SCOTLAND'S DEBT TO JOHNSON.

THOUGH Johnson did not love all manner of Scotsmen, and took pleasure in playing on their irritable qualities, he had no enmity either to Scotland or its inhabitants. In truth, his

activities were in more than one way beneficial to Scotsmen of his own generation and their successors.

In 1766 a Committee of the Church of Scotland was formed to consider a plan for translating the Scriptures into the Gaelic language. Opinions were divided ; an influential party opposed the proposal altogether, insisting that Gaelic books only served to prolong the undesirable distinction between Highlanders and Lowlanders ; there should be no Gaelic books, but the Gael should learn to speak and to read English. Johnson heard of the controversy, and wrote to his friend Drummond an earnest and eloquent letter, contending that to withhold Christian knowledge from our fellow-creatures was essentially an un-Christian act ; that the loss of any ancient lan- guage was in itself to be deplored ; and that if Highlanders did learn to read the Bible in Gaelic, the probable result would be that they would desire to learn English, the only language which could supply similar books. Considering how seldom men alter their opinions, especially when they are wrong, it says much for the candour of the Scots Committee that they were convinced by Johnson's reasoning : the opposition ceased, and a whole-hearted support was given to further the translation. Johnson wrote of the translator that ," he honoured him as a man whom God had distinguished by the high office of propagating His Word"; and beyond doubt the part which he had taken in the business was a lasting satisfaction to Johnson.

If we ask why Johnson's name was so powerful in Scotland in 1768, the answer must be found in the fame and proved utility of the English Dictionary of 1754. It is difficult to-day to understand the welcome which, not without some delay, hailed the publication of the English Dictionary. A standard of English speech has now so long existed that we no longer conceive what it was to speak or write without such a guide. If the benefit was felt, as it was, throughout England, it was felt much more in Scotland. Scottish writers had long ceased to write prose in the Scottish or Northern

dialect, and about the year 1750 they went further, and resolved to give up their old dialect even in ordinary business and conver- sation ; henceforward they would speak and write only in the language of South Britain. We best estimate the difficulty with which Scottish writers were confronted by recalling their own words. Professor Beattie of Aberdeen, a great literary name during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, wrote :—

" I have written many pages upon Scotticism, and how far the English tongue is attainable by a native of Scotland, and in what respects it is not attainable.—We who live in Scotland are obliged to study English from books like a dead language. Accordingly when we write, we write it like a dead language, which we under- stand but cannot speak.—We handle English as a person who cannot fence handles a sword ; continually afraid of hutting ourselves with it, or letting it fall, or making an awkward motion, that shall betray our ignorance."

If the difficulties of the English tongue were so great to one of the most successful writers of the day, what must they have been to the ordinary Scottish citizen, who resolved to live up to the times, and " speak English " ? He manifestly stood in need of some

monitor, to teach him what words and expressions were English, and what were not ; and in Johnson's Dictionary a guide, acknow- ledged throughout England as trustworthy, was ready to his hand.

Probable as this argument is in itself, the writer can also assert its truth ; his own grandfather was a burgess of Paisley, and in his small but well-selected library—formed before 1800—one of the

books most frequently consulted was Johnson's Dictionary, unabridged.

In 1775 Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides set what we may call

the " society of sober Scots " a-thinking. The modern traveller by rail from Berwick to Aberdeen will hardly credit that Johnson, with quite unnecessary iteration, censured the East Coast of Scotland as a treeless land ; yet a second glance will show that the woods, or " policies," which he admires are of pine, or some other quick-growing tree ; they are the growth of the nineteenth century.

Scott, himself a great tree-planter, 'wrote about 1830: " The love of planting, which has become almost a passion, is much to be

ascribed to Johnson's sarcasms."

