Life of Johnson ...

CONTENTS.

DEDICATION.

ADVERTISEMENT.

INTRODUCTION. Character of Dr. Johnson. He arrives in Scot-
land.

August 15. Sir William Forbes. Practice of the law. Emigra-
tion. Dr. Beattie and Mr. Hume. Dr. Robertson. Mr.
Burke's various and extraordinary talents. Question con-
cerning genius. Whitfield and Wesley. Instructions to po-
litical parties. Dr. Johnson's opinion of Garrick as a trage-
dian.

August 16. Ogden on Prayer. Aphoristick writing. Edinburgh
surveyed. Character of Swift's works. Evil spirits and witch-
craft. Lord Monboddo and the Ouran-Outang.

August 17. Poetry and Dictionary writing. Scepticism. Eternal
necessity refuted. Lord Hailes's criticism on The Vanity of
Human Wishes. Mr. Maclaurin. Decision of the Judges in
Scotland on literary property.
August 18. Set out for the Hebrides.
character. Trade of Glasgow.

Sketch of the authour's

Suicide.

Inchkeith. Par-

liamentary knowledge. Influence of Peers. Popular clam-

ours. Arrive at St. Andrews.

August 19. Dr. Watson. Literature and patronage.

Writing and
The Union.
Retirement
Question con-

conversation compared. Change of manners.
Value of money. St. Andrews and John Knox.
from the world. Dinner with the Professors.
cerning sorrow and content. Instructions for composition.
Dr. Johnson's method. Uncertainty of memory.

August 20. Effect of prayer.

Observance of Sunday. Professor

Shaw. Transubstantiation. Literary property. Mr. Tyers's

remark on Dr. Johnson.

August 21. Want of trees.

Arrive at Montrose.

Laurence Kirk. Dinner at Monbod-

do. Emigration. Homer. Biography and history compared.

Decrease

Decrease of learning. Causes of it. Promotion of Bishops.

Warburton. Lowth. Value of politeness. Dr. Johnson's

sentiments concerning Lord Monboddo.

deen.

August 22.

Arrive at Aber-

Professor Thomas Gordon. Publick and private edu-
cation. Sir Alexander Gordon. Trade of Aberdeen. Pre-
scription of murder in Scotland. Mystery of the Trinity.
Satisfaction of Christ. Importance of old friendships.
August 23. Dr. Johnson made a burgess of Aberdeen. Dinner
at Sir Alexander Gordon's. Warburton's powers of invective.
His Doctrine of Grace. Lock's verses. Fingal.

August 24.

Goldsmith and Graham. Slains castle. Education
Consequence of

of children. Buller of Buchan. Entails.
Peers. Sir Joshua Reynolds. Earl of Errol.

August 25. The advantage of being on good terms with relations.
Feudal state of subordination.

Nabobs.

Dinner at Strichen.

Life of country gentlemen. THE LITERARY Club.
August 26. Lord Monboddo. Use and importance of wealth.

Elgin. Macbeth's heath. Fores.

August 27. Leonidas. Paul Whitehead. Derrick.

Origin of

Evil. Calder-manse. Reasonableness of ecclesiastical sub-

scription. Family worship.

August 28. Fort George.
Fort George. Sir Adolphus Oughton. Contest be-
tween Warburton and Lowth. Dinner at Sir Eyre Coote's.
Arabs and English soldiers compared. The Stage. Mr. Gar-
rick, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Clive. Inverness.
August 29. Macbeth's Castle. Incorrectness of writers of Trav-
els. Coinage of new words. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

August 30. Dr. Johnson on horse-back. A Highland hut. Fort

Augustus. Governour Trapaud.

August 31. Anoch. Emigration. Goldsmith. Poets and sol-

diers compared. Life of a sailor. Landlord's daughter at

Anoch.

September 1. Glensheal. The Macraas. Dr. Johnson's anger at

being left for a little while by the authour on a wild plain.

Wretched inn at Glenelg,

September 2. Dr. Johnson relents. Isle of Sky. Armidale.

Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune.

Ancient Highland Enthusiasm.

September 3.

September 4.

September 5.

Sir James Macdonald's epitaph and last letters to

his mother. Dr. Johnson's Latin ode on the Isle of Sky.
Isaac Hawkins Browne.

September 6. Corrichatachin. Highland hospitality and mirth.
Dr. Johnson's Latin ode to Mrs. Thrale.

September 7. Uneasy state of dependence on the weather. State
of those who live in the country. Dr. M'Pherson's Disserta-
tions. Second Sight.

September 8. Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen. Mr. Malcolm M'Cleod.
Sail to Rasay. Fingal. Homer. Elegant and gay enter-
tainment at Rasay.

September 9. Antiquity of the family of Rasay.
Survey of the island of Rasay.
Duchess of Marlborough.

September 10.
Hooke.

September 11.
of M'Cleod.

