1 66 the two contending parties, and explained them thus: "The popular party has most eloquence; Dr. Robertson's party most influence." I was very desirous to hear Dr. Johnson's explication. JOHNSON. "I see no difficulty. Gilmour was admired for his parts; Nisbet carried his cause by his skill in law. Palma is victory." I observed, that the character of Nicholson, in this book, resembled that of Burke; for it is said, in one place, “in omnes lusos et jocos se sæpe resolvebat;" and, in another, "sed accipitris more, è conspectu aliquando astantium sublimi se protrahens volatu, in prædam miro impetu descendebat." 2 JOHNSON. "No, Sir; I never heard Burke make a good joke in my life."3 BOSWELL. But, Sir, you will allow he is a hawk." Dr. Johnson, thinking that I meant this of his joking, said, "No, Sir, he is not the hawk there. He is the beetle in the mire." I still adhered to my metaphor; "but he soars as the hawk." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but he catches nothing." Macleod asked, what is the particular excellence of Burke's eloquence? JOHNSON. "Copiousness and fertility of allusion; a power of diversifying his matter, by placing it in various relations. Burke has great information, and great command of language; though, in my opinion, it has not in every respect the highest elegance. BOSWELL. "Do you think, Sir, that Burke has read Cicero much? JOHNSON. "I don't believe it, Sir. Burke has great knowledge, great fluency of words, and great promptness of ideas, so that he can speak with great illustration on any subject that comes before him. He is neither like Cicero, nor like Demosthenes, nor like any one else, but speaks as well as he can." In the sixty-fifth page of the first volume of Sir George Mackenzie, Dr. Johnson pointed out a paragraph beginning with Aristotle, and told me there was an error in the text, which he bade me try to discover. I was lucky enough to hit it at once. As the passage is printed, it is said that the devil answers even in engines. I corrected it to- — ever in ænigmas. "Sir," said he, “you are a good critic. This would have been a great thing to do in the text of an ancient author." 1" He often indulged himself in every species of pleasantry and wit"- BOSWELL. 2But 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. 3 See ante, p. 23., and p. 28. n. It should not be forgotten that all this passed at an early stage of Burke's public lifehe had been but eight years in parliament, and had not yet attained nor deserved the great reputation of his subsequent days. CROKER. 66 liquor, because, as he acknowledged to us, he could not do it in moderation. Lady Macleod would hardly believe him, and said, "I am sure, Sir, you would not carry it too far." JOHNSON. Nay, Madam, it carried me. I took the opportunity of a long illness to leave it off. It was then prescribed to me not to drink wine; and having broken off the habit, I have never returned to it." In the argument on Tuesday night, about natural goodness, Dr. Johnson denied that any child was better than another, but by difference of instruction; though, in consequence of greater attention being paid to instruction by one child than another, and of a variety of imperceptible causes, such as instruction being counteracted by servants, a notion was conceived, that of two children, equally well educated, one was naturally much worse than another. He owned, this morning, that one might have a greater aptitude to learn than another, and that we inherit dispositions from our parents. "I inherited," said he, "a vile | melancholy from my father, which has made me MAD all my life, at least not sober." Lady Macleod wondered he should tell this. “Madam,” said I, "he knows that with that madness* be is superior to other men." I have often been astonished with what exactness and perspicuity he will explain the process of any art. He this morning explained to us all the operation of coining, and, at night, all the operation of brewing, so very clearly, that Mr. M'Queen said, when he heard the first, he thought he had been bred in the Mint; when he heard the second, that he had been bred a brewer. I was elated by the thought of having been able to entice such a man to this remote part of the world. A ludicrous, yet just image presented itself to my mind, which I expressed to the company. I compared myself to a dog who has got hold of a large piece of meat, and runs away with it to a corner, where he may devour it in peace, without any fear of others taking it from him. "In London, Reynolds, Beauclerk, and all of them, are contending who shall enjoy Dr. Johnson's conversation. We are feasting upon it, undisturbed, at Dunvegan." Dr. It was still a storm of wind and rain. Johnson however walked out with Macleod, and saw Rorie More's cascade in full perfection. Colonel Macleod, instead of being all life and gaiety, as I have seen him, was at present grave, and somewhat depressed by bis anxious concern about Macleod's affairs, and 4 See antè, p. 4. Mr. Boswell was, we see, the first to publish this fact, though he afterwards chose to blame