[1129] Wife of the Rev. Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, authour of The History of St. Kilda. BOSWELL. See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 28, 1773.
[1130] 'The Elzevirs of Glasgow,' as Boswell called them. (Hebrides, Oct. 29.)
[1131] See in Boswell's Hebrides, Johnson's letter of May 6, 1775.
[1132] 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.
[1133] A very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson and I have mentioned with regard. BOSWELL. Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 3, 1773, and Johnson's Works, ix. 54. Johnson in another passage, (ib. p. 115), speaks of him as 'a very learned minister. He wished me to be deceived [as regards Ossian] for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.' Johnson told him this to his face. Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 22. His credulity is shewn by the belief he held, that the name of a place called Ainnit in Sky was the same as the Anaitidis delubrum in Lydia. Ib Sept. 17.
[1134] This darkness is seen in his letters. He wrote 'June 3, 1775. It required some philosophy to bear the change from England to Scotland. The unpleasing tone, the rude familiarity, the barren conversation of those whom I found here, in comparison with what I had left, really hurt my feelings … The General Assembly is sitting, and I practise at its Bar. There is de facto something low and coarse in such employment, though on paper it is a Court of Supreme Judicature; but guineas must be had … Do you know it requires more than ordinary spirit to do what I am to do this very morning: I am to go to the General Assembly and arraign a judgement pronounced last year by Dr. Robertson, John Home, and a good many more of them, and they are to appear on the other side. To speak well, when I despise both the cause and the Judges, is difficult: but I believe I shall do wonderfully. I look forward with aversion to the little, dull labours of the Court of Sessions. You see, Temple, I have my troubles as well as you have. My promise under the venerable yew has kept me sober.' Letters of Boswell, p. 198. On June 19, he is 'vexed to think myself a coarse labourer in an obscure corner…. Mr. Hume says there will in all probability be a change of the Ministry soon, which he regrets. Oh, Temple, while they change so often, how does one feel an ambition to have a share in the great department! … My father is most unhappily dissatisfied with me. He harps on my going over Scotland with a brute (think how shockingly erroneous!) and wandering (or some such phrase) to London!' Ib p. 201. 'Aug. 12. I have had a pretty severe return this summer of that melancholy, or hypochondria, which is inherent in my constitution…. While afflicted with melancholy, all the doubts which have ever disturbed thinking men come upon me. I awake in the night dreading annihilation, or being thrown into some horrible state of being.' He recounts a complimentary letter he had received from Lord Mayor Wilkes, and continues:—'Tell me, my dear Temple, if a man who receives so many marks of more than ordinary consideration can be satisfied to drudge in an obscure corner, where the manners of the people are disagreeable to him.' Ib p. 209.
[1135] He was absent from the end of May till some time in August. He wrote from Oxford on June 1:—'Don't suppose that I live here as we live at Streatham. I went this morning to the chapel at six.' Piozzi Letters, i. 223. He was the guest of Mr. Coulson, a Fellow of University College. On June 6, he wrote:—'Such is the uncertainty of all human things that Mr. Coulson has quarrelled with me. He says I raise the laugh upon him, and he is an independent man, and all he has is his own, and he is not used to such things.' Ib p. 226. An eye-witness told Mr. Croker that 'Coulson was going out on a country living, and talking of it with the same pomp as to Lord Stowell.' [He had expressed to him his doubts whether, after living so long in the great world, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish. Croker's Boswell, p. 425.] Johnson chose to imagine his becoming an archdeacon, and made himself merry at Coulson's expense. At last they got to warm words, and Johnson concluded the debate by exclaiming emphatically—'Sir, having meant you no offence, I will make you no apology.' Ib p. 458. The quarrel was made up, for the next day he wrote:—'Coulson and I are pretty well again.' Piozzi Letters, i. 229.
[1136] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 2:—'It is hardly credible how difficult it is for a man of my sensibility to support existence in the family where I now am. My father, whom I really both respect and affectionate (if that is a word, for it is a different feeling from that which is expressed by love, which I can say of you from my soul), is so different from me. We divaricate so much, as Dr. Johnson said, that I am often hurt when, I dare say, he means no harm: and he has a method of treating me which makes me feel myself like a timid boy, which to Boswell (comprehending all that my character does in my own imagination and in that of a wonderful number of mankind) is intolerable. His wife too, whom in my conscience I cannot condemn for any capital bad quality, is so narrow-minded, and, I don't know how, so set upon keeping him under her own management, and so suspicious and so sourishly tempered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical philosophy to keep myself quiet. I however have done so all this week to admiration: nay, I have appeared good-humoured; but it has cost me drinking a considerable quantity of strong beer to dull my faculties.' Letters of Boswell, p. 215.
[1137] Voltaire wrote of Hénault's Abrégé de l' Histoire de la France:—'Il a été dans l'histoire ce que Fontenelle a été dans la philosophie. Il l'a rendue familière.' Voltaire's Works, xvii. 99. With a quotation from Hénault, Carlyle begins his French Revolution.
[1138] My Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, which that lady read in the original manuscript. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, 'May 22, 1775:—I am not sorry that you read Boswell's Journal. Is it not a merry piece? There is much in it about poor me.' Piozzi Letters, i. 220. 'June 11, 1775. You never told me, and I omitted to inquire, how you were entertained by Boswell's Journal. One would think the man had been hired to be a spy upon me. He was very diligent, and caught opportunities of writing from time to time.' Ib p. 233. I suspect that the words I have marked by italics are not Johnson's, but are Mrs. Piozzi's interpolation.