hoped, after this fair offer, you would not be so uncandid as to assert that he had refused reasonable proof: that you paid no regard to his message, but published your strong attack upon him; and then he wrote a letter to you, in such terms as he thought suited to one who had not acted as a man of veracity. You may believe it gives me pain to hear your conduct represented as unfavourable, while I can only deny what is said, on the ground that your character refutes it, without having any information to oppose. Let me, I beg it of you, be furnished with a sufficient answer to any calumny upon this occasion. "Lord Hailes writes to me, (for we correspond more than we talk together,) ' As to Fingal, I see a controversy arising, and purpose to keep out of its way. There is no doubt that I might mention some circumstances; but I do not choose to commit them to papert.' What his opinion is, I do not know. He says, ' I am singularly obliged to Dr. Johnson for his accurate and useful criticisms. Had he given some strictures on the general plan of the work, it would have added much to his favours.' He is charmed with your verses on Inchkenneth, says they are very elegant, but bids me tell you he doubts whether Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces, be according to the rubrick: but that is your concern; for, you know, he is a presbyterian." "Feb. 7, 1775. SIR,-One of the Scotch physicians is now prosecuting a corporation that in some publick instrument have His lordship, notwithstanding his resolution, did commit his sentiments to paper; and in one of his notes affixed to his Collection of Old Scottish Poetry, he says, that "to doubt the authenticity of those poems, is a refinement in scepticism indeed."-J. BoswELL. ■ The learned and worthy Dr. Lawrence, whom Dr. Johnson respected and loved as his physician and friend.-BOSWELL. styled him doctor of medicine, instead of physician. Boswell desires, being advocate for the corporation, to know whether doctor of medicine is not a legitimate title, and whether it may be considered as a disadvantageous distinction. I am to write to-night; be pleased to tell me. I am, sir, your most, etc. "MY DEAR BOSWELL, -I am surprised that, knowing as you do the disposition of your countrymen to tell lies in favour of each other *, you can be at all affected by any reports that circulate among them. Macpherson never in his life offered me a sight of any original, or of any evidence of any kind; but thought only of intimidating me by noise and threats, till my last answer,--that I would not be deterred from detecting what I thought a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian, put an end to our correspondence. "The state of the question is this. He, and Dr. Blair, whom I consider as deceived, say, that he copied the poem from old manuscripts. His copies, if he had them, and I believe him to have none, are nothing. Where are the manuscripts. They can be shown if they exist; but they were never shown. De non existentibus et non apparentibus,' says our law, eadem est ratio.' No man has a claim to credit upon his own word, when better evidence, if he had it, may be easily produced. But, so far as we can find, the Erse language was never written till very lately for the purposes of religion. A nation that cannot write, or a language that was never written, has no manuscripts. "But whatever he has he never offered to show. If old manuscripts should now be mentioned, I should, unless there were more evidence than can be easily had, suppose them another proof of Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood. * My friend has, in this letter, relied upon my testimony, with a confidence of which the ground has escaped my recollection.-BOSWELL. "Do not censure the expression; you know it to be true. " Dr. Memis's question is so narrow as to allow no speculation; and I have no facts before me but those which his advocate has produced against you. " I consulted this morning the president of the London college of physicians, who says that, with us, doctor of physick (we do not say doctor of medicine) is the highest title that a practiser of physick can have; that doctor implies not only physician, but teacher of physick; that every doctor is legally a physician; but no man, not a doctor, can practise physick but by licence particularly granted. The doctorate is a licence of itself. It seems to us a very slender cause of prosecution. "I am now engaged; but in a little time I hope to do all you would have. My compliments to madam and Veronica. I am, sir, "February 7, 1775.” "Your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. What words were used by Mr. Macpherson in his letter to the venerable sage, I have never heard; but they are generally said to have been of a nature very different from the language of literary contest. Dr. Johnson's answer appeared in the newspapers of the day, and has since been frequently republished; but not with perfect accuracy. I give it as dictated to me by himself, written down in his presence, and authenticated by a note in his own handwriting, "This, I think, is a true copy"." "MR. JAMES MACPHERSON, - I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do y I have deposited it in the British Museum.-BoSWELL. my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I never shall be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian. "What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the publick, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals inclines me to pay regard, not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will. "SAM. JOHNSON." Mr. Macpherson little knew the character of Dr. Johnson, if he supposed that he could be easily intimidated; for no man was ever more remarkable for personal courage. He had, indeed, an awful dread of death, or rather " of something after death:" and what rational man, who seriously thinks of quitting all that he has ever known, and going into a new and unknown state of being, can be without that dread? But his fear was from reflection; his courage natural. His fear, in that one instance, was the result of philosophical and religious consideration. He feared death, but he feared nothing else; not even what might occasion death. Many instances of his resolution may be mentioned. One day, at Mr. Beauclerk's house in the country, when two large dogs were fighting, he went up to them, and beat them till they separated; and at another time, when told of the danger there was that a gun might burst if charged with many balls, he put in six or seven, and fired it off against a wall. Mr. Langton told me, that when they were swimming together near Oxford, he cautioned Dr. Johnson against a pool which was reckoned particularly dangerous; upon which Johnson directly swam into it. He told me himself, that one night he was attacked in the street by four men, to whom he would not yield, but kept them all at bay, till the watch came up, and carried both him and them to the roundhouse. In the playhouse at Lichfield, as Mr. Garrick informed me, Johnson having for a moment quitted a chair which was placed for him between the side-scenes, a gentleman took possession of it, and, when Johnson on his return civilly demanded his seat, rudely refused to give it up; upon which Johnson laid hold of it, and tossed him and the chair into the pit. Foote, who so successfully revived the old comedy by exhibiting living characters, had resolved to imitate Johnson on the stage, expecting great profits from his ridicule of so celebrated a man. Johnson being informed of his intention, and being at dinner at Mr. Thomas Davies's the bookseller, from whom I had the story, he asked Mr. Davies, what was the common price of an oak stick; and being answered sixpence, “Why then, sir," said he, "give me leave to send your servant to purchase me a shilling one. I'll have a double quantity; for I am told Foote means to take me off, as he calls it, and I am determined the fellow shall not do it with impunity." Davies took care to acquaint Foote of this, which effectually checked the wantonness of the mimick. Mr. Macpherson's menaces made Johnson provide himself with the same implement of defence; and had he been attacked, I have no doubt that, old as he was, he would have made his corporal prowess be felt as much as his intellectual. His Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, * is a most valuable performance. It abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, and in ingenious sentiment and lively description. A considerable part of it, indeed, consists of speculations, which many years before he saw the wild regions which we visited together, probably had employed his attention, though the actual sight of those scenes undoubtedly quickened and augmented them. Mr. Orme, the very able historian, agreed with me in this opinion, which he thus strongly expressed :-" There are in that book thoughts, which, by long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and polished like pebbles rolled in the ocean!" |