We this morning found that we could not proceed, there being a violent
storm of wind and rain, and the rivers being impassable. When I
expressed my discontent at our confinement, Dr Johnson said, 'Now that
I have had an opportunity of writing to the main land, I am in no such
haste.' I was amused with his being so easily satisfied; for the truth
was, that the gentleman who was to convey our letters, as I was now
informed, was not to set out for Inveraray for some time; so that it
was probable we should be there as soon as he: however, I did not
undeceive my friend, but suffered him to enjoy his fancy.
Dr Johnson asked, in the evening, to see Dr M'Lean's books. He took
down Willis De Anima Brutorum, and pored over it a good deal.
Miss M'Lean produced some Erse poems by John M'Lean, who was a famous
bard in Mull, and had died only a few years ago. He could neither read
nor write. She read and translated two of them; one, a kind of elegy
on Sir John M'Lean's being obliged to fly his country in 1715;
another, a dialogue between two Roman Catholick young ladies, sisters,
whether it was better to be a nun or to marry. I could not perceive
much poetical imagery in the translation. Yet all of our company who
understood Erse, seemed charmed with the original. There may, perhaps,
be some choice of expression, and some excellence of arrangement, that
cannot be shewn in translation.
After we had exhausted the Erse poems, of which Dr Johnson said
nothing, Miss M'Lean gave us several tunes on a spinnet, which, though
made so long ago, as in 1667, was still very well toned. She sung
along with it. Dr Johnson seemed pleased with the musick, though he
owns he neither likes it, nor has hardly any perception of it. At Mr
M'Pherson's, in Slate, he told us, that 'he knew a drum from a
trumpet, and a bagpipe from a guitar, which was about the extent of
his knowledge of musick'. To-night he said, that, 'if he had learnt
musick, he should have been afraid he would have done nothing else but
play. It was a method of employing the mind, without the labour of
thinking at all, and with some applause from a man's self.'
We had the musick of the bagpipe every day, at Armidale, Dunvegan, and
Col. Dr Johnson appeared fond of it, and used often to stand for some
time with his ear close to the great drone.
The penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, formerly alluded to,
afforded us a topick of conversation to-night. Dr Johnson said, I
ought to write down a collection of the instances of his narrowness,
as they almost exceeded belief. Col told us, that O'Kane, the famous
Irish harper, was once at that gentleman's house. He could not find in
his heart to give him any money, but gave him a key for a harp, which
was finely ornamented with gold and silver, and with a precious stone,
and was worth eighty or a hundred guineas. He did not know the value
of it; and when he came to know it, he would fain have had it back;
but O'Kane took care that he should not. JOHNSON. 'They exaggerate the
value; every body is so desirous that he should be fleeced. I am very
willing it should be worth eighty or a hundred guineas; but I do not
believe it.' BOSWELL. 'I do not think O'Kane was obliged to give it
back.' JOHNSON. 'No, sir. If a man with his eyes open, and without any
means used to deceive him, gives me a thing, I am not to let him have
it again when he grows wiser. I like to see how avarice defeats
itself; how, when avoiding to part with money, the miser gives
something more valuable.' Col said, the gentleman's relations were
angry at his giving away the harp-key, for it had been long in the
family. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he values a new guinea more than an old
friend.'
Col also told us, that the same person having come up with a serjeant
and twenty men, working on the high road, he entered into discourse
with the serjeant, and then gave him sixpence for the men to drink.
The serjeant asked, 'Who is this fellow?' Upon being informed, he
said, 'If I had known who he was, I should have thrown it in his
face.' JOHNSON. 'There is much want of sense in all this. He had no
business to speak with the serjeant. He might have been in haste, and
trotted on. He had not learnt to be a miser: I believe we must take
him apprentice.' BOSWELL. 'He would grudge giving half a guinea to be
taught' JOHNSON. 'Nay, sir, you must teach him gratis. You must give
him an opportunity to practice your precepts.'
Let me now go back, and glean Johnsoniana. The Saturday before we
sailed from Slate, I sat awhile in the afternoon with Dr Johnson in
his room, in a quiet serious frame. I observed, that hardly any man
was accurately prepared for dying; but almost every one left something
undone, something in confusion; that my father, indeed, told me he
knew one man (Carlisle of Limekilns), after whose death all his papers
were found in exact order; and nothing was omitted in his will.
JOHNSON. 'Sir, I had an uncle who died so; but such attention requires
great leisure, and great firmness of mind. If one was to think
constantly of death, the business of life would stand still. I am no
friend to making religion appear too hard. Many good people have done
harm, by giving severe notions of it. In the same way, as to learning:
I never frighten young people with difficulties; on the contrary, I
tell them that they may very easily get as much as will do very well.
I do not indeed tell them that they will be BENTLEYS.'
The night we rode to Col's house, I said, 'Lord Elibank is probably
wondering what is become of us.' JOHNSON. 'No, no; he is not thinking
of us.' BOSWELL. 'But recollect the warmth with which he wrote. Are we
not to believe a man, when he says he has a great desire to see
another? Don't you believe that I was very impatient for your coming
to Scotland?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, sir; I believe you were; and I was
impatient to come to you. A young man feels so, but seldom an old
man.' I however convinced him that Lord Elibank, who has much of the
spirit of a young man, might feel so. He asked me if our jaunt had
answered expectation. I said it had much exceeded it. I expected much
difficulty with him, and had not found it 'And,' he added, 'wherever
we have come, we have been received like princes in their progress.'
He said, he would not wish not to be disgusted in the Highlands; for
that would be to lose the power of distinguishing, and a man might
then lie down in the middle of them. He wished only to conceal his
disgust.
At Captain M'Lean's, I mentioned Pope's friend, Spence. JOHNSON. 'He
was a weak conceited man.' [Footnote: Mr Langton thinks this must have
been the hasty expression of a splenetick moment as he has heard Dr
Johnson speak of Mr Spence's judgement in criticism with so high a
degree of respect, as to shew that this was not his settled opinion of
him. Let me add that in the preface to the Preceptor, he recommends
Spence's Essay on Pope's Odyssey, and that his admirable lives of the
English Poets are much enriched by Spence's Anecdotes of Pope.
BOSWELL. 'A good scholar, sir?' JOHNSON. 'Why, no, sir.' BOSWELL. 'He
was a pretty scholar.' JOHNSON. 'You have about reached him.']
Last night at the inn, when the factor in Tyr-yi spoke of his having
heard that a roof was put on some part of the buildings at Icolmkill,
I unluckily said, 'It will be fortunate if we find a cathedral with a
roof on it.' I said this from a foolish anxiety to engage Dr Johnson's
curiosity more. He took me short at once. 'What, sir? How can you talk
so? If we shall FIND a cathedral roofed! As if we were going to a
terra incognita; when every thing that is at Icolmkill is so well
known. You are like some New England men who came to the mouth of the
Thames. "Come," said they, "let us go up and see what sort of
inhabitants there are here." They talked, sir, as if they had been to
go up the Susquehannah, or any other American river.'