When I awaked, the storm was higher still. It abated about nine, and
the sun shone; but it rained again very soon, and it was not a day for
travelling. At breakfast, Dr Johnson told us, 'there was once a pretty
good tavern in Catharine Street in the Strand, where very good company
met in an evening, and each man called for his own half pint of wine,
or gill, if he pleased: they were frugal men, and nobody paid but for
what he himself drank. The house furnished no supper; but a woman
attended with mutton-pies, which any body might purchase. I was
introduced to this company by Cumming the Quaker, and used to go there
sometimes when I drank wine. In the last age, when my mother lived in
London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and
those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. When I returned
to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me, whether
I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now, it is
fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the
wall, another yields it, and it is never a dispute.' He was very
severe on a lady, whose name was mentioned. He said, he would have
sent her to St Kilda. That she was as bad as negative badness could
be, and stood in the way of what was good: that insipid beauty would
not go a great way; and that such a woman might be cut out of a
cabbage, if there was a skilful artificer.
M'Leod was too late in coming to breakfast. Dr Johnson said, laziness
was worse than the toothache. BOSWELL. 'I cannot agree with you, sir;
a bason of cold water, or a horse whip, will cure laziness.' JOHNSON.
'No, sir; it will only put off the fit; it will not cure the disease.
I have been trying to cure my laziness all my life, and could not do
it.' BOSWELL. 'But if a man does in a shorter time what might be the
labour of a life, there is nothing to be said against him.' JOHNSON
(perceiving at once that I alluded to him and his Dictionary).
'Suppose that flattery to be true, the consequence would be, that the
world would have no right to censure a man; but that will not justify
him to himself.'
After breakfast, he said to me, 'A Highland chief should now endeavour
to do every thing to raise his rents, by means of the industry of his
people. Formerly, it was right for him to have his house full of idle
fellows; they were his defenders, his servants, his dependants, his
friends. Now they may be better employed. The system of things is now
so much altered, that the family cannot have influence but by riches,
because it has no longer the power of ancient feudal times. An
individual of a family may have it; but it cannot now belong to a
family, unless you could have a perpetuity of men with the same views.
M'Leod has four times the land that the Duke of Bedford has. I think,
with his spirit, he may in time make himself the greatest man in the
king's dominions; for land may always be improved to a certain degree.
I would never have any man sell land, to throw money into the funds,
as is often done, or to try any other species of trade. Depend upon
it, this rage of trade will destroy itself. You and I shall not see
it; but the time will come when there will be an end of it. Trade is
like gaming. If a whole company are gamesters, play must cease; for
there is nothing to be won. When all nations are traders, there is
nothing to be gained by trade, and it will stop first where it is
brought to the greatest perfection. Then the proprietors of land only
will be the great men.' I observed, it was hard that M'Leod should
find ingratitude in so many of his people. JOHNSON. 'Sir, gratitude is
a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.'
I doubt of this. Nature seems to have implanted gratitude in all
living creatures. The lion, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, had it.
[Footnote: Aul. Gellius, Lib. v. c. xiv.] It appears to me that
culture, which brings luxury and selfishness with it, has a tendency
rather to weaken than promote this affection.
Dr Johnson said this morning, when talking of our setting out, that he
was in the state in which Lord Bacon represents kings. He desired the
end, but did not like the means. He wished much to get home, but was
unwilling to travel in Sky. 'You are like kings too in this, sir,'
said I, 'that you must act under the direction of others.'