsmith_. He describes him (i. 58) as 'a _young_ Irish
+law student who had chambers near Goldsmith in the temple.' Goldsmith
+did not reside in the temple till 1763 (_ib_. p.336), and Cooke was old
+enough to have published his _Hesiod_ in 1728, and to have found a place
+in _The Dunciad_ (ii. 138). See Elwin and Courthope's _Pope_, x. 212,
+for his correspondence with Pope.
+
+[90] It may be observed, that I sometimes call my great friend, _Mr_.
+Johnson, sometimes _Dr_. Johnson: though he had at this time a doctor's
+degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards
+conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was
+some time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor; but, as he has
+been long known by that title, I shall give it to him in the rest of
+this Journal. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 488, note 3, and ii. 332, note I.
+
+[91] In _The Idler_, No. viii, Johnson has the following fling at
+tragedians. He had mentioned the terror struck into our soldiers by the
+Indian war-cry, and he continues:--'I am of opinion that by a proper
+mixture of asses, bulls, turkeys, geese, and tragedians a noise might be
+procured equally horrid with the war-cry.' See _ante_, ii.92.
+
+[92] _Tom Jones_, Bk. xvi. chap. 5. Mme. Necker in a letter to Garrick
+said:--'Nos acteurs se métamorphosent assez bien, mais Monsieur Garrick
+fait autre chose; il nous métamorphose tous dans le caractère qu'il a
+revêtu; _nous sommes remplis de terreur avec Hamlet_,' &c. _Garrick
+Corres_. ii. 627.
+
+[93] See _ante_, i. 432, and ii. 278.
+
+[94] See _ante_, ii. 11.
+
+[95] Euphan M'Cullan (not Eupham Macallan) is mentioned in Dalrymple's
+[Lord Hailes] _Remarks on the History of Scotland_, p. 254. She
+maintained that 'she seldom ever prayed but she got a positive answer.'
+The minister of her parish was ill. 'She prayed, and got an answer that
+for a year's time he should be spared; and after the year's end he fell
+sick again.' 'I went,' said she, 'to pray yet again for his life; but
+the Lord left me not an mouse's likeness (a proverbial expression,
+meaning _to reprove with such severity that the person reproved shrinks
+and becomes abashed_), and said, 'Beast that thou art! shall I keep my
+servant in pain for thy sake?' And when I said, 'Lord, what then shall I
+do?' He answered me, 'He was but a reed that I spoke through, and I will
+provide another reed to speak through.' Dalrymple points out that it was
+a belief in these 'answers from the Lord' that led John Balfour and his
+comrades to murder Archbishop Sharp.
+
+[96] R. Chambers, in his _Traditions_, speaking of the time of Johnson's
+visit, says (i. 21) on the authority of 'an ancient native of Edinburgh
+that people all knew each other by sight. The appearance of a new face
+upon the streets was at once remarked, and numbers busied themselves in
+finding out who and what the stranger was.'
+
+[97] It was on this visit to the parliament-house, that Mr. Henry
+Erskine (brother of Lord Erskine), after being presented to Dr. Johnson
+by Mr. Boswell, and having made his bow, slipped a shilling into
+Boswell's hand, whispering that it was for the sight of his _bear_.
+WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[98] This is one of the Libraries entitled to a copy of every new work
+published in the United Kingdom. Hume held the office of librarian at a
+salary of £40 a year from 1752 to 1757. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i.
+367, 373.
+
+[99] The Edinburgh oyster-cellars were called _laigh shops_. Chambers's
+_Traditions_, ii. 268.
+
+[100] This word is commonly used to signify _sullenly, gloomily_; and in
+that sense alone it appears in Dr. Johnson's _Dictionary_. I suppose he
+meant by it, 'with an _obstinate resolution_, similar to that of a
+sullen man.' BOSWELL. Southey wrote to Scott:--'Give me more lays, and
+correct them at leisure for after editions--not laboriously, but when
+the amendment comes naturally and unsought for. It never does to sit
+down doggedly to _correct_.' Southey's _Life_, iii. 126. See _ante_, i.
+332, for the influence of seasons on composition.
+
+[101] Boswell, _post_, Nov. 1, writes of '_old Scottish_ enthusiasm,'
+again italicising these two words.
+
+[102] See _ante_, iii. 410.
+
+[103] See _ante_, i. 354.
+
+[104] Cockburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 182) writing of the beginning of
+this century, describes how the General Assembly 'met in those days, as
+it had done for about 200 years, in one of the aisles of the then grey
+and venerable cathedral of St. Giles. That plain, square, galleried
+apartment was admirably suited for the purpose; and it was more
+interesting from the men who had acted in it, and the scenes it had
+witnessed, than any other existing room in Scotland. It had beheld the
+best exertions of the best men in the kingdom ever since the year 1640.
+Yet was it obliterated in the year 1830 with as much indifference as if
+it had been of yesterday; and for no reason except a childish desire for
+new walls and change.'
+
+[105] I have hitherto called him Dr. William Robertson, to distinguish
+him from Dr. James Robertson, who is soon to make his appearance. But
+_Principal_, from his being the head of our college, is his usual
+designation, and is shorter: so I shall use it hereafter. BOSWELL.
+
+[106] The dirtiness of the Scotch churches is taken off in _The Tale of
+a Tub_, sect. xi:--'Neither was it possible for the united rhetoric of
+mankind to prevail with Jack to make himself clean again.' In _Humphry
+Clinker_ (Letter of Aug. 8) we are told that 'the good people of
+Edinburgh no longer think dirt and cobwebs essential to the house of
+God.' Bishop Horne (_Essays and Thoughts_, p. 45) mentioning 'the maxim
+laid down in a neighbouring kingdom that _cleanliness is not essential
+to devotion_,' continues, 'A Church of England lady once offered to
+attend the Kirk there, if she might be permitted to have the pew swept
+and lined. "The pew swept and lined!" said Mess John's wife, "my husband
+would think it downright popery."' In 1787 he wrote that there are
+country churches in England 'where, perhaps, three or four noble
+families attend divine service, which are suffered year after year to be
+in a condition in which not one of those families would suffer the worst
+room in their house to continue for a week.' _Essays and Thoughts_,
+p. 271.
+
+[107] 'Hume recommended Fergusson's friends to prevail on him to
+suppress the work as likely to be injurious to his reputation.' When it
+had great success he said that his opinion remained the same. He had
+heard Helvetius and Saurin say that they had told Montesquieu that he
+ought to suppress his _Esprit des Lois_. They were still convinced that
+their advice was right. J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 385-7. It was at
+Fergusson's house thirteen years later that Walter Scott, a lad of
+fifteen, saw Burns shed tears over a print by Bunbury of a soldier lying
+dead on the snow. Lockhart's _Scott_, i. 185. See _ib_. vii. 61, for an
+anecdote of Fergusson.
+
+[108] They were pulled down in 1789. Murray's _Handbook for Scotland_,
+ed. 1883, p. 60.
+
+[109] See _ante_, ii. 128.
+
+[110] See _ante_, iii. 357, and _post_, Johnson's _Tour into Wales_,
+Aug. 1, 1774.
+
+[111]
+
+     'There where no statesman buys,
+        no bishop sells;
+      A virtuous palace where no
+        monarch dwells.'
+
+_An Epitaph_. Hamilton's Poems, ed. 1760, p. 260. See _ante_, iii. 150.
+
+[112] The stanza from which he took this line is,
+
+     'But then rose up all Edinburgh,
+       They rose up by thousands three;
+     A cowardly Scot came John behind,
+     And ran him through the fair body!'
+
+
+[113] Johnson described her as 'an old lady, who talks broad Scotch with
+a paralytick voice, and is scarce understood by her own countrymen.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i.109. Lord Shelburne says that 'her husband, the last
+Duke, could neither read nor write without great difficulty.'
+Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 11. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 107) says
+that in 1745 he heard her say:--'I have sworn to be Duchess of Douglas
+or never to mount a marriage bed.' She married the Duke in 1758. R.
+Chambers wrote in 1825:--'It is a curious fact that sixty years ago
+there was scarcely a close in the High Street but what had as many noble
+inhabitants as are at this day to be found in the whole town.'
+_Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 72.
+
+[114] See ante, ii. 154, note 1.
+
+[115] Lord Chesterfield wrote from London on Dec. 16, 1760 (_Misc.
+Works_, iv. 291):--'I question whether you will ever see my friend
+George Faulkner in Ireland again, he is become so great and considerable
+a man here in the republic of letters; he has a constant table open to
+all men of wit and learning, and to those sometimes who have neither. I
+have been able to get him to dine with me but twice.'
+
+[116] Dr. Johnson one evening roundly asserted in his rough way that
+"Swift was a shallow fellow; a very shallow fellow." Mr. Sheridan
+replied warmly but modestly, "Pardon me, Sir, for differing from you,
+but I always thought the Dean a very clear writer." Johnson vociferated
+"All shallows are clear."' _Town and Country Mag_. Sept. 1769. _Notes
+and Queries_, Jan. 1855, p. 62. See _ante_, iv. 61.
+
+[117] '_The Memoirs of Scriblerus_,' says Johnson (_Works_, viii. 298),
+'seem to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches, perhaps, by
+Pope.' Swift also was concerned in it. Johnson goes on to shew why 'this
+joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice
+from mankind.' Arbuthnot was the author of _John Bull_. Swift wrote to
+Stella on May 10, 1712:--'I hope you read _John Bull_. It was a Scotch
+gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.'
+See _ante_, i. 425.
+
+[118] See _ante_, i. 452, and ii. 318.
+
+[119] Horace, _Satires_. I. iii. 19.
+
+[120] See _ante_, i. 396, and ii. 298.
+
+[121] See _ante_, ii. 74.
+
+[122] 'At supper there was such conflux of company that I could scarcely
+support the tumult. I have never been well in the whole journey, and am
+very easily disordered.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 109.
+
+[123] See _ante_, iv. 17, and under June 9, 1784.
+
+[124] Johnson was thinking of Sir Matthew Hale for one.
+
+[125] 'It is supposed that there were no executions for witchcraft in
+England subsequently to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c.
+12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till
+the 9 Geo. II, c. 5. In Scotland, so late as the year 1722, when the
+local jurisdictions were still hereditary [see _post_, Sept. 11], the
+sheriff of Sutherlandshire condemned a witch to death.' _Penny Cyclo_.
+xxvii. 490. In the Bishopric of Wurtzburg, so late as 1750, a nun was
+burnt for witchcraft: 'Cette malheureuse fille soutint opiniâtrément
+qu'elle était sorcière.... Elle était folle, ses juges furent imbécilles
+et barbares.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxvi. 285.
+
+[126] A Dane wrote to Garrick from Copenhagen on Dec. 23, 1769:--'There
+is some of our retinue who, not understanding a word of your language,
+mimic your gesture and your action: so great an impression did it make
+upon their minds, the scene of daggers has been repeated in dumb show a
+hundred times, and those most ignorant of the English idiom can cry out
+with rapture, "A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse!"' _Garrick
+Corres._ i. 375. See _ante_, vol. iv. under Sept. 30, 1783
+
+[127] See _ante_, i. 466.
+
+[128] Johnson, in the preface to his _Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 43),
+after stating what he had at first planned, continues:--'But these were
+the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.' See
+_ante_, i. 189, note 2, and May I, 1783.
+
+[129] See his letter on this subject in the APPENDIX. BOSWELL. He had
+been tutor to Hume's nephew and was one of Hume's friends. J.H Burton's
+_Hume_, ii. 399.
+
+[130] By the Baron d'Holbach. Voltaire (_Works_, xii. 212) describes
+this book as 'Une _Philippique_ contre Dieu.' He wrote to M.
+Saurin:--'Ce maudit livre du Système de la Nature est un péché contre
+nature. Je vous sais bien bon gré de réprouver l'athéisme et d'aimer ce
+vers: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." Je suis rarement
+content de mes vers, mais j'avoue que j'ai une tendresse de père pour
+celui-là.' _Ib_. v. 418.
+
+[131] One of Garrick's correspondents speaks of 'the sneer of one of
+Johnson's ghastly smiles.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 334. 'Ghastly smile' is
+borrowed from _Paradise Lost_, ii. 846.
+
+[132] See _ante_, iii. 212. In Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii.
+158, is given a comic poem entitled _The Court of Session Garland_,
+written by Boswell, with the help, it was said, of Maclaurin.
+
+[133] Dr. John Gregory, Professor of Medicine in the University of
+Edinburgh, died on Feb. 10 of this year. It was his eldest son James who
+met Johnson. 'This learned family has given sixteen professors to
+British Universities.' Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xvi. 289.
+
+[134] See _ante_, i. 257, note 3.
+
+[135] See _ante_, i. 228.
+
+[136] See _ante_, ii. 196.
+
+[137] In the original, _cursed the form that_, &c. Johnson's _Works_, i.
+21.
+
+[138] Mistress of Edward IV. BOSWELL.
+
+[139] Mistress of Louis XIV. BOSWELL. Voltaire, speaking of the King and
+Mlle. de La Vallière (not Valiere, as Lord Hailes wrote her name),
+says:--'Il goûta avec elle le bonheur rare d'être aimé uniquement pour
+lui-même.' _Siècle de Louis XIV_, ch. 25. He describes her penitence in
+a fine passage. _Ib._ ch. 26.
+
+[140] Malone, in a note on the _Life of Boswell_ under 1749, says that
+'this lady was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were given to
+the public by Dr. Smollett [in _Peregrine Pickle_], but Anne Vane, who
+was mistress to Frederick Prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long
+before Johnson settled in London.' She is mentioned in a note to Horace
+Walpole's _Letters_, 1. cxxxvi.
+
+[141] Catharine Sedley, the mistress of James II, is described by
+Macaulay, _Hist of Eng._ ed. 1874, ii. 323.
+
+[142] Dr. A Carlyle (_Auto._ p. 114) tells how in 1745 he found
+'Professor Maclaurin busy on the walls on the south side of Edinburgh,
+endeavoring to make them more defensible [against the Pretender]. He had
+even erected some small cannon.' See _ante_, iii, 15, for a ridiculous
+story told of him by Goldsmith.
+
+[143]
+
+      'Crudelis ubique
+Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima
+  mortis imago:'
+    'grim grief on every side,
+And fear on every side there is,
+  and many-faced is death.'
+
+Morris, Virgil _Aeneids_, ii. 368.
+
+[144] Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tomb-stone, in the
+Grey-Friars church-yard, Edinburgh:--
+
+     Infra situs est
+     COLIN MACLAURIN,
+     Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof.
+     Electus ipso Newtono suadente.
+     H.L.P.F.
+     Non ut nomini paterno consulat,
+     Nam tali auxilio nil eget;
+     Sed ut in hoc infelici campo,
+     Ubi luctus regnant et pavor,
+     Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium;
+     Hujus enim scripta evolve,
+     Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem
+     Corpori caduco superstitem crede.
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+[145] See _ante_, i. 437, and _post_, p. 72.
+
+[146]
+
+     'What is't to us, if taxes rise or fall,
+      Thanks to our fortune we pay none at all.
+
+      No statesman e'er will  find it worth his pains
+      To tax our labours and excise our brains.
+      Burthens like these vile earthly buildings bear,
+      No tribute's laid on _Castles_ in the _Air_'
+
+Churchill's _Poems, Night,_ ed. 1766, i. 89.
+
+[147] Pitt, in 1784, laid a tax of ten shillings a year on every horse
+'kept for the saddle, or to be put in carriages used solely for
+pleasure.'_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 1028.
+
+[148] In 1763 he published the following description of himself in his
+_Correspondence with Erskine_, ed. 1879, p.36. 'The author of the _Ode
+to Tragedy_ is a most excellent man; he is of an ancient family in the
+west of Scotland, upon which he values himself not a little. At his
+nativity there appeared omens of his future greatness. His parts are
+bright; and his education has been good. He has travelled in
+post-chaises miles without number. He is fond of seeing much of the
+world. He eats of every good dish, especially apple-pie. He drinks old
+hock. He has a very fine temper. He is somewhat of an humorist, and a
+little tinctured with pride. He has a good manly countenance, and he
+owns himself to be amorous. He has infinite vivacity, yet is observed at
+times to have a melancholy cast. He is rather fat than lean, rather
+short than tall, rather young than old.' He is oddly enough described in
+Arighi's _Histoire de Pascal Paoli_, i. 231, 'En traversant la
+Mediterranée sur de frêles navires pour venir s'asseoir au foyer de la
+nationalité Corse, des hommes _graves_ tels que Boswel et Volney
+obéissaient sans doute à un sentiment bien plus élevé qu'au besoin
+vulgaire d'une puérile curiosité'
+
+[149] See _ante_, i. 400.
+
+[150] For _respectable_, see _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
+
+[151] Boswell, in the last of his _Hypochondriacks_, says:--'I perceive
+that my essays are not so lively as I expected they would be, but they
+are more learned. And I beg I may not be charged with excessive
+arrogance when I venture to say that they contain a considerable portion
+of original thinking.'_London Mag_. 1783, p. 124.
+
+[152] Burns, in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer_, says:--
+
+     'But could I like Montgomeries fight,
+      Or gab like Boswell.'
+
+Boswell and Burns were born within a few miles of each other, Boswell
+being the elder by eighteen years.
+
+[153]
+     'For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,
+      The best good man, with the worst-natured muse.'
+
+Rochester's _Imitations of Horace, Sat_. i. 10.
+
+[154] Johnson's _Works_, ix. i. See _ante_, ii. 278, where he wrote to
+Boswell:--'I have endeavoured to do you some justice in the first
+paragraph [of the _Journey_].' The day before he started for Scotland he
+wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Mr. Boswell, an active lively fellow, is to
+conduct me round the country.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 422. 'His
+inquisitiveness,' he said, 'is seconded by great activity.' _Works_, ix.
+8. On Oct. 7 he wrote from Skye:--'Boswell will praise my resolution and
+perseverance; and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and
+perpetual cheerfulness.... It is very convenient to travel with him, for
+there is no house where he is not received with kindness and respect.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 198. He told Mrs. Knowles that 'Boswell was the
+best travelling companion in the world.' _Ante_, iii. 294. Mr. Croker
+says (_Croker's Boswell_, p. 280):--'I asked Lord Stowell in what
+estimation he found Boswell amongst his countrymen. "Generally liked as
+a good-natured jolly fellow," replied his lordship. "But was he
+respected?" "Well, I think he had about the proportion of respect that
+you might guess would be shown to a jolly fellow." His lordship thought
+there was more regard than respect.' _Hebrides,_ p. 40.
+
+[155] See _ante_, ii. 103, 411.
+
+[156] There were two quarto volumes of this Diary; perhaps one of them
+Johnson took with him. Boswell had 'accidently seen them and had read a
+great deal in them,' as he owned to Johnson (_ante_, under Dec. 9,
+1784), and moreover had, it should seem, copied from them (_ante_, i.
+251). The 'few fragments' he had received from Francis Barber
+(_ante_, i. 27).
+
+[157] In the original 'how much we lost _at separation_' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. I. Mr. William Nairne was afterwards a Judge of the Court
+of Sessions by the title of Lord Dunsinnan. Sir Walter Scott wrote of
+him:--'He was a man of scrupulous integrity. When sheriff depute of
+Perthshire, he found upon reflection, that he had decided a poor man's
+case erroneously; and as the only remedy, supplied the litigant
+privately with money to carry the suit to the supreme court, where his
+judgment was reversed.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 280.
+
+[158]
+
+     'Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas:
+      Una est injusti caerula forma maris.
+
+_Ovid. Amor._ L. II. El. xi.
+
+     Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows;
+     Unvaried still its azure surface flows.
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+[159] See _ante_. ii. 229.
+
+[160] My friend, General Campbell, Governour of Madras, tells me, that
+they made _speldings_ in the East-Indies, particularly at Bombay, where
+they call them _Bambaloes_. BOSWELL. Johnson had told Boswell that he
+was 'the most _unscottified_ of his countrymen.'_Ante_, ii. 242.
+
+[161] 'A small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited,
+though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their
+notice.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 1.
+
+[162] 'The remains of the fort have been removed to assist in
+constructing a very useful lighthouse upon the island. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[163]
+
+     'Unhappy queen!
+      Unwilling I forsook your friendly state.'
+
+Dryden. [_Aeneid_, vi. 460.] BOSWELL.
+
+[164] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 331) says of his journey to London in
+1758:--'It is to be noted that we could get no four-wheeled chaise
+till we came to Durham, those conveyances being then only in their
+infancy. Turnpike roads were only in their commencement in the north.'
+'It affords a southern stranger,' wrote Johnson (_Works_ ix. 2), 'a new
+kind of pleasure to travel so commodiously without the interruption of
+toll-gates.'
+
+[165] See _ante_, iii. 265, for Lord Shelburne's statement on this
+subject.
+
+[166] See _ante_, ii. 339, and iii. 205, note 4.
+
+[167] See _ante_, iii. 46.
+
+[168] The passage quoted by Dr. Johnson is in the _Character of the
+Assembly-man_; Butler's _Remains_, p. 232, edit. 1754:--'He preaches,
+indeed, both in season and out of season; for he rails at Popery, when
+the land is almost lost in Presbytery; and would cry Fire! Fire! in
+Noah's flood.'
+
+There is reason to believe that this piece was not written by Butler,
+but by Sir John Birkenhead; for Wood, in his _Athenae Oxonienses_, vol.
+ii. p. 640, enumerates it among that gentleman's works, and gives the
+following account of it:
+
+_'The Assembly-man_ (or the character of an assembly-man) written 1647,
+_Lond._ 1662-3, in three sheets in qu. The copy of it was taken from the
+author by those who said they could not rob, because all was theirs; so
+excised what they liked not; and so mangled and reformed it, that it was
+no character of an Assembly, but of themselves. At length, after it had
+slept several years, the author published it to avoid false copies. It
+is also reprinted in a book entit. _Wit and Loyalty revived_, in a
+collection of some smart satyrs in verse and prose on the late times.
+_Lond._ 1682, qu. said to be written by Abr. Cowley, Sir John
+Birkenhead, and Hudibras, alias Sam. Butler.'--For this information I am
+indebted to Mr. Reed, of Staple Inn. BOSWELL. This tract is in the
+_Harleian Misc_., ed. 1810, vi. 57. Mr. Reed's quotation differs
+somewhat from it.
+
+[169] 'When a Scotchman was talking against Warburton, Johnson said he
+had more literature than had been imported from Scotland since the days
+of Buchanan. Upon the other's mentioning other eminent writers of the
+Scotch; "These will not do," said Johnson, "Let us have some more of
+your northern lights; these are mere farthing candles."' Johnson's
+_Works_ (1787), xi. 208. Dr. T. Campbell records (_Diary_, p. 61) that
+at the dinner at Mr. Dilly's, described _ante_, ii. 338, 'Dr. Johnson
+compared England and Scotland to two lions, the one saturated with his
+belly full, and the other prowling for prey. He defied any one to
+produce a classical book written in Scotland since Buchanan. Robertson,
+he said, used pretty words, but he liked Hume better; and neither of
+them would he allow to be more to Clarendon than a rat to a cat. "A
+Scotch surgeon may have more learning than an English one, and all
+Scotland could not muster learning enough for Lowth's _Prelections_."'
+See _ante_, ii. 363, and March 30, 1783.
+
+[170] The poem is entitled _Gualterus Danistonus ad Amicos_. It
+begins:--
+
+     'Dum studeo fungi fallentis munere vitae'
+
+Which Prior imitates:--
+
+     'Studious the busy moments to deceive.'
+
+Sir Walter Scott thought that the poem praised by Johnson was 'more
+likely the fine epitaph on John, Viscount of Dundee, translated by
+Dryden, and beginning _Ultime Scotoruml_' Archibald Pitcairne, M.D., was
+born in 1652, and died in 1713.
+
+[171] My Journal, from this day inclusive, was read by Dr. Johnson.
+BOSWELL. It was read by Johnson up to the second paragraph of Oct. 26.
+Boswell, it should seem, once at least shewed Johnson a part of the
+Journal from which he formed his _Life_. See _ante_, iii. 260, where he
+says:--'It delighted him on a review to find that his conversation
+teemed with point and imagery.'
+
+[172] See _ante_, ii. 20, note 4.
+
+[173] Goldsmith, in his _Present State of Polite Learning_, published in
+1759, says, (ch. x):--'When the great Somers was at the helm, patronage
+was fashionable among our nobility ... Since the days of a certain prime
+minister of inglorious memory [Sir Robert Walpole] the learned have been
+kept pretty much at a distance. ... The author, when unpatronised by the
+Great, has naturally recourse to the bookseller. There cannot be perhaps
+imagined a combination more prejudicial to taste than this. It is the
+interest of the one to allow as little for writing, and of the other to
+write as much as possible; accordingly tedious compilations and
+periodical magazines are the result of their joint endeavours.'
+
+[174] In the first number of _The Rambler_, Johnson shews how attractive
+to an author is the form of publication which he was himself then
+adopting:--'It heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he
+shall have what he is now writing read with ecstacies to-morrow.'
+
+[175] Yet he said 'the inhabitants of Lichfield were the most sober,
+decent people in England.' _Ante_, ii. 463.
+
+[176] At the beginning of the eighteenth century, says Goldsmith,
+'smoking in the rooms [at Bath] was permitted.' When Nash became King of
+Bath he put it down. Goldsmith's _Works_, ed. 1854, iv. 51. 'Johnson,'
+says Boswell (_ante_, i. 317), 'had a high opinion of the sedative
+influence of smoking.'
+
+[177] Dr. Johnson used to practise this himself very much. BOSWELL.
+
+[178] In _The Tatler_, for May 24, 1709, we are told that 'rural
+esquires wear shirts half a week, and are drunk twice a day.' In the
+year 1720, Fenton urged Gay 'to sell as much South Sea stock as would
+purchase a hundred a year for life, "which will make you sure of a clean
+shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day."' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 65.
+In _Tristram Shandy_, ii. ch. 4, published in 1759, we read:--'It was in
+this year [about 1700] that my uncle began to break in upon the daily
+regularity of a clean shirt.' In _the Spiritual Quixote_, published in
+1773 (i. 51), Tugwell says to his master:--'Your Worship belike has been
+used to shift you twice a week.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Journey_, i. 105, date of
+1789) says that she heard in Milan 'a travelled gentleman telling his
+auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a clean
+shirt every day.' Johnson himself owned that he had 'no passion for
+clean linen.' _Ante_, i. 397.
+
+[179] Scott, in _Old Mortality_, ed. 1860, ix. 352, says:--'It was a
+universal custom in Scotland, that, when the family was at dinner, the
+outer-gate of the court-yard, if there was one, and if not, the door of
+the house itself, was always shut and locked.' In a note on this he
+says:--'The custom of keeping the door of a house or chateau locked
+during the time of dinner probably arose from the family being anciently
+assembled in the hall at that meal, and liable to surprise.'
+
+[180] Johnson, writing of 'the chapel of the alienated college,'
+says:--'I was always by some civil excuse hindered from entering it.'
+_Works_, ix. 4.
+
+[181] George Marline's _Reliquiae divi Andreae_ was published in 1797.
+
+[182] See _ante_, ii. 171, and iv. 75.
+
+[183] Mr. Chambers says that Knox was buried in a place which soon after
+became, and ever since has been, a high-way; namely, the old church-yard
+of St. Giles in Edinburgh. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 283.
+
+[184] In _The Rambler_, No. 82, Johnson makes a virtuoso write:--'I
+often lamented that I was not one of that happy generation who
+demolished the convents and monasteries, and broke windows by law.' He
+had in 1754 'viewed with indignation the ruins of the Abbeys of Oseney
+and Rewley near Oxford.' Ante, i. 273. Smollett, in _Humphry Clinker_
+(Letrer of Aug. 8), describes St. Andrews as 'the skeleton of a
+venerable city.'
+
+[185] 'Some talked of the right of society to the labour of individuals,
+and considered retirement as a desertion of duty. Others readily allowed
+that there was a time when the claims of the publick were satisfied, and
+when a man might properly sequester himself to review his life and
+purify his heart.' _Rasselas_, ch. 22.
+
+[186] See _ante_, ii. 423.
+
+[187] See _ante_, iv. 5, note 2, and v. 27.
+
+[188] 'He that lives well in the world is better than he that lives well
+in a monastery. But, perhaps, every one is not able to stem the
+temptations of publick life, and, if he cannot conquer, he may properly
+retreat.' _Rasselas_, ch. 47. See _ante_, ii. 435.
+
+[189] 'A youthful passion for abstracted devotion should not be
+encouraged.' _Ante_, ii. 10. The hermit in _Rasselas_ (ch. 21)
+says:--'The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not
+certainly devout.' In Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 203, we read that
+'Johnson thought worse of the vices of retirement than of those of
+society.' Southey (_Life of Wesley_, i. 39) writes:--'Some time before
+John Wesley's return to the University, he had travelled many miles to
+see what is called "a serious man." This person said to him, "Sir, you
+wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember, you cannot serve Him
+alone; you must therefore find companions or make them; the Bible knows
+nothing of solitary religion." Wesley never forgot these words.'
+
+[190] [Erga neon, boulai de meson euchai de gerunton. _Hesiodi
+Fragmenta_, Lipsiae 1840, p. 371]
+
+     Let youth in deeds, in  counsel man engage;
+     Prayer is the proper duty of old age.
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+[191] One 'sorrowful scene' Johnson was perhaps too late in the year to
+see. Wesley, who visited St. Andrews on May 27, 1776, during the
+vacation, writes (_Journal_, iv. 75):--'What is left of St. Leonard's
+College is only a heap of ruins. Two colleges remain. One of them has a
+tolerable square; but all the windows are broke, like those of a
+brothel. We were informed the students do this before they leave
+the college.'
+
+[192] 'He was murdered by the ruffians of reformation, in the manner of
+which Knox has given what he himself calls a merry narrative.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 3. In May 1546 the Cardinal had Wishart the Reformer
+killed, and at the end of the same month he got killed himself.
+
+[193] Johnson says (_Works_, ix. 5):--'The doctor, by whom it was
+shown, hoped to irritate or subdue my English vanity by telling me that
+we had no such repository of books in England.' He wrote to Mrs. Thrale
+(_Piozzi Letters_, i. 113):--'For luminousness and elegance it may vie
+at least with the new edifice at Streatham.' 'The new edifice' was, no
+doubt, the library of which he took the touching farewell. _Ante_,
+iv. 158.
+
+[194] 'Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires
+are fixed upon the past, without looking forward to the future, an
+incessant wish that something were otherwise than it has been, a
+tormenting and harassing want of some enjoyment or possession which we
+have lost, and which no endeavours can possibly regain.' _The Rambler_,
+No. 47. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the death of her son:--'Do not
+indulge your sorrow; try to drive it away by either pleasure or pain;
+for, opposed to what you are feeling, many pains will become pleasures.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 310.
+
+[195] See ante, ii. 151.
+
+[196] The Pembroke College grace was written by Camden. It was as
+follows:--'Gratias tibi agimus, Deus misericors, pro acceptis a tua
+bonitate alimentis; enixe comprecantes ut serenissimum nostrum Regem
+Georgium, totam regiam familiam, populumque tuum universum tuta in pace
+semper custodies.'
+
+[197] Sharp was murdered on May 3, 1679, in a moor near St. Andrews.
+Burnet's _History of his Own time_, ed. 1818, ii. 82, and Scott's _Old
+Mortality_, ed, 1860, ix. 297, and x. 203.
+
+[198] 'One of its streets is now lost; and in those that remain there is
+the silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy
+depopulation.... St. Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to
+study and education.... The students, however, are represented as, at
+this time, not exceeding a hundred. I saw no reason for imputing their
+paucity to the present professors.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 4. A student,
+he adds, of lower rank could get his board, lodging, and instruction for
+less than ten pounds for the seven months of residence. Stockdale says
+(_Memoirs_, i. 238) that 'in St. Andrews, in 1756, for a good bedroom,
+coals, and the attendance of a servant I paid one shilling a week.'
+
+[199] _The Compleat Fencing-Master_, by Sir William Hope. London, 1691.
+
+[200] 'In the whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of
+kindness, and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality'
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 3.
+
+[201] Dugald Stewart (_Life of Adam Smith_, p. 107) writes:--'Mr. Smith
+observed to me not long before his death, that after all his practice in
+writing he composed as slowly, and with as great difficulty as at first.
+He added at the same time that Mr. Hume had acquired so great a facility
+in this respect, that the last volumes of his _History_ were printed
+from his original copy, with a few marginal corrections.' See _ante_,
+iii. 437 and iv. 12.
+
+[202] Of these only twenty-five have been published: Johnson's _Works_,
+ix. 289-525. See _ante_, iii. 19, note 3, and 181. Johnson wrote on
+April 20, 1778:--'I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly.'
+_Pr. and Med._ p. 170. 'I should think,' said Lord Eldon, 'that no
+clergyman ever wrote as many sermons as Lord Stowell. I advised him to
+burn all his manuscripts of that kind. It is not fair to the clergymen
+to have it known he wrote them.' Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 286. Johnson, we
+may be sure, had no copy of any of his sermons. That none of them should
+be known but those he wrote for Taylor is strange.
+
+[203] He made the same statement on June 3, 1781 (_ante_, iv. 127),
+adding, 'I should be glad to see it [the translation] now.' This shows
+that he was not speaking of his translation of _Lobo_, as Mr. Croker
+maintains in a note on this passage. I believe he was speaking of his
+translation of Courayer's _Life of Paul Sarpi. Ante_, i. 135.
+
+[204] 'As far as I am acquainted with modern architecture, I am aware of
+no streets which, in simplicity and manliness of style, or general
+breadth and brightness of effect, equal those of the New Town of
+Edinburgh. But, etc.' Ruskin's _Lectures on Architecture and
+Painting_, p. 2.
+
+[205] Horace, _Odes_, ii. 14. 1.
+
+[206] John Abernethy, a Presbyterian divine. His works in 7 vols. 8vo.
+were published in 1740-51.
+
+[207] Leechman was principal of Glasgow University (_post_, Oct. 29). On
+his appointment to the Chair of Theology he had been prosecuted for
+heresy for having, in his _Sermon on Prayer_, omitted to state the
+obligation to pray in the name of Christ. Dr. A. Carlyle's _Auto_. p.
+69. One of his sermons was placed in Hume's hands, apparently that the
+author might have his suggestions in preparing a second edition. Hume
+says:--'First the addressing of our virtuous withes and desires to the
+Deity, since the address has no influence on him, is only a kind of
+rhetorical figure, in order to render these wishes more ardent and
+passionate. This is Mr. Leechman's doctrine. Now the use of any figure
+of speech can never be a duty. Secondly, this figure, like most figures
+of rhetoric, has an evident impropriety in it, for we can make use of no
+expression, or even thought, in prayers and entreaties, which does not
+imply that these prayers have an influence. Thirdly, this figure is very
+dangerous, and leads directly, and even unavoidably, to impiety and
+blasphemy,' etc. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 161.
+
+[208] Nichols (_Lit. Anec._ ii. 555) records:--'During the whole of my
+intimacy with Dr. Johnson he rarely permitted me to depart without some
+sententious advice.... His words at parting were, "Take care of your
+eternal salvation. Remember to observe the Sabbath. Let it never be a
+day of business, nor wholly a day of dissipation." He concluded his
+solemn farewell with, "Let my words have their due weight. They are the
+words of a dying man." I never saw him more.'
+
+[209] See _ante_, ii. 72.
+
+[210] 'From the bank of the Tweed to St. Andrews I had never seen a
+single tree which I did not believe to have grown up far within the
+present century.... The variety of sun and shade is here utterly
+unknown.... A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice.
+At St. Andrews Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my
+notice: I told him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought
+so. "This," said he, "is nothing to another a few miles off." I was still
+less delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer.
+"Nay," said a gentleman that stood by, "I know but of this and that tree
+in the county."' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 7 'In all this journey [so far
+as Slains Castle] I have not travelled an hundred yards between hedges,
+or seen five trees fit for the carpenter.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.120. See
+_ante_, ii. 301.
+
+[211] One of the Boswells of this branch was, in 1798, raised to the
+bench under the title of Lord Balmuto. It was his sister who was
+Boswell's step-mother. Rogers's _Boswelliana,_ pp. 4, 82.
+
+[212] 'The colony of Leuchars is a vain imagination concerning a certain
+fleet of Danes wrecked on Sheughy Dikes.' WALTER SCOTT. 'The fishing
+people on that coast have, however, all the appearance of being a
+different race from the inland population, and their dialect has many
+peculiarities.' LOCKHART. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 286.
+
+[213] 'I should scarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded
+nothing more than the sight of Aberbrothick.' _Works_, ix. 9.
+
+[214] Johnson referred, I believe, to the last of Tillotson's _Sermons
+preached upon Several Occasions_, ed. 1673, p. 316, where the preacher
+says:--'Supposing the _Scripture_ to be a Divine Revelation, and that
+these words (_This is My Body_), if they be in Scripture, must
+necessarily be taken in the strict and literal sense, I ask now, What
+greater evidence any man has that these words (_This is My Body_) are in
+the Bible than every man has that the bread is not changed in the
+sacrament? Nay, no man has so much, for we have only the evidence of
+_one_ sense that these words are in the Bible, but that the bread is not
+changed we have the concurring testimony of _several_ of our senses.'
+
+[215] This also is Tillotson's argument. 'There is no more certain
+foundation for it [transubstantiation] in Scripture than for our
+Saviour's being substantially changed into all those things which are
+said of him, as that he is a _rock_, a _vine_, a _door_, and a hundred
+other things.' _Ib_. p. 313.
+
+[216] Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except
+ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life
+in you. See _St. John's Gospel_, chap. vi. 53, and following
+verses. BOSWELL.
+
+[217] See _ante_, p. 26.
+
+[218] See _ante_, i. 140, note 5, and v. 50.
+
+[219] Johnson, after saying that the inn was not so good as they
+expected, continues:--'But Mr. Boswell desired me to observe that the
+innkeeper was an Englishman, and I then defended him as well as I
+could.' _Works_, ix. 9.
+
+[220] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on July 29, 1775 (_Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 292):--' I hope I shall quickly come to Streatham...and catch a little
+gaiety among you.' On this Baretti noted in his copy:--'_That_ he never
+caught. He thought and mused at Streatham as he did habitually
+everywhere, and seldom or never minded what was doing about him.' On the
+margin of i. 315 Baretti has written:--'Johnson mused as much on the road
+to Paris as he did in his garret in London as much at a French opera as
+in his room at Streatham.'
+
+[221] _A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson,_ by Thomas Tyers,
+Esq. See _ante_, iii. 308.
+
+[222] This description of Dr. Johnson appears to have been borrowed from
+Tom Jones, bk. xi. ch. ii. 'The other who, like a ghost, only wanted to
+be spoke to, readily answered, '&c. BOSWELL.
+
+[223] Perhaps he gave the 'shilling extraordinary' because he 'found a
+church,' as he says, 'clean to a degree unknown in any other part of
+Scotland.' _Works_, ix. 9.
+
+[224] See _ante,_ iii. 22.
+
+[225] See _ante,_ May 9, 1784. Yet Johnson says (_Works_, ix. 10):--'The
+magnetism of Lord Monboddo's conversation easily drew us out of
+our way.'
+
+[226] There were several points of similarity between them; learning,
+clearness of head, precision of speech, and a love of research on many
+subjects which people in general do not investigate. Foote paid Lord
+Monboddo the compliment of saying, that he was an Elzevir edition
+of Johnson.
+
+It has been shrewdly observed that Foote must have meant a diminutive,
+or _pocket_ edition. BOSWELL. The latter part of this note is not in the
+first edition.
+
+[227] Lord Elibank (_post_, Sept. 12) said that he would go five hundred
+miles to see Dr. Johnson; but Johnson never said more than he meant.
+
+[228] _Works_, ix. 10. Of the road to Montrose he remarks:--'When I had
+proceeded thus far I had opportunities of observing, what I had never
+heard, that there were many beggars in Scotland. In Edinburgh the the
+proportion is, I think, not less than in London, and in the smaller
+places it is far greater than in English towns of the same extent. It
+must, however, be allowed that they are not importunate, nor clamorous.
+They solicit silently, or very modestly.' _Ib._ p. 9. See _post_, p.
+116, note 2.
+
+[229] James Mill was born on April 6, 1773, at Northwater Bridge, parish
+of Logie Pert, Forfar. The bridge was 'on the great central line of
+communication from the north of Scotland. The hamlet is right and left
+of the high road.' Bain's _Life of James Mill_, p. 1. Boswell and
+Johnson, on their road to Laurence Kirk, must have passed close to the
+cottage in which he was lying, a baby not five months old.
+
+[230] See _ante_, i. 211.
+
+[231] There is some account of him in Chambers's _Traditions of
+Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, ii. 173, and in Dr. A. Carlyle's _Auto._ p. 136.
+
+[232] G. Chalmers (_Life of Ruddiman_, p. 270) says:--'In May, 1790, Lord
+Gardenston declared that he still intended to erect a proper monument in
+his village to the memory of the late learned and worthy Mr. Ruddiman.'
+In 1792 Gardenston, in his _Miscellanies_, p. 257, attacked Ruddiman.
+'It has of late become fashionable,' he wrote, 'to speak of Ruddiman in
+terms of the highest respect.' The monument was never raised.
+
+[233] _A Letter to the Inhabitants of Laurence Kirk_, by F. Garden.
+
+[234] 'Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have
+entertained angels unawares.' _Hebrews_ xiii, 2.
+
+[235] This, I find, is considered as obscure. I suppose Dr. Johnson
+meant, that I assiduously and earnestly recommended myself to some of
+the members, as in a canvass for an election into parliament. BOSWELL.
+See _ante_, ii, 235.
+
+[236] Goldsmith in _Retaliation_, a few months later, wrote of William
+Burke:--'Would you ask for his merits? alas! he had none; What was good
+was spontaneous, his faults were his own.' See _ante_, iii 362, note 2.
+
+[237] See _ante_, iii. 260, 390, 425.
+
+[238] Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 252) wrote of Monboddo in 1782:--'He is
+such an extravagant adorer of the ancients, that he scarcely allows the
+English language to be capable of any excellence, still less the French.
+He said we moderns are entirely degenerated. I asked in what? "In
+everything," was his answer. He loves slavery upon principle. I asked
+him how he could vindicate such an enormity. He owned it was because
+Plutarch justified it. He is so wedded to system that, as Lord
+Barrington said to me the other day, rather than sacrifice his favourite
+opinion that men were born with tails, he would be contented to wear
+one himself.'
+
+[239] Scott, in a note on _Guy Mannering_, ed. 1860, iv. 267, writes of
+Monboddo:--'The conversation of the excellent old man, his high,
+gentleman-like, chivalrous spirit, the learning and wit with which he
+defended his fanciful paradoxes, the kind and liberal spirit of his
+hospitality, must render these _noctes coenaeque_ dear to all who, like
+the author (though then young), had the honour of sitting at his board.'
+
+[240] Lord Cockburn, writing of the title that Jeffrey took when he was
+raised to the Bench in 1834, said:--'The Scotch Judges are styled
+_Lords_; a title to which long usage has associated feelings of
+reverence in the minds of the people, who could not now be soon made to
+respect or understand _Mr. Justice_. During its strongly feudalised
+condition, the landholders of Scotland, who were almost the sole judges,
+were really known only by the names of their estates. It was an insult,
+and in some parts of the country it is so still, to call a laird by his
+personal, instead of his territorial, title. But this assumption of two
+names, one official and one personal, and being addressed by the one and
+subscribing by the other, is wearing out, and will soon disappear
+entirely.' Cockburn's _Jeffrey_, i. 365. See _post_, p. 111, note 1.
+
+[241] _Georgics_, i. 1.
+
+[242] Walter Scott used to tell an instance of Lord Monboddo's
+agricultural enthusiasm, that returning home one night after an absence
+(I think) on circuit, he went out with a candle to look at a field of
+turnips, then a novelty in Scotland. CROKER.
