¥799-} 
duce,—to be, if pofiblé, fuperior to the po- 
pulation of any equal portion of the lands of 
his neighbours. 
The vacations of the Court of Seflion af- 
forded him leifure to retire every year, in 
{pring and in autumn, to the country 5 and 
he ufed then to drefs in a ftyle of fimplicity, 
as if he had been only a plain farmer, and to 
liye among the people upon his eftate with 
all the kind familiarity and attention of an 
aged father among his grown-up children. It 
was there he had’ the pleafure of receiving 
Dr. Sarmuel Johnfon, with his friend James 
Bofwell, at the time when thefe two gentle- 
- nen -were upon their well-known journey 
through the Highlands of Scotland. Johnfon 
admired nothing in literature fo much as the 
difplay of a keen difcrimindtion of human 
character, a juft apprehenfion of the princi- 
ples of moral aétion, and that vigorous coms 
mon fenfe which is the moft happily applica- 
bie to the ordinary conduct of life. Mon= 
boddo delighted in the refinements, the fub- 
tleties, the abftraétions, the affectations of 
fiterature ; and in comparifon with thefe, 
defpifed the groffnefs of modern tafte, and of 
common affairs. Johnfon thought learning 
and {cience to be little valuable, excépt fo far 
as they could be made fubfervient to the pur- 
pofes of living ufefully and happily with the 
world upon its own terms. Monhoddo’s fa= 
vourite {cience taught him to look down with 
contempt upon all fublunary, and efpecially 
upon all modern things; and to fit life to li- 
ferature and philofophy, not literature and 
philofophy to life. James Bofwell, there- 
fore, in carrying Johnfon to vifit Monboddo, 
probably thought of fitting them one againtt 
another, as two game-cocks, and promifed 
himfelf much fpor't from the colloquial con- 
teft which he expected to enfue between 
them. But Monboddo was too hofpitable and 
courteous to enter into keen contention with 
a ftrdnger in his own houfe. There was 
much talk between them, but no angry con- 
troveriy, no exafperation of that diflike for 
éach others well-known peculiarities -with 
which they had met. Johnfon, it is true, 
fill continued to think Lord Monboddo, what 
. he called a prig in literature. 
To unfold amd to vindicate the principles 
of the Grécian philofophy more fully than 
could be conveniently done in his buok on the 
Origin and Progrefs of Language, Lord Mon- 
bodto engaged in the compofition of a 
work under the title of Ancient Metapryfics. 
On his vifits to London, Lord Monboddo 
miet with fo many more men of profound eru- 
dition than he’ had opportunity to converfe 
with at the places of his ordinary refidence, 
that a journey to the capital became a very 
favourite amufement of His‘periods of vacation 
from the bufinefs of the court to which he 
belonged. Fora while, he accuftomed him- 
Account of Lord Munbeddo. 579 
felf to make this’ journey once a year, A 
carriage, a vehicle that was not in common 
ufe among the ancients, he confidered as an 
engine of efleminacy and floth, which it was 
difgraceful for ai man to make ufe of in tra 
velling. Do be dragged at the tail of a horfe, 
inftead of mounting upon his back,—leemed, 
in his eyes, to be a truly ludicrous degrada~ 
tion. of the genuine dignity of human nature. 
Tn all his journies, therefore, between Edins 
burgh and London, he was wont to ride on 
horfeback, with’ a fingle fervant attending 
him. He continued this practice, without 
finding it too fatiguing ror his ftrength, till 
he was between eighty and ninety years of 
age. Within thefe few years, on his return. 
from a laft vifit, which he made on purpofe to 
take leave before his death of all his old 
friends in London, he became exceedingly ill 
upon the road, was unable to proceed, and 
had he not been overtaken by a Scottifh 
frienay who prevailed with him to travel for 
the remainder of the way in a carriage, he 
might perhaps have a¢tually perifhed vy the 
way fide, or breathed his laft in fome dirty 
inn. From that time he never again attempt- 
ed an equeftrian journey to London. . - 
A conftitution of body naturally framed to 
wear well and la% long, was ftrengthened to 
Lord Monboddo by exercife, guarded by tem- 
perance, and by a tenor of mind too firm to 
be deeply broken in upon by thofe paffions 
which confume the principles of life. Inthe 
country he always uled the exerciles of walk~- 
ing in the open air and of riding. ‘The cold 
bath is a mean of preferving the health, to 
which he had recourfe in all his feafons, 
amid every feverity of the weather, under 
every inconvenience of indifpofition or bufi- 
nefs, with a perfeverance invincible. He was 
accuftomed, alike in winter and in fummer, 
to rife from bed at a very early hour in the. 
morning, and, without lofs of time, to betake 
himfelf to ftudy or wholefome exercife. + Itis 
faid, that he has even found the ufe of what 
he calls the air-bath, or the pra€tice of occa= 
finally walking about, for fome minutes, naked, 
in a room filled with frefo and cool air, to be 
highly falutary. 
His eldeft daughter became, many year’ 
fince, the wife of Kirkpatrick Wilkinfon, 
efq. a gentleman who holds a refpe€table of- 
fice in the Court of Sefflion, His fecond 
daughter, a moft amiable and beautiful young ~ 
lady, died about fix years fince of a contump- 
tion, a difeafe that, in Scotland, proves too 
often fatal to the lovelieft and mof promifing 
among the fair and the young. Neither his 
philofoplty, nor the neceflary torpor of the 
feelings of extreme old age, could hinder 
‘Lord Monboddo from being very deeply af- 
fli€ted by fo grievous a lols. \ From that time 
he began to droop exceedingly in his health 
aid ipirjts to the period of his death. 
‘i - PROVINCIAL 
