Dr Johnson was unquestionably in the right; and whoever examines himself candidly, will be satisfied of it, though the inconsistency between principles and practice is greater in some men than in others.
I recollect very little of this night's conversation. I am sorry that indolence came upon me towards the conclusion of our journey, so that I did not write down what passed with the same assiduity as during the greatest part of it.
Tuesday, 26th October
Mr M'Aulay breakfasted with us, nothing hurt or dismayed by his last night's correction. Being a man of good sense, he had a just admiration of Dr Johnson. Either yesterday morning, or this, I communicated to Dr Johnson, from Mr M'Aulay's information, the news that Dr Beattie had got a pension of two hundred pounds a year. He sat up in his bed, clapped his hands, and cried, 'O brave we!' a peculiar exclamation of his when he rejoices. [Footnote: Having mentioned, more than once, that my Journal was perused by Dr Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the last paragraph which he read.]
As we sat over our tea, Mr Home's Tragedy of Douglas was mentioned. I put Dr Johnson in mind, that once, in a coffee-house at Oxford, he called to old Mr Sheridan, 'How came you, sir, to give Home a gold medal for writing that foolish play?' and defied Mr Sheridan to shew ten good lines in it. He did not insist they should be together, but that there were not ten good lines in the whole play. He now persisted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetick and beautiful tragedy, and repeated the following passage:
'"… Sincerity,
Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave
Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
And from the gulph of hell destruction cry.
To take dissimulation's winding way."'
JOHNSON. 'That will not do, sir. Nothing is good but what is consistent with truth or probability, which this is not. Juvenal, indeed, gives us a noble picture of inflexible virtue:
Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus, arbiter idem
Integer: ambiguae si quando citabere testis,
Incertaeque rei, Phalaris licet imperet, ut sis
Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,
Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori,
Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.
[Footnote: An honest guardian, arbitrator just.
Be thou; thy station deem a sacred trust.
With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause;
In every action venerate its laws:
The lie suborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear,
Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear;
To forfeit honour, think the highest shame,
And life too dearly bought by loss of fame;
Nor, to preserve it, with thy virtue give
That for which only man should wish to live.
For this and the other translations to which no signature is affixed, I am indebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in notes.] He repeated the lines with great force and dignity; then added, 'And, after this, comes Johnny Hoe, with his EARTH GAPING, and his DESTRUCTION CRYING—Pooh!' [Footnote: I am sorry that I was unlucky in my quotation. But notwithstanding the acuteness of Dr Johnson's criticism, and the power of his ridicule, the Tragedy of Douglas still continues to be generally and deservedly admired.]