Life of Johnson Volume V Part 3

The professors entertained us with a very good dinner. Present: Murison, Shaw, Cook, Hill, Haddo, Watson, Flint, Brown. I observed, that I wondered to see him eat so well, after viewing so many sorrowful scenes of ruined religious magnificence. 'Why, said he, I am not sorry, after seeing these gentlemen; for they are not sorry.' Murison said, all sorrow was bad, as it was murmuring against the dispensations of Providence. JOHNSON. 'Sir, sorrow is inherent in humanity. As you cannot judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four, so, when comparing a worse present state with a better which is past, you cannot but feel sorrow.[194] It is not cured by reason, but by the incursion of present objects, which wear out the past. You need not murmur, though you are sorry.' MURISON. 'But St. Paul says, "I have learnt, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content."' JOHNSON.

'Sir, that relates to riches and poverty; for we see St. Paul, when he had a thorn in the flesh, prayed earnestly to have it removed; and then he could not be content.' Murison, thus refuted, tried to be smart, and drank to Dr. Johnson, 'Long may you lecture!' Dr. Johnson afterwards, speaking of his not drinking wine, said, 'The Doctor spoke of _lecturing_ (looking to him). I give all these lectures on water.'

He defended requiring subscription in those admitted to universities, thus: 'As all who come into the country must obey the king, so all who come into an university must be of the church[195].'

And here I must do Dr. Johnson the justice to contradict a very absurd and ill-natured story, as to what pa.s.sed at St. Andrews. It has been circulated, that, after grace was said in English, in the usual manner, he with the greatest marks of contempt, as if he had held it to be no grace in an university, would not sit down till he had said grace aloud in Latin. This would have been an insult indeed to the gentlemen who were entertaining us. But the truth was precisely thus. In the course of conversation at dinner, Dr. Johnson, in very good humour, said, 'I should have expected to have heard a Latin grace, among so many learned men: we had always a Latin grace at Oxford. I believe I can repeat it.'[196] Which he did, as giving the learned men in one place a specimen of what was done by the learned men in another place.

We went and saw the church, in which is Archbishop Sharp's monument.[197] I was struck with the same kind of feelings with which the churches of Italy impressed me. I was much pleased, to see Dr.

Johnson actually in St. Andrews, of which we had talked so long.

Professor Haddo was with us this afternoon, along with Dr. Watson. We looked at St. Salvador's College. The rooms for students seemed very commodious, and Dr. Johnson said, the chapel was the neatest place of wors.h.i.+p he had seen. The key of the library could not be found; for it seems Professor Hill, who was out of town, had taken it with him. Dr.

Johnson told a joke he had heard of a monastery abroad, where the key of the library could never be found.

It was somewhat dispiriting, to see this ancient archiepiscopal city now sadly deserted[198]. We saw in one of its streets a remarkable proof of liberal toleration; a nonjuring clergyman, strutting about in his canonicals, with a jolly countenance and a round belly, like a well-fed monk.

We observed two occupations united in the same person, who had hung out two sign-posts. Upon one was, 'James Hood, White Iron Smith' (_i.e._ Tin-plate Worker). Upon another, 'The Art of Fencing taught, by James Hood.'--Upon this last were painted some trees, and two men fencing, one of whom had hit the other in the eye, to shew his great dexterity; so that the art was well taught. JOHNSON. 'Were I studying here, I should go and take a lesson. I remember _Hope_, in his book on this art[199], says, "the Scotch are very good fencers."'

We returned to the inn, where we had been entertained at dinner, and drank tea in company with some of the Professors, of whose civilities I beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgement to the honourable testimony of Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_[200].

We talked of composition, which was a favourite topick of Dr. Watson's, who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetorick. JOHNSON. 'I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed than in accuracy[201].' WATSON. 'I own I am for much attention to accuracy in composing, lest one should get bad habits of doing it in a slovenly manner.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you are confounding _doing_ inaccurately with the _necessity_ of doing inaccurately. A man knows when his composition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But, if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with difficulty, upon all occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not like to do that which is not done easily; and, at any rate, more time is consumed in a small matter than ought to be.' WATSON. 'Dr. Hugh Blair has taken a week to compose a sermon.' JOHNSON. 'Then, Sir, that is for want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am insisting one should acquire.' WATSON. 'Blair was not composing all the week, but only such hours as he found himself disposed for composition.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing. If I say I took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have composed about forty sermons[202]. I have begun a sermon after dinner, and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the _Life of Savage_ at a sitting; but then I sat up all night. I have also written six sheets in a day of translation from the French[203].' BOSWELL. 'We have all observed how one man dresses himself slowly, and another fast.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir: it is wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing; taking up a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again.

Every one should get the habit of doing it quickly. I would say to a young divine, "Here is your text; let me see how soon you can make a sermon." Then I'd say, "Let me see how much better you can make it."

Thus I should see both his powers and his judgement.'

We all went to Dr. Watson's to supper. Miss Sharp, great grandchild of Archbishop Sharp, was there; as was Mr. Craig, the ingenious architect of the new town of Edinburgh[204] and nephew of Thomson, to whom Dr.

