1

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." 2

us.

a

In the evening I introduced to Mr. Johnson two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, Advocate, and Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my neighbour in the country, both of whom supped with I have preserved nothing of what passed, except that Dr. Johnson displayed another of his heterodox opinions-a contempt of tragick acting. 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 direct 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." For, when I asked him, "Would not you, 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, 16th August.

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

appearing again at such a distance of time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full growth in the mind of Markham, is a curious object of philosophical contemplation.-That two such great and luminous minds should have been so dark in one corner-that they should have held it to be "wicked Rebellion" in the British subjects established in America, to resist the abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British subjects remaining at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord the King was to be preserved inviolate,—is a striking proof to me, either that "He who sitteth in Heaven," scorns the loftiness of human pride, or that the evil spirit, whose personal existence I strongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that belief by a Fell, nay, by a Hurd, has more power than some choose to allow.

It may be observed, that I sometimes call my great friend, Mr. Johnson, sometimes Dr. Johnson; though he had at this time a doctor's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was some time before I could bring my elf to call him Doctor; but, as he has been long known by that title, I shall give it to him in the rest of this Journal.

1 One of the literary hacks that "hung loose upon society." He published a "Life of Foote."

2 Goodere was captain of the Ruby, in the cabin of which vessel the murder was accomplished.

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." 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 any thing that is innocent, than he who does nothing. Besides, I love anecdotes. 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.

We walked out, that Dr. Johnson might see some of the things which we have to shew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament House, where the Parliament of Scotland sat, and where the

1 Among these objects of attraction was the statue of Charles II., on which Mr. Boswell, later, made some verses, published in the Public Advertiser. "There is in the stately square at Edinburgh, the Parliament-close, a very fine statue of Charles II. on horseback, a cast in lead larger than life. Some years ago the PROVOST of the city, from a strange Gothic fancy, had it laid over with a thick coat of paint, to make it look WHITE and NEW. This occasioned the following: :

"Well done, my Lord, with noble taste,

You've made Charles gay as five-andtwenty;

We may be scarce of gold and corn, But sure there's lead and gold in plenty.

Yet for a public work like this

I would have had some famous artist,

Though I had made each mark a pound

I would have had the very smartest.

"Why not bring Allan Ramsay down

From stately coronet and cushion? For he can paint a living king,

And knows the English Constitu-
tion.

The milk-white steed is well enough,
But why thus daub the man all over,
And to the swarthy Stuart give
The cream complexion of Hanover?
"This statue never gave offence,

But now, as you've been pleased to
make it,

The ladies all will run away

Lest they behold a man stark naked. Stay, fair, dissembling cowards! stay,

He'll do no harm-you may go near

him;

I'll tell you-e'en when flesh and blood, Some of your grandams did not fear him."

Ordinary Lords of 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, of which Dr. Johnson took a cursory view, and then to what is called the Laigh (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 loved to behold Dr. Samuel Johnson rolling about in this old. magazine of antiquities. There was, by this time, a pretty numer ous 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 to it."

I here began to indulge old Scottish sentiments, and to express a warm regret, that, by our Union with England, we were no more; -our independent kingdom was lost. 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." 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 has 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 into the bargain,” said he.

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. "Come (said Dr. Johnson jocularly to Principal Robertson 2) let me see what was once a church!" Second Edition.-Line 9: "I loved” altered to “I was pleased.”

a I have hitherto called him Dr. William Robertson, to distinguish him from Dr. James Robertson, who is soon to make his appearance. But Principal, from his being the head of our college, is his usual designation, and is shorter; so I shall use it in time coming.

Second Edition.-Last line of note: "in time coming" altered to "hereafter."

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. 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, Parliamentclose, 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," gives him a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us. As the College buildings 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: "he miseria nostra." 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 Translation of the Bible, 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 saying, as of Bacon's Study at Oxford, that it would fall upon the most learned man. It had some time before this been taken down, that the street might be widened, and a more convenient wall built.

1 "Entering one of the doors opposite the main entrance, the stranger is sometimes led by a friend, wishing to afford him an agreeable surprise, down flight after flight of the steps of a stone staircase, and when he imagines he is descending so far into the bowels of the earth, he emerges on the edge of a cheerful crowded thoroughfare, connecting together the old and new town... .. When he looks up to the building, he sees that

vast pile of tall houses, standing at the head of the mound, which creates astonishment in every visitor of Edinburgh.

By ascending the western of the two stairs facing the entry of James's court, to the height of three stories, we arrive at the door of David Hume's house, which, of the two doors on the landing-place, is the one towards the left."-Burton's Life of Hume, vol. ii. p. 136.

Mr. 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 nobleminded 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."

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 over heard him repeating here, in a kind of muttering tone, a line of the old ballad, "Johnny Armstrong's Last Good-Night: "

"a

"And ran him through the fair body!" a

I suppose his thinking of the stabbing of Rizzio had brought this into his mind, by association of ideas.

We returned to my house, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchess of Douglas, Sir Adolphus Oughton, Lord Chief Baron, Sir William Forbes, Principal Robertson, Mr. Cullen, advocate. Before dinner, he told us of a curious conversation between the famous George Faulkner 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

Second Edition.-Line 1: "Mr. Johnson" altered to "Dr. Johnson." 2
The stanza from which he took this line is,

"But then rose up all Edinburgh,

They rose up by thousands three:
A cowardly Scot came John behind,
And ran him through the fair body!"

1. An old lady," wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, "who talks broad Scotch with a paralytic voice."

2 Mr. Boswell had already forgotten his resolution of two pages before.