Cure of infidelity.

Bentley. Mallet.

Heritable jurisdictions. Insular life. The Laird

September 12. Sail to Portree. Dr. Johnson's discourse on death.
Letters from Lord Elibank to Dr. Johnson and the authour.
Dr. Johnson's answer. Ride to Kingsburgh. Flora M'Donald.
September 13. Distresses and escape of the grandson of King James
II. Arrive at Dunvegan.

September 14. Importance of the chastity of women. Dr. Cado-
gan. Whether the practice of authours is necessary to enforce
their Doctrines. Good humour acquirable.

September 15. Sir George M'Kenzie. Mr. Burke's wit, knowledge and eloquence.

September 16. Dr. Johnson's hereditary melancholy. His minute

knowledge in various arts. Apology for the authour's ardour in his pursuits. Dr. Johnson's imaginary seraglio. Polygamy. September 17. Cunning. Whether great abilities are necessary to be wicked. Temple of the Goddess Anaitis. Family portraits. Records not consulted by old English historians. Mr. Pennant's Tours criticised.

September 18. Ancient residence of a Highland Chief. Languages the pedigree of nations. Laird of the Isle of Muck. September 19. Choice of a wife.

Lady Grange in St. Kilda.

Women an over-match for men.
Poetry of savages. French Lit-

erati. Prize-fighting. French and English soldiers. Duelling.

September 20. Change of London manners.
Landed and traded interest compared.

Laziness censured.

Gratitude consid

September

September 21. Description of Dunvegan. Lord Lovat's Pyramid. Ride to Ulinish. Phipps's Voyage to the North Pole. September 22. Subterraneous house and vast cave in Ulinish. Swift's Lord Orrery. Defects as well as virtues the proper subject of biography, though the life be written by a friend. Studied conclusions of letters. Whether allowable in dying men to maintain resentment to the last. Instructions for writing the lives of literary men. Fingal denied to be genuine, and pleasantly ridiculed. September 23. Further disquisition concerning Fingal. Eminent men disconcerted by a new mode of publick appearance. Mrs. Montague's Essay on Shakspeare. Persons of consequence watched in London. Learning of the Scots from 1550 to 1650. The arts of civil life little known in Scotland till the Union. Life of a sailor. The folly of Peter the Great in working in a dock-yard. Arrive at Talisker. clergy deficient in learning.

Presbyterian

September 24. French hunting. Young Col. Dr. Birch, Dr. Percy. Lord Hailes. Historical impartiality. Whiggism unbecoming in a clergyman.

September 25. Every island a prison. A Sky cottage. Return to Corrichatachin. Good fellowship carried to excess.

September 26. Morning review of last night's intemperance. Old Kingsburgh's Jacobite song. Lady Margaret Macdonald adored in Sky. Different views of the same subject at different times. Self-deception.

September 27. Dr. Johnson's popularity in the Isle of Sky. His good-humoured gaiety with a Highland lady.

September 28. Ancient Irish pride of family. Dr. Johnson on

threshing and thatching. Dangerous to increase the price of labour. Arrive at Ostig. Dr. M'Pherson's Latin poetry. September 29. Reverend Mr. M'Pherson. Shenstone. Hammond. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

September 30. Mr. Burke the first man every where. Very moderate talents requisite to make a figure in the House of Commons. Dr. Young. Dr. Doddridge. Increase of infidel writings since the accession of the Hanover family. Gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson. Particular minutes to be kept of our studies.

October I.

Dr. Johnson not answerable for all the words in his
Dictionary.

Dictionary. Attacks on authours useful to them. Return to
Armidale.

October 2. Old manners of great families in Wales. German

courts. Goldsmith's love of talk.
story of the people of St. Kilda.

October 3.
storm.

Emigration.

Curious

Epictetus on the voyage of death. Sail for Mull. A

Driven into Col.

October 4. Dr. Johnson's mode of living in the Temple. His

curious appearance on a sheltie.
Burnet's History of his own Times.
cations and histories.

Nature of sea-sickness.
Difference between dedi-

October 5. People may come to do anything by talking of it. The
Reverend Mr. Hector Maclean. Bayle. Leibnitz and Clarke.
Survey of Col. Insular life. Arrive at Breacacha. Dr. John-
son's power of ridicule.

October 6. Heritable jurisdictions. The opinion of philosophers

concerning happiness in a cottage, considered. Advice to

landlords.

October 7.

October 8.

Books the best solace in a state of confinement.

Pretended brother of Dr. Johnson. No redress for a

man's name being affixed to a foolish work. Lady Sidney

Beauclerk. Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond. Col's cabi-

net. Letters of the great Montrose. Present state of the isl-

and of Col.

October 9. Dr. Johnson's avidity for a variety of books. Improbabil-
ity of a Highland tradition. Dr. Johnson's delicacy of feeling.