Johnson has since done so much justice, in his _Lives of the Poets_.

We talked of memory, and its various modes. JOHNSON. 'Memory will play strange tricks. One sometimes loses a single word. I once lost _fugaces_ in the Ode _Posthume, Posthume_[205].' I mentioned to him, that a worthy gentleman of my acquaintance actually forgot his own name. JOHNSON.

'Sir, that was a morbid oblivion.'

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20.

Dr. Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out my _Ogden on Prayer_, and read some of it to the company. Dr. Johnson praised him. 'Abernethy[206], (said he,) allows only of a physical effect of prayer upon the mind, which may be produced many ways, as well as by prayer; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth, we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of prayer, whether offered up by individuals, or by a.s.semblies; and Revelation has told us, it will be effectual.' I said, 'Leechman seemed to incline to Abernethy's doctrine.' Dr. Watson observed, that Leechman meant to shew, that, even admitting no effect to be produced by prayer, respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds[207]. He had given only a part of his system. Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole.

Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sunday[208]. 'It should be different (he observed) from another day. People may walk, but not throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no levity[209].'

We went and saw Colonel Nairne's garden and grotto. Here was a fine old plane tree. Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this and another large tree in the county. This a.s.sertion was an excellent cue for Dr.

Johnson, who laughed enormously, calling to me to hear it. He had expatiated to me on the nakedness of that part of Scotland which he had seen. His _Journey_ has been violently abused, for what he has said upon this subject. But let it be considered, that, when Dr. Johnson talks of trees, he means trees of good size, such as he was accustomed to see in England; and of these there are certainly very few upon the _eastern coast_ of Scotland. Besides, he said, that he meant to give only a map of the road; and let any traveller observe how many trees, which deserve the name, he can see from the road from Berwick to Aberdeen[210]. Had Dr. Johnson said, 'there are _no_ trees' upon this line, he would have said what is colloquially true; because, by no trees, in common speech, we mean few. When he is particular in counting, he may be attacked. I know not how Colonel Nairne came to say there were but _two_ large trees in the county of Fife. I did not perceive that he smiled. There are certainly not a great many; but I could have shewn him more than two at _Balmuto_, from whence my ancestors came, and which now belongs to a branch of my family[211].

The grotto was ingeniously constructed. In the front of it were petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other tree. Dr. Johnson said, 'Scotland has no right to boast of this grotto; it is owing to personal merit. I never denied personal merit to many of you.' Professor Shaw said to me, as we walked, 'This is a wonderful man; he is master of every subject he handles.' Dr. Watson allowed him a very strong understanding, but wondered at his total inattention to established manners, as he came from London.

I have not preserved in my Journal, any of the conversation which pa.s.sed between Dr. Johnson and Professor Shaw; but I recollect Dr. Johnson said to me afterwards, 'I took much to Shaw.'

We left St. Andrews about noon, and some miles from it observing, at _Leuchars_, a church with an old tower, we stopped to look at it. The _manse_, as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by. I waited on the minister, mentioned our names, and begged he would tell us what he knew about it. He was a very civil old man; but could only inform us, that it was supposed to have stood eight hundred years. He told us, there was a colony of Danes in his parish[212]; that they had landed at a remote period of time, and still remained a distinct people.

Dr. Johnson shrewdly inquired whether they had brought women with them.

We were not satisfied as to this colony.

We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, the last of which Dr. Johnson has celebrated in his _Journey_[213]. Upon the road we talked of the Roman Catholick faith. He mentioned (I think) Tillotson's argument against transubstantiation: 'That we are as sure we see bread and wine only, as that we read in the Bible the text on which that false doctrine is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both[214].' 'If, (he added,) G.o.d had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he speaks literally, when he says, "This is my body[215]."' BOSWELL. 'But what do you say, Sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the church upon this point?' JOHNSON. 'Tradition, Sir, has no place, where the Scriptures are plain; and tradition cannot persuade a man into a belief of transubstantiation. Able men, indeed, have _said_ they believed it.'

This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr. Johnson upon it: nor shall I now enter upon a disquisition concerning the import of those words uttered by our Saviour[216], which had such an effect upon many of his disciples, that they 'went back, and walked no more with him.' The Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of England, maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere commemoration of the death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of bread and wine.

Dr. Johnson put me in mind, that, at St. Andrews, I had defended my profession very well, when the question had again been started, Whether a lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers him a fee. 'Sir, (said I,) it was with your arguments against Sir William Forbes[217]: but it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliah.'

He said, our judges had not gone deep in the question concerning literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the mind is exercised. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; a man's repeating it no more makes it his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives home.' I said, printing an abridgement of a work was allowed, which was only cutting the horns and tail off the cow. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; 'tis making the cow have a calf[218].'

About eleven at night we arrived at Montrose. We found but a sorry inn, where I myself saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his fingers into Dr. Johnson's lemonade, for which he called him 'Rascal!' It put me in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet[219]. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr.

