FTAT. 64. VANE AND SEDLEY. 199 with his faculties entire, his heart warm, and his temper gay); Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes; Mr. Maclaurin, advocate; Dr. Gregory, who now worthily fills his father's medical chair; and my uncle, Dr. Boswell. This was one of Dr. Johnson's best days. He was quite in his element. All was literature and taste, without any interruption. Lord Hailes, who is one of the best philologists in Great Britain, who has written papers in the World, and a variety of other works in prose and in verse, both Latin and English, pleased him highly. He told him he had discovered the Life of Cheynel, in the Student, to be his. JOHNSON. "No one else knows it." Dr. Johnson had before this dictated to me a law-paper upon a question purely in the law of Scotland, concerning vicious intromission, that is to say, intermeddling with the effects of a deceased person, without a regular title; which formerly was understood to subject the intermeddler to payment of all the defunct's debts. The principle has of late been relaxed. Dr. Johnson's argument was for a renewal of its strictness. The paper was printed, with additions by me, and given into the court of session. Lord Hailes knew Dr. Johnson's part not to be mine, and pointed out exactly where it began and where it ended. Dr. Johnson said, "It is much now that his lordship can distinguish so." In Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes there is the following passage : "The teeming mother, anxious for her race, Begs, for each birth, the fortune of a face : Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring: And Sedley cursed the charms which pleased a king.” Lord Hailes told him he was mistaken in the instances he had given of unfortunate fair ones; for neither Vane nor Sedley had a title to that description. His lordship has since been so obliging as to send me a note of this, for the communication of which I am sure my readers will thank me. "The lines in the tenth Satire of Juvenal, according to my alteration, should run thus: "Yet Shore 1 could tell And Valière 2 cursed "The first was a penitent by compulsion, the second by sentiment; though 1 Mistress of Edward IV. 2 Mistress of Louis XIV the truth is, Mademoiselle de la Valière threw herself (but still from sentiment) in the king's way. Our friend chose Vane, who was far from being welllooked; and Sedley,' who was so ugly that Charles II. said his brother had her by way of penance." Mr. Maclaurin's learning and talents enabled him to do his part very well in Dr. Johnson's company. He produced two epitaph's upon his father, the celebrated mathematician. One was in English, of which Dr. Johnson did not change one word. In the other, which was in Latin, he made several alterations. In place of the very words of Virgil, "Ubi luctus et pavor et plurima mortis imago," he wrote "Ubi luctus regnant et pavor." He introduced the word prorsus into the line "Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium ;" anc after "Hujus enim scripta evolve," he added, "Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem corpori caduco superstitem crede ;" which is quite applicable to Dr. Johnson himself.* Mr. Murray, advocate, who married a niece of Lord Mansfield's, 1 Catherine Sedley, created Countess of Dorchester for life. 2 Lord Hailes was hypercritical. Vane was handsome, or, what is more to our purpose, appeared so to her royal lover; and Sedley, whatever others may have thought of her, had the "charms which pleased a king." So that Johnson's illustrations are morally just. Hi lordship's proposed substitution of a fabulous (or at least apocryphal) beauty like Jane Shore. whose story, even if true, was obsolete; or that of a foreigner, like Mlle. de la Valière, little known and less cared for amongst us, is not only tasteless but inaccurate; for Mlle. de la Valière's beauty was quite as much questioned by her contemporaries as Miss Sedley's. Bussy Rabutin was exiled for sneering at Louis's admiration of her mouth, which he calls ❝ un bec amoureux, Qui d'une oreille à l'autre va "-C. 3 Mr. Maclaurin, advocate, son of the great mathematician, and afterwards a judge of session, by the title of Lord Dreghorn. He wrote some indifferent English poems; but was a good Latin scholar, and a man of wit and accomplishment.-Walter Scott. 4 Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tombstone, in the Grayfriars church yard, Edinburgh: Infra situs est COLIN MACLAURIN, Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof. Electus ipso Newtono suadente. Non ut nomini paterno consulat, Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem ATAT. 64. LITERARY PROPERTY. 