The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson | Page 7

has the advantage of his adversary, it is an advantage to which he is
entitled. There must always be some advantage, on one side or other;
and it is better that advantage should be had by talents, than by chance.
If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were
just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim,
though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just
claim.' This was sound practical doctrine, and rationally repressed a too
refined scrupulosity of conscience.
Emigration was at this time a common topick of discourse. Dr Johnson
regretted it as hurtful to human happiness: 'For,' said he, 'it spreads
mankind which weakens the defence of a nation, and lessens the
comfort of living. Men, thinly scattered, make a shift, but a bad shift,
without many things. A smith is ten miles off: they'll do without a nail
or a staple. A taylor is far from them: they'll botch their own clothes. It
is being concentrated which produces high convenience.'
Sir William Forbes, Mr Scott, and I, accompanied Mr Johnson to the
chapel, founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith, for the Service of the
Church of England. The Reverend Mr Carre, the senior clergyman,
preached from these words, 'Because the Lord reigneth, let the earth be
glad.' I was sorry to think Mr Johnson did not attend to the sermon, Mr
Carre's low voice not being strong enough to reach his hearing. A
selection of Mr Carre's sermons has, since his death, been published by
Sir William Forbes, and the world has acknowledged their uncommon
merit. I am well assured Lord Mansfield has pronounced them to be
excellent.
Here I obtained a promise from Lord Chief Baron Orde, that he would
dine at my house next day. I presented Mr Johnson to his Lordship,
who politely said to him, 'I have not the honour of knowing you; but I
hope for it, and to see you at my house. I am to wait on you tomorrow.'

This respectable English judge will be long remembered in Scotland,
where he built an elegant house, and lived in it magnificently. His own
ample fortune, with the addition of his salary, enabled him to be
splendidly hospitable. It may be fortunate for an individual amongst
ourselves to be Lord Chief Baron; and a most worthy man now has the
office; but, in my opinion, it is better for Scotland in general, that some
of our publick employments should be filled by gentlemen of
distinction from the south side of the Tweed, as we have the benefit of
promotion in England. Such an interchange would make a beneficial
mixture of manners, and render our union more complete. Lord Chief
Baron Orde was on good terms with us all, in a narrow country filled
with jarring interests and keen parties; and, though I well knew his
opinion to be the same with my own, he kept himself aloof at a very
critical period indeed, when the Douglas cause shook the sacred
security of birthright in Scotland to its foundation; a cause, which had it
happened before the Union, when there was no appeal to a British
House of Lords, would have left the great fortress of honours and of
property in ruins.
When we got home, Dr Johnson desired to see my books. He took
down Ogden's Sermons on Prayer, on which I set a very high value,
having been much edified by them, and he retired with them to his
room. He did not stay long, but soon joined us in the drawing room. I
presented to him Mr Robert Arbuthnot, a relation of the celebrated Dr
Arbuthnot, and a man of literature and taste. To him we were obliged
for a previous recommendation, which secured us a very agreeable
reception at St Andrews, and which Dr Johnson, in his Journey,
ascribes to 'some invisible friend'.
Of Dr Beattie, Mr Johnson said, 'Sir, he has written like a man
conscious of the truth, and feeling his own strength. Treating your
adversary with respect, is giving him an advantage to which he is not
entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning, and are
impressed by character; so that, if you allow your adversary a
respectable character, they will think, that though you differ from him,
you may be in the wrong. Sir, treating your adversary with respect, is
striking soft in a battle. And as to Hume--a man who has so much

conceit as to tell all mankind that they have been bubbled for ages, and
he is the wise man who sees better than they--a man who has so little
scrupulosity as to venture to oppose those principles which have been
thought necessary to human happiness--is he