but with a pleasant smile, only cried, "Ay, ay; Radaratoo radarate."

Thursday, Sept. 23.-I took Fingal down to the parlour in the morning, and tried a test proposed by Mr. Roderick Macleod, son to Ulinish. Mr. M'Queen had said he had some of the poem in the original. I desired him to mention any passage in the printed book, of which he could repeat the original. He pointed out one in page 50 of the quarto edition, and read the Erse, while Mr. Roderick Macleod and I looked on the English; and Mr. Macleod said that it was pretty like what Mr. M'Queen had recited. But when Mr M'Queen read a description of Cuchullin's sword in Erse, together with a translation of it in English verse, by Sir James Foulis, Mr M'Leod said, that was much more like than Mr. M'Pherson's translation of the former passage. Mr. M'Queen then repeated in Erse a description of one of the horses in Cuchullin's car. Mr. M'Leod

said, Mr. M'Pherson's English was nothing like it.

1

When Dr. Johnson came down, I told him that I had now obtained some evidence concerning Fingal; for that Mr. M'Queen had repeated a passage in the original Erse, which Mr. M'Pherson's translation was pretty like; and reminded him that he himself had once said, he did not require Mr. M'Pherson's Ossian to be more like the original than Pope's Homer. JOHNSON. "Well, Sir, this is just what I always maintained. He has found names and stories, and phrases, nay passages in old songs, and with them has blended his own compositions, and so made what he gives to the world as the translation of an ancient poem." If this was the case, I observed, it was wrong to publish it as a poem in six books. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; and to ascribe it to a time, too, when the Highlanders knew nothing of books, and nothing of six; or perhaps were got the length of counting six. We have been told, by Condamine, of a nation that could count no more than four. This should be told to Monboddo; it would help him. There is as much charity in

1 Mr. Boswell seems to have reported but half the evidence to Dr. Johnson. He tells him of the passage which was something like M'Pherson's version; but he does not appear to have noticed the other, which was nothing like it.-C.

2 This account of Ossian's Poems, as published by M'Pherson, is that at which most sensi. ble people have arrived, though there may be some difference between the plus and minus of the ancient ingredients employed by the translator.-WALTER SCOTT.

FIAT. 64.

GARRICK.

345

helping a man down-hill, as in helping him up-hill." BOSWELL. "I don't think there is as much charity." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, if his tendency be downwards. Till he is at the bottom, he flounders ; get him once there, and he is quiet. Swift tells, that Stella had a trick which she learned from Addison, of encouraging a man ju absurdity, instead of endeavoring to extricate him."1

Mr. M'Queen's answers to the inquiries concerning Ossian were so unsatisfatory, that I could not help observing, that, were he examined in a court of justice, he would find himself under a necessity of being more explicit JOHNSON. "Sir, he has told Blair a little too much, which is published; and he sticks to it. He is so much at the head of things here, that he has never been accustomed to be closely examined; and so he goes on quite smoothly." Bos. WELL. He bas never had anybody to work him." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; and a man is seldom disposed to work himself, though he ought to work himself, to be sure." Mr. M'Queen made no reply.'

Having talked of the strictness with which witnesses are examined in courts of justice, Dr. Johnson told us, that Garrick, though accustomed to face multitudes, when produced as a witness in Westminster Hall, was so disconcerted by a new mode of public appearance, that he could not understand what was asked. It was a cause where an actor claimed a free benefit, that is to say, a benefit without paying the expense of the house; but the meaning of the term was disputed. Garrick was asked, "Sir, have you a free benefit ?" Yes." Upon what terms have you it?” "Uponthe terms-of-a free benefit." He was dismissed as one from whom no information could be obtained. Dr. Johnson is often too hard on our friend Mr. Garrick. When I asked him, why he did not mention him in the Preface to his Shakspeare, he said, "Garrick has been liberally paid for anything he has done for Shakspeare. If I should praise him, I should much more praise the nation who

66

"When she saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more Inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excuse she gave was. 'that it prevented noise, and saved time.' Yet I have known her very angry with some, whom she much esteemed, for sometimes falling into that infirmity."-SWIFT'S Character of Stella.

* I think it but justice to say, that I believe Dr. Johnson meant to ascribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did not mean any severe imputation against Vám.

paid him. He has not made Shakspeare better known ;' he cannot illustrate Shakspeare: so I have reasons enough against mentioning him, were reasons necessary. There should be reasons for it." I spoke of Mrs. Montagu's very high praises of Garrick. JOHNSON. Sir, it is fit she should say so much, and I should say nothing. Reynolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at it; for neither I, nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs Thrale, could get through it.""

1 It has been triumphantly asked, "Had not the plays of Shakspeare lain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did he not exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty years together, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitable performance?" He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnson's assertion has been misunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been just stated, he must necessarily have meant, that "Mr. Garrick did not, as a critic, make Shakspeare better known; he did not illustrate any one passage in any of his plays by acuteness of disquisition, or sagacity of conjecture:" and what had been done with any degree of excellence in that way, was the proper and immediate subject of his preface. I may add in support of this explanation the following anecdote, related to me by one of the ablest commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr. Johnson: "“Now I have quitted the theatre," cries Garrick, "I will sit down and read Shakspeare. "'Tis time you should," exclaimed Johnson, "for I much doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first scene to the last."

