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cannot write, or a language that was never written, has no manuscripts.

"But whatever he has he never offered to show. If old manuscripts should now be mentioned, I should, unless there were more evidence that can be easily had, suppose them another proof of Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood.. Do not censure the expression; you know it to be true.

"Dr. Memis's question is so narrow as to allow no speculation; and I have no facts before me but those which his advocate has produced against you. I consulted this morning the President of the London College of Physicians, who says, that with us, doctor of physic (we do not say doctor of medicine) is the highest title that a practiser of physic can have; that doctor implies not only physician, but teacher of physic; that every doctor is legally a physician; but no man, not a doctor, can practise physic but by licence particularly granted. The doctorate is a licence of itself. It seems to us a very slender cause of prosecution.

"I am now engaged, but in a little time I hope to do all you would have. My compliments to Madam and Veronica. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

What words were used by Mr. Macpherson in his letter to the venerable sage, I have never heard; but they are generally said to have been of a nature very different from the language of literary contest. Dr. Johnson's answer appeared in the newspapers of the day, and has since been frequently republished; but not with perfect accuracy. I give it as dictated to me by himself, written down in his presence, and authenticated by a note in his own handwriting, "This, I think, is a true copy."

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JOHNSON TO MACPHERSON.

"MR. JAMES MACPHERSON, I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I

never shall be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.

"What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the public, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals inclines me to pay regard, not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if will. you SAM. JOHNSON.”

1 I have deposited it in the British Museum. BosWELL. A careful search has been made in the Museum for this letter, but without success; and of all the MSS. which Boswell says he had deposited there, only the copy of the letter to Lord Chesterfield has been found, and that was not deposited by him, but after his death, "pursuant to the intentions of the late James Boswell, Esq."- P. CUNNINGHAM.

2 Fear was, indeed," says Mrs. Piozzi, "a sensation to which Mr. Johnson was an utter stranger, excepting when some sudden apprehensions seized him that he was going to die; and even then, he kept all his wits about him, to express the most humble and pathetic petitions to the Almighty: and when the first paralytic stroke took his speech

* Johnson, fn his Dictionary, has this sense of deprecate -"to implore mercy." He, however, adds that "it is not

Mr. Macpherson little knew the character of Dr. Johnson, if he supposed that he could be easily intimidated: for no man was ever more remarkable for personal courage. He had, indeed, an awful dread of death, or rather, "of something after death:" and what rational man, who seriously thinks of quitting all that he has ever known, and going into a new and unknown state of being, can be without that dread? But his fear was from reflection; his courage natural. His fear, in that one instance, was the result of philosophical and religious consideration. He feared death, but he feared nothing else, not even what might occasion death.2

Many instances of his resolution may be mentioned. One day, at Mr. Beauclerk's house in the country, when two large dogs were fighting (antè, p. 379.), he went up to them, and beat them till they separated; and at another time, when told of the danger there was that a gun might burst if charged with many balls, he put in six or seven, and fired it off against a wall. Mr. Langton told me, that when they were swimming together near Oxford, he cautioned Dr. Johnson against a pool, which was reckoned particularly dangerous; upon which Johnson directly swam into it. He told me himself that one night he was attacked in the street by four men, to whom he would not yield, but kept them all at bay, till the watch came up, and carried both him and them to the round-house. In the playhouse at Lichfield, as Mr. Garrick informed me, Johnson having for a moment quitted a chair which was placed for him between the side scenes, a gentleman took possession of it, and, when Johnson on his return civilly demanded his seat, rudely refused to give it up; upon which Johnson laid hold of it, and tossed him and the chair into the pit.' Foote, who so sucessfully revived the old comedy, by exhibiting living characters, had resolved to imitate Johnson on the stage, expecting great profits from his ridicule of so celebrated a man. Johnson being informed of his intention, and being at dinner at Mr. Thomas Davies's, the bookseller, from whom I had the story, he asked Mr. Davies, what was the common price of an oak stick?" and being answered sixpence, 'Why then, Sir," said he, “give me leave to send your servant to purchase me a shilling I'll have a double quantity; for I am

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one.

from him, he instantly set about composing a prayer in Latin, at once to deprecate God's mercy, to satisfy himself that his mental powers remained unimpaired, and to keep them in exercise, that they might not perish by permitted stagnation. When one day he had at my house taken tincture of antimony instead of emetic wine, for a vomit, he was himself the person to direct what to do for him, and managed with as much coolness and deliberation as if he had been prescribing for an indifferent person." - CROKER.

