Mr Smollet pleased Dr Johnson, by producing a collection of
news-papers in the time of the Usurpation, from which it appeared that
all sorts of crimes were very frequent during that horrible anarchy.
By the side of the high road to Glasgow, at some distance from his
house, he had erected a pillar to the memory of his ingenious kinsman,
Dr Smollet; and he consulted Dr Johnson as to an inscription for it.
Lord Kames, who, though he had a great store of knowledge, with much
ingenuity, and uncommon activity of mind, was no profound scholar, had
it seems recommended an English inscription. Dr Johnson treated this
with great contempt, saying 'An English inscription would be a
disgrace to Dr Smollet'; and, in answer to what Lord Kames had urged,
as to the advantage of its being in English, because it would be
generally understood, I observed, that all to whom Dr Smollet's merit
could be an object of respect and imitation, would understand it as
well in Latin; and that surely it was not meant for the Highland
drovers, or other such people, who pass and repass that way.
We were then shewn a Latin inscription, proposed for this monument. Dr
Johnson sat down with an ardent and liberal earnestness to revise it,
and greatly improved it by several additions and variations. I
unfortunately did not take a copy of it, as it originally stood; but I
have happily preserved every fragment of what Dr Johnson wrote:
Quisquis ades, viator,
Vel mente felix, vel studiis cultus,
Immorare paululum memoriae
TOBIAE SMOLLET M.D.
Viri iis virtutibus
Quas in homine et cive
Et laudes, et imiteris,
.....
Postquam mira...
Se.........
....
Tali tantoque viro, suo patrueli,
......
Hanc columnam,
Amoris eheul inane monumentum,
In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
Quas primis infans vagitibus personuit,
Versiculisque jam fere moriturus illustravit,
Ponendam curavit
.........
[Footnote: The epitaph which has been inscribed on the pillar erected
on the banks of the Leven, in honour of Dr Smollet, is as follows. The
part which was written by Dr Johnson, it appears, has been altered:
whether for the better, the reader will judge. The alterations are
distinguished by italicks [all caps].
Siste viator!
Si lepores ingeniique venam benignam,
Si morum callidissimum pictorem,
Unquam es miratus,
Immorare paululum memoriae
TOBIAE SMOLLET, M.D.
Viri virtutibus HISCE
Quas in homine et cive
Et laudes et imiteris.
Haud mediocriter ornati:
Qui in literis variis versatus.
Postquam felicitate SIBI PROPRIA
Sese posteris commendaverat,
Morte acerba raptus
Anno oetatis 51
Eheul quam procul a patria!
Prope Liburni portum in Italia,
Jacet sepultus.
Tali tantoque viro, patrueli suo,
Cui in decursu lampada
Se pottus tradidisse decuit,
Hanc Columnam,
Amoris, eheul inane monumentum
In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
Quas VERSICULIS SUB EXITU VITAE ILLUSTRATAS
Primis infans vagitibus personuit,
Ponendam curavit
JACOBUS SMOLLET de Bonhill
Abi et reminscere.
Hoc quidem honore,
Non modo defuncti memoriae,
Verum ettam exemplo, prospectum esse;
Aliis enim, si modo digni sint,
Idem erit virtutis praemium!]
We had this morning a singular proof of Dr Johnson's quick and
retentive memory. Hay's translation of Martial was lying in a window.
I said, I thought it was pretty well done, and shewed him a particular
epigram, I think, of ten, but am certain of eight, lines. He read it,
and tossed away the book, saying 'No, it is NOT pretty well.' As I
persisted in my opinion, he said, 'Why, sir, the original is thus'
(and he repeated it); 'and this man's translation is thus,' and then
he repeated that also, exactly, though he had never seen it before,
and read it over only once, and that too, without any intention of
getting it by heart.
Here a post-chaise, which I had ordered from Glasgow, came for us, and
we drove on in high spirits. We stopped at Dunbarton, and though the
approach to the castle there is very steep, Dr Johnson ascended it
with alacrity, and surveyed all that was to be seen. During the whole
of our tour he shewed uncommon spirit, could not bear to be treated
like an old or infirm man, and was very unwilling to accept of any
assistance, insomuch that, at our landing at Icolmkill, when Sir Allan
McLean and I submitted to be carried on men's shoulders from the boat
to the shore, as it could not be brought quite close to land, he
sprang into the sea, and waded vigorously out.
On our arrival at the Saracen's Head Inn, at Glasgow, I was made happy
by good accounts from home; and Dr Johnson, who had not received a
single letter since we left Aberdeen, found here a great many, the
perusal of which entertained him much. He enjoyed in imagination the
comforts which we could now command, and seemed to be in high glee. I
remember, he put a leg up on each side of the grate, and said, with a
mock solemnity, by way of soliloquy, but loud enough for me to hear
it, 'Here am I, an ENGLISH man, sitting by a COAL fire.'