+
+[243] Johnson says the same in his _Life of John Philips_, and adds:--
+'This I was told by Miller, the great gardener and botanist, whose
+experience was, that "there were many books written on the same subject
+in prose, which do not contain so much truth as that poem."' _Works_,
+vii. 234. Miller is mentioned in Walpole's _Letters_, ii. 352:--'There is
+extreme taste in the park [Hagley]: the seats are not the best, but
+there is not one absurdity. There is a ruined castle built by Miller,
+that would get him his freedom, even of Strawberry: it has the true rust
+of the Barons' Wars.'
+
+[244] See _ante_, p. 27.
+
+[245] My note of this is much too short. _Brevis esse laboro, obscurus
+fio_. ['I strive to be concise, I prove obscure.' FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars
+Poet_. l. 25.] Yet as I have resolved that _the very Journal which Dr.
+Johnson read_, shall be presented to the publick, I will not expand the
+text in any considerable degree, though I may occasionally supply a word
+to complete the sense, as I fill up the blanks of abbreviation, in the
+writing; neither of which can be said to change the genuine _Journal_.
+One of the best criticks of our age conjectures that the imperfect
+passage above was probably as follows: 'In his book we have an accurate
+display of a nation in war, and a nation in peace; the peasant is
+delineated as truly as the general; nay, even harvest-sport, and the
+modes of ancient theft are described.' BOSWELL. 'One of the best
+criticks is, I believe, Malone, who had 'perused the original
+manuscript.' See _ante_, p. 1; and _post_, Oct. 26, and under Nov. 11.
+
+[246] It was in the Parliament-house that 'the ordinary Lords of
+Session,' the Scotch Judges, that is to say, held their courts.
+_Ante_, p. 39.
+
+[247] Dr. Johnson modestly said, he had not read Homer so much as he
+wished he had done. But this conversation shews how well he was
+acquainted with the Maeonian bard; and he has shewn it still more in his
+criticism upon Pope's _Homer_, in his _Life_ of that Poet. My excellent
+friend, Mr. Langton, told me, he was once present at a dispute between
+Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke, on the comparative merits of Homer and
+Virgil, which was carried on with extraordinary abilities on both sides.
+Dr. Johnson maintained the superiority of Homer. BOSWELL. Johnson told
+Windham that he had never read through the Odyssey in the original.
+Windham's _Diary_, p. 17. See _ante_, iii. 193, and May 1, 1783.
+
+[248] Johnson ten years earlier told Boswell that he loved most 'the
+biographical part of literature.' _Ante_, i. 425. Goldsmith said of
+biography:--'It furnishes us with an opportunity of giving advice freely
+and without offence.... Counsels as well as compliments are best
+conveyed in an indirect and oblique manner, and this renders biography
+as well as fable a most convenient vehicle for instruction. An ingenious
+gentleman was asked what was the best lesson for youth; he answered,
+"The life of a good man." Being again asked what was the next best, he
+replied, "The life of a bad one."' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 395.
+
+[249] See _ante_, p. 57.
+
+[250] Ten years later he said:--'There is now a great deal more
+learning in the world than there was formerly; for it is universally
+diffused.' _Ante_, April 29,1783. Windham (_Diary_, p. 17) records
+'Johnson's opinion that I could not name above five of my college
+acquaintances who read Latin with sufficient ease to make it
+pleasurable.'
+
+[251] See _ante_, ii. 352.
+
+[252] 'Warburton, whatever was his motive, undertook without
+solicitation to rescue Pope from the talons of Crousaz, by freeing him
+from the imputation of favouring fatality, or rejecting revelation; and
+from month to month continued a vindication of the _Essay on Man_ in the
+literary journal of that time, called the _Republick of Letters'_
+Johnson's _Works_, viii. 289. Pope wrote to Warburton of the _Essay on
+Man_:--'You understand my work better than I do myself.' Pope's _Works_,
+ed. 1886, ix. 211.
+
+[253] See _ante_, ii. 37, note I, and Pope's _Works_, ed. 1886, ix. 220.
+Allen was Ralph Allen of Prior Park near Bath, to whom Fielding
+dedicated _Amelia_, and who is said to have been the original of
+Allworthy in _Tom Jones_. It was he of whom Pope wrote:--
+
+     'Let low-born Allen, with an awkward shame,
+      Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.'
+
+_Epilogue to the Satires_, i. 135.
+
+_Low-born_ in later editions was changed to _humble_. Warburton not only
+married his niece, but, on his death, became in her right owner of
+Prior Park.
+
+[254] Mr. Mark Pattison (_Satires of Pope_, p. 158) points out
+Warburton's 'want of penetration in that subject [metaphysics] which he
+considered more peculiarly his own.' He said of 'the late Mr. Baxter'
+(Andrew Baxter, not Richard Baxter), that 'a few pages of his reasoning
+have not only more sense and substance than all the elegant discourses
+of Dr. Berkeley, but infinitely better entitle him to the character of a
+great genius.'
+
+[255] It is of Warburton that Churchill wrote in _The Duellist (Poems,_
+ed. 1766, ii. 82):--
+
+     'To prove his faith which all admit
+      Is at least equal to his wit,
+      And make himself a man of note,
+      He in defence of Scripture wrote;
+      So long he wrote, and long about it,
+      That e'en believers 'gan to doubt it.'
+
+
+[256] I find some doubt has been entertained concerning Dr. Johnson's
+meaning here. It is to be supposed that he meant, 'when a king shall
+again be entertained in Scotland.' BOSWELL.
+
+[257] Perhaps among these ladies was the Miss Burnet of Monboddo, on
+whom Burns wrote an elegy.
+
+[258] In the _Rambler_, No. 98, entitled _The Necessity of Cultivating
+Politeness_, Johnson says:--'The universal axiom in which all
+complaisance is included, and from which flow all the formalities which
+custom has established in civilized nations, is, _That no man shall give
+any preference to himself.'_ In the same paper, he says that
+'unnecessarily to obtrude unpleasing ideas is a species of oppression.'
+
+[259] Act ii. sc. 5.
+
+[260] Perhaps he was referring to Polyphemus's club, which was
+
+     'Of height and bulk so vast
+      The largest ship might claim it for a mast.'
+
+Pope's _Odyssey_, ix. 382.
+
+Or to Agamemnon's sceptre:--
+
+     'Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear.'
+
+_Iliad_, i. 310.
+
+[261] 'We agreed pretty well, only we disputed in adjusting the claims
+of merit between a shopkeeper of London and a savage of the American
+wildernesses. Our opinions were, I think, maintained on both sides
+without full conviction; Monboddo declared boldly for the savage, and I,
+perhaps for that reason, sided with the citizen.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 115.
+
+[262]
+
+     'Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
+      From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
+      The whole strange purpose of their lives to find,
+      Or make, an enemy of all mankind!
+      Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
+      Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.'
+
+_Essay on Man,_ iv. 219.
+
+[263] _Maccaroni_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. Horace Walpole
+(_Letters_, iv. 178) on Feb. 6, 1764, mentions 'the Maccaroni Club,
+which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and
+spying-glasses.' On the following Dec. 16 he says:--'The Maccaroni Club
+has quite absorbed Arthur's; for, you know, old fools will hobble after
+young ones.' _Ib._ p. 302. See _post_, Sept. 12, for _buck_.
+
+[264] 'We came late to Aberdeen, where I found my dear mistress's
+letter, and learned that all our little people were happily recovered of
+the measles. Every part of your letter was pleasing.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 115. For Johnson's use of the word _mistress_ in speaking of Mrs.
+Thrale see _ante_, i. 494.
+
+[265] See _ante_, ii. 455. 'They taught us,' said one of the Professors,
+'to raise cabbage and make shoes, How they lived without shoes may yet
+be seen; but in the passage through villages it seems to him that
+surveys their gardens, that when they had not cabbage they had nothing.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 116. Johnson in the same letter says that 'New
+Aberdeen is built of that granite which is used for the _new_ pavement
+in London.'
+
+[266] 'In Aberdeen I first saw the women in plaids.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 116.
+
+[267] Seven years later Mackintosh, on entering King's College, found
+there the son of Johnson's old friend, 'the learned Dr. Charles Burney,
+finishing his term at Aberdeen.' Among his fellow-students were also
+some English Dissenters, among them Robert Hall. Mackintosh's _Life,_ i.
+10, 13. In Forbes's _Life of Beattie_ (ed. 1824, p. 169) is a letter by
+Beattie, dated Oct. 15, 1773, in which the English and Scotch
+Universities are compared. Colman, in his _Random Records,_ ii. 85,
+gives an account of his life at Aberdeen as a student.
+
+[268] Lord Bolingbroke (Works, iii. 347) in 1735 speaks of 'the little
+care that is taken in the training up our youth,' and adds, 'surely it
+is impossible to take less.' See _ante_, ii. 407, and iii. 12.
+
+[269] _London, 2d May_, 1778. Dr. Johnson acknowledged that he was
+himself the authour of the translation above alluded to, and dictated it
+to me as follows:--
+
+     Quos laudet vates Graius Romanus et Anglus
+     Tres tria temporibus secla dedere suis.
+     Sublime ingenium Graius; Romanus habebat
+     Carmen grande sonans; Anglus utrumque tulit.
+     Nil majus Natura capit: clarare priores
+     Quae potuere duos tertius unus habet.    BOSWELL.
+
+It was on May 2, 1778, that Johnson attacked Boswell with such rudeness
+that he kept away from him for a week. _Ante_, iii. 337.
+
+[270] 'We were on both sides glad of the interview, having not seen nor
+perhaps thought on one another for many years; but we had no emulation,
+nor had either of us risen to the other's envy, and our old kindness was
+easily renewed.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 117.
+
+[271] Johnson wrote on Sept. 30:--'Barley-broth is a constant dish, and
+is made well in every house. A stranger, if he is prudent, will secure
+his share, for it is not certain that he will be able to eat anything
+else.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. p. 160.
+
+[272] See _ante_. p. 24.
+
+[273] _Genesis_, ix. 6.
+
+[274] My worthy, intelligent, and candid friend, Dr. Kippis, informs me,
+that several divines have thus explained the mediation of our Saviour.
+What Dr. Johnson now delivered, was but a temporary opinion; for he
+afterwards was fully convinced of the _propitiatory sacrifice_, as I
+shall shew at large in my future work, _The Life of Samuel Johnson,
+LL.D._ BOSWELL. For Dr. Kippis see _ante_, iii. 174, and for Johnson on
+the propitiatory sacrifice, iv. 124.
+
+[275] _Malachi_, iv. 2.
+
+[276] _St. Luke_, ii 32.
+
+[277] 'Healing _in_ his wings,'_Malachi_, iv. 2.
+
+[278] 'He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that
+believeth not shall be damned.' _St. Mark_, xvi. 16.
+
+[279] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, ii. 254, 265.
+
+[280] Spedding's _Bacon_, vii. 271. The poem is also given in _The
+Golden Treasury_, p. 37; where, however, 'limns _the_ water' is changed
+into 'limns _on_ water.'
+
+[281] 'Addison now returned to his vocation, and began to plan literary
+occupations for his future life. He purposed a tragedy on the death of
+Socrates... He engaged in a nobler work, a defence of the Christian
+religion, of which part was published after his death.' Johnson's
+_Works_, vii. 441, and Addison's _Works_, ed. 1856, v. 103.
+
+[282] Dr. Beattie was so kindly entertained in England, that he had not
+yet returned home. BOSWELL. Beattie was staying in London till his
+pension got settled. Early in July he had been told that he was to have
+a pension of £200 a year (_ante_, ii. 264, note 2). It was not till Aug.
+20 that it was conferred. On July 9, he, in company with Sir Joshua
+Reynolds, received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. On Aug. 24, he had a
+long interview with the King; 'who asked,' Beattie records, 'whether we
+had any good preachers at Aberdeen. I said "Yes," and named Campbell and
+Gerard, with whose names, however, I did not find that he was
+acquainted.' It was this same summer that Reynolds painted him in 'the
+allegorical picture representing the triumph of truth over scepticism
+and infidelity' (_post_, Oct. 1, note). Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824,
+pp. 151-6, 167.
+
+[283] Dr. Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words:--'Aberdoniae,
+vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millesimo
+septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium virorum,
+Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, praepositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi Young, Georgii
+Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie Decani guildae, et
+Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi. 'Quo die vir generosus et
+doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL.D. receptus et admissus fuit in
+municipes et fratres guildae: praefati burgi de Aberdeen. In deditissimi
+amoris et affectus ac eximiae observantiae tesseram, quibus dicti
+Magistratus eum amplectuntur. Extractum per me, ALEX. CARNEGIE.'
+BOSWELL. 'I was presented with the freedom of the city, not in a gold
+box, but in good Latin. Let me pay Scotland one just praise; there was
+no officer gaping for a fee; this could have been said of no city on the
+English side of the Tweed.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 117. Baretti, in a MS.
+note on this passage, says:--'Throughout England nothing is done for
+nothing. Stop a moment to look at the rusticks mowing a field, and they
+will presently quit their work to come to you, and ask something to
+drink.' Aberdeen conferred its freedom so liberally about this time that
+it is surprising that Boswell was passed over. George Colman the
+younger, when a youth of eighteen, was sent to King's College. He says
+in his worthless _Random Records_, ii. 99:--'I had scarcely been a week
+in Old Aberdeen, when the Lord Provost of the New Town invited me to
+drink wine with him one evening in the Town Hall; there I found a
+numerous company assembled. The object of this meeting was soon declared
+to me by the Lord Provost, who drank my health, and presented me with
+the freedom of the City.' Two of his English fellow-students, of a
+little older standing, had, he said, received the same honour. His
+statement seemed to me incredible; but by the politeness of the
+Town-clerk, W. Gordon, Esq., I have found out that in the main it is
+correct. Colman, with one of the two, was admitted as an Honorary
+Burgess on Oct. 8, 1781, being described as _vir generosus_; the other
+had been admitted earlier. The population of Aberdeen and its suburbs in
+1769 was, according to Pennant, 16,000. Pennant's _Tour_, p. 117.
+
+[284] 'King's College in Aberdeen was an exact model of the University
+of Paris. Its founder, Bishop [not Archbishop] Elphinstone, had been a
+Professor at Paris and at Orleans.' Burton's _Scotland_, ed. 1873, iii.
+404. On p. 20, Dr. Burton describes him as 'the rich accomplished
+scholar and French courtier Elphinstone, munificently endowing a
+University after the model of the University of Paris.'
+
+[285] Boswell projected the following works:--1. An edition of
+_Johnson's Poems. Ante_, i. 16. 2. A work in which the merit of
+Addison's poetry shall be maintained, _ib_. p. 225. 3. A _History of
+Sweden_, ii. 156. 4. A_ Life of Thomas Ruddiman, ib._ p. 216. 5. An
+edition of Walton's_ Lives_ iii. 107. 6. A _History of the Civil War in_
+_Great Britain in_ 1745 and 1746, _ib._, p. 162.
+
+7. A _Life of Sir Robert Sibbald, ib._ p. 227. 8 An account of his own
+Travels, _ib_. p. 300. 9. A Collection, with notes, of old tenures and
+charters of Scotland, _ib_. p. 414, note 3. 10. A _History of James IV._
+11. 'A quarto volume to be embellished with fine plates, on the subject
+of the controversy (_ante_, ii. 367) occasioned by the _Beggar's
+Opera._' Murray's _Johnsoniana_, ed. 1836, p. 502.
+
+Thomas Boswell received from James IV. the estate of Auchinleck. _Ante_,
+ii. 413. See _post_, Nov. 4.
+
+[286] Mackintosh says, in his _Life_, i. 9:--'In October, 1780, I was
+admitted into the Greek class, then taught by Mr. Leslie, who did not
+aspire beyond teaching us the first rudiments of the language; more
+would, I believe, have been useless to his scholars.'
+
+[287] 'Boswell was very angry that the Aberdeen professors would not
+talk.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 118. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Blair, whom
+Boswell, five years earlier, invited to meet Johnson at supper, 'with an
+excess of prudence hardly opened their lips' (_ante_, ii. 63). At
+Glasgow the professors did not dare to talk much (_post_, Oct. 29). On
+another occasion when Johnson came in, the company 'were all as quiet as
+a school upon the entrance of the headmaster.' _Ante_, iii. 332.
+
+[288] Dr. Beattie says that this printer was Strahan. He had seen the
+letter mentioned by Gerard, and many other letters too from the Bishop
+to Strahan. 'They were,' he continues, 'very particularly acquainted.'
+He adds that 'Strahan was eminently skilled in composition, and had
+corrected (as he told me himself) the phraseology of both Mr. Hume and
+Dr. Robertson.' Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 341.
+
+[289] An instance of this is given in Johnson's _Works_, viii.
+288:--'Warburton had in the early part of his life pleased himself with
+the notice of inferior wits, and corresponded with the enemies of Pope.
+A letter was produced, when he had perhaps himself forgotten it, in
+which he tells Concanen, "Dryden, I observe, borrows for want of
+leisure, and Pope for want of genius; Milton out of pride, and Addison
+out of modesty."'
+
+[290] 'Goldsmith asserted that Warburton was a weak writer. "Warburton,"
+said Johnson, "may be absurd, but he will never be weak; he flounders
+well."' Stockdale's _Memoirs_, ii. 64. See Appendix A.
+
+[291] _The Doctrine of Grace; or the Office and Operations of the Holy
+Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of
+Fanaticism_, 1762.
+
+[292] _A Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, occasioned by his Tract on
+the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit_, by John Wesley, 1762.
+
+[293] Malone records:--'I could not find from Mr. Walpole that his
+father [Sir Robert] read any other book but Sydenham in his retirement.'
+To his admiration of Sydenham his death was attributed; for it led him
+to treat himself wrongly when he was suffering from the stone. Prior's
+_Malone_, p. 387. Johnson wrote a _Life of Sydenham_. In it he ridicules
+the notion that 'a man eminent for integrity _practised Medicine by
+chance, and grew wise only by murder_.' _Works_, vi. 409.
+
+[294] All this, as Dr. Johnson suspected at the time, was the immediate
+invention of his own lively imagination; for there is not one word of it
+in Mr. Locke's complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no
+doubt, like to be satisfied, by comparing them; and, at any rate, it may
+entertain them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when
+a Bachelor in Physick.
+
+AUCTORI, IN TRACTATUM EJUS DE FEBRIBUS.
+
+     Febriles aestus, victumque ardoribus orbem
+       Flevit, non tantis par Medicina malis.
+     Nam post mille artes, medicae tentamina curae,
+       Ardet adhuc Febris; nec velit arte regi.
+     Praeda sumus flammis; solum hoc speramus ab igne,
+       Ut restet paucus, quem capit urna, cinis.
+     Dum quaerit medicus febris caussamque, modumque,
+       Flammarum & tenebras, & sine luce faces;
+     Quas tractat patitur flammas, & febre calescens,
+       Corruit ipse suis victima rapta focis.
+     Qui tardos potuit morbos, artusque trementes,
+       Sistere, febrili se videt igne rapi.
+     Sic faber exesos fulsit tibicine muros;
+       Dum trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos.
+     Sed si flamma vorax miseras incenderit aedes,
+       Unica flagrantes tunc sepelire salus.
+     Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes;
+       Cum perit artificis non minus usta domus.
+     Se tandem _Sydenham_ febrisque Scholaeque furori
+       Opponens, morbi quaerit, & artis opem.
+     Non temere incusat tectae putedinis [putredinis] ignes;
+       Nec fictus, febres qui fovet, humor erit.
+     Non bilem ille movet, nulla hic pituita; Salutis
+       Quae spes, si fallax ardeat intus aqua?
+     Nec doctas magno rixas ostentat hiatu,
+       Quîs ipsis major febribus ardor inest.
+     Innocuas placide corpus jubet urere flammas,
+       Et justo rapidos temperat igne focos.
+     Quid febrim exstinguat, varius quid postulet usus,
+       Solari aegrotos, qua potes arte, docet,
+     Hactenus ipsa suum timuit Natura calorem,
+       Dum saepe incerto, quo calet, igne perit:
+     Dum reparat tacitos male provida sanguinis ignes,
+       Praslusit busto, fit calor iste rogus.
+     Jam secura suas foveant praecordia flammas,
+       Quem Natura negat, dat Medicina modum.
+     Nec solum faciles compescit sanguinis aestus,
+       Dum dubia est inter spemque metumque salus;
+     Sed fatale malum domuit, quodque astra malignum
+       Credimus, iratam vel genuisse _Stygem_.
+     Extorsit _Lachesi_ cultros, Pestique venenum
+       Abstulit, & tantos non sinit esse metus.
+     Quis tandem arte nova domitam mitescere Pestem
+       Credat, & antiquas ponere posse minas?
+     Post tot mille neces, cumulataque funera busto,
+       Victa jacet parvo vulnere dira Lues.
+     Aetheriae quanquam spargunt contagia flammae,
+       Quicquid inest istis ignibus, ignis erit.
+     Delapsae coelo flammae licet acrius urant
+       Has gelida exstingui non nisi morte putas?
+     Tu meliora paras victrix Medicina; tuusque,
+       Pestis quae superat cuncta, triumphus eris [erit].
+     Vive liber, victis febrilibus ignibus; unus
+       Te simul & mundum qui manet, ignis erit.
+
+J. LOCK, A.M. Ex. Aede Christi, Oxon. BOSWELL.
+
+[295] See _ante_, ii. 126, 298.
+
+[296] 'One of its ornaments [i.e. of
+Marischal College] is the picture of
+Arthur Johnston, who was principal
+of the college, and who holds among
+the Latin Poets of Scotland the next
+place to the elegant Buchanan.'
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 12. Pope
+attacking Benson, who endeavoured
+to raise himself to fame by erecting
+monuments to Milton, and printing
+editions of Johnson's version of
+the _Psalms_, introduces the Scotch
+Poet in the _Dunciad_:--
+On two unequal crutches propped
+he came,
+Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's
+name.'
+_Dunciad_, bk. iv. l. III.
+Johnson wrote to Boswell for a copy
+of Johnston's _Poems_ (_ante_, iii. 104)
+and for his likeness (_ante_, March 18,
+1784).
+
+[297] 'Education is here of the same price as at St. Andrews, only the
+session is but from the 1st of November to the 1st of April' [five
+months, instead of seven]. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 116. In his _Works_ (ix.
+14) Johnson by mistake gives eight months to the St. Andrews session. On
+p. 5 he gives it rightly as seven.
+
+[298] Beattie, as an Aberdeen professor, was grieved at this saying when
+he read the book. 'Why is it recorded?' he asked. 'For no reason that I
+can imagine, unless it be in order to return evil for good.' Forbes's
+_Beattie_, ed. 1824. p. 337.
+
+[299] See _ante_, ii. 336, and iii. 209.
+
+[300] See _ante_, iii. 65, and _post_, Nov. 2.
+
+[301] See _ante_, i. 411. Johnson, no doubt, was reminded of this story
+by his desire to get this book. Later on (_ante_, iii. 104) he asked
+Boswell 'to be vigilant and get him Graham's _Telemachus_.'
+
+[302] I am sure I have related this story exactly as Dr. Johnson told it
+to me; but a friend who has often heard him tell it, informs me that he
+usually introduced a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. 'At
+last, Sir, Graham, having now got to about the pitch of looking at one
+man, and talking to another, said _Doctor_, &c.' 'What effect (Dr.
+Johnson used to add) this had on Goldsmith, who was as irascible as a
+hornet, may be easily conceived.' BOSWELL.
+
+[303] Graham was of Eton College.
+
+[304] It was to Johnson that the invitation was due. 'What I was at the
+English Church at Aberdeen I happened to be espied by Lady Dr.
+Middleton, whom I had sometime seen in London; she told what she had
+seen to Mr. Boyd, Lord Errol's brother, who wrote us an invitation to
+Lord Errol's house.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 118. Boswell, perhaps, was not
+unwilling that the reader should think that it was to him that the
+compliment was paid.
+
+[305] 'In 1745 my friend, Tom Cumming the Quaker, said he would not
+fight, but he would drive an ammunition cart.' _Ante_, April 28, 1783.
+Smollett (_History of England_, iv. 293) describes how, in 1758, the
+conquest of Senegal was due to this 'sensible Quaker,' 'this honest
+Quaker,' as he calls him, who not only conceived the project, but 'was
+concerned as a principal director and promoter of the expedition. If it
+was the first military scheme of any Quaker, let it be remembered it was
+also the first successful expedition of this war, and one of the first
+that ever was carried on according to the pacifick system of the
+Quakers, without the loss of a drop of blood on either side.' If there
+was no bloodshed, it was by good luck, for 'a regular engagement was
+warmly maintained on both sides.' It was a Quaker, then, who led the van
+in the long line of conquests which have made Chatham's name so famous.
+Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 185) says:--'Dr. Johnson told me that Cummyns
+(sic) the famous Quaker, whose friendship he valued very highly, fell a
+sacrifice to the insults of the newspapers; having declared to him on
+his death-bed, that the pain of an anonymous letter, written in some of
+the common prints of the day, fastened on his heart, and threw him into
+the slow fever of which he died.' Mr. Seward records (_Anec_. ii.
+395):--'Mr. Cummins, the celebrated American Quaker, said of Mr. Pitt
+(Lord Chatham):--"The first time I come to Mr. Pitt upon any business I
+find him extremely ignorant; the second time I come to him, I find him
+completely informed upon it."'
+
+[306] See _ante_, i. 232.
+
+[307] See _ante_, i. 46.
+
+[308] 'From the windows the eye wanders over the sea that separates
+Scotland from Norway, and when the winds beat with violence, must enjoy
+all the terrifick grandeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for any
+amusement wish for a storm; but as storms, whether wished or not, will
+sometimes happen, I may say, without violation of humanity, that I
+should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Castle.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 15.
+
+[309] See _ante_, p. 68.
+
+[310] Horace. _Odes_, i. 2.
+
+[311] See _ante_, ii. 428.
+
+[312] Perhaps the poverty of their host led to this talk. Sir Walter
+Scott wrote in 1814:--'Imprudence, or ill-fortune as fatal as the sands
+of Belhelvie [shifting sands that had swallowed up a whole parish], has
+swallowed up the estate of Errol, excepting this dreary mansion-house
+and a farm or two adjoining.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 187.
+
+[313] See _ante_, ii. 421, note 1.
+
+[314] Since the accession of George I. only one parliament had had so
+few as five sessions, and it was dissolved before its time by his death.
+One had six sessions, six seven sessions, (including the one that was
+now sitting,) and one eight. There was therefore so little dread of a
+sudden dissolution that for five years of each parliament the members
+durst contradict the populace.
+
+[315] To Miss Burney Johnson once said:--'Sir Joshua Reynolds possesses
+the largest share of inoffensiveness of any man that I know.' _Memoirs
+of Dr. Burney_, i. 343. 'Once at Mr. Thrale's, when Reynolds left the
+room, Johnson observed:--"There goes a man not to be spoiled by
+prosperity."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 82. Burke wrote of him:--'He
+had a strong turn for humour, and well saw the weak sides of things. He
+enjoyed every circumstance of his good fortune, and had no affectation
+on that subject. And I do not know a fault or weakness of his that he
+did not convert into something that bordered on a virtue, instead of
+pushing it to the confines of a vice.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 638.
+
+[316] He visited Devonshire in 1762. _Ante_, i. 377.
+
+[317] Horace Walpole, describing the coronation of George III, writes:--
+'One there was ... the noblest figure I ever saw, the high-constable of
+Scotland, Lord Errol; as one saw him in a space capable of containing
+him, one admired him. At the wedding, dressed in tissue, he looked like
+one of the Giants in Guildhall, new gilt. It added to the energy of his
+person, that one considered him acting so considerable a part in that
+very Hall, where so few years ago one saw his father, Lord Kilmarnock,
+condemned to the block.' _Letters_, iii. 438. Sir William Forbes
+says:--'He often put me in mind of an ancient Hero, and I remember Dr.
+Johnson was positive that he resembled Homer's character of Sarpedon.'
+_Life of Beattie_, ed. 1824, Appendix D. Mrs. Piozzi says:--'The Earl
+dressed in his robes at the coronation and Mrs. Siddons in the character
+of Murphy's Euphrasia were the noblest specimens of the human race I
+ever saw.' _Synonymy_, i.43. He sprang from a race of rebels. 'He united
+in his person,' says Forbes, 'the four earldoms of Errol, Kilmarnock,
+Linlithgow, and Callander.' The last two were attainted in 1715, and
+Kilmarnock in 1745. _Life of Beattie_, Appendix D.
+
+[318] Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son [iii. 130], complains
+of one who argued in an indiscriminate manner with men of all ranks,
+Probably the noble lord had felt with some uneasiness what it was to
+encounter stronger abilities than his own. If a peer will engage at
+foils with his inferior in station, he must expect that his inferior in
+station will avail himself of every advantage; otherwise it is not a
+fair trial of strength and skill. The same will hold in a contest of
+reason, or of wit.--A certain king entered the lists of genius with
+Voltaire. The consequence was, that, though the king had great and
+brilliant talents, Voltaire had such a superiority that his majesty
+could not bear it; and the poet was dismissed, or escaped, from that
+court.--In the reign of James I. of England, Crichton, Lord Sanquhar, a
+peer of Scotland, from a vain ambition to excel a fencing-master in his
+own art, played at rapier and dagger with him. The fencing-master, whose
+fame and bread were at stake, put out one of his lordship's eyes.
+Exasperated at this, Lord Sanquhar hired ruffians, and had the
+fencing-master assassinated; for which his lordship was capitally tried,
+condemned, and hanged. Not being a peer of England, he was tried by the
+name of Robert Crichton, Esq.; but he was admitted to be a baron of
+three hundred years' standing.--See the _State Trials_; and the _History
+of England_ by Hume, who applauds the impartial justice executed upon a
+man of high rank. BOSWELL. The 'stronger abilities' that Chesterfield
+encountered were Johnson's. Boswell thought wrongly that it was of
+Johnson that his Lordship complained in his letters to his son. _Ante_,
+i. 267, note 2. 'A certain King' was Frederick the Great. _Ante_, i.
+434. The fencing-master was murdered in his own house in London, five
+years after Sanquhar (or Sanquire) had lost his eye. Bacon, who was
+Solicitor-General, said:--'Certainly the circumstance of time is heavy
+unto you; it is now five years since this unfortunate man, Turner, be it
+upon accident or despight, gave the provocation which was the seed of
+your malice.' _State Trials_, ii. 743, and Hume's _History_, ed.
+1802, vi. 61.
+
+[319] _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.
+
+[320] Perhaps Lord Errol was the Scotch Lord mentioned _ante_, iii. 170,
+and the nobleman mentioned _ib_. p. 329.
+
+[321] 'Pitied by gentle minds Kilmarnock died.' _Ante_. i. 180.
+
+[322] Sir Walter Scott describes the talk that he had in 1814 near
+Slains Castle with an old fisherman. 'The old man says Slains is now
+inhabited by a Mr. Bowles, who comes so far from the southward that
+naebody kens whare he comes frae. "Was he frae the Indies?" "Na; he did
+not think he came that road. He was far frae the Southland. Naebody ever
+heard the name of the place; but he had brought more guid out o'
+Peterhead than a' the Lords he had seen in Slains, and he had seen
+three."' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 188. The first of the three
+was Johnson's host.
+
+[323] See _ante_, ii. 153, and iii. 1, note 2.
+
+[324] Smollett, in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Sept. 6), writing of the
+Highlanders and their chiefs, says:--'The original attachment is
+founded on something prior to the _feudal system_, about which the
+writers of this age have made such a pother, as if it was a new
+discovery, like the _Copernican system_ ... For my part I expect to see
+the use of trunk-hose and buttered ale ascribed to the influence of the
+_feudal system_.' See _ante_, ii. 177.
+
+[325] Mme. Riccoboni wrote to Garrick on May 3, 1769:--'Vous conviendrez
+que les nobles sont peu ménagés par vos auteurs; le sot, le fat, ou le
+malhonnête homme mêlé dans l'intrigue est presque toujours un lord.'
+_Garrick Corres_, ii. 561. Dr. Moore (_View of Society in France_, i.
+29) writing in 1779 says:--'I am convinced there is no country in Europe
+where royal favour, high birth, and the military profession could be
+allowed such privileges as they have in France, and where there would be
+so few instances of their producing rough and brutal behaviour to
+inferiors.' Mrs. Piozzi, writing in 1784, though she did not publish her
+book till 1789, said:--'The French are really a contented race of
+mortals;--precluded almost from possibility of adventure, the low
+Parisian leads gentle, humble life, nor envies that greatness he never
+can obtain.' _Journey through France_, i. 13.
+
+[326] He is the worthy son of a worthy father, the late Lord Strichen,
+one of our judges, to whose kind notice I was much obliged. Lord
+Strichen was a man not only honest, but highly generous; for after his
+succession to the family estate, he paid a large sum of debts contracted
+by his predecessor, which he was not under any obligation to pay. Let me
+here, for the credit of Ayrshire, my own county, record a noble instance
+of liberal honesty in William Hutchison, drover, in Lanehead, Kyle, who
+formerly obtained a full discharge from his creditors upon a composition
+of his debts; but upon being restored to good circumstances, invited his
+creditors last winter to a dinner, without telling the reason, and paid
+them their full sums, principal and interest. They presented him with a
+piece of plate, with an inscription to commemorate this extraordinary
+instance of true worth; which should make some people in Scotland blush,
+while, though mean themselves, they strut about under the protection of
+great alliance, conscious of the wretchedness of numbers who have lost
+by them, to whom they never think of making reparation, but indulge
+themselves and their families in most unsuitable expence. BOSWELL.
+
+[327] See _ante_, ii. 194; iii. 353; and iv. June 30, 1784.
+
+[328] Malone says that 'Lord Auchinleck told his son one day that it
+would cost him more trouble to hide his ignorance in the Scotch and
+English law than to show his knowledge. This Mr. Boswell owned he had
+found to be true.' _European Magazine_, 1798, p. 376.
+
+[329] See _ante_, iv. 8, note 3, and iv. 20.
+
+[330] Colman had translated _Terence. Ante_, iv. 18.
+
+[331] Dr. Nugent was Burke's father-in-law. _Ante_, i. 477.
+
+[332] Lord Charlemont left behind him a _History of Italian Poetry_.
+Hardy's _Charlemont_, i. 306, ii. 437.
+
+[333] See _ante_, i. 250, and ii. 378, note 1.
+
+[334] Since the first edition, it has been suggested by one of the club,
+who knew Mr. Vesey better than Dr. Johnson and I, that we did not assign
+him a proper place; for he was quite unskilled in Irish antiquities and
+Celtick learning, but might with propriety have been made professor of
+architecture, which he understood well, and has left a very good
+specimen of his knowledge and taste in that art, by an elegant house
+built on a plan of his own formation, at Lucan, a few miles from Dublin.
+BOSWELL. See _ante_, iv. 28.
+
+[335] Sir William Jones, who died at the age of forty-seven, had
+'studied eight languages critically, eight less perfectly, but all
+intelligible with a dictionary, and twelve least perfectly, but all
+attainable.' Teignmouth's _Life of Sir W. Jones_, ed. 1815, p. 465. See
+_ante_, iv. 69.
+
+[336] See _ante_, i. 478.
+
+[337] See _ante_, p. 16.
+
+[338] Mackintosh in his _Life_, ii. 171, says:--'From the refinements of
+abstruse speculation Johnson was withheld, partly perhaps by that
+repugnance to such subtleties which much experience often inspires, and
+partly also by a secret dread that they might disturb those prejudices
+in which his mind had found repose from the agitations of doubt.'
+
+[339] See _ante_, iv. 11, note 1.
+
+[340] Our Club, originally at the Turk's Head, Gerrard-street, then at
+Prince's, Sackville-street, now at Baxter's, Dover-street, which at Mr.
+Garrick's funeral acquired a _name_ for the first time, and was called
+THE LITERARY CLUB, was instituted in 1764, and now consists of
+thirty-five members. It has, since 1773, been greatly augmented; and
+though Dr. Johnson with justice observed, that, by losing Goldsmith,
+Garrick, Nugent, Chamier, Beauclerk, we had lost what would make an
+eminent club, yet when I mentioned, as an accession, Mr. Fox, Dr. George
+Fordyce, Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord Ossory, Mr. Gibbon, Dr. Adam Smith,
+Mr. R.B. Sheridan, the Bishops of Kilaloe and St. Asaph, Dean Marley,
+Mr. Steevens, Mr. Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Scott of the Commons,
+Earl Spencer, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Lord Elliott, Mr. Malone, Dr.
+Joseph Warton, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Lord Lucan, Mr. Burke junior,
+Lord Palmerston, Dr. Burney, Sir William Hamilton, and Dr. Warren, it
+will be acknowledged that we might establish a second university of high
+reputation. BOSWELL. Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Jones wrote in 1780
+(_Life_, p. 241):--'Of our club I will only say that there is no branch
+of human knowledge on which some of our members are not capable of
+giving information.'
+
+[341] Here, unluckily, the windows had no pullies; and Dr. Johnson, who
+was constantly eager for fresh air, had much struggling to get one of
+them kept open. Thus he had a notion impressed upon him, that this
+wretched defect was general in Scotland; in consequence of which he has
+erroneously enlarged upon it in his _Journey_. I regretted that he did
+not allow me to read over his book before it was printed. I should have
+changed very little; but I should have suggested an alteration in a few
+places where he has laid himself open to be attacked. I hope I should
+have prevailed with him to omit or soften his assertion, that 'a
+Scotsman must be a sturdy moralist, who does not prefer Scotland to
+truth,' for I really think it is not founded; and it is harshly said.
+BOSWELL. Johnson, after a half-apology for 'these diminutive
+observations' on Scotch windows and fresh air, continues:--'The true
+state of every nation is the state of common life.' _Works_, ix. 18.
+Boswell a second time (_ante_, ii. 311) returns to Johnson's assertion
+that 'a Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love
+Scotland better than truth; he will always love it better than inquiry.'
+_Works_, ix. 116.
+
+[342] See _ante_, p. 40.
+
+[343] A protest may be entered on the part of most Scotsmen against the
+Doctor's taste in this particular. A Finnon haddock dried over the smoke
+of the sea-weed, and sprinkled with salt water during the process,
+acquires a relish of a very peculiar and delicate flavour, inimitable on
+any other coast than that of Aberdeenshire. Some of our Edinburgh
+philosophers tried to produce their equal in vain. I was one of a party
+at a dinner, where the philosophical haddocks were placed in competition
+with the genuine Finnon-fish. These were served round without
+distinction whence they came; but only one gentleman, out of twelve
+present, espoused the cause of philosophy. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[344] It is the custom in Scotland for the judges of the Court of
+Session to have the title of _lords_, from their estates; thus Mr.
+Burnett is Lord _Monboddo_, as Mr. Home was Lord _Kames_. There is
+something a little awkward in this; for they are denominated in deeds by
+their _names_, with the addition of 'one of the Senators of the College
+of Justice;' and subscribe their Christian and surnames, as _James
+Burnett_, _Henry Home_, even in judicial acts. BOSWELL. See _ante_, p.
+77, note 4.
+
+[345] See _ante_, ii. 344, where Johnson says:--'A judge may be a
+farmer, but he is not to geld his own pigs.'
+
+[346]
+
+     'Not to admire is all the art I know
+      To make men happy and to keep them so.'
+
+Pope, _Imitations of Horace_, Epistles, i. vi. 1.
+
+[347] See _ante_, i. 461.
+
+[348] See _ante_, iv. 152.
+
+[349] See _ante_, iii. 322.
+
+[350] In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1755, p. 42, among the deaths is entered
+'Sir James Lowther, Bart., reckoned the richest commoner in Great
+Britain, and worth above a million.' According to Lord Shelburne, Lord
+Sunderland, who had been advised 'to nominate Lowther one of his
+Treasury on account of his great property,' appointed him to call on
+him. After waiting for some time he rang to ask whether he had come,
+'The servants answered that nobody had called; upon his repeating the
+inquiry they said that there was an old man, somewhat wet, sitting by
+the fireside in the hall, who they supposed had some petition to deliver
+to his lordship. When he went out it proved to be Sir James Lowther.
+Lord Sunderland desired him to be sent about his business, saying that
+no such mean fellow should sit at his Treasury.' Fitzmaurice's
+_Shelburne_, i. 34.
+
+[351] I do not know what was at this time the state of the parliamentary
+interest of the ancient family of Lowther; a family before the Conquest;
+but all the nation knows it to be very extensive at present. A due
+mixture of severity and kindness, oeconomy and munificence,
+characterises its present Representative. BOSWELL. Boswell, most
+unhappily not clearly seeing where his own genius lay, too often sought
+to obtain fame and position by the favour of some great man. For some
+years he courted in a very gross manner 'the present Representative,'
+the first Earl of Lonsdale, who treated him with great brutality.
+_Letters of Boswell_, pp. 271, 294, 324, and _ante_, iv. May 15, 1783.
+In the _Ann. Reg._ 1771, p. 56, it is shewn how by this bad man 'the
+whole county of Cumberland was thrown into a state of the greatest
+terror and confusion; four hundred ejectments were served in one day.'
+Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto._ p. 418) says that 'he was more detested than any
+man alive, as a shameless political sharper, a domestic bashaw, and an
+intolerable tyrant over his tenants and dependants.' Lord Albemarle
+(_Memoirs of Rockingham,_ ii. 70) describes the 'bad Lord Lonsdale. He
+exacted a serf-like submission from his poor and abject dependants. He
+professed a thorough contempt for modern refinements. Grass grew in the
+neglected approaches to his mansion.... Awe and silence pervaded the
+inhabitants [of Penrith] when the gloomy despot traversed their streets.
+He might have been taken for a Judge Jefferies about to open a royal
+commission to try them as state criminals... In some years of his life
+he resisted the payment of all bills.' Among his creditors was
+Wordsworth's father, 'who died leaving the poet and four other helpless
+children. The executors of the will, foreseeing the result of a legal
+contest with _a millionaire,_ withdrew opposition, trusting to Lord
+Lonsdale's sense of justice for payment. They leaned on a broken reed,
+the wealthy debtor "Died and made no sign."' [2 _Henry VI,_ act iii. sc.
+3.] See De Quincey's _Works,_ iii. 151.
+
+[352] 'Let us not,' he says, 'make too much haste to despise our
+neighbours. Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded
+dilapidation. It seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of the
+time to despise monuments of sacred magnificence.' _Works_, ix. 20.
+
+[353] Note by Lord _Hailes_. 'The cathedral of Elgin was burnt by the
+Lord of Badenoch, because the Bishop of Moray had pronounced an award
+not to his liking. The indemnification that the see obtained was, that
+the Lord of Badenoch stood for three days bare-footed at the great gate
+of the cathedral. The story is in the Chartulary of Elgin.' BOSWELL. The
+cathedral was rebuilt in 1407-20, but the lead was stripped from the
+roof by the Regent Murray, and the building went to ruin. Murray's
+_Handbook_, ed. 1867, p. 303. 'There is,' writes Johnson (_Works_, ix.
+20), 'still extant in the books of the council an order ... directing
+that the lead, which covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen,
+shall be taken away, and converted into money for the support of the
+army.... The two churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped to be
+sold in Holland. I hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of
+sacrilege was lost at sea.' On this Horace Walpole remarks (_Letters_,
+vii. 484):--'I confess I have not quite so heinous an idea of sacrilege
+as Dr. Johnson. Of all kinds of robbery, that appears to me the lightest
+species which injures nobody. Dr. Johnson is so pious that in his
+journey to your country he flatters himself that all his readers will
+join him in enjoying the destruction of two Dutch crews, who were
+swallowed up by the ocean after they had robbed a church.'
+
+[354] I am not sure whether the Duke was at home. But, not having the
+honour of being much known to his grace, I could not have presumed to
+enter his castle, though to introduce even so celebrated a stranger. We
+were at any rate in a hurry to get forward to the wildness which we came
+to see. Perhaps, if this noble family had still preserved that
+sequestered magnificence which they maintained when catholicks,
+corresponding with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, we might have been induced
+to have procured proper letters of introduction, and devoted some time
+to the contemplation of venerable superstitious state. BOSWELL. Burnet
+(_History of his own Times_, ii. 443, and iii. 23) mentions the Duke of
+Gordon, a papist, as holding Edinburgh Castle for James II. in 1689.
+
+[355] 'In the way, we saw for the first time some houses with
+fruit-trees about them. The improvements of the Scotch are for immediate
+profit; they do not yet think it quite worth their while to plant what
+will not produce something to be eaten or sold in a very little time.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 121.
+
+[356] 'This was the first time, and except one the last, that I found
+any reason to complain of a Scottish table.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 19.
+
+[357] The following year Johnson told Hannah More that 'when he and
+Boswell stopt a night at the spot (as they imagined) where the Weird
+Sisters appeared to Macbeth, the idea so worked upon their enthusiasm,
+that it quite deprived them of rest. However they learnt the next
+morning, to their mortification, that they had been deceived, and were
+quite in another part of the country' H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 50.
+
+[358] See _ante_, p. 76.
+
+[359] Murphy (_Life_, p. 145) says that 'his manner of reciting verses
+was wonderfully impressive.' According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 302),
+'whoever once heard him repeat an ode of Horace would be long before
+they could endure to hear it repeated by another.'
+
+[360] Then pronounced _Affléck_, though now often pronounced as it is
+written. Ante, ii. 413.
+
+[361] At this stage of his journey Johnson recorded:--'There are more
+beggars than I have ever seen in England; they beg, if not silently, yet
+very modestly.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 122. See ante, p. 75, note 1.
+
+[362] Duncan's monument; a huge column on the roadside near Fores, more
+than twenty feet high, erected in commemoration of the final retreat of
+the Danes from Scotland, and properly called Swene's Stone.
+WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[363] Swift wrote to Pope on May 31, 1737:--'Pray who is that Mr.
+Glover, who writ the epick poem called _Leonidas_, which is reprinting
+here, and has great vogue?' Swift's _Works_ (1803), xx. 121. 'It passed
+through four editions in the first year of its publication (1737-8).'
+Lowndes's _Bibl. Man_. p. 902. Horace Walpole, in 1742, mentions
+_Leonidas_ Glover (_Letters_, i. 117); and in 1785 Hannah More writes
+(_Memoirs_, i. 405):--'I was much amused with hearing old Leonidas
+Glover sing his own fine ballad of _Hosier's Ghost_, which was very
+affecting. He is past eighty [he was seventy-three]. Mr. Walpole coming
+in just afterwards, I told him how highly I had been pleased. He begged
+me to entreat for a repetition of it. It was the satire conveyed in this
+little ballad upon the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole's ministry which is
+thought to have been a remote cause of his resignation. It was a very
+curious circumstance to see his son listening to the recital of it with
+so much complacency.'
+
+[364] See ante, i. 125.
+
+[365] See _ante_, i. 456, and _post_, Sept. 22.
+
+[366] See _ante_, ii. 82, and _post_, Oct. 27.
+
+[367] 'Nairne is the boundary in this direction between the highlands
+and lowlands; and until within a few years both English and Gaelic were
+spoken here. One of James VI.'s witticisms was to boast that in Scotland
+he had a town "sae lang that the folk at the tae end couldna understand
+the tongue spoken at the tother."' Murray's _Handbook for Scotland_, ed.
+1867, p. 308. 'Here,' writes Johnson (_Works_, ix. 21), 'I first saw
+peat fires, and first heard the Erse language.' As he heard the girl
+singing Erse, so Wordsworth thirty years later heard The
+Solitary Reaper:--
+
+'Yon solitary Highland Lass
+Reaping and singing by herself.'
+
+[368]
+
+     'Verse softens toil, however rude the sound;
+     She feels no biting pang the while she sings;
+     Nor, as she turns the giddy wheel around,
+     Revolves the sad vicissitude of things.'
+
+_Contemplation._ London: Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-mall, and sold
+by M. Cooper, at the Globe in Paternoster-Row, 1753.
+
+The author's name is not on the title-page. In the _Brit. Mus. Cata._
+the poem is entered under its title. Mr. Nichols (_Lit. Illus._ v. 183)
+says that the author was the Rev. Richard Gifford [not Giffard] of
+Balliol College, Oxford. He adds that 'Mr. Gifford mentioned to him with
+much satisfaction the fact that Johnson quoted the poem in his
+_Dictionary_.' It was there very likely that Boswell had seen the lines.
+They are quoted under _wheel_ (with changes made perhaps intentionally
+by Johnson), as follows:
+
+     'Verse sweetens care however rude the sound;
+      All at her work the village maiden sings;
+      Nor, as she turns the giddy wheel around,
+      Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.'
+
+_Contemplation_, which was published two years after Gray's _Elegy_, was
+suggested by it. The rising, not the parting day, is described. The
+following verse precedes the one quoted by Johnson:--
+
+     'Ev'n from the straw-roofed cot the note of joy
+      Flows full and frequent, as the village-fair,
+      Whose little wants the busy hour employ,
+      Chanting some rural ditty soothes her care.'
+
+Bacon, in his _Essay Of Vicissitude of Things_ (No. 58), says:--'It is
+not good to look too long upon these turning _wheels of vicissitude_
+lest we become _giddy_' This may have suggested Gifford's last two
+lines. _Reflections on a Grave, &c._ (_ante_, ii. 26), published in
+1766, and perhaps written in part by Johnson, has a line borrowed from
+this poem:--
+
+     'These all the hapless state of mortals show
+      The sad vicissitude of things below.'
+
+Cowper, _Table-Talk_, ed. 1786, i. 165, writes of
+
+     'The sweet vicissitudes of day and night.'
+
+The following elegant version of these lines by Mr. A. T. Barton, Fellow
+and Tutor of Johnson's own College, will please the classical reader:--
+
+     Musa levat duros, quamvis rudis ore, labores;
+     Inter opus cantat rustica Pyrrha suum;
+     Nec meminit, secura rotam dum versat euntem,
+     Non aliter nostris sortibus ire vices.
+
+
+[369] He was the brother of the Rev. John M'Aulay (_post_, Oct. 25), the
+grandfather of Lord Macaulay.
+
+[370] See _ante_, ii. 51.
+
+[371] In Scotland, there is a great deal of preparation before
+administering the sacrament. The minister of the parish examines the
+people as to their fitness, and to those of whom he approves gives
+little pieces of tin, stamped with the name of the parish as _tokens_,
+which they must produce before receiving it. This is a species of
+priestly power, and sometimes may be abused. I remember a lawsuit
+brought by a person against his parish minister, for refusing him
+admission to that sacred ordinance. BOSWELL.
+
+[372] See _ post_, Sept. 13 and 28.
+
+[373] Mr. Trevelyan (_Life of Macaulay_, ed.1877, i. 6) says: 'Johnson
+pronounced that Mr. Macaulay was not competent to have written the book
+that went by his name; a decision which, to those who happen to have
+read the work, will give a very poor notion my ancestor's abilities.'
+
+[374]
+
+     'The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman.'
+
+_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 3.
+
+[375] According to Murray's _Handbook,_ ed. 1867, p. 308, no part of the
+castle is older than the fifteenth century.
+
+[376] See _post_, Nov. 5.
+
+[377] The historian. _Ante_, p. 41.
+
+[378] See _ante_, iii. 336, and _post_, Nov. 7.
+
+[379] See _post_, Oct. 27.
+
+[380] Baretti was the Italian. Boswell disliked him (_ante_, ii. 98
+note), and perhaps therefore described him merely as 'a man of _some_
+literature.' Baretti complained to Malone that 'the story as told gave
+an unfair representation of him.' He had, he said, 'observed to Johnson
+that the petition _lead us not into temptation_ ought rather to be
+addressed to the tempter of mankind than a benevolent Creator. "Pray,
+Sir," said Johnson, "do you know who was the author of the Lord's
+Prayer?" Baretti, who did not wish to get into any serious dispute and
+who appears to be an Infidel, by way of putting an end to the
+conversation, only replied:--"Oh, Sir, you know by _our_ religion (Roman
+Catholic) we are not permitted to read the Scriptures. You can't
+therefore expect an answer."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 399. Sir Joshua
+Reynolds, on hearing this from Malone, said:--'This turn which Baretti
+now gives to the matter was an after-thought; for he once said to me
+myself:--"There are various opinions about the writer of that prayer;
+some give it to St. Augustine, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. What is your
+opinion? "' _Ib_. p. 394. Mrs. Piozzi says that she heard 'Baretti tell
+a clergyman the story of Dives and Lazarus as the subject of a poem he
+once had composed in the Milanese district, expecting great credit for
+his powers of invention.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 348.
+
+[381] Goldsmith (_Present Slate of Polite Learning_, chap. 13) thus
+wrote of servitorships: 'Surely pride itself has dictated to the fellows
+of our colleges the absurd passion of being attended at meals, and on
+other public occasions, by those poor men who, willing to be scholars,
+come in upon some charitable foundation. It implies a contradiction for
+men to be at once learning the _liberal_ arts, and at the same time
+treated as _slaves_; at once studying freedom and practising servitude.'
+Yet a young man like Whitefield was willing enough to be a servitor. He
+had been a waiter in his mother's inn; he was now a waiter in a college,
+but a student also. See my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his
+Critics_, p. 27.
+
+[382] Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his
+interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford,
+where he was educated for some time, he obtained a servitorship for
+young M'Aulay. But it seems he had other views; and I believe went
+abroad. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 380.
+
+[383] 'I once drank tea,' writes Lamb, 'in company with two Methodist
+divines of different persuasions. Before the first cup was handed round,
+one of these reverend gentlemen put it to the other, with all due
+solemnity, whether he chose to _say anything_. It seems it is the custom
+with some sectaries to put up a short prayer before this meal also. His
+reverend brother did not at first quite apprehend him, but upon an
+explanation, with little less importance he made answer that it was not
+a custom known in his church.' _Essay on Grace before Meat_.
+
+[384] He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance
+whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as
+proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we
+have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in
+Scotland. BOSWELL. 'If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of
+sensual gratification, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in
+Scotland.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.
+
+[385] Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of that
+region a king named _Brus_, which he chooses to consider the genuine
+orthography of the name. This circumstance occasioned some mirth at the
+court of Gondar. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[386] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2, and _post_, Sept. 2. Johnson, so far
+as I have observed, spelt the name _Boswel_.
+
+[387] Sir Eyre Coote was born in 1726. He took part in the battle of
+Plassey in 1757, and commanded at the reduction of Pondicherry in 1761.
+In 1770-71 he went by land to Europe. In 1780 he took command of the
+English army against Hyder Ali, whom he repeatedly defeated. He died in
+1783. Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. x. 236. There is a fine description of
+him in Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, iii. 385.
+
+[388] See _ante_, iii. 361.
+
+[389] Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'He sometimes, it must be confessed,
+covered his ignorance by generals rather than appear ignorant' Taylor's
+_Reynolds_, ii. 457.
+
+[390] 'The barracks are very handsome, and form several regular and good
+streets.' Pennant's _Tour_, p. 144.
+
+[391] See _ante_, p. 45.
+
+[392] Here Dr. Johnson gave us part of a conversation held between a
+Great Personage and him, in the library at the Queen's Palace, in the
+course of which this contest was considered. I have been at great pains
+to get that conversation as perfectly preserved as possible. It may
+perhaps at some future time be given to the publick. BOSWELL. For 'a
+Great Personage' see _ante_, i. 219; and for the conversation, ii. 33.
+
+[393] See _ante_, ii. 73, 228, 248; iii. 4 and June 15, 1784.
+
+[394] See _ante_, i. 167, note 1.
+
+[395] Booth acted _Cato_, and Wilks Juba when Addison's _Cato_ was
+brought out. Pope told Spence that 'Lord Bolingbroke's carrying his
+friends to the house, and presenting Booth with a purse of guineas for
+so well representing the character of a person "who rather chose to die
+than see a general for life," carried the success of the play much
+beyond what they ever expected.' Spence's _Anec_. p. 46. Bolingbroke
+alluded to the Duke of Marlborough. Pope in his _Imitations of Horace_,
+2 Epist. i. 123 introduces 'well-mouth'd Booth.'
+
+[396] See _ante_, iii. 35, and under Sept. 30, 1783.
+
+[397] 'Garrick used to tell, that Johnson said of an actor who played
+Sir Harry Wildair at Lichfield, "There is a courtly vivacity about the
+fellow;" when, in fact, according to Garrick's account, "he was the most
+vulgar ruffian that ever went upon _boards_."' _Ante_, ii. 465.
+
+[398] Mrs. Cibber was the sister of Dr. Arne the musical composer, and
+the wife of Theophilus Cibber, Colley Cibber's son. She died in 1766,
+and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Baker's _Biog.
+Dram._ i. 123.
+
+[399] See _ante_, under Sept. 30, 1783.
+
+[400] See _ante_, i. 197, and ii. 348.
+
+[401] Johnson had set him to repeat the ninth commandment, and had with
+great glee put him right in the emphasis. _Ante_, i. 168.
+
+[402] Act iii. sc. 2.
+
+[403] Boswell's suggestion is explained by the following passage in
+Johnson's _Works_, viii. 463:--'Mallet was by his original one of the
+Macgregors, a clan that became about sixty years ago, under the conduct
+of Robin Roy, so formidable and so infamous for violence and robbery,
+that the name was annulled by a legal abolition.'
+
+[404] See _ante_, iii. 410, where he said to an Irish gentleman:--'Do
+not make an union with us, Sir. We should unite with you, only to rob
+you. We should have robbed the Scotch, if they had had anything of which
+we could have robbed them.'
+
+[405] It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson read this gentle remonstrance,
+and took no notice of it to me. BOSWELL. See _post_, Oct. 12, note.
+
+[406] _St. Matthew_, v. 44.
+
+[407] It is odd that Boswell did not suspect the parson, who, no doubt,
+had learnt the evening before from Mr. Keith that the two travellers
+would be present at his sermon. Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 283)
+says that one day at Sir Joshua's dinner-table, when his host praised
+Malone very highly for his laborious edition of _Shakespeare_, he
+(Northcote) 'rather hastily replied, "What a very despicable creature
+must that man be who thus devotes himself, and makes another man his
+god;" when Boswell, who sat at my elbow, and was not in my thoughts at
+the time, cried out "Oh! Sir Joshua, then that is me!"'
+
+[408] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 23) more cautiously says:--'Here is a
+castle, called the castle of Macbeth.'
+
+[409] 'This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst they are
+approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a
+striking instance of what in painting is termed _repose_. Their
+conversation very naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and
+the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlet's nests
+in every recess of the cornice, remarks that where those birds most
+breed and haunt the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy
+conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the
+tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the
+scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakespeare
+asked himself, what is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such
+an occasion? whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be
+always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in
+the situation which is represented. This also is frequently the practice
+of Homer, who from the midst of battles and horrors relieves and
+refreshes the mind of the reader by introducing some quiet rural image,
+or picture of familiar domestick life.' Johnson's _Shakespeare_.
+Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 144-151) quotes other notes
+by Reynolds.
+
+[410] In the original _senses_. Act i, sc. 6.
+
+[411] Act i. sc. 5.
+
+[412] Boswell forgets _scoundrelism_, _ante_, p. 106, which, I suppose,
+Johnson coined.
+
+[413] See _ante_, ii. 154, note 3. Peter Paragraph is one of the
+characters in Foote's Comedy of _The Orators_.
+
+[414] When upon the subject of this _peregrinity_, he told me some
+particulars concerning the compilation of his _Dictionary_, and
+concerning his throwing off Lord Chesterfield's patronage, of which very
+erroneous accounts have been circulated. These particulars, with others
+which he afterwards gave me,--as also his celebrated letter to Lord
+Chesterfield, which he dictated to me,--I reserve for his _Life._
+BOSWELL. See _ante,_ i. 221, 261.
+
+[415] See _ante,_ ii. 326, 371, and v. 18.
+
+[416] It is the third edition, published in 1778, that first bears this
+title. The first edition was published in 1761, and the second in 1762.
+
+[417] 'One of them was a man of great liveliness and activity, of whom
+his companion said that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of
+them were civil and ready-handed Civility seems part of the national
+character of Highlanders.' _Works,_ ix. 25.
+
+[418] 'The way was very pleasant; the rock out of which the road was cut
+was covered with birch trees, fern, and heath. The lake below was
+beating its bank by a gentle wind.... In one part of the way we had
+trees on both sides for perhaps half a mile. Such a length of shade,
+perhaps, Scotland cannot shew in any other place.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.
+123. The travellers must have passed close by the cottage where James
+Mackintosh was living, a child of seven.
+
+[419] Boswell refers, I think, to a passage in act iv. sc. I of
+Farquhar's Comedy, where Archer says to Mrs. Sullen:--'I can't at this
+distance, Madam, distinguish the figures of the embroidery.' This
+passage is copied by Goldsmith in _She Stoops to Conquer_, act iii.,
+where Marlow says to Miss Hardcastle: 'Odso! then you must shew me your
+embroidery.'
+
+[420] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 28) gives a long account of this woman.
+'Meal she considered as expensive food, and told us that in spring, when
+the goats gave milk, the children could live without it.'
+
+[421] It is very odd, that when these roads were made, there was no care
+taken for _Inns_. The _King's House_, and the _General's Hut_, are
+miserable places; but the project and plans were purely military. WALTER
+SCOTT. Johnson found good entertainment here, 'We had eggs and bacon and
+mutton, with wine, rum, and whisky. I had water.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 124.
+
+[422] 'Mr. Boswell, who between his father's merit and his own is sure
+of reception wherever he comes, sent a servant before,' &c. Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 30.
+
+[423] On April 6, 1777, Johnson noted down: 'I passed the night in such
+sweet uninterrupted sleep as I have not known since I slept at Fort
+Augustus.' _Pr. and Med._ p.159. On Nov. 21, 1778, he wrote to Boswell:
+'The best night that I have had these twenty years was at Fort
+Augustus.' _Ante_, iii. 369.
+
+[424] See _ante_, iii. 246.
+
+[425] A McQueen is a Highland mode of expression. An Englishman would
+say _one_ McQueen. But where there are _clans_ or _tribes_ of men,
+distinguished by _patronymick_ surnames, the individuals of each are
+considered as if they were of different species, at least as much as
+nations are distinguished; so that a _McQueen_, a _McDonald_, a
+_McLean_, is said, as we say a Frenchman, an Italian, a Spaniard.
+BOSWELL.
+
+[426] 'I praised the propriety of his language, and was answered that I
+need not wonder, for he had learnt it by grammar. By subsequent
+opportunities of observation I found that my host's diction had nothing
+peculiar. Those Highlanders that can speak English commonly speak it
+well, with few of the words and little of the tone by which a Scotchman
+is distinguished ... By their Lowland neighbours they would not
+willingly be taught; for they have long considered them as a mean and
+degenerate race.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 31. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:
+'This man's conversation we were glad of while we staid. He had been
+out, as they call it, in forty-five, and still retained his old
+opinions.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 130.
+
+[427] By the Chevalier Ramsay.
+
+[428] 'From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction which is
+now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere; and when I asked
+him whether they would stay at home if they were well treated, he
+answered with indignation that no man willingly left his native country.
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 33. See _ante_, p. 27.
+
+[429] 'The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.' _Ib._
+v. 49.
+
+[430] Four years later, three years after Goldsmith's death, Johnson
+'observed in Lord Scarsdale's dressing-room Goldsmith's _Animated
+Nature_; and said, "Here's our friend. The poor doctor would have been
+happy to hear of this."' _Ante_, iii.162.
+
+[431] See _ante_, i. 348 and ii. 438 and _post_, Sept. 23. Mackintosh
+says: 'Johnson's idea that a ship was a prison with the danger of
+drowning is taken from Endymion Porter's _Consolation to Howell_ on his
+imprisonment in the _Fleet_, and was originally suggested by the pun.'
+_Life of Mackintosh_, ii. 83. The passage to which he refers is found in
+Howell's letter of Jan. 2, 1646 (book ii. letter 39), in which he writes
+to Porter:--'You go on to prefer my captivity in this _Fleet_ to that of
+a voyager at sea, in regard that he is subject to storms and springing
+of leaks, to pirates and picaroons, with other casualties.'
+
+[432] See _ante_, iii. 242.
+
+[433] This book has given rise to much enquiry, which has ended in
+ludicrous surprise. Several ladies, wishing to learn the kind of reading
+which the great and good Dr. Johnson esteemed most fit for a young
+woman, desired to know what book he had selected for this Highland
+nymph. 'They never adverted (said he) that I had no _choice_ in the
+matter. I have said that I presented her with a book which I _happened_
+to have about me.' And what was this book? My readers, prepare your
+features for merriment. It was _Cocker's Arithmetick_!--Wherever this
+was mentioned, there was a loud laugh, at which Johnson, when present,
+used sometimes to be a little angry. One day, when we were dining at
+General Oglethorpe's, where we had many a valuable day, I ventured to
+interrogate him. 'But, Sir, is it not somewhat singular that you should
+_happen_ to have _Cocker's Arithmetick_ about you on your journey? What
+made you buy such a book at Inverness?' He gave me a very sufficient
+answer. 'Why, Sir, if you are to have but one book with you upon a
+journey, let it be a book of science. When you have read through a book
+of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book
+of science is inexhaustible.' BOSWELL.
+
+Johnson thus mentions his gift: 'I presented her with a book which I
+happened to have about me, and should not be pleased to think that she
+forgets me.' _Works_, ix. 32. The first edition of _Cocker's Arithmetic_
+was published about 1660. _Brit. Mus. Cata._ Though Johnson says that 'a
+book of science is inexhaustible,' yet in _The Rambler_, No. 154, he
+asserts that 'the principles of arithmetick and geometry may be
+comprehended by a close attention in a few days.' Mrs. Piozzi says
+(_Anec_. p. 77) that 'when Mr. Johnson felt his fancy disordered, his
+constant recurrence was to arithmetic; and one day that he was confined
+to his chamber, and I enquired what he had been doing to divert himself,
+he shewed me a calculation which I could scarce be made to understand,
+so vast was the plan of it; no other indeed than that the national debt,
+computing it at £180,000,000, would, if converted into silver, serve to
+make a meridian of that metal, I forget how broad, for the globe of the
+whole earth.' See _ante_, iii. 207, and iv. 171, note 3.
+
+[434] Swift's _Works_ (1803), xxiv. 63.
+
+[435] 'We told the soldiers how kindly we had been treated at the
+garrison, and, as we were enjoying the benefit of their labours, begged
+leave to shew our gratitude by a small present.... They had the true
+military impatience of coin in their pockets, and had marched at least
+six miles to find the first place where liquor could be bought. Having
+never been before in a place so wild and unfrequented I was glad of
+their arrival, because I knew that we had made them friends; and to gain
+still more of their goodwill we went to them, where they were carousing
+in the barn, and added something to our former gift.' _Works_, ix. 31-2.
+
+[436]
+
+     'Why rather sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
+      Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee.' &c.
+
+          2 _Henry IV._ act iii. sc. 1.
+
+
+
+[437] Spain, in 1719, sent a strong force under the Duke of Ormond to
+Scotland in behalf of the Chevalier. Owing to storms only a few hundred
+men landed. These were joined by a large body of Highlanders, but being
+attacked by General Wightman, the clansmen dispersed and the Spaniards
+surrendered. Smollett's _England_, ed. 1800, ii. 382.
+
+[438] Boswell mentions this _ante_, i. 41, as a proof of Johnson's
+'perceptive quickness.'
+
+[439] Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_, thus beautifully describes his
+situation here:--'I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of romance
+might have delighted to feign. I had, indeed, no trees to whisper over
+my head; but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the
+air soft, and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on
+either side, were high hills, which, by hindering the eye from ranging,
+forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the
+hour well, I know not; for here I first conceived the thought of this
+narration.' The _Critical Reviewers_, with a spirit and expression
+worthy of the subject, say,--'We congratulate the publick on the event
+with which this quotation concludes, and are fully persuaded that the
+hour in which the entertaining traveller conceived this narrative will
+be considered, by every reader of taste, as a fortunate event in the
+annals of literature. Were it suitable to the task in which we are at
+present engaged, to indulge ourselves in a poetical flight, we would
+invoke the winds of the Caledonian Mountains to blow for ever, with
+their softest breezes, on the bank where our author reclined, and
+request of Flora, that it might be perpetually adorned with the gayest
+and most fragrant productions of the year.' BOSWELL. Johnson thus
+described the scene to Mrs. Thrale:--'I sat down to take notes on a
+green bank, with a small stream running at my feet, in the midst of
+savage solitude, with mountains before me and on either hand covered
+with heath. I looked around me, and wondered that I was not more
+affected, but the mind is not at all times equally ready to be put in
+motion.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 131.
+
+[440] 'The villagers gathered about us in considerable numbers, I
+believe without any evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of
+aspect and manner.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 38.
+
+[441] The M'Craas, or Macraes, were since that time brought into the
+king's army, by the late Lord Seaforth. When they lay in Edinburgh
+Castle in 1778, and were ordered to embark for Jersey, they with a
+number of other men in the regiment, for different reasons, but
+especially an apprehension that they were to be sold to the East-India
+Company, though enlisted not to be sent out of Great-Britain without
+their own consent, made a determined mutiny, and encamped upon the lofty
+mountain, _Arthur's seat_, where they remained three days and three
+nights; bidding defiance to all the force in Scotland. At last they came
+down, and embarked peaceably, having obtained formal articles of
+capitulation, signed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, commander in chief,
+General Skene, deputy commander, the Duke of Buccleugh, and the Earl of
+Dunmore, which quieted them. Since the secession of the Commons of Rome
+to the _Mons Sacer_, a more spirited exertion has not been made. I gave
+great attention to it from first to last, and have drawn up a particular
+account of it. Those brave fellows have since served their country
+effectually at Jersey, and also in the East-Indies, to which, after
+being better informed, they voluntarily agreed to go. BOSWELL. The line
+which Boswell quotes is from _The Chevalier's Muster Roll_:--
+
+     'The laird of M'Intosh is coming,
+      M'Crabie & M'Donald's coming,
+      M'Kenzie & M'Pherson's coming,
+      And the wild M'Craw's coming.
+      Little wat ye wha's coming,
+      Donald Gun and a's coming.'
+         Hogg's _Jacobite Relics_, i. 152.
+
+Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 198) writing on May 9, 1779, tells how
+on May 1 'the French had attempted to land [on Jersey], but Lord
+Seaforth's new-raised regiment of 700 Highlanders, assisted by some
+militia and some artillery, made a brave stand and repelled the
+intruders.'
+
+[442] 'One of the men advised her, with the cunning that clowns never
+can be without, to ask more; but she said that a shilling was enough. We
+gave her half a crown, and she offered part of it again.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 133.
+
+[443] Of this part of the journey Johnson wrote:--'We had very little
+entertainment as we travelled either for the eye or ear. There are, I
+fancy, no singing birds in the Highlands.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 135. It
+is odd that he should have looked for singing birds on the first of
+September.
+
+[444] Act iii. sc. 4.
+
+[445] It is amusing to observe the different images which this being
+presented to Dr. Johnson and me. The Doctor, in his _Journey_, compares
+him to a Cyclops. BOSWELL. 'Out of one of the beds on which we were to
+repose, started up at our entrance, a man black as a Cyclops from the
+forge.' _Works_, ix. 44. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'When we were
+taken up stairs, a dirty fellow bounced out of the bed where one of us
+was to lie. Boswell blustered, but nothing could be got'. _Piozzi
+Letters_, i, 136. Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 404) says: 'It is
+clear that Johnson himself did not think in the dialect in which he
+wrote. The expressions which came first to his tongue were simple,
+energetic, and picturesque. When he wrote for publication, he did his
+sentences out of English into Johnsonese. His letters from the Hebrides
+to Mrs. Thrale are the original of that work of which the _Journey to
+the Hebrides_ is the translation; and it is amusing to compare the two
+versions.' Macaulay thereupon quotes these two passages. See _ante_,
+under Aug. 29, 1783.
+
+[446] 'We had a lemon and a piece of bread, which supplied me with my
+supper.'_Piozzi Letters_, i, 136. Goldsmith, who in his student days had
+been in Scotland, thus writes of a Scotch inn:--'Vile entertainment is
+served up, complained of, and sent down; up comes worse, and that also
+is changed, and every change makes our wretched cheer more unsavoury.'
+_Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 12.
+
+[447] General Wolfe, in his letter from Head-quarters on Sept. 2, 1759,
+eleven days before his death wrote:--'In this situation there is such a
+choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine.'
+_Ann. Reg._ 1759, p. 246.
+
+[448] See _ante_, p. 89.
+
+[449] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2.
+
+[450] Boswell, in a note that he added to the second edition (see
+_post_, end of the _Journal_), says that he has omitted 'a few
+observations the publication of which might perhaps be considered as
+passing the bounds of a strict decorum,' In the first edition (p. 165)
+the next three paragraphs were as follows:--'Instead of finding the head
+of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan, and a festive entertainment,
+we had a small company, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars
+are minuted in my Journal, but I shall not trouble the publick with
+them. I shall mention but one characteristick circumstance. My shrewd
+and hearty friend Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's
+uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this chief, upon being asked by
+him if the punch-bowl then upon the table was not a very handsome one,
+replied, "Yes--if it were full." 'Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an
+Eton scholar, Dr. Johnson had formed an opinion of him which was much
+diminished when he beheld him in the isle of Sky, where we heard heavy
+complaints of rents racked, and the people driven to emigration. Dr.
+Johnson said, "It grieves me to see the chief of a great clan appear to
+such disadvantage. This gentleman has talents, nay some learning; but he
+is totally unfit for this situation. Sir, the Highland chiefs should not
+be allowed to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like
+his brother Sir James, may be improved by an English education; but in
+general they will be tamed into insignificance." 'I meditated an escape
+from this house the very next day; but Dr. Johnson resolved that we
+should weather it out till Monday.' Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We
+saw the isle of Skie before us, darkening the horizon with its rocky
+coast. A boat was procured, and we launched into one of the straits of
+the Atlantick Ocean. We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point
+where ---- ---- resided, having come from his seat in the middle of the
+island to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that he might with
+less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to meanness, his
+retrograde ambition was completely gratified... Boswell was very angry,
+and reproached him with his improper parsimony.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.
+137. A little later he wrote:--'I have done thinking of ---- whom we now
+call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony,
+and given occasion to so many stories, that ---- has some thoughts of
+collecting them, and making a novel of his life.' _Ib_. p. 198. The last
+of Rowlandson's _Caricatures_ of Boswell's _Journal_ is entitled
+_Revising for the Second Edition_. Macdonald is represented as seizing
+Boswell by the throat and pointing with his stick to the _Journal_ that
+lies open at pages 168, 169. On the ground lie pages 165, 167, torn out.
+Boswell, in an agony of fear, is begging for mercy.
+
+[451]
+
+     'Here, in Badenoch, here in Lochaber anon, in Lochiel, in
+      Knoydart, Moydart, Morrer, Ardgower, and Ardnamurchan,
+      Here I see him and here: I see him; anon I lose him.'
+
+Clough's _Bothie_, p. 125
+
+[452] See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in this APPENDIX.
+BOSWELL.
+
+[453] See _ante_, ii. 157.
+
+[454] See _ante_, i. 449.
+
+[455] See _ante_, ii. 99.
+
+[456] See _ante_, iii 198, note 1.
+
+[457] 'Such is the laxity of Highland conversation, that the inquirer is
+kept in continual suspense, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation
+knows less as he hears more.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 47. 'They are not
+much accustomed to be interrogated by others, and seem never to have
+thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what
+they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be
+false. Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of
+his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was
+commonly such as nullified the answer to the first.' _Ib._, p. 114.
+
+[458] Mr. Carruthers, in his edition of Boswell's _Hebrides_, says (p.
+xiv):--'The new management and high rents took the tacksmen, or larger
+tenants, by surprise. They were indignant at the treatment they
+received, and selling off their stock they emigrated to America. In the
+twenty years from 1772 to 1792, sixteen vessels with emigrants sailed
+from the western shores of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, containing
+about 6400 persons, who carried with them in specie at least £38,400. A
+desperate effort was made by the tacksmen on the estate of Lord
+Macdonald. They bound themselves by a solemn oath not to offer for any
+farm that might become vacant. The combination failed of its object, but
+it appeared so formidable in the eyes of the "English-bred chieftain,"
+that he retreated precipitately from Skye and never afterwards
+returned.'
+
+[459] Dr. Johnson seems to have forgotten that a Highlander going armed
+at this period incurred the penalty of serving as a common soldier for
+the first, and of transportation beyond sea for a second offence. And as
+for 'calling out his clan,' twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe made a
+rebellion. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[460] Mackintosh (_Life_ ii. 62) says that in Mme. du Deffand's
+_Correspondence_ there is 'an extraordinary confirmation of the talents
+and accomplishments of our Highland Phoenix, Sir James Macdonald. A
+Highland chieftain, admired by Voltaire, could have been no
+ordinary man.'
+
+[461] This extraordinary young man, whom I had the pleasure of knowing
+intimately, having been deeply regretted by his country, the most minute
+particulars concerning him must be interesting to many. I shall
+therefore insert his two last letters to his mother, Lady Margaret
+Macdonald, which her ladyship has been pleased to communicate to me.
+'Rome, July 9th, 1766. 'My DEAR MOTHER, 'Yesterday's post brought me
+your answer to the first letter in which I acquainted you of my illness.
+Your tenderness and concern upon that account are the same I have always
+experienced, and to which I have often owed my life. Indeed it never was
+in so great danger as it has been lately; and though it would have been
+a very great comfort to me to have had you near me, yet perhaps I ought
+to rejoice, on your account, that you had not the pain of such a
+spectacle. I have been now a week in Rome, and wish I could continue to
+give you the same good accounts of my recovery as I did in my last; but
+I must own that, for three days past, I have been in a very weak and
+miserable state, which however seems to give no uneasiness to my
+physician. My stomach has been greatly out of order, without any visible
+cause; and the palpitation does not decrease. I am told that my stomach
+will soon recover its tone, and that the palpitation must cease in time.
+So I am willing to believe; and with this hope support the little
+remains of spirits which I can be supposed to have, on the forty-seventh
+day of such an illness. Do not imagine I have relapsed;--I only recover
+slower than I expected. If my letter is shorter than usual, the cause of
+it is a dose of physick, which has weakened me so much to-day, that I am
+not able to write a long letter. I will make up for it next post, and
+remain always 'Your most sincerely affectionate son, 'J. MACDONALD.' He
+grew gradually worse; and on the night before his death he wrote as
+follows from Frescati:--'MY DEAR MOTHER, 'Though I did not mean to
+deceive you in my last letter from Rome, yet certainly you would have
+very little reason to conclude of the very great and constant danger I
+have gone through ever since that time. My life, which is still almost
+entirely desperate, did not at that time appear to me so, otherwise I
+should have represented, in its true colours, a fact which acquires very
+little horror by that means, and comes with redoubled force by
+deception. There is no circumstance of danger and pain of which I have
+not had the experience, for a continued series of above a fortnight;
+during which time I have settled my affairs, after my death, with as
+much distinctness as the hurry and the nature of the thing could admit
+of. In case of the worst, the Abbé Grant will be my executor in this
+part of the world, and Mr. Mackenzie in Scotland, where my object has
+been to make you and my younger brother as independent of the eldest as
+possible.' BOSWELL. Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 291), in 1779, thus
+mentions this 'younger brother':--'Macdonald abused Lord North in very
+gross, yet too applicable, terms; and next day pleaded he had been
+drunk, recanted, and was all admiration and esteem for his Lordship's
+talents and virtues.'
+
+[462] See _ante_, iii. 85, and _post_, Oct. 28.
+
+[463] Cheyne's English Malady, ed. 1733, p. 229.
+
+[464] 'Weary, stale, flat and unprofitable.' _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2. See
+_ante_, iii. 350, where Boswell is reproached by Johnson with 'bringing
+in gabble,' when he makes this quotation.
+
+[465] VARIOUS READINGS. Line 2. In the manuscript, Dr. Johnson, instead
+of _rupibus obsita_, had written _imbribus uvida_, and _uvida nubibus_,
+but struck them both out. Lines 15 and 16. Instead of these two lines,
+he had written, but afterwards struck out, the following:--
+
+     Parare posse, utcunque jactet
+     Grandiloquus nimis alta Zeno.
+
+BOSWELL. In Johnson's _Works_, i. 167, these lines are given with some
+variations, which perhaps are in part due to Mr. Langton, who, we are
+told (_ante_, Dec. 1784), edited some, if not indeed all, of Johnson's
+Latin poems.
+
+[466] Cowper wrote to S. Rose on May 20, 1789:--'Browne was an
+entertaining companion when he had drunk his bottle, but not before;
+this proved a snare to him, and he would sometimes drink too much.'
+Southey's _Cowper_, vi. 237. His _De Animi Immortalitate_ was published
+in 1754. He died in 1760, aged fifty-four. See _ante_, ii. 339.
+
+[467] Boswell, in one of his _Hypochondriacks_ (_ante_, iv. 179)
+says:--'I do fairly acknowledge that I love Drinking; that I have a
+constitutional inclination to indulge in fermented liquors, and that if
+it were not for the restraints of reason and religion, I am afraid I
+should be as constant a votary of Bacchus as any man.... Drinking is in
+reality an occupation which employs a considerable portion of the time
+of many people; and to conduct it in the most rational and agreeable
+manner is one of the great arts of living. Were we so framed that it
+were possible by perpetual supplies of wine to keep ourselves for ever
+gay and happy, there could be no doubt that drinking would be the
+_summum bonum_, the chief good, to find out which philosophers have been
+so variously busied. But we know from humiliating experience that men
+cannot be kept long in a state of elevated drunkenness.'
+
+[468] That my readers may have my narrative in the style of the country
+through which I am travelling, it is proper to inform them, that the
+chief of a clan is denominated by his _surname_ alone, as M'Leod,
+M'Kinnon, M'lntosh. To prefix _Mr._ to it would be a degradation from
+_the_ M'Leod, &c. My old friend, the Laird of M'Farlane, the great
+antiquary, took it highly amiss, when General Wade called him Mr.
+M'Farlane. Dr. Johnson said, he could not bring himself to use this mode
+of address; it seemed to him to be too familiar, as it is the way in
+which, in all other places, intimates or inferiors are addressed. When
+the chiefs have _titles_ they are denominated by them, as _Sir James
+Grant_, _Sir Allan M'Lean_. The other Highland gentlemen, of landed
+property, are denominated by their _estates_, as _Rasay_, _Boisdale_;
+and the wives of all of them have the title of _ladies_. The _tacksmen_,
+or principal tenants, are named by their farms, as _Kingsburgh_,
+_Corrichatachin_; and their wives are called the _mistress_ of
+Kingsburgh, the _mistress_ of Corrichatachin.--Having given this
+explanation, I am at liberty to use that mode of speech which generally
+prevails in the Highlands and the Hebrides. BOSWELL.
+
+[469] See _ante_, iii. 275.
+
+[470] Boswell implies that Sir A. Macdonald's table had not been
+furnished plentifully. Johnson wrote:--'At night we came to a tenant's
+house of the first rank of tenants, where we were entertained better
+than at the landlord's.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 141.
+
+[471] 'Little did I once think,' he wrote to her the same day, 'of
+seeing this region of obscurity, and little did you once expect a
+salutation from this verge of European life. I have now the pleasure of
+going where nobody goes, and seeing what nobody sees.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 120. About fourteen years since, I landed in Sky, with a party of
+friends, and had the curiosity to ask what was the first idea on every
+one's mind at landing. All answered separately that it was this Ode.
+WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[472] See Appendix B.
+
+[473] 'I never was in any house of the islands, where I did not find
+books in more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them,
+except one from which the family was removed.' Johnson's _Works_, ix.
+50. He is speaking of 'the higher rank of the Hebridians,' for on p. 61
+he says:--'The greater part of the islanders make no use of books.'
+
+[474] There was a Mrs. Brooks, an actress, the daughter of a Scotchman
+named Watson, who had forfeited his property by 'going out in the '45.'
+But according to _The Thespian Dictionary_ her first appearance on the
+stage was in 1786.
+
+[475] Boswell mentions, _post_, Oct. 5, 'the famous Captain of
+Clanranald, who fell at Sherrif-muir.'
+
+[476] See _ante_, p. 95.
+
+[477] By John Macpherson, D.D. See _post_, Sept. 13.
+
+[478] Sir Walter Scott, when in Sky in 1814, wrote:--'We learn that most
+of the Highland superstitions, even that of the second sight, are still
+in force.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 305. See _.ante_, ii.
+10, 318.
+
+[479] Of him Johnson wrote:--'One of the ministers honestly told me that
+he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.' _Works_, ix. 106.
+
+[480] 'By the term _second sight_ seems to be meant a mode of seeing
+superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Erse it is
+called _Taisch_; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision.'
+_Johnson's Works_, ix. 105.
+
+[481] Gray's _Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College_, 1. 44.
+
+[482] A tonnage bounty of thirty shillings a ton was at this time given
+to the owners of busses or decked vessels for the encouragement of the
+white herring fishery. Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, iv. 5) shews how
+mischievous was its effect.
+
+[483] The Highland expression for Laird of Rasay. BOSWELL.
+
+[484] 'In Sky I first observed the use of brogues, a kind of artless
+shoes, stitched with thongs so loosely, that, though they defend the
+foot from stones, they do not exclude water.' Johnson's _Works_, ix 46.
+
+[485] To evade the law against the tartan dress, the Highlanders used to
+dye their variegated plaids and kilts into blue, green, or any single
+colour. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[486] See _post_, Oct. 5.
+
+[487] The Highlanders were all well inclined to the episcopalian form,
+_proviso_ that the right _king_ was prayed for. I suppose Malcolm meant
+to say, 'I will come to your church because you are honest folk,' viz.
+_Jacobites_. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[488] See _ante_, i. 450, and ii. 291.
+
+[489] Perhaps he was thinking of Johnson's letter of June 20, 1771
+(_ante_, ii. 140), where he says:--'I hope the time will come when we
+may try our powers both with cliffs and water.'
+
+[490] 'The wind blew enough to give the boat a kind of dancing
+agitation.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142. 'The water was calm and the rowers
+were vigorous; so that our passage was quick and pleasant.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 54.
+
+[491]
+
+     'Caught in the wild Aegean seas,
+      The sailor bends to heaven for ease.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, 2, _Odes_, xvi. 1.
+
+[492] See _ante_, iv. Dec. 9, 1784, note.
+
+[493] Such spells are still believed in. A lady of property in Mull, a
+friend of mine, had a few years since much difficulty in rescuing from
+the superstitious fury of the people, an old woman, who used a _charm_
+to injure her neighbour's cattle. It is now in my possession, and
+consists of feathers, parings of nails, hair, and such like trash, wrapt
+in a lump of clay. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[494] Sir Walter Scott, writing in Skye in 1814, says:--'Macleod and Mr.
+Suter have both heard a tacksman of Macleod's recite the celebrated
+Address to the Sun; and another person repeat the description of
+Cuchullin's car. But all agree as to the gross infidelity of Macpherson
+as a translator and editor.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 308.
+
+[495] See _post_, Nov. 10.
+
+[496] 'The women reaped the corn, and the men bound up the sheaves. The
+strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of the harvest-song,
+in which all their voices were united.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 58.
+
+[497] 'The money which he raises annually by rent from all his
+dominions, which contain at least 50,000 acres, is not believed to
+exceed £250; but as he keeps a large farm in his own hands, he sells
+every year great numbers of cattle ... The wine circulates vigorously,
+and the tea, chocolate, and coffee, however they are got, are always at
+hand.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142. 'Of wine and punch they are very
+liberal, for they get them cheap; but as there is no custom-house on the
+island, they can hardly be considered as smugglers.' _Ib_. p. 160.
+'Their trade is unconstrained; they pay no customs, for there is no
+officer to demand them; whatever, therefore, is made dear only by impost
+is obtained here at an easy rate.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.
+
+[498] 'No man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, which they
+call a _skalk_.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. p. 51.
