[562] Hume describes how in 1753 (? 1750) the Pretender, on his secret
visit to London, 'came to the house of a lady (who I imagined to be Lady
Primrose) without giving her any preparatory information; and entered
the room where she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself
playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name.
She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him.
But she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he assumed.'
J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 462. Mr. Croker (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 331)
prints an autograph letter from Flora Macdonald which shows that Lady
Primrose in 1751 had lodged L627 in a friend's hands for her behoof, and
that she had in view to add more.
[563] It seems that the Pretender was only once in London, and that it
was in 1750. _Ante_, i. 279, note 5. I suspect that 1759 is Boswell's
mistake or his printer's. From what Johnson goes on to say it is clear
that George II. was in Germany at the time of the Prince's secret visit.
He was there the greater part of 1750, but not in 1753 or 1759. In 1750,
moreover, 'the great army of the King of Prussia overawed Hanover.'
Smollett's _England_, iii. 297. This explains what Johnson says about
the King of Prussia stopping the army in Germany.
[564] See _ante_, iv. 165, 170.
[565] COMMENTARIES on the laws of England, book 1. chap. 3. BOSWELL.
[566] B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon one
subject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, a
distinguished passage in support of the Christian Revelation.--After
shewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the _indirect_
attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and perplex religious
principles, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whom
he politely calls 'an eloquent historian,' the archdeacon thus expresses
himself:--
'Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every
mind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most
important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as
violating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency.
There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to be
tolerable. I mean that class of reasoners who can see _little_ in
christianity even supposing it to be true. To such adversaries we
address this reflection.--Had _Jesus Christ_ delivered no other
declaration than the following, "The hour is coming in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,--they
that have done well [good] unto the resurrection of life, and they that
have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," [_St. John_ v. 25]
he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy
of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his
mission was introduced and attested:--a message in which the wisest of
mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to
their inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had been
discovered already.--It had been discovered as the Copernican System
was;--it was one guess amongst many. He alone discovers who _proves_,
and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies by
miracles that his doctrine comes from GOD.'--Book V. chap. 9.
If infidelity be disingenuously dispersed in every shape that is likely
to allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination,--in a fable, a tale, a
novel, a poem,--in books of travels, of philosophy, of natural
history,--as Mr. Paley has well observed,--I hope it is fair in me thus
to meet such poison with an unexpected antidote, which I cannot doubt
will be found powerful. BOSWELL. The 'eloquent historian' was Gibbon.
See Paley's _Principles_, ed. 1786, p. 395.
[567] In _The Life of Johnson (ante_, iii. 113), Boswell quotes these
words, without shewing that they are his own; but italicises not
fervour, but loyalty.
[568] 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' _Book of Common Prayer._
[569] See _ante_, i. 353, note 1.
[570] Ovid, _Ars Amatoria_, iii. 121.
[571]
'This facile temper of the beauteous sex
Great Agamemnon, brave Pelides proved.'
These two lines follow the four which Boswell quotes. _Agis_, act iv.
[572] _Agis_, a tragedy, by John Home. BOSWELL.
[573] See _ante_, p. 27.
[574] A misprint, I suppose, for _designing_.
[575] 'Next in dignity to the laird is the tacksman; a large taker or
leaseholder of land, of which he keeps part as a domain in his own hand,
and lets part to under-tenants. The tacksman is necessarily a man
capable of securing to the laird the whole rent, and is commonly a
collateral relation.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 82.
[576] A _lettre de cachet_.
[577] _Ante_, p. 159.
[578] 'It is related that at Dunvegan Lady Macleod, having poured out
for Dr. Johnson sixteen cups of tea, asked him if a small basin would
not save him trouble, and be more agreeable. "I wonder, Madam," answered
he roughly, "why all the ladies ask me such questions. It is to save
yourselves trouble, Madam, and not me." The lady was silent and resumed
her task.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 81.
[579] 'In the garden-or rather the orchard which was formerly the
garden-is a pretty cascade, divided into two branches, and called Rorie
More's Nurse, because he loved to be lulled to sleep by the sound of
it.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 304.
