Mrs. McPherson, and his sister, Miss M'Pherson, who pleased Dr. Johnson much by singing Erse songs, and playing on the guitar. He afterwards sent her a present of his "Rasselas." In his bed-chamber was a press stored with books, Greek, Latin, French, and English, most of which had belonged to the father of our host, the learned Dr. M'Pherson; who, though his "Dissertations" have been mentioned in a former page as unsatisfactory, was a man of distinguished talents. Dr. Johnson looked at a Latin paraphrase of the Song of Moses, written by him, and published in the "Scots Magazine" for 1747, and said, "It does him honour; he has a great deal of Latin, and good Latin." Dr. M'Pherson published also in the same Magazine, June, 1739, an original Latin ode, which he wrote from the Isle of Barra, where he was minister for some years. It is very poetical, and exhibits a striking proof how much all things depend upon comparison for Barra, it seems, appeared to him so much worse than Sky, his natale solum, that he languished for its "blessed mountains," and thought himself buried alive amongst barbarians where he was. My readers will probably not be displeased to have a specimen of this ode: "Hei mihi! quantos patior dolores, Dum procul specto juga ter beata, Dum feræ Barræ steriles arenas Solus oberro. Ingemo, indignor, crucior, quod inter After wishing for wings to fly over to his dear country, which was in his view, from what he calls Thule, as being the most western isle of Scotland, except St. Kilda; after describing the pleasures of society, and the miseries of solitude; he at last, with becoming propriety, has recourse to the only sure relief of thinking men, Sursum corda', - the hope of a better world, and disposes his mind to resignation: "Interim, fiat tua, rex, voluntas : Erigor sursum quoties subit spes Certa migrandi Solymam supernam Numinis aulam.” [JOHNSON TO MACLEOD.' Ostig, 28th Sept. 1773. "DEAR SIR, We are now on the margin of the sea, waiting for a boat and a wind. Boswell grows wherever I go, makes me leave, with some heaviness impatient; but the kind treatment which I find of heart, an island which I am not very likely to see again. Having now gone as far as horses can carry us, we thankfully return them. My steed will, I hope, be received with kindness; he has borne me, heavy as I am, over ground both rough and steep, with great fidelity; and for the use of him, as for your other favours, I hope you will believe me thankful, and willing, at whatever distance we may be placed, to show my sense of your kindness, by any offices of friendship that may fall within my power. 66 Be Lady Macleod and the young ladies have, by their hospitality and politeness, made an impression pleased to tell them, that I remember them with on my mind, which will not easily be effaced. great tenderness, and great respect. I am, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "P.S. We passed two days at Talisker very happily, both by the pleasantness of the place and elegance of our reception."] -Macleod MSS. Wednesday, Sept. 29. After a very good sleep, I rose more refreshed than I had been for some nights. We were now at but a little distance from the shore, and saw the sea from our windows, which made our voyage seem nearer. Mr. M'Pherson's manners and address pleased us much. He appeared to be a man of such intelligence and taste as to be sensible of the extraordinary powers of his illustrious guest. He said to me, "Dr. Johnson is an honour to mankind, and, if the expression may be used, is an honour to religion.' Camuscross, joined us this morning at breakCol, who had gone yesterday to pay a visit at fast. enjoy the entertainment of Dr. Johnson's conSome other gentlemen also came to versation. The day was windy and rainy, so that we had just seized a happy interval for our journey last night. We had good entertainment here, better accommodation than at Corrichatachin, and time enough to ourselves. The hours slipped along imperceptibly. We talked of Shenstone. Dr. Johnson said, he was a good layer-out of land, but would not allow him to approach excellence as a poet. He said, he believed he had tried to read all Love Pastorals," but did not get through them. I repeated the stanza, He concludes in a noble strain of orthodox his piety: "Vita tum demum vocitanda vita est. 1 The Latin for the apostrophe in the Communion Service, "Lift up your hearts."-CROKER. 2 For this letter I am indebted to the present Macleod. -CROKER, 1831. "She gazed as I slowly withdrew; My path I could hardly discern; So sweetly she bade me adieu, I thought that she bade me return." * 3 He quotes this and some other stanzas from the same poem in his Life of Shenstone.