August 19.]

Saying Grace in Latin.

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afterwards, speaking of his not drinking wine, said, 'The Doctor spoke of lecturing (looking to him). I give all these lectures on water.'

He defended requiring subscription in those admitted to universities, thus: As all who come into the country must obey the king, so all who come into an university must be of the church'.'

And here I must do Dr. Johnson the justice to contradict a very absurd and ill-natured story, as to what passed at St. Andrews. It has been circulated, that, after grace was said in English, in the usual manner, he with the greatest marks of contempt, as if he had held it to be no grace in an university, would not sit down till he had said grace aloud in Latin. This would have been an insult indeed to the gentlemen who were entertaining us. But the truth was precisely thus. In the course of conversation at dinner, Dr. Johnson, in very good humour, said, 'I should have expected to have heard a Latin grace, among so many learned men: we had always a Latin grace at Oxford. I believe I can repeat it. Which he did, as giving the learned men in one place a specimen of what was done by the learned men in another place.

We went and saw the church, in which is Archbishop Sharp's monument. I was struck with the same kind of feelings with which the churches of Italy impressed me. I was much pleased, to see Dr. Johnson actually in St. Andrews, of which we had talked so long. Professor Haddo was with us this afternoon, along with Dr. Watson. We looked at St. Salvador's College. The rooms for students seemed very commodious, and Dr. Johnson said, the chapel

1 See ante, ii. 173.

'The Pembroke College grace was written by Camden. It was as follows:- Gratias tibi agimus, Deus misericors, pro acceptis a tua bonitate alimentis; enixe comprecantes ut serenissimum nostrum Regem Georgium, totam regiam familiam, populumque tuum universum tuta in pace semper custodias.'

'Sharp was murdered on May 3, 1679, in a moor near St. Andrews. Burnet's History of his Own Time, ed. 1818, ii. 82, and Scott's Old Mortality, ed. 1860, ix. 297, and x. 203.

was

was the neatest place of worship he had seen. The key of the library could not be found; for it seems Professor Hill, who was out of town, had taken it with him. Dr. Johnson told a joke he had heard of a monastery abroad, where the key of the library could never be found.

It was somewhat dispiriting, to see this ancient archiepiscopal city now sadly deserted'. We saw in one of its streets a remarkable proof of liberal toleration; a nonjuring clergyman, strutting about in his canonicals, with a jolly countenance and a round belly, like a well-fed monk.

We observed two occupations united in the same person, who had hung out two sign-posts. Upon one was, ‘James Hood, White Iron Smith' (i. e. Tin-plate Worker). Upon another, 'The Art of Fencing taught, by James Hood.'Upon this last were painted some trees, and two men fencing, one of whom had hit the other in the eye, to shew his great dexterity; so that the art was well taught. JOHNSON. 'Were I studying here, I should go and take a lesson. member Hope, in his book on this art', says, "the Scotch are very good fencers.

I re

We returned to the inn, where we had been entertained at dinner, and drank tea in company with some of the Professors, of whose civilities I beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgement to the honourable testimony of Dr. Johnson, in his Journey'.

'One of its streets is now lost; and in those that remain there is the silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy depopulation.... St. Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and education. . . . The students, however, are represented as, at this time, not exceeding a hundred. I saw no reason for imputing their paucity to the present professors.' Johnson's Works, ix. 4. A student, he adds, of lower rank could get his board, lodging, and instruction for less than ten pounds for the seven months of residence. Stockdale says (Memoirs, i. 238) that in St. Andrews, in 1756, for a good bedroom, coals, and the attendance of a servant I paid one shilling a week.'

2

The Compleat Fencing - Master, by Sir William Hope. London, 1691.

In the whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode

We

August 19.]

Instructions for composition.

75

We talked of composition, which was a favourite topick of Dr. Watson's, who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetorick. JOHNSON. I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed than in accuracy'.' WATSON. 'I own I am for much attention to accuracy in composing, lest one should get bad habits of doing it in a slovenly manner.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you are confounding doing inaccurately with the necessity of doing inaccurately. A man knows when his composition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But, if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with difficulty, upon all occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not like to do that which is not done easily; and, at any rate, more time is consumed in a small matter than ought to be.' WATSON. 'Dr. Hugh Blair has taken a week to compose a sermon.' JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Then, Sir, that is for want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am insisting one should acquire.' WATSON. 'Blair was not composing all the week, but only such hours as he found himself disposed for composition.' JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing. If I say I took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have composed about forty sermons'. I have

of kindness, and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality.' Johnson's Works, ix. 3.

