Dr Johnson said, that 'a chief and his lady should make their house
like a court. They should have a certain number of the gentlemen's
daughters to receive their education in the family, to learn pastry
and such things from the housekeeper, and manners from my lady. That
was the way in the great families in Wales; at Lady Salisbury's, Mrs
Thrale's grandmother, and at Lady Philips's. I distinguish the
families by the ladies, as I speak of what was properly their
province. There were always six young ladies at Sir John Philips's:
when one was married, her place was filled up. There was a large
school-room, where they learnt needlework and other things.' I
observed, that, at some courts in Germany, there were academies for
the pages, who are the sons of gentlemen, and receive their education
without any expence to their parents. Dr Johnson said, that manners
were best learnt at those courts. 'You are admitted with great
facility to the prince's company, and yet must treat him with much
respect. At a great court, you are at such a distance that you get no
good.' I said, 'Very true: a man sees the court of Versailles, as if
he saw it on a theatre.' He said, 'The best book that ever was written
upon good breeding, Il Corteggiano, by Castiglione, grew up at the
little court of Urbino, and you should read it.' I am glad always to
have his opinion of books. At Mr M'Pherson's, he commended Whitby's
Commentary, and said, he had heard him called rather lax; but he did
not perceive it. He had looked at a novel, called The Man of the
World, at Rasay, but thought there was nothing in it. He said to-day,
while reading my Journal, 'This will be a great treasure to us some
years hence.'
Talking of a very penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, he
observed, that he exceeded L'Avare in the play. I concurred with him,
and remarked that he would do well, if introduced in one of Foote's
farces; that the best way to get it done, would be to bring Foote to
be entertained at his house for a week, and then it would be facit
indignatio. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I wish he had him. I, who have eaten his
bread, will not give him to him, but I should be glad he came honestly
by him.'
He said, he was angry at Thrale, for sitting at General Oglethorpe's
without speaking. He censured a man for degrading himself to a
non-entity. I observed, that Goldsmith was on the other extreme; for
he spoke at all ventures. JOHNSON. 'Yes, sir; Goldsmith, rather than
not speak, will talk of what he knows himself to be ignorant, which
can only end in exposing him.' 'I wonder,' said I, 'if he feels that
he exposes himself. If he was with two taylors...' 'Or with two
founders,' said Dr Johnson, interrupting me, 'he would fall a talking
on the method of making cannon, though both of them would soon see
that he did not know what metal a cannon is made of.' We were very
social and merry in his room this forenoon. In the evening the company
danced as usual. We performed, with much activity, a dance which, I
suppose, the emigration from Sky has occasioned. They call it
'America'. Each of the couples, after the common involutions and
evolutions, successively whirls round in a circle, till all are in
motion; and the dance seems intended to shew how emigration catches,
till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat. Mrs M'Kinnon told me, that
last year when a ship sailed from Portree for America, the people on
shore were almost distracted when they saw their relations go off;
they lay down on the ground, tumbled, and tore the grass with their
teeth. This year there was not a tear shed. The people on shore seemed
to think that they would soon follow. This indifference is a mortal
sign for the country.
We danced to night to the musick of the bagpipe, which made us beat
the ground with prodigious force. I thought it better to endeavour to
conciliate the kindness of the people of Sky, by joining heartily in
their amusements, than to play the abstract scholar. I looked on this
tour to the Hebrides as a copartnership between Dr Johnson and me.
Each was to do all he could to promote its success; and I have some
reason to flatter myself, that my gayer exertions were of service to
us. Dr Johnson's immense fund of knowledge and wit was a wonderful
source of admiration and delight to them; but they had it only at
times; and they required to have the intervals agreeably filled up,
and even little elucidations of his learned text. I was also fortunate
enough frequently to draw him forth to talk, when he would otherwise
have been silent. The fountain was at times locked up, till I opened
the spring. It was curious to hear the Hebridians, when any dispute
happened while he was out of the room, saying, 'Stay till Dr Johnson
comes: say that to HIM!'
Yesterday Dr Johnson said, 'I cannot but laugh, to think of myself
roving among the Hebrides at sixty. I wonder where I shall rove at
fourscore!' This evening he disputed the truth of what is said, as to
the people of St Kilda catching cold whenever strangers come. 'How can
there,' said he, 'be a physical effect without a physical cause?' He
added, laughing, 'the arrival of a ship full of strangers would kill
them; for, if one stranger gives them one cold, two strangers must
give them two colds; and so in proportion.' I wondered to hear him
ridicule this, as he had praised M'Aulay 247 for putting it in his
book: saying, that it was manly in him to tell a fact, however
strange, if he himself believed it. He said, the evidence was not
adequate to the improbability of the thing; that if a physician,
rather disposed to be incredulous, should go to St Kilda, and report
the fact, then he would begin to look about him. They said, it was
annually proved by M'Leod's steward, on whose arrival all the
inhabitants caught cold. He jocularly remarked, 'the steward always
comes to demand something from them; and so they fall a coughing. I
suppose the people in Sky all take a cold, when--' (naming a certain
person) 'comes.' They said, he came only in summer. JOHNSON. 'That is
out of tenderness to you. Bad weather and he, at the same time, would
be too much.'