3 If Mrs. Piozzi had reported any statement so obviously exaggerated as this, Boswell would have been very indignant. CROKER.

proper;" and, strange enough, the example he gives does not support his interpretation. -CROKER.

told Foote means to take me off, as he calls it, and I am determined the fellow shall not do it with impunity." Davies took care to acquaint Foote of this, which effectually checked the wantonness of the mimic. Mr. Macpherson's menaces made Johnson provide himself with the same implement of defence; and had the been attacked, I have no doubt that, old as he was, he would have made his corporal prowess be felt as much as his intellectual.

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His "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland" is a most valuable performance. It abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, and in ingenious sentiment and lively description. A considerable part of it, indeed, consists of speculations, which, many years before he saw the wild regions which we visited together, probably had employed his attention, though the actual sight of those scenes undoubtedly quickened and augmented them. Mr. Orme', the very able historian, agreed with me in this opinion, which he thus strongly expressed: "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!"

That he was to some degree of excess a true born Englishman, so as to have entertained an undue prejudice against both the country and the people of Scotland, must be allowed. But it was a prejudice of the head, and not of the heart. He had no ill-will to the Scotch; for, if he had been conscious of that, he never would have thrown himself into the bosom of their country, and trusted to the protection of its remote inhabitants with a fearless confidence. His remark upon the nakedness of the country, from its being denuded of trees, was made after having travelled two hundred miles along the eastern coast, where certainly trees are not to be found near the road; and he said it was "a map of the road" which he gave. His disbelief of the authenticity of the poems ascribed to Ossian, a Highland bard, was confirmed in the course of his journey, by a very strict examination of the evidence offered for it; and although their authenticity was made too much a national point by the Scotch, there were many respectable persons in that country, who did not concur in this: so that his judgment upon the question ought not to be decried,

1 Robert Orme, Esq., the historian of Hindostan, was born at Anjengo, in the Travancore country, in 1728, and died at Baling, 1801.-WRIGHT.

2 This is a distinction which I am not sure that I understand. Did Mr. Boswell think that he improved the case by representing Johnson's dislike of Scotland as the result not of feeling but of reason? In truth, in the printed Journal of his Tour, there is nothing that a fair and liberal Scotchman can or does complain of; but his conversation is full of the harshest and often most unjust sarcasms against the Scotch, nationally and individually. Much of this, as reported in these volumes, may be accounted for by his desire to tease Boswell, who, indeed, often provoked him; and if he had had an Irish Boswell, we should have heard some still sharper sarcasms on the Irish; but, after all such allowances, I must repeat my suspicion that there was some personal cause for this unreasonable and, as it appears, unaccountable antipathy. CROKER.

even by those who differ from him. As to myself, I can only say, upon a subject now become very uninteresting, that when the fragments of Highland poetry first came out, I was much pleased with their wild peculiarity, and was one of those who subscribed to enable their editor, Mr. Macpherson, then a young man, to make a search in the Highlands and Hebrides for a long poem in the Erse language, which was reported to be preserved somewhere in those regions. But when there came forth an Epic poem in six books, with all the common circumstances of former compositions of that nature; and when, upon an attentive examination of it, there was found a perpetual recurrence of the same images which appear in the fragments; and when no ancient manuscript, to authenticate the work, was deposited in any public library, though that was insisted on as a reasonable proof; who could forbear to doubt?

Johnson's grateful acknowledgments of kindness received in the course of this tour completely refute the brutal reflections which have been thrown out against him, as if he had made an ungrateful return; and his delicacy in sparing in his book those who we find, from his letters to Mrs. Thrale, were just objects of censure, is much to be admired. His candour and amiable disposition is conspicuous from his conduct, when informed by Mr. Macleod, of Rasay, that he had committed a mistake, which gave that gentleman some uneasiness. He wrote him a courteous and kind letter, and inserted in the newspapers an advertisement, correcting the mistake.

The observations of my friend Mr. Dempster 5 in a letter written to me soon after he had read Dr. Johnson's book, are so just and liberal that they cannot be too often repeated (antè, p. 399.): —

to end, that a Scotchman need to take amiss," &c. "There is nothing in the book, from beginning

Mr. Knox 6, another native of Scotland, who has since made the same tour, and published an account of it, is equally liberal.

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3 I find no one to whom this applies, but Sir Archibald Macdonald, whom Mr. Boswell himself, in his first edition, did not spare. - CROKER.

4 We have seen his kind acknowledgment of Macleod's hospitality, and the loss of poor Col is recorded in his Journal in affectionate and pathetic terms.- CROKER.