+
+[499] Alexander Macleod, of Muiravenside, advocate, became extremely
+obnoxious to government by his zealous personal efforts to engage his
+chief Macleod, and Macdonald of Sky, in the Chevalier's attempts of
+1745. Had he succeeded, it would have added one third at least to the
+Jacobite army. Boswell has oddly described _M'Cruslick_, the being whose
+name was conferred upon this gentleman, as something between Proteus and
+Don Quixote. It is the name of a species of satyr, or _esprit follet_, a
+sort of mountain Puck or hobgoblin, seen among the wilds and mountains,
+as the old Highlanders believed, sometimes mirthful, sometimes
+mischievous. Alexander Macleod's precarious mode of life and variable
+spirits occasioned the _soubriquet_. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[500] Johnson also complained of the cheese. 'In the islands they do
+what I found it not very easy to endure. They pollute the tea-table by
+plates piled with large slices of Cheshire cheese, which mingles its
+less grateful odours with the fragrance of the tea.' _Works_, ix. 52.
+
+[501] 'The estate has not, during four hundred years, gained or lost a
+single acre.' _Ib_. p. 55.
+
+[502] Lord Stowell told me, that on the road from Newcastle to Berwick,
+Dr. Johnson and he passed a cottage, at the entrance of which were set
+up two of those great bones of the whale, which are not unfrequently
+seen in maritime districts. Johnson expressed great horror at the sight
+of these bones; and called the people, who could use such relics of
+mortality as an ornament, mere savages. CROKER.
+
+[503] In like manner Boswell wrote:--'It is divinely cheering to me to
+think that there is a Cathedral so near Auchinleck [as Carlisle].'
+_Ante_, iii. 416.
+
+[504] 'It is not only in Rasay that the chapel is unroofed and useless;
+through the few islands which we visited we neither saw nor heard of any
+house of prayer, except in Sky, that was not in ruins. The malignant
+influence of Calvinism has blasted ceremony and decency together... It
+has been for many years popular to talk of the lazy devotion of the
+Romish clergy; over the sleepy laziness of men that erected churches we
+may indulge our superiority with a new triumph, by comparing it with the
+fervid activity of those who suffer them to fall.' Johnson's _Works_,
+ix. 61. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'By the active zeal of Protestant
+devotion almost all the chapels have sunk into ruin.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 152.
+
+[505] 'Not many years ago,' writes Johnson, 'the late Laird led out one
+hundred men upon a military expedition.' _Works_, ix. 59. What the
+expedition was he is careful not to state.
+
+[506] 'I considered this rugged ascent as the consequence of a form of
+life inured to hardships, and therefore not studious of nice
+accommodations. But I know not whether for many ages it was not
+considered as a part of military policy to keep the country not easily
+accessible. The rocks are natural fortifications.' Johnson's _Works_,
+ix. p. 54.
+
+[507] See _post_ Sept. 17.
+
+[508] In Sky a price was set 'upon the heads of foxes, which, as the
+number was diminished, has been gradually raised from three shillings
+and sixpence to a guinea, a sum so great in this part of the world,
+that, in a short time, Sky may be as free from foxes as England from
+wolves. The fund for these rewards is a tax of sixpence in the pound,
+imposed by the farmers on themselves, and said to be paid with great
+willingness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 57.
+
+[509] Boswell means that the eastern coast of Sky is westward of Rasay.
+CROKER.
+
+[510] 'The Prince was hidden in his distress two nights in Rasay, and
+the King's troops burnt the whole country, and killed some of the
+cattle. You may guess at the opinions that prevail in this country; they
+are, however, content with fighting for their King; they do not drink
+for him. We had no foolish healths', _Piozzi Letters_, i. 145.
+
+[511] See _ante_, iv. 217, where he said:--'You have, perhaps, no man
+who knows as much Greek and Latin as Bentley.'
+
+[512] See _ante_, ii. 61, and _post_, Oct. 1.
+
+[513] See _ante_, i. 268, note 1.
+
+[514] Steele had had the Duke of Marlborough's papers, and 'in some of
+his exigencies put them in pawn. They then remained with the old
+Duchess, who, in her will, assigned the task to Glover [the author of
+_Leonidas_] and Mallet, with a reward of a thousand pounds, and a
+prohibition to insert any verses. Glover rejected, I suppose with
+disdain, the legacy, and devolved the whole work upon Mallet; who had
+from the late Duke of Marlborough a pension to promote his industry, and
+who talked of the discoveries which he had made; but left not, when he
+died, any historical labours behind him.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 466.
+The Duchess died in 1744 and Mallet in 1765. For more than twenty years
+he thus imposed more or less successfully on the world. About the year
+1751 he played on Garrick's vanity. 'Mallet, in a familiar conversation
+with Garrick, discoursing of the diligence which he was then exerting
+upon the _Life of Marlborough_, let him know, that in the series of
+great men quickly to be exhibited, he should _find a niche_ for the hero
+of the theatre. Garrick professed to wonder by what artifice he could be
+introduced; but Mallet let him know, that by a dexterous anticipation he
+should fix him in a conspicuous place. "Mr. Mallet," says Garrick in his
+gratitude of exultation, "have you left off to write for the stage?"
+Mallet then confessed that he had a drama in his hands. Garrick promised
+to act it; and _Alfred_ was produced.' _Ib_. p. 465. See _ante_,
+iii. 386.
+
+[515] According to Dr. Warton (_Essay on Pope_, ii. 140) he received
+£5000. 'Old Marlborough,' wrote Horace Walpole in March, 1742 (Letters,
+i. 139), 'has at last published her _Memoirs_; they are digested by one
+Hooke, who wrote a Roman history; but from her materials, which are so
+womanish that I am sure the man might sooner have made a gown and
+petticoat with them.'
+
+[516] See _ante_, i. 153
+
+[517] 'Hooke,' says Dr. Warton (_Essay on Pope_, ii. 141), 'was a Mystic
+and a Quietist, and a warm disciple of Fénelon. It was he who brought a
+Catholic priest to take Pope's confession on his death-bed.'
+
+[518] See Cumberland's _Memoirs_, i. 344.
+
+[519] Mr. Croker says that 'though he sold a great tract of land in
+Harris, he left at his death in 1801 the original debt of £50,000
+[Boswell says £40,000] increased to £70,000.' When Johnson visited
+Macleod at Dunvegan, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Here, though poor
+Macleod had been left by his grandfather overwhelmed with debts, we had
+another exhibition of feudal hospitality. There were two stags in the
+house, and venison came to the table every day in its various forms.
+Macleod, besides his estate in Sky, larger I suppose than some English
+counties, is proprietor of nine inhabited isles; and of his isles
+uninhabited I doubt if he very exactly knows the number, I told him that
+he was a mighty monarch. Such dominions fill an Englishman with envious
+wonder; but when he surveys the naked mountain, and treads the quaking
+moor; and wanders over the wild regions of gloomy barrenness, his wonder
+may continue, but his envy ceases. The unprofitableness of these vast
+domains can be conceived only by the means of positive instances. The
+heir of Col, an island not far distant, has lately told me how wealthy
+he should be if he could let Rum, another of his islands, for twopence
+halfpenny an acre; and Macleod has an estate which the surveyor reports
+to contain 80,000 acres, rented at £600 a year.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 154.
+
+[520] They were abolished by an act passed in 1747, being 'reckoned
+among the principal sources of the rebellions. They certainly kept the
+common people in subjection to their chiefs. By this act they were
+legally emancipated from slavery; but as the tenants enjoyed no leases,
+and were at all times liable to be ejected from their farms, they still
+depended on the pleasure of their lords, notwithstanding this
+interposition of the legislature, which granted a valuable consideration
+in money to every nobleman and petty baron, who was thus deprived of one
+part of his inheritance.' Smollett's _England_, iii. 206. See _ante_, p.
+46, note 1, and _post_, Oct. 22.
+
+[521] 'I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their
+circuits through the whole country, right has been everywhere more
+wisely and more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation
+is grown troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few and therefore
+often too remote for general convenience... In all greater questions
+there is now happily an end to all fear or hope from malice or from
+favour. The roads are secure in those places through which forty years
+ago no traveller could pass without a convoy...No scheme of policy has
+in any country yet brought the rich and poor on equal terms to courts of
+judicature. Perhaps experience improving on experience may in time
+effect it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 90.
+
+[522] He described Rasay as 'the seat of plenty, civility, and
+cheerfulness.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 152.
+
+[523] 'We heard the women singing as they _waulked_ the cloth, by
+rubbing it with their hands and feet, and screaming all the while in a
+sort of chorus. At a distance the sound was wild and sweet enough, but
+rather discordant when you approached too near the performers.'
+Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 307.
+
+[524] She had been some time at Edinburgh, to which she again went, and
+was married to my worthy neighbour, Colonel Mure Campbell, now Earl of
+Loudoun, but she died soon afterwards, leaving one daughter. BOSWELL.
+'She is a celebrated beauty; has been admired at Edinburgh; dresses her
+head very high; and has manners so lady-like that I wish her head-dress
+was lower.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 144. See _ante_, iii. 118.
+
+[525]
+
+     'Yet hope not life from _grief_ or danger free,
+      _Nor_ think the doom of man reversed for thee.'
+
+_The Vanity of Human Wishes_.
+
+[526] 'Rasay accompanied us in his six-oared boat, which he said was his
+coach and six. It is indeed the vehicle in which the ladies take the air
+and pay their visits, but they have taken very little care for
+accommodations. There is no way in or out of the boat for a woman but by
+being carried; and in the boat thus dignified with a pompous name there
+is no seat but an occasional bundle of straw.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 152.
+In describing the distance of one family from another, Johnson
+writes:--'Visits last several days, and are commonly paid by water; yet
+I never saw a boat furnished with benches.' _Works_, ix. 100.
+
+[527] See _ante_, ii. 106, and iii. 154.
+
+[528] 'They which forewent us did leave a Roome for us, and should wee
+grieve to doe the same to these which should come after us? Who beeing
+admitted to see the exquisite rarities of some antiquaries cabinet is
+grieved, all viewed, to have the courtaine drawen, and give place to new
+pilgrimes?' _A Cypresse Grove_, by William Drummond of Hawthorne-denne,
+ed. 1630, p. 68.
+
+[529] See _ante_, iii. 153, 295.
+
+[530]
+
+     'While hoary Nestor, by experience wise,
+      To reconcile the angry monarch tries.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, i _Epis_. ii. II.
+
+[531] _See ante_, p. 16.
+
+[532] Lord Elibank died Aug. 3, 1778, aged 75. _Gent. Mag._ 1778, p.
+391.
+
+[533] A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly
+sent with dispatches by the lords of the council.
+
+[534] Yet he said of him:--'There is nothing _conclusive_ in his talk.'
+_Ante_ iii. 57.
+
+[535] 'I believe every man has found in physicians great liberality and
+dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusion of beneficence, and
+willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre.'
+Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402. See _ante_, iv. 263.
+
+[536] Johnson says (_ib_. ix. 156) that when the military road was made
+through Glencroe, 'stones were placed to mark the distances, which the
+inhabitants have taken away, resolved, they said, "to have no
+new miles."'
+
+[537]
+
+     'The lawland lads think they are fine,
+      But O they're vain and idly gawdy;
+      How much unlike that graceful mien
+      And manly look of my highland laddie.'
+
+From '_The Highland Laddie_, written long since by Allan Ramsay, and now
+sung at Ranelagh and all the other gardens; often fondly encored, and
+sometimes ridiculously hissed.' _Gent. Mag_. 1750, p. 325.
+
+[538] 'She is of a pleasing person and elegant behaviour. She told me
+that she thought herself honoured by my visit; and I am sure that
+whatever regard she bestowed on me was liberally repaid.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 153. In his _Journey_ (_Works_, ix. 63) Johnson speaks of
+Flora Macdonald, as 'a name that will be mentioned in history, and if
+courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.'
+
+[539] This word, which meant much the same as, _fop_ or _dandy_, is
+found in Bk. x. ch. 2 of Fielding's _Amelia_ (published in 1751):--'A
+large assembly of young fellows, whom they call bucks.' Less than forty
+years ago, in the neighbourhood of London, it was, I remember, still
+commonly applied by the village lads to the boys of a boarding-school.
+
+[540] This word was at this time often used in a loose sense, though
+Johnson could not have so used it. Thus Horace Walpole, writing on May
+16, 1759 (_Letters_, iii. 227), tells a story of the little Prince
+Frederick. 'T'other day as he was with the Prince of Wales, Kitty Fisher
+passed by, and the child named her; the Prince, to try him, asked who
+that was? "Why, a Miss." "A Miss," said the Prince of Wales, "why are
+not all girls Misses?" "Oh! but a particular sort of Miss--a Miss that
+sells oranges."' Mr. Cunningham in a note on this says:--'Orange-girls
+at theatres were invariably courtesans.'
+
+[541] _Governor_ was the term commonly given to a tutor, especially a
+travelling tutor. Thus Peregrine Pickle was sent first to Winchester and
+afterwards abroad 'under the immediate care and inspection of a
+governor.' _Peregrine Pickle_, ch. xv.
+
+[542] He and his wife returned before the end of the War of
+Independence. On the way back she showed great spirit when their ship
+was attacked by a French man of war. Chambers's _Rebellion in
+Scotland_, ii. 329.
+
+[543] I do not call him _the Prince of Wales_, or _the Prince_, because
+I am quite satisfied that the right which the _House of Stuart_ had to
+the throne is extinguished. I do not call him, the _Pretender_, because
+it appears to me as an insult to one who is still alive, and, I suppose,
+thinks very differently. It may be a parliamentary expression; but it is
+not a gentlemanly expression. I _know_, and I exult in having it in my
+power to tell, that THE ONLY PERSON in the world who is intitled to be
+offended at this delicacy, thinks and feels as I do; and has liberality
+of mind and generosity of sentiment enough to approve of my tenderness
+for what even _has been_ Blood Royal. That he is a _prince_ by
+_courtesy_, cannot be denied; because his mother was the daughter of
+Sobiesky, king of Poland. I shall, therefore, _on that account alone_,
+distinguish him by the name of _Prince Charles Edward_. BOSWELL. To have
+called him the _Pretender_ in the presence of Flora Macdonald would have
+been hazardous. In her old age, 'such is said to have been the virulence
+of the Jacobite spirit in her composition, that she would have struck
+any one with her fist who presumed, in her hearing, to call Charles _the
+Pretender_.' Chambers's _Rebellion in Scotland_, ii. 330.
+
+[544] This, perhaps, was said in allusion to some lines ascribed to
+_Pope_, on his lying, at John Duke of Argyle's, at Adderbury, in the
+same bed in which Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, had slept:
+
+     'With no poetick ardour fir'd,
+        I press [press'd] the bed where Wilmot lay;
+      That here he liv'd [lov'd], or here expir'd,
+        Begets no numbers, grave or gay.'
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+[545] See _ante_, iv. 60, 187.
+
+[546] See _ante_, iv. 113 and 315.
+
+[547] 'This was written while Mr. Wilkes was Sheriff of London, and when
+it was to be feared he would rattle his chain a year longer as Lord
+Mayor.' Note to Campbell's _British Poets_, p. 662. By 'here' the poet
+means at _Tyburn_.
+
+[548] With virtue weigh'd, what worthless trash is gold! BOSWELL.
+
+[549] Since the first edition of this book, an ingenious friend has
+observed to me, that Dr. Johnson had probably been thinking on the
+reward which was offered by government for the apprehension of the
+grandson of King James II, and that he meant by these words to express
+his admiration of the Highlanders, whose fidelity and attachment had
+resisted the golden temptation that had been held out to them. BOSWELL.
+
+[550] On the subject of Lady Margaret Macdonald, it is impossible to
+omit an anecdote which does much honour to Frederick, Prince of Wales.
+By some chance Lady Margaret had been presented to the princess, who,
+when she learnt what share she had taken in the Chevalier's escape,
+hastened to excuse herself to the prince, and exlain to him that she was
+not aware that Lady Margaret was the person who had harboured the
+fugitive. The prince's answer was noble: 'And would _you_ not have done
+the same, madam, had he come to you, as to her, in distress and danger?
+I hope--I am sure you would!' WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[551] This old Scottish _member of parliament_, I am informed, is still
+living (1785). BOSWELL.
+
+[552] I cannot find that this account was ever published. Mr. Lumisden
+is mentioned _ante_, ii. 401, note 2.
+
+[553] This word is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.
+
+[554] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 153) describes him in 1745 as 'a
+good-looking man of about five feet ten inches; his hair was dark red,
+and his eyes black. His features were regular, his visage long, much
+sunburnt and freckled, and his countenance thoughtful and melancholy.'
+When the Pretender was in London in 1750, 'he came one evening,' writes
+Dr. W. King (_Anec_. p. 199) 'to my lodgings, and drank tea with me; my
+servant, after he was gone, said to me, that he thought my new visitor
+very like Prince Charles. "Why," said I, "have you ever seen Prince
+Charles?" "No, Sir," said the fellow, "but this gentleman, whoever he
+may be, exactly resembles the busts which are sold in Red Lionstreet,
+and are said to be the busts of Prince Charles." The truth is, these
+busts were taken in plaster of Paris from his face. He has an handsome
+face and good eyes.'
+
+[555] Sir Walter Scott, writing of his childhood, mentions 'the stories
+told in my hearing of the cruelties after the battle of Culloden. One or
+two of our own distant relations had fallen, and I remember of (sic)
+detesting the name of Cumberland with more than infant hatred.'
+Lockhart's _Scott_, i. 24. 'I was,' writes Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_, p.
+190), 'in the coffee-house with Smollett when the news of the battle of
+Culloden arrived, and when London all over was in a perfect uproar of
+joy.' On coming out into the street, 'Smollett,' he continues,
+'cautioned me against speaking a word, lest the mob should discover my
+country, and become insolent, "for John Bull," says he; "is as haughty
+and valiant to-night as he was abject and cowardly on the Black
+Wednesday when the Highlanders were at Derby." I saw not Smollett again
+for some time after, when he shewed me his manuscript of his _Tears of
+Scotland_. Smollett, though a Tory, was not a Jacobite, but he had the
+feelings of a Scotch gentleman on the reported cruelties that were said
+to be exercised after the battle of Culloden.' See _ante_, ii. 374, for
+the madman 'beating his straw, supposing it was the Duke of Cumberland,
+whom he was punishing for his cruelties in Scotland in 1746.'
+
+[556] 'He was obliged to trust his life to the fidelity of above fifty
+individuals, and many of these were in the lowest paths of fortune. They
+knew that a price of £30,000 was set upon his head, and that by
+betraying him they should enjoy wealth and affluence.' Smollett's _Hist.
+of England_, iii. 184.
+
+[557] 'Que les hommes privés, qui se plaignent de leurs petites
+infortunes, jettent les yeux sur ce prince et sur ses ancêtres.' _Siècle
+de Louis XV_, ch. 25.
+
+[558] 'I never heard him express any noble or benevolent sentiments, or
+discover any sorrow or compassion for the misfortunes of so many worthy
+men who had suffered in his cause. But the most odious part of his
+character is his love of money, a vice which I do not remember to have
+been imputed by our historians to any of his ancestors, and is the
+certain index of a base and little mind. I have known this gentleman,
+with 2000 Louis d'ors in his strong box, pretend he was in great
+distress, and borrow money from a lady in Paris, who was not in affluent
+circumstances.' Dr. W. King's _Anec._ p. 201. 'Lord Marischal,' writes
+Hume, 'had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince; and thought
+there was no vice so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable; of
+which he gave me several instances.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 464.
+
+[559] _Siècle de Louis XIV_, ch. 15. The accentuation of this passage,
+which was very incorrect as quoted by Boswell, I have corrected.
+
+[560] By banishment he meant, I conjecture, transportation as a
+convict-slave to the American plantations.
+
+[561] Wesley in his _Journal_--the reference I have mislaid--seemed from
+this consideration almost to regret a reprieve that came to a
+penitent convict.
+
+[562] Hume describes how in 1753 (? 1750) the Pretender, on his secret
+visit to London, 'came to the house of a lady (who I imagined to be Lady
+Primrose) without giving her any preparatory information; and entered
+the room where she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself
+playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name.
+She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him.
+But she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he assumed.'
+J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 462. Mr. Croker (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 331)
+prints an autograph letter from Flora Macdonald which shows that Lady
+Primrose in 1751 had lodged £627 in a friend's hands for her behoof, and
+that she had in view to add more.
+
+[563] It seems that the Pretender was only once in London, and that it
+was in 1750. _Ante_, i. 279, note 5. I suspect that 1759 is Boswell's
+mistake or his printer's. From what Johnson goes on to say it is clear
+that George II. was in Germany at the time of the Prince's secret visit.
+He was there the greater part of 1750, but not in 1753 or 1759. In 1750,
+moreover, 'the great army of the King of Prussia overawed Hanover.'
+Smollett's _England_, iii. 297. This explains what Johnson says about
+the King of Prussia stopping the army in Germany.
+
+[564] See _ante_, iv. 165, 170.
+
+[565] COMMENTARIES on the laws of England, book 1. chap. 3. BOSWELL.
+
+[566] B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon one
+subject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, a
+distinguished passage in support of the Christian Revelation.--After
+shewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the _indirect_
+attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and perplex religious
+principles, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whom
+he politely calls 'an eloquent historian,' the archdeacon thus expresses
+himself:--
+
+'Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every
+mind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most
+important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as
+violating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency.
+There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to be
+tolerable. I mean that class of reasoners who can see _little_ in
+christianity even supposing it to be true. To such adversaries we
+address this reflection.--Had _Jesus Christ_ delivered no other
+declaration than the following, "The hour is coming in the which all
+that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,--they
+that have done well [good] unto the resurrection of life, and they that
+have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," [_St. John_ v. 25]
+he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy
+of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his
+mission was introduced and attested:--a message in which the wisest of
+mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to
+their inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had been
+discovered already.--It had been discovered as the Copernican System
+was;--it was one guess amongst many. He alone discovers who _proves_,
+and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies by
+miracles that his doctrine comes from GOD.'--Book V. chap. 9.
+
+If infidelity be disingenuously dispersed in every shape that is likely
+to allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination,--in a fable, a tale, a
+novel, a poem,--in books of travels, of philosophy, of natural
+history,--as Mr. Paley has well observed,--I hope it is fair in me thus
+to meet such poison with an unexpected antidote, which I cannot doubt
+will be found powerful. BOSWELL. The 'eloquent historian' was Gibbon.
+See Paley's _Principles_, ed. 1786, p. 395.
+
+[567] In _The Life of Johnson (ante_, iii. 113), Boswell quotes these
+words, without shewing that they are his own; but italicises not
+fervour, but loyalty.
+
+[568] 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' _Book of Common Prayer._
+
+[569] See _ante_, i. 353, note 1.
+
+[570] Ovid, _Ars Amatoria_, iii. 121.
+
+[571]
+
+     'This facile temper of the beauteous sex
+      Great Agamemnon, brave Pelides proved.'
+
+These two lines follow the four which Boswell quotes. _Agis_, act iv.
+
+[572] _Agis_, a tragedy, by John Home. BOSWELL.
+
+[573] See _ante_, p. 27.
+
+[574] A misprint, I suppose, for _designing_.
+
+[575] 'Next in dignity to the laird is the tacksman; a large taker or
+leaseholder of land, of which he keeps part as a domain in his own hand,
+and lets part to under-tenants. The tacksman is necessarily a man
+capable of securing to the laird the whole rent, and is commonly a
+collateral relation.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 82.
+
+[576] A _lettre de cachet_.
+
+[577] _Ante_, p. 159.
+
+[578] 'It is related that at Dunvegan Lady Macleod, having poured out
+for Dr. Johnson sixteen cups of tea, asked him if a small basin would
+not save him trouble, and be more agreeable. "I wonder, Madam," answered
+he roughly, "why all the ladies ask me such questions. It is to save
+yourselves trouble, Madam, and not me." The lady was silent and resumed
+her task.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 81.
+
+[579] 'In the garden-or rather the orchard which was formerly the
+garden-is a pretty cascade, divided into two branches, and called Rorie
+More's Nurse, because he loved to be lulled to sleep by the sound of
+it.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 304.
+
+[580] It has been said that she expressed considerable dissatisfaction
+at Dr. Johnson's rude behaviour at Dunvegan. Her grandson, the present
+Macleod, assures me that it was not so: 'they were all,' he says
+emphatically, '_delighted_ with him.' CROKER. Mr. Croker refers, I
+think, to a communication from Sir Walter Scott, published in the
+_Croker Corres_. ii. 33. Scott writes:--'When wind-bound at Dunvegan,
+Johnson's temper became most execrable, and beyond all endurance, save
+that of his guide. The Highlanders, who are very courteous in their way,
+held him in great contempt for his want of breeding, but had an idea at
+the same time there was something respectable about him, they could not
+tell what, and long spoke of him as the Sassenach _mohr_, or
+large Saxon.'
+
+[581] 'I long to be again in civilized life.' _Ante_, p. 183.
+
+[582] See _ante_, iii. 406.
+
+[583] Johnson refers, I think, to a passage in _L'Esprit des Lois_, Book
+xvi. chap. 4, where Montesquieu says:--'J'avoue que si ce que les
+relations nous disent était vrai, qu'à Bantam il y a dix femmes pour un
+homme, ce serait un cas bien particulier de la polygamie. Dans tout ceci
+je ne justifie pas les usages, mais j'en rends les raisons.'
+
+[584] What my friend treated as so wild a supposition, has actually
+happened in the Western islands of Scotland, if we may believe Martin,
+who tells it of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi, and says that it is
+proved by the parish registers. BOSWELL. 'The Isle of Coll produces more
+boys than girls, and the Isle of Tire-iy more girls than boys; as if
+nature intended both these isles for mutual alliances, without being at
+the trouble of going to the adjacent isles or continent to be matched.
+The parish-book in which the number of the baptised is to be seen,
+confirms this observation.' Martin's _Western Islands,_ p. 271.
+
+[585] _A Dissertation on the Gout_, by W. Cadogan, M.D., 1771. It went
+through nine editions in its first year.
+
+[586] This was a general reflection against Dr. Cadogan, when his very
+popular book was first published. It was said, that whatever precepts he
+might give to others, he himself indulged freely in the bottle. But I
+have since had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him, and, if his
+own testimony may be believed, (and I have never heard it impeached,)
+his course of life has been conformable to his doctrine. BOSWELL.
+
+[587] 'April 7, 1765. I purpose to rise at eight, because, though I
+shall not yet rise early, it will be much earlier than I now rise, for I
+often lie till two.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 62. 'Sept. 18, 1771. My nocturnal
+complaints grow less troublesome towards morning; and I am tempted to
+repair the deficiencies of the night. I think, however, to try to rise
+every day by eight, and to combat indolence as I shall obtain strength.'
+_Ib._ p. 105. 'April 14, 1775. As my life has from my earliest years
+been wasted in a morning bed, my purpose is from Easter day to rise
+early, not later than eight.' _Ib._ p. 139.
+
+[588] See _post_, Oct. 25.
+
+[589] See _ante_, iv. under Dec. 2, 1784.
+
+[590] Miss Mulso (Mrs. Chapone) wrote in 1753:--'I had the assurance to
+dispute with Mr. Johnson on the subject of human malignity, and wondered
+to hear a man, who by his actions shews so much benevolence, maintain
+that the human heart is naturally malevolent, and that all the
+benevolence we see in the few who are good is acquired by reason and
+religion.' _ Life of Mrs. Chapone_, p.73. See _post_, p. 214.
+
+[591] This act was passed in 1746.
+
+[592] _Isaiah_, ii. 4.
+
+[593] Sir Walter Scott, after mentioning Lord Orford's (Horace Walpole)
+_History of His Own Time_, continues:--'The Memoirs of our Scots Sir
+George Mackenzie are of the same class--both immersed in little
+political detail, and the struggling skirmish of party, seem to have
+lost sight of the great progressive movements of human affairs.'
+Lockhart's _Scott_ vii. 12.
+
+[594] 'Illum jura potius ponere quam de jure respondere dixisses; eique
+appropinquabant clientes tanquam judici potius quam advocato.'
+Mackenzie's _Works_, ed. 1716, vol. i. part 2, p. 7.
+
+[595] 'Opposuit ei providentia Nisbetum: qui summâ doctrinâ
+consummatâque eloquentiâ causas agebat, ut justitiae scalae in
+aequilibrio essent; nimiâ tamen arte semper utens artem suam suspectam
+reddebat. Quoties ergo conflixerunt, penes Gilmorum gloria, penes
+Nisbetum palma fuit; quoniam in hoc plus artis et cultus, in illo
+naturae et virium.' _Ib._
+
+[596] He often indulged himself in every species of pleasantry and wit.
+BOSWELL.
+
+[597] But like the hawk, having soared with a lofty flight to a height
+which the eye could not reach, he was wont to swoop upon his quarry with
+wonderful rapidity. BOSWELL. These two quotations are part of the same
+paragraph, and are not even separated by a word. _Ib._ p. 6.
+
+[598] See _ante_, i. 453; iii. 323; iv. 276; and v. 32.
+
+[599] Some years later he said that 'when Burke lets himself down to
+jocularity he is in the kennel.' _Ante_, iv. 276.
+
+[600] Cicero and Demosthenes, no doubt, were brought in by the passage
+about Nicholson. Mackenzie continues:--'Hic primus nos a Syllogismorum
+servitute manumisit et Aristotelem Demostheni potius quam Ciceroni forum
+concedere coegit.' P. 6.
+
+[601] See _ante_ ii. 435 and iv. 149, note 3.
+
+[602] See _ante_, i. 103.
+
+[603] See _ante_ ii 436
+
+[604] See _ante_, i. 65.
+
+[605] On Sept. 13, 1777, Johnson wrote:--'Boswell shrinks from the
+Baltick expedition, which, I think, is the best scheme in our power.'
+_Ante_, iii. 134, note 1.
+
+[606] See _ante_, ii. 59, note 1.
+
+[607] See _ante_, iii. 368.
+
+[608] 'Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are
+almost always cunning ... nor is caution ever so necessary as with
+associates or opponents of feeble minds.' _The Idler_, No. 92. In a
+letter to Dr. Taylor Johnson says:--'To help the ignorant commonly
+requires much patience, for the ignorant are always trying to be
+cunning.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 462. Churchill, in _The
+Journey_ (_Poems_, ed. 1766, ii. 327), says:--
+
+     ''Gainst fools be guarded; 'tis a certain rule,
+      Wits are safe things, there's danger in a fool.'
+
+
+[609] See _ante_, p. 173.
+
+[610]
+
+     'For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the head
+      With all such reading as was never read;
+      For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,
+      And  write   about  it,  goddess, and about it.'
+
+_The Dunciad_, iv. 249.
+
+[611] Genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures; and the art of
+the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject.
+But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. I
+should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to
+empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in
+diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the
+affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.' _The
+Idler_, No. 45. 'Southey wrote thirty years later:--'I find daily more
+and more reason to wonder at the miserable ignorance of English
+historians, and to grieve with a sort of despondency at seeing how much
+that has been laid up among the stores of knowledge has been neglected
+and utterly forgotten.' Southey's _Life_, ii. 264. On another occasion
+he said of Robertson:--'To write his introduction to _Charles V_,
+without reading these _Laws_ [the _Laws_ of Alonso the Wise], is one of
+the thousand and one omissions for which he ought to be called rogue, as
+long as his volumes last. _Ib_. p. 318
+
+[612]
+
+     'That eagle's fate and mine are one,
+      Which on the shaft that made him die,
+      Espy'd a feather of his own,
+      Wherewith he wont to soar so high.'
+      _Epistle to a Lady._
+
+Anderson's _Poets_, v. 480.
+
+[613] See _ante_, iii. 271.
+
+[614] 'In England there may be reason for raising the rents (in a
+certain degree) where the value of lands is increased by accession of
+commerce, ...but here (contrary to all policy) the great men begin at
+the wrong end, with squeezing the bag, before they have helped the poor
+tenant to fill it; by the introduction of manufactures.' Pennant's
+_Scotland_, ed. 1772, p. 191.
+
+[615] Boswell refers, not to a passage in _Pennant_, but to Johnson's
+admission that in his dispute with Monboddo, 'he might have taken the
+side of the savage, had anybody else taken the side of the shopkeeper.'
+_Ante_, p. 83.
+
+[616] 'Boswell, with some of his troublesome kindness, has informed this
+family and reminded me that the 18th of September is my birthday. The
+return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it
+seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 134. See _ante_, iii. 157.
+
+[617] 'At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting
+that I was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with my
+sluggishness and softness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 67.
+
+[618] Johnson wrote of the ministers:--'I saw not one in the islands
+whom I had reason to think either deficient in learning, or irregular in
+life; but found several with whom I could not converse without wishing,
+as my respect increased, that they had not been Presbyterians.' _Ib_.
+p. 102.
+
+[619] See _ante_, p. 142.
+
+[620] See _ante_, ii. 28.
+
+[621]
+
+     'So horses they affirm to be
+      Mere engines made by geometry,
+      And were invented first from engines,
+      As Indian Britons were from penguins.'
+
+_Hudibras_, part i. canto 2, line 57. Z. Gray, in a note on these lines,
+quotes Selden's note on Drayton's _Polyolbion_:--'About the year 1570,
+Madoc, brother to David Ap Owen, Prince of Wales, made a sea-voyage to
+Florida; and by probability those names of Capo de Breton in Norimberg,
+and Penguin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock and a
+white-headed bird, according to the British, were relicts of this
+discovery.'
+
+[622] Published in Edinburgh in 1763.
+
+[623] See ante, ii. 76. 'Johnson used to say that in all family disputes
+the odds were in favour of the husband from his superior knowledge of
+life and manners.' Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 210.
+
+[624] He wrote to Dr. Taylor:--' Nature has given women so much power
+that the law has very wisely given them little.' _Notes and Queries_,
+6th S. v. 342.
+
+[625] As I have faithfully recorded so many minute particulars, I hope I
+shall be pardoned for inserting so flattering an encomium on what is now
+offered to the publick. BOSWELL.
+
+[626] See _ante_, iv. 109, note 1.
+
+[627] 'The islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding,
+universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, and
+are suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, against
+conviction.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.
+
+[628] The true story of this lady, which happened in this century, is as
+frightfully romantick as if it had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy.
+She was the wife of one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, a man of
+the very first blood of his country. For some mysterious reasons, which
+have never been discovered, she was seized and carried off in the dark,
+she knew not by whom, and by nightly journeys was conveyed to the
+Highland shores, from whence she was transported by sea to the remote
+rock of St. Kilda, where she remained, amongst its few wild inhabitants,
+a forlorn prisoner, but had a constant supply of provisions, and a woman
+to wait on her. No inquiry was made after her, till she at last found
+means to convey a letter to a confidential friend, by the daughter of a
+Catechist, who concealed it in a clue of yarn. Information being thus
+obtained at Edinburgh, a ship was sent to bring her off; but
+intelligence of this being received, she was conveyed to M'Leod's island
+of Herries, where she died.
+
+In CARSTARE'S STATE PAPERS we find an authentick narrative of Connor
+[Conn], a catholick priest, who turned protestant, being seized by some
+of Lord Seaforth's people, and detained prisoner in the island of
+Herries several years; he was fed with bread and water, and lodged in a
+house where he was exposed to the rains and cold. Sir James Ogilvy
+writes (June 18, 1667 [1697]), that the Lord Chancellor, the Lord
+Advocate, and himself, were to meet next day, to take effectual methods
+to have this redressed. Connor was then still detained; p. 310.--This
+shews what private oppression might in the last century be practised in
+the Hebrides.
+
+In the same collection [in a letter dated Sept. 15, 1700], the Earl of
+Argyle gives a picturesque account of an embassy from the _great_ M'Neil
+_of Barra_, as that insular Chief used to be denominated:--'I received a
+letter yesterday from M'Neil of Barra, who lives very far off, sent by a
+gentleman in all formality, offering his service, which had made you
+laugh to see his entry. His style of his letter runs as if he were of
+another kingdom.'--Page 643 [648]. BOSWELL.
+
+Sir Walter Scott says:--'I have seen Lady Grange's Journal. She had
+become privy to some of the Jacobite intrigues, in which her husband,
+Lord Grange (an Erskine, brother of the Earl of Mar, and a Lord of
+Session), and his family were engaged. Being on indifferent terms with
+her husband, she is said to have thrown out hints that she knew as much
+as would cost him his life. The judge probably thought with Mrs.
+Peachum, that it is rather an awkward state of domestic affairs, when
+the wife has it in her power to hang the husband. Lady Grange was the
+more to be dreaded, as she came of a vindictive race, being the
+grandchild [according to Mr. Chambers, the child] of that Chiesley of
+Dalry, who assassinated Sir George Lockhart, the Lord President. Many
+persons of importance in the Highlands were concerned in removing her
+testimony. The notorious Lovat, with a party of his men, were the direct
+agents in carrying her off; and St. Kilda, belonging then to Macleod,
+was selected as the place of confinement. The name by which she was
+spoken or written of was _Corpach_, an ominous distinction,
+corresponding to what is called _subject_ in the lecture-room of an
+anatomist, or _shot_ in the slang of the Westport murderers' [Burke and
+Hare]. Sir Walter adds that 'it was said of M'Neil of Barra, that when
+he dined, his bagpipes blew a particular strain, intimating that all the
+world might go to dinner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 341.
+
+[629] I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller's remark concerning the
+French literati, many of whom, I am told, have considerable merit in
+conversation, as well as in their writings. That of Monsieur de Buffon,
+in particular, I am well assured, is highly instructive and
+entertaining. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 253.
+
+[630] Horace Walpole, writing of 1758, says:--'Prize-fighting, in which
+we had horribly resembled the most barbarous and most polite nations,
+was suppressed by the legislature.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_,
+iii. 99. According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 5), Johnson said that his
+'father's brother, Andrew, kept the ring in Smithfield (where they
+wrestled and boxed) for a whole year, and never was thrown or conquered.
+Mr. Johnson was,' she continues, 'very conversant in the art of boxing.'
+She had heard him descant upon it 'much to the admiration of those who
+had no expectation of his skill in such matters.'
+
+[631] See _ante_, ii. 179, 226, and iv. 211.
+
+[632] See _ante_, p. 98.
+
+[633] See _ante_, i, 110.
+
+[634] See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15, 35, 441.
+
+[635] Gibbon, thirteen years later, writing to Lord Sheffield about the
+commercial treaty with France, said (_Misc. Works_, ii. 399):--'I hope
+both nations are gainers; since otherwise it cannot be lasting; and such
+double mutual gain is surely possible in fair trade, though it could not
+easily happen in the mischievous amusements of war and gaming.'
+
+[636] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 139), writing of gratitude and resentment,
+says:--'Though there are few who will practise a laborious virtue,
+there will never be wanting multitudes that will indulge an easy vice.'
+
+[637] _Aul. Gellius_, lib. v. c. xiv. BOSWELL.
+
+[638] 'The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the
+greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with
+princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. _Sunt plerumque regum
+voluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariae_. For it is the solecism
+of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.'
+Bacon's _Essays_, No. xix.
+
+[639] Yet Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Sept. 30:--'I am now no longer
+pleased with the delay; you can hear from me but seldom, and I cannot at
+all hear from you. It comes into my mind that some evil may happen.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 148. On Oct. 15 he wrote to Mr. Thrale:--'Having
+for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed
+how all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it....
+I beg to have my thoughts set at rest by a letter from you or my
+mistress.' _Ib_. p. 166. See _ante_, iii. 4.
+
+[640] Sir Walter Scott thus describes Dunvegan in 1814:--'The whole
+castle occupies a precipitous mass of rock overhanging the lake, divided
+by two or three islands in that place, which form a snug little harbour
+under the walls. There is a court-yard looking out upon the sea,
+protected by a battery, at least a succession of embrasures, for only
+two guns are pointed, and these unfit for service. The ancient entrance
+rose up a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into this
+court-yard through a portal, but this is now demolished. You land under
+the castle, and walking round find yourself in front of it. This was
+originally inaccessible, for a brook coming down on the one side, a
+chasm of the rocks on the other, and a ditch in front, made it
+impervious. But the late Macleod built a bridge over the stream, and the
+present laird is executing an entrance suitable to the character of this
+remarkable fortalice, by making a portal between two advanced towers,
+and an outer court, from which he proposes to throw a draw-bridge over
+to the high rock in front of the castle.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed.
+1839, iv. 303.
+
+[641]
+
+     'Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube;
+      Quae dat Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.'
+
+
+
+[642] Johnson says of this castle:--'It is so nearly entire, that it
+might have easily been made habitable, were there not an ominous
+tradition in the family, that the owner shall not long outlive the
+reparation. The grandfather of the present laird, in defiance of
+prediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, and applied
+his money to worse uses.' _Works_, ix. 64.
+
+[643] Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 365) ends a lively piece of
+criticism on Mr. Croker by saying:--'It requires no Bentley or Casaubon
+to perceive that Philarchus is merely a false spelling for Phylarchus,
+the chief of a tribe.'
+
+[644] See _ante_, i. 180.
+
+[645] Sir Walter Scott wrote in 1814:--'The monument is now nearly
+ruinous, and the inscription has fallen down.' Lockhart's _Scott_,
+iv. 308.
+
+[646] 'Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame of timber, which
+is drawn by one horse, with the two points behind pressing on the
+ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often convey
+them home in a kind of open pannier, or frame of sticks, upon the
+horse's back.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 76. 'The young Laird of Col has
+attempted what no islander perhaps ever thought on. He has begun a road
+capable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a mile.' _Ib_.
+p. 128.
+
+[647] Captain Phipps had sailed in May of this year, and in the
+neighbourhood of Spitzbergen had reached the latitude of more than 80°.
+He returned to England in the end of September. _Gent. Mag_. 1774,
+p. 420.
+
+[648] _Aeneid_, vi. II.
+
+[649] 'In the afternoon, an interval of calm sunshine courted us out to
+see a cave on the shore, famous for its echo. When we went into the
+boat, one of our companions was asked in Erse by the boatmen, who they
+were that came with him. He gave us characters, I suppose to our
+advantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the Highlands, whether I
+could recite a long series of ancestors. The boatmen said, as I
+perceived afterwards, that they heard the cry of an English ghost. This,
+Boswell says, disturbed him.... There was no echo; such is the fidelity
+of report.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 156.
+
+[650] '_Law_ or _low_ signifies a hill: _ex. gr._ Wardlaw, guard hill,
+Houndslow, the dog's hill.' Blackie's _Etymological Geography_, p. 103.
+
+[651] Pepys often mentions them. At first he praises them highly, but of
+one of the later ones--_Tryphon_--he writes:--'The play, though
+admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same
+design, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have,
+any one of which would be held admirable, whereas so many of the same
+design and fancy do but dull one another.' Pepys's _Diary_, ed. 1851,
+v. 63.
+
+[652] The second and third earls are passed over by Johnson. It was the
+fourth earl who, as Charles Boyle, had been Bentley's antagonist. Of
+this controversy a full account is given in Lord Macaulay's _Life of
+Atterbury_.
+
+[653] The fifth earl, John. See _ante_, i. 185, and iii. 249.
+
+[654] See _ante_, i. 9, and iii. 154.
+
+[655] See _ante_, ii. 129, and iii. 183.
+
+[656] The young lord was married on the 8th of May, 1728, and the
+father's will is dated the 6th of Nov. following. 'Having,' says the
+testator, 'never observed that my son hath showed much taste or
+inclination, either for the entertainment or knowledge which study and
+learning afford, I give and bequeath all my books and mathematical
+instruments [with certain exceptions] to Christchurch College, in
+Oxford.' CROKER.
+
+[657] His _Life of Swift_ is written in the form of _Letters to his Son,
+the Hon. Hamilton Boyle._ The fifteenth Letter, in which he finishes his
+criticism of _Gulliver's Travels_, affords a good instance of this
+'studied variety of phrase.' 'I may finish my letter,' he writes,
+'especially as the conclusion of it naturally turns my thoughts from
+Yahoos to one of the dearest pledges I have upon earth, yourself, to
+whom I am a most
+
+     Affectionate Father,
+
+     'ORRERY.'
+
+See _ante_, i. 275-284, for Johnson's letters to Thomas Warton, many of
+which end 'in studied varieties of phrase.'
