Mr. Smollet pleased Dr. Johnson, by producing a collection of
newspapers in the time of the Usurpation, from which it appeared that
all sorts of crimes were very frequent during that horrible anarchy. By
the side of the high road to Glasgow, at some distance from his house,
he had erected a pillar to the memory of his ingenious kinsman, Dr.
Smollet; and he consulted Dr. Johnson as to an inscription for it. Lord
Kames, who, though he had a great store of knowledge, with much
ingenuity, and uncommon activity of mind, was no profound scholar, had
it seems recommended an English inscription[984]. Dr. Johnson treated
this with great contempt, saying, 'An English inscription would be a
disgrace to Dr. Smollet[985];' and, in answer to what Lord Kames had
urged, as to the advantage of its being in English, because it would be
generally understood, I observed, that all to whom Dr. Smollet's merit
could be an object of respect and imitation, would understand it as well
in Latin; and that surely it was not meant for the Highland drovers, or
other such people, who pass and repass that way.
We were then shewn a Latin inscription, proposed for this monument. Dr.
Johnson sat down with an ardent and liberal earnestness to revise it,
and greatly improved it by several additions and variations. I
unfortunately did not take a copy of it, as it originally stood; but I
have happily preserved every fragment of what Dr. Johnson wrote:--
Quisquis ades, viator[986],
Vel mente felix, vel studiis cultus,
Immorare paululum memoriae
TOBIAE SMOLLET, M.D.
Viri iis virtutibus
Quas in homine et cive
Et laudes, et imiteris,
Postquam mira--
Se ----
Tali tantoque viro, suo patrueli,
Hanc columnam,
Amoris eheu! inane monumentum,
In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
Quas primis infans vagitibus personuit,
Versiculisque jam fere moriturus illustravit[987],
Ponendam curavit[988].
We had this morning a singular proof of Dr. Johnson's quick and
retentive memory. Hay's translation of _Martial_ was lying in a window.
I said, I thought it was pretty well done, and shewed him a particular
epigram, I think, of ten, but am certain of eight, lines. He read it,
and tossed away the book, saying--'No, it is not pretty well.' As I
persisted in my opinion, he said, 'Why, Sir, the original is
thus,'--(and he repeated it;) 'and this man's translation is thus,'--and
then he repeated that also, exactly, though he had never seen it before,
and read it over only once, and that too, without any intention of
getting it by heart[989].
Here a post-chaise, which I had ordered from Glasgow, came for us, and
we drove on in high spirits. We stopped at Dunbarton, and though the
approach to the castle there is very steep, Dr. Johnson ascended it with
alacrity, and surveyed all that was to be seen. During the whole of our
Tour he shewed uncommon spirit, could not bear to be treated like an old
or infirm man, and was very unwilling to accept of any assistance,
insomuch that, at our landing at Icolmkill, when Sir Allan M'Lean and I
submitted to be carried on men's shoulders from the boat to the shore,
as it could not be brought quite close to land, he sprang into the sea,
and waded vigorously out. On our arrival at the Saracen's Head Inn, at
Glasgow, I was made happy by good accounts from home; and Dr. Johnson,
who had not received a single letter since we left Aberdeen[990], found
here a great many, the perusal of which entertained him much. He enjoyed
in imagination the comforts which we could now command, and seemed to be
in high glee. I remember, he put a leg up on each side of the grate, and
said, with a mock solemnity, by way of soliloquy, but loud enough for me
to hear it, 'Here am I, an ENGLISH man, sitting by a _coal_ fire.'