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. learnt at those courts. "You are admitted | year, when a ship sailed from Portree for 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, "I 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. Macpherson'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 gentleman2 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." 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 He said, he was angry at Thrale, for sit- dispute happened while he was out of the ting at General Oglethorpe's without speak-room, saying "Stay till Dr. Johnson ing. He censured a man for degrading comes; say that to him!” himself to a nonentity. 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 tailors" "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 show how emigration catches, till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat. Mrs. McKinnon told me, that last 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 3. "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 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 Macleod'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 3 [See ante, p. 246, an, at least, ingenious solution of this enigma.-ED.] take a cold when (naming a certain | night. But when the wind failed, it was person1) comes." They said, he came on-resolved we should make for the Sound of ly in summer. JOHNSON. "That is out Mull, and land in the harbour of Tobermoof tenderness to you. Bad weather and rie. We kept near the five herring vessels he, at the same time, would be too much." for some time; but afterwards four of them Sunday, 3d October.-Joseph reported got before us, and one little wherry fell bethat the wind was still against us. Dr. hind us. When we got in full view of the Johnson said, "A wind, or not a wind? point of Ardnamurchan, the wind changed, that is the question;" for he can amuse and was directly against our getting into himself at times with a little play of words, the Sound. We were then obliged to tack, or rather sentences. I remember when he and get forward in that tedious manner. turned his cup at Aberbrothick, where we As we advanced, the storm grew greater, drank tea, he muttered, Claudite jam rivos, and the sea very rough. Col then began pueri. I must again and again apologize to talk of making for Egg, or Canna, or his to fastidious readers, for recording such own island. Our skipper said, he would minute particulars. They prove the scru- get us into the Sound. Having struggled pulous fidelity of my Journal. Dr. John- for this a good while in vain, he said, he son said it was a very exact picture of a would push forward till we were near the portion of his life. land of Mull, where we might cast anchor, and lie till the morning; for although, before this, there had been a good moon, and I had pretty distinctly seen not only the land of Mull, but up the sound, and the country of Morven as at one end of it, the night was now grown very dark. Our crew consisted of one M'Donald, our skipper, and two sailors, one of whom had but one eye; Mr. Simpson himself, Col, and Hugh M'Donald his servant, all helped. Simpson said, he would willingly go for Col, if young Col or his servant would undertake to pilot us to a harbour; but, as the island is low land, it was dangerous to run upon it in the dark. Col and his servant appeared a little dubious. The scheme of running for Canna seemed then to be embraced; but Canna was ten leagues off, all out of our way; and they were afraid to attempt the harbour of Egg. All these different plans were successively in agitation. The old skipper still tried to make for the land of Mull; but then it was considered that there was no place there where we could anchor in safety. Much time was lost in striving against the storm. At last it became so rough, and threatened to be so much worse, that Col and his servant took more courage, and said they would undertake to hit one of the harbours in Col. "Then let us run for it in God's name," said the skipper; and instantly we turned towards it. The little wherry which had fallen behind us had hard work. The master [had] begged that, if we made for Col, we should put out a light to him. Accordingly one of the sailors waved a glow ing peat for some time. The various dif ficulties that were started gave me a good deal of apprehension, from which I was relieved, when I found we were to run for a harbour before the wind. But my relief was of short duration; for I soon heard that our sails were very bad, and were in danger of being torn in peices, in which case we should be driven upon the rocky shore of Col. It was very dark, and there While we were chatting in the indolent style of men who were to stay here all this day at least, we were suddenly roused at being told that the wind was fair, that a little fleet of herring-busses was passing by for Mull, and that Mr. Simpson's vessel was about to sail. Hugh M'Donald, the skipper, came to us, and was impatient that we should get ready, which we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure and solemnity, repeated the observation of Epictetus, that, as man has the voyage of death before him,-whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the master's call; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready." He rode, and I and the other gentleman walked, about an English mile to the shore, where the vessel lay. Dr. Johnson said he should never forget Sky, and returned thanks for all civilities. We were carried to the vessel in a small boat which she had, and we set sail very briskly