'To THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
'DEAR SIR,
'Mr. Boswell has this day shewn me a letter, in which you complain of a
passage in _The Journey to the Hebrides._ My meaning is mistaken. I did
not intend to say that you had personally made any cession of the rights
of your house, or any acknowledgement of the superiority of M'Leod of
Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally
admitted,--that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house
of Dunvegan. Even this I now find to be erroneous, and will therefore
omit or retract it in the next edition.
'Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to
you, I should have wished it unsaid; for it is not my business to adjust
precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct, both
by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth. 'As I know not when
the book will be reprinted, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the
correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done.
'I hope I may now venture to desire that my compliments may be made, and
my gratitude expressed, to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald
M'Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the
island of Rasay; a place which I remember with too much pleasure and too
much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion,
should, for a single moment, have violated its tranquillity.
'I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to
consider me as,
'Sir, your most obliged,
'And most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON[1142].'
'London, May 6, 1775.'
It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours; but I cannot
refrain from publishing such praise as I received from such a man as Sir
William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after the perusal of the original
manuscript of my _Journal_[1143].
'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'Edinburgh, March 7, 1777.
'My DEAR SIR,
'I ought to have thanked you sooner, for your very obliging letter, and
for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you
trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you
have sent me[1144]. Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and
shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I
shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen.
'They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the
most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure
that an ordinary observer would become so well acquainted either with
Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by a personal
intercourse, as by a perusal of your _Journal_.
'I am, very truly,
'Dear Sir,
'Your most obedient,
'And affectionate humble servant,
'WILLIAM FORBES.'
When I consider how many of the persons mentioned in this Tour
are now gone to 'that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no
traveller returns[1145],' I feel an impression at once awful and
tender.--_Requiescant in pace!_
It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends,
that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of
conversations is not a desirable member of society. I repeat the answer
which I made to that friend:--'Few, very few, need be afraid that their
sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I would take the
trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I have collected
such fruits as the _Nonpareil_ and the BON CHRETIEN[1146]?'
On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised! To
it we owe all those interesting apophthegms and _memorabilia_ of the
ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have
transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining
collections which the French have made under the title of _Ana_, affixed
to some celebrated name. To it we owe the _Table-Talk_ of Selden[1147],
the _Conversation_ between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden,
Spence's _Anecdotes_ of Pope[1148], and other valuable remains in our
own language. How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into
the company of Shakspeare and of Dryden[1149], of whom we know scarcely
any thing but their admirable writings! What pleasure would it have
given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteristick
manners, their modes of composition, and their genuine opinion of
preceding writers and of their contemporaries! All these are now
irrecoverably lost. Considering how many of the strongest and most
brilliant effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is
it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not
been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities
enough to register their conversation;
'Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi, sed omnes illacrymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro[1150].'
They whose inferiour exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or
illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus
associated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being
appended to an illustrious character.
Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have
suppressed[1151] every thing which I thought could _really_ hurt any
one now living. Vanity and self-conceit indeed may sometimes suffer.
With respect to what _is_ related, I considered it my duty to 'extenuate
nothing, nor set down aught in malice[1152];' and with those lighter
strokes of Dr. Johnson's satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness
of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account
of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they who are the
subject of them have good sense and good temper enough not to be
displeased.
I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a
Tour, which has been the means of preserving so much of the enlightened
and instructive conversation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be
an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary,
that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear.