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. 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." Lady Helen Colquhoun being a very pious woman, the conversation, after dinner, took a religious turn. Her ladyship defended the presbyterian mode of public worship; upon which Dr. Johnson delivered those excellent arguments for a form of prayer which he has introduced into his " Journey." 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 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 lus permission to take a copy of it; by which probably it has been preserved, as the original I have reason to suppose is lost. Z Z 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. Our satisfaction at 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. 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, 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, Пodev To Kaxov ?”—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, 28th October. Mr. Smollet pleased Dr. Johnson, by producing a collection of news-papers 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. Dr. Johnson treated this with great contempt, saying " An English inscriptian would be a disgrace to Dr. Smollet;" 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, Vel mente felix, vel studiis cultus, Viri iis virtutibus * * * * * Postquam mira *** Tali tantoque viro, suo patrueli, ****** Hanc columnam, Amoris eheu! inane monumentum, Quas primis infans vagitibus personuit, * The epitaph which has been inscribed on the pillar erected on the banks of the Leven, in honour of Dr. Smollet, 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, Immorare paululum memoriæ Quas in homine et cive Morte acerba raptus We had this morning a singular proof of Dr. Johnson's quick and retentive memory. Hay's translation of Eheu! quam procul a patria! Tali tantoque viro, patrueli, suo, Se potius tradidisse decuit, Amoris, eheu! inane monumentum Quas versiculis sub exitu vitæ illustratas JACOBUS SMOLLET de Bonhill. Hoc quidem honore, Non modo defuncti memoriæ, Verum etiam exemplo, prospectum esse : Aliis enim, si modo digni sint, Idem erit virtutis præmium! That the reader might be enabled to judge of the propriety of the additions made by Dr. Johnson to the epitaph on Mr. Maclaurin, mentioned in p. 35, I wished to have inserted it at large, but being at a distance from the press when the former part of this work was printed, the note intended for that page did not arrive in time. I shall therefore introduce it here. Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tomb-stone, in the GreyFriars church-yard, Edinburgh: Infra situs est COLIN MACLAURIN, Non ut nomini paterno consulat, Ubi luctus regnant et pavor, Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium: Corpori caduco superstitem crede. |