[580] It has been said that she expressed considerable dissatisfaction
at Dr. Johnson's rude behaviour at Dunvegan. Her grandson, the present
Macleod, assures me that it was not so: 'they were all,' he says
emphatically, '_delighted_ with him.' CROKER. Mr. Croker refers, I
think, to a communication from Sir Walter Scott, published in the
_Croker Corres_. ii. 33. Scott writes:--'When wind-bound at Dunvegan,
Johnson's temper became most execrable, and beyond all endurance, save
that of his guide. The Highlanders, who are very courteous in their way,
held him in great contempt for his want of breeding, but had an idea at
the same time there was something respectable about him, they could not
tell what, and long spoke of him as the Sassenach _mohr_, or
large Saxon.'
[581] 'I long to be again in civilized life.' _Ante_, p. 183.
[582] See _ante_, iii. 406.
[583] Johnson refers, I think, to a passage in _L'Esprit des Lois_, Book
xvi. chap. 4, where Montesquieu says:--'J'avoue que si ce que les
relations nous disent etait vrai, qu'a Bantam il y a dix femmes pour un
homme, ce serait un cas bien particulier de la polygamie. Dans tout ceci
je ne justifie pas les usages, mais j'en rends les raisons.'
[584] What my friend treated as so wild a supposition, has actually
happened in the Western islands of Scotland, if we may believe Martin,
who tells it of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi, and says that it is
proved by the parish registers. BOSWELL. 'The Isle of Coll produces more
boys than girls, and the Isle of Tire-iy more girls than boys; as if
nature intended both these isles for mutual alliances, without being at
the trouble of going to the adjacent isles or continent to be matched.
The parish-book in which the number of the baptised is to be seen,
confirms this observation.' Martin's _Western Islands,_ p. 271.
[585] _A Dissertation on the Gout_, by W. Cadogan, M.D., 1771. It went
through nine editions in its first year.
[586] This was a general reflection against Dr. Cadogan, when his very
popular book was first published. It was said, that whatever precepts he
might give to others, he himself indulged freely in the bottle. But I
have since had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him, and, if his
own testimony may be believed, (and I have never heard it impeached,)
his course of life has been conformable to his doctrine. BOSWELL.
[587] 'April 7, 1765. I purpose to rise at eight, because, though I
shall not yet rise early, it will be much earlier than I now rise, for I
often lie till two.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 62. 'Sept. 18, 1771. My nocturnal
complaints grow less troublesome towards morning; and I am tempted to
repair the deficiencies of the night. I think, however, to try to rise
every day by eight, and to combat indolence as I shall obtain strength.'
_Ib._ p. 105. 'April 14, 1775. As my life has from my earliest years
been wasted in a morning bed, my purpose is from Easter day to rise
early, not later than eight.' _Ib._ p. 139.
[588] See _post_, Oct. 25.
[589] See _ante_, iv. under Dec. 2, 1784.
[590] Miss Mulso (Mrs. Chapone) wrote in 1753:--'I had the assurance to
dispute with Mr. Johnson on the subject of human malignity, and wondered
to hear a man, who by his actions shews so much benevolence, maintain
that the human heart is naturally malevolent, and that all the
benevolence we see in the few who are good is acquired by reason and
religion.' _ Life of Mrs. Chapone_, p.73. See _post_, p. 214.
[591] This act was passed in 1746.
[592] _Isaiah_, ii. 4.
[593] Sir Walter Scott, after mentioning Lord Orford's (Horace Walpole)
_History of His Own Time_, continues:--'The Memoirs of our Scots Sir
George Mackenzie are of the same class--both immersed in little
political detail, and the struggling skirmish of party, seem to have
lost sight of the great progressive movements of human affairs.'
Lockhart's _Scott_ vii. 12.
[594] 'Illum jura potius ponere quam de jure respondere dixisses; eique
appropinquabant clientes tanquam judici potius quam advocato.'
Mackenzie's _Works_, ed. 1716, vol. i. part 2, p. 7.
[595] 'Opposuit ei providentia Nisbetum: qui summa doctrina
consummataque eloquentia causas agebat, ut justitiae scalae in
aequilibrio essent; nimia tamen arte semper utens artem suam suspectam
reddebat. Quoties ergo conflixerunt, penes Gilmorum gloria, penes
Nisbetum palma fuit; quoniam in hoc plus artis et cultus, in illo
naturae et virium.' _Ib._
[596] He often indulged himself in every species of pleasantry and wit.