+
+[658] _The Conquest of Granada_ was dedicated to the Duke of York. The
+conclusion is as follows:--'If at any time Almanzor fulfils the parts of
+personal valour and of conduct, of a soldier and of a general; or, if I
+could yet give him a character more advantageous that what he has, of
+the most unshaken friend, the greatest of subjects, and the best of
+masters; I should then draw all the world a true resemblance of your
+worth and virtues; at least as far as they are capable of being copied
+by the mean abilities of,
+
+'Sir,
+
+'Your Royal Highness's
+
+'Most humble, and most
+
+'Obedient servant,
+
+'J. DRYDEN.'
+
+[659] On the day of his coronation he was asked to pardon four young men
+who had broken the law against carrying arms. 'So long as I live,' he
+replied, 'every criminal must die.' 'He was inexorable in individual
+cases; he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to cruelty,
+while in the framing of general rules we find him mild, yielding, and
+placable.' Ranke's _Popes_, ed. 1866, i. 307, 311.
+
+[660] See _ante_, iii. 239, where he discusses the question of shooting
+a highwayman.
+
+[661] In _The Rambler_, No. 78, he says:--'I believe men may be
+generally observed to grow less tender as they advance in age.'
+
+[662] He passed over his own _Life of Savage_.
+
+[663] 'When I was a young fellow, I wanted to write the _Life of Dryden'
+Ante_, iii. 71.
+
+[664] See _ante_, p. 117.
+
+[665] 'I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who had used all arts to
+make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed
+it himself; but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived for the
+honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.
+Yet has this man's testimony been publickly produced, as of one that
+held _Fingal_ to be the work of Ossian.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 115.
+
+[666] A young lady had sung to him an Erse song. He asked her, 'What is
+that about? I question if she conceived that I did not understand it.
+For the entertainment of the company, said she. But, Madam, what is the
+meaning of it? It is a love song. This was all the intelligence that I
+could obtain; nor have I been able to procure the translation of a
+single line of Erse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 146. See _post_, Oct. 16
+
+[667] This droll quotation, I have since found, was from a song in
+honour of the Earl of Essex, called _Queen Elisabeth's Champion_, which
+is preserved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, published
+in London in different years, between 1720 and 1730. The full verse is
+as follows:--
+
+     'Oh! then bespoke the prentices all,
+      Living in London, both proper and tall,
+      In a kind letter sent straight to the Queen,
+      For Essex's sake they would fight all.
+          Raderer too, tandaro te,
+          Raderer, tandorer, tan do re.'
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+[668] La Condamine describes a tribe called the Tameos, on the north
+side of the river Tiger in South America, who have a word for _three_.
+He continues:--'Happily for those who have transactions with them,
+their arithmetic goes no farther. The Brazilian tongue, a language
+spoken by people less savage, is equally barren; the people who speak
+it, where more than three is to be expressed, are obliged to use the
+Portuguese.' Pinkerton's _Voyages_, xiv. 225.
+
+[669] 'It was Addison's practice, when he found any man invincibly
+wrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper
+in absurdity. This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swift
+seems to approve her admiration.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 450. Swift, in
+his _Character of Mrs. Johnson _ (Stella), says:--'Whether this
+proceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference to
+persons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practice
+which she much liked in Mr. Addison, I cannot determine; but when she
+saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more
+inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excuse she commonly
+gave, when her friends asked the reason, was, "That it prevented noise
+and saved time." Swift's _Works_, xiv. 254.
+
+[670] In the Appendix to Blair's _Critical Dissertation on the Poems of
+Ossian_ Macqueen is mentioned as one of his authorities for his
+statements.
+
+[671] See _ante_, iv. 262, note.
+
+[672] I think it but justice to say, that I believe Dr. Johnson meant to
+ascribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did not
+mean any severe imputation against him. BOSWELL.
+
+[673] In Baretti's trial (_ante_, ii. 97, note I) he seems to have given
+his evidence clearly. What he had to say, however, was not much.
+
+[674] Boswell had spoken before to Johnson about this omission. _Ante_,
+ii. 92.
+
+[675] It has been triumphantly asked, 'Had not the plays of Shakspeare
+lain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did he
+not exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty years
+together, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitable
+performance?' He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnson's assertion has been
+misunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been just
+stated, he must necessarily have meant, that 'Mr. Garrick did not as _a
+critick_ make Shakspeare better known; he did not _illustrate_ any one
+_passage_ in any of his plays by acuteness of disquisition, or sagacity
+of conjecture: and what had been done with any degree of excellence in
+_that_ way was the proper and immediate subject of his preface. I may
+add in support of this explanation the following anecdote, related to me
+by one of the ablest commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr.
+Johnson: 'Now I have quitted the theatre, cries Garrick, I will sit down
+and read Shakspeare.' ''Tis time you should, exclaimed Johnson, for I
+much doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first scene to
+the last.' BOSWELL. According to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, i. 120)
+during the twenty years' management of Drury Lane by Booth, Wilks and
+Cibber (about 1712-1732) not more than eight or nine of Shakspeare's
+plays were acted, whereas Garrick annually gave the public seventeen or
+eighteen. _Romeo and Juliet_ had lain neglected near 80 years, when in
+1748-9 Garrick brought it out, or rather a hash of it. 'Otway had made
+some alteration in the catastrophe, which Mr. Garrick greatly improved
+by the addition of a scene, which was written with a spirit not unworthy
+of Shakespeare himself.' _Ib_. p. 125. Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p.
+100), writing of this alteration, says:--'The catastrophe, as it now
+stands, is the most affecting in the whole compass of the drama.' Davies
+says (p. 20) that shortly before Garrick's time 'a taste for Shakespeare
+had been revived. The ladies had formed themselves into a society under
+the title of The Shakespeare Club. They bespoke every week some
+favourite play of his.' This revival was shown in the increasing number
+of readers of Shakespeare. It was in 1741 that Garrick began to act. In
+the previous sixteen years there had been published four editions of
+Pope's _Shakespeare_ and two of Theobald's. In the next ten years were
+published five editions of Hanmer's _Shakespeare_, and two of
+Warburton's, besides Johnson's _Observations on Macbeth. _Lowndes's
+_Bibl. Man._ ed. 1871, p. 2270.
+
+[676] In her foolish _Essay on Shakespeare_, p. 15. See _ante_, ii. 88.
+
+[677] No man has less inclination to controversy than I have,
+particularly with a lady. But as I have claimed, and am conscious of
+being entitled to credit for the strictest fidelity, my respect for the
+publick obliges me to take notice of an insinuation which tends to
+impeach it.
+
+Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to her _Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, added
+the following postscript:--
+
+'_Naples, Feb._ 10, 1786.
+
+'Since the foregoing went to the press, having seen a passage from Mr.
+Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides,_ in which it is said, that _I could not
+get through Mrs. Montague's "Essay on Shakspeare,"_ I do not delay a
+moment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended it
+myself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things would
+give me more concern than to be thought incapable of tasting, or
+unwilling to testify my opinion of its excellence.'
+
+It is remarkable that this postscript is so expressed, as not to point
+out the person who said that Mrs. Thrale could not get through Mrs.
+Montague's book; and therefore I think it necessary to remind Mrs.
+Piozzi, that the assertion concerning her was Dr. Johnson's, and not
+mine. The second observation that I shall make on this postscript is,
+that it does not deny the fact asserted, though I must acknowledge from
+the praise it bestows on Mrs. Montague's book, it may have been designed
+to convey that meaning.
+
+What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is or was, or what she may or may not have
+said to Dr. Johnson concerning Mrs. Montague's book, it is not necessary
+for me to enquire. It is only incumbent on me to ascertain what Dr.
+Johnson said to me. I shall therefore confine myself to a very short
+state of the fact. The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montague's book,
+which Dr. Johnson, is here reported to have given, is, known to have
+been that which he uniformly expressed, as many of his friends well
+remember. So much, for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as it
+relates to his own sentiments. The words containing the assertion, to
+which Mrs. Piozzi objects, are printed from my manuscript Journal, and
+were taken down at the time. The Journal was read by Dr. Johnson, who
+pointed out some inaccuracies, which I corrected, but did not mention
+any inaccuracy in the paragraph in question: and what is still more
+material, and very flattering to me, a considerable part of my Journal,
+containing this paragraph, _was read several years ago by, Mrs. Thrale
+herself _[see _ante_, ii. 383], who had it for some time in her
+possession, and returned it to me, without intimating that Dr. Johnson
+had mistaken her sentiments.
+
+When the first edition of my Journal was passing through the press, it
+occurred to me that a peculiar delicacy was necessary to be observed in
+reporting the opinion of one literary lady concerning the performance of
+another; and I had such scruples on that head, that in the proof sheet I
+struck out the name of Mrs. Thrale from the above paragraph, and two or
+three hundred copies of my book were actually printed and published
+without it; of these Sir Joshua Reynolds's copy happened to be one. But
+while the sheet was working off, a friend, for whose opinion I have
+great respect, suggested that I had no right to deprive Mrs. Thrale of
+the high honour which Dr. Johnson had done her, by stating her opinion
+along with that of Mr. Beauclerk, as coinciding with, and, as it were,
+sanctioning his own. The observation appeared to me so weighty and
+conclusive, that I hastened to the printing-house, and, as a piece of
+justice, restored Mrs. Thrale to that place from which a too scrupulous
+delicacy had excluded her. On this simple state of facts I shall make no
+observation whatever. BOSWELL. This note was first published in the form
+of a letter to the Editor of _The Gazetteer_ on April 17, 1786.
+
+[678] See _ante_, p. 215, for his knowledge of coining and brewing, and
+_post_, p. 263, for his knowledge of threshing and thatching. Now and
+then, no doubt, 'he talked ostentatiously,' as he had at Fort George
+about Gunpowder (_ante_, p. 124). In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1749, p. 55,
+there is a paper on the _Construction of Fireworks_, which I have little
+doubt is his. The following passage is certainly Johnsonian:--'The
+excellency of a rocket consists in the largeness of the train of fire it
+emits, the solemnity of its motion (which should be rather slow at
+first, but augmenting as it rises), the straightness of its flight, and
+the height to which it ascends.'
+
+[679] Perhaps Johnson refers to Stephen Hales's _Statical Essays_
+(London, 1733), in which is an account of experiments made on the blood
+and blood-vessels of animals.
+
+[680] Evidence was given at the Tichborne Trial to shew that it takes
+some years to learn the trade.
+
+[681] Not the very tavern, which was burned down in the great fire. P.
+CUNNINGHAM.
+
+[682] I do not see why I might not have been of this club without
+lessening my character. But Dr. Johnson's caution against supposing
+one's self concealed in London, may be very useful to prevent some
+people from doing many things, not only foolish, but criminal. BOSWELL.
+
+[683] See _ante_, iii. 318.
+
+[684] Johnson defines _airy_ as _gay, sprightly, full of mirth_, &c.
+
+[685] 'A man would be drowned by claret before it made him drunk.'
+_Ante_, iii. 381.
+
+[686] _Ante_, p. 137.
+
+[687] See _ante_ ii. 261.
+
+[688] Lord Chesterfield wrote in 1747 (_Misc. Works_, iv. 231):--
+Drinking is a most beastly vice in every country, but it is really a
+ruinous one to Ireland; nine gentlemen in ten in Ireland are
+impoverished by the great quantity of claret, which from mistaken
+notions of hospitality and dignity, they think it necessary should be
+drunk in their houses. This expense leaves them no room to improve their
+estates by proper indulgence upon proper conditions to their tenants,
+who must pay them to the full, and upon the very day, that they may pay
+their wine-merchants.' In 1754 he wrote (_ib._p.359):--If it would but
+please God by his lightning to blast all the vines in the world, and by
+his thunder to turn all the wines now in Ireland sour, as I most
+sincerely wish he would, Ireland would enjoy a degree of quiet and
+plenty that it has never yet known.'
+
+[689] See _ante_, p. 95.
+
+[690] 'The sea being broken by the multitude of islands does not roar
+with so much noise, nor beat the storm with such foamy violence as I
+have remarked on the coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the
+Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never saw very high
+billows.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 65.
+
+[691] Johnson this day thus wrote of Mr. M'Queen to Mrs. Thrale:--'You
+find that all the islanders even in these recesses of life are not
+barbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us almost all the
+time is an excellent scholar.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 157.
+
+[692] See _post_, Nov. 6.
+
+[693] This was a dexterous mode of description, for the purpose of his
+argument; for what he alluded to was, a Sermon published by the learned
+Dr. William Wishart, formerly principal of the college at Edinburgh, to
+warn men _against_ confiding in a death-bed _repentance_ of the
+inefficacy of which he entertained notions very different from those of
+Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.
+
+[694] The Rev. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 441) thus writes of the
+English clergy whom he met at Harrogate in 1763:--'I had never seen so
+many of them together before, and between this and the following year I
+was able to form a true judgment of them. They are, in general--I mean
+the lower order--divided into bucks and prigs; of which the first,
+though inconceivably ignorant, and sometimes indecent in their morals,
+yet I held them to be most tolerable, because they were unassuming, and
+had no other affectation but that of behaving themselves like gentlemen.
+The other division of them, the prigs, are truly not to be endured, for
+they are but half learned, are ignorant of the world, narrow-minded,
+pedantic, and overbearing. And now and then you meet with a _rara avis_
+who is accomplished and agreeable, a man of the world without
+licentiousness, of learning without pedantry, and pious without
+sanctimony; but this _is_ a _rara avis_'.
+
+[695] See _ante_, i. 446, note 1.
+
+[696] Johnson defines _manage_ in this sense _to train a horse to
+graceful action_, and quotes Young:--
+
+     'They vault from hunters to the managed steed.'
+
+
+
+[697] Of Sir William Forbes of a later generation, Lockhart (_Life of
+Scott_, ix. 179) writes as follows:--'Sir William Forbes, whose
+banking-house was one of Messrs. Ballantyne's chief creditors, crowned
+his generous efforts for Scott's relief by privately paying the whole of
+Abud's demand (nearly £2000) out of his own pocket.'
+
+[698] This scarcity of cash still exists on the islands, in several of
+which five shilling notes are necessarily issued to have some
+circulating medium. If you insist on having change, you must purchase
+something at a shop. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[699] 'The payment of rent in kind has been so long disused in England
+that it is totally forgotten. It was practised very lately in the
+Hebrides, and probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, where
+money is not yet known, but in others of the smaller and remoter
+islands.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 110.
+
+[700] 'A place where the imagination is more amused cannot easily be
+found. The mountains about it are of great height, with waterfalls
+succeeding one another so fast, that as one ceases to be heard another
+begins.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 157.
+
+[701] See _ante_, i. 159.
+
+[702] Johnson seems to be speaking of Hailes's _Memorials and Letters
+relating to the History of Britain in the reign of James I and of
+Charles I_.
+
+[703] See _ante_, ii. 341.
+
+[704] See _ante_, iii. 91.
+
+[705] 'In all ages of the world priests have been enemies to liberty,
+and it is certain that this steady conduct of theirs must have been
+founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking
+and of expressing our thoughts is always fatal to priestly power, and to
+those pious frauds on which it is commonly founded.... Hence it must
+happen in such a government as that of Britain, that the established
+clergy, while things are in their natural situation, will always be of
+the _Court_-party; as, on the contrary, dissenters of all kinds will be
+of the _Country_-party.' Hume's _Essays_, Part 1, No. viii.
+
+[706] In the original _Every island's but a prison._ The song is by a
+Mr. Coffey, and is given in Ritson's _English Songs_ (1813), ii. 122.
+It begins:--
+
+     'Welcome, welcome, brother debtor,
+         To this poor but merry place,
+      Where no bailiff, dun, nor setter,
+         Dares to show his frightful face.'
+
+See _ante_, iii. 269.
+
+[707] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale the day before (perhaps it was this day,
+and the copyist blundered):--' I am still in Sky. Do you remember
+the song--
+
+
+We have at one time no boat, and at another may have too much wind; but
+of our reception here we have no reason to complain.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 143.
+
+[708] My ingenuously relating this occasional instance of intemperance
+has I find been made the subject both of serious criticism and ludicrous
+banter. With the banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder that
+those who pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not have
+had sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of the
+present work, my principal object was to delineate Dr. Johnson's manners
+and character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote, which,
+though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so strong a
+light the indulgence and good humour with which he could treat those
+excesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.
+
+In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to the
+true motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I saw
+as clearly as they. But it would be an endless task for an authour to
+point out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view,
+Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment and
+taste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or will
+not understand him. BOSWELL.
+
+[709] In the original, 'wherein is excess.'
+
+[710] See Chappell's _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, i. 231.
+
+[711] See _ante_, iii. 383.
+
+[712] see _ante_, p. 184.
+
+[713] See _ante_, ii. 120, where he took upon his knee a young woman who
+came to consult him on the subject of Methodism.
+
+[714] See _ante_, pp. 215, 246.
+
+[715] See _ante_, iv. 176.
+
+[716]
+
+     'If ev'ry wheel of that unwearied mill
+      That turned ten thousand verses now stands still.'
+
+_Imitations of Horace, 2 Epis._ ii. 78.
+
+[717] _Ante_, p. 206.
+
+[718]
+
+     'Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine captos
+      Ducit.'--Ovid, _Ex Pont_. i. 3. 35.
+
+
+[719] Lift up your hearts.
+
+[720] Mr. Croker prints the following letter written to Macleod the day
+before:--
+
+     'Ostig, 28th Sept. 1773.
+
+'DEAR SIR,--We are now on the margin of the sea, waiting for a boat and
+a wind. Boswell grows impatient; but the kind treatment which I find
+wherever I go, makes me leave, with some heaviness of heart, an island
+which I am not very likely to see again. Having now gone as far as
+horses can carry us, we thankfully return them. My steed will, I hope,
+be received with kindness;--he has borne me, heavy as I am, over ground
+both rough and steep, with great fidelity; and for the use of him, as
+for your other favours, I hope you will believe me thankful, and
+willing, at whatever distance we may be placed, to shew my sense of your
+kindness, by any offices of friendship that may fall within my power.
+
+'Lady Macleod and the young ladies have, by their hospitality and
+politeness, made an impression on my mind, which will not easily be
+effaced. Be pleased to tell them, that I remember them with great
+tenderness, and great respect.--I am, Sir, your most obliged and most
+humble servant,
+
+'SAM. JOHNSON.'
+
+'P.S.--We passed two days at Talisker very happily, both by the
+pleasantness of the place and elegance of our reception.'
+
+[721] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 409), after describing how Shenstone laid
+out the Leasowes, continues:--'Whether to plant a walk in undulating
+curves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object to
+catch the view; to make water run where it will be heard, and to
+stagnate where it will be seen; to leave intervals where the eye will be
+pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to be
+hidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not inquire: perhaps a
+surly and sullen speculator may think such performances rather the sport
+than the business of human reason.'
+
+[722] Johnson quotes this and the two preceding stanzas as 'a passage,
+to which if any mind denies its sympathy, it has no acquaintance with
+love or nature.' _Ib_. p. 413.
+
+[723] 'His mind was not very comprehensive, nor his curiosity active; he
+had no value for those parts of knowledge which he had not himself
+cultivated.' _Ib._ p. 411.
+
+[724] In the preface to vol. iii. of Shenstone's _Works_, ed. 1773, a
+quotation is given (p. vi) from one of the poet's letters in which he
+complains of this burning. He writes:--'I look upon my Letters as some of
+my _chef-d'auvres_.' On p. 301, after mentioning _Rasselas_, he
+continues:--'Did I tell you I had a letter from Johnson, inclosing
+Vernon's _Parish-clerk_?'
+
+[725] 'The truth is these elegies have neither passion, nature, nor
+manners. Where there is fiction, there is no passion: he that describes
+himself as a shepherd, and his Neaera or Delia as a shepherdess, and
+talks of goats and lambs, feels no passion. He that courts his mistress
+with Roman imagery deserves to lose her; for she may with good reason
+suspect his sincerity.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 91. See _ante_, iv. 17.
+
+[726] His lines on Pulteney, Earl of Bath, still deserve some fame:--
+
+     'Leave a blank here and there in each page
+      To enrol the fair deeds of his youth!
+      When you mention the acts of his age,
+      Leave a blank for his honour and truth.'
+
+From _The Statesman_, H. C. Williams's _Odes_, p. 47.
+
+[727] Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2.
+
+[728] He did not mention the name of any particular person; but those
+who are conversant with the political world will probably recollect more
+persons than one to whom this observation may be applied. BOSWELL. Mr.
+Croker thinks that Lord North was meant. For his ministry Johnson
+certainly came to have a great contempt (_ante_, iv. 139). If Johnson
+was thinking of him, he differed widely in opinion from Gibbon, who
+describes North as 'a consummate master of debate, who could wield with
+equal dexterity the arms of reason and of ridicule.' Gibbon's _Misc.
+Works_, i. 221. On May 2, 1775, he wrote:--' If they turned out Lord
+North to-morrow, they would still leave him one of the best companions
+in the kingdom.' _Ib._ ii. 135.
+
+[729] Horace Walpole is speaking of this work, when he wrote on May 16,
+1759 (_Letters_, iii. 227):--'Dr. Young has published a new book, on
+purpose, he says himself, to have an opportunity of telling a story that
+he has known these forty years. Mr. Addison sent for the young Lord
+Warwick, as he was dying, to shew him in what peace a Christian could
+die--unluckily he died of brandy--nothing makes a Christian die in
+peace like being maudlin! but don't say this in Gath, where you are.'
+
+[730] 'His [Young's] plan seems to have started in his mind at the
+present moment; and his thoughts appear the effect of chance, sometimes
+adverse, and sometimes lucky, with very little operation of judgment....
+His verses are formed by no certain model; he is no more like himself in
+his different productions than he is like others. He seems never to have
+studied prosody, nor to have had any direction but from his own ear. But
+with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poet.' Johnson's
+_Works_, viii. 458, 462. Mrs. Piozzi (_Synonymy_, ii. 371) tells why
+'Dr. Johnson despised Young's quantity of common knowledge as
+comparatively small. 'Twas only because, speaking once upon the subject
+of metrical composition, he seemed totally ignorant of what are called
+rhopalick verses, from the Greek word, a club--verses in which each word
+must be a syllable longer than that which goes before, such as:
+
+     Spes deus aeternae stationis conciliator.'
+
+
+[731] He had said this before. _Ante_, ii. 96.
+
+[732]
+
+     'Brunetta's wise in actions great and rare,
+      But scorns on trifles to bestow her care.
+      Thus ev'ry hour Brunetta is to blame,
+      Because th' occasion is beneath her aim.
+      Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;
+      Small sands the mountains, moments make the year,
+      And trifles life. Your care to trifles give,
+      Or you may die before you truly live.'
+
+_Love of Fame_, Satire vi. Johnson often taught that life is made up of
+trifles. See _ante_, i. 433.
+
+[733]
+
+     "But hold," she cries, "lampooner, have a care;
+      Must I want common sense, because I'm fair?"
+      O no: see Stella; her eyes shine as bright,
+      As if her tongue was never in the right;
+      And yet what real learning, judgment, fire!
+      She seems inspir'd, and can herself inspire:
+      How then (if malice rul'd not all the fair)
+      Could Daphne publish, and could she forbear?
+      We grant that beauty is no bar to sense,
+      Nor is't a sanction for impertinence.
+
+_Love of Fame_, Satire v.
+
+[734] Johnson called on Young's son at Welwyn in June, 1781. _Ante_, iv.
+119. Croft, in his _Life of Young_ (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 453), says
+that 'Young and his housekeeper were ridiculed with more ill-nature than
+wit in a kind of novel published by Kidgell in 1755, called _The Card_,
+under the name of Dr. Elwes and Mrs. Fusby.'
+
+[735] _Memoirs of Philip Doddridge_, ed. 1766, p. 171.
+
+[736] So late as 1783 he said 'this Hanoverian family is isolée here.'
+_Ante_, iv. 165.
+
+[737] See _ante_, ii. 81, where he hoped that 'this gloom of infidelity
+was only a transient cloud.'
+
+[738] Boswell has recorded this saying, _ante_, iv. 194.
+
+[739] In 1755 an English version of this work had been published. _Gent.
+Mag_. 1755, p. 574. In the Chronological Catalogue on p. 343 in vol. 66
+of Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, it is entered as _'Histoire de la
+Guerre de_ 1741, fondue en partie dans le _Précis du siècle de
+Louis XV_.'
+
+[740] Boswell is here merely repeating Johnson's words, who on April 11
+of this year, advising him to keep a journal, had said, 'The great thing
+to be recorded is the state of your own mind.' _Ante_, ii. 217.
+
+[741] This word is not in his _Dictionary_.
+
+[742] See _ante_, i. 498.
+
+[743] See _ante_, ii. 61, 335; iii. 375, and _post_, under Nov. 11.
+
+[744] Beattie had attacked Hume in his _Essay on Truth_ (_ante_, ii. 201
+and v. 29). Reynolds this autumn had painted Beattie in his gown of an
+Oxford Doctor of Civil Law, with his _Essay_ under his arm. 'The angel
+of Truth is going before him, and beating down the Vices, Envy,
+Falsehood, &c., which are represented by a group of figures falling at
+his approach, and the principal head in this group is made an exact
+likeness of Voltaire. When Dr. Goldsmith saw this picture, he was very
+indignant at it, and said:--"It very ill becomes a man of your eminence
+and character, Sir Joshua, to condescend to be a mean flatterer, or to
+wish to degrade so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as
+Dr. Beattie; for Dr. Beattie and his book together will, in the space of
+ten years, not be known ever to have been in existence, but your
+allegorical picture and the fame of Voltaire will live for ever to your
+disgrace as a flatterer."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 300. Another of
+the figures was commonly said to be a portrait of Hume; but Forbes
+(_Life of Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 158) says he had reason to believe that
+Sir Joshua had no thought either of Hume or Voltaire. Beattie's _Essay_
+is so much a thing of the past that Dr. J. H. Burton does not, I
+believe, take the trouble ever to mention it in his _Life of Hume_.
+Burns did not hold with Goldsmith, for he took Beattie's side:--
+
+     'Hence sweet harmonious Beattie sung
+               His _Minstrel_ lays;
+      Or tore, with noble ardour stung,
+               The _Sceptic's_ bays.'
+
+(_The Vision_, part ii.)
+
+[745] See _ante_, ii. 441.
+
+[746] William Tytler published in 1759 an _Examination of the Histories
+of Dr. Robertson and Mr. Hume with respect to Mary Queen of Scots_. It
+was reviewed by Johnson. _Ante_, i. 354.
+
+[747] Johnson's _Rasselas_ was published in either March or April, and
+Goldsmith's _Polite Learning_ in April of 1759.I do not find that they
+published any other works at the same time. If these are the works
+meant, we have a proof that the two writers knew each other earlier than
+was otherwise known.
+
+[748] 'A learned prelate accidentally met Bentley in the days of
+_Phalaris_; and after having complimented him on that noble piece of
+criticism (the _Answer_ to the Oxford Writers) he bad him not be
+discouraged at this run upon him, for tho' they had got the laughers on
+their side, yet mere wit and raillery could not long hold out against a
+work of so much merit. To which the other replied, "Indeed Dr. S.
+[Sprat], I am in no pain about the matter. For I hold it as certain,
+that no man was ever written out of reputation but by himself."'
+_Warburton on Pope_, iv. 159, quoted in Person's _Tracts_, p. 345.
+'Against personal abuse,' says Hawkins (_Life_, p. 348), 'Johnson was
+ever armed by a reflection that I have heard him utter:--"Alas!
+reputation would be of little worth, were it in the power of every
+concealed enemy to deprive us of it."' He wrote to Baretti:--'A man of
+genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.' _Ante_, i. 381. Voltaire
+in his _Essay Sur les inconvéniens attachés à la Littérature_ (_Works_,
+ed. 1819, xliii. 173), after describing all that an author does to win
+the favour of the critics, continues:--'Tous vos soins n'empêchent pas
+que quelque journaliste ne vous déchire. Vous lui répondez; il réplique;
+vous avez un procès par écrit devant le public, qui condamne les deux
+parties au ridicule.' See _ante_, ii. 61, note 4.
+
+[749] However advantageous attacks may be, the feelings with which they
+are regarded by authors are better described by Fielding when he
+says:--'Nor shall we conclude the injury done this way to be very
+slight, when we consider a book as the author's offspring, and indeed as
+the child of his brain. The reader who hath suffered his muse to
+continue hitherto in a virgin state can have but a very inadequate idea
+of this kind of paternal fondness. To such we may parody the tender
+exclamation of Macduff, "Alas! thou hast written no book."' _Tom Jones_,
+bk. xi. ch. 1.
+
+[750] It is strange that Johnson should not have known that the
+_Adventures of a Guinea_ was written by a namesake of his own, Charles
+Johnson. Being disqualified for the bar, which was his profession, by a
+supervening deafness, he went to India, and made some fortune, and died
+there about 1800. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[751] Salusbury, not Salisbury.
+
+[752] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, .ii 57) mentions in 1746 his cousin Sir
+John Philipps, of Picton Castle; 'a noted Jacobite.'... He thus mentions
+Lady Philipps in 1788 when she was 'very aged.' 'They have a favourite
+black, who has lived with them a great many years, and is remarkably
+sensible. To amuse Lady Philipps under a long illness, they had read to
+her the account of the Pelew Islands. Somebody happened to say we were
+sending a ship thither; the black, who was in the room, exclaimed, "Then
+there is an end of their happiness." What a satire on Europe!' _Ib_.
+ix. 157.
+
+Lady Philips was known to Johnson through Miss Williams, to whom, as a
+note in Croker's _Boswell_ (p. 74) shews, she made a small yearly
+allowance.
+
+[753] 'To teach the minuter decencies and inferiour duties, to regulate
+the practice of daily conversation, to correct those depravities which
+are rather ridiculous than criminal, and remove those grievances which,
+if they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly vexation, was
+first attempted by Casa in his book of _Manners_, and Castiglione in his
+_Courtier_; two books yet celebrated in Italy for purity and elegance.'
+Johnson's _Works_, vii. 428. _The Courtier_ was translated into English
+so early as 1561. Lowndes's _Bibl. Man_. ed. 1871, p. 386.
+
+[754] Burnet (_History of His Own Time_, ii. 296) mentions Whitby among
+the persons who both managed and directed the controversial war' against
+Popery towards the end of Charles II's reign. 'Popery,' he says, 'was
+never so well understood by the nation as it came to be upon this
+occasion.' Whitby's Commentary _on the New Testament_ was published
+in 1703-9.
+
+[755] By Henry Mackenzie, the author of _The Man of Feeling. Ante_, i.
+360. It had been published anonymously this spring. The play of the same
+name is by Macklin. It was brought out in 1781.
+
+[756] No doubt Sir A. Macdonald. _Ante_, p. 148. This 'penurious
+gentleman' is mentioned again, p. 315.
+
+[757] Molière's play of _L'Avare_.
+
+[758]
+
+     '...facit indignatio versum.'
+
+Juvenal, _Sat_. i. 79.
+
+[759] See _ante_, iii. 252.
+
+[760] He was sixty-four.
+
+[761] Still, perhaps, in the _Western Isles_, 'It may be we shall touch
+the Happy Isles.' Tennyson's _Ulysses._
+
+[762] See _ante_, ii, 51.
+
+[763] See _ante_, ii. 150.
+
+[764] Sir Alexander Macdonald.
+
+[765] 'To be or not to be: that is the question.' _Hamlet_, act iii. sc.
+1.
+
+[766] Virgil, _Eclogues_, iii. III.
+
+[767] 'The stormy Hebrides.' Milton's _Lycidas_, 1. 156.
+
+[768] Boswell was thinking of the passage (p. xxi.) in which Hawkesworth
+tells how one of Captain Cook's ships was saved by the wind falling.
+'If,' he writes, 'it was a natural event, providence is out of the
+question; at least we can with no more propriety say that providentially
+the wind ceased, than that providentially the sun rose in the morning.
+If it was not,' &c. According to Malone the attacks made on Hawkesworth
+in the newspapers for this passage 'affected him so much that from low
+spirits he was seized with a nervous fever, which on account of the high
+living he had indulged in had the more power on him; and he is supposed
+to have put an end to his life by intentionally taking an immoderate
+dose of opium.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 441. Mme. D'Arblay says that these
+attacks shortened his life. _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 278. He died on
+Nov. 17 of this year. See _ante_, i. 252, and ii. 247.
+
+[769] 'After having been detained by storms many days at Sky we left it,
+as we thought, with a fair wind; but a violent gust, which Bos had a
+great mind to call a tempest, forced us into Col.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.
+167. 'The wind blew against us in a short time with such violence, that
+we, being no seasoned sailors, were willing to call it a tempest... The
+master knew not well whither to go; and our difficulties might, perhaps,
+have filled a very pathetick page, had not Mr. Maclean of Col... piloted
+us safe into his own harbour.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 117. Sir Walter
+Scott says, 'Their risque, in a sea full of islands, was very
+considerable. Indeed, the whole expedition was highly perilous,
+considering the season of the year, the precarious chance of getting
+sea-worthy boats, and the ignorance of the Hebrideans, who,
+notwithstanding the opportunities, I may say the _necessities_, of their
+situation, are very careless and unskilful sailors.' Croker's
+_Boswell_, p. 362.
+
+[770] For as the tempest drives, I shape my way. FRANCIS. [Horace,
+_Epistles_, i. 1. 15.] BOSWELL.
+
+[771]
+
+     'Imberbus juvenis, tandem custode remoto,
+      Gaudet equis canibusque, et aprici gramine campi.'
+     'The youth, whose will no froward tutor bounds,
+      Joys in the sunny field, his horse and hounds.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. 1. 161.
+
+[772] _Henry VI_, act i. sc. 2.
+
+[773] See _ante_, i. 468, and iii. 306.
+
+[774] Johnson describes him as 'a gentleman who has lived some time in
+the East Indies, but, having dethroned no nabob, is not too rich to
+settle in his own country.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 117.
+
+[775] This curious exhibition may perhaps remind some of my readers of
+the ludicrous lines, made, during Sir Robert Walpole's administration,
+on Mr. George (afterwards Lord) Lyttelton, though the figures of the two
+personages must be allowed to be very different:--
+
+     'But who is this astride the pony;
+      So long, so lean, so lank, so bony?
+      Dat be de great orator, Littletony.'
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+These lines were beneath a caricature called _The Motion_, described by
+Horace Walpole in his letter of March 25, 1741, and said by Mr.
+Cunningham to be 'the earliest good political caricature that we
+possess.' Walpole's _Letters_, i. 66. Mr. Croker says that 'the exact
+words are:--
+
+     bony? O he be de great orator Little-Tony.'
+
+[776] See _ante_, ii. 213.
+
+[777] In 1673 Burnet, who was then Professor of Theology in Glasgow,
+dedicated to Lauderdale _A Vindication of the Authority, &c., of the
+Church and State of Scotland_. In it he writes of the Duke's 'noble
+character, and more lasting and inward characters of his princely mind.'
+
+[778] See _ante_, i. 450.
+
+[779] See _ante_, p. 250.
+
+[780] 'Others have considered infinite space as the receptacle, or
+rather the habitation of the Almighty; but the noblest and most exalted
+way of considering this infinite space, is that of Sir Isaac Newton, who
+calls it the _sensorium_ of the Godhead. Brutes and men have their
+_sensoriola_, or little _sensoriums_, by which they apprehend the
+presence, and perceive the actions, of a few objects that lie contiguous
+to them. Their knowledge and observation turn within a very narrow
+circle. But as God Almighty cannot but perceive and know everything in
+which he resides, infinite space gives room to infinite knowledge, and
+is, as it were, an organ to Omniscience.' Addison, _The Spectator_,
+No. 565.
+
+[781] 'Le célèbre philosophe Leibnitz ... attaqua ces expressions du
+philosophe anglais, dans une lettre qu'il écrivit en 1715 à la feue
+reine d'Angleterre, épouse de George II. Cette princesse, digne d'être
+en commerce avec Leibnitz et Newton, engagea une dispute reglée par
+lettres entre les deux parties. Mais Newton, ennemi de toute dispute et
+avare de son temps, laissa le docteur Clarke, son disciple en physique,
+et pour le moins son égal en métaphysique, entrer pour lui dans la lice.
+La dispute roula sur presque toutes les idées métaphysiques de Newton,
+et c'est peut-être le plus beau monument que nous ayons des combats
+littéraires.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxviii. 44.
+
+[782] See _ante_, iii. 248.
+
+[783] See _ante_, iv. 295, where Boswell asked Johnson 'if he would not
+have done more good if he had been more gentle.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I
+have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have always been
+repressed in my company.'
+
+[784] 'Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great learning: he is
+seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of venerable
+dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man. His conversation
+was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of his good will by
+treating a heretical writer with more regard than in his opinion a
+heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much
+censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions does not love
+to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at
+seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.
+
+[785] 'Mr. Maclean has no publick edifice for the exercise of his
+ministry, and can officiate to no greater number than a room can
+contain; and the room of a hut is not very large... The want of churches
+is not the only impediment to piety; there is likewise a want of
+ministers. A parish often contains more islands than one... All the
+provision made by the present ecclesiastical constitution for the
+inhabitants of about a hundred square miles is a prayer and sermon in a
+little room once in three weeks.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.
+
+[786]
+
+     'Our Polly is a sad slut, nor heeds
+        what we have taught her.
+      I wonder any man alive will
+        ever rear a daughter.
+      For she must have both hoods
+        and gowns, and hoops to
+        swell her pride,
+      With scarfs and stays, and
+        gloves and lace; and she
+        will have men beside;
+      And when she's drest with care
+        and cost, all-tempting, fine and gay,
+      As men should serve a cucumber,
+        she flings herself away.'
+
+Air vii.
+
+[787] See _ante_, p. 162.
+
+[788] In 1715.
+
+[789]
+
+     'When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
+      The line too labours, and the words move slow.'
+
+Pope, _Essay on Criticism_, l. 370.
+
+[790] Johnson's remark on these stones is curious as shewing that he had
+not even a glimpse of the discoveries to be made by geology. After
+saying that 'no account can be given' of the position of one of the
+stones, he continues:--'There are so many important things of which
+human knowledge can give no account, that it may be forgiven us if we
+speculate no longer on two stones in Col.' _Works_, ix. 122. See _ante_,
+ii. 468, for his censure of Brydone's 'anti-mosaical remark.'
+
+[791]
+
+     'Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella.'
+     'My Phillis me with pelted apples plies.'
+
+DRYDEN. Virgil, _Eclogues_, iii. 64.
+
+[792]
+
+     'The helpless traveller, with wild surprise,
+      Sees the dry desert all around him rise,
+      And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind dies.'
+
+_Cato_ act ii. sc. 6.
+
+[793] Johnson seems unwilling to believe this. 'I am not of opinion that
+by any surveys or land-marks its [the sand's] limits have been ever
+fixed, or its progression ascertained. If one man has confidence enough
+to say that it advances, nobody can bring any proof to support him in
+denying it.' _Works_, ix. 122. He had seen land in like manner laid
+waste north of Aberdeen; where 'the owner, when he was required to pay
+the usual tax, desired rather to resign the ground.' _Ib_. p. 15.
+
+[794] _Box_, in this sense, is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.
+
+[795] See _ante_, ii. 100, and iv. 274.
+
+[796] In the original, _Rich windows. A Long Story_, l. 7.
+
+[797] 'And this according to the philosophers is happiness.' Boswell
+says of Crabbe's poem _The Village_, that 'its sentiments as to the
+false notions of rustick happiness and rustick virtue were quite
+congenial with Johnson's own.' _Ante_, iv. 175.
+
+[798] 'This innovation was considered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle
+project of a young head, heated with English fancies; but he has now
+found that turnips will really grow, and that hungry sheep and cows will
+really eat them.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 121. 'The young laird is heir,
+perhaps, to 300 square miles of land, which, at ten shillings an acre,
+would bring him £96,000 a year. He is desirous of improving the
+agriculture of his country; and, in imitation of the Czar, travelled for
+improvement, and worked with his own hands upon a farm in
+Hertfordshire.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 168.
+
+[799] 'In more fruitful countries the removal of one only makes room for
+the succession of another; but in the Hebrides the loss of an inhabitant
+leaves a lasting vacuity; for nobody born in any other parts of the
+world will choose this country for his residence.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 93.
+
+[800] 'In 1628 Daillé wrote his celebrated book, _De l'usage des Pères_,
+or _Of the Use of the Fathers_. Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, said of it
+that he thought the author had pretty sufficiently proved they were of
+_no use_ at all.' Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. xi. 209.
+
+[801] _Enquiry after Happiness_, by Richard Lucas, D.D., 1685.
+
+[802] _Divine Dialogues_, by Henry More, D.D. See _ante_, ii. 162, note
+I.
+
+[803] By David Gregory, the second of the sixteen professors which the
+family of Gregory gave to the Universities. _Ante_, p. 48.
+
+[804] 'Johnson's landlord and next neighbour in Bolt-court.' _Ante_,
+iii. 141.
+
+[805] 'Cuper's Gardens, near the south bank of the Thames, opposite to
+Somerset House. The gardens were illuminated, and the company
+entertained by a band of music and fireworks; but this, with other
+places of the same kind, has been lately discontinued by an act that has
+reduced the number of these seats of luxury and dissipation.' Dodsley's
+_London and its Environs_, ed. 1761, ii. 209. The Act was the 25th
+George II, for 'preventing robberies and regulating places of public
+entertainment.' _Parl. Hist_. xiv. 1234.
+
+[806] 'Mr. Johnson,' according to Mr. Langton, 'used to laugh at a
+passage in Carte's _Life of the Duke of Ormond,_ where he gravely
+observes "that he was always in full dress when he went to court; too
+many being in the practice of going thither with double lapells."'
+_Boswelliana_, p. 274. The following is the passage:--'No severity of
+weather or condition of health served him for a reason of not observing
+that decorum of dress which he thought a point of respect to persons and
+places. In winter time people were allowed to come to court with
+double-breasted coats, a sort of undress. The duke would never take
+advantage of that indulgence; but let it be never so cold, he always
+came in his proper habit, and indeed the king himself always did the
+same, though too many neglected his example to make use of the liberty
+he was pleased to allow.' Carte's _Life of Ormond_, iv. 693. See _ante_,
+i. 42. It was originally published in _three_ volumes folio in 1735-6.
+
+[807] Seneca's two epigrams on Corsica are quoted in Boswell's
+_Corsica_, first edition, p. 13. Boswell, in one of his _Hypochondriacks
+(London Mag._ 1778, p. 173), says:--'For Seneca I have a double
+reverence, both for his own worth, and because he was the heathen sage
+whom my grandfather constantly studied.'
+
+[808] 'Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which
+was the mansion of the Laird till the house was built.... On the wall
+was, not long ago, a stone with an inscription, importing, that if any
+man of the clan of Maclonich shall appear before this castle, though he
+come at midnight, with a man's head in his hand, he shall there find
+safety and protection against all but the king. This is an old Highland
+treaty made upon a very memorable occasion. Maclean, the son of John
+Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, had obtained, it is
+said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands of Lochiel, forfeited,
+I suppose, by some offence against the state. Forfeited estates were not
+in those days quietly resigned; Maclean, therefore, went with an armed
+force to seize his new possessions, and, I know not for what reason,
+took his wife with him. The Camerons rose in defence of their chief, and
+a battle was fought at Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augustus now
+stands, in which Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with his
+followers, was defeated and destroyed. The lady fell into the hands of
+the conquerors, and, being found pregnant, was placed in the custody of
+Maclonich, one of a tribe or family branched from Cameron, with orders,
+if she brought a boy, to destroy him, if a girl, to spare her.
+Maclonich's wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about the same
+time at which Lady Maclean brought a boy; and Maclonich, with more
+generosity to his captive than fidelity to his trust, contrived that the
+children should be changed. Maclean, being thus preserved from death, in
+time recovered his original patrimony; and, in gratitude to his friend,
+made his castle a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think
+himself in danger; and, as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean
+took upon himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of
+Maclonich.' Johnson's _Works,_ ix. 130.