5 Boswell was so vehemently attacked by his countrymen, as if he were particeps criminis with Dr. Johnson, that he thought it expedient to produce and reproduce these testimonia insignorum Scotorum in his own defence. — CROKER. 6 I observed with much regret, while the first edition was passing through the press (August, 1790), that this ingenious gentleman is dead, BoSWELL. Mr. John Knox was, for many years, a bookseller of some eminence in the Strand. Besides the Tour to the Hebrides, he published a " View of the British Empire," and several works having for their object the improvement of the Scottish Fisheries. He died at Dalkeith. W RIGHT.

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Coll, Mull, and Icolmkill, but have not been able to correct him in any matter of consequence. I have often admired the accuracy, the precision, and the justness of what he advances, respecting both the country and the people. The Doctor has every where delivered his sentiments with freedom, and in many instances with a seeming regard for the benefit of the inhabitants, and the ornament of the country. His remarks on the want of trees and hedges for shade, as well as for shelter to the cattle, are well founded, and merit the thanks, not the illiberal censure, of the natives. He also felt for the distresses of the Highlanders, and explodes with great propriety the bad management of the grounds, and the neglect of timber in the Hebrides."

Having quoted Johnson's just compliments on the Rasay family, he says,

"On the other hand, I found this family equally lavish in their encomiums upon the Doctor's conversation, and his subsequent civilities to a young gentleman of that country, who, upon waiting upon him at London, was well received, and experienced all the attention and regard that a warm friend could bestow. Mr. Macleod having also been in London, waited upon the Doctor, who provided a magnificent and expensive entertainment in honour of his old Hebridean acquaintance."

And, talking of the military road by Fort Augustus, he says,

"By this road, though one of the most rugged in Great Britain, the celebrated Dr. Johnson passed

from Inverness to the Hebride Isles. His observations on the country and people are extremely correct, judicious, and instructive."— p. 103.

Mr. Tytler, the acute and able vindicator of Mary Queen of Scots, in one of his letters to Mr. James Elphinstone, published in that gentleman's "Forty Years' Correspondence,"

says,

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"I read Dr. Johnson's Tour' with very great pleasure. Some few errors he has fallen into, but of no great importance, and those are lost in the numberless beauties of his work. If I had leisure, I could perhaps point out the most exceptionable places; but at present I am in the country, and have not his book at hand. It is plain he meant to speak well of Scotland; and he has in my apprehension done us great honour in the most capital

article, the character of the inhabitants."

His private letters to Mrs. Thrale, written during the course of his journey, which therefore may be supposed to convey his genuine feelings at the time, abound in such benignant sentiment towards the people who showed him civilities, that no man whose temper is not very harsh and sour can retain a doubt of the goodness of his heart.

It is painful to recollect with what rancour he was assailed by numbers of shallow irritable

1 The Right Hon. William Windham, of Felbrigg, born 1750, died 1810. He cultivated Johnson's acquaintance for

North Britons, on account of his supposed injurious treatment of their country and countrymen, in his "Journey." Had there been any just ground for such a charge, would the virtuous and candid Dempster have given his opinion of the book, in the terms which I have quoted? Would the patriotic Knox have spoken of it as he has done? Would Mr. Tytler, surely

"a Scot, if ever Scot there were,"

have expressed himself thus? And let me add, that, citizen of the world as I hold myself to be, I have that degree of predilection for my natale solum, nay, I have that just sense of the merit of an ancient nation, which has been ever renowned for its valour, which in former times maintained its independence against a powerful neighbour, and in modern times has been equally distinguished for its ingenuity and industry in civilised life, that I should have felt a generous indignation at any injustice done to it. Johnson treated Scotland no worse than he did even his best friends, whose characters he used to give as they appeared to him, both in light and shade. Some people, who had not exercised their minds sufficiently, condemned him, for censuring his friends. But Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose philosophical penetration and justness of thinking were not less known to those who lived with him, than his genius in his art admired by the world, explained his conduct thus:

"He was fond of discrimination, which he could not show without pointing out the bad as well as the good in every character; and as his friends were those whose characters he knew best, they afforded him the best opportunity for showing the acuteness of his judgment."

He expressed to his friend Mr. Windham, of Norfolk', his wonder at the extreme jealousy of the Scotch, and their resentment at having their country described by him as it really was; when to say that it was a country as good as England would have been a gross falsehood. "None of us," said he, "would be offended if that vines and olives don't grow in England." a foreigner who has travelled here should say, And as to his prejudice against the Scotch, which I always ascribed to that nationality

which he observed in them, he said to the same gentleman, "When I find a Scotchman, to whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman, that Scotchman shall be as an Englishman to me." His intimacy with many gentlemen of Scotland, and his employing so many natives of that country as his amanuenses, proves that his prejudice was not virulent; and I have deposited in the British Museum, amongst other pieces of his writing, the following note in answer to one from me, asking if he would meet me at

the last few years of his life with great assiduity, as will be seen in the sequel of this work. - CROKER.

dinner at the Mitre, though a friend of mine, Macquharrie, young Maclean of Col, the successor a Scotchman, was to be there:

"Mr. Johnson does not see why Mr. Boswell should suppose a Scotchman less acceptable than any other man. He will be at the Mitre."

