"I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to consider me as, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." 1 It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours; but I cannot refrain from publishing such praise as I received from such a man as Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after the perusal of the original manuscript of my Journal. SIR W. FORBES TO BOSWELL. "Edinburgh, March 7. 1777. "MY DEAR SIR, I ought to have thanked you sooner for your very obliging letter, and for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you have sent me." Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen. "They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure that an ordinary observer would become so well acquainted either with Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by a personal intercourse, as by a perusal of your Journal. I am very truly, dear Sir, &c., WILLIAM FORBES." When I consider how many of the persons mentioned in this Tour are now gone to "that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveller returns,” I feel an impression at once awful and tender.- Requiescant in pace! It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends, that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of conversations is not a desirable member of society. I repeat the answer which I made to that friend: "Few, very few, need be afraid that their sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I would take the trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, 1 Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with Dr. Johnson, at his house in London. BOSWELL. Johnson gives Mrs. Thrale the following account of this affair: "I have offended; and what is stranger, have justly offended, the nation of Rasay. If they could come hither, they would be as fierce as the Americans. Rasay has written to Boswell an account of the injury done him by representing his house as subordinate to that of Dunvegan. Boswell has his letter, and, I believe, copied my answer. I have appeased him, if a degraded chief can possibly be appeased: but it will be thirteen days-days of resentment and discontentbefore my recantation can reach him. Many a dirk will imagination, during that interval, fix in my heart. I really question if at this time my life would not be in danger, if distance did not secure it. Boswell will find his way to Streatham before he goes, and will detail this great affair."Letters, 12th May, 1775.- CROKER. 2 In justice both to Sir William Forbes and myself, it is proper to mention, that the papers which were submitted to his perusal contained only an account of our Tour from the time that Dr. Johnson and I set out from Edinburgh, and consequently did not contain the eulogium on Sir William Forbes (p. 271.), which he never saw till this book appeared in print; nor did he even know, when he wrote the above letter, that this Journal was to be published. - BOSWELL. because I have collected such fruits as the Nonpareil and the BON CHRETIEN?" On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised. To it we owe all those interesting apophthegms and memorabilia of the ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus have transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining collections which the French have made under the title of " Ana," affixed to some celebrated name. To it we owe the "TableTalk" of Selden, the "Conversation" between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, Spence's "Anecdotes of Pope," and other valuable remains in our own language. How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into the company of Shakspeare and of Dryden, of whom we know scarcely any thing but their admirable writings! What pleasure would it have given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteristic manners, their modes of composition, and their genuine opinion of preceding writers and of their contemporaries! All these are now irrecoverably lost. Considering how many of the strongest and most brilliant effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities enough to register their conversation: "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Nocte, carent quia vate sacro." 3 They whose inferior exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus asso ciated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being appended to an illustrious character. Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have suppressed every thing which I thought could really hurt any one now living. 3"Before great Agamemnon reign'd, Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave, 4 Having found, on a revision of the first edition of this work, that, notwithstanding my best care, a few observations had escaped me, which arose from the instant impression, the publication of which might perhaps be considered as passing the bounds of a strict decorum, l'immediately ordered that they should be omitted in the subsequent editions. I was pleased to find that they did not amount in the whole to a page. If any of the same kind are yet left, it is owing to inadvertence alone, no man being more unwilling to give pain to others than I am. A contemptible scribbler, of what I have learned no more than that, after having disgraced and deserted the clerical character, he picks up in London a scanty livelihood by scurrilous lampoons under a feigned name, has impudently and falsely asserted