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Sunday reading.

[Oct. 17.

He said, 'I do not like to read any thing on a Sunday, but what is theological; not that I would scrupulously refuse to look at any thing which a friend should shew me in a newspaper; but in general, I would read only what is theological. I read just now some of Drummond's Travels', before I perceived what books were here. I then took up Derham's Physico-Theology".

Every particular concerning this island having been so well described by Dr. Johnson, it would be superfluous in me to present the publick with the observations that I made upon it, in my Journal.

I was quite easy with Sir Allan almost instantaneously. He knew the great intimacy that had been between my father and his predecessor, Sir Hector, and was himself of a very frank disposition. After dinner, Sir Allan said he had got Dr. Campbell about an hundred subscribers to his Britannia Elucidata, (a work since published under the title of A Political Survey of Great Britain,) of whom he believed twenty were dead, the publication having been so long delayed. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I imagine the delay of publication is owing to this;-that, after publication, there will be no more subscribers, and few will send the additional guinea to get their books: in which they will be wrong; for there will

1 Travels through different cities of Germany, &c., by Alexander Drummond. Horace Walpole, on April 24, 1754 (Letters, ii. 381), mentions 'a very foolish vulgar book of travels, lately published by one Drummond, consul at Aleppo.'

2 Physico-Theology; or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from his Works of Creation. By William Derham, D.D., 1713. Voltaire, in Micromégas, ch. 1, speaking of 'l'illustre vicaire Derham' says:-Malheureusement, lui et ses imitateurs se trompent souvent dans l'exposition de ces merveilles; ils s'extasient sur la sagesse qui se montre dans l'ordre d'un phénomène, et on découvre que ce phénomène est tout différent de ce qu'ils ont supposé; alors c'est ce nouvel ordre qui leur paraît un chef d'œuvre de sagesse.'

"This work was published in 1774. Johnson said on March 20, 1776 (ante, ii. 512), 'that he believed Campbell's disappointment on account of the bad success of that work had killed him.'

be

Oct. 17.]

Dr. Campbell.

369

be a great deal of instruction in the work. I think highly of Campbell', In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second place, he has very extensive reading; not, perhaps, what is properly called learning, but history, politicks, and, in short, that popular knowledge which makes a man very useful. In the third place, he has learned much by what is called the vox viva. He talks with a great many people.'

Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he told us, that he one day called on him, and they talked of Tull's Husbandry'. Dr. Campbell said something. Dr. Johnson began to dispute it. 'Come, (said Dr. Campbell,) we do not want to get the better of one another: we want to increase each other's ideas.' Dr. Johnson took it in good part, and the conversation then went on coolly and instructively. His candour in relating this anecdote does him much credit, and his conduct on that occasion proves how easily he could be persuaded to talk from a better motive than for victory'.'

Dr. Johnson here shewed so much of the spirit of a Highlander, that he won Sir Allan's heart: indeed, he has shewn it during the whole of our Tour. One night, in Col, he strutted about the room with a broad sword and target, and made a formidable appearance; and, another night, I took the liberty to put a large blue bonnet on his head. His age, his size, and his bushy grey wig, with this covering on it, presented the image of a venerable Senachi'; and, however unfavourable to the Lowland Scots, he seemed much pleased

Johnson said of Campbell:-'I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles.' Ante, i. 484.

New horse-hoeing Husbandry, by Jethro Tull, 1733.

He owned he sometimes talked for victory.' Ante, iv. 129, and

V. 17, 18.

They said that a great family had a bard and a senachi, who were the poet and historian of the house; and an old gentleman told me that he remembered one of each. Here was a dawn of intelligence. ... Another conversation informed me that the same man was both bard and senachi. This variation discouraged me. . . . Soon after I to

V.-24

370

Sunday at Inchkenneth.

[Oct. 17.

We

to assume the appearance of an ancient Caledonian. only regretted that he could not be prevailed with to partake of the social glass. One of his arguments against drinking, appears to me not convincing. He urged, that 'in proportion as drinking makes a man different from what he is before he has drunk, it is bad; because it has so far affected his reason.' But may it not be answered, that a man may be altered by it for the better; that his spirits may be exhilarated, without his reason being affected'. On the general subject of drinking, however, I do not mean positively to take the other side. I am dubius, non improbus.

In the evening, Sir Allan informed us that it was the custom of his house to have prayers every Sunday; and Miss M'Lean read the evening service, in which we all joined. I then read Ogden's second and ninth Sermons on Prayer, which, with their other distinguished excellence, have the merit of being short. Dr. Johnson said, that it was the most agreeable Sunday he had ever passed'; and it made such an impression on his mind, that he afterwards wrote the follow ing Latin verses upon Inchkenneth3:

INSULA SANCTI KENNETHI.

