company with some of the professors, of whose civilities I beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgment to the honourable testimony of Dr. Johnson, in his "Journey." 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 judgment." 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, 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.'' I mentioned to him, that a worthy gentleman of my acquaintance actually forgot his own name. JOHNSON. "Sir, that was a morbid oblivion." We talked of composition, which was a favourite topic of Dr. Watson, who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetoric. 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." 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 Friday, Aug. 20.- Dr. Shaw, the professor he thinks fit he'll correct it. But, if a man is of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out accustomed to compose slowly, and with diffi- my "Ogden on Prayer," and read some of it culty, upon all occasions, there is danger that to the company. Dr. Johnson praised him. he may not compose at all, as we do not like to "Abernethy," said he, "allows only of a do that which is not done easily; and, at any physical effect of prayer upon the mind, which rate, more time is consumed in a small matter may be produced many ways as well as by than ought to be." WATSON. "Dr. Hugh prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden Blair has taken a week to compose a sermon." goes farther. In truth, we have the consent of JOHNSON. "Then, Sir, that is for want of the all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether habit of composing quickly, which I am insist- offered up by individuals or by assemblies; ing one should acquire." WATSON. "Blair and Revelation has told us it will be effectual." was not composing all the week, but only such I said, "Leechman 5 seemed to incline to hours as he found himself disposed for compo- Abernethy's doctrine." Dr. Watson observed, sition." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, unless you tell that Leechman meant to show that, even adme the time he took, you tell me nothing. If mitting no effect to be produced by prayer, respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds. He had given only a part of his system : Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole. I " 1 The "Sermons left for publication by Dr. Taylor (see ante, p. 107. n. 5. and post, 21. Sept. 1777) are but twenty-five in number. - CROKER, 1846. 2 This must have been the translation of Lobo, for Johnson translated no other work, that I know of, consisting of 96 pages, from the French. This account of so much diligence does not seem to agree with that before given of his indolence in completing that translation. See antè, p. 21. But, as Sir Walter Scott observes, "a pool is usually succeeded in a river by a current, and he may have written fast to make up lee way." CROKER. Perhaps, the Lobo is not meant at all. During certain years of early life, which Boswell leaves nearly a blank, Dr. Johnson may have translated many French trifles for the booksellers, as to which in after day's he might choose to be silent. -LOCKHART. 3 It is very singular that Dr. Johnson, with all his episcopal partiality, should have visited Archbishop Sharp's monument, Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday. "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." 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.7 His "Journey" has been violently abused for and been in company with his decendant, without making any observation on his character and melancholy death, or on the general subject of Scottish episcopacy. — WALTER SCOTT. 4 An Irish dissenting divine, whose Discourses on the Divine Attributes, and some volumes of sermons, are highly esteemed even by the clergy of the Church of England. He died in 1740. — CROKER. 5 Dr. William L.eechman, Principal of the College at Glasgow (where Johnson subsequently visited him), who published, among other valuable works, a discourse On the Nature, Reasonab'eness, and Advantages of Prayer. He died in 1785, aged eighty. - CROKER. 6 Yet see ante, p. 199. n. 4.-C. 7 Johnson has been unjustly abused for dwelling on the bareness of Fife. There are good trees in many parts of that county, but the east coast, along which lay Johnson's route, 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. 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 shown him more than two at Balmuto, from whence my ancestors came, and which now belongs to a branch of my family. The grotto was ingeniously constructed. In the front of it were petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other trees. 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 recolleet Dr. Johnson said to me afterwards, "I took much to,Shaw." We left St. Andrew's 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; 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.1 We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, is certainly destitute of wood, excepting young plantations. The other tree mentioned by Colonel Nairne is probably the Prior Letham plane, measuring in circumference at the surface nearly twenty feet, and at the setting on of the branches nineteen feet. This giant of the forest stands in a cold exposed situation, apart from every other tree. --WALTER SCOTT. 1 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, the last of which Dr. Johnson has celebrated in his "Journey." ."2 Upon the road we talked of the Roman Catholic 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."-"If," he added, "God had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he speaks literally, when he says, This is my body.'" 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 Saviour3, 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. Andrew's 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; but it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliath." 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 abridgment of a work was allowed, which was only cutting the horns and tail off JOHNSON. the cow. No, Sir; 't is making the cow have a calf." 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 however, all the appearance of being a different race from the inland population, and their dialect has many peculiarities. LOCKHART. 2 "I should scarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the sight of Aberbrothick."Journey. WRIGHT. 3Then 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. in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr. Burney's "History of Music had then been advertised. I asked if this was not unlucky: would they not 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. Tom Tyers (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory), 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."" Montrose. - Lawrence Kirk. Monboddo.. Emigration. - Homer. — Biography and History. Decrease of Learning. - Promotion of Bishops.Citizen and Savage. Aberdeen. Professor Gordon. - Public and Private Education. · Sir Alexander Gordon. Trade of Aberdeen. Doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement Johnson a Burgess of Aberdeen. Dinner at Sir Alexander Gordon's. Warburton. Locke's Latin Verses. Ossian. Montrose, Saturday, Aug. 21st. - 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 "The This description of Dr. Johnson appears to have been borrowed from Tom Jones, book xi. chap. 2.: other, who, like a ghost, only wanted to be spoke to, readily answered," &c.