It would be an idle waste of time to take any particular notice of the futile remarks, to many of which, a petty national resentment, unworthy of my countrymen, has probably given rise; remarks which have been industriously circulated in the publick prints by shallow or envious cavillers, who have endeavoured to persuade the world that Dr. Johnson’s character has been lessened by recording such various instances of his lively wit and acute judgment, on every topick that was presented to his mind.  In the opinion of every person of taste and knowledge that I have conversed with, it has been greatly heightened; and I will venture to predict, that this specimen of the colloquial talents and extemporaneous effusions of my illustrious fellow-traveller will become still more valuable, when, by the lapse of time, he shall have become an ancient; when all those who can now bear testimony to the transcendent powers of his mind, shall have passed away; and no other memorial of this great and good man shall remain but the following Journal, the other anecdotes and letters preserved by his friends, and those incomparable works, which have for many years been in the highest estimation, and will be read and admired as long as the English language shall be spoken or understood.

J.B.

LONDON, 15th Aug. 1786.

CONTENTS.

DEDICATION.  ADVERTISEMENT.  INTRODUCTION.  Character of Dr. Johnson.  He arrives in Scotland.

August 15.  Sir William Forbes.  Practice of the law.  Emigration.  Dr. Beattie and Mr. Hume.  Dr. Robertson.  Mr. Burke’s various and extraordinary talents.  Question concerning genius.  Whitfield and Wesley.  Instructions to political parties.  Dr. Johnson’s opinion of Garrick as a tragedian.

August 16.  Ogden on Prayer.  Aphoristick writing.  Edinburgh surveyed.  Character of Swift’s works.  Evil spirits and witchcraft.  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.  Sketch of the authour’s character.  Trade of Glasgow.  Suicide.  Inchkeith.  Parliamentary knowledge.  Influence of Peers.  Popular clamours.  Arrive at St. Andrews.

August 19.  Dr. Watson.  Literature and patronage.  Writing and conversation compared.  Change of manners.  The Union.  Value of money.  St. Andrews and John Knox.  Retirement from the world.  Dinner with the Professors.  Question concerning 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.  Arrive at Montrose.