BOSWELL'S

LIFE OF JOHNSON

THE

Contents:

CONTENTS OF VOL. V.

DEDICATION.

In every narrative, whether historical or biographical, authenticity is of the utmost consequence[1]. Of this I have ever been so firmly persuaded, that I inscribed a former work[2] to that person who was the best judge of its truth. I need not tell you I mean General Paoli; who, after his great, though unsuccessful, efforts to preserve the liberties of his country, has found an honourable asylum in Britain, where he has now lived many years the object of Royal regard and private respect[3]; and whom I cannot name without expressing my very grateful sense of the uniform kindness which he has been pleased to shew me[4].

The friends of Doctor Johnson can best judge, from internal evidence, whether the numerous conversations which form the most valuable part of the ensuing pages are correctly related. To them, therefore, I wish to appeal, for the accuracy of the portrait here exhibited to the world.

As one of those who were intimately acquainted with him, you have a title to this address. You have obligingly taken the trouble to peruse the original manuscript of this Tour, and can vouch for the strict fidelity of the present publication[5]. Your literary alliance with our much lamented friend, in consequence of having undertaken to render one of his labours more complete, by your edition of Shakspeare[6], a work which I am confident will not disappoint the expectations of the publick, gives you another claim. But I have a still more powerful inducement to prefix your name to this volume, as it gives me an opportunity of letting the world know that I enjoy the honour and happiness of your friendship; and of thus publickly testifying the sincere regard with which I am,

ADVERTISEMENT

Animated by the very favourable reception which two large impressions of this work have had[7], it has been my study to make it as perfect as I could in this edition, by correcting some inaccuracies which I discovered myself, and some which the kindness of friends or the scrutiny of adversaries pointed out. A few notes are added, of which the principal object is, to refute misrepresentation and calumny.

To the animadversions in the periodical Journals of criticism, and in the numerous publications to which my book has given rise, I have made no answer. Every work must stand or fall by its own merit. I cannot, however, omit this opportunity of returning thanks to a gentleman who published a Defence of my Journal, and has added to the favour by communicating his name to me in a very obliging letter.

It would be an idle waste of time to take any particular notice of the futile remarks, to many of which, a petty national resentment, unworthy of my countrymen, has probably given rise; remarks which have been industriously circulated in the publick prints by shallow or envious cavillers, who have endeavoured to persuade the world that Dr. Johnson's character has been lessened by recording such various instances of his lively wit and acute judgment, on every topick that was presented to his mind. In the opinion of every person of taste and knowledge that I have conversed with, it has been greatly heightened; and I will venture to predict, that this specimen of the colloquial talents and extemporaneous effusions of my illustrious fellow-traveller will become still more valuable, when, by the lapse of time, he shall have become an ancient; when all those who can now bear testimony to the transcendent powers of his mind, shall have passed away; and no other memorial of this great and good man shall remain but the following Journal, the other anecdotes and letters preserved by his friends, and those incomparable works, which have for many years been in the highest estimation, and will be read and admired as long as the English language shall be spoken or understood.

LONDON, 15th Aug. 1786.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. Character of Dr. Johnson. He arrives in Scotland.

August 15. Sir William Forbes. Practice of the law. Emigration. Dr. Beattie and Mr. Hume. Dr. Robertson. Mr. Burke's various and extraordinary talents. Question concerning genius. Whitfield and Wesley. Instructions to political parties. Dr. Johnson's opinion of Garrick as a tragedian.

August 16. Ogden on Prayer. Aphoristick writing. Edinburgh surveyed. Character of Swift's works. Evil spirits and witchcraft. Lord Monboddo and the Ouran-Outang.

August 17. Poetry and Dictionary writing. Scepticism. Eternal necessity refuted. Lord Hailes's criticism on The Vanity of Human Wishes. Mr. Maclaurin. Decision of the Judges in Scotland on literary property.

August 18. Set out for the Hebrides. Sketch of the authour's character. Trade of Glasgow. Suicide. Inchkeith. Parliamentary knowledge. Influence of Peers. Popular clamours. Arrive at St. Andrews.

August 19. Dr. Watson. Literature and patronage. Writing and conversation compared. Change of manners. The Union. Value of money. St. Andrews and John Knox. Retirement from the world. Dinner with the Professors. Question concerning sorrow and content. Instructions for composition. Dr. Johnson's method. Uncertainty of memory.

August 20. Effect of prayer. Observance of Sunday. Professor Shaw. Transubstantiation. Literary property. Mr. Tyers's remark on Dr. Johnson. Arrive at Montrose.

