times took up, and glanced at; but threw it down again. I then entered upon religious conversation. Never did I see him in a better frame: calm, gentle, wise, holy. I said, "Would not the same objection hold against the Trinity as against transubstantiation?"-"Yes," said he, "if you take three and one in the same sense. If you do so, to be sure you cannot believe it; but the three persons in the Godhead are three in one sense, and one in another. We cannot tell how, and that is the mystery!" I spoke of the satisfaction of Christ. He said his notion was, that it did not atone for the sins of the world; but, by satisfying divine justice, by showing that no less than the Son of God suffered for sin, it showed to men and innumerable created beings the heinousness of it, and therefore rendered it unnecessary for divine vengeance to be exercised against sinners, as it otherwise must have been; that in this way it might operate even in favour of those who had never heard of it; as to those who did hear of it, the effect it should produce would be repentance and piety, by impressing upon the mind a just notion of sin; that original sin was the propensity to evil, which no doubt was occasioned by the fall. He presented this solemn subject in a new light to me,' and rendered much more rational and clear the doctrine of what our Saviour has done for us; as it removed the notion of imputed righteousness in co-operating; whereas, by this view, Christ has done all already that he had to do, or is ever to do, for mankind, by making his great satisfaction; the consequences of which will affect each individual according to the particular conduct of each. I would illustrate this by saying, that Christ's satisfaction resembles a sun placed to show light to men, so that it depends upon themselves whether they will walk the right way or not, which they could not have done without that sun, "the 1 My worthy, intelligent, and candid friend, Dr. Kippis, informs me that several divines have thus explained the mediation of our Saviour. What Dr. Johnson now delivered was but a temporary opinion; for he afterwards was fully convinced of the propitiatory sacrifice, as I shall show at large in my future work, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. sun of righteousness." There is, however, more in it than merely giving light-"a light to lighten the Gentiles;" for we are told, there is, "healing under his wings." Dr. Johnson said to me, "Richard Baxter commends a treatise by Grotius, 'De Satisfactione Christi.' I have never read it; but I intend to read it; and you may read it." I remarked, upon the principle now laid down, we might explain the difficult and seemingly hard text, "They that believe shall be saved; and they that believe not shall be damned." They that believe shall have such an impression made upon their minds, as will make them act so that they may be accepted by God. We talked of one of our friends taking ill, for a length of time, a hasty expression of Dr. Johnson's to him, on his attempting to prosecute a subject that had a reference to religion, beyond the bounds within which the Doctor thought such topics should be confined in a mixed company. JOHNSON. "What is to become of society, if a friendship of twenty years is to be broken off for such a cause?" As Bacon says,'— "Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns the water, or but writes in dust." I said, he should write expressly in support of Christianity; for that, although a reverence for it shines through his works in several places, that is not enough. "You know," said I, "what Grotius has done, and what Addison has done, you should do also." He replied, "I hope I shall." Monday, Aug. 23.- Principal Campbell, Sir Alexander Gordon, Professor Gordon, and Professor Ross, visited us in the morning, as did Dr. Gerard, who had come six miles from the country on purpose. We went and saw the Marischal 1 Phanuel Bacon, born 1700, Rector of Balden, in Oxfordshire, was of Magdalen College, Oxford: M.A., April, 1722; B.D., 1731; D.D., Dec., 1735; wrote a poem called the "Artificial Kite," preserved in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1798; wrote also a humorous ballad called "The Snipe," preserved in the Oxford Sausage. He died at Balden Jan. 10, 1783, in the eighty-third year of his age. Chalmers' Biog. Dict., vol. iii., p. 280.