Nor would it be just, under this head, to omit the fondness which he shewed for animals which he had taken under his protection.  I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat:  for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature.  I am, unluckily, one of those who have an antipathy to a cat, so that I am uneasy when in the room with one; and I own, I frequently suffered a good deal from the presence of this same Hodge.  I recollect him one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson’s breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, ‘Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;’ and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, ’but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.’

This reminds me of the ludicrous account which he gave Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young Gentleman of good family.  ’Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.’  And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favourite cat, and said, ‘But Hodge shan’t be shot; no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.’

On Thursday, April 10, I introduced to him, at his house in Bolt-court, the Honourable and Reverend William Stuart, son of the Earl of Bute; a gentleman truly worthy of being known to Johnson; being, with all the advantages of high birth, learning, travel, and elegant manners, an exemplary parish priest in every respect.

After some compliments on both sides, the tour which Johnson and I had made to the Hebrides was mentioned.  Johnson.  ’I got an acquisition of more ideas by it than by any thing that I remember.  I saw quite a different system of life.’  Boswell.  ’You would not like to make the same journey again?’ Johnson.  ’Why no, Sir; not the same:  it is a tale told.  Gravina, an Italian critick, observes, that every man desires to see that of which he has read; but no man desires to read an account of what he has seen:  so much does description fall short of reality.  Description only excites curiosity:  seeing satisfies it.  Other people may go and see the Hebrides.’  Boswell.  ’I should wish to go and see some country totally different from what I have been used to; such as Turkey, where religion and every thing else are different.’  Johnson.  ’Yes, Sir; there are two objects of curiosity,—­the Christian world, and the Mahometan world.  All the rest may be considered as barbarous.’  Boswell.  ’Pray, Sir, is the Turkish Spy a genuine book?’ Johnson.  ’No, Sir.  Mrs. Manley, in her Life, says that her father wrote the first two volumes:  and in another book, Dunton’s Life and Errours, we find that the rest was written by one Sault, at two guineas a sheet, under the direction of Dr. Midgeley.’