home, Dr. Johnson desired to see my books. He took down Ogden's _Sermons
on Prayer_[67], on which I set a very high value, having been much
edified by them, and he retired with them to his room. He did not stay
long, but soon joined us in the drawing room. I presented to him Mr.
Robert Arbuthnot, a relation of the celebrated Dr. Arbuthnot[68], and a
man of literature and taste. To him we were obliged for a previous
recommendation, which secured us a very agreeable reception at St.
Andrews, and which Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_, ascribes to 'some
invisible friend[69].'
Of Dr. Beattie, Mr. Johnson said, 'Sir, he has written like a man
conscious of the truth, and feeling his own strength[70]. Treating your
adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not
entitled[71]. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and
are impressed by character; so that, if you allow your adversary a
respectable character, they will think, that though you differ from him,
you may be in the wrong. Sir, treating your adversary with respect, is
striking soft in a battle. And as to Hume,--a man who has so much
conceit as to tell all mankind that they have been bubbled[72] for ages,
and he is the wise man who sees better than they,--a man who has so
little scrupulosity as to venture to oppose those principles which have
been thought necessary to human happiness,--is he to be surprized if
another man comes and laughs at him? If he is the great man he thinks
himself, all this cannot hurt him: it is like throwing peas against a
rock.' He added '_something much too rough_' both as to Mr. Hume's head
and heart, which I suppress. Violence is, in my opinion, not suitable to
the Christian cause. Besides, I always lived on good terms with Mr.
Hume, though I have frankly told him, I was not clear that it was right
in me to keep company with him. 'But, (said I) how much better are you
than your books!' He was cheerful, obliging, and instructive; he was
charitable to the poor; and many an agreeable hour have I passed with
him[73]: I have preserved some entertaining and interesting memoirs of
him, particularly when he knew himself to be dying, which I may some
time or other communicate to the world[74]. I shall not, however, extol
him so very highly as Dr. Adam Smith does, who says, in a letter to Mr.
Strahan the Printer (not a confidential letter to his friend, but a
letter which is published[75] with all formality:) 'Upon the whole, I
have always considered him, both in his life time and since his death,
as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous
man as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.' Let Dr. Smith
consider: Was not Mr. Hume blest with good health, good spirits, good
friends, a competent and increasing fortune? And had he not also a
perpetual feast of fame[76]? But, as a learned friend has observed to
me, 'What trials did he undergo to prove the perfection of his virtue?
Did he ever experience any great instance of adversity?'--When I read
this sentence delivered by my old _Professor of Moral Philosophy_, I
could not help exclaiming with the _Psalmist_, 'Surely I have now more
understanding than my teachers[77]!'
While we were talking, there came a note to me from Dr. William
Robertson.
'DEAR SIR,
'I have been expecting every day to hear from you, of Dr. Johnson's
arrival. Pray, what do you know about his motions? I long
to take him by the hand. I write this from the college, where I have
only this scrap of paper. Ever yours,
'W. R.'
'Sunday.'
It pleased me to find Dr. Robertson thus eager to meet Dr. Johnson. I
was glad I could answer, that he was come: and I begged Dr. Robertson
might be with us as soon as he could.
Sir William Forbes, Mr. Scott, Mr. Arbuthnot, and another gentleman
dined with us. 'Come, Dr. Johnson, (said I,) it is commonly thought that
our veal in Scotland is not good. But here is some which I believe you
will like.' There was no catching him. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, what is
commonly thought, I should take to be true. _Your_ veal may be good; but
that will only be an exception to the general opinion; not a proof
against it.'
Dr. Robertson, according to the custom of Edinburgh at that time, dined
in the interval between the forenoon and afternoon service, which was
then later than now; so we had not the pleasure of his company till
dinner was over, when he came and drank wine with us. And then began
some animated dialogue[78], of which here follows a pretty full note.