about one o'clock. I was much pleased with the motion for many hours. Dr. Johnson grew sick, and retired under cover, as it rained a good deal. I kept above, that I might have fresh air, and finding myself not affected by the motion of the vessel, I exulted in being a stout seaman, while Dr. Johnson was quite in a state of annihilation. But I was soon humbled; for after imagining that I could go with ease to America or the East Indies, I became very sick, but kept above board, though it rained hard. As we had been detained so long in Sky by bad weather, we gave up the scheme that Col had planned for us of visiting several islands, and contented ourselves with the prospect of seeing Mull, and Icolmkill and Inchkenneth, which lie near to it. Mr. Simpson was sanguine in his hopes for a while, the wind being fair for us. He said he would land us at Icolmkill that 1 [Sir Alexander Macdonald.-ED.] was a heavy and incessant rain. The sparks of the burning peat flew so much about, that I dreaded the vessel might take fire. Then, as Col was a sportsman, and had powder on board, I figured that we night be blown up. Simpson and he appeared a little frightened, which made me more so; and the perpetual talking, or rather shouting, which was carried on in Erse, alarmed me still more. A man is always suspicious of what is saying in an unknown tongue; and, if fear be his passion at the time, he grows more afraid. Our vessel often lay so much on one side, that I trembled lest she should overset, and indeed they told me afterwards, that they had run her sometimes to within an inch of the water, so anxious were they to make what haste they could before the night should be worse. I now saw what I never saw before, a prodigious sea, with immense billows coming upon a vessel, so as that it seemed hardly possible to escape. There was something grandly horrible in the sight. I am glad I have seen it once. Amidst all these terrifying circumstances, I endeavoured to compose my mind. It was not easy to do it; for all the stories that I had heard of the dangerous sailing among the Hebrides, which is proverbial, came full upon my recollection. When I thought of those who were dearest to me, and would suffer severely, should I be lost, I upbraided myself, as not having a sufficient cause for putting myself in such danger. Piety afforded me comfort; yet I was disturbed by the objections that have been made against a particular providence, and by the arguments of those who maintain that it is in vain to hope that the petitions of an individual, or even of congregations, can have any influence with the Deity; objections which have been often made, and which Dr. Hawkesworth has lately revived, in ["The general disapprobation with which the doctrines unhappily advanced by Hawkesworth in this preface were received deprived him," says the Biographical Dictionary, "of peace of mind and of life itself;" and Mrs. Piozzi says, (Anecdotes, p. 143) "Hawkesworth, the pious, the virtuous, and the wise, fell a lamented sacrifice to newspaper abuse; " and Mr. Malone, in a MS. note on that passage, in his copy of Piozzi's Anecdotes, (which Mr. Markland has been so good as to communicate to the Editor), states, that" after Hawkesworth had published Cooke's first voyage, he was attacked severely in the newspapers, by a writer who signed himself A Christian, for some tenets in that work, which so preyed on his spirits that he put an end to his life by a large dose of opium." There is reason, however, to hope that these accounts-both of the public indignation, and of Dr. Hawkesworth's consequent distress of mind-were exaggerated; for he was, between the publication of his preface his Preface to the Voyages to the South Seas; but Dr. Ogden's excellent doctrine on the efficacy of intercession prevailed. As It was half an hour after eleven before we set ourselves in the course for Col. I saw them all busy doing something, I asked Gol, with much earnestness, what I could do. He, with a happy readiness, put into my hand a rope, which was fixed to the top of one of the masts, and told me to hold it till he bade me pull. If I had considered the matter, I might have seen that this could not be of the least service; but his object was to keep me out of the way of those who were busy working the vessel, and at the same time to divert my fear, by employing me, and making me think that I was of use. Thus did I stand firm to my post, while the wind and rain beat upon me, always expecting a call to pull my rope. The man with one eye steered; old M'Donald, and Col and his servant, lay upon the forecastle, looking sharp out for the harbour. It was necessary to carry much cloth, as they termed it, that is to say, much sail, in order to keep the vessel off the shore of Col. This made violent plunging in a rough sea. At last they spied the harbour of Lochiern, and Col cried, "Thank God, we are safe!" We ran up till we were opposite to it, and soon afterwards we got into it, and cast anchor. Dr. Johnson had all this time been quiet and unconcerned. He had lain down on one of the beds, and having got free from sickness, was satisfied. The truth is, he knew nothing of the danger we were in 2; but, fearless and unconcerned, might have said, in the words which he has chosen for the motto to his "Rambler." in spring 1773, and his death in the November of the same year, elected a Director of the East India Company,-a distinction which, if the accounts beforementioned were true, it is not likely that he should have either solicited or obtained. One is anxious to believe that a life like Hawkesworth's, spent in advocating the interests of morality and religion, was not so miserably clouded at its very close.