August 21. Want of trees. Laurence Kirk. Dinner at Monboddo. Emigration. Homer. Biography and history compared. Decrease of learning. Causes of it. Promotion of bishops. Warburton. Lowth. Value of politeness. Dr. Johnson's sentiments concerning Lord Monboddo. Arrive at Aberdeen.

August 22. Professor Thomas Gordon. Publick and private education. Sir Alexander Gordon. Trade of Aberdeen. Prescription of murder in Scotland. Mystery of the Trinity. Satisfaction of Christ. Importance of old friendships.

August 23. Dr. Johnson made a burgess of Aberdeen. Dinner at Sir Alexander Gordon's. Warburton's powers of invective. His Doctrine of Grace. Lock's verses. Fingal.

August 24. Goldsmith and Graham. Slains castle. Education of children. Buller of Buchan. Entails. Consequence of Peers. Sir Joshua Reynolds. Earl of Errol.

August 25. The advantage of being on good terms with relations. Nabobs. Feudal state of subordination. Dinner at Strichen. Life of country gentlemen. THE LITERARY CLUB.

August 26. Lord Monboddo. Use and importance of wealth. Elgin. Macbeth's heath. Fores.

August 27. Leonidas. Paul Whitehead. Derrick. Origin of Evil. Calder-manse. Reasonableness of ecclesiastical subscription. Family worship.

August 28. Fort George. Sir Adolphus Oughton. Contest between Warburton and Lowth. Dinner at Sir Eyre Coote's. Arabs and English soldiers compared. The Stage. Mr. Garrick, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Clive. Inverness.

August 29. Macbeth's Castle. Incorrectness of writers of Travels. Coinage of new words. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

August 30. Dr. Johnson on horseback. A Highland hut. Fort Augustus. Governour Trapaud.

August 31. Anoch. Emigration. Goldsmith. Poets and soldiers compared. Life of a sailor. Landlord's daughter at Anoch.

September 1. Glensheal. The Macraas. Dr. Johnson's anger at being left for a little while by the authour on a wild plain. Wretched inn at Glenelg.

September 2. Dr. Johnson relents. Isle of Sky. Armidale.

September 3. Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune.

September 4. Ancient Highland Enthusiasm.

September 5. Sir James Macdonald's epitaph and last letters to his mother. Dr. Johnson's Latin ode on the Isle of Sky. Isaac Hawkins Browne.

September 6. Corrichatachin. Highland hospitality and mirth. Dr. Johnson's Latin ode to Mrs. Thrale.

September 7. Uneasy state of dependence on the weather. State of those who live in the country. Dr. M'Pherson's Dissertations. Second Sight.

September 8. Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen. Mr. Malcolm M'Cleod. Sail to Rasay. Fingal. Homer. Elegant and gay entertainment at Rasay.

September 9. Antiquity of the family of Rasay. Cure of infidelity.

September 10. Survey of the island of Rasay. Bentley. Mallet. Hooke. Duchess of Marlborough.

September 11. Heritable jurisdictions. Insular life. The Laird of M'Cleod.

September 12. Sail to Portree. Dr. Johnson's discourse on death. Letters from Lord Elibank to Dr. Johnson and the authour. Dr. Johnson's answer. Ride to Kingsburgh. Flora M'Donald.

September 13. Distresses and escape of the grandson of King James II. Arrive at Dunvegan.

September 14. Importance of the chastity of women. Dr. Cadogan. Whether the practice of authours is necessary to enforce their Doctrines. Good humour acquirable.

September 15. Sir George M'Kenzie. Mr. Burke's wit, knowledge and eloquence.

September 16. Dr. Johnson's hereditary melancholy. His minute knowledge in various arts. Apology for the authour's ardour in his pursuits. Dr. Johnson's imaginary seraglio. Polygamy.

September 17. Cunning. Whether great abilities are necessary to be wicked. Temple of the Goddess Anaitis. Family portraits. Records not consulted by old English historians. Mr. Pennant's Tours criticised.

September 18. Ancient residence of a Highland Chief. Languages the pedigree of nations. Laird of the Isle of Muck.

September 19. Choice of a wife. Women an over-match for men. Lady Grange in St. Kilda. Poetry of savages. French Literati. Prize-fighting. French and English soldiers. Duelling.

September 20. Change of London manners. Laziness censured. Landed and traded interest compared. Gratitude considered.

September 21. Description of Dunvegan. Lord Lovat's Pyramid. Ride to Ulinish. Phipps's Voyage to the North Pole.