We talked of Mr. Burke. Dr. Johnson said, he had great variety of
knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language. ROBERTSON. 'He has
wit too.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; he never succeeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis
conceit. I used to say, Burke never once made a good joke[79]. What I
most envy Burke for, is his being constantly the same. He is never what
we call hum-drum; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to
leave off.' BOSWELL. 'Yet he can listen.' JOHNSON. 'No: I cannot say he
is good at that[80]. So desirous is he to talk, that, if one is speaking
at this end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end.
Burke, Sir, is such a man, that if you met him for the first time in the
street where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped
aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a
manner, that, when you parted, you would say, this is an extraordinary
man[81]. Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding any thing
extraordinary.' He said, he believed Burke was intended for the law; but
either had not money enough to follow it, or had not diligence
enough[82]. He said, he could not understand how a man could apply to
one thing, and not to another. ROBERTSON said, one man had more
judgment, another more imagination. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it is only, one
man has more mind than another. He may direct it differently; he may, by
accident, see the success of one kind of study, and take a desire to
excel in it. I am persuaded that, had Sir Isaac Newton applied to
poetry, he would have made a very fine epick poem. I could as easily
apply to law as to tragick poetry.' BOSWELL. 'Yet, Sir, you did apply to
tragick poetry, not to law.' JOHNSON. 'Because, Sir, I had not money to
study law. Sir, the man who has vigour, may walk to the east, just as
well as to the west, if he happens to turn his head that way[83].'
BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, 'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will
naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill
best, from her fore-legs being short; a dog down.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir;
that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may
argue in that manner. One mind is a vice, and holds fast; there's a good
memory. Another is a file; and he is a disputant, a controversialist.
Another is a razor; and he is sarcastical.' We talked of Whitefield. He
said he was at the same college with him[84], and knew him _before he
began to be better than other people_ (smiling;) that he believed he
sincerely meant well, but had a mixture of politicks and ostentation:
whereas Wesley thought of religion only[85]. ROBERTSON said, Whitefield
had strong natural eloquence, which, if cultivated, would have done
great things. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I take it, he was at the height of
what his abilities could do, and was sensible of it. He had the ordinary
advantages of education; but he chose to pursue that oratory which is
for the mob[86].' BOSWELL. 'He had great effect on the passions.'
JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I don't think so. He could not represent a
succession of pathetic images. He vociferated, and made an impression.
_There_, again, was a mind like a hammer.' Dr. Johnson now said, a
certain eminent political friend of our's[87] was wrong, in his maxim of
sticking to a certain set of _men_ on all occasions. 'I can see that a
man may do right to stick to a _party_ (said he;) that is to say, he is
a _Whig_, or he is a _Tory_, and he thinks one of those parties upon the
whole the best, and that to make it prevail, it must be generally
supported, though, in particulars it may be wrong. He takes its faggot
of principles, in which there are fewer rotten sticks than in the other,
though some rotten sticks to be sure; and they cannot well be separated.
But, to bind one's self to one man, or one set of men, (who may be right
to-day and wrong to-morrow,) without any general preference of system, I
must disapprove[88].'
He told us of Cooke, who translated Hesiod, and lived twenty years on a
translation of Plautus, for which he was always taking subscriptions;
and that he presented Foote to a Club, in the following singular manner:
'This is the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for
murdering his brother[89].' In the evening I introduced to Mr.
Johnson[90] two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, Advocate, and
Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my neighbour in the country, both of whom
supped with us. I have preserved nothing of what passed, except that Dr.
Johnson displayed another of his heterodox opinions,--a contempt of
tragick acting[91]. He said, 'the action of all players in tragedy is
bad. It should be a man's study to repress those signs of emotion and
passion, as they are called.' He was of a directly contrary opinion to
that of Fielding, in his _Tom Jones_; who makes Partridge say, of
Garrick, 'why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had
seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done
just as he did[92].' For, when I asked him, 'Would you not, Sir, start
as Mr. Garrick does, if you saw a ghost?' He answered, 'I hope not. If I
did, I should frighten the ghost.'
MONDAY, AUGUST 16.
Dr. William Robertson came to breakfast. We talked of _Ogden on Prayer_.