My much-valued friend Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, having once expressed to him an apprehension, that if he should visit Ireland he might treat the people of that country more unfavourably than he had done the Scotch, he answered, with strong pointed double-edged wit, “Sir, you have no reason to be afraid of me. The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, Sir: the Irish are a fair people; - they never speak well of one another."

Johnson told me of an instance of Scottish nationality, which made a very unfavourable impression upon his mind. A Scotchman of some consideration in London solicited him to recommend by the weight of his learned authority, to be master of an English school, a person of whom he who recommended him confessed he knew no more but that he was his countryman. Johnson was shocked at this unconscientious conduct.

All the miserable cavillings against his Journey," in newspapers, magazines, and other fugitive publications, I can speak from certain knowledge, only furnished him with sport. At last there came out a scurrilous volume, larger than Johnson's own, filled with malignant abuse, under a name, real or fictitious, of some low man in an obscure corner of Scotland, though supposed to be the work of another Scotchman, who has found means to make himself well known both in Scotland and England. The effect which it had upon Johnson was, to produce this pleasant observation to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book: "This fellow must be a blockhead. They don't know how to go about their abuse. Who will read a five shilling book against me? No, Sir, if they had wit, they should have kept pelting me with pamphlets."

BOSWELL TO JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, Feb. 18. 1775. "You would have been very well pleased if you had dined with me to-day. I had for my guests,

1 Murphy relates that Johnson one day asked him, "Have you observed the difference between your own country Impudence and Scotch impudence?" The answer being in the negative; "Then I will tell you," said Johnson: "the impudence of an Irishman is the impudence of a fly that buzzes about you, and you put it away, but it returns again, and still flutters and teases. The impudence of a Scotchman is the impudence of a leech, that fixes and sucks your blood." -1831. This simile, Mr. Markland observes, is not original. Osborne, speaking of the Scotch who accompanied James I. into England, says," the hung on him like horse-leeches, till they could get no more." Johnson might have been thinking of an older authority. "In Egypt," says Potter,

of our friend, a very amiable man, though not marked with such active qualities as his brother; Mr. Maclean of Torloisk in Mull3, a gentleman of Sir Allan's family; and two of the clan Grant; so that the Highland and Hebridean genius reigned. We had a great deal of conversation about you, and drank your health in a bumper. The toast was not proposed by me, which is a circumstance to be remarked, for I am now so connected with honour has not the value of an additional compliyou, that any thing that I can say or do to your treasure of admiration which already belongs to It is only giving you a guinea out of that you, and which is no hidden treasure; for I suppose my admiration of you is co-existent with the knowledge of my character.

ment.

"I find that the Highlanders and Hebrideans in general are much fonder of your Journey,' than the low-country or hither Scots. One of the Grants said to-day, that he was sure you were a man of a good heart, and a candid man, and seemed to hope he should be able to convince you of the antiquity of a good proportion of the poems of Ossian. After all that has passed, I think the matter is capable of being proved to a certain degree. I am told that

Macpherson got one old Erse MS. from Clanranald, for the restitution of which he executed a formal obligation; and it is affirmed, that the Gaelic (call it Erse or call it Irish) has been written in the Highlands and Hebrides for many centuries. It is reasonable to suppose, that such of the inhabitants as acquired any learning possessed the art of writing as well as their Irish neighbours and Celtic cousins; and the question is, can sufficient evidence be shown of this?

"Those who are skilled in ancient writings can determine the age of MSS., or at least can ascertain the century in which they were written; and if men of veracity, who are so skilled, shall tell us that MSS. in the possession of families in the Highlands and isles are the works of a remote age, I think we should be convinced by their testimony.

"There is now come to this city, Ranald Macdonald from the Isle of Egg, who has several MSS. of Erse poetry, which he wishes to publish by subscription. I have engaged to take three copies of the book, the price of which is to be six shillings, as I would subscribe for all the Erse that can be printed, be it old or new, that the language may be preserved. This man says, that some of his manuscripts are ancient; and, to be sure, one of them which was shown to me does appear to have the duskiness of antiquity.. The inquiry is not yet quite hopeless, and I should think that the exact truth may be discovered, if proper means be used. I am, &c.,

...

"JAMES BOSWELL."