+
+[809] 'Mr. Croker tells us that the great Marquis of Montrose was
+beheaded at Edinburgh in 1650. There is not a forward boy at any school
+in England who does not know that the Marquis was hanged.' Macaulay's
+_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 357
+
+[810] It is observable that men of the first rank spelt very ill in the
+last century. In the first of these letters I have preserved the
+original spelling. BOSWELL.
+
+[811] See _ante,_ i., 127.
+
+[812] Muir-fowl is grouse. _Ante_ p. 44.
+
+[813] See ante, p. 162, note 1.
+
+[814] 'In Col only two houses pay the window tax; for only two have six
+windows, which, I suppose, are the laird's and Mr. Macsweyn's.'
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 125. 'The window tax, as it stands at present
+(January 1775)...lays a duty upon every window, which in England
+augments gradually from twopence, the lowest rate upon houses with not
+more than seven windows, to two shillings, the highest rate upon houses
+with twenty-five windows and upwards.' _Wealth of Nations,_ v. 2. 2 .1.
+The tax was first imposed in 1695, as a substitute for hearth money.
+Macaulay's _England,_ ed. 1874, vii. 271. It was abolished in 1851.
+
+[815] Thomas Carlyle was not fourteen when, one 'dark frosty November
+morning,' he set off on foot for the University at Edinburgh--a distance
+of nearly one hundred miles. Froude's _Carlyle_, i. 22.
+
+[816] _Ante_, p. 290.
+
+[817] _Of the Nature and Use of Lots: a Treatise historicall and
+theologicall._ By Thomas Gataker. London, 1619. _The Spirituall Watch,
+or Christ's Generall Watch-word._ By Thomas Gataker. London, 1619.
+
+[818] See _ante_, p. 264.
+
+[819] He visited it with the Thrales on Sept. 22, 1774, when returning
+from his tour to Wales, and with Boswell in 1776 (_ante_, ii. 451).
+
+[820] Mr. Croker says that 'this, no doubt, alludes to Jacob Bryant, the
+secretary or librarian at Blenheim, with whom Johnson had had perhaps
+some coolness now forgotten.' The supposition of the coolness seems
+needless. With so little to go upon, guessing is very hazardous.
+
+[821] Topham Beauclerk, who had married the Duke's sister, after she had
+been divorced for adultery with him from her first husband Viscount
+Bolingbroke. _Ante_, ii. 246, note 1.
+
+[822] See _post_, Dempster's Letter of Feb. 16, 1775.
+
+[823] See _ante_, ii. 340, where Johnson said that 'if he were a
+gentleman of landed property, he would turn out all his tenants who did
+not vote for the candidate whom he supported.'
+
+[824] See _ante_, iii. 378.
+
+[825] 'They have opinions which cannot be ranked with superstition,
+because they regard only natural effects. They expect better crops of
+grain by sowing their seed in the moon's increase. The moon has great
+influence in vulgar philosophy. In my memory it was a precept annually
+given in one of the English almanacks, "to kill hogs when the moon was
+increasing, and the bacon would prove the better in boiling."' Johnson's
+_Works,_ ix. 104. Bacon, in his _Natural History_(No.892) says:--'For
+the increase of moisture, the opinion received is, that seeds will grow
+soonest if they be set in the increase of the moon.'
+
+[826] The question which Johnson asked with such unusual warmth might
+have been answered, 'by sowing the bent, or couch grass.' WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[827] See _ante,_ i. 484.
+
+[828] See _ante_, i. 483.
+
+[829] It is remarkable, that Dr. Johnson should have read this account
+of some of his own peculiar habits, without saying any thing on the
+subject, which I hoped he would have done. BOSWELL. See _ante_, p. 128,
+note 2, and iv. 183, where Boswell 'observed he must have been a bold
+laugher who would have ventured to tell Dr. Johnson of any of his
+peculiarities.'
+
+[830] In this he was very unlike Swift, who, in his youth, when
+travelling in England, 'generally chose to dine with waggoners,
+hostlers, and persons of that rank; and he used to lie at night in
+houses where he found written of the door _Lodgings for a penny_. He
+delighted in scenes of low life.' Lord Orrery's _Swift_, ed. 1752,
+p. 33.
+
+[831] This is from the _Jests of Hierocles._ CROKER.
+
+[832] 'The grave a gay companion shun.' FRANCIS. Horace, 1 _Epis._
+xviii. 89.
+
+[833] Boswell in 1776 found that 'oats were much used as food in Dr.
+Johnson's own town.' _Ante_, ii. 463.
+
+[834] _Ante_, i. 294.
+
+[835] See _ante_, ii. 258.
+
+[836] 'The richness of the round steep green knolls, clothed with copse,
+and glancing with cascades, and a pleasant peep at a small fresh-water
+loch embosomed among them--the view of the bay, surrounded and guarded
+by the island of Colvay--the gliding of two or three vessels in the more
+distant Sound--and the row of the gigantic Ardnamurchan mountains
+closing the scene to the north, almost justify the eulogium of
+Sacheverell, [_post,_ p. 336] who, in 1688, declared the bay of
+Tobermory might equal any prospect in Italy.' Lockhart's _Scott,_
+iv. 338.
+
+[837] 'The saying of the old philosopher who observes, that he who wants
+least is most like the gods who want nothing, was a favourite sentence
+with Dr. Johnson, who, on his own part, required less attendance, sick
+or well, than ever I saw any human creature. Conversation was all he
+required to make him happy.' Piozzi's _Anec._ p. 275.
+
+[838] _Remarks on Several Parts of Italy_ (_ante_, ii. 346). Johnson
+(_Works_, vii. 424) says of these _Travels_:--'Of many parts it is not a
+very severe censure to say that they might have been written at home.'
+He adds that 'the book, though awhile neglected, became in time so much
+the favourite of the publick, that before it was reprinted it rose to
+five times its price.'
+
+[839] See _ante_, iii. 254, and iv. 237.
+
+[840] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 320) says of Pope that 'he had before him
+not only what his own meditation suggested, but what he had found in
+other writers that might be _accomodated_ to his present purpose.'
+Boswell's use of the word is perhaps derived, as Mr. Croker suggests,
+from _accommoder_, in the sense of _dressing up or cooking meats_. This
+word occurs in an amusing story that Boswell tells in one of his
+Hypochondriacks (_London Mag_. 1779, p. 55):--'A friend of mine told me
+that he engaged a French cook for Sir B. Keen, when ambassador in Spain,
+and when he asked the fellow if he had ever dressed any magnificent
+dinners the answer was:--"Monsieur, j'ai accommodé un dîner qui faisait
+trembler toute la France."' Scott, in _Guy Mannering_ (ed. 1860, iii.
+138), describes 'Miss Bertram's solicitude to soothe and _accommodate_
+her parent.' See _ante_, iv. 39, note 1, for '_accommodated_ the
+ladies.' To sum up, we may say with Justice Shallow:--'Accommodated! it
+comes of _accommodo_; very good; a good phrase.' 2 _Henry IV_, act
+iii. sc. 2.
+
+[841] 'Louis Moréri, né en Provence, en 1643. On ne s'attendait pas que
+l'auteur du _Pays d'amour_, et le traducteur de _Rodriguez_, entreprît
+dans sa jeunesse le premier dictionnaire de faits qu'on eût encore vu.
+Ce grand travail lui coûta la vie... Mort en 1680.' Voltaire's _Works_,
+ed. 1819, xvii. 133.
+
+[842] Johnson looked upon _Ana_ as an English word, for he gives it in
+his _Dictionary_.
+
+[843] I take leave to enter my strongest protest against this judgement.
+_Bossuet_ I hold to be one of the first luminaries of religion and
+literature. If there are who do not read him, it is full time they
+should begin. BOSWELL.
+
+[844]
+
+     Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell,
+     Revengeful cares, and sullen sorrows dwell;
+     And pale diseases, and repining age;
+     Want, fear, and famine's unresisted rage;
+     Here toils and death, and death's half-brother, sleep,
+     Forms  terrible to view their sentry keep.
+
+Dryden, _Aeneid_, vi. 273. BOSWELL. Voltaire, in his Essay _Sur les
+inconvéniens attachés à la Littérature_ (_Works_, xliii. 173),
+says:--'Enfin, après un an de refus et de négociations, votre ouvrage
+s'imprime; c'est alors qu'il faut ou assoupir les _Cerbères_ de la
+littérature ou les faire aboyer en votre faveur.' He therefore carries
+on the resemblance one step further,--
+
+'Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci Personat.' _Aeneid_, vi.
+417.
+
+[845] It was in 1763 that Boswell made Johnson's acquaintance. _Ante_,
+i. 391.
+
+[846] It is no small satisfaction to me to reflect, that Dr. Johnson
+read this, and, after being apprized of my intention, communicated to
+me, at subsequent periods, many particulars of his life, which probably
+could not otherwise have been preserved. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 26.
+
+[847] Though Mull is, as Johnson says, the third island of the Hebrides
+in extent, there was no post there. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 170.
+
+[848] This observation is very just. The time for the Hebrides was too
+late by a month or six weeks. I have heard those who remembered their
+tour express surprise they were not drowned. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[849] _ The Charmer, a Collection of Songs Scotch and English._
+Edinburgh, 1749.
+
+[850] By Thomas Willis, M.D. It was published in 1672. 'In this work he
+maintains that the soul of brutes is like the vital principle in man,
+that it is corporeal in its nature and perishes with the body. Although
+the book was dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, his orthodoxy, a
+matter that Willis regarded much, was called in question.' Knight's
+_Eng. Cyclo_. vi. 741. Burnet speaks of him as 'Willis, the great
+physician.' _History of his Own Time_, ed. 1818, i. 254. See _Wood's
+Athenae_, iii. 1048.
+
+[851] See _ante_, ii. 409 and iii. 242, where he said:--'Had I learnt to
+fiddle, I should have done nothing else.'
+
+[852] _Ante_, p. 277.
+
+[853] _Ante_, p. 181.
+
+[854] Mr. Langton thinks this must have been the hasty expression of a
+splenetick moment, as he has heard Dr. Johnson speak of Mr. Spence's
+judgment in criticism with so high a degree of respect, as to shew that
+this was not his settled opinion of him. Let me add that, in the preface
+to the _Preceptor_, he recommends Spence's _Essay on Papers Odyssey_,
+and that his admirable _Lives of the English Poets_ are much enriched by
+Spence's Anecdotes of Pope. BOSWELL. For the _Preceptor_ see _ante_, i.
+192, and Johnson's _Works_, v. 240. Johnson, in his _Life of Pope (ib_.
+viii. 274), speaks of Spence as 'a man whose learning was not very
+great, and whose mind was not very powerful. His criticism, however, was
+commonly just; what he thought he thought rightly; and his remarks were
+recommended by his coolness and candour.' See _ante_, iv. 9, 63.
+
+[855] 'She was the only interpreter of Erse poetry that I could ever
+find.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 134. See _ante_, p. 241.
+
+[856] 'After a journey difficult and tedious, over rocks naked and
+valleys untracked, through a country of barrenness and solitude, we
+came, almost in the dark, to the sea-side, weary and dejected, having
+met with nothing but waters falling from the mountains that could raise
+any image of delight.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 170. 'It is natural, in
+traversing this gloom of desolation, to inquire, whether something may
+not be done to give nature a more cheerful face.' Johnson's _Works_,
+ix. 136.
+
+[857] _Ante_, p. 19.
+
+[858] See _ante_, i. 521.
+
+[859] See _ante_, p. 212.
+
+[860] Sir William Blackstone says, in his _Commentaries_, that 'he
+cannot find that ever this custom prevailed in England;' and therefore
+he is of opinion that it could not have given rise to _Borough-English_.
+BOSWELL. 'I cannot learn that ever this custom prevailed in England,
+though it certainly did in Scotland (under the name of _mercketa_ or
+_marcheta_), till abolished by Malcolm III.' _Commentaries_, ed. 1778,
+ii. 83. Sir H. Maine, in his _Early History of Institutions_, p. 222,
+writes:--'Other authors, as Blackstone tells us, explained it ["Borough
+English"] by a supposed right of the Seigneur or lord, now very
+generally regarded as apocryphal, which raised a presumption of the
+eldest son's illegitimacy.'
+
+[861] 'Macquarry was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a
+crown, by that inattention to the uncertain proportion between the value
+and the denomination of money, which has brought much disorder into
+Europe. A sheep has always the same power of supplying human wants, but
+a crown will bring, at one time more, at another less'. Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 139.
+
+[862] 'The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited. We were
+driven once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where,
+after a very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found
+an elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets. The
+accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in
+the mire. The bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain
+had softened to a puddle.' _Works_, ix. 98.
+
+[863] Inchkenneth is a most beautiful little islet, of the most verdant
+green, while all the neighbouring shore of Greban, as well as the large
+islands of Colinsay and Ulva, are as black as heath and moss can make
+them. But Ulva has a good anchorage, and Inchkenneth is surrounded by
+shoals. It is now uninhabited. The ruins of the huts, in which Dr.
+Johnson was received by Sir Allan M'Lean, were still to be seen, and
+some tatters of the paper hangings were to be seen on the walls. Sir G.
+O. Paul was at Inchkenneth with the same party of which I was a member.
+[See Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iii. 285.] He seemed to suspect many
+of the Highland tales which he heard, but he showed most incredulity on
+the subject of Johnson's having been entertained in the wretched huts of
+which we saw the ruins. He took me aside, and conjured me to tell him
+the truth of the matter. 'This Sir Allan,' said he, 'was he a _regular
+baronet_, or was his title such a traditional one as you find in
+Ireland?' I assured my excellent acquaintance that, 'for my own part, I
+would have paid more respect to a knight of Kerry, or knight of Glynn;
+yet Sir Allan M'Lean was a _regular baronet_ by patent;' and, having
+giving him this information, I took the liberty of asking him, in
+return, whether he would not in conscience prefer the worst cell in the
+jail at Gloucester (which he had been very active in overlooking while
+the building was going on) to those exposed hovels where Johnson had
+been entertained by rank and beauty. He looked round the little islet,
+and allowed Sir Allan had some advantage in exercising ground; but in
+other respects he thought the compulsory tenants of Gloucester had
+greatly the advantage. Such was his opinion of a place, concerning which
+Johnson has recorded that 'it wanted little which palaces could afford.'
+WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[864] 'Sir Allan's affairs are in disorder by the fault of his
+ancestors, and while he forms some scheme for retrieving them he has
+retreated hither.' _Piozzi Letters_ i. 172.
+
+[865] By Francis Gastrell, Bishop of Chester, published in 1707.
+
+[866] _Travels through different cities of Germany, &c.,_, by Alexander
+Drummond. Horace Walpole, on April 24, 1754 (_Letters_, ii. 381),
+mentions 'a very foolish vulgar book of travels, lately published by one
+Drummond, consul at Aleppo.'
+
+[867] _ Physico-Theology; or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes
+of God from his Works of Creation._ By William Derham, D.D., 1713.
+Voltaire, in _Micromégas,_ ch. I, speaking of 'l'illustre vicaire
+Derham' says:--'Malheureusement, lui et ses imitateurs se trompent
+souvent dans l'exposition de ces merveilles; ils s'extasient sur la
+sagesse qui se montre dans l'ordre d'un phénomène et on découvre que ce
+phénomène est tout différent de ce qu'ils ont supposé; alors c'est ce
+nouvel ordre qui leur paraît un chef d'oeuvre de sagesse.'
+
+[868] This work was published in 1774. Johnson said on March 20, 1776
+(_ante_, ii. 447), 'that he believed Campbell's disappointment on
+account of the bad success of that work had killed him.'
+
+[869] Johnson said of Campbell:--'I am afraid he has not been in the
+inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without
+pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles.' _Ante_,
+i. 418.
+
+[870] _New horse-shoeing Husbandry_, by Jethro Tull, 1733.
+
+[871] 'He owned he sometimes talked for victory.' _Ante_, iv. 111, and
+v. 17.
+
+[872] 'They said that a great family had a _bard_ and a _senachi_, who
+were the poet and historian of the house; and an old gentleman told me
+that he remembered one of each. Here was a dawn of intelligence....
+Another conversation informed me that the same man was both bard and
+senachi. This variation discouraged me.... Soon after I was told by a
+gentleman, who is generally acknowledged the greatest master of
+Hebridian antiquities, that there had, indeed, once been both bards and
+senachies; and that _senachi_ signified _the man of talk_, or of
+conversation; but that neither bard nor senachi had existed for some
+centuries.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 109.
+
+[873] See _ante_, iii. 41, 327
+
+[874] 'Towards evening Sir Allan told us that Sunday never passed over
+him like another day. One of the ladies read, and read very well, the
+evening service;--"and Paradise was opened in the wild."' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 173. The quotation is from Pope's _Eloisa to Abelard_,
+l. 134:--
+
+     'You raised these hallowed walls; the desert smil'd,
+      And Paradise was open'd in the wild.'
+
+
+[875] He sent these verses to Boswell in 1775. _Ante_ ii. 293.
+
+[876] Boswell wrote to Johnson on Feb. 2, 1775, (_ante_, ii. 295):--'Lord
+Hailes bids me tell you he doubts whether--
+
+     "Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces,"
+
+be according to the rubrick, but that is your concern; for you know, he
+is a Presbyterian.'
+
+[877] In Johnson's _Works_, i. 167, these lines are given with
+amendments and additions, mostly made by Johnson, but some, Mr. Croker
+believes, by Mr. Langton. In the following copy the variations are
+marked in italics.
+
+         INSULA KENNETHI, INTER HEBRIDAS.
+     Parva quidem regio sed religione priorum
+       _Clara_ Caledonias panditur inter aquas.
+     Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse feroces
+        Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos.
+     Huc ego delatus placido per caerula cursu,
+       Scire _locus_ volui quid daret _iste_ novi.
+     Illic Leniades humili regnabat in aula,
+       Leniades, magnis nobilitatus avis.
+     Una duas _cepit_ casa cum genitore puellas,
+       Quas Amor undarum _crederet_ esse deas.
+     _Nec_ tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris,
+       Accola Danubii qualia saevus habet.
+     Mollia non _desunt_ vacuae solatia vitae
+       Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram.
+     _Fulserat_ illa dies, legis _qua_ docta supernae
+       Spes hominum _et_ curas _gens_ procul esse jubet.
+     _Ut precibus justas avertat numinis iras,
+       Et summi accendat pectus amore boni._
+     Ponti inter strepitus _non sacri_ munera cultus
+       Cessarunt, pietas hic quoque cura fuit.
+     _Nil opus est oeris sacra de turre sonantis
+       Admonitu, ipsa suas nunciat hora vices._
+     Quid, quod sacrifici versavit foemina libros?
+       _Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris._
+     Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est,
+       Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor.
+
+Mr. Croker says of the third line from the end, that in a copy of these
+verses in Johnson's own hand which he had seen, 'Johnson had
+first written
+
+     _Sunt pro legitimis pectora pura sacris._
+
+He then wrote
+
+     _Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces._
+
+That line was erased, and the line as it stands in the _Works_ is
+substituted in Mr. Langton's hand, as is also an alteration in the 16th
+line, _velit_ into _jubet_.' _Jubet_ however is in the copy as printed
+by Boswell. Mr. Langton edited some, if not all, of Johnson's Latin
+poems. (_Ante_, iv. 384.)
+
+[878] 'Boswell, who is very pious, went into the chapel at night to
+perform his devotions, but came back in haste for fear of spectres.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 173.
+
+[879] _Ante_ p. 169.
+
+[880] John Gerves, or John the Giant, of whom Dr. Johnson relates a
+curious story; _Works_ ix. 119.
+
+[881] Lord Chatham in the House of Lords, on Nov. 22, 1770, speaking of
+'the honest, industrious tradesman, who holds the middle rank, and has
+given repeated proofs that he prefers law and liberty to gold,' had
+said:--'I love that class of men. Much less would I be thought to
+reflect upon the fair merchant, whose liberal commerce is the prime
+source of national wealth. I esteem his occupation, and respect his
+character.' _Parl. Hist._ xvi. 1107.
+
+[882] See _ante_, iii. 382.
+
+[883] He was born in Nordland in Sweden, in 1736. In 1768 he and Mr.
+Banks accompanied Captain Cook in his first voyage round the world. He
+died in 1782. Knight's _Eng. Cyclo._ v. 578. Miss Burney wrote of him in
+1780:--'My father has very exactly named him, in calling him a
+philosophical gossip.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 305. Horace Walpole
+the same year, just after the Gordon Riots, wrote (_Letters_, vii.
+403):--'Who is secure against Jack Straw and a whirlwind? How I
+abominate Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who routed the poor Otaheitans out
+of the centre of the ocean, and carried our abominable passions amongst
+them! not even that poor little speck could escape European
+restlessness.' See _ante_ ii. 148.
+
+[884] Boswell tells this story again, _ante_, ii. 299. Mrs. Piozzi's
+account (_Anec_. p. 114) is evidently so inaccurate that it does not
+deserve attention; she herself admits that Beauclerk was truthful. In a
+marginal note on Wraxall's _Memoirs_, she says:--'Topham Beauclerk
+(wicked and profligate as he wished to be accounted), was yet a man of
+very strict veracity. Oh Lord! how I did hate that horrid Beauclerk!'
+Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 348. Johnson testified to 'the correctness of
+Beauclerk's memory and the fidelity of his narrative.' _Ante_, ii. 405.
+
+[885] 'Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has for some
+time past resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education,
+and leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions with
+the full power of a Highland chief.' _Johnson's Works_, ix. 117.
+
+[886] This is not spoken of hare-coursing, where the game is taken or
+lost before the dog gets out of wind; but in chasing deer with the great
+Highland greyhound, Col's exploit is feasible enough. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[887] See _ante_, pp. 45, III, for Monboddo's notion.
+
+[888] Mme. Riccoboni in 1767 wrote to Garrick of the French:--'Un
+mensonge grossier les révolte. Si on voulait leur persuader que les
+Anglais vivent de grenouilles, meurent de faim, que leurs femmes sont
+barbouillées, et jurent par toutes les lettres de l'alphabet, ils
+leveraient les épaules, et s'écriraient, _quel sot ose écrire ces
+misères-là?_ mais à Londres, diantre cela prend!' _Garrick Corres_.
+ii. 524.
+
+[889] Just opposite to M'Quarrie's house the boat was swamped by the
+intoxication of the sailors, who had partaken too largely of M'Quarrie's
+wonted hospitality. WALTER SCOTT. Johnson wrote from Lichfield on June
+13, 1775;--'There is great lamentation here for the death of Col. Lucy
+[Miss Porter] is of opinion that he was wonderfully handsome.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 235. See ante, ii. 287.
+
+[890] Iona.
+
+[891] See _ante_, p. 237.
+
+[892] See _ante_, 111. 229.
+
+[893] Sir James Mackintosh says (_Life_, ii. 257):--'Dr. Johnson visited
+Iona without looking at Staffa, which lay in sight, with that
+indifference to natural objects, either of taste or scientific
+curiosity, which characterised him.' This is a fair enough sample of
+much of the criticism under which Johnson's reputation has suffered.
+
+[894] Smollett in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Sept. 3) describes a
+Highland funeral. 'Our entertainer seemed to think it a disparagement to
+his family that not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk
+upon such a solemn occasion.
+
+[895] 'We then entered the boat again; the night came upon us; the wind
+rose; the sea swelled; and Boswell desired to be set on dry ground: we,
+however, pursued our navigation, and passed by several little islands in
+the silent solemnity of faint moon-shine, seeing little, and hearing
+only the wind and water.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 176.
+
+[896] Cicero _De Finibus_, ii. 32.
+
+[897] I have lately observed that this thought has been elegantly
+expressed by Cowley:--
+
+     'Things which offend when present, and affright,
+      In  memory, well painted, move delight.'
+
+BOSWELL.
+
+The lines are found in the _Ode upon His Majesty's Restoration and
+Return_, stanza 12. They may have been suggested by Virgil's lines--
+
+     'Revocate animos, maestumque timorem
+      Mittite; forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.'
+
+Aeneid, i. 202.
+
+[898] Had our Tour produced nothing else but this sublime passage, the
+world must have acknowledged that it was not made in vain. The present
+respectable President of the Royal Society was so much struck on reading
+it, that he clasped his hands together, and remained for some time in an
+attitude of silent admiration, BOSWELL. Boswell again quotes this
+passage (which is found in Johnson's _Works_, ix. 145), _ante_, iii.
+173. The President was Sir Joseph Banks, Johnson says in _Rasselas_, ch.
+xi:--'That the supreme being may be more easily propitiated in one place
+than in another is the dream of idle superstition; but that some places
+may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon manner is an opinion which
+hourly experience will justify. He who supposes that his vices may be
+more successfully combated in Palestine will, perhaps, find himself
+mistaken, yet he may go thither without folly; he who thinks they will
+be more freely pardoned dishonours at once his reason and religion.'
+
+[899] 'Sir Allan went to the headman of the island, whom fame, but fame
+delights in amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty pounds.
+He was, perhaps, proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our
+entertainment; however he soon produced more provision than men not
+luxurious require.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 146.
+
+[900] _An Account of the Isle of Man. With a voyage to I-Columb-Kill_.
+By W. Sacheverell, Esq., late Governour of Man. 1702.
+
+[901] 'He that surveys it [the church-yard] attended by an insular
+antiquary may be told where the kings of many nations are buried, and if
+he loves to soothe his imagination with the thoughts that naturally rise
+in places where the great and the powerful lie mingled with the dust,
+let him listen in submissive silence; for if he asks any questions his
+delight is at an end.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 148.
+
+[902] On quitting the island Johnson wrote: 'We now left those
+illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much affected, nor would I
+willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion.'
+_Ib_. p. 150.
+
+[903] Psalm xc. 4.
+
+[904] Boswell wrote on Nov. 9, 1767:--'I am always for fixing some
+period for my perfection as far as possible. Let it be when my account
+of Corsica is published; I shall then have a character which I must
+support.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 122. Five weeks later he wrote:--'I
+have been as wild as ever;' and then comes a passage which the Editor
+has thought it needful to suppress. _Ib_.p.128.
+
+[905] Boswell here speaks as an Englishman. He should have written '_a_
+M'Ginnis.' See _ante_, p. 135, note 3.
+
+[906] 'The fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The
+inhabitants are remarkably gross, and remarkably neglected; I know not
+if they are visited by any minister. The island, which was once the
+metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor
+temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not
+one that can write or read.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 149. Scott, who
+visited it in 1810, writes:--'There are many monuments of singular
+curiosity, forming a strange contrast to the squalid and dejected
+poverty of the present inhabitants.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iii.
+285. In 1814, on a second visit, he writes:--'Iona, the last time I saw
+it, seemed to me to contain the most wretched people I had anywhere
+seen. But either they have got better since I was here, or my eyes,
+familiarized with the wretchedness of Zetland and the Harris, are less
+shocked with that of Iona.' He found a schoolmaster there. _Ib_.
+iv. 324.
+
+[907] Johnson's Jacobite friend, Dr. King (_ante_, i. 279), says of
+Pulteney, on his being made Earl of Bath:--'He deserted the cause of
+his country; he betrayed his friends and adherents; he ruined his
+character, and from a most glorious eminence sunk down to a degree of
+contempt. The first time Sir Robert (who was now Earl of Orford) met him
+in the House of Lords, he threw out this reproach:--"My Lord Bath, you
+and I are now two as insignificant men as any in England." In which he
+spoke the truth of my Lord Bath, but not of himself. For my Lord Orford
+was consulted by the ministers to the last day of his life.' King's
+_Anec_. p. 43.
+
+[908] See _ante_, i. 431, and iii. 326.
+
+[909] 'Sir Robert Walpole detested war. This made Dr. Johnson say of
+him, "He was the best minister this country ever had, as, if _we_ would
+have let him (he speaks of his own violent faction), he would have kept
+the country in perpetual peace."' Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 554. See
+_ante_, i. 131.
+
+[910] See _ante_, iii. Appendix C.
+
+[911] I think it incumbent on me to make some observation on this strong
+satirical sally on my classical companion, Mr. Wilkes. Reporting it
+lately from memory, in his presence, I expressed it thus:--'They knew he
+would rob their shops, _if he durst;_ they knew he would debauch their
+daughters, _if he could;_' which, according to the French phrase, may be
+said _renchérir_ on Dr. Johnson; but on looking into my Journal, I found
+it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr. Wilkes
+received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire.
+Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more
+than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Journal,) are
+too fond of a _bon mot_, not to relish it, though we should be ourselves
+the object of it.
+
+Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a
+subsequent period, he _was_ elected chief magistrate of London [in
+1774], and discharged the duties of that high office with great honour
+to himself, and advantage to the city. Some years before Dr. Johnson
+died, I was fortunate enough to bring him and Mr. Wilkes together; the
+consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy and not
+unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure in
+relating at large in my _Life of Dr. Johnson_. BOSWELL. In the copy of
+Boswell's _Letter to the People of Scotland_ in the British Museum is
+entered in Boswell's own hand--
+
+     'Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est.
+
+To John Wilkes, Esq.: as pleasant a companion as ever lived. From the
+Author.
+
+             --will my Wilkes retreat,
+     And see, once seen before, that ancient seat, etc.'
+
+See _ante_, iii. 64, 183; iv. 101, 224, note 2.
+
+[912] See _ante_, iv. 199.
+
+[913] Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy
+desolation that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally
+terrifick.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 150.
+
+[914] Johnson describes Lochbuy as 'a true Highland laird, rough and
+haughty, and tenacious of his dignity: who, hearing my name, inquired
+whether I was of the Johnstons of Glencoe (_sic_) or of Ardnamurchan.'
+_Ib_.
+
+[915] Boswell totally misapprehended _Lochbuy's_ meaning. There are two
+septs of the powerful clan of M'Donaid, who are called Mac-Ian, that is
+_John's-son_; and as Highlanders often translate their names when they
+go to the Lowlands,--as Gregor-son for Mac-Gregor, Farquhar-son for
+Mac-Farquhar,--_Lochbuy_ supposed that Dr. Johnson might be one of the
+Mac-Ians of Ardnamurchan, or of Glencro. Boswell's explanation was
+nothing to the purpose. The _Johnstons_ are a clan distinguished in
+Scottish _border_ history, and as brave as any _Highland_ clan that ever
+wore brogues; but they lay entirely out of _Lochbuy's_ knowledge--nor
+was he thinking of _them_. WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[916] This maxim, however, has been controverted. See Blackstone's
+_Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. 291; and the authorities there quoted.
+BOSWELL. 'Blackstone says:--From these loose authorities, which
+Fitzherbert does not hesitate to reject as being contrary to reason, the
+maxim that a man shall not stultify himself hath been handed down as
+settled law; though later opinions, feeling the inconvenience of the
+rule, have in many points endeavoured to restrain it.' _Ib_. p. 292.
+
+[917] Begging pardon of the Doctor and his conductor, I have often seen
+and partaken of cold sheep's head at as good breakfast-tables as ever
+they sat at. This protest is something in the manner of the late
+Culrossie, who fought a duel for the honour of Aberdeen butter. I have
+passed over all the Doctor's other reproaches upon Scotland, but the
+sheep's head I will defend _totis viribus_. Dr. Johnson himself must
+have forgiven my zeal on this occasion; for if, as he says, _dinner_ be
+the thing of which a man thinks _oftenest during the day, breakfast_
+must be that of which he thinks _first in the morning_. WALTER SCOTT. I
+do not know where Johnson says this. Perhaps Scott was thinking of a
+passage in Mrs. Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 149, where she writes that he said:
+'A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of any thing than he does of
+his dinner.'
+
+[918] A horrible place it was. Johnson describes it (_Works_, ix. 152)
+as 'a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, and arched on the
+top, into which the descent is through a narrow door, by a ladder or
+a rope.'
+
+[919] See _ante_, p. 177.
+
+[920] Sir Allan M'Lean, like many Highland chiefs, was embarrassed in
+his private affairs, and exposed to unpleasant solicitations from
+attorneys, called, in Scotland, _writers_ (which indeed was the chief
+motive of his retiring to Inchkenneth). Upon one occasion he made a
+visit to a friend, then residing at Carron lodge, on the banks of the
+Carron, where the banks of that river are studded with pretty villas:
+Sir Allan, admiring the landscape, asked his friend, whom that handsome
+seat belonged to. 'M---, the writer to the signet,' was the reply.
+'Umph!' said Sir Allan, but not with an accent of assent, 'I mean that
+other house.' 'Oh ! that belongs to a very honest fellow Jamie---, also
+a writer to the signet.' 'Umph!' said the Highland chief of M'Lean with
+more emphasis than before, 'And yon smaller house?' 'That belongs to a
+Stirling man; I forget his name, but I am sure he is a writer too;
+for---.' Sir Allan who had recoiled a quarter of a circle backward at
+every response, now wheeled the circle entire and turned his back on the
+landscape, saying, 'My good friend, I must own you have a pretty
+situation here; but d--n your neighbourhood.' WALTER SCOTT.
+
+[921] Loch Awe.
+
+[922] 'Pope's talent lay remarkably in what one may naturally enough
+term the condensation of thoughts. I think no other English poet ever
+brought so much sense into the same number of lines with equal
+smoothness, ease, and poetical beauty. Let him who doubts of this peruse
+his _Essay on Man_ with attention.' Shenstone's _Essays on Men and
+Manners. [Works_, 4th edit. ii. 159.] 'He [Gray] approved an observation
+of Shenstone, that "Pope had the art of condensing a thought."'
+Nicholls' _Reminiscences of Gray_, p. 37. And Swift [in his _Lines on
+the death of Dr. Swift_], himself a great condenser, says--
+
+     'In Pope I cannot read a line
+      But with a sigh I wish it mine;
+      When he can in one couplet fix
+      More sense than I can do in six.'
+
+P. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+[923] He is described by Walpole in his _Letters_, viii. 5.
+
+[924] 'The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go,
+though not so dark but that we could discern the cataracts which poured
+down the hills on one side, and fell into one general channel, that ran
+with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy,
+and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the
+cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the
+rough musick of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before.'
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 155. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'All the rougher
+powers of nature except thunder were in motion, but there was no danger.
+I should have been sorry to have missed any of the inconveniencies, to
+have had more light or less rain, for their co-operation crowded the
+scene and filled the mind.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 177.
+
+[925] I never tasted whiskey except once for experiment at the inn in
+Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It
+was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste
+or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do
+I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.' Johnson's _Works_,
+ix. 52. Smollett, medical man though he was, looked upon whisky as
+anything but poison. 'I am told that it is given with great success to
+infants, as a cordial in the confluent small-pox.' _Humphry Clinker_.
+Letter of Sept. 3.
+
+[926] _Regale_ in this sense is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. It was,
+however, a favourite word at this time. Thus, Mrs. Piozzi, in her
+_Journey through France_, ii. 297, says:--'A large dish of hot chocolate
+thickened with bread and cream is a common afternoon's regale here.'
+Miss Burney often uses the word.
+
+[927] Boswell, in answering Garrick's letter seven months later,
+improved on this comparison. 'It was,' he writes, 'a pine-apple of the
+finest flavour, which had a high zest indeed among the heath-covered
+mountains of Scotia.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 621.
+
+[928] See _ante_, p. 115.
+
+[929] See _ante_, i. 97.
+
+[930] 'Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane.' _Macbeth_, act v. sc.
+8.
+
+[931]
+
+     'From his first entrance to the closing scene
+      Let him one equal character maintain.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet._ l. 126.
+
+[932] I took the liberty of giving this familiar appellation to my
+celebrated friend, to bring in a more lively manner to his remembrance
+the period when he was Dr. Johnson's pupil. BOSWELL.
+
+[933] See _ante_, p. 129.
+
+[934] Boswell is here quoting the Preface to the third edition of his
+_Corsica_:--'Whatever clouds may overcast my days, I can now walk here
+among the rocks and woods of my ancestors, with an agreeable
+consciousness that I have done something worthy.'
+
+[935] See _ante_, i. 148, and _post_, Nov. 21.
+
+[936] I have suppressed my friend's name from an apprehension of
+wounding his sensibility; but I would not withhold from my readers a
+passage which shews Mr. Garrick's mode of writing as the Manager of a
+Theatre, and contains a pleasing trait of his domestick life. His
+judgment of dramatick pieces, so far as concerns their exhibition on the
+stage, must be allowed to have considerable weight. But from the effect
+which a perusal of the tragedy here condemned had upon myself, and from
+the opinions of some eminent criticks, I venture to pronounce that it
+has much poetical merit; and its authour has distinguished himself by
+several performances which shew that the epithet _poetaster_ was, in the
+present instance, much misapplied. BOSWELL. Johnson mentioned this
+quarrel between Garrick and the poet on March 25, 1773 (_Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 80). 'M---- is preparing a whole pamphlet against G----,
+and G---- is, I suppose, collecting materials to confute M----.' M----
+was Mickle, the translator of the _Lusiad_ and author of the _Ballad of
+Cumnor Hall_ (_ante_, ii. 182). Had it not been for this 'poetaster,'
+_Kenilworth_ might never have been written. Scott, in the preface, tells
+how 'the first stanza of _Cunmor Hall_ had a peculiar species of
+enchantment for his youthful ear, the force of which is not even now
+entirely spent.' The play that was refused was the _Siege of
+Marseilles_. Ever since the success of Hughes's _Siege of Damascus_ 'a
+siege had become a popular title' (_ante_, iii. 259, note 1).
+
+[937] She could only have been away for the day; for in 1776 Garrick
+wrote:--'As I have not left Mrs. Garrick one day since we were married,
+near twenty-eight years, I cannot now leave her.' _Garrick Corres_.
+ii. 150.
+
+[938] Dr. Morell once entered the school-room at Winchester College, 'in
+which some junior boys were writing their exercises, one of whom, struck
+no less with his air and manner than with the questions he put to them,
+whispered to his school-fellows, "Is he not a fine old Grecian?" The
+Doctor, overhearing this, turned hastily round and exclaimed, "I am
+indeed an old Grecian, my little man. Did you never see my head before
+my Thesaurus?"' The Praepostors, learning the dignity of their visitor,
+in a most respectful manner showed him the College. Wooll's _Life of Dr.
+Warton_, p. 329. Mason writing to Horace Walpole about some odes,
+says:--'They are so lopped and mangled, that they are worse now than the
+productions of Handel's poet, Dr. Morell.' Walpole's _Letters_, v. 420.
+Morell compiled the words for Handel's _Oratorios_.
+
+[939] _Ante_, i. 148.
+
+[940] I doubt whether any other instance can be found of _love_ being
+sent to Johnson.
+
+[941] The passage begins:--'A _servant_ or two from a revering distance
+cast many a wishful look, and condole their honoured master in the
+language of sighs.' Hervey's _Meditations_, ed. 1748, i. 40.
+
+[942] _Ib_. ii. 84.
+
+[943] The _Meditation_ was perhaps partly suggested by Swift's
+_Meditation upon a Broomstick_. Swift's _Works_ (1803), iii. 275.
+
+[944] Thomas Burnet of the Charterhouse, in his _Sacred Theory of the
+Earth_, ed. 1722, i. 85.
+
+[945] See _ante_, i. 476, and ii. 73.
+
+[946] Elizabeth Gunning, celebrated (like her sister, Lady Coventry) for
+her personal charms, had been previously Duchess of Hamilton, and was
+mother of Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, the competitor for the Douglas
+property with the late Lord Douglas: she was, of course, prejudiced
+against Boswell, who had shewn all the bustling importance of his
+character in the Douglas cause, and it was said, I know not on what
+authority, that he headed the mob which broke the windows of some of the
+judges, and of Lord Auchinleck, his father, in particular. WALTER SCOTT.
+See _ante_, ii. 50.
+
+[947] See _ante_, i. 408, and ii. 329.
+
+[948] She married the Earl of Derby, and was the great-grandmother of
+the present Earl. Burke's _Peerage_.
+
+[949] See _ante_, iv. 248.
+
+[950] Lord Macaulay's grandfather, Trevelyan's _Macaulay_, i. 6.
+
+[951] See _ante_, p. 118.
+
+[952] On reflection, at the distance of several years, I wonder that my
+venerable fellow-traveller should have read this passage without
+censuring my levity. BOSWELL.
+
+[953] _Ante_, p. 151.
+
+[954] See _ante_, i. 240.
+
+[955] As this book is now become very scarce, I shall subjoin the title,
+which is curious:--The Doctrines of a Middle State between Death and
+the Resurrection: Of Prayers for the Dead: And the Necessity of
+Purification; plainly proved from the holy Scriptures, and the Writings
+of the Fathers of the Primitive Church: and acknowledged by several
+learned Fathers and Great Divines of the Church of England and others
+since the Reformation. To which is added, an Appendix concerning the
+Descent of the Soul of Christ into Hell, while his Body lay in the
+Grave. Together with the Judgment of the Reverend Dr. Hickes concerning
+this Book, so far as relates to a Middle State, particular Judgment, and
+Prayers for the Dead as it appeared in the first Edition. 'And a
+Manuscript of the Right Reverend Bishop Overall upon the Subject of a
+Middle State, and never before printed. Also, a Preservative against
+several of the Errors of the Roman Church, in six small Treatises. By
+the Honourable Archibald Campbell. Folio, 1721. BOSWELL.
+
+[956] The release gained for him by Lord Townshend must have been from
+his last imprisonment after the accession of George I; for, as Mr.
+Croker points out, Townshend was not Secretary of State till 1714.
+
+[957] See _ante_, iv. 286.
+
+[958] He was the grandson of the first Marquis, who was beheaded by
+Charles II in 1661, and nephew of the ninth Earl, who was beheaded by
+James II in 1685. Burke's _Peerage_. He died on June 15, 1744, according
+to the _Gent. Mag._ xiv. 339; where he is described as 'the consecrated
+Archbishop of St. Andrews.' See _ante_, ii. 216.
+
+[959] George Hickes, 1642-1715. A non-juror, consecrated in 1693
+suffragan bishop of Thetford by three of the deprived non-juror bishops.
+Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xvii. 450. Burnet (_Hist. of his own Time_, iv.
+303) describes him as 'an ill-tempered man, who was now [1712] at the
+head of the Jacobite party, and who had in several books promoted a
+notion, that there was a proper sacrifice made in the Eucharist.'
+Boswell mentions him, _ante_, iv. 287.
+
+[960] See _ante_, ii. 458.
+
+[961] This must be a mistake for _He died_.
+
+[962] 'It is generally supposed that life is longer in places where
+there are few opportunities of luxury; but I found no instance here of
+extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes like
+a citizen at a turtle feast. He is, indeed, seldom incommoded by
+corpulence, Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of
+himself, but he escapes no other injury of time.' Johnson's Works,
+ix. 81.
+
+[963] Lady Lucy Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose, and
+wife of Mr. Douglas, the successful claimant: she died in 1780, whence
+Boswell calls her '_poor_ Lady Lucy.' CROKER
+
+[964] Her first husband was the sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. On
+his death she refused the Duke of Bridgewater. She was the mother of
+four dukes--two of Hamilton and two of Argyle. Her sister married the
+Earl of Coventry. Walpole's _Letters_, ii. 259, note. Walpole, writing
+on Oct. 9, 1791, says that their story was amazing. 'The two beautiful
+sisters were going on the stage, when they were at once exalted almost
+as high as they could be, were Countessed and double-Duchessed.' _Ib_.
+ix. 358. Their maiden name was Gunning. The Duchess of Argyle was alive
+when Boswell published his _Journal_.
+
+[965] See _ante_, iv. 397, and v. 210. It was Lord Macaulay's
+grandfather who was thus reprimanded. Mr. Trevelyan remarks (_Life of
+Macaulay_, i. 7), 'When we think what well-known ground this [subject]
+was to Lord Macaulay, it is impossible to suppress a wish that the great
+talker had been at hand to avenge his grandfather.' The result might
+well have been, however, that the great talker would have been reduced
+to silence--one of those brilliant flashes of silence for which Sydney
+Smith longed, but longed in vain.
+
+[966] See _ante_, ii. 264, note 2.
+
+[967] See _ante_, iv. 8, for his use of 'O brave!'
+
+[968] Having mentioned, more than once, that my _Journal_ was perused by
+Dr. Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the
+last paragraph which he read. BOSWELL. He began to read it on August 18
+(_ante_, p. 58, note 2).