-BOSWELL. Tyers was not thinking of Tom Jones: both he and Fielding alluded to the same general superstition, that ghosts must be first spoken to. CROKER. 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 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. Gleig, 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." 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. I doubted much which road to take, whether to go by the coast, or by Lawrence Kirk and Monboddo. I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lordship; and was also curious to see them together. I mentioned my doubts to Dr. Johnson, who said he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo. I therefore sent Joseph forward, with the following note: Montrose, 21st August. "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, &c. "JAMES BOSWELL." As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we had the Grampian 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; 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 Lawrence Kirk, where our great grammarian, Ruddiman, was once schoolmaster. We respectfully remembered that been shrewdly observed, that Foote must have meant a diminutive or pocket edition.-BosWELL. Johnson himself thus describes Lord Monboddo to Mrs. Thrale: "He is a Scotch judge, who has lately written a strange book about the origin of language, in which he traces monkeys up to men, and says that in some countries the human species have tails like other beasts. He inquired for these long-tailed men from [Sir Joseph] Banks, and was not pleased that they had not been found in all his peregrinations. He talked nothing of this to me."- Letters.- CROKER. BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. 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', one of our judges, collected money to raise a monument to him at this place, which I hope will be well executed. I know my father gave five guineas towards it. Lord Gardenstone is the proprietor of Lawrence Kirk, and has encouraged the building of a manufacturing village, of which he is exceedingly fond, and has written a pamphlet upon it, 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. 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 Lord Gardenstone 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. over a wild moor. We drove 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, 66 Sir, you got into our Club by doing what a man can do. 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." BOSWELL. "They were afraid of you, Sir, as it was you who proposed JOHNSON. Sir, they knew, that if they refused you, they'd probably never have got in me.' | 1773. another. I'd have kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you." BosWELL. very uncommon.' "Beauclerk has a keenness of mind which is every thing comes from him so easily. It apJOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; and pears to me that I labour, when I say a good thing." is not an effort of mind.” BOSWELL."You are loud, Sir, but it 66 our naked, with a poor old house, though, if I reMonboddo is a wretched place, wild and collect 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, ancestors lived, who were better men than we." "No, no, my lord," said Dr. Johnson; wiser." This was an assault upon one of Lord we are as strong as they, and a great deal Monboddo's capital dogmas, and I was afraid the very close, before we got into the house. there would have been a violent altercation in But his lordship is distinguished not only for "la vieille cour," and he made no reply. "ancient metaphysics," but for ancient politesse, wore a little round hat; he told us, we now His lordship was drest in a rustic suit, and saw him as Farmer Burnet, and we should have his family dinner, a farmer's dinner. He said, "I should not have forgiven Mr. Boswell, He produced a very long stalk of corn, as a had he not brought you here, Dr. Johnson." specimen of his crop, and said, "You see here the latas segetes: seemed to be as enthusiastic a farmer as he, he added, that Virgil and was certainly a practical one. JOHNSON. "It does not always follow, my lord, that a has practised it. Philip Miller told me, that man, who has written a good poem on an art, in Philips's "Cyder," a poem, all the precepts were just, and indeed better than in books Philips had never made cyder." written for the purpose of instructing; yet soN. "To a man of mere animal life, you can JOHNSON. "He had all the learning of his age. Francis Garden, a Scotch Lord of Session, who erected a very pretty temple over St. Bernard's Well, on the bank of the water of Leith. He was a man of talents, but of some irregularity of mind, and died (it was said by his own act) in 1794.CROKER. 2" Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Heb. xiii. 2. A pious and modest allusion on the part of Boswell!- CROKER. 3 This, I find, is considered obscure. Johnson meant, that I assiduously and earnestly recomI suppose Dr. 66 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. 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. But then his learning was the sine quâ 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." 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. He blazes, if you will, but that is not always the steadiest light. Lowth is another bishop who has risen by his learning." MONBODDO. ing." Ay, and what we (looking to me) would call a parliament-house scene; 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 Baoλικον τι. 2 That the ancients held so, is plain from this; that Euripides, in his Hecuba, makes him the person to interpose." 3 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." 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 Scot- Dr. Johnson having retired for a short time, land, and of the "Muses' Welcome." JOHN- his lordship spoke of his conversation as I "Learning is much decreased in England, could have wished. Dr. Johnson had said, in my remembrance." MONBODDO. "You," I have done greater feats with my knife than 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. Warburton is an exception, though his learning alone did not raise SON. 66 My note of this is much too short. Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio. Yet as I have resolved, that the very Journal which Dr. Johnson read shall be presented to the public, 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 critics of our age conjectures that the imperfect passage above has probably been 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. The critic was probably Dr. Hugh Blair. WALTER SCOTT. 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, 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. 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!' 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. 4 It was probably a misunderstanding of some such conversation as this, that induced Dr. Strahan to state that the king had told Johnson, that Pope had made Warburton a bishop. See antè, p. 185. n. 2. Johnson's account here given is rational and consistent with the known facts. Dr. Strahan's anecdote is neither. CROKER. 5 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. This was, probably, another touch of Jacobite pleasantry; and Johnson was, perhaps, as Mr. Chambers suggested to me, thinking of one of the addresses in the Muses' Welcome, which was spoken by a very young boy, the son of the Earl of Winton.-CROKER, 1835. U |