September 22. Subterraneous house and vast cave in Ulinish. Swift's Lord Orrery. Defects as well as virtues the proper subject of biography, though the life be written by a friend. Studied conclusions of letters. Whether allowable in dying men to maintain resentment to the last. Instructions for writing the lives of literary men. Fingal denied to be genuine, and pleasantly ridiculed.

September 23. Further disquisition concerning Fingal. Eminent men disconcerted by a new mode of publick appearance. Garrick. Mrs. Montague's Essay on Shakspeare. Persons of consequence watched in London. Learning of the Scots from 1550 to 1650. The arts of civil life little known in Scotland till the Union. Life of a sailor. The folly of Peter the Great in working in a dock-yard. Arrive at Talisker. Presbyterian clergy deficient in learning. September 24. French hunting. Young Col. Dr. Birch, Dr. Percy. Lord Hailes. Historical impartiality. Whiggism unbecoming in a clergyman.

September 25. Every island a prison. A Sky cottage. Return to Corrichatachin. Good fellowship carried to excess.

September 26. Morning review of last night's intemperance. Old Kingsburgh's Jacobite song. Lady Margaret Macdonald adored in Sky. Different views of the same subject at different times. Self-deception.

September 27. Dr. Johnson's popularity in the Isle of Sky. His good-humoured gaiety with a Highland lady.

September 28. Ancient Irish pride of family. Dr. Johnson on threshing and thatching. Dangerous to increase the price of labour. Arrive at Ostig. Dr. M'Pherson's Latin poetry.

September 29. Reverend Mr. M'Pherson, Shenstone. Hammond. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

September 30. Mr. Burke the first man every where. Very moderate talents requisite to make a figure in the House of Commons. Dr. Young. Dr. Doddridge. Increase of infidel writings since the accession of the Hanover family. Gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson. Particular minutes to be kept of our studies.

October 1. Dr. Johnson not answerable for all the words in his Dictionary. Attacks on authours useful to them. Return to Armidale.

October 2. Old manners of great families in Wales. German courts. Goldsmith's love of talk. Emigration. Curious story of the people of St. Kilda.

October 3. Epictetus on the voyage of death. Sail for Mull. A storm. Driven into Col.

October 4. Dr. Johnson's mode of living in the Temple. His curious appearance on a sheltie. Nature of sea-sickness. Burnet's History of his own Times. Difference between dedications and histories.

October 5. People may come to do anything by talking of it. The Reverend Mr. Hector Maclean. Bayle. Leibnitz and Clarke. Survey of Col. Insular life. Arrive at Breacacha. Dr. Johnson's power of ridicule.

October 6. Heritable jurisdictions. The opinion of philosophers concerning happiness in a cottage, considered. Advice to landlords.

October 7. Books the best solace in a state of confinement.

October 8. Pretended brother of Dr. Johnson. No redress for a man's name being affixed to a foolish work. Lady Sidney Beauclerk. Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond. Col's cabinet. Letters of the great Montrose. Present state of the island of Col.

October 9. Dr. Johnson's avidity for a variety of books. Improbability of a Highland tradition. Dr. Johnson's delicacy of feeling.

October 10. Dependence of tenants on landlords.

October 11. London and Pekin compared. Dr. Johnson's high opinion of the former.

October 12. Return to Mr. M'Sweyn's. Other superstitions beside those connected with religion. Dr. Johnson disgusted with coarse manners. His peculiar habits.

October 13. Bustle not necessary to dispatch. Oats the food not of the Scotch alone.

October 14. Arrive in Mull. Addison's Remarks on Italy. Addison not much conversant with Italian literature. The French masters of the art of accommodating literature. Their Ana. Racine. Corneille. Moliere. Fenelon. Voltaire. Bossuet. Massillon. Bourdaloue. Virgil's description of the entrance into hell, compared to a printing-house.

October 15. Erse poetry. Danger of a knowledge of musick. The propriety of settling our affairs so as to be always prepared for death. Religion and literary attainments not to be described to young persons as too hard. Reception of the travellers in their progress. Spence.

October 16. Miss Maclean. Account of Mull. The value of an oak walking-stick in the Hebrides. Arrive at Mr. M'Quarrie's in Ulva. Captain Macleod. Second Sight. Mercheta Mulierum, and Borough-English. The grounds on which the sale of an estate may be set aside in a court of equity.

October 17. Arrive at Inchkenneth. Sir Allan Maclean and his daughters. None but theological books should be read on Sunday. Dr. Campbell. Dr. Johnson exhibited as a Highlander. Thoughts on drinking. Dr. Johnson's Latin verses on Inchkenneth.

