The lines are found in the _Ode upon His Majesty's Restoration and
Return_, stanza 12. They may have been suggested by Virgil's lines--
'Revocate animos, maestumque timorem
Mittite; forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.'
Aeneid, i. 202.
[898] Had our Tour produced nothing else but this sublime passage, the
world must have acknowledged that it was not made in vain. The present
respectable President of the Royal Society was so much struck on reading
it, that he clasped his hands together, and remained for some time in an
attitude of silent admiration, BOSWELL. Boswell again quotes this
passage (which is found in Johnson's _Works_, ix. 145), _ante_, iii.
173. The President was Sir Joseph Banks, Johnson says in _Rasselas_, ch.
xi:--'That the supreme being may be more easily propitiated in one place
than in another is the dream of idle superstition; but that some places
may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon manner is an opinion which
hourly experience will justify. He who supposes that his vices may be
more successfully combated in Palestine will, perhaps, find himself
mistaken, yet he may go thither without folly; he who thinks they will
be more freely pardoned dishonours at once his reason and religion.'
[899] 'Sir Allan went to the headman of the island, whom fame, but fame
delights in amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty pounds.
He was, perhaps, proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our
entertainment; however he soon produced more provision than men not
luxurious require.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 146.
[900] _An Account of the Isle of Man. With a voyage to I-Columb-Kill_.
By W. Sacheverell, Esq., late Governour of Man. 1702.
[901] 'He that surveys it [the church-yard] attended by an insular
antiquary may be told where the kings of many nations are buried, and if
he loves to soothe his imagination with the thoughts that naturally rise
in places where the great and the powerful lie mingled with the dust,
let him listen in submissive silence; for if he asks any questions his
delight is at an end.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 148.
[902] On quitting the island Johnson wrote: 'We now left those
illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much affected, nor would I
willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion.'
_Ib_. p. 150.
[903] Psalm xc. 4.
[904] Boswell wrote on Nov. 9, 1767:--'I am always for fixing some
period for my perfection as far as possible. Let it be when my account
of Corsica is published; I shall then have a character which I must
support.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 122. Five weeks later he wrote:--'I
have been as wild as ever;' and then comes a passage which the Editor
has thought it needful to suppress. _Ib_.p.128.
[905] Boswell here speaks as an Englishman. He should have written '_a_
M'Ginnis.' See _ante_, p. 135, note 3.
[906] 'The fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The
inhabitants are remarkably gross, and remarkably neglected; I know not
if they are visited by any minister. The island, which was once the
metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor
temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not
one that can write or read.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 149. Scott, who
visited it in 1810, writes:--'There are many monuments of singular
curiosity, forming a strange contrast to the squalid and dejected
poverty of the present inhabitants.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iii.
285. In 1814, on a second visit, he writes:--'Iona, the last time I saw
it, seemed to me to contain the most wretched people I had anywhere
seen. But either they have got better since I was here, or my eyes,
familiarized with the wretchedness of Zetland and the Harris, are less
shocked with that of Iona.' He found a schoolmaster there. _Ib_.
iv. 324.
[907] Johnson's Jacobite friend, Dr. King (_ante_, i. 279), says of
Pulteney, on his being made Earl of Bath:--'He deserted the cause of
his country; he betrayed his friends and adherents; he ruined his
character, and from a most glorious eminence sunk down to a degree of
contempt. The first time Sir Robert (who was now Earl of Orford) met him
in the House of Lords, he threw out this reproach:--"My Lord Bath, you
and I are now two as insignificant men as any in England." In which he
spoke the truth of my Lord Bath, but not of himself. For my Lord Orford
was consulted by the ministers to the last day of his life.' King's
_Anec_. p. 43.
[908] See _ante_, i. 431, and iii. 326.
[909] 'Sir Robert Walpole detested war. This made Dr. Johnson say of
him, "He was the best minister this country ever had, as, if _we_ would
have let him (he speaks of his own violent faction), he would have kept
the country in perpetual peace."' Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 554. See
_ante_, i. 131.
[910] See _ante_, iii. Appendix C.
[911] I think it incumbent on me to make some observation on this strong
satirical sally on my classical companion, Mr. Wilkes. Reporting it
lately from memory, in his presence, I expressed it thus:--'They knew he
would rob their shops, _if he durst;_ they knew he would debauch their
daughters, _if he could;_' which, according to the French phrase, may be
said _renchérir_ on Dr. Johnson; but on looking into my Journal, I found
it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr. Wilkes
received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire.
Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more
than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Journal,) are
too fond of a _bon mot_, not to relish it, though we should be ourselves
the object of it.
Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a
subsequent period, he _was_ elected chief magistrate of London [in
1774], and discharged the duties of that high office with great honour
to himself, and advantage to the city. Some years before Dr. Johnson
died, I was fortunate enough to bring him and Mr. Wilkes together; the
consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy and not
unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure in
relating at large in my _Life of Dr. Johnson_. BOSWELL. In the copy of
Boswell's _Letter to the People of Scotland_ in the British Museum is
entered in Boswell's own hand--
'Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est.
