August 23.] Macpherson's FINGAL. 107 We spoke of Fingal'. Dr. Johnson said calmly, 'If the poems were really translated, they were certainly first written Unica flagrantes tunc sepelire salus. Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes; Non temere incusat tectæ putedinis [putredinis] ignes; Quæ spes, si fallax ardeat intus aqua? Nec doctas magno rixas ostentat hiatu, Jam secura suas foveant præcordia flammas, Extorsit Lachesi cultros, Pestique venenum Quis tandem arte nova domitam mitescere Pestem Has gelida exstingui non nisi morte putas? Te simul & mundum qui manet, ignis erit. J. LOCK, A.M. Ex. Aede Christi, Oxon. Boswell. 1 See ante, ii. 145, 340, 341. down. 108 Johnson fatigued by Gordon. [August 23. down. Let Mr. Macpherson deposite the manuscript in one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where there are people who can judge; and, if the professors certify the authenticity, then there will be an end of the controversy. If he does not take this obvious and easy method, he gives the best reason to doubt; considering too, how much is against it à priori.' We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander's garden, and saw his little grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair hand. It was agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet, benevolent man. Professor Macleod was brother to Macleod of Talisker, and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col. He gave me a letter to young Col. I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being again in motion. I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I fancied Dr. Johnson quite satisfied. But he owned to me that he was fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander's doing too much to entertain him. I said, it was all kindness. JOHNSON. True, Sir; but sensation is sensation.' BOSWELL. It is so: we feel pain equally from the surgeon's probe, as from the sword of the foe.' We visited two booksellers' shops, and could not find Arthur Johnston's Poems'. We went and sat near an hour at Mr. Riddoch's. He could not tell distinctly how much education at the college here costs, which disgusted Dr. 1 'One of its ornaments [i. e. of Marischal College] is the picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin Poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan.' Johnson's Works, ix. 12. Pope attacking Benson, who endeavoured to raise himself to fame by erecting monuments to Milton, and by printing editions of Johnston's version of the Psalms, introduces the Scotch Poet in the Dunciad: 'On two unequal crutches propped he came, Johnson wrote to Boswell for a copy of Johnston's Poems (ante, iii. 119) and for his likeness (ante, March 18, 1784). 2 Education is here of the same price as at St. Andrews, only the Johnson. August 24.] A landlady's admiration of Johnson. 109 Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should go to the inn, and not stay supper. They pressed us, but he was resolute. I saw Mr. Riddoch did not please him. He said to me, afterwards, 'Sir, he has no vigour in his talk.' But my friend should have considered that he himself was not in good humour; so that it was not easy to talk to his satisfaction. We sat contentedly at our inn. He then became merry, and observed how little we had either heard or said at Aberdeen: that the Aberdonians had not started a single mawkin (the Scottish word for hare) for us to pursue'. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24. We set out about eight in the morning, and breakfasted at Ellon. The landlady said to me, 'Is not this the great Doctor that is going about through the country?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Ay, (said she,) we heard of him. I made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's something great in his appearance: it is a pleasure to have such a man in one's house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I would have shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat for some time.' 'But, (said I,) he is not a doctor of physick.' 'Is he an oculist?' said the landlord. 'No, (said I,) he is only a very learned man.' LANDLORD. 'They say he is the greatest man in England, except Lord Mansfield'.' Dr. Johnson was highly entertained with this, and I do think he was pleased too. He said, 'I like the exception: to have called me the greatest man in England, would have been an unmeaning compliment: but the exception marked that the praise was in earnest and, in session is but from the 1st of November to the 1st of April' [five months instead of seven]. Piozzi Letters, i. 116. In his Works (ix. 14) Johnson by mistake gives eight months to the St. Andrews session. On p. 5 he gives it rightly as seven. 