terchange would make a beneficial mixture of manners, and render our union more complete. Lord Chief Baron Orde was on good terms with us all, in a narrow country filled with jarring interefts and keen parties; and, though I well knew his opinion to be the fame with my own, he kept himfelf aloof at a very critical period indeed, when the Douglas caufe hook the facred fecurity of birthright in Scotland to its foundation; a cause, which had it happened before the Union, when there was no appeal to a British Houfe of Lords, would have left the great fortress of honours and of property in

ruins.

When we got home, Dr. Johnson defired to fee my books. He took down Ogden's Sermons on Prayer, on which I fet a very high value, having been much edified by them, and he retired with them to his room. He did not ftay long, but foon joined us in the drawing room. I prefented to him Mr. Robert Arbuthnot, a relation of the celebrated Dr. Arbuthnot, and a man of literature and taste. To him we were obliged for a previous recommendation, which fecured us a very agreeable reception at St. Andrews, and which Dr. Johnfon, in his " Journey," afcribes to "fome invifible friend." Of Dr. Beattie, Mr. Johnfon faid, "Sir, he has written like a man confcious of the truth, and feel. ing his own ftrength. Treating your adverfary with refpect, is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and are impreffed by character; fo that, if you allow your adversary a refpectable character, they will think, that though you differ from him, you may be in the wrong.

Sir, treating your adversary with respect, is ftriking foft in a battle. And as to Hume,-a man who has fo much conceit as to tell all mankind that they have been bubbled for ages, and he is the wife man who fees better than they,—a man who has fo little scrupulofity as to venture to oppose those principles which have been thought neceffary to human happinefs, is he to be furprised if another man comes and laughs at him? If he is the great man he thinks himself, all this cannot hurt him: it is like throwing peas against a rock." He added " something much too rough," both as to Mr. Hume's head and heart, which I fupprefs.. Violence is, in my opinion, not fuitable to the Chriftian caufe. Befides, I always lived on good terms with Mr. Hume, though I have frankly told him, I was not clear that it was right in me to keep company with him. "But (faid I) how much better are you than your books!" He was cheerful, obliging, and inftructive; he was charitable to the poor; and many an agreeable hour have I paffed with him: I have preserved fome entertaining and interefting memoirs of him, particularly when he knew himself to be dying, which I may fome time or other communicate to the world. I fhall not, however, extol him fo very highly as Dr. Adam Smith does, who fays, in a letter to Mr. Strahan the Printer (not a confidential letter to his friend, but a letter which is publifhed

*

with

*This letter, though fhattered by the sharp shot of Dr. Horne of Oxford's wit, in the character of " One of the People called Chrif"tians," is ftill prefixed to Mr. Hume's excellent History of England, like a poor invalid on the piquet guard, or like a lift of quack medicines fold by the fame bookfeller, by whom a work of whatever nature is published; for it has no connection with his Hiftory, let it

with all formality): "Upon the whole, I have always confidered him, both in his life time and fince his "death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a "perfectly wife and virtuous man as perhaps the "nature of human frailty will permit." Let Dr. Smith confider: Was not Mr. Hume bleft with good health, good fpirits, good friends, a com petent and increafing fortune? And had he not also a perpetual feast of fame? But, as a learned friend has obferved to me, "What trials did he undergo, to prove the perfection of his virtue? Did he ever experience any great inftance of adverfity ?" When I read this fentence, delivered by my old Profeffor of Moral Philofophy, I could not help exclaiming with the Pfalmift, " Surely I have now "more understanding than my teachers !"

While we were talking, there came a note to me from Dr. William Robertson.

८८

Dear Sir,

"I have been expecting every day to hear from you, of Dr. Johnson's arrival. Pray, what do દ you know about his motions? I long to take "him by the hand. I write this from the college, "where

C 2

have what it thay with what are called his Philofophical Works. A worthy friend of mine in London was lately confulted by a lady of quali ty, of most diftinguished merit, what was the beft Hiftory of England for her fon to read. My friend recommended Hume's. But, upon recollecting that its ufher was a fuperlative panegyrick on one, who endeavoured to fap the credit of our holy religion, he revoked his recommendation. I am really forry for this oftentatious alliance; because I admire "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," and value the greatest part of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Caufes of the "Wealth of Nations." Why should fuch a writer be so forgetful of human comfort, as to give any countenance to that dreary infide. lity which would make us poor indeed !”,

"where I have only this fcrap of paper. Ever

66

❝ yours,

"Sunday.

W. R."

It pleased me to find Dr. Robertson thus eager to meet Dr. Johnfon. I was glad I could anfwer, that he was come: and I begged Dr. Robertson might be with us as foon as he could.

Sir William Forbes, Mr. Scott, Mr. Arbuthnot, and another gentleman dined with us. "Come, Dr. Johnson, (faid I,) it is commonly thought that our veal in Scotland is not good. But here is fome which I believe you will like."-There was no catching him.Johnson. "Why, fir, what is commonly thought, I should take to be true. veal may be good; but that will only be an exception to the general opinion; not a proof against it.”

Your

Dr. Robertson, according to the custom of Edinburgh at that time, dined in the interval between the forenoon and afternoon service, which was then later than now; fo we had not the pleasure of his company till dinner was over, when he came and drank wine with us. And then began fome animated dialogue, of which here follows a pretty full

note.

We talked of Mr. Burke.-Dr. Johnfon faid, he had great variety of knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language.-Robertson. "He has wit too."-Johnson, "No, fir; he never fucceeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis conceit. I used to say, Burke never once made a good joke*. What I most

envy

* This was one of the points upon which Dr. Johnson was ftrangely heterodox. For, furely, Mr. Burke, with his other remarkable qualities, is also distinguished for his wit, and for wit of

all

envy Burke for, is, his being conftantly the fame, He is never what we call hum-drum; never unwil

all kinds too; not merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit,

(True wit is Nature to advantage dreft ;

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expreft.)

but furprising allufions, brilliant fallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His fpeeches in parliament are ftrewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a fpecimen.-I told him, I had seen, at a Blue ftocking aflembly, a number of ladies fitting round a worthy and tall friend of ours, listening to his literature. "Ay, (faid he) like maids round a May-pole."-I told him, I had found out a perfect definition of human nature, as distinguished from the animal. An ancient philofopher faid, Man was "a twolegged animal without feathers," upon which his rival Sage had a Cock plucked bare, and set him down in the school before all the difciples, as a Philofophick Man." Dr. Franklin said, Man was 66 a tool-making animal," which is very well; for no animal but man makes a thing, by means of which he can make another thing. But this applies to very few of the fpecies. My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal." The beafts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and paffions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the monkey using the cat's paw to roaft a chestnut, is only a piece of fhrewd malice in that turpiffima beftia, which humbles us fo fadly by its fimilarity to us: Man alone can drefs a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in feasoning what he himself eats-Your definition is good, faid Mr. Burke, and I now fee the full force of the common proverb, "There is reafon in roafting of eggs."-When Mr. Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous oppofition, was borne upon the fhoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himfelf, with claffical admiration,) applied to him what Horace fays of Pindar,

Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's fertility of wit, faid, that this was "dignifying a pun."

He