Tillotson's argument against transubstantiation: "That we are as sure we see bread and wine only, as that we read in the Bible the text on which that false doctrine is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both." "If (he added) GOD had never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he speaks literally, when he says, 'This is my body.'" BOSWELL. "But what do you say, Sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the church upon this point?" JOHNSON. "Tradition, Sir, has Tradition, Sir, has no place, where the Scriptures are plain; and tradition cannot persuade a man into a belief of transubstantiation. Able men, indeed, have said they believed it." This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr. Johnson upon it; nor shall I now enter upon a disquisition concerning the import of those words uttered by our Saviour, which had such an effect upon many of his disciples, that they "went back, and walked no more with him." The Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of England, maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere commemoration of the death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of bread and wine. Dr. Johnson put me in mind that, at St. Andrew's, I had defended my profession very well, when the question had again been started, whether a Lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers him a fee? "Sir (said I) it was with your arguments against Sir William Forbes. But it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliath." He said our judges had not gone deep in literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the mind is exercised.JOHNSON. "No, Sir; a man's repeating it no more makes it his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives home."1 I said, printing an abridgement of a work was allowed, which was only cutting the horns and tail off the cow. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; 'tis making the cow have a calf." Third Edition.-On line 16 put a note: "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." See St. John's Gospel, chap. vi. 53, and following verses. Second Edition.-Line 26: Altered to "gone deep in the question concerning literary property.' 1 Lord Monboddo's rather fantastic views seem to justify Johnson's opinion. "No man has a property in ideas, but he has a property in words which no man can take from him. This is the difference between a plagiary and a printer. The plagiary steals thoughts, the printer only the words. If a man could get a book by heart, without understanding it, and repeat it to a printer, there would be no injustice." About eleven at night, we arrived at Montrose. We found but a sorry inn, where I myself saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his finger into Dr. Johnson's lemonade, for which he called him "Rascal!" It put me in great glee that our landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr. Burney's History of Music had then been advertised. I asked if this was not unlucky? Would not they hurt one another ?—JOHNSON. "No, Sir. They will do good to one another. Some will buy the one, some the other, and compare them; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the books are sold." He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that he might be sure to have his lemonade. "Sir (said he) I do not wish to be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it is very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he could not entertain you. To an inferiour, it is oppressive; to a superiour, it is insolent." Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that he very often sat quite silent for a long time, even when in company with only a single friend, which I myself had sometimes sadly experienced, he smiled and said, "It is true, Sir. Tom Tyers (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory) Tom Tyers described me the best. He once said to me, 'Sir, you are like a ghost. You never speak till you are spoken to."' Saturday, 21st August. Neither the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the established minister, nor the Rev. Mr. Spooner, the episcopal minister, were in town. Before breakfast, we went and saw the town-hall, where is a good dancingroom, and other rooms for tea-drinking. The appearance of the town from it is very well, only many of the houses are built with their ends to the street, which looks aukward. When we came down from it, I met Mr. Gleg, the merchant here. He went with us to see the English chapel. It is situated on a pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It is really an elegant building, both within and without. The organ is adorned with green and gold. Second Edition.-Line 25: A note-"This description of Dr. Johnson, appears to have been borrowed from 'Tom Jones,' Book XI. chap. ii. The other who, like a ghost, only wanted to be spoke to, readily answered,' &c." Ibid.-Line 33: "the merchant here" altered to " a merchant here." Dr. Johnson gave a shilling extraordinary to the clerk, saying, “He belongs to an honest church." I put him in mind, that episcopals were but dissenters here; they were only tolerated. "Sir (said he) we are here, as Christians in Turkey." Dr. Johnson went into an apothecary's, and ordered some medicine for himself, and wrote the prescription in technical characters. The boy took him for a physician. I doubted much which road to take, whether to go by the coast, or by Laurence Kirk and Monboddo. I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lordship; and was also curious to see them together. I mentioned it to Dr. Johnson, who said, "He would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo." I therefore sent forward Joseph, with the following note: "Montrose, 21 August. "MY DEAR LORD,-Thus far I am come with Mr. Samuel Johnson. We must be at Aberdeen to-night. I know you do not admire him so much as I do; but I cannot be in this country without making you a bow at your old place, as I do not know if I may again have an opportunity of seeing Monboddo. Besides, Mr. Johnson says, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo. I have sent forward my servant, that we may know if your lordship be at home. I am ever, my dear lord, "Most sincerely your's." As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we had the Grampion hills in our view, and some good land around us, but clear of trees and hedges. Dr. Johnson has said ludicrously, in his "Journey," that the hedges were of stone; for, instead of the verdant thorn to refresh the eye, we found the bare wall or dike intersecting the prospect. He observed, that it was wonderful to see a country so divested, so denuded of trees. We stopped at Laurence Kirk, where our great grammarian, Ruddiman, was once schoolmaster. We respectfully remembered that excellent man and eminent scholar, by whose labours a knowledge of the Latin language will be preserved in Scotland, if it shall be preserved at all. Lord Gardenston, one of our judges, collected There were several points of similarity between them; learning, clearness of head, precision of speech, and a love of research on many subjects which people in general do not investigate. Foote paid Lord Monboddo the compliment of saying, that he was 66 an Elzevir edition of Johnson.' Second Edition.