-Editor. College,' and at one o'clock we waited on the magistrates in the town-hall, as they had invited us, in order to present Dr. Johnson with the freedom of the town, which Provost Jopp did with a very good grace. Dr. Johnson was much pleased with this mark of attention, and received it very politely. There was a pretty numerous company assembled. It was striking to hear all of them drinking, "Dr. Johnson! Dr. Johnson!" in the town-hall of Aberdeen, and then to see him with his burgess-ticket, or diploma, in his hat, which he wore as he walked along the street, according to the usual custom. gave me great satisfaction to observe the regard, and, indeed, fondness too, which every body here had for my father. While Sir Alexander Gordon conducted Dr. Johnson to Old Aberdeen, Professor Gordon and I called on Mr. Riddoch, whom I found to be a grave worthy clergyman. He observed that, whatever might be said of Dr. Johnson while he was alive, he would, after he was dead, be looked upon by the world with regard and astonishment, on account of his Dictionary. Professor Gordon and I walked over to the old college, which Dr. Johnson had seen by this time. I stepped into the chapel, and looked at the tomb of the founder, Archbishop Elphinston, of whom I shall have occasion to write in my "History of James IV. of Scotland," the patron of my family." We dined at Sir Alexander Gordon's. The provost, Professor Ross, Professor Dunbar, Professor Thomas Gordon, 1 Dr. Beattie was so kindly entertained in England, that he had not yet returned home. 2 Dr. Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words : "Aberdoniæ, vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millessimo septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium virorum, Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, præpositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi Young, Georgii Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie Decani guildæ, et Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi.—Quo die vir generosus et doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL.D. receptus et admissus fuit in municipes et fratres guildæ præfati burgi de Aberdeen in deditissimi amoris et affectus ac eximiæ observantiæ tesseram, quibus dicti magistratus eum amplectuntur. Extractum per me, Alex. Carnegie." 3 A project and not the only one-never carried into effect.-Editor. were there. After dinner came in Dr. Gerard, Professor Leslie, Professor Macleod. We had little or no conversation in the morning; now we were but barren. The professors seemed afraid to speak. Dr. Gerard told us that an eminent printer1 was very intimate with Warburton. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, he has printed some of his works, and perhaps bought the property of some of them. The intimacy is such as one of the professors here may have with one of the carpenters who is repairing the college."-" But," said Gerard, "I saw a letter from him to this printer, in which he says, that the one half of the clergy of the Church of Scotland are fanatics, and the other half infidels." JOHNSON. "Warburton has accustomed himself to write letters just as he speaks, without thinking any more of what he throws out. When I read Warburton first, and observed his force, and his contempt of mankind, I thought he had driven the world before him; but I soon found that was not the case; for Warburton, by extending his abuse, rendered it ineffectual." He told me, when we were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong in the printer to show Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body of enemies against him. He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so to the printer; and added, "Sir, the worst way of being intimate is by scribbling." He called Warburton's "Doctrine of Grace" a poor performance, and so, he said, was Wesley's Answer. "Warburton," he observed, "had laid himself very open. In particular, he was weak enough to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had spoken with tongues, had spoken languages which they never heard before; a thing as absurd as to say, that in some disorders of the imagination, people had been known to fly." I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard in a disquisition with Dr. Johnson; but I did not 1 Mr. Strahan. See Forbes' Life of Beattie, vol. ii., p. 170.—Croker. ? Dr. Gerard had written an essay on Genius. Svo., London, 1774.Editor. succeed. I mentioned, as a curious fact, that Locke had written verses. JOHNSON. "I know of none, Sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr. Sydenham's Works, in which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and burning are united; and how Dr. Sydenham removed fire by drawing off water, contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by bringing water upon it. I am not sure that there is a word of all this; but it is such kind of talk."1 'All this, as Dr. Johnson suspected at the time, was the immediate invention of his own lively imagination; for there is not one word of it in Mr. Locke's complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no doubt, like to be satisfied, by comparing them; and, at any rate, it may entertain them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when a bachelor in physic. AUCTORI, IN TRACTATUM EJUS DE FEBRIBUS. Quum post mille artes, medicæ tentamina curæ, Præda sumus flammis; solum hoc speramus ab igne, Dum quærit medicus febris causamque, modumque, Sic faber exesos fulsit tibicine muros ; Dum trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos. Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes; Innocuas placide corpus jubet urere flammas, |