-P. CUNNINGHAM. He said, "That seems to be pretty." I observed that Shenstone, from his short maxims in prose, appeared to have some power of thinking; but Dr. Johnson would not allow him that merit. He agreed, however, with Shenstone, that it was wrong in the brother of one of his correspondents to burn his letters; "for," said he, "Shenstone was a man whose correspondence was an honour." He was this afternoon full of critical severity, and dealt about his censures on all sides. He said, Hammond's "Love Elegies" were poor things. He spoke contemptuously of our lively and elegant, though too licentious lyric bard, Hanbury Williams, and said, "he had no fame, but from boys who drank with him." 2 While he was in this mood, I was unfortunate enough, simply perhaps, but I could not help thinking undeservedly, to come within "the whiff and wind of his fell sword." I asked him, if he had ever been accustomed to wear a nightcap. He said, "No." I asked, if it was best not to wear one. JOHNSON. "Sir, I had this custom by chance, and perhaps no man shall ever know whether it is best to sleep with or without a night-cap." Soon afterwards he was laughing at some deficiency in the Highlands, and said, "One might as well go without shoes and stockings." Thinking to have a little hit at his own deficiency, I ventured to add," or without a night-cap, Sir." But I had better have been silent, for he retorted directly, "I do not see the connection there (laughing). Nobody before was ever foolish enough to ask whether it was best to wear a night-cap or not. This comes of being a little wrong-headed." He carried the company along with him and yet the truth is, that if he had always worn a night-cap, as is the common practice, and found the Highlanders did not wear one, he would have wondered at their barbarity; so that my hit was fair enough. Thursday, Sept. 30. There was as great a storm of wind and rain as I have almost ever seen, which necessarily confined us to the house; but we were fully compensated by Dr. Johnson's conversation. He said, he did not grudge Burke's being the first man in the House of Commons, for he was the first man every where; but he grudged that a fellow who makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet, should make a figure in the House of Commons, merely by having the knowledge of a few forms, and being furnished with a little occasional information. He told us, the first time he saw Dr. Young was at the house of Mr. Richardson, the author of "Clarissa." He was sent for, that the doctor might read to him his "Conjectures on Original Composition," which he did, and Dr. Johnson made his remarks; and he was surprised to find Young receive as novelties, what he thought very common maxims. He said, he believed Young was not a great scholar, nor had studied regularly the art of writing; that there were very fine things in his "Night Thoughts," though you could not find twenty lines together without some extravagance. He repeated two passages from his "Love of Fame," the characters of Brunetta and Stella', which he praised highly. He said Young pressed him much to come to Welwyn. He always intended it, but never went. He was sorry when Young died. The cause of quarrel between Young and his son, he told us, was, that his son insisted Young should turn away a clergyman's widow, who lived with him, and who, having acquired great influence over the father, was saucy to the son. Dr. Johnson said, she could not conceal her resentment at him, for saying to Young, that "an old man should not resign himself to the management of any body." I asked him if there was any improper connection between them. “No, Sir, no more than between two statues. He was past fourscore, and she a very coarse woman. She read to him, and, I suppose, made his coffee, and frothed his chocolate, and did such things as an old man wishes to have done for him."3 Dr. Doddridge being mentioned, he observed, "he was author of one of the finest epigrams in the English language. It is in Orton's Life of him. The subject is his family motto, Dum vivimus vivamus,' which, in its primary signification, is, to be sure, not very suitable to a Christian divine; but he paraphrased it thus: : Think nought a trifle, though it small appear: "See Stella; her eyes shine as bright 5 Mrs. Hallows was a woman of piety, improved by reading. She was always treated by Dr. Young and by his guests, even those of the highest rank, with the politeness and respect due to a gentlewoman. She died in 1780.- ANDERSON. 6 Dr. Philip Doddridge, an eminent dissenting divine, born in 1702, died at Lisbon (whither he had gone for the recovery of his health) in 1751. Some of his letters have been recently published, with no great advantage to his fame.— CROKER. 'Live while you live, the Epicure would say, I asked if it was not strange that government should permit so many infidel writings to pass without censure. JOHNSON. Sir, it is mighty foolish. It is for want of knowing their own power. The present family on the throne came to the crown against the will of nine tenths of the people. Whether those nine tenths were right or wrong, it is not our business now to inquire. But such being the situation of the royal family, they were glad to encourage all who would be their friends. Now you know every bad man is a Whig; every man who has loose notions. The church was all against this family. They were, as I say, glad to encourage any friends; and, therefore, since their accession, there is no instance of any man being kept back on account of his bad principles; and hence this inundation of impiety." I observed that Mr. Hume, some of whose writings were very unfavourable to religion, was, however, a Tory. JOHNSON. "Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance, as being a Scotchman; but not upon a principle of duty, for he has no principle. If he is any thing, he is a Hobbist." 