Dr Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out my
Ogden On Prayer, and read some of it to the company. Dr Johnson
praised him. 'Abernethy,' said he, 'allows only of a physical effect
of prayer upon the mind, which may be produced many ways, as well as
by prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth,
we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether
offered up by individuals, or by assemblies; and Revelation has told
us, it will be effectual.' I said, 'Leechman seemed to incline to
Abernethy's doctrine.' Dr Watson observed, that Leechman meant to
shew, that, even admitting no effect to be produced by prayer,
respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds. He had given
only a part of his system: Dr Johnson thought he should have given the
whole.
Dr Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday. 'It should be
different,' he observed, 'from another day. People may walk, but not
throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no
levity.'
We went and saw Colonel Nairne's garden and grotto. Here was a fine
old plane tree. Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this and
another large tree in the county. This assertion was an excellent cue
for Dr Johnson, who laughed enormously, calling to me to hear it. He
had expatiated to me on the nakedness of that part of Scotland which
he had seen. His Journey has been violently abused, for what he has
said upon this subject. But let it be considered, that, when Dr
Johnson talks of trees, he means trees of good size, such as he was
accustomed to see in England; and of these there are certainly very
few upon the EASTERN COAST of Scotland. Besides, he said, that he
meant to give only a map of the road; and let any traveller observe
how many trees, which deserve the name, he can see from the road from
Berwick to Aberdeen. Had Dr Johnson said, 'there are NO trees' upon
this line, he would have said what is colloquially true; because, by
no trees, in common speech, we mean few. When he is particular in
counting, he may be attacked. I know not how Colonel Nairne came to
say there were but TWO large trees in the county of Fife. I did not
perceive that he smiled. There are certainly not a great many; but I
could have shewn him more than two at Balmuto, from whence my
ancestors came, and which now belongs to a branch of my family.
The grotto was ingeniously constructed. In the front of it were
petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other tree. Dr Johnson said,
'Scotland has no right to boast of this grotto: it is owing to
personal merit. I never denied personal merit to many of you.'
Professor Shaw said to me, as we walked, 'This is a wonderful man: he
is master of every subject he handles.' Dr Watson allowed him a very
strong understanding, but wondered at his total inattention to
established manners, as he came from London.
I have not preserved, in my Journal, any of the conversation which
passed between Dr Johnson and Professor Shaw; but I recollect Dr
Johnson said to me afterwards, 'I took much to Shaw.'
We left St Andrews about noon, and some miles from it observing, at
Leuchars, a church with an old tower, we stopped to look at it. The
manse, as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by. I
waited on the minister, mentioned our names, and begged he would tell
us what he knew about it. He was a very civil old man; but could only
inform us, that it was supposed to have stood eight hundred years. He
told us, there was a colony of Danes in his parish; that they had
landed at a remote period of time, and still remained a distinct
people. Dr Johnson shrewdly inquired whether they had brought women
with them. We were not satisfied as to this colony.
We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, the last of which Dr
Johnson has celebrated in his Journey. Upon the road we talked of the
Roman Catholick faith. He mentioned (I think) Tillotson's argument
against transubstantiation; 'That we are as sure we see bread and wine
only, as that we read in the Bible the text on which that false
doctrine is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both.
If,' he added, 'God had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that
he speaks literally, when he says, "This is my body".' BOSWELL. 'But
what do you say, sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the
Church upon this point?' JOHNSON. 'Tradition, sir, has no place, where
the Scriptures are plain; and tradition cannot persuade a man into a
belief of transubstantiation. Able men, indeed, have said they
believed it.'
This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr Johnson upon it; nor
shall I now enter upon a disquisition concerning the import of those
words uttered by our Saviour,[Footnote: "Then Jesus said unto them,
verily, verily. I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." See St John's
Gospel, chap. vi. 5 3, and following verses.] which had such an effect
upon many disciples, that they 'went back, and walked no more with
him'. The Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of
England, maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere
commemoration of the death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of
bread and wine.
Dr Johnson put me in mind, that, at St Andrews, I had defended my
profession very well, when the question had again been started,
whether a lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers
him a fee. 'Sir,' said I, 'it was with your arguments against Sir
William Forbes: but it was much that I could wield the arms of
Goliah.'
He said, our judges had not gone deep in the question concerning
literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man
could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the
mind is exercised. JOHNSON. 'No, sir; a man's repeating it no more
makes it his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives
home.' I said, printing an abridgement of a work was allowed, which
was only cutting the horns and tail off the cow. JOHNSON. 'No, sir;
'tis making the cow have a calf.'
About eleven at night we arrived at Montrose. We found but a sorry
inn, where I myself saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his
fingers into Dr Johnson's lemonade, for which he called him 'Rascal!'
It put me in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied
the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet. Both Sir John Hawkins's and
Dr Burney's History of Musick had then been advertised. I asked if
this was not unlucky: would not they hurt one another? JOHNSON. 'No,
sir. They will do good to one another. Some will buy the one, some the
other, and compare them; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the
books are sold.'
He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that
he might be sure to have his lemonade. 'Sir,' said he, 'I do not wish
to be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it
is very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he
could not entertain you. To an inferior, it is oppressive; to a
superior, it is insolent.'
Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr Johnson, that
he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company
with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly
experienced, he smiled and said, 'It is true, sir. Tom Tyers' (for so
he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has
paid a biographical tribute to his memory) 'Tom Tyers described me the
best. He once said to me, "Sir, you are like a ghost: you never speak
till you are spoken to" [Footnote: This description of Dr Johnson,
appears to have been borrowed from Tom Jones, Book XI. chap, ii. "The
other, who like a ghost, only wanted to be spoke to, readily
answered.' &c.