We returned to the inn, where we had been entertained at dinner, and drank tea in company with some of the Professors, of whose civilities I beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgement to the honourable testimony of Dr. Johnson, in his "Journey." We talked of composition, which was a favourite topick of Dr. Watson's, who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetorick. JOHNSON. "I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed than in accuracy." WATSON. "I own I am for much attention to accuracy in composing, lest one should get bad habits of doing it in a slovenly manner." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, you are confounding doing inaccurately with the necessity of doing. inaccurately. A man knows when his composition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But, if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with difficulty, upon all occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not like to do that which is not done easily; and, at any rate, more time is consumed in a small matter than ought to be." Watson said, "Dr. Hugh Blair took a week to compose a sermon." JOHNSON. "Then, Sir, that is for want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am insisting one should acquire." Watson said, "Blair was not composing all the week, but only such hours as he found himself disposed for composition." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing. If I say I took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have composed about forty sermons. I have begun a sermon after dinner, and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night. I have also written six sheets in a day of translation from the French." BOSWELL. "We have all observed how one man dresses himself slowly, and another fast." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; it is wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing; taking up a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again. Every one should get the habit of doing it quickly. I would say to a young divine, see how soon you can make a sermon.' how much better you can make it.' powers and his judgement." 'Here is your text; let me Then I'd say, 'Let me see Thus I should see both his We all went to Dr. Watson's to supper. Miss Sharp, great grandchild of Archbishop Sharp, was there; as was Mr. Craig, the ingenious architect of the new town of Edinburgh, and nephew of Thomson, to whom Dr. Johnson has since done so much justice, in his "Lives of the Poets." We talked of memory, and its various modes.-JOHNSON. "Memory will play strange tricks. One sometimes loses a single word. I once lost fugaces in the Ode Posthume, Posthume.'" I mentioned to him, that a worthy gentleman of my acquaintance actually forgot his own name. JOHNSON. "Sir, that was a morbid oblivion." Friday, 20th August. Dr. Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out my "Ogden on Prayer," and read some of it to the company. Dr. Johnson praised him. "Abernethy (said he) allows only of a physical effect of prayer upon the mind, which may be produced many ways, as well as by prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth, we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether offered up by individuals, or by assemblies; and Revelation has told us, it will be effectual." I said, "Leechman seemed to incline to Abernethy's doctrine." Watson observed, that Leechman meant to shew, that, even admitting no effect to be produced by prayer, respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds. He had given only a part of his system: Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole. Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday. Said he, "It should be different from another day. People. may walk; but not throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no levity." We went and saw Colonel Nairne's garden and grotto. Here was a fine old plane tree. Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this and another large tree in the county. This was an excellent cue for Dr. Johnson, who laughed enormously, calling to me to hear this. He had expatiated to me on the nakedness of that part of Scotland which he had seen. His Journey has been violently abused, for what he has said upon this subject. But let it be considered, that, when Dr. Johnson talks of trees, he means trees of good size, such as he was accustomed to see in England; and of these there are certainly very few upon the eastern coast of Scotland. Besides, he said, that he meant to give only a map of the road; and let any traveller observe how many trees, which Second Edition.-Line 18: altered-"Dr. Watson." deserve the name, he can see from the road from Berwick to Aberdeen. Had Dr. Johnson said "there are no trees" upon this line, he would have said what is colloquially true; because, by no trees, in common speech, we mean few. When he is particular in counting, he may be attacked. I know not how Colonel Nairne came to say there were but two large trees in the county of Fife. I did not perceive that he smiled. There are not a great many, to be sure; but I could have shewn him more than two at Balmuto, from whence my ancestor came. In the grotto, we saw a wonderful large lobster claw. In front of it were petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other tree. Dr. Johnson said, "Scotland has no right to boast of this grotto; it is owing to personal merit. I never denied personal merit to many of you." Professor Shaw said to me, as we walked, "This is a wonderful man he is master of every subject he handles." Dr. Watson allowed him a very strong understanding, but wondered at his total inattention to established manners, as he came from London. I have not preserved, in my Journal, any of the conversation which passed between Dr. Johnson and Professor Shaw; but I recollect Dr. Johnson said to me afterwards, "I took much to Shaw." our names, and We left St. Andrew's about noon, and some miles from it observing, at Leuchars, a church with an old tower, we stopped to look at it. The manse, as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by. I waited on the minister, mentioned begged he would tell us what he knew about it. civil old man; but could only inform us, that it have stood eight hundred years. He told us, there was a colony of Danes in his parish; that they had landed at a remote period of time, and still remained a distinct people. Dr. Johnson shrewdly inquired if they had brought women with them. We were not satisfied, as to this colony. He was a very was supposed to We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, the last of which Dr. Johnson has celebrated in his "Journey." Upon the road we talked of the Roman Catholick faith. He mentioned (I think) Second Edition.