Burney's _History of Musick_ had then been advertised. I asked if this was not unlucky: would not they hurt one another? JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.

They will do good to one another. Some will buy the one, some the other, and compare them; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the books are sold.'

He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that he might be sure to have his lemonade. 'Sir, (said he,) I do not wish to be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it is very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he could not entertain you. To an inferior, it is oppressive; to a superior, it is insolent.'

Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly experienced, he smiled and said, 'It is true, Sir[220]. Tom Tyers, (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory[221],) Tom Tyers described me the best. He once said to me, "Sir, you are like a ghost: you never speak till you are spoken to[222]."'

SAt.u.r.dAY, AUGUST 31.

Neither the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the established minister, nor the Rev. Mr.

Spooner, the episcopal minister, were in town. Before breakfast, we went and saw the town-hall, where is a good dancing-room, and other rooms for tea-drinking. The appearance of the town from it is very well; but many of the houses are built with their ends to the street, which looks awkward. When we came down from it, I met Mr. Gleg, a merchant here. He went with us to see the English chapel. It is situated on a pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It is really an elegant building, both within and without. The organ is adorned with green and gold. Dr.

Johnson gave a s.h.i.+lling extraordinary to the clerk, saying, 'He belongs to an honest church[223].' I put him in mind, that episcopals were but _dissenters_ here; they were only _tolerated_. 'Sir, (said he,) we are here, as Christians in Turkey.' He afterwards went into an apothecary's shop, and ordered some medicine for himself, and wrote the prescription in technical characters. The boy took him for a physician[224].

I doubted much which road to take, whether to go by the coast, or by Laurence Kirk and Monboddo. I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other[225]; yet I was unwilling not to visit his Lords.h.i.+p; and was also curious to see them together[226]. I mentioned my doubts to Dr.

Johnson, who said, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo[227]. I therefore sent Joseph forward with the following note:--

'Montrose, August 21.

'My Dear Lord,

'Thus far I am come with Mr. Samuel Johnson. We must be at Aberdeen to-night. I know you do not admire him so much as I do; but I cannot be in this country without making you a bow at your old place, as I do not know if I may again have an opportunity of seeing Monboddo. Besides, Mr.

Johnson says, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo.

I have sent forward my servant, that we may know if your lords.h.i.+p be at home.

'I am ever, my dear lord,

'Most sincerely yours,

'JAMES BOSWELL.'

As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we had the Grampion hills in our view, and some good land around us, but void of trees and hedges. Dr.

Johnson has said ludicrously, in his _Journey_, that the _hedges_ were of _stone_[228]; for, instead of the verdant _thorn_ to refresh the eye, we found the bare _wall_ or _dike_ intersecting the prospect. He observed, that it was wonderful to see a country so divested, so denuded of trees.

We stopped at Laurence Kirk[229], where our great Grammarian, Ruddiman[230], was once schoolmaster. We respectfully remembered that excellent man and eminent scholar, by whose labours a knowledge of the Latin language will be preserved in Scotland, if it shall be preserved at all. Lord Gardenston[231], one of our judges, collected money to raise a monument to him at this place, which I hope will be well executed[232]. I know my father gave five guineas towards it. Lord Gardenston is the proprietor of Laurence Kirk, and has encouraged the building of a manufacturing village, of which he is exceedingly fond, and has written a pamphlet upon it[233], as if he had founded Thebes; in which, however, there are many useful precepts strongly expressed. The village seemed to be irregularly built, some of the houses being of clay, some of brick, and some of brick and stone. Dr. Johnson observed, they thatched well here. I was a little acquainted with Mr. Forbes, the minister of the parish. I sent to inform him that a gentleman desired to see him. He returned for answer, 'that he would not come to a stranger.' I then gave my name, and he came. I remonstrated to him for not coming to a stranger; and, by presenting him to Dr. Johnson, proved to him what a stranger might sometimes be. His Bible inculcates, 'be not forgetful to entertain strangers,' and mentions the same motive[234]. He defended himself by saying, 'He had once come to a stranger who sent for him; and he found him "_a little worth person!_"'

Dr. Johnson insisted on stopping at the inn, as I told him that Lord Gardenston had furnished it with a collection of books, that travellers might have entertainment for the mind, as well as the body. He praised the design, but wished there had been more books, and those better chosen.

About a mile from Monboddo, where you turn off the road, Joseph was waiting to tell us my lord expected us to dinner. We drove over a wild moor. It rained, and the scene was somewhat dreary. Dr. Johnson repeated, with solemn emphasis, Macbeth's speech on meeting the witches.

As we travelled on, he told me, 'Sir, you got into our club by doing what a man can do[235]. Several of the members wished to keep you out.

Burke told me, he doubted if you were fit for it: but, now you are in, none of them are sorry. Burke says, that you have so much good humour naturally, it is scarce a virtue[236].' BOSWELL. 'They were afraid of you, Sir, as it was you who proposed me.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they knew, that if they refused you, they'd probably never have got in another. I'd have kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you.' BOSWELL.