bowl; and would not I
join in drinking it? The heartiness of my honest landlord, and
the desire of doing social honour to our very obliging
conductor, induced me to sit down again. Col's bowl was
finished; and by that time we were well warmed. A third bowl
was soon made, and that too was finished. We were cordial, and
merry to a high degree; but of what passed I have no
recollection, with any accuracy. I remember calling
_Corrichatachin_ by the familiar appellation of _Corri_ which
his friends do. A fourth bowl was made, by which time Col, and
young M'Kinnon, Corrichatachin's son, slipped away to bed. I
continued a little time with Corri and Knockow; but at last I
left them. It was near five in the morning when I got to bed.
_Sunday, September 26._ I awaked at noon with a severe
head-ach. I was much vexed that I should have been guilty of
such a riot, and afraid of a reproof from Dr Johnson, I thought
it very inconsistent with that conduct which I ought to
maintain, while the companion of the Rambler. About one he came
into my room, and accosted me, "What, drunk yet?" His tone of
voice was not that of severe upbraiding; so I was relieved a
little. "Sir," (said I), "they kept me up." He answered, "No,
you kept them up, you drunken dog:"--this he said with
good-humoured _English_ pleasantry. Soon afterwards,
Corrichatachin, Col, and other friends assembled round my bed.
Corri had a brandy bottle and glass with him, and insisted I
should take a dram. "Ay," said Dr Johnson, "fill him drunk
again. Do it in the morning, that we may laugh at him all day.
It is a poor thing for a fellow to get drunk at night, and
skulk to bed, and let his friends have no sport." Finding him
thus jocular, I became quite easy; and when I offered to get
up, he very good naturedly said, "You need be in no such hurry
now." I took my host's advice, and drank some brandy, which I
found an effectual cure for my head-ach. When I rose, I went
into Dr Johnson's room, and taking up Mrs M'Kinnon's
Prayer-Book, I opened it at the twentieth Sunday after Trinity,
in the epistle for which I read, "And be not drunk with wine,
wherein there is excess." Some would have taken this as a
divine interposition.'
Such is the extraordinary confession. St Augustine, Rousseau, De
Quincey, have not quite equalled this. He f
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