Principal Campbell, Sir Alexander Gordon, Professor Gordon, and
Professor Ross, visited us in the morning, as did Dr Gerard, who had
come six miles from the country on purpose. We went and saw the
Marischal College, [Footnote: Dr Beattie was so kindly entertained in
England, that he had not yet returned home.] and at one o'clock we
waited on the magistrates in the town hall, as they had invited us in
order to present Dr Johnson with the freedom of the town, which
Provost Jopp did with a very good grace. Dr Johnson was much pleased
with this mark of attention, and received it very politely. There was
a pretty numerous company assembled. It was striking to hear all of
them drinking?'Dr Johnson! Dr Johnson!' in the town-hall of Aberdeen,
and then to see him with his burgess-ticket, or diploma, [Footnote: Dr
Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words:
Aberdoniae, vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millesimo
septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium
virorum, Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, praepositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi
Young, Georgii Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie
Decani guildae, et Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi.
Quo die vir generosus et doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
receptus et admissus fuit in municipes et fratres guildae praefati
burgi de Aberdeen. In deditissimi amoris et affectus ac eximiae
observantiae tesseram, quibus dicti Magistratus eum amplectuntur.
Extractum per me, ALEX. CARNEGIE.] in his hat, which he wore as he
walked along the street, according to the usual custom. It gave me
great satisfaction to observe the regard, and indeed fondness too,
which every body here had for my father.
While Sir Alexander Gordon conducted Dr Johnson to old Aberdeen,
Professor Gordon and I called on Mr Riddoch, whom I found to be a
grave worthy clergyman. He observed, that, whatever might be said of
Dr Johnson while he was alive, he would, after he was dead, be looked
upon by the world with regard and astonishment, on account of his
Dictionary.
Professor Gordon and I walked over to the Old College, which Dr
Johnson had seen by this time. I stepped into the chapel, and looked
at the tomb of the founder, Archbishop Elphinston, of whom I shall
have occasion to write in my History of James IV of Scotland, the
patron of my family.
We dined at Sir Alexander Gordon's. The Provost, Professor Ross,
Professor Dunbar, Professor Thomas Gordon, were there. After dinner
came in Dr Gerard, Professor Leslie, Professor Macleod. We had little
or no conversation in the morning; now we were but barren. The
professors seemed afraid to speak.
Dr Gerard told us that an eminent printer was very intimate with
Warburton. JOHNSON. 'Why, sir, he has printed some of his works, and
perhaps bought the property of some of them. The intimacy is such as
one of the professors here may have with one of the carpenters who is
repairing the college.' 'But,' said Gerard, 'I saw a letter from him
to this printer, in which he says, that the one half of the clergy of
the Church of Scotland are fanaticks, and the other half infidels.'
JOHNSON. 'Warburton has accustomed himself to write letters just as he
speaks, without thinking any more of what he throws out. When I read
Warburton first, and observed his force, and his contempt of mankind,
I thought he had driven the world before him; but I soon found that
was not the case; for Warburton, by extending his abuse, rendered it
ineffectual.'
He told me, when we were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong
in the printer, to shew Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body
of enemies against him. He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so
to the printer; and added, 'Sir, the worst way of being intimate, is
by scribbling.' He called Warburton's Doctrine of Grace a poor
performance, and so he said was Wesley's Answer. 'Warburton,' he
observed, 'had laid himself very open. In particular, he was weak
enough to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had
spoken with tongues, had spoken languages which they never knew
before; a thing as absurd as to say, that, in some disorders of the
imagination, people had been known to fly.'
I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard
in a disquisition with Dr Johnson; but I did not succeed. I mentioned,
as a curious fact, that Locke had written verses. JOHNSON. 'I know of
none, sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr Sydenham's Works, in
which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and
burning are united; and how Dr Sydenham removed fire by drawing off
water, contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by
bringing water upon it. I am not sure that there is a word of all
this; but it is such kind of talk.' [Footnote: All this, as Dr Johnson
suspected at the time, was the immediate invention of his own lively
imagination; for there is not one word of it in Mr Locke's
complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no doubt, like to
be satisfied, by comparing them: and, at any rate, it may entertain
them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when a
Bachelor in Physick.