that the passages omitted were defamatory, and that the omission was not voluntary, but compulsory. The last insinuation I took the trouble publicly to disprove; yet, like one of Pope's durces. he persevered in " the lie o'erthrown." As to the charge of. defamation, there is an obvious and certain mode of refuting Vanity and self-conceit indeed may sometimes suffer. With respect to what is related, I considered it my duty to "extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice;" and with those lighter strokes of Dr. Johnson's satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they who are the subject of them have good sense and good temper enough not to be displeased. I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a Tour, which has been the means of preserving so much of the enlightened and instructive conversation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary, that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear. His stay in Scotland was from the 18th of August, on which day he arrived, till the 22d of November, when he set out on his return to London; and I believe ninety-four days were never passed by any man in a more vigorous exertion. He came by the way of Berwickupon-Tweed to Edinburgh, where he remained a few days, and then went by St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Fort Augustus, to the Hebrides, to visit which was the principal object he had in view. He visited the isles of Sky, Rasay, Col, Mull, Inchkenneth, and Icolmkill. He travelled through Argyleshire by Inverary, and from thence by Lochlomond and Dunbarton to Glasgow, then by Loudon to Auchinleck in Ayrshire, the seat of my family, and then by Hamilton, back to Edinburgh, where he again spent some time. He thus saw the four universities of Scotland, its three principal cities, and as much of it. Any person who thinks it worth while to compare one edition with the other will find that the passages omitted were not in the least degree of that nature, but exactly such as I have represented them in the former part of this note, the hasty effusion of momentary feelings which the delicacy of politeness should have suppressed. - BOSWELL. I believe the scribbler alluded to was William Thompson, author of The Man in the Moon, and other satirical novels, half clever, half crazy kind of works. He was once a member of the kirk of Scotland, but being deposed by the presbytery of Auchterarder, became an author of all works in London, and could seldom finish a work, on whatever subject, without giving a slap by the way to that same presbytery with the unpronounceable name. Boswell's denial of having retracted upon compulsion refutes what was said by Peter Pindar and others about "M'Donald's rage."- WALTER SCOTT. See antè, p. 312. n. 1. et seq.-C. the Highland and insular life as was sufficient for his philosophical contemplation. I had the pleasure of accompanying him during the whole of his journey. He was respectfully entertained by the great, the learned, and the elegant, wherever he went; nor was he less delighted with the hospitality which he experienced in humbler life.' His various adventures, and the force and vivacity of his mind, as exercised during this peregrination, upon innumerable topics, have been faithfully, and to the best of my abilities, displayed in my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," to which, as the public has been pleased to honour it by a very extensive circulation, I beg leave to refer3, as to a separate and remarkable portion of his life, which may be there seen in detail, and which exhibits as striking a view of his powers in conversation, as his works do of his excellence in writing. Nor can I deny to myself the very flattering gratification of inserting here the character which my friend Mr. Courtenay has been pleased to give of that work: "With Reynolds' pencil, vivid, bold, and true, He was long remembered amongst the lower orders of Hebrideans by the title of the Sassenach More, the big Englishman. WALTER SCOTT. 2 A collation of the original MS., lately in the possession of the Rev. Archdeacon Buller, of Shrewsbury, but now in the British Museum, has confirmed some conjectural emendations which I had made on Mr. Duppa's text, and has supplied other corrections and additions.- CROKER, 1835. 3 The celebrated Flora Macdonald. - COURTENAY. 4 In this he showed a very acute penetration. My wife paid him the most assiduous and respectful attention while he was our guest; so that I wonder how he discovered her wishing for his departure. The truth is, that his regular hours and uncouth habits, such as turning the candles with their heads downwards, when they did not burn bright enough, and letting the wax drop upon the carpet, could not but be disagreeable to a lady. Besides, she had not that BOSWELL TO JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, Dec. 2. 1773. "You shall have what information I can procure as to the order of the clans. A gentle man of the name of Grant tells me that there is no settled order among them; and he says that the Macdonalds were not placed upon the right of the army at Culloden; the Stuarts were. I shall, however, examine witnesses of every name that I can find here. Dr. Webster shall be quickened too. I like your little memorandums; they are symptoms of your being in earnest with your book of northern travels. "Your box shall be sent next week by sea. You will find in it some pieces of the broom-bush which you saw growing on the old castle of Auchinleck. The wood has a curious appearance when sawn You may either have a little writingstandish made of it, or get it formed into boards for a treatise on witchcraft, by way of a suitable binding." across. BOSWELL TO JOHNSON. Edinburgh, Dec. 18. 