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 broken 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. 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."1

We had a dreary drive, in a dusky night, to St. Andrew's, 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, showed 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." He did not allow the Latin poetry of

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 Athenæ 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 quarto. 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 entitled Wit and Loyalty revived, in a collection of some smart satires in verse and prose on the late times, Lond. 1682, 4to., 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.

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."

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,3 a professor here (the historian of Philip II.), had purchased the ground, and what buildings remained. When we entered his court, it seemed quite academical; and we found in his house very comfortable and genteel accommodation.5

Thursday, Aug. 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, 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,

1 Dr. Archibald Pitcairne, born at Edinburgh, December 25, 1652; died there, October 20, 1713.—Wright.

2 More likely the fine epitaph on John Viscount of Dundee, translated by Dryden, and beginning Ultime Scotorum, &c.-Walter Scott. 3 See Life, vol. ii., p. 373 (note).—Editor.

"The chapel of the alienated college is yet standing," says Johnson, “a fabrick not inelegant of external structure; but I was always, by some civil excuse, hindered from entering it. A decent attempt, as I was since told, has been made to convert it into a kind of greenhouse by planting its area with shrubs. This new method of gardening is unsuccessful; the plants do not hitherto prosper. To what use it will next be put I have no pleasure in conjecturing. It is something that its present state is at least not ostentatiously displayed. Where there is yet shame, there may

in time be virtue."-Journey, pp. 9, 10.

5

My Journal, from this day inclusive, was read by Dr. Johnson.