+
+[969] See _ante_, ii. 320.
+
+[970] Act i. sc. 1. The best known passage in _Douglas_ is the speech
+beginning 'My name is Norval.' Act ii. The play affords a few quotations
+more or less known, as:--
+
+             'I found myself
+     As women wish to be who love their lords.'
+     Act i.
+
+             'He seldom errs
+     Who thinks the worse he can of womankind.'
+     Act iii.
+
+    'Honour, sole judge and umpire of itself.'
+     Act iv.
+
+    'Unknown I die; no tongue shall speak of me.
+     Some noble spirits, judging by themselves,
+     May yet conjecture what I might have proved,
+     And think life only wanting to my fame.'
+     Act v.
+
+    'An honest guardian, arbitrator just
+     Be thou; thy station deem a sacred trust.
+     With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause;
+     In every action venerate its laws:
+     The lie suborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear,
+     Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear;
+     To forfeit honour, think the highest shame,
+     And life too dearly bought by loss of fame;
+     Nor to preserve it, with thy virtue give
+     That for which only man should wish to live.'
+
+[_Satires_, viii. 79.]
+
+For this and the other translations to which no signature is affixed, I
+am indebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in the notes,
+pp. 78 and 399. BOSWELL. Sir Walter Scott says, 'probably Dr. Hugh
+Blair.' I have little doubt that it was Malone. 'One of the best
+criticks of our age,' Boswell calls this friend in the other two
+passages. This was a compliment Boswell was likely to pay to Malone, to
+whom he dedicated this book. Malone was a versifier. See Prior's
+_Malone_, p. 463.
+
+[971] I am sorry that I was unlucky in my quotation. But notwithstanding
+the acuteness of Dr. Johnson's criticism, and the power of his ridicule,
+_The Tragedy of Douglas_ sill continues to be generally and deservedly
+admired. BOSWELL. Johnson's scorn was no doubt returned, for Dr. A.
+Carlyle (_Auto._ p. 295) says of Home:--'as John all his life had a
+thorough contempt for such as neglected his poetry, he treated all who
+approved of his works with a partiality which more than approached to
+flattery.' Carlyle tells (pp. 301-305) how Home started for London with
+his tragedy in one pocket of his great coat and his clean shirt and
+night-cap in the other, escorted on setting out by six or seven Merse
+ministers. 'Garrick, after reading his play, returned it as totally
+unfit for the stage.' It was brought out first in Edinburgh, and in the
+year 1757 in Covent Garden, where it had great success. 'This tragedy,'
+wrote Carlyle forty-five years later, 'still maintains its ground, has
+been more frequently acted, and is more popular than any tragedy in the
+English language.' _Ib._ p. 325. Hannah More recorded in 1786
+(_Memoirs_, ii. 22), 'I had a quarrel with Lord Monboddo one night
+lately. He said _Douglas_ was a better play than Shakespeare could have
+written. He was angry and I was pert. Lord Mulgrave sat spiriting me up,
+but kept out of the scrape himself, and Lord Stormont seemed to enjoy
+the debate, but was shabby enough not to help me out.'
+
+[972] See _ante_, ii. 230, note 1.
+
+[973] See _ante_, p. 318.
+
+[974] See _ante_, iii. 54
+
+[975] See _ante_, p. 356.
+
+[976] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
+
+[977] As a remarkable instance of his negligence, I remember some years
+ago to have found lying loose in his study, and without the cover, which
+contained the address, a letter to him from Lord Thurlow, to whom he had
+made an application as Chancellor, in behalf of a poor literary friend.
+It was expressed in such terms of respect for Dr. Johnson, that, in my
+zeal for his reputation, I remonstrated warmly with him on his strange
+inattention, and obtained his permission to take a copy of it; by which
+probably it has been preserved, as the original I have reason to suppose
+is lost. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 441.
+
+[978] 'The islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at
+his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns and shady thickets,
+nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 156.
+
+[979] See _ante_, i. 200, and iv. 179.
+
+[980] In these arguments he says:--'Reason and truth will prevail at
+last. The most learned of the Scottish doctors would now gladly admit a
+form of prayer, if the people would endure it. The zeal or rage of
+congregations has its different degrees. In some parishes the Lord's
+Prayer is suffered: in others it is still rejected as a form; and he
+that should make it part of his supplication would be suspected of
+heretical pravity.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 102. See _ante_, p. 121.
+
+[981] 'A very little above the source of the Leven, on the lake, stands
+the house of Cameron, belonging to Mr. Smollett, so embosomed in an oak
+wood that we did not see it till we were within fifty yards of the
+door.' _Humphry Clinker_, Letter of Aug. 28.
+
+[982] Boswell himself was at times one of 'those absurd visionaries.'
+_Ante_, ii. 73.
+
+[983] See _ante_, p. 117.
+
+[984] Lord Kames wrote one, which is published in Chambers's _Traditions
+of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 280. In it he bids the traveller to 'indulge
+the hope of a Monumental Pillar.'
+
+[985] See _ante_, iii. 85; and v. 154.
+
+[986] This address does not offend against the rule that Johnson lays
+down in his _Essay on Epitaphs_ (_Works_, v. 263), where he says:--'It
+is improper to address the epitaph to the passenger.' The impropriety
+consists in such an address in a church. He however did break through
+his rule in his epitaph in Streatham Church on Mr. Thrale, where he
+says:--'Abi viator.' _Ib._ i. 154.
+
+[987] In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Aug. 28), which was published a
+few months before Smollett's death, is his _Ode on Leven-Water_.
+
+[988] The epitaph which has been inscribed on the pillar erected on the
+banks of the Leven, in honour of Dr. Smollett, is as follows. The part
+which was written by Dr. Johnson, it appears, has been altered; whether
+for the better, the reader will judge. The alterations are distinguished
+by Italicks.
+
+     Siste viator!
+     Si lepores ingeniique venam benignam,
+     Si morum callidissimum pictorem, Unquam es miratus,
+     Immorare paululum memoriae
+     TOBIAE SMOLLET, M.D.
+     Viri virtutibus _hisce_
+     Quas in homine et cive
+     Et laudes et imiteris,
+     Haud mediocriter ornati:
+     Qui in literis variis versatus,
+     Postquam felicitate _sibi propria_
+     Sese posteris commendaverat,
+     Morte acerba raptus
+     Anno aetatis 51,
+     Eheu: quam procul a patria!
+     Prope Liburni portum in Italia, Jacet sepultres.
+     Tali tantoque viro, patrueli suo, Cui in decursu lampada
+     Se potius tradidisse decuit, Hanc Columnam,
+     Amoris, eheu! inane monumentum In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
+     Quas _versiculis sub exitu vitae illustratas_
+     Primis infans vagitibus personuit, Ponendam curavit
+     JACOBUS SMOLLET de Bonhill. Abi et reminiscere,
+     Hoc quidem honore, Non modo defuncti memoriae,
+     Verum etiam exemplo, prospectum esse;
+     Aliis enim, si modo digni sint,
+     Idem erit virtutis praemium!
+
+     BOSWELL.
+
+
+
+[989] Baretti told Malone that, having proposed to teach Johnson
+Italian, they went over a few stanzas of Ariosto, and Johnson then grew
+weary. 'Some years afterwards Baretti said he would give him another
+lesson, but added, "I suppose you have forgotten what we read before."
+"Who forgets, Sir?" said Johnson, and immediately repeated three or four
+stanzas of the poem.' Baretti took down the book to see if it had been
+lately opened, but the leaves were covered with dust. Prior's _Malone_,
+p. 160. Johnson had learnt to translate Italian before he knew Baretti.
+_Ante_, i. 107, 156. For other instances of his memory, see _ante_, i.
+39, 48; iii. 318, note 1; and iv. 103, note 2.
+
+[990] For sixty-eight days he received no letter--from August 21
+(_ante_, p. 84) to October 28.
+
+[991] Among these professors might possibly have been either Burke or
+Hume had not a Mr. Clow been the successful competitor in 1751 as the
+successor to Adam Smith in the chair of Logic. 'Mr. Clow has acquired a
+curious title to fame, from the greatness of the man to whom he
+succeeded, and of those over whom he was triumphant.' J.H. Burton's
+_Hume_, i. 351.
+
+[992] Dr. Reid, the author of the _Inquiry into the Human Mind_, had in
+1763 succeeded Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy. Dugald
+Stewart was his pupil the winter before Johnson's visit. Stewart's
+_Reid_, ed. 1802, p. 38.
+
+[993] See _ante_, iv. 186.
+
+[994] Mr. Boswell has chosen to omit, for reasons which will be
+presently obvious, that Johnson and Adam Smith met at Glasgow; but I
+have been assured by Professor John Miller that they did so, and that
+Smith, leaving the party in which he had met Johnson, happened to come
+to another company _where Miller was_. Knowing that Smith had been in
+Johnson's society, they were anxious to know what had passed, and the
+more so as Dr. Smith's temper seemed much ruffled. At first Smith would
+only answer, 'He's a brute--he's a brute;' but on closer examination, it
+appeared that Johnson no sooner saw Smith than he attacked him for some
+point of his famous letter on the death of Hume (_ante_, p. 30). Smith
+vindicated the truth of his statement. 'What did Johnson say?' was the
+universal inquiry. 'Why, he said,' replied Smith, with the deepest
+impression of resentment, 'he said, _you lie!_' 'And what did you
+reply?' 'I said, you are a son of a------!' On such terms did these two
+great moralists meet and part, and such was the classical dialogue
+between two great teachers of philosophy. WALTER SCOTT. This story is
+erroneous in the particulars of the _time, place,_ and _subject_ of the
+alleged quarrel; for Hume did not die for [nearly] three years after
+Johnson's only visit to Glasgow; nor was Smith then there. Johnson,
+previous to 1763 (see _ante_, i. 427, and iii. 331), had an altercation
+with Adam Smith at Mr. Strahan's table. This may have been the
+foundation of Professor Miller's misrepresentation. But, even _then_,
+nothing of this offensive kind could have passed, as, if it had, Smith
+could certainly not have afterwards solicited admission to the Club of
+which Johnson was the leader, to which he was admitted 1st Dec. 1775,
+and where he and Johnson met frequently on civil terms. I, therefore,
+disbelieve the whole story. CROKER.
+
+[995] 'His appearance,' says Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 68), 'was that
+of an ascetic, reduced by fasting and prayer.' See _ante_, p. 68.
+
+[996] See _ante_, ii. 27, 279.
+
+[997] See _ante,_ p. 92.
+
+[998] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'I was not much pleased with any
+of the Professors.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 199. Mme. D'Arblay says:--
+'Whenever Dr. Johnson did not make the charm of conversation he only
+marred it by his presence, from the general fear he incited, that if he
+spoke not, he might listen; and that if he listened, he might reprove.'
+_Memoirs of Dr. Burney,_ ii. 187. See _ante_, ii. 63
+
+[999] Boswell has not let us see this caution. When Robertson first came
+in, 'there began,' we are told, 'some animated dialogue' (_ante,_ p.32).
+The next day we read that 'he fluently harangued to Dr. Johnson'
+(_ante,_ p.43).
+
+[1000] See _ante,_ iii. 366.
+
+[1001] He was Ambassador at Paris in the beginning of the reign of
+George I., and Commander-in-Chief in 1744. Lord Mahon's _England_, ed.
+1836, i. 201 and iii. 275.
+
+[1002] The unwilling gratitude of base mankind. POPE. [_Imitations of
+Horace_, 2 _Epis_. i. 14.] BOSWELL.
+
+[1003] Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 246-253) gives a curious account of
+Lord Loudoun, who was general in America about the year 1756.
+'Indecision,' he says, 'was one of the strongest features of his
+character.' He kept back the packet-boats from day to day because he
+could not make up his mind to send his despatches. At one time there
+were three boats waiting, one of which was kept with cargo and
+passengers on board three months beyond its time. Pitt at length
+recalled him, because 'he never heard from him, and could not know what
+he was doing.'
+
+[1004] See Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xi. 161 for an account of a
+controversy about the identity of this writer with an historian of the
+same name.
+
+[1005] He had paid but little attention to his own rule. See _ante_, ii.
+119.
+
+[1006] 'I believe that for all the castles which I have seen beyond the
+Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one of those which the English
+built in Wales would supply Materials.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 152.
+
+[1007] See _ante_, p. 40, note 4.
+
+[1008] Johnson described her as 'a lady who for many years gave the laws
+of elegance to Scotland.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 200. Allan Ramsay
+dedicated to her his _Gentle Shepherd_, and W. Hamilton, of Bangour,
+wrote to her verses on the presentation of Ramsay's poem. Hamilton's
+_Poems_, p. 23.
+
+[1009] See _ante_, ii. 66, and iii. 188.
+
+[1010] 'She called Boswell the boy: "yes, Madam," said I, "we will send
+him to school." "He is already," said she, "in a good school;" and
+expressed her hope of his improvement. At last night came, and I was
+sorry to leave her.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 200. See _ante_, iii. 366.
+
+[1011] See _ante_, pp. 318, 362.
+
+[1012] Burns, who was in his fifteenth year, was at this time living at
+Ayr, about twelve miles away. When later on he moved to Mauchline, he
+and Boswell became much nearer neighbours.
+
+[1013] He had, however, married again. _Ante_, ii. 140, note I. It is
+curious that Boswell in this narrative does not mention his step-mother.
+
+[1014]
+     'Asper
+     Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit.'
+     'Though rude his mirth, yet laboured to maintain
+     The solemn grandeur of the tragic scene.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. l. 221.
+
+[1015] See _ante_, iii. 65, and v. 97.
+
+[1016] See _ante_, iv. 163, 241.
+
+[1017] Johnson (_Works_, vii. 425) says of Addison's dedication of the
+opera of _Rosamond_ to the Duchess of Marlborough, that 'it was an
+instance of servile absurdity, to be exceeded only by Joshua Barnes's
+dedication of a Greek _Anacreon_ to the Duke.' For Barnes see _ante_,
+iii. 284, and iv. 19.
+
+[1018] William Baxter, the editor of _Anacreon_, was the nephew of
+Richard Baxter, the nonconformist divine.
+
+[1019] He says of Auchinleck (_Works_, ix. 158) that 'like all the
+western side of Scotland, it is _incommoded_ by very frequent rain.' 'In
+all September we had, according to Boswell's register, only one day and
+a half of fair weather; and in October perhaps not more.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 182.
+
+[1020] 'By-the-bye,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'I am far from being of the
+number of those angry Scotsmen who imputed to Johnson's national
+prejudices all or a great part of the report he has given of our country
+in his _Voyage to the Hebrides_. I remember the Highlands ten or twelve
+years later, and no one can conceive of 'how much that could have been
+easily remedied travellers had to complain.' _Croker Corres_. ii. 34
+
+[1021] 'Of these islands it must be confessed, that they have not many
+allurements but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are
+thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little
+pleasure.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 153. In an earlier passage (p. 138),
+in describing a rough ride in Mull, he says:--'We were now long enough
+acquainted with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once
+raised, whether pleasing or painful, and had our minds employed only on
+our own fatigue.'
+
+[1022] See _ante_, ii. 225.
+
+[1023] In like manner Wesley said of Rousseau:--'Sure a more consummate
+coxcomb never saw the sun.... He is a cynic all over. So indeed is his
+brother-infidel, Voltaire; and well-nigh as great a coxcomb.' Wesley's
+_Journal,_, ed. 1830, iii. 386.
+
+[1024] This gentleman, though devoted to the study of grammar and
+dialecticks, was not so absorbed in it as to be without a sense of
+pleasantry, or to be offended at his favourite topicks being treated
+lightly. I one day met him in the street, as I was hastening to the
+House of Lords, and told him, I was sorry I could not stop, being rather
+too late to attend an appeal of the Duke of Hamilton against Douglas. 'I
+thought (said he) their contest had been over long ago.' I answered,
+'The contest concerning Douglas's filiation was over long ago; but the
+contest now is, who shall have the estate.' Then, assuming the air of
+'an ancient sage philosopher,' I proceeded thus: 'Were I to _predicate_
+concerning him, I should say, the contest formerly was, What _is_ he?
+The contest now is, What _has_ he?'--'Right, (replied Mr. Harris,
+smiling,) you have done with _quality_, and have got into
+_quantity_.' BOSWELL.
+
+[1025] Most likely Sir A. Macdonald. _Ante_, p. 148.
+
+[1026] Boswell wrote on March 18,1775:--'Mr. Johnson, when enumerating
+our Club, observed of some of us, that they talked from books,--Langton
+in particular. "Garrick," he said, "would talk from books, if he talked
+seriously." "_I_," said he, "do not talk from books; _you_ do not talk
+from books." This was a compliment to my originality; but I am afraid I
+have not read books enough to be able to talk from them.' _Letters of
+Boswell_, p. 181. See _ante_, ii. 360, where Johnson said to Boswell:--
+'I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable
+yourself to borrow more;' and i. 105, where he described 'a man of a
+great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not strained
+through books.'
+
+[1027] 'Lord Auchinleck has built a house of hewn stone, very stately
+and durable, and has advanced the value of his lands with great
+tenderness to his tenants. I was, however, less delighted with the
+elegance of the modern mansion, than with the sullen dignity of the old
+castle.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 159. 'The house is scarcely yet
+finished, but very magnificent and very convenient.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 201. See _ante_, i. 462.
+
+[1028] See _ante_, ii. 413, and v. 91.
+
+[1029] The relation, it should seem, was remote even for Scotland. Their
+common ancestor was Robert Bruce, some sixteen generations back.
+Boswell's mother's grandmother was a Bruce of the Earl of Kincardine's
+family, and so also was his father's mother. Rogers's _Boswelliana_,
+pp. 4, 5.
+
+[1030] He refers to Johnson's pension, which was given nearly two years
+after George Ill's accession. _Ante_, i. 372.
+
+[1031] _Ante_, p. 51.
+
+[1032] He repeated this advice in 1777. _Ante_, iii. 207.
+
+[1033] 'Of their black cattle some are without horns, called by the
+Scots _humble_ cows, as we call a bee, an _humble_ bee, that wants a
+sting. Whether this difference be specifick, or accidental, though we
+inquired with great diligence, we could not be informed.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 78.
+
+Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, gives the right derivation of humble-bee,
+from _hum_ and _bee_. The word _Humble-cow_ is found in _Guy Mannering_,
+ed. 1860, iii. 91:--'"Of a surety," said Sampson, "I deemed I heard his
+horse's feet." "That," said John, with a broad grin, "was Grizzel
+chasing the humble-cow out of the close."'
+
+[1034] 'Even the cattle have not their usual beauty or noble head.'
+Church and Brodribb's _Tacitus_.
+
+[1035] 'The peace you seek is here--where is it not? If your own mind
+be equal to its lot.' CROKER. Horace, I _Epistles_, xi. 29.
+
+[1036] Horace, I _Epistles_, xviii. 112.
+
+[1037] This and the next paragraph are not in the first edition. The
+paragraph that follows has been altered so as to hide the fact that the
+minister spoken of was Mr. Dun. Originally it stood:--'Mr. Dun, though a
+man of sincere good principles as a presbyterian divine, discovered,'
+&c. First edition, p. 478.
+
+[1038] See _ante_, p. 120.
+
+[1039] Old Lord Auchinleck was an able lawyer, a good scholar, after the
+manner of Scotland, and highly valued his own advantages as a man of
+good estate and ancient family; and, moreover, he was a strict
+presbyterian and Whig of the old Scottish cast. This did not prevent his
+being a terribly proud aristocrat; and great was the contempt he
+entertained and expressed for his son James, for the nature of his
+friendships and the character of the personages of whom he was _engoué_
+one after another. 'There's nae hope for Jamie, mon,' he said to a
+friend. 'Jamie is gaen clean gyte. What do you think, mon? He's done wi'
+Paoli--he's off wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a Corsican; and whose
+tail do you think he has pinned himself to now, mon?' Here the old judge
+summoned up a sneer of most sovereign contempt. 'A _dominie_, mon--an
+auld dominie: he keeped a schule, and cau'd it an acaadamy.' Probably if
+this had been reported to Johnson, he would have felt it more galling,
+for he never much liked to think of that period of his life [_ante_,
+i.97, note 2]; it would have aggravated his dislike of Lord Auchinleck's
+Whiggery and presbyterianism. These the old lord carried to such a
+height, that once, when a countryman came in to state some justice
+business, and being required to make his oath, declined to do so before
+his lordship, because he was not a _covenanted_ magistrate. 'Is that
+a'your objection, mon?' said the judge; 'come your ways in here, and
+we'll baith of us tak the solemn league and covenant together.' The oath
+was accordingly agreed and sworn to by both, and I dare say it was the
+last time it ever received such homage. It may be surmised how far Lord
+Auchinleck, such as he is here described, was likely to suit a high Tory
+and episcopalian like Johnson. As they approached Auchinleck, Boswell
+conjured Johnson by all the ties of regard, and in requital of the
+services he had rendered him upon his tour, that he would spare two
+subjects in tenderness to his father's prejudices; the first related to
+Sir John Pringle, president of the Royal Society, about whom there was
+then some dispute current: the second concerned the general question of
+Whig and Tory. Sir John Pringle, as Boswell says, escaped, but the
+controversy between Tory and Covenanter raged with great fury, and ended
+in Johnson's pressing upon the old judge the question, what good
+Cromwell, of whom he had said something derogatory, had ever done to his
+country; when, after being much tortured, Lord Auchinleck at last spoke
+out, 'God, Doctor! he gart kings ken that they had a _lith_ in their
+neck'--he taught kings they had a _joint_ in their necks. Jamie then
+set to mediating between his father and the philosopher, and availing
+himself of the judge's sense of hospitality, which was punctilious,
+reduced the debate to more order. WALTER SCOTT. Paoli had visited
+Auchinleck. Boswell wrote to Garrick on Sept. 18, 1771:--'I have just
+been enjoying the very great happiness of a visit from my illustrious
+friend, Pascal Paoli. He was two nights at Auchinleck, and you may
+figure the joy of my worthy father and me at seeing the Corsican hero in
+our romantic groves.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 436. Johnson was not blind to
+Cromwell's greatness, for he says (_Works_, vii. 197), that 'he wanted
+nothing to raise him to heroick excellence but virtue.' Lord
+Auchinleck's famous saying had been anticipated by Quin, who, according
+to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, ii. 115), had said that 'on a thirtieth of
+January every king in Europe would rise with a crick in his neck.'
+
+[1040] See _ante_, p. 252.
+
+[1041] James Durham, born 1622, died 1658, wrote many theological works.
+Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. In the _Brit. Mus. Cata_. I can find no work by
+him on the _Galatians_; Lord Auchinleck's triumph therefore was, it
+seems, more artful than honest.
+
+[1042] Gray, it should seem, had given the name earlier. His friend
+Bonstetten says that about the year 1769 he was walking with him, when
+Gray 'exclaimed with some bitterness, "Look, look, Bonstetten! the great
+bear! There goes _Ursa Major_!" This was Johnson. Gray could not abide
+him.' Sir Egerton Brydges, quoted in Gosse's _Gray_, iii. 371. For the
+epithet _bear_ applied to Johnson see _ante_, ii. 66, 269, note i, and
+iv. 113, note 2. Boswell wrote on June 19, 1775:--'My father harps on my
+going over Scotland with a brute (think, how shockingly erroneous!), and
+wandering (or some such phrase) to London.' _Letters of Boswell_,
+p. 207.
+
+[1043] It is remarkable that Johnson in his _Life of Blackmore_
+[_Works_, viii. 42] calls the imaginary Mr. Johnson of the _Lay
+Monastery_ 'a constellation of excellence.' CROKER.
+
+[1044] Page 121. BOSWELL. See also _ante_, iii. 336.
+
+[1045] 'The late Sir Alexander Boswell,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'was a
+proud man, and, like his grandfather, thought that his father lowered
+himself by his deferential suit and service to Johnson. I have observed
+he disliked any allusion to the book or to Johnson himself, and I have
+heard that Johnson's fine picture by Sir Joshua was sent upstairs out of
+the sitting apartments at Auchinleck.' _Croker Corres_. ii. 32. This
+portrait, which was given by Sir Joshua to Boswell (Taylor's _Reynolds_,
+i. 147), is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Morrison.
+
+[1046] 'I have always said that first Whig was the devil.' _Ante_, iii.
+326
+
+[1047] See _ante_, ii. 26.
+
+[1048] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 266) has paid this tribute. 'Lord
+Elibank,' he writes, 'had a mind that embraced the greatest variety of
+topics, and produced the most original remarks. ... He had been a
+lieutenant-colonel in the army and was at the siege of Carthagena, of
+which he left an elegant account (which I'm afraid is lost). He was a
+Jacobite, and a member of the famous Cocoa-tree Club, and resigned his
+commission on some disgust.' Dr. Robertson and John Home were his
+neighbours in the country, 'who made him change or soften down many of
+his original opinions, and prepared him for becoming a most agreeable
+member of the Literary Society of Edinburgh.' Smollett in _Humphry
+Clinker_ (Letter of July 18), describes him as 'a nobleman whom I have
+long revered for his humanity and universal intelligence, over and above
+the entertainment arising from the originality of his character.'
+Boswell, in the _London Mag._ 1779, p. 179, thus mentions the Cocoa-tree
+Club:--'But even at Court, though I see much external obeisance, I do
+not find congenial sentiments to warm my heart; and except when I have
+the conversation of a very few select friends, I am never so well as
+when I sit down to a dish of coffee in the Cocoa Tree, sacred of old to
+loyalty, look round me to men of ancient families, and please myself
+with the consolatory thought that there is perhaps more good in the
+nation than I know.'
+
+[1049] Johnson's _Works_, vii. 380. See _ante_, i. 81.
+
+[1050] See _ante_, p. 53.
+
+[1051] The Mitre tavern. _Ante_, i. 425.
+
+[1052] Of this Earl of Kelly Boswell records the following pun:--'At a
+dinner at Mr. Crosbie's, when the company were very merry, the Rev. Dr.
+Webster told them he was sorry to go away so early, but was obliged to
+catch the tide, to cross the Firth of Forth. "Better stay a little,"
+said Thomas Earl of Kelly, "till you be half-seas over."' Rogers's
+_Boswelliana_, p. 325.
+
+[1053] See _ante_, i. 354.
+
+[1054] In the first edition, _and his son the advocate_. Under this son,
+A. F. Tytler, afterwards a Lord of Session by the title of Lord
+Woodhouselee, Scott studied history at Edinburgh College. Lockhart's
+_Scott_, ed. 1839, i. 59, 278.
+
+[1055] See _ante_, i. 396, and ii. 296.
+
+[1056] 'If we know little of the ancient Highlanders, let us not fill
+the vacuity with Ossian. If we have not searched the Magellanick
+regions, let us however forbear to people them with Patagons.' Johnson's
+_Works_, ix. 116. Horace Walpole wrote on May 22, 1766 (_Letters_, iv.
+500):--'Oh! but we have discovered a race of giants! Captain Byron has
+found a nation of Brobdignags on the coast of Patagonia; the inhabitants
+on foot taller than he and his men on horseback. I don't indeed know how
+he and his sailors came to be riding in the South Seas. However, it is a
+terrible blow to the Irish, for I suppose all our dowagers now will be
+for marrying Patagonians.'
+
+[1057] I desire not to be understood as agreeing _entirely_ with the
+opinions of Dr. Johnson, which I relate without any remark. The many
+imitations, however, of _Fingal_, that have been published, confirm this
+observation in a considerable degree. BOSWELL. Johnson said to Sir
+Joshua of Ossian:--'Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he
+would _abandon_ his mind to it.' _Ante_, iv. 183.
+
+[1058] In the first edition (p. 485) this paragraph ran thus:--'Young
+Mr. Tytler stepped briskly forward, and said, "_Fingal_ is certainly
+genuine; for I have heard a great part of it repeated in the
+original."--Dr. Johnson indignantly asked him, "Sir, do you understand
+the original?"--_Tytler_. "No, Sir."--_Johnson_. "Why, then, we see to
+what this testimony comes:--Thus it is."--He afterwards said to me, "Did
+you observe the wonderful confidence with which young Tytler advanced,
+with his front already _brased_?"'
+
+[1059] For _in company_ we should perhaps read _in the company_.
+
+[1060] In the first edition, _this gentleman's talents and integrity
+are_, &c.
+
+[1061] 'A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love
+Scotland better than truth: he will always love it better than inquiry;
+and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to
+detect it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 116. See _ante_, ii. 311.
+
+[1062] See _ante_, p. 164.
+
+[1063] See _ante_, p. 242.
+
+[1064] See _ante_, iv. 253.
+
+[1065] Lord Chief Baron Geoffrey Gilbert published in 1760 a book on the
+Law of Evidence.
+
+[1066] See _ante_, ii. 302.
+
+[1067] Three instances, _ante_, pp. 160, 320.
+
+[1068] See _ante_, ii. 318.
+
+[1069] An instance is given in Sacheverell's _Account of the Isle of
+Man_, ed. 1702, p. 14.
+
+[1070] Mr. J. T. Clark, the Keeper of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh,
+obligingly informs me that in the margin of the copy of Boswell's
+_Journal_ in that Library it is stated that this cause was _Wilson
+versus Maclean_.
+
+[1071] See _ante_, iv. 74, note 3.
+
+[1072] See _ante_, iii 69, 183.
+
+[1073] He is described in _Guy Mannering_, ed. 1860, iv. 98.
+
+[1074] See _ante_, p. 50.
+
+[1075] See _ante_, i. 458.
+
+[1076] 'We now observe that the Methodists, where they scatter their
+opinions, represent themselves as preaching the Gospel to unconverted
+nations; and enthusiasts of all kinds have been inclined to disguise
+their particular tenets with pompous appellations, and to imagine
+themselves the great instruments of salvation.' Johnson's _Works_,
+vi. 417.
+
+[1077]
+
+     Through various hazards and events we move.
+
+Dryden, [_Aeneid_, I. 204]. BOSWELL.
+
+[1078]
+
+     Long labours both by sea and land he bore.
+
+Dryden, [_Aeneid_, I. 3]. BOSWELL.
+
+[1079] The Jesuits, headed by Francis Xavier, made their appearance in
+Japan in 1549. The first persecution was in 1587; it was followed by
+others in 1590, 1597, 1637, 1638. _Encyclo. Brit_. 8th edit. xii. 697.
+
+[1080] 'They congratulate our return as if we had been with Phipps or
+Banks; I am ashamed of their salutations.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 203.
+Phipps had gone this year to the Arctic Ocean (_ante_, p. 236), and
+Banks had accompanied Captain Cook in 1768-1771. Johnson says however
+(_Works_, ix. 84), that 'to the southern inhabitants of Scotland the
+state of the mountains and the islands is equally unknown with that of
+Borneo or Sumatra.' See _ante_, p. 283, note 1, where Scott says that
+'the whole expedition was highly perilous.' Smollett, in _Humphry
+Clinker_ (Letter of July 18), says of Scotland in general:--'The people
+at the other end of the island know as little of Scotland as of Japan.'
+
+[1081] In sailing from Sky to Col. _Ante_, p. 280.
+
+[1082] Johnson, four years later, suggested to Boswell that he should
+write this history. _Ante_, iii. 162, 414.
+
+[1083] Voltaire was born in 1694; his _Louis XIV._ was published in 1751
+or 1752.
+
+[1084] A society for debate in Edinburgh, consisting of the most eminent
+men. BOSWELL. It was founded in 1754 by Allan Ramsay the painter, aided
+by Robertson, Hume, and Smith. Dugald Stewart (_Life of Robertson_, ed.
+1802, p. 5) says that 'it subsisted in vigour for six or seven years'
+and produced debates, such as have not often been heard in modern
+assemblies.' See also Dr. A. Carlyle's _Auto_. p. 297.
+
+[1085] 'As for Maclaurin's imitation of a _made dish_, it was a wretched
+attempt.' _Ante,_ i. 469.
+
+[1086] It was of Lord Elibank's French cook 'that he exclaimed with
+vehemence, "I'd throw such a rascal into the river."'_Ib._
+
+[1087] 'He praised _Gordon's palates_ with a warmth of expression which
+might have done honour to more important subjects.' _Ib._
+
+[1088] For the alarm he gave to Mrs. Boswell before this supper, see
+_ib._
+
+[1089] On Dr. Boswell's death, in 1780, Boswell wrote of him:--'He was a
+very good scholar, knew a great many things, had an elegant taste, and
+was very affectionate; but he had no conduct. His money was all gone.
+And do you know he was not confined to one woman. He had a strange kind
+of religion; but I flatter myself he will be ere long, if he is not
+already, in Heaven.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 258.
+
+[1090] Johnson had written the _Life_ of 'the great Boerhaave,' as he
+called him. _Works_, vi. 292.
+
+[1091] 'At Edinburgh,' he wrote, 'I passed some days with men of
+learning, whose names want no advancement from my commemoration, or with
+women of elegance, which, perhaps, disclaims a pedant's praise.'
+Johnson's _Works_, ix. 159.
+
+[1092] See _ante_, iv. 178.
+
+[1093] 'My acquaintance,' wrote Richardson (_Corres_. iv. 317), 'lies
+chiefly among the ladies; I care not who knows it.' Mrs. Piozzi, in a
+marginal note on her own copy of the _Piozzi Letters_, says:--'Dr.
+Johnson said, that if Mr. Richardson had lived till _I_ came out, my
+praises would have added two or three years to his life. "For," says Dr.
+Johnson, "that fellow died merely from want of change among his
+flatterers: he perished for want of _more_, like a man obliged to
+breathe the same air till it is exhausted."' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 311.
+In her _Journey_, i. 265, she says:--'Richardson had seen little, and
+Johnson has often told me that he had read little.' See _ante_, iv. 28.
+
+[1094] He may live like a gentleman, but he must not 'call himself
+_Farmer_, and go about with a little round hat.' _Ante_, p. 111.
+
+[1095] Boswell italicises this word, I think, because Johnson objected
+to the misuse of it. '"Sir," said Mr. Edwards, "I remember you would not
+let us say _prodigious_ at college."' _Ante_, iii. 303.
+
+[1096] As I have been scrupulously exact in relating anecdotes
+concerning other persons, I shall not withhold any part of this story,
+however ludicrous.--I was so successful in this boyish frolick, that the
+universal cry of the galleries was, '_Encore_ the cow! _Encore_ the
+cow!' In the pride of my heart, I attempted imitations of some other
+animals, but with very inferior effect. My reverend friend, anxious for
+my _fame_, with an air of the utmost gravity and earnestness, addressed
+me thus: 'My dear sir, I would _confine_ myself to the _cow_.' BOSWELL.
+Blair's advice was expressed more emphatically, and with a peculiar
+_burr_--'_Stick to the cow_, mon.' WALTER SCOTT. Boswell's record, which
+moreover is far more humorous, is much more trustworthy than Scott's
+tradition.
+
+[1097] Mme. de Sévigné in describing a death wrote:--'Cela nous fit voir
+qu'on joue long-temps la comédie, et qu'à la mort on dit la vérité.'
+Letter of June 24, 1672. Addison says:--'The end of a man's life is
+often compared to the winding up of a well-written play, where the
+principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate is which
+they undergo.... That innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in
+Sir Thomas More's life did not forsake him to the last. His death was of
+a piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced, or
+affected.' _The Spectator_, No. 349. Young also thought, or at least,
+wrote differently.
+
+     'A death-bed's a detector of the heart.
+      Here tired dissimulation drops her mask.'
+
+_Night Thoughts, ii._
+
+'"Mirabeau dramatized his death" was the happy expression of the Bishop
+of Autun (Talleyrand).' Dumont's _Mirabeau_, p. 251. See _ante_,
+iii. 154.
+
+[1098] See _ante_, i. 408, 447; and ii. 219, 329.
+
+[1099] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 291) says of Blair's conversation that
+'it was so infantine that many people thought it impossible, at first
+sight, that he could be a man of sense or genius. He was as eager about
+a new paper to his wife's drawing-room, or his own new wig, as about a
+new tragedy or a new epic poem.' He adds, that he was 'capable of the
+most profound conversation, when circumstances led to it. He had not the
+least desire to shine, but was delighted beyond measure to shew other
+people in their best guise to his friends. "Did not I shew you the lion
+well to-day?" used he to say after the exhibition of a remarkable
+stranger.' He had no wit, and for humour hardly a relish. Robertson's
+reputation for wisdom may have been easily won. Dr. A. Carlyle says
+(_ib_. p. 287):--'Robertson's translations and paraphrases on other
+people's thoughts were so beautiful and so harmless that I never saw
+anybody lay claim to their own.' He may have flattered Johnson by
+dexterously echoing his sentiments.
+
+[1100] In the _Marmor Norfolciense (ante_, i. 141) Johnson says:--'I
+know that the knowledge of the alphabet is so disreputable among these
+gentlemen [of the army], that those who have by ill-fortune formerly
+been taught it have partly forgot it by disuse, and partly concealed it
+from the world, to avoid the railleries and insults to which their
+education might make them liable.' Johnson's _Works,_ vi. III. See
+_ante_, iii. 265.
+
+[1101] 'One of the young ladies had her slate before her, on which I
+wrote a question consisting of three figures to be multiplied by two
+figures. She looked upon it, and quivering her fingers in a manner which
+I thought very pretty, but of which I knew not whether it was art or
+play, multiplied the sum regularly in two lines, observing the decimal
+place; but did not add the two lines together, probably disdaining so
+easy an operation.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 161.
+
+[1102]
+
+     'Words gigantic.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet._. 1. 97.
+
+[1103] One of the best criticks of our age 'does not wish to prevent the
+admirers of the incorrect and nerveless style which generally prevailed
+for a century before Dr. Johnson's energetick writings were known, from
+enjoying the laugh that this story may produce, in which he is very
+ready to join them.' He, however, requests me to observe, that 'my
+friend very properly chose a _long_ word on this occasion, not, it is
+believed, from any predilection for polysyllables, (though he certainly
+had a due respect for them,) but in order to put Mr. Braidwood's skill
+to the strictest test, and to try the efficacy of his instruction by the
+most difficult exertion of the organs of his pupils.' BOSWELL. 'One of
+the best critics of our age' is, I believe, Malone. See _ante_, p.
+78, note 5.
+
+[1104] It was here that Lord Auchinleck called him _Ursa Major. Ante_,
+p. 384.
+
+[1105] See _ante_, iii. 266, and v. 20, where 'Mr. Crosbie said that the
+English are better animals than the Scots.'
+
+[1106] Johnson himself had laughed at them (_ante_, ii. 210) and accused
+them of foppery (_ante_, ii. 237).
+
+[1107] Johnson said, 'I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds
+(_ante_, ii. 335), and, 'I would rather be attacked than unnoticed'
+(_ante_, iii. 375). When he was told of a caricature 'of the nine muses
+flogging him round Parnassus,' he said, 'Sir, I am very glad to hear
+this. I hope the day will never arrive when I shall neither be the
+object of calumny or ridicule, for then I shall be neglected and
+forgotten.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 837. See _ante_, ii. 61, and pp. 174,
+273. 'There was much laughter when M. de Lesseps mentioned that on his
+first visit to England the publisher who brought out the report of his
+meeting charged, as the first item of his bill, "£50 for attacking the
+book in order to make it succeed." "Since then," observed M. de Lesseps,
+"I have been attacked gratuitously, and have got on without paying."'
+The Times, Feb. 19, 1884.
+
+[1108]
+
+     'To wing my flight to fame.'
+
+DRYDEN. Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 9.
+
+[1109] On Nov. 12 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We came hither (to
+Edinburgh) on the ninth of this month. I long to come under your care,
+but for some days cannot decently get away.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 202.
+
+[1110] He would have been astonished had he known that a few miles from
+Edinburgh he had passed through two villages of serfs. The coal-hewers
+and salt-makers of Tranent and Preston-Pans were still sold with the
+soil. 'In Scotland domestic slavery is unknown, except so far as regards
+the coal-hewers and salt-makers, whose condition, it must be confessed,
+bears some resemblance to slavery; because all who have once acted in
+either of the capacities are compellable to serve, and fixed to their
+respective places of employment during life.' Hargrave's _Argument in
+the case of James Sommersett_, 1772. Had Johnson known this he might
+have given as his toast when in company with some very grave men at
+_Edinburgh_:--'Here's to the next insurrection of the slaves in
+_Scotland_.' _Ante_, iii. 200.
+
+[1111] The year following in the House of Commons he railed at the
+London booksellers, 'who, he positively asserted, entirely governed the
+newspapers.' 'For his part,' he added, 'he had ordered that no English
+newspaper should come within his doors for three months.' _Parl. Hist_.
+xvii. 1090.
+
+[1112] See _ante_, iii. 373.
+
+[1113] 'At the latter end of 1630 Ben Jonson went on foot into Scotland,
+on purpose to visit Drummond. His adventures in this journey he wrought
+into a poem; but that copy, with many other pieces, was accidentally
+burned.' Whalley's _Ben Jonson_, Preface, p. xlvi.
+
+[1114] Perhaps the same woman showed the chapel who was there 29 years
+later, when Scott visited it. One of his friends 'hoped that they might,
+as habitual visitors, escape hearing the usual endless story of the
+silly old woman that showed the ruins'; but Scott answered, 'There is a
+pleasure in the song which none but the songstress knows, and by telling
+her we know it all ready we should make the poor devil unhappy.'
+Lockharts _Scott_, ed. 1839, ii. 106.
+
+[1115] _ O rare Ben Jonson_ is on Jonson's tomb in Westminster Abbey.
+
+[1116] See _ante_, ii. 365.
+
+[1117] 'Essex was at that time confined to the same chamber of the Tower
+from which his father Lord Capel had been led to death, and in which his
+wife's grandfather had inflicted a voluntary death upon himself. When he
+saw his friend carried to what he reckoned certain fate, their common
+enemies enjoying the spectacle, and reflected that it was he who had
+forced Lord Howard upon the confidence of Russel, he retired, and, by a
+_Roman death_, put an end to his misery.' Dalrymple's _Memoirs of Great
+Britain and Ireland_, vol. i. p. 36. BOSWELL. In the original after 'his
+wife's grandfather,' is added 'Lord Northumberland.' It was his wife's
+great-grandfather, the eighth Earl of Northumberland. He killed himself
+in 1585. Burke's _Peerage_.
+
+[1118] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 293) says of Robertson and
+Blair:--'Having been bred at a time when the common people thought to
+play with cards or dice was a sin, and everybody thought it an indecorum
+in clergymen, they could neither of them play at golf or bowls, and far
+less at cards or backgammon, and on that account were very unhappy when
+from home in friends' houses in the country in rainy weather. As I had
+set the first example of playing at cards at home with unlocked door
+[Carlyle was a minister], and so relieved the clergy from ridicule on
+that side, they both learned to play at whist after they were sixty.'
+See _ante_, iii. 23.
+
+[1119] See _ante_, i. 149, and v. 350.
+
+[1120] See _ante_, iv. 54.
+
+[1121] He wrote to Boswell on Nov. 16, 1776 (_ante_, iii. 93):--'The
+expedition to the Hebrides was the most pleasant journey that I ever
+made.' In his _Diary_ he recorded on Jan. 9, 1774:--'In the autumn I
+took a journey to the Hebrides, but my mind was not free from
+perturbation.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 136. The following letter to Dr. Taylor
+I have copied from the original in the possession of my friend Mr. M. M.
+Holloway:--
+
+'DEAR SIR,
+
+'When I was at Edinburgh I had a letter from you, telling me that in
+answer to some enquiry you were informed that I was in the Sky. I was
+then I suppose in the western islands of Scotland; I set out on the
+northern expedition August 6, and came back to Fleet-street, November
+26. I have seen a new region.
+
+'I have been upon seven of the islands, and probably should have visited
+many more, had we not begun our journey so late in the year, that the
+stormy weather came upon us, and the storms have I believe for about
+five months hardly any intermission.
+
+'Your Letter told me that you were better. When you write do not forget
+to confirm that account. I had very little ill health while I was on the
+journey, and bore rain and wind tolerably well. I had a cold and
+deafness only for a few days, and those days I passed at a good house. I
+have traversed the east coast of Scotland from south to north from
+Edinburgh to Inverness, and the west coast from north to south, from the
+Highlands to Glasgow, and am come back as I went,
+
+'Sir,
+
+'Your affectionate humble servant,
+
+'SAM. JOHNSON.'
