About eight o'clock we went in the boat to Mr. Simpson's vessel, and
took in Dr. Johnson. He was quite well, though he had tasted nothing but
a dish of tea since Saturday night. On our expressing some surprise at
this, he said, that, 'when he lodged in the Temple, and had no regular
system of life, he had fasted for two days at a time, during which he
had gone about visiting, though not at the hours of dinner or supper;
that he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread; that this was no intentional
fasting, but happened just in the course of a literary life.'[773]
There was a little miserable publick-house close upon the shore, to
which we should have gone, had we landed last night: but this morning
Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan
M'Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquired a fortune in the
East-Indies, and taken a farm in Col[774]. We had about an English mile
to go to it. Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses,
called here _Shelties_, that were running wild on a heath, and catched
one of them. We had a saddle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a
straw halter was put on its head. Dr. Johnson was then mounted, and
Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse. I said to Dr. Johnson, 'I
wish, Sir, _the Club_ saw you in this attitude.[775]'
It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin. Captain M'Lean had
but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very good
haven to us. There was a blazing peat-fire, and Mrs. M'Lean, daughter of
the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the motion of the
sea. Dr. Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a continuation of
motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm
is over.
There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece. Dr.
Johnson took up Burnet's _History of his own Times_[776]. He said, 'The
first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English
language; it is quite dramatick: while he went about every where, saw
every where, and heard every where. By the first part, I mean so far as
it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has told;
and this may be easily distinguished.' Captain M'Lean censured Burnet,
for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication[777], when he shews
him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. 'I do not myself
think that a man should say in a dedication what he could not say in a
history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a great
difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it professes
to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man says in a
dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer's
pleading a cause, and reporting it.'
The day passed away pleasantly enough. The wind became fair for Mull in
the evening, and Mr. Simpson resolved to sail next morning: but having
been thrown into the island of Col we were unwilling to leave it
unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbelltown vessel
would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we determined
to stay.