others for alluding to it. Dryden's aphorism, that "great wit," me «A» ing mental powers generally, "is nearly allied to madness," is so true as to have become a proverb: but it stands on older and graver authority. Seneca says, Nullam magna genium, sine mixtura dementie. De Trang, Autm, c. XV. S. 77. CROKER. by finding some gentlemen of the clan by no means disposed to act a generous or affectionate part to their chief in his distress, but bargaining with him as with a stranger. However, he was agreeable and polite, and Dr. Johnson said he was a very pleasing man. My fellow-traveller and I talked of going to Sweden; and, while we were settling our plan. I expressed a pleasure in the prospect of seeing the king. JOHNSON. "I doubt, Sir, if he would speak to us." Colonel Macleod said, "I am sure Mr. Boswell would speak to him." But seeing me a little disconcerted by his remark, he politely added, "and with great propriety." Here let me offer a short defence of that propensity in my disposition, to which this gentleman alluded. It has procured me much happiness. I hope it does not deserve so hard a name as either forwardness or impudence. If I know myself, it is nothing more than an eagerness to share the society of men distinguished either by their rank or their talents, and a diligence to attain what I desire. If a man is praised for seeking knowledge, though mountains and seas are in his way, may he not be pardoned, whose ardour, in the pursuit of the same object, leads him to encounter difficulties as great, though of a different kind? After the ladies were gone from the table, we talked of the Highlanders not having sheets; and this led us to consider the advantage of wearing linen. JOHNSON. "All animal substances are less cleanly than vegetables. Wool, of which flannel is made, is an animal substance; flannel therefore is not so cleanly as linen. I remember I used to think tar dirty; but when I knew it to be only a preparation of the juice of the pine, I thought so no longer. It is not disagreeable to have the gum that oozes from a plum-tree upon your fingers, because it is vegetable; but if you have any candle-grease, any tallow upon your fingers, you are uneasy till you rub it off. I have often thought that, if I kept a seraglio, the ladies should all wear linen gowns, or cotton -I mean stuffs made of vegetable substances. I would have no silk; you cannot tell when it is clean; it will be very nasty before it is perceived to be so. Linen detects its own dirtiness." To hear the grave Dr. Samuel Johnson, "that majestic teacher of moral and religious wisdom," while sitting solemn in an arm-chair in the isle of Sky, talk, ex cathedrâ, of his keeping a seraglio, and acknowledge that the supposition had often been in his thoughts, struck me so forcibly with ludicrous contrast, that I could not but laugh immoderately. He was too proud to submit, even for a moment, to be the object of ridicule, and instantly retaliated with such keen sarcastic wit, and such a variety of degrading images, of every one of which I was the object, that, though I can bear such attacks as well as most men, I yet found myself so much the sport of all the company, that I would gladly expunge from my mind every trace of this severe retort. Talking of our friend Langton's house in Lincolnshire, he said "the old house of the family was burnt. A temporary building was erected in its room; and to this day they have been always adding as the family increased. It is like a shirt made for a man when he was a child, and enlarged always as he grows older." We talked to-night of Luther's allowing the Landgrave of Hesse two wives, and that it was with the consent of the wife to whom he was first married. JOHNSON. "There was no harm in this, so far as she was only concerned, because volenti non fit injuria. But it was an offence against the general order of society, and against the law of the Gospel, by which one man and one woman are to be united. No man can have two wives, but by preventing somebody else from having one.' It Friday, Sept. 17.-After dinner yesterday, we had a conversation upon cunning. Macleod said that he was not afraid of cunning people; but would let them play their tricks about him like monkeys. "But," said I, "they'll scratch;" and Mr. M'Queen added, "they'll invent new tricks, as soon as you find out what they do." JOHNSON. "Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive." This led us to consider whether it did not require great abilities to be very wicked. JOHNSON. "It requires great abilities to have the power of being very wicked; but not to be very wicked. A man who has the power, which great abilities procure him, may use it well or ill; and it requires more abilities to use it well, than to use it ill. Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to every thing. It is much easier to steal a hundred pounds, than to get it by labour, or any other way. Consider only what act of wickedness requires great abilities to commit it, when once the person who is to do it has the power; for there is the distinction. It requires great abilities to conquer an army, but none to massacre it after it is conquered. The weather this day was rather better than any that we had since we came to Dunvegan. Mr. M'Queen had often mentioned a curious piece of antiquity near this, which he called a temple of the goddess Anaitis. Having often talked of going to see it, he and I set out after breakfast, attended by his servant, a fellow And to the world much amusement and instruction. But for this obtrusive propensity we should not have had this work.-CROKER. * This last argument is I think a false, and, at all events, a too narrow ground on which to rest this great doctrinea doctrine which is the foundation of all human civilisation, and of all individual happiness. See antè, p. 334., and post, 10th Oct. 1779. CROKER. Z quite like a savage. I must observe here, that with Dr. Johnson, we first talked of portraits. He agreed in thinking them valuable in families. I wished to know which he preferred, fine portraits, or those of which the merit was resemblance. JOHNSON. "Sir, their chief excellence is being like." BosWELL. "Are you of that opinion as to the portraits of ancestors, whom one has never seen?" JOHNSON. "It then becomes of more consequence that they should be like; and I would have them in the dress of the times, which makes a piece of history. One should like to see how Rorie More looked. Truth, Sir, is of the greatest value in these things." Mr. M'Queen observed, that if you think it of no consequence whether portraits are like, if they are but well painted, you may be indifferent whether a piece of history is true or not, if well told. Dr. Johnson said at breakfast to-day, "that it was but of late that historians bestowed pairs and attention in consulting records, to attain to accuracy. Bacon, in writing his History of Henry VII., does not seem to have consulted any, but to have just taken what he found in other histories, and blended it with what he learned by tradition." He agreed with me that there should be a chronicle kept in every considerable family, to preserve the characters and transactions of successive generations. After dinner I started the subject of the temple of Anaitis. Mr. M'Queen had lad stress on the name given to the place by the country people,— Ainnit; and added, “I knew not what to make of this piece of antiquity, till I met with the Anaitidis delubrum in Lydir, mentioned by Pausanias and the elder Pliny," Dr. Johnson, with his usual acuteness, examined Mr. M'Queen as to the meaning of the word Ainnit, in Erse; and it proved to be a water-place, or a place near water, “which," said Mr. M'Queen," agrees with all the descriptions of the temples of that goddess, which were situated near rivers, that there might be water to wash the statue." JOHNSON, N1V. Sir, the argument from the name is gone The name is exhausted by what we see. We have no occasion to go to a distance for what we can pick up under our feet. Had it been an accidental name, the similarity between it and Anaitis might have had something in it; but it turns out to be a mere physiol al name." Macleod said, Mr. M'Queen's knowledge of etymology had destroyed his conjecture. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; Mr. M`Queen is like the eagle mentioned by Waller, who wa shot with an arrow feathered from his own wing." Mr. M'Queen would not, however, give up his conjecture. JOHNSON. "You have one possibility for you, and all possibilities When we got home, and were again at table against you. It is possible it may be the templo Anaitis; but it is also possible that it may e a fortification; or it may be a place of hristian worship, as the first Christians often hose remote and wild places, to make an im- | ression on the mind; or, if it was an heathen mple, it may have been built near a river, for e purpose of lustration; and there are such multitude of divinities, to whom it may have een dedicated, that the chance of its being a mple of Anaitis is hardly any thing. It is ke throwing a grain of sand upon the seaore to-day, and thinking you may find it toorrow. No, Sir, this temple, like many an -built edifice, tumbles down before it is ofed it." In his triumph over the reverend tiquarian, he indulged himself in a conceit; r, some vestige of the altar of the goddess ing much insisted on in support of the hypoesis, he said, "Mr. M'Queen is fighting pro is et focis." Saturday, Sept. 18.