Captain M'Lean joined us this morning at breakfast. There came on a
dreadful storm of wind and rain, which continued all day, and rather
increased at night. The wind was directly against our getting to Mull.
We were in a strange state of abstraction from the world: we could
neither hear from our friends, nor write to them. Col had brought Daille
_on the Fathers_[800], Lucas _on Happiness_[801], and More's
_Dialogues_[802], from the Reverend Mr. M'Lean's, and Burnet's _History
of his own Times_, from Captain M'Lean's; and he had of his own some
books of farming, and Gregory's _Geometry_[803]. Dr. Johnson read a good
deal of Burnet, and of Gregory, and I observed he made some geometrical
notes in the end of his pocket-book. I read a little of Young's _Six
Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties_; and Ovid's _Epistles_, which
I had bought at Inverness, and which helped to solace many a weary hour.
We were to have gone with Dr. Johnson this morning to see the mine; but
were prevented by the storm. While it was raging, he said, 'We may be
glad we are not _damnati ad metalla_.'