To John Wilkes, Esq.: as pleasant a companion as ever lived. From the
Author.
--will my Wilkes retreat,
And see, once seen before, that ancient seat, etc.'
See _ante_, iii. 64, 183; iv. 101, 224, note 2.
[912] See _ante_, iv. 199.
[913] Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy
desolation that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally
terrifick.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 150.
[914] Johnson describes Lochbuy as 'a true Highland laird, rough and
haughty, and tenacious of his dignity: who, hearing my name, inquired
whether I was of the Johnstons of Glencoe (_sic_) or of Ardnamurchan.'
_Ib_.
[915] Boswell totally misapprehended _Lochbuy's_ meaning. There are two
septs of the powerful clan of M'Donaid, who are called Mac-Ian, that is
_John's-son_; and as Highlanders often translate their names when they
go to the Lowlands,--as Gregor-son for Mac-Gregor, Farquhar-son for
Mac-Farquhar,--_Lochbuy_ supposed that Dr. Johnson might be one of the
Mac-Ians of Ardnamurchan, or of Glencro. Boswell's explanation was
nothing to the purpose. The _Johnstons_ are a clan distinguished in
Scottish _border_ history, and as brave as any _Highland_ clan that ever
wore brogues; but they lay entirely out of _Lochbuy's_ knowledge--nor
was he thinking of _them_. WALTER SCOTT.
[916] This maxim, however, has been controverted. See Blackstone's
_Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. 291; and the authorities there quoted.
BOSWELL. 'Blackstone says:--From these loose authorities, which
Fitzherbert does not hesitate to reject as being contrary to reason, the
maxim that a man shall not stultify himself hath been handed down as
settled law; though later opinions, feeling the inconvenience of the
rule, have in many points endeavoured to restrain it.' _Ib_. p. 292.
[917] Begging pardon of the Doctor and his conductor, I have often seen
and partaken of cold sheep's head at as good breakfast-tables as ever
they sat at. This protest is something in the manner of the late
Culrossie, who fought a duel for the honour of Aberdeen butter. I have
passed over all the Doctor's other reproaches upon Scotland, but the
sheep's head I will defend _totis viribus_. Dr. Johnson himself must
have forgiven my zeal on this occasion; for if, as he says, _dinner_ be
the thing of which a man thinks _oftenest during the day, breakfast_
must be that of which he thinks _first in the morning_. WALTER SCOTT. I
do not know where Johnson says this. Perhaps Scott was thinking of a
passage in Mrs. Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 149, where she writes that he said:
'A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of any thing than he does of
his dinner.'
[918] A horrible place it was. Johnson describes it (_Works_, ix. 152)
as 'a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, and arched on the
top, into which the descent is through a narrow door, by a ladder or
a rope.'
[919] See _ante_, p. 177.
[920] Sir Allan M'Lean, like many Highland chiefs, was embarrassed in
his private affairs, and exposed to unpleasant solicitations from
attorneys, called, in Scotland, _writers_ (which indeed was the chief
motive of his retiring to Inchkenneth). Upon one occasion he made a
visit to a friend, then residing at Carron lodge, on the banks of the
Carron, where the banks of that river are studded with pretty villas:
Sir Allan, admiring the landscape, asked his friend, whom that handsome
seat belonged to. 'M---, the writer to the signet,' was the reply.
'Umph!' said Sir Allan, but not with an accent of assent, 'I mean that
other house.' 'Oh ! that belongs to a very honest fellow Jamie---, also
a writer to the signet.' 'Umph!' said the Highland chief of M'Lean with
more emphasis than before, 'And yon smaller house?' 'That belongs to a
Stirling man; I forget his name, but I am sure he is a writer too;
for---.' Sir Allan who had recoiled a quarter of a circle backward at
every response, now wheeled the circle entire and turned his back on the
landscape, saying, 'My good friend, I must own you have a pretty
situation here; but d--n your neighbourhood.' WALTER SCOTT.
[921] Loch Awe.
[922] 'Pope's talent lay remarkably in what one may naturally enough
term the condensation of thoughts. I think no other English poet ever
brought so much sense into the same number of lines with equal
smoothness, ease, and poetical beauty. Let him who doubts of this peruse
his _Essay on Man_ with attention.' Shenstone's _Essays on Men and
Manners. [Works_, 4th edit. ii. 159.] 'He [Gray] approved an observation
of Shenstone, that "Pope had the art of condensing a thought."'
Nicholls' _Reminiscences of Gray_, p. 37. And Swift [in his _Lines on
the death of Dr. Swift_], himself a great condenser, says--
'In Pope I cannot read a line
But with a sigh I wish it mine;
When he can in one couplet fix
More sense than I can do in six.'