[562] Hume describes how in 1753 (? 1750) the Pretender, on his secretvisit to London, 'came to the house of a lady (who I imagined to be LadyPrimrose) without giving her any preparatory information; and enteredthe room where she had a pretty large company with her, and was herselfplaying at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name.She thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him.But she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he assumed.'J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 462. Mr. Croker (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 331)prints an autograph letter from Flora Macdonald which shows that LadyPrimrose in 1751 had lodged L627 in a friend's hands for her behoof, andthat she had in view to add more.[563] It seems that the Pretender was only once in London, and that itwas in 1750. _Ante_, i. 279, note 5. I suspect that 1759 is Boswell'smistake or his printer's. From what Johnson goes on to say it is clearthat George II. was in Germany at the time of the Prince's secret visit.He was there the greater part of 1750, but not in 1753 or 1759. In 1750,moreover, 'the great army of the King of Prussia overawed Hanover.'Smollett's _England_, iii. 297. This explains what Johnson says aboutthe King of Prussia stopping the army in Germany.[564] See _ante_, iv. 165, 170.[565] COMMENTARIES on the laws of England, book 1. chap. 3. BOSWELL.[566] B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon onesubject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, adistinguished passage in support of the Christian Revelation.--Aftershewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the _indirect_attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and perplex religiousprinciples, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whomhe politely calls 'an eloquent historian,' the archdeacon thus expresseshimself:--'Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Everymind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the mostimportant of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, asviolating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency.There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to betolerable. I mean that class of reasoners who can see _little_ inchristianity even supposing it to be true. To such adversaries weaddress this reflection.--Had _Jesus Christ_ delivered no otherdeclaration than the following, "The hour is coming in the which allthat are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,--theythat have done well [good] unto the resurrection of life, and they thathave done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," [_St. John_ v. 25]he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthyof that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which hismission was introduced and attested:--a message in which the wisest ofmankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest totheir inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had beendiscovered already.--It had been discovered as the Copernican Systemwas;--it was one guess amongst many. He alone discovers who _proves_,and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies bymiracles that his doctrine comes from GOD.'--Book V. chap. 9.If infidelity be disingenuously dispersed in every shape that is likelyto allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination,--in a fable, a tale, anovel, a poem,--in books of travels, of philosophy, of naturalhistory,--as Mr. Paley has well observed,--I hope it is fair in me thusto meet such poison with an unexpected antidote, which I cannot doubtwill be found powerful. BOSWELL. The 'eloquent historian' was Gibbon.See Paley's _Principles_, ed. 1786, p. 395.[567] In _The Life of Johnson (ante_, iii. 113), Boswell quotes thesewords, without shewing that they are his own; but italicises notfervour, but loyalty.[568] 'Whose service is perfect freedom.' _Book of Common Prayer._[569] See _ante_, i. 353, note 1.[570] Ovid, _Ars Amatoria_, iii. 121.[571]'This facile temper of the beauteous sexGreat Agamemnon, brave Pelides proved.'These two lines follow the four which Boswell quotes. _Agis_, act iv.[572] _Agis_, a tragedy, by John Home. BOSWELL.[573] See _ante_, p. 27.[574] A misprint, I suppose, for _designing_.[575] 'Next in dignity to the laird is the tacksman; a large taker orleaseholder of land, of which he keeps part as a domain in his own hand,and lets part to under-tenants. The tacksman is necessarily a mancapable of securing to the laird the whole rent, and is commonly acollateral relation.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 82.[576] A _lettre de cachet_.[577] _Ante_, p. 159.[578] 'It is related that at Dunvegan Lady Macleod, having poured outfor Dr. Johnson sixteen cups of tea, asked him if a small basin wouldnot save him trouble, and be more agreeable. "I wonder, Madam," answeredhe roughly, "why all the ladies ask me such questions. It is to saveyourselves trouble, Madam, and not me." The lady was silent and resumedher task.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 81.[579] 'In the garden-or rather the orchard which was formerly thegarden-is a pretty cascade, divided into two branches, and called RorieMore's Nurse, because he loved to be lulled to sleep by the sound ofit.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 304.[580] It has been said that she expressed considerable dissatisfactionat Dr. Johnson's rude behaviour at Dunvegan. Her grandson, the presentMacleod, assures me that it was not so: 'they were all,' he saysemphatically, '_delighted_ with him.' CROKER. Mr. Croker refers, Ithink, to a communication from Sir Walter Scott, published in the_Croker Corres_. ii. 33. Scott writes:--'When wind-bound at Dunvegan,Johnson's temper became most execrable, and beyond all endurance, savethat of his guide. The Highlanders, who are very courteous in their way,held him in great contempt for his want of breeding, but had an idea atthe same time there was something respectable about him, they could nottell what, and long spoke of him as the Sassenach _mohr_, orlarge Saxon.'[581] 'I long to be again in civilized life.' _Ante_, p. 183.[582] See _ante_, iii. 406.[583] Johnson refers, I think, to a passage in _L'Esprit des Lois_, Bookxvi. chap. 4, where Montesquieu says:--'J'avoue que si ce que lesrelations nous disent etait vrai, qu'a Bantam il y a dix femmes pour unhomme, ce serait un cas bien particulier de la polygamie. Dans tout cecije ne justifie pas les usages, mais j'en rends les raisons.'[584] What my friend treated as so wild a supposition, has actuallyhappened in the Western islands of Scotland, if we may believe Martin,who tells it of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi, and says that it isproved by the parish registers. BOSWELL. 'The Isle of Coll produces moreboys than girls, and the Isle of Tire-iy more girls than boys; as ifnature intended both these isles for mutual alliances, without being atthe trouble of going to the adjacent isles or continent to be matched.The parish-book in which the number of the baptised is to be seen,confirms this observation.' Martin's _Western Islands,_ p. 271.[585] _A Dissertation on the Gout_, by W. Cadogan, M.D., 1771. It wentthrough nine editions in its first year.[586] This was a general reflection against Dr. Cadogan, when his verypopular book was first published. It was said, that whatever precepts hemight give to others, he himself indulged freely in the bottle. But Ihave since had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with him, and, if hisown testimony may be believed, (and I have never heard it impeached,)his course of life has been conformable to his doctrine. BOSWELL.[587] 'April 7, 1765. I purpose to rise at eight, because, though Ishall not yet rise early, it will be much earlier than I now rise, for Ioften lie till two.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 62. 'Sept. 18, 1771. My nocturnalcomplaints grow less troublesome towards morning; and I am tempted torepair the deficiencies of the night. I think, however, to try to riseevery day by eight, and to combat indolence as I shall obtain strength.'_Ib._ p. 105. 'April 14, 1775. As my life has from my earliest yearsbeen wasted in a morning bed, my purpose is from Easter day to riseearly, not later than eight.' _Ib._ p. 139.[588] See _post_, Oct. 25.[589] See _ante_, iv. under Dec. 2, 1784.[590] Miss Mulso (Mrs. Chapone) wrote in 1753:--'I had the assurance todispute with Mr. Johnson on the subject of human malignity, and wonderedto hear a man, who by his actions shews so much benevolence, maintainthat the human heart is naturally malevolent, and that all thebenevolence we see in the few who are good is acquired by reason andreligion.' _ Life of Mrs. Chapone_, p.73. See _post_, p. 214.[591] This act was passed in 1746.[592] _Isaiah_, ii. 4.[593] Sir Walter Scott, after mentioning Lord Orford's (Horace Walpole)_History of His Own Time_, continues:--'The Memoirs of our Scots SirGeorge Mackenzie are of the same class--both immersed in littlepolitical detail, and the struggling skirmish of party, seem to havelost sight of the great progressive movements of human affairs.'Lockhart's _Scott_ vii. 12.[594] 'Illum jura potius ponere quam de jure respondere dixisses; eiqueappropinquabant clientes tanquam judici potius quam advocato.'Mackenzie's _Works_, ed. 1716, vol. i. part 2, p. 7.