1773. "You promised me an inscription for a print to be taken from an historical picture of Mary Queen of Scots being forced to resign her crown, which Mr. Hamilton at Rome has painted for me, 5 The two following have been sent to me:"Maria Scotorum Regina meliori seculo digna, jus regium civibus seditiosis invita resignat.' "Cives seditiosi Mariam Scotorum Reginam sese muneri abdicare invitam cogunt.' "Be so good as to read the passage in Robertson, and see if you cannot give me a better inscription. I must have it both in Latin and English; so, if you should not give me another Latin one, you high admiration of him which was felt by most of those who knew him; and, what was very natural to a female mind, she thought he had too much influence over her husband. She once, in a little warmth, made, with more point than justice, this remark upon that subject: "I have seen many a bear led by a man; but I never before saw a man led by a bear." - BOSWELL. The reader will, however, hereafter see that the repetition of this observation as to Mrs. Boswell's feelings towards him was made more frequently and pertinaciously, than is quite consistent with good taste and good manners. -CROKER. 1 Sir Alexander Gordon, one of the professors at Aberdeen. -BOSWELL. 2 This was a box containing a number of curious things which he had picked up in Scotland, particularly some hornspoons. BOSWELL. 3 The Macdonalds always laid claim to be placed on the right of the whole clans, and those of that tribe assign the breach of this order at Culloden as one cause of the loss of the day. The Macdonalds, placed on the left wing, refused to charge, and positively left the field unassailed and unbroken. Lord George Murray in vain endeavoured to urge them on by saying, that their behavour would make the left the right, and that he himself would take the name of Macdonald. On this subject there are some curious notices, in a very interesting journal written by one of the seven men of Moidart, as they were called - Macdonalds of the Clanronald will at least choose the best of these two, and send a translation of it." 66 His humane forgiving disposition was put to a pretty strong test on his return to London, by a liberty which Mr. Thomas Davies had taken with him in his absence, which was, to publish two volumes entitled "Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces," which he advertised in the newspapers, By the Author of the Rambler." In this collection, several of Dr. Johnson's acknowledged writings, several of his anonymous performances, and some which he had written for others, were inserted; but there were also some in which he had no concern whatever. He was at first very angry, as he had good reason to be. But, upon consideration of his poor friend's narrow circumstances, and that he had only a little profit in view, and meant no harm, he soon relented, and continued his kindness to him as formerly.6 In the course of his self-examination with retrospect to this year, he seems to have been much dejected; for he says, 1st January, 1774: "This year has passed with so little improvement, that I doubt whether I have not rather impaired than increased my learning." And yet we have seen how he read, and we know how he talked, during that period. "Jan. 11. 1774. [JOHNSON TO MRS. MONTAGU. "MADAM, Having committed one fault by inadvertency, I will not commit another by sullen ness. When I had the honour of your card, I could not comply with your invitation, and must now suffer the shame of confessing that the necessity of an answer did not come into my mind. "This omission, Madam, you may easily excuse, as the consciousness of your own character must secure you from suspecting that the favour of your notice can never miss a suitable return, but from ignorance or thoughtlessness; and to be ignorant of your eminence is not easy, but to him who lives out of the reach of the public voice. — I am, Madam, your most obedient and most humble servant, Montagu MS. SAM. JOHNSON."] 66 sept, who were the first who declared for the prince at his landing in their chief's country. It is in the Lockhart papers, vol. ii. p. 510.- WALTER SCOTT. The Rev. Dr. Alexander Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, a man of distinguished abilities, who had promised him information concerning the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. - BOSWELL. See antè, p. 279.-C. 5 Gavin Hamilton, long a resident in Rome, and a painter | of some reputation in his day. He died in 1797. The picture which Boswell speaks of was exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1776, and is described in the catalogue as "No. 124. Gavin Hamilton, Rome; Mary Queen of Scots resigning her Crown." P. CUNNINGHAM. 6" When Davies printed the Fugitive Pieces without his knowledge or consent; How,' said I, would Pope have raved, had he been served so?" We should never,' replied Johnson, have heard the last on't, to be sure; but then Pope was a narrow man. I will, however,' added he, 'storm and bluster myself a little this time; so went to London in all the wrath he could muster up. At his return, 1 asked how the affair ended:- Why,' said he, I was a fierce fellow, and pretended to be very angry, and Thomas was a good-natured fellow, and pretended to be very sorry; so there the matter ended. I believe the dog loves me dearly. Mr. Thrale (turning round to my husband), what shall you and I do that is good for Tom Davies? We will do something for him, to be sure.'"