-ED.] 2 [He at least made light of it, in his letters to Mrs. Thrale. "After having been detained by storms many days at Skie, we left it, as we thought, with a fair wind; but a violent gust, which Boswell had a great mind to call a tempest, forced us into Col, an obscure island; on which nulla campis arbor æstivå, recreatur aura.'"-Letters, vol. i. p. 167.-ED.] Their risque, in a sea full of islands, was very considerable. Indeed the whole expedition was highly perilous, considering the season of the year, the precarious chance of getting seaworthy boats, and the ignorance of the Hebrideans, who, notwithstanding the opportunities, I may say the necessities of their situation, are very careless and unskilful sailors.-WALTER SCOTT.] Johnson was then mounted, and Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse. I said to Dr. Johnson, “I wish, sir, the Club saw you in this attitude 3." It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin. Captain M'Lean had but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very good haven to us. There was a blazing peat fire, and Mrs. M'Lean, daughter of the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the motion of the sea. Dr. Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a continuation of motion of the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm is over. Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes 1. Once, during the doubtful consultations, he asked whither we were going; and upon being told that it was not certain whether to Mul or Col, he cried, "Col for my money!" I now went down with Col and Mr. Simpson, to visit him. He was lying in philosophick tranquillity, with a greyhound of Col's at his back, keeping him warm. Col is quite the Juvenis qui gaudet canibus. He had, when we left Talisker, two greyhounds, two terriers, a pointer, and a large Newfoundland water-dog. He lost one of his terriers by the road, but had still five There were some books on the board dogs with him. I was very ill, and very de- which served as a chimney-piece. Dr. sirous to get to shore. When I was told Johnson took up" Burnet's History of his that we could not land that night, as the own Times." He said, "The first part of storm had now increased, I looked so mis- it is one of the most entertaining books in erably, as Col afterwards informed me, that the English language; it is quite dramatwhat Shakspeare has made the Frenchman ick: while he went about every where, saw say of the English soldiers, when scantily every where, and heard every where. By dieted," Piteous they will look, like drown- the first part, I mean so far as it appears ed mice!" might, I believe, have been well that Burnet himself was actually engaged applied to me. There was in the harbour, in what he has told; and this may be easibefore us, a Campbell-town vessel, the Bet-ly distinguished." Captain M'Lean centy, Kenneth Morison, master, taking insured Burnet, for his high praise of Lauderkelp, and bound for Ireland. We sent our boat to beg beds for two gentlemen, and that the master would send his boat, which was larger than ours. He accordingly did so, and Col and I were accommodated in his vessel till the morning. Monday, 4th October.-About eight o'clock we went in the boat to Mr. Simpson's vessel, and took in Dr. Johnson. He was quite well, though he had tasted nothing but a dish of tea since Saturday night. On our expressing some surprise at this, he said, that "when he lodged in the Temple, and had no regular system of life, he had fasted for two days at a time, during which he had gone about visiting, though not at the hours of dinner or supper; that he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread: that this was no intentional fasting 2, but happened just in the course of a literary life." There was a little miserable publick-house close upon the shore, to which we should have gone, had we landed last night: but this morning Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan M'Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquir- | ed a fortune in the East Indies, and taken a farm in Col. We had about an English mile to go to it. Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses, called here shelties, that were running wild on a heath, and catched one of them. We had a sad dle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a straw halter was put on its head. Dr. 1 For as the tempest drives, I shape my way.-FRANCIS. 2 [This was probably the same kind of unintentional fasting, as that which suggested to him, at an earlier period, the affecting epithet impransus, (ante, p. 53.)—WALTER SCOTT.] dale in a dedication, when he shows him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. "I do not think myself that a man should say in a dedication 4 what he could not say in a history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a great difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it professes to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man says in a dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer's pleading a cause, and reporting it." The day passed away pleasantly enough. The wind became fair for Mull in the evening, and Mr. Simpson resolved to sail next morning; but having been thrown into the island of Col, we were unwilling to leave it unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbell-town vessel would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we determined to stay. This curious exhibition may perhaps remind some of my readers of the ludicrous lines made, during Sir Robert Walpole's administration, on Mr. George (afterwards Lord) Lyttelton, though the figures of the two personages must be allowed to be very different · "But who is this astride the pony, Dat be de great orátor, Littletony."