[595] 'Opposuit ei providentia Nisbetum: qui summa doctrinaconsummataque eloquentia causas agebat, ut justitiae scalae inaequilibrio essent; nimia tamen arte semper utens artem suam suspectamreddebat. Quoties ergo conflixerunt, penes Gilmorum gloria, penesNisbetum palma fuit; quoniam in hoc plus artis et cultus, in illonaturae et virium.' _Ib._[596] He often indulged himself in every species of pleasantry and wit.BOSWELL.[597] But like the hawk, having soared with a lofty flight to a heightwhich the eye could not reach, he was wont to swoop upon his quarry withwonderful rapidity. BOSWELL. These two quotations are part of the sameparagraph, and are not even separated by a word. _Ib._ p. 6.[598] See _ante_, i. 453; iii. 323; iv. 276; and v. 32.[599] Some years later he said that 'when Burke lets himself down tojocularity he is in the kennel.' _Ante_, iv. 276.[600] Cicero and Demosthenes, no doubt, were brought in by the passageabout Nicholson. Mackenzie continues:--'Hic primus nos a Syllogismorumservitute manumisit et Aristotelem Demostheni potius quam Ciceroni forumconcedere coegit.' P. 6.[601] See _ante_ ii. 435 and iv. 149, note 3.[602] See _ante_, i. 103.[603] See _ante_ ii 436[604] See _ante_, i. 65.[605] On Sept. 13, 1777, Johnson wrote:--'Boswell shrinks from theBaltick expedition, which, I think, is the best scheme in our power.'_Ante_, iii. 134, note 1.[606] See _ante_, ii. 59, note 1.[607] See _ante_, iii. 368.[608] 'Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise arealmost always cunning ... nor is caution ever so necessary as withassociates or opponents of feeble minds.' _The Idler_, No. 92. In aletter to Dr. Taylor Johnson says:--'To help the ignorant commonlyrequires much patience, for the ignorant are always trying to becunning.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 462. Churchill, in _TheJourney_ (_Poems_, ed. 1766, ii. 327), says:--''Gainst fools be guarded; 'tis a certain rule,Wits are safe things, there's danger in a fool.'[609] See _ante_, p. 173.[610]'For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the headWith all such reading as was never read;For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,And write about it, goddess, and about it.'_The Dunciad_, iv. 249.[611] Genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures; and the art ofthe painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject.But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. Ishould grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, toempty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed indiffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening theaffections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.' _TheIdler_, No. 45. 'Southey wrote thirty years later:--'I find daily moreand more reason to wonder at the miserable ignorance of Englishhistorians, and to grieve with a sort of despondency at seeing how muchthat has been laid up among the stores of knowledge has been neglectedand utterly forgotten.' Southey's _Life_, ii. 264. On another occasionhe said of Robertson:--'To write his introduction to _Charles V_,without reading these _Laws_ [the _Laws_ of Alonso the Wise], is one ofthe thousand and one omissions for which he ought to be called rogue, aslong as his volumes last. _Ib_. p. 318[612]'That eagle's fate and mine are one,Which on the shaft that made him die,Espy'd a feather of his own,Wherewith he wont to soar so high.'_Epistle to a Lady._Anderson's _Poets_, v. 480.[613] See _ante_, iii. 271.[614] 'In England there may be reason for raising the rents (in acertain degree) where the value of lands is increased by accession ofcommerce, ...but here (contrary to all policy) the great men begin atthe wrong end, with squeezing the bag, before they have helped the poortenant to fill it; by the introduction of manufactures.' Pennant's_Scotland_, ed. 1772, p. 191.[615] Boswell refers, not to a passage in _Pennant_, but to Johnson'sadmission that in his dispute with Monboddo, 'he might have taken theside of the savage, had anybody else taken the side of the shopkeeper.'_Ante_, p. 83.[616] 'Boswell, with some of his troublesome kindness, has informed thisfamily and reminded me that the 18th of September is my birthday. Thereturn of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which itseems to be the general care of humanity to escape.' _Piozzi Letters_,i. 134. See _ante_, iii. 157.[617] 'At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgettingthat I was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with mysluggishness and softness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 67.[618] Johnson wrote of the ministers:--'I saw not one in the islandswhom I had reason to think either deficient in learning, or irregular inlife; but found several with whom I could not converse without wishing,as my respect increased, that they had not been Presbyterians.' _Ib_.p. 102.