-BEFORE breakfast, Dr. It was wonderful how well time passed in a Johnson came up to my room, to forbid me to mote castle, and in dreary weather. After mention that it was his birthday; but I told ipper, we talked of Pennant. It was objected him I had done it already; at which he was at he was superficial. Dr. Johnson defended displeased-I suppose from wishing to have m warmly. He said, "Pennant has greater nothing particular done on his account. Lady ariety of inquiry than almost any man, and Macleod and I got into a warm dispute. She as told us more than perhaps one in ten thou-wanted to build a house upon a farm which and could have done, in the time that he took. she has taken, about five miles from the castle, le has not said what he was to tell; so you and to make gardens and other ornaments annot find fault with him for what he has not there; all of which I approved of; but insisted ald. If a man comes to look for fishes, you that the seat of the family should always be annot blame him if he does not attend to upon the rock of Dunvegan. JOHNSON. "Ay, owls." "But," said Colonel Macleod, "he in time we 'll build all round this rock. You mentions the unreasonable rise of rents in the may make a very good house at the farm; but Highlands, and says, 'the gentlemen are for it must not be such as to tempt the Laird of emptying the bag without filling it,' for that is Macleod to go thither to reside. Most of the he phrase he uses. Why does he not tell how great families of England have a secondary o fill it?" JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no end of residence, which is called a jointure-house; aegative criticism. He tells what he observes, let the new house be of that kind." The lady and as much as he chooses. If he tells what is insisted that the rock was very inconvenient; not true, you may find fault with him; but, that there was no place near it where a good though he tells that the land is not well culti- garden could be made; that it must always be vated, he is not obliged to tell how it may be a rude place; that it was a Herculean labour to well cultivated. If I tell that many of the make a dinner here. I was vexed to find the Highlanders go barefooted, I am not obliged alloy of modern refinement in a lady who had to tell how they may get shoes. Pennant tells so much old family spirit. "Madam," said I, a fact. He need go no farther, except he "if once you quit this rock, there is no knowpleases. He exhausts nothing; and no subject ing where you may settle. You move five whatever has yet been exhausted. But Pen- miles first; then to St. Andrew's, as the late nant has surely told a great deal. Here is a Laird did; then to Edinburgh; and so on till man six feet high, and you are angry because you end at Hampstead, or in France. No, no; he is not seven." Notwithstanding this elo- keep to the rock; it is the very jewel of the quent Oratio pro Pennantio, which they who estate. It looks as if it had been let down from bave read this gentleman's Tours, and recol-heaven by the four corners, to be the residence lect the savage and the shopkeeper at Mon- of a chief. Have all the comforts and conboddo, will probably impute to the spirit of veniences of life upon it, but never leave Rorie contradiction, I still think that he had better More's cascade." "But," said she, "is it not have given more attention to fewer things, enough if we keep it? Must we never have than have thrown together such a number of more convenience than Rorie More had? he imperfect accounts. had his beef brought to dinner in one basket, Johnson writes: " 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. I can now look back upon three score and four years, in which little has been done, and little has been enjoyed; a life diversified by misery, spent part in the sluggishness of penury, and part under the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent or importunate distress But, perhaps, I am better than I should have been, if I had been less afflicted. With this I will try to be content." Letters. See post, Sept. 17. 1777, his dislike to hear his birthday noticed.- CROKER. and his bread in another. Why not as well be Rorie More all over, as live upon his rock? And should not we tire, in looking perpetually on this rock? It is very well for you, who have a fine place, and every thing easy, to talk thus, and think of chaining honest folks to a rock. You would not live upon it yourself." "Yes, Madam," said I, "I would live upon it, were I Laird of Macleod, and should be unhappy if I were not upon it." JOHNSON (with a strong voice and most determined manner). "Madam, rather than quit the old rock, Boswell would live in the pit; he would make his bed in the dungeon." I felt a degree of elation, at finding my resolute feudal enthusiasm thus confirmed by such a sanction. The lady was puzzled a little. She still returned to her pretty farm-rich ground-fine garden. Madam," said Dr. Johnson, "were they in Asia, I would not leave the rock." My opinion on this subject is still the same. An ancient family residence ought to be a primary object; and though the situation of Dunvegan be such that little can be done here in gardening or pleasure ground, yet, in addition to the veneration acquired by the lapse of time, it has many circumstances of natural grandeur, suited to the seat of a Highland chief: it has the sea-islands-rocks-hills-a noble cascade; and when the family is again in opulence, something may be done by art.2 66 Mr. Donald M'Queen went away to-day, in order to preach at Braccadale next day. We were so comfortably situated at Dunvegan, that Dr. Johnson could hardly be moved from it. I proposed to him that we should leave it on Monday. "No, Sir," said he, "I will not go before Wednesday. I will