66 There was something not quite serene in his humour to-night, after supper; for he spoke of hastening away to London, without stopping much at Edinburgh. I reminded him that he had General Oughton, and many others, to see. JOHNSON. 66 Nay, I shall neither go in jest, nor stay in jest. I shall do what is fit." BOSWELL. 66 Ay, Sir, but all I desire is, that you will let me tell you when it is fit." JOHNSON. Sir, I shall not consult you." BosWELL. "If you are to run away from us, as soon as you get loose, we will keep you confined in an island." He was, however, on the whole, very good company. Mr. Donald Macleod expressed very well the gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson on those who are so fortunate as to obtain his acquaintance. "When you see him first, you are struck with awful reverence; then you admire him; and then you love him cordially." I read this evening some part of Voltaire's "History of the War in 1741," and of Lord Kames against "Hereditary Indefeasible Right." This is a very slight circumstance, with which I should not trouble my reader, but for the sake of observing, that every man should keep minutes of whatever he reads. Every circum 1 Mr. Barclay. See ante, p. 171. Johnson's desire to express his contempt of Kenrick is shown by his perseverance in representing this young gentleman as a boy; as if to say, it was too much honour for Kenrick that even a boy should answer him. CROKER. 2 Dr. Beattie's" Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth" appeared in May 1770.- CROKER. stance of his studies should be recorded; what books he has consulted; how much of them he has read; at what times; how often the same authors; and what opinions he formed of them, at different periods of his life. Such an account would much illustrate the history of his mind. Friday, Oct. 1.-I showed to Dr. Johnson verses in a Magazine, on his Dictionary, composed of uncommon words taken from it; "Little of Anthropopathy has be," &c. He read a few of them, and said, "I am not answerable for all the words in my Dictionary." I told him, that Garrick kept a book of all who had either praised or abused him. On the subject of his own reputation, he said, "Now that I see it has been so current a topic, I wish I had done so too; but it could not well be done now, as so many things are scattered in newspapers." He said he was angry at a boy of Oxford, who wrote in his defence against Kenrick; because it was doing him hurt to answer Kenrick. He was told afterwards, the boy was to come to him to ask a favour. He first thought to treat him rudely on account of his meddling in that business; but then he considered he had meant to do him all the service in his power, and he took another resolution: he told him he would do what he could for him, and did so; and the boy was satisfied. He said, he did not know how his pamphlet was done, as he had read very little of it. The boy made a good figure at Oxford, but died. He remarked, that attacks on authors did them much service. “A man, who tells me my play is very bad, is less my enemy than he who lets it die in silence. A man, whose business it is to be talked of, is much helped by being attacked." Garrick, I observed, had often been so helped. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; though Garrick had more opportunities than almost any man, to keep the public in mind of him, by exhibiting himself to such numbers, he would not have had so much reputation, had he not been so much attacked. Every attack produces a defence; and so attention is engaged. There is no sport in mere praise, when people are all of a mind." BOSWELL. "Then Hume is not the worse for Beattie's attack?" JOHNSON. "He is, because Beattie has confuted him. I do not say but that there may be some attacks which will hurt an author. Though Hume suffered from Beattie, he was the better for other attacks." (He certainly could not include in that number those of Dr. Adams and Mr. Tytler.) 3 BOSWELL. "Goldsmith is the 3 Mr. Boswell adds this parenthesis, probably, because the gentlemen alluded to were friends of his; but if Dr. Johnson did not mean to include them," whom did he mean? for they were certainly (after Beattie) Hume's most prominent antagonists. -CROKER. แ better for attacks." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but he does not think so yet. When Goldsmith and I published, each of us something, at the same time, we were given to understand that we might review each other. Goldsmith was for accepting the offer. I said, no; set reviewers at defiance. It was said to old Bentley, upon the attacks against him, 'Why, they'll write you down.' 