The tour opened more important subjects. Johnson. from his boyish years, was imbued with admiration for the " heroick souls "

who in early centuries had raised the flag of Christian worship in the remotest Hebridean islands. With his journey his early feelings awoke, and as he beheld rain after ruin his satire was strong on the Presbyterian clergy, who talked of the " sleepy laziness of men that erected churches, and indulge their superiority by a new triumph, by comparing it with the fervid activity of those who suffer them to fall." What do we find in Scotland to-day ? The columns of Iona have been raised again, and once more echo the voices of prayer or thanksgiving, instead of the lowing of cattle or the cry of the seamew; Dunblane Cathedral is fully rebuilt, and worshippers enter once more its long-deserted doorway ; Haddington Parish Church, where Carlyle's wife lies buried, is again a place of worship ; above all, the Cathedral Church of St. Giles at Edinburgh is restored to its original grandeur and long-lost national importance. This is the spirit in which Johnson visited Scotland and wrote of Iona, and is not the spirit of the Scottish clergy of 1750. So great an altera- tion in the feeling of Scottish society has been brought about by many co-operating causes ; but among the causes tehich have influenced their judgment, it is impossible to eliminate the words which Johnson wrote after his visit to Icolmkill.

Scotland during the last century has gained great glory from her men of letters, and we may well ask whether they have not been influenced by their great predecessor. Wonder has often been expressed that Scott, brought up as the " douceet" of Edinburgh citizens, under a rigid Presbyterian rule, should so early have found his special inspiration in the characters and traditionary lore of the Highlands ; and it has commonly been assumed that in this choice he acted entirely on the impulse of his own genius, and, so to speak, opened fresh ground, and owed nothing to literary predecessors. Great writers rarely, if ever, act in this way : like other human beings, they have relations in a previous generation. Scott acknow- ledges that he owed much to Bishop Percy, something also to Burns, and to Miss Edgeworth ; and is it credible that the editor of Dryden and Swift was not influenced by the long line of English poets, whom, with him, to read once was to remember for ever ? Above all, is it credible that he was untouched by his immediate predeces- sor, Johnson, whose mantle, in some degree, fell on his own shoulders ? On the contrary, he said to Lockhart that the verses in the English language which he most admired were the closing lines of The Vanity of Human Wishes; and the Antiquary, who is Scott himself, flies to The Rambler for a philosophy of life. In truth, Scott never says anything but good of Johnson as a writer He speaks ill of him as a man, which is natural, since he derived his conception of him from the conversation of Lord Monboddo.

Johnson throughout his life was much concerned with. Highland topics. In his boyhood he read Martin's books on the Western Isles and on St_ Kilda ; they " east the glamour o'er him," and all his life he cherished the wish to visit the Highlands, which he accom- plished in 1773. His special purpose was to survey what yet re- mained of old Highland society, and to inquire into the truth or falsity of the visions of Highland seers. In Skye he attained his objects, and his account of the faculty of the Second Sight as not in itself different from the ordinary " exercise of the cogitative faculty" treats the subject with rare insight. One of Johnson's oldest literary friends was Alexander Macbean, the Gaelic scholar, with whom, as we know both from Bornitell and• from certain pages in the Dictionary, he was wont to talk on Highland subjects. In his Life of Collins he writes that he was one with whom he had " lovei to converse" ; and as one of Collins's most memorable poems is concerned with Highland customs and beliefs, we may be allowed to believe that Johnson and he conversed on these subjects. Though a belief in the Deuteroacopia, or Second Sight, was no more tolerable to Scott's acquaintance in Edinburgh than it had been to Boswell's in London, Scott is drawn to the theme. It appears in " Glenfinlae," his first great poem, in " The Lady of the Lake," in The Legend of Montrose, and in The Fair Maid of Perth, his last great novel. Since he followed in the steps of Martin, Collies, and Johnson, it is natural to believe that he was not uninflu- enced by their example, without questioning that his own genius, the opportunities and acquaintances of his life, and the deeds of Highland regiments gave him fuller power to unfold the subject expansively and persuasively, and in its national aspects, than had

been granted to his predecessors. A. hicusroommarc Bars..