[631] See an account of this learned and respectable gentleman, and of his curious work in the Middle State, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edition. p. 371. [Oct. 25.] BOSWELL. See post, June 9, 1784.
[632] See ante, i. 225, for Boswell's project works, and i. 211.
[633] 'When the efficiency [of men and women] is equal, but the pay unequal, the only explanation that can be given is custom.' J. S. Mill's Political Economy, Book ii. ch. xiv. 5.
[634] The day before he told Boswell this he had recorded:—'My general resolution, to which I humbly implore the help of God, is to methodise my life, to resist sloth. I hope from this time to keep a journal.' Pr. and Med. p. 124. Four times more he recorded the same resolution to keep a journal. See ante, i. 433, and post, Apr. 14,1775.
[635] See post, March 30, 1778, where Johnson says:—'A man loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary or journal.'
[636] 'He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge and distinctness of imagery … To this dilatory notation must be imputed the false relations of travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They trusted to memory what cannot be trusted safely but to the eye, and told by guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty.' Johnson's Works, ix. 144.
[637] Goldsmith, in his dedication to Reynolds of the Deserted Village, refers no doubt to Johnson's opinion of luxury. He writes:—'I know you will object (and indeed several of our best and wisest friends concur in the opinion) that the depopulation it deplores is nowhere to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination…. In regretting the depopulation of the country I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries; and here also I expect the shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty years past it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the greatest national advantages.' See post, April 15, 1778.
[638] Johnson, in his Parl. Debates (Works, x. 418), makes General Handasyd say:—'The whole pay of a foot soldier is sixpence a day, of which he is to pay fourpence to his landlord for his diet, or, what is very nearly the same, to carry fourpence daily to the market … Twopence a day is all that a soldier had to lay out upon cleanliness and decency, and with which he is likewise to keep his arms in order, and to supply himself with some part of his clothing. If, Sir, after these deductions he can, from twopence a day, procure himself the means of enjoying a few happy moments in the year with his companions over a cup of ale, is not his economy much more to be envied than his luxury?'
[639] The humours of Ballamagairy. BOSWELL.
[640]