BOSWELL.
[597] But like the hawk, having soared with a lofty flight to a height
which the eye could not reach, he was wont to swoop upon his quarry with
wonderful rapidity. BOSWELL. These two quotations are part of the same
paragraph, and are not even separated by a word. _Ib._ p. 6.
[598] See _ante_, i. 453; iii. 323; iv. 276; and v. 32.
[599] Some years later he said that 'when Burke lets himself down to
jocularity he is in the kennel.' _Ante_, iv. 276.
[600] Cicero and Demosthenes, no doubt, were brought in by the passage
about Nicholson. Mackenzie continues:--'Hic primus nos a Syllogismorum
servitute manumisit et Aristotelem Demostheni potius quam Ciceroni forum
concedere coegit.' P. 6.
[601] See _ante_ ii. 435 and iv. 149, note 3.
[602] See _ante_, i. 103.
[603] See _ante_ ii 436
[604] See _ante_, i. 65.
[605] On Sept. 13, 1777, Johnson wrote:--'Boswell shrinks from the
Baltick expedition, which, I think, is the best scheme in our power.'
_Ante_, iii. 134, note 1.
[606] See _ante_, ii. 59, note 1.
[607] See _ante_, iii. 368.
[608] 'Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are
almost always cunning ... nor is caution ever so necessary as with
associates or opponents of feeble minds.' _The Idler_, No. 92. In a
letter to Dr. Taylor Johnson says:--'To help the ignorant commonly
requires much patience, for the ignorant are always trying to be
cunning.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 462. Churchill, in _The
Journey_ (_Poems_, ed. 1766, ii. 327), says:--
''Gainst fools be guarded; 'tis a certain rule,
Wits are safe things, there's danger in a fool.'
[609] See _ante_, p. 173.
[610]
'For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the head
With all such reading as was never read;
For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,
And write about it, goddess, and about it.'
_The Dunciad_, iv. 249.
[611] Genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures; and the art of
the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject.
But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. I
should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to
empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in
diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the
affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.' _The
Idler_, No. 45. 'Southey wrote thirty years later:--'I find daily more
and more reason to wonder at the miserable ignorance of English
historians, and to grieve with a sort of despondency at seeing how much
that has been laid up among the stores of knowledge has been neglected
and utterly forgotten.' Southey's _Life_, ii. 264. On another occasion
he said of Robertson:--'To write his introduction to _Charles V_,
without reading these _Laws_ [the _Laws_ of Alonso the Wise], is one of
the thousand and one omissions for which he ought to be called rogue, as
long as his volumes last. _Ib_. p. 318
[612]
'That eagle's fate and mine are one,
Which on the shaft that made him die,
Espy'd a feather of his own,
Wherewith he wont to soar so high.'
_Epistle to a Lady._
Anderson's _Poets_, v. 480.
[613] See _ante_, iii. 271.
[614] 'In England there may be reason for raising the rents (in a
certain degree) where the value of lands is increased by accession of
commerce, ...but here (contrary to all policy) the great men begin at
the wrong end, with squeezing the bag, before they have helped the poor
tenant to fill it; by the introduction of manufactures.' Pennant's
_Scotland_, ed. 1772, p. 191.
[615] Boswell refers, not to a passage in _Pennant_, but to Johnson's
admission that in his dispute with Monboddo, 'he might have taken the
side of the savage, had anybody else taken the side of the shopkeeper.'
_Ante_, p. 83.
[616] 'Boswell, with some of his troublesome kindness, has informed this
family and reminded me that the 18th of September is my birthday. The
return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it
seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 134. See _ante_, iii. 157.
[617] 'At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting
that I was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with my
sluggishness and softness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 67.
[618] Johnson wrote of the ministers:--'I saw not one in the islands
whom I had reason to think either deficient in learning, or irregular in
life; but found several with whom I could not converse without wishing,
as my respect increased, that they had not been Presbyterians.' _Ib_.
p. 102.
