Life of Johnson
Chapter 122 : 'What does Becket[868] mean by the _Originals_ of Fingal and other poems of Ossia

'What does Becket[868] mean by the _Originals_ of Fingal and other poems of Ossian, which he advertises to have lain in his shop?'

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'DEAR SIR,

'You sent me a case to consider, in which I have no facts but what are against us, nor any principles on which to reason. It is vain to try to write thus without materials. The fact seems to be against you; at least I cannot know nor say any thing to the contrary. I am glad that you like the book so well. I hear no more of Macpherson. I shall long to know what Lord Hailes says of it. Lend it him privately. I shall send the parcel as soon as I can. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell.

'I am, Sir, &c.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Jan. 28, 1775.'

'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

'Edinburgh, Feb. 2, 1775

'As to Macpherson, I am anxious to have from yourself a full and pointed account of what has pa.s.sed between you and him. It is confidently told here, that before your book came out he sent to you, to let you know that he understood you meant to deny the authenticity of Ossian's poems; that the originals were in his possession; that you might have inspection of them, and might take the evidence of people skilled in the Erse language; and that he hoped, after this fair offer, you would not be so uncandid as to a.s.sert 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 circ.u.mstances; but I do not choose to commit them to paper[869]." 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 be according to the rubrick; but that is your concern; for, you know, he is a Presbyterian.'

"Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces.[870]"

'To DR. LAWRENCE[871].

'Feb. 7, 1775.

'SIR,

'One of the Scotch physicians is now prosecuting a corporation that in some publick instrument have stiled him _Doctor of Medicine_ instead of _Physician_. Boswell desires, being advocate for the corporation, to know whether _Doctor of Medicine_ is not a legitimate t.i.tle, 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, &c.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'My DEAR BOSWELL,

'I am surprised that, knowing as you do the disposition of your countrymen to tell lies in favour of each other[872], 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 ma.n.u.scripts. His copies, if he had them, and I believe him to have none, are nothing.

Where are the ma.n.u.scripts? 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 ma.n.u.scripts.

'But whatever he has he never offered to show. If old ma.n.u.scripts 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.

'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[873], who says, that with us, _Doctor of Physick_ (we do not say _Doctor of Medicine_) is the highest t.i.tle that a practicer 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 _practice 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, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'February 7, 1775.'

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 re-published; 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 hand-writing, '_This, I think, is a true copy_[874].'

'MR. JAMES MACPHERSON,

'I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never 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[875], 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[876].'

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 aweful dread of death, or rather, 'of something after death[877];' 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[878]. 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[879]; and at another time, when told of the danger there was that a gun might burst if charged with many b.a.l.l.s, 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 round-house[880]. 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 six-pence, 'Why then, Sir, (said he,) give me leave to send your servant to purchase me a s.h.i.+lling one. I'll have a double quant.i.ty; 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[881]. Mr. Macpherson's menaces made Johnson provide himself with the same implement of defence[882]; 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_[883] 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[884], 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!'

That he was to some degree of excess a _true-born Englishman_[885], so as to have entertained an undue prejudice against both the country and the people of Scotland, must be allowed[886]. But it was a prejudice of the head, and not of the heart. He had no ill-will to the Scotch; for, if he had been conscious of that, he would never have thrown himself into the bosom of their country, and trusted to the protection of its remote inhabitants with a fearless confidence. His remark upon the nakedness of the country, from its being denuded of trees[887], was made after having travelled two hundred miles along the eastern coast, where certainly trees are not to be found near the road; and he said it was 'a map of the road[888]' which he gave. His disbelief of the authenticity of the poems ascribed to Ossian, a Highland bard, was confirmed in the course of his journey, by a very strict examination of the evidence offered for it; and although their authenticity was made too much a national point by the Scotch, there were many respectable persons in that country, who did not concur in this; so that his judgement upon the question ought not to be decried, even by those who differ from him. As to myself, I can only say, upon a subject now become very uninteresting, that when the fragments of Highland poetry first came out, I was much pleased with their wild peculiarity, and was one of those who subscribed to enable their editor, Mr. Macpherson, then a young man, to make a search in the Highlands and Hebrides for a long poem in the Erse language, which was reported to be preserved somewhere in those regions. But when there came forth an Epick Poem in six books, with all the common circ.u.mstances of former compositions of that nature; and when, upon an attentive examination of it, there was found a perpetual recurrence of the same images which appear in the fragments; and when no ancient ma.n.u.script, to authenticate the work, was deposited in any publick library, though that was insisted on as a reasonable proof, _who_ could forbear to doubt[889]?

Johnson's grateful acknowledgements of kindnesses received in the course of this tour, completely refute the brutal reflections which have been thrown out against him, as if he had made an ungrateful return; and his delicacy in sparing in his book those who we find from his letters to Mrs. Thrale were just objects of censure[890], is much to be admired. His candour and amiable disposition is conspicuous from his conduct, when informed by Mr. Macleod, of Rasay, that he had committed a mistake, which gave that gentleman some uneasiness. He wrote him a courteous and kind letter, and inserted in the news-papers an advertis.e.m.e.nt, correcting the mistake[891].

The observations of my friend Mr. Dempster in a letter[892] written to me, soon after he had read Dr. Johnson's book, are so just and liberal, that they cannot be too often repeated: