The fame arguments which are used against GOD's hearing prayer, will ferve against his rewarding good, and punishing evil. He has refolved, he has declared, in the former cafe as in the latter." He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's "Remarks on the Hiftory of Scotland." Dr. Robertson and I said, it was a pity Lord Hailes did not write greater things. His lordship had not then published his "Annals of Scotland."-Johnfon. "I remember I was once on a vifit at the houfe of a lady for whom I had a high respect. There was a good deal of company in the room, When they were gone, I faid to this lady, What foolish talking have we had!'- Yes, (faid fhe,) but while they talked, you faid nothing.'-I was struck with the reproof. How much better is the man who does any thing that is innocent, than he who does nothing. Befides, I love anecdotes. I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoriftically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all thofe arts by which a big book is made.-If a man is to wait till he weaves anecdotes into a fystem, we may be long in getting them, and get but few, in comparison of what we might get." Dr. Robertson faid, the notions of Eupham Macallan, a fanatick woman, of whom Lord Hailes gives a sketch, were still prevalent among fome of the Presbyterians; and therefore it was right in Lord Hailes, a man of known piety, to undeceive them. We walked out, that Dr. Johnfon might fee fome of the things which we have to fhew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament-Houfe, where the Par liament liament of Scotland fat, and where the Ordinary Lords of Seffion hold their courts; and to the New Seffion-Houfe adjoining to it, where our Court of Fifteen (the fourteen Ordinaries, with the Lord Prefident at their head,) fit as a court of Review. We went to the Advocates' Library, of which Dr. Johnfon took a curfory view, and then to what is called the Laigh (or under) Parliament-House, where the records of Scotland, which has an univerfal fecurity by regifter, are depófited, till the great Register Office be finished. I was pleased to behold Dr. Samuel Johnfon rolling about in this old magazine of antiquities. There was, by this time, a pretty numerous circle of us attending upon him. Somebody talked of happy moments for compofition; and how a man can write at one time, and not at another.—“Nay (faid Dr. Johnson) a man may write at any time, if he will fet himself doggedly* to it." I here began to indulge old Scottish fentiments, and to exprefs a warm regret, that, by our Union with England, we were no more;-our independent kingdom was loft.-Johnson. "Sir, never talk of your independency, who could let your Queen remain twenty years in captivity, and then be put to death, without even a pretence of justice, without your ever attempting to refcue her; and fuch a Queen too! as every man of any gallantry of fpirit would have facrificed his life for."-Worthy Mr. James Kerr, Keeper of the Records. "Half our nation *This word is commonly used to fignify fullenly, gloomily; and in that fenfe alone it appears in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. I fuppofe he meant by it, "with an obfiinate refolution, fimilar to that of a fullen man." nation was bribed by English money."-Johnfon. "Sir, that is no defence: that makes you worse." -Good Mr. Brown, Keeper of the Advocates Library. "We had better fay nothing about it."Bofwell. "You would have been glad, however, to have had us laft war, fir, to fight your battles!" -Johnson. "We should have had you for the fame price, though there had been no Union, as we might have had Swifs, or other troops. No, no, I fhall agree to a feparation. You have only to go home." -Juft as he had faid this, I to divert the subject, fhewed him the figned affurances of the three fucceffive Kings of the Hanover family, to maintain the Prefbyterian establishment in Scotland.-"We'll give you that (faid he) into the bargain." 66 We next went to the great church of St. Giles, which has loft its original magnificence in the infide, by being divided into four places of Prefbyterian worship. Come, (faid Dr. Johnfon jocularly to Principal Robertson*,) let me fee what was once a church!" We entered that divifion which was formerly called the New Church, and of late the High Church, fo well known by the eloquence of Dr. Hugh Blair. It is now very elegantly fitted up; but it was then shamefully dirty. Dr. Johnson faid nothing at the time; but when we came to the great door of the Royal Infirmary, where, upon a board, was this infcription, "Clean your feet!" he turned about flyly, and said, "There is no occafion for putting this at the doors of your churches!" We * I have hitherto called him Dr. William Robertfon, to diftinguish him from Dr. James Robertfon, who is foon to make his appearance. But Principal from his being the head of our college, is his ufual defignation, and is fhorter ; fo I fhall use it hereafter. We then conducted him down the Post-house ftairs, Parliament-clofe, and made him look up from the Cow-gate to the highest building in Edinburgh, (from which he had juft defcended,) being thirteen floors or ftories from the ground upon the back elevation; the front wall being built upon the edge of the hill, and the back wall rifing from the bottom of the hill feveral ftories before it comes to a level with the front wall. We proceeded to the College, with the Principal at our head. Dr. Adam Ferguffon, whofe "Effay on the History of civil Society" gives him a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us. As the College buildings are indeed very mean, the Principal faid to Dr. Johnson, that he muft give them the fame epithet that a Jefuit did, when shewing a poor college abroad: "He miferiæ noftra." Dr. Johnfon was, however, much pleafed with the library, and with the converfation of Dr. James Robertson, Profeffor of Oriental Languages, the Librarian. We talked of Kennicot's edition of the Hebrew Bible, and hoped it would be quite faithful.Johnfon. "Sir, I know not any crime fo great that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the fources of eternal truth." I pointed out to him where there formerly stood an old wall enclofing part of the college, which I remember bulged out in a threatening manner, and of which there was a common tradition fimilar to that concerning Bacon's Study at Oxford, that it would fall upon fome very learned man. It had fome time before this been taken down, that the ftreet might be widened, and a more convenient wall built. Dr. Johnson, glad of an opportunity to to have a pleasant hit at Scottish learning, faid, "they have been afraid it never would fall." We fhewed him the Royal Infirmary, for which, and for every other exertion of generous publick fpirit in his power, that noble-minded citizen of Edinburgh, George Drummond, will be ever held in honourable remembrance. And we were too proud not to carry him to the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, that beautiful piece of architecture, but, alas! that deferted manfion of royalty, which Hamilton of Bangour, in one of his elegant poems, calls "A virtuous palace, where no monarch dwells." I was much entertained while Principal Robertson fluently harangued to Dr. Johnson, upon the spot, concerning scenes of his celebrated Hiftory of Scot land. We furveyed that part of the palace appro priated to the Duke of Hamilton, as Keeper, in which our beautiful Queen Mary lived, and in which David Rizzio was murdered; and also the State Rooms. Dr. Johnson was a great reciter of all forts of things ferious or comical. I over-heard him repeating here, in a kind of muttering tone, a line of the old ballad, Johnny Armstrong's Last GoodNight: "And ran him through the fair body *!”. We returned to my houfe, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchefs of Douglas, Sir Adolphus Oughton, The ftanza from which he took this line is, "They rofe up by thoufands three; “And ran him through the fair body.!" |