-Line 7: Altered to "there are certainly not a great many." Ibid.-Line 9: Altered to "from whence my ancestors came, and which now belongs to a branch of my family. In the grotto we saw a lobster's claw uncommonly large." Third Edition.-Line 10: Dele "In the grotto," &c., to "claw;" and read"The grotto was ingeniously constructed.” 1 Scotticisms. Mr. Boswell no doubt felt that there VOL. III. was a want of dignity in recording the incident of the lobster-claw. 16 Tillotson's argument against transubstantiation: "That we are as sure we see bread and wine only, as that we read in the Bible the text on which that false doctrine is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both." "If (he added) GOD had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he speaks literally, when he says, 'This is my body.'" BOSWELL. "But what do you say, Sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the church upon this point?" JOHNSON. "Tradition, Sir, has no place, where the Scriptures are plain; and tradition cannot persuade a man into a belief of transubstantiation. Able men, indeed, have said they believed it." This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr. Johnson upon it; nor shall I now enter upon a disquisition concerning the import of those words uttered by our Saviour, which had such an effect upon many of his disciples, that they "went back, and walked no more with him." The Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of England, maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere commemoration of the death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of bread and wine. Dr. Johnson put me in mind that, at St. Andrew's, I had defended my profession very well, when the question had again been started, whether a Lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers him a fee? "Sir (said I) it was with your arguments against Sir William Forbes. But it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliath." He said our judges had not gone deep in literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the mind is exercised.— JOHNSON. "No, Sir; a man's repeating it no more makes it his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives home."1 I said, printing an abridgement of a work was allowed, which was only cutting the horns and tail off the cow. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; 'tis making the cow have a calf." Third Edition.-On line 16 put a note: " Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." See St. John's Gospel, chap. vi. 53, and following verses. Second Edition.-Line 26: Altered to literary property.' 1 Lord Monboddo's rather fantastic views seem to justify Johnson's opinion. "No man has a property in ideas, but he has a property in words which no man can take from him. . . This is the difference between a plagiary and a printer. "gone deep in the question concerning The plagiary steals thoughts, the printer only the words. If a man could get a book by heart, without understanding it, and repeat it to a printer, there would be no injustice." About eleven at night, we arrived at Montrose. We found but a sorry inn, where I myself saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his finger into Dr. Johnson's lemonade, for which he called him "Rascal!" It put me in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr. Burney's History of Music had then been advertised. I asked if this was not unlucky? Would not they hurt one another?-JOHNSON. "No, Sir. They will do good to one another. Some will buy the one, some the other, and compare them; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the books are sold." He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that he might be sure to have his lemonade. "Sir (said he) I do not wish to be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it is very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he could not entertain you. To an inferiour, it is oppressive; to a superiour, it is insolent." Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly experienced, he smiled and said, "It is true, Sir. Tom Tyers (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory) Tom Tyers described me the best. He once said to me, 'Sir, you are like. a ghost. You never speak till you are spoken to.' Saturday, 21st August. Neither the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the established minister, nor the Rev. Mr. Spooner, the episcopal minister, were in town. Before breakfast, we went and saw the town-hall, where is a good dancingroom, and other rooms for tea-drinking. The appearance of the town from it is very well, only many of the houses are built-with their ends to the street, which looks aukward. When we came down from it, I met Mr. Gleg, the merchant here. He went with us to see the English chapel. It is situated on a pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It is really an elegant building, both within and without. The organ is adorned with green and gold. Second Edition.-Line 25: A note-"This description of Dr. Johnson, appears to have been borrowed fromTom Jones.' Book XI. chap. ii. The other who, like a ghost, only wanted to be spoke to, readily answered,' &c." Ibid.-Line 33: "the merchant here" altered to "a merchant here." |