Dr. Johnson was much pleased with his entertainment here. There were
many good books in the house: _Hector Boethius_ in Latin; Cave's _Lives
of the Fathers_; Baker's _Chronicle_; Jeremy Collier's _Church History_;
Dr. Johnson's small _Dictionary_; Craufurd's _Officers of State_, and
several more[473]:--a mezzotinto of Mrs. Brooks the actress (by some
strange chance in Sky[474]), and also a print of Macdonald of
Clanranald[475], with a Latin inscription about the cruelties after the
battle of Culloden, which will never be forgotten.
It was a very wet stormy day; we were therefore obliged to remain here,
it being impossible to cross the sea to Rasay.
I employed a part of the forenoon in writing this Journal. The rest of
it was somewhat dreary, from the gloominess of the weather, and the
uncertain state which we were in, as we could not tell but it might
clear up every hour. Nothing is more painful to the mind than a state of
suspence, especially when it depends upon the weather, concerning which
there can be so little calculation. As Dr. Johnson said of our weariness
on the Monday at Aberdeen, 'Sensation is sensation[476]:'
Corrichatachin, which was last night a hospitable house, was, in my
mind, changed to-day into a prison. After dinner I read some of Dr.
Macpherson's _Dissertations on the Ancient Caledonians_[477]. I was
disgusted by the unsatisfactory conjectures as to antiquity, before the
days of record. I was happy when tea came. Such, I take it, is the state
of those who live in the country. Meals are wished for from the cravings
of vacuity of mind, as well as from the desire of eating. I was hurt to
find even such a temporary feebleness, and that I was so far from being
that robust wise man who is sufficient for his own happiness. I felt a
kind of lethargy of indolence. I did not exert myself to get Dr. Johnson
to talk, that I might not have the labour of writing down his
conversation. He enquired here if there were any remains of the second
sight[478]. Mr. M'Pherson, Minister of Slate, said, he was _resolved_
not to believe it, because it was founded on no principle[479]. JOHNSON.
'There are many things then, which we are sure are true, that you will
not believe. What principle is there, why a loadstone attracts iron? why
an egg produces a chicken by heat? why a tree grows upwards, when the
natural tendency of all things is downwards? Sir, it depends upon the
degree of evidence that you have.' Young Mr. M'Kinnon mentioned one
M'Kenzie, who is still alive, who had often fainted in his presence, and
when he recovered, mentioned visions which had been presented to him. He
told Mr. M'Kinnon, that at such a place he should meet a funeral, and
that such and such people would be the bearers, naming four; and three
weeks afterwards he saw what M'Kenzie had predicted. The naming the very
spot in a country where a funeral comes a long way, and the very people
as bearers, when there are so many out of whom a choice may be made,
seems extraordinary. We should have sent for M'Kenzie, had we not been
informed that he could speak no English. Besides, the facts were not
related with sufficient accuracy.
Mrs. M'Kinnon, who is a daughter of old Kingsburgh, told us that her
father was one day riding in Sky, and some women, who were at work in a
field on the side of the road, said to him they had heard two _taiscks_,
(that is, two voices of persons about to die[480],) and what was
remarkable, one of them was an _English taisck_, which they never heard
before. When he returned, he at that very place met two funerals, and
one of them was that of a woman who had come from the main land, and
could speak only English. This, she remarked, made a great impression
upon her father.
How all the people here were lodged, I know not. It was partly done by
separating man and wife, and putting a number of men in one room, and of
women in another.