Dr. Johnson said, 'The same arguments which are used against GOD'S
hearing prayer, will serve against his rewarding good, and punishing
evil. He has resolved, he has declared, in the former case as in the
latter.' He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's _Remarks on the
History 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_[93]. JOHNSON. 'I remember I was once on a
visit at the house 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 said to this
lady, "What foolish talking have we had!" "Yes, (said she,) but while
they talked, you said nothing." I was struck with the reproof. How much
better is the man who does anything that is innocent, than he who does
nothing. Besides, I love anecdotes[94]. I fancy mankind may come, in
time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of
preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by
which a big book is made. If a man is to wait till he weaves anecdotes
into a system, we may be long in getting them, and get but few, in
comparison of what we might get.
Dr. Robertson said, the notions of _Eupham Macallan_, a fanatick woman,
of whom Lord Hailes gives a sketch, were still prevalent among some of
the Presbyterians; and therefore it was right in Lord Hailes, a man of
known piety, to undeceive them[95].
We walked out[96], that Dr. Johnson might see some of the things which
we have to shew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament-House[97],
where the Parliament of Scotland sat, and where the _Ordinary Lords_ of
Session hold their courts; and to the New Session-House adjoining to it,
where our Court of Fifteen (the fourteen _Ordinaries_, with the Lord
President at their head,) sit as a court of Review. We went to the
_Advocates Library_[98], of which Dr. Johnson took a cursory view, and
then to what is called the _Laigh_[99] (or under) Parliament-House,
where the records of Scotland, which has an universal security by
register, are deposited, till the great Register Office be finished. I
was pleased to behold Dr. Samuel Johnson 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
composition; and how a man can write at one time, and not at another.
'Nay, (said Dr. Johnson,) a man may write at any time, if he will set
himself _doggedly_[100] to it.'
I here began to indulge _old Scottish_[101] sentiments, and to express a
warm regret, that, by our Union with _England_, we were no more;--our
independent kingdom was lost[102]. 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 rescue her; and such a Queen too; as every man
of any gallantry of spirit would have sacrificed his life for[103].'
Worthy Mr. JAMES KERR, Keeper of the Records. 'Half our nation was
bribed by English money.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is no defence: that makes
you worse.' Good Mr. BROWN, Keeper of the Advocates' Library. 'We had
better say nothing about it.' BOSWELL. 'You would have been glad,
however, to have had us last war, sir, to fight your battles!' JOHNSON.
'We should have had you for the same price, though there had been no
Union, as we might have had Swiss, or other troops. No, no, I shall
agree to a separation. You have only to _go home_.' Just as he had said
this, I, to divert the subject, shewed him the signed assurances of the
three successive Kings of the Hanover family, to maintain the
Presbyterian establishment in Scotland. 'We'll give you that (said he)
into the bargain.'
We next went to the great church of St. Giles, which has lost its
original magnificence in the inside, by being divided into four places
of Presbyterian worship[104]. 'Come, (said Dr. Johnson jocularly to
Principal Robertson[105],) let me see what was once a church!' We
entered that division which was formerly called the _New Church_, and of
late the _High Church_, so well known by the eloquence of Dr. Hugh
Blair. It is now very elegantly fitted up; but it was then shamefully
dirty[106]. Dr. Johnson said nothing at the time; but when we came to
the great door of the Royal Infirmary, where upon a board was this
inscription, '_Clean your feet!_' he turned about slyly and said, 'There
is no occasion for putting this at the doors of your churches!'
We then conducted him down the Post-house stairs, Parliament-close, and
made him look up from the Cow-gate to the highest building in Edinburgh,
(from which he had just descended,) being thirteen floors or stories
from the ground upon the back elevation; the front wall being built upon
the edge of the hill, and the back wall rising from the bottom of the
hill several stories before it comes to a level with the front wall. We
proceeded to the College, with the Principal at our head. Dr. Adam
Fergusson, whose _Essay on the History of Civil Society[107]_ gives him
a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us. As the
College buildings[108] are indeed very mean, the Principal said to Dr.