201 and is now one of the judges of Scotland, by the title of Lord Henderland, sat with us a part of the evening; but did not venture to say anything that I remember, though he is certainly possessed of talents which would have enabled him to have shown himself to Avantage if too great anxiety had not prevented him. At supper, we had Dr. Alexander Webster,' who, though not learned, had such a knowledge of mankind, such a fund of information and entertainment, so clear a head, and such accommodating manners, that Dr. Johnson found him a very agreeable companion. When Dr. Johnson and I were left by ourselves, I read to him my notes of the opinions of our judges upon the questions of literary property. He did not like them; and said, " they make me think of your judges not with that respect which I should wish to do." To the argument of one of them, that there can be no property in blasphemy or nonsense, he answered, "then your rotten sheep are mine! By that rule, when a man's house falls into decay, he must lose it." I mentioned an argument of mine, that literary performances are not taxed. As Churchill says, "No statesman yet has thought it worth his pains To tax our labours, or excise our brains ;" and, therefore, they are not property. "Yet," said he, "we hang man for stealing a horse, and horses are not taxed." Mr. Pitt has since put an end to that argument. Wednesday, Aug. 18.-On this day we set out from Edinburgh. We should gladly have had Mr. Scott to go with us, but he was obliged to return to England. I have given a sketch of Dr. Johnson my readers may wish to know a little of his fellow-traveller. Think, then, of a gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married. His inclination was to be a soldier, but his father, a respectable judge, had pressed him Dr. Webster was remarkable for the talent with which he at once supported his place in convivial society, and a high character as a leader of the strict and rigid Presbyterian party in the church of Scotland. He was ever gay amid the gayest: when it once occurred to some one present to ask, what one of his Elders would think, should he see his pastor in such a merry mood: "Think!" replied the Doctor; "why, he would not believe his own eyes.”- WALTER SCOTT. and into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than anybody had supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. He had all Dr. Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence; and, his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled, sometimes, "The best good man with the worst-natured muse." He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his tour represents him as one, "whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed." Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put himself to the additional expense of bringing with him Francis Barber, his faithful black servant; so we were attended only by my man, Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian, a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages. He was the best servant I ever saw. Let not my readers disdain his introduction; for Dr. Johnson gave him this character: is a civil man and a wise man." แ Sir, he From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr. Johnson had provided a pair of pistols, some gunpowder, and a quantity of bullets but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the charge. He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his Life, of which I have a few fragments; but the book has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to have had it all transcribed, which might easily have been done, and I should think the theft, being pro bono publico, might have been forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once looked into it. She did not seem quite easy when we left her but away we went! : CHAPTER XI. Frith of Forth-Inch Keith-Kinghorn-Cupar-Composit on of Parliament-Influence o Peers-St. Andrews-Literature and Patronage-Writing and Conversation--Change of Manners-Drinking and Smoking-The Union-St. Rule's Chapel-John Knox-Retirement from the World-Dinner with the Professors--Subscription of Articles-Latin GraceSharp's Monument-St. Salvador's-Dinner to the Professors-Instructions for Composi tion-Supper at Dr. Watson's-Uncertainty of Memory-Observance of Sunday-Trees in Scotland-Leuchars-Transubstantiation-Literary Property--Montrose. MR. NAIRNE,' advocate, was to go with us as far as St. Andrews It gives me pleasure that, by mentioning his name, I connect his title to the just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson, in his book: "A gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how much we lost by his leaving us." When we came to Leith, I talked with perhaps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked; as, indeed, after the pros- · pect from Constantinople, of which I have been told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of that Frith and its environs, from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the finest prospect in Europe. "Ay," said Dr. Johnson, "that is the state of the world. Water is the same everywhere. "Una est injusti cærula forma maris.' "a I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith. "Not Lethe," said Mr. Nairne. "Why, Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "when a Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native country." NAIRNE. "I hope, Sir, you will forget England here." JOHNSON. "Then 'twill be still more Lethe." He observed of the pier or quay, "You have no occasion . ' Mr. William Nairne, afterwards Sir William, and a judge of the court of session, by the title, made classical by Shakspeare, of Lord Dunsinnan. 2 Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas: Una est injusti cærula forma maris.-Ovid. Amor 1. ii. Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows, |