It was rather worse weather than any that we had yet. At breakfast Dr
Johnson said, 'Some cunning men choose fools for their wives, thinking
to manage them, but they always fail. There is a spaniel fool and a
mule fool. The spaniel fool may be made to do by beating. The mule
fool will neither do by words or blows; and the spaniel fool often
turns mule at last: and suppose a fool to be made do pretty well, you
must have the continual trouble of making her do. Depend upon it, no
woman is the worse for sense and knowledge.' Whether afterwards he
meant merely to say a polite thing, or to give his opinion, I could
not be sure; but he added, 'Men know that women are an over-match for
them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they
did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much
as themselves.' In justice to the sex, I think it but candid to
acknowledge, that, in a subsequent conversation, he told me that he
was serious in what he had said.
He came to my room this morning before breakfast, to read my Journal,
which he has done all along. He often before said, 'I take great
delight in reading it.' Today he said, 'You improve: it grows better
and better.' I observed, there was a danger of my getting a habit of
writing in a slovenly manner. 'Sir,' said he, 'it is not written in a
slovenly manner. It might be printed, were the subject fit for
printing.' [Footnote: As I have faithfully recorded so many minute
particulars, I hope I shall be pardoned for inserting so flattering an
encomium on what is now offered to the publick.] While Mr Beaton
preached to us in the dining-room, Dr Johnson sat in his own room,
where I saw lying before him a volume of Lord Bacon's works, the Decay
of Christian Piety, Monboddo's Origin of Language, and Sterne's
Sermons. He asked me today, how it happened that we were so little
together: I told him, my Journal took up much time. Yet, on
reflection, it appeared strange to me, that although I will run from
one end of London to another, to pass an hour with him, I should omit
to seize any spare time to be in his company, when I am settled in the
same house with him. But my Journal is really a task of much time and
labour, and he forbids me to contract it.
I omitted to mention, in its place, that Dr Johnson told Mr M'Queen
that he had found the belief of the second sight universal in Sky,
except among the clergy, who seemed determined against it. I took the
liberty to observe to Mr M'Queen, that the clergy were actuated by a
kind of vanity. 'The world,' say they,'takes us to be credulous men in
a remote corner. We'll shew them that we are more enlightened than
they think.' The worthy man said, that his disbelief of it was from
his not finding sufficient evidence; but I could perceive that he was
prejudiced against it.
After dinner to-day, we talked of the extraordinary fact of Lady
Grange's being sent to St Kilda, and confined there for several years,
without any means of relief. [Footnote: The true story of this lady,
which happened In this century, is as frightfully romantick as if it
had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy. She was the wife of one of the
Lords of Session in Scotland, a man of the very first blood of his
country. For some mysterious reasons, which have never been
discovered, she was seized and carried off in the dark, she knew not
by whom, and by nightly journies was conveyed to the Highland shores,
from whence she was transported by sea to the remote rock of St Kilda,
where she remained, amongst its few wild inhabitants, a forlorn
prisoner, but had a constant supply of provisions, and a woman to wait
on her. No inquiry was made after her, till she at last found means to
convey a letter to a confidential friend, by the daughter of a
Catechist who concealed it in a clue of yarn. Information being thus
obtained at Edinburgh, a ship was sent to bring her off; but
intelligence of this being received, she was conveyed to M'Leod's
island of Herries, where she died.
In Carstares's State Papers, we find an authentick narrative of
Connor, a Catholick priest, who turned Protestant, being seized by
some of Lord Seaforth's people, and detained prisoner in the island of
Herries several years: he was fed with bread and water, and lodged in
a house where he was exposed to the rains and cold. Sir James Ogilvy
writes (June 18, 1667) that the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Advocate,
and himself, were to meet next day, to take effectual methods to have
this redressed. Connor was then still detained (p. 310). This shews
what private oppression might in the last century be practised in the
Hebrides.
In the same collection, the Earl of Argyle gives a picturesque account
of an embassy from 'the great M'Neil of Barra', as that insular chief
used to be denominated. 'I received a letter yesterday from M'Neil of
Barra, who lives very far off, sent by a gentleman in all formality,
offering his service, which had made you laugh to see his entry. His
style of his letter runs as if he were of another kingdom' (p. 643).]
Dr Johnson said, if M'Leod would let it be known that he had such a
place for naughty ladies, he might make it a very profitable island.
We had, in the course of our tour, heard of St Kilda poetry. Dr
Johnson observed, 'it must be very poor, because they have very few
images.' BOSWELL. 'There may be a poetical genius shewn in combining
these, and in making poetry of them.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, a man cannot make
fire but in proportion as he has fuel. He cannot coin guineas but in
proportion as he has gold.' At tea he talked of his intending to go to
Italy in 1775. M'Leod said, he would like Paris better. JOHNSON. 'No,
sir; there are none of the French literati now alive, to visit whom I
would cross a sea. I can find in Buffon's book all that he can
say.'[Footnote: I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller's remark
concerning the French literati, many of whom, I am told, have
considerable merit in conversation, as well as in their writings. That
of Monsieur de Buffon, in particular, I am well assured is highly
instructive and entertaining.]
After supper he said, 'I am sorry that prize-fighting is gone out;
every art should be preserved, and the art of defence is surely
important. It is absurd that our soldiers should have swords, and not
be taught the use of them. Prize-fighting made people accustomed not
to be alarmed at seeing their own blood, or feeling a little pain from
a wound. I think the heavy glaymore was an ill-contrived weapon. A man
could only strike once with it. It employed both his hands, and he
must of course be soon fatigued with wielding it; so that if his
antagonist could only keep playing a while, he was sure of him. I
would fight with a dirk against Rorie More's sword. I could ward off a
blow with a dirk, and then run in upon my enemy. When within that
heavy sword, I have him; he is quite helpless, and I could stab him at
my leisure, like a calf. It is thought by sensible military men, that
the English do not enough avail themselves of their superior strength
of body against the French; for that must always have a great
advantage in pushing with bayonets. I have heard an officer say, that
if women could be made to stand, they would do as well as men in a
mere interchange of bullets from a distance: but, if a body of men
should come close up to them, then to be sure they must be overcome;
now (said he), in the same manner the weaker-bodied French must be
overcome by our strong soldiers.'
The subject of duelling was introduced. JOHNSON. 'There is no case in
England where one or other of the combatants MUST die: if you have
overcome your adversary by disarming him, that is sufficient, though
you should not kill him; your honour, or the honour of your family, is
restored, as much as it can be by a duel. It is cowardly to force your
antagonist to renew the combat, when you know that you have the
advantage of him by superior skill. You might just as well go and cut
his throat while he is asleep in his bed. When a duel begins, it is
supposed there may be an equality; because it is not always skill that
prevails. It depends much on presence of mind; nay on accidents. The
wind may be in a man's face. He may fall. Many such things may decide
the superiority. A man is sufficiently punished, by being called out,
and subjected to the risk that is in a duel.' But on my suggesting
that the injured person is equally subjected to risk, he fairly owned
he could not explain the rationality of duelling.