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. De- October 22. Uncommon breakfast offered to Dr. Johnson, and rejected. October 23. Goldsmith's Traveller. Pope and Cowley compared. Hervey's Meditations. October 25. Dr. Johnson presented to the Duke of Argyle. Grandeur October 26. A passage in Home's Douglas, and one in Juvenal, com- October 27. 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. October 30. Dinner at the Earl of Loudoun's. Character of that noble- October 31. November 1. donald. toune. November 2. Sir John Cunningham of Caprington. Rules for the distribution of charity. Castle of Dun- Arrive at Auchinleck. Character of Lord Auchinleck. November 3. Dr. Johnson's sentiments concerning the Highlands. Mr. November 4. Auchinleck. Cattle without horns. Composure of mind Contents. November 5. Dr. Johnson's high respect for the English clergy. I I November 7. Dr. Johnson's uniform piety. His dislike of presbyterian November 8. Arrive at Hamilton. November 9. The Duke of Hamilton's house. Arrive at Edinburgh. creased by opposition. Edinburgh Castle. Fingal. English cre- SUMMARY ACCOUNT of the manner in which Dr. Johnson spent his HE 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'. Baker's Chronicle [ed. 1665, p. 449]. The man thus described is James I. THE THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. R. JOHNSON had for many years given me hopes that we should go together, and visit the Hebrides'. 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', 'that he scarcely remembered how the wish to visit the Hebrides was excited;' but he told me, in summer, 17633, 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. 'See ante, i. 450 and ii. 291. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Johnson's Works, ix. 1. 3 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. When 14 Boswell'attracts' Johnson to Scotland. 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'-To attract him, we had invitations from the chiefs Macdonald and Macleod; and, for additional aid, I wrote to Lord Elibank 2, 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. Macbeth, act i. sc. 3. * See ante, iii. 24, and post, Nov. 10. |