- Piozzi. — CROKER. He was now seriously engaged in writing an account of our travels in the Hebrides, in consequence of which I had the pleasure of a more frequent correspondence with him. JOHNSON TO BOSWELL. "Jan. 29. 1774. "DEAR SIR,- My operations have been hindered by a cough; at least I flatter myself, that if my cough had not come, I should have been further advanced. But I have had no intelligence from Dr. Webster, nor from the excise-office, nor from you. No account of the little borough. Nothing of the Erse language. I have yet heard nothing of my box. You must make haste and gather me all you can; and do it quickly, or I will and shall do without it. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and tell her I do not love her the less for wishing me away. I gave her trouble enough, and shall be glad, in recompense, to give her any pleasure. "I would send some porter into the Hebrides, if I knew which way it could be got to my kind friends there. Inquire, and let me know. "Make my compliments to all the doctors of Edinburgh, and to all my friends, from one end of Scotland to the other. "Write to me, and send me what intelligence you can; and if any thing is too bulky for the post, let me have it by the carrier. I do not like trusting winds and waves. I am, dear Sir, your most, &c. "SAM JOHNSON." JOHNSON TO BOSWELL. "London, Feb. 7. 1774. “DEAR SIR, — In a day or two after I had written the last discontented letter, I received my box, which was very welcome. But still I must entreat you to hasten Dr. Webster, and continue to pick up what you can that may be useful. "Mr. Oglethorpe was with me this morning; you know his errand. He was not unwelcome. "Tell Mrs. Boswell that my good intentions towards her still continue. I should be glad to do any thing that would either benefit or please her. Chambers is not yet gone; but so hurried, or so negligent, or so proud, that I rarely see him. I have indeed, for some weeks past, been very ill of a cold and cough, and have been at Mrs. Thrale's, that I might be taken care of. I am much better: nove redeunt in prælia vires; but I am yet tender, and easily disordered. How happy it was that neither of us were ill in the Hebrides. The question of literary property is this day before the Lords. Murphy drew up the appellants' case, that is, the plea against the perpetual right. I have not seen it, nor heard the decision. I would not have the right perpetual. "I will write to you as any thing occurs, and do 1 The ancient burgh of Prestick, in Ayrshire. - BOSWELL. * The question was not decided till Feb. 22. In consequence of this decision, the English booksellers have now no other security for any literary purchase they may make, but the statute of the 8th of Queen Anne, which secures to the author's assigns an exclusive property for fourteen years, to revert again to the author, and vest in him for fourteen years more."- Annual Register, 1774.-CROKER. 3 See the Catalogue of Mr. Steevens's Library, No. 265.: -"Neandri (Mich.) Opus aureum. Gr. et Lat. 2 tom. 4to. Corio turcico, foliis deauratis. Lipsiæ, 1577." This was doubtless the book lent by Steevens to Johnson. MALONE. "March 5. 1774. "DEAR SIR, - Dr. Webster's informations were much less exact, and much less determinate, than I expected: they are, indeed, much less positive than, if he can trust his own book which he laid before me, he is able to give. But I believe it will always be found that he who calls much for information will advance his work but slowly. "I am, however, obliged to you, dear Sir, for your endeavours to help me; and hope, that between us something will sometime be done, if not on this, on some occasion. "Chambers is either married, or almost married, to Miss Wilton, a girl of sixteen, exquisitely beautiful, whom he has, with his lawyer's tongue, persuaded to take her chance with him in the East. 4 A manuscript account drawn by Dr. Webster of all the parishes in Scotland, ascertaining their length, breadth, number of inhabitants, and distinguishing Protestants and Roman Catholics. This book had been transmitted to government, and Dr. Johnson saw a copy of it in Dr. Webster's possession. BosWELL. 5 Daughter of Joseph Wilton, R. A., the sculptor. After Sir Robert Chambers's death she returned to England, and died at Brighton, in April, 1839, aged 88. Miss Chambers, her daughter, married Colonel Macdonald, the son of Flora. -CROKER. 3 "We have added to the club, Charles Fox', Sir Charles Bunbury, Dr. Fordyce, and Mr. Steevens. "Return my thanks to Dr. Webster. Tell Dr. Robertson I have not much to reply to his censure of my negligence and tell Dr. Blair, that since he has written hither what I said to him, we must now consider ourselves as even, forgive one another, and begin again. I care not how soon, for he is a very pleasing man. Pay my compliments to all my friends, and remind Lord Elibank of his promise to give me all his works. "I hope Mrs. Boswell and little Miss are well. When shall I see them again? She is a sweet lady; only she was so glad to see me go, that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same pleasure. 