Latin:" and another concerning writers of travels, who, he observed, 66 were more defective than any other writers." I passed many hours with him on the 17th, of which I find all my memorial is, " much laughing." It should seem he had that day been in a humour for jocularity and merriment, and upon such occasions I never knew a man laugh more heartily. We may suppose, that the high relish of a state so different from his habitual gloom, produced more than ordinary exertions of that distinguishing faculty of man, which has puzzled philosophers so much to explain. Johnson's laugh was as remarkable as any circumstance in his manner. It was a kind of good-humoured growl. Tom Davies described it drolly enough: "He laughs like a rhinoceros." TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "May 21, 1775. "I have an old amanuensis in great distress. I have given what I think can give, and begged till I cannot tell where to beg again. I put into his hands this morning four guineas. If you could collect three guineas more, it would clear him from his present difficulty. "I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "SAM. JOHNSON." "DEAR SIR, "May 27. 1775. "I make no doubt but you are now safely lodged in your own habitation, and have told all your adventures to Mrs. Boswell and Miss Veronica. Pray teach Veronica to love me. Bid her not mind mamma. "Mrs. Thrale has taken cold, and been very much disordered, but I hope is grown well. Mr. Langton went yesterday to Lincolnshire, and has invited Nicolaida1 to follow him. Beauclerk talks of going to Bath. I am to set out on Monday; so there is nothing but dispersion. "I have returned Lord Hailes's entertaining sheets, but must stay till I come back for more, because it will be inconvenient to send them after me in my vagrant state. "I promised Mrs. Macaulay 2 that I would try to serve her son at Oxford. I have not forgotten it, nor am unwilling to perform it. If they desire to give him an English education, it should be considered whether they cannot send him for a year or two to an English school. If he comes immediately from Scotland, he can make no figure in our Universities. The schools in the North, I believe, are cheap; and when I was a young man, were eminently good. "There are two little books published by the Foulis, 'Telemachus,' and 'Collins's Poems,' each a shilling; I would be glad to have them. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, though she does not love me. 1 A learned Greek.-BoSWELL. 2 Wife of the Reverend Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, author of "The History of St. Kilda.”— BOSWELL. You see what perverse things ladies are, and how little fit to be trusted with feudal estates. When she mends and loves me, there may be more hope of her daughters. "I will not send compliments to my friends by name, because I would be loth to leave any out in the enumeration. Tell them, as you see them, how well I speak of Scotch politeness, and Scotch hospitality, and Scotch beauty, and of everything Scotch, but Scotch oat-cakes, and Scotch prejudices. "Let me know the answer of Rasay, and the decision relating to Sir Allan. I am, my dearest sir, with great affection, "Your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." After my return to Scotland, I wrote three letters to him, from which I extract the following passages :— "I HAVE seen Lord Hailes since I came down. He thinks it wonderful that you are pleased to take so much pains in revising his 'Annals.' I told him that you said you were well rewarded by the entertainment which you had in reading them." 2 "There has been a numerous flight of Hebrideans in Edinburgh this summer, whom I have been happy to entertain at my house. Mr. Donald Macqueen and Lord Monboddo supped with me one evening. They joined in controverting your proposition, that the Gaelic of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland was not written till of late." "My mind has been somewhat dark this summer. I have need of your warming and vivifying rays; and I hope I shall have them frequently. I am going to pass some time with my father at Auchinleck." "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, "London, August 27, 1775. "I am returned from the annual ramble into the middle counties. Having seen nothing I had not seen before, I have nothing to relate. Time has left that part of the island few antiquities; and commerce has left the people no singularities. I was glad to go abroad, and, perhaps, glad to come home; which is, in other words, I was, I am afraid, weary of being at home, and weary of being abroad. Is not this the state of life? But, if we confess this weariness, let us not lament it; for all the wise and all the good say, that we may cure it. "For the black fumes which rise in your mind, I can prescribe nothing but that you disperse them by honest business or innocent pleasure, and by reading, sometimes easy, and sometimes serious. Change of place is useful; and I hope that your residence at Auchinleck will have many good effects. * "That I should have given pain to Rasay, I am sincerely sorry; and am 1 A law-suit carried on by Sir Allan Maclean, chief of his clan, to recover certain parts of his family estates from the Duke of Argyle.