Dr Johnson was much pleased with his entertainment here. There were
many good books in the house: Hector Boethius in Latin; Cave's Lives
of the Fathers; Baker's Chronicle; Jeremy Collier's Church History; Dr
Johnson's small Dictionary; Craufurd's Officers of State, and several
more: a mezzotinto of Mrs Brooks the actress (by some strange chance
in Sky); and also a print of Macdonald of Clanranald, with a Latin
inscription about the cruelties after the battle of Culloden, which
will never be forgotten.
It was a very wet stormy day; we were therefore obliged to remain
here, it being impossible to cross the sea to Rasay.
I employed a part of the forenoon in writing this Journal. The rest of
it was somewhat dreary, from the gloominess of the weather, and the
uncertain state which we were in, as we could not tell but it might
clear up every hour. Nothing is more painful to the mind than a state
of suspence, especially when it depends upon the weather, concerning
which there can be so little calculation. As Dr Johnson said of our
weariness on the Monday at Aberdeen, 'Sensation is sensation.'
Corrichatachin, which was last night a hospitable house, was, in my
mind, changed to-day into a prison. After dinner I read some of Dr
Macpherson's Dissertations on the Ancient Caledonians. I was disgusted
by the unsatisfactory conjectures as to antiquity, before the days of
record. I was happy when tea came. Such, I take it, is the state of
those who live in the country. Meals are wished for from the cravings
of vacuity of mind, as well as from the desire of eating. I was hurt
to find even such a temporary feebleness, and that I was so far from
being that robust wise man who is sufficient for his own happiness. I
felt a kind of lethargy of indolence. I did not exert myself to get Dr
Johnson to talk, that I might not have the labour of writing down his
conversation. He inquired here, if there were any remains of the
second sight. Mr M'Pherson, Minister of Slate, said, he was RESOLVED
not to believe it, because it was founded on no principle. JOHNSON.
'There are many things then, which we are sure are true, that you will
not believe. What principle is there, why a loadstone attracts iron?
Why an egg produces a chicken by heat? Why a tree grows upwards, when
the natural tendency of all things is downwards? Sir, it depends upon
the degree of evidence that you have.' Young Mr M'Kinnon mentioned one
M'Kenzie, who is still alive, who had often fainted in his presence,
and when he recovered, mentioned visions which had been presented to
him. He told Mr M'Kinnon, that at such a place he should meet a
funeral, and that such and such people would be the bearers, naming
four; and three weeks afterwards he saw what M'Kenzie had predicted.
The naming the very spot in a country where a funeral comes a long
way, and the very people as bearers, when there are so many out of
whom a choice may be made, seems extraordinary. We should have sent
for M'Kenzie, had we not been informed that he could speak no English.
Besides, the facts were not related with sufficient accuracy.
Mrs M'Kinnon, who is a daughter of old Kingsburgh, told us that her
father was one day riding in Sky, and some women, who were at work in
a field on the side of the road, said to him, they had heard two
taiscks (that is, two voices of persons about to die), and what was
remarkable, one of them was an ENGLISH taisck, which they never heard
before. When he returned, he at that very place met two funerals, and
one of them was that of a woman who had come from the main land, and
could speak only English. This, she remarked, made a great impression
upon her father.
How all the people here were lodged, I know not. It was partly done by
separating man and wife, and putting a number of men in one room, and
of women in another.