Every part of your letter was pleasing.' Piozzi Letters, i. 115. For Johnson's use of the word mistress in speaking of Mrs. Thrale see ante, i. 494.
[265] See ante, ii. 455. 'They taught us,' said one of the Professors, 'to raise cabbage and make shoes, How they lived without shoes may yet be seen; but in the passage through villages it seems to him that surveys their gardens, that when they had not cabbage they had nothing.' Piozzi Letters, i. 116. Johnson in the same letter says that 'New Aberdeen is built of that granite which is used for the new pavement in London.'
[266] 'In Aberdeen I first saw the women in plaids.' Piozzi Letters, i. 116.
[267] Seven years later Mackintosh, on entering King's College, found there the son of Johnson's old friend, 'the learned Dr. Charles Burney, finishing his term at Aberdeen.' Among his fellow-students were also some English Dissenters, among them Robert Hall. Mackintosh's Life, i. 10, 13. In Forbes's Life of Beattie (ed. 1824, p. 169) is a letter by Beattie, dated Oct. 15, 1773, in which the English and Scotch Universities are compared. Colman, in his Random Records, ii. 85, gives an account of his life at Aberdeen as a student.
[268] Lord Bolingbroke (Works, iii. 347) in 1735 speaks of 'the little care that is taken in the training up our youth,' and adds, 'surely it is impossible to take less.' See ante, ii. 407, and iii. 12.
[269] London, 2d May, 1778. Dr. Johnson acknowledged that he was himself the authour of the translation above alluded to, and dictated it to me as follows:--
Quos laudet vates Graius Romanus et Anglus Tres tria temporibus secla dedere suis. Sublime ingenium Graius; Romanus habebat Carmen grande sonans; Anglus utrumque tulit. Nil majus Natura capit: clarare priores Quae potuere duos tertius unus habet. BOSWELL.
It was on May 2, 1778, that Johnson attacked Boswell with such rudeness that he kept away from him for a week. Ante, iii. 337.
[270] 'We were on both sides glad of the interview, having not seen nor perhaps thought on one another for many years; but we had no emulation, nor had either of us risen to the other's envy, and our old kindness was easily renewed.' Piozzi Letters, i. 117.
[271] Johnson wrote on Sept. 30:--'Barley-broth is a constant dish, and is made well in every house. A stranger, if he is prudent, will secure his share, for it is not certain that he will be able to eat anything else.' Piozzi Letters, i. p. 160.
[272] See ante. p. 24.
[273] Genesis, ix. 6.
[274] My worthy, intelligent, and candid friend, Dr. Kippis, informs me, that several divines have thus explained the mediation of our Saviour. What Dr. Johnson now delivered, was but a temporary opinion; for he afterwards was fully convinced of the propitiatory sacrifice, as I shall shew at large in my future work, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. BOSWELL. For Dr. Kippis see ante, iii. 174, and for Johnson on the propitiatory sacrifice, iv. 124.
[275] Malachi, iv. 2.
[276] St. Luke, ii 32.
[277] 'Healing in his wings,'Malachi, iv. 2.
[278] 'He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.' St. Mark, xvi. 16.
[279] Mr. Langton. See ante, ii. 254, 265.
[280] Spedding's Bacon, vii. 271. The poem is also given in The Golden Treasury, p. 37; where, however, 'limns the water' is changed into 'limns on water.'
[281] 'Addison now returned to his vocation, and began to plan literary occupations for his future life. He purposed a tragedy on the death of Socrates... He engaged in a nobler work, a defence of the Christian religion, of which part was published after his death.' Johnson's Works, vii. 441, and Addison's Works, ed. 1856, v. 103.
[282] Dr. Beattie was so kindly entertained in England, that he had not yet returned home. BOSWELL. Beattie was staying in London till his pension got settled. Early in July he had been told that he was to have a pension of L200 a year (ante, ii. 264, note 2). It was not till Aug. 20 that it was conferred. On July 9, he, in company with Sir Joshua Reynolds, received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. On Aug. 24, he had a long interview with the King; 'who asked,' Beattie records, 'whether we had any good preachers at Aberdeen. I said "Yes," and named Campbell and Gerard, with whose names, however, I did not find that he was acquainted.' It was this same summer that Reynolds painted him in 'the allegorical picture representing the triumph of truth over scepticism and infidelity' (post, Oct. 1, note). Forbes's Beattie, ed. 1824, pp. 151-6, 167.
[283] Dr. Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words:--'Aberdoniae, vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium virorum, Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, praepositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi Young, Georgii Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie Decani guildae, et Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi. 'Quo die vir generosus et doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL.D.