Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/445

 Johnson's Life and Genius.

��Englishman, he says, * is told that the Americans shoot up like the hydra, he naturally considers how the hydra was destroyed V The event has shewn how much he and the minister of that day were mistaken.

��The Account of the Tour to the Western Islands of Scotland, which was undertaken in the autumn of 1773, in company with Mr. Boswell, was not published till some time in the year 1775 2. This book has been variously received ; by some extolled for the elegance of the narrative, and the depth of observation on life and manners ; by others, as much condemned, as a work of avowed hostility to the Scotch nation 3. The praise was, beyond all question, fairly deserved ; and the censure, on due examina tion, will appear hasty and ill-founded. That Johnson entertained some prejudices against the Scotch, must not be dissembled. It is true, as Mr. Boswell says, ' that he thought their success in England [rather] exceeded their proportion of real merit, and he could not but see in them that nationality which [I believe] no liberal-minded Scotsman will deny*! The author of these memoirs well remembers, that Johnson one day asked him, ' Have you observed the difference between your own country impudence and Scottish impudence ? ' The answer being in the negative : ' Then I will tell you,' said Johnson. ' The impudence of an Irishman is the impudence of a fly, that buzzes about you, and you put it away, but it returns again, and flutters and teazes you. The impudence of a Scotsman is the impudence of a leech, that fixes and sucks your blood V Upon another occa sion, this writer went with him into the shop of Davies the

��1 'When it is urged that they will shoot up,' &c. Works, vi. 227.

2 Life, ii. 290.

3 Id. ii. 300.

4 Id. v. 20.

Hannah More (Memoirs, iv. 193) records ' the answer some one made to a minister who asked whether he could do anything for him "No thing," he replied, " unless you could make me a Scotchman." She goes

��on to tell how two Englishmen, arriving at Tunbridge Wells, got shaved by a barber of the place, whom their Scotch companion de clined to employ. They heard the waiter whisper to him, " Sir, I have found a Scotch barber," to which he replied, "Oh! very good, let him walk in." '

5 Life, ii. 307 ; iv. 12.

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