have some more of this good." However, as the weather was at this season so bad, and so very uncertain, and we had a great deal to do yet, Mr. M'Queen and I prevailed with him to agree to set out on Monday, if the day should be good. Mr. M'Queen, though it was inconvenient for him to be absent from his harvest, engaged to wait on Monday at Ulinish for us. When he was going away, Dr. Johnson said, "I shall 1 Dunvegan well deserves the stand which was made by Dr. Johnson in its defence. Its greatest inconvenience was that of access. This had been originally obtained from the sea, by a subterranean staircase, partly arched, partly cut in the rock, which, winding up through the cliff, opened into the court of the castle. This passage, at all times very inconvenient, had been abandoned, and was ruinous. A very indifferent substitute had been made by a road, which, rising from the harbour, reached the bottom of the moat, and then ascended to the gate by a very long stair. The present chief, whom I am happy to call my friend, has made a perfectly convenient and characteristic access, which gives a direct approach to the further side of the moat, in front of the castle gate, and surmounts the chasm by a drawbridge, which would have delighted Rorie More himself. I may add, that neither Johnson nor Boswell were antiquaries, otherwise they must have remarked, amongst the Cimelia of Dunvegan, the fated or fairy banner, said to be given to the clan by a Banshee, and a curious drinking cup (probably), said to have belonged to the family when kings of the Isle of Mancertainly of most venerable antiquity.-WALTER SCOTT. Something has indeed been, partly in the way of accommodation and ornament, partly in improvements yet more estimable, under the direction of the present beneficent Lady ever retain a great regard for you:" then asked him if he had the "Rambler." Mr. M'Queen said, "No, but my brother has it." JOHNSON. "Have you the "Idler?" M'QUEEN. “No, Sir." JOHNSON. Then I will order one for you at Edinburgh, which you will keep in remembrance of me." Mr. M'Queen was much pleased with this. He expressed to me, in the strongest terms, his admiration of Dr. Johnson's wonderful knowledge, and every other quality for which he is distinguished. I asked Mr. M'Queen if he was satisfied with being s minister in Sky. He said he was; but he owned that his forefathers having been so long there, and his having been born there, made a chief ingredient in forming his contentment. I should have mentioned, that on our left hand, between Portree and Dr. Macleod's house, Mr. M'Queen told me there had been a college of the Knights Templars; that tradition said so; and that there was a ruin remaining of their church, which had been burnt: but I confess Dr. Johnson has weakened my belief in remote tradition. In the dispute about Anaitis, Mr. M'Queen said. Asia Minor was peopled by Scythians, and, as they were the ancestors of the Celts, the same religion might be in Asia Minor and Sky JOHNSON. "Alas! Sir, what can a nation tha has not letters tell of its original? I have, always difficulty to be patient when I hear authors gravely quoted, as giving accounts f savage nations, which accounts they had from the savages themselves. What can the M'Cras tell about themselves a thousand years ago? There is no tracing the connection of ancien nations, but by language; and therefore I a always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations If you find the same language in distant countries, you may be sure that the inhabitants of each have been the same people; that is to say, if you find the languages a good deal the same for a word here and there being the same, will not do. Thus Butler, in his Hudibras, re membering that penguin, in the Straits of Magellan, signifies a bird with a white bead, of Macleod [Miss Stephenson]. She has completely acquired the language of her husband's clan, in order to qualify be self to be their effectual benefactress. She has erect schools, which she superintends herself, to introduce am them the benefits, knowledge, and comforts of more civile society; and a young and beautiful woman has done more for the enlarged happiness of this primitive people, than hal been achieved for ages before. - WALTER SCOTT. 3" What can the M'Craas tell of themselves a thousand years ago?" More than the Doctor would suppose. I a copy of their family history, written by Mr. John Mac R minister of Dingwall, in Ross-shire, in 1702. In this histor they are averred to have come over with those Flager now holding the name of M'Kenzie, at the period ef battle of Largs, in 1263. I was indulged with a copy of the pedigree, by the consent of the principal persons of the ca in 1826, and had the original in my possession for somet It is modestly drawn up, and apparently with all the accuracy which can be expected when tradition must be necessa much relied upon. The name was in Irish, Mac G softened in the Highlands into Mac Ra, Mae Coros, Mat Rae, &c.; and in the Lowlands, where the patronymi often dropped, by the names of Crow, Craw, &c.-WALTER SCOTT. |