1 Beattie, as an Aberdeen professor, was grieved at this saying when he read the book. Why is it recorded?' he asked. For no reason that I can imagine, unless it be in order to return evil for good.' Forbes's Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 337. 'See ante, ii. 385, and iii. 237. Scotland. ΙΙΟ Dr. Major and Dr. Minor. [August 24. Scotland, the exception must be Lord Mansfield, or—Sir John Pringle' He told me a good story of Dr. Goldsmith. Graham, who wrote Telemachus, a Masque, was sitting one night with him and Dr. Johnson, and was half drunk. He rattled away to Dr. Johnson: You are a clever fellow, to be sure; but you cannot write an essay like Addison, or verses like the RAPE OF THE LOCK.' At last he said, 'Doctor, I should be happy to see you at Eaton'.' 'I shall be glad to wait on you,' answered Goldsmith. No, (said Graham,) 'tis not you I mean, Dr. Minor; 'tis Doctor Major, there.' Goldsmith was excessively hurt by this. He afterwards spoke of it himself. 'Graham, (said he,) is a fellow to make one commit suicide.' We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though, from its being just on the North-east Ocean, no trees will grow here, Lord Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent kitchengarden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable Charles Boyd, the earl's brother'. We were See ante, iii. 74, and post, Nov. 2. * See ante, i. 475. Johnson, no doubt, was reminded of this story by his desire to get this book. Later on (ante, iii. 119) he asked Boswell 'to be vigilant and get him Graham's Telemachus.' 3 ' I am sure I have related this story exactly as Dr. Johnson told it to me; but a friend who has often heard him tell it, informs me that he usually introduced a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. 'At last, Sir, Graham, having now got to about the pitch of looking at one man, and talking to another, said Doctor, &c.' 'What effect (Dr. Johnson used to add) this had on Goldsmith, who was as irascible as a hornet, may be easily conceived.' BOSWELL. • Graham was of Eton College. It was to Johnson that the invitation was due. When I was at the English Church at Aberdeen I happened to be espied by Lady Di. Middleton, whom I had sometime seen in London; she told what she had seen to Mr. Boyd, Lord Errol's brother, who wrote us an in conducted August 24.] Cumming the Quaker. III conducted into the house, and at the dining-room door were met by that gentleman, whom both of us at first took to be Lord Errol; but he soon corrected our mistake. My Lord was gone to dine in the neighbourhood, at an entertainment given by Mr. Irvine of Drum. Lady Errol received us politely, and was very attentive to us during the time of dinner. There was nobody at table but her ladyship, Mr. Boyd, and some of the children, their governour and governess. Mr. Boyd put Dr. Johnson in mind of having dined with him at Cumming the Quaker's', along with a Mr. Hall and Miss Williams': this was a bond of connection between them. For me, Mr. Boyd's acquaintance with my father was enough. After dinner, Lady Errol favoured us with a vitation to Lord Errol's house.' Piozzi Letters, i. 118. Boswell, perhaps, was not unwilling that the reader should think that it was to him that the compliment was paid. ''In 1745 my friend, Tom Cumming the Quaker, said he would not fight, but he would drive an ammunition cart.' Ante, April 28, 1783. Smollett (History of England, iv. 293) describes how, in 1758, the conquest of Senegal was due to this 'sensible Quaker,' 'this honest Quaker,' as he calls him, who not only conceived the project, but 'was concerned as a principal director and promoter of the expedition. If it was the first military scheme of any Quaker, let it be remembered it was also the first successful expedition of this war, and one of the first that ever was carried on according to the pacifick system of the Quakers, without the loss of a drop of blood on either side.' If there was no bloodshed, it was by good luck, for 'a regular engagement was warmly maintained on both sides.' It was a Quaker, then, who led the van in the long line of conquests which have made Chatham's name so famous. Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 185) says:- Dr. Johnson told me that Cummyns (sic) the famous Quaker, whose friendship he valued very highly, fell a sacrifice to the insults of the newspapers; having declared to him on his death-bed, that the pain of an anonymous letter, written in some of the common prints of the day, fastened on his heart, and threw him into the slow fever of which he died.' Mr. Seward records (Anec. ii. 395):-' Mr. Cummins, the celebrated American Quaker, said of Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham) :-"The first time I come to Mr. Pitt upon any business I find him extremely ignorant; the second time I come to him, I find him completely informed upon it."' |