our Church than a Hottentot." We regret to find that JOHNSON, during his sojourn in Scotland never worshipped in a Presbyterian Church. He said his conscience,-which is only another word for strong opinion, would not allow him to sanction, by his presence, a Presbyterian meeting, for Church he would not allow such an assembly to be called. "Presbyterians," he said, "have no Church, no apostolical ordination; no public worship; they have no form of prayer in which they know they are to join. They go to hear a man pray, and are to judge whether they will join with him." Said a clergyman to him,→ "in our extemporary prayers we have hope of supernatural help." "Sir," replied JOHNSON, "if a man has any hope of supernatural help, why may he not as well receive it when he writes as when he speaks? In the variety of mental powers some must perform extemporary prayer with much imperfection; and in the eagerness and rashness of contradictory opinions, if public liturgy be left to the private judgment of every minister, the congregation may often be offended or misled."

Another marked feature in JOHNSON'S journey was his strict regard for truth. We find that no sooner had they entered into the Highlands proper than Boswell directed his attention to what he called a great mountain. "No sir," said JOHNSON, "it is not a great mountain, it is only a considerable protuberance:" then there follows a lecture on exaggeration, not from intentional lying, but from inattention to truth; "when anything rocks," said he, "the common people say it rocks like a cradle, and in this way they go on."

When they had finished their tour we see in JOHNSON the same regard for truth, if we can believe a story that is told on the authority of Sir Walter Scott, who tells us that JOHNSON met Adam Smith in Glasgow, and in disputing warmly about the death of David Hume, JOHNSON looked sternly at Smith, and said, “Sir, you lie:" and Adam Smith replied with equal sternness, "Sir, you are the son of a "Such, says Sir

--

Walter Scott, was the classic language with which the two great moralists met and parted.

There are many other proofs of the wondrous

affection which JOHNSON bore for Boswell: whether we look at the hundreds of letters which passed between the two, or at Boswell in every difficulty of life having recourse to JOHNSON for counsel and advice-nor having recourse to him in vainor at their embracing each other when they parted for any considerable time, we see in all this a love, almost "surpassing the love of women."

We estimate Boswell's character very highly. It has been sneeringly remarked that Boswell preferred being a showman to keeping a shop of his own. We venture to think that the literary world would have greatly rejoiced had Pericles, Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare, or Milton, had such a contemporary showman as JOHNSON had in Boswell, We think it a great loss that no recording Boswell was present at JOHNSON'S brilliant conversations with Lord Thurlow and Edmund Burke, to the first of whom JOHNSON said that "he always talked his best," and the latter of whom, as JOHNSON himself remarked, "always taxed to the uttermost his conversational powers."

After Boswell published his "Tour in the Hebrides," a critic wrote that he did not approve of the plan of such a work; "what a restraint," said he, "would be placed on all social intercourse, if one were to suppose that every word one utters would be entered in a register." Boswell smartly replied, "there are few men who need be under any apprehension of that sort."

It must be confessed that Boswell did not stand high in his own profession. He professed Scotch and English law; but he studied, understood, and liked society better than law. His father, Lord Auchinleck, used to say that it would give Jamie more trouble to hide his ignorance than to show his knowledge of law. But although he knew little about law, and cared still less he was thoroughly conversant with literature, and ever ready with an apt classical quotation, "which is the parole of literary men all over the world." Unless he had been conversant with literature it had been impossible for him to provide material to keep a-going as he did the

intellectual mill of JOHNSON. He was also a social man,-next to JOHNSON, society was his idol.

Many have wondered at JOHNSON's love for Boswell. We hear JOHNSON saying to him" My regard for you is greater almost than I have words to express, but I do not choose to be always repeating it; write it down in the first leaf of your pocket-book, and never doubt it more." Doubtless, in a certain sense, JOHNSON needed friendship less than any man. Wherever he went the intellectual knee was bent to him. In every society he entered he was the first speaker; wherever he went all men reverenced and applauded him. Yet in the midst of all this, in the midst of the great city that was filled with his fame, he felt solitary and alone. He felt that the remark he made on Garrick, who every night had the applause of a nation: 01 plo, ou pilos “he had friends, but no friend," was as applicable to himself as Garrick. Amidst all his fame JOHNSON yearned for one genuine soul to love him. Boswell in a happy moment crossed his stormy path-"the ponderables agreed"-and a friendship was formed between the two, strong as