"the fly was the hieroglyphic of an impudent man, because that insect, being beaten away, always still returns again."Grec. Antiq. ii. 367. CROKER.

"

2 This was, no doubt, the book styled "Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides, &c., by the Rev. Donald M'Nicol." It had, by way of motto, a citation from Ray's Proverbs: "Old men and travellers LIE by authority." It was not printed till 1779. The second Scotchman, whom Mr. Boswell supposes to have helped in this work, Sir James Mackintosh very reasonably surmises to have been Macpherson.CROKER.

3 Maclean of Torloisk was grandfather to the present Marchioness of Northampton. -WALTER SCOTT.

FF

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

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"Feb. 25. 1775.

"DEAR SIR, I am sorry that I could get no books for my friends in Scotland. Mr. Strahan has at last promised to send two dozen to you. If they come, put the names of my friends into them; you may cut them out', and paste them with a little starch in the book.

"You then are going wild about Ossian. Why do you think any part can be proved? The dusky manuscript of Egg is probably not fifty years old: if it be an hundred, it proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald is no proof. Has Clanranald told it? Can he prove it? There are, I believe, no Erse manuscripts. None of the old families had a single letter in Erse that we heard of. You say it is likely that they could write. The learned, if any learned there were, could; but knowing by that learning some written language, in that language they wrote, as letters had never been applied to their own. If there are manuscripts, let them be shown. with some proof that they are not forged for the occasion. You say many can remember parts of Ossian. I believe all those parts are versions of the English; at least there is no proof of their antiquity.

"Macpherson is said to have made some translations himself; and having taught a boy to write it, ordered him to say that he had learnt it of his grandmother. The boy, when he grew up, told the story. This Mrs. Williams heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Don't be credulous; you know how little a Highlander can be trusted. Macpherson is, so far as I know, very quiet. Is not that proof enough? Every thing is against him. No visible manuscript: no inscription in the language: no correspondence among friends: no transaction of business, of which a single scrap remains in the ancient families. Macpherson's pretence is that the character was Saxon. If he had not talked unskilfully of manuscripts, he might have fought with oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's information, I suppose he knows much less of the

matter than ourselves.

"In the mean time, the bookseller says that the sale is sufficiently quick. They printed four thousand. Correct your copy wherever it is wrong, and bring it up. Your friends will all be glad to see you. I think of going myself into the country about May. I am sorry that I have not managed to send the book sooner. I have left four for you,

and do not restrict you absolutely to follow my directions in the distribution. You must use your own discretion.

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell: suppose she is now beginning to forgive me. am, dear Sir, your humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

I

I

1 From a list in his handwriting. - BOSWELL. Of his Journey. — BOSWELL. Hannah More says (Life, i. 39.) that Cadell told her that he had sold 4000 the first week. This would have been enormous, and seems a mistake for the number printed. — CROKER.

3 It appears by his letters to Mrs. Thrale that about the

CHAPTER XLVIII.

-

1775.

Peter Garrick. -"Taxa

Boswell revisits London. tion no Tyranny.” - Dr. Towers's "Answer."Gerard Hamilton. Sheridan's Gold Medal to Home. Mrs. Abington. — Cibber's "Nonjuror." Boswell's "Surveillance.” · Garrick's Prolognes. The Adams. Garrick's Imitations of Johnson. Gray's Odes - Lord Chesterfield's Letters. - Johnson's Diploma of LL.D. - Abyssinian Bruce. Colman's "Odes to Obscurity and Oblivion." Mason's "Elfrida,” and “Caractacus." The Bath-Easton Vase. — Fleet Street and Charing Cross.

On Tuesday, 21st March, I arrived in London; and on repairing to Dr. Johnson's before dinner, found him in his study, sitting with Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, strongly resembling him in countenance and voice, but of more sedate and placid manners. Johnson informed me, that though Mr. Beauclerk was in great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger, and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heberden, to try the effect of a "new understanding." Both at this interview, and in the evening at Mr. Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garrick and I met again, he was vehement on the subject of the Ossian controversy; observing, "We do not know that there are any ancient Erse manuscripts; and we have no other reason to disbelieve that there are men with three heads, but that we do not know that there are any such men." He also was outrageous upon his supposition that my countrymen "loved Scotland better than truth," saying, "All of them,-nay not all, but droves of them, would come up, and attest any thing for the honour of Scotland." He also persevered in his wild allegation, that he questioned if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than himself. I assured him he was mistaken, and suggested that the proper punishment would be that he should receive a stripe at every tree above a hundred He laughed, and said, "I believe I might subyears old, that was found within that space.

mit to it for a baubee."

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