We returned to my house, where there met him, at dinner, the Duchess of Douglas[113], Sir Adolphus Oughton, Lord Chief Baron, Sir William Forbes, Principal Robertson, Mr. Cullen[114], Advocate.  Before dinner he told us of a curious conversation between the famous George Faulkner[115] and him.  George said that England had drained Ireland of fifty thousand pounds in specie, annually, for fifty years.  ’How so, Sir! (said Dr. Johnson,) you must have a very great trade?’ ‘No trade.’  ‘Very rich mines?’ ‘No mines.’  ’From whence, then, does all this money come?’ ’Come! why out of the blood and bowels of the poor people of Ireland!’

He seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift[116]; for I once took the liberty to ask him, if Swift had personally offended him, and he told me he had not.  He said to-day, ’Swift is clear, but he is shallow.  In coarse humour, he is inferior to Arbuthnot[117]; in delicate humour, he is inferior to Addison.  So he is inferior to his contemporaries; without putting him against the whole world.  I doubt if the Tale of a Tub was his[118]:  it has so much more thinking, more knowledge, more power, more colour, than any of the works which are indisputably his.  If it was his, I shall only say, he was impar sibi[119].’

We gave him as good a dinner as we could.  Our Scotch muir-fowl, or growse, were then abundant, and quite in season; and so far as wisdom and wit can be aided by administering agreeable sensations to the palate, my wife took care that our great guest should not be deficient.

Sir Adolphus Oughton, then our Deputy Commander in Chief, who was not only an excellent officer, but one of the most universal scholars I ever knew, had learned the Erse language, and expressed his belief in the authenticity of Ossian’s Poetry[120].  Dr. Johnson took the opposite side of that perplexed question; and I was afraid the dispute would have run high between them.  But Sir Adolphus, who had a very sweet temper, changed the discourse, grew playful, laughed at Lord Monboddo’s[121] notion of men having tails, and called him a Judge, a posteriori, which amused Dr. Johnson; and thus hostilities were prevented.

At supper[122] we had Dr. Cullen, his son the advocate, Dr. Adam Fergusson, and Mr. Crosbie, advocate.  Witchcraft was introduced[123].  Mr. Crosbie said, he thought it the greatest blasphemy to suppose evil spirits counteracting the Deity, and raising storms, for instance, to destroy his creatures.  JOHNSON.  ’Why, Sir, if moral evil be consistent with the government of the Deity, why may not physical evil be also consistent with it?  It is not more strange that there should be evil spirits, than evil men:  evil unembodied spirits, than evil embodied spirits.  And as to storms, we know there are such things; and it is no worse that evil spirits raise them, than that they rise.’  CROSBIE.  ’But it is not credible, that witches should have effected