He then spoke of St.Kilda,the most remote of the Hebrides.Itold him,I thought of buying it.JOHNSON.'Pray do,Sir.We will go and pass a winter amid the blasts there.We shall have fine fish,and we will take some dried tongues with us,and some books.We will have a strong built vessel,and some Orkney men to navigate her.We must build a tolerable house:but we may carry with us a wooden house ready made,and requiring nothing but to be put up.Consider,Sir,by buying St.Kilda,you may keep the people from falling into worse hands.We must give them a clergyman,and he shall be one of Beattie's choosing.He shall be educated at Marischal College.I'll be your Lord Chancellor,or what you please.'BOSWELL.'Are you serious,Sir,in advising me to buy St.Kilda?for if you should advise me to go to Japan,Ibelieve I should do it.'JOHNSON.'Why yes,Sir,I am serious.'
BOSWELL.'Why then,I'll see what can be done.'
He was engaged to dine abroad,and asked me to return to him in the evening at nine,which I accordingly did.
We drank tea with Mrs.Williams,who told us a story of second sight,which happened in Wales where she was born.He listened to it very attentively,and said he should be glad to have some instances of that faculty well authenticated.His elevated wish for more and more evidence for spirit,in opposition to the groveling belief of materialism,led him to a love of such mysterious disquisitions.He again justly observed,that we could have no certainty of the truth of supernatural appearances,unless something was told us which we could not know by ordinary means,or something done which could not be done but by supernatural power;that Pharaoh in reason and justice required such evidence from Moses;nay,that our Saviour said,'If I had not done among them the works which none other man did,they had not had sin.'
We talked of the Roman Catholick religion,and how little difference there was in essential matters between ours and it.
JOHNSON.'True,Sir;all denominations of Christians have really little difference in point of doctrine,though they may differ widely in external forms.There is a prodigious difference between the external form of one of your Presbyterian churches in Scotland,and a church in Italy;yet the doctrine taught is essentially the same.
In the morning we had talked of old families,and the respect due to them.JOHNSON.'Sir,you have a right to that kind of respect,and are arguing for yourself.I am for supporting the principle,and am disinterested in doing it,as I have no such right.'
BOSWELL.'Why,Sir,it is one more incitement to a man to do well.'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir,and it is a matter of opinion,very necessary to keep society together.What is it but opinion,by which we have a respect for authority,that prevents us,who are the rabble,from rising up and pulling down you who are gentlemen from your places,and saying,"We will be gentlemen in our turn?"Now,Sir,that respect for authority is much more easily granted to a man whose father has had it,than to an upstart,and so Society is more easily supported.'BOSWELL.'At present,Sir,I think riches seem to gain most respect.'JOHNSON.'No,Sir,riches do not gain hearty respect;they only procure external attention.Avery rich man,from low beginnings,may buy his election in a borough;but,coeteris paribus,a man of family will be preferred.
People will prefer a man for whose father their fathers have voted,though they should get no more money,or even less.That shows that the respect for family is not merely fanciful,but has an actual operation.If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their money profusely,which they are ready enough to do,and not vie with them in expence,the upstarts would soon be at an end,and the gentlemen would remain:but if the gentlemen will vie in expence with the upstarts,which is very foolish,they must be ruined.'
On Monday,March 23,I found him busy,preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary.Mr.Peyton,one of his original amanuenses,was writing for him.
He seemed also to be intent on some sort of chymical operation.Iwas entertained by observing how he contrived to send Mr.Peyton on an errand,without seeming to degrade him.'Mr.Peyton,--Mr.
Peyton,will you be so good as to take a walk to Temple-Bar?You will there see a chymist's shop;at which you will be pleased to buy for me an ounce of oil of vitriol;not spirit of vitriol,but oil of vitriol.It will cost three half-pence.'Peyton immediately went,and returned with it,and told him it cost but a penny.
On Saturday,March 27,I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald,with whom he had expressed a wish to be acquainted.He received him very courteously.
SIR A.'I think,Sir,almost all great lawyers,such at least as have written upon law,have known only law,and nothing else.'
JOHNSON.'Why no,Sir;Judge Hale was a great lawyer,and wrote upon law;and yet he knew a great many other things;and has written upon other things.Selden too.'SIR A.'Very true,Sir;and Lord Bacon.But was not Lord Coke a mere lawyer?'JOHNSON.
'Why,I am afraid he was;but he would have taken it very ill if you had told him so.He would have prosecuted you for scandal.'