'No, Sir,' he replied; depend upon it, no man was ever written down but by himself." He observed to me afterwards, that the advantages authors derived from attacks were chiefly in subjects of taste, where you cannot confute, as so much may be said on either side. He told me he did not know who was the author of the "Adventures of a Guinea;" but that the bookseller had sent the first volume to him in manuscript, to have his opinion if it should be printed; and he thought it should. The weather being now somewhat better, Mr. James McDonald, factor to Sir Alexander M'Donald, in Slate, insisted that all the company at Ostig should go to the house at Armidale, which Sir Alexander had left, having gone with his lady to Edinburgh, and be his guests, till we had an opportunity of sailing to Mull. We accordingly got there to dinner; and passed our day very cheerfully, being no less than fourteen in number. Saturday, Oct. 2.-Dr. Johnson said, that "a chief and his lady should make their house like a court. They should have a certain number of the gentlemen's daughters to receive their education in the family, to learn pastry and such things from the housekeeper, and manners from my lady. That was the way in the great families in Wales; at Lady Salusbury's, Mrs. Thrale's grandmother, and at Lady Philips's. I distinguish the families by the ladies, as I speak of what was properly their province. There were always six young ladies at Sir John Philips's; when one was married, her place was filled up. There was a large school-room, where they learnt needlework and other things." I observed, that, at some courts in Germany, there were academies for the pages, who are the sons of gentlemen, and receive their education without expense to their parents. Dr. Johnson said, that manners were best learnt at those courts. "You are admitted with great facility to the prince's company, and yet must treat him with much respect. At a great court, you are at such a distance that you get no good." I said, "Very true: a man sees the court of Ver It is strange that Johnson should not have known that the "Adventures of a Guinea" was written by a namesake of his own, Charles Johnson. Being disqualified for the bar, which was his profession, by a supervening deafness, he went to India, and made some fortune, and died there about 1800. -WALTER SCOTT. He died, says the Biographical Dictionary, in Bengal, about 1800. He must not be confounded with an earlier Charles Johnson, also bred to the bar, but who became a very voluminous dramatic writer, and died about 1744-CROKER. Count Castiglione was born at Mantua in 1478, and died sailles, as if he saw it on a theatre." He said, "The best book that ever was written upon good breeding, Il Cortegiano,' by Castiglione, grew up at the little court of Urbino, and you should read it." I am glad always to have his opinion of books. At Mr. Macpherson's, he commended "Whitby's Commentary," 3 and said, he had heard him called rather lax; but he did not perceive it. He had looked at a novel, called "The Man of the World," at Rasay, but thought there was nothing in it. He said to-day, while reading my Journal, "This will be a great treasure to us some years hence." Talking of a very penurious gentleman of our acquaintance 5, he observed, that he exceeded L'Avare in the play. I concurred with him, and remarked that he would do well, if introduced in one of Foote's farces; that the best way to get it done would be to bring Foote to be entertained at his house for a week, and then it would be fucit indignatio. JOHNSON. "Sir, I wish he had him. I, who have eaten his bread, will not give him to him; but I should be glad he came honestly by him." He said he was angry at Thrale, for sitting at General Oglethorpe's without speaking. He censured a man for degrading himself to a non-entity. I observed, that Goldsmith was on the other extreme; for he spoke at ventures. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; Goldsmith, rather than not speak, will talk of what he knows himself to be ignorant, which can only end in exposing him." "I wonder," said I, "if he feels that he exposes himself. If he was with two tailors' "Or with two founders," said Dr. Johnson, interrupting me, "he would fall a talking on the method of making cannon, though both of them would soon see that he did not know what metal a cannon is made of." We were very social and merry in his room this forenoon. In the evening the company danced as usual. We performed, with much activity, a dance which, I suppose, the emigration from Sky has occasioned. They call it America. Each of the couples, after the common involutions and evolutions, successively whirls round in a circle, till all are in motion; and the dance seems intended to show how emigration catches, till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat. Mrs. M'Kinnon told me, that last year, when a ship sailed from Portree for America, the people on shore were almost distracted when they saw their relations go off; they lay down on the in 1529, after having been employed by Ludovico Sforza, both as a soldier and a statesman. — WRIGHT. 