66 Inquire if it be practicable to send a small present of a cask of porter to Dunvegan, Rasay, and Col. I would not wish to be thought forgetful of civilities. I am, Sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." sure you will find no pleasure here which can deserve either that you should anticipate any part of your future fortune, or that you should condemn yourself and your lady to penurious frugality for the rest of the year. "I need not tell you what regard you owe to Mrs. Boswell's entreaties; or how much you ought to study the happiness of her who studies yours with so much diligence, and of whose kindness you enjoy such good effects. Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. She permitted you to ramble last year; you must permit her now to keep you at home. "Your last reason is so serious, that I am unwilling to oppose it. Yet you must remember, that your image of worshipping once a year in a certain place, in imitation of the Jews, is but a comparison; and simile non est idem; if the annual resort to Jerusalem was a duty to the Jews, it was a duty because it was commanded; and have you no such command, therefore no such duty. It may be dangerous to receive too readily, and indulge too fondly, opinions, from which, perhaps, no pious mind is wholly disengaged, of local sanctity and local devotion. You know what strange effects they have produced over a great part of the Christian world. I am now writing, and you, when you read this, are reading under the eye of Omnipresence. On the 5th of March I wrote to him, requesting his counsel whether I should this spring come to London. I stated to him on the one hand some pecuniary embarrassments, which, together with my wife's situation at that time, made me hesitate; and on the other, the pleasure and improvement which my annual visit to the metropolis always afforded me; "To what degree fancy is to be admitted into and particularly mentioned a peculiar satisfac-religious offices, it would require much deliberation to determine. tion which I experienced in celebrating the I am far from intending totally to festival of Easter in St. Paul's cathedral; that, exclude it, Fancy is a faculty bestowed by our Creator, and it is reasonable that all his gifts should to my fancy, it appeared like going up to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover; and that co-operate in his worship; but they are to cobe used to his glory, that all our faculties should the strong devotion which I felt on that occaoperate according to the will of him that gave them, sion diffused its influence on my mind through according to the order which his wisdom has estathe rest of the year. blished. As ceremonies prudential or convenient are less obligatory than positive ordinances, as bodily worship is only the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration, so fancy is always to act in subordination to reason. We may take fancy for a companion, but must follow reason as our guide. We may allow fancy to suggest certain ideas in when she tells us, that those ideas and those places certain places; but reason must always be heard, have no natural or necessary relation. When we enter a church we habitually recall to mind the duty of adoration, but we must not omit adoration for want of a temple: because we know, and ought to remember, that the Universal Lord is every where present; and that, therefore, to come to lona, or to Jerusalem, though it may be useful, cannot be necessary. JOHNSON TO BOSWELL. Not dated, but written about the 15th of March. "DEAR SIR, I am ashamed to think that since I received your letter I have passed so many days without answering it. I think there is no great difficulty in resolving your doubts. The reasons for which you are inclined to visit London are, I think, not of sufficient strength to answer the objections. That you should delight to come once a year to the fountain of intelligence and pleasure is very natural; but both information and pleasure must be regulated by propriety. Pleasure, which cannot be obtained but by unseasonable or unsuitable expense, must always end in pain; and pleasure, which must be enjoyed at the expense of another's pain, can never be such as a worthy mind can fully delight in. "What improvement you might gain by coming to London, you may easily supply, or easily compensate, by enjoining yourself some particular study at home, or opening some new avenue to information. Edinburgh is not yet exhausted; and I am 1 Mr. Fox, as Sir James Mackintosh informed me, was brought in by Mr. Burke, and this meeting at the club was the only link of acquaintance between Mr. Fox and Johnson.-CROKER. 2 It is odd that he does not mention Mr. Gibbon, whose admission seems to have been contemporary with Steevens's. -CROKER. 3 This applies to one of Johnson's rude speeches, the mere "Thus I have answered your letter, and have not answered it negligently. I love you too well to be careless when you are serious. "I think I shall be very diligent next week about our travels, which I have too long neglected. -! am, dear Sir, your most, &c., SAM. JOHNSON. Compliments to Madam and Miss." 66 repetition of which by Dr. Blair, Johnson, with more ingenuity than justice, chose to consider as equivalent to the original offence; but it turned out that Blair had not told the story. CROKER. 4 Alluding probably to the shrines, pilgrimages, &c. of the Roman Catholics, and perhaps to that great military palgrimage the Crusades. - CROKER. |