[619] See _ante_, p. 142.
[620] See _ante_, ii. 28.
[621]
'So horses they affirm to be
Mere engines made by geometry,
And were invented first from engines,
As Indian Britons were from penguins.'
_Hudibras_, part i. canto 2, line 57. Z. Gray, in a note on these lines,
quotes Selden's note on Drayton's _Polyolbion_:--'About the year 1570,
Madoc, brother to David Ap Owen, Prince of Wales, made a sea-voyage to
Florida; and by probability those names of Capo de Breton in Norimberg,
and Penguin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock and a
white-headed bird, according to the British, were relicts of this
discovery.'
[622] Published in Edinburgh in 1763.
[623] See ante, ii. 76. 'Johnson used to say that in all family disputes
the odds were in favour of the husband from his superior knowledge of
life and manners.' Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 210.
[624] He wrote to Dr. Taylor:--' Nature has given women so much power
that the law has very wisely given them little.' _Notes and Queries_,
6th S. v. 342.
[625] As I have faithfully recorded so many minute particulars, I hope I
shall be pardoned for inserting so flattering an encomium on what is now
offered to the publick. BOSWELL.
[626] See _ante_, iv. 109, note 1.
[627] 'The islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding,
universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, and
are suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, against
conviction.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.
[628] The true story of this lady, which happened in this century, is as
frightfully romantick as if it had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy.
She was the wife of one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, a man of
the very first blood of his country. For some mysterious reasons, which
have never been discovered, she was seized and carried off in the dark,
she knew not by whom, and by nightly journeys was conveyed to the
Highland shores, from whence she was transported by sea to the remote
rock of St. Kilda, where she remained, amongst its few wild inhabitants,
a forlorn prisoner, but had a constant supply of provisions, and a woman
to wait on her. No inquiry was made after her, till she at last found
means to convey a letter to a confidential friend, by the daughter of a
Catechist, who concealed it in a clue of yarn. Information being thus
obtained at Edinburgh, a ship was sent to bring her off; but
intelligence of this being received, she was conveyed to M'Leod's island
of Herries, where she died.
In CARSTARE'S STATE PAPERS we find an authentick narrative of Connor
[Conn], a catholick priest, who turned protestant, being seized by some
of Lord Seaforth's people, and detained prisoner in the island of
Herries several years; he was fed with bread and water, and lodged in a
house where he was exposed to the rains and cold. Sir James Ogilvy
writes (June 18, 1667 [1697]), that the Lord Chancellor, the Lord
Advocate, and himself, were to meet next day, to take effectual methods
to have this redressed. Connor was then still detained; p. 310.--This
shews what private oppression might in the last century be practised in
the Hebrides.
In the same collection [in a letter dated Sept. 15, 1700], the Earl of
Argyle gives a picturesque account of an embassy from the _great_ M'Neil
_of Barra_, as that insular Chief used to be denominated:--'I received a
letter yesterday from M'Neil of Barra, who lives very far off, sent by a
gentleman in all formality, offering his service, which had made you
laugh to see his entry. His style of his letter runs as if he were of
another kingdom.'--Page 643 [648]. BOSWELL.
Sir Walter Scott says:--'I have seen Lady Grange's Journal. She had
become privy to some of the Jacobite intrigues, in which her husband,
Lord Grange (an Erskine, brother of the Earl of Mar, and a Lord of
Session), and his family were engaged. Being on indifferent terms with
her husband, she is said to have thrown out hints that she knew as much
as would cost him his life. The judge probably thought with Mrs.
Peachum, that it is rather an awkward state of domestic affairs, when
the wife has it in her power to hang the husband. Lady Grange was the
more to be dreaded, as she came of a vindictive race, being the
grandchild [according to Mr. Chambers, the child] of that Chiesley of
Dalry, who assassinated Sir George Lockhart, the Lord President. Many
persons of importance in the Highlands were concerned in removing her
testimony. The notorious Lovat, with a party of his men, were the direct
agents in carrying her off; and St. Kilda, belonging then to Macleod,
was selected as the place of confinement. The name by which she was
spoken or written of was _Corpach_, an ominous distinction,