-BOSWELL. [See ante, p. 235, n.-ED.] Tuesday, 5th October.-I rose, and wrote | irreligious part ;" and proceeded to talk of Leibnitz's controversy with Clarke, calling Leibnitz a great man. JOHNSON. "Why, sir, Leibnitz persisted in affirming that Newton called space sensorium numinis, notwithstanding he was corrected, and desired to observe that Newton's words were QUASI sensorium numinis. No, sir; Leibnitz was as paltry a fellow as I know. Out of respect to Queen Caroline, who patronised him, Clarke treated him too well." my Journal till about nine, and then went to Dr. Johnson, who sat up in bed and talked and laughed. I said, it was curious to look back ten years, to the time when we first thought of visiting the Hebrides. How distant and improbable the scheme then appeared! Yet here we were actually among them. "Sir," said he, "people may come to do any thing almost, by talking of it. I really believe I could talk myself into building a house upon island Isa, though I should probably never come back again to see it. I could easily persuade Reynolds to do it; and there would be no great sin in persuading him to do it. Sir, he would reason thus: What will it cost me to be there once in two or three summers? Why, perhaps, five hundred pounds; and what is that, in comparison of having a fine retreat, to which a man can go, or to which he can send a friend?' He would never find out that he may have this within twenty miles of London. Then I would tell him, that he may marry one of the Miss Macleods, a lady of great family. Sir, it is surprising how people will go to a distance for what they may have at home, I knew a lady who came up from Lincolnshire to Knightsbridge with one of her daughters, and gave five guineas a week for a lodging and aing to maintain his own argument, withwarm bath; that is, mere warm water. That, you know, could not be had in Lincolnshire ! She said, it was made either too hot or too cold there." During the time that Dr. Johnson was thus going on, the old minister was standing with his back to the fire, cresting up erect, pulling down the front of his periwig, and talking what a great man Leibnitz was. To give an idea of the scene would require a page with two columns; but it ought rather to be represented by two good players. The old gentleman said, Clarke was very wicked, for going so much into the Arian system. "I will not say he was wicked;" said Dr. Johnson; "he might be mistaken." M'LEAN. " 'He was wicked, to shut his eyes against the Scriptures; and worthy men in England have since confuted him to all intents and purposes." JOHNSON. "I know not who has confuted him to all intents and purposes." Here again there was a double talking, each continu out hearing exactly what the other said. ent with that majestick power of mind which he possesses, and which produces such noble effects. A lofty oak will not bend like a supple willow. I regretted that Dr. Johnson did not practise the art of accommodating himself to different sorts of people. Had he been After breakfast, Dr. Johnson and I, and softer with this venerable old man, we might Joseph, mounted horses, and Col and the have had more conversation; but his forcaptain walked with us about a short mile cible spirit, and impetuosity of manner, across the island. We paid a visit to the may be said to spare neither sex nor age?. Rev. Mr. Hector M'Lean. His parish I have seen even Mrs. Thrale stunned; consists of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi. but I have often maintained, that it is betHe was about seventy-seven years of age, ter he should retain his own manner. Plia decent ecclesiastick, dressed in a full suitability of address I conceive to be inconsistof black clothes, and a black wig. He appeared like a Dutch pastor, or one of the "Assembly of Divines" at Westminster. Dr. Johnson observed to me afterwards, "that he was a fine old man, and was as well-dressed, and had as much dignity in his appearance, as the dean of a cathedral." We were told that he had a valuable library, though but poor accommodation for it, being obliged to keep his books in large chests. It was curious to see him and Dr. Johnson together. Neither of them heard very distinctly; so each of them talked in his own way, and at the same time. Mr. M'Lean said, he had a confutation of Bayle, by Leibnitz. JOHNSON. “A confutation of Bayle, sir! What part of Bayle do you mean? The greatest part of his writings is not confutable: it is historical and critical." Mr. M'Lean said, "the ' [Mrs. Langton, the mother of his friend.ED.] He told me afterwards, he liked firmness in an old man, and was pleased to see Mr. M'Lean so orthodox. "At his age, it is too late for a man to be asking himself questions as to his belief." We rode to the northern part of the isl and, where we saw the ruins of a church or chapel. We then proceeded to a place called Grissipol, or the rough pool. At Grissipol we found a good farm-house, belonging to the Laird of Col, and possess 2 [If Dr. Johnson had not been in the habit of reading the Journal, we should, instead of this remonstrance aimed indirectly at him, have here had the details of the harshness which Boswell regrets, and which must have been pretty severe to remind Boswell that his violence "spared neither age nor sex."-ED.] |