Johnson, that he must give them the same epithet that a Jesuit did when
shewing a poor college abroad: '_Hae miseriae nostrae_.' Dr. Johnson
was, however, much pleased with the library, and with the conversation
of Dr. James Robertson, Professor of Oriental Languages, the Librarian.
We talked of Kennicot's edition of the Hebrew Bible[109], and hoped it
would be quite faithful. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I know not any crime so great
that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the sources of
eternal truth.'
I pointed out to him where there formerly stood an old wall enclosing
part of the college, which I remember bulged out in a threatening
manner, and of which there was a common tradition similar to that
concerning _Bacon's_ study at Oxford, that it would fall upon some very
learned man[110]. It had some time before this been taken down, that the
street might be widened, and a more convenient wall built. Dr. Johnson,
glad of an opportunity to have a pleasant hit at Scottish learning,
said, 'they have been afraid it never would fall.'
We shewed him the Royal Infirmary, for which, and for every other
exertion of generous publick spirit 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
Holyrood-house, that beautiful piece of architecture, but, alas! that
deserted mansion of royalty, which Hamilton of Bangour, in one of his
elegant poems, calls
'A virtuous palace, where no monarch dwells[111].'
I was much entertained while Principal Robertson fluently harangued to
Dr. Johnson, upon the spot, concerning scenes of his celebrated _History
of Scotland_. We surveyed that part of the palace appropriated 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 sorts of things serious or comical. I
overheard him repeating here in a kind of muttering tone, a line of the
old ballad, _Johnny Armstrong's Last Good Night_:
'And ran him through the fair body[112]!'
We returned to my house, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchess of
Douglas[113], Sir Adolphus Oughton, Lord Chief Baron, Sir William
Forbes, Principal Robertson, Mr. Cullen[114], Advocate. Before dinner he
told us of a curious conversation between the famous George
Faulkner[115] and him. George said that England had drained Ireland of
fifty thousand pounds in specie, annually, for fifty years. 'How so,
Sir! (said Dr. Johnson,) you must have a very great trade?' 'No trade.'
'Very rich mines?' 'No mines.' 'From whence, then, does all this money
come?' 'Come! why out of the blood and bowels of the poor people
of Ireland!'
He seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift[116];
for I once took the liberty to ask him, if Swift had personally offended
him, and he told me he had not. He said to-day, 'Swift is clear, but he
is shallow. In coarse humour, he is inferior to Arbuthnot[117]; in
delicate humour, he is inferior to Addison. So he is inferior to his
contemporaries; without putting him against the whole world. I doubt if
the _Tale of a Tub_ was his[118]: it has so much more thinking, more
knowledge, more power, more colour, than any of the works which are
indisputably his. If it was his, I shall only say, he was _impar
sibi_[119].'
We gave him as good a dinner as we could. Our Scotch muir-fowl, or
growse, were then abundant, and quite in season; and so far as wisdom
and wit can be aided by administering agreeable sensations to the
palate, my wife took care that our great guest should not be deficient.
Sir Adolphus Oughton, then our Deputy Commander in Chief, who was not
only an excellent officer, but one of the most universal scholars I ever
knew, had learned the Erse language, and expressed his belief in the
authenticity of Ossian's Poetry[120]. Dr. Johnson took the opposite side
of that perplexed question; and I was afraid the dispute would have run
high between them. But Sir Adolphus, who had a very sweet temper,
changed the discourse, grew playful, laughed at Lord Monboddo's[121]
notion of men having tails, and called him a Judge, _a posteriori_,
which amused Dr. Johnson; and thus hostilities were prevented.
At supper[122] we had Dr. Cullen, his son the advocate, Dr. Adam
Fergusson, and Mr. Crosbie, advocate. Witchcraft was introduced[123].