October 18. Young Col's various good qualities. No extraordinary talents requisite to success in trade. Dr. Solander. Mr. Burke. Dr. Johnson's intrepidity and presence of mind. Singular custom in the islands of Col and Otaheité. Further elogium on young Col. Credulity of a Frenchman in foreign countries.

October 19. Death of young Col. Dr. Johnson slow of belief without strong evidence. La Crédulité des incrédules. Coast of Mull. Nun's Island. Past scenes pleasing in recollection. Land on Icolmkill. October 20. Sketch of the ruins of Icolmkill. Influence of solemn scenes of piety. Feudal authority in the extreme. Return to Mull.

October 21. Pulteney. Pitt. Walpole. Mr. Wilkes. English and Jewish history compared. Scotland composed of stone and water, and a little earth. Turkish Spy. Dreary ride to Lochbuy. Description of the laird.

October 22. Uncommon breakfast offered to Dr. Johnson, and rejected. Lochbuy's war-saddle. Sail to Oban.

October 23. Goldsmith's Traveller. Pope and Cowley compared. Archibald Duke of Argyle. Arrive at Inverary. Dr. Johnson drinks some whisky, and assigns his reason. Letter from the authour to Mr. Garrick. Mr. Garrick's answer.

October 24. Specimen of Ogden on Prayer. Hervey's Meditations. Dr. Johnson's Meditation on a Pudding. Country neighbours. The authour's visit to the castle of Inverary. Perverse opposition to the influence of Peers in Ayrshire.

October 25. Dr. Johnson presented to the Duke of Argyle. Grandeur of his grace's seat. The authour possesses himself in an embarrassing situation. Honourable Archibald Campbell on a middle state. The old Lord Townshend. Question concerning luxury. Nice trait of character. Good principles and bad practice.

October 26. A passage in Home's Douglas, and one in Juvenal, compared. Neglect of religious buildings in Scotland. Arrive at Sir James Colquhoun's.

October 27. Dr. Johnson's letter to the Duke of Argyle. His grace's answer. Lochlomond. Dr. Johnson's sentiments on dress. Forms of prayer considered. Arrive at Mr. Smollet's.

October 28. Dr. Smollet's Epitaph. Dr. Johnson's wonderful memory. His alacrity during the Tour. Arrive at Glasgow.

October 29. Glasgow surveyed. Attention of the professors to Dr. Johnson.

October 30. Dinner at the Earl of Loudoun's. Character of that nobleman. Arrive at Treesbank.

October 31. Sir John Cunningham of Caprington.

November 1. Rules for the distribution of charity. Castle of Dundonald. Countess of Eglintoune. Alexander Earl of Eglintoune.

November 2. Arrive at Auchinleck. Character of Lord Auchinleck, His idea of Dr. Johnson.

November 3. Dr. Johnson's sentiments concerning the Highlands. Mr. Harris of Salisbury.

November 4. Auchinleck. Cattle without horns. Composure of mind how far attainable. November 5. Dr. Johnson's high respect for the English clergy.

November 6. Lord Auchinleck and Dr. Johnson in collision.

November 7. Dr. Johnson's uniform piety. His dislike of presbyterian worship.

November 8. Arrive at Hamilton.

November 9. The Duke of Hamilton's house. Arrive at Edinburgh.

November 10. Lord Elibank. Difference in political principles increased by opposition. Edinburgh Castle. Fingal. English credulity not less than Scottish. Second Sight. Garrick and Foote compared as companions. Moravian Missions and Methodism.

November 11. History originally oral. Dr. Robertson's liberality of sentiment. Rebellion natural to man.

Summary account of the manner in which Dr. Johnson spent his time from November 12 to November 21. Lord Mansfield, Mr. Richardson. The private life of an English Judge. Dr. Johnson's high opinion of Dr. Robertson and Dr. Blair. Letter from Dr. Blair to the authour. Officers of the army often ignorant of things belonging to their own profession. Academy for the deaf and dumb. A Scotch Highlander and an English sailor. Attacks on authours advantageous to them. Roslin Castle and Hawthornden. Dr. Johnson's Parody of Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs. Arrive at Cranston. Dr. Johnson's departure for London. Letters from Lord Hailes and Mr. Dempster to the authour. Letter from the Laird of Rasay to the authour. The authour's answer. Dr. Johnson's Advertisement, acknowledging a mistake in his Journey to the Western Islands. His letter to the Laird of Rasay. Letter from Sir William Forbes to the authour. Conclusion.