-Added to note: "It has been shrewdly observed that Foote must have meant a diminutive, or pocket edition." money to raise a monument to him at this place, which I hope will be well executed. I know my father gave five guineas towards it. Lord Gardenston is the proprietor of Laurence Kirk, and has encouraged the building of a manufacturing village, of which he is exceedingly fond, and has written a pamphlet upon it, as if he had founded Thebes; in which, however, there are many useful precepts strongly expressed. The village seemed to be irregularly built, some of the houses being of clay, some of brick, and some of brick and stone. Dr. Johnson observed, they thatched well here. I was a little acquainted with Mr. Forbes, the minister of the parish. I sent to inform him that a gentleman desired to see him. He returned for answer, "that he would not come to a stranger." I then gave my name, and he came. I remonstrated to him for not coming to a stranger; and, by presenting him to Dr. Johnson, proved to him what a stranger might sometimes be. His Bible inculcates "be not forgetful to entertain strangers," and mentions the same motive. He defended himself by saying, "He had once come to a stranger who sent for him; and he found him 'a little worth person!"" Dr. Johnson insisted on stopping at the inn, as I told him that Lord Gardenston had furnished it with a collection of books, that travellers might have entertainment for the mind, as well as the body. He praised the design, but wished there had been more books, and those better chosen. About a mile from Monboddo, where you turn off the road, Joseph was waiting to tell us my lord expected us to dinner. We drove over a wild moor. It rained, and the scene was somewhat dreary. Dr. Johnson repeated, with solemn emphasis, Macbeth's speech on meeting the witches. As we travelled on, he told me, "Sir, you got into our club by doing what a man can do. Several of the members wished to keep you out. Burke told me, he doubted if you was fit for it. But now you are in, none of them are sorry. Burke says, that you have so much good humour naturally, it is scarce a virtue." BOSWELL. "They were afraid of you, Sir, as it was you who proposed me." JOHNSON. "Sir, they knew, that if they refused you, they'd probably never have got in another. I'd have kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you." BOSWELL. "Beauclerk has a keenness of mind which is very un Second Edition.-On line 30, a note: "This, I find, is considered as obscure. I suppose Dr. Johnson meant, that I assiduously and earnestly recommended myself to some of the members, as in a canvass for an election into parliament." Ibid.-Line 32: "was" altered to "were." 1 One of Boswell's Scotticisms, this first edition was full of such. common." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; and every thing comes from him so easily. It appears to me that I labour, when I say a good thing." BOSWELL."You are loud, Sir; but it is not an effort of mind." Monboddo is a wretched place, wild and naked, with a poor old house; though, if I recollect right, there are two turrets which mark an old baron's residence. Lord Monboddo received us at his gate most courteously; pointed to the Douglas arms upon his house, and told us that his great-grandmother was of that family. "In such houses (said he) our ancestors lived, who were better men than we." "No, no, my lord (said Dr. Johnson). We are as strong as they, and a great deal wiser." This was an assault upon one of Lord Monboddo's capital dogmas, and I was afraid there would have been a violent altercation in the very close, before we got into the house. But his lordship is distinguished not only for "ancient metaphysicks," but for ancient politesse, “la vieille cour," and he made no reply. His lordship was drest in a rustick suit, and wore a little round hat; told us, we now saw him as Farmer Burnett, and we should have his family dinner, a farmer's dinner. He said, “I should not have forgiven Mr. Boswell, had he not brought you here, Dr. Johnson." He produced a very long stalk of corn, as a specimen of his crop, and said "you see here the latas segetes," and observed that Virgil seemed to be as enthusiastick a farmer as he, and was certainly a practical one.-JOHNSON. "It does not always follow, my lord, that a man who has written a good poem on an art, has practised it. Philip Miller told me, that in Philips's 'Cyder,' a poem, all the precepts were just, and indeed better than in books written for the purpose of instructing; yet Philips had never made cyder." I started the subject of emigrations. "To a man of mere animal life, you can urge no argument against going to America, but that it will be some time before he will get the earth to produce. But a man of any intellectual enjoyment will not easily go and immerse himself and his posterity for ages in barbarism." JOHNSON. "To a He and my lord spoke highly of Homer.-JOHNSON. "He had all the learning of his age. The shield of Achilles shews a nation in war, a nation in peace; harvest sport, nay stealing." MONBODDO. " a ■ My note of this is much too short. Brevis esse laboro obscurus fio. Yet, as I have resolved that the very Journal which Dr. Johnson read shall be presented to the publick, I will not expand the text in any considerable degree, though I may occasionally supply a word to compleat the sense, as I fill up the blanks of abbrevia Second Edition.-Line 18: "told us " altered to "he told us." |