It was dark when we came to Fores last night; so we did not see what is
called King Duncan's monument[362]. I shall now mark some gleanings of
Dr. Johnson's conversation. I spoke of _Leonidas_[363], and said there
were some good passages in it. JOHNSON. 'Why, you must _seek_ for them.'
He said, Paul Whitehead's _Manners_[364] was a poor performance.
Speaking of Derrick, he told me 'he had a kindness for him, and had
often said, that if his letters had been written by one of a more
established name, they would have been thought very pretty
letters[365].'
This morning I introduced the subject of the origin of evil[366].
JOHNSON. 'Moral evil is occasioned by free will, which implies choice
between good and evil. With all the evil that there is, there is no man
but would rather be a free agent, than a mere machine without the evil;
and what is best for each individual, must be best for the whole. If a
man would rather be the machine, I cannot argue with him. He is a
different being from me.' BOSWELL. 'A man, as a machine, may have
agreeable sensations; for instance, he may have pleasure in musick.'
JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, he cannot have pleasure in musick; at least no power
of producing musick; for he who can produce musick may let it alone: he
who can play upon a fiddle may break it: such a man is not a machine.'
This reasoning satisfied me. It is certain, there cannot be a free
agent, unless there is the power of being evil as well as good. We must
take the inherent possibilities of things into consideration, in our
reasonings or conjectures concerning the works of GOD.
We came to Nairn to breakfast. Though a county town and a royal burgh,
it is a miserable place. Over the room where we sat, a girl was spinning
wool with a great wheel, and singing an Erse song[367]: 'I'll warrant
you, (said Dr. Johnson.) one of the songs of Ossian.' He then repeated
these lines:---
'Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound.
All at her work the village maiden sings;
Nor while she turns the giddy wheel around,
Revolves the sad vicissitude of things[368].'
I thought I had heard these lines before. JOHNSON. 'I fancy not, Sir;
for they are in a detached poem, the name of which I do not remember,
written by one Giffard, a parson.'
I expected Mr. Kenneth M'Aulay[369], the minister of Calder, who
published the history of St. Kilda[370], a book which Dr. Johnson liked,
would have met us here, as I had written to him from Aberdeen. But I
received a letter from him, telling me that he could not leave home, as
he was to administer the sacrament the following Sunday, and earnestly
requesting to see us at his manse. 'We'll go,' said Dr. Johnson; which
we accordingly did. Mrs. M'Aulay received us, and told us her husband
was in the church distributing tokens[371]. We arrived between twelve
and one o'clock, and it was near three before he came to us.
Dr. Johnson thanked him for his book, and said 'it was a very pretty
piece of topography.' M'Aulay did not seem much to mind the compliment.
From his conversation, Dr. Johnson was persuaded that he had not written
the book which goes under his name. I myself always suspected so; and I
have been told it was written by the learned Dr. John M'Pherson of
Sky[372], from the materials collected by M'Aulay. Dr. Johnson said
privately to me, 'There is a combination in it of which M'Aulay is not
capable[373].' However, he was exceedingly hospitable; and, as he
obligingly promised us a route for our Tour through the Western Isles,
we agreed to stay with him all night.
After dinner, we walked to the old castle of Calder (pronounced Cawder),
the Thane of Cawdor's seat. I was sorry that my friend, this 'prosperous
gentleman[374],' was not there. The old tower must be of great
antiquity[375]. There is a draw-bridge--what has been a moat,--and an
ancient court. There is a hawthorn-tree, which rises like a wooden
pillar through the rooms of the castle; for, by a strange conceit, the
walls have been built round it. The thickness of the walls, the small
slaunting windows, and a great iron door at the entrance on the second
story as you ascend the stairs, all indicate the rude times in which
this castle was erected. There were here some large venerable trees.
I was afraid of a quarrel between Dr. Johnson and Mr. M'Aulay, who
talked slightingly of the lower English clergy. The Doctor gave him a
frowning look, and said, 'This is a day of novelties; I have seen old
trees in Scotland, and I have heard the English clergy treated with
disrespect[376].'
I dreaded that a whole evening at Calder manse would be heavy; however,
Mr. Grant, an intelligent and well-bred minister in the neighbourhood,
was there, and assisted us by his conversation. Dr. Johnson, talking of
hereditary occupations in the Highlands, said, 'There is no harm in such
a custom as this; but it is wrong to enforce it, and oblige a man to be
a taylor or a smith, because his father has been one.' This custom,
however, is not peculiar to our Highlands; it is well known that in
India a similar practice prevails.
Mr. M'Aulay began a rhapsody against creeds and confessions. Dr. Johnson
shewed, that 'what he called _imposition_, was only a voluntary
declaration of agreement in certain articles of faith, which a church
has a right to require, just as any other society can insist on certain
rules being observed by its members. Nobody is compelled to be of the
church, as nobody is compelled to enter into a society.' This was a very
clear and just view of the subject: but, M'Aulay could not be driven out
of his track. Dr. Johnson said, 'Sir, you are a _bigot to laxness_.'
Mr. M'Aulay and I laid the map of Scotland before us; and he pointed out
a route for us from Inverness, by Fort Augustus, to Glenelg, Sky, Mull,
Icolmkill, Lorn, and Inverary, which I wrote down. As my father was to
begin the northern circuit about the 18th of September, it was necessary
for us either to make our tour with great expedition, so as to get to
Auchinleck before he set out, or to protract it, so as not to be there
till his return, which would be about the 10th of October. By M'Aulay's
calculation, we were not to land in Lorn till the 2Oth of September. I
thought that the interruptions by bad days, or by occasional
excursions, might make it ten days later; and I thought too, that we
might perhaps go to Benbecula, and visit Clanranald, which would take a
week of itself.
Dr. Johnson went up with Mr. Grant to the library, which consisted of a
tolerable collection; but the Doctor thought it rather a lady's library,
with some Latin books in it by chance, than the library of a clergyman.
It had only two of the Latin fathers, and one of the Greek fathers in
Latin. I doubted whether Dr. Johnson would be present at a Presbyterian
prayer. I told Mr. M'Aulay so, and said that the Doctor might sit in the
library while we were at family worship. Mr. M'Aulay said, he would omit
it, rather than give Dr. Johnson offence: but I would by no means agree
that an excess of politeness, even to so great a man, should prevent
what I esteem as one of the best pious regulations. I know nothing more
beneficial, more comfortable, more agreeable, than that the little
societies of each family should regularly assemble, and unite in praise
and prayer to our heavenly Father, from whom we daily receive so much
good, and may hope for more in a higher state of existence. I mentioned
to Dr. Johnson the over-delicate scrupulosity of our host. He said, he
had no objection to hear the prayer. This was a pleasing surprise to me;
for he refused to go and hear Principal Robertson[377] preach. 'I will
hear him, (said he,) if he will get up into a tree and preach; but I
will not give a sanction, by my presence, to a Presbyterian
assembly[378].'
Mr. Grant having prayed, Dr. Johnson said, his prayer was a very good
one; but objected to his not having introduced the Lord's Prayer[379].
He told us, that an Italian of some note in London said once to him, 'We
have in our service a prayer called the _Pater Noster_, which is a very
fine composition. I wonder who is the author of it.' A singular instance
of ignorance in a man of some literature and general inquiry[380]!