interpofe* "Monboddo." The hiftory of manners is the most valuable. I never fet a high value on any other hiftory."-Johnson. "Nor I; and therefore I efteem biography, as giving us what comes hear to ourselves, what we can turn to use."-Bofwell. "But in the courfe of general hiftory, we find manners. In wars, we fee the difpofitions of people, their degrees of humanity, and other particulars."

Johnfon." Yes; but then you must take all the facts to get this; and it is but a little you get."Monboddo. "And it is that little which makes hiftory valuable."Bravo! thought I; they agree like two brothers. Monboddo. "I am forry, Dr. Johnfon, you were not longer at Edinburgh, to receive the homage of our men of learning."-Johnson. ἐσ My lord, I received great refpect and great kindness."-Boswell." He goes back to Edinburgh after our tour."-We talked of the decrease of learning in Scotland, and of the Mufes' Welcome." -Johnson. "Learning is much decreased in England, in my remembrance."-Monboddo. "You, fir, have lived to fee its decrease in England, I its extinction in Scotland." However, I brought him to confefs that the High School of Edinburgh did well.-Johnfon. "Learning has decreased in England, because learning will not do fo much for a man as formerly. There are other ways of getting preferment.

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* Dr. Johnson modeftly faid, he had not read Homer so much as he wished he had done. But this conversation fhews how well he was acquainted with the Moonian bard; and he has fhewn it still more in his criticifm upon Pope's Homer, in his Life of that Poet. My excellent friend, Mr. Langton, told me, he was once prefent at a dif pute between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Burke, on the comparative merits of Homer and Virgil, which was carried on with extraordinary abili ties on both fides. Dr. Johnfon maintained the fuperiority of Homer.

preferment. Few bishops are now made for their learning. To be a bishop, a man must be learned in a learned age,-factious in a factious age; buť always of eminence. Warburton is an exception; though his learning alone did not raife him. He was first an antagonist to Pope, and helped Theobald to publish his Shakspeare; but, feeing Pope the rifing man,-when Croufaz attacked his 'Effay on Man,' for fome faults which it has, and fome which it has not, Warburton defended it in the Review of that time. This brought him acquainted with Pope, and he gained his friendship. Pope introduced him to Allen, Allen married him to his niece fo, by Allen's intereft and his own, he was made a bishop. But then his learning was the fine quà non: He knew how to make the most of it; but I do not find by any dishonest means."-Monboddo. "He is a great man."-Johnson. "Yes; he has great knowledge,-great power of mind. Hardly any man brings greater variety of learning to bear upon his point."-Monboddo. "He is one of the greateft lights of your church.". your church."-Johnson. " "Why, we are not fo fure of his being very friendly to us. He blazes, if you will, but that is not always the fteadieft light.—Lowth is another bishop who has rifen by his learning."

Dr. Johnson examined young Arthur, Lord 'Monboddo's fon, in Latin. He answered very well; upon which he said, with complacency, "Get you gone! When King James comes back *, you shall be in the Mufes' Welcome !"-My lord and Dr. Johnson

* I find, some doubt has been entertained concerning Dr. Johnfon's meaning here. It is to be fuppofed that he meant, "when a king fhall again be entertained in Scotland."

Johnson difputed a little, whether the Savage or the London Shopkeeper had the best existence; his lordship, as ufual, preferring the Savage.-My lord was extremely hofpitable, and I faw both Dr. Johnson and him liking each other better every hour.

Dr. Johnson having retired for a fhort time, his lordship spoke of his converfation as I could have wifhed. Dr. Johnson had faid, "I have done greater feats with my knife than this;" though he had eaten a very hearty dinner.-My lord, who affects or believes he follows an abftemious fyftem, feemed ftruck with Dr. Johnfon's manner of living. I had a particular fatisfaction in being under the roof of Monboddo, my lord being my father's old friend, and having been always very good to me. We were cordial together. He asked Dr. Johnson and me to stay all night. When I faid we must be at Aberdeen, he replied, "Well, I am like the Romans: I fhall fay to you, Happy to come ;— happy to depart!" He thanked Dr. Johnfon for his vifit.-Johnson. "I little thought, when I had the honour to meet your lordship in London, that I should see you at Monboddo." After dinner, as the ladies were going away, Dr. Johnson would ftand up. He infifted that politeness was of great confequence in fociety. "It is, (faid he,) fictitious benevolence. It fupplies the place of it amongst those who fee each other only in publick, or but little. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce fomething difagreeable to one or other. I have always applied to good breeding, what Addifon in his Cato fays of honour:

"Honour's a facred tie; the law of Kings;
"The noble mind's diftinguishing perfection,

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"That aids and ftrengthens Virtue where it meets her.
"And imitates her actions where fhe is not."

When he took up his large oak ftick, he said, My lord, that's Homerick;" thus pleasantly alluding to his lordship's favourite writer.

Gory, my lord's black fervant, was fent as our guide, to conduct us to the high road. The circumftance of each of them having a black fervant was another point of fimilarity between Johnfon and Monboddo. I obferved how curious it was to fee an African in the north of Scotland, with little or no difference of manners from thofe of the natives. Dr. Johnfon laughed to fee Gory and Jofeph riding together most cordially. "Thofe two fellows, (faid he,) one from Africa, the other from Bohemia, feem quite at home." He was much pleased with Lord Monboddo to-day. He faid, he would have pardoned him for a few paradoxes, when he found he had fo much that was good; but that, from his appearance in London, he thought him all paradox; which would not do. He obferved, that his lord

fhip had talked no paradoxes to-day. "And as to the favage and the London fhopkeeper, (faid he,) I don't know but I might have taken the fide of the favage equally, had any body elfe taken the fide of the hopkeeper." He had faid to my lord, in oppofition to the value of the favage's courage, that it was owing to his limited power of thinking, and repeated Pope's verfes, in which "Macedonia's madman" is introduced, and the conclufion is,

"Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nofe."

I objected to the last phrafe, as being low. Johnfon." Sir, it is intended to be low; it is fatire. The expreffion is debafed, to debafe the character."

When

When Gory was about to part from us, Dr, Johnson called to him, "Mr. Gory, give me leave to ask you a question! are you baptifed?" Gory told him he was,-and confirmed by the Bishop of Durham. He then gave him a fhilling.

We had tedious driving this afternoon, and were fomewhat drowsy. Last night I was afraid Dr. Johnfon was beginning to faint in his resolution; for he faid, "If we must ride much, we shall not go; and there's an end on't."-To-day, when he talked of Sky with spirit, I faid, "Why, fir, you feemed to me to despond yesterday. You are a delicate Londoner;-you are a maccaroni; you can't ride.” Johnson. Sir, I shall ride better than you. I was only afraid I should not find a horse able to carry me."-I hoped then there would be no fear of getting through our wild Tour.

We came to Aberdeen at half an hour past eleven. The New Inn, we were told, was full. This was comfortless. The waiter, however, asked if one of our names was Bofwell, and brought me a letter -left at the inn: it was from Mr. Thrale, enclosing one to Dr. Johnson. Finding who I was, we were told they would contrive to lodge us by putting us for a night into a room with two beds. The waiter faid to me in the broad ftrong Aberdeenshire dialect,

I thought I knew you, by your likeness to your father."-My father puts up at the New Inn, when on his circuit. Little was faid to-night. I was to Deep in a little prefs-bed in Dr. Johnson's room. I had it wheeled out into the dining-room, and there I lay very well.