b Sir Alexander Gordon, one of the Professors at Aberdeen.
c This was a box containing a number of curious things which he had picked up in Scotland, particularly some horn spoons.
a 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.
a Pr. and Med. p. 129.
b The ancient Burgh of Prestwick, in Ayrshire.
a A manuscript account drawn up by Dr. Webster of all the parishes in Scotland, ascertaining their length, breadth, number of inhabitants, and distinguishing Protestants and Roman Catholicks. This book had been transmitted to government, and Dr. Johnson saw a copy of it in Dr. Webster’s possession.
a Iona.
a Dr. Goldsmith died April 4, this year.
a These books Dr. Johnson presented to the Bodleian Library.
b On the cover enclosing them, Dr. Johnson wrote, ‘If my delay has given any reason for supposing that I have not a very deep sense of the honour done me by asking my judgement, I am very sorry.’
a I HAD WRITTEN TO HIM, TO REQUEST HIS INTERPOSITION IN BEHALF OF A CONVICT,416 WHO I THOUGHT WAS VERY UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED.
a Mr. Perkins was for a number of years the worthy superintendant of Mr. Thrale’s great brewery, and after his death became one of the proprietors of it; and now resides in Mr. Thrale’s house in Southwark, which was the scene of so many literary meetings, and in which he continues the liberal hospitality for which it was eminent. Dr. Johnson esteemed him much. He hung up in the counting-house a fine proof of the admirable mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat flippantly, ‘Why do you put him up in the counting-house?’ he answered, ‘Because, Madam, I wish to have one wise man there.’ ‘Sir,’ (said Johnson,) ‘I thank you. It is a very handsome compliment, and I believe you speak sincerely.’
b In the news-papers.
a Alluding to a passage in a letter of mine, where speaking of his Journey to the Hebrides, I say, ‘But has not The Patriot been an interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in listening to its applauses?’
b We had projected a voyage together up the Baltick, and talked of visiting some of the more northern regions.
c Cleonice.
a In the Court of Session of Scotland an action is first tried by one of the Judges, who is called the Lord Ordinary; and if either party is dissatisfied, he may appeal to the whole Court, consisting of fifteen, the Lord President and fourteen other Judges, who have both in and out of Court the title of Lords, from the name of their estates; as, Lord Auchinleck, Lord Monboddo, &c.
a It should be recollected, that this fanciful description of his friend was given by Johnson after he himself had become a water-drinker.
b See them in Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 337 {17 Oct.}.
c He now sent me a Latin inscription for my historical picture of Mary Queen of Scots, and afterwards favoured me with an English translation. Mr. Alderman Boydell, that eminent Patron of the Arts, has subjoined them to the engraving from my picture.
‘Maria Scotorum Regina
Hominum seditiosorum
Contumeliis lassata,
Minis territa, clamoribus victa,
Libello, per quern
Regno cedit,
Lacrimans trepidansque
Nomen apponit/
‘Mary Queen of Scots,
Harassed, terrified, and overpowered
By the insults, menaces,
And clamours
Of her rebellious subjects,
Sets her hand,
With tears and confusion,
To a resignation of the kingdom.’
a The learned and worthy Dr. Lawrence, whom Dr. Johnson respected and loved as his physician and friend.
b My friend has, in this letter, relied upon my testimony, with a confidence, of which the ground has escaped my recollection.
a I have deposited it in the British Museum.
a See Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 520 {p. 431, conclusion}.
a Page 103.
a I observed with much regret, while the first edition of this work was passing through the press (Aug. 1790), that this ingenious gentleman was dead.
a From a list in his hand-writing.
a Of his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
a Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, ed. 1775, p. 256.
b This doubt has been much agitated on both sides, I think without good reason. See Addison’s Freeholder, May 4, 1714; –An Apology for the Tale of a Tub; – Dr. Hawkesworth’s Preface to Swift’s Works, and Swift’s Letter to Tooke the Printer, and Tooke’s Answer, in that collection; – Sheridan’s Life of Swift; – Mr. Courtenay’s note on p. 3 of his Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson; and Mr. Cooksey’s Essay onthe Life and Character of John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham.
Dr. Johnson here speaks only to the internal evidence. I take leave to differ from him, having a very high estimation of the powers of Dr. Swift. His Sentiments of a Church-of England-man, his Sermon on the Trinity, and other serious pieces, prove his learning as well as his acuteness in logick and metaphysicks; and his various compositions of a different cast exhibit not only wit, humour, and ridicule; but a knowledge ‘of nature, and art, and life:’ a combination therefore of those powers, when (as the Apology says,) ‘the authour was young, his invention at the heighth, and his reading fresh in his head,’ might surely produce The Tale of a Tub.
a This was not merely a cursory remark; for in his Life of Fenton he observes, ‘With many other wise and virtuous men, who at that time of discord and debate (about the beginning of this century) consulted conscience {whether} well or ill informed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government; and refusing to qualify himself for publick employment, by taking the oaths required, left the University without a degree.’ This conduct Johnson calls ‘perverseness of integrity.’
The question concerning the morality of taking oaths, of whatever kind, imposed by the prevailing power at the time, rather than to be excluded from all consequence, or even any considerable usefulness in society, has been agitated with all the acuteness of casuistry. It is related, that he who devised the oath of abjuration,437 profligately boasted that he had framed a test which should ‘damn one half of the nation, and starve the other.’ Upon minds not exalted to inflexible rectitude, or minds in which zeal for a party is predominant to excess, taking that oath against conviction may have been palliated under the plea of necessity, or ventured upon in heat, as upon the whole producing more good than evil.