¥803.] 
the bef company in the Scottifh metropo. 
lis, and carried him to view every object 
avhether of modern elegance or venerable 
for its antiquity, which he fuppofed likely 
to give him cleir and not unfavourable 
notions of the ftate of the arts, manners, and 
wealth of Scotland. ‘Leaving Edinburgh, 
‘they croffed the frith of Forth, pailed 
through Fife to S:. Andrew’s, and, after 
fighing over the ruins of its cathedral and 
dilapidated colleges, preceeded acrofs the 
Tay to Aberbrothwick. The ruined 
priory and conventual church of Abcr- 
brothwick again awakened their folema 
sndignation and regret. They were made 
‘bureefies of Aberdeen; were lulled to 
Aleep in Slains caitle by the winds break- 
ing on its battlements and the billows 
dafhing againit its bafe; looked in vain 
for the aveird-fifters on the heath on 
ewhic's Macheth heard tho% doubtful pro- 
phecies which urged him ‘to his fate 5 
talked of favages and fhepkeepers with 
“ord Monboddo ; and, ‘* per warios ca 
fits, per multa diferimina rerum,” arrived 
at length at Inverneis. From Invernefs 
‘they travelled acrofs the ifthmus of the 
Highlands to-Glenelg. Ferried over from 
the Scottith continent to the ifle of Skye, 
the greateft of the Hebudre, they then 
-wandered about for a while among the'e 
“ifles, charmed with the kind and luxu- 
rious hofpitality of the infular chieftains, 
‘interefted by the fimplicity and peculiarity 
of the manners of the Highland ruttics ; 
now aftonithed, now amuted, by the wild 
{cenery of fea and land which they beheld 
around them ; having their devotional 
feelings occafionally elevated to the height 
-of pious rapture, -by the contemplation 
of ruined convents and the recolle&tion of 
the monks by whom thefe had once been 
4enanted ; and wonderinz what a!l the 
world was inthe meanwhile faying of 
them and of their adventurous voyages * 
At laft they returned within the bourne of 
lowland life. Johnfon, having talked 
‘down the —Edinburgh-men, departed for 
‘London ; and Befwell hetock himtelf for 
the winter to the ungrateful bufine(s of 
the Scottifh bar. 
But-while the analogy of nature remains 
the fame, it will ever be the final caufe 
of all the ations of a true man-of letters 
to produce abook. The world expected 
a book or two to he the refults of the 
Aebudean travels of Bolwell and John- 
fon ; nor were they dilappointed. With- 
‘an a reafonable length of time after John- 
fon's return to London, appeared his Ac- 
‘count of his ‘* Journey to the Weftern 
Zfles of Scotland.” It is perhaps the beft 
~ Monruty Mas, No, 102. 
j 
/ 
Memoirs of Fames Bofwell, Ejq. 
549 
work of its author. In it nature is dif- 
played, and life and manners are pictured 
out with the happieft fkill. There are a 
noble pathos and fublimity in thofe indiz~ 
nantly plaintive refle@tions which burtt 
from Johnfon’s bofom at fight of the au~ 
euft ruins of ‘thofe facred edifices which 
the Scottifh Reformation Gemolifhed — 
That ethical wifdom in which he the moft 
eminently excelled, continually breaks 
forth amid thofe obfervations which are 
fuggefted by the paffing feries of objects 
of diiferent characters. In cecumenical 
fcience Johnfon has in this fmall work 
difplayed the elements of a {kill more juf& 
and profound than that of Adam Smith 
and the philofophers of France. Even ia 
the phytical fciences and the mechanical 
arts, which he could be the leaft expected 
to underftand, Johnfon has in this book 
evinced no common intelligence. A dou- 
ble portion of that fagacity which we 
call common fenfe, pervades the whole — 
fn nothing is this more remarkably exhi- 
bited than in the Jogteal difcrimination 
with which he afferts the poffibility, while 
he allows the improbability, of thofe fu-' 
‘pernatural appearances which fuperftition 
has ever too creduloutly believed, and {cep- 
ticif{m perhaps too pertly and unthin! Kingly 
denied. Johnfon’s remarks on the incre- 
dibility of the tale which had been given 
out to the public concerning Offian’s Po- 
ems, happily ferved to check the evil arts 
of a race of pretended men of tafte and 
erudition, who were degrading the lite- 
rature of their country by going about to 
exalt its glory upon the tricks of impof- 
ture. Ail the genuine partialities of an 
old-fafhioned Englifhman were interwoven 
into the very ftamina of Johnfon’s foul : 
yet it-muft be confefféd, that no man who 
was refolutely determined net to facrifice 
truth to courtefy, could have fpoken with 
greater kindneis and favour of the Scots 
and of their country. This Journey of 
Johnfon’s may be regarded as .the moft 
ufeful memorial of. tne ftate of Pome 
that has even hitherto been publifined:: 
is certain, that no other publication iis 
ever contributed half fo much toward the 
improvement of the general condition of 
things among the Scots. Zt is extremely 
painful to refle&, that very few of the 
Scots are fo candid as to acknowledze 
this! Bofwell’s Attle bark, although not 
quite fo foon launched as the great fr/- 
rate of his friend, was, however, to {ail 
attendant on its triumph. His ** Tour 
to the Hebrides” did not appear in print 
till a number of years after. It was then 
received by the public with an avidity 
4B which 