3 Dr. Daniel Whitby, born 1638, died 1726. His celebrated Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament was first published in 1703. WRIGHT. 4 By Henry Mackenzie. Though not, perhaps, so popular as the Man of Feeling" by the same amiable author [antè, p. 122.], the "Man of the World" is a very pathetic tale. WALTER SCOTT. The Man of the World was published in 1773, without the name of the author. - CROKER. 5 Sir Alexander Macdonald. - CROKER. ground, tumbled, and tore the grass with their teeth. This year there was not a tear shed. The people on the shore seemed to think that they would soon follow. This indifference is a mortal sign for the country. We danced to-night to the music of the into Col. CHAPTER XLI. 1773. Sea - His Appearance on a Sheltie, Hector M'Lean. Survey of Col. Bayle, Leibnitz, and Clarke. 66 Cucumbers. Song, Hatyin foam' eri.”. Johnson's Power of Ridicule. Happiness in a Cottage.. Advice to Landlords. · Pretended Brother of Johnson. Carte's Life of Ormond, Family of Col. Letters by Mon trose. bagpipe, which made us beat the ground with Johnson leaves the Isle of Sky.— A Storm. — Driven prodigious force. I thought it better to endeavour to conciliate the kindness of the people of Sky, by joining heartily in their amusements, than to play the abstract scholar. I looked on this tour to the Hebrides as a copartnership between Dr. Johnson and me. Each was to do all he could to promote its success; and I have some reason to flatter myself, that my Dr. gayer exertions were of service to us. Johnson's immense fund of knowledge and wit was a wonderful source of admiration and delight to them; but they had it only at times; and they required to have the intervals agree ably filled up, and even little elucidations of his learned text. I was also fortunate enough frequently to draw him forth to talk, when he would otherwise have been silent. The fountain was at times locked up, till I opened the spring. It was curious to hear the Hebridians, when any dispute happened while he was out of the room, saying, "Stay till Dr. Johnson comes; say that to him!" Yesterday, Dr. Johnson said, "I cannot but laugh, to think of myself roving among the Hebrides at sixty. I wonder where I shall rove at fourscore!" This evening he disputed the truth of what is said as to the people of St. Kilda catching cold whenever strangers come. "How can there," said he, " be a physical effect without a physical cause?" He added, laughing, "the arrival of a ship full of strangers would kill them; for, if one stranger gives them one cold, two strangers must give them two colds; and so in proportion." I wondered to hear him ridicule this, as he had praised M'Aulay for putting it in his book; saying, that it was manly in him to tell a fact, however strange, if he himself believed it. He said, the evidence was not adequate to the improbability of the thing; that if a physician, rather disposed to be incredulous, should go to St. Kilda, and report the fact, then he would begin to look about him. They said, it was annually proved by Macleod's steward, on whose arrival all the inhabitants caught cold. He jocularly remarked, "The steward always comes to demand something from them; and so they fall a coughing. I suppose the people in Sky all take a cold when (naming a certain person) comes." They said, he came only in summer. JOHNSON. That is out of tenderness to you. Bad weather and he, at the same time, would be too much." Sunday, Oct. 3.-JOSEPH reported that the While we were chatting in the indolent style of men who were to stay here all this day at least, we were suddenly roused at being told that the wind was fair, that a little fleet of herring-busses was passing by for Mull, and that Mr. Simpson's vessel was about to sail. Hugh M'Donald, the skipper, came to us, and was impatient that we should get ready, which we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure and solemnity, repeated the observation of Epictetus, that, "as man has the voyage of death before him, whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the master's call; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready." He rode, and I and the other gentlemen walked, about an English mile to the shore, where the vessel lay. Dr. Johnson said he should never forget Sky, and returned thanks for all civilities. We were carried to the vessel in a small boat which she had, and we set sail very briskly about one o'clock. I was much pleased with the motion for many hours. Dr. Johnson grew sick, and retired under cover, as it rained a good deal. I kept above, that I might have fresh air, and finding myself not affected by the motion of the vessel, I exulted in being a stout seaman, while Dr. Johnson was quite in a state of annihilation. But I was soon humbled; for after imagining that I could go with ease to America or the Se unta, p. 191., an, at least, ingenious solution of this epigia -- Umowa, 2 Sir A. Macdonald. - CROKER. |