[619] See _ante_, p. 142.[620] See _ante_, ii. 28.[621]'So horses they affirm to beMere engines made by geometry,And were invented first from engines,As Indian Britons were from penguins.'_Hudibras_, part i. canto 2, line 57. Z. Gray, in a note on these lines,quotes Selden's note on Drayton's _Polyolbion_:--'About the year 1570,Madoc, brother to David Ap Owen, Prince of Wales, made a sea-voyage toFlorida; and by probability those names of Capo de Breton in Norimberg,and Penguin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock and awhite-headed bird, according to the British, were relicts of thisdiscovery.'[622] Published in Edinburgh in 1763.[623] See ante, ii. 76. 'Johnson used to say that in all family disputesthe odds were in favour of the husband from his superior knowledge oflife and manners.' Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 210.[624] He wrote to Dr. Taylor:--' Nature has given women so much powerthat the law has very wisely given them little.' _Notes and Queries_,6th S. v. 342.[625] As I have faithfully recorded so many minute particulars, I hope Ishall be pardoned for inserting so flattering an encomium on what is nowoffered to the publick. BOSWELL.[626] See _ante_, iv. 109, note 1.[627] 'The islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding,universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, andare suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, againstconviction.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.[628] The true story of this lady, which happened in this century, is asfrightfully romantick as if it had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy.She was the wife of one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, a man ofthe very first blood of his country. For some mysterious reasons, whichhave never been discovered, she was seized and carried off in the dark,she knew not by whom, and by nightly journeys was conveyed to theHighland shores, from whence she was transported by sea to the remoterock of St. Kilda, where she remained, amongst its few wild inhabitants,a forlorn prisoner, but had a constant supply of provisions, and a womanto wait on her. No inquiry was made after her, till she at last foundmeans to convey a letter to a confidential friend, by the daughter of aCatechist, who concealed it in a clue of yarn. Information being thusobtained at Edinburgh, a ship was sent to bring her off; butintelligence of this being received, she was conveyed to M'Leod's islandof Herries, where she died.In CARSTARE'S STATE PAPERS we find an authentick narrative of Connor[Conn], a catholick priest, who turned protestant, being seized by someof Lord Seaforth's people, and detained prisoner in the island ofHerries several years; he was fed with bread and water, and lodged in ahouse where he was exposed to the rains and cold. Sir James Ogilvywrites (June 18, 1667 [1697]), that the Lord Chancellor, the LordAdvocate, and himself, were to meet next day, to take effectual methodsto have this redressed. Connor was then still detained; p. 310.--Thisshews what private oppression might in the last century be practised inthe Hebrides.In the same collection [in a letter dated Sept. 15, 1700], the Earl ofArgyle gives a picturesque account of an embassy from the _great_ M'Neil_of Barra_, as that insular Chief used to be denominated:--'I received aletter yesterday from M'Neil of Barra, who lives very far off, sent by agentleman in all formality, offering his service, which had made youlaugh to see his entry. His style of his letter runs as if he were ofanother kingdom.'--Page 643 [648]. BOSWELL.Sir Walter Scott says:--'I have seen Lady Grange's Journal. She hadbecome privy to some of the Jacobite intrigues, in which her husband,Lord Grange (an Erskine, brother of the Earl of Mar, and a Lord ofSession), and his family were engaged. Being on indifferent terms withher husband, she is said to have thrown out hints that she knew as muchas would cost him his life. The judge probably thought with Mrs.Peachum, that it is rather an awkward state of domestic affairs, whenthe wife has it in her power to hang the husband. Lady Grange was themore to be dreaded, as she came of a vindictive race, being thegrandchild [according to Mr. Chambers, the child] of that Chiesley ofDalry, who assassinated Sir George Lockhart, the Lord President. Manypersons of importance in the Highlands were concerned in removing hertestimony. The notorious Lovat, with a party of his men, were the directagents in carrying her off; and St. Kilda, belonging then to Macleod,was selected as the place of confinement. The name by which she wasspoken or written of was _Corpach_, an ominous distinction,