Mr. Crosbie said, he thought it the greatest blasphemy to suppose evil
spirits counteracting the Deity, and raising storms, for instance, to
destroy his creatures. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if moral evil be consistent
with the government of the Deity, why may not physical evil be also
consistent with it? It is not more strange that there should be evil
spirits, than evil men: evil unembodied spirits, than evil embodied
spirits. And as to storms, we know there are such things; and it is no
worse that evil spirits raise them, than that they rise.' CROSBIE. 'But
it is not credible, that witches should have effected what they are said
in stories to have done.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am not defending their
credibility. I am only saying, that your arguments are not good, and
will not overturn the belief of witchcraft.--(Dr. Fergusson said to me,
aside, 'He is right.')--And then, Sir, you have all mankind, rude and
civilized, agreeing in the belief of the agency of preternatural powers.
You must take evidence: you must consider, that wise and great men have
condemned witches to die[124].' CROSBIE. 'But an act of parliament put
an end to witchcraft[125].' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; witchcraft had ceased;
and therefore an act of parliament was passed to prevent persecution for
what was not witchcraft. Why it ceased, we cannot tell, as we cannot
tell the reason of many other things.'--Dr. Cullen, to keep up the
gratification of mysterious disquisition, with the grave address for
which he is remarkable in his companionable as in his professional
hours, talked, in a very entertaining manner, of people walking and
conversing in their sleep. I am very sorry I have no note of this. We
talked of the _Ouran-Outang_, and of Lord Monboddo's thinking that he
might be taught to speak. Dr. Johnson treated this with ridicule. Mr.
Crosbie said, that Lord Monboddo believed the existence of every thing
possible; in short, that all which is in _posse_ might be found in
_esse_. JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, it is as possible that the _Ouran-Outang_
does not speak, as that he speaks. However, I shall not contest the
point. I should have thought it not possible to find a Monboddo; yet
_he_ exists.' I again mentioned the stage. JOHNSON. 'The appearance of a
player, with whom I have drunk tea, counteracts the imagination that he
is the character he represents. Nay, you know, nobody imagines that he
is the character he represents. They say, "See _Garrick!_ how he looks
to night! See how he'll clutch the dagger!" That is the buz of the
theatre[126].'
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17.
Sir William Forbes came to breakfast, and brought with him Dr.
Blacklock[127], whom he introduced to Dr. Johnson, who received him with
a most humane complacency; 'Dear Dr. Blacklock, I am glad to see you!'
Blacklock seemed to be much surprized, when Dr. Johnson said, 'it was
easier to him to write poetry than to compose his _Dictionary_[128]. His
mind was less on the stretch in doing the one than the other. Besides;
composing a _Dictionary_ requires books and a desk: you can make a poem
walking in the fields, or lying in bed. Dr. Blacklock spoke of
scepticism in morals and religion, with apparent uneasiness, as if he
wished for more certainty[129]. Dr. Johnson, who had thought it all
over, and whose vigorous understanding was fortified by much experience,
thus encouraged the blind Bard to apply to higher speculations what we
all willingly submit to in common life: in short, he gave him more
familiarly the able and fair reasoning of Butler's _Analogy_: 'Why, Sir,
the greatest concern we have in this world, the choice of our
profession, must be determined without demonstrative reasoning. Human
life is not yet so well known, as that we can have it. And take the case
of a man who is ill. I call two physicians: they differ in opinion. I am
not to lie down, and die between them: I must do something.' The
conversation then turned on Atheism; on that horrible book, _Systeme de
la Nature_[130]; and on the supposition of an eternal necessity, without
design, without a governing mind. JOHNSON. 'If it were so, why has it
ceased? Why don't we see men thus produced around us now? Why, at least,
does it not keep pace, in some measure, with the progress of time? If
it stops because there is now no need of it, then it is plain there is,
and ever has been, an all powerful intelligence. But stay! (said he,
with one of his satyrick laughs[131].) Ha! ha! ha! I shall suppose
Scotchmen made necessarily, and Englishmen by choice.'
At dinner this day, we had Sir Alexander Dick, whose amiable character,
and ingenious and cultivated mind, are so generally known; (he was then
on the verge of seventy, and is now (1785) eighty-one, with his
faculties entire, his heart warm, and his temper gay;) Sir David
