Dr William Robertson came to breakfast. We talked of Ogden on Prayer.
Dr Johnson said, 'The same arguments which are used against God's
hearing prayer, will serve against his rewarding good, and punishing
evil. He has resolved, he has declared, in the former case as in the
latter.' He had last night looked into Lord Hailes's Remarks on the
History of Scotland. Dr Robertson and I said, it was a pity Lord
Hailes did not write greater things. His lordship had not then
published his Annals of Scotland. JOHNSON. 'I remember I was once on a
visit at the house of a lady for whom I had a high respect. There was
a good deal of company in the room. When they were gone, I said to
this lady, "What foolish talking have we had!" "Yes," said she, "but
while they talked, you said nothing." I was struck with reproof. How
much better is the man who does nothing. Besides, I love anecdotes. I
fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except
in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and
illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made. If a man
is to wait till he weaves anecdotes into a system, we may be long in
getting them, and get but a few, in comparison of what we might get.'
Dr Robertson said, the notions of Eupham Macallan. a fanatick woman,
of whom Lord Hailes gives a sketch, were still prevalent among some of
the Presbyterians; and therefore it was right in Lord Hailes, a man of
known piety, to undeceive them.
We walked out, that Dr Johnson might see some of the things which we
have to shew at Edinburgh. We went to the Parliament House, where the
Parliament of Scotland sat, and where the Ordinary Lords of Session
hold their courts; and to the New Session House adjoining to it, where
our Court of Fifteen (the fourteen Ordinaries, with the Lord President
at their head) sit as a court of Review. We went to the Advocates'
Library, of which Dr Johnson took a cursory view, and then to what is
called the Laigh (or Under) Parliament House, where the records of
Scotland, which has an universal security by register, are deposited,
till the great Register Office be finished. I was pleased to behold Dr
Samuel Johnson rolling about in this old magazine of antiquities.
There was, by this time, a pretty numerous circle of us attending upon
him. Somebody talked of happy moments for composition; and how a man
can write at one time, and not at another. 'Nay,' said Dr Johnson, 'a
man may write at any time, if he will set himself DOGGEDLY [Footnote:
This word is commonly used to signify sullenly, gloomily: and in that
sense alone it appears in Dr Johnson's Dictionary. I suppose he meant
by it 'with an OBSTINATE RESOLUTION, similar to that of a sullen
man'.] to it.'
I here began to indulge old Scottish sentiments, and to express a warm
regret, that, by our union with England, we were no more--our
independent kingdom was lost. JOHNSON. 'Sir, never talk of your
independency, who could let your Queen remain twenty years in
captivity, and then be put to death, without even a pretence of
justice, without your ever attempting to rescue her; and such a Queen
too! as every man of any gallantry of spirit would have sacrificed his
life for.' Worthy MR JAMES KERR, Keeper of the Records. 'Half our
nation was bribed by English money.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is no
defence: that makes you worse.' Good MR BROWN, Keeper of the Advocates
Library. 'We had better say nothing about it.' BOSWELL. 'You would
have been glad, however, to have had us last war, sir, to fight your
battles!' JOHNSON. 'We should have had you for the same price, though
there had been no Union, as we might have had Swiss, or other troops.
No, no, I shall agree to a separation. You have only to GO HOME.' Just
as he had said this, I to divert the subject, shewed him the signed
assurances of the three successive Kings of the Hanover family, to
maintain the Presbyterian establishment in Scotland. 'We'll give you
that,' said he, 'into the bargain.'
We next went to the great church of St Giles, which has lost its
original magnificence in the inside, by being divided into four places
of Presbyterian worship. 'Come,' said Dr Johnson jocularly to
Principal Robertson, [Footnote: I have hitherto called him Dr William
Robertson, to distinguish him from Dr James Robertson, who is soon to
make his appearance. But 'Principal', from his being the head of our
college, is his usual designation, and is shorter; so I shall use it
hereafter.] 'let me see what was once a church!' We entered that
division which was formerly called the New Church, and of late the
High Church, so well known by the eloquence of Dr Hugh Blair. It is
now very elegantly fitted up; but it was then shamefully dirty. Dr
Johnson said nothing at the time; but when we came to the great door
of the Royal Infirmary, where, upon a board, was this inscription,
CLEAN YOUR FEET! he turned about slyly, and said, 'There is no
occasion for putting this at the doors of your churches!'
We then conducted him down the Post-house stairs, Parliament Close,
and made him look up from the Cow-gate to the highest building in
Edinburgh (from which he had just descended), being thirteen floors or
stories from the ground upon the back elevation; the front wall being
built upon the edge of the hill, and the back wall rising from the
bottom of the hill several stories before it comes to a level with the
front wall. We proceeded to the College, with the Principal at our
head. Dr Adam Fergusson, whose Essay on the History of Civil Society
gives him a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us.
As the College buildings are indeed very mean, the Principal said to
Dr Johnson, that he must give them the same epithet that a Jesuit did
when shewing a poor college abroad: Hae miseriae nostrae. Dr Johnson
was, however, much pleased with the library, and with the conversation
of Dr James Robertson, Professor of Oriental Languages, the Librarian.
We talked of Kennicot's edition of the Hebrew Bible, and hoped it
would be quite faithful. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I know not any crime so great
that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the sources of
eternal truth.'
I pointed out to him where there formerly stood an old wall enclosing
part of the college, which I remember bulged out in a threatening
manner, and of which there was a common tradition similar to that
concerning Bacon's study at Oxford, that it would fall upon some very
learned man. It had some time before this been taken down, that the
street might be widened, and a more convenient wall built. Dr Johnson,
glad of an opportunity to have a pleasant hit at Scottish learning,
said, 'they have been afraid it never would fall'.