-BOSWELL. 2 A very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson and I have mentioned with regard.-BOSWELL. therefore very much pleased that he is no longer uneasy. He still thinks that I have represented him as personally giving up the Chieftainship. I meant only that it was no longer contested between the two houses, and supposed it settled, perhaps, by the cession of some remote generation, in the house of Dunvegan. I am sorry the advertisement was not continued for three or four times in the paper. "That Lord Monboddo and Mr. Macqueen should controvert a position contrary to the imaginary interest of literary or national prejudice, might be easily imagined; but of a standing fact there ought to be no controversy; if there are men with tails, catch an homo caudatus; if there was writing of old in the Highlands or Hebrides, in the Erse language, produce the manuscripts. Where men write, they will write to one another; and some of their letters, in families studious of their ancestry, will be kept. In Wales there are many manuscripts. "I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's history, which I purpose to return all the next week: that his respect for my little observations should keep his work in suspense, makes one of the evils of my journey. It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted, and, I suppose, all that is known, without laboured splendour of language, or affected subtlety of conjecture. The exactness of his dates raises my wonder. He seems to have the closeness of Henault without his constraint. "Mrs. Thrale was so entertained with your 'Journal,' that she almost read herself blind. She has a great regard for you. "Of Mrs. Boswell, though she knows in her heart that she does not love me, I am always glad to hear any good, and hope that she and the little dear ladies will have neither sickness nor any other affliction. But she knows that she does not care what becomes of me, and for that she may be sure that I think her very much to blame. 66 Never, my dear sir, do you take it into your head to think that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety. I hold you, as Hamlet has it, 'in my heart of hearts,' and, therefore, it is little to say, that I am, sir, "Your affectionate, humble servant, TO THE SAME. "SAM. JOHNSON." "August 30. 1775. "SIR, "If in these papers 2 there is little alteration attempted, do not suppose me negligent. I have read them perhaps more closely than the rest; but I find nothing worthy of an objection. "Write to me soon, and write often, and tell me all your honest heart. "I am, Sir, My "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," which that lady read in the original manuscript.-Boswell. 2 Another parcel of Lord Hailes's "Annals of Scotland."-BOSWELL. "I now write to you, lest in some of your freaks and humours you should fancy yourself neglected. Such fancies I must entreat you never to admit, at least never to indulge; for my regard for you is so radicated and fixed, that it is become part of my mind and cannot be effaced but by some cause uncommonly violent; therefore whether I write or not, set your thoughts at rest. I now write to tell you that I shall not very soon write again, for I am to set out to-morrow on another journey. * "Your friends are all well at Streatham, and in Leicester-fields.1 Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, if she is in good humour with me. "I am, Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON." 1 Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived.-Boswell. JOHNSON ACCOMPANIES MR. AND MRS. THRALE ON A TOUR TO FRANCE-PARIS-ECÔLE MILITAIRE THE GOBELINS-PALAIS ROYAL-MRS. FERMOR-PALAIS BOURBON-FONTAINEBLEAU-VERSAILLES AND TRIANON-SANTERRE, THE BREWER-THE KING'S LIBRARY-THE SORBONNE-ST. CLOUD-SEVRE-GRAND CHARTREUSE-LIBRARY OF ST. GERMAIN-DEPARTURE FROM PARIS-CHANTILLY-COMPIEGNE-CAMBRAY. WH HAT he mentions in such light terms as, "I am to set out tomorrow on another journey," I soon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This was the only time in his life that he went upon the Continent. "DEAR SIR, 66 TO MR. ROBERT LEVET. "Calais, Sept. 13, 1775. "We are here in France, after a very pleasing passage of no more than six hours. I know not when I shall write again, and therefore I write now, though you cannot suppose that I have much to say. You have seen France yourself. From this place we are going to Rouen, and from Rouen to Paris, where Mr. Thrale designs to stay about five or six weeks. We have a regular recommendation to the English resident, so we shall not be taken for vagabonds. We think to go one way and return another, and for as much as we ean, I will try to speak a little French; I tried hitherto but little, but I spoke sometimes. If I heard better, I suppose I should learn faster. "I am, Sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." |