* No man has less inclination to controversy than I have, particularly with a lady. But as I have claimed, and am conscious of being entitled to, credit, for the strictest fidelity, my respect for the public obliges me to take notice of an insinuation which tends to impeach it. Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to her "Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson," added the following postscript:

Naples, 10th Feb. 1786.

"Since the foregoing went to press, having seen a passage from Mr. Boswell's 'Tour to the Hebrides,' in which it is said, that I could not get through Mrs. Montagu's Essay on Shakspeare,' I do not delay a moment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended it myself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things would give me mere concern than to be thought incapable of tasting, or unwilling to testify my opinion of its excellence."

It is remarkable, that this postscript is so expressed, as not to point out the person who said that Mrs. Thrale could not get through Mrs. Montagu's book; and, therefore, I think it necessary to remind Mrs Piozzi, that the assertion concerning her was Dr. Johnson's, and not mine. The second observation that I shall make on this postscript is, that it does not deny the fact asserted, though I must acknowledge, from the praise it bestows on Mrs. Montagu's book, it may have been designed to convey that meaning.

What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is, or was, or what she may or may not have said to Dr. Johnson concerning Mrs. Montagu's book, it is not necessary for me to inquire. It is only incumbent on me to ascertain what Dr. Johnson said to me. I shall therefore confine myself to a very short state of the fact.

The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montagu's book, which Dr. Johnson is here, eported to have given, is known to have been that which he uniformly expressed, as many of his friends well remember. So much for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as it relates to his own sentiments. The words containing the assertion, to which Mrs. Piozzi objects, are printed from my manuscript Journal, and were taken down at the time The Journal was read by Dr. Johnson, who pointed out some inaccuracies, which I corrected, but did not men tion any inaccuracy in the paragraph in question: and what is still more material, and very

FIAT. 64.

MRS. MONTAGU'S ESSAY.

341

flattering to me, a considerable part of my Journal, containing this paragraph, pas read several years ago by Mrs. Thrale herself, who had it for some time in her possession, and returned it to me, without intimating that Dr. Johnson had mistaken her sentiments.

When the first edition of my Journal was passing through the press, it occurred to me, that a peculiar delicacy was necessary to be observed in reporting the opinion of one literary lady concerning the performance of another; and I had such scruples on that head, that, in the proof sheet, I struck out the name of Mrs. Thrale from the above paragraph, and two or three hundred copies of my book were actually printed and published without it; of these Sir Joshua Reynolds's copy happened to be one. But while the sheet was working off,. a friend, for whose opinion I have great respect, suggested that I had no right to deprive Mrs. Thrale of the high honour which Dr. Johnson had done her, by stating her opinion along with that of Mr. Beauclerk, as coinciding with, and, as it were, sanctioning his own. The observation appeared to me so weighty and conclusive, that I hastened to the printing-house, and, as a piece of justice, restored Mrs. Thrale to that place from which a too scrupulous deli. cacy had excluded her. On this simple state of facts I shall make no observation what ever.-B.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1773.

Ainish-Tanners-Butchers-Learning of the Scots-Life of a Sailor-Peter the Great→ Talisker-Scottish Clergy-French Hunting-Cuchillin's Well-Young Col-Birch-Percy"Every Island is a Prison "-Corrichatachin-Good Fellowship-and Head-ache-Kingsburgh's Song-Lady Margaret Macdonald-Threshing and Thatching-Price of LabourOstig-Shenstone-Hammond-Sir C. H. Williams-Burke-Young-Doddridge's Family Motto "Adventures of a Guinea "-Armidale-German Courts-Goldsmith's Love of Talk -St. Kilda.

LAST night Dr. Johnson gave us an account of the whole process of tanning, and of the nature of milk, and the various operations upon it, as making whey, &c. His variety of information is surprising; and it gives one much satisfaction to find such a man bestowing his attention on the useful arts of life. Ulinish was much struck with his knowledge; and said, "He is a great orator, Sir; it is music to hear this man speak." A strange thought struck me, to try if he knew anything of an art, or whatever it should be called, which is no doubt very useful in life, but which lies far out of the of a way philosopher and poet; I mean the trade of a butcher. I enticed him into the subject, by connecting it with the various researches into the manners and customs of uncivilised nations, that have been made by our late navigators into the South Seas. I began with observing, that Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Banks tells us, that the art of slaughtering animals was not known in Otaheite, for, instead of bleeding to death their dogs (a common food with them), they strangle them. This he told me himself; and I supposed that their hogs were killed in the same way. Dr. Johnson said, "This must be owing to their not having knives, though they have sharp stones with which they can cut a carcass in pieces tolerably." By degrees he showed that he knew something even of butchery. "Different animals," said he, "are killed differently. An ox is knocked down, and a calf stunned; but a sheep has its throat cut, without anything