We shewed him the Royal Infirmary, for which, and for every other
exertion of generous publick spirit in his power, that noble-minded
citizen of Edinburgh, George Drummond, will be ever held in honourable
remembrance. And we were too proud not to carry him to the Abbey of
Holyrood House, that beautiful piece of architecture, but, alas! that
deserted mansion of royalty, which Hamilton of Bangour, in one of his
elegant poems, calls
A virtuous palace, where no monarch dwells.
I was much entertained while Principal Robertson fluently harangued to
Dr Johnson, upon the spot, concerning scenes of his celebrated History
of Scotland. We surveyed that part of the palace appropriated to the
Duke of Hamilton, as Keeper, in which our beautiful Queen Mary lived,
and in which David Rizzio was murdered; and also the State Rooms. Dr
Johnson was a great reciter of all sorts of things serious or comical.
I over-heard him repeating here, in a kind of muttering tone, a line
of the old ballad, 'Johnny Armstrong's Last Good-Night':
'And ran him through the fair body!'
[Footnote: The stanza from which he took this line is:
But then rose up all Edinburgh,
They rose up by thousands three;
A cowardly Scot came John behind,
And ran him through the fair body!]
We returned to my house, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchess
of Douglas, Sir Adolphus Oughton, Lord Chief Baron, Sir William
Forbes, Principal Robertson, Mr Cullen, advocate. Before dinner, he
told us of a curious conversation between the famous George Faulkner
and him. George said that England had drained Ireland of fifty
thousand pounds in specie, annually, for fifty years. 'How so, sir!'
said Dr Johnson, 'you must have a very great trade?' 'No trade.' 'Very
rich mines?' 'No mines.' 'From whence, then, does all this money
come?' 'Come! why out of the blood and bowels of the poor people of
Ireland!'
He seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift; for
I once took a liberty to ask him, if Swift had personally offended
him, and he told me, he had not. He said to-day, 'Swift is clear, but
he is shallow. In coarse humour, he is inferior to Arbuthnot; in
delicate humour, he is inferior to Addison: so he is inferior to his
contemporaries; without putting him against the whole world. I doubt
if the Tale of a Tub was his: it has so much more thinking, more
knowledge, more power, more colour, than any of the works which are
indisputably his. If it was his, I shall only say, he was impar sibi.'
We gave him as good a dinner as we could. Our Scotch muir-fowl, or
growse, were then abundant, and quite in season; and, so far as wisdom
and wit can be aided by administering agreeable sensations to the
palate, my wife took care that our great guest should not be
deficient.
Sir Adolphus Oughton, then our Deputy Commander in Chief, who was not
only an excellent officer, but one of the most universal scholars I
ever knew, had learned the Erse language, and expressed his belief in
the authenticity of Ossian's poetry. Dr Johnson took the opposite side
of that perplexed question; and I was afraid the dispute would have
run high between them. But Sir Adolphus, who had a very sweet temper,
changed the discourse, grew playful, laughed at Lord Monboddo's notion
of men having tails, and called him a Judge, a posteriori, which
amused Dr Johnson; and thus hostilities were prevented.
At supper we had Dr Cullen, his son the advocate, Dr Adam Fergusson,
and Mr Crosbie, advocate. Witchcraft was introduced. Mr Crosbie said,
he thought it the greatest blasphemy to suppose evil spirits
counteracting the Deity, and raising storms, for instance, to destroy
his creatures. JOHNSON. 'Why, sir, if moral evil be consistent with
the government of the Deity, why may not physical evil be also
consistent with it? It is not more strange that there should be evil
spirits, than evil embodied spirits. And as to storms, we know there
are such things; and it is no worse that evil spirits raise them, than
that they rise.' CROSBIE. 'But it is not credible, that witches should
have effected what they are said in stories to have done.' JOHNSON.
'Sir, I am not defending their credibility. I am only saying, that
your arguments are not good, and will not overturn the belief of
witchcraft.' (Dr Fergusson said to me, aside, 'He is right.') 'And
then, sir, you have all mankind, rude and civilized, agreeing in the
belief of the agency of preternatural powers. You must take evidence:
you must consider, that wise and great men have condemned witches to
die.' CROSBIE. 'But an Act of Parliament put an end to witchcraft.'
JOHNSON. 'No, sir; witchcraft had ceased; and therefore an Act of
Parliament was passed to prevent persecution for what was not
witchcraft. Why it ceased, we cannot tell, as we cannot tell the
reason of many other things.' Dr Cullen, to keep up the gratification
of mysterious disquisition, with the grave address for which he is
remarkable in his companionable as in his professional hours, talked,
in a very entertaining manner, of people walking and conversing in
their sleep. I am very sorry I have no note of this. We talked of the
Ouran-Outang, and of Lord Monboddo's thinking that he might be taught
to speak. Dr Johnson treated this with ridicule. Mr Crosbie said, that
Lord Monboddo believed the existence of every thing possible; in
short, that all which is in posse might be found in esse. JOHNSON.
'But, sir, it is as possible that the Ouran-Outang does not speak, as
that he speaks. However, I shall not contest the point. I should have
thought it not possible to find a Monboddo; yet HE exists.' I again
mentioned the stage. JOHNSON. 'The appearance of a player, with whom I
have drunk tea, counteracts the imagination that he is the character
he represents. Nay, you know, nobody imagines that he is the character
he represents. They say, "See Garrick! how he looks to-night! See how
he'll clutch the dagger!" That is the buzz of the theatre.'