Parva quidem regio, sed relligione priorum
Nota, Caledonias panditur inter aquas;
Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse feroces
Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos.

was told by a gentleman, who is generally acknowledged the greatest master of Hebridian antiquities, that there had, indeed, once been both bards and senachies; and that senachi signified the man of talk, or of conversation; but that neither bard nor senachi had existed for some centuries.' Johnson's Works, ix. 109.

See ante, iii. 48, 372.

* Towards evening Sir Allan told us that Sunday never passed over him like another day. One of the ladies read, and read very well, the evening service;" and Paradise was opened in the wild."' Piozzi's Letters, i. 173. The quotation is from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard, l. 134:You raised these hallowed walls; the desert smil'd, And Paradise was open'd in the wild.'

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'He sent these verses to Boswell in 1775. Ante, ii. 335.

Huc

Oct. 17.]

Johnson's verses on Inchkenneth.

Huc ego delatus placido per cœrula cursu
Scire locum volui quid daret ille novi.
Illic Leniades humili regnabit in aula,
Leniades magnis nobilitatus avis :
Una duas habuit casa cum genitore puellas,
Quas Amor undarum fingeret esse deas:
Non tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris,
Accola Danubii qualia sævus habet;
Mollia non deerant vacua solatia vitæ,
Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram.
Luxerat illa dies, legis gens docta supernæ

Spes hominum ac curas cum procul esse jubet,
Ponti inter strepitus sacri non munera cultus
Cessarunt; pietas hic quoque cura fuit:
Quid quod sacrifici versavit femina libros,
Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces'.

Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est;
Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor".

371

1 Boswell wrote to Johnson on Feb. 2, 1775, ( ante, ii. 338):-' Lord Hailes bids me tell you he doubts whether

Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces,"

be according to the rubrick, but that is your concern; for you know, he is a Presbyterian.'

2

* In Johnson's Works, i. 167, these lines are given with amendments and additions, mostly made by Johnson, but some, Mr. Croker believes, by Mr. Langton. In the following copy the variations are marked in italics.

INSULA KENNETHI, INTER HEBRIDAS.

Parva quidem regio sed religione priorum
Clara Caledonias panditur inter aquas.
Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse feroces
Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos.

Huc ego delatus placido per cærula cursu,
Scire locus volui quid daret iste novi.
Illic Leniades humili regnabat in aula,
Leniades, magnis nobilitatus avis.

Una duas cepit casa cum genitore puellas,
Quas Amor undarum crederet esse deas.
Nec tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris,
Accola Danubii qualia sævus habet.
Mollia non desunt vacuæ solatia vitæ

Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram.

MONDAY,

372

Young Col's merits.

[Oct. 18.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18.

We agreed to pass this day with Sir Allan, and he engaged to have every thing in order for our voyage to-morrow.

Being now soon to be separated from our amiable friend young Col, his merits were all remembered. At Ulva he had appeared in a new character, having given us a good prescription for a cold. On my mentioning him with warmth, Dr. Johnson said, 'Col does every thing for us: we will erect a statue to Col.' 'Yes, said I, and we will have him with his various attributes and characters, like Mercury, or any other of the heathen gods. We will have him as a pilot; we will have him as a fisherman, as a hunter, as a husbandman, as a physician.'

I this morning took a spade, and dug a little grave in the floor of a ruined chapel', near Sir Allan M'Lean's house, in

Fulserat illa dies, legis qua docta supernæ
Spes hominum et curas gens procul esse jubet.
Ut precibus justas avertat numinis iras,
Et summi accendat pectus amore boni.
Ponti inter strepitus non sacri munera cultus
Cessarunt, pietas hic quoque cura fuit.
Nil opus est æris sacra de turre sonantis
Admonitu, ipsa suas nunciat hora vices,
Quid, quod sacrifici versavit foemina libros?
Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris.

Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est,

Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor.

Mr. Croker says of the third line from the end, that in a copy of these verses in Johnson's own hand which he had seen, 'Johnson had first written

He then wrote

Sunt pro legitimis pectora pura sacris.

Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces. That line was erased, and the line as it stands in the Works is substituted in Mr. Langton's hand, as is also an alteration in the 16th line, velit into jubet.' Jubet however is in the copy as printed by Boswell. Mr. Langton edited some, if not all, of Johnson's Latin poems. (Ante, iv. 443, 444.)

1 Boswell, who is very pious, went into the chapel at night to per

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