'Dugald Stewart (Life of Adam Smith, p. 107) writes:- Mr. Smith observed to me not long before his death, that after all his practice in writing he composed as slowly, and with as great difficulty as at first. He added at the same time that Mr. Hume had acquired so great a facility in this respect, that the last volumes of his History were printed from his original copy, with a few marginal corrections.' See ante, iii. 496 and iv. 14.

"Of these only twenty-five have been published: Johnson's Works, ix. 289-525. See ante, iii. 22, note 3, and 206. Johnson wrote on April 20, 1778:-'I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly.' Pr. begun

76

Johnson's rapid composition.

[August 19. begun a sermon after dinner, and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night. I have also written six sheets in a day of translation from the French'.' BOSWELL. 'We have all observed how one man dresses himself slowly, and another fast.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir: it is wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing; taking up a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again. Every one should get the habit of doing it quickly. I would say to a young divine, “Here is your text; let me see how soon you can make a sermon.' Then I'd say, "Let me see how much better you can make it." Thus I should see both his powers and his judgement.'

6

99

Miss Sharp,

We all went to Dr. Watson's to supper. great grandchild of Archbishop Sharp, was there; as was Mr. Craig, the ingenious architect of the new town of Edinburgh' and nephew of Thomson, to whom Dr. Johnson has since done so much justice, in his Lives of the Poets.

We talked of memory, and its various modes. JOHNSON. Memory will play strange tricks. One sometimes loses a single word. I once lost fugaces in the Ode Posthume, Posthume". I mentioned to him, that a worthy gentleman of my

and Med. p. 170. 'I should think,' said Lord Eldon, 'that no clergyman ever wrote as many sermons as Lord Stowell. I advised him to burn all his manuscripts of that kind. It is not fair to the clergymen to have it known he wrote them.' Twiss's Eldon, iii. 286. Johnson, we may be sure, had no copy of any of his sermons. That none of them should be known but those he wrote for Taylor is strange.

1

He made the same statement on June 3, 1781 (ante, iv. 147), adding, I should be glad to see it [the translation] now.' This shows that he was not speaking of his translation of Lobo, as Mr. Croker maintains in a note on this passage. I believe he was speaking of his translation of Courayer's Life of Paul Sarpi. Ante, i. 156.

2 As far as I am acquainted with modern architecture, I am aware of no streets which, in simplicity and manliness of style, or general breadth and brightness of effect, equal those of the New Town of Edinburgh. But, etc.' Ruskin's Lectures on Architecture and Painting, p. 2. • Horace, Odes, ii. 14. 1.

acquaintance,

August 20.]

Leechman on Prayer.

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acquaintance actually forgot his own name. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that was a morbid oblivion.'

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20.

Dr. Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took my Ogden on Prayer, and read some of it to the company. Dr. Johnson praised him. Abernethy', (said he,) allows only of a physical effect of prayer upon the mind, which may be produced many ways, as well as by prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth, we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether offered up by individuals, or by assemblies; and Revelation has told us, it will be effectual.' I said, 'Leechman seemed to incline to Abernethy's doctrine.' Dr. Watson observed, that Leechman meant to shew, that, even admitting no effect to be produced by prayer, respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds'. He had given only a part of his system. Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole.

1

Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday'.

1 John Abernethy, a Presbyterian divine. His works in 7 vols. 8vo. were published in 1740-51.

2 Leechman was principal of Glasgow University (post, Oct. 29). On his appointment to the Chair of Theology he had been prosecuted for heresy for having, in his Sermon on Prayer, omitted to state the obligation to pray in the name of Christ. Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 69. One of his sermons was placed in Hume's hands, apparently that the author might have his suggestions in preparing a second edition. Hume says:-'First the addressing of our virtuous wishes and desires. to the Deity, since the address has no influence on him, is only a kind of rhetorical figure, in order to render these wishes more ardent and passionate. This is Mr. Leechman's doctrine. Now the use of any figure of speech can never be a duty. Secondly, this figure, like most figures of rhetoric, has an evident impropriety in it, for we can make use of no expression, or even thought, in prayers and entreaties, which does not imply that these prayers have an influence. Thirdly, this figure is very dangerous, and leads directly, and even unavoidably, to impiety and blasphemy,' etc. J. H. Burton's Hume, i. 161.

Nichols (Lit. Anec. ii. 555) records:- During the whole of my