+
+'Jan. 15, 1774.
+
+'To the Reverend Dr. Taylor,
+
+'in Ashbourn,
+
+'Derbyshire.'
+
+[1122] Johnson speaking of this tour on April 10, 1783, said:--'I got an
+acquisition of more ideas by it than by anything that I remember.'
+_Ante_, iv. 199.
+
+[1123] See _ante_, p. 48.
+
+[1124] See _ante_, i. 408, 443, note 2, and ii. 303.
+
+[1125] 'It may be doubted whether before the Union any man between
+Edinburgh and England had ever set a tree.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 8.
+
+[1126] See _ante_, p. 69.
+
+[1127] Lord Balmerino's estate was forfeited to the Crown on his
+conviction for high treason in 1746 (_ante_, i. 180).
+
+[1128] 'I know not that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other
+place; and Mr. Boswell observed that its noise was all its own, for
+there were no trees to increase it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 122. See
+_ante_, p. 304.
+
+[1129] See _ante_, ii. 300.
+
+[1130] 'Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty
+of seeing things out of sight is local and commonly useless. It is a
+breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or
+perceptible benefit.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.
+
+[1131] 'To the confidence of these objections it may be replied... that
+second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in
+itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams.' _Ib._
+
+[1132] The fossilist of last century is the geologist of this. Neither
+term is in Johnson's _Dictionary_, but Johnson in his _Journey (Works_,
+ix. 43) speaks of 'Mr. Janes the fossilist.'
+
+[1133] _Ib_. p. 157.
+
+[1134] _Ib_. p. 6. I do not see anything silly in the story. It is
+however better told in a letter to Mrs. Thrale. _Piozzi Letters_,
+i. 112.
+
+[1135] Mr. Orme, one of the ablest historians of this age, is of the
+same opinion. He said to me, 'There are in that book thoughts, which, by
+long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and
+polished--like pebbles rolled in the ocean.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii.
+300, and iii. 284.
+
+[1136] See _ante_, iii. 301.
+
+[1137] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 158) mentions 'a national combination so
+invidious that their friends cannot defend it.' See _ante_, ii.
+307, 311.
+
+[1138] See _ante_, p. 269, note 1.
+
+[1139] Every reader will, I am sure, join with me in warm admiration of
+the truly patriotic writer of this letter. I know not which most to
+applaud--that good sense and liberality of mind, which could see and
+admit the defects of his native country, to which no man is a more
+zealous friend:--or that candour, which induced him to give just praise
+to the minister whom he honestly and strenuously opposed. BOSWELL.
+
+[1140] The original MS. is now in my possession. BOSWELL.
+
+[1141] The passage that gave offence was as follows:--'Mr. Macleod is
+the proprietor of the islands of Raasay, Rona, and Fladda, and possesses
+an extensive district in Sky. The estate has not during four hundred
+years gained or lost a single acre. He acknowledges Macleod of Dunvegan
+as his chief, though his ancestors have formerly disputed the
+pre-eminence.' First edition, p. 132. The second edition was not
+published till the year after Johnson's death. In it the passage remains
+unchanged. To it the following note was prefixed: 'Strand, Oct. 26,
+1785. Since this work was printed off, the publisher, having been
+informed that the author some years ago had promised the Laird of Raasay
+to correct in a future edition a passage concerning him, thinks it a
+justice due to that gentleman to insert here the advertisement relative
+to this matter, which was published by Dr. Johnson's desire in the
+Edinburgh newspapers in the year 1775, and which has been lately
+reprinted in Mr. Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides_.' (It is not unlikely
+that the publication of Boswell's _Tour_ occasioned a fresh demand for
+Johnson's _Journey_.) In later editions all the words after 'a single
+acre' are silently struck out. Johnson's _Works_, ix. 55. See
+_ante_, ii. 382.
+
+[1142] Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with
+Dr. Johnson at his house in London. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on May 12,
+1775:--'I have offended; and what is stranger, have justly offended, the
+nation of Rasay. If they could come hither, they would be as fierce as
+the Americans. _Rasay_ has written to Boswell an account of the injury
+done him by representing his house as subordinate to that of Dunvegan.
+Boswell has his letter, and, I believe, copied my answer. I have
+appeased him, if a degraded chief can possibly be appeased: but it will
+be thirteen days--days of resentment and discontent--before my
+recantation can reach him. Many a dirk will imagination, during that
+interval, fix in my heart. I really question if at this time my life
+would not be in danger, if distance did not secure it. Boswell will find
+his way to Streatham before he goes, and will detail this great affair.'
+_Piozzi Letters_, i. 216.
+
+[1143] In like manner he communicated to Sir William Forbes part of his
+journal from which he made the _Life of Johnson_. _Ante_, iii. 208.
+
+[1144] In justice both to Sir William Forbes, and myself, it is proper
+to mention, that the papers which were submitted to his perusal
+contained only an account of our Tour from the time that Dr. Johnson and
+I set out from Edinburgh (p. 58), and consequently did not contain the
+elogium on Sir William Forbes, (p. 24), which he never saw till this
+book appeared in print; nor did he even know, when he wrote the above
+letter, that this _Journal_ was to be published. BOSWELL. This note is
+not in the first edition.
+
+[1145] _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 1.
+
+[1146] Both _Nonpareil_ and _Bon Chretien_ are in Johnson's
+_Dictionary_; _Nonpareil_, is defined as _a kind of apple_, and _Bon
+Chretien_ as _a species of pear_.
+
+[1147] See _ante_, p. 311.
+
+[1148] See _ante_, iv. 9.
+
+[1149] 'Dryden's contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius,
+left his life unwritten; and nothing therefore can be known beyond what
+casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied.' Johnson's
+_Works_, vii. 245. See _ante_, iii. 71.
+
+[1150]
+
+     'Before great Agamemnon reign'd
+      Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave
+      Whose huge ambition's now contain'd
+      In the small compass of a grave;
+      In endless night they sleep, unwept, unknown,
+      No bard had they to make all time their own.'
+
+FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iv. 9. 25.
+
+[1151] Having found, on a revision of the first edition of this work,
+that, notwithstanding my best care, a few observations had escaped me,
+which arose from the instant impression, the publication of which might
+perhaps be considered as passing the bounds of a strict decorum, I
+immediately ordered that they should be omitted in the subsequent
+editions. I was pleased to find that they did not amount in the whole to
+a page. If any of the same kind are yet left, it is owing to
+inadvertence alone, no man being more unwilling to give pain to others
+than I am.
+
+A contemptible scribbler, of whom I have learned no more than that,
+after having disgraced and deserted the clerical character, he picks up
+in London a scanty livelihood by scurrilous lampoons under a feigned
+name, has impudently and falsely asserted that the passages omitted were
+_defamatory_, and that the omission was not voluntary, but compulsory.
+The last insinuation I took the trouble publickly to disprove; yet, like
+one of Pope's dunces, he persevered in 'the lie o'erthrown.' [_Prologue
+to the Satires_, l. 350.] As to the charge of defamation, there is an
+obvious and certain mode of refuting it. Any person who thinks it worth
+while to compare one edition with the other, will find that the passages
+omitted were not in the least degree of that nature, but exactly such as
+I have represented them in the former part of this note, the hasty
+effusion of momentary feelings, which the delicacy of politeness should
+have suppressed. BOSWELL. In the second edition this note ended at the
+first paragraph, the latter part being added in the third. For the 'few
+observations omitted' see _ante_, pp. 148, 381, 388.
+
+The 'contemptible scribbler' was, I believe, John Wolcot, better known
+by his assumed name of Peter Pindar. He had been a clergyman. In his
+_Epistle to Boswell (Works_, i. 219), he says in reference to the
+passages about Sir A. Macdonald (afterwards Lord Macdonald):--'A letter
+of severe remonstrance was sent to Mr. B., who, in consequence, omitted
+in the second edition of his _Journal_ what is so generally pleasing to
+the public, viz., the scandalous passages relative to that nobleman.' It
+was in a letter to the _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 285, that Boswell
+'publickly disproved the insinuation' made 'in a late scurrilous
+publication' that these passages 'were omitted in consequence of a
+letter from his Lordship. Nor was any application,' he continues, 'made
+to me by the nobleman alluded to at any time to make any alteration in
+my _Journal_.'
+
+[1152]
+
+         'Nothing extenuate
+     Nor set down aught in malice.'
+
+_Othello_, act v. sc. 2.
+
+[1153] See _ante_, i. 189, note 2, 296, 297; and Johnson's _Works_, v.
+23.
+
+[1154] Of his two imitations Boswell means _The Vanity of Human Wishes_,
+of which one hundred lines were written in a day. _Ante_, i. 192,
+and ii. 15.
+
+[1155] Johnson, it should seem, did not allow that there was any
+pleasure in writing poetry. 'It has been said there is pleasure in
+writing, particularly in writing verses. I allow you may have pleasure
+from writing after it is over, if you have written well; but you don't
+go willingly to it again.' _Ante_, iv. 219. What Johnson always sought
+was to sufficiently occupy the mind. So long as that was done, that
+labour would, I believe, seem to him the pleasanter which required the
+less thought.
+
+[1156] Nathan Bailey published his _English Dictionary_ in 1721.
+
+[1157]
+
+     'Woolston, the scourge of scripture, mark with awe!
+      And mighty Jacob, blunderbuss of law.'
+
+_The Dunciad_, first ed., bk. iii. l. 149. Giles Jacob published a _Law
+Dictionary_ in 1729.
+
+[1158] _Ante_, p. 393.
+
+[1159] A writer in the _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 388, with some reason
+says:--'I heartily wish Mr. Boswell would get this Latin poem translated.'
+
+[1160] Boswell, briefly mentioning the tour which Johnson made to Wales
+in the year 1774 with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, says:--'I do not find that
+he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there' (_ante_, ii. 285). A
+journal had been kept however, which in 1816 was edited and published by
+Mr. Duppa. Mrs. Piozzi, writing in October of that year, says that three
+years earlier she had been shewn the MS. by a Mr. White, and that it was
+genuine. 'The gentleman who possessed it seemed shy of letting me read
+the whole, and did not, as it appeared, like being asked how it came
+into his hands.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 177. According to Mr. Croker
+(Croker's _Boswell_, p. 415) 'it was preserved by Johnson's servant,
+Barber. How it escaped Boswell's research is not known.' A fragment of
+Johnson's _Annals_, also preserved by Barber, had in like manner never
+been seen by Boswell; _ante_, i. 35, note 1. The editor of these
+_Annals_ says (Preface, p. v):--'Francis Barber, unwilling that all the
+MSS. of his illustrious master should be utterly lost, preserved these
+relicks from the flames. By purchase from Barber's widow they came into
+the possession of the editor.' It seems likely that Barber was afraid to
+own what he had done; though as he was the residuary legatee he was safe
+from all consequences, unless the executors of the will who were to hold
+the residue of the estate in trust for him had chosen to proceed against
+him. Mr. Duppa in editing this Journal received assistance from Mrs.
+Piozzi, 'who,' he says (Preface, p. xi), 'explained many facts which
+could not otherwise have been understood.' A passage in one of her
+letters dated Bath, Oct. 11, 1816, shows how unfriendly were the
+relations between her and her eldest daughter, Johnson's Queeny, who had
+married Admiral Lord Keith. 'I am sadly afraid,' she writes, 'of Lady
+K.'s being displeased, and fancying I promoted this publication. Could I
+have caught her for a quarter-of-an-hour, I should have proved my
+innocence, and might have shown her Duppa's letter; but she left neither
+note, card, nor message, and when my servant ran to all the inns in
+chase of her, he learned that she had left the White Hart at twelve
+o'clock. Vexatious! but it can't be helped. I hope the pretty little
+girl my people saw with her will pay her more tender attention.' Three
+days later she wrote:--'Johnson's _Diary_ is selling rapidly, though the
+contents are _bien maigre_, I must confess. Mr. Duppa has politely
+suppressed some sarcastic expressions about my family, the Cottons, whom
+we visited at Combermere, and at Lleweney.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii.
+176-9. Mr. Croker in 1835 was able to make 'a collation of the original
+MS., which has supplied many corrections and some omissions in Mr.
+Duppa's text.' Mr. Croker's text I have generally followed.
+
+[1161] 'When I went with Johnson to Lichfield, and came down to
+breakfast at the inn, my dress did not please him, and he made me alter
+it entirely before he would stir a step with us about the town, saying
+most satirical things concerning the appearance I made in a
+riding-habit; and adding, "'Tis very strange that such eyes as yours
+cannot discern propriety of dress; if I had a sight only half as good, I
+think I should see to the centre."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 288.
+
+[1162] For Mrs. (Miss) Porter, Mrs. (Miss) Aston, Mr. Green, Mrs. Cobb,
+Mr. (Peter) Garrick, Miss Seward, and Dr. Taylor, see _ante_,
+ii. 462-473.
+
+[1163] Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the physiologist and poet, grandfather of
+Charles Darwin. Mrs. Piozzi when at Florence wrote:--'I have no roses
+equal to those at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting
+eighty-four within my own reach; it grew against the house of Dr.
+Darwin.' Piozzi's _Journey_, i. 278.
+
+[1164] See _ante_, iii. 124, for mention of her father and brother.
+
+[1165] The verse in _Martial_ is:--
+
+     'Defluat, et lento splendescat turbida limo.'
+
+In the common editions it has the number 45, and not 44. DUPPA.
+
+[1166] See _ante_, iii. 187.
+
+[1167] Johnson wrote on Nov. 27, 1772, 'I was yesterday at Chatsworth.
+They complimented me with playing the fountain and opening the cascade.
+But I am of my friend's opinion, that when one has seen the ocean
+cascades are but little things.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.69.
+
+[1168] 'A water-work with a concealed spring, which, upon touching,
+spouted out streams from every bough of a willow-tree.' _Piozzi
+MS_. CROKER.
+
+[1169] A race-horse, which attracted so much of Dr. Johnson's attention,
+that he said, 'of all the Duke's possessions, I like Atlas best.' DUPPA.
+
+[1170] For Johnson's last visit to Chatsworth, see _ante_, iv. 357, 367.
+
+[1171] 'From the Muses, Sir Thomas More bore away the first crown,
+Erasmus the second, and Micyllus has the third.' In the MS. Johnson has
+introduced [Greek: aeren] by the side of [Greek: eilen], DUPPA. 'Jacques
+Moltzer, en Latin Micyllus. Ce surnom lui fut donné le jour où il
+remplissait avec le plus grand succès le rôle de Micyllus dans _Le
+Songe_ de Lucien qui, arrange en drame, fut représenté au collège de
+Francfort. Né en 1503, mort en 1558.' _Nouv. Biog. Gén._ xxxv. 922.
+
+[1172] See _ante_, ii. 324, note I, and iii. 138.
+
+[1173] Mr. Gilpin was an undergraduate at Oxford. DUPPA.
+
+[1174] John Parker, of Brownsholme, in Lancashire [Browsholme, in
+Yorkshire], Esq. DUPPA.
+
+[1175] Mrs. Piozzi 'rather thought' that this was _Capability Brown_
+[_ante_, iii. 400]. CROKER.
+
+[1176] Mr. Gell, of Hopton Hall, father of Sir William Gell, well known
+for his topography of Troy. DUPPA.
+
+[1177] See _ante_, iii. 160, for a visit paid by Johnson and Boswell to
+Kedleston in 1777.
+
+[1178] See _ante_, iii. 164.
+
+[1179] The parish of Prestbury. DUPPA.
+
+[1180] At this time the seat of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton [Mrs.
+Thrale's relation], now, of Lord Combermere, his grandson, from which
+place he takes his title. DUPPA.
+
+[1181] Shavington Hall, in Shropshire. DUPPA.
+
+[1182] 'To guard. To adorn with lists, laces or ornamental borders.
+Obsolete.' Johnson's _Dictionary._
+
+[1183] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 13, 1783:--'You seem to
+mention Lord Kilmurrey _(sic)_ as a stranger. We were at his house in
+Cheshire [Shropshire].... Do not you remember how he rejoiced in having
+_no_ park? He could not disoblige his neighbours by sending them _no_
+venison.' _Piozzi Letters,_ ii. 326.
+
+[1184] This remark has reference to family conversation. Robert was the
+eldest son of Sir L.S. Cotton, and lived at Lleweney. DUPPA.
+
+[1185] _Paradise Lost,_ book xi. v. 642. DUPPA.
+
+[1186] See Mrs. Piozzi's _Synonymy_, i. 323, for an anecdote of this
+walk.
+
+[1187] Lleweney Hall was the residence of Robert Cotton, Esq., Mrs.
+Thrale's cousin german. Here Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson staid
+three weeks. DUPPA. Mrs. Piozzi wrote in 1817:--'Poor old Lleweney Hall!
+pulled down after standing 1000 years in possession of the Salusburys.'
+Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 206.
+
+[1188] Johnson's name for Mrs. Thrale. _Ante,_ i. 494.
+
+[1189] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Sept. 13, 1777:--'Boswell wants
+to see Wales; but except the woods of Bachycraigh, what is there in
+Wales? What that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst
+of curiosity?' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 367. _Ante,_ iii. 134, note 1.
+
+[1190] Pennant gives a description of this house, in a tour he made into
+North Wales in 1780:--'Not far from Dymerchion, lies half buried in
+woods the singular house of Bâch y Graig. It consists of a mansion of
+three sides, enclosing a square court. The first consists of a vast hall
+and parlour: the rest of it rises into six wonderful stories, including
+the cupola; and forms from the second floor the figure of a pyramid: the
+rooms are small and inconvenient. The bricks are admirable, and appear
+to have been made in Holland; and the model of the house was probably
+brought from Flanders, where this kind of building is not unfrequent. It
+was built by Sir Richard Clough, an eminent merchant, in the reign of
+Queen Elizabeth. The initials of his name are in iron on the front, with
+the date 1567, and on the gateway 1569.' DUPPA.
+
+[1191] Bishop Shipley, whom Johnson described as _'knowing and
+convertible' Ante,_ iv. 246. Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, says that
+_'conversable_ is sometimes written _conversible_, but improperly.'
+
+[1192] William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph and afterwards of Worcester.
+He was one of the seven Bishops who were sent to the Tower in 1688. His
+character is drawn by Burnet, _History of His Own Time_, ed. 1818, i.
+210. It was he of whom Bishop Wilkins said that 'Lloyd had the most
+learning in ready cash of any he ever knew.' _Ante_, ii. 256, note 3.
+
+[1193] A curious account of Dodwell and 'the paradoxes after which he
+seemed to hunt' is given in Burnet, iv. 303. He was Camden Professor of
+Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 'It was about him that
+William III uttered those memorable words: "He has set his heart on
+being a martyr; and I have set mine on disappointing him."' Macaulay's
+_England_, ed. 1874, iv. 226. See Hearne in Leland's _Itin._, 3rd ed.
+v. 136.
+
+[1194] By Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in 1579. DUPPA.
+
+[1195] See _ante_, iii. 357, and v. 42.
+
+[1196] Perhaps Johnson wrote _mere_.
+
+[1197] Humphry Llwyd was a native of Denbigh, and practised there as a
+physician, and also represented the town in Parliament. He died 1568,
+aged 41. DUPPA.
+
+[1198] Mrs. Thrale's father. DUPPA.
+
+[1199] Cowper wrote a few years later in the first book of _The Task_,
+in his description of the grounds at Weston Underwood:--
+
+     'Not distant far a length of colonnade
+      Invites us. Monument of ancient taste,
+      Now scorned, but worthy of a better fate.
+      Our fathers knew the value of a screen
+      From sultry suns, and in their shaded walks
+      And long-protracted bowers enjoyed at noon
+      The gloom and coolness of declining day.
+      We bear our shades about us: self-deprived
+      Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread,
+      And range an Indian waste without a tree.
+      Thanks to Benevolus [A]--he spares me yet
+      These chestnuts ranged in corresponding lines,
+      And though himself so polished still reprieves
+      The obsolete prolixity of shade.'
+
+
+
+[1200] Such a passage as this shews that Johnson was not so insensible
+to nature as is often asserted. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 99) says:--'Mr.
+Thrale loved prospects, and was mortified that his friend could not
+enjoy the sight of those different dispositions of wood and water, hill
+and valley, that travelling through England and France affords a man.
+But when he wished to point them out to his companion: "Never heed such
+nonsense," would he reply; "a blade of grass is always a blade of grass,
+whether in one country or another. Let us, if we _do_ talk, talk about
+something; men and women are my subjects of enquiry; let us see how
+these differ from those we have left behind."' She adds (p. 265):--
+'Walking in a wood when it rained was, I think, the only rural image he
+pleased his fancy with; "for," says he, "after one has gathered the
+apples in an orchard, one wishes them well baked, and removed to a
+London eating-house for enjoyment."' See _ante_, pp. 132, note 1, 141,
+note 2, 333, note i, and 346, note i, for Johnson's descriptions of
+scenery. Passages in his letters shew that he had some enjoyment of
+country life. Thus he writes:--'I hope to see standing corn in some part
+of the earth this summer, but I shall hardly smell hay or suck clover
+flowers.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 140. 'What I shall do next I know not;
+all my schemes of rural pleasure have been some way or other
+disappointed.' _Ib._ p. 372. 'I hope Mrs. ------ when she came to her
+favourite place found her house dry, and her woods growing, and the
+breeze whistling, and the birds singing, and her own heart dancing.'
+_Ib._ p. 401. In this very trip to Wales, after describing the high bank
+of a river 'shaded by gradual rows of trees,' he writes:--'The gloom,
+the stream, and the silence generate thoughtfulness.' _Post,_ p. 454.
+
+[A] Mr. Throckmorton the owner.
+
+[1201] In the MS. in Dr. Johnson's handwriting, he has first entered in
+his diary, 'The old Clerk had great appearance of joy at seeing his
+Mistress, and foolishly said that he was now willing to die:' he
+afterwards wrote in a separate column, on the same leaf, under the head
+of _notes and omissions,_ 'He had a crown;' and then he appears to have
+read over his diary at a future time, and interlined the paragraph with
+the words 'only'--'given him by my Mistress,' which is written in ink of
+a different colour. DUPPA. 'If Mr. Duppa,' wrote Mrs. Piozzi, 'does not
+send me a copy of Johnson's _Diary,_ he is as shabby as it seems our
+Doctor thought me, when I gave but a crown to the old clerk. The poor
+clerk had probably never seen a crown in his possession before. Things
+were very distant A.D. 1774 from what they are 1816.' Hayward's
+_Piozzi,_ ii. 178. Mrs. Piozzi writes as if Johnson's censure had been
+passed in 1816 and not in 1774.
+
+[1202] Mrs. Piozzi has the following MS. note on this:--'He said I
+flattered the people to whose houses we went. I was saucy, and said I
+was obliged to be civil for two, meaning himself and me. He replied
+nobody would thank me for compliments they did not understand. At
+Gwaynynog _he_ was flattered, and was happy of course.' Hayward's
+_Piozzi,_ i. 75. Sept. 21, 1778. _Mrs. Thrale._ 'I remember, Sir, when
+we were travelling in Wales, how you called me to account for my
+civility to the people. "Madam," you said, "let me have no more of this
+idle commendation of nothing. Why is it that whatever you see, and
+whoever you see, you are to be so indiscriminately lavish of praise?"
+"Why I'll tell you, Sir," said I, "when I am with you, and Mr. Thrale,
+and Queeny [Miss Thrale], I am obliged to be civil for four."' Mme.
+D'Arblay's _Diary,_ i. 132. On June 11, 1775, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale
+from Lichfield:--'Everybody remembers you all: you left a good
+impression behind you. I hope you will do the same at------. Do not make
+them speeches. Unusual compliments, to which there is no stated and
+prescriptive answer, embarrass the feeble, who know not what to say, and
+disgust the wise, who knowing them to be false suspect them to be
+hypocritical.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 232. She records that he once said
+to her:--'You think I love flattery, and so I do, but a little too much
+always disgusts me. That fellow Richardson [the novelist] on the
+contrary could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of
+reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the
+oar.' Piozzi's _Anec._ p. 184. See _ante_, iii. 293, for Johnson's
+rebuke of Hannah More's flattery.
+
+[1203] Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines _calamine_ or _lapis
+calaminaris_ as _a kind of fossile bituminous earth, which being mixed
+with copper changes it into brass._ It is native siliceous oxide of
+zinc. _The Imperial Dictionary._
+
+[1204] See _ante,_ iii. 164.
+
+[1205] 'No' or 'little' is here probably omitted. CROKER.
+
+[1206] The name of this house is Bodryddan; formerly the residence of
+the Stapyltons, the parents of five co-heiresses, of whom Mrs. Cotton,
+afterwards Lady Salusbury Cotton, was one. DUPPA.
+
+[1207] 'Dr. Johnson, whose ideas of anything not positively large were
+ever mingled with contempt, asked of one of our sharp currents in North
+Wales, "Has this _brook_ e'er a name?" and received for answer, "Why,
+dear Sir, this is the _River_ Ustrad." "Let us," said he, turning to his
+friend, "jump over it directly, and shew them how an Englishman should
+treat a Welsh river."' Piozzi's _Synonymy,_ i. 82.
+
+[1208] See _ante_, i. 313, note 4.
+
+[1209] On Aug. 16 he wrote to Mr. Levett:--'I have made nothing of the
+Ipecacuanha.' _Ante_, ii. 282. Mr. Croker suggests that _up_ is omitted
+after 'I gave.'
+
+[1210] See _post_, p. 453.
+
+[1211] F.G. are the printer's signatures, by which it appears that at
+this time four sheets (B, C, D, E), or 64 pages had already been
+printed. The MS. was 'put to the press' on June 20. _Ante_, ii. 278.
+
+[1212] The English version Psalm 36 begins,--'My heart sheweth me the
+wickedness of the ungodly,' which has no relation to 'Dixit injustus.'
+
+[1213] This alludes to 'A prayer by R.W., (evidently Robert Wisedom)
+which Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum, has found among the Hymns
+which follow the old version of the singing Psalms, at the end of
+Barker's _Bible_ of 1639. It begins,
+
+     'Preserve us, Lord, by thy deare word,
+      From Turk and Pope, defend us Lord,
+      Which both would thrust out of his throne
+      Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy deare son.'
+
+CROKER.
+
+[1214] 'Proinde quum dominus Matth. 6 docet discipulos suos ne in orando
+multiloqui sint, nihil aliud docet quam ne credant deum inani verborum
+strepitu flecti rem eandem subinde flagitantium. Nam Graecis est [Greek:
+battologaesate]. [Greek: Battologein] autem illis dicitur qui voces
+easdem frequenter iterant sine causa, vel loquacitatis, vel naturae, vel
+consuetudinis vitio. Alioqui juxta precepta rhetorum nonnunquam laudis
+est iterare verba, quemadmodum et Christus in cruce clamitat. Deus meus,
+deus meus: non erat illa [Greek: battologia], sed ardens ac vehemens
+affectus orantis.' Erasmus's _Works_, ed. 1540, v. 927.
+
+[1215] This alludes to Southwell's stanzas 'Upon the Image of Death,' in
+his _Maeonia_, [Maeoniae] a collection of spiritual poems:--
+
+     'Before my face the picture hangs,
+        That daily should put me in mind
+      Of those cold names and bitter pangs
+        That shortly I am like to find:
+      But, yet, alas! full little I
+      Do thinke hereon that I must die.' &c.
+
+Robert Southwell was an English Jesuit, who was imprisoned, tortured,
+and finally, in Feb. 1598 [1595] executed for teaching the Roman
+Catholic tenets in England. CROKER.
+
+[1216] This work, which Johnson was now reading, was, most probably, a
+little book, entitled _Baudi Epistolae_. In his _Life of Milton_
+[_Works_, vii. 115], he has made a quotation from it. DUPPA.
+
+[1217] Bishop Shipley had been an Army Chaplain. _Ante_, iii. 251.
+
+[1218] The title of the poem is [Greek: Poiaema nouthetikon]. DUPPA.
+
+[1219] This entry refers to the following passage in Leland's
+_Itinerary_, published by Thomas Hearne, ed. 1744, iv. 112. 'B. _Smith_
+in K.H.7. dayes, and last Bishop of _Lincolne_, beganne a new Foundation
+at this place settinge up a Mr. there with 2. Preistes, and 10. poore
+Men in an Hospitall. He sett there alsoe a Schoole-Mr. to teach Grammer
+that hath 10._l_. by the yeare, and an Under-Schoole-Mr. that hath
+5._l_. by the yeare. King H.7. was a great Benefactour to this new
+Foundation, and gave to it an ould Hospitall called Denhall in Wirhall
+in Cheshire.'
+
+[1220] _A Journey to Meqwinez, the Residence of the present Emperor of
+Fez and Morocco, on the Occasion of Commodore Stewart's Embassy thither,
+for the Redemption of the British captives, in the Year 1721_. DUPPA.
+
+[1221] The _Bibliotheca Literaria_ was published in London, 1722-4, in
+4to numbers, but only extended to ten numbers. DUPPA.
+
+[1222] By this expression it would seem, that on this day Johnson ate
+sparingly. DUPPA.
+
+[1223] 'A weakness of the knees, not without some pain in walking, which
+I feel increased after I have dined.' DUPPA.
+
+[1224] Penmaen Mawr is a huge rock, rising nearly 1550 feet
+perpendicular above the sea. Along a shelf of this precipice, is formed
+an excellent road, well guarded, toward the sea, by a strong wall,
+supported in many parts by arches turned underneath it. Before this wall
+was built, travellers sometimes fell down the precipices. DUPPA.
+
+[1225] See _post_, p. 453.
+
+[1226] 'Johnson said that one of the castles in Wales would contain all
+the castles that he had seen in Scotland.' _Ante_, ii. 285.
+
+[1227] This gentleman was a lieutenant in the Navy. DUPPA.
+
+[1228] Lady Catharine Percival, daughter of the second Earl of Egmont:
+this was, it appears, the lady of whom Mrs. Piozzi relates, that 'For a
+lady of quality, since dead, who received us at her husband's seat in
+Wales with less attention than he had long been accustomed to, he had a
+rougher denunciation:--"That woman," cried Johnson, "is like sour small
+beer, the beverage of her table, and produce of the wretched country she
+lives in: like that, she could never have been a good thing, and even
+that bad thing is spoiled."' [_Anec_. p. 171.] And it is probably of
+her, too, that another anecdote is told:--'We had been visiting at a
+lady's house, whom, as we returned, some of the company ridiculed for
+her ignorance:--"She is not ignorant," said he, "I believe, of any
+thing she has been taught, or of any thing she is desirous to know; and
+I suppose if one wanted a little _run tea_, she might be a proper person
+enough to apply to.'" [_Ib_. p. 219.] Mrs. Piozzi says, in her MS.
+letters, 'that Lady Catharine comes off well in the _diary_. He _said_
+many severe things of her, which he did not commit to paper.' She died
+in 1782. CROKER.
+
+[1229] Johnson described in 1762 his disappointment on his return to
+Lichfield. _Ante_, i. 370.
+
+[1230] 'It was impossible not to laugh at the patience Doctor Johnson
+shewed, when a Welsh parson of mean abilities, though a good heart,
+struck with reverence at the sight of Dr. Johnson, whom he had heard of
+as the greatest man living, could not find any words to answer his
+inquiries concerning a motto round somebody's arms which adorned a
+tomb-stone in Ruabon church-yard. If I remember right, the words were,
+
+     Heb Dw, Heb Dym,
+     Dw o' diggon.
+
+And though of no very difficult construction, the gentleman seemed
+wholly confounded, and unable to explain them; till Mr. Johnson, having
+picked out the meaning by little and little, said to the man, "_Heb_ is
+a preposition, I believe, Sir, is it not?" My countryman recovering some
+spirits upon the sudden question, cried out, "So I humbly presume, Sir,"
+very comically.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 238. The Welsh words, which are the
+Myddelton motto, mean, 'Without God, without all. God is
+all-sufficient.' _Piozzi MS_. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 423.
+
+[1231] In 1809 the whole income for Llangwinodyl, including surplice
+fees, amounted to forty-six pounds two shillings and twopence, and for
+Tydweilliog, forty-three pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence; so that
+it does not appear that Mr. Thrale carried into effect his good
+intention. DUPPA.
+
+[1232] Mr. Thrale was near-sighted, and could not see the goats browsing
+on Snowdon, and he promised his daughter, who was a child of ten years
+old, a penny for every goat she would shew him, and Dr. Johnson kept the
+account; so that it appears her father was in debt to her one hundred
+and forty-nine pence. Queeny was the epithet, which had its origin in
+the nursery, by which Miss Thrale was always distinguished by Johnson.
+DUPPA. Her name was Esther. The allusion was to Queen Esther. Johnson
+often pleasantly mentions her in his letters to her mother. Thus on July
+27, 1780, he writes:--'As if I might not correspond with my Queeney, and
+we might not tell one another our minds about politicks or morals, or
+anything else. Queeney and I are both steady and may be trusted; we are
+none of the giddy gabblers, we think before we speak.' _Piozzi Letters_,
+ii. 169. Four days later he wrote:--'Tell my pretty dear Queeney, that
+when we meet again, we will have, at least for some time, two lessons in
+a day. I love her and think on her when I am alone; hope we shall be
+very happy together and mind our books.' _Ib_. p. 173.
+
+[1233] See _ante_, iv. 421, for the inscription on an urn erected by Mr.
+Myddelton 'on the banks of a rivulet where Johnson delighted to stand
+and repeat verses.' On Sept. 18, 1777, Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:
+--'Mr. ----'s erection of an urn looks like an intention to bury me
+alive; I would as willingly see my friend, however benevolent and
+hospitable, quietly inurned. Let him think for the present of some more
+acceptable memorial.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 371.
+
+[1234] Johnson wrote on Oct. 24, 1778:--'My two clerical friends Darby
+and Worthington have both died this month. I have known Worthington
+long, and to die is dreadful. I believe he was a very good man.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, ii. 26.
+
+[1235] Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton. DUPPA.
+
+[1236] Mr. Gwynn the architect was a native of Shrewsbury, and was at
+this time completing a bridge across the Severn, called the English
+Bridge: besides this bridge, he built one at Acham, over the Severn,
+near to Shrewsbury; and the bridges at Worcester, Oxford [Magdalen
+Bridge], and Henley. DUPPA. He was also the architect of the Oxford
+Market, which was opened in 1774. _Oxford during the Last Century_, ed.
+1859, p. 45. Johnson and Boswell travelled to Oxford with him in March,
+1776. _Ante_, ii. 438. In 1778 he got into some difficulties, in which
+Johnson tried to help him, as is shewn by the following autograph letter
+in the possession of my friend Mr. M. M. Holloway:--
+
+'SIR,
+
+'Poor Mr. Gwyn is in great distress under the weight of the late
+determination against him, and has still hopes that some mitigation may
+be obtained. If it be true that whatever has by his negligence been
+amiss, may be redressed for a sum much less than has been awarded, the
+remaining part ought in equity to be returned, or, what is more
+desirable, abated. When the money is once paid, there is little hope of
+getting it again.
+
+'The load is, I believe, very hard upon him; he indulges some flattering
+opinions that by the influence of his academical friends it may be
+lightened, and will not be persuaded but that some testimony of my
+kindness may be beneficial. I hope he has been guilty of nothing worse
+than credulity, and he then certainly deserves commiseration. I never
+heard otherwise than that he was an honest man, and I hope that by your
+countenance and that of other gentlemen who favour or pity him some
+relief may be obtained.
+
+'I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'Bolt Court,
+Fleet-street, 'Jan. 30, 1778.'
+
+[1237] An ancestor of mine, a nursery-gardener, Thomas Wright by name,
+after whom my grandfather, Thomas Wright Hill, was called, planted this
+walk. The tradition preserved in my family is that on his wedding-day he
+took six men with him and planted these trees. When blamed for keeping
+the wedding-dinner waiting, he answered, that if what he had been doing
+turned out well, it would be of far more value than a wedding-dinner.
+
+[1238] The Rector of St. Chad's, in Shrewsbury. He was appointed Master
+of Pembroke College, Oxford, in the following year. See _ante_, ii. 441.
+
+[1239] 'I have heard Dr. Johnson protest that he never had quite as much
+as he wished of wall-fruit except once in his life, and that was when we
+were all together at Ombersley.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 103. Mrs. Thrale
+wrote to him in 1778:--'Mr. Scrase gives us fine fruit; I wished you my
+pear yesterday; but then what would one pear have done for you?' _Piozzi
+Letters_, ii. 36. It seems unlikely that Johnson should not at Streatham
+have had all the wall-fruit that he wished.
+
+[1240] This visit was not to Lord Lyttelton, but to his uncle
+[afterwards by successive creations, Lord Westcote, and Lord Lyttelton],
+the father of the present Lord Lyttelton, who lived at a house called
+Little Hagley. DUPPA. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1771:--'I would
+have been glad to go to Hagley in compliance with Mr. Lyttelton's kind
+invitation, for beside the pleasure of his conversation I should have
+had the opportunity of recollecting past times, and wandering _per
+montes notos et flumina nota_, of recalling the images of sixteen, and
+reviewing my conversations with poor Ford.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 42. He
+had been at school at Stourbridge, close by Hagley. _Ante_, i. 49. See
+Walpole's _Letters_, ix. 123, for an anecdote of Lord Westcote.
+
+[1241] Horace Walpole, writing of Hagley in Sept. 1753 (_Letters_, ii.
+352), says:--'There is extreme taste in the park: the seats are not the
+best, but there is not one absurdity. There is a ruined castle, built by
+Miller, that would get him his freedom even of Strawberry [Walpole's own
+house at Twickenham]: it has the true rust of the Barons' Wars.'
+
+[1242] 'Mrs. Lyttelton forced me to play at whist against my liking, and
+her husband took away Johnson's candle that he wanted to read by at the
+other end of the room. Those, I trust, were the offences.' _Piozzi
+MS._ CROKER.
+
+[1243] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 409) thus writes of Shenstone and the
+Leasowes:--'He began to point his prospects, to diversify his surface,
+to entangle his walks, and to wind his waters; which he did with such
+judgment and such fancy as made his little domain the envy of the great
+and the admiration of the skilful; a place to be visited by travellers
+and copied by designers. .... For awhile the inhabitants of Hagley
+affected to tell their acquaintance of the little fellow that was trying
+to make himself admired; but when by degrees the Leasowes forced
+themselves into notice, they took care to defeat the curiosity which
+they could not suppress by conducting their visitants perversely to
+inconvenient points of view, and introducing them at the wrong end of a
+walk to detect a deception; injuries of which Shenstone would heavily
+complain. Where there is emulation there will be vanity; and where there
+is vanity there will be folly. The pleasure of Shenstone was all in his
+eye: he valued what he valued merely for its looks; nothing raised his
+indignation more than to ask if there were any fishes in his water.' See
+_ante_, p. 345.
+
+[1244] See _ante_, iii. 187, and v. 429.
+
+[1245] 'He spent his estate in adorning it, and his death was probably
+hastened by his anxieties. He was a lamp that spent its oil in blazing.
+It is said that if he had lived a little longer he would have been
+assisted by a pension: such bounty could not have been ever more
+properly bestowed.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 410. His friend, Mr.
+Graves, the author of _The Spiritual Quixote_, in a note on this passage
+says that, if he was sometimes distressed for money, yet he was able to
+leave legacies and two small annuities.
+
+[1246] Mr. Duppa--without however giving his authority--says that this
+was Dr. Wheeler, mentioned _ante_, iii. 366. The _Birmingham Directory_
+for the year 1770 shews that there were two tradesmen in the town of
+that name, one having the same Christian name, Benjamin, as Dr. Wheeler.
+
+[1247] Boswell visited these works in 1776. _Ante_, ii. 459.
+
+[1248] Burke in the House of Commons on Jan. 25, 1771, in a debate on
+Falkland's Island, said of the Spanish Declaration:--'It was made, I
+admit, on the true principles of trade and manufacture. It puts me in
+mind of a Birmingham button which has passed through an hundred hands,
+and after all is not worth three-halfpence a dozen.' _Parl. Hist._
+xvi. 1345.
+
+[1249] Johnson and Boswell drove through the Park in 1776. _Ante_, ii.
+451.
+
+[1250] 'My friend the late Lord Grosvenor had a house at Salt Hill,
+where I usually spent a part of the summer, and thus became acquainted
+with that great and good man, Jacob Bryant. Here the conversation turned
+one morning on a Greek criticism by Dr. Johnson in some volume lying on
+the table, which I ventured (_for I was then young_) to deem incorrect,
+and pointed it out to him. I could not help thinking that he was
+somewhat of my opinion, but he was cautious and reserved. "But, Sir,"
+said I, willing to overcome his scruples, "Dr. Johnson himself admitted
+that he was not a good Greek scholar." "Sir," he replied, with a serious
+and impressive air, "it is not easy for us to say what such a man as
+Johnson would call a good Greek scholar." I hope that I profited by that
+lesson--certainly I never forgot it.' Gifford's _Works of Ford_, vol. i.
+p. lxii. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 794. 'So notorious is Mr. Bryant's great
+fondness for studying and proving the truths of the creation according
+to Moses, that he told me himself, and with much quaint humour, a
+pleasantry of one of his friends in giving a character of
+him:--"Bryant," said he, "is a very good scholar, and knows all things
+whatever up to Noah, but not a single thing in the world beyond the
+Deluge."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, iii. 229.
+
+[1251] This is a work written by William Durand, Bishop of Mende, and
+printed on vellum, in folio, by Fust and Schoeffer, in Mentz, 1459. It
+is the third book that is known to be printed with a date. DUPPA. It is
+perhaps the first book with a date printed in movable metal type.
+_Brunei_, ed. 1861, ii. 904. See _ante_, ii. 397.
+
+[1252] Dr. Johnson, in another column of his _Diary_, has put down, in a
+note, 'First printed book in Greek, Lascaris's _Grammar_, 4to,
+Mediolani, 1476.' The imprint of this book is, _Mediolani Impressum per
+Magistrum Dionysium Paravisinum_. M.CCCC.LXXVI. Die xxx Januarii. The
+first book printed in the English language was the _Historyes of Troye_,
+printed in 1471. DUPPA. A copy of the _Historyes of Troy_ is exhibited
+in the Bodleian Library with the following superscription:--'Lefevre's
+_Recuyell of the historyes of Troye_. The first book printed in the
+English language. Issued by Caxton at Bruges about 1474.'
+
+[1253] _The Battle of the Frogs and Mice_. The first edition was printed
+by Laonicus Cretensis, 1486. DUPPA.
+
+[1254] Mr. Coulson was a Senior Fellow of University College. Lord
+Stowell informed me that he was very eccentric. He would on a fine day
+hang out of the college windows his various pieces of apparel to air,
+which used to be universally answered by the young men hanging out from
+all the other windows, quilts, carpets, rags, and every kind of trash,
+and this was called an _illumination_. His notions of the eminence and
+importance of his academic situation were so peculiar, that, when he
+afterwards accepted a college living, he expressed to Lord Stowell his
+doubts whether, after living so long in the _great world_, he might not
+grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish. CROKER.
+See _ante_, ii. 382, note.
+
+[1255] Dr. Robert Vansittart, Fellow of All Souls, and Regius Professor
+of Law. DUPPA. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 3, 1773:--'Poor
+V------! There are not so many reasons as he thinks why he should envy
+me, but there are some; he wants what I have, a kind and careful
+mistress; and wants likewise what I shall want at my return. He is a
+good man, and when his mind is composed a man of parts.' _Piozzi
+Letters_, i. 197. See _ante_, i. 348.
+
+[1256] See _ante_, ii. 285, note 3.
+
+
+THE END OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life Of Johnson, Volume 5, by Boswell
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10451 ***
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:34:32 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:34:32 -0700
commit	ced466996154b7701da7e7fbb5e8cc2a46fb2a60 (patch)